DAVID BOWIE - SPACE ODDITY @ 55

Released on November 14th, 1969, David Bowie's sophomore solo LP, sometimes known by its eponymous title - sometimes known as "Space Oddity", turns 55 years old today. It's the album that gave the world its first proper glimpse of the superstar that would emerge over the next few years.

David Bowie had made his debut on LP in 1967 with an album that was also released with an eponymous title. That album was focused on mostly British music hall inspired pop songs, offering up a kinda of "song & dance" version of Bowie that really had little to do with the kind of artist he'd eventually become. The album sold poorly, which is why it took two years to muster up enough interest to release a second album. This time around, he was going for a kind of psychedelic tinged folk rock that seemed to be far more indicative of what he was truly capable.

The centrepiece of the album was the Space Oddity single, which was rush-released on July 11th of that year, in order to leverage the Apollo 11 moon landing. The song was inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 2001, A Space Odyssey. It received critical praise and was used by the BBC as background music during its coverage of the event. It initially sold poorly but soon reached number five in the UK, becoming Bowie's first and only chart hit until three years later, when Starman hit the top ten in 1972. Though Tony Visconti produced the album, he actually passed on producing the Space Oddity single, claiming at the time it was too much of a "novelty song". Instead, production for that song was handled by engineer, Gus Dudgeon.

Despite the success of the Space Oddity single, the album still failed to make much of an impression, even with Bowie making appearances on Top of the Pops and other shows to promote it. Bowie's label simply didn't put anything behind the album's promotion, so it effectively tanked on the charts. It wasn't until RCA reissued the album in 1972 that it finally charted, reaching #17 and hanging on to the listings for 42 weeks. In terms of the critics, the response was mixed and has remained so throughout the album's lifespan. While it has moments and support from some quarters, it is often seen as unfocused, even by Bowie himself. He was simply still lacking the confidence to take charge of his vision, and that showed in the final product. Ultimately, it stands as the first real indication of the artist to come, showing glimpses of the style and flair that would soon propel him to the stratosphere as one of the most revered respected rock musicians of all time.
 

DAVID BOWIE - TONIGHT @ 40

 

Released on September 24th, 1984, David Bowie's sixteenth studio album, Tonight, turns 40 years old today. Coming on the heels of his career peak LP, Let's Dance, expectations were high for a repeat of that success, a situation which would ultimately be a constraint on Bowie's creativity, as the pressure to keep delivering chart toppers bared down on his sense of artistic integrity. It's a situation that, for an artist of constantly evolving influences and passions, can become something of a prison, which is exactly the kind of situation Bowie found himself in during the latter half of this decade. He'd been successful before, but hitting these heights with Let's Dance put him in the sights of a lot of expectations that were impossible to dismiss or ignore.

Production on the album commenced soon after the conclusion of the massively successful Serious Moonlight tour. Bowie and band set up camp at Le Studio in Morin-Heights, in Canada. The catapult into the stratosphere of superstardom, however, had come at a price in the form of Bowie feeling creatively bereft of ideas. It's not an uncommon situation for an artist, after a significant achievement, to find themselves at something of an impasse in terms of trying to come up with fresh inspirations. As a result, when it came to song writing, Bowie was simply not able to put up the goods when the time came, instead relying on close friend Iggy Pop to help bolster his efforts. Bowie wasn't even up for recording another album, initially proposing a live album following the tour, but his label were eager to keep the ball rolling from the momentum of the previous release. Leaning on Iggy made sense because Pop was struggling financially and the success of China Girl had given him a shot in the arm, so the duo were eager to work together more closely on the new album, solidifying their relationship while on a brief vacation together after the tour.

Production on the album would not, however, involve the return of Nile Rogers, who was the producer for Let's Dance. Instead, Bowie self-produced the album along with Derek Bramble. Bowie invited Bramble to Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, to record demos of his new material with a group of local Swiss musicians. The intent with the new album was to push further into the R&B, funk and reggae styles that had been explored on Let's Dance. According to biographer Chris O'Leary, musicians present at the Tonight sessions said the demos were "tremendous", describing them as "funky, raw, and full of promise". Once Bowie arrived at the studio in Canada, he came prepared with 8 of the album's 9 songs basically all worked out, something collaborator Carlos Alomar noted as surprising, given that he was used to Bowie coming to the studio with virtually nothing, in all the times he'd previously worked with him. It was an unusual case of being ahead of the game.

In terms of the writing, only two songs are credited to Bowie alone, with four tracks being Bowie/Pop compositions and the rest being covers of songs like Brian Wilson's God Only Knows, and one of Iggy's. Don't Look Down, from his New Values album. In a lot of ways, the album is like a return to the relationship Iggy and Bowie had while working on Pop's solo album come-backs in 1977, The Idiot and Lust for Life. Yet while the vibe may have echoed back to that classic Berlin era creative watershed, the results for Tonight were not nearly as satisfying.

Though the album was a commercial success, reaching number one in many key markets, critically it was met with a great deal of disdain, and remains considered one of Bowie's weakest albums. It was ultimately an album that Bowie was pushed into creating when he was not at all in a position to summon his full creative forces. He was depleted by the work on the previous album and a gruelling massive tour across the globe. It's entirely understandable that he'd need time to recharge, and regrettable that the industry would demand he keep producing new works when he was clearly in need of a respite. It's an album that would mark the turning point for Bowie as his career success hit its highest ebb. Not that he was out of the game after this, but he would certainly end up reevaluating his position after seeing his fortunes wane through the remainder of the decade.

DAVID BOWIE - LODGER @ 45

 

Marking its 45th anniversary today is David Bowie's 13th studio LP, and last of the "Berlin Trilogy", Lodger, which was released on May 25th, 1979. Though the bromance between Bowie & Eno was cooling off, tempering the reception of the LP at the time of its release, retrospectively, it has become recognized as one of his most underrated albums.

The "Berlin" era began when Bowie and Iggy Pop recused themselves from the rock 'n' roll fast-lane and escaped to France and then Germany near the end of 1976. Both were looking to dry out from their respective bad habits. In the case of Bowie, it was a gargantuan cocaine addiction that left him emotionally hollow and physically whittled down to a frail stick. Iggy, on the other hand, had become a professional junkie, with the result being that his band, The Stooges, had disintegrated by the middle of the decade. Their efforts to get their shit together ended up resulting in a string of remarkable albums, including The Idiot and Lust For Life, for Iggy, and Low and "Heroes" for Bowie. But by the back end of 1978, Bowie and principal collaborator Brian Eno's creative jive was starting to run out of gas, albeit they were still committed to knocking out one more album to cap off their adventures.

Work on Lodger began in September of 1978 with a four month break from touring giving them the chance to get back into the studio. They assembled essentially the same creative team as the previous album: Tony Visconti, Carlos Alomar, Dennis Davis and George Murray. A new addition was future King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew, who Bowie had "poached" from Frank Zappa's latest tour.

In order to push the creative boundaries of the album, Bowie and Eno leaned heavily into Eno's Oblique Strategies system, which was a collection of customized playing cards containing vague suggestions that could be randomly drawn whenever anyone felt they were hitting a creative wall and needed a nudge in an unanticipated direction. Using this process, the musicians would receive instructions such as to swap instruments or play a familiar musical theme backwards. Belew was, at one point, asked to record guitar solos without listening to any of the music or having even an indication of the key to play in. While this methodology could spur innovation, it was not always popular with some of the musicians, who were pushed to work well outside their comfort zones. None of the songs would even have lyrics until the very end of the process, when Bowie took all the musical backings to the Record Plant studio to record his vocals.

The results of these sessions turned out to be rather different than the preceding two LPs and their mix of vocal and instrumental tracks. All the songs used for Lodger ended up with vocals, and the focus was on more pop song structures, though the feel was decidedly subversive throughout. Musically, the tracks ventured into a variety of styles, including Afro-rhythms, reggae, atonal post-punk discord and Middle Eastern motifs. The lyrical themes were split on each side of the record between concepts of travel on the first side and social critiques on the second.

For the album's cover, photographer Brian Duffy shot Bowie in a tiled bathroom looking like an accident victim, heavily made up with an apparently broken nose and a bandaged hand. This was inspired by the self-portraits of Egon Schiele. While the facial injuries were achieved with makeup and prosthetic appliances, the hand bandage was covering a real burn wound Bowie acquired earlier that day from some hot coffee. Call it a bit of a "happy accident"? Bowie was supported by a metal frame while the camera was positioned overhead in order to create the gravity defying final image, with Bowie looking like a fly that's been smacked by a giant swatter. At Bowie's request, the image was taken in low resolution by a Polaroid SX-70 type camera.

For the album's singles, innovative videos were shot for both D.J. and Boys Keep Swinging, the latter featuring Bowie in a series of drag outfits ranging from a '50s bobby-soxer, to a movie glamour queen to a matronly "Betty Davis" type character, all of whom end the video ripping off their wigs and smearing their lipstick in a show of defiance. It's gender bending at a time when drag was nowhere near the mainstream form of entertainment it is today.

At the time of its release, the pendulum of critical opinion had shifted from the universal praise bestowed on "Heroes" to a muddle of middling approval or outright disdain from some who felt it was a stop-gap album and dismissed it as a faltering miss-step after the previous album's confident successes. The consensus was that it was the weakest of the triptych of Berlin LPs, losing the focus and clarity of the previous releases. Yet it has undergone significant reappraisal in later years, with critics and fans giving it a second listen. The album received a complete remix in 2017, which helped to revive interests. Both Bowie and Visconti were never quite satisfied with the original mix, and the updated version does actually offer some clarity and body that is lacking in the original.

A few years ago, I wrote a piece on this album from a more personal perspective, looking at my relationship with it, how it was my first Bowie record and how it has remained one of my favourites throughout his career. You can find that piece here.

https://ugohere.blogspot.com/.../influential-album-david...

DAVID BOWIE - DIAMOND DOGS @ 50

 

Celebrating its golden jubilee today at 50 years old is the 8th studio LP from David Bowie, Diamond Dogs. It would mark the end of his glam-rock, Ziggy Stardust era and point the way to his transition to his next incarnation the soulful "Thin White Duke".

After completing his previous LP, Pin-Ups, a collection of covers recorded to satisfy record label obligations, Bowie was beginning to waffle in terms of the clarity of his vision for the direction of his career. He was running out of runway with the Ziggy persona, and had disbanded The Spiders From Mars band lead by guitarist, Mick Ronson. Ronson had moved on to record a solo album, so Bowie opted to assume the position of lead guitarist for the recording of Diamond Dogs. Bowie's more rudimentary guitar technique ended up working in his favour in some respects because it necessitated a raunchier, more primitive performing style, something that, in retrospect, became a bit of inspiration for the punk scene that would start bubbling up in the UK within the following year. Those kids, like Sid Vicious, were ardent Bowie fans, and the link between the punk explosion in the UK and Diamond Dogs cannot be overlooked.

However, as pivotal as the album may have been towards inspiring the musical revolution around the corner, Bowie was still in a state of flux, part way between shedding the Ziggy skin and emerging in a new form. In that sense, Diamond Dogs was a bit of a chrysalis, with the artist beginning to embrace the R&B and soul influences that would overtake his sound on his next record, Young Americans. Because of that, critics of the day saw Bowie as loosing focus, so some of the contemporary reviews of the day were quite critical of his stylistic floundering. That didn't stop the record from smashing its way the top of the charts in the UK and getting near there in the US at a respectable number five position at its peak.

The themes explored on the album were equally a hodgepodge of half grasped concepts, some stemming from a planned Ziggy Stardust stage musical Bowie had been contemplating, others inspired by William Burroughs apocalyptic visions, and who's "cut-up" technique Bowie had been actively exploiting to help with his creative process. Bowie was also toying with an adaptation of George Orwell's 1984, all of which meant the overall vibe of the album was decidedly nihilistic, a disposition that, along with the thrashing guitar work, dovetailed with the mindset that would inform the aforementioned punk aesthetic. Even Bowie's look, still within the Ziggy framework, took on a spiky visage, another element predicting the near future.

In many respects, Diamond Dogs serves as a fitting capstone to the glam-rock era of the first half of the 1970s, putting a final punctuation on the scene and queuing up the punk era around the corner, though Bowie himself was about to shift gears into something slick and sophisticated for his shift to LA, along with a serious cocaine addiction and some funky grooves.

DAVID BOWIE - ALADDIN SANE @ 50

 

Celebrating its golden jubilee with half a century on the shelves, it’s David Bowie’s sixth studio album and second during his initial commercial breakthrough as "Ziggy Stardust", Aladdin Sane. After taking the charts by storm with his previous record, it would exceed that success, commercially, though perhaps not quite artistically.

Aladdin Sane was written and recorded during breaks between grueling touring schedules as Bowie and RCA sought to maximize his exposure following the success of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Aladdin Sane, the title being a play on the phrase “a lad insane”, continued the narrative of the previous record, introducing the titular character as a means to explore the personality fragmentation symbolized by the lightning bolt across Bowie’s face. Thematically, the record deals with a lot of the ups and downs of life on the road, fame and how those dichotomies can split a personality. This was the first album Bowie wrote from a position of stardom, so the view from the mount of fame plays a significant role in the concepts explored.

Because production for the LP was squeezed into snatched free time between touring legs, this didn’t leave Bowie a lot of time to develop ideas or stockpile songs from which to cherry pick later. This meant that, overall, the quality of the material on the album maybe wasn’t quite as consistent as the previous few records, though there are clearly essential songs which managed to find a home in its grooves. The title track and Jean Genie are the obvious standouts. Musically, being on the road and performing live put an emphasis on a harder rock sound, though a bit of British music hall camp can also be found lurking about the edges. The Rolling Stones were a significant influence at this period as is evidenced by Bowie's cover of Let’s Spend the Night Together.

Recording for the album took place mainly between December 1972 and January 1973, and was split between Trident Studios in London and RCA’s NYC facility. The Spiders From Mars band, comprising Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey, contributed heavily to the album’s creation, though after a run of three albums with Bowie, this would be the last to feature this lineup. Though the album focuses on a heavier rock sound, it also starts to bring in some more experimental leanings, and many consider this the beginning of that trajectory, a disposition which would lead him into stranger and darker realms throughout the remainder of the decade until his crowing achievement in that vein with Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) in 1980.

For the cover of the LP, Bowie is seen in what has become his most iconic form, in fully Ziggy glory, lightning flash blazing across his face. It is perhaps the most recognizable image of Bowie ever created. It was shot in January 1973 by Brian Duffy in his north London studio. Duffy would later photograph the sleeves for Lodger (1979) and Scary Monsters. In an effort to ensure RCA promoted the album extensively, Bowie’s manager was determined to make the cover as costly as possible. He insisted on an unprecedented seven-color system, rather than the usual four. The resulting image was the most expensive cover art ever made at the time. The make-up designer for the shoot was Pierre Laroche, who remained Bowie's make-up artist for the remainder of the 1973 tour and the Pin Ups cover shoot. Laroche copied the lightning bolt from a National Panasonic rice-cooker that happened to be in the studio. The make-up was completed with a "deathly purple wash", which together with Bowie's closed eyes, evoke a "death mask".

After its release, it quickly became Bowie’s biggest selling record to date, but critics picked up on the uneven songwriting in comparison to the previous records, though they still praised it overall. It certainly deserves its legacy as being considered an essential entry in Bowie’s catalogue, capturing the artist at a peak in his creative and performing abilities. In some regards, perhaps it’s Bowie merely riding the wave of his success for a time, but history has clearly shown that he was just taking a bit of a breather before his next artistic ascent.

DAVID BOWIE - LET’S DANCE @ 40

Released forty years ago today, on April 14th, 1983, is David Bowie’s 15th studio album, Let’s Dance. While it set the commercial high water mark of his career, becoming his all time best selling album, it also painted him into a creative corner, boxing him into a commercial sound which drove down the quality of his output throughout the remainder of the decade.

Throughout the latter half of the 1970s, Bowie had been pursuing a distinctly avant-garde tinged approach to pop music, exploring darker themes and sonic experimentation with sales taking a backseat to artistic expression. After the success of his Ziggy Stardust period, veering into these more obscure directions sometimes meant sacrificing commercial appeal. However, his last album on this trajectory, 1980’s Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) found him coming to a near perfect balance between experimentation and commercial viability.

Following the completion of Scary Monsters, Bowie spent some time pursuing acting on both stage and screen, performing in The Elephant Man and Christian F., respectively. The assassination of John Lennon in December of 1980, however, put Bowie into shock and he cancelled an upcoming tour to support Scary Monsters, retreating to Switzerland where he became something of a recluse. Musically, he was not so productive, but still worked with Giorgio Moroder for the Cat People soundtrack and collaborated with Queen for the single, Under Pressure. He also appeared in the films, The Hunger and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, both released in 1983.

Scary Monsters also marked the end of his relationship with RCA records, whom he felt had failed to fully support his recent work, instead exploiting only his back catalogue. This took him to EMI records and, looking to have a fresh start while yet again reinvent himself, he set up shop in NYC and chose Chic main-man, Nile Rogers, as producer for his next album. This was a decision which would lead to a sever rift between Bowie and producer Tony Visconti, who had worked on Bowie's previous four albums. Bowie neglected to inform Visconti of the producer change and Tony ended up finding out second hand, to which he took deep offense. While the two would ultimately end up working together again, it would not be until 20 years later for 2002’s Heathen. Bowie’s intent was to go in a completely new direction with an entirely different collection of musicians and focus on the commercial viability of the album. All the regulars from the previous albums were set aside and a fresh group of players were brought in. For this album, Bowie also refrained from contributing as a musician himself, instead opting to focus solely on being a vocalist.

Nile Rogers had made a major name for himself with Chic and by producing a string of dance classics for the likes of Diana Ross & Sister Sledge. This prowess with a groove meant that he was uniquely qualified to put Bowie’s music onto the dance floor and the title track for the album became proof of that skill. The song, Let’s Dance, was released as a single and immediately swept the club scene. I personally recall it being in constant rotation in every type of setting, from mainstream clubs to the most underground warehouse after-hours industrial-goth freak scene. It joined a host of club hits which were rehabilitating the dance floors of the day after the backlash of the “death to disco” movement, which capped off the previous decade. Songs like Let’s Dance, Blue Monday by New Order & Perfect by The The became clarion calls to loose booties on both sides of the Atlantic, announcing that it was okay to cut a rug again.

Recording of the album was done at the Power Station in NYC, over three weeks in December of 1982. Since recording Scary Monsters, Bowie had become obsessed with R&B music from the ‘50s & ’60s and artists like James Brown, Buddy Guy and Albert King. Nile used that interest as a guide to the stylistic structure of Let’s Dance. When Bowie initially played him an acoustic version of the title song, he knew it wasn’t a dance song, but he was able to adapt the arrangement with elements of ‘50s & ’60s music to mutate it into something with a groove.

The idea to recruit Stevie Ray Vaughn came from Bowie after spotting him at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Rogers was initially ambivalent about Vaughn, classifying him as too blues-centric for the funkier R&B sound he was crafting, but Bowie was insistent that he had “something”. Vaughn was unknown and hadn’t released his first album yet, but Bowie won out in the end and Stevie contributed guitar solo parts on eight of the album’s cuts. While the album blushed against some of the “new wave” influences of Bowie's so-called “Berlin era”, the mainstream soul & R&B influences brought it far more in line with the feel of Young Americans, which was also heavily influenced by black American music.

At the time of its release, it became an instant smash, topping album charts in numerous countries around the globe. All four of the album’s singles were also significant hits, with music videos for Let’s Dance and China Girl (a cover of an Iggy Pop song from the Bowie produced album, The Idiot) getting heavy rotation on the still fledgling MTV music channel. The massive Serious Moonlight Tour, which launched to promote the album, managed to secure Bowie’s position as one of the biggest pop stars of the day, a triumphant career pinnacle after a decade of weaving in and out of public favor. As previously stated, that commercial success became a double edged sword as its rewards came at the cost of creative freedom, with Bowie feeling obligated to maintain that stature while his artistic integrity suffered with each successive release during the ‘80s.

Despite the album's major commercial success, it received mixed reviews from music critics, with opinions varying on the artistic content. In Musician magazine, David Fricke called it "Bowie at his best". In a piece on Bowie for Time in July 1983, Jay Cocks described the album as "unabashedly commercial, melodically alliterative and lyrically smart at the same time". Robert Christgau felt that it had a "perfunctory professional surface", and that other than the "interesting" Modern Love, Let's Dance was "pleasantly pointless". Steve Bush of Smash Hits found it overall dull and Debra Rae Cohen of The New York Times deemed it Bowie's "most artless" record yet, but one whose familiar dance music is "almost timeless in its appeal".

Yet in terms of its legacy, it stands as the crescendo of one of the most astounding creative runs any artist has ever achieved. With 14 years of artistic genius backing it up, it should more properly be seen as a much deserved victory lap. But it did essentially bookend Bowie’s career relevance as the last significant release of his career, at least until his re-emergence from semi-retirement in 2013 with The Next Day, his penultimate album before his death in 2016. The years between Let’s Dance and The Next Day, while not entirely bereft of notable product, were still lacking in both the sense of Bowie being an artistic visionary working the cutting edge of the culture or a commercial force to be reckoned with.
 

DAVID BOWIE - BLACK TIE WHITE NOISE @ 30

Turning 30 years old today is David Bowie’s 18th studio album, Black Tie White Noise, which was released on April 5th, 1993. After a six year gap since his last solo album, Bowie was back working with Let’s Dance collaborator, Nile Rogers, though their pairing this time around may have been more forced and less creatively satisfying for both artists.

After the career topping success of the Let’s Dance album in 1983, Bowie’s output seemed to be trending in the wrong direction, creatively, for the remainder of that decade. Tonight (1984) only had moments as a decent enough follow-up and 1987’s Never Let Me Down slipped even further, struggling to live up to its title. Bowie then moved on to forming Tin Machine with Robert Fripp and producing two albums which were met with mixed responses from fans and critics alike. When it came time to set that band aside and return to solo work, it would seem that there was some pressure to reconnect with Nile and see if they could recapture some of the magic that gave their previous work so much success. Though the reports at the time of production indicated a collaboration that was mutually satisfying, subsequent comments from both artists painted a different picture. Rogers dismissed the album as a lost opportunity, with him wanting to continue on a path contiguous with the Let’s Dance sound and feel, while Bowie was wanting to experiment and explore more avant-garde edges. Ultimately, it seems the two were working at cross purposes and the results may have suffered somewhat from that lack of cohesion.

Thematically, Bowie was heavily influenced by his recent marriage to supermodel, Iman, and by the LA riots they witnessed first hand while they were in the city for their honeymoon. Bowie commented that the entire experience felt like a prison riot, where so many innocent prisoners were demanding fair treatment by a city which had turned into a virtual prison. This set his mind into concepts of racial relations and trying to bridge cultural and social gaps between people. His marriage set an example of what was possible when people could love freely and without the learned biases of racial disparagement. The title Bowie described thusly:

“White noise itself is something that I first encountered on the synthesizer many years ago. There's black noise and white noise. I thought that much of what is said and done by the whites is white noise. 'Black ties' is because, for me, musically, the one thing that really turned me on to wanting to be a musician, wanting to write, was black music, American black music. I found it all very exciting – the feeling of aggression that came through the arrangements.”

With its UK release, despite the creative conflicts which may have been at odds behind the scenes, it still managed to hit the number one spot on the charts, but it would be the last Bowie LP to do so until the release of The Next Day in 2013. In the US, it managed to climb up to #39, but its promotion was hobbled by the US label, Savage Records, filing for bankruptcy soon after it was released. Bowie had a three album deal with the label, but they ended up suing him, claiming financial losses on their investment in BTWN. However, their case was dismissed and the label was dissolved, leaving the album in a kind of limbo in the US with few available copies until it was reissued later in the decade. Critically, many felt that it was a worthy successor to and continuation of what Bowie had achieved with Scary Monsters. In light of the disappointment registered with his work prior to this, it certainly felt like a revival of Bowie’s status. Still, retrospectively, some consider the album to have been overpraised at the time and that it didn’t hold up well in ensuing years.

Bowie did not tour to support the album, instead producing a film to accompany it.

 

IGGY AND THE STOOGES - RAW POWER @ 50

 

Released on February 7th, 1973, Raw Power by Iggy and the Stooges is celebrating half a century on the shelves today. Despite struggles to get a proper mix of the album, it continues to stand as one of the most ferocious proto-punk albums of all time. It’s fierceness and savage intensity have made it a high water mark for aggressive rock & roll and kept it as a template for bands who aspire to ascend to its brutal heights.

By 1972, The Stooges were in a shambles. With their first two LPs failing to garner any serious record sales, the group had fallen into despair and substance abuse, with Iggy slipping deeper and deeper into his heroine addiction. The group had functionally ceased to exist and Iggy had gone off to London to try to dry out under the wing of David Bowie. Bowie had long been a fan of Iggy’s and was appreciative of the Stooges’ song writing abilities, far more than most of Pop’s peers of the time. While in London, Iggy was planning on working with guitarist James Williamson, who had handled second guitar duties on the last Stooges tour, and Pop had even negotiated a solo record deal with CBS. As he and Williamson began to try to get the ball rolling in the UK, they soon found themselves struggling to put together an acceptable rhythm section from the local talent available to them. It was at this point that Williamson suggested recruiting original Stooges, the Asheton brothers, Ron and Scott, with Ron reluctantly agreeing to move over to bass so that Williamson could handle all the guitar duties. This effectively reconstituted the Stooges, albeit in a modified configuration, but the solo contract with CBS would still necessitate the band being identified as “Iggy and the Stooges”.

With Williamson on guitar, the songwriting took on a different feel than the first two albums, moving away from their funkier grooves into a more anthemic hard rock kind of sound, though the label insisted on including two “ballads” on the new album to act as counterpoints on each side of the record. Recording took place at CBS’ London studio, occurring from September 10 to October 6, 1972, with Iggy acting as producer. After this, an initial mix of the album was done by Pop, but the results of that were rather botched as he mixed most of the instruments into one stereo channel with the vocals mixed into the other, with little regard for balance or tone quality. Because of budgetary constraints, they had little to work with to remedy that situation, but they were able to hire David Bowie to come in for a day and do a mix of the album. Bowie recalled:

“(It was) the most absurd situation I encountered … the first time I worked with Iggy Pop. He wanted me to mix Raw Power, so he brought the 24-track tape in, and he put it up. He had the band on one track, lead guitar on another and him on a third. Out of 24 tracks there were just three tracks that were used. He said 'see what you can do with this'. I said, 'Jim, there's nothing to mix'. So we just pushed the vocal up and down a lot. On at least four or five songs that was the situation.”

However when Morgan Neville's documentary film on Raw Power was released in 2010, they demonstrated that each individual instrument was indeed recorded on its own track on the original multi-track tapes, suggesting that Bowie was either mistaken or working with a copy that had mixed down the instruments on to the same track, likely the rejected mix Iggy had done before Bowie’s arrival.

What Bowie achieved with those limited resources has always been debatable, with some liking it while most found it murky and lacking in low end. Thus began the long, sordid story of alternate mixes of the LP. The original rejected Iggy mix was eventually released as “Rough Power”, and then, in 1997, Iggy himself created a brand new mix from scratch using the original multi-track tapes. This version, while addressing some of the issues with the Bowie mix in terms of lack of bottom end and buried drums, ended up creating its own issues as Iggy brought back in a lot of bits Bowie had cut out and pinned the levels on everything to such an extent that it introduced a layer of digital distortion which unsettled many purists and fans of the original LP’s mix. Personally, I find the Iggy mix more listenable overall, though the saturation caused by the excessive loudness does obliterate any sense of dynamics in the recordings. Therefore, it remains a flawed album no matter how you slice it, but a landmark, nonetheless.

Upon its release, the LP received a lot of critical high praise, but commercially, it was simply too extreme for any radio play and barely grazed the bottom of the top 200 LP charts in the US. That failure was a final nail in the coffin for the Stooges and, though Iggy and Williamson did attempt what would become another aborted project together, subsequently released as Kill City (1975), Pop would end up returning to Bowie’s care for a far more successful solo career with his back to back albums, The Idiot and Lust for Life (1977). The legacy of Raw Power, however, like the previous two Stooges LPs, would grow over the decades to enshrine all three of these albums as precursors to, and fundamental foundation stones for, the punk revolution to come.

LOU REED - TRANSFORMER @ 50

 

Celebrating half a century of walking on the wild side, it’s the sophomore solo LP from Velvet Underground main man, Lou Reed, with Transformer being released on this day, November 8th, 1972. It’s the album which would secure his place as a rock ’n’ roll legend and break him out from the shackles of cult obscurity into the realm of commercial accessibility.

After his years fronting The Velvet Underground, Reed had become infamous in certain circles, though his record sales would belie the far reach of his influence on the next generation of music makers who were starting to shape the decade of the 1970s. Principal among these was no less than the “Starman” himself, David Bowie, who had embraced Lou’s work and incorporated a number of VU songs into his live repertoire, including White Light/White Heat and I’m Waiting for My Man. Bowie had made reference to Reed on the liner notes for Hunky Dory and had struck up a friendship with him on his visits to NYC. After the failure of Reed’s eponymous debut to make any kind of commercial impact, Bowie and fellow Spider from Mars, Mick Ronson, offered to produce Lou’s next album and duly packed him off to London to record.

The duo proved to be the perfect conduit for Reed’s music and Ronson, in particular, ended up offering much more than production as he contributed session guitar, keyboards, recorder and, along with Bowie, backing vocals. Their prowess at the studio console was equally matched by the quality of the songs Reed brought to the table, several of which had been lurking around since the VU days. Andy’s Chest, Satellite of Love, New York Telephone Conversation and Goodnight Ladies had all been performed or demoed by the Velvets before they found their place on Transformer.

Overall, the album boasts a host songs which would become quintessential for Reed like Satellite, Vicious & Perfect Day, but the most significant of all has to be Walk on the Wild Side. It was released as a single and became a major hit and Lou’s most successful single ever. Over the years, it’s been used repeatedly in soundtracks for feature films and TV and become the most iconic piece of music Lou ever produced. It’s also one of his most controversial and prophetic songs. Given the evolution of transgender identity in the last 50 years, it can legitimately be seen as a flashpoint for igniting awareness of the culture within the minds of the mainstream. It’s gender bending was so unsettling for some that the single was edited in some markets and outright banned in others because of its reference to what was perceived as sexual depravity.

The cover for the album utilizes an image by legendary photographer, Mick Rock. The look of the photo was a total accident, however, as it came about when Rock overexposed the negatives. Lou loved the look and it ended up becoming the perfect image to represent the album.

At the time of its release, it became an immediate pillar within the “glam rock” scene of the early 1970s. Along with Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and Bolan’s Electric Warrior, it was an album that was a must-have if you were part of that movement. Since then, it has become one of Reed’s most essential albums. Personally, my opinion is that, if you’re gonna have two Reed albums, you should have Transformer and Metal Machine Music though for entirely opposing reasons.

DAVID BOWIE - "HEROES" @ 45

 

October 14th marks the 45th anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s 12th studio album, “Heroes”, which was issued on this date in 1977. It was the second in what would become known as the “Berlin trilogy”, but the only one of the three recorded entirely at Hansa Studios in Berlin. Whereas Low, the first of the trilogy, released earlier in the year, had received little promotion from Bowie or his label, “Heroes” would merit their full attention and became a major commercial and critical success because of it.

After completing Low, Bowie felt the album was too noncommercial and, rather than tour to support it, went on the road to play keyboards with Iggy Pop when not in the studio working with him to launch his solo career, co-producing two definitive LPs, The Idiot and Lust For Life. After that, Bowie got together with Brian Eno and producer, Tony Visconti to begin work on his next album in July of 1977, with sessions ongoing until the end of August. The band were essential the same as for Low, with Carlos Alomar on guitar, George Murray on bass and Dennis Davis on drums. Initially, there were discussions of bringing in NEU! guitarist, Michael Rother, to augment the band, but somehow that inclination got lost in the shuffle.

Ultimately it came down to a frustrating night in the studio working on the title track to determine the missing ingredient for these sessions. While struggling to figure out what was lacking in the arrangement, Eno suggested phoning friend and collaborator, Robert Fripp, in New York. Bowie spoke to him and Robert initially expressed reservations, stating that he hadn’t really done anything for the last three years, but would give it a go if Bowie was willing to take a chance. With a first class ticket couriered to Fripp, he was on a plane and spent three days in the studio, knocking out his guitar parts. Bowie and Eno were bowled over by his virtuosity as he nailed each take, never having heard the songs before arriving to record on them.

The bed tracks for the album came together quickly over the course of a few days, but the overdubbing process would take slightly longer. Sometimes this would leave them struggling to resolve creative blocks, a situation which Eno would frequently remedy by the use of his Oblique Strategy Cards, a deck of vague “suggestions”, which could be randomly drawn from to illicit unexpected ideas and approaches.

The vocals would all come last, after the music was completely in place and there was no one left in the studio except Bowie and Tony. Bowie had become enamored with Iggy Pop’s uncanny ability to improvise lyrics in the studio, often laying down complete songs off the top of his head in one take. Bowie determined to pursue this approach with “Heroes” and did so with the exception of one song being written in advance. Visconti was amazed at the passion which Bowie delivered while singing in this method. A prime example of that is the title track, which begins with Bowie offering a soft croon, but eventually peaks with him belting out at a shout that was powerful enough to crumble the Berlin Wall which inspired the lyrics.

Like Low, the first side of the album was given over to a mostly mainstream pop song format while the B-side featured more adventurous instrumentals like the Kraftwerk tribute V-2 Schneider. However, where Low had come across as more disturbed and dour, “Heroes” took on a much more optimistic and upbeat disposition. Something about doing it all at Hansa, a former concert hall used as a ballroom by Gestapo officers during World War II, which was within 500 yards of the Berlin Wall so soldiers from the other side were able to peer through their windows with binoculars, gave the musicians and producers a sense of defiant vitality while working in this potential powder-keg of an environment.

The cover for the album followed along the design aesthetic which had been used on the two Iggy Pop albums with a black & white photo of Bowie on the front. The look would be carried over for the video of the title track, which became one of the early harbingers of the video revolution lurking around the corner. I can recall seeing it on Bing Crosby’s Christmas special that year and being beguiled by Bowie’s presence. It was the first time he’d really made an impression on my 14 year old teen brain. It would be an impression which would stick with me and lead me to soon getting onboard with his final installment in the trilogy, Lodger.

While the label and Bowie had eschewed promoting Low, they weren’t so reluctant with “Heroes” and Bowie set about on a major touring schedule to promote the album and bring the material from Low into his live repertoire as well. The result was that the album was a success on both sides of the Atlantic, garnering a 3rd place peak on the UK charts and 35 in the US. The single, while a modest success at the time of its release has since gone on to become one of Bowie’s most frequently referenced songs. Of the three Berlin albums, it remains the most commercially successful.

IGGY POP - LUST FOR LIFE @ 45

 

Marking its 45th anniversary today is the sophomore solo LP from Stooges front-man, Iggy Pop, with Lust For Life being released on September 9th, 1977. It followed closely on the heels of his debut solo release, The Idiot, which was issued in March of that year. After touring to support that album, Pop and David Bowie, who’d produced the first album and toured with Pop’s band on keyboards, returned to Hansa Studios in West Berlin to work on the followup.

While Bowie had exerted significant control and influence over the first album, writing many of its songs, Iggy was adamant that he have more creative input on this one. Iggy wanted to take on that task now that the process of cleaning up from drug addiction was further along and his musical juices were flowing. Bowie still helped out with some arrangements, but even here Iggy had a greater hand. The result is an album that cleaves much closer to the kind of proto-punk that Pop had done with the Stooges rather than the cooler “Krautrock” influenced detachment of the previous record.

The album was recorded throughout May and June, utilizing essentially the same band which had toured to support The Idiot. Brothers Tony Fox and Hunt Sales held the rhythm section on bass and drums, respectively, and guitarist Ricky Gardiner filled out the band with Bowie returning on keyboards. Bowie & Pop were assisted with their production duties by engineer Colin Thurston. As previously stated, the music took on a harder, rawer tone and was, overall, more favorably received by both critics and fans, who felt Pop had returned to something closer to the raucous persona they were expecting from him.

After its release, Pop became frustrated with RCA and finished off his contract with them by issuing a hastily cobbled together live album. He furthermore moved away from working with Bowie for his next studio albums, not renewing that working relationship until later in the next decade. The legacy of Lust For Life has left both the title track and The Passenger as seminal songs in Iggy’s musical canon.

DAVID BOWIE - THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS @ 50

Celebrating a half century since landing on the planet Earth, David Bowie’s breakthrough LP, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, was released 50 years ago today, on June 16th, 1972. Bowie’s fifth studio album would prove to be the one which finally broke through on the charts and launched his career into the stratosphere.

Bowie had been slogging away in relative obscurity since the mid 1960s, releasing his first album in 1967 and gradually navigating his career towards a position which would ultimately set him apart from his peers. He’d do so by creating a distinctive character which transcended the mundane boundaries of mere pop stardom and cast him in the role of a mythological alien-savior. While his previous incarnations had tried to exploit his “freak” potential, the idea of creating a fictional alter-ego was the key to putting him in a context which maximized his eccentricity while making it more palatable by virtue of its other-worldliness.

Before Ziggy, he blurred the lines of gender on his previous effort, Hunky Dory, where he lounged in his long hair and gown like Lauren Bacall or Greta Garbo. That sort of gender-bending ultimately had limited appeal and the album flopped on the charts despite good reviews. Part of the problem was that it was recorded with new label RCA when they’d already got wind that he was planning a major image overhaul, so the label stalled on their promotion in anticipation of his transformation. Hunky Dory & Ziggy are musically extremely closely linked. The songs were all written at the same time, the musicians are mostly the same on both albums and they were recorded nearly consecutively with only a brief gap between them. But by the time Ziggy was ready to release, the label were finally ready to commit to Bowie’s new concept and appearance and they were prepared to promoting him with some vim and vigor.

Even though Hunky Dory and Ziggy were closely aligned musically, Ziggy had something else going on that wasn’t developed on the previous record. It was this conception of an alien being coming to Earth in an attempting to save it as the planet was facing an apocalyptic near future, only to become corrupted by fame. This worked to envelop the project in a coherent narrative. This was further reinforced by the look and sound of the band, which took the glam-rock glitz of Marc Bolan and cast it as extraterrestrial chic. The character of Ziggy Stardust also borrowed from Bowie’s American friends and inspirations, Iggy Pop & Lou Reed. He managed to fuse elements of all of them and more into his characterization and it worked brilliantly to help shroud Bowie with a stature and mystique that effectively made him seem like a superstar even before the fans had picked up on his presence.

Once the album hit the shops, it wasn’t long before it started to gain momentum with its traction largely increased once the band made a pivotal appearance on BBC’s Top of the Pops. It was one of those historic moments when any kid with a TV and latent aspirations of rock stardom was gonna find a fire lit in their soul once they saw Bowie confidently strutting his stuff in front of the camera. One can imagine little Sid Vicious, Peter Murphy, Gary Numan, Bono and dozens of other future stars glued to their sets and feeling the switch get flipped that would propel them into the careers they’d have in a few short years thanks to having seen the Starman on their TV.

Since its release, it’s become recognized as one of Bowie’s most influential and significant works. Not only did it set him up for future success, it retroactively pulled a lot of his back catalogue out of obscurity, foisting albums like Hunky Dory and singles like Space Oddity into hit status as well. And while a lesser artist would’ve become trapped in the Ziggy persona, Bowie quickly transitioned to other characters in order to establish his chameleon like nature as a trademark, setting fan expectations to be prepared for his wild and frequent shifts. In many respects, it remains his most iconic work and a starting point for many when beginning the journey of exploring his career.

Personally, his success at this stage also came at a cost and signaled the beginning of his own private decline into drug abuse, something he’d ultimately have to overcome within a few years, but fortunately for him and his fans, he managed to pull out of that spiral. In a way, he lived the life of Ziggy maybe a bit too closely, so it makes sense he’d want to change out of that wardrobe and try on another suit quick enough.

DAVID BOWIE - DAVID BOWIE @ 55

 

June 1st marks the 55th anniversary of the release of the debut eponymous album from David Bowie. It’s an album from a young artist struggling to find his voice, but not quite near the superstar he’d eventually become. Musically, it is very much “of its time” with a quintessential 1960s British music hall & baroque pop sensibility more reminiscent of singers like Anthony Newley.

Prior to this LP, Bowie had released a string of unsuccessful singles which resulted in him being dumped by his then label, Pye Records, before being picked up by Decca subsidiary, Deram, for his debut album. Bowie wrote the songs over the autumn of 1966 before booking into the studio over the winter from November ’66 to March ’67. The music for the album was provided by a mostly anonymous selection of studio and session musicians. As a result, the album sounds quite dated and rather quaint when compared to the work he’d manage to do in a few short years. There’s little indication of the visionary trend setting innovator that was lurking below the surface of the artist captured on this debut. There are a few flashes of novelty sprinkled among the song and dance, but it’s all verging on camp.

IGGY POP - THE IDIOT @ 45

 

Issued on March 18, 1977, Iggy Pop’s debut solo album, The Idiot, is celebrating 45 years since its release. As well as re-birthing Iggy’s career, it also marked the beginning of what would become known as David Bowie’s “Berlin” period, even though the bulk of the album was recorded at the Château d'Hérouville, France.

By 1976 both Bowie and Pop had abused themselves sufficiently with drugs, cocaine and heroine respectively, that the two artists found themselves in a position where they were ready to do some self maintenance and clean themselves up. Their friendship had brought them together to go through this process as a team and they set about putting their ships to rights by getting out of the US and heading to France where they figured they’d be able to better buffer themselves against temptation. Arriving at the Château in June, they spent the next two months working there until relocating to Musicland Studios in Munich in August to finish off the album. Production on The Idiot somewhat dovetailed with work on Bowie’s Low album, which was recorded back at the Château through September & October of 1976. Though Low was recorded after The Idiot, it was released first in January of 1977 so that The Idiot did not distract from the Bowie release, at least as far as the record label was concerned.

The Idiot, insofar as it’s a solo album for Pop, should really be considered a collaboration between Bowie and Iggy. Bowie’s participation on the album is significant, writing most of the music and performing much of the instrumentation, which included guitars, keyboards, synths, sax & backing vocals. Its style is very much part of the direction Bowie was going with his own music at the time, taking in the influence of Germanic experimental music like Kraftwerk and the general Krautrock aesthetic. Iggy and Bowie even managed to have themselves name-checked in the Kraftwerk song, Trans-Europe Express, after encountering the group while visiting in Germany. This influence pushed Pop away from the proto-punk thrash of The Stooges and into a more subdued, restrained sound, something which alienated him from some of his fan base. Some considered Bowie’s influence here too overwhelming and that the album is less than representative of Pop’s true character and style.

Production wise, it may have suffered a bit from neglect as recounted by Laurent Thibault, the owner of the Château. Bowie bonded with him while they started work on the project and the former Magma bassist was asked to play on the album. He recorded bass, engineered and hired Frenchman Michel Santangeli to play drums on what he thought were demo recordings. After Bowie dismissed him from further work, he realized that the recordings were actually going to constituted final takes for the album and has since expressed dissatisfaction with the end results.

Despite the mixed responses to the album from critics and fans, in the long term, the album still contains numerous classics. Songs like Sister Midnight, Nightclubbing, China Girl and Dum Dum Boys have established themselves as essentials within Pop’s solo canon. Nightclubbing was also covered by Grace Jones, who had a major hit with it, as did Bowie with his version of China Girl. While it may not be completely representative of Iggy’s raw essence, it still demands acknowledgement as an innovative and forward looking album that set up both artists for success throughout the remainder of the decade and beyond.

DAVID BOWIE - EARTHLING @ 25

 

February 3rd marks the 25th anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s 21st studio album, Earthling (stylized as EART HL I NG) , which was issued on this day in 1997. It’s an album which showed that, while Bowie was celebrating half a century on this Earth, he was still able to move with the times, though maybe not be as ahead of them as he’d been in the past.

Earthling is often seen as Bowie’s “drum ’n’ bass” album, a label that might be overstating the influence as there are actually only three of the album’s nine original tracks which can be slotted into that category. However it is, overall, a very electronic record. The debate over how innovative it was at the time is something which continues to divide historians and critics. By 1997, the DnB scene was well established and waning, so it’s hard to credit the album as being particularly “cutting edge”. At the very least, it’s an example of Bowie indulging his passions of the times and giving them his own personal stamp. Whether or not he was being “trendy”, it did manage to get him some commercial attention, particularly with the success of Little Wonder as a single and its accompanying video. In some ways it was one of his most memorable singles since Blue Jean over a decade earlier.

Structurally, Bowie considered the album much more simplistic than the work he’d done on the previous LP, Outside. He'd started working on Earthling on his laptop after the conclusion of the Outside tour in a deliberate attempt to work more “electronically” and without a guitar. The primary collaborator for this album was Reeves Gabrels, who handled synths and programming along with guitar duties. The album was recorded at Philip Glass’ Looking Glass studio in NYC, mostly between August and October of 1996. In addition to the DnB influence, there is a certain “industrial” edge to it, which is exemplified by some of the remixes done by Nine Inch Nails head honcho, Trent Reznor.

From my own perspective, I have to say that I was mostly disconnected from Bowie’s work after Let’s Dance and didn’t particularly pay attention to much of it until Blackstar came out and we were all knocked sideways with the shock of his death on the heels of its release. Of all the records he put out from the mid ‘80s until his passing, Earthling was probably the one that I remember the most. I’ve since done a lot of backtracking through his catalogue for this period and, personally, find it one of the more enjoyable releases of that decade. It’s not what many people consider “classic” Bowie, but it’s still a jolly good record.

DAVID BOWIE - LOW @ 45

 

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.

DAVID BOWIE - HUNKY DORY @ 50

December 17th marks the 50th anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s fourth studio album, Hunky Dory, which was issued this day in 1971. While his previous album had not quite “Sold the World”, this would be where he’d put together the core of his “Spiders from Mars” and set the stage for the music revolution he’d lead with its follow-up.

After the somewhat lackluster reception of The Man Who Sold the World, upon returning from a US tour to promote that album, Bowie sequestered himself in his home, eschewing touring and studio time for the moment, and planted himself at his piano in order to start composing songs for his next album. Shifting his writing process off the guitar sent him veering away from the more hard-rock styling of his last album and into a more “pop”, melodic sound. When it came time to start assembling his band for the new album, he managed to bring back guitarist Mick Ronson and drummer Mick Woodmansey, despite some creative fallout after the previous album, but bassist Tony Visconti was replaced by Trevor Bolder to create the core ensemble which would become known as The Spiders from Mars.

Inspired by his trip the the US, Bowie came up with a number of songs that paid tribute to some of the personalities he’d become enamored with over there. These included Andy Warhol, Lou Reed and Bob Dylan, all of whom found themselves immortalize in song on the new album. Moreover, Bowie’s agenda for this album was freed from the influence of the demands of record companies and their executives insisting he pursue some vision of success which was outside his own agenda. For this album, he only sought to satisfy himself and it’s one of the main reasons it is looked back upon as a turning point in his career and the moment when he fully began to cut his own path through the popular music landscape. While most artists of the time were looking to revisit the past after the wild experimentation of the late ‘60s, Bowie was keen to discover new musical lands to inhabit.

While it met with immediate critical praise upon its release, commercially, it stalled and failed to chart prior to the release of the Ziggy Stardust album in 1972. Part of the problem when it came to sales for Hunky Dory was down to Bowie's new label, RCA Records, pulling back on promoting it when they got wind that he was about to change his image AGAIN for the Ziggy album, which was already being recorded. It gave them cold feet and caused them to pull their support for Hunky Dory until they saw where he was going. However, once Ziggy took off, the backlash of success ended up sweeping Hunky Dory off the scrap heap and pushed it up the charts as well where it eventually peaked at #3 in the UK.

For many Bowie aficionados, Hunky Dory is the turning point in Bowie’s career where his artistic vision and abilities finally came into complete focus at their full potential. It’s the album which put all the pieces in place to set the stage for his success on his next album. While on it’s own, it wasn’t the spark that lit the fire, it provided the additional fuel to help reinforce his trajectory once that flame was ignited. The album is loaded with songs that have become classics in Bowie’s canon of essential works. Changes, Oh! You Pretty Things, Life On Mars, Andy Warhol & Queen Bitch all attest to his ability to craft solid, inventive pop music that has stood the test of time for half a century.

DAVID BOWIE - STATION TO STATION @ 45

 

January 23 marks the 45th anniversary of the release of David Bowie's 10th studio album, Station to Station, released on this day in 1976.

With Ziggy Stardust seeming like a distant memory by the time of this release, Bowie was firmly in the grip of his "Thin White Duke" persona and the epic cocaine habit that accompanied it. Bowie was so out of it at the time of this recording that he, and much of the band, remembered very little of its production beyond the distaste for Los Angeles and the belief that ""The fucking place should be wiped off the face of the earth". That decadence and indulgence, however, didn't stop them from creating one of Bowie's most seminal and significant albums.

Musically, it continues along the path of "blue eyed soul" that had been forged with the previous LP, Young Americans, but there were the seeds of intense experimentation being planted here that would set David's trajectory directly into the Brian Eno produced "Berlin Trilogy" throughout the remaining years of the decade. The core band of this album would also remain intact throughout this period as well with bassist George Murray, guitarist Carlos Alomar and drummer Dennis Davis.

Conceptually, the album is preoccupied with David's favorite muses of the era such as Aleister Crowley and occultism. Bowie was also involved in the filming of Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth and the character created for that feature became a central inspiration for his Thin White Duke persona, which Bowie described as "a hollow man who sang songs of romance with an agonized intensity, yet felt nothing — ice masquerading as fire". The persona has also been described as "a mad aristocrat", "an amoral zombie", and "an emotionless Aryan superman". For Bowie himself, the Duke was "a nasty character indeed"! Bowie became so possessed by the role at the time, with the help of the drugs, that he was often criticized for his close brushes with fascistic tendencies. Personally, he was a mess and deep into delusion and paranoia, with fantasies of witches stealing his semen, secret messages from The Rolling Stones and an irrational fear of fellow Crowley enthusiast, Jimmy Page. It's no wonder he'd flee to Berlin after touring the album to dry out and get his head on straight.

Despite all of the chaos and madness surrounding the times, we're still left with an incredible artifact of Bowie's genius, which even in the midst of his madness at the time, still managed to shine through and manifest an album that stood as a beacon for the emerging "new wave" of the late 1970s and still holds up today thanks to its unassailable song-craft and musicianship.

DAVID BOWIE - SCARY MONSTERS (AND SUPER CREEPS) - 40 YEARS OF RUNNING

40 years ago today, on September 12, 1980, David Bowie released Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), the LP that would serve as the closing bookend to a five year period of musical exploration and be oft cited as the creative pinnacle of his career. This journey started in 1975 with the recording of Young Americans.  That was the point at which he broke from his Ziggy Stardust persona and invented the “Thin White Duke”.  He pushed off the lipstick & shock-wig trappings of glam rock and dove headlong into “blue-eyed soul” (well, one blue eye at least).  From that plateau of cocaine fueled decadence, he’d delve into increasingly darker shades of sound, eventually shifting from LA to Berlin where he’d go spelunking into the looming caverns and hidden corners of humanity's darker nature.  These dives would reach their ultimate depths with Scary Monsters.

While he’d hit the charts at the beginning of this arc with his collaboration with John Lennon (Fame, 1975), as he traversed through the so-called “Berlin Trilogy” (Low, “Heroes”, Lodger), commercial success slipped somewhat off the mat and, with this being his final LP for RCA, his vision was refocused to find what would turn out to be a much better balance between the serrated edge of avant-garde creativity and mainstream accessibility. Central to this effort was Bowie concentrating on songwriting and lyrics before recording, rather than relying on so much improvisation in the studio.  Brian Eno’s production skills had helped craft his previous few releases, but he co-produced Monsters with Tony Visconti this time around and Robert Fripp was back to lend his distinctive guitar sounds.  This would also be the last album to feature the core rhythm section of Dennis Davis, Carlos Alomar and George Murray, which had been together since Station to Station. 

Mastering the art of the emerging new medium of the music video didn’t hurt things either.  He’d got his taste for it with the elegant simplicity of the “Heroes” video and pushed the cultural limits with the gender bending Boys Keep Swinging clip, but things really came to the fore with Ashes to Ashes.  The song turned out to be a sequel to his first major hit, Space Oddity (1969), and the second part of a trilogy which would be completed years later with his final album, Blackstar (2017).  Since it was perched on the precipice of the emergence of MTV, it managed to give the art form a much needed injection of credibility and gravitas such that, when MTV launched in August of 1981, it was one of the critical, ready-made products which gave the fledgling network some buoyancy.

After this album, Bowie would turn to some new collaborators and spend the rest of the 1980s plowing an entirely different field, in a sense coming full circle to the R&B music which had kicked off the latter half of the 1970s, while setting aside the sonic confrontations which had largely defined the period.  Taken together, from Young Americans through to Scary Monsters, Bowie left a legacy of six of the most remarkable, challenging albums conceived by any artist working in the pop music arena.  He may have found greater commercial success outside of this era of experimentation, but most would agree that he rarely attained greater creative heights after it.