Stardust: The Unabashed David Bowie Music Guide

David Bowie's Low
Low

One of Bowie's very best, probably my #2 Bowie album behind Diamond Dogs. A jarring collaboration with Eno that reflects very accurately a sense of withdrawal, made during a time when Bowie did withdraw to Berlin. The second half of the album is comprised of meditative instrumentals that are very evocative, in turn peaceful, disturbing, reflective. Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor borrowed heavily from this one on some of his instrumental tracks. The first half of Low more than challenges the incoming punks of 1977, artfully trumping them without resorting to mimickry.

Low strongly reflects the result of, and the rebuilding from, a nervous breakdown. Simple lyrics (but not simple minded) document reacquainting oneself with the most fundamental aspects of existence. Always Crashing in the Same Car arm-wrestles with the despair that stems from recognizing one's patterns of weakness. Low was the most honest and direct album up to that time, from the man known for giving us personas. A keeper.

Low

Speed Of Life
Breaking Glass
What In The World
Sound And Vision
Always Crashing In The Same Car
Be My Wife
A New Career In A New Town

Warszawa
Art Decade
Weeping Wall
Subterraneans

Bonus tracks:

Some Are (1976-79, previously unreleased)
All Saints (1976-79, previously unreleased)
Sound And Vision (1991, remixed version)

David Bowie's Heroes
"Heroes"

A daring move which risked alienating listeners who merely wanted spoon-fed radio chow. Much turmoil in this one, exemplified by the excellent Beauty And The Beast and Joe The Lion. Following the format set by Low, the second half of "Heroes" emphasized moody instrumentals, reflecting Bowie's collaboration with Brian Eno during these years in Berlin. In a similar vein as the previous album Low, but whatever Bowie was dealing with beneath the surface in Low ruptured to the forefront in this wonderfully harrowing work. Additionally, the instrumental Abdulmajid is one of the best bonus tracks added to Bowie's catalog with the Ryko reissues.

I'd put this one right up there at #6 in the list of Bowie's all-time best albums. A brief anecdote: in 1977 an acquaintance not known for her adventurous palate purchased "Heroes" at the same time as ELO's Out of the Blue. "Heroes" frightened her; however, she played that tepid ELO jello over and over again. What the hell, it's a wiggly world.

"Heroes"

Beauty And The Beast
Joe The Lion
"Heroes"
Sons Of The Silent Age
Blackout

V-2 Schneider
Sense Of Doubt
Moss Garden
Neukoln
The Secret Life Of Arabia

Bonus tracks:

Abdulmajid (1976-79, previously unreleased)
Joe The Lion (1991, remixed version)

David Bowie's Lodger
Lodger

Lodger is the least of Bowie's Berlin period. Not that it's not a good album, there are good songs on this record. Maybe it's the sequencing. The collection as a whole just seems as disjointed as the cover portrait of David. Including one of Bowie's all-time most nondescript tracks, Move On, as one of the album's first three cuts is a major sequencing faux pas. The opening track, Fantastic Voyage, starts things off with good sentiments but there's a point in the song where Bowie hits this note, and holds it, and holds it. So we know Bowie can hit and hold a note, but it seems a bit conspicuous, disturbing an otherwise great song. As my friend said, "Hey, Frank Sinatra!"

Between these two tracks lies a favorite, African Night Flight. Any tune with "cricket menace" is okay by me. This song is a play on rhythm, the words tumbling over each other in a melange of syllables, piling up in jumbles of sonic absurdity. The fact that this hilarity makes any sense at all is a credit to Mr. Bowie. Both African Night Flight and Yassassin flavor with insinuations of foreign spices throughout. Yassassin has a quirky rhythm that evokes mental images of double-jointed people dancing.

The CD really hits its stride midway through the disk. Red Sails is an upbeat shouter in keeping with Lodger's theme of travel and adventure. Would have made a great opening track to kick off the album. The lead single, DJ, follows, ramping up for the album's highlight, the hard-charging Look Back In Anger. Bowie always knew who to borrow from, and Bowie's theatrical ambitions may have encouraged him to snake the title of John Osborne's 1956 play that introduced the "angry young man".

Speaking of the male animal, Boys Keep Swinging rolls up next, and oh man, look at those cavemen go. One of the clumsier entries in a long line of Bowie's gender-based songs. Chugs along adequately. Popular with other people.

Repetition continues "Gender Role Model Studies 201", examining spousal abuse. "What's the use of me working when you can't damn cook?" harkens back to the cretinous voice that closed Hunky Dory, "Lay me place and bake me pie/I'm starving for me gravy...". The repetition in the melody underscores the repetition of the endless cycle of spousal abuse as Bowie relentlessly drills his target. You'll either love or hate this song. Wins my vote.

Red Money, the closing track, is a regurgitated Sister Midnight, only not nearly as good. The original, cowritten by Iggy Pop and Bowie and appearing on Iggy's phenomenal The Idiot, is so good it belongs among the cultural artifacts we include on the next tourist rocket ship to wander about the galaxy. Red Money doesn't.

The Ryko reissue of Lodger includes a bonus extended remodeling of Look Back In Anger, one of the better bonus tracks in the Bowie catalog. Nice long searing intro building up to the song itself. After a while you'll notice that Bowie excels at long intros.

Lodger

Fantastic Voyage
African Night Flight
Move On
Yassassin
(Turkish for: Long Live)
Red Sails

DJ
Look Back In Anger
Boys Keep Swinging
Repetition
Red Money

Bonus tracks:

I Pray, Olé (1979, previously unreleased)
Look Back In Anger (1988 version)

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