Bowie had spent the summer of 1975 in New Mexico making his first full-length film - 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' and the effects the film had on him were far-reaching. He had spent so long playing the part of someone else that all the traits of that character had become interwoven with his own personality : "Nicholas Roeg told me after we had finished that it would take me a long time to get out of the role and he was dead right. After four months playing the role I was Newton for six months afterwards." For many fans 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' is the only decent Bowie film because the character he plays in it - Thomas Jerome Newton - is the closest both in looks and character to Bowie himself, or as he was at the time that the film was made. In the film Newton is a lonely alien imprisoned on a hostile planet who, while waiting to return home, spends hours watching dozens of TV sets simultaneously churning out images of America. To Bowie the role must have seemed tailor-made except that his isolation was fuelled by more than just gin and television. The character that he used on the subsequent LP - the Thin White Duke - was an extension of Bowie himself and parts of Newton's character. Without detracting from the rest of the album, three songs in particular are of particular interest due to their personal nature - the title track, 'Word On A Wing' and 'Stay'.