Stardust: The Unabashed David Bowie Music Guide - Let's Dance, Tonight, Never Let Me Down

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David Bowie's Let's Dance
Let's Dance

You know the title track by heart. It went to number one in more countries than either one of us has ever heard of. If Let's Dance is the kind of music you like, then it's probably the one you should get. AFTER you get the compilation The Singles which includes the three hits from this one, Let's Dance, Modern Love and China Girl.

But if you've got The Singles compilation, there are a couple dozen Bowie albums I'd recommend getting before this one. Unless of course you really NEED all seven minutes of the title track. (The 4:30 version is on The Singles. You won't notice the difference.)

The other five songs from this album range from pleasant to blah. The low point would be the clumsy reworking of Cat People. The Virgin reissue tags the collaboration with Queen, Under Pressure, onto the end of this one, bumping it up to nine tracks. Under Pressure is also available on The Singles.

Let's Dance

Modern Love
China Girl
Let's Dance
Without You

Ricochet
Criminal World
Cat People
Shake It

Bonus tracks:

Under Pressure (with Queen)

David Bowie's Tonight
Tonight

Original take: One of Bowie's weakest. 3 great songs, dump the rest. Highlights: Loving the Alien, Blue Jean and Dancing with the Big Boys. The first two songs are available in their single versions on, naturally, The Singles. The latter is a duet with co-author Iggy Pop.

Everything else reeks of the artificial

aerosol funk of feminine hygiene spray. Great place to hear Bowie yodel his way through the Beach Boys' songbook though. Phone-home reggae duet with celebrity guest of the month Tina Turner. Tasteful, faceless band. Bowie's primary goal in the 80's was to style his bank account. Blue Seven Inch for Blue Jean
Blue Jean 45

Revised outlook: The bonus tracks on the Virgin reissue buff this one up. This Is Not America, recorded with Pat Metheny for the soundtrack of The Falcon and The Snowman, is one of Bowie's very best recordings of the 1980's. Cool, seemingly dispassionate song that belies the content.

Joust a Gigolo

You'll also find the eight minute album version of Absolute Beginners, another excellent Bowie soundtrack recording from the 1980's. Don't let the assertion "1986 single" on the back of the CD case fool you, this is the full-length whopper, not the 5:35 single version (available on The Singles).

Rounding out this set is yet another soundtrack cut,
As The World Falls Down, the best of the original Bowie

songs from the Labyrinth soundtrack. Since This Is Not America is not on any other Bowie US CD, and since you've got the best song from each of three Bowie mid-80's soundtracks, these are the nuggets that'll make you say SCORE! David Bowie's Loving The Alien single

Tonight

Loving The Alien
Don't Look Down
God Only Knows
Tonight

Neighborhood Threat
Blue Jean
Tumble And Twirl
I Keep Forgetting
Dancing With The Big Boys

Bonus tracks:

This Is Not America
(1985 single with the Pat Metheny Group)
As The World Falls Down (1986)
Absolute Beginners (1986)

David Bowie's Never Let Me Down
Never Let Me Down

Warning Will Robinson! This album sucks! My friend bought this album when it came out, though I was the Bowie fan. Glad I heard my friend's CD so I didn't shell out for this turd. I finally coughed up 99 cents for a used vinyl copy in immaculate shape nine years later. Every used CD store in the world is overstocked with this one.

The only "must have" song is Time Will Crawl, but the rest of the album is so prefab it persuades you that you could probably live without it after all. How anyone could screw up Iggy Pop's wonderful blast Bang Bang is beyond me. Please, somebody give this song to that purple dinosaur, see if he can do anything with it.

This leads me to believe that David may be right when he says the problem with this album is the production rather than the material. You've got fifty million dollars worth of production in search of an album.

This dud, combined with the previous weak album, Tonight, turned me off from Bowie for many years until he regained my respect and affection with Black Tie White Noise. The Virgin reissue deletes Too Dizzy from the original lineup. Bonus tracks Girls, Julie and When The Wind Blows on the Virgin rerelease won't salvage this messy little fetus.

99 cent purchase update! Phone-home celebrity of the month duet -- Mickey Rourke shares a rap with Bowie on the bridge of Shinin' Star (Makin' My Love). Don't kid yourself, this pungent loaf has nothing to do with the funky Earth, Wind & Fire song. I could be wrong, but isn't Mickey Rourke that actor who's sort of like the Bruce Living the captioned life

Living the captioned life

Willis for losers or something?
From what I hear he makes a lot of movies about alcoholics and violent sex. Critics identify with this, so they like him a lot. Art damage romanticism aside, barfly is a good adverb for this album.

Never Let Me Down

Day In Day Out
Time Will Crawl
Beat Of Your Drum
Never Let Me Down
Zeroes

The Glass Spider
Shining Star (Makin' My Love)
New York's In Love
'87 And Cry
Too Dizzy*
Bang Bang

Note: Too Dizzy is deleted from the Virgin reissue

Bonus tracks:

Julie (1987 b-side of Day In Day Out)
Girls (1987 b-side of Time Will Crawl)
When The Wind Blows (from the soundtrack)

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