Well, here we go with another episode, or if you like edition, of Random Bowie. A series which seem to be featuring ever decreasing popularity, going on the low readership what the last one, "heroes", attracted. Thus far no one has taken up the offer of the postcard on that post, so either the album is not as popular as I had taken it to be, or just people are bored with reading what I write.
No matter, I press on, determined as I am to "do" all the albums. And, as there are less albums to do than have been done here, the "random" nature is becoming less so. Based on the artwork alone, it just made sense to follow up "heroes" with The Next Day.
Quick, rapid facts to begin with, or if you will commence? The third paragraph is hardly starting, but go on then. The Next Day is the 24th studio album by David Bowie in accordance with the generally accepted method of counting them. It came after an extraordinarily (by his standards) long hiatus, released as it was 10 years (or if you like a decade) after 2003's Reality. Most famously, of course, this album was somehow recorded in secret, with 99.99999999% (or thereabouts) of the word's population only knowing that Bowie had recorded any new music with the release of Where Are We Now? on his birthday.
OK, this might well turn out to be one of those episodes (editions) where I speak less of the music and more around the album. And why not, really, mindful of the last aspects of the previous paragraph. Let us not forget how mind-blowing an achievement this was. For David Bowie to have done anything in secret since, let's say 1972, was quite a trick. To have done it at a time when social media and everyone reporting everything on the internet was all the more impressive.
Yes, but of course, there were those in certain media outlets who claimed to have "known all along" and indeed "been in on it", but simply did not say anything so as "not to spoil the surprise" for the common fan. Nonsense, of course. None but a trusted few knew, and the claims of certain journalists to have "been in on it" are easy enough to dismiss - look at the very precise zero number of interviews Bowie gave after the release.
Certainly, yes, is the answer to the obvious question. As with most early 90s releases onwards, journalists and critics fell over themselves to declare this as being (sigh) his "best and most important album since Scary Monsters". In this instance, though, the enthusiasm to describe a new David Bowie album this way was fed for the most part by Bowie himself. Since 2003 Bowie had said very, very little in public at all about anything. There was, however, one comment in that "decade" hiatus of sorts. He mentioned that it would take something "really spectacular" to see him make music again, so I suppose the critics can be forgiven for taking it as granted that The Next Day was indeed a spectacular album.
This is where things get difficult. Whereas it's a good album, in no way would I call the actual music of The Next Day "spectacular", instead saving that word for the secrecy of release. It's mostly good, above average stuff, with some alarmingly overt and direct references to his own life in the lyrics. Knowing now what we do, I cannot but help think, or suspect, that this was maybe "part one" of Blackstar. Did Bowie know that the end was coming up in the not too distant future? Was this record, loaded with memories, the first stage of getting his affairs in order, I wonder?
We, if so, really did miss, or opted to ignore, the main lyric from the opening track, the titular The Next Day. Most, maybe all, of us heard "here I am, not quite dying" as Bowie raging against age, assuring us that he had many years left with us. Perhaps we should have remembered his wry, dry sense of British humour, one which prevailed no matter where he called home. In retrospect, it is difficult to hear this line as anything but a Monty Python like comment that perhaps his health was not all that it could be. Which, of course, we knew after the huge heart attack that brought an abrupt end to the Reality tour.
For the more cynical of you, there was another possibly "really spectacular" reason for Bowie returning to music when he did. That would be the fact that he would make a good deal more money at that time than he would have if he'd released something earlier. I am no financial expert, so feel free to read up on the whole 'Bowie Bonds' thing and their "junk status" yourself, although here is a link to the BBC coverage of it all which makes for a simplified start.
To the music for a bit, then, although in fairness I have referenced some of it above (slightly). Nowhere seems as good a place to start as the lead single, of sorts, although of course this was 2013, and so it was only available "digitally", so far as I am aware.
Where Are We Now? is perhaps destined to be the most low key, quiet, no fuss "comeback" single in the history of recorded music. No big, bold, brash and in your face statement. Just what seems, superficially, to be Bowie recalling an incident in Berlin, when he had to catch a train. The musical is whimsical, almost breezy in it's soft piano, all of which seems to hide key lyrics. Again, knowing now what we do, perhaps I read too much into all of this, but listening now to lines like "the moment you know, you know you know" and "as long as there's sun, as long as there's rain", we seem to be hearing a very English passive response to the fact that things might not be going quite as well as they could be with the health thing.
But, wait a minute. Go back for a second. David Bowie is telling us quite directly about something which happened in his private life? This has not happened before, certainly not in such an overt way. He famously avoided discussing anything he considered to be personal and private. As in, when you watch his VH1 Storytellers performance, you note that he tells stories that always seem to be about other people and not him. Also, the final shot of the video for Where Are We Now? features Bowie stood alone, wearing a t-shirt with Song of Norway written on it. Now, if you wished, you could take that as some peculiar reference to the cruise ship scrapped in 2013. Or, you could not help but notice that Song Of Norway was the film which Bowie's then girlfriend, Hermione Farthingale, left him (apparently heartbroken and believing he would never recover) to go and appear in. Yes, indeed the t-shirt could be a reference to both.
The next single, and arguably the best song from the album, was to be The Stars (Are Out Tonight). Musically it's a fairly heavy (and very groovy and very good) rock song, lyrically it seems to dabble with thoughts about "celebrity culture", with the ethos being either a passively dismissive or reluctant acceptance, depending on how you hear it. Another incident of perhaps reading more than one should in retrospect into it all, but again the video is something of a feast. Maybe in playing with the subversion of the album artwork, maybe preparing to get things in order or possibly just for fun, there's a Norwegian model / actress playing what is unmistakably supposed to be the younger David Bowie, whereas Tilda Swinton playing Bowie's wife in the video looks an awful lot like David Bowie.
How about a still from the video for what was ostensibly the 3rd or 4th single (I suspect 4th) from the album, Valentine's Day? Well, as it is an excuse to see one of the final public images of Bowie, why not.
Yes, subverting Bowie once again. The song is pretty much about a murder or a murderer, which is perhaps not quite what one would expect from the title. Still, great song. Quite like many other Bowie classics - even if they were released as singles - I don't believe this has cropped up on too many "best of" sets, so there you go, reason enough to purchase the whole of The Next Day so you can have this tune.
I've had the album on repeat for a couple of weeks in advance of writing this and, if I am honest, there's no song further than the above two that I would highlight. Except, maybe, to say that the titular track is truly astonishing. By no means does this mean that the remainder of the album - in whatever variation you opt to hear it (we will get to that) - is poor or below any sort of standard. It flows very splendidly and is most enjoyable to listen to. But, ultimately, it's just what I would call a "David Bowie album", really. Good to great music which maintains a high standard, and yet never in itself comes across as anything really spectacular, to quote someone. Although I am keen to stress I am not being critical.
Does the record tie in with "heroes" at all, since the artwork for The Next Day subverts the artwork for that one? Somewhat, I suppose. Where Are We Now? is decidedly German in its location, and as we know "heroes" was the only one of the three albums that form the 'Berlin trilogy' to actually be written and recorded in Germany. Other than that, I don't really hear this album as a sequel of sorts, and the feeling one has from the record is quite different.
Exactly what was David Bowie doing between, say, 2006 and 2013, then. Other than recording this record. In truth, no one knows for sure, yet everyone knows. Rumours spread that he was left "totally debilitated" by his heart attack, with some going as far to say he was suffering with dementia. Kind of nonsense, really. For a start, there were two celebrated cinematic outings - as the enigmatic Tesla in the superb film The Prestige, and as the regal King of Atlantis (Neptune?) or similar in some sort of Spongebob Squarepants film. It was the latter which Bowie described as being the pinnacle of his career.
Other than that, he was regularly pictured at art galleries, etc, and went out to premieres of films made by his son, Duncan. A lot of the time he was just wandering around New York, dressed in a Greek style and always carrying a Greek newspaper, so as observers may just assume they had just seen a man from the Aegean who happened to look a bit like Bowie rather than Bowie himself, and so left him in peace. Also, just spending time at home with Iman and their daughter.
What of the variations of The Next Day? Well, at the time you could get the "standard" version of the album, or a "deluxe" version, with 2 or 3 extra songs on. A year or so later and The Next Day Extra landed, featuring all the songs off of the "deluxe", plus some other new ones, plus some remixes, plus a DVD of the videos from the record (Gary Oldman is class in the one for The Next Day), and a little notebook for you to doodle on.
Any or all of them worth getting? Yes, frankly. It's a really good album. If possible, I suppose The Next Day Extra is the one to get, then you have all the music. But there's nothing at all wrong for settling with a copy of the album as it first came out, way back in 2013. Wow, some 5 years old now.
For those somewhat disappointed in how little I may have written about The Next Day, fear or frown not. There is a superb BBC documentary which really covers it in some detail. Here in the UK it was released under the rather dour, sombre name David Bowie The Last Five Years, referencing Five Years off of Ziggy Stardust and ignoring the fact that the album covered closer to The Last Ten To Fifteen Years.
Next, after The Next Day? We will see. I suspect another 70s album, and no, I have not forgotten there are kind of two from the 60s not touched on as such as of yet. But they will be.
But, then, that's that, or this is this in respect of this particular episode. For those of you who have stopped by to read, thank you very much indeed once again for doing so!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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