Rocktrospectiva: The Acclaimed "Changesonebowie" Turns 50

Released on 21 May 1976 "Changesonebowie" was a compilation album by English musician David Bowie, issued through RCA Records in 1976. It collected songs from the 1969–1976 period, including the first LP appearance of "John, I'm Only Dancing". A "sax version" of this song, cut during the Aladdin Sane sessions in 1973, appeared on the first 1000 copies of the UK pressing (identified by the lack of the RCA logo in the upper-right corner of the cover). Later pressings of Changesonebowie featured the original version of the single that had been recorded and released in 1972. All US pressings of the LP contain this original version as well.

Two of the tracks, "Ziggy Stardust" and "Suffragette City", had never been released as singles when Changesonebowie was issued, though the former had been the B-side of "The Jean Genie" in November 1972 and the latter would be released as an A-side in July 1976 to help promote the compilation. The album was followed up by a companion compilation, Changestwobowie, in 1981.

Released in the wake of "Station To Station." David Bowie's first official compilation album, was a handy one-stop roundup of the last four years of hits, plus "Space Oddity." It soared to the top of the British chart, dragging Changesone with it the album eventually peaked at number two. The album's main charm for confirmed fans was the inclusion of  "John, I'm Only Dancing." Never previously included on LP, the song was also making its American debut here, with the excitement soaring even higher when it was discovered that the "wrong" version had been included -- the regular 1972 U.K. single version was omitted in inadvertent favor of a 1973 re-recording. The error was corrected for subsequent pressings of the album. 

RCA Records reissued Changesonebowie on CD in 1984, but it was withdrawn shortly afterwards, along with the rest of Bowie's RCA catalogue, due to a conflict between Bowie and RCA. The RCA CD contains the original single version of "John, I'm Only Dancing". When the Bowie catalogue was reissued by Rykodisc beginning in 1990, Changesonebowie was replaced by a new compilation, Changesbowie, on which "Fame" was superseded by the "Gass Mix" of "Fame 90" (produced and remixed by Jon Gass) and "'Heroes'", "Ashes to Ashes", "Fashion", "Let's Dance", "China Girl", "Modern Love", and "Blue Jean" were added. In addition to the above, Rykodisc added the songs "Starman" (following "Space Oddity"), "Life on Mars?" (following "The Jean Genie"), and "Sound and Vision" (following "Golden Years") to the double-LP editions of the album. 

The compilation remains, however, a charming time capsule, a reminder of the days when Bowie was as much a chart-topping pop star as an iconic idol.

 

Changesonebowie Track List: 

 

1. Space Oddity

2. John, I'm Only Dancing (sax version)

3. Changes

4. Ziggy Stardust

5. Suffragette City

6. The Jean Genie

7. Diamond Dogs

8. Rebel Rebel

9. Young Americans

10. Fame

11. Golden Years 

Rocktrospectiva: The Brilliant "Absolute Beginners" Turns 40

Released on 3 March 1986 "Absolute Beginners" was a song written and performed by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. Recorded in August of 1985, and released on 3 March 1986, it was the theme song to the 1986 film of the same name and itself an adaptation of the book Absolute Beginners. Although the film was not a commercial success, the song was a big hit, reaching No. 2 on the UK singles chart. It also reached the top 10 on the main singles charts in ten other countries. In the US, it peaked at No. 53 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Bowie performed "Absolute Beginners" live on his 1987 Glass Spider Tour, his 2000 "Mini" Tour, and his 2002 Heathen Tour. Since then, the song has been included on a number of Bowie's compilation and "Best-of" releases, and was included as a bonus track on the 1995 re-release of Tonight (1984).

Back in 1984, director Julien Temple who was a Bowie friend and who worked first for him in the Jazzin' For Blue Jean" short film, agreed to Temple's request to write music for the film if he could also play the part of Vendice Partners.

The song was recorded at Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley's Westside Studios in Shepherd's Bush, London, in the summer of 1985. One of the musicians, Kevin Armstrong, said that after only twenty minutes of trying various things, they had a structure and shape that seemed to please Bowie. He took a pen and paper and started jotting down lyrics.

The sessions were completed rapidly, but the song was delayed due to the problems with completing the film. Virgin wanted the release to tie in with the film's opening. The song featured Rick Wakeman on piano, who had previously performed on Bowie's "Space Oddity" single and Hunky Dory studio album. Shortly after the sessions wrapped, Mick Jagger flew in to record the charity cover of "Dancing in the Street" with Bowie, which used many of the same musicians. Bowie recorded the lead vocal of "Absolute Beginners" at Westside Studios in August.

 

Julien Temple shot the music video, which echoed the 1950s style of the film. The video was a homage to an old British advert for Strand cigarettes. The ill-fated advertising tagline "You're never alone with a Strand" is quoted by Partners in the film. The video also uses footage from the film.

Back in 2016, Entertainment Weekly chose it as one of Bowie's 20 best music videos. They stated the video "does a far better job of expressing the noirish romanticism" of MacInnes' novel than the film did and also praised the "great dance-fighting scene at the end".

Critics described "Absolute Beginners" as "the gem of his post-Let's Dance '80s output, a big, breathtaking ballad allowing him to indulge the [Frank] Sinatra croon that's driven many of his best performances". It was also considered as "Bowie's last great composition of the 1980s", while rock critic Chris O'Leary described it as "gorgeous and valedictory," with "one of the great Bowie melodies" in its refrain. Don Weller's saxophone solo has been described as perhaps the best saxophone solo in a Bowie song. They characterised it as "the sound of one man trying to violently expel his innards through the bell of his instrument" and "one of the most heartbreaking things put to record". 

Absolute Beginners Track List  

 

3-inch CD: Virgin CDT 20 (UK): 

 

1. Absolute Beginners

2. Absolute Beginners (dub mix) 

 

Virgin CDF 20 (UK)

 

1. Absolute Beginners

2. Absolute Beginners (dub mix) 

7-inch Virgin VS 8383 (UK)

 

1. Absolute Beginners

2. Absolute Beginners (dub mix)

 

12-inch Virgin VSG 838-12 (UK)

 

1. Absolute Beginners (full lenght version)

2. Absolute Beginners (dub mix) 

12-inch: EMI America SPRO 9623 (US)

1. Absolute Beginners (edited version)

2. Absolute Beginners (full length version) 

Rocktrospectiva: David Bowie's Breakthrough "Hallo Spaceboy (Pet Shop Boys Remix) Turns 30

Released on 19 February 1996 "Hallo Spaceboy was a song by the English musician David Bowie from his 20th studio album, Outside. It originated as an instrumental by Reeves Gabrels called "Moondust", which Bowie and Brian Eno stripped down and used to form the final track. An industrial rock and electronica track influenced by artists such as Nine Inch Nails, the song featured synthesisers, loops and distorted guitar lines. The lyrics were influenced by the sound poet and painter Brion Gysin, and contained images of apocalypse and continued the androgynous lyrics of former Bowie songs such as "Rebel Rebel" and "Boys Keep Swinging".

It was the third and final single from Outside in February 1996, "Hallo Spaceboy" was remixed by the Pet Shop Boys, who added a disco sound and lyrics referencing the Major Tom character from Bowie's "Space Oddity". The single reached number 12 in the UK and charted in other European countries. Its accompanying music video, directed by David Mallet, mixes shots of both Bowie and Pet Shop Boys with footage of science fiction clips, atomic bomb testing footage and television advertising clips. Both versions of "Hallo Spaceboy" have been positively received and have appeared on lists of Bowie's best songs. Bowie performed "Hallo Spaceboy" frequently on his concert tours, recordings from which have appeared on live albums.

Written by David Bowie and Brian Eno, "Hallo Spaceboy" developed from an ambient instrumental piece written by the guitarist Reeves Gabrels called "Moondust". Initial work on the track began during a recording session at Mountain Studios in Montreux in 1994, shortly after the main sessions for the Leon project concluded. Bowie's biographers Nicholas Pegg and Chris O'Leary point to the influence of the poet and artist Brion Gysin, who developed a cut-up technique with William S. Burroughs that Bowie had, on several occasions, utilised for song lyrics. During the recording, Bowie spoke "If I fall, moondust will cover me", reportedly Gysin's final words before his death in 1986. Work halted on the track following the session, as Bowie believed "there wasn't anything special going on with that piece".

The track resurfaced on 17 January 1995 during the Outside sessions in New York City at The Hit Factory. Eno wrote in his diary that it was "stripped down to almost nothing [before] I wrote some lightning chords and space and suddenly, miraculously, we had something." The final track featured Bowie, Eno, Gabrels, Carlos Alomar (guitar), Yossi Fine (bass), Mike Garson (piano) and Joey Baron (drums). After finishing the song, Bowie said, "I adore that track. In my mind, it was like Jim Morrison meets industrial. When I heard it back, I thought, 'Fuck me. It's like metal Doors.' It's an extraordinary sound." Gabrels later expressed disappointment in not receiving a co-writing credit for the song.

Commentators have characterised "Hallo Spaceboy" as industrial rock and electronica. Pegg describes the song as "a hardcore maelstrom of sci-fi noise, hypnotic high-speed drumming and an insistent, speaker-hopping four-note guitar riff". The song's influences range from the Pixies and Pornography-era Cure to Nine Inch Nails and the Smashing Pumpkins; Bowie reportedly stated that he was aiming for a Nine Inch Nails-type sound. Featuring synthesisers, loops and distorted guitar lines, a few reviewers compared the song's sound to Bowie's 1974 album Diamond Dogs and his work with the rock band Tin Machine. The author Dave Thompson argued that the song would not have felt out of place as a bonus track on that album. Lyrically, Pegg states that "Hallo Spaceboy" captures the "millennial angst" of the Outside album and continues the androgynous lyrics of songs such as "Rebel Rebel" (1974) and "Boys Keep Swinging" (1979) with the line "Do you like girls or boys? / It's confusing these days". Some of the words and ideals, such as "chaos", "dust" and "hallo", and visions of a science fiction apocalypse were recycled from Tin Machine's "Baby Universal" (1991).

The album Outside was released on 5 September 1995, with "Hallo Spaceboy" sequenced as the sixth track. The song was a mainstay on Bowie's 1995 Outside Tour, and was often played with Nine Inch Nails and later as the closing track. Bowie intended "Hallo Spaceboy" to be his next single after "Strangers When We Meet". 

Believing the original version of "Hallo Spaceboy" was unlikely to be commercial sucessful, Bowie commissioned Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys to remix the song for release as the third single from Outside. As a lifelong Bowie fan, Tennant agreed and remixed the track at Mayfair Studios in London between 11–15 December 1995. Tennant replaced the song's anger with electronics and added Pet Shop Boys' signature backing vocals to the track. Since the original contained only a single verse, and a lyric featuring feelings of alienation, Tennant and his bandmate Chris Lowe added lyrical fragments from Bowie's 1969 song "Space Oddity", using a Gysin-style cut-up technique to create a second verse: "Ground to Major, bye bye Tom / dead the circuit, countdown's wrong / Planet Earth is control on?" O'Leary argues that the additions turned the song's cry of "this chaos is killing me" into a plea from an astronaut "strung out in heaven".

Bowie initially expressed reservation about the additions when Tennant told him during a telephone conversation, but later agreed that they worked well. Bowie rerecorded his lead vocal so the single became a duet with Tennant. Tennant told NME in a 1997 interview that he and Lowe, working alongside Bowie, had completed what Tennant called the "Major Tom trilogy", in reference to the fictional astronaut who first appeared in "Space Oddity" and later appeared in "Ashes to Ashes" (1980). Tennant explained, "I said to Bowie, 'It's like Major Tom is in one of those Russian spaceships they can't afford to bring down,' and he said, 'Oh wow, is that where he is?'" Compared to the original version, the remix features a disco edge.

The single was finally released on 19 February 1996, through several formats, including a 7" single through BMG/RCA, a CD single through Arista/RCA and a 12" promo in the US through Virgin. The CD single was packaged with a reissue of "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" and live renditions of "Under Pressure" (1981) and "Moonage Daydream" (1972). The single was a success across Europe, reaching number 12 in the UK, becoming Bowie's highest charting single since "Jump They Say" (1993). The remixed "Hallo Spaceboy" topped the singles chart in Latvia, further charting in Australia (36), Austria (37), Belgium Flanders (48) and Wallonia (30), Finland (8), Germany (59), Ireland (21), the Netherlands Top 40 and Single Top 100 (24 and 33, respectively), Scotland (10) and Sweden (12).

The music video for "Hallo Spaceboy" was directed by Bowie's longtime director David Mallet. Bowie performed the song with Pet Shop Boys at the Brit Awards on 19 February 1996, and again on Top of the Pops on 1 March. According to O'Leary, Bowie "thrashed around" during these performances while Tennant sang calmly.

Both versions of "Hallo Spaceboy" have received positive reviews from music critics and biographers. Discussing the original, the biographer Marc Spitz called it Bowie's "most convincing rocker" since "Rebel Rebel", and David Buckley said the track is "quite daring, with a hard, industrial menace and a great use of dynamics". Reviewing the Pet Shop Boys remix, Simon Price from Melody Maker said that "this sounds like the Pet Shop Boys without anything you could call a chorus. The bit where Bowie's gin-and-lemon voice mixes with Neil Tennant's Amaretto Disaronno on the line Do you like girls or boys? It's confusing these days... is one to hoist aloft around the room on a red velvet cushion, though." Mojo magazine's Mark Paytress opined that adding Pet Shop Boys was a "masterstroke"

Rocktrospectiva: The Great And Influential "Station To Station" Turns 50

Released on 23 January 1976 "Station To Station" was the 10th., studio album by the English musician David Bowie. Regarded as one of his most significant works, the album was the vehicle for Bowie's performance persona the Thin White Duke. Co-produced by Bowie and Harry Maslin, Station to Station was mainly recorded at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles, California, in late 1975, after Bowie completed shooting the film The Man Who Fell to Earth; the cover art featured a still from the film. During the sessions, Bowie was suffering from various drug addictions, most prominently cocaine, and subsequently stated that he recalled almost nothing of the production. The album spawned three singles "Golden Years", "TVC 15" & "Stay"

The commercial success of his previous release, Young Americans, allowed Bowie greater freedom when he began recording his next album. The sessions established the lineup of guitarist Carlos Alomar, bassist George Murray and drummer Dennis Davis that Bowie would use for the rest of the decade, and also featured contributions by guitarist Earl Slick and pianist Roy Bittan. Musically, Station to Station was a transitional album for Bowie, developing the funk and soul of Young Americans while presenting a new direction influenced by the German music genre of krautrock, particularly bands such as Neu! and Kraftwerk. The lyrics reflected Bowie's preoccupations with Friedrich Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, mythology and religion.

David Bowie developed a cocaine addiction in the summer of 1974, following the release of the album Diamond Dogs. The Alan Yentob documentary Cracked Actor depicted Bowie on the Diamond Dogs Tour in September 1974 and showcased his mental state. Bowie said in a 1987 interview: "I was so blocked ... so stoned ... It's quite a casualty case, isn't it. I'm amazed I came out of that period, honest. When I see that now I cannot believe I survived it. I was so close to really throwing myself away physically, completely." After seeing an advanced screening of the film in early 1975, director Nicolas Roeg contacted Bowie to discuss a role in his upcoming adaptation of Walter Tevis's 1963 novel The Man Who Fell to Earth. Bowie accepted the role, and moved from New York to Los Angeles, California, where shooting was to take place.

On his arrival in L.A., Bowie stayed with Glenn Hughes, the bassist for the English rock band Deep Purple. He also visited his old friend, singer Iggy Pop, in rehab. The two would attempt to record some material in May 1975, but the sessions were unproductive due to Pop's heroin addiction. Hughes told the biographer Marc Spitz that Bowie lived in an increasingly paranoid state, recalling he refused to use elevators because of his fear of heights. 

Bowie's heavy drug use continued during filming. He recalled in 1993: "My one snapshot of that film is not having to act...Just being me as I was perfectly adequate for the role. I wasn't of this earth at that particular time." When shooting took place in New Mexico, he was reported to be in a much healthier state compared to his time in Los Angeles. During his days off from filming, he began writing a collection of short stories called The Return of the Thin White Duke, which he described as "partly autobiographical, mostly fiction, with a deal of magic in it;" he also recalled taking "400 books" for the shoot. He began writing songs throughout filming, including two—"TVC 15" and "Word on a Wing"—that would end up on his next album. On top of this, he was in line to compose the film's soundtrack.

In the film, Bowie portrays the lead role of Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien who travels to Earth in search of materials for his dying planet, eventually becoming corrupted by humans. Roeg warned the star that the part of Newton would likely remain with him for some time after the filming. With Roeg's agreement, Bowie developed his own look for the film, and this carried through to his public image over the next twelve months, as did Newton's air of fragility and aloofness.

Station to Station was recorded primarily at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles. The studio opened in January 1975 and quickly became one of the city's busiest studios, attracting artists such as Rod Stewart and Frank Sinatra. Cherokee was more advanced than Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios, where Bowie had recorded Young Americans (1975); it featured five studio rooms, 24-track mixing consoles, 24-hour session times, more space and a lounge bar. On arriving at Cherokee, Bowie sang a few notes in Studio One, played a piano chord, and said: "This will do nicely." Producer Harry Maslin said the studio was chosen because it was new and quiet, with less paparazzi and media attention.

Maslin, who co-produced "Fame" and "Across the Universe" on Young Americans, was brought back by Bowie to produce. Also returning from the Young Americans sessions were guitarists Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick, drummer Dennis Davis and Bowie's old friend Geoff MacCormick (now known as Warren Peace). Bassist George Murray, a player from Weldon Irvine's group, was recruited to play bass. Bowie would use the lineup of Alomar, Murray and Davis for the rest of the decade. In mid-October, pianist Roy Bittan, a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, joined the ensemble at the suggestion of Slick. Bittan recalled: "David knew we were coming to town and he wanted a keyboard player. It must have only been about three days. It's one of my favourite projects I've ever worked on."

 "Golden Years", which Bowie began writing before he began filming The Man Who Fell to Earth, was completed in ten days and issued as a single while the album was still being finished. Recording for "TVC 15" began shortly after the completion of "Golden Years".

A cover of "Wild Is the Wind", written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington and first performed by Johnny Mathis in the 1957 film of the same name, was recorded during the sessions. Bowie was inspired to record it after he met singer Nina Simone, who had recorded her own cover in 1966. A guest during the sessions was Frank Sinatra, who praised Bowie's recording of "Wild Is the Wind". His feedback prompted Bowie to include it as the album's closing track. While he had begun writing "Word on a Wing" during filming, both "Stay" and the title track were written and recorded entirely in the studio. The three tracks were composed throughout October and November, rather than in one quick rush.

For previous albums, Bowie had maintained a relatively straightforward recording process. He arrived at the studio with tracks that were fully written and rehearsed, recorded at a brisk pace, and the sessions concluded quickly. He then gave the ideas to Alomar, who worked on the arrangements with Murray and Davis. After the backing tracks came saxophone, keyboard and lead guitar overdubs, followed by vocal tracks, ending with production effects. Bowie would use this new process for the rest of the decade. Alomar recalled, "It was one of the most glorious albums that I've ever done ... We experimented so much on it". Maslin added, "I loved those sessions because we were totally open and experimental in our approach."Slick contributed numerous guitar effects throughout the sessions. According to Bowie, "I got some quite extraordinary things out of Slick. I think it captured his imagination to make noises on guitar, and textures, rather than playing the right notes." Both Slick and Maslin praised Bowie's "on-the-spot approach". Slick found no rehearsals advantageous, resulting in a cleaner performance.

Because of his heavy cocaine use, Bowie recalled remembering "only flashes" of the album's production, not even the studio, later admitting, "I know it was in LA because I've read it was". Buckley says that Bowie's only memory of the sessions was "standing with Earl Slick in the studio and asking him to play a Chuck Berry riff in the same key throughout the opening of 'Station to Station'." The singer was not alone in his use of cocaine during the sessions; Alomar said, "if there's a line of coke which is going to keep you awake till 8 a.m. so that you can do your guitar part, you do the line of coke ... the coke use is driven by the inspiration". 

Station to Station is often cited as a transitional album in Bowie's career. Developing the funk, disco and soul sound of Young Americans, the album also reflects the influences of electronic and the German music genre of krautrock, particularly by bands such as Neu! and Kraftwerk. Bowie had exhibited avant-garde elements on the 1973 tracks "Aladdin Sane (1913–1938–197?)" and "Time". According to Robert Christgau, Bowie's experimentation with African-American music styles had matured by the time he recorded Station to Station, as the record appropriated them "in a decidedly spacy and abrasive context"; he said it added soul to the "mechanical, fragmented, rather secondhand elegance" explored on Aladdin Sane (1973).

The ten-minute title track "Station To Station" has been described as heralding "a new era of experimentalism" for Bowie. The song is split into two parts: a slow, hypnotic march, introduced by a noise resembling a train—created by Slick on guitar using flangers and delay effects—before it abruptly changes to what Alan Light of Rolling Stone calls a "celebratory groove", which lasts for the rest of the track. The musical style of both "Golden Years" and "Stay" are built on the funk and soul of Young Americans but with a harsher, grinding edge. Bowie said the "Golden Years" was written for, and rejected by, American singer Elvis Presley, while Angie Bowie claimed it was penned for her.

"Stay" represents a merger of hard rock and blue-eyed funk. "TVC 15", the album's most upbeat track, has been compared to the music of the English rock band the Yardbirds. "Wild Is the Wind" contains funky elements in its electric guitar playing, while the rhythm section and acoustic guitar add a jazz flavour.

The title track introduces Bowie's new persona—the Thin White Duke—who became the mouthpiece for Station to Station and often during the next six months, for Bowie himself. Despite the noise of a train in the opening moments, Bowie said the title of "Station to Station" does not refer so much to railway stations as to the Stations of the Cross, the series of 14 images depicting Christ's path to his crucifixion, each symbolising a stopping-point for prayer. The lyrics of "Stay" have been interpreted as reflecting on "the uncertainty of sexual conquest", and as an example of "the Duke's spurious romanticism". Religious themes, as well as belief in spirituality, are prevalent on "Station to Station", "Word on a Wing", "Golden Years" and "TVC 15"; for Carr and Murray religion, like love, was simply another way for the Duke to "test his numbness". Bowie has claimed that on "Word on a Wing", at least, "the passion is genuine". There is a comedic flavour in "TVC 15", which multiple commentators describe as a "surreal comedy". It concerns a character's girlfriend being eaten by a television.

The album eceived positive reviews from music critics on its release. Regarded and recognised it as one of his finest albums up to that point. It was the first album he'd released where it felt he had total control.  The album was a milestone in Bowie's transition to his late 1970s Berlin Trilogy. Even Bowie considered Station to Station a "great, damn good" album, but "extremely dark". Because of his disconnected state during its recording, he heard it as "a piece of work by an entirely different person". The album has been described as "enormously influential on post-punk" 

 

Station To Station Track List: 

 

1. Station To Station

2. Golden Years

3. Word On A Wing

4. TVC 15

5. Stay

6. Wild Is The Wind

Rocktrospectiva: "Blackstar" The Final Masterpiece By David Bowie Turns 10

Released on 8 January 2019, "Blackstar" was the 26th., and final studio album by English musician David Bowie, on his 69th., birthday. The album was recorded in secret in New York City with his longtime co-producer Tony Visconti and a group of local jazz musicians: Donny McCaslin (saxophone), Jason Lindner (piano), Tim Lefebvre (bass) and Mark Guiliana (drums). Ben Monder and James Murphy contributed additional guitar and percussion, respectively. The album contained the singles "Lazarus", "Blackstar" & "I Can't Give Everything Away".

More experimental than its predecessor The Next Day (2013), Blackstar combines atmospheric art rock with various styles of jazz. Bowie took inspiration from artists including Kendrick Lamar and Death Grips, listening to them during the album's production. The album's lyrics feature themes of death, with many songs being told from the perspective of the dead or dying. The cover art, designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, features a large black star with five star segments at the bottom that spell out the word Bowie.

The album was preceded by the singles "Blackstar" and "Lazarus", both of which were supported by music videos. Two days after its release, Bowie died following a private 18-month battle with liver cancer; Visconti described the album as a parting gift for his fans after his death. Upon release, the album was met with commercial success, topping charts in many countries, including the United Kingdom, following Bowie's death, and became his only album to top the Billboard 200 in the United States. It was the fifth-best-selling album of the year worldwide.

David Bowie released his twenty-fifth studio album The Next Day in March 2013. It was his first studio release in ten years after retreating from the public view in 2004. A critical and commercial success, it topped the album charts in twenty countries, including the United Kingdom, and gave Bowie his highest chart placement ever in the United States at number two. The successes of The Next Day and the David Bowie Is exhibition, which opened in London the same year, prompted Bowie to be more active in the studio throughout 2014. Between May and July 2014, Bowie collaborated with the bandleader and composer Maria Schneider on the experimental jazz song "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)". It features Schneider's orchestra and an ensemble including the saxophonist Donny McCaslin and the drummer Mark Guiliana.

In June 2014, Bowie demoed new songs with his longtime producer Tony Visconti, the drummer Zachary Alford and the pianist Jack Spann at the Magic Shop in New York City, where The Next Day was recorded. Throughout the summer, Bowie worked on the demos alone for several months. During this time, he recorded "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" as a home demo, which appeared as the B-side of "Sue" in November. The same year, Bowie began writing a musical, Lazarus, with the Irish playwright Enda Walsh, composing new songs for it such as "No Plan", "When I Met You", "Killing a Little Time" and "The Hunger" (later titled "Lazarus").

Apart from Visconti, Blackstar was the first time since Tin Machine (1989) that Bowie used a completely new set of musicians from the previous album. Visconti told Mojo: "If we'd used Bowie's former musicians they would be rock people playing jazz ... Having jazz guys play rock music turns it upside down." In December, the musicians received demos from Bowie in preparation for the recording sessions at the start of the new year.

Recording began at the Magic Shop in the first week of 2015. Tracks for both Blackstar and the Lazarus musical were recorded: "Lazarus", "No Plan", a re-recording of "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" and "When I Met You". Most of the rhythm tracks were recorded in one or two takes. During the week, Bowie celebrated his 68th birthday. Following the January sessions, further recording commenced in blocks; according to the biographer Nicholas Pegg, they lasted four to six days each, taking place in the first week of February and the third week of March. Bowie emailed the musicians demos before each session.

The February sessions yielded "Dollar Days", "Girl Loves Me", "Someday" and a re-recording of "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)", "Dollar Days" was created without a preliminary demo, instead being devised on the spot in the studio based on a guitar idea from Bowie. Visconti said Bowie wanted to remake "Sue" to "make a different version of it, with a completely different flavour". For the March sessions, the band were joined by the jazz guitarist Ben Monder, who played on the original recording of "Sue". Monder found the environment to be positive, saying that Bowie respected their ideas and contributions. Songs recorded included "Blackstar", "I Can't Give Everything Away", "Killing a Little Time" and a remake of "Someday" (now titled "Blaze"). Bowie performed his vocals live while the band played during the Magic Shop sessions, but moved to Human Worldwide Studios in April for proper recording. The majority of his vocals were recorded from scratch between April and May, although some vocals from the Magic Shop sessions were kept, including part of "I Can't Give Everything Away" and the full vocal for "No Plan". Visconti's assistant at Human Worldwide, Erin Tonkon, contributed backing vocals to "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore". The album was finished by June, after which Bowie continued preparations for the Lazarus musical.

Bowie recorded Blackstar while suffering from liver cancer. He had been diagnosed in the summer of 2014 and was undergoing chemotherapy treatments by the time the sessions began in January 2015. He kept the illness private, only discussing it when it affected his work; Visconti did not learn of it until Bowie arrived at the studio immediately following a chemo session. Visconti recalled that despite his illness, Bowie was in high spirits throughout the sessions: "He was so brave and courageous ... and his energy was still incredible for a man who had cancer. He never showed any fear. He was just all business about making the album." Visconti reportedly told the backing band that Bowie was unwell, although Lefebvre said that he never appeared sick. According to Pegg, Bowie's illness showed signs of remission as the sessions continued. By March, his hair had grown back, and he looked well. Monder, during his time in the studio, recalled that Bowie looked healthy and showed no signs of illness. He recalled Bowie being "really enthusiastic" and "very excited" to be making an album again. Throughout 2015, Bowie was optimistic as he continued chemotherapy and, by that summer, was in remission. By November, however, shortly after completing the "Lazarus" music video, Bowie told Visconti the cancer had returned, and his condition was terminal.

The music on Blackstar has been characterised as incorporating art rock, experimental jazz, free jazz, progressive rock and experimental rock, with elements of industrial rock, folk-pop and hip-hop.Several critics acknowledged the album as Bowie's most experimental in years. Blackstar was not the first time Bowie experimented with jazz. He was an avid jazz listener in his youth, having been exposed to the genre by his older half-brother Terry Burns, and had occasionally worked with jazz musicians in the past. Monder said that there were many musical references to Bowie's past on Blackstar, albeit "presented in a fresh context".

According to Visconti, he and Bowie deliberately attempted "to avoid rock'n'roll" while making the album. They listened to the rapper Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, released midway through the Blackstar recording sessions, and cited it as an influence. Visconti said, "We wound up with nothing like that, but we loved the fact that Kendrick was so open-minded and he didn't do a straight-up hip-hop record. He threw everything on there, and that's exactly what we wanted to do." Another record that influenced Bowie was D'Angelo's Black Messiah (2014). According to Pegg, it featured a fusion of soul, jazz and funk that was reminiscent of Bowie's work on "Sue". The electronic duo Boards of Canada and experimental hip hop trio Death Grips have also been cited as influences.

Blackstar featured themes of death throughout. The songs contain narrators and characters who offer different perspectives, and many of the songs are told from the perspective of the dead or dying. The album's title track incorporates nu jazz and free jazz, while progressing through a drum and bass-style rhythm, an acid house-inspired portion of the instrumental, a saxophone solo and a lower-tempo blues-like section. At ten minutes in length, it originally began as two separate melodies before being merged to one single piece. The re-recording of "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" features a hip hop beat and free-form sax, unlike the original recording, Bowie's vocals are also less subdued and more sociable.

"Lazarus" was described by Pegg as "an intense, brooding threnody", with a groove compared to latter-day Massive Attack. Sung from the perspective of Thomas Jerome Newton, the alien played by Bowie in the 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth, the narrator is living in solitude in New York City reflecting on a lifetime of lavish living. Compared to the original version of "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)", which featured brass-heavy instrumentation and a bebop-jazz arrangement, the remake has a heavier, denser and "edgier groove", with added funk rock guitar lines and "percussive shudders". The lyrics are ambiguous as to whether it is a farewell or a murder confession.

"Girl Loves Me" featured synthesisers, "acrobatic" drumming, strings and "bouncing" bass. The song includes Nadsat, a fictional language created by Anthony Burgess for his novel A Clockwork Orange (1962), and Polari, a type of slang used commonly by British gay men during the mid-20th century. The refrain, "Where the fuck did Monday go?", was interpreted by Pegg as the kind of desperation from a man who knows his time is running out. Bonner compared the fragmented lyrics to the cut-up techniques Bowie utilised on the albums Diamond Dogs (1974) and Outside (1995).

"Dollar Days" was a ballad that contained a sax solo and a lush arrangement; The lyrics suggested a desire to challenge expectations and possibly deceive ("I'm dying to / Push their backs against the grain / And fool them all again and again"). Pareles noted the deceptive way Bowie challenges his listeners by either adopting a new persona or being genuine. The final track, "I Can't Give Everything Away", is built on "pulsing synthesisers" and "tightly-wound percussion". Bowie plays a harmonica solo similar to the one from Low's "A New Career in a New Town" (1977). he scholar Leah Kardos believed that the harmonica motif signified "transition and frontiersmanship". Another scholar, Alice Masterson, noted that both "I Can't Give Everything Away" and "A New Career in a New Town" contain themes of "moving from one state of being to another".

The artwork for Blackstar was designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, who filled the same role on Heathen (2002), Reality (2003) and The Next Day. The cover depicts a five-pointed star: black on white for the CD edition and all-black with a cut-out star on the vinyl release, which revealed the grooves of the record beneath. The cover's star image is credited to NASA in the CD booklet. The sleeve was the only Bowie sleeve not to feature an image of the artist himself.

Originally intended for release on 30 October 2015, Blackstar was released on 8 January 2016, coinciding with Bowie's 69th birthday, through his ISO label, Columbia Records and Sony Music. Two days later on 10 January, Bowie died of liver cancer; his illness had not been revealed to the public until then. Promotion and marketing continued following his death. Blackstar received widespread acclaim as Bowie's most musically challenging album in decades, with critics praising the music, themes and performances of the backing band. It received three Grammy Awards and the Brit Award for British Album of the Year in 2017. It was listed as one of the best albums of 2016 and later of the 2010s decade by numerous publications. The work was re-analysed following Bowie's death, with critics and fans reinterpreting its lyrics, title and artwork as hinting at the artist's demise. Blackstar has since been described by publications and commentators as one of Bowie's best albums, a perfect farewell to his fans and one of the best final albums ever. 

 

Blackstar Track List: 

 

1. Blackstar

2. 'Tis A Pity She Was A Whore

3. Lazarus

4. Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)

5. Girl Loves Me

6. Dollar Days

7. I Can't Give Everything Away

Rocktrospectiva: The Surprisingly Excellent "The Man Who Sold The World" Turns 50

Released on 4 November 1970 "The Man Who Sold The World" was thr 3rd., studio album by the English musician David Bowie, originally released through Mercury Records in the United States on 4 November 1970 and in the United Kingdom on 10 April 1971. The album was produced by Tony Visconti and recorded in London from April to May 1970, the album features the first appearances on a Bowie record of future Spiders from Mars members Mick Ronson and Mick Woodmansey.

Following the largely acoustic and folk rock sound of David Bowie (1969), The Man Who Sold the World marked a shift toward hard rock, with elements of blues rock. The lyrics are darker than his previous releases, exploring themes of insanity, religion, technology and war. None of its songs were released as singles; some tracks appeared as B-sides between 1970 and 1973. The album original titled was Metrobolist, a play on the film Metropolis (1927), but the title was changed at the last minute by Mercury without Bowie's consultation.

The album was released with different cover artwork in the US and the UK. For the US release, the artwork was a cartoon-like drawing by Michael J. Weller of a cowboy in front of an asylum. The UK cover by Keith MacMillan features Bowie wearing a Michael Fish-designed blue dress. A 1972 reissue by RCA Records featured a black-and-white picture of Bowie's then-current character Ziggy Stardust; reissues since 1990 have revived the original UK artwork.

Realising that his potential as a solo artist was dwindling, Bowie formed a band, Hype, with the bassist Tony Visconti, one of his Space Oddity collaborators, the drummer John Cambridge, and the guitarist Mick Ronson, whom Bowie met in February 1970. For the group's performances, the members wore flamboyant superhero-like costumes. Bowie halted Hype performances at the end of March 1970 so he could focus on recording and songwriting, and resolve managing disputes with his manager Kenneth Pitt. 

Cambridge was dismissed from Hype at the end of March, and was replaced by Mick "Woody" Woodmansey. Woodmansey said of Bowie in 2015: "This guy was living and breathing being a rock & roll star." By April 1970, the four members of Hype were living in Haddon Hall, Beckenham, an Edwardian mansion converted to a block of flats that was described by one visitor as having an ambiance "like Dracula's living room". Ronson and Visconti built a makeshift studio under the grand staircase at Haddon Hall, where Bowie recorded many of his early 1970s demos

Recording for The Man Who Sold the World began on 17 April 1970 at Advision Studios in London, with the group beginning work on "All the Madmen". The next day, Ralph Mace was hired to play a Moog synthesiser following his work on the single version of "Memory of a Free Festival". At the time, Mace was a 40-year-old concert pianist who was also head of the classical music department at Mercury Records. During this time, Bowie terminated his contract with Pitt and met his future manager Tony Defries, who assisted Bowie in the termination. Recording moved to Trident Studios in London on 21 April and continued there until mid-May. On 4 May, the band recorded "Running Gun Blues" and "Saviour Machine", the latter of which was originally the working title for the title track, before Bowie reworked the song into a different melody to form the final version of "Saviour Machine". Recording and mixing was moved back to Advision on 12 May and completed ten days later. Bowie recorded his vocal for the title track on the final day.

The music was largely arranged by Ronson and Visconti. Ronson used the sessions to learn about many production and arrangement techniques from Visconti. Although Bowie is officially credited as the composer of all music on The Man Who Sold the World, the author Peter Doggett quoted Visconti as saying that "the songs were written by all four of us. We'd jam in a basement, and Bowie would just say whether he liked them or not." In Doggett's narrative, "The band (sometimes with Bowie contributing guitar, sometimes not) would record an instrumental track, which might or might not be based upon an original Bowie idea. Then, at the last possible moment, Bowie would reluctantly uncurl himself from the sofa on which he was lounging with his wife, and dash off a set of lyrics." Conversely, Bowie said in 1998, "I really did object to the impression that I did not write the songs on The Man Who Sold the World. You only have to check out the chord changes. No-one writes chord changes like that.

The Man Who Sold the World was a departure from the largely acoustic and folk rock sound of Space Oddity. According to the music critic Greg Kot, it marked Bowie's change of direction into hard rock. Much of the material has a distinct heavy metal edge that distinguishes it from Bowie's other releases. Like the music, the lyrics are significantly darker than its predecessor. According to Doggett, they contain numerous themes that Bowie would continue to explore throughout the rest of the 1970s decade, including "madness, alienation, violence, confusion of identity, power, darkness and sexual possession". The lyrics have also been seen as reflecting the influence of such figures as Aleister Crowley, Franz Kafka and Friedrich Nietzsche. Since Bowie wrote most of the lyrics at the last minute, O'Leary argues that The Man Who Sold the World is a more "coherent" concept album than Ziggy Stardust (1972) and Diamond Dogs (1974). He continues, saying that the songs "mirror and answer each other", sharing similar themes and imagery.

The opening track, "The Width of a Circle", was an eight-minute epic that delves into progressive rock. Originally debuted in February 1970 at a BBC session, the lyrics referenced the Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran and in the song's second half, the narrator has a sexual encounter with God in the devil's lair. The lyrics of "All the Madmen" were inspired by Bowie's half-brother Terry Burns and reflect the theme of institutionalised madness. The song contains a recorder part that creates an atmosphere, which Buckley describes as "childlike dementia".  For "Black Country Rock", Bowie had a small portion of the melody and four quickly-written lines that he gave to Ronson and Visconti, who expanded upon them to create the song. A blues rock and hard rock song, Bowie impersonates Marc Bolan in his vocal performance. "After All" is musically different from the rest of The Man Who Sold the World, being more akin to folk rock than hard rock. Featuring an "oh, by jingo" chant that is reminiscent of music hall numbers, the lyrics follow a group of innocent children who have not experienced the corruptions of adulthood.

The second part opened with "Running Gun Blues" the lyrics discuss gun-toting assassins and Vietnam War commentary, pecifically the Mỹ Lai massacre of 1968. Although the lyrics reflected the themes of Space Oddity, the music reflected the predominant hard rock style of The Man Who Sold the World and points to Bowie's future musical direction. Similar to the previous track, "Saviour Machine" is rooted in blues rock and hard rock. The lyrics explored the concept of computers overtaking the human race; Bowie's metallic-like vocal performance enhances the scenario. Like the majority of the tracks, "She Shook Me Cold" was mostly created by Ronson, Visconti and Woodmansey without Bowie's input. Spitz compared the song's blues style to Led Zeppelin, The lyrics explore a sexual conquest similar to "You Shook Me" (then-recently covered by Jeff Beck) and Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain".

The Man Who Sold the World was originally better received by music critics in the US than in the UK. Nevertheless, it was a commercial failure in both countries; the 1972 reissue managed to chart in both the US and the UK. Retrospectively, the album has been praised by critics for the band's performance and the unsettling nature of its music and lyrics, being considered by many to be the start of Bowie's "classic period". It has since been reissued multiple times and was remixed in 2020, under its original title Metrobolist, for its 50th anniversary.

None of the songs from the album were released as singles at the time, although a promo version of "All the Madmen" was issued in the US in 1970. Mercury released "All the Madmen" as a single, with Space Oddity's "Janine" on the B-side, but withdrew it. The same song appeared in Eastern Europe during 1973, as did "The Width of a Circle". "Black Country Rock" was released as the B-side of "Holy Holy" in the UK in January 1971, shortly before the release of The Man Who Sold the World. The title track appeared as the B-side of both the US single release of "Space Oddity" in 1972 and the UK release of "Life on Mars?" in 1973.

The album has since been cited as inspiring the goth rock, dark wave and science fiction elements of work by artists such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure, Gary Numan, John Foxx and Nine Inch Nails. It has been claimed that glam rock began with the release of The Man Who Sold the World, though this is also attributed to Bolan's appearance on the UK television programme Top of the Pops in March 1971 wearing glitter. Also in Kurt Cobain's Journals, he listed it at number 45 on his top 50 favourite albums list.

 

The Man Who Sold The World Track List: 

 

1. The Width Of A Circle

2. All The Madmen

3. Black Country Rock

4. After All

5. Running Gun Blues

6. Saviour Machine

7. She Shook Me Cold

8. The Man Who Sold The World

9. The Supermen

Rocktrospectiva: The Dark And Conceptual "Outside" Turns 30

Released on 25 September 1995, "Outside" was (stylised as 1.Outside and subtitled The Nathan Adler Diaries: A Hyper-cycle) was the twentieth studio album by the English musician David Bowie.The album reunited Bowie with the musician Brian Eno following the late 1970s Berlin Trilogy, the two were inspired by concepts "outside" the mainstream, such as various outsider and performance artists. 

Recorded throughout 1994, the experimental sessions saw Bowie conceive a world where "art crimes", such as murder, pervade society. The resulting Leon project initially faced resistance from labels due to its uncommercial nature. The project's bootlegging led to additional sessions in 1995 to revise the concept and record more commercial material, inspired by a diary Bowie wrote for Q magazine.

Influenced by the television series Twin Peaks, the nonlinear narrative of Outside concerns the residents of the fictional Oxford Town, New Jersey, and follows the detective Nathan Adler as he investigates the murder of a 14-year-old girl. The tracks show perspectives of specific characters, while spoken word between-song segues convey more character ideals; the story and Adler's diary entries were presented in the album's CD booklet. Musically, Outside displays styles from art rock, industrial rock and jazz, to electronica and ambient. The album spawned three singles "The Heart's Filthy Lessons", "Strangers When We Meet" & "Hallo Spaceboy". 

Released at the height of Britpop in the UK, Outside received mixed reviews from critics. While most praised the music, others found the concept pretentious and hard to follow. Nevertheless, many considered it Bowie's finest record since 1980's Scary Monsters. Outside peaked at number 8 in the UK and number 21 in the US. The lead single, "The Hearts Filthy Lesson", performed poorly but the following singles, "Strangers When We Meet" and a remix of "Hallo Spaceboy" featuring Pet Shop Boys, performed well in the UK.

Outside was plenty dark and concept album, that told the story of a bleak future, an old-school gumshoe detective, an artist that is also a sociopath who creates her works from the organs of dead people, here Bowie played all the roles: Nathan Adler, the detective; Baby Grace Blue, the young teenage victim and, gruesomely, the work of art; Ramona A. Stone, artist/presumed murderess; Leon, a streetwise intermediary; and Algeria Touchshriek…well, maybe that name says enough. David Bowie managed to broaden his appeal in the 90's again. Outside was for the 90's generation the same milestone as was "Ziggy Stardust" for the 1970's glam rockers and "Let's Dance" for the new wavers in 1980's. 

"Heart's Filthy Lesson" and "Hallo Spaceboy" are top tracks indeed, but also the title track and haunting songs "The Motel," and "I'm Deranged" stand out. "Oxford Town" is such a great song, while the more light-hearted and the most immediately accesible tune "Strangers When We Meet" fits nicely in the end. 

Bowie envisioned an ongoing narrative, which lends clarity to the record’s official title: 1. Outside. He imagined an audio novel, divided into three concept albums, and further exploration of this alternate end of the century, as described by a lyric from "I Have Not Been To Oxford Town" — "Toll the bell, pay the private eye, all is well, twentieth century dies." 

The key factor on this album was the return of Brian Eno as a producer, 16 years after the Berlin-trilogy concluded. However, unlike on those albums, which were as much Eno projects as they were Bowie ones, Outside merely betrays an abstract semblance of Eno's style.

The influences of this album were far and wide, and as a result, Outside is a broad panorama of mid-90s culture. You hear the subtle effects of the developing industrial and tip hop scenes, both informing, but not commanding Bowie and Eno. The duo were also heavily affected by outsider art, and the newest trends of the cultural underground, and they embraced this grimy, sticky and imperfect mess that comes from these sources.

Apart from this very 90s atmosphere, which feels closely related to Nine Inch Nails or Pixies, the grooves were intense from fast paced, unrelenting guitar and drum grooves with insane jazzy madness. Amongst the bangers, "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" was well known for playing over the end credits of the Fincher movie, Seven, a neurotic, dirty as hell and has a very memorable guitar riff leading it. "Hallo Spaceboy" also had addictive drumbeat courtesy of the Pet Shop Boys remix. "The Motel" was a trippy, quietly beautiful song, with a strong piano, "I'm Deranged. Again", was an incredibly groovy song, with some incredible synth ambiances produced by Eno. It keeps up such a steadily high level of energy output throughout. It's truly brilliant. "Strangers When We Meet" was also a stunning piece, it's incredibly lush, and is definitely inspired by the Eno-produced U2 album, The Joshua Tree.

Outside was an ugly record that dared to show where it was going, and still had songs with deep hooks and hummability. Critical reviews of Outside were mixed on release. While the majority praised the music as challenging, many felt the overarching concept was hard to follow, some welcomed it and called it an excellent David Bowie album, a genuine creative rebirth, a fantastic comeback album, praising the music as a callback to the Berlin Trilogy and concluded: it was mad, bad, dangerous album – by turns, chilling, pretty, ugly, scary, gripping and vastly intriguing and truly innovate, although others called the record as something confused that lacked of musical innovation except for certain tracks, obviously appealed Bowie fans but not the new ones, and in the end it was just a quite simply rubbish record. Nevertheless the album pushed Bowie who initially envisioned the album as the first in a series of records that would be released each year until the end of the millennium, in the end Bowie and Eno liked so much this record.

 

Outside Track List:  

 

1. Leon Take Us Outside 

2. Outside

3. The Heart's Filthy Lesson

4. A Small Plot Of Land

5. Segue-A Baby Grace (A Horrid Cassette) 

6. Hallo Spaceboy

7. The Motel 

8. I Have Not Been To Oxford Town 

9. No Control

10. Segue - Algeria Touchshriek 

11. The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)

12. Segue - Ramona A. Stone "I Am With Name"

13. Wishful Beginnings

14. We Prick You 

15. Segue - Nathan Adler 

16. I'm Deranged

17. Thru' These Architects Eyes

18. Segue - Nathan Adler

19. Strangers When We Meet

Rocktrospectiva: The Fresh, Raw And Dynamic "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)" Turns 45

Released On 12 September 1980 "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)" was the 14th., studio album by the English musician David Bowie, it was his first album following the Berlin Trilogy (Low, "Heroes" and Lodger), Scary Monsters was Bowie's attempt at creating a more commercial record after the trilogy proved successful artistically but less so commercially. The album spawned four singles "Ashes To Ashes", "Fashion", "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)", & "Up The Hill Backwards".

Co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, Scary Monsters was recorded between February and April 1980 at the Power Station in New York City, and later Good Earth Studios in London. Much of the same personnel from prior releases returned for the sessions, with additional guitar by Chuck Hammer and Robert Fripp, and a guest appearance by Pete Townshend. The music incorporates elements of art rock, new wave and post-punk. 

Unlike the improvisational nature of prior releases, Bowie spent time writing the music and lyrics; several were recorded under working titles and some contained reworked elements of earlier, unreleased songs. The album cover is a large-scale collage featuring Bowie donning a Pierrot costume, with references to his prior releases on the rear sleeve.

The album's lead single, "Ashes to Ashes", revisited the character of Major Tom from "Space Oddity" and was promoted with an inventive music video. Scary Monsters garnered critical and commercial acclaim: it topped the UK Albums Chart and restored Bowie's commercial standing in the US, reaching No. 12 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart. It was Bowie's final studio album for RCA and the final collaboration between him and Visconti for over 20 years. Several publications have considered it one of the greatest albums of all time. 

From 1976 to 1979, David Bowie recorded what became known as the Berlin Trilogy, which consisted of Low, "Heroes" (both 1977) and Lodger (1979), made in collaboration with the musician Brian Eno and the producer Tony Visconti. Although considered highly influential, the trilogy had proven less successful commercially. Lodger's commercial performance, in particular, was hindered by artists who were influenced by the earlier Berlin releases, such as Gary Numan. According to the biographer David Buckley, Numan's fame indirectly led to Bowie taking a more commercial direction for his next record.

Rather than improvising lyrics and music as he had with prior releases, Bowie took time composing and developing the lyrics and melodies, ensuring the musicians adhered to his thought-out structures before adding their own personal touches. Many of the tracks had working titles early on. Some of these included "People Are Turning to Gold" ("Ashes to Ashes"), "It Happens Everyday" ("Teenage Wildlife"), "Jamaica" ("Fashion"), "Cameras in Brooklyn" ("Up the Hill Backwards") and "I Am a Laser" ("Scream Like a Baby"), which was originally written and recorded in 1973 by a group of Bowie collaborators known as the Astronettes. The lyrics for the title track, which dated back to a 1975 song called "Running Scared", were written in response to a promotional campaign for Kellogg's Corn flakes cereal, which offered novelty toys of "Scary Monsters and Super Heroes". Other tracks were recorded and left unfinished, including "Is There Life After Marriage?" and an instrumental cover of Cream's "I Feel Free"; the latter was fully covered for Black Tie White Noise (1993)

Scary Monsters has been regarded as art rock, new wave, and post-punk and it was considered to be a culmination of Bowie's 1970s works and the record's sound to be not "far removed from the post-punk of the early '80s", "a high watermark of art pop by which Bowie's future releases are still compared."

The album opened with "It's No Game (No. 1)", which features sinister guitar loops and Bowie's screaming vocal performance, partly taken from an older tune titled "Tired of My Life", it features lyrics read by the Japanese actress Michi Hirota, which were translated by Hisahi Miura. Hirota delivers her performance in what is described by Buckley as a "macho, samurai voice", which was done at Bowie's insistence as a way to "break down a particular type of sexist attitude about women". The lyrics of "Up the Hill Backwards" deal with the struggle of facing a crisis. Bowie misquotes Thomas Anthony Harris's 1967 self-help book I'm OK – You're OK, a guide on how to save marriage relationships; Carr and Murray see this as a reference to Bowie's divorce from Angie Bowie. Musically, it features unusual time signatures and a Bo Diddley-inspired beat.

"Ashes to Ashes" revisits the character of Major Tom from "Space Oddity" (1969). Over ten years later, Major Tom is described as a "junkie", which has been interpreted as parallel to Bowie's own struggles with drug addiction throughout the 1970s. Musically, "Ashes to Ashes" was built around a guitar synthesiser theme by Hammer, augmented by Clark's synthesiser. Like "Space Oddity" before it, the song was built in stages, and features layers of instruments in its mix. "Fashion" was a reminiscent of Bowie's former single "Golden Years", with its mix of funk and reggae. It evolved out of a reggae "spoof" started by Clark on his synthesiser and features guitar "squeals" from Fripp. Apart from being a dance track, the song provokes elements of fascism, with lyrics such as "we are the goon squad" 

Next was "Teenage Wildlife", the longest track on the album, is structurally similar to "'Heroes'" but does not feature a refrain; its verses only end with the title being sung over Fripp's guitar breaks. Its backing vocals are reminiscent of the Ronettes, while piano is provided by Roy Bittan. "Scream Like a Baby" features a contemporary new wave sound with lyrics of instability and political imprisonment, comparable with themes present on The Man Who Sold the World (1970). "Kingdom Come", Bowie's first cover on a studio album since Station to Station, is in the same key as Verlaine's original, but is more grand in style. On release, Bowie dedicated "Because You're Young" to his then nine-year-old son Duncan Jones. Lyrically, the song is similar to other Scary Monsters tracks, featuring Bowie reflecting and advising a younger generation. Townshend's contributions are placed low in the mix. The album ends with "It's No Game (No. 2)", which provides a stark contrast to "No. 1"; it features new lyrics and is more mellow and meditative throughout. 

Scary Monsters received universal praise from music critics, called it "an eerily impressive stride into the '80s", while Billboard correctly predicted that it "should be the most accessible and commercially successful Bowie LP in years and described Scary Monsters as being "full of accessible, highly original melodies that are increasingly inaccessible". Even today Scary Monsters continues to receive acclaim. 

 

Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) Track List:

 

1. It's No Game (No. 1)

2. Up The Hill Backwards

3. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

4. Ashes To Ashes

5. Fashion

6. Teenage Wildlife

7. Scream Like A Baby

8. Kingdom Come

9. Because, Yoi're Young

10. It's No Game (No. 2)

The Compilation: David Bowie "I Can't Give Everything Away (2002-2016)"

A decade after Five Years was announced, Parlophone will release the sixth and final David Bowie ‘Era’ box set. I Can’t Give Everything Away 2002-2016 documents the last fourteen years of David’s musical endeavours and adventures.

Despite releasing nothing for around nine years of this period, Bowie still managed to put out four studio albums – Heathen (2002), Reality (2003), The Next Day (2013) and Blackstar (2016) – and as these 13CD and 18LP vinyl box sets demonstrate, there’s plenty of additional live material and non-album tracks available to fill things out.

As well as those four records on CD and vinyl, the I Can’t Give Everything Away box sets include:

• MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL (2CDs or 4LPs) – Previously unreleased and recorded on the 18 July 2002. Amongst the 31 tracks are an almost full performance of 1977’s Low. This is also exclusive to the box set.

• A REALITY TOUR (2CDs or 3LPs) – Released before, but this is resequenced to “better reflect the set lists of the Dublin shows”. The vinyl version of the album is pressed in transparent blue, as per the original.

• RE:CALL 6 (3CDs or 4LPs) – 41 non-album / alternative versions / b-sides and soundtrack songs including some ‘SACD’ only stereo mixes from Heathen. Exclusive to the box.

On LP, The Next Day is actually the 17-track deluxe version (to fill out four sides of vinyl) while the CD edition sticks to the 14-track version. Fear not though, because the three ‘missing’ tracks (‘So She’, ‘Plan’ and ‘I’ll Take You There’) are added to The Next Day Extra E.P. on CD (which is 10 tracks compared to the vinyl version’s seven).

The 4-track No Plan E.P. is also included. This features Bowie’s last three released recordings: No Plan, Killing A Little Time and When I Met You, which were first debuted on stage by the cast of Lazarus. With a running time of 18 minutes (which includes a repetition of the 6 minute album version of ‘Lazarus’) eyebrows might be raised at this being giving this its own disc when the three unique tracks could perhaps have been squeezed onto Re:Call 6. Especially on vinyl where side two of No Plan is ‘etched’.

Re:Call 6 does a good job of rounding up random tracks and includes David Gilmour’s live version of ‘Arnold Layne’ that Bowie sings on, which was issued as a single in 2006 (reaching No 19 in the UK charts).

As mentioned, the Montreux Jazz Festival is exclusive to the box and it’s worth pointing out that the other exclusives in previous boxes (The Gouster, Lodger 2017 Mix, Never Let Me Down 2018 and Dance) have never been issued separately, so the label have kept to their word – so far!

Like the previous ’90s set Brilliant Adventures, I Can’t Give Everything Away 2002-2016 is massive 18 LPs on vinyl (the first three were 13LPs, Loving The Alien was 15LP and Brilliant Adventure was 18LP). These vinyl sets are lovely but it does rather show up the limitations of the format when it requires seven records to deliver two live shows.

Also, actual studio albums take up only five of the 18 records in I Can’t Give Everything Away, which is around 28 percent of the content. If you include Toy, Brilliant Adventures had 61 percent studio albums (11 out of 18 LPs), Loving the Alien 30 percent (5 out of 15), A New Career in a New Town and Who Can I Be Now? both 38 percent (5 out of 13) and Five Years 54 percent (7 out of 13). Depending on your point of view, you could say this means more ‘padding’ than ever, or more welcome bonus material. It’s not really Parlophone’s fault that Bowie only made four albums in this period but if they’d skipped A Reality Tour (issued as a 3LP set in 2016) and squeezed the No Plan E.P. tracks onto Re:Call 6, we’d be back down to a more manageable – and more affordable – 13LPs. On the other hand A Reality Tour is excellent, it was Bowie’s last tour, and period live shows have always been a part of these sets (think Ziggy Stardust: A Motion Picture, David Live, Glass Spider, BBC Radio Theatre).

As ever, both box sets come with books. These are 128 pages in the CD box and 84 in the vinyl set, with previously unseen notes, drawings and handwritten lyrics from Bowie and photos. There are also “technical notes” about the albums from co-producer Tony Visconti and design notes from Jonathan Barnbrook. The CD box has Japan-style vinyl replica CDs, with the discs being gold. The vinyl box contains 180g vinyl – all black, except for A Reality Tour, which is blue.

I Can’t Give Everything Away 2002-2016 will be released on 12 September 2025, via Parlophone.

13CD box set

CD 1: Heathen

 

1. Sunday

2. Cactus

3. Slip Away

4. Slow Burn

5. Afraid

6. Iʼve Been Waiting For You

7. I Would Be Your Slave

8. I Took A Trip On A Gemini Spaceship

9. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone

10. Everyone Says ʻHiʼ

11. A Better Future

12. Heathen (The Rays)

 

CD 2: Montreux Jazz Festival

 

1. Sunday

2. Life On Mars?

3. Ashes To Ashes

4. Cactus

5. Slip Away

6. China Girl

7. Starman

8. I Would Be Your Slave

9. I’ve Been Waiting For You

10. Stay

11. Changes

12. Fashion

13. Fame

14. I’m Afraid Of Americans

15. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone

 

CD 3: Montreux Jazz Festival

 

1.  ‟Heroes”

2. Heathen (The Rays)

3. Everyone Says ‟Hi”

4. Hallo Spaceboy

5. Let’s Dance

6. Ziggy Stardust

7. Warszawa

8. Speed Of Life

9. Breaking Glass

10. What In The World

11. Sound And Vision

12. Art Decade

13. Always Crashing In The Same Car

14. Be My Wife

15. A New Career In A New Town

16. Subterraneans

 

CD 4: Reality

 

1. New Killer Star

2. Pablo Picasso

3. Never Get Old

4. The Loneliest Guy

5. Looking For Water

6. She’ll Drive The Big Car

7. Days

8. Fall Dog Bombs The Moon

9. Try Some, Buy Some

10. Reality

11. Bring Me The Disco King

 

CD 5: A Reality Tour

 

1. Rebel Rebel

2. New Killer Star

3. Reality

4. Fame

5. Cactus

6. Sister Midnight

7. Afraid

8. All The Young Dudes

9. Be My Wife

10. China Girl

11. The Loneliest Guy

12. The Man Who Sold The World

13. Fantastic Voyage

14. Hallo Spaceboy

15. Sunday

16. Under Pressure

17. Life On Mars?

18. Battle For Britain (The Letter)

 

CD 6: A Reality Tour

 

1. Fall Dog Bombs The Moon

2. Ashes To Ashes

3. The Motel

4. Loving The Alien

5. Breaking Glass

6. Never Get Old

7. Changes

8. I’m Afraid Of Americans

10. ‟Heroes”

11. Bring Me The Disco King

12. Slip Away

13. Heathen (The Rays)

14. Five Years

15. Hang On To Yourself

16. Ziggy Stardust

 

CD 7: The Next Day

 

1. The Next Day

2. Dirty Boys

3. The Stars (Are Out Tonight)

4. Love Is Lost

5. Where Are We Now?

6. Valentine’s Day

7. If You Can See Me

8. I’d Rather Be High

9. Boss Of Me

10. Dancing Out In Space

11. How Does The Grass Grow?

12. (You Will) Set The World On Fire

13. You Feel So Lonely You Could Die

14. Heat

 

CD 8: The Next Day Extra E.P.

 

1. Atomica

2. Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix By James Murphy For The DFA)

3. Plan

4. The Informer

5. I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)

6. Like A Rocket Man

7. Born In A UFO

8. I’ll Take You There

9. God Bless The Girl

10. So She

 

CD 9: ★ (Blackstar)

 

1. ★(Blackstar)

2. ’Tis A Pity She Was A Whore

3. Lazarus

4. Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)

5. Girl Loves Me

6. Dollar Days

7. I Can’t Give Everything Away

 

CD 10: No Plan E.P.

 

1. Lazarus

2. No Plan

3. Killing A Little Time

4. When I Met You

 

CD 11: Re:Call 6

 

1. Slow Burn (Single Edit)

2. Wood Jackson

3. When The Boys Come Marching Home

4. Safe

5. Sunday (Moby Remix)

6. A Better Future (Remix By Air)

7. Slip Away (SACD Mix)

8. Slow Burn (SACD Mix)

9. I’ve Been Waiting For You (SACD Mix)

10. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone (SACD Mix)

11. A Better Future (SACD Mix)

12. Safe (SACD Mix)

13. Everyone Says ‘Hi’ (Radio Edit)

 

CD 12: Re:Call 6

 

1. Sunday (Tony Visconti Mix)

2. Everyone Says ‘Hi’ (Metro Remix Radio Edit)

3. Heathen (The Rays) (Live In Berlin, 22/09/02)

4. Hop Frog — Lou Reed Featuring David Bowie

5. Saviour — Kristeen Young Featuring David Bowie

6. Isn’t It Evening (The Revolutionary) — Earl Slick Featuring David Bowie

7. Bring Me The Disco King (Loner Mix) — David Bowie Featuring Maynard James Keenan And John Frusciante (Taken From The Underworld Motion Picture Soundtrack)

8. New Killer Star (Radio Edit)

9. Love Missile F1-11

10. Fly

11. Queen Of All The Tarts (Overture)

12. Never Get Old (Single Edit)

13. Waterloo Sunset

14. Rebel Rebel (2003 Re-Record) (Taken From The Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle Motion Picture Soundtrack)

15. New Killer Star (Sessions @ AOL Live Version, 23/09/03)

 

CD 13: Re:Call 6

 

1. Days (Live)

2. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone (Live)

3. Rebel Never Gets Old (Radio Mix)

4. (She Can) Do That — David Bowie With BT (Taken From The Stealth Motion Picture Soundtrack)

5. Life On Mars? (Live At Fashion Rocks, 08/09/05)

6. Wake Up (Live At Fashion Rocks, 08/09/05) — David Bowie With Arcade Fire

7. Five Years (Live At Fashion Rocks, 08/09/05) — David Bowie With Arcade Fire

8 .Arnold Layne (Live At The Royal Albert Hall, 29/05/06) — David Gilmour Featuring David Bowie

9. Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix By James Murphy For The DFA Edit)

10. Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) (2014 Version)

11. ’Tis A Pity She Was A Whore (2014 Version)

12. Lazarus (Radio Edit)

13. I Can’t Give Everything Away (Radio Edit)