Run For The Shadows
Today�s Bowie CD is Station to Station. I�ve talked via email to Smed about this already (because his one flaw as Music Man is his LACK of Bowieness) but I issue this challenge to you all: Go listen to this CD right-this-very-minute and then tell me your thoughts. Basically, tell me how fucking much it rules. Or, if you can�t do that (because you are, like, insane), if you refuse to acknowledge greatness when you hear it, then tell me why. I'll forgive you.
We�re only talking six songs. SIX SONGS, people! Are you up for it? Good.
We begin with the title track which Dusty loves because it begins with a train leaving a station � you hear the steam, the whistle, the wheels going...going...going...faster and faster and faster...the return of the Thin White Duke throwing darts in lovers' eyes!
This CD, I now believe, is Bowie�s best � as a complete album (and I say that with love-love-love in my heart for Z. Stardust). His drug habits in 1975-76 notwithstanding, his voice � that amazing growl and croon, the reach of it, all high and then low in three notes � is at its best.
He�s shed the glamour of Glam for a timeless Sinatra/1940�s kind of glamour that is, for me at least, much more appealing. All the songs are of a part. There is a cohesiveness here that�s hard to find in most albums in general unless the band is one of those where all the songs sound the same anyway. Which is sometimes why I go for the "Best of" compilations for certain artists because apart from the couple of songs I love, I hate paying for a CD where I have to keep hitting the fast-forward button through all the ones that don't work for me.
And of course, "Golden Years" is such a great song. I cannot tell you how much I love to hear, "Don�t let me hear you say life�s taking you nowhere/Aayyn-gel!" Sweet Fancy Moses that�s good song.
"Word on a Wing" is as close to a religious experience as I can come. It even has a chorus of heavenly angels at the end. Just a beautiful composition. I dare you to disagree.
"TVC-15" � "This week dragged past me so slowly/The days fell on their knees..." I am having a week like that. This song cracks me up what with the girlfriend crawling into the television and living in a TV Mike world. If I was a vanity plate kind of person, this would be my plate: TVC-15. That�s how I�d spot all the Bowie Freaks � they�d get the plate and honk at me in glee. But, my car is purposely a stealth model Subaru. All the better to leave the scene of the crime, my dear.
"Stay" is another glory song, a perfect song: "Stay/That�s what I meant to say or do something..."
And, "Wild is the Wind." What�s with all the W�s? I don�t know but it works for me. So does this lovely song.
Now, go get this CD and tell me what you think!!
Here�s what Dusty thinks: "If you�re eating yogurt and [frozen] blueberries [which is her favorite meal, by the way], and you drink some of that water from the jug [bottled fluoridated water � room temperature], you can totally warm out your mouth!!"
Totally warm it out, man. Like, for shurr!
