By 1976 David Bowie had achieved super stardom in America and was so high on coke he has no recollection about the recording process of “Station To Station”, his tenth studio album. The album was also a vehicle for his last great character “The Thin White Duke” and steered his music more in the direction of funk and Kraftwerk-style mechanical rhythms. The Thin White Duke was a hollow romantic who sang powerful love songs whilst feeling nothing and dressed in impeccable cabaret clothing. In reality Bowie was living in Los Angeles, existing merely on milk, peppers and cocaine, and in a constant state of paranoid hallucinations of bodies floating by his windows and living in absolute (drug induced) terror of Jimmy Page. As comical as that sounds, Bowie has described it as the darkest period of his life. Station to Station, which is being re-issued by EMI in a deluxe box set at the end of this month, produced a top 10 single “Golden Years” (Bowie claims it was written and offered to Elvis Presley who turned it down). It also includes the absolutely gorgeous “Word On a Wing”, which he later described as his call for help, plus a Johnny Mathis cover of “Wild is the Wind” which has been lauded as one of the best Bowie vocals ever. This is my must have re-issue of the year. Absolute musical bliss.
GOLDEN YEARS
WILD IS THE WIND
WORD ON A WING
