Station To Station (RCA) "A sixty thousand word novel is one image corrected fifty-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninetynine times" - Samuel R. Delaney

LONGACRE BOARD OF EXAMINATION INTERMEDIATE ROCK WRITING

Discuss David Bowie's "Station To Station" from any perspective available. Up to two hours may be spent on this question. You may answer in note from if necessary.

1. IT MAY be argued that there is a qualitative difference between music made out of necessity (i.e. to fulfil a contractual quota) and music made purely for the sake of enjoyment derived from making it.

David Bowie didn't have to make this album.

After completeing his work on the movie soundtrack of "The Man Who Fell To Earth", he was supposed to take a holiday until the New Year (this one), putzo) when he was/is scheduled to go inot rehearsal for the European tour and, presumably, the next U.S. tour.

....However, he ended up writing a batch of songs and flying his band into L.A. from New York to go into the studio and make this; an "extra" bonus album, if you like. Kind of like "The One That Got Away" in reverse.

2. The album opens with the sound of mighty trains chuffing determinedly from speaker to speaker (must be a real trip in quad, Jim), heavily phased to suggest ("allude to" would be more precise) the ambience of the white noise you get when you twist a radio or TV dial attempting to local a channel. (Not to mention "station-to-station" (as opposed to "person-to-person" long distance phone calls).

3. The title song, which opens the album, runs 10:08 (at least, that's what is says on the label. I haven't checked it). Bowie doesn't make his vocal entry until the track is nearly three and a half minutes.

4. If Bowie was James Brown he could well have entitled the second, up-tempo half of "Station To Station" "Diamond Dogs '76". The dominant sound of this album overdubs the claustrophobic guitar-strangeling garage band chording of "Dogs" (plus, to a lesser extent, the howling, wrenching lead guitar of "The Man Who Sold The World") over the itchy-disco rhythms of the "Young Americans" album, while Bowie's vocals evoke the lugubrious, heavily melodramatic vibratoed almost-crooning of Scott Walker.

5. "Golden Years," the album's Big single, is placed in the middle of the first side. The placing of an already-familiar single on an album of otherwise new material is always crucial, since it automatically provides a period of decompression, a relaxing of the concentration necessary to assimilate new music.

...."Golden Years" is a master stroke of a single (though not quite in the same exalted class as the masterly "Fame") and it's quite the most compact and direct piece on the album.

....Elsewhere, Bowie lays out vocally for quite considerable lenghts of time - particulary on the title track's companion Marathon, "Stay", which can be located over on the second side - leaving the band to cook uninterrupted.

....His vocals are not only sparse, but mixed right down and mumbled into the bargain.

In the days when I was into lyric sheets (i.e. before I remembered that Dylan never provided a lyric sheet in his life, and realised that a crucial part of my enjoyment of "Horses" was down to listening to the words as part of the record and comprehending/understanding/deciphering more of them with each listen instead of copping the whole thing off a dessicated cribsheets) I would have bitched about not being able to do the heavy lyrical analysis schtick straight off.

....As it is, I find myself listening to the sounds of the music (and the music of the sounds, man, far out!) rather than even trying to make out the lyrics.

....On a purely audio basis, therefore, "Station To Station" represents a solid triumph for Bowie as an organiser of music. Maybe if I had the sleeve I'd know whether it was a concept album (heh!) or not. Hope it isn't, though.

6. MUSICALLY, THE biggest surprise on the album is the intro to "TVC 15," the first track on the second side.

....It's roling bar-room piano (vaguely reminiscent of Climax's "Loose Up") with Bowie copping the "Oh-woa-hoo-wo-ho" vocal intro from the Yardbirds' "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" (the man is nothing if not eclectic) before settling into a tight but relaxed groove with a great chorus in which Bowie carols, "Transition/transmission". It's one of the craziest things I've heard in a long while.

....Incidentally, I have no idea of what the title means. My theory (which is my own, etc., etc.) is that it refers to Channel 15 on Los Angeles TV, but on the other hand Joe Stevens suggests that it's the register number of the video course that Bowie's supposed to be taking at U.C.L.A. while Mick Farren opines that it's a gearbox of some sort (alternate meaning to the "transmission" motif).

To coin a phrase, I await further enlightment.

7. "Stay" features a lurching raunch guitar part performed, or so Mr.Kent informs me, by Ron Wood.

....It confirms my beleif that the standard of Mr.Wood's playing is entirely determined by the company he keeps, a beleif initally fostered by a comparison of his playing at Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert and on Rod Stewart's sole albums (sublime) and on the vast majority of Faces manifestations (ridiculous), not to mention a breif earful of a recent Stones bootleg.

....Here he gets plenty of room to smear funk all over the scenery, ably supported by Willie Weeks on bass (and presumably therefore Andy Newmark on drums).

....Bowie's vocal line, embellished by female back-up voices singing octaves, is quite absurdly effete - not to mention loopily wacky a la Sparks - but it seems almost logical when juxtaposed with Wood's funk riffs.

....Since I'm working from a blank sleeve with no info, I can give you no exacting tidbits about the world-famous musicians, engineers, producers, arangers, derangers, freerangers and so forth who are doubtless embroiled in the proceedings.

....I can hazard a guess, though, that Tony Visconti is present in some productorial capacity and Paul Buckmaster in an arrangerial ditto, whereas the other musicians are simply whoever was in Bowie's road band at the time, with another Carlos Alomar or Earl Slick (or both) on guitars. The more Ronsonesque guitar leads on the album are certainly reminiscent of Slick's work on the live album.

8. In addition to he above-mentioned songs, the album also includes two real croonaruskies on which Bowie - and this is Ian Mac's idea, not mine, Dave's ol' pal (heh heh) sp don't git mad - sounds totally drunk.

....Dig the scenario - the bar's closed, the proprietor's sweeping the floor and stacking the chairs up on the tables with their legs in the air like abandoned mannequins, and this turd in the corner just won't stop singing along to the backing track in his head.

....More so then anywhere else on the album, Bowie discards the conventional tradition of rock singing (i.e. non-realistic, purporting o be a stylisation/abstraction?) of the wya the singer "normally" speaks and by extension therefore is) in favour of an abstraction of the styles of the so called "Balladeers".

....Both these songs are placed at the end of their respective sides; "Word On A Wing" comes at the end of side one, while "Wild Is The Wind" ends side two.

....The latter was written by Tiomkin and Washington (the only non-Bowie song); Tiomkin is presumably Dimitri of the Ilk, and is therefore, equally presumably, a theme-from-the-movie-of-the-same-name.

9. The main lyrical motif of the title song is "It's too late (to be greatful)/It's too late (to be hateful)".

10. "Station To Station" is a great dance album.

....It's funk on the edge, the almost claustrophobic rhyhtms of "Fame" diffused through the tortured guitars of Ziggy's memory tapes, plus that new vocal style, simultaneously ugly and mesmeric.

11. Let's hear it for the title guy in the baggy suit.

DAVID BOWIE: " Station To Station" (RCA APLI 1327).

IN AN interview which appeared some two years ago in the magazine Image, Nicholas Roeg offered as an illustration of his approach to film making this observation: "I like the idea of secrecy. I like the idea of a magician. I don't think the personalities of the director or artist should be made public. It destroys every kind of illusion."

....Those critics who have characterized David Bowie's career as no more than a series of casual and superficial flirtations with fashionable musical forms and popular ideas will, I'm sure, find it entirely appropriate that Roeg should have directed Bowie in his movie debut, The Man Who Fell To Earth. The two artists would seem to share a mutual admiration for ambiguity and disguise - qualities which mark their respective endeavors.

....Bowie, for instance, has preferred throughout his recording career to immerse himself in carefully contrived roles and personae through which he has sought to elaborate his various concepts and futuristic visions. He has established a reluctance to adopt any kind of intimate, confessional stance and a determination to assimilate a multiplicity of styles and technique, which has led his detractors to conclude that he has no real or substantial identity of his own.

....That argument has however, become less persuasive and has lost much of its credibility since Bowie made public his confusion and desperation with the audaciously conceived "David Live", an album of documentary intensity. Bowie it seemed, had become less concerned with the manipulation of fantasy and, on that album, was approaching his work with an hitherto unexpressed directness. With "Young Americans", released early last year, Bowie established a mode of expression which made it possible for him to explore the anguish of his isolation with articulate insight.

...."Young Americans" was a protracted examination of a particular predicament (the loneliness of stardom etc.); much of his earlier work, though expressing similar strain or melancholic despair has been less specific. The appeal of "Young Americans" was however limited by its insularity. It is difficult, after all, to sympathize with such privilege. Bowie may have been suffering all kinds of confusions, but he, at least, had the material benefits of his stardom to alleviate his pain if the going got too tough. All that, though, has gone out the window with "Station To Station".

....The album has all the desperate and immediate drama of say Neil Young's "Tonight's The Night" And white it bears certain stylistic similarities to "Young Americans" this record is entirely devoid of the luxurious and erotic arrangements which graced much of its predecessor. The music here is mostly dominated by the vivid cutting guitars of Alomar and Slick. There are only fleeting moments of musical extravagance from Bittan, whose baroque keyboard flourishes flicker through the album like echoes of Mike Garson's work on "Aladdin Sane" (though it should be stressed that Bittan most efficiently avoids Garson's unfortunate tendency to sound like Liberace on a bender).

....Overall, the sound can be compared to a mutation of the kamikaze guitar riffs which provide the driving force behind "The Man Who Sold The World" and the insistent disco beat which propelled "Fame". There are also occasional flashes from Alomar or Bowie's own guitar work on "Diamond Dogs".

....In short, a strange and confusing musical whirlpool where nothing is what it seems. The title track opens the album, and is, at ten minutes, the longest song Bowie's recorded since "The Width Of A Circle" (which opened "The Man Who Sold The World"). The first sounds we hear are of shunting trains panning across the speakers (which also, of course, allude to the kind of uncomfortable static precipitated by fiddling with the dials on a radio - "hazy cosmic jive"?).

....The band look into a savage relentless riff which only begins to disintegrate with Bowie's utterly chilling vocal entry. If the finst line he sings ("The return of the thin white duke/Throwing darts in lovers' eyes") doesn't immediately faze you, then the peculiar operatic, if detached quality of his voice surely will.

....The significance of the Iyrics remains elusive, but there's a terrifying anxiety here which runs through all the subsequent compositions even "Golden Years". It's as if Bowie is performing with the knowledge of the fact that there is, as R. D. Laing once wrote "nothing to be afraid of" because outside our own private self there exists nothing else. If anything, it's this kind of cosmic anguish which forms the emotional Centre of "Station To Station".

....And the tension which is precipitated stems from Bowie's refusal to believe this, and his attempts (expressed most forcefully on the lunatic ballad "Word On A Wing") to confront some omnipotent deity which he suspects may have deserted us. All the nightmares came today, and they looks as if they are here to stay.

....The terror implicit in the opening section of "Station To Station" is - assuaged slightly by the infectious climax which has Bowie stressing the need to believe in something and concluding that "it's not the side effects of the cocaine/I'm thinking that it must be love."

....The aforementioned "Word On A Wing" finds Bowie seeking to enter a dialogue with, gulp, God (the boy's nothing if not ambitious), Against Bittan's eloquent and Lyrical piano and Slick's stylish guitar, Bowie - crooning like a debauched balladeer - asserts that he is willing to relinquish his independence to the Lord's "scheme of things" if only he had conclusive proof of his existence. As if in answer to those agnostics who would question this decision he sings. "Just because I believe don't mean I don't think as well/Don't have to question everything in heaven and hell.

....It's an incredibly disquieting performance which leaves the listener, at least mortally confused.

....The second side of the album offers some respite from the psychic turmoil. "TVC 15" is, on the surface, hilarious, with Bittan's bar-room piano and rousing guitars stabbing away at yet another infectious riff, and a fabulously looney chorus. Bowie's vocals are exhilarating and reckless, though he still manages to unnerve the listener with unexpected, off hand observations like "One of these nights I may just jump out of that window". The following cut, "Stay", is probably the most straightforward statement on the album: a simple request for someone to share the author's isolation. It features the same claustrophobic intensity as "Fame", with Slick and Alomar (and, rumour has it, Ron Wood) slashing across the impenetrable rhythm section with colossal urgency.

...."Station To Station" closes as enigmatically as it began with the Dimitri Tiomkin/Ned Washington ballad, "Wild Is The Wind", a full blown romantic recalls earlier Bowie pieces like ''In The Heat Of The Morning" (from his first Deram album). Its forceful, unashamedly dramatic, totally appropriate to the record's overall sense of barely controlled hysteria.

....I realize that I might check my enthusiasm, but I must say that I find "Station To Station" to be not only the most important recorded statement Bowie has ever made, but also one of the most significant albums released in the last five years. I don't pretend to understand completely the complications and paranoia of Bowie, but as a commentary on the spiritual malaise of this decade it is as powerful as anything by Thomas Pynchon, and In rock it stands alone. - A.J.

Another good disco effort from Bowie, who seems to have found his musical niche following the success of "Fame" and now "golden Years." Strong vocals and excellent production from the artist and Harry Maslin are the keys to the set. The lyrics don't seem to mean a great deal, and the 10 minute title cut drags. But as a disco dance album, few faults can be found. Earl Slick's guitars are superb throughout as he leads the instrumental charge. Bass and drums are typical disco. The material may not be as powerful as was the early Bowie, but the LP is indeed filled with infectious, quite commercial material that, in its way, is every bit as alive as anything Bowie has done. Certainly enough of the old Bowie here for the veteran fans and enough disco to attract a new group. On the whole, a successful venture. Best cuts: "Golden Years," "Station To Station" (particularly the last half), "TVC 15." Dealers: Artist set for first tour in two years in next month.

Station To Station (1976) sees the David Bowie staggering through a cocaine blizzard: nowadays he claims to recall almost nothing of it, but the delights of TVC15, Golden Years and Wild Is The Wind suggest the walk he took on the wild side did him no creative damage. Bonus tracks are live versions of Stay and Word On A Wing.
Q Rating: *****