All Aboard!!! Bowie's Taking Us To Musical Heaven! (Station To Station - David Bowie)

Member Name: DanielKemp

Product:	Station To Station - David Bowie
Date:	01/09/09 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A flawless album in every way. Tightly edited and wonderful musicianship

Disadvantages: Uh... You may not like Bowie?!

David Bowie - Station to Station (1976)

Producer: David Bowie, Harry Maslin

Station to Station
Golden Years
Word on a Wing
TVC 15
Stay
Wild Is the Wind

Station to Station is the tenth studio album by David Bowie and was released in 1976. It is the zenith of his 'soul' period, which had started a year earlier with Young Americans (if you wanted to get technical you could count David Live and the higher notes he hit on Diamond Dogs). It tears down the restraints of the genre and incorporates elements of funk and even brings with it some pointers as to the musical direction he would soon take with his Berlin Trilogy.

To set the scene, in 1976, David Bowie was not a man with good health. One look at the album sleeve - a still shot of Bowie from Nicolas Roeg's film The Man Who Fell to Earth - presents a cocaine dependant Bowie, thinner than a rake, whiter than an albino and donning slicked back orange hair. Bowie had lost himself in a psychotic episode in which he got involved with occult practices; some stories circulating even went as far as to claim Bowie believed that witches were trying to steal his semen. The recording sessions of Station to Station were sketchy to say the least; a cocaine ravaged Bowie claims that he doesn't remember a single thing from the sessions.

Yet, despite all this confusion and wild living, Station to Station is one of Bowie's best records. Tightly edited and clocking in at only 6 songs, it contains not a single piece of filler. Bowie had on hand one of his best ever backing bands, with Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick sharing guitar duties and more often than not presenting a double attack of smooth funk. But for me what seals the deal is Bowie's madcap and sometimes detached vocal performances throughout the record, which I assume was caused from being off his face on cocaine. Nothing sounds excessively over-rehearsed; it just has a certain vibe about it, which tells you that Bowie went into the studio off his trolley and did whatever the hell he wanted.

The album starts with the title-track and 10 minute epic, Station to Station. Bowie had taken an interest in German electronic groups such as Kraftwerk and Neu! at the time, so the synthesizers mimicking a steam train during the introduction can easily be seen as a nod towards these bands. Playing out as a manic tale of degradation, Bowie tells of 'The Thin White Duke' who'll be 'throwing darts in lover's eyes and making sure white stains'. The song can roughly be divided into 2 parts. You have the introduction, with its comfortably sparse arrangements and distraught piano crashes setting the scene; stay with it and Bowie soon makes an appearance, raising hell with his stirring vocal performance. Then, after the 5 minute mark, it suddenly breaks down into a funky free for all, and for my money, the best half of the song. "It's not the side effects of the cocaine," reasons Bowie, "I'm thinking that it must be love!" Whether it's the cocaine or not, it rocks.

Second track, Golden Years, was the first song completed from the Station to Station sessions and had been released as a single a few months earlier. Stylistically, it takes the finer moments from Young Americans and builds upon them, adding an edge of adventure and a sense of realism, which it could be argued were missing from Young Americans. Bowie's vocal performance is surprisingly together for a man off his rocker; I particularly like his low key growling during some of the verses after the 1 minute mark.

Things continue well with Word on a Wing, a desperate cry for help, as Bowie sincerely questions the nature of love, God and faith. One of his best ballads, Word on a Wing has lovely pre-recorded backing vocals from Bowie which serenade the listener. In my opinion it is one of Bowie's most genuinely affecting songs.

The largely nonsensical TVC 15 had been written after a drug-fuelled episode with Iggy Pop. Reportedly, Iggy had lost it and believed the TV set was swallowing his girlfriend. This is probably the peak of Bowie's spontaneous vocal ticks during Station to Station, as he brings the house down throughout the chorus and manages to redefine the meaning of the word cool during the verses with his unprompted 'uhs' and 'oos'.

The album's funkiest and most soulful moment is without a doubt Stay. Earl Slick and Carlos Alomar have never put their name to anything better during their work with Bowie, as they both deliver the performances of their lives. There are few things better than the twin assault of funk guitars which is unleashed by this set of accomplished musicians. Bowie croons in desperation, "You can never really tell when somebody wants something you want too..."

The album closes with the only cover on the album, Wild Is the Wind. Written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington, the song had originally been recorded by Johnny Mathis for the film Wild Is the Wind (Nina Simone had also recorded a version on her album of the same name). It wouldn't be until 1981 that Bowie would release it as a single. Bowie's frequently off-key vocals during the verses are so broken, human and sad, that you are left spellbound, "Like the leaf clings to the tree, oh my darling, cling to me..." It's the perfect way to end a perfect album.

Young Americans wasn't the real deal. It was fun, it was entertaining, it sounded damn good, but it was fake and an imitation of the genre in which Bowie had fell in love. Station to Station, on the other hand, is the real deal. It's daring, exciting, full of life and a bold musical statement.

But most of all it's Bowie on top form and doing what he does best - changing the face of musical history forever.

9.5/10

Daniel Kemp

Read more reviews at www.danielkempreviews.co.uk

Summary: A must buy in the Bowie cannon!