By the time David Bowie recorded and released his album Young Americans in 1975, he had
undergone at least three previous transformations from the Space Oddity to Heavy
Metalhead to Proto Punker to Ziggy Stardust. Now cooling his jets from leading
the glam rock revolution, the tall Brit settled down in Philadelphia to cut the
album that would define his next great transformation as The Thin White Duke. Someone
at the time described Bowie as the whitest man he had ever met—translucent
white. An odd sobriquet given that he was going to put down the grooviest work of
his even-then legendary oeuvre. Working with future R&B Grammy winner
Luther Vandross, Bowie successfully made his transition to the hip, laidback
grooves en vogue in the mid 1970s where funkified rock-pop planted its flag in
the Disco Era.
I bought Young
Americans in the compact disc (CD) format in the used bin at The Wherehouse
in Lakewood or Long Beach, California, circa 1997 or 1998. And as with a bunch
of the other CDs I have been spinning in recent times, I was not completely
familiar with this material despite having it on hand all of these years. Oh
sure, I’ve heard the title cut “Young Americans” and “Fame” on and off over the
years on classic rock radio stations. I have even seen the iconic performance
of “Fame” from TV’s all-time hippest
trip Soul
Train, when Bowie became just the second or third white recording
artist to make the reverse crossover.
So it was pleasant surprise to hear the depth of content on this
set of songs. To be sure, The Thin White Duke is tied to the times of 1974 and
1975 singing on “Young Americans”:Do you remember, your President Nixon?
Do you remember, the bills you have to pay?
Or even yesterday?
Have you been the un-American?
But the rest of the disc is packed with listenable and
danceable tracks that transcend time and could feel at home in any decade that
knows how to swing. You could probably even put Young Americans in the headphone album category—of course, that
would be the iPhone earbud category nowadays. That’s unless you have some of Beats by Dr. Dre audio headphones.
An outstanding track that gets overlooked is “Fascination,” on
which Bowie really gets down with Carlos Alomar riffing stylistically on guitar
with syncopation in tow. Saxman David Sanborn, later to be hailed as one of the
progenitors of Smooth Jazz, wails along—sho ’nuff, oh yeah—lending new credence
to the by-then moribund theory that the instrument was the tool of Old
Nick hisself!
As it turns out, Alomar would become a longtime collaborator
of Bowie’s, working with the Human Chameleon over the many changes he would
conjure forward for the next 30 years plus, but most heavily during Bowie’s “Berlin
Trilogy” period on the albums Low, Heroes,
and Lodger culminating with his
commercial mass-market MTV smash followup to Let’s Dance, Tonight.
Of course, as I have already alluded, what really makes all
of Young Americans work is the
omnipresent saxophone work of David Sanborn. On just about every track, Sanborn
shines through with sultry sax lines that exude an atmosphere of elegant
decadence amidst a world-weary attitude toward libidinous behavior.
Speaking of libidinous behavior, “Can you Hear Me” offers an
interesting lover’s lament where Bowie could be chiding his ex paramour spurning
him by not taking his affections to heart. Or it could also be read as a double
entendre where Bowie asks, “Can you feel me inside?...Why don't you take it?”
Perhaps, I digress.
There are several bonus tracks on the CD version of Young Americans: “Who Can I be Now?”, “It’s
Gonna be Me”, “John, I’m Only Dancing Again”. These were all tracks that were recorded
contemporaneously with the rest of the Philadelphia masters. But they were
dumped in favor of “Fame” and “Across the Universe,” which were recorded a few
months later in New York City, although “John” was released as the A-side of a
single to work the promotion of the album in 1975. These tracks have merit, but
obviously Bowie thought better of them during the original production and only
reconsidered their release on the full album due to marketplace expectations
for the number of songs to be present on a higher-cost CD in comparison to the
lower cost/quality cassette tapes and vinyl records the then still dominant
form factors for major label music releases in the early 1990s.
For all of its Philadelphia infused soul sound, the most
famous song on this album was recorded in New York City at the site of so much
rock music history, Electric Lady Studios. The track of course is “Fame,” which
was a collaboration with former Beatle John Lennon. Resulting from a jam
session, according to Songfacts, the music
for “Fame” came together very fast with the track being based on the jam and
Bowie quickly dashing off the lyrics in about five minutes. Lennon was given a
co-writing credit as he gave Bowie the inspiration for the lyrics based on
their discussion of the how fame itself takes a little piece of your personal life
every day. Bowie was later
quoted as saying:
I think fame itself is not a rewarding thing. The most you can say is that it gets you a seat in restaurants.
While most people are aware that Bowie and Lennon co-wrote
and sang together on “Fame,” Bowie’s first chart-topping No. 1 hit in America
and his breakthrough to the pop mainstream, there are several other facts about
Lennon’s involvement with Young Americans
perhaps only the most ardent of Bowie fans will actually recognize, such as
did you know that:
- Lennon also played rhythm guitar on “Fame”?
- “Across the Universe” on Young Americans is a cover of the Lennon/McCartney song of the same name?
- Lennon also played and sang backup vocals on this Bowie cut?
- And you might know—but it’s easy to miss—the nod to Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band tune “A Day in the Life” in the title cut: “I heard the news today, oh boy”
So where does the legacy of Young Americans leave us today? There is so much to consider in the
career of Bowie that it’s difficult to know where to start and stop. Perhaps,
the answer is not to look too closely behind the curtain that this master
illusionist of rock ‘n’ roll has woven but just marvel at the wondrous auditory
landscape beneath our very ears. But if you like to indulge additional senses,
such as vision, and you live in Europe, you may want to take
in a new exhibit that has just opened examining the years Bowie spent in
the German capital (though it was not at the time).
-Derek Handova
Appreciative Listener
Appreciative Listener
