The 500 - #251 - Low - 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. 

---

Album: #251
Album Title: Low
Artist: David Bowie
Genre: Art Rock, Experimental Rock, Avant Pop, Ambient 
Recorded: Château d'Hérouville, Hansa (West Berlin)
Released: January, 1977
My age at release: 11
How familiar was I with it before this week: Fairly

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #206, up 45 spots since 2012
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Always Crashing In The Same Car

It has been a tremendously busy week. While still enjoying some summer break activities, I have started my preparations for a new school year. I'm also rehearsing for a play that will run in late-September and I've realized that my memorization skills are not what they were twenty-years ago -- when I last had a chance to "tread the boards". I also traveled to Toronto to attend the four-day Annual Meeting for my Teachers Federation in Toronto.

That event, attended by more than 600 Ontario educators, provided plenty of opportunity for socializing. However, long, sedentary sessions participating in debate, conducted according to the rigid protocols of  Robert's Rules of Order, can be mentally exhausting. Consequently, I took advantage of breaks to amble around the facility and help the blood return to my legs.

Robert's Rules of Order for Parliamentary procedure.

The hotel and conference centre where the meetings were held are massive. Traversing the expanse throughout the day required crossing the vast lobby to venture from room, to suites, to caucus chambers, to cavernous convention halls. It was a good opportunity to don my headphones and a revisit a familiar record -- Low, the eleventh studio release from English musician, singer, songwriter, actor and cultural icon David Bowie.

Low was the first of three records dubbed The Berlin Trilogy. It, along with Heroes (1977) and Lodger (1979) were recorded in collaboration with English musician Brian Eno (a staple on The 500 list) and American producer Tony Visconti. The first two records were recorded in Berlin, while Lodger was completed in studios located in Switzerland and New York. It was during the promotion of the third record that Bowie began to refer to the trio of albums as The Berlin Trilogy.

Low, Heroes and Lodger comprise The Berlin Trilogy

Bowie's decision to move to Europe was impelled by an effort to free himself from the drug culture in Los Angeles, where he had lived the previous two years. Bowie's drug use, mainly cocaine, had escalated substantially. Fueled by the powerful stimulant, he rarely slept and subsisted on a diet of red peppers and milk. Already slim, his weight dropped to below 100 lbs. Years later, he admitted he had little recollection of the recording for his 1976 album, Station to Station (#324 on The 500). As he put it, "I know it was (recorded) in Los Angeles because I've read it was."

Album cover for Station To Station (1976)

A particular favourite of mine on Low is the fifth track, Always Crashing In The Same Car. The song references an event that occurred during the height of Bowie's cocaine addiction. While driving through Los Angeles, Bowie spotted a drug dealer who (he believed) had ripped him off. Furious, Bowie rammed his Mercedes repeatedly into the dealer's vehicle. After, "five crazed minutes" Bowie drove away from the incident and returned to the underground parking lot at the hotel where he was staying. He spent the next few hours driving the car in circles.

Bowie behind the wheel of his Mercedes prior to the 1976 incident.

That event was the catalyst for change for the English musician and he made the move to Berlin shortly after. Consequently, the title (and chorus) of the song serves as a metaphor about the human tendency to make the same mistakes in life, over and over again. It always reminds me of the quote attributed to Albert Einstein, that "Insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results".

It seems we humans are prone to repeatedly making the same mistakes. Psychologists have postulated that it is because our ego-driven choices can create "grooves in our neural pathways" that we are compelled to follow. Freud called this "repetition compulsion" and believed it was connected to the learned behaviours we locked into our psyche during childhood.

Bowie's decision to move to Berlin was, according to researchers, a smart one. A change in scenery or situation is valuable in re-routing neural pathways, so pursuing a different creative activity has additional cognitive benefits. It certainly worked for him. He got clean and created an absolute gem with the release of Low, and the rest of The Berlin Trilogy.

There is a lesson in that for us all.

Perhaps that is why I don't mind keeping myself busy with different pursuits during the summer months?