David Bowie - The Golden Years

“Where have all poppa’s heroes gone? Living in New York, everyone” - Ian MacDonald in the New Musical Express, March 1975.

It had been a mighty long way from Brixton to Broadway, but David Bowie had finally made it in America. His Diamond Dogs/Philly Dogs tour of the US in 1974 had cemented his fame Stateside and Aladdin Sane had changed into.....???

Bowie himself called his Young Americans LP “plastic soul”, but what plastic it was! The title track alone was a masterpiece, telling the story of two youngsters who discover that the “American Dream” is not attainable for all. Including references ranging from Sgt Pepper to President Nixon, it was a big change from his earlier songs. Apart from Bowie’s voice, the most startling sound on the single was David Sanborn’s rasping saxophone. 

Other soul searching songs on the album included Fascination, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Win, Can You Hear Me and Right. The two other tracks, however, had a John Lennon connection. The news that Bowie was recording a (frankly awful) version of Across The Universe had stirred the ex Beatle's interest which eventually resulted in the extremely funky Fame collaboration between Bowie, Carlos Alomar & Lennon that finished the LP.

In January 1975, the BBC aired a documentary in their Omnibus series called Cracked Actor. The programme made by Alan Yentob, featured David Bowie in America throughout the latter half of 1974 when he was taking copious amounts of cocaine and seemingly living on milk and chillies! 

Soon afterwards a new career in a new town called when Nicolas Roeg wanted Bowie to play the role of Thomas Jerome Newton in his film of Walter Tevis’s outstanding novel, The Man Who Fell To Earth. The story concerned an alien who comes to Earth in an attempt to save the people left on his home planet which is dying from a lack of water. Bowie was perfect for the role of the alien who is ultimately driven insane by humanity.

Following this film, Bowie returned to Los Angeles to record his next album, Station To Station. Apparently, his already prodigious cocaine habit worsened yet he created some of his finest songs of the decade. The title track is a ten minute tour de force based lyrically on the Stations of the Cross. 

Starting with the sound of a speeding train, the song gradually builds by adding piano, bass and Earl Slick's remarkable feedbacked guitar before Dennis Davis's drums signal the slow march towards Bowie's memorable first line: 

"The return of the thin white duke, throwing darts in lovers eyes."

The first half of the song is a relentlessly circular, almost hypnotic five minutes before Davis’s drum break ushers in the second half which is faster and more upbeat. The crucial lines here seem to be:

“It’s not the side effects of the cocaine. I’m thinking that it must be love.” 

The hit single Golden Years follows and is a fine mixture of funk that featured on the American TV show Soul Train at the time.

Word On A Wing finishes Side One and is a cascading ballad to God asking for possible salvation. TVC15 kicks off Side Two and at the time was referred to as being about a television set that ate Bowie’s girlfriend! The funk factor almost overloads with the next song Stay as the singer croons his doubts about commitment, but is overshadowed by the final couple of minutes where Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick trade guitar licks underpinned by George Murray’s bass. The lovely ballad Wild Is The Wind completes the album and is probably the best cover song that Bowie ever recorded.  The song was originally sung  by Johnny Mathis, but Nina Simone’s version seems to be more of an inspiration for David.

I saw Bowie and his band at Wembley Arena in May 1976 when he was touring as The Thin White Duke, and can attest to how great the songs and band were. However, it did seem a somewhat cold and emotionless evening, but of course this was before David finally decided to kick his coke habit and return to Europe to live.

What followed was perhaps his finest piece of work - Low. Originally titled New Music: Night and Day, the album was unlike most anything else I had heard when it was released in January 1977. The first side consisted of seven short songs (two of which were entirely instrumental) and Side Two contained four longer experimental soundscapes. There was also a big hit single taken from Side One that featured Mary Hopkin on backing vocals:

The last track on Side Two, Subterraneans remains one of Bowie's greatest achievements. Apparently a lament for the people of East Berlin left behind the Berlin Wall, the song features lyrics that seem almost like "normal" words, but not quite. One interpretation of one line could be perhaps "Shine bright failing star", but others may disagree.

Later that same year, Bowie released his next LP "Heroes". The title track was a huge success as a single and refers to a couple of lovers sharing an illicit kiss just outside the studio. Brian Eno had helped with the Low album and brought in Robert Fripp to play guitar on this one. His playing enhanced many of the songs, especially this one:

In 1979, the Lodger album came out. Although there are some fine songs featured, this LP still seems to be a step back from his previous works although the lead single, Boys Keep Swinging had a memorable video:

1980 saw the release of Scary Monsters and Super Creeps. A fine album that again showcased Fripp's guitar, it was also notable for being the final time Bowie would use the fantastic rhythm section of Carlos Alomar, George Murray and Dennis Davis. The LP also contained arguably his finest ever song:

Ashes to Ashes revisited Major Tom who was now "hitting an all time low". A big hit in the Summer of 1980, it was a fitting finale to a decade of brilliance.  It would be three years before his next album (Let's Dance) came out. Produced by Nile Rodgers, it was his best selling LP and the title track, Cat People (Putting Out Fire) and China Girl were all top quality. However, 1984's Tonight marked a deterioration in quality overall and Never Let Me Down in 1987 really was an all time low. 

Bowie took time out to record two albums as a part of the Tin Machine band before his next solo album (Black Tie, White Noise) was released in 1993.  He made a number of good albums following this until Reality in 2003 seemingly marked the end of his studio output.  However, a full decade later, David Bowie came out of "retirement" to release The Next Day. A fine return to form, it took most people by surprise and featured the wonderful song, taken as the first single from the album, Where Are We Now? which was released on his 66th birthday.

Three years later, Bowie's 25th studio LP came out on his 69th birthday.  However, two days later, David Bowie died of liver cancer. The album is another adventurous departure from his previous work, encompassing jazz and many other genres, reflecting his desire to musically never stay still and is a emotional epitaph to the man himself.

However, we shall end this particular tale with that single from The Next Day. Bowie moved to Berlin in 1976 to escape the mad world of Los Angeles that was killing him. It was in the German city that he made some of his finest songs and it seems clear that he always looked back on those three years as some of his happiest times:

"The moment you know. You know, you know."

David Bowie - The Glam Years

Success had come late to David Bowie in the Summer of 1972 when he made his famous appearance on Top Of The Pops singing Starman. This was three years after his first hit with Space Oddity which had coincided with the Apollo 11 moon landing. Following this his career had largely been on hold, with the release of The Man Who Sold The World and Hunky Dory LPs failing to at first make any great impressions on the pop buying public as a whole.

However, the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars had been released the month previous to the TOTP performance and became his big breakthrough. Touring incessantly with his band of Spiders (Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick “Woody” Woodmansey), Bowie as Ziggy took the pop world by storm for the next year before announcing that their performance at the Hammersfield Apollo in early July 1973 would be their last. The LP itself is a kind of concept album about an androgynous pop star who arrives from Mars (!?!) together with his band, rising to incredible fame before burning out in a big way. The title track offers clues to who Ziggy is based on, with Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Jimi Hendrix and Marc Bolan all being definite candidates:

Three months prior to this Aladdin Sane had been released. Some critics though it a lesser album than Stardust and although it has some standout songs on it, yours truly has always tended to agree. Bowie described Sane as “Ziggy goes to America”, and most of its tracks are indeed reflections on the United States that were written when he travelled through the country on tour in late 1972. My favourite song is Panic In Detroit where the dive bombing guitar of Mick Ronson and the frantic singing of Linda Lewis and Juanita “Honey” Franklin add lustre to Bowie’s Bo Diddley beat tale of John Sinclair and recent riots in the Motor City:

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The American pianist Mike Garson contributed greatly to this album and would become one of David’s main collaborators over the next four decades. The Spiders, however, had fractured by the time Bowie’s next LP Pin Ups was released with Mick Woodmansey replaced on drums by Aynsley Dunbar. An album of cover songs by British bands from the 60s, it was noticeable for the striking cover photo featuring David and the gorgeous Twiggy.

By the time of Diamond Dogs release in 1974, all remaining Spiders had gone. Bowie played guitars, saxophones and keyboards in his own raucously energetic style along with top session musicians on other instruments. The album’s theme was a cross between George Orwell’s 1984 and Bowie’s own post apocalyptic vision, with the Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing(Reprise) section being particularly brilliant musically and lyrically:

I think it was Charles Shaar Murray of the New Musical Express who remarked at the time that the single Rebel Rebel was the final hit being played in the last discotheque left in the ruins of the city. Diamond Dogs was a fitting end to David Bowie’s Glam years. His next move would be to soul and funk and America, before ending up in Berlin. Here is that aforementioned “final hit song”:  

Rebel Rebel

David Bowie’s farewell to Glam. Young Americans, Station To Station and the Berlin “Trilogy” would follow, but this is where Ziggy said farewell 😊

Soul Survivors

In the end, there was The Stones. The Beatles had split, Ray Davies of The Kinks was to soon say he had had enough and The Hollies had fractured.

Musically, Exile On Main St. in many ways was where the Sixties ended and the Seventies began. Released in 1972 only three years after Brian Jones had died, it is a  testament to the rest of the band’s survival of the previous decade. In Britain, Marc Bolan was riding the crest of the wave and David Bowie was about to become famous when the Rolling Stones finest LP hit the shops and stores. I remember buying the New Musical Express when the flexi disc featuring tracks from the upcoming album was offered free with the periodical,  Around the same time, Tumbling Dice rose up the singles chart.

A sprawling and at first seemingly ramshackle double LP – Exile had actually passed me by when it came out. I’d thought that Tumbling Dice was the best single they’d ever made but being in the middle of my Beatles/Glam Rock stage, Telegram Sam and Strawberry Fields were the songs most regularly on my turntable. However, in ’73 or ’74 Nick Kent wrote a massive re-appraisal of the album in the NME which had apparently had mainly lukewarm reviews in many music papers on its release. He called it the Stones’ finest hour. That was enough for me to go out and get it.

Side one starts with Rocks Off and Rip This Joint, two high octane rockers.  Apart from the songs and energy, it was immediately noticeable that the brass section of Bobby Keys and Jim Price added to and enriched the overall sound.  Shake Your Hips keeps the energy level high before Casino Boogie recalls the blues origins of the band. Dice ends the side and is still their greatest ever single release. Sweet Virginia begins a Side Two which is more country tinged with Torn and Frayed and Sweet Black Angel (referencing Angela Davies) being my favourites of the four featured songs. Loving Cup ends the fist disc in a somewhat earthy yet also slightly spiritual way.

The second LP starts with Keith’s Happy which rocks along really fine. Turd On The Run and Ventilator Blues are both unsettling yet compelling songs before we reach the ethereal I Just Want To See His Face. From here on in, the LP just gets better and better.  Let it Loose rounds off side three and is one of the band’s finest ever moments.  It grows from slow beginnings to a truly uplifting and almost spiritual climax with Tami Lynn, Dr John (who also plays piano on the song),  Clydie King, Vanetta Field, Shirley Goodman and Joe Green providing backing vocals to Mick’s soulful lead singing.

The final side begins with All Down the Line, one of their greatest rockers.  Robert Johnson’s Stop Breaking Down is next with Mick Taylor on incredible slide guitar and the other Mick on harmonica.  Shine a Light features one of Mick Taylor’s finest performances on lead guitar and the album ends with Soul Survivor. which takes the energy level to the outer limits. Jagger wails, Keith’s rhythm cuts right through and Charlie just keeps on keeping on.

From then on, there would be a noticeable decline in the band's music. Much of the following album Goats Head Soup was second rate Stones, and although It's Only Rock n Roll was a better LP, Mick Taylor left the band on its completion complaining that he had not been given song writing credits for the fantastic Time Waits For No One. Ronnie Wood was his replacement and while the group has made some excellent songs since then, the late 60s and early 70s remains their peak.

Never bettered by the band, Exile stands as one of Rock n’ Roll’s greatest achievements.

I Believe in Miracles

Brian Clough.  Iconoclast, genius, mischief maker, football manager.  I first remember Brian as Derby County manager at the end of the 1960s when together with Peter Taylor, he set the football world alight with an exciting youthful team who gained promotion from the second division.   Clough's most important early signing was the wonderful Dave Mackay who played as sweeper and captained his younger teammates to the First Division title in 1972.

The club reached the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1973, but amidst much controversy they lost out to Juventus.  Like most football fans, I was astonished when Clough and Taylor left Derby later that year and went south to Brighton.  Even more amazing was the news in 1974 that Brian was replacing Don Revie as Leeds United manager.  Clough had lambasted the club and Revie for cheating their way to success, so it came as little surprise when he and Leeds parted ways after just forty-four days.  Tellingly, Peter Taylor had remained on the south coast when Brian went north.

In January 1975, Clough became the manager of Nottingham Forest who were then a mid-table second division club.  Eighteen months later, the dynamic duo were reunited when Peter Taylor came to the City Ground and things really did begin to move.  Forest were promoted to Division One in 1977 and then took the top flight by storm and became League Champions the next year.

The European Cup now came back into Clough's life, and after beating the holders Liverpool in the first round, Forest kept on going and reached the final following a tight two legged semi-final against Cologne.  Malmo awaited in Munich.  The final was a tense affair, settled by a headed goal from Trevor Francis who was making his European debut following his million pound transfer from Birmingham City earlier in the season.  The 1979-1980 season saw Forest retain the trophy against Hamburg in Madrid.

That was the peak of Clough and Taylor’s career together.  Peter left Forest to retire in May 1982, only to come back to manage Derby County seven months later.  Brian and he sadly fell out the following year over a player’s transfer and never spoke to each other again.  Meanwhile, Forest continued as one of the top First Division teams throughout the 1980s, but never again approached the peaks of the late 1970s.  By the early 1990s, Brian was struggling with alcoholism and Forest were relegated from the Premier League in 1993 and Brian Clough retired from football management.

Peter Taylor had died in 1990 and Brian Clough cried when he heard the news, and attended his old friend’s funeral.  Brian finally underwent a liver transplant in 2003, but died the next year from stomach cancer.  So ended the life of a true footballing great, and although far from perfect, Brian Clough really did help so many of us believe in miracles.

Everybody Dance 😊

Chic have been one of the greatest groups around for the past forty years.  Nile Rodgers has been leading the band since they were formed and what fantastic music he has made.

I first recall hearing Chic in 1977 when Dance, Dance, Dance was a hit. It was followed by a succession of great singles such as Everybody Dance, Le Freak, I Want Your Love and the era defining Good Times in 1979.  I had the pleasure of seeing Chic live in the Autumn of 1979 at the Liverpool Empire and they were absolutely fantastic.  Along with The Beatles in Llandudno in Summer 1963, this remains my favourite of all concerts.

Nile had Bernard Edwards on bass and Tony Thompson on drums on stage with him that night as well as many other contributors to what had become known as the Chic Organisation.  The string section of the group made their disco/funk/ pop sound even more unique and people were dancing in the aisles all evening long.

Fast forward a few months and Rapper's Delight by The Sugarhill Gang was all over the airwaves.  At the time (like Nile Rodgers apparently) I did not appreciate the song.  In fact, Rodgers and Edwards threatened legal action over copyright but settled when they became credited as co-writers.  Again, similar to Nile, over the years the song has grown and grown on me and it is now one of my (and his) favourite songs and of course was instrumental in introducing hip hop to the public at large.

The 1980s saw Nile as one of the decade's top producers with artists as diverse as David Bowie, Duran Duran and Madonna.  By the time the 1990s was with us, I had lost touch with the popular music scene to some extent, but remember the shock when reading that Bernard Edwards had died of pneumonia following a concert in Japan in 1996.

This century has seen Nile touring with Chic, including two magnificent performances at Glastonbury over recent years.  He has also survived prostrate cancer and contributed to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories album.  Nile Rodgers is one of my all time musical heroes and here is the song inspired by Nile and Bernard being refused entry into Studio 54 on New Year’s Eve 1977:

Remembering John Wetton

I have only recently become aware about the sad passing of John Wetton earlier this year on 31st January. 

He was a great singer, songwriter and bass guitarist with a number of bands including Family, UK and Asia.  However, I first became aware of John when he joined King Crimson in 1972 and contributed to their fine LPs Lark's Tongue In Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, Red and U.S.A.  This was for me the best line up of Crimson due in no small part to the rhythm section of John and Bill Bruford.  Stand out songs from this era include Easy Money, Exiles, Book of Saturday, The Night Watch, Fallen Angel and the incomparable Starless.

As previously mentioned, John was involved with other bands and musicians until he lost his fight against cancer.  Thank you so much for all the wonderful music that meant (and means) so much to me John.