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David Bowie-Station To Station (Special Edition)  Station to Station Tracklisting Special Edition CD 1: Station To Station (original analogue master) 1. Station To Station (10.11) 2. Golden Years (4.02) 3. Word On A Wing (6.01) 4. TVC15 (5.31) 5. Stay (6.12) 6. Wild Is The Wind (6.02) CD 2: Live Nassau Coliseum '76 - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED (Recorded live at the Nassau Coliseum Uniondale, NY, USA March 23, 1976): 1. Station To Station (11.53) 2. Suffragette City (3.31) 3. Fame (4.02) 4. Word On A Wing (6.06) 5. Stay (7.25) 6. Waiting For The Man (6.20) 7. Queen Bitch (3.12) CD 3: Nassau Coliseum concert continued... PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 1. Life On Mars? (2.13) 2. Five Years (5.03) 3. Panic In Detroit (6.03) 4. Changes (4.11) 5. TVC15 (4.58) 6. Diamond Dogs (6.38) 7. Rebel Rebel (4.07) 8. The Jean Genie (7.28) Musicians David Bowie – vocals, guitar, tenor and alto saxophone, Moog synthesizer, Mellotron Carlos Alomar – guitar Roy Bittan – piano Dennis Davis – drums George Murray – bass Warren Peace – backing vocals Earl Slick – guitar Just got this & put it on this morning. Just getting into Bowie & digging this album,but damn Bowie was fucked up during this period. The bonus concert that comes with it is kicking. The live version of Station To Station is hitting hard. Bowie fans what cha think? A few reviews are below & here's what guitarist Carlos Alomar had to say: "Carlos Alomar commenting, "if there's a line of coke which is going to keep you awake till 8 a.m. so that you can do your guitar part, you do the line of coke ... the coke use is driven by the inspiration." Like Bowie, Earl Slick had somewhat vague memories of the recording: "That album's a little fuzzy—for the obvious reasons! We were in the studio and it was nuts—a lot of hours, a lot of late nights." Alomar recalled, "It was one of the most glorious albums that I've ever done ... We experimented so much on it". Harry Maslin added, "I loved those sessions because we were totally open and experimental in our approach". | |
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Uncut Magazine Great strips of mystique have been peeled away from the recording process in our quest to thoroughly pull apart music history, ultimately de-mythologizing years of carefully created hyperbole and mythmaking. But there are still some obstinate beasts out there, a few hallowed recordings that are never going to be fully gutted and dissected, whose secrets are likely to go to the grave with their makers. Uncut magazine took a shot at going in-depth on David Bowie’s Station To Station a few months back, with distinctly mixed results. Producer Harry Maslin refused to be involved, guitarists Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick both claimed credit for the riff for ‘Golden Years’, and no one can quite recall how E Street Band keyboard player Roy Bittan got involved. And Bowie? His famous quote about the recording sessions is: 'I know it was in LA because I've read it was'. Despite being 34 years old, Station To Station is not an album that will readily shed the clandestine air that surrounds it. Excessive cocaine use casts a large white shadow over it of course, and this is the most likely explanation for the collective memory wipe over its assemblage. 'Everyone was walking around with chains round their necks with little coke spoons,' recalled Bowie confidante Geoff McCormack in that Uncut piece. References to the drug, both oblique (“making sure white stains”) and overt (“it’s not the side effects of the cocaine”) are made in the opening title track. That song, by far the longest in Bowie’s output to date, marks a passage away from the American R&B pastiche riddled throughout the preceding Young Americans, and forms a branch between that and the more overt leanings toward the Neu!/Can/Kraftwerk axis of the following Low. ‘Station To Station’ remains one of the most startlingly ageless songs Bowie has produced, with its three-part structure beginning in simple homage to Kraftwerk’s car revving intro to ‘Autobahn’, replaced here by stereo panned train piston noise. From there we are introduced to Bowie’s final character, the Thin White Duke, a persona partly built from the residual hangover of his role as Thomas Jerome Newton in the just-finished The Man Who Fell to Earth. Themes of gnosticism, black magic, and kabbala surface: the ”throwing darts in lovers eyes” line is one of Bowie’s most overt Aleister Crowley references, and the overall feel of the song — where abstract sounds blur the overall picture away from tangible instrumentation — is a further signifier of work that was yet to come in Berlin. Lesser albums would be toppled over by having such a significant bellwether as an opener, but on Station To Station it simply acts as a gateway for Bowie to work his way into a mixture of crushed balladry and taut funk workouts. The soulful stylings of Alomar and Slick’s guitar playing and the supremely funky bass lines of George Murray surface often throughout, with Bowie grabbing them and using them as a template over which he can rid himself of the coke-addled terrors gripping his mind. ”Don’t let me hear life is taking you nowhere… run for the shadows,” he croons over the tightly constrained groove of ‘Golden Years’. The cocaine psychosis coursing through Bowie’s mind often causes songs to fracture into a mesh of concepts that are easy to identify with and others that are distinctly alien, such as the tale of heart trampled fragility told through an imagined dialogue with God of ‘Word On a Wing’. The propulsive funk of ‘TVC 15’ initially seems like a respite from Bowie’s malaise, especially as it’s about a love affair between a girl and her TV set, but it’s impregnated with a deep sense of despondency in the chorus, mostly sparked by a mixture of rising sax melodies and Bittan’s gently plinked piano. There’s a sadness bored deep into the grooves all across Station To Station, with Bowie caught up in a jittery sense of lovesick gloom that he just can’t shake. This is best embodied on the album’s closer, the dejected yet epic and morosely affecting cover of Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington's ‘Wild Is The Wind’, which is laid over a blissed out bed of phased guitars. But even ‘Stay’, ostensibly the most ‘pop’ song on this record, finds Bowie utterly confused by love, with relationship mind games coldly fusing with his prodigious drug intake and wracking him with self doubt about people’s motivations. As a box set, this should be the last word on Station To Station. Of primary interest to fans will be the much bootlegged Nassau Coliseum set from 1976, which begins with a version of ‘Station To Station’ that threatens to outstrip the recorded incarnation, and includes some quite astonishingly tight and together reinventions of these (and other) songs. Bowie’s version of the Velvet Underground’s ‘Waiting for the Man’ in this set is the spindly coke addled flipside to Lou Reed’s bleak heroin vision, and while far from essential, it makes for a pulse quickening insight into his mindset at the time. The rest is a mixture of curios — truncated single versions of album songs, notes by Cameron Crowe, a DVD-Audio version, a chance to slaver over that signature red sans-serif typography on a number of replica sleeves — and the utterly inessential inclusion of the 1985 CD remaster of the album. In short, the only difference between this and most other box sets is the lack of inclusion of any outtakes from the sessions, which mercifully keeps the listener at arms length from Station To Station. So that pervading sense of inscrutability remains intact, tiny mysteries prompted by sounds and textures conjured up by the players go unexplained, and the songs prickle with cryptic questions — are the “white stains” of the title track really a drug reference, or perhaps a sexual allusion, or even an askew nod to Bowie’s then-current fondness for subsisting on a diet of milk? At this point we’ll probably never know, and while this set is expensive and excessive - appropriately so considering the indulgence that birthed it - this meticulously assembled incarnation of Station To Station is an object lesson on why some parts of rock history need to remain an enigma. http://drownedinsound.com...ws/4141134 | |
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“Cocaine is a hell of a drug”; David Bowie knows this better than most. He spent the vast majority of 1975 and 1976 blazed out of his mind. Bowie found himself in Los Angles as he set about creating and experimenting with the tracks that would go on to form Station To Station. During this period Bowie was abusing cocaine so extensively that, not only, is he now unable to recall the recording process, but he actually found himself over dosing with alarming regularity. Addiction not only stripped Bowie of his memory but it led him to some of the most bizarre and extrovert behavior of his career (and keep in mind this is David Bowie we’re talking about). Bowie’s diet during this period consisted of cocaine (naturally), milk, and pepper. Unsurprisingly, Bowie undertook a noticeably physical transformation; he lost a great deal of weight and became remarkably pale and sleight. It was apparent that his new persona, “The Thin White Duke”, was more than just a moniker. On top of this worrying weight loss came a combination of hallucinations and paranoia which his official biographer, David Buckley, described as a “state of psychic terror”. Bowie certainly wasn’t his usual self. While he may have been dressing more like a human being than ever before, he was becoming erratic and inconsistent in his public appearances, leading to his famous flirtation with and faux pas in regards Fascism. These were certainly strange and unsettling times for The Thin White Duke. Artistically Bowie was in an awkward place. His previous three releases had been patchy and inconsistent works that failed to spark the imagination. Diamond Dogs was a real let down (despite containing the classic hit “Rebel, Rebel”) while Young Americans saw Bowie experimenting with funk and soul. The results of his experimentation were relatively encouraging. He had abandoned glam, but had failed to find a sound that felt truly natural. While Young Americans may not have been an artistic triumph, it in many ways restored Bowie’s momentum, most notably, with the number one hit “Fame”. The question on everyone’s lips was where would Bowie go next, and could he reassert his artistic credentials and find a new sound? Well Bowie certainly found a new sound and a new influence. Station To Station was the first album where Bowie’s growing infatuation with Krautrock made its presence felt. Synths, guitar effects, and sprawling avant garde experimentation were in, and the convention pop song was out. However, unlike Young Americans, as soon as Station To Station started up, you became immediately aware that this wasn’t Bowie trying his hand at someone else’s style, this was Bowie developing a new approach of his own. “Station To Station” greeted you with sliding whirls of synthetic noise, you could be mistaken for thinking you’d picked up the latest Eno, Can or even Kraftwerk record as the sound moved uncomfortably from left to right. David Bowie had arrived at the avant garde, and even now the music sounds genuinely thrilling, as the guitars spiral and the bass thuds while bizarre noises crunch and echo in the ether. Bowie belatedly and yet suddenly emerges with a real sense of assuredness, as he proclaimed; “The Return Of The Thin White Duke, Throwing Darts, In Lover Eyes”. The track grooves intensely as Bowie demonically croons with a sense of quirky malevolence. There’s a real feeling of abstraction about the track, as it builds slowly before bursting into a mad hatter mid track waltz. Bowie’s vocal performance is a real treat, as he throws out a series of unforgettable and instantly iconic one liners. From the aforementioned opening line, to the bizarrely heart warming quasi-chorus “It’s Not The Side Effects Of The Cocaine, I’m Thinking That It Must Be Love” via the deranged demand “Drink, Drink, Drain Your Glass, Raise Your Glass High” there’s an incredible vibrancy and urgency to Bowie’s vocal that prove simply irresistible. At over ten minutes, the three part, “Station To Station” is Bowie’s longest studio piece, and undoubtedly one of his best. While the soul funk that typified Young Americans is still present on Station To Station it finds itself largely replaced by Bowie’s move towards a more classical croon. This manifests itself most notably on the two ballads “Word On A Wing” and “Wild Is The Wind”. The former has the feel of a contemporary Morrissey ballad; extravagantly grandiose but counter balanced by a sense of humor and self parody. The verse is beautiful and heart wrenching while the chorus is content to be cheeky and irreverent; it’s the type of juxtaposition that only Bowie could have pulled of. “Wild Is The Wind” on the other hand, is a track that has only grown in legend since the seventies. By Station To Stations extravagant standards it’s a low key effort, but it’s subtly and unusually solemn feel gives the track both dignity and beauty. It sweeps and builds divinely. Originally written for Johnny Mathis in 1957, it is not the kind of track that you could envision Bowie pulling off in his glam years, but this tender and well judged performance pointed the way forward. “Wild Is The Wind” is quite simply one of the most popular and most stunning covers of all time. “Stay”, Station To Station’s lead single in the US, has a real Kruatrock and experimental vibe, which highlights just how tight Bowie’s band had become. Bowie for his part, delivers a detached and intriguing vocal performance that serves to entice the listener. Sonically the track jumps all over the place, even feeling Latin at times, without ever losing a sense of coherence. While “TVC 15” feels like an attempt to marry the funk of previous LPs to Beatles’ style show tunes, it’s all very bizarre. However, what do you expect, it is a song about a holographic television, inspired by a late night hallucination of Iggy Pop. That should give you an idea of the silliness of the track. Iggy thought he saw the TV in their hotel room eating his girlfriend and Bowie decided to write a track inspired by the incident. It hangs together remarkably well, even if it does feel rather like an aberration in 2010. “Golden Years” by contrast still sounds remarkably timeless; marrying the quirky funk and soul, with his new penchant for crooning. "Golden Years" remains Station To Station’s most obvious and irresistible hit. Sadly, next to such exciting experimentation with the avant garde “Golden Years” actually feels stilted by comparison, if no less endearing. Station To Station occupies an unfortunate spot in Bowie’s canon. Coming before the transcendent artistic master work Low, and the equally daring but more commercially appealing “Heroes”, Station To Station often finds itself overlooked. This is a tragedy. Station To Station is one of the most exciting, daring, and at times challenging transitional albums ever made. It marks the moment when Bowie was loosed from the creative doldrums and began to find both his new voice and his new sound. The six tracks on this LP are all defiantly unique and remarkably brilliant, as Bowie brings together a whole range of divergent themes into one wonderful concise package. However, while the overall LP may have a concise feel; it is worth warning that the individual tracks have a tendency to develop at their own pace and can meander at times. While Bowie’s performance, which is undeniably sharp and powerful, can feel distant and detached. These complaints have tended to ameliorate over time and with multiple listens, as Station to Station, while markedly unique, feels more contemporary and in tune with today’s avant garde pop audience than it did in the climate of 1976. While Station To Station may be doomed to play second fiddle to Low it is an album that all true Bowie fans should seek out; as it serves as the perfect forerunner, and introduction to, the Berlin trilogy. Casual fans who have the greatest hits, and perhaps Hunky Dory or ...Ziggy Stardust..., would be well served to give Station To Station a spin. It pushes towards the avant garde and Bowie’s less accessible works without ever crossing that line. If you have considered broaching Bowie’s more challenging works (like Low for instance), you may be best served to attempt Station To Station first, as it is home to both immediate pop and rich artistic rewards. http://www.411mania.com/m...ews/154839 | |
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Wow.... i am so excited for this! and the read was very interesting! Bowie fascinates me a lot Pistols sounded like "Fuck off," wheras The Clash sounded like "Fuck Off, but here's why.."- Thedigitialgardener
All music is shit music and no music is real- gunsnhalen Datdonkeydick- Asherfierce Gary Hunts Album Isn't That Good- Soulalive | |
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Wow, a thread about Bowie's best album, IMHO ... "Station To Station". It contains my favourite song of his "Word On A Wing" and I just love it. It's a cross-road on Bowie's career : The obscure-mystic lyrics, the Krautrock sound he would later experiment in the 'berlin trilogy', the 'plastic' soul music, just eevrything I love about Bowie... Another proof that geniuses creates their greatest stuff in the lowest moments of their lives, he was going through a heavy drug-use period which may explain the 'dark' yet wonderful sound of this album...
My top 5 Bowie's albums: 1. Station To Station 2. 'Heroes' 3. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust 4. Low 5. Scary Monster (and a special mention to "Heathen") Everybody is somebody, but nobody wants to be themselves. | |
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OOOOO...MMMM....G I LOVE U lol jk but really! THANK GOD someone else has heroes in there top 2!
It's my personal favorite Bowie album and Station To Station my 3rd. I also have Scary Monsters as my 4th favorite Bowie album.
Pistols sounded like "Fuck off," wheras The Clash sounded like "Fuck Off, but here's why.."- Thedigitialgardener
All music is shit music and no music is real- gunsnhalen Datdonkeydick- Asherfierce Gary Hunts Album Isn't That Good- Soulalive | |
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Gunsnhalen said:
Wow.... i am so excited for this! and the read was very interesting! Bowie fascinates me a lot Check out this Playboy interview from 1976: http://www.bowiegoldenyea...ayboy.html | |
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Can't wait to pick this up! Seems like it took forever to come out. The 3 CD set is on sale on Amazon now for $20.00. I'll pass on the Super Duper Deluxe with DVD though--it's $100 (marked down from $165)! "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0 | |
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Everybody is somebody, but nobody wants to be themselves. | |
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I want it sooo badly
. Lion -- Go Peter go!! | |
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My favorite Bowie album | |
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Just bought the remastered set today but my old receiver is acting wonky and I can't enjoy listening to it properly...sigh... "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0 | |
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picked up the box today... amazing. I love it!! The sound is terrific, the extras are really cool. The singles edits EP is quite fascinating, especially the edit of the title song which was originally only released on a French promo. I'm visiting my husband's parents for Thanksgiving so haven't been able to play the vinyl yet, but the CDs sound terrific. Can't wait to play the vinyl when i get home.
Beautifully done package. Hope he does something similar for Low, Heroes, Lodger. * * *
Prince's Classic Finally Expanded The Deluxe 'Purple Rain' Reissue http://www.popmatters.com...n-reissue/ | |
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favorite Bowie album. great presentation. but I do have to wonder why they didn't go ahead and add that "Wild Is The Wind" edit they used for the video if they were going to the trouble of making a whole edits EP disc. | |
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maaaaaaaaaaaan I WANT that 5.1 Surround mix buy that whole huge deluxe box set! "Hyperactive when I was small, Hyperactive now I'm grown, Hyperactive 'till I'm dead and gone"
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ___ "Midnight is where the day begins" |
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Agreed! Although I believe "Wild is the Wind" was actually a re-recording that was done later for inclusion in a Greatest Hits album, so it wasn't technically recorded during the STation to Station period (if I recall correctly.) So perhaps that is why.
It is on the UK version of "Best of Bowie", I believe.
* * *
Prince's Classic Finally Expanded The Deluxe 'Purple Rain' Reissue http://www.popmatters.com...n-reissue/ | |
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I think the audio is the same performance, just edited or faded, but yeah, the video was new. | |
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I, too, looked at that huge box set but I didn't want to buy all of that. I wish they would issue the DVDs separately... Is there any chance of this happening? BTW waiting until my son is through playing with his new guitar stuff he bought today to listen to Station To Station on his superior computer speakers... since my old stereo receiver decided to go on the blink today! Funny thing is, it only seems to want to play Prince CDs with no problem...but not David Bowie WTF! [Edited 11/26/10 21:34pm] "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0 | |
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EMI is all about milking Bowie's catalog. And Bowie seems fine with it, since he's semi-retired. So yeah, there is a pretty good chance that everything in this Super Deluxe version is going to be available on its own at some point. | |
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and thank God for those deluxe editions... I love the smart brains of EMI's execs...  | |
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"Hyperactive when I was small, Hyperactive now I'm grown, Hyperactive 'till I'm dead and gone"
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ___ "Midnight is where the day begins" |
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Hey, at least Bowie prayers are possible... "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0 | |
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