What The Hell Happened To... 07.27.09: David Bowie - Lodger

Posted by CA on 07.27.2009

Bowie puts a period on the first stage of his career, but were we listening? This week C.A. Bell takes a close look at the final installment of the Berlin Trilogy and finds that even an icon can be overlooked.

You know, sometimes I think I make things harder than they really are. This week I'll be covering David Bowie. Bowie is, without a doubt, one of my favorite artists of all time. With that said, it was excruciating trying to pick a Bowie album that I considered both great and under-appreciated. Ziggy, Hunky Dory. and Aladin Sane are iconic albums that were automatically out of the question. Pin Ups, The Man Who Sold the World, and Space Oddity don't get much coverage, but they're overall quality just about matches their coverage. Station to Station and Scary Monsters are great albums, but they seem a little safe, as even the passing Bowie fan probably knows at least a few tracks from each. Anything after 1980 just isn't something I care to acknowledge as existing. His live releases, outside of the newer Live at the Beeb and Live in Santa Monica ‘72, are just awful. That pretty much left me with the Berlin 3. I didn't care much for these choices either. I mean, these are great albums that, due to their unfriendly-for-radio nature, don't have a lot of representation on greatest hits collections. But, they are sort of iconic in their own right. There are entire books about Bowie during this time period, and to say that a lasting collaboration between Brian Eno and David Bowie isn't pure fodder for even the novice music geek is a complete understatement. Yet, I feel that even within this niche group of listeners, there is an argument to make. So, I hope you'll join me this week as ‘What The Hell Happened To…' does the unthinkable and tackles the exalted David Bowie by looking at his 1979 work, Lodger.

Track Listing:
1. Fantastic Voyage – (Bowie, Eno) 2:54
2. African Night Flight – (Bowie, Eno) 2:55
3. Move On – (Bowie) 3:18
4. Yassassin (Turkish For: Long Live) – (Bowie) 4:11
5. Red Sails – (Bowie, Eno) 3:44
6. D.J. – (Alomar, Bowie, Eno) 4:00
7. Look Back in Anger – (Bowie) 3:06
8. Boys Keep Swinging – (Bowie, Eno) 3:18
9. Repetition – (Bowie) 2:59
10. Red Money – (Alomar, Bowie) 6:59

Label: Virgin
Release Date: 05.18.79
Running Time: 35:07
Producer: David Bowie/Tony Visconti

The Players:
Carlos Alomar – Guitar, Percussion
Adrian Belew – Guitar, Mandolin
David Bowie – Synthesizer, Guitar, Piano, Saxophone, Vocals
Dennis Davis – Bass, Percussion
Brian Eno – Synthesizer, Guitar, Piano, Trumpet, Horn
Reeves Gabriels – Guitar
Simon House – Mandolin, Violin
Erdal Kizilcay – Bass, Percussion
Sean Mayes – Piano, Keyboards
George Murray – Bass
Roger Powell – Synthesizer
Tony Visconti – Bass, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals

What Else Was Going On In 1979?

I've long held a theory that you'll find the most influential music in the last and first year of every decade. 1979 goes a ways toward proving that theory. While the Sex Pistols were winding down, punk music was stronger than ever with the release of the Clash's iconic London Calling, the Buzzcocks nearly perfect Singles Going Steady, the Ramones End of the Century. and 999's self-titled release. Some of the best new wave albums were released in 1979 by the likes of Elvis Costello, Devo, XTC, the Talking Heads, Squeeze, the Jam, and Joe Jackson. Album rock proved to still be as strong as ever because of important albums from Tom Petty, Cheap Trick, Fleetwood Mac, and the Electric Light Orchestra. Heavy Metal was starting to make serious mainstream statements with albums by Motorhead, Judas Priest, AC/DC, and Van Halen. Disco was still king in the post-Saturday Night Fever world as Michael Jackson would release his first solo smash with Off the Wall and even Kiss would make a disco album. This year saw the debut of the Police and the Cure. Pink Floyd made history with The Wall. Zappa went pop with Sheik Yerbouti. 1979 was also the year of (what I consider) the last Led Zeppelin album with In Through the Out Door. Many of Bowie's cohorts would find success in '79 too, as Iggy Pop, former Mott the Hoople leader Ian Hunter, Lou Reed, and Queen would all have releases that year. Here is a list of all the great albums from 1979;
XTC - Drums And Wires
Various Artists - Quadrophenia Soundtrack
Van Morrison - Into the Music
Van Halen - II
Tom Petty - Damn the Torpedos
Thin Lizzy - Black Rose
The Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Squeeze - Cool for Cats
Split Enz – Frenzy
The Soft Boys - A Can of Bees
The Sex Pistols - The Great Rock ‘N' Roll Swindle
The Ramones - It's Alive & End of the Century
Queen - Live Killers
Public Image Limited - Metal Box
The Police - Reggatta de Blanc
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Patti Smith - Wave
Nick Lowe - Labour of Lust
Nick Drake - Time of No Reply
Neil Young - Live Rust & Rust Never Sleeps
Motorhead - Overkill
Michael Jackson - Off the Wall
Loudon Wainwright III - A Live One
Lou Reed - The Bells
Led Zeppelin - In Through the Out Door
Kiss - Dynasty
The Kinks - Low Budget
Judas Priest - Unleased in the East & Killing Machine
Joni Mitchell - Mingus
Joe Jackson - Look Sharp! & I'm the Man
The Jam - Setting Sons
Iggy Pop - New Values
Ian Hunter - You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic
Frank Zappa - Sleep Dirt, Sheik Yerbouti, & Joe's Garage
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
The Fall - Live at the Witch Trial & Dragnet
Elvis Costello - Armed Forces
Electric Light Orchestra - Discovery
Devo - Duty Now for the Future
David Johansen - In Style
The Cure - Three Imaginary Boys
The Clash - London Calling
The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette
Cheap Trick - Dream Police & At Budokan
Christopher Cross - Christopher Cross
The Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady & A Different Kind of Tension
Bob Marley - Survival
Bob Dylan - Slow Train Coming & Live at Budokan
Badfinger - Airwaves
AC/DC - Highway to Hell
999 - 999

Background of the Berlin Trilogy

Having reached international fame with his Ziggy Stardust persona, a worn out David Bowie broke up the Spiders from Mars after the 1973 release Pin Ups. His first post-Ziggy release, Diamond Dogs, was a critical failure even though it did spawn the hit single "Rebel Rebel". Upon touring America in support of that album, Bowie became infatuated with Philadelphia soul. Bowie moved to Los Angeles and recorded the Philly-steeped 1975 release Young Americans and its 1976 follow-up Station to Station. While both albums were massive hits in the United States, with Young Americans reaching #9 on the Billboard charts and Station to Station peaking at #3, the darker elements of Station to Station displayed Bowie's growing paranoia caused by his also growing addiction to cocaine. After the release of Station to Station, Bowie decided to move back to London. Upon his return is perhaps the most infamous moment in his career (outside of Tin Machine, of course) as the returning Bowie greeted his London fans with a Nazi salute. The reaction to pictures of Bowie acting like a Nazi caused nothing short of a furor. Perhaps in retreat, Bowie then relocated to Berlin, to stay with his friend Brian Eno. This is how the story begins.

While staying with Eno, two important things happened before they recorded even one track together. First, Bowie started sobering up. Two, Bowie fell in love with the newly burgeoning electro-pop that was taking Germany by storm (Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express" even mentions Bowie and Iggy Pop by name). With all of this in place, Bowie and Eno began working together on what Bowie himself has acknowledged as the ‘Berlin Trilogy'. In 1977, Bowie would release the two first parts of the trilogy; Low and Heroes. Low and Heroes were stark avant-pop products that stood apart from anything Bowie had attempted in the past. Though both albums broke the top fifty in America, neither would match the success of Bowie's previous two works. Both of these albums, however, would immediately garner critical acclaim for Bowie and to this day be considered among the most important works in Bowie's catalogue. After their release, Bowie took time off to work with Iggy Pop on his first two post-Stooges releases, Lust for Life and The Idiot, and tour anonymously as Pop's keyboard player. In 1979, Bowie and Eno would come back together to record the trilogy's finale, Lodger.

What Song Do I Know?

Lodger would have no charting singles in the United States, but would spawn three tracks that might be memorable to the passing fan. "D.J." is perhaps the most well known song from Lodger, as the promotional video created for it would become a staple on the newly born Music Television station in America. The song now is mostly used for documentary films about the late-seventies. You know the part of the movie where everyone is at a disco and on coke? This is the song that is playing in the background. Outside of "D.J.", most avid Bowie fans consider "Look Back in Anger" or "Boys Keep Swinging" to be the signature track from the album. "Boys Keep Swinging" has been covered on six ‘official' releases by artists like Susanna Hoffs and The Associates.

The Album

Of the Berlin Trilogy, Lodger is the most accessible to the first time listener, a fact that I believe hurt the album's legacy as we will discuss later. Where Low and Heroes came off as minimalist electronic experiments, Lodger seems to be Eno and Bowie taking those ideas and fine tuning them for a pop audience. That is not to say that this album is without its own experiments. Lodger plays a bit like a tour around the world, with David Bowie as your twisted guide. "African Night Flight" carries the characteristic Eno arrhythmic lyrical timing, but combines it with an equally disorienting percussion. "Yassassin" (perhaps my favorite track on the record) sounds a bit like following a parade through a Moroccan bazaar on bad acid. "D.J." brings Bowie back to the United States with a song that walks the line between rock and disco. "Red Money" closes the album out in fantastic fashion with a track that could have been plucked from either of Bowie's prior two albums.

Commercially, Lodger peaked at #20 on the U.S. charts. Critical response to the album was good, but some wondered if the pop direction of this album indicated Bowie's creative talent was beginning to diminish. After Lodger Bowie went on to release 1980's Scary Monsters. Here, Bowie would put a cap on all of the work he had done before. It was the last time that we would see Bowie at his best, and it was Bowie doing his best to make us forget what we had seen. After Scary Monsters came the very worst everyone imagined. A sober artist gave in to the 1980s to make a few more dollars. Let's just leave that period alone.

Why Has This Album Been Forgotten?

Reason 1: Lodger just isn't as cool
Of the Berlin Trilogy, Lodger has always been the bastard son. This is a fact compounded by the fact that both Eno and Bowie have publicly talked about it being their least favorite of the three albums. This is the album, of the three, that bothered to be digestible to the masses. That is the major fault of Lodger, it is the least ‘artistic' of Bowie's most ‘artistic' period. So, the album remains as ‘oh, that one. I never really listened to it. It's not as interesting as Low.' I often wonder how many times the people that say something like that have actually listened to all three albums. Because Lodger isn't as purely experimental as Low or Heroes, it's harder to brag about how good it is. That would just be less…'artsy'.

Reason 2: David Bowie is always a-changing
David Bowie is perhaps just as famous for changing styles as he is for making good music. He's dabbled as a mod, psychedelic folkie, glam rocker, soul singer, electro pioneer, Top 40 popster, hard rocker, and even as an industrial headbanger. While this is great for keeping fans on their toes, it didn't bode well for Lodger. Not a year after the release of Lodger, Bowie would change skins again for Scary Monsters and put a cap on his 70s career by transitioning into the pure pop of Let's Dance. This means that the songs from Lodger had little time to sit with his audience before he moved the focus onto an entirely different sound. Furthermore, because this was the beginning of Bowie purposely shunning his work during the 70s, few of the tracks from Lodger have been given any live support from Bowie over the last thirty years.

Reason 3: An imperfect pop
While Lodger has trouble being remembered by more ‘authentic' music fans, for not being experimental enough. It has a similar problem with more ‘mainstream' music fans for being too experimental. The tracks here are too minimal and just not as catchy as what audiences found on albums like Young Americans or Let's Dance. While the album sold well in the United States and Britain, it seemed to be harder to remember for the passing pop fan. This sort of limbo between experiment and pop, as best as I can tell, is exactly what Bowie and Eno were attempting to achieve with Lodger. Unfortunately, that limbo is exactly part of the reason that the album isn't well remembered. Lodger just doesn't speak to the heart of a core audience, instead hovering on everyone's periphery.

Reason 4: CDs have destroyed everything
This is a minor argument, but one I feel is necessary to discuss. Lodger is an album that was conceived for the LP format. The first half of the record is entirely about environments affecting the individual while the second half is about individuals affecting their environment. In LP form, Bowie creates two entirely different adventures from Side A to Side B that are part of a dichotomy. In essence, when you flip the record you here songs that are photo negatives of the songs on the opposite side. This is part of the magic of Lodger that is lost in Compact Disc format. What is a huge plus for the album in LP, could be considered what makes it disjointed to a listener on CD. Let me put it this way. My father always used to talk about how cool it was the first time he listened to Abbey Road and flipped over to Side B to find one continuous song. The first time I heard it on CD, I was pretty let down. And now, in the age of iPods, God help a passerby that should be near me if "Golden Slumbers" comes on random play and I don't get to hear the end of the damn song.

Why Should This Album Be Remembered?

Alright, the basics are the same. It's a great album, blah, blah, blah. Bowie's a genius, blah, blah, blah. Brian Eno is the best something and something else. Now onto the fun stuff. First, we should all listen to Lodger because it is the last album of what I consider to be the best period of his career. I've always considered Bowie's career to have had three stages. 1967-1979 was Bowie's earliest period, defined by his constant musical evolution and (in my opinion) his best records. 1980-1992 is Bowie's pop period, defined by….um….Let's Dance and that duet he did with Mick Jagger. You know the one. They murdered that classic Martha Reeves and the Vandellas song while wearing silly clothing? Finally, there's 1993-the present, which has been Bowie's most electronic and uneven period. Lodger is the end of early period Bowie, before he began his transition towards pop and started wearing ridiculous pastel colored suits. This alone justifies the album's memory.

Second, without Lodger I don't believe Low and Heroes would be as highly regarded as they are. Outside of the fact that without the third album it can't be called a trilogy and fit into a nice little package that is easy to talk about, I think that the first two albums are simply incomplete without Lodger. They would stand as unfocused experimentations if the audience does not get to see where those experimentations lead to in the pop world. In comparison to an equally geeky realm, where do you think A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back would be without Return of the Jedi? Sure, maybe the best part of the story isn't the ending, but it's not really a story if there is no ending. The reveal at the end of Empire would be maddening if you didn't get to see its aftermath. I would say the same about Low and Heroes.

Fun With iTunes' Genius

What does the Genius have in store for us this week when we enter Bowie's "D.J."?

1. "The Thrill of it All" by Roxy Music - Country Life
2. "Dead Finks Don't Talk" by Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
3. "Crosseyed and Painless" by the Talking Heads - Remain in Light
4. "Sixteen" by Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
5. "Song for a Future Generation" by the B-52's - Time Capsule
6. "Berlin" by Lou Reed - Berlin
7. "Star, Star" by the Rolling Stones - Love You Live
8. "It's Late" by Queen - News of the World
9. "Beginning to See the Light" by the Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground
10. "Safe European Home" by the Clash - Give ‘em Enough Rope
11. "Slip Kid" by the Who - By Numbers
12. "I Don't Remember" by Peter Gabriel - III
13. "Room Full of Mirrors" by Jimi Hendrix - First Rays of the New Rising Sun
14. "Arnold Layne" by Pink Floyd - Masters of Rock
15. "Green Earrings" by Steely Dan - The Royal Scam
16. "Pretty Persuasion" by R.E.M. - Reckoning
17. "Kundalini Express" by Love and Rockets - Express
18. "Mongoloid" by Devo - Q: Are We Not Men A: We Are Devo
19. "Blank Generation" by Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Time
20. "A Night Like This" by the Cure - Show
21. "Personality Crisis" by the New York Dolls - New York Dolls
22. "Gimme Danger" by Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power
23. "The ‘In' Crowd" by Bryan Ferry - Another Time, Another Place
24. "Shot By Both Sides" by Magazine - Real Life
25. "The Hungry Wolf" by X - Under the Big Black Sun

Well, they got most of the usual suspects here; Iggy, Lou, Queen, Eno, etc. But, for some reason Genius must think Bowie really got into that whole punk scene with tracks from Magazine, X, and Richard Hell. I get the New York Dolls, what with the whole ‘wearing ladies clothing' bit, but X? That seems a bit far out of the way.

A Final Thought

All of this talking about David Bowie has got me feeling awfully reminiscent. The first band that really captured my imagination was Queen. I was ten years old when Freddie Mercury passed away, and that is a time that I will never forget. In the wake of his death, I was given the greatest gift of my life, a love for music. My dad bought the only greatest hits collection available at the time. It was this Japanese collection, that featured the band on the front cover from sometime in the ‘80s (I know this because Freddie was sporting his awfully stylish mustache). I listened to that record constantly, so much so that I can still recite the track listing from memory. So, of course, when it was announced that there would be a ‘Concert for Life' tribute to Freddie broadcast on national television, I MADE my parents watch it with me. Of course they groaned at the thought of having to miss The Cosby Show that week, but I imagine they thought my bemoaning the situation would have been much worse. I sat in front of the television amazed for two straight hours. In those two hours, I learned more about music than any other period in my life. Roger Daltrey, Metallica, Elton John, Guns & Roses, Annie Lennox, Robert Plant, George Michael, and Extreme all were standout performances that night, ones that would live with me to this day. But, there was one particular part of the concert that will live as the most important moment in my musical education. I had known David Bowie, first from his role in Labyrinth and then from his performance with Queen on "Under Pressure". But, when he took the stage and performed "Heroes", I was mesmerized. Then things got better. Bowie introduced two people that I had never heard of and it went a little something like this…

When I asked my dad who Ian Hunter was, I still remember his response, ‘He used to play for a band called Mott the Hoople. This is their only song.' To this day, that is the single largest geek out moment of my life and I wasn't old enough to realize it. Ian Hunter, David Bowie, Mick Ronson, and the surviving members of Queen playing "All the Young Dudes" (and playing their asses off while doing it) is pure rock ‘n' roll history. Furthermore, I'm fairly sure that most (American) people still don't understand how important that moment was. I guess that pretty much decides next week, doesn't it? It's off to Mott the Hoople we go.