Low (David Bowie album)

Low
Studio album by David Bowie
Released 14 January 1977 (1977-01-14)
Recorded September - October 1976 (except "Subterraneans", originally recorded December 1975, Cherokee Studios, Los Angeles)[1]
Studio
Genre
Length 38:26
Label RCA Records
Producer
David Bowie chronology
Station to Station
(1976)		 Low
(1977)		 "Heroes"
(1977)
Singles from Low
  1. "Sound and Vision" b/w "A New Career in a New Town"
    Released: 11 February 1977
  2. "Be My Wife" b/w "Speed of Life"
    Released: June 1977

Low is the eleventh studio album by English musician David Bowie, released on RCA Records on 14 January 1977. Recorded following Bowie's move to West Berlin after a period of drug addiction and personal instability, Low became the first of three collaborations with musician Brian Eno and producer Tony Visconti later termed the "Berlin Trilogy". The album was in fact recorded largely in France, and marked a shift in Bowie's musical style toward an electronic and avant-garde approach that would be further explored on subsequent albums "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger (1979).

Though it was initially met with mixed critical reviews, Low has since become widely acclaimed as one of Bowie's best and most influential works. Pitchfork placed it at number 1 in its list of the Top 100 Albums of the 1970s,[7] while Q placed it at number 14 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.[8] In 2013, NME listed the album as the 14th greatest of all time.[9] It was also listed as one of Rolling Stone magazine's 500 greatest albums of all time.[10]

Background

Main article: Berlin Trilogy

The genesis of Low lies in both the foundations laid by Bowie's previous album Station to Station and in the music he recorded for the soundtrack to The Man Who Fell to Earth. When Bowie presented his material for the film to Nicolas Roeg, the director decided that it would not be suitable. Roeg preferred a more folksy sound, although John Phillips (the chosen composer for the soundtrack) described Bowie's contributions as "haunting and beautiful".[11] Elements from these pieces were incorporated into Low instead. The album's cover, like Station to Station, is a still from the movie: the photographic image, under the album's title, formed a deliberate pun on the phrase "low profile".[12] The album's working title was New Music Night and Day.[13]

Following Bowie's Thin White Duke-period and the commercial success of the singles "Fame" and "Golden Years" in 1976, he was eager to escape the drug culture of Los Angeles,[14] where he had developed a deleterious cocaine habit.[15] Bowie had also become embroiled in controversy regarding comments he made seemingly in favor of fascism.[16] He blamed his erratic behaviour around his Thin White Duke period on his addictions and precarious mental state,[17] He later explained: "It was a dangerous period for me. I was at the end of my tether physically and emotionally and had serious doubts about my sanity." [18] Bowie would move to Switzerland in the second half of 1976. Later that year, he, along with friend and singer Iggy Pop, would retreat to Berlin in a further attempt to kick his drug habit and escape the spotlight:

Apartment building on Hauptstraße 155 in Berlin Schöneberg where Bowie lived with Iggy Pop from 1976 to 1978
"For many years Berlin had appealed to me as a sort of sanctuary-like situation. It was one of the few cities where I could move around in virtual anonymity. I was going broke; it was cheap to live. For some reason, Berliners just didn’t care. Well, not about an English rock singer, anyway."[19]

While sharing an apartment with Pop, Bowie would become interested in the German music scene, including acts such as Kraftwerk and Neu!. During the months of his recovery, he had also become interested Brian Eno's minimalist album Discreet Music (1975), eventually meeting with him in 1976[20][21] [13] and soon after beginning collaborations with Eno, producer Tony Visconti, and Pop.[22] In 1976, Bowie also cowrote and produced Pop's solo album debut The Idiot (1976).[23]

Music

The album was co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, with contributions from Brian Eno.[24] As a recovering cocaine addict, Bowie's songwriting on Low dealt with difficult issues: "There's oodles of pain in the Low album. That was my first attempt to kick cocaine, so that was an awful lot of pain. And I moved to Berlin to do it. I moved out of the coke centre of the world [i.e. Los Angeles, where Station to Station was recorded] into the smack centre of the world. Thankfully, I didn't have a feeling for smack, so it wasn't a threat".[25] Visconti contended that the title was partly a reference to Bowie's "low" moods during the album's writing and recording.[26]

The album marked a movement for Bowie into electronic[6] and ambient music.[4] Side one of the album contained short, direct avant-pop song-fragments;[5] side two comprised longer, mostly instrumental tracks. On these tracks help was lent by ex-Roxy Music keyboardist and conceptualist Brian Eno, who brought along his EMS 'suitcase' AKS synthesiser (Bowie was later given this particular synthesiser as a birthday present after a friend obtained it in an auction).[27] Often incorrectly given credit as Low's producer,[28] Eno was responsible for a good deal of the direction and composition of the second side of the album and wrote the theme and instrumentation for "Warszawa" while Bowie was in Paris attending court hearings against his former manager. Eno in turn was helped by producer Tony Visconti's four-year-old son who sat next to Eno playing A, B, C in a constant loop at the studio piano. This phrase became the "Warszawa" theme. On Bowie's return Eno played him the work which impressed Bowie who then composed the vaguely Eastern European-sounding lyrics.[29]

Although the music was influenced by German bands such as Kraftwerk and Neu!,[13][28] Low has been acclaimed for its originality and is considered ahead of its time, not least for its cavernous treated drum sound created by producer Visconti using an Eventide Harmonizer.[12][30] On the release of Low, Visconti received phone calls from other producers asking how he had made this unique sound, but would not give up the information, instead asking each producer how they thought it had been done.[30] In 2004, Bjorn Randolph of Stylus Magazine said that "had the album been released twenty years later, this would have been called "post-rock.""[31]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
Blender[32]
Chicago Tribune[33]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[34]
NME9/10[35]
Pitchfork10/10[36]
Q[37]
Rolling Stone[38]
Spin[39]
The Village VoiceB+[40]

Upon its release, critical reaction to Low was relatively divided. In his review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau said side one's seven "fragments" are "almost as powerful as the 'overlong' tracks on Station to Station", but felt "the movie music on side two" to be banal[40] (though he warmed to the second side after comparing it to "Heroes").[41] Rolling Stone magazine's John Milward noted that "Bowie lacks the self-assured humour to pull off his avant-garde aspirations" and found the album's second side weaker than its first, stating: "Side one, where Bowie works within more conventional rock trappings, is superior to side two's experiments simply because a band forces discipline into Bowie's writing and performance".[42] Los Angeles Times writer Robert Hilburn shared a similar sentiment and stated "For 12 minutes, this is Bowie's most striking and satisfying album since Ziggy. But the remaining 26 minutes, including all of Side 2, deal with a spacy art rock style that is simply beyond mass pop sensibilities for it to build much enthusiasm".[2]

By contrast, Billboard called the album's second side "the most adventurous and a stark contrast to the few distorted hard rock cuts on side one" and wrote that Low "emphasizes Bowie's serious writing efforts which only time can tell will appeal to the people who have watched him go through various musical phases".[43] John Rockwell of The New York Times wrote that "There are hardly any vocals, and what there are mostly mindless doggerel heard from afar. And the instrumentals are strange and spacey. Nevertheless, the whole thing strikes this listener as remarkably, alluringly beautiful".[44] Rockwell described its sound as "a strange crossbreed of Roxy Music, Eno's own solo albums, Talking Heads and an Indonesian gamelan. Yet it still is recognizably a David Bowie album", and concluded that "once Mr. Bowie's fans overcome their initial shock at his latest change in direction, they may realize that he's made one of the finest disks of his career".[44] The album was a commercial success, peaking at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart and number 11 on the US Billboard Pop Albums chart. "Sound and Vision" and "Be My Wife" were released as singles; the former reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart.

Legacy

Low appears on a number of critics' "best album" lists. Pitchfork placed it at number 1 on the website's "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s".[7] In 2000 Q placed it at number 14 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.[8] In 2003, the album was ranked number 249 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[45] In a retrospective review, The Rolling Stone Album Guide states "it's the music of an overstimulated mind in an exhausted body [...] sashays through some serious emotional wreckage".[46] Philip Glass based his 1992 classical composition Low Symphony on Low, with Bowie and Eno both influencing the work.[47] In 2013, NME listed the album as the 14th greatest of all time.[9]

Track listing

All lyrics written by David Bowie; all music composed by David Bowie except where noted.

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Speed of Life"   2:46
2. "Breaking Glass" (Bowie, Dennis Davis, George Murray) 1:51
3. "What in the World"   2:23
4. "Sound and Vision"   3:03
5. "Always Crashing in the Same Car"   3:29
6. "Be My Wife"   2:55
7. "A New Career in a New Town"   2:51
Total length:
 19:18
Side two
No. Title Length
8. "Warszawa" (Bowie, Brian Eno) 6:20
9. "Art Decade"   3:43
10. "Weeping Wall"   3:26
11. "Subterraneans"   5:39
Total length:
 19:08 (38:26)

Reissues

The album has been released three times on CD, the first between 1984 and 1985 by RCA Records, the second in 1991 by Rykodisc (with three bonus tracks on silver CD and later on AU20 Gold CD), and the third in 1999 by EMI (featuring 24-bit digitally remastered sound and no bonus tracks).

The Rykodisc edition of this album was released in the United Kingdom on CD, Cassette and LP in 1991 by EMI Records. The three bonus tracks were added to the end of side two of the LP and cassette editions so not to spoil the original running order.

Rykodisc/EMI 1991 remaster bonus tracks
No. Title Length
12. "Some Are" (previously unreleased track recorded 1976-79) 3:24
13. "All Saints" (previously unreleased track recorded 1976-79) 3:35
14. "Sound and Vision" (remixed version, 1991) 4:43
Total length:
 49:42

Personnel

Based on the album credits:

Additional personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1977) Position
Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart[49] 10
Austrian Albums Chart[50] 17
Canadian RPM Albums Chart[51] 56
Dutch Mega Albums Chart[52] 6
Japanese Oricon LP Chart[53] 35
New Zealand Albums Chart[54] 12
Norwegian Albums Chart[55] 10
Swedish Albums Chart[56] 12
UK Albums Chart[57] 2
US Billboard 200[58] 11

Year-end charts

Chart (1977) Position
Australian Albums Chart[49] 70
Dutch Albums Chart[59] 19

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/Sales
Canada (Music Canada)[60] Gold 50,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[61] Gold 100,000^

^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

  1. ↑ Thomas Jerome Seabrook (2008). Bowie in Berlin: A New Career in a New Town: p.131
  2. 1 2 Hilburn, Robert (16 January 1977). Review: Low. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 9 October 2010.
  3. ↑ BLACKARD, CAP, WREN GRAVES AND ERIN MANNING. "A Beginner's Guide to David Bowie". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  4. 1 2 Mastropolo, Frank. "The History of David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy: 'Low,' 'Heroes,' and 'Lodger'". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Low – David Bowie". AllMusic. Retrieved 10 July 2008.
  6. 1 2 Lukowski, Andrzej. "Album Review: Low: Live in Chicago". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  7. 1 2 "Pitchfork Feature: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s". Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  8. 1 2 "Q – End of Year Lists". Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  9. 1 2 "The 500 Greatest Albums of all Time: 100-1". nme.com. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  10. ↑ "The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  11. ↑ Hugo Wilcken (2005). Low: pp.16–22
  12. 1 2 David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story: pp.299–315
  13. 1 2 3 Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record: pp.87–90
  14. ↑ Mastropolo, Frank (11 January 2016). "The History of David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy: 'Low,' 'Heroes' and 'Lodger'". Ultimate Classic Rock.
  15. ↑ Wilcken, Hugo (2005). Low. New York: Continuum. p. 24. ISBN 0-8264-1684-5.
  16. ↑ Buckley (2000): pp. 289–91.
  17. ↑ Carr & Murray (1981): p. 11
  18. ↑ "Bowie's UNCUT interview on Low". BowieGoldenYears.com.
  19. ↑ "Uncut Interviews David Bowie & Tony Visconti On Berlin". Uncut. March 2001.
  20. ↑ Seabrook, Thomas Jerome (2008). Bowie in Berlin: A New Career in a New Town. Jawbone Press. ISBN 1906002088.
  21. ↑ "Eno: I would set up sonic scenarios for David Bowie". BBC News. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  22. ↑ Sandford 1997, p. 149.
  23. ↑ Needs, Kris (January 2007). "The Passenger". Mojo Classic (60 Years of Bowie): 65.
  24. ↑ James E. Perone. The words and music of David Bowie. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. p. 60. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
  25. ↑ Scott Cohen. "David Bowie", Details magazine, September 1991: p.97
  26. ↑ BowieGoldenYears. Retrieved 12 June 2007.
  27. ↑ Hugo Wilcken (2005). Low: pp.59–69
  28. 1 2 Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie: pp.302–306
  29. ↑ Hugo Wilcken (2005). Low: pp.113–118
  30. 1 2 Hugo Wilcken (2005). Low: pp.69–73
  31. ↑ "Top Ten Albums on Which the Sequencing Is Lost on CD – Staff Top 10 – Stylus Magazine".
  32. ↑ "David Bowie: Low". Blender. Archived from the original on 22 August 2007. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  33. ↑ Kot, Greg (10 June 1990). "Bowie's Many Faces Are Profiled On Compact Disc". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  34. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-857-12595-8.
  35. ↑ Fadele, Dele (11 September 2000). "David Bowie – Station To Station/Low/Heroes/Stage". NME. Archived from the original on 17 August 2000. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  36. ↑ Snapes, Laura (22 January 2015). "David Bowie: Low". Pitchfork. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  37. ↑ Columnist (1999). "Review: Low". Q: 108.
  38. ↑ Sheffield, Rob (5 November 2001). "Low". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  39. ↑ Dolan, Jon (July 2006). "How to Buy: David Bowie". Spin. 22 (7): 84. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  40. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (14 February 1977). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  41. ↑ "Robert Christgau: Album: David Bowie: "Heroes"". Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  42. ↑ Milward, John (21 April 1977). Review: Low. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 9 October 2010.
  43. ↑ Columnist (15 January 1977). "Review: Low". Billboard: 80.
  44. 1 2 Rockwell, John (14 January 1977). Review: Low. The New York Times. Retrieved on 9 October 2010.
  45. ↑ "The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  46. ↑ R.S. (2 November 2004). "Review: Low". The Rolling Stone Album Guide: 97–98.
  47. ↑ "Philip Glass: Music: "Low" Symphony". philipglass.com. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
  48. ↑ Toija Cinque; Christopher Moore; Sean Redmond (18 June 2015). Enchanting David Bowie: Space/Time/Body/Memory. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 381.
  49. 1 2 Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  50. ↑ "David Bowie – Low – austriancharts.at" (ASP). Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  51. ↑ "Top Albums/CDs – Volume 27, No. 1" (PHP). RPM. 2 April 1977. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  52. ↑ "dutchcharts.nl David Bowie – Low" (ASP). dutchcharts.nl. MegaCharts. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  53. ↑ Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005. Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
  54. ↑ "charts.org.nz David Bowie – Low" (ASP). Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  55. ↑ "norwegiancharts.com David Bowie – Low" (ASP). Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  56. ↑ "swedishcharts.com David Bowie – Low" (ASP). Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  57. ↑ "David Bowie > Artists > Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  58. ↑ "allmusic ((( Low > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))". allmusic.com. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  59. ↑ "Dutch charts jaaroverzichten 1977" (ASP) (in Dutch). Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  60. ↑ "Canadian album certifications – David Bowie – Low". Music Canada. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  61. ↑ "British album certifications – David Bowie – Low". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 31 January 2014. Enter Low in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Gold in the field By Award. Click Search
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