Station to Station - 1976

This is a weird album, which shouldn’t work. For one thing, it came off the back of the travesty that is Young Americans. For another, it sees Dave-oh lazily going back to doing ‘another character’. Perhaps he thought it would win back his alienated fan base? It’s widely reported that the Bow-ster only had a couple of songs when he went into the studio and that he and the rest of the band were massive cocaine fiends at the time.
So this album shouldn’t work. But it does. It honestly does.

What’s Good about it?
‘Golden years’ is a killer groove and appears to achieve in one song everything that Bowie failed to do over the whole course of the Young Americans album. Probably his best single since ‘Jean Geanie’.
‘Station to Station’ is like ‘Width of a Circle part 2’, a colossal opening track that never out stays it’s welcome.
‘TVC15’ is pure rock pop about Iggy Pop’s girl friend being swallowed by a telly. Who could ask for more?

What’s bad?
Not much. It lacks some of the energy of the earlier albums like Man Who Sold the World or the excitement of Ziggy Stardust. But it feels like I’m just picking holes.

How many good songs?
7 out of 7. Not bad huh.

Bowie-o-meter: 89 Ziggys, all pretending to be trapped in a big glass box

Station to Station is a classy album where the whole is greater then the sum of it’s parts, making it one of those records that rewards repeated listening.

Young Americans

In 1975 David Bowie dropped glam rock like glitter covered filth and embraced a sound he would later describe as “plastic soul”.
You can’t blame him for getting bored with rock n roll in 1975. Listen to even the more acclaimed albums of that period now (eg Lou Reed’s Transformer or the New York Dolls) and it all sounds pretty similar. According to music journalists “by ‘75 Glam Rock was like, TOTALLY OVAH!” or something.
Besides, a jazzy soul album wouldn’t be the first jarring change of musical style in ol Dave’oh’s career.
And of course this album was written and recorded whilst on tour in America, a place where country music stations and talk radio pretty much rule the airwaves if you‘re between cities. In 1975’s ‘Cracked Actor’ BBC documentary a skinny Davey can been seen taking solace in a “black station” on a car radio and having a lovely sing song to ‘Natural Women’. Just the kind of activity British people end up doing on the long straight roads through Nowhere’s Ville USA.


But if I can understand the change in musical direction, one thing I can’t fathom is why the songs on this album are so flippin bland!

What’s Good about it?
‘Fame’ is okay. ‘Young Americans’ and ‘Win’ have grown on me. That’s it.

What’s wrong with it?
Oh so much.
At first I wondered if I just wasn’t getting it. But then the horrific cover of the Beatles ‘Across the Universe’ crashes into your speakers and howls away like a rapid dog impersonating the Rat Pat. After that it’s all very clear: David Bowie had gone completely mental and didn’t have anyone around him who could tell him to stop, have a sit down and eat some proper food.
Rueben has correctly railed against the far to prominent saxophone and backing singers in his review over at Line of Best Fit. But for me the worst elements are the songs themselves. “Weak” doesn’t begin to cover it.

How many good songs?
3 out of 8

Bowie-o-meter:
I’ll give it 10 Ziggys for every half decent song, that seems fair. So 30 in total. Pah!

This was the album where my Dad lost interest in Bowie. He describes it as “bad R n B”. He was right about it in 1975 and he’s still right in 2008.
From here until the ‘Let’s Dance’ LP I’ll be the first of the family line to chart these waters!

Cracked Actor - TV film from 1975

Having given up on the UK and decamped to the USA, Davey boy was in the middle of his massive Diamond Dogs stadium tour. The beeb got a few interviews and filmed a show. The end result was the ‘Cracked Actor’ TV documentary. Filmed in 1974 and broadcast in early ’75, it’s the nearest thing that exists to a concert film of the Diamond Dogs shows.

Watching it is a very confusing experience, mostly because the film makers don’t explain what you are seeing. For one thing David Bowie seems out of his head or bored stupid and most of the footage of him seems to come from one interview in a car travelling to a gig. There are the usual interviewees including rapid fans and some very odd young Americans who seem to think the documentary is about them.

It’s neither insightful nor very interesting, and only worth watching for the live section in which the Bowster sings a song from inside a giant blue hand. OOOOH, that’s arty!

David Live - 1974

OK, so we're not offically 'doing' live albums and videos, etc as part of two thousdant and bowie. But I happened to get 'David Live' for my birthday. So here's a little something about it and what I thought of it:

In 1974 David Bowie dumped playing live in the UK and followed the smell of cash to the USA, touring Diamond Dogs coast to coast. The tour famously started life as a theatrical feast of gloomy distopian rock ‘n’roll fun. It featured a great big set of ‘hunger city’ (the album’s setting) and Bowie singing from inside an oversized blue hand. The tour took a break in which the Bow-ster recorded the Young Americans album. When Bowie played the remaining tour dates the theatrics were gone, replaced by big suits and the sound of ‘Philadelphia Soul’.
David Live was recorded on the first leg of the tour, but the saxophone freak outs and over blown backing singers turned up loud that would dominate his next album are all present on this record.

The Diamond Dogs tracks are the best thing on the album which is dominated by over blown reworking of the classic Ziggy songs. The simple rock n roll Ziggy tunes loose their finesse under the weight of all that sax.
David Live is an underwhelming record that out stays it’s welcome.

Diamond Dogs

Ziggy Stardust didn’t really die in 1973. He just changed his name to ‘Halloween Jack’ and got a part in a Broadway adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984. Or as near as makes no difference.

The well warn story goes that after publically retiring Ziggy and sacking his Spiders from Mars backing band, ol’ D.B. wanted to do a musical adaptation of 1984. He got a few songs together (would they be ‘1984’ and ‘Big Brother’ by any chance?) but he never did manage to get the rights. Not one to sit on his hands, Dave’oh used the material he’d written to pad out his latest character driven glam rock concept album: ‘Ziggys twin brother wakes up in a nightmare vision of the future’, or Diamond Dogs to give it it’s official title.

What’s Good about it?
Everything.
‘Diamond Dogs’ is everything you could want from a David Bowie album. I didn’t even miss Mick Ronson and the Spiders. Apparently Bowie plays most of the guitar on the album himself and a lovely, scratchey, dirty, rocked out job he makes of it too. The album starts with a great little spoken word intro that sets the pace for a conceptual narrative that is a lot more central to the album then it was on ‘Ziggy’. Stand out tracks ‘Diamond Dogs’ ‘Rebel Rebel’ and ‘Rock n Roll with me’ are all thumping great pop songs. Most of the first side is taken up by ‘Sweet thing’ ‘Candidate’ and ‘Sweet thing (reprise)’ , essentially one long song, which takes the Bow-ster back to the same epic territory as ‘Unwashed and Some What Slightly Dazed’ and ‘Width of a Circle’. And very welcome it is too.

What’s bad?
‘We are the Dead’ is YET ANOTHER song along the lines of ‘Quicksand’ and ‘Time’. It’s a bit less dull then those two and sits better in the general flow of the album, but it’s nothing to get excited about.

How many good songs?
10 out of 11. But really there are only 7 songs on the album, so maybe that should be 6 out of 7.

Bowie-o-meter: I give it 85 Ziggys!

‘Diamond Dogs’ betrays it’s origins and sounds more like a distopian sci fi musical then a rock n roll album. But if west end shows sounded like this I for one would go!

Pin Ups

Pin Ups is a quickly recorded album of cover songs made to cash in on the Ziggy mania that was apparently sweeping the nation in 1973. So it should be rubbish, right? A big bloated cash cow, like that Robbie Williams swing album. Let's have a listen shall we...

What's good?
It sounds like Bowie is having fun with this record. There are lots of comical production tricks like the vary speed backing vocals on Floyd cover ‘See Emily Play’. After the fake laughter on ‘Love you till Tuesday’, the long haired pseudo hippy stuff in 1969 and the rock posturing of the Ziggy era, it’s nice to hear what sounds like people mucking about with different arrangements just for a laugh. Mick Ronson earns his keep yet again, and it’s a great shame that this was his last Bowie album.
‘The Shape of things to come’ is a strong favourite with me. It’s a good song, a hilariously stereo typical Bowie vocal performance and a nice early use of the reverse echo studio effect made infamous by Stephen Street with the Smiths on ‘How Soon is Now’ and 'Meat is Murder’.
‘Friday on my mind’ is another belter, again it's good song made better because the band sound like they are having fun.

What’s bad?
I had high expectations for this album because Rueben and my Dad really like it. But for me some of the songs are a bit boring, particularly ‘Rosalyn’. After hearing my mother in law singing away to this album whilst decorating I’ve come to the conclusion that if you know the original versions of these songs (which I don’t) it must be a more interesting and arresting listening experience. But Pin Ups is unlikely to make my top 5 Bowie albums.

How many good songs?
A very respectable 8 out of 12

Bowie-o-meter: 70 Ziggys

There’s a lot of good stuff on Pin Ups. The best songs are the ones that sounds like grown up pop fans piddling around in a recording studio. But for me the track listing isn’t consistent enough to make this an out and out Bowie classic.

Ziggy Stardust the Motion Picture

Rueben and myself had been trying to open a portal to 1973 in the corner of his lounge so we could watch a David Bowie gig form the Ziggy Stardust tour. We used science and everything, but we just couldn’t get it to stabilize. Fortunately Rueben had ‘Ziggy Stardust the motion picture’ on his Sky+ box so we just watched that instead.
And strike a light, it was an odd mix of guitar wizardry, rock n roll swaggering, embarrassing theatrics, red lights and slightly out of focus camera work.
It’s well worth seeing just for Mick Ronson who totally stole the show for us. At times he’s every bit the silly big hairded rock guitar slinger, gurning and making some quite scary faces. With his heavy eye makeup he looks a lot like Skeletor. But the sounds he makes are incredible. David Bowie HAS to dress like an alien just so you notice him when he’s next to Ronson during a solo.
As for Bowie himself the film is the best of times and the worst of times. He hits a lot of bum notes (particularly during his harmonica solo in ‘Cracked Actor’) and comes across as a bit of a berk most of the time. I’d read that the Ziggy live show was all about ‘theatrics’ but in reality these mostly consist of sudden (and silly) costume changes. But what nothing could prepare me for was the mime. Who goes to a rock show expecting the front man to pretend to be stuck behind a glass wall and flap his arms like a bird in flight during the solos? Bowie does all of that and more, whilst wearing bangles the size of footballs. He certainly had conkers back in the day, you’ve got to give him that.

The film is famous for capturing ol’ D.B.’s apparent ‘retirement’ from live concerts (or is it Ziggy’s? Or is it just his way of sacking the Spiders?) as he announces that this will be the bands last show. Watching it back in 2008 this isn’t a very poignant moment, there’s no sudden out break of mass hysteria and the release of ‘David Live’ the very next year only serve to further under mine it’s status as a defining moment in Rock history. As it is, two boys invade the stage during the last song and that’s pretty much it.

The set list itself is a bit too medley heavy for my taste (I want to hear the whole of ‘All the young dues’ and ‘Wild eyed boy from Free Cloud’ not little bits!). But generally all the big Ziggy songs are there, plus a few others. And even ‘John I’m Only Dancing’ sounds half decent with some live energy behind it.
But pity the ‘other two’ Spiders from Mars as they barely get a look in. The fuzzy red camera work is almost totally dedicated to Bowie and Ronson. We see far more of the live audience then the other two musicians, which hardly seems fair.
All in all, the filming is pretty sub standard but it does give a flavour of the time and this is pretty essential viewing for Bowie fans.

Aladdin Zane

How exactly do you follow a massive commercial and critical success?
Seems like the Beatles didn’t have a clue after Sgt Pepper and put out everything and anything they had (‘the White album’). Radiohead got fed up with guitars for a bit after Ok Computer (Kid A). Marc Bolan tried to do Electric Warrior over again but with louder backing vocals (Slider).
And so we come to 1973’s Aladdin Sane, or ‘Ziggy goes to America’ as David Bowie himself is quoted as saying some where. We find Dave’oh in ‘Search for Spock’ territory as he attempts to follow his personal ‘Wrath of Khan’ that was ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust’. I can only imagine that it was the first in a planned series of albums in which Ziggy would be found in different locations:
‘Ziggy gets to the shops and finds he’s forgotten his purse’
‘Ziggy takes a leak on his computer’
Finishing with ‘Ziggy chokes on his own elbows’, the last in the series (hello Boosh fans).

But sadly it was not to be and this is Ziggy’s last official appearance on a long player.

What’s Good?
Things get off to a cracking start with ‘Watch that Man’. It’s all whaling black lady backing singers and dirty guitar licks, as if Bowie and Mick Ronson are on stage in Vegas. ‘Panic in Detroit’ is more of the same, but a little more laid back.
‘Cracked Actor’ is am infectious and darkly cynical rock and roll romp about fading stardom. But is Ziggy the withered old has been or has he encountered some kind of Hollywood vampire? Who cares when you can hum the tune?
‘Let’s spend the night together’ is everything a foot stomping rock n roll record should be and way better then the Rolling Stones ever sounded.
‘Gene Jeanie’ is the perfect slice of 70’s glam pop.

What’s Bad?
The title tracks starts out as one of the most haunting songs that the B-boy has written and makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. But it ends up as jazz piano freak out - NEXT!
I’ve always hated ‘Drive in Saturday’. I’ve got nothing against Doo Whop music, but this is a boring song with some unpleasant lyrical content about watching dirty films after a nuclear holocaust. Why would anybody choose to put this out as a single? You can file this one in the same box as ‘John I’m only Dancing’ from the previous year.
‘Time’ is another dull slow number in the same self mythologizing vain as ‘Quicksand’ from 1971’s ‘Hunky Dory’ album. And it’s got some nasty lyrics that fill your mind with unhelpful images of David Bowie being rude all by himself. Most unwelcome!

How many good songs?
6 out of 10

Bowie-o-meter: 65 Ziggys.

Aladdin Sane has a much dirtier rock sound then ‘The Rise and Fall…’ and some air punching high points. But the weaker songs really let things down making it at best a very average album.

“Watch out coz here we come!”

“It’s been a while but we’re back in style,
So get set to have some fun,
We’ll bring you action and satisfaction”!

It’s been a busy old year so far and although I kept up with the Bowie albums, the blog fell off my to do list a while ago.

But Rueben would never let you down and he’s kept up with his brilliant ‘Year of Bowie’ articles over at Line of Best Fit. I’ll be posting links to those and my own precious thoughts about each Bowie alum over the next few days.

Now where were we? Oh yeah, 1973.

(Thanks to Alvin and the Chipmunks for their words of support and wisdom that meant so much to so many. C.H.I.P.M.U.N.K.!)