Let's Dance

When I was a kid my dad had a taped copy of this album. I have a feeling the other side of the cassette had Queen's Hot Space on it. Ahhh, the early eighties. This was the record that pushed Bowie into super-duper stardom. Add to that the boom of MTV, the rise of the video clip, and Bowie was everywhere! You could write a decent post purely on the impact the Let's Dance video had at the time. It's hard to believe that today marks 38 years since the arrival of Let's Dance. Well, maybe not that hard, but my my, the time do fly!

Indeed some of my first Bowie experiences were with songs from this album. You couldn't escape the first three singles on the radio or the TV. The only earlier Bowie tune I remember before this album was Ashes to Ashes, and I would have been four years old when that was released. I have vivid memories of watching the clown in slow motion on Countdown in our old lounge room in Morley. 

Let's Dance was, and remains, Bowie's biggest selling album, hitting the No.1 position on charts around the world. The following Serious Moonlight Tour ran from May to December of 1983, and played throughout Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Bowie spent half a month in the country of Japan, where his popularity was at a career peak. He even played three shows at the Perth Entertainment Centre in November of that year. I think I remember black and white posters in the Sunday Times or the West advertising the concerts. I was living in Albany at that point, and wasn't the Bowie fan that I am now. And I would have been seven years old and short on cash and transport, he he he.

But, let's take a look at the album. Co-produced by Bowie with Nile Rodgers, this is one of the few Bowie records where he doesn't play an instrument. The band assembled for the studio sessions include Carmine Rojas on bass, Robert Sabino on keys, the double drumming attack of Omar Hakim and Tony Thompson, percussionist Sammy Figuera, oh, and some guy called Stevie Ray Vaughan on lead guitar. There was also a powerful horn section and backing vocalists a-plenty. 

The very first noise we hear is that of SRV's guitar as Modern Love kicks the record off. His distinctive sound and style adds a lot to the early eighties production, and some songs have aged well; while others have not. The first three songs, Modern Love, China Girl and the title track, were also the first three singles of the record. They also form the strongest part of the album. The fourth and last single, Without You, is largely overlooked, but it's not a bad track. It's just hard for anything here to stack up against those three songs. Interestlingly, it's not Rojas on the bass, but Bernard Edwards, who co-formed Chic with Rodgers. 

The quality of the songs dips somewhat on the second half; or side, depending on your format. Cat People (Putting Out Fire) was originally recorded for the soundtrack of the 1982 film The Hunger, which also starred Bowie. Apparently, he wasn't happy with how it came out, hence it's re-recorded appearance here. I initially preferred this version, but after seeing its use in Inglourious Basterds, I now like the original better. Richochet and Shake It are pleasant enough to listen to, the former using some interesting syncopation, but the latter comes across as pure filler. The only cover is a version of Metro's 1977 song Criminal World, which seems to be a baffling choice, for mine.

When this record came out that I started to realise there were album versions and single versions of the same song. The version of Let's Dance on my dad's cassette was longer than the one I saw on TV. I didn't know that was a thing that record companies had started doing. Obviously, songs were commonly cut to either fit radio formats (Billy Joel's Piano Man was famously edited down on its initial release) or TV spots, but I was largely unaware until this album. Bizarre to think that is one of the memories I associate with Let's Dance. I also remembering wondering what the heck 'serious moonlight' was. In fact, I still wonder. He he he...

I give this 3/5. Would dabble a little again.

NEXT UP: Never Let Me Down - 27th April