January
14th marks the 45th anniversary of David Bowie’s 11th studio album,
Low, which was released on this date in 1977. It marked the beginning
of his “Berlin” period, an era of his work which would come to be
considered the most challenging and ambitious of his career.
This
phase didn’t actually begin with Low, however and didn’t start in
Berlin, but rather in France where he and Iggy Pop had relocated with
the intention to dry out. Bowie had spent the previous few years in LA,
becoming a serious cocaine abuser and living the rock star lifestyle to
the point that it nearly took him down. After becoming the emaciated
“Thin White Duke”, complete with questionable politics, he recognized
his trajectory was purely self-destructive and that he needed a major
course correction. Pop was in the same boat with his heroine habit, so
the two set about cleaning themselves up and working on Iggy’s first
solo album, The Idiot, on which Bowie would co-write most of the songs
and contribute significantly to the music. Tony Visconti came in to
help with production and the stage was set for Bowie to start working on
his own new album after The Idiot wrapped.
Some of the
foundational work for Low started in 1976 when Bowie was working on the
film, The Man Who Fell to Earth, for which he was initially planning to
provide the score. That plan failed to come to fruition as director
Nicholas Roeg didn’t like where he was going with the demo music and
Bowie abandoned the idea completely. But the direction he was going was
something he still wanted to explore, which is where Brian Eno comes
into the picture as a collaborator for the new album. They’d both
become enamored with the German “Krautrock” scene and bands like
Tangerine Dream, NEU!, Kraftwerk and Harmonium, whom Eno had worked
with. This influence became central in guiding the direction for Low as
it lead them in the direction of experimentation with electronics and
new compositional approaches which would become central in creating the
sound for the album. One of the key ingredients, technology wise, was a
bit of gear brought in by Tony Visconti, the Eventide H910 Harmonizer,
which became a vital tool for achieving the album’s bizarre, electronic
drum sound.
While most of the album was recorded in France before
eventually moving to Berlin for final production, overdubs and mixing,
the general mood was easy going. There were no schedules or
deadlines looming over their heads, so the musicians could relax, try
out unusual ideas and explore fresh approaches. That wasn’t immediately
appealing to some, like guitarist Carlos Alomar, but even he eventually
got onboard with the vibe and started to appreciate the creative
freedom. But things in France were not all peachy as the skeleton crew
staff at the studio were often neglectful of their guests and the cooks
were bad enough to give the band food poisoning on at least one
occasion. This made the move to Berlin something of a welcome change,
one which would find Bowie rooted there for both Iggy’s next solo album,
Lust for Life, and two more albums of his own, “Heroes” and Lodger.
Collectively, that set of five albums by Pop and Bowie can be seen as
the complete arc of the Berlin period. The album cover for Low, which
was also a modified still from The Man Who Fell to Earth as was the
Station to Station cover before it, was something of a visual pun as it
showed Bowie in profile as he appeared in the film. The gag being that
Bowie was being “Low profile” (insert rim-shot).
Once the album
was completed and presented to RCA records, their executives were pretty
much horrified by the results. After the massive success of Young
Americans and Station to Station, the label had hopes for more in that
vein and were not expecting the level of experimentation nor the
emphasis on instrumental tracks that was integral to Low. They were so
taken aback by it, they delayed releasing it for 3 months and, even when
it did come out, refused to promote it. Bowie didn’t help as he
wouldn’t tour to support the album and, instead, went on the road to
support Iggy as his keyboard player. The miraculous thing about all
this was that the album STILL managed to be a hit! It peaked at #2 in
the UK charts and #11 in the US and remained on the charts for a
considerable number of weeks.
Critically, the album split the
press into a fragmentary array of those who didn’t understand it, those
who thought it was an insult or a move of desperation or those who
thought it was sheer genius. In terms of its legacy, it became a
launchpad for virtually the entire post-punk scene as bands from Joy
Division to Human League to Cabaret Voltaire read the signposts Bowie
had planted in his music and duly set course for the strange waters he’d
charted for them to explore. The confusion it inspired upon its
release has since given way to the recognition that it represents a
turning point, not just for Bowie as an artist, but for pop music as a
cultural component as it set the standards for pushing boundaries and
setting examples which others have used for their own ends.
