Station to station

According to musical biographer David Buckley, while in Los Angeles , Bowie was fueled by "astronomical" doses of cocaine and existed on a diet of pepper and milk. The musician spent most of 1975-1976 “in a state of otherworldly horror” ^[1] . Rumors around the singer’s daily life have emerged, for the most part, due to one interview, excerpts from which were published in Playboy and Rolling Stone magazines . In it, Bowie said that he lives in a house full of ancient Egyptian artifacts, burns a lot of black candles, sees how the bodies of people fall past his windows; he claimed that witches had stolen his sperm, that he received secret messages from The Rolling Stones, and that another admirer of Alistair Crowley , Jimmy Page, inspires him with mortal fear ^[2] . Later, the musician said about Los Angeles: “this damn place should be wiped off the face of the earth” ^[3] .

After Bowie played his first major film role in Nicholas Rog 's film “The Man Who Fell to Earth, ” he began writing his pseudo-autobiography entitled “The Return of the Thin White” Duke " ) ^[4] . He also began to compose music for “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” because he believed that he should fulfill this task, but this undertaking failed (as a result, on the recommendation of Bowie, John Phillips from the group The Mamas And The Papas wrote all the music ) ^[5] . Director Nicholas Rog warned the singer that part of the image of Thomas Jerome Newton (the protagonist of the picture) is likely to remain with him for some time after the shooting. With the consent of Rogue, Bowie reworked the character's image in his own way; he used this image on the covers of two of his next albums, which were released within a year after the shooting. In addition, he borrowed for his stage image such Newton’s character traits as fragility and arrogant alienation ^[6] .

The emaciated White Duke became the symbol of the Station to Station album, mainly due to the behavior of the musician himself (on and off the stage). Dressed with a needle, in a white shirt, black trousers and vest, the Duke was an “empty” man who sang romantic songs with almost no emotion - “ice under the guise of fire” ^[7] . The character was described as “crazy aristocrat” ^[7] , “immoral zombie” ^[8] and “insensitive Aryan superman” ^[2] . Subsequently, Bowie called the Duke “a really unpleasant way” ^[9] , the most terrible of his stage masks and his personal monster ^[10] .

The album was recorded at Cherokee Studios In Los Angeles. In 1981, NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray suggested that this material was edited into a full-fledged album “after 10 days of feverish activity,” when Bowie lost all hope that the recording would become the soundtrack for the movie “The Man Who Fell to Earth ". Critics later concluded that the record was recorded a couple of months in October-November 1975 ^[2] , even before Bowie began his unsuccessful session for the soundtrack of the picture ^{[12] [13]} .

During the recording period, the album changed several names - “The Return of the Exhausted White Duke” ^[14] , “Golden Years” ( English Golden Years ) ^[2] ; Bowie eventually settled on the Station to Station option. The co-producer of the record was Harry Maslin, who helped David in recording the tracks “ Fame ” and “ Across the Universe ” from the album Young Americans . Tony Visconti , who, after a three-year hiatus, returned to the Bowie team to mix the Diamond Dogs album and co-produce David Live and Young Americans , was not involved due to a mismatch in work schedules. During the recording, the backbone of the musicians formed of which the Bowie studio team will be composed until the end of the 1970s: bass player George Murray , drummer Dennis Davis and rhythm guitarist Carlos Alomar , who had already collaborated with the maestro on the album Young Americans ^[7] .

This team of musicians developed an original approach to the recording process, according to this scheme Bowie albums were created up to 1980 Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) : the backing track of the accompaniment is created by the efforts of Murray, Davis and Alomar; the saxophone, keyboards and guitar are superimposed on top, which are recorded by Bowie, Roy Bitten and Earl Slick , respectively; then vocal, and finally, all sorts of special effects are added to bring the song to mind. According to Bowie, he managed to get a very unusual guitar sound from Earl Slick: “It seems to me that the idea to extract noise and polyphony from the guitar, instead of playing precisely according to notes, captured his imagination,” the vocalist noted ^[15] . Alomar later recalled: “It was one of the most magnificent albums to which I had a hand ... We experimented a lot during the recording” ^[16] . Harry Maslin agreed: “I warmly recall those sessions - we were completely open and experimental in our approach” ^[2] .

Bowie himself remembers almost nothing about the recording period of this album, even about working in the studio, he later admitted: “I know that the recording took place in Los Angeles, because I read about it” ^[2] . However, not only Bowie used drugs during the sessions, Carlos Alomar described the situation in the studio: “If there is a coke track that will keep you awake until 8 a.m., so you can record your guitar part, you sniff this track ... the use of cocaine stimulated inspiration. " Like Bowie, Earl Slick also shared only vague memories of working on the disc: “I remember the recording vaguely - for obvious reasons! We worked in the studio like crazy - many hours, many sleepless nights! ” ^[17] .

Station to Station is often described as a transitional album in Bowie's career. According to Nicholas Pegg, the author of The Complete David Bowie , this album is “exactly halfway between Young Americans and Low ” ^[2] . The authors of the illustrated biography of Bowie Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray believe that this record "actually divides the musician’s work in the 70s in two": the record completes the era of Ziggy Stardust and plastic soul , while at the same time introducing the listener to the new music typical of Low ^[7] .

From the point of view of the material, the Station to Station style associated with European rock music can be found in earlier compositions of the musician, such as “Aladdin Sane 1913-1938-197?” And “Time” (1973). Funk and disco elements were the development of the soulful R&B sound of Young Americans (1975). Shortly before recording, Bowie became interested in German motor skills and electronic music from bands such as Neu! , Can and Kraftwerk . The album touched on themes that had also been featured in the musician’s songs before - The Supermen ( The Man Who Sold the World ) and Quicksand ( Hunky Dory ): the Nietzschean “ superman ”, the occultism of Alistair Crowley , as well as Nazi hobbies of Grail and Kabbalah mythology ^{[2] [7]} . Pegg believed that the motive of the album was the clash of " occultism and Christianity " ^[2] .

Allmusic portal reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlevine described the style of the record as follows: “by its nature, Station to Station is an avant-garde art rock album, it is most clearly seen in the composition“ TVC 15 “and the epic title track” ^[21] . The musical style of Golden Years , the first song recorded for the album, reproduces the funk and soul that are characteristic of Young Americans , but with a more “rough arrangement”. Bowie described this track as carrying “sadness over missed opportunities and past pleasures.” ^[7] According to the musician, the song was written for Elvis Presley , but he rejected it (meanwhile, at the end of 1976, “The Rock and Roll King” asked Bowie to produce his next album) ^[22] , but Bowie's wife, Angela, claimed that the song was composed for her.23 Although the song hit the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic, the singer rarely performed it at concerts in support of the album ^{[24] ]} . another funky track - «Stay» - emerged from the guitar riff , and his record of the words Carlos Alomar, was held during the "cocaine madness" ^[23] The lyrics of the song has been interpreted in different ways. As the singer's thoughts on the "sexual unreliability victories" ^[23] and as an example of "fake romanticism Duke" ^[7] .

The Christian element of the album was most evident in the hymn-like work, Word on a Wing, although some critics considered religion, like love, to be just another way for the Duke to emphasize his insensibility ^[7] . Bowie himself claimed that at least in this song, passion is genuine ^[3] . Performing it at a concert in 1999, the singer described the work as the result of “the most difficult days in my life ... I'm sure she was a cry for help” ^[25] . The final ballad, Wild Is the Wind , was the only cover version on the album and was highly praised by critics as one of the best vocal parts in Bowie's career ^[20] . The musician fired up to record a cover of this song after meeting with singer Nina Simon , who performed it on her album Wild Is the Wind in 1966 ^[25] .

According to one version, the idea of ​​the song “ TVC 15 ” appeared after Bowie saw his movie character Thomas Jerome Newton on several television monitors at the same time ^[26] . According to another version, the inspiration for the song was the hallucinations of Iggy Pop , when the musician imagined that his girlfriend swallowed the TV ^[27] . The song was called "inappropriately fun" and "the most unusual tribute to the Yardbirds that can be imagined" ^[7] .

Many music journalists described the title track as portending the “new era of experimentation” by Bowie ^[18] . Station to Station consists of two parts. The first is a slow, sinister march, where the main part is played by the piano; it begins against the background of the noise of an approaching train, which is superimposed by the intense sounds of Earl Slick's guitar under the effect of feedback . The second half of the composition has a rock / blues tint and fast pace. In 1999, Bowie told Uncut magazine that, starting with Station to Station, he sought to combine rhythm and blues with electronic music ^[28] . Despite the noise of the train at the beginning of the composition, Bowie claims that the name refers not so much to the railway stations as to the Stations of the Cross , while the line “from Kether to Malkut "Concerns mystical places in Kabbalah ; thus, Christian and Jewish allusions are intertwined in the song ^[19] . There is another reference to occultism in the text - the phrase “white spots”, this is the name of the poetic collection by Alistair Crowley ^[29] . There are also allusions to the singer’s recent narcotic addictions in the lyrics (“These are not side effects of cocaine / I think it must be love”). The song was created under the clear influence of the Kraut rock genre and became a vivid example of Bowie's movement towards a new musical style in which he will record his “ Berlin trilogy ” ^{[18] [19]} .

In an interview with Creem magazine, Bowie stated that the Station to Station record was “devoid of soul ... even love songs on it are indifferent, but it seems interesting to me” ^[18] .

All Station to Station songs, with the exception of the title track, were released as singles. Golden Years was released in November 1975, two months before the release of the album. Bowie allegedly got drunk before performing this song on the American television show Soul Train ^[30] , which was shot on November 4; Bowie became the second white performer on this show dedicated to African American music, after Elton John ^[31] . The performance on the Soul Train and the resulting video bootleg provided the single with popularity: it reached the 8th line in the UK charts and the 10th in the US chart (where it was for 16 weeks) ^[24] .

"TVC 15" was released as an edited version as the second single in May 1976. He reached 33rd position in the singer’s homeland and took 64th place in the United States. The song “Stay” was also shortened in duration and released that same month, its publication was timed to coincide with the release of the ChangesOneBowie hit collection, which was prepared by RCA Records , although the composition itself was not included in the collection. ChangesOneBowie was designed in the same style as the Station to Station album - a black and white cover and a similar lettering style ^[32] . In November 1981, when Bowie’s collaboration with RCA Records was drawing to a close, Wild Is the Wind was released as a single to promote ChangesTwoBowie’s compilation, with B on Word and accompanied by a special shot for this occasion video. This single reached 24th position in the UK charts and stayed there for 10 weeks ^[33] .

The final version of the record did not include a cover version of "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" by Bruce Springsteen , which was rumored to have been recorded during sessions at Cherokee Studios ^[15] . However, according to Nicholas Pegg, work at the studio most likely consisted of adding new sound effects to the composition, and the track itself was originally recorded at Sigma Sound Studios during the creation of Young Americans . For a long time, the composition was not published at all, it was released only in 1990, when it entered the Sound and Vision box set ^[34] .

Station to Station was launched in January 1976. Initially, the cover was supposed to be colored, the material for it was a frame from the film "The Man Who Fell to the Earth."However, Bowie rejected this option, complaining that the sky looked artificial (“Since when did this prevent him from carrying out anything he intended?” Asked Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray) ^[45] . As a result, the album was released with a cropped cover in a monochrome version, but when the label Rykodisc reprinted Bowie's albums in the early 1990s, the color version of the cover was restored ^[7] .

Редакция журнала Billboard полагала, что Боуи «нашёл свою музыкальную нишу» в таких композициях, как «Fame» и «Golden Years», но что 10-минутный заглавный трек был слишком затянут. Рецензент из журнала NME назвал Station to Station одним из самых значительных альбомов, выпущенных за последние пять лет. Впрочем, оба журнала сочли смысл лирики сложным для понимания ^[2] . В своём « потребительском гиде » для Village Voice критик Роберт Кристгау удостоил альбом высшего рейтинга — «А», назвав его «отличной записью, обеи стороны которой предлагают остающееся с вами наслаждение и сюрпризы» ^[46] . Кристгау писал, что Боуи «способен объединить в своей музыке Лу Рида , диско , и Хью Смита », и назвал альбом более совершенным по сравнению с предыдущими работами автора, заявив: «Чудесным образом тяготение Боуи к чёрной музыке достигло своего пика; ещё чудесней то, что новое увлечение не повредило его хард-роковому стилю» ^[37] .

Рецензент журнала Rolling Stone Тери Морис приветствовал те аспекты альбома, в которых присутствовала рок-составляющая, однако посетовал, что Боуи всё дальше уходит от этого жанра, назвав лонгплей "продуманно профессиональной работой опытного стилиста, чья способность написать и исполнить сложный рок-н-ролл спокойно соседствует с увлечением различными жанрами. Морис, отдавая должное таланту Боуи, однако, задавался вопросом, как долго тот ещё останется верен року ^[42] . Обозреватель журнала Circus , отметив, что Боуи ничего не делает подо лгу ни в творчестве, ни в жизни, написал, что пластинка содержит «загадочные, экспрессионистские намёки, которые позволяют нам ощутить контуры и трепет души человека в маске, но никогда полностью не раскрывают его лицо». В обзоре также отмечались отголоски более ранних работ Боуи — насыщенность The Man Who Sold the World , поп-музыкальные обертоны Hunky Dory , «диссонанс и тоска» Aladdin Sane , «зажигательная» перкуссия Young Americans и «юношеский мистицизм» « Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud ". По словам обозревателя, с этой записи начался самый сложный отрезок на извилистом музыкальном пути Боуи ^[47] .

Station to Station оставался самым успешным альбомом Боуи в чартах США на протяжении 40 лет — вплоть до выхода пластинки Blackstar , состоявшегося в 2016 году незадолго до смерти певца. Он достиг 3-го места в чарте и находился там в течение 32 недель ^[48] . 26 февраля 1976 года диск получил « золотой » статус от Американской ассоциации звукозаписывающих компаний ^[49] . Пластинка продержалась 17 недель в хит-параде Великобритании, добравшись до 5-й строчки. Это был последний раз, когда студийный альбом Боуи показал результат на родине музыканта хуже, чем в США ^[48] .

После того как в декабре 1975 года студийные сессии Station to Station завершились, Боуи начал работу над саундтреком для ленты «Человек, который упал на Землю» вместе с Полом Бакмастером в качестве соавтора ^[2] . Боуи рассчитывал весь саундтрек для фильма написать самостоятельно, но когда пять или шесть песен были уже написаны, один из членов съёмочной группы сказал ему, что его музыка будет участвовать в отборе наравне с работами других авторов. Боуи вспоминал: «Я просто сказал им — „Чёрт, вы от меня не получите ничего!“. Я был в бешенстве, я потратил на это столько сил» ^[3] . С другой стороны, Гарри Маслин утверждал, что Боуи «перегорел» и не смог бы завершить работу над саундтреком в любом случае. В какой-то момент певец упал в обморок от изнеможения, признав позже: «я буквально разваливался на части» ^[2] . Из всего, что было записано во время этой сессии, увидела свет только одна композиция, в переделанном виде вошедшая под названием «Subterraneans» в следующий альбом Боуи — Low ^[3] .

После прекращения работы над саундтреком Боуи организовал турне в поддержку Station to Station , стартовавшее 2 февраля и закончившееся 18 мая 1976 года ^[2] . Композиция группы Kraftwerk «Radioactivity» в сопровождении кадров из сюрреалистического фильма Луиса Бунюэля и Сальвадора Дали « Андалузский пёс » была использована в качестве увертюры к шоу ^[50] . Во время концертов Боуи был одет в стиле Измождённого Белого Герцога, из кармана его жилетки торчала пачка французских сигарет Gitanes , он отчуждённо двигался среди «завес белого света» ^[51] , и этот эффект породил неофициальное название тура — «Турне Белого Света» ( англ. the White Light Tour ) ^[50] . В 1989 году Боуи вспоминал: «Я хотел создать антураж в стиле немецкого экспрессионистского кино … сделать освещение в духе Фрица Ланга или Георга Пабста . Такой чёрно-белый киностиль, но только агрессивно-подчёркнутый». Боуи говорил, что как сценическое действо это был самый успешный тур в его карьере ^[15] . В ходе этих гастролей появился один из самых известных бутлегов музыканта, записанный во время радиотрансляции его концерта в « Нассау Колизеуме » (23 марта 1976 года) ^[50] .

В 1974 году, во время одного из интервью, Боуи назвал Адольфа Гитлера одной из первых рок-звёзд, «не хуже Джаггера », сценой для которой была целая страна ^[52] . В то время это высказывание не вызвало сильной реакции, но во время «Турне Белого Света» певец оказался в центре нескольких шумных скандалов. В апреле 1976 года он был задержан таможней в Восточной Европе за перевозку нацистской атрибутики ^[53] , тогда же в СМИ разошлись слова, сказанные Боуи в Стокгольме : «Великобритании мог бы пойти на пользу фашистский лидер. В конце концов, фашизм это на самом деле национализм» ^[54] . 2 мая 1976 года в Лондоне произошёл так называемый «Инцидент на станции Виктория », когда Боуи, подъезжая в мерседесе-кабриолете , приветствовал толпу поклонников жестом, расценённым некоторыми журналистами как нацистское приветствие . Этот жест был заснят, а его фото опубликовано в NME . Боуи решительно отрицал обвинения в заигрывании с фашизмом и утверждал, что фотограф просто заснял его руку в движении ^[55] . Позже Боуи винил свои нездоровые увлечения и сам имидж Измождённого Белого Герцога во всех проблемах этого периода ^[56] : «Я был не в своём уме, совершенно сумасшедший. В те дни главной для меня была мифология… все эти темы Гитлера и ультраправых …» ^[57] . Тем не менее, музыканту ещё несколько лет припоминали эти скандалы. Он вернулся к этой теме четыре года спустя, спев строчку: «Быть оскорблённым этими фашистами/это так унизительно» в песне «It's No Game» из альбома Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) . Общественность расценила этот жест как попытку похоронить инцидент 1976 года раз и навсегда ^[58] .

Station to Station was a milestone on Bowie’s journey to his Berlin trilogy in the late 1970s. The singer himself later called Low and other trilogy albums the direct heirs of the title track from Station to Station ^[19] ; Brian Eno also believes that Low was a continuation of Station to Station developments ^[59] . The album is credited with "a huge influence on the post-punk genre " ^[60] . However, the magazine Stylus remarked in 2004 that since Bowie had anticipated a new approach and just as few tried to imitate him, this style for the most part remained abandoned ^[61] .

More than twenty years after the release of the album, Bowie praised Station to Station , but because of his turbid state during the recording, he perceived this album as the work of a completely different person ^[62] . The musician explained:

In 1999, David Buckley described the record as a “masterpiece of ingenuity” and noted that some “unfashionable” critics considered it to be Bowie’s best record ^[63] . This position is shared, in particular, by Brian Eno, who called Station to Station one of the greatest records in history ^[59] . In 2003, the album took 324th place on the Rolling Stone magazine 's list of “ 500 Greatest Albums of All Time ” ^[64] . A year later, the British newspaper The Observer placed the album on the 80th line in its list of “100 Greatest British Albums” ^[65] .

All songs are written by David Bowie, except those noted.

In the forty years since its first release, the album has been re-released five times. It was first reissued on CD in 1985 by RCA Records with an original black and white cover, the second time in 1991 by Rykodisc with two bonus tracks, the third in 1999 by EMI (using 24-bit digital sound remastering , but without bonus tracks), and in 2007 the album was reissued by EMI Japan, which released a new version of the original vinyl edition.

1991 Reissue Bonus Tracks

The compositions were recorded on March 23, 1976 ( 1976-03-23 ) during a concert at Nassau Coliseum , Uniondale, New York . ^[66]

7. Word on a Wing (live version) - 6:10
8. Stay (live version) - 7:24

2010 Reissue

In 2009, it was announced that in 2010 a gift edition of the album would be released. Among other things, it will contain its full version in Dolby 5.1 format and the entire 1976 concert at the Nassau Coliseum on two CDs ^{[67] [68]} . July 1, 2010 on the official website of David Bowie appeared all the information about the contents of the reprints that were released on September 20, 2010 ^[69] .

Special Edition and Digital Edition

The special edition includes three CDs in a special gift box, including a 16-page booklet and three photo cards. The digital version of this publication contains the same audio content and one bonus track.

• Reissue of Station to Station with material taken from analog tapes.

• Recorded at a concert in Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York, USA. March 23, 1976.

Deluxe Edition

The deluxe version includes five CDs , one DVD and three vinyl records (the packaging matches the size of the record), including a 24-page booklet and two exact copies of the paraphernalia from David Bowie on Stage 1976 and 1976 Fan Club Folder (contents listed below).

CD 1: Station to Station 2010 transfer
CD 2: Station to Station 1985 CD master

CD 4 and 5: Live Nassau Coliseum '76

Vinyl 1: 12 "format record with Station to Station album from original analog tapes
Vinyls 2 and 3: 12 " phonograph record with Live Nassau Coliseum '76 concert recording

• Buckley, David -. Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story . - Virgin, 2000 .-- 641 p. - ISBN 0-7535-0457-X .
• Carr, Roy; Murray, Charles Shaar -. Bowie: An Illustrated Record . - Avon, 1981. - 120 s. - ISBN 0-380-77966-8 .
• Pegg, Nicholas -. The Complete David Bowie . - Reynolds & Hearn, 2004 .-- 640 p. - ISBN 1-903111-73-0 .
• Phillips, John -. Papa john . - Dolphin Books, 1986.- 640 p. - ISBN 0-385-23120-2 .
• Sanford, Christopher—. Bowie: Loving the Alien . - Da Capo Press, 1997 .-- 381 p. - ISBN 0-306-80854-4 .
• Wilcken, Hugo -. Low - Continuum, 2005 .-- 144 p. - ISBN 0-8264-1684-5 .

• Station to Station at Last.fm