"Sense of Doubt" is an instrumental piece written by David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

 in 1977 for the album "Heroes". It was the first of three instrumentals on Side Two of the original vinyl album that segue

Segue

A segue is a smooth transition from one topic or section to the next.-In music:In music, segue is a direction to the performer. It means continue without a pause. It comes from the Italian "it follows". The term attacca is also used in classical music.For written music it implies a transition...

d into one another, preceding "Moss Garden

Moss Garden

"Moss Garden" is an instrumental piece written by David Bowie and Brian Eno in 1977 for the album "Heroes". It was the second of three instrumentals on Side Two of the original vinyl album that segued into one another, following "Sense of Doubt" and preceding "Neuköln".The track features Bowie...

" and "Neuköln

Neuköln

"Neuköln" is an instrumental piece written by David Bowie and Brian Eno in 1977 for the album "Heroes." It was the last of three consecutive instrumentals on side two of the original vinyl album, following "Sense of Doubt" and "Moss Garden."...

".

Cited as "portentous" and "thoroughly foreboding", "Sense of Doubt" is one of the darker tracks of the album, with a descending four-note piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 motif juxtaposed with "an eerie synth

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 line like a scrap of sound from a silent expressionist-era

German Expressionism

German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...

 soundtrack". Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

 suggested that the contrasting themes were the result of he and Bowie each following an Oblique Strategies

Oblique Strategies

Oblique Strategies is a set of published cards created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt first published in 1975, and is now in its fifth, open ended, edition...

 card to guide them in the track's overdubbing

Overdubbing

Overdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....

, Eno's directing him to "make everything as similar as possible" and Bowie's to "emphasize differences".

"Sense of Doubt" was performed on the Italian TV programme L’Altra Domenica in 1977 and throughout the "Heroes" tour in 1978.

Live versions

• A version recorded on the Heroes tour at the Philadelphia Spectrum in April 1978 was released on the live album Stage.

Other releases

• It was released as the B-side of the single "Beauty and the Beast" in January 1978, a pairing that NME
  NME
  The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
  
  editors Roy Carr
  Roy Carr
  Roy Carr is an English music journalist. He joined the New Musical Express in the late 1960s and has edited NME, VOX and Melody Maker magazines...
  
   and Charles Shaar Murray
  Charles Shaar Murray
  Charles Shaar Murray is an English music journalist. His first experience in journalism came 1970 when he was asked to contribute to the satirical magazine Oz...
  
   considered "must be good fun on pub juke-boxes".
• A picture disc release appeared in the RCA Life Time picture disc set.
• The film Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (film) and its soundtrack featured the song.