Young Americans

Coked off his skull during the Diamond Dogs tour, David Bowie scheduled a week in Philadelphia, home of so much then contemporary soul, to record his take in black man's pop at Sigma Sound studios.

By then the rock world had become used to Bowie's Ch-ch-changes...but a soul album? Man, Bowie was just a skinny English faggot, his mojo was in his drugged-out head, not his hips.

Wrong, Bowie was smart, way-smart...and like a dog who could lick his own balls, he made a soul album...because he could! So, let's hop  on the midnight train to er...Philadelphia and see if David's Philly has got more to offer than white cheese.

David Bowie: Young Americans

First up, was the problem of lyrics. Soul music has notoriously understandable lyrics, seldom veering from its roots of "talking to God" Gospel music. You talk straight, you make your case. Your beloved listens or doesn't, whatever the case may be. Bowie's apocalyptic white-boy visions just didn't fit. So, what he did instead was to "write" a few "love" songs in which the archetypal man/woman set-up allowed vagueness of all kinds:

Win "...When your smile is spreadin' thin, all you've got to do is win..."

Right (a work-out that serves only to set up a stunning call-response section) &

Can You Hear Me "...Can you hear me, can you feel me inside, show your l-o-v-e..."

...pinch a great track, Fascination, from his-then unknown back-up singer Luther Van Dross and add some new lyrics:

"...Every time I feel
Fascination
I just can't stand still
I've got to use her..."

      Fascination

...re-sell the whole Homo Superior (see Hunky Dory) as a tale of JFK American politics in a rare exercise of understandable narrative lyrics

"...He's the seventh sun of the TV tube
Planets wrote the day was due when
All the wisest men around
Predicted that a man was found
Who looked a lot like you and me..."

    Somebody Up There Likes Me
 

...and smartest of all, delivered the radio-friendly title track referencing:

• The Beatles..."I heard the news today oh boy..."
• America's recently impeached President..."Do you remember, your President Nixon..."
• Sex..."...it took him minutes, took her nowhere..."
• presenting it all in a funky foot-tappin' sound collage that suggested a lot but offered a recurring nightmare for many of us..."...We live for just these 20 years, do we have to die for the 50 more?..."

Even better, after the Diamond Dogs tour, Bowie cut a couple of tracks in New York with a totally different band + a Yoko-less John Lennon (the weird white-powder version of Across The Universe...see The White Album) & Fame a track that would give Bowie his first global Number 1.

Fame makes a man take things over
Fame lets him loose, hard to swallow
Fame puts you there where things are hollow
Fame

Fame, its not your brain, its just the flame
That burns your change to keep you insane

Bowie slotted them into the album for some contrast, dumping the sub-standard Who Can I Be Now & It's Gonna Be Me (now EXTRAS on the RYKO CD version)...and though the the Lennon tracks jarred a little, well, rather a lot, actually, sounding completely different in feel, Young Americans came out stronger as an  album.

Do I like it?

I love it! Sylistically Young Americans is sensational and it stands up favorably to any GREATEST HITS soul album from the same time, it's that good. Does it have soul? Hell no...but it sounds like it does. This is Bowie at his best. Smug white boy taking risks...and as he says on "Win"..."All you've got to do is win...".  

 David Bowie: Young Americans

"...Poor Bowie. Goes and releases a great album, then years later we blame it for the Bee Gees and George Michael. Oh dear...but anyway, the album is pretty fantastic..." Amazon.co.uk reviewer Christopher Morris

"...What makes it work are the sax contributions of David Sanborn, the buoyant percussion and the backing vocals of the great Luther Vandross. The result is a seamless blend of Philadelphia soul and rock, a style that became in a sense a precursor to the disco explosion that was soon to follow..." Amazon.co.uk reviewer pieter "toypom"

"...Bowie's longtime producer Tony Visconti...has worked his magic on the classic Young Americans album. If you've never heard this album, it will rock your world. If you know this album well, the new version will rock your world even harder! I was simply amazed at how great the sound is, especially the surround effect in 5.1. I heard instrumentation and vocal arrangements that got lost in the earlier stereo album mix. It was like hearing the album for the first time all over again!

If you don't have surround sound yet, the included stereo CD is just as exciting. The mix is much brighter and more powerful than before, so you won't be disappointed. Also, the DVD includes the rare video of Mr. Bowie's completely coked-up appearance on the Dick Cavett show - absolutely essential viewing for any Bowie fan!..." Amazon reviewer M. Scott Spalding 

"...most audacious of all, wonder at how a skinny white guy from Bromley with bad teeth and a dodgy eye can make his version of black urban soul music sound so good?..." Amazon.co.uk reviewer Mr. D. H. Rowley

"...I first got hold of this album in 1975 - not having enough disposable capital to go to a record store I swopped a Levis denim jacket for the Young Americans RCA cassette. At the time it was the equivalent of Jack selling the cow for a handful of beans - I didn't dare tell my mum. She had contributed the bulk of the money for one of the ultimate fashion statements of '75 and all I had to show was a second-hand cassette of a man with suspect wierd sexuality, singing black American music heavily influenced by drugs. Needless to say I listened to it pretty much every day for the next two years..." Amazon.co.uk reviewer Dr. Delvis Mephistopholes

Young Americans T-shirt

I haven't seen this documentary from the era but it looks like die-hard fans may be interested...

David Bowie: The Plastic Soul Review DVD

"...Some clips are not so rare but the ones that are rare are worth the purchase for collectors and diehard fans..." Amazon reviewer wednesday

For more info, see:

• wikipedia Young Americans  
• the original Young Americans promotional poster from RCA, presently selling for around $1,000
• The Drummer reports on Bowie recording Young Americans in 1974 + Bruce Springsteen + flying saucers
• Disc Magazine reports on Bowie taking Young Americans on tour, mid 1974, months before it's released!
• Hit Parader freelance journalist, Leee Black Childers with a long chatty article about being on tour with Bowie, family, manager etc.
• bitchy CREEM magazine article by Lester Bangs ridiculing the Philadelphia Bowie concert (but with great concert details)
• CREEM Magazine with Bowie (probably off his face) talking about flying saucers and saying outrageous things about Hitler!  
• a very brief but thorough look at Bowie's activities in 1975 from Roger Griffin
• Hi Magazine with a Bowie interview in which the only point of interest is how many film scripts he's developing
• The Sunday Times reported on Bowie's marriage and provided a pretty good snapshot of his early years (including some great bits from Ken Pitt, Bowie's first manager) but not much else
• David talks to the New Musical Express and predicts a fascist revolution