Music Banter - View Single Post - Review Thread: The Chameleon: David Bowie Reviewed

Bulldog · 06-26-2009, 06:29 PM

Young Americans (1975)

1. Young Americans
2. Win
3. Fascination
4. Right
5. Somebody Up There Likes Me
6. Across the Universe
7. Can You Hear Me?
8. Fame

After the release of Diamond Dogs in 1974, Davey B here toured it through the US in a very theatrical and groundbreaking way. Besides this, the experiments with soul which began with Drive-In Saturday off of Aladdin Sane were taken to the stage, with Bowie adapting several parts of his back catalogue with a Philly soul/r'n'b/disco sounds (leading to some quite wonderful versions of songs like Rock 'n' Roll Suicide, as well as putting covers such as the Ohio Players' Here Today Gone Tomorrow and Knock On Wood into his setlists). Further hints of a move down the blue-eyed soul avenue were dropped on the said album, with songs like 1984 and Rock 'n' Roll With Me showing off a lot of the necessary characteristics.

It wasn't until a break between legs of the US tour that July that the full transformation occurred though. Bowie took his touring band into Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia to record a bunch of very soulful tunes he'd written (and, in some cases, unveiled) on the road. By the time the tour was due to continue, around a dozen songs were in the can. Before completing the album in New York that December (by recording Fame and Across the Universe in New York with some geezer called John Lennon), Bowie completely re-designed touring band, setlist and even set itself in order so that he could play these songs live as a bona fide soul singer with the backing choir he'd assembled in the studio (which included soon-to-be-mega-famous Luther Vandross). However the press reacted at the time (some quarters completely panned him for such a move), the transition was complete. David Bowie was now a soul man.

Don't let that monstrosity of a cover put you off though (if you've ever seen what he had in mind before that, you'd think of it as an improvement) - the resulting album is so much more convincing than that, and arguably the first real testament to the sheer diversity of the man's discography. Young Americans (the song) is, for starters, an absolute masterpiece (and just about the most bizarre song Lars von Trier could have chosen to go over the end credits to Dogville), being a truly delicious slice of uplifting blue-eyed soul, with some absolutely wonderful work from David Sanborn on the sax.

Win slows things down a bit and is, as you might have gathered from my posting the video below, one of my very favourite Bowie songs. Being one of the songs to be debuted live before the Philly sessions in July, it's a soaring and absolutely beautiful track that could easily have made a great single. The same can be said of both Fascination and Right - the funkier couplet which brings side A to a close, and not to mention a wholly convincing one.

For me, the album gets itself into a bit of trouble from a brilliant opening side with Somebody Up There Likes Me. That's not to say it's a bad song by any stretch of the imagination, being another well-written slice of soul in the same sort of vein as the title track. It's just that, clocking at 6 1/2 minutes as it does, it is far too long and, as we'll find out later, quite inferior to other songs recorded during the Sigma sessions. The same can be said of Bowie's Lennon-assisted cover of Across the Universe. Not a bad song at all (actually a very decent and uplifting rendition of the Beatles classic) but, given some of the songs which missed out on the final running order, one that should probably have been relegated to B-side status.

The slight weaknesses of those two songs in that sense make for the only real flaw of this album, given that the soaring, emotional and truly fantastic soul ballad Can You Hear Me follows them both immediately. Put it this way - if I could have some sort of MP3 playlist for passers-by to listen to on my epitaph, this song would be on it. Fame, the second songs Bowie and Lennon recorded together, serves as a terrific, funky album-closer, and one which provided Bowie with his first US number 1 single. It was also completely ripped-off by James Brown of all people for his own single Hot.

All in all, this is definitely an album that any beginners with Bowie's discography should look out, and is among his best for sure. I only give it a 9 for the small flaw that I've already addressed. Basically, as well as being one of Bowie's most curious albums, the recording sessions for it were among his most productive too. In all, another 6 songs are known to have been recorded; the no-holds-barred funk-out of John, I'm Only Dancing (Again), the infectious piece of r'n'b that is Who Can I Be Now, the beautiful soul ballad of It's Gonna Be Me, the terrific, up-tempo soul number After Today and two as-yet unreleased songs - the Gouster and Too Fat Polka (I always giggle when I think what that one must sound like).

Anyway, to sum up, this is a well-earned 9 of an album. Stick the two songs below in in the places of Somebody Up There Likes Me and Across the Universe and you've got another 10.

9/10

06-26-2009, 06:29 PM	#26 (permalink)
Bulldog why bother? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: UK Posts: 4,840	Young Americans (1975) 1. Young Americans 2. Win 3. Fascination 4. Right 5. Somebody Up There Likes Me 6. Across the Universe 7. Can You Hear Me? 8. Fame After the release of Diamond Dogs in 1974, Davey B here toured it through the US in a very theatrical and groundbreaking way. Besides this, the experiments with soul which began with Drive-In Saturday off of Aladdin Sane were taken to the stage, with Bowie adapting several parts of his back catalogue with a Philly soul/r'n'b/disco sounds (leading to some quite wonderful versions of songs like Rock 'n' Roll Suicide, as well as putting covers such as the Ohio Players' Here Today Gone Tomorrow and Knock On Wood into his setlists). Further hints of a move down the blue-eyed soul avenue were dropped on the said album, with songs like 1984 and Rock 'n' Roll With Me showing off a lot of the necessary characteristics. It wasn't until a break between legs of the US tour that July that the full transformation occurred though. Bowie took his touring band into Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia to record a bunch of very soulful tunes he'd written (and, in some cases, unveiled) on the road. By the time the tour was due to continue, around a dozen songs were in the can. Before completing the album in New York that December (by recording Fame and Across the Universe in New York with some geezer called John Lennon), Bowie completely re-designed touring band, setlist and even set itself in order so that he could play these songs live as a bona fide soul singer with the backing choir he'd assembled in the studio (which included soon-to-be-mega-famous Luther Vandross). However the press reacted at the time (some quarters completely panned him for such a move), the transition was complete. David Bowie was now a soul man. Don't let that monstrosity of a cover put you off though (if you've ever seen what he had in mind before that, you'd think of it as an improvement) - the resulting album is so much more convincing than that, and arguably the first real testament to the sheer diversity of the man's discography. *Young Americans* (the song) is, for starters, an absolute masterpiece (and just about the most bizarre song Lars von Trier could have chosen to go over the end credits to Dogville), being a truly delicious slice of uplifting blue-eyed soul, with some absolutely wonderful work from David Sanborn on the sax. Win slows things down a bit and is, as you might have gathered from my posting the video below, one of my very favourite Bowie songs. Being one of the songs to be debuted live before the Philly sessions in July, it's a soaring and absolutely beautiful track that could easily have made a great single. The same can be said of both Fascination and Right - the funkier couplet which brings side A to a close, and not to mention a wholly convincing one. For me, the album gets itself into a bit of trouble from a brilliant opening side with *Somebody Up There Likes Me. That's not to say it's a bad song by any stretch of the imagination, being another well-written slice of soul in the same sort of vein as the title track. It's just that, clocking at 6 1/2 minutes as it does, it is far too long and, as we'll find out later, quite inferior to other songs recorded during the Sigma sessions. The same can be said of Bowie's Lennon-assisted cover of Across the Universe. Not a bad song at all (actually a very decent and uplifting rendition of the Beatles classic) but, given some of the songs which missed out on the final running order, one that should probably have been relegated to B-side status. The slight weaknesses of those two songs in that sense make for the only real flaw of this album, given that the soaring, emotional and truly fantastic soul ballad Can You Hear Me* follows them both immediately. Put it this way - if I could have some sort of MP3 playlist for passers-by to listen to on my epitaph, this song would be on it. *Fame, the second songs Bowie and Lennon recorded together, serves as a terrific, funky album-closer, and one which provided Bowie with his first US number 1 single. It was also completely ripped-off by James Brown of all people for his own single Hot. All in all, this is definitely an album that any beginners with Bowie's discography should look out, and is among his best for sure. I only give it a 9 for the small flaw that I've already addressed. Basically, as well as being one of Bowie's most curious albums, the recording sessions for it were among his most productive too. In all, another 6 songs are known to have been recorded; the no-holds-barred funk-out of John, I'm Only Dancing (Again), the infectious piece of r'n'b that is Who Can I Be Now, the beautiful soul ballad of It's Gonna Be Me, the terrific, up-tempo soul number After Today* and two as-yet unreleased songs - the Gouster and Too Fat Polka (I always giggle when I think what that one must sound like). Anyway, to sum up, this is a well-earned 9 of an album. Stick the two songs below in in the places of Somebody Up There Likes Me and Across the Universe and you've got another 10. 9/10