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Tonight

David Bowie: Tonight

David Bowie: Tonight

Distracted by his new fascination with movies (see Bowie movies), Tonight was a slightly disappointing album that's best remembered as Bowie's "writer's block" album. Tonight included covers of several songs he had written with Iggy Pop: David Bowie: Tonight single

Tonight (from Iggy Pop's Lust For Life) which had the heroin-overdose section edited out
Neighborhood Threat (from Iggy Pop's Lust For Life)
Tumble & Twirl
Dancing With The Big Boys (written with Carlos Alomar)

which Bowie claimed was to generate some needed income for his friend but no-one really believed him.

This impression only gained strength upon hearing Tonight's other two cover versions:

the truly god-awful version of The Beach Boys' God Only Knows, so horrible that it even ranked with his massacring of The Beatles' Across The Universe on Young Americans &
the almost equally-awful I Keep Forgettin' written by rock'n'roll legends, Lieber & Stoller

That's the the bad news but Tonight still had some goodies!

The first single Blue Jean, was released with a video that came in several versions, two of the single itself...and the third, a long mini-feature in which Bowie plays the two central characters (The logic was that Michael Jackson's Thriller had just been released and caused a sensation and the mini-movie was planned to have the same result for Bowie but alas that wasn't the case).

The plot is based upon a story that was attributed to Mick Jagger, in which some geezer apparently met Mick and begged him to come over to his table and say hello (thereby impressing the geezer's lady friend). Mick finally agreed but when he did as requested, the smart-arse said:

"Piss off, Mick, can't you see I'm busy?"

Boom-boom! Bowie took the story and developed it into a Grammy Award-winning mini-movie. The idea was meant to advertise his acting skills but that didn't quite come off but it still makes for fun viewing and is available on the Best Of Bowie DVD.

David Bowie: Greatest Hits DVD

Anyway, the Blue Jean single was a well deserved (and loved) hit...

David Bowie: Blue Jean

There album also contained Loving The Alien, which was the melodramatic and evocative Bowie at his hard-to-understand-lyrically, exquisite best...

"...Watching them come and go
The Templars and the saracens
They're travelling the Holy land
Opening telegrams oh ho

Torture comes and torture goes
Knights who'd give you anything
They bear the cross of coeur de lion
Salvation for the mirror-blind oh ho

But if you pray all your sins are hooked upon the sky
Pray and the heathen lie will disappear
Prayers they hide the saddest view
Believing the strangest things, loving the alien..."

Loving The Alien

David Bowie: Loving The Alien

[Incidentally, for a great who-dun-it about the mysterious Knights Templar, you must check out my review of Umberto Eco's novel, Foucault's Pendulum.]

Other than the stand-out tracks, Tonight patently wasn't A-grade Bowie but the really demoralising part was reasonably obvious that Bowie's heart wasn't in rock music any more. As a result, Tonight is now seldom remembered.

David Bowie: Tonight

"...There's almost no such thing as a bad Bowie album but Tonight comes close. Recorded very hastily (reportedly the sessions concluded in less than a week), Bowie was clearly not that interested in the record, tossing it off as a quickie follow-up to Let's Dance. Unlike the hit album, however, the production here sounds limp and lifeless and the overall tone of the album is flat and dull..." Amazon reviewer C. S. Junker

"...I'm not sure why so many people dislike this record but I hold it high among the most enjoyable things Bowie has ever done...This album is kind of like the sonic equivalent of a good pair of comfy shoes...they feel great everytime you put 'em on!..." Amazon reviewer Christina Mohtashemi

"...this album represented Bowie's lost years in the 80s. The days when he would go into studio and perform but show none of his edge except for a few good songs here and there. That's the key word that people come to expect from Bowie - cutting-edge. This one is blunt for some and for me was Bowie-LITE..." Amazon reviewer Ace Jones

David Bowie & Mick Jagger: Dancing In The Street Over the next two years, Bowie released four singles, three associated with movies and the first, a re-make of Martha Reeves & The Vandella's 1964 hit, Dancing in The Street, (William Stevenson & Marvin Gaye) a one-off single with Mick Jagger, which became a #1 hit around the world and was premiered at LIVE Aid.

The song was recorded & the music video shot all within the single day and the music video was shot by Julian Temple, who also directed the Blue Jean mini-movie.

Dancing In The Street & the two singles below, This Is Not America and Absolute Beginners were, at one time available as bonus tracks on Tonight but are now only available on Bowie's greatest hits collection, Best Of Bowie.

At the time, Bowie had just finished acting in and writing the theme song for his musical movie, Absolute Beginners (see below). However, before that, he released This Is Not America, the theme song to the movie The Falcon & The Snowman, 1985, recorded with jazz guitarist Pat Metheney).

The song was was really evocative, if nothing else and certainly brought attention to the movie, directed by Academy award-winning director John (Midnight Cowboy) Schlesinger and starred Timothy Hutton & Sean Penn.

Drawn from the original novel by Robert Lindsey, also called The Falcon & The Snowman, it's a Cold War espionage thriller based upon a true story, in which two young Americans, one a disillusioned idealist, the other, his friend, a drug addict and dealer, collaborate to sell top secrets encryption codes to the Russians. The movie gained considerable acclaim during the internationally-tense Reagan years.

On a very different note, Bowie acted in and also and provided the title track for the escapist movie, Absolute Beginners, 1985, directed by Julian Temple, who also directed the Blue Jean mini-movie. It was adapted from Colin Macinnes acclaimed original novel, also called Absolute Beginners, set in London 1958, the movie centers around:

"... Hip photographer, Colin, searches 50's London for latest teen sensations, and finds exploitation, sex, music, disillusionment, loose-morals, fashion and Teds. Great performances from David Bowie as a mid-Atlantic entrepreneur Vendice Partners...(and)...Patsy Kensit as the irrepressible Suzette..." Amazon reviewer robbus maximus

The movie bombed badly but is now remembered fondly and is well worth checking out, especially for, if I remember correctly, the opening sequence. Like This Is Not America , Absolute Beginners (the track) was, once released as a bonus track on Tonight but is now only available on Bowie's greatest hits collection, Best Of Bowie.

In 1986 Bowie also co-starred in and provided a number of songs for the Jim Henson / George Lucas movie, Labyrinth. I've provided a full review of the movie at that link.