"Jump They Say" is a song by English singer-songwriter and actor David Bowie, from his 18th album, Black Tie White Noise (1993). It was produced by Nile Rodgers and released as the first single from the album in March 1993. While Bowie opted not to tour for the Black Tie White Noise album, the song was performed on his 1995–96 Outside Tour and released as part of the live concert No Trendy Réchauffé (Live Birmingham 95) (2020). The accompanying music video for "Jump They Say" received heavy rotation on MTV Europe. Background and style The song dealt with Bowie's feelings for his schizophrenic half-brother Terry Burns, who had died by suicide on 16 January 1985 when he walked in front of a train at Coulsdon South railway station, having previously been held in Cane Hill Hospital. Lyrically, the song is loosely based on Burns and Bowie's relationship with and memories of him. Musically, the influence of Nile Rodgers led to a funk-based sound, though the track was also influenced by contemporary jazz, with a solo from avant-jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie. Promotion Released on 15 March 1993 as the lead-off single, "Jump They Say" received a considerable promotional push from Bowie's new label, Savage Records (though Arista Records distributed the package in Europe). A striking video was shot by Mark Romanek, depicting Bowie as a businessman paranoid of his colleagues, who seemingly conduct experiments on him and find him a disturbing influence, forcing him to jump from the roof of the corporate building to his death. The video is heavily influenced by Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 film Alphaville, Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971), as well as Chris Marker's film La Jetée and Orson Welles' The Trial – both from 1962. The uniformed women shown monitoring Bowie through high powered telescopes are an homage to the stewardesses in the Pan-Am space plane in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The video received heavy rotation on MTV Europe, and was praised by Entertainment Weekly after Bowie died in 2016, saying "Bowie is an excellent actor, and this video may be his best character performance in a music video." Critical reception In an retrospective review, Quentin Harrison from Albumism noted that "that romantic energy" from Bowie's marriage to Iman "put a skip in the sonic step of some of the set's darker material", like "Jump They Say". He saw the song lyrically "engage with