068: David Bowie - Station to Station (1976)
“This is from back in the Seventies. Well, my Seventies, they weren’t necessarily your Seventies.”
—David Bowie, introducing “Station to Station,” Atlantic City, 2004
One day in September 1976, fueled by cocaine, peppers, and milk, David Bowie entered a Los Angeles recording studio, and then emerged a couple months later remembering nothing about what had just happened. Discord & Rhyme is here to fill in the blanks for you: He spent those two months recording Station to Station, a transitional album between his funk and experimental art rock periods that may be his all-time greatest work. The only album from Bowie’s Thin White Duke persona is only six songs long, but they’re so colorful and dense that Producer Mike and co-hosts John, Rich, and Ben spend nearly two hours talking about them. There’s so much going on in this music that it could fill a movie or book (and Ben even wrote one about him), but for today, a really enthusiastic podcast episode will suffice. And unlike your television set, there is no evidence that your podcatcher of choice will try to eat you!
Miscellany
Mike meant to mention in the episode that not only was Carlos Alomar the guitarist in Bowie’s rhythm section during this period, he was also Bowie’s musical director, and as such played a major role in what his albums from that time sounded like.
Mike also wants to be clear that he really does think Ben’s book is very good, disagreements over the Berlin-era ambient material notwithstanding. Even when Ben doesn’t like something, he’s always very thoughtful about it. Like, he actually listened to those Tin Machine albums.
We somehow got through a discussion of “TVC15” without mentioning his totally bonkers Saturday Night Live performance of the song, backed by Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias. The video also features performances of “The Man Who Sold the World” and “Boys Keep Swinging.”
For a very positive re-assessment of the Young Americans album, check out this episode of the Heat Rocks podcast featuring Lynell George.
This is almost so famous that it needs no annotation, but just in case, the cold open is a riff on Bowie’s “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” duet with Bing Crosby, from the 1977 holiday special Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas.
Other links
All the Days of His Life: Listening to David Bowie, Song By Song by Benjamin Marlin (Amazon affiliate link)
“Golden Years” on Soul Train (YouTube)
Red Hot Nickel Ball on Ice (YouTube)
Discord & Rhyme Roll Call
Mike DeFabio (host)
Benjamin Marlin (moderator)
Rich Bunnell
John McFerrin
Station to Station tracklist
Station to Station
Golden Years
Word on a Wing
TVC15
Stay
Wild Is the Wind
Other clips used
David Bowie:
Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy (with Bing Crosby)
Space Oddity
Little Wonder
Life on Mars?
Beauty and the Beast
Ziggy Stardust
Farewell Speech (from Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture)
1984
Young Americans
Saviour Machine
John, I'm Only Dancing
John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)
Sound and Vision
"Heroes"
Stay (Live Nassau Coliseum '76 version)
Blackstar
5:15 the Angels Have Gone
The Wedding
Others:
Kraftwerk - Radioactivity
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
Elton John - Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
Johnny Rivers - Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu
U2 - Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories - Stay (I Missed You)
Dave Matthews Band - Stay (Wasting Time)
Nina Simone - Wild Is the Wind
Band/album personnel
David Bowie – vocals, guitar, tenor and alto saxophone, Minimoog, Mellotron, production
Carlos Alomar – guitar
Roy Bittan – piano, organ
Dennis Davis – drums
George Murray – bass guitar
Warren Peace – backing vocals
Earl Slick – guitar
Harry Maslin – melodica, synthesiser, vibraphone, production
Steve Shapiro – photography
Credits
“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
David Bowie - Stay (this episode only)
You can buy or stream Station to Station and other albums by David Bowie at store.davidbowie.com, your local record store, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Special thanks to Mike DeFabio for editing, production, our theme song, and hosting this episode. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.