It was great having Bowie become a huge star in 1983
with Let's Dance, the biggest he'd ever been, at least in North
America. It was very catchy music but still retained some of the edge
and smarts of his adventurous, late '70's music. It was great, yes, but
also it was about the worst thing for artistic output. After nearly two
decades of struggling with the financial side, even during the Ziggy
years, he finally had a huge album and tour bringing in lots of wealth,
and that must have felt good So good, he spend the rest of the decade
trying to give those new pop fans more of the same. It's an old story,
but it felt even more disappointing coming from Bowie, who had always
been an innovator first, not someone trying to stay at the top of the
pops.
If you're keen to write off the
entire decade, first I'd suggest going back to Let's Dance, enjoy the
groove of the first side of the album, then hit Ricochet, which contains
all the experimental wordplay and off-kilter music of anything on Scary
Monsters, but still has a great groove courtesy of the production work
of Nile Rodgers. It did truly feel like Bowie had found the magic
formula to combine success with art. Turns out it was part poison, and
he drank deeply.
So it falls to this boxed set
to try to reclaim the rest of the '80's music, and make it seem as
valuable as the previous three box sets that covered the glorious '70's.
Times had changed in the music industry, which meant that instead of an
album a year, Bowie only did three studio albums, plus lots of
soundtrack cuts and a couple of tour videos (on VHS, remember that?).
Tonight, the too-hasty followup to Let's Dance, is just too troubled to
rehabilitate, so the compilers have attempted to change our opinions on
the other set, 1987's Never Let Me Down.
That album sold a bunch, which initially pleased Bowie, and led to
his year-long, massive world tour called Glass Spider. But it wasn't
long before he echoed the poor reviews, and started trash-talking the
album, ultimately using it as an example of how he'd lost his way. His
dissatisfaction led to the formation of Tin Machine, a complete left
turn from the synth-pop he'd been doing.
Bowie
blamed himself for not caring or being involved enough in the
production, and that he'd let the songs down, that they weren't the
problem. To partially prove his point, he had engineer Mario McNulty
remix a track in 2008 for a compilation, liking it much better, and
wishing he could do the whole album. So with that pre-posthumous
blessing, McNulty was brought back for that, and more. Instead of simply
remixing the tracks, he jettisoned much of the original music, and
brought in players from later in Bowie's career, such as Reeves Gabrels
from Tin Machine, and his long-time drummer Sterling Campbell. Using
Bowie's original vocals and some of the original parts, brand-new
versions of the songs were made, usually quite different. As well some
buried parts were brought to the front, and the biggest change was
removing the dated synth sounds, replacing them with real strings.
Without
getting into the morality of this, there's little question that the end
result is better. They do make it easy for you, including both versions
of the album. In short, the tracks are a lot less shrill and
oppressive, there's more space in them, and the mix is far livelier. I'd
disagree that these are great songs, but such tracks as Beat Of The
Drum, Zeroes, Time Will Crawl and Day-in, Day-Out have their charms.
Shining Star (Makin' My Love) still isn't much of a toe-tapper, even
though the horrid rap by Bowie and actor Mickey Rourke has been tossed,
replaced by a new spoken word bit by friend Laurie Anderson.
Still,
the whole Glass Spider concept was overblown, part Bowie cliche (umm,
spiders again?) and the rest cheesy, narration always a bad idea on rock
albums. It was conceived to fit the huge stage show he designed, which
was certainly adventurous. There was a dance troupe, acting lines,
narration, a spider several floors tall, one of the very first uses of
wireless headset mics, a flying Bowie, and all performed in massive
outdoor stadiums and giant indoor bowls. I've seen the video, it was
still hokey live too, and the emphasis on the theatrics, costumes and
set took away from the songs themselves.
Included
in this box is the live concert, two CD's worth recorded at Montreal's
Olympic Stadium. Having just audio makes some of it confusing (the talky
bits), and like the album, the music is too glossy, even the old
favourites such as Fame and The Jean Genie. Better is the other live set
here, two discs from the Let's Dance show, Bowie at the height of his
success. In addition to the obvious hits from that album (China Girl,
Modern Love), there's a full set of greatest hits, plus some edgier
material just to keep the crowds honest. It's head-and-shoulders more
enjoyable than Glass Spider.
Like the previous
three Bowie boxes, there are also discs that collect the various
off-album cuts, from singles, soundtracks and the like. These have been
disappointing in the past, as they've been filled with minutiae such as
radio edits of 45's. This time, while those are there, also included are
cuts from the soundtracks to Absolute Beginners and Labyrinth, where
Bowie did several non-single tracks, and a couple of very rare b-sides
not included in other compilations.
I
admit I originally felt this box would be tough to enjoy, given the two
spotty studio albums, but really, they've done the trick, turned it into
something worthy. For all its flaws, there are highlights to the Bowie
story in the '80's. And despite the sacrilege, maybe more albums need to
be saved in the manner of Never Let Me Down.
