David Bowie moved on from Berlin to the hinterland with the exotic electro funk and random art pop experiments of this twisted transitional travelogue. Although considered the final installment of his "Berlin Trilogy" (with 'Low' and '"Heroes"'), 'Lodger' was not recorded there. The sessions took place at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland with additional work done at Record Plant Studios in New York City. Working titles for 'Lodger' were 'Planned Accidents' and 'Despite Straight Lines' with the band that accompanied Bowie on his 1978 world tour: David Bowie on vocals, backing vocals, piano, guitar, synthesiser, Chamberlin, and production; Carlos Alomar on guitar and drums on "Boys Keep Swinging"; Dennis Davis on percussion and bass guitar on "Boys Keep Swinging"; George Murray on bass guitar; Sean Mayes on piano; Simon House on violin and mandolin; Adrian Belew on guitar and mandolin; Tony Visconti on backing vocals, guitar, mandolin, bass guitar, production, engineering, and mixing; Brian Eno on synthesisers, ambient drone, prepared piano, cricket menace, guitar treatments, horse trumpet, eroica horn, piano, and backing vocals; Roger Powell on synthesiser; and Stan on saxophone; with recording engineer David Richards and mixing engineer Rod O'Brien.
Unlike 'Low' and '"Heroes"', 'Lodger' was composed in the studio from scratch with much more collaboration than the other two. What it shares with them is the presence of Brian Eno, whose 'Oblique Strategies' were employed to break through creative blocks and find new musical paths. 'Lodger' utilizes backwards tracking of older songs and songs from the same sessions; replicates chord sequences in different songs; and features the musicians playing unfamiliar instruments.
Visconti considers: "I wished it was sonically better, the studios we used were poor choices, but the content of that album is wonderful. I play it a lot despite how bad it sounds to me... A lot more chaos was intended. Brian was doing some strange experiments like writing his eight favorite chords on a black board and asking the rhythm section to 'play something funky.' Then he would randomly point at a chord and the band had to follow. This didn't go down too well, but we were trying all sorts of different things. Yassisin was a deliberate attempt to make a hybrid form of music - Reggae/Turkish. Fantastic Voyage and Boys Keep Swinging are the same song harmonically and structurally, as well as a third track that was never used. Adrian Belew was a champion because he'd do whatever strange thing that was requested of him...['Cricket menace' was] the chattering sound on African Nightflight, a sound and rhythm pattern on David's Roland beatbox, played very, very fast. On the track sheet it said, 'enraged crickets'."
Bowie says: "I think Tony and I would both agree that we didn't take enough care mixing. This had a lot to do with my being distracted by personal events in my life and I think Tony lost heart a little because it never came together as easily as both 'Low' and '"Heroes"' had. I would still maintain though that there are a number of really important ideas on 'Lodger'...I think it's the lack of instrumentals that give you the impression that our process was different. It really wasn't though. It was a lot more mischievous though. Brian and I did play a number of 'art pranks' on the band. They really didn't go down too well though. Especially with Carlos who tends to be quite 'grand'...I had put one of my reel to reel tapes on backwards by mistake and really quite liked the melody it created. So I played quite a few more in this fashion and chose five or six that were really quite compelling...I didn't want to abandon the 'normal' writing I was doing completely. But it was a worthwhile exercise in my mind."
'Lodger' trekked to thirty-two in Japan; twenty in the US; fifteen in Canada; thirteen in Austria; eleven in Australia, France, and Norway; nine in Sweden; five in the Netherlands; four in the UK; and number three in New Zealand.
http://www.davidbowie.com/
Look Back in Anger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJjASV20kc&feature=kp
DJ
'Boys Keep Swinging'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SoiXlp0HAU
http://vimeo.com/61199699
'Lodger'
full album:
1.Fantastic Voyage 0:00
2.African Night Flight 2:59
3. Move On 5:58
4. Yassassin 9:19
5. Red Sails 13:33
6. D.J. 17:20
7. Look Back in Anger 21:22
8. Boys Keep Swinging 24:33
9. Repetition 27:53
10. Red Money 30:54
No comments:
Post a Comment