Tonight

Whoops! I spaced on the date again. This album celebrated its 37th anniversary on the 1st of September, one of a handful of maligned releases Bowie issued in the eighties. But, is it really all that bad? Let's take a look. It's been a while...

The follow-up to Bowie's hugely successful Let's Dance features the return of bassist Carmine Rojas and drummer Omar Hakim, who both played on that record. Gone are Stevie Ray Vaughan and Niles Rogers unfortunately; but old friends Carlos Alomar and Robin Clark are back on guitar and backing vocals respectively. Another big presence is multi-instrumentalist, and the album's co-producer Derek Bramble. Hugh Padgham also earns a production credit, also acting as the record's engineer and mixer.

I did get this on CD in the leadup to seeing Bowie live in Melbourne in February 2004, but I don't think I've listened to it from start to finish since then. Now seems like a good time to rectify that. Let's go track by track, yeah?

1. LOVING THE ALIEN
For me, this is the album's absolute highlight. I think I was aware of this song before I ever heard it in full, which must have been around the early '00s, but my first impression was 'Ooooh, that's the bit from the Red Dwarf feem toon!'. It's a great track, and I think I became a little more enamoured with it when Bowie and Gerry Leonard stripped the arrangement back to basics on the A Reality Tour DVD. The full album version breaches the seven minute mark, which is basically the outgoing guitar solo, courtesy of Alomar. The single edit certainly works for brevity, but it's nice to hear the whole thing. One of only two songs wholly written by Bowie on this album. The themes of alienation and isolation that was present in a lot of his early work returns here, with the hope that the rest of the record will follow suit. 

2. DON'T LOOK DOWN
Unfortunately, not. A faux reggae feel permeates this track, and while it's not a terrible song, it feels a little half-baked. It's actually a cover of an Iggy Pop song, which I would not have picked. Bizarrely, it's the first of five tracks here that were co-written by Iggy. Maybe the success of China Girl prompted Bowie to look at some other songs of his..?

3. GOD ONLY KNOWS
Bowie covers The Beach Boys? Yes, indeed. This feels like a big swing and a miss, which is a shame. I don't know if it's the arrangement, which is full of pulsing horns, or a badly picked key to perform it in but it doesn't really land. I guess this is just one of those songs with a 'Cover at Your Own Risk' clause. Missed opportunity, I think.

4. TONIGHT
Enter Tina Turner! And more eighties poppy reggae vibes; complete with key change at the end! This is another Iggy Pop cover, which was co-written by Bowie, and originally featured on the 1977 album Lust For Life, which Bowie also co-produced. Again, I've not heard the source material, but it feels a little lacklustre. Even Tina's vocal is relegated to back-up duties, rather than this becoming a true duet. 

5. NEIGHBOURHOOD THREAT
Again, another Iggy Pop cover, and also taken from Lust For Life. This has a little more punch and presence than the other two though. Some nice quiet menace in Bowie's vocal delivery and the stabby horns are great, particularly at the end, which is the perfect lead-in for...

6. BLUE JEAN
The album's first single, which was issued as part of a 21min short video directed by Julien Temple called Jazzin' for Blue Jean. I first heard this track as the final song on the Changesbowie tape I bought in Bali when I was 14. It took a while to really enjoy the track. It came on after Modern Love, which let's face it, is a much better song, and probably a better way to end the compilation. So, for years Blue Jean felt like an interruption or a final thought better left 'unthunk', for want of a better word. Thankfully, I've garnered more affection for it over the years. I think the turning point might have been seeing Kate Ceberano live and she belted out a ripping cover version. Anyway, it's easily one of the album's few highlights.

7. TUMBLE AND TWIRL
Another song co-written by Bowie and Iggy Pop. This hadn't turned up on either singer's album, and again comes across as a bit of pleasant filler. There are some nice bits of horn, and cool octave harmonies from Bowie. There's some nice slap bass guitar work here courtesy of Mark King (Level 42), who was uncredited for some reason. 

8.  I KEEP FORGETTIN'
Now, here is another cover from the sixties, very much in vogue during the eighties. Not heard the original, which apparently was done by Chuck Jackson, who enjoyed a hit with the Bacharach/David penned Any Day Now. Not an unpleasant listen, but a little tepid. 

9. DANCING WITH THE BIG BOYS
The final song of the album was a lot of eighties bombast, and was co-written by Iggy Pop and Carlos Alomar. Iggy actually appears on the track, although you wouldn't really know it. His vocal is buried behind Bowie and the three background singers. It doesn't take long for this one to lose its charm as well, as the lyrics are quite repetitive. Thankfully, it ends quickly, as does the album. It barely breaks thirty five minutes, which isn't a bad thing, I guess. Wait, that means that Loving the Alien takes up a fifth of the album? Far out.

Yeah, not great, but not terrible. I'd almost give it three stars just for Loving the Alien and Blue Jean. But I won't. 2/5 from me. Can't see me revisiting it for a while, he he he...

NEXT UP: Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) - Sep 12th

Diamond Dogs

Bowie's eighth studio album turned 47 years old just a few days ago (24th May). It is the first record of his to not feature Mick Ronson since 1970's The Man Who Sold The World. Also absent are the other members of Ziggy Stardust's band The Spiders from Mars, bassist (and sideburn enthusiast) Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick 'Woody' Woodmansey. The rhythm section on Diamond Dogs consists of legendary session bass player Herbie Flowers and the excellent Aynsley Dunbar on the drums, who had played with Bowie the previous year on his covers album Pin Ups. Dunbar also played with Frank Zappa for much of the early 70s as part of the new Mothers line-up(s). Drummer Tony Newman also contributes and Mike Garson continues to keep his spot as Bowie's keyboardist. 

This album also sees Bowie handling all of the guitar duties. Something I was not aware of until quite recently. It was an offhand remark from a fellow behind the bar at a gig that made me dig out my copy and read the liner notes. Bugger me, he was right! Guitarist Alan Parker (not the film director) does splash some wah-wah magic onto the track 1984, and has also been credited with adding the last three notes to the riff of Rebel Rebel. In addition to the guitar, Bowie plays saxophone, Mellotron and Moog synthesiser as well. Except for Rock 'n' Roll With Me, which was co-written with Geoff McCormack (AKA Warren Peace), Bowie penned all of the album's songs.

I've never really held this album in high esteem, partly because I never really dug the title track, which initially put me off the record as a whole. While I like it a little more now, it's far from my favourite Bowie song. However, the record itself has grown on me considerably in recent years, partly because of my 'late-to-the-party' fondness for the Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (reprise) suite. The aforementioned wah guitar on 1984 certainly helps too. 

Diamond Dogs is the last glam rock album Bowie recorded, and the end of the Ziggy Stardust persona (despite a very Ziggy-esque looking human/dog hybrid appearing on the cover). A possible new character is revealed as Halloween Jack in the title track, but it's not someone who remains part of the album's loose concept. Bowie had intended to create a musical version of George Orwell's novel 1984, but was shut down by Orwell's widow. Some of the ashes of this project remain in the form of the songs 1984 and Big Brother. 

Similarly to the Ziggy Stardust album opener Five Years, Diamond Dogs begins with the brief mood-setting, and somewhat unsettling, Future Legend. Basically, it's an eerie monologue with creepy sounds and effects that gives way to the noise of a live audience and the famous shouted line: "This ain't rock 'n' roll...this is genocide!". After the semi-classic title track we are treated to, in my opinion, the best moment of the record, Sweet Thing.

What a song! It's become of my quintessential Bowie tracks. I love how it starts with a fairly slow musical build, adding to its theatrical feel. Bowie delivers the opening line in a lower register, teeming with quiet menace: "It's safe in the city/To love in a doorway", conjuring up images of depravity, and an ominous sense of what the futuristic metropolis where the album takes place must feel like. When Bowie jumps up an octave, it gives me goosebumps every time! That chorus gets stuck in my head from time to time too. Watching Bernard Fowler perform Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (reprise) on the livestreamed A Bowie Celebration in January this year was absolutely amazing. His rendition captured the spirit of Bowie, but he made it his own at the same time. That moment was my absolute highlight of the whole show.

While Sweet Thing works quite well on its own, the following Candidate and reprise don't so much. Repeating themes and lyrics from the former, they need to be heard as a whole suite to work. One wonders why it wasn't just one big track. Like when Silverchair had Those Thieving Birds pt1/Strange Behaviour/Those Thieving Birds pt2 as one song on 2007's excellent Young Modern album. If you have the Diamond Dogs album on your iPod or favourites playlist on a streaming service, it's a little jarring to hear Candidate away from the Sweet Thing(s). Minor quibble, but there you go.

The first side ends with the bonafide classic Rebel Rebel, delivering one of the most satisfying 'Side A's in the Bowie catalogue. Things get a little hit and miss from here on the flip side. Rock 'n' Roll With Me and We Are the Dead aren't anything sensational, with the former arguably being the least interesting track on the album. I do quite like 1984 and Big Brother though, and one wonders what Bowie would have come up with, had his Orwellian musical been able to reach fruition. 1984 has an almost pre-disco feel and the anthemic chorus sounds like it indeed belongs in a musical. 

The short final track Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family is not much more than repeated bursts of 'shake it up' or 'move it up' or 'brother/bro'. Maybe it was somehow tied to the 1984 narrative, but it's an odd way to end the album. Bizarrely, I find the song's title more creative and entertaining than the actual track.

Anyway, while the album's loose concept doesn't really come off, there is a sense of a dingy, apocalyptic world in the future. There is a lot to like here, and I will offer up the controversial opinion that it's more listenable than Aladdin Sane. 

So, I give this 3.5/5 and will be listening to some parts quite a bit in the future. He he he..

NEXT UP: Heathen - June 11th