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.

INFLUENTIAL ALBUM - DAVID BOWIE, LODGER

David Bowie first caught my attention in November of 1977 when he appeared on the now legendary final Bing Crosby Christmas special, recorded only weeks before Crosby's passing. Along with singing counterpoint with Bing on Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy, the special also aired the newly released video for Bowie's single, Heroes, from the album of the same name. To say the inclusion of this video in a Christmas special was incongruous and anachronistic would be an understatement. That didn't hurt its appeal to me, however. It only made me pay closer attention and I immediately fell in love with the song.

One would think that would have been all I needed to grab the album, and indeed, I picked it up and pondered it in the record shops over and over, but it wasn't until well over a year later that I finally took the plunge into the world of Bowie with the release of the album, Lodger, in the spring of 1979. While I was just starting to get curious about "new" music in 1977, by 1979 I was fully engulfed in anything that was on the cutting edge and everything about Lodger seemed sharp and ready to slice.

While Bowie's Berlin triptych of Low / "Heroes" / Lodger is now frequently looked upon as the apex period of his career, creatively if not commercially, I find that Lodger is often overlooked among these three and not really given the kind of acknowledgement I believe it deserves. Perhaps this is due to the perversely obtuse sense of violence that underpins so much of the album, from the shocking cover image, where Bowie looks like he's been smashed up against a wall like a squashed bug, to the admonition to "Johnny" in Repetition, "Don't hit her". The album flirts with these kinds of themes throughout.

One of the things that sold me on it was the two videos which were produced for DJ and Boys Keep Swinging, both of which were aired on the NBC late night music program, The Midnight Special. The latter video, in particular, offered up a pretty disturbing yet humorous sort of drag fashion show, decades before drag culture would be embraced by the masses thanks to the likes of RuPaul. In Bowie's hands, the implied violence appears again as each of his three characterizations ends the video by ripping off their wig and smearing their lipstick. It's this sort of edge that pervades the entire album.

But song by song, the album is built out of stones of perfect proportion and purpose without a weak track among them. From start to finish, it races forward with an urgency that leaves you feeling a bit outpaced as it rushes ahead of you. It's music that doesn't wait for the listener to catch up with it and perhaps that's why it's a bit alienating. Regardless of that, it has remained my favorite Bowie album from the day I brought it home and only surprises me all over again every time I listen to it.