David Bowie: Station to Station (RCA)
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I was never much of a Bowie guy. In high school I had my yard sale copy of Diamond Dogs based in large part to the single "Suffragette City" which is pretty catchy. But I largely didn't like the album.
Much later, he had a huge hit with Let's Dance, a MTV-era danceable record that cleaned up his image. He may have been slender and even a shade effeminate, but that bisexual stuff, no way. To me, he seemed like someone who was hopping on one trend after another with little originality.
I can't still consider myself a big fan, but my opinions have softened over the years. (Age? Am I right?) I checked out the CD box set from the library that included the original mix of this album, and a 2016 remastering. The latter version might not be perfect, but the mix is arguably superior.
I still wasn't 100% sold, though I was warming up to it. I'll add my daughter is a huge Bowie fan. We bought her tickets for what turned out to be his final appearance in Pittsburgh. Later my wife said, why didn't we go too?
Two weeks ago I went to the dollar sale downstairs at Jerry's Records. One thing I spent one whole dollar on was a bootleg DVD of a practice session of this band on stage. I watched it before turning it over to my daughter.
Jerry's didn't have a used CD copy of this album There was a vinyl copy, but I didn't feel like paying $30.
Impressions?
I like the melodica on "Station to Station" and "Golden Years", a sound later echoed on the first two Gang of Four records, which I really enjoy.
The opening of the title track has some of the best several minutes on any Bowie record I imagine, and he doesn't sing on them. It's great even when he begins singing: "The return of the thin white duke, throwing darts in lovers' eyes". What does it mean? Is it a reference to his heavy cocaine habit at the time? I don't know, but it's a poetic line. But then the song keeps going and becomes a different song. Not into at first, but it builds well and okay, it's worth ten minutes.
Because I can't speak with authority on Bowie records, I can't say it this is any more influenced by African-American funk and soul records than any other. But it's pretty obvious. "Golden Years" is straight up white soul. And the song "Stay" in a different setting, different arrangement/singer/instrumentalists, wouldn't be too far out of place on a Funkadelic album.
For all his emoting, "Word on a Wing" bores me. Sorry. Sappy, overplayed/oversung.
"TVC15" however, is one of David's best moments to me. It starts modestly enough, with an "oh oh oh oh oh" blues voice that seems like old-school r'n'b. Leading into the chorus, "Transition, transmission" is a great line. Then the chorus his hard. Almost frightening. "Oh my TVC-15!" Is it reference to the radio? I don't know. I could take the effort to look, but won't.
That brings me back to "Stay." Clearly African-American influenced. It rocks as hard as anything on this album. For as great as "TVC15" and "Golden Years" might be, this is the highlight of the album. It's played with verve by his backing band.
While that song is the album's apex, "Wild is the Wind" is the closer. I was surprised to find that Dmitri Tiomkin is credited as that composer. I Dmitri as a film composer, one of the many composers to work with Hitchcock (Dial "M" for Murder). I'm finding it was a song written for the film of the same title, and recorded by Nina Simone years before this album. So once again I'll assume it's the influence of African-American musicians that places this song on this record.
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