David Bowie 1976
Introduction
After the release of the Young Americans album, it seemed as if David Bowie would remain loyal to soul music. But, his next album turned out to be a transitional album, once again.
Problems
By mid-1975, David Bowie was in trouble. He had (financial) problems with his former manager Tony Defries, whom he had recently fired. But the real problem was his cocaine addiction, which would rise to astronomical levels (see also the cocaine use infographic in the Young Americans article).
In early 1975, Bowie moved to Los Angeles in preparation for his first film role in Nicholas Roeg’s adaptation of The Man Who Fell To Earth. In Los Angeles, Bowie’s addiction grew increasingly severe. His paranoia was notorious (for instance, he was convinced that witches wanted to steal his semen), he saw people falling from buildings, refused to use elevators (due to a fear of heights), and lived on red and green peppers, milk, and cocaine; at one point Bowie weighed only 40 kilos. In the 2009 biography Bowie: A Biography, Bowie also states that it cost him friendships: “If you really want to lose all your friends and all of the relationships that you ever held dear, [cocaine is] the drug to do it with.” The drugs kept him awake, sometimes for three to four days in a row.
David Bowie – Grammy Awards 1975
On March 1, 1975, he presented a Grammy to Aretha Franklin. He delivered a rambling speech and looked frighteningly thin.
I was in a very serious state. You just have to look at some of the photographs of me, I cannot believe I actually survived it. You can see me at the Grammies, for instance, with Lennon, it terrifies me. It’s a skull. There’s not an ounce on me. I’m just a skeleton.
David Bowie, Mojo magazine, July 2002
Former (and current) associates were also concerned. Mick Ronson, who worked with Bowie from 1970 to 1973, was one of them. In the first half of 1975 he said the following.
I wish that Dave would get himself sorted out. He’s so very confused – I know he is. What he really needs is to have some good friends around him. I’ll tell you he hasn’t got one good friend now. He needs somebody around him to say, “David fuck off, you’re fucking stupid.” He needs one person who won’t bow to him.
Mick Ronson, Melody Maker, April 5, 1975
And to think that the worst was yet to come.
His mental health was further exacerbated by a growing interest in occult matters, which developed into an obsession. Through (Led Zeppelin’s) Jimmy Page, Bowie was introduced to Aleister Crowley, the satanist and “prophet.” He read everything he could get his hands on, with a particular fondness for religion, the Kabbalah, black magic, etc. These subjects would influence the lyrics of his upcoming album.
His half-brother had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered from (epileptic) seizures. His brother and his illness had a tremendous impact on Bowie. Bowie’s fear he might also have or develop the same illness only intensified during his cocaine period.
David Bowie – The Man Who Fell To Earth – Poster
The Man Who Fell To Earth
Following an early 1975 conversation with director Nicholas Roeg about a role in Roeg’s next movie, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Bowie got excited and accepted the offer. Filming took place from June 2 through August 25, 1975, in New Mexico. Director Nicholas Roeg demanded that Bowie refrain from using cocaine during the shoot, a promise he largely kept. According to accounts, he was actively involved, well prepared, and always on time.
However, Bowie himself remembered things quite differently.
I just learned the lines for that day and did them the way I was feeling. It wasn’t that far off. I actually was feeling as alienated as that character was. It was a pretty natural performance. …a good exhibition of somebody literally falling apart in front of you. I was totally insecure with about 10 grams [of cocaine] a day in me. I was stoned out of my mind from beginning to end.
Movieline magazine, April 1992
Between shoots, he read extensively (Bowie even claimed he had brought 400 books with him), but also wrote lyrics, short stories, and began work on his autobiography, which he titled The Return of the Thin White Duke (with a planned publication date of December 1975). Bowie also wrote music, some of which was intended for the film’s soundtrack.
After filming wrapped, Bowie moved into a new home in Los Angeles, where his mental and physical health would further implode. Bowie attempted to record music with Iggy Pop, (The Rolling Stones’) Ron Wood, and also with Paul Buckmaster (whom Bowie knew from his first hit Space Oddity), with whom he recorded atonal music for the soundtrack of The Man Who Fell To Earth. None of these recordings amounted to anything; Bowie’s music didn’t end up being part of the soundtrack.
Besides the experience of acting and movies, Bowie took another very important thing away from The Man Who Fell To Earth: the character Thomas Jerome Newton, whom Bowie portrayed in the film. For both Station To Station and Low, Bowie used the Newton image, including his appearance and clothing. The Newton character also inspired Bowie’s next (musical) role: the Thin White Duke, the unattached, emotionally distant, and cruel megalomaniac.
David Bowie – Station To Station
Station To Station
On January 23, 1976, David Bowie released his tenth studio album titled Station To Station. The album was the result of recording sessions that took place at Cherokee Studios in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, from September 21 through November/December 1975. Despite the enormous amounts of drugs that were used, the outcome of the sessions was nothing short of spectacular. The album contains several vocal highlights from Bowie’s career. Bowie sometimes worked days that lasted more than 26 hours.
He had assembled a regular set of musicians around him, with whom he would collaborate extensively in the years to come. Guests dropped by regularly, such as Jeff Beck, Bonnie Raitt, Frank Sinatra, Ronnie Wood, and Bobby Womack, with whom Bowie sometimes jammed. Another guest, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band pianist Roy Bittan, played piano on the album. In 2015, Bittan said, “It’s one of my favorite projects I’ve ever worked on.”
The album’s first single had already been released on November 3, 1975. Golden Years was a hit and seemed to reinforce the direction Bowie had taken with his Young Americans album. But, as is often the case, singles are not always an accurate reflection of the album from which they are taken. Station To Station was Bowie’s most “mature” musical statement to date. The music built on his previous album, with soul and (especially) funk influences, supplemented by krautrock and electronic music influences, with bands like Kraftwerk, Neu!, and Can serving as inspirations.
The album contains one cover, which Bowie recorded as a tribute to Nina Simone, whose 1966 version of Wild Is The Wind inspired him to record it himself. When Frank Sinatra complimented him on the recording and his vocal performance, Bowie decided to include it on Station To Station. With just six tracks and 36 minutes of music, the album is fairly short, but the music goes in many directions. This is most convincingly expressed in the opening track, Station To Station, which lasts over ten minutes and musically develops from art rock into soul/funk/disco, featuring multiple tempo changes. The intro, in which a train can be heard moving from right to left across the speakers, was created entirely by guitarist Earl Slick, who used flangers and delay effects to produce a highly convincing train sound from his guitar.
In addition to the funk/soul of Golden Years, the Roxy Music–like art rock of TVC15, and the funky groove of Stay, the two ballads stand out as highlights. Word On A Wing and Wild Is The Wind are both relatively long and, above all, beautifully sung. Wild Is The Wind in particular is regarded as one of the finest vocal performances Bowie ever recorded. This is all the more striking given the physical and mental state Bowie was in during the sessions.
Lyrically, the album is ambivalent but predominantly dark in tone. The opening line alone, “The return of the thin white duke / Throwing darts in lovers’ eyes”, paints a dark picture of lovers and love in general. But what actually is that love? “It’s not the side-effects of the cocaine / I’m thinking that it must be love”. There is little light in Golden Years either: “Run for the shadows, run for the shadows / Run for the shadows in these golden years”. In Word On A Wing, Bowie has an internal conversation with God, something he first seriously contemplated during the filming of The Man Who Fell To Earth: “My prayer flies like a word on a wing / Does my prayer fit in with your scheme of things?”.
TVC15 is said to have been inspired by a hallucination experienced by Iggy Pop, in which Pop’s girlfriend was consumed by Bowie’s television… “I brought my baby home, she, she sat around forlorn / She saw my TVC 15, baby’s gone, she / She crawled right in, my, my, she crawled right in my / So hologramic, oh, my TVC 15”. In Stay, Bowie is lonely, bored (by the monotony of addiction?), and searching for connection: “Stay this time, I really meant to so bad this time / ‘Cause you can never really tell / When somebody wants something you want too”. In the closing track Wild Is The Wind, the only song not written by Bowie, the opening line is intensely moving in all its simplicity and expressive power: “Love me, love me, love me / Love me, say you do”.
The album’s overarching theme may well be Bowie’s loneliness and his (in)ability to form genuine connections. In interviews from that period (see also the sub-article David Bowie – The major 1976 interviews), he stated that he had never truly loved anyone, not even his then-wife Angie. Bowie keeps his distance, yet wants more.
David Bowie – Station To Station – Color sleeve
Album cover
The album cover features a photograph (taken by Steve Schapiro) of Bowie on the set of The Man Who Fell To Earth, in which his character Newton steps into the space capsule to return him to his planet. The initial idea was to use the larger color photo for the cover, but Bowie opted for a smaller black-and-white crop.
A good choice: the black-and-white look fits well with the album’s themes and the character of the Thin White Duke. The color sleeve was later used for reissues of the album, mostly during the (19)90s.
Reception
In contrast to the preceding Young Americans, reviews of Station To Station were predominantly positive, with the exception of a very negative review by American critic Dave Marsh.
- “a strange and confusing musical whirlpool where nothing is what it seems” and “one of the most significant albums released in the last five years”.
(NME) - “a great record of our time”
(Sounds, John Ingham) - “the thoughtfully professional effort of a style-conscious artist whose ability to write and perform demanding rock & roll exists comfortably alongside his fascination for diverse forms… while there’s little doubt about his skill, one wonders how long he’ll continue wrestling with rock at all”
(Rolling Stone, Teri Moris) - “the most significant advance in LP filler since Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music” and “it’s rather appalling that the best thing [Bowie] can think of doing with his talent currently is fool around.”
(Dave Marsh, Fort Lauderdale News) - “a wail and throb that won’t let up”, “a beautiful, swelling, intensely romantic melancholy” and “his (first) masterpiece”.
(Lester Bangs, Creem) - “TVC 15 [is my] favorite piece of rock and roll in a very long time” and “spaceyness has always been his shtick, and anybody who can merge Lou Reed, disco, and Dr. John… deserves to keep doing it for five minutes and 29 seconds”
(The Village Voice, Robert Christgau)
Nowadays, the term “masterpiece” is frequently used when referring to Station To Station, as is the case with many Bowie albums. Station To Station often appears in “all-time best” lists, books, and articles.
David Bowie – Station To Station – Ad
Bowie’s opinion?
Where Bowie had a clear opinion about Young Americans, he was less forthcoming about Station To Station.
I compromised in the mixing. I wanted to do a dead mix… All the way through, no echo… I gave in and added that extra commercial touch. I wish I hadn’t.
Nicolas Pegg, The Complete David Bowie, 2016
In 1977, he briefly addressed the sense of detachment on Station To Station.
[The album was] devoid of spirit… Even the love songs are detached, but I think it’s fascinating.
Richard Riegel, Creem, April 1977
He retained little memory of the recording sessions; he could recall little to nothing of his work in the studio.
I can only think of one incident on Station To Station – it’s the only thing I can remember and that was trying to get Earl Slick… I remember working with Earl on the guitar sounds out in the studio itself and screaming the feedback sound that I wanted at him! I remember doing that! I also remember telling him to take a Chuck Berry riff and just play it all the way through the solo – don’t deviate, just play that whole riff over and over again, even though the chords are changing underneath, just keep it going. He said “what, man?”, I said, “It’ll work! It’ll work!” That’s about all I remember. I can’t even remember the studio. I know it was in LA because I’ve read it was in LA…
Planet Rock Profiles, November 1998
and
I would say a lot of the time I spent in America in the ’70s is really hard to remember, in a way that I’ve not seen happen to too many other artists. I was flying out there – really in a bad way. So I listen to Station To Station as a piece of work by an entirely different person.
Q magazine, February 1997
Review
About Young Americans I wrote that it was the best album of everything that had come before, and the same applies to Station To Station for me. The soul, funk, and (kraut/art) rock on the album blend together perfectly, making listening to this record a wonderful experience.
Does it rival Low, “Heroes”, Lodger, or Scary Monsters? No, those albums stand head and shoulders above the rest. But Station To Station is an indispensable link between the “earlier” Bowie and the unparalleled Berlin Trilogy.
David Bowie – Station To Station – Singles
Singles
Three singles were culled from the album.
- Golden Years
(released on November 21, 1975) - TVC 15
(released on April 30, 1976) - Stay
(released in July 1976)
David Bowie – Station To Station – Back cover
Songs
All songs written by David Bowie, except Wild Is The Wind, music by Dimitri Tiomkin, lyrics by Ned Washington.
- Station To Station
- Golden Years
- Word On A Wing
- TVC 15
- Stay
- Wild Is The Wind
David Bowie – Station To Station – Inner sleeve
Musicians
- David Bowie – vocals, guitar, saxophone, Minimoog, Mellotron
- Carlos Alomar, Earl Slick – guitar
- George Murray – bass
- Dennis Davis – drums
- Roy Bittan – piano, organ
- Warren Peace – background vocals
- Harry Maslin – melodica, synthesizer, vibraphone, saxophone
Promotion
To promote the album, Bowie appeared on a number of television programs and gave interviews, with, to put it mildly, mixed results.
On November 3, 1975, Bowie appeared on Soul Train. He was only the second white musician ever to perform on the show. He was briefly interviewed and lip-synced to Golden Years. He was drunk, and it showed: he forgot parts of the lyrics and moved in a noticeably odd manner. The performance was broadcast on January 3, 1976. On November 28, 1975, he was interviewed via satellite on the British Russell Harty Show, where Bowie came across as detached and gave evasive answers.
David Bowie – 1976 interviews
Interviews
In 1976, several interviews with Bowie appeared in magazines, newspapers, and periodicals. The two most prominent were with Rolling Stone and Playboy, published on February 12 and September 1976 respectively. In these, Bowie made a number of remarkable statements.
Rolling Stone, February 12, 1976
You could probably hear from Young Americans that I’m on an upper. It’s the first record I’ve actually liked since Hunky Dory.
Now. I’m all through with rock & roll. Finished. I’ve rocked my roll. It was great fun while it lasted but I won’t do it again.
Rock has always been the devil’s music. You can’t convince me that it isn’t.
Actually, I wonder… I think I might have been a bloody good Hitler. I’d be an excellent dictator. Very eccentric and quite mad.
Cameron Crowe, Rolling Stone, February 12, 1976
Playboy, September 1976
(What did you think of Barbara Streisand’s recording your song “Life on Mars”?) Bloody awful. Sorry, Barb, but it was atrocious.
I got into rock because it was an enjoyable way of making my money and taking four or five years to puzzle my next move out.
The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from. I do think that my plagiarism is effective.
I’d love to enter politics. I will one day. I’d adore to be Prime Minister. And, yes, I believe very strongly in fascism.
Television is the most successful fascist, needless to say. Rock stars are fascists, too. Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars.
All my albums are just me acting out certain poses and characters. That’s why I’m not entirely proud of a lot of my records.
Cameron Crowe, Playboy, September 1976
In particular, his comments about fascism would later come back to haunt Bowie, especially after his return to England in May 1976. A week before he arrived in England, he spoke with the Swedish press.
As I see it I am the only alternative for the premier in England. I believe Britain could benefit from a fascist leader. After all, fascism is really nationalism.
April 26, 1976
The full Rolling Stone and Playboy interviews from 1976 are included in their entirety in the sub-article David Bowie – The major 1976 interviews.
David Bowie – Isolar Tour program (including envelope)
Isolar Tour
The best promotion Bowie did for his Station To Station album was the Isolar Tour, which took Bowie across North America and Europe. From February 2 through May 18, Bowie played 64 concerts, which were enthusiastically received. With the exception of Wild Is The Wind, the entire Station To Station album was performed, supplemented with older material and covers, including a beautiful and original rendition of The Velvet Underground’s I’m Waiting For The Man.
Bowie shone during the concerts, which were characterized by drive, thrilling performances, Bowie singing at the peak of his abilities, and a setlist that reflected the direction his career was taking at that time.
David Bowie – Victoria Station incident – 05/02/1976
Victoria Station
The Isolar Tour brought Bowie back to England. On May 2, 1976, Bowie arrived at Victoria Station in London, where he was greeted by an ecstatic crowd. He arrived in an open-top Mercedes, waving to the crowd. Photographer Chalkie Davis was present and took photographs:
Unfortunately because of the gloomy late afternoon light at Victoria Station I used fill in flash on the four or five frames I managed to rattle off before he split.
When I showed the image to the NME the following day they decided to enhance his left arm by drawing a hand on the image, because of the flash it was partly missing. But when we saw the paper on Wednesday it looked very much like he was giving a Nazi salute.
Chalkie Davis, chalkiedavis.com, June 30, 2016
The photo, his earlier comments about fascism and Hitler, and his arrest at the Polish border for Nazi literature generated a great deal of media attention. The NME headlined “Heil and farwell”. It wasn’t only the public who were shocked. The American intelligence agency FBI also changed its description of Bowie in his file from “kooky” and “subversive” to “would-be-demagogue” and “apparent Nazi sympathiser.”
Bowie later claimed that the influence of drugs led him to make those statements. In October 1977, Bowie spoke with the British Melody Maker about the notorious photo.
That didn’t happen. THAT DID NOT HAPPEN. I waved. I just WAVED. Believe me. On the life of my child, I waved. And the bastard caught me. In MID-WAVE, man. And, God, did that photo get some coverage… As if I’d be foolish enough to pull a stunt like that. I died when I saw the photo. And even the people who were with me said, “David! How could you?” The bastards. I didn’t… GOD, I just don’t believe in all that.
Melody Maker, 29 oktober 1977
Bowie’s statements and photo played a role in the Rock Against Racism movement in England. Bowie continued to speak openly about fascism and racism for years afterward, including in his lyrics, and he strongly distanced himself from those ideologies.
Welcome home David (05/02/1976)
Back to Europe
Bowie became increasingly aware that his mental and physical health had reached an alarmingly poor state. He decided to leave the US and return to Europe. Through Switzerland and France, he would eventually settle in Berlin. After leaving the US, his cocaine consumption dropped considerably to almost nothing.
Bowie on living in Los Angeles.
There’s an underlying unease… You can feel it in every avenue… I’ve always been aware of how dubious a position it is to stay here for any length of time.
I look back on some things in total horror… And anyway I began to realise that the environment of Los Angeles, of America, was by this time detrimental to my writing and my work. It was no longer an inspiration to be caught in that environment.
Melody Maker, October 29, 1977
Three years later he was even more explicit: “[L.A.] should be wiped off the face of the earth”.
David Bowie – Station To Station – Re-releases
Other releases
In 1991 and 1999, Station To Station was reissued, remastered, and, in the first case, included additional (live) tracks. The color sleeve was used for these releases.
In 2010, Station To Station was released in special and deluxe editions. This release also included the recording of the Nassau Coliseum concert, which was part of the impressive Isolar Tour and took place on March 23, 1976. Part of the show was broadcast on American radio.
David Bowie – Live Nassau Coliseum ’76
Live Nassau Coliseum ’76
On February 10, 2017, Live Nassau Coliseum ’76 was released as a stand-alone double live album. Bowie and the band deliver the impressive setlist with conviction, drive, and passion. Bowie clearly enjoys himself and sounds intense and in excellent voice. David Bowie live at his very best. The live album cannot be praised enough.
Tracks
Station To Station / Suffragette City / Fame / Word On A Wing / Stay / Waiting For The Man / Queen Bitch / Life On Mars? / Five Years / Panic In Detroit / Changes / TVC 15 / Diamond Dogs / Rebel Rebel / The Jean Genie
In closing
What do you think of Station To Station, his best album, or merely a transitional record from plastic soul to the innovative drive of the Berlin Trilogy? Let me know!
Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: David Bowie – Station To Station. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.
