Wandering Star
A slow Dummy track built on a sample of Eric Burdon and War, with a scratched solo by Barrow, and a live favorite ever since.
Portishead, from Dummy (1994)
- Written by
- Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons
- Released
- 1994
- Length
- 4:51
- Album
- Dummy
The fifth track on Dummy, written by Barrow and Gibbons around a sample of Magic Mountain by Eric Burdon and War. Clive Deamer played drums, Utley guitar and Gary Baldwin Hammond organ. The track needed a solo, so Barrow scratched the opening of Magic Mountain. He took his lead from DJ Premier, whom he called the most soulful scratch DJ there has ever been, and from the idea that a few notes are enough to sound cool. It was never a British single, but it appears on the American 12-inch of Glory Box.
Live
It has been played at 115 of the 241 shows logged on setlist.fm. At Glastonbury in 2013 it was a stripped duet of bass and Gibbons's voice over sparse samples, which God Is In The TV ranked among the most astonishing live performances of a song it had seen. It was the third of five songs at the 2022 War Child benefit in Bristol. Torres released a cover on live instruments in 2020, and Skalpel, Three 6 Mafia and Canibus have sampled it. The upload in the hypersongs web is an official video upload, shorter than the album track.
On stage
- 2013-06-28, Glastonbury Festival, Other Stage Played as a stripped duet.
- 2022-05-02, O2 Academy Bristol War Child benefit, third of five songs.
Covers and versions
- Torres (2020) Released on Bandcamp.
- Kid Beyond
More songs by Portishead
Sources
- Portishead's Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley break down Dummy 25 years later, KEXP (2019-08-22)
- Portishead: Dummy, Discogs
- Wandering Star: song statistics, setlist.fm
- Portishead, Glastonbury Festival, Other Stage, 28 June 2013, God Is In The TV (2013-07-05)
- Torres covers Portishead's Wandering Star, Stereogum (2020-03)