stationtostationdavidbowie
The Thin White Duke
- Album
- Title: Station to Station
- Release date: 23 January 1976
- Album cover: Photography by – Steve Shapiro
- Track listing:
- Side A track 1 - Station To Station
- Side A track 2 - Golden Years
- Side A track 3 - Word On A Wing
- Side B track 1 - TVC 15
- Side B track 2 - Stay
- Side B track 3 - Wild Is The Wind
- Personnel
- Artist - David Bowie
- Vocals, Guitar, Saxophone – David Bowie
- All songs written by – David Bowie (except Wild Is The Wind written by Dimitri Tiomkin, Ned Washington)
- Arranged by – David Bowie
- Producer – David Bowie, Harry Maslin
- Studio musicians:
- Bass – George Murray
- Drums – Dennis Davis
- Lead Guitar – Earl Slick
- Piano – Roy Bittan
- Rhythm Guitar – Carlos Alomar
David Bowie - Station to Station (Live 1978)
Live at the Nihon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan - December 12, 1978
DAVID BOWIE performing "Stay" at the Dinah Shore show, January 3rd 1976
time and place
At the time of album Bowie was living in America. He was married to Angela (née Barnett), and had a young son then known as "Zowie" - Duncan Jones.
Thin White Duke
For each album David Bowie would come up with a new persona and stay in character even off stage, as when he did interviews. After the Diamond Dog Tour David Bowie wanted to put aside all that entailed in his earlier shows and simply wanted to be a singer fronting a Rock band. And this was his last persona... the dapper Thin White Duke.
influences
At the time Bowie thought Roxy Music were made some of the best music coming from the UK in a long time. He was a fan of Brian Ferry David adopted Brian's fashion sense. Both were art students. Brian Ferry took the idea of the collage and applied it to music and bands image onstage. In Roxie music each member wore a period piece costumes whether inspired by the past or the future. Bowie dressed up in suite and his backing band dress-down, judging from videos I've seen of them.
Station To Station
For this song I chose the video of Bowie playing at the Nihon Budokan because of the intro. It is extended and better illustrates the sound of a locomotive steam engine beginning to move, which was recreated by a synth. The first time I saw this video I believe it is when Paul played this song in plug.dj. And the guitarist on on tour with Bowie than is none other than one of Paul's favorites, Adrian Belew.
TVC-15
TVC-15 is brilliant piece of music, and in my opinion the shining gem of the album. The plot of the song is very similar to Twilight Zone: The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine (S01, E04). But actually comes from real life incident where a hallucinating Iggy Pop believes his girlfriend is transmitted into the television set.
The song starts off with a bit of Louisiana Blues/ Boogie Woogie Piano somewhere between the styles of Professor Longhair, Jerry Lee Lewis and Dr. John. And suddenly there is introduction of a chaotic mix guitars creating a tapestry of a sonic textures. At one part in the song he hums, it seems instead of using strings, where it would seem others would naturally place them. When Bowie sing "Transmission, Transition" there is a return of the boogie woogie piano and a palm muted guitars and when he sing "Oh my TVC 1 5, oh, oh TVC 1 5" there is distorted guitar and a sax that is a premonition of sax one could hear in Psychedelic Furs' music, and a periodic bass note which sounds like a bellowing baritone sax. All these elements effectively construct a musical collage.
to be continued...