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David Bowie - Station to Station Audio CD

A fair review of the David Bowie "Station to Station" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all David Bowie reviews here, or go back to the David Bowie tabs.

David Bowie Band: David Bowie
Title: Station to Station
Rating:
Release Date: 1999-09-28
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Station to Station 2: Golden Years 3: Word on a Wing 4: TVC 15 5: Stay 6: Wild Is the Wind

Prompt Service
We had our mail stopped until the Monday after our return. I ordered the disc while on vacation, (on a Wed). The disc was in the mail from the previous week, in perfect condition. The remastered version of "Station to Station" is excellent.


Classic 1976 Bowie transitional album featuring funk/soul and electronic influences
The six-song album charted in the top 5 in both the US and UK and has appeared on numerous critics' "best of" lists in subsequent decades. Recorded in late 1975 and released in 1976, David Bowie's "Station To Station" offers a transition between his previous funk/soul "Young Americans" sound and his late 1970's electronica-influenced "Berlin Trilogy". Bowie adopted his character "The Thin White Duke" during this stage of this career, and claims to remember little of these recording sessions due to copious drug use. His backing band featured guitarist Carlos Alomar, drummer Dennis Davis, bassist George Murray, and Roy Bittan on piano. This release features the 1999 digital remasters of the original six tracks, and the MP3 download is a great bargain, costing less than $7.
The ten minute title track is Bowie's longest studio recording, and the only song from this album that was not released on a US or UK single. It opens with train sounds and a slow piano, and later segues into a driving upbeat riff reminiscent of his previous albums. The infectious "Golden Years" was a top 10 single in the US and the UK in 1976 and remains popular on the radio over thirty years later. Bowie has said that he originally offered this song for Elvis Presley, but Presley declined! Bowie explores spiritual despair in the hymn-like "Word On A Wing" that closes Side A of the original release. Side B opens with the rocker "TVC15", allegedly about Iggy Pop's hallucination that his girlfriend was being consumed by a television set. The funky, six-minute "Stay" follows, and the closer is a cover of "Wild Is The Wind", previously popularized by Johnny Mathis and Nina Simone.
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Essential Bowie
The ambitious title track, "TVC 15" and the unedited "Golden Years" capture the musical chameleon at the top of his game. An inspired follow-up to "Young Americans," David Bowie's "Station to Station" (1976) makes the seamless transition from plastic soul to atmospheric rock - thus paving the way for his 1977-79 Berlin Trilogy. "Wild Is the Wind" (co-written by none other than Dimitri Tiomkin) provides a haunting finish. Along with "Scary Monsters," Bowie's finest album. .


Nothing's Gonna Touch You in These Golden Years
I much prefer this type of album (six songs that are all winners) to newer albums that cram 14-18 tracks on a CD and only the first 3-4 really matter. This is an incredibly six track album. You can truly turn this album on and not have the desire to skip a single track.

Put this album on, sit back, and enjoy. Station to Station takes a while to build, but when it rocks, it rocks. Next is my favorite song of all time (no, not from this album, but of all time), Golden Years. How can you go wrong with finger snapping and whistling? Definitely a sing-along rock song.

My two other favorite tracks on the album are TVC-15, which you have probably heard on a Bowie Greatest Hits if you own one. When I heard this on my own greatest hits, I didn't expect it to come from this album, and admittedly it is a bit different (in my opinion), but still very rocking. Finally, Stay starts out with an amazing guitar riff, and lets the rock soak into you, and then builds into a great chorus.

On another note, I saw Bowie in concert a few years back, and he didn't sing "Golden Years" or "Young Americans. " I was really surprised that he didn't at least play "Golden Years. " Good concert, but I was very disappointed.


His Best?
It is nearly impossible to say any one album is his best. Throughout the course of his stellar, impossibly brilliant career, Bowie has released many albums that rank among the best music ever recorded. . . but this one sure could be a contender. The breathtaking epic title track has been my favorite Bowie track ever since the first time I heard it around 8 years ago. It is somehow funky and creepy, uptempo and depressing and all sorts of opposite things at once. though 10 minutes long, the song never drags but builds and builds, with a great Earl Slick solo (boasting one of the wickedest pinch harmonics ever) and the whole band in a frenzy by the end. The next track is the great plastic soul classic "golden years. " It is funky, danceable and, like the entire album, finds Bowie exercises his considerable vocal talents (which were arguably at their peak during this era). "word on a wing" is full of passion and sounds desperate (and believe me bowie was getting a little desperate around this time). TVC-15 is one of the most unique tracks you'll ever hear, and is again (like the title track) kind of eerie while being simultaneously danceable and uptempo. "Stay" is one of my all-time favorite Bowie tracks, boasting great lyrics, haunting vocals, and scorching interplay between guitarists Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick (some of which is shortened, quite unfortunately, in the radio mix of the song included on hits collections and on the Christian F. Soundtrack). "wild is the wind" is the closer, and proves that Bowie can more than hang in there with any of the pop crooners that have less range, imagination and longevity than him. What else is there to say? this is an unspeakably brilliant album, that is a must hear for anyone and everyone!. . . especially those of you that think of Bowie only as a big-haired 80's pop star that wore really tight pants in Labryinth. . . .


You can see a complete list of all David Bowie discography, or go back to the David Bowie tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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