Music of the Weak: David Bowie’s Discography in 12 Songs (Part Two)

Part One Here

“Young Americans” (from Young Americans, 1975)

When David Bowie asks, “Do you remember your President Nixon?” on “Young Americans,” he already sounds as if he’s speaking historically, even though Watergate had only gone down a year earlier. Without context, the question would seem sneeringly ironic—but in Bowie’s hands, it’s a little too funny to be snark. And there you have Bowie’s whole R&B-period steez—too funny to be ironic. With Young Americans, Bowie traded in his unfortunate Halloween Jack persona (the one he used to follow Ziggy Stardust) to check his prospects as a soul crooner. Like Hall & Oates or 10cc, he’s waaay too self-conscious to fully take himself seriously, but he’s a good enough actor to be able to fake it, so most of his moves are actually on point. What emerges is a sort of karaoke—his ideas of being young, American, and female are all studied at a smirking distance—but that’s mostly the point. Even at its worst, karaoke is utterly captivating. “Young Americans” is an argument that it could also be artful.

“Stay” (from Station to Station, 1976)

Pulling out of his R&B phase, Bowie began to forge some sort of progressive, funky, glam rock with Station to Station. The album’s highlight, “Stay,” is a mesmerizing clusterfuck of a song. It begins with an (un-)riff—a strumming pattern that seems to end abruptly right as it’s about to get started—and then revs up with some errant power chords that would make Van Halen giggle. The deconstructionist music provides the perfect structure for Bowie’s vocal performance, which is buoyed by his notoriously hit-or-miss singing—every time he wails the song’s hookless chorus of “Staaaaaaay,” he travels through at least five pitches—but that may be more a result of the rampant drug use that accompanied the recording of the album than from any lack of ability (you can hear those same notes soar in Bowie’s performance in the YouTube clip linked above.)

“Sound and Vision” (from Low, 1977)

Where Station to Station featured sprawling masses of songs, each packing in half-a-dozen or so musical styles, Low was built around sketches of ideas. Bowie and producer Brian Eno set out to make an intensely experimental album using synthesizers and electronics. In that context, “Sound and Vision” is a bit of an aberration. First of all, it hinges on a guitar riff—even if that riff is treated almost as if it were an electronic pattern. Secondly, it feels perfectly complete. The track was originally intended to be an instrumental, but Bowie added vocals to it after its producer, Tony Visconti, left the studio.

“Move On” (from Lodger, 1979)

On “Move On,” David Bowie lists the ways he can get over heartbreak (“might take a train,” “might take a girl”) and the places he can go in the world to get away (Africa, Kyoto, Cyprus.) It may just be an excuse for a travelogue, but the relentlessly galloping drums that structure the song also give it a necessary urgency—so that, when he screams, “I can’t forget you” toward the end, it’s emotionally palpable. The most interesting thing about “Move On,” however, is that Bowie’s voice is artificially lowered, so that he sounds other-worldly. It’s the kind of studio trick that marks a lot of his late-70’s work, but here it pays off in a way it rarely does elsewhere—adding to the detachment of the song’s subject.

“Ashes to Ashes” (from Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), 1980)

By 1980’s Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), David Bowie’s erratic experimentalism had begun to congeal into a unified whole. The opening of “Ashes to Ashes” is as iconic a slice of 80’s synthpop as, say, anything by the Human League. Lyrically, Bowie takes a handful of stabs at the Major Tom character from “Space Oddity,” outing him as a junkie. It’s self-mythologizing masquerading as self-deprecation, and no one can pull of that particular bit of business better than Bowie.

“Cat People (Album Version)” (from Let’s Dance, 1983)

The version of “Cat People” on Let’s Dance is a rerecording of David Bowie’s title track to Paul Schraeder’s 1982 movie of the same name. On the original, Bowie adds vocals to a lush, pre-recorded Giorgio Moroder track. The song unfurls slowly and deliberately until Bowie hits the punchline. “I’m putting out fires,” he sings, and then the guitar comes screaming in for, “With gasoliiiiiiiiiine.” The Let’s Dance version, (re)produced by Chic’s Nile Rodgers, is held together by some mesmerizing guitar work by a then-unknown whippersnapper named Stevie Ray Vaughn. The intermingling of Vaughn’s blues-based guitar playing with Rodgers’ disco sensibilities and Moroder’s original song is classic Bowie math, adding up such disparate, unrelated parts into a cohesive whole. For his part, Bowie’s vocal performance is eons less self-serious—though he can’t quite get away from the hokeyness of the chorus—and a lot more fun.

After 1983, David Bowie retired. He hasn’t recorded anything since.

-Martin Brown, 2009

Comments

[Tucker Stone]

I proudly admit that I'm the guy who still listens to Outside, Outside Outtakes, Outside v.2, et all. So yeah, Marty. No.

[Bill Reed]

Yeah, it's a damn shame he ceased to produce new music in the 80s. Oh well. He couldn't have kept it up, right?

And I hear he was good in the Prestige.

[Sean Witzke]

Huh, I thought it was 1981.

[Chris Jones]

Nothing off of "Heroes"?

[Tucker Stone]

Ha, Marty hates Heroes.

[Marty]

Why you gotta sell me out like that? Just cause I don't know what Outside is.

[Chris Jones]

It is actually pretty inconsistent. But man, the good stuff on it is REALLY good.

[Tucker Stone]

Whoa, Outside is pretty inconsistent? Or Heroes? Heroes, yeah, inconsistent. But Outside is carved out of gold and stained pants.

[Chris Jones]

Heroes is what I was talking about. Is Outside one of his industrial ones?

[Marty]

Tucker, what the fuck is this Outside you keep talking about?

[Tim O'Neil]

This is such a great idea I might just steal it.

[Tucker Stone]

It's from the portion of his career when he was dating Reznor.

[Marty]

The portion of whose career?

Tim, Go for it! And send me the link when you do it.

[Kenny Cather]

See! Proof that Tucker only likes obscure stuff and felt he had to justify Blondie as good even though it sold 20 million! I'm calling you out, Stone! ^_^

(I say this all in jest, btw. No hurt feelings, please!)

And two posts exploring the man who's legacy will always be providing the beat for Vanilla Ice???

(I'm still kidding!)

Great articles, though. I don't agree with your choices, but I always love reading what you have to say!

I do know why Tucker loves Outside - it was the result of a jam session with Bowie and Factual Opinion fave Brian Eno. Had David Byrne been involved, my bet is Tucker would have married it instead of Nina!

[moose n squirrel]

I not only liked Outside, I thought Heathen and Reality were both really good.

[Chris Jones]

Also, man, David Bowie's wife is smokin'-ass hot.

[Zebtron A. Rama]

The Secret Life of Arabia.

[Chris Jones]

Great song. I would also throw up "Beauty and the Beast" and the title track for consideration.

[seth hurley]

Dear Iman's Mouth- You have got to be fucking kidding me.

[Matthew J. Brady]

A couple years ago, Iman came to my office for a meeting about selling her fragrance or cosmetics or something, and everybody just about shit themselves they were so excited. It was almost as big a deal as the time Potsie from Happy Days came by (I am totally not kidding about that).

[Tucker Stone]

The picture used above are from a campaign that my office did. I found the outtakes a while back in a pile of stuff that we were throwing out, so I hung onto them. If I only knew some big David Bowie fan to give them too!

[Chris Jones]

To Tucker, and his photographs:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[marc]

Wow, this is a great post! I come here for the comics talk but I stick around for the music criticism.

I gotta check out that album version of Cat People - love that song and am intrigued to hear what Stevie and Nile do with it. And what a weird, cool movie that was! Doesn't make a lick of sense, but it sure looks good. A lot of today's comics could learn from that movie - if you want to make dumb entertainment, make GOOD dumb entertainment! Ed Begley's arm!

[Matthias]

OUTSIDE <3
I listen and always look for Outside's bootlegs, but it's too blur to know HOW MANY F*KIN TITLES weren't PUBLISHED. I bet there are AGAIN and AGAIN hidden titles and clips, as INSIDE OUTSIDE or OUTSIDE :( Some claim there are 70 hours of forgotten Outside music, but I bet this is FAKE.

I've already got 2 Outside materials, both are rare. I'm looking for 8.Outsiders, now!!! (I found 9.Outsiders and Something Really Fishy FOR NOW, and also a demo of THE MOTEL on Youtube)

If someone has unknown materials, PLEASE TELL ME :((

Thanks,
Matt'