My Amazon Reviews: David Bowie "Let's Dance"

Underneath The Serious Moonlight
4 Out Of 5 Stars

In the documentary "5 Years," there's a segment about "Let's Dance" that is kind of telling. When he arrived at the studio with producer Nile Rodgers, the consensus was that A) He wanted to make a 'hit record' and B) He was in fighting shape, buffed out from working out and taking boxing lessons. Those boxer gloves on the cover were not an affectation. Neither was the desire to have a commercially successful album. "Let's Dance" became Bowie's biggest hit to that date and racked up three hit singles, two of them top ten and only his second number one in the title track.

The album, as a whole, has held up quite well, given the production being very much of its time. Rodgers' bass lines are prominent, but the secret weapon was then little known guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. His sinewy guitar fires up "Modern Love" and the second recorded version of "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)." (The original was a synth heavy and more ominous version produced by co-writer Giorgio Morodor.) It's the first thing you hear on the CD, firing off the trio of hits back to back; "Modern Love," "China Girl" (co-written with Iggy Pop) and the title track's triumphant dance wallop. Had the album been an EP of the first side alone, the rating would have been five stars.

It's the lesser known songs that don't completely fulfill the early promise of "Let's Dance." That leaves "Ricochet," "Without You," "Criminal World," "Cat People" and "Shake It" to flesh out the album. I've already said how much I enjoy "Cat People," and of the others, only "Shake It" sounded like it could have been a follow-up single to the big three. The rest just can't compete.They aren't total tail-waggers, It's just that the initial salvos were flawless. Bowie is in fine form throughout, and he got his wish. "Let's Dance" still sounds like it was supposed to, and that is purely commercial, brainy and danceable pop.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Lou Reed "Transformer"

You hit me with a flower
5 Out Of 5 Stars

David Bowie and Mick Ronson must have really been fans of The Velvet Underground, because when Lou Reed's fledgling solo career needed a dynamite second album, the two of them stepped in and offered to produce. The glam-bomb that is "Transformer" became a bona-fide hit and delivered what is arguably the weirdest top 40 single of the 70's, "Walk On The Wild Side." Bowie and Ronson tarted up Reed with glammy arrangements that also flirt with cabaret while leaning heavily on atmospherics, which resulted in an enduring classic and one of the few times Reed made a conscious effort at recording a commercial album (albeit one that deals with drag queens, dealers, drug users and plenty of other denizens of NYC's darker regions).

"Holly came from Miami F.L.A.
Hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A.
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"

You didn't hear much anything else like it on the AM radio, and nothing much like it since. Bowie and Ronson kept the production clean and "Walk On The Wild Side" had a slithering bassline that carried most of the song, topped by Reed's deadpan delivery. When he tries to really sing ("Goodnight Ladies"), it comes close to the Berlin trappings that he'd explore on his next album. Still, the songs are often smarter than a surface listen would give away, like the lovely "Perfect Day." It sounds like another nice day in the city until you understand that it's about wandering Central Park while higher than a kite.

That was Reed's greatest strength on "Transformer," that he could so easily couch lyrics that almost anyone else would run and hide from before committing them to an album. The flirtatious mixing around with sexual identity ("Make Up," "Walk") was probably just as much Bowie's Ziggy personae giving Reed a bit of a goosing, but it holds up really well. You also can't discount Ronson's contributions, as it's his fuzz-buzz guitar that drives "Vicious" for one instance.

The songs themselves have endured, too. "Satellite of Love" (complete with Bowie singing back-up) remains one of Reed's best, and stands as strong as "Walk On The Wild Side" and "Perfect Day." "Transformer" marked the launching pad commercially for Lou Reed, is as flawless a record as the 70's had to offer, and possibly the best outside album work Bowie has been involved in.

     

My Amazon Reviews: David Bowie "Low"

When Bowie Met Brian in Berlin
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Executing a course change that was extreme even by David Bowie's madcap standards, the first of his trio of albums with Brian Eno turned Bowie into a cold man-machine working against often dissonant electronics and half the time without even singing a note. "Low" gave Bowie the space to swing as hard towards an avant-garde as he could, with Eno more than happy to pave the way.

Bowie, when he does sing, operates more as a song-speaker than his traditional rich singing. Only "Low's" single, "Sound and Vision," has the shimmer of music that matches the voice, other times, like "Warszawa," he's just chanting. (Is it any wonder Phillip Glass based a whole album around "Low" and this song in particular?) Even "Sound and Vision" tests the limits of Bowie's audiences, the jangle of the guitar hook goes on for about 90 seconds before Bowie chimes in.

"Low" is definitely a collaboration and, of the 'Berlin' period of albums with Eno, the one that weighs heaviest towards Eno's solo album soundscapes. The second half of the CD is mainly that sort of sculpting, until the very end when Bowie coos for Shirley briefly on "Subterraneans." It's a chilly underground Bowie was searching for, and although "Low" doesn't hit the heights the following "Heroes" did (and that album is an unabashed classic), it still has the ability to evoke a deep resonance among those divided on how Eno and Bowie propelled each other towards a creative apex.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Various Artists "I'll Scratch Yours - A Tribute to Peter Gabriel"

Mutual Scratching Society
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Although it took him three years to pull it together, Peter Gabriel at last put his "Scratch My Back - And I'll Scratch Yours" out as a whole piece. Initially designed to be a collaborative project, Gabriel gets 10 of his "Scratch My Back" artists to add their voices to a select Gabriel song, with varying results. (You may also quibble about Bryan Eno subbing for David Bowie, but it does up the collabs; the missing links are Neil Young and Radiohead.) If you don't already have "Scratch My Back," I highly recommend getting the limited edition two CD issue.

One of the things that held my rating back of the initial album was that Gabriel had set all his choices to orchestral arrangements (he did the same to himslef on "New Blood"), which kept the album's pace to a crawl. Fortunately for "I'll Scratch Yours," the collaborators had no such imposition. It varies the album considerably and offers a few surprises. For starters is the realization that anything Randy Newman touches sounds like Randy Newman, from the dry wit of the vocals to the piano playing, and he turns "Big Time" from the ironically pop MTV hit into the biting commentary that the lyrics had posited all along.

My other favorite here is Lou Reed turning "Solisbury Hill" from Gabriel's gathering of courage in a pastoral setting into a dingy echo laden guitar look into the mean streets of New York City (and may be one of Reed's last recordings). The criminally underrated Elbow take one of my all-time favorite Gabriel songs, "Mercy Street," and do an uncanny sound-alike version. Stephin Merrit (Magnetic Fields) stamps the paranoia out from underneath "Not One Of Us" and makes it sound like a bubbly synth-pop record from the 80's. And finally, Paul Simon turns "Biko," a song I thought I was tired of, into an acoustic folk anthem.

Those are the hits. There are a couple of misses; Brian Eno doesn't do anything to make "Mother Of Violence" interesting. Bon Iver tries as hard as he can to sound interesting, but remains a bore to listen to. David Byrne uses his falsetto on "I Don't Remember" to make you remember what nails on chalkboard sounds like. But that's only three real duds. The remainder of the songs, from the likes of Feist, Arcade Fire and Regina Spektor at least show that Gabriel hasn't lost his taste for new artists and that his songwriting transcends formats. Taken together, "Scratch My Back and I'll Scratch Yours" is a good pair of bookends and a fine tribute to Gabriel's multi-decade career.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Lou Reed "Essentials"

Lou Reed. March 2, 1942 - October 27, 2013
5 Out Of 5 Stars

There aren't too many figures in America Rock and Roll that have a footprint quite like Lou Reed's. From his start as part of Andy Warhol's factory band to his later status as a sort of NYC Poet Laureate, to even recording and album in cahoots with Metallica (not represented here, though), he is one of the USA's predominant rock icons. Or as he put it on one of his live albums, a Rock and Roll Animal. This "Essentials" set is a repackaging of "NYC Man," but still a great set if you don't already own that older package.

The tracklist is a varied set and covers most of his time with various incarnations and major labels (RCA, Arista and Warners). There are excellent liner notes courtesy of Lou himslef, describing the thought processes behind the songs. The sequencing is a bit odd, as the first song here is from "The Raven" (his adaptations of Edgar Alan Poe) and then ends on disc two with "Transformer's" "Pale Blue Eyes." Reed describes his concept for the sequencing as "the point of view which songs relate to each other in the best fashion." Because of the really sweet remastering job (mostly from 2003), many of the songs, even from the Velvets, slip into the others sounding as contemporary as ever. There's the basic rock of "Dirty Boulevard" to the atmospheric guitar the grinds through "Rocket Minuet," which Reed viewed as worthy of following each other. (Minuet" also featured his wife, performance artist Laurie Anderson, on violin.) He could make any sound he wanted, and he did, without compromise.

I have my own personal favorites here, especially from the albums "Magic and Loss" and "New York," which in my opinion, were brilliant even if it took a few years for an audience to catch up to them. And while the Arista albums tended to get slagged, selections from the likes of "The Blue Mask" and "Legendary Hearts" are here and deserve a re-listen. Of course, there are the magical songs from "Transformer," including "Perfect Day." As a compilation, it's a great starter kit, although I'd recommend any of the albums mentioned here (and "The Velvet Underground and Nico") as perfect albums in their own right. "The Essential Lou Reed" is a terrific overview of one of Rock's greatest cantankerous characters, and the world is a slightly less interesting place because of his passing.

     

My Amazon Review: The Stooges "Raw Power"

The World's Forgotten Boy
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Loud, Rude and crude, "Raw Power" was Iggy and The Stooges at their aggressive best. If any album could be called the birth of punk rock, this is one of the finalists for that decree. Pushed into the maximum volume in this remix by Iggy himself, everything pummels like a series of body blows. It also includes the Stooges' classics "Gimme Danger" and "Search and Destroy." David Bowie had made it his personal mission to save the band (they were without a record deal at the time and were having personnel problems), so he carted the entire crew over to England to record "Raw Power."

The title is apt. The Stooges flail away at hard rockers like "Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell" and "Search and Destroy" while finessing the psychedelic songs like "Penetration" or the mix-up of "Gimme Danger." The real hero is Iggy himself, wailing away like a man possessed. Yet at the same time, he bellows under control of his yowling and howling, bringing "Raw Power" controlled chaos that the other Stooges albums lacked. Not for the faint of heart or folks who run away from distorted guitars turned up to 11, "Raw Power" is the most explosive of The Stooges' original trio of albums.

     

My Amazon Reviews: David Bowie "The Next Day"

Hungover Heroes
4 Out Of 5 Stars
 
Like the willfully annoying cover art, David Bowie continues confounding his audience with his first album in 10 years. "The Next Day" finds the former recluse coming out with a bang, teasing with samples from his storied past. There are touches of "Heroes" here, along with "Station To Station" and a few of the stronger moments of the underrated "Hours." And he can't seem to stay away from the space thing, with the best song on the album being the mesmerizing "The Stars Are Out Tonight."

Or, for that matter, the minor odyssey of "Dancing in Outer Space." Which is one of the songs he actually sings on. Many of the songs are barked in a staccato fire method, including the blasting opener of the title song. Bowie is not edging into is older years quietly, but still challenging his own work. The anger in the war protest "I'd Rather Be High" contrasts to the weird doo-wop of "How Does The Grass Grow?" Finally, there's the mysterious closer, "Heat," which floats on a muted guitar and ominous cushion of electronics as Bowie murmurs a lyric whose odd reveal is "My father ran the prison" and "I tell myself I don't know who I am." Musical chameleon that he's always been, David Bowie is still, pushing 70, happy to play around with the perception of who we think he is.

As for the bonus tracks, the instrumental "Plan" is a dud. Why "So She" missed the cut is odd, as it has one of the prettier melodies on "The Next Day." The same speculation could be applied to "I'll Take You There," which rocks more than most of the album. You might as well buy the deluxe version as two of the three bonus cuts rival anything on the proper disc.