Dave Amitri on Station to Station
When I started this Odyssey, this deep dive back into Bowie’s back catalogue, 12 albums that I’d never heard before at the back of my mind was the hope that somewhere I find some inspiration. Not for me you understand but for one of my musical heroes Billy Mackenzie. I’ve mentioned this often enough so apologies but for those who aren’t aware.. From what I’ve read about Billy and the Associates they were very much inspired by Bowie but so far I’d only found scraps. I was left disappointed and disillusioned by “Young Americans” a lovely mid-80’s yuppie coffee table style album. It’s ok, jazzy and smooth but it would sit comfortably alongside Sade’s “Diamond Life” or The Style Council’s “Cafe Bleu”, not exactly what I was looking for. I must admit I was left a little flat almost to the point of giving up hope but thanks to some words of encouragement on this website I decided to carry on and give “Station to Station” a go. I’m so glad I did. I’m delighted to say it was a worthwhile experience. Finally, perhaps, (no pun intended), perhaps I have found the spark that ignited a young Alan Rankine and a young Billy MacKenzie to make music. Music that really had a massive effect on me and that I still listen to and love today.
I’m going to try and stick to the Bowie theme but I am going to ask you to indulge me a little, accept my artistic licence and understand that I might get a little bit carried away with this one but please bear with me. They’re just my thoughts exactly as they popped into my head as I listened to “Station to Station” and I have listened to it a lot and not just for the sake of doing this article but because it is a fantastic album. I hope I can give you a sense of why I feel it’s that great and relevant over the rest of this piece.
So onto the album. I found a Rolling Stone article and I’m going to pinch this quote from it …
“Critic Lester Bangs, an outspoken Bowie skeptic, wrote that the album “has a wail and throb that won’t let up … a beautiful, swelling, intensely romantic melancholy.” Bowie, Bangs concluded, “has finally produced his (first) masterpiece.”
I can’t argue with that so onto the title track…
“Station To Station “ From the first few seconds of it’s industrial intro I was reminded of the first Associates album “The Affectionate Punch” and “Logan Time”, “A”, “Transport To Central” all those wonderfully hypnotic, ethereal and enthralling songs. The first 6 minutes are a template for an electronic movement that exploded after punk. Vocally there are real comparisons to be made between Bowie and MacKenzie. I wish I knew the technical terms but in the lower register when the words are almost spoken it is uncannily similar. It’s impossible not to imagine Rankine and MacKenzie in a bedroom in Dundee listening to this song and forming their own ideas on the theme. Was this the Associates “big bang” moment? I suspect so….. But of course this is David Bowie so he does return to David Quoie for the last 4 minutes along with some guitar work that wouldn’t be out of place if used by The Darkness. A strong, exciting start.
“Golden Years” next. The hit. This is where I start to wonder if I’m hallucinating. I hear “Club Country” in the rhythms, the flow, the beat, when Bowie sings “Angel”. I don’t know. I just feel it maybe it was a subconscious influence on The Associates or maybe I just really want it to be there…… But of course this is David Bowie and it’s a Stevie Wonder inspired track that’s one hell of a groove. What a song. One of those Bowie “hits” that you’ve heard too often but when you really hear it, man, it’s wonderful.
“Word On A Wing” is a lovely song that takes me straight to some of the later solo Billy MacKenzie material especially that found on the posthumously released “Beyond The Sun”. Strangely there was a review posted today on “The Affectionate Bunch” Facebook page which mentions Billy’s brazen Bowie/Ferry infatuation and also this line which I’m having THAT voice, sighing and smouldering and soaring to new heights of magnificent self obsession That could account for Bowie’s vocal on “Word On A Wing” too…… But of course this is David Bowie and he takes the song off on a Jim Steinmanesque journey to it’s glorious conclusion. Dramatic and overblown but somehow just right in the way other attempts on other albums left me cold.
TVC15 has fewer Associates references for me apart from the opening “Oh oh oh oh oh” I can’t hear anything else really…. But of course this is David Bowie and every album has had one that I can call my least favourite song on the album. The boogie woogie piano, the repetition of the title it just sounds like a really 70’s song.
“Stay” comes next. Wow! Where do I start? How do I unpick this? So I’ll start with what could be me most out there reference point and this hit me from the first time I heard it. The part where Bowie sings an elongated “Stay” immediately put me in mind of the elongated “So” sung by Billy in “Party Fears Two”. Once I’d heard that, much like the “Golden Years” / “Club Country” mash up I can really hear a similarity in feel and vocal. Obviously it’s nothing like “Party Fears Two” but my fevered mind can’t shake the feeling that it was an influence on parts of the song. There are other moments where Bowie’s vocal can clearly be heard when Billy MacKenzie is toning down the operatic side of his voice. I would love to get my thoughts in front of Alan Rankine, maybe Facebook will allow that to happen… But of course this is David Bowie and he takes his “Young Americans” groove of into the stratosphere with “Stay”. It’s a funky, dirty, gloriously driven song which Bowie sings perfectly. The outro is a crazy mix of Santana and Isley Brothers guitar. His best 6 minutes? Maybe. I love it…
“Wild Is The Wind” closes the album. A song I heard first sung by Billy on “Transmission Impossible”. I’ve since discovered there’s probably more singers that haven’t covered it than have since it was it was used in the film of the same name in 1957. Nina Simone, George Michael, Bon Jovi, the list goes on. Billy’s version will always be the definitive one for me. His control, his range, the moments he holds back and the moments he really soars is extraordinary. Of course he would never have sung it had it not been for Bowie’s version on “Station To Station” so for that one certainty alone “Station To Station” will have it’s place in my heart… But of course this is David Bowie and he just doesn’t have that range vocally, he can’t soar so he stretches and breaks a little but that gives his version a fragility that is quite moving. The fact that the band play like a wedding band behind him is something I can’t figure out but it’s Bowie and he does what he does and people love him for it. Right now, I love him for it too.
I once wrote…
“For some reason I don’t quite understand Billy effects me more than any other pop star. Something about his ridiculous talent alongside his suffocating vulnerability and self doubt constantly draws me back.”
To now find this album that in my mind appears to be a moment, the conception, the beginning of what became The Associates and put me inside the heads of Billy MacKenzie and Alan Rankine in 1977 is quite something. Maybe after 7 months of searching like a desperate archaeologist or genealogist finding a pot from the local store and desperately trying to age it at 10000 years I’m hearing something that isn’t there but in the spirit of these posts I’m putting it out there for dissection by my peers….. But of course this David Bowie his imagination, his sense of drama, his refusal to conform, need to take risks and his invention has frustrated, confused and delighted me in equal measure over those 7 months. Even on this album there is some really unusual musical weirdness that made me scratch my head. It’s a great album and one I’ll definitely listen to again. I’m looking forward to the Berlin Trilogy with renewed enthusiasm for what I’ll find next. “Station To Station” will take its place in my collection. A mosquito set in amber from which the DNA of a band and singer that effect me like no other was extracted to create something remarkably similar while remaining thrillingly different.
(There’s a link below to a piece I wrote on The Associates for Toppermost that some of you might enjoy. Do you hear what I hear?)
Lovely writing! Many thanks for carrying on with the project.
Station to Station was the first Bowie album I really, really liked.
Fantastic work again Dave.
I meant to leave this in the main post….
https://www.toppermost.co.uk/the-associates/
And I’ll leave this here too…
Billy Mackenzie “Wild Is The Wind ”
DB got it off Nina Simone. Nina later said he had saved her life. Probably sarcastically, but still.
Wow.
The wig or the vocal??
What do you think? That voice. Sublime.
Of course… Poor comment on my part. It’s extraordinary isn’t it. That range and control. Love it
‘A great review. Station to Station is one of my favourite Bowie albums. Golden Years’ slightly borrows the riff from The Drifters ‘On Broadway’. Bowie also considered offering this track to Elvis Presley but this never materialised. He also stated that he’d been approached by an RCA executive with a view to producing and writing songs for Elvis. Six months later Elvis was dead. A lost opportunity leaving Bowie heartbroken.
Here’s Carlos Alomar talking about Golden Years
Bowie was obsessed with On Broadway. The title track of Aladdin Sane borrows the same motif.
Fabulous work, Dave. Great to read such enthusiasm for Charles Kennedy’s favourite album.
I forget who it is but someone mentioned a while back that Elvis was interested in recording one of their songs, but Col. Tom Parker had demanded that Elvis should be co-credited as writer. At that point it was “No deal and goodbye”.
Maybe a share of publishing, think Elvis only had one co-writing credit at least for a hit, Heartbreak Hotel. Wasn’t common at all otherwise
It was Dolly Parton – I Will Always Love You, I believe.
Correct. And yes, it was the publishing.
There was no way Dolly was going to give away rights to one of her songs. Not even for Elvis.
She’s talked about it many times. From Wiki…
“I said, ‘I’m really sorry,’ and I cried all night. I mean, it was like the worst thing. You know, it’s like, Oh, my God… Elvis Presley.’ And other people were saying, ‘You’re nuts. It’s Elvis Presley.’ …I said, ‘I can’t do that. Something in my heart says, ‘Don’t do that. And I just didn’t do it… He would have killed it. But anyway, so he didn’t. Then when Whitney [Houston’s version] came out, I made enough money to buy Graceland.”
One of my favourite albums. Been listening to it for over 40 years. Still sounds fresh and bright. The best Bowie period in my view: 76-80. The best musicians he worked with. A hint of what post punk could be, how you could make imaginative guitar rock without the old blues rock tropes. Also the funk element which many would take up, here now fully integrated. Great to read this take on it.
These are the correct answers. I’d push the significant year range by one to 1975 – “five years” as it were. Though I love the hippie/ hard rock, then glam Bowie, the albums I come back to are “Young Americans” to “Lodger”, and “STS” noses it for my favourite. I grudgingly accept that “Scary Monsters” might be better than I thought. All done whilst producing THAT corpus of albums and singles over a decade (better than The Beatles to me), he managed to also redefine the nature of the rock concert in a few world tours (or at least half-inch a gallimaufry of ideas and integrate them into a more accomplished sense of performance), act in a few films, have a hearty and mind-bending habit, clean up with iggy Pop in Berlin (what can one say?), remain well-read, and curated the cultural world of his more bookish and arty fans. As I’ve said before, Bowie was one of the hip older brothers who shaped a generation’s culture and taste beyond the music. And he didn’t fly in a plane, either. This is better than 2 weeks with “Sexy Sadie” and a week in bed for peace. The Associates connection is well-made (another of us provincials holding onto Bowie to point the way out), and Billy Mackenzie’s “Secret Life of Arabia” is also excellent:
Bravo!
Yep, great post.
Glad you stayed with the project Dave. I agree, it’s definitely the place from where the Associates kicked off.
In my view STS is the high point of Western civilization [really? ed.] — and the intro to “Stay” has been my phone ringtone since ringtones were a thing — so you could say I like it.
I approve this sensible and sober assessment.
Blew up a woofer on one of my speakers at the time on the Station to Station pulse.
Drive like a demon from Dixon’s to Richer Soundsssss
A great review and I’m pleased you found one which clicks with you. Somedays this is my fave DB album.
To put the cat amongst the pigeons, somedays I think this is the first of a trilogy of STS, Low and Heroes. Lodger doesn’t ‘feel’ like a Berlin album to me. *Puts on tin hat*
Not just me then … I’ve had some mad looks in the past when suggesting this
Make that a trio. STS, Low and Heroes are all the Bowie one needs.
Stop shouting at me! Put that gun away!
ps the new Lorde album is a belter, isn’t it?
I think so. Opinions are divided, principally it seems because it isn’t a rehash of Pure Heroine or Melodrama. For me it’s a gorgeous, blissed-out dream of an album.
It’s more an Eno trilogy than a Berlin one. But we can enjoy all the albums as standalones
Enjoyed the review, excellent album. Bowie loved TVC15 for some reason, played it on Saturday Night Live and at Live Aid
I think of ‘Berlin’ as a 1977 tetralogy: The Idiot, Low, Lust For Life and “Heroes”.
Wherever it starts, ends, and what it includes, it is indeed a fine body of work. It really does take your breath away
My theory is that there are elements of STS in all of his good albums afterwards, especially the title track, and as such it is his most important album apart from Hunky Dory regardless of whether it’s his best.
Or a tetrapak if you will. Game changing concept but a little tricky to get into. A fly in the milk perhaps?
I think they only actually spent about a week in Berlin 😉 :
The Idiot – Iggy Pop, Recorded in France and Munich
Low – David Bowie, France and Berlin
Lust for Life – Iggy Pop, Berlin
“Heroes” – Bowie, Berlin
Lodger – Bowie, Montreux and New York
Station to Station sounds very European but was recorded in L.A.
It’s basically Heroes, innit? Almost the most important bit is Dave and Iggs getting the train to Moscow, which might not be musical but I think was an eye opener for both of them, long-term.
Baal was also recorded in Berlin, but somehow not judged to be part of a “quintopoly”
That’s often mooted as a full stop to Bowie’s imperial phase, if not the original Cat People, depending on which was recorded last.
Baal is ace, he sings the living shite out of those tunes. Also the experience of doing that led to the Buddha of Suburbia album t
eleven years later.
Giorgio Moroder speaks Ladino.
‘Berlin’ is essentially Bowie and Iggy being buddies at a nihilistic party, wherever those albums were actually recorded. The Idiot is Bowie experimenting with that industrial sound and being wowed by Iggy’s improvisations at the microphone. Bowie then develops that style and sound, amongst other things, on Low. By Lust For Life, Iggy was much more in charge and ready to break away. Finally, Bowie, himself, brims with new-found confidence on “Heroes”.
Brought a tear to my eye, that. Word On A Wing is the most heartfelt of Bowie’s songs I think. A young man strung out and wasted on cocaine and fame, pouring his heart out on the cusp of giving it up for another change of identity. Looking forward to you hearing Low.
Thanks everyone. Sitting here listen to “The Affectionate Punch” reading through these replies. Life is good
Hey, do your bloody homework first! It’s Low next .. 😏
I have only got the original vinly. How do the subsequent remasters compare?
Visconti did them, so the bass is louder. I am in agreement, especially with Heroes.
Harry Maslin did an excellent remix that is now my go-to version.
Wasn’t Heroes messed up somehow?
There was a brief master tape drop-out on the most recent remasters, which Visconti chose to keep in for authenticity. After complaints, he patched in a transfer from a backup tape and replacement CDs were sent out.
I did notice it at first listen but I recognised it for what it was and carried on listening. Others took to Social Media in outraged uppercase letters.
There’s a terrible drop-out at the end of Music in a Doll’s House, which wasn’t even corrected on the allegedly remastered box set. It’s not “authentic”, it’s a blimming cock-up.
There’s an absolute howler on a Squeeze compilation, Excess Moderation – you can hear the tape has crumpled and it is bleedin’ obvious to all except the ‘mastering’ engineer. Sound of tape being rewound with a pencil not featured…
Not much to add here other than as a callow 16-year old I was all about Let’s Dance, then quickly wet through the gears to embrace Ziggy. As a long-coat wearing New Order fan it was Low on top for my twenties, alternating with Young Americans (spiritual predecessor to Let’s Dance) when I was in a poppier mood. Station to Station rose through the ranks and has been number one for well over a decade. A monumental album that appears more miraculous a creation with every year that passes.
Well done Dave, another great review – Are you going to do a 13th post, summing up your Bowie experience?
The album cover was originally going to be the full colour picture (used on the reissue) until he was shown Dr Feelgood’s Down by the Jetty & liked the black & white 35mm image, that emphasised the typeface.
I posted Carlos Alomar talking about the On Broadway lift, and TVC15 takes its “uh oh oh”s from Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, but Alomar demonstrates here how John I’m Only Dancing Again morphs into Stay
@Timbar Yes I’d thought about that. I probably do need to do a summing up post in January. I’m going to watch the two videos you’ve posted to add to my knowledge. Thanks for your insights as you know I’m still recovering from the Elton John piano one…
The first Bowie album I really latched on to was Scary Monsters because I was 13 when it was released. Dave’s 12 album odyssey here is really useful because it’s more clear to me now why StationtoStation was a very influential record. My own first musical heroes were about 5 years older than me so it follows that they would have devoured Bowie’s records from this period in particular. I was force-fed Low by one of my brothers so I know that one a lot better.
In our household we had the Changesonebowie compilation, Low, Ziggy and Hunky Dory. I really wish we could have had the easy access to the other stuff we have now because I had significant Bowie gaps at that time.
Station to Station is well loved here, made no. 20 in our “best records of all time poll”
Others :
Hunky Dory 13
Low 27
Ziggy 32
Blackstar 96 (2016)
Aladdin Sane 111
Young Americans 260
Lodger 466
Diamond Dogs 575
TMWSTW, Pin-Ups and “Heroes” did not chart.
Another one here for whom Station to Station is not just Bowie’s finest hour, but one of the high points of all pop music. And it has aged incredibly well- glad you enjoyed it Dave and that it prompted such a great post.
My one beef is Dave’s dismissal of TVC15. It’s an excellent track, really swings and fits wonderfully.
It’s more like a Low track than a throwback. The piano makes me think of Be My Wife. Also the lyrics fit that album. Doesn’t bode well for next review. I really like TVC15 but it seemed a bit slight at first. I think the way it sounds when he goes Oh my TVC15, with the guitar behind it, is great.
Being so used to Roy Bittan’s work with Springsteen, you’d be hard pressed to recognise it as him.
Bittan told Rolling Stone:
“I was staying at the Sunset Marquis in Los Angeles when we were on the Born To Run tour in 1975. David’s guitar player, Earl Slick, was a friend of mine. I bumped into him at the hotel and he said, ‘I can’t believe you’re here. We were just talking about you.’ David knew we were coming to town and he wanted a keyboard player.
When I arrived the next day at the studio David said to me, ‘Do you know who Professor Longhair is?’ I said, ‘Know him? I saw him play at a little roadhouse in Houston about three weeks ago!’ I wound up doing an imitation of Professor Longhair interpreting a David Bowie song. We began with ‘TVC 15’ and I wound up playing on every song besides ‘Wild Is The Wind’. It must have only been about three days. It’s one of my favorite projects I’ve ever worked on.”
TVC15 is a rare track which doesn’t play in my head. However many times I have heard it before, I come to it fresh every time.
Weakest track on the album I think. It’s ok, but lacks a tune.
That would be it.
TVC15…had only ever heard the live version for a long time. The studio version is dull by comparison.
(Some Final Thoughts before this slips off the first page)
“Fame” had finally given Bowie a number one US single & Station to Station backed up that success – top 3 album, his best US chart performance until “The Next Day”
Bowie sings in a fairly comfortable range without many “Bowie inflections” which helped it appeal to a mainstream audience & made the songs ideal for performing live (“I’m just doing this tour for the money. I never earned any money before, but this time I’m going to make some. I think I deserve it, don’t you?)
Using the DAM (Davis, Alomar, Murray) rhythm section that would stay with him for the rest of the decade, they worked up the backing tracks first & then added solos, lyrics & vocals.
Harry Maslin said that Golden Years was “cut and finished very fast” but “the rest of the album took forever”. It does seem that lots of time was spent tinkering (not helped by Bowie’s prestigious cocaine use) and adding lots of overdubs,
For all of the time spent, Station to Station has a very clear, uncluttered sound – which is one of the reasons that it has aged so well – the dance around the drums at the end of “Wild is the Wind” still sounds fantastic.
Bowie later said that he wanted to do a dead mix “I gave in and added that extra commercial touch. I wish I hadn’t”
However, it was that commercial success that gave him the freedom to move on…
Dave, there’s a reprint of a 1980 Paul Morley review of The Affectionate Punch here where he mentions Station To Station a fair bit. You may well have seen it before
https://thenewvinylvillain.com/2021/08/31/all-our-yesterdays-the-affectionate-punch/
Thanks @myoldman . Really interesting and proves I wasn’t just imagining it all….
Tony DeFries had a lot to say about the profits from this album. He earned more than Bowie. Let’s Dance made him a multimillionaire and is his best seller worldwide. Tonight and Never Let Me Down did really well too.
Thought Tonight and NLMD were poor sellers relatively.
Only Heathen, Blackstar, Aladdin Sane, Ziggy Stardust & Let’s Dance sold more.
Yeah but they weren’t massive sellers, except Ziggy and HD probably and Let’s Dance obviously. The commercial momentum he got with LD disappeared almost immediately
At the time, mid eighties, Never Let Me Down was his third best seller and Tonight second. Ziggy and Aladdin Sane sold steadily for a lot longer
Here is his top ten as of now:
1. Let’s Dance
2. Ziggy Stardust
3. Aladdin Sane
4. Blackstar
5. Heathen
6. Tonight
7. Never Let Me Down
8. Hunky Dory
9. Young Americans
10. Diamond Dogs
No Stationtostation and no Berlin trilogy!
Tonight was number one… for about fifteen seconds.
(PS. loving Tigger’s one-man-against-the-world insistence that it’s called Stationtostation…)
Cheers! 😃
….and in our many discussions of Talking Heads, we’ve never made clear how good Sp Eak In Gi N To Ngu Es is.
That’s just a bit too tricky for my fingers.
I saw the same list, but Tonight and NLMD sold around a million to 1.5 million after Let’s Dance sold 10 million, so some of the new people on board after Let’s Dance were probably still buying and then gave up cos those albums were crap
And Ziggy 7.5 million, HD 4.6 million, way more.
I remember him grumbling (but in a good-natured way) about how people tell him how influential he is and they have all his records …but he still ends up selling a lot less records than Milli Vanilli !
Sales schmales. In 1989 The Stone Roses were outsold by a factor of about seventy to one by Johnny Hates Jazz. The difference is that 99% of the people who bought “TSR” still have it.
Mumble, mumble, something about the Velvet Underground…
Shouldn’t that be mumble mumble EEEEEESCREEEEECHHH DRONNNNNE mumble?
You’re welcome!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-ZtpYfNq74