Stan Deely on 12 Bowie albums in 12 months – Black Tie White Noise
BOWIE AND ME 1987 – 1993
Since we last checked in with Bowie, he’s done the Glass Spider Tour, the Tin Machine episode (I was mostly on the other side of the world and away from mainstream media so this passed me by), The Sound and Vision Greatest Hits tour and got wed.
Arriving back in the UK from two years in central America in spring 1993 I am aware that Bowie seems to have a higher profile and be even a bit hip again. Probably a combination of factors. The marriage to Iman (with the wedding featured in Hello magazine), obvious influence on new sensations Suede, the 20 year old cycle of revivalism?
Therefore he has a relatively high profile launch for this album which comes with 50’s Blue Note jazz influenced packaging and photos of a de-mulleted Bowie positioning him as a serious middle aged type. Apparently the head of his new US record label Savage (soon to go bust putting the album out of circulation in the US) encourages him to “Do exactly what you want to do” and the album is marketed as a statement of celebration and a present for his new bride.
I’m not particularly impressed by lead off single Jump They Say but it seems a step in the right direction after the last couple of albums. A friend of mine who plays in cult band Meat Beat Manifesto has remixed one of the tracks on the album. He describes meeting a very pleasant and normal Bowie.
THE TRACKS
THE WEDDING
I gave this one song a sneaky preview listen when I was struggling with Never Let Me Down and felt a wave of immediate relief. This is nearer to my preferred Bowie style. An instrumental with prominent sax, it was a return to arty weirdness but contained in a warm sounding production.
Introduced by church bells and a slightly cheesy synth, it’s like an alternative wedding march played 80s style over an insistent White Lines bassline. The sound is fuller and warmer than on the previous two or three albums. A pleasing mid paced rhythm and then the saxophone comes in. This is the clincher. A return to the plaintive mournful sax of the Berlin era. For me, Bowie is at his best when his teutonic European Kraftwerkian tendency meets a kick ass American soul funk rhythm section, best exemplified by the Station to Station to Scary Monsters era. The sound is both glorious and slightly tacky with wordless backing vocals low in the mix. The sax is a grey day but the rhythm and backing vocals heavenly, uplifting and sunny. If I was projecting onto this tune I could see it representing a miserable singleton Bowie finding his soul mate.
YOU’VE BEEN AROUND
After the relief of the opener he repeats a similar trick on this vocal track. Whereas I found Rodgers’ production on Let’s Dance a bit dry and even thin sounding this sounds warmer and fuller and we get arty angular Bowie rebooted for the mid 90s. It is like a more polished Berlin era melody with Bowie giving it his full Scott Walker singing inscrutable lyrics over r’n’b style rhythm section. It has a sense of mystery and urgency. Once again, an insistent rhythm section with lots of synth squiggles and neat guitar lines overlaid. Double tracked vocals. A decent horn break from Lester Bowie. Builds nicely, keeps us interested. Two winners in a row
I FEEL FREE
Continuing with the sound and feel of the previous tune so not a faithful cover at all. Over a mid paced strut the mood is Chic play Cream. Sounding like an 80s rock dance crossover song a double tracked Bowie gives it his best Scott Walker croon again. It’s better than his cover of God Only Knows but not as good as Ami Stewarts Knock on Wood. Features Mick Ronson on guitar who funnily enough sounds more like Robert Fripp or Adrain Belew on the first solo. Also features a funky guitar which I imagine in Nile Rodgers. Recording this was, I believe, a tribute to his late half-brother Terry who apparently who took him to see Cream live and then suffered some kind of black out/breakdown psychotic episode at the gig. Another solo. Backing vocals. Powerhouse drums from Sterling Campbell. A bit of a guitar sax duel interplay to end. It’s okay, competent enough but lacking something.
BLACK TIE WHITE NOISE
The title track. Starts with trumpet sounding a bit like Jon Hassel’s work on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and then a vocal refrain with a similar melody chant to Glass Spider. The song itself is quite complex and complicated featuring lots of mini melodies and refrains, quoting other songs (eg What’s Going on etc) over a mid paced souly groove. It’s a bit of a mess of an arrangement, trying to do too much. Lyrically, it also overeaches addressing multimple themes, witnessing the LA riots, being a white man married to a black woman, his debt to black music and more. A few years before, I think it was Julie Burchill who used the term ‘beige’ music to describe the black/white dance rock – Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson etc conquering the world at the time, and this, I would say, is a perfect example of beige music. Not awful but probably less than the sum of its parts.
JUMP THEY SAY
Very similar in arrangement and chords to I Feel Free and lyrically also about half brother Terry. After a couple of low key verses we have plaintive mournful saxophone. Once again we have the template of a Heroes style melody over a Chic style rhythm section. Nice enough melody. More double tracked Scott Walkering. As it continues we get a bit of a jazz odyssey breakdown and then about half way through a bit of an operatic build up as backing vocals come in giving it a Young Americans feel. Quite a lot happens in just under 5 minutes. Feels it has some movement and progression whereas the last two tunes were a bit one paced. Nice coda fade out sounding like Le Freak played less relentlessly. Like the last couple of album-lead off singles it’s a decent enough album track but underwhelming as a single.
NITE FLIGHTS
Once again Bowie does Scott Walker over the White Lines bassline. However this time its an actual Scott Walker tune so that’s allowed. A fairly faithful cover although he takes it a tad slower and it lacks the menace of the original. The synth at the end puts me in mind of Iggy Pop’s Mass Production, a Bowie co-write. Fades out quite suddenly at four and a half minute and whilst I like it, I do find like I Feel Free that it suffers a bit from being a mood piece, a one paced groove and the production is starting to sound samey.
PALLAS ATHENA
Talking of one paced grooves, here’s another but its a bit more uptempo and urgent so it breaks up the mid paced sameyness that was starting to set in. Sounding a bit like Jesus Jones Right Here Right Now a sample or is it Bowie intoning ” God is on top of it” , recalling the preacher voices of Byrne and Eno’s Life in the Bush of Ghost. Once again the mournful plaintive saxophone sounding like side two of Low given a disco beat. A mood piece, building in intensity with nagging backing vocals. I couldn’t at first decide if it was edgy or boring but I would say by the end with no progression or anything I have decided it is a boring go nowhere jazz funk work out. It would have probably worked okay as a 90 minute second interlude/break up track at this stage in the album but just becomes annoying over the full four and a half minutes. Apparrently it was released incognito to club DJ’s at the time. Possibly it might have sounded E’d out of one’s head at 4am in the era of Happy House and Hardcore techno although I suspect it was a bit tame for your average raver back then.
MIRACLE GOODNIGHT
Like Never Let Me Down on the last album a light love song. A lighter touch, gentle vocals, almost spoken and backing vocals. Some spoken interludes. A middle eight key change that threatens to go somewhere interesting but doesn’t. A tropical guitar solo. Its gets quite catchy and insistent by the end and works some sort of minor magic just be sounding different. A bit shorter than the rest of the songs either. Light relief.
DONT LET ME DOWN AND DOWN
Continuing the same loved up mood we are in slow ballad almost last dance Three Times a Lady territory. A slow ballad, a cover of a fave song of Iman’s. Bowie gives us his Wild is the Wind clearly enunuciated torch song vocal, almost falling into parody/silly voice territory. (Listening to the original I realise he is imitating the singer’s English pronunication) A horn solo adds to the light mood. The production is a bit more cluttered 80s style than most of the album, smothering the song a bit. Towards the end he breaks into full on crooner mood which works well giving it some emotion. The closing coda reminds me of Chic’s At Last I am Free. Still I reckon his vocal performance on the second half and the coda rescue this.
LOOKING FOR LESTER
This sounds a bit like the title track done as an instrumental with trumpet instead of words. It’s another slightly insistent, repetitive, mid paced jazz funk instrumental. To be honest not much to distinguish this from the sort of stuff that Shakatak or Spirogyra were doing in the 80’s just a slightly funkier rhythm section. Both Bowies and his namesake Lester (see what he did there) get a solo each in true Miles/Coltrane style and right at the end Mike Garson comes in to show off his jazz chops – 20 seconds that is more rinky dink cocktail bar than his deck of the Titanic Aladdin Sane solo.
I KNOW ITS GONNA HAPPEN SOMEDAY
Apparently Bowie felt that Morrisey was parodying/pastiche-ing Rock n Roll Suicide on the original of this and so decided to cover it to show Morrisey how it’s done. Doomy opening chords. Guitar solo. Over the top choir backing vocals. It actually reminds me more of Radiohead’s Creep than Rock’n’Roll Suicide. Not a great song and it doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the album. On the vinyl version which left off Looking for Lester and The Wedding Song this would have been the final track which strikes me as odd. At least it is quite short. Any fans out there of this song?
THE WEDDING SONG
A return to the first track but now with vocals. Once again it is the gentle besotted crooning Bowie but the words are a bit pish and the backing vocals are straying into Swingle Singers territory. I don’t think the vocals add anything. Its the sax that carries the tune and I realise that it’s not a Low tune that it reminds me of but Ultravox’s Hiroshima Mon Amour. By the end the Bowie’s vocal and the song reaches some sort of lovelorn hypnotic effect and I can’t help liking it, with the female backing and a lot of imagination I could almost make a case for it as Bowie’s Great Gig in the Sky. The album started with bells and it ends with bells.
VERDICT
He was given the chance to make the album that he wanted to make and apparently that was to channel Scott Walker over some dodgy saxophone accompaniment to the White Lines bass rhythm. It started well with the first few tracks but then manages to be both samey – most songs four and a half minutes and mid paced but also inconsistent and uneven – the instrumentals, the ballads, the covers, one rock song, one dance track making for an unsatisfying lesson. Even though there is more variety in the second half the samey production starts to grate and the fact that certain tricks – similar chord progressions, White Lines bassline, Chic style codas are repeated suggest that he has not quite got his muse and work ethic back.
Individually most of the songs are okay-ish to good so it would be a fools game to go down the Sandinista/Exile on Main route of what would I prune to make a C45 cassette/35 minute vinyl/4 track EP etc. If I was to pick a few tracks for a compilation I think I would go for The Wedding, You’ve Been Around and Nite Flights. Whilst an improvement and step in the right direction after Never Let Me Down I’m not sure I prefer it as an album over Tonight.
As ever I’m all for your opinions and stories to do with the album and the time of its release. Please let me know of anything that you think I have got wrong or missed.
dai says
Enjoyed reading that.
I like the Morrissey song (by Morrissey) and absolutely love Jump They Say, I think a truly great single. I quite enjoyed the album at the time, it is fairly lightweight but his best since it’s little brother Let’s Dance, much better than Tonight or NLMD
But what happened to Tin Machine? These are Bowie albums too.
Stan Deely says
If I leave out Tin Machine it nicely makes 12 albums in 12 months. As I appear to be getting ahead of myself timewise I am thinking maybe I should at least give Tin Machine a listen and possibly report back.
Moose the Mooche says
“I’m gettin’ ahead of myself…” … that’s on the album after next ..
Moose the Mooche says
April already?
The problem with this album at the time was held to be Bowie being out of touch. It wasn’t – it was the sainted Nile being out of touch. His lumpy, overly-busy approximations of contemporary r’n’b drag this album down – this is best illustrated by listening to the many fine remixes of tracks from this album – see the 2-disc reissue. I do like DB’s bonkers insistence on plastering his absolutely terrible sax over everything, like Marc Riley’s kazoo* in The Fall. And this album is absolutely the only reason why anybody remembers Al B Sure.
I await with interest the usual people** saying the usual things….
(*TMFT in a very real sense L)
(**like me)
Lodestone of Wrongness says
I would just like to say ..hold on, hold on – why are you approaching me with a long pole which has a hook attached to the end?
Moose the Mooche says
It’s Sunday afternoon, I’m off tert’ river. Wanna come?
*speaking unnaturally loud in an attempt to disguise the clinking of bottles*
Stan Deely says
I will be away at the start of April with no access to internet therefore planned to post a week early so I could see and comment on the replies. However, having got the thing finished yesterday, I thought it better to post now otherwise I wlll be tinkering with it for another week.
I like the sax. At least in the two Wedding songs.
Stan Deely says
TMFT?
Timbar says
Great review of an album I haven’t listened to in ages – I remember my brother saying that when it came out, people were going into HMV in Richmond, just picking it up & going straight to the counter, in the same way that they’d buy their daily paper.
Coincidentally enough, the Burning Wood blog (burnwoodtonite.blogspot.com) had Miracle Goodnight as one of his “Songs of the Week” last week & wrote:
“I’ve loved Bowie’s “Black Tie White Noise” since it was released. I’ve written about it, how it bankrupted the label and why it should have been Bowie’s been commercial comeback. My friend and I were having that very discussion just the other day, so of course, I needed to play the record. I still love it. It’s as if Scott Walker recorded a commercial dance pop album. Or maybe it is “Low” through a “Let’s Dance” machine. Check out “Miracle Goodnight.” And then check out the whole record. “
Tiggerlion says
I thoroughly enjoyed it at the time and still do. It’s a fun album. I equate it to Pin Ups, an album without shackles, no real expectations. It was designed for the club dancefloor, not the rave, and it’s a blatant love letter to Iman. He sounds very comfortable in his skin, mature, able to reflect sensibly on his previous life. Iman obviously made him very happy and helped him grow up.
A few thoughts: Jump They Say is a fantastic single: the clash of horns with Lester is outrageous: Rodgers turns down the Chic and ups the Jazz-Funk: I’d drop the Morrissey cover for the much funnier Lucy Can’t Dance, a diss of Madonna: having got these cover songs out of his system, he was writing weird shit again, a blessed relief after all that Rock Band stuff.
Moose the Mooche says
Lucy can’t dance was included as a bonus on some initial BTWN CDs, like the one my mate bought. It’s a great track and ends that CD really well.
Stan Deely says
Well just 9 comments and nothing for over 24 days. Is this thread dead? Just as I got to the end of reviewing I sought the opinion of a friend on the album. She’s a Bowie civilian. In her 50’s, considers herself a fan, has in the past owned Scary Monsters and Hunky Dory. She’s familiar by cultural osmosis with his 70s and early 80’s output but doesn’t really know anything beyond the Lets Dance singles.
I explained my 12 albums project and I played her the album blind in the background whilst we were chatting away. Here’s her verbatim verdict
“The Wedding – I’m liking it so far. You’ve Been Around – Is it a 1980’s album, late 1980’s, early 90s? Black Tie White Noise. I like the rhythm. Now it’s getting a bit samey and repetitive. Not sure if it’s dancey or funny. A bit busy. Works okay as background music.
General comments on the album so far. It’s got good energy. The tunes aren’t that memorable. It’s the dance era isn’t it. They’re not rock songs. Pallas Athena – quite a good one, better than the others. Miracle goodnight- This one’s sillly sounding. It sounds like Ken Dodd singing a theme tune. Overall verdict – Well produced, rich layering of sound, slightly tedious. Bass lines of the time. Good vocals. Showing off his range and skills. Not terrible. Just a bit bland.”
Well there you go. Just one listen and she came to pretty much the same conclusion that I came to over a period of three weeks of intensive listening and consideration. Maybe I should just let her do the rest of the year. This led me to suggest to her that the appreciation of music might be more objective than subjective, that we respond to the same things but she said that she just thought we had similar taste due to being the same age, cultural influences etc. I guess she was right.
So is that it? Any more opinions and observations on the album or this period of Bowie before the thread totally dies.
Moose the Mooche says
Threads never die, they just sleep. Trust me.
I’ve stayed off here because I’m always bloody here. In the words of Winston Churchill, “Somebody’s boring me…. I think it’s me”
Stan Deely says
Always love your comments which I find informed, Insightful and funny (in a good way) so please carry on.
Moose the Mooche says
Why thank you. I’ll have another think at the weekend. Love your review, by the way .
dai says
24 days? Hours?
Stan Deely says
Well spotted. Originally I wrote “over 24 hours” and then realised that it was in fact over 2 days but I failed to make the full correction.
fentonsteve says
My school friend/gig buddy bought this one at the time. We had both fairly recently graduated/started FT work, were both skint, and CDs were expensive.
I heard it round his, borrowed it, played it at home, gave it back. Didn’t even bother to tape it.
MC Escher says
This came out while I wasn’t in a good place to listen to much music, let alone Bowie. But going back to it after the annus horibilis of 2016 during my own “Back To Bowie” listening project I found I really quite liked it. That sounds a bit damning with faint praise but it isn’t really.
The only disappointing track for me was the pointless Cream cover.
For those who bought it at the time I imagine it must have benefitted from a bounce effect – “thank fuck it’s not like the last two.”
Rigid Digit says
I always view this album of the point Bowie became Bowie The Leg-end, and his future work was taken at face value, not constantly compared to his past (although (“his best since Scary Monsters” remained in reviews for a while longer.
I think the point that started happening was Tin Machine. The seemed to mark a stop between his past and his future, and seemed to give him a bit of an energy lift. This album was a “new start”
(or maybe that’s just me).
Not bad by any means, but probably not one of his greats – as an album, it doesn’t seem to hang together for me.