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David Bowie ‘Tonight’ (1984). Turkey or Tremendous?

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Hello all. I’ve revived my David Bowie; Albumtoalbum podcast and for the first episode in ages, have author of The Complete David Bowie, Nicholas Pegg join me for a poke around the innards of 1984’s ‘Tonight’. Not an album I went into this conversation with any high regard for, but as ever Pegg is balanced, reasonable and of course, possessed of an almost frightening level of knowledge and insights. Hope you enjoy

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  2. Well done, and good to see the podcast back in action.

    For me Tonight is middle-ranking Bowie. It includes Loving the Alien, one of the best things the Dame ever did, and Blue Jean is top-drawer as well. I also like Neighbourhood Threat and one or two others.

    However, the title track goes on too long without doing anything much, and the cover of God Only Knows is very bad indeed. The original is about as beautiful as music can get, and he shouldn’t have even tried covering it. Has anybody ever done a version that comes close to the Beach Boys’?

    The album gets a bit of a rough ride, IMHO, and deserves more praise. I’ll check out what Nicholas Pegg comes up with about it.

    • Thanks Cap’n – Nick is very fair-minded about it, me, not so much. But we’re all pretty much unanimous on his take on God Only Knows. Probably the worst single track of his entire recorded output. I’ve grown fonder of Loving the Alien in the weeks since recording the podcast.

      I did enjoy revisiting the superb mini-Ealing comedy Jazzin for Blue Jean tho

      • I have the DVD of Blue Jean – and buried in the film are Easter Eggs that lead you to interviews and performances from the 70s. It’s great.

        As a side note, I do enjoy Bowie’s acting and it might be time to posthumously declare that he was very good at it. He got quite a bit of stick in his lifetime whenever he treaded the boards or went in front of a camera.

      • I’m not going to defend “God Only Knows” (yes, dreadful) but DB’s cover versions are little discussed outside of “Pin-Ups”, which is weird bearing in mind that most of his albums include one, and they’re usually interesting choices, even if the covers themselves aren’t great (obvious exception: Wild is the Wind)

  8. Blue Jean is not a classic. I remember the video on The Tube. This trend for pretentious mini movies extending the pop video like it was a great advancement . Bowie going through the motions. A disappointment. By numbers. Rather empty. That’s when I thought he’s lost it. It’s driving him rather than him driving it.

    • I think it’s an ok pop song especially compared to all but one other track on the album. I feel Dave could have worked a bit more on the tune though I like “Jazzin for Blue Jean”

  10. The only truly awful album he did was Never Let Me Down (he should have taken his own advice there…) All of the others have at least a few bangers.
    Of course, a banger from Ziggy… is going to be another kind of banger than the ones from Tonight, but they all have a place. And very few people who wants to be stars have it in them to write even one banger during their brief careers…

      • Lovely!

        I’ve just realised you wanted an opinion on the album. I gave mine several years ago and stick by it.

        Bowie only wrote two songs for Tonight, both successful singles. The rest are covers or co-writes with Iggy Pop. It’s an album dashed off rather too quickly without much thought, probably before Bowie had met with his accountant to discuss 1983’s earnings. Derek Bramble replaces both Nile Rodgers as producer and Stevie Ray Vaughan as lead guitarist, which says it all. It contains three of Bowie’s strangest tracks all on side one. Don’t Look Down features the most lifeless reggae beat put to tape, the cover of God Only Knows clinically removes all its tenderness and the title track is a duet with Tina Turner in which the well-known hollerer is reduced to providing hushed backing vocals only. The three singles are good but remastering most of the rest brings to mind the phrase ‘polishing a turd’. Derek Bramble.

  15. I know objectively it’s not great but I had it on a cassette in my first car – I loved all the songs and knew them by heart. It still takes me back to that time. (And this was the first version of God Only Knows that I ever heard)

  16. I definitely remember, from the dire itself, on Radio London one Saturday morning in September 1984 (yikes), that a presenter/DJ trailed the album with two songs from the nine-song album… one was Blue Jean and the other was the b-side of Blue Jean (both previously released).

    I wasn’t sure at the time whether this meant that the DJ was shite, the Sainted Dave’s album was shite, or the dire 1980s was shite, but presumed it was all three.
    I know now… three bells in a row!

  17. Think I might cleanse my palate with a listen to Heathen and possibly the best songs from Earthling and Outside to restore the karmic balance after just having to think about the horrendous ‘Tonight’. But a couple of stinkers in 40 years ain’t a bad strike rate.

  18. Fascinating and very entertaining, Heart warming that Bowie included so many Iggy Pop tracks at the commercial peak of his career to help pay Iggy’s tax bill. Great that you have some very deep knowledge that even Nick was unaware of, such as the Cath Kidson connection. I don’t think anyone has mentioned that Ricky Gervais has based much of his career impersonating David Bowie, especially the Vic character from Jazzin’ for Blue Jean. I can’t wait for Part 3

    • Tonight sold a million copies in the USA, matching Let’s Dance. Iggy did very nicely, thank you. I may be wrong, but I think China Girl has earned him more money than the rest of his songs, more than Lust For Life.

  19. I’ve only listened to part one. Exemplary podcasting. The passion, the detail, the knowledge are superb. Both of you have done your homework thoroughly. And, slot, your voice is perfect, so smooth and resonant. Pegg’s voice isn’t bad either.

    Thank you

  20. Fantastic to have you back, I’ll happily admit to a burst of excitement when I saw the first episode drop. Listened to both so far, excellent as always. I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Dave’s very odd God Only Knows, hated his version of Tonight (loved the original so my immediate reaction was ‘how could you do that to it?’), an very aware the album is lacklustre but in terms of ‘likelihood yo return to’ both this and Never Let Me Down sit above Let’s Dance for me (that album and I have never got on)

  21. Bowie owned the seventies but, lovely and interesting as he remained, he lost me after Scary Monsters and never again reached the heights of Aladdin Sane or Low.

    But then neither did anyone else.

        • Everything about Absolute Beginners is shite. Worst film ever made.

          Bowie’s theme is as far from the core work – the first and best best novel on post-war British pop culture ever written, set at the time, a time remember when, while the Beatles and Stones were teenagers, the Sainted Dave was NOT (hard cheese) – as it is possible to be.

          It is, therefore, shite.
          No offence meant to D, the Sainted, or, while we’re at it, S., second name Dave.

          They’d have been better off using the Jam song.

  24. It’s clearly not a classic, but it’s not that bad, it’s just when it’s bad (like God Only Knows) it’s rank

    I prefer it to Scary Monsters, which apart from Ashes to Ashes gets on my tits with Fripps guitar playing
    I prefer it to Low as well, the second narcolepsy side

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