The 500 - #324 - Station To Station - David Bowie

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 324

Album Title: Station To Station

Artist: David Bowie

Genre: Art Rock

Recorded: Two Studios, Los Angeles, USA

Released: January, 1976

My age at release: 10

How familiar was I with it before this week: Fairly

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #53 - moving up 272 places

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Stay

When I finally saw a David Bowie record coming up on The 500 list, I was delighted. Bowie was an artist who, throughout his 54-year career in music, stayed ahead of the curve by being the curve. Indeed, he was ahead of his time. Bowie shaped a unique trajectory through the world of music; in fashion; pop culture; and art – unrivaled by any artist of his generation.

Illustrations capturing Bowie's looks, 1964 - 2014

There is a gif (an animated image file) that cycles through 50 years of Bowie's signature looks in a series of illustrations displayed repeatedly over six seconds. It can be found here. It is mesmerizing, but also a bit overwhelming, so I have not embedded it on my blog page. The stills from the animation can be found in the picture above.

Illustration from Bowie's "Thin White Duke" period

Station To Station, released in January, 1976, was a time in Bowie's career dubbed his "Thin White Duke phase". Earlier, in the summer of 1973, Bowie toured extensively in his Ziggy Stardust persona -- an androgynous, alien rock star who has come to a dying and demoralized Earth to deliver a message of hope.

Bowie performing on stage in his Ziggy Stardust persona

During a concert at the Hammersmith Odeon Theatre in London, England, Bowie, as Ziggy, closed the concert with the statement:

 "Of all the shows on this tour, this particular show will remain with us the longest, because not only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show that we'll ever do."

Obviously, this created much media attention, with some thinking that the 25-year-old Bowie was retiring from music. However, the singer moved to Los Angeles shortly after and began working on his eighth studio record, Diamond Dogs. (Which was also the first Bowie record I owned).

Diamond Dogs album cover (1974)

A new character emerged for the 78-show promotional tour. In part, this new identity, "Halloween Jack", drew inspiration from George Orwell's dystopian, social-science fiction novel, 1984. He was an eyepatch-wearing, red-mulleted rocker who was identified on Diamond Dogs as "a real cool cat" who "lives on top of Manhattan Chase" in the semi-fictional "Hunger City".

Bowie in his Halloween Jack persona

However, it was The Thin White Duke who manifested as Bowie's darkest and most troubling character, first appearing on-stage during Bowie’s tour for the 1975 record Young Americans.

Young Americans (1975)

Bowie’s alien entity was conceived, in part, from the character of Thomas Jerome Newton, played by Bowie in the 1976 film The Man Who Fell To Earth (a film I first saw on VHS in the early 80s.) In the British science fiction cult-classic, Bowie portrayed an extraterrestrial who arrives on Earth seeking water for his drought-stricken home planet. Adopting a human identity, he shares advanced technology from his planet and enjoys the wealth and popularity this brings, while working covertly to build a spaceship for his return home. However, the alien Newton becomes transfixed by the distractions of Earth, including, sex, alcohol, television and religion.

The look of Bowie's Thin White Duke shares much with the titular character from the 1976 film. The Duke has perfectly coiffed hair, slicked back from his brow like some sort of Alien Aryan. Replacing the brightly coloured glam-rock clothes of his former incarnations, The Duke wears a simple "cabaret-style" outfit consisting of a white shirt, black slacks and matching waistcoat.

Bowie on tour as The Thin White Duke (1977)

Borrowing in part from the magician Propero's famous speech in Shakespeare's The Tempest, he announces himself immediately on the opening, title track of the record, Station To Station:

"The return of the Thin White Duke
Throwing darts in lovers' eyes
Here are we, one magical moment, such is the stuff
From where dreams are woven."

As with his other characters, Bowie immersed himself fully into this persona such that the line between artist and character were blurred. Press interviews were with The Duke, not Bowie, and "both" were clearly impacted by his "astronomical” use of hard drugs -- particularly cocaine. Bowie  later reported he remembered little from the recording sessions.

The Thin White Duke performing in Toronto (1978)

Controversy began as the line between art and artist remained blurred. In an interview, Bowie, as The Duke, made pro-fascist statements, even commenting that "Hitler was one of the first rock stars". He added: “You’ve got to have an extreme right-wing front come up and sweep everything off its feet and tidy everything up.”

In retrospect, it is clear Bowie did not mean what he said -- The Thin White Duke was "a hollow man, singing songs about romance with an agonizing intensity while feeling nothing". The character was pure artistry -- in fact, a clown.

Paul Legrande in the role of Peirrot (1855)

The character was also inspired in part by Pierrot, the "sad clown" archetype from Commedia Dell'Arte, one of the earliest forms of comedic theatre and social commentary from 16th century Italy. Bowie confirmed this in a later interview, stating:

 "I'm Everyman. What I'm doing is theatre and only theatre ... What you see on stage isn't sinister. It's pure clown. I'm using myself as a canvas and trying to paint the truth of our time on it. The white face, the baggy pants – they're Pierrot, the eternal clown putting over the great sadness.

There is so much more going on with this record. Far too much to document in a single blog post. The musical styles are incredibly diverse, ranging from soulful ballads to funk to early German industrial (a style of music that fuses industrial sounds with instrumentation -- becoming popular initially in Germany in the late 60s).

Furthermore, the lyrics include references to Kabala -- a school of Jewish mysticism that focuses on various "stations" on the path to wisdom and enlightenment. Hence the title, Station To Station.

The paths to stations of wisdom on
the Sefirot or Tree of Life in the
Kabala Mysticism

If you want to learn more, I highly recommend this comprehensive video on YouTube by Polyphonic.

Although he did not officially retire the Thin White Duke character, Bowie moved from the drug scene in Los Angeles to Switzerland and eventually to Germany in early 1977. It was there he began work on his Berlin Trilogy (Low, Heroes and The Lodger). Some speculate the cover art on the last record in this series marked the demise of a character Bowie would later refer to as "an ogre" -- once stating: "This was a very dangerous period for me...I was at the end of my tether physically and emotionally and had serious doubts about my sanity.’

The Lodger album cover, #3 in The Berlin Trilogy (1979)

Was The Thin White Duke a put-on or did this fascist-leaning cabaret persona inhabit Bowie during a time when he struggled with drug addiction and mental health in his late-twenties?

The compelling thing for Bowie’s fans is that the answers will never be known. One simply chooses to join this fascinating individual on his 69-year earth-bound journey as he carved his unique trajectory through music, fashion and pop-culture.

A meme that circulated shortly after Bowie's death in 2016

We'll return to David Bowie in 45 weeks when we look at Bowie during his late-Ziggy phase, with his sixth studio release, Aladdin Sane. 

Aladdin Sane (#279 on The 500)

The 500 - #325 - Slowhand - Eric Clapton

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 325

Album Title: Slowhand

Artist: Eric Clapton

Genre: Rock

Recorded: Olympic Studios, London, U.K.

Released: November, 1977

My age at release: 12

How familiar was I with it before this week: Quite

Is it on the 2020 list? No

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Lay Down Sally

Front cover of Slowhand - by Eric Clapton

It was in Grade 9 when I spotted it, scrawled on the side of an old desk at the back of my drafting class. At first, it appeared to have been roughly printed in permanent marker but, leaning closer, I realized the wood had been carved with a sharp instrument, possibly with the sharp point of a drafting compass.

A desk similar to some in my drafting class

On that desk, amid the clutter of other haphazard engravings (crude words and poorly drawn images), were three simple words... "CLAPTON IS GOD".  At the time, I had no idea there was a 15-year history behind this famous phrase, but I deduced it likely was a former student's effort to idolize guitarist, songwriter and singer Eric Clapton.

Clapton performing (1978)

The phrase, "Clapton is God", dates  back to the mid-60s, when Clapton was a member of the English Blues/Rock band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Around that time, the slogan was spray-painted on an underground subway station in Islington -- a residential district in London, England. Soon it began popping up all over the city and eventually throughout England. By the late 70s, it was everywhere -- even in my high school classroom in Southwestern Ontario. In a time well before social media made the phenomenon popular, it was a meme -- an idea, style or behaviour – that is widely imitated and rapidly spreads through a culture.

Clapton is God spray-painted on an Arvon Road fence, Islington

An ardent radio listener, I was aware of some of Clapton's music  – but only the tip of the iceberg, as I would later learn. A few years earlier, the song Lay Down Sally, from this week's album, Slowhand, had reached #3 on Canadian charts. Lay Down Sally had a country feel to it, so I had assumed  he was an American country and western artist. A later release, Cocaine, which was getting airplay about the time I was in that drafting class, made me realize he dabbled in several genres.

Lay Down Sally on the Canadian Charts - 1978

Regardless, seeing those words, "Clapton is God", scrawled on classroom furniture by a student who, I assumed, was much cooler than I, enhanced my admiration for the guitarist and singer. I wrote about Clapton's early life and addiction issues in a July, 2020 post, for the album 461 Ocean Avenue, #411 on The 500 List.

461 Ocean Avenue - #411 on The 500

Slowhand was released four years later when Clapton had kicked heroin, but still used alcohol and cocaine to excess. It was his fifth, full-length studio release as a solo artist, but he had already carved a name for himself as a guitar legend with his work with other musical groups, including The Yardbirds, The Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith and Derek & The Dominos. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked him as the second greatest guitar player of all time and he is, currently, the only person to be inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame three times -- with The Yardbirds, Cream and as a solo artist.

A few years after that memorable day in drafting class, I went through a heavy Eric Clapton phase, buying as many records of his that I could. As I listened and learned (in a time before the internet would make research easy) I became a devoted fan -- particularly of his work with Cream and his live blues material. His cover of Farther On Up The Road, from his 1975 live release, E.C. Was Here, figured frequently in mixed cassettes I made in 1986.

E.C. Was Here - 1975 Live Recording

Despite his many accomplishments, Clapton has done a disservice to his legions of fans. After an adverse reaction to the Covid vaccine, he used his celebrity status to undermine medical advice, bankroll anti-vax protesters and promote conspiracy theories -- comparing lockdowns to slavery. However, this is not the most insidious truth to come to light in recent years. He is also an angry racist.

Clapton - a musical genius with racism in his past

At a 1976 performance in Birmingham, England, Clapton asked "foreigners" in the audience to raise their hands. Then he asked them to "leave the venue". The full transcript can be found here, but I have included a censored version of the most damning section below:

"Not just leave the hall, leave our country... I don't want you here, in the room or in my country," 

"The Black w—s and c—s and Arabs and f—ing Jamaicans don't belong here, we don't want them here,"  

"This is England, this is a white country, we don't want any Black w—s and c—s living here. We need to make clear to them they are not welcome."

The rant went on as he called England "a white country" made "for white people."

Can Clapton be forgiven for his shocking and racist remarks?  After all, it is more than 40 years since his shameful outburst, a period when he was a heavy drinker. He has  apologized and joined  the anti-racism struggle. Nevertheless, his disgraceful outburst made me rethink my continued fandom.

 

Can I separate the art from the artist when I still enjoy notes on a scale with no agenda ringing out from "Blackie", his trademark Fender Stratocaster guitar? It's a lot easier than continuing to laugh at Bill Cosby jokes, and Clapton's rant is scant compared to the actions of indicted sex offenders like Cosby, Harvey Weinstein or R. Kelly.

Clapton with Blackie - his trademark
Stratocaster guitar

In the end, Clapton Is NOT God. He is simply a talented guitar player, songwriter and singer who is also a troubled man with many personal issues and flaws. Perhaps, this updated picture of his meme is more fitting to his legacy.

The 500 - #326 - Disintegration - The Cure

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 326

Album Title: Disintegration

Artist: The Cure

Genre: Gothic Rock, Art-Rock

Recorded: Hookend Studios, Oxfordshire, U.K.

Released: May, 1989

My age at release: 23

How familiar was I with it before this week: A little

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #116 -- moving up 210 places

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Lovesong

Two years ago this month I penned a post on The Cure's 1980 record, Boys Don't Cry. The album was their first North American release and consisted mostly of material previously released in the U.K. as singles or on their debut release, Three Imaginary Boys. In my 2020 post, I covered my slowly evolving relationship with the post-punk, goth band from West Sussex, England.

The Cure in 1989, (l-r) Boris Williams, Porl Thompson, Robert
Smith, Simon Gallup and Roger O'Donnell

Disintegration was released nearly a decade later when lead singer and principal song-writer Robert Smith was turning 30. He, like many of us who hit a birthday milestone, was doing plenty of self-reflecting. It has been well-reported that Smith wanted to return the group to the moody, introspective goth sounds that had established them at the start of the 80s. Between 1983 and 1989, the band had enjoyed tremendous commercial success with a number of pop-oriented hits, especially Just Like Heaven, a catchy, danceable number which became their first U.S. Top 40 hit.

Despite global success and massive record sales, Smith was unhappy with the group's critical and commercial popularity. He was in a funk and "being gloomy" was not an unnatural  state for him to be in – 30 or not. As some would say, dark, dreary, navel-gazing is Smith's brand.

Smith in 1989 (aged 30)

But still, the milestone age might have aggravated his mood. It is not unusual. In fact, I struggled with it and so did many of my friends and acquaintances as they left behind their youth.

Perhaps it is the math we reflect on. We are halfway to 60 and a third of our life is likely behind us. Maybe it is the weight of societal conventions. Most of us had parents who were married, had children and were deeply engaged in meaningful careers at the three-decade mark. I was unmarried, childless and still bartending.

Me, behind the bar in 1994, age 29

Back to Smith. He wasn't anything like me. He was married to Mary Theresa Poole, his long-term partner (they met in school at age 14). He was enjoying an incredibly successful career –adored by legions of fans and wealthy beyond imagination. So, what is it about 30? Let’s say it is a personal thing.

Poole and Smith in the mid-90s

Regardless, Smith returned to experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs and this influenced the writing and production of Disintegration. Smith has said the impending arrival of his 30th birthday had made him feel dismal and despondent over not having already completed "his masterpiece".

For many fans, Disintegration is that masterpiece. It was a return to the sound that had made The Cure popular a decade earlier and for fans who love lush, dark orchestrations punctuated by self-absorbed gloomy lyrics, a perfect record.

Sure, I would love to be 30 again and the heck with being gloomy. In fact, roll on 60. In the meantime, I wonder if Smith feels the same way or is still feeling the march of age, especially since he is now 62.

The 500 - #327 - Exile To Guyville - Liz Phair

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 327

Album Title: Exile To Guyville

Artist: Liz Phair

Genre: Indie Rock, Lo-Fi

Recorded: Idful Music Corporation, Chicago, USA

Released: June, 1993

My age at release: 28

How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, to #56 -- moving up 271 places

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Never Said

In the fall of 1996, shortly after I had graduated from Teachers' College, I was in a funk. School boards in Ontario were not hiring. However, I was fortunate to get on the Occasional Teachers' list with the London School Board (now Thames Valley) but supply work was tough to secure and provided a limited revenue stream. I knew that I would need to return to full-time bartending to make ends meet. My $10,000 investment into a teaching degree had, seemingly, led me nowhere.

Thames Valley District School Board Logo

One of my college roommates, Brendan, was renting two floors of a large home in downtown London with members of his band, The Pedros. He let me know there was a basement room available and I jumped at the inexpensive opportunity.

One of the few pictures I have of my roommate Brendan, 
taken at his birthday party, January, 1996

One of Brendan's bandmates, and now my new roommate, was Lisa, a talented singer and guitarist. We took turns picking CDs for the communal stereo system and she acquainted us all to many contemporary female singer/songwriters, including Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Jewel and this week's artist, Liz Phair.

Liz Phair (circa 1996)

The first Phair record I heard blasting through our sprawling, 100-year old, Victorian-era rental was Whip-Smart, the sophomore release by the Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist. It contained the song Supernova, which received significant radio play and was nominated at the 37th Grammy Awards for the Best Female Rock Vocalist Award...losing to Come To My Window by Melissa Etheridge.

Phair's second release Whip-Smart (1994)

The record that appears at position #327 on The 500 list is Phair's debut release on Matador records, Exile To Guyville. Technically, it is her fourth release. Between 1990 and 1992, Phair had self-released three cassettes under the pseudonym, Girly Sound.

Girly Sound Cassette Releases (1990-1992)

Phair acknowledges that the term Guyville was coined by Nash Kato of the band Urge Overkill on their 1992 song Goodbye to Guyville. It refers to the testosterone-fueled Chicago music scene of the early 90s -- of which both Phair and Kato belonged. 

As Kato put it:

"These were guys with an unnecessary swagger, wearing huge, gold chains...wielding Rock and Roll like some kind of power tool to get your manly feelings out. The scene was a total sausage-fest (almost exclusively male). It always seemed like a bad frat-party."

Nash Kato, left, onstage with Urge Overkill (1994)

Urge Overkill was not the only group from which Phair drew inspiration for Exile To Guyville. The album is a song-by-song reply to Exile On Main St., arguably the best record by The Rolling Stones. In fact, Main St. appears at position #7 on The 500.

Exile On Main Street

Phair has made it clear in interviews that her tracks are not a clear or obvious response to the Stones' album. Instead, she sequenced the songs on Exile in Guyville to match the song list and pacing of the Exile on Main St. On Spotify, a contributor known as STVX, has created a playlist which pairs the songs from both albums together, one after the other. It is well worth a listen. You can find it here.

As you might imagine, there is a lot to dig into with Phair's lyrically powerful record -- certainly too much for me to cover here. The production is "lo-fi" (low-fidelity), a sonic aesthetic that retains the raw, simplicity of a studio recording (warts and all). It is, as one might expect, the opposite of a "hi-fi" (high fidelity recording) -- where studio tools are used to hide imperfections and enhance sound quality. 

Phair in the studio (1998)

Phair's lyrics are also raw and forthright, bringing the role of women in music and society into sharp focus. However, to be clear, these are human stories, and many are universally relatable. This is not man-bashing from an angry, female songwriter (which, by the way, is a hack, lazy, criticism I hear far too often from some circles). 

In a 1994 interview, Phair said:

"That stuff didn't happen to me, and that's what made writing it interesting. I wasn't connecting with my friends. I wasn't connecting with relationships. I was in love with people who couldn't care less about me. I was yearning to be part of a scene. I was in a posing kind of mode, yearning to have things happen for me that weren't happening. So I wanted to make it seem real and convincing. I wrote the whole album for a couple people to see and know me."

This is a record that I will cue-up again -- probably the aforementioned Spotify version that matches it with the Stones' classic. 

It has been a long time since I saw my former roommate Lisa, and I owe her a belated thanks for being the first to put Phair on my radar.  I also still owe her about $25 for our last hydro bill. Unfortunately, she, Brendan and I lost touch with each other after moving out of the old apartment building in the spring of 1997. So, if she happens to read this, I'm still good for it, Lisa.