Station To Station

Artist: David Bowie
Released: 1976

Everybody has their favorite Bowie period. Some cling to the Ziggy Stardust persona, while others swear by his Berlin phase. There are also three people who bow to the altar of his Tonight and Never Let Me Down period, but they live in Belgium and will be summarily executed for their taste transgressions. Personally, I’ve always found the initial Thin White Duke/Man Who Fell To Earth era to be his most intriguing. Let’s see…he was subsisting on milk, green peppers, and massive quantities of cocaine, weighed 120 lbs, thought there were aliens living underneath his bed and in his closet, and would stay up for four days straight drawing pentagrams on his living room floor. Good times.

What’s most impressive about this period, aside from his ability to stay alive, is the quality of the music. David himself admits he couldn’t tell you anything about recording Station To Station - all of his memories were lost to Bolivia’s biggest export. The muse, however, was clearly working in his favor. Taking the white soul and disco of Young American’s to delirious extremes, while foreshadowing the airy dynamics of his Eno albums, STS finds Bowie developing his first truly original sound. Syncopated drums and effects-laden guitars drive most of the songs, providing the pop hit in “Golden Years” and coming to their most gonzo fruition in the incomprehensible “TVC 15.” The album also contains one of Bowie’s best songs in the title track, a ten-minute opus that builds slowly before shooting off into hyperspace with the artist singing how “It’s not the effects of the cocaine.” Actually, it was, which is how the song ended up being ten minutes long. It worked in your favor, though.

I don’t think Station To Station is underrated, but I do feel as though it’s often overlooked in the grand scheme of Bowie’s career. Definitely a transition album, it was a precursor to the artist’s most fruitful and rewarding period. He also never quite circled back to this recording’s sound, thus giving the album a unique place in his oeuvre. This is unfortunate, really, since it may have saved the public from Never Let Me Down (he did, by the way).