Tonight (David Bowie album)

Tonight
Studio album by David Bowie
Released	1 September 1984
Recorded	1984 at Le Studio, Morin Heights, Quebec[1]
Genre	Rock Pop Pop rock
Label	EMI America Records – DB 1
Producer	David Bowie, Derek Bramble and Hugh Padgham
David Bowie chronology
Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture (1983) Tonight (1984) Labyrinth (1986)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Robert Christgau	(C) [3]

Tonight is an album by David Bowie, released in 1984. The album features only two Bowie-penned songs, the rest being covers by the likes of Iggy Pop, The Beach Boys and Chuck Jackson. Bowie described the album, released immediately after his previous album's tour wrapped up, as an effort to "keep my hand in, so to speak,"^[1] and to retain the new audience that he had recently acquired.^[4] The album reached number one in the UK album charts in October 1984.

Album production

Bowie worked on the album Tonight after finishing up his Serious Moonlight Tour in support of the album Let's Dance.^[1] Bowie didn't have much luck writing while on tour, so he described the process of recording the album Tonight this way:

“	It was rushed. The process wasn't rushed; we actually took our time recording the thing; Let's Dance was done in three weeks, Tonight took five weeks or something, which for me is a really long time. I like to work fast in the studio. There wasn't much of my writing on it 'cause I can't write on tour and I hadn't assembled anything to put out. But I thought it a kind of violent effort at a kind of Pin-Ups.[5]	”
—David Bowie

Bowie purposefully sought to keep the sound of the band he'd used on the previous tour, feeling that the new fans he'd accumulated while on tour would expect to hear the same thing on the album that they'd heard live, hence the inclusion of the "Borneo Horns" players on the album.^[4]

Bowie brought in Derek Bramble & Hugh Padgham to produce the record, the former receiving the nod from Bowie due to some of the demos he'd recently produced for English female singer Jackie Graham.^[4] As with Let's Dance, Bowie prepared for the album by recording some demos before hand, this time showing up with 8 of the 9 songs that would appear on the album. This surprised collaborator Carlos Alomar, who said "it was the first time in the eleven years that I've been with the damn man that he's brought in anything."^[4] Some of the demo tracks were not yet named, but they were numbered, called simply "1," "2" and "3." "1" would turn into the album track "Loving the Alien." "2" and "3" were not finished for the album, much to Hugh Padgham's regret. He said:

“	They were really just jams. David had some riffs on a tape, in his head, and the band would jam on them and we'd make a bit of a song out of it. But they were quite raunchy songs. At one point, David asked me what my least favorite song out of the eleven or twelve we had was, and I said 'Blue Jean.' I thought it was a bit lightweight. I would have rather had "2" in its place. I couldn't tell you why he didn't put them on the album. But I would have loved to have finished them.[4]	”
—Hugh Padgham, 1984

Like Let's Dance but unlike most previous Bowie albums, Bowie played no instruments on the record, and in fact he delegated almost all responsibility for the music played to his musicians, only occasionally offering critical input.^[4]

Two songs were covers of older Iggy Pop songs: "Neighborhood Threat" and "Tonight," the former of which stands out as a track Bowie wishes he hadn't done, with him later calling it "disastrous." "That's one I wish I'd never touched, or at least touched it differently. It went totally wrong. It sounded so tight and compromised, and it was such a gas doing it. It was the wrong band to do it with -- wonderful band, but it wasn't quite right for that song."^[5]

"Tumble and Twirl," co-written with Iggy Pop, recounts the pair's exploits while vacationing in Bali and Java after Bowie's previous tour had ended.^[1][4]

"Don't Look Down," which was one of Bowie's returns to a reggae-style track (after Lodger's "Yassassin"), perplexed Bowie: "I tried it every which way. I tried it jazz-rock, I tried it as a march, and then I just hit on and old ska-sounding beat, and it picked up life. Taking energy away from the musical side reinforced the lyrics and gave them their own energy. I think working with Derek Bramble helped because he played popper reggae bass lines."

For "Tonight," the title track and the other reggae-style track on the album, Bowie eliminated Iggy's original spoken-word introduction, calling it an "idiosyncratic thing" of Iggy's that "seemed not part of my vocabulary."^[1] "I guess [removing the spoken introduction] changed the whole sentiment around. It still has that same barren feeling, but it's out of that specific area that I'm not at home in."^[1] Iggy Pop approved of Bowie's changes.^[4] For the vocals to the song, Bowie and Turner sang face-to-face, although Bowie went back and re-recorded the first verse after deciding to sing his part in a higher octave.^[4]

"Dancing with the Big Boys," which Bowie also co-wrote with Iggy Pop, was written and recorded in eight hours as Bowie and Pop egged each other on. In what was described as an "exhilarating rush," Bowie and Pop "went in [to the studio] with a few bottles of beer and would virtually bellow out anything that came into their heads," said Padgham. "And I just recorded it all."^[4] The song is about the "little guy" being crushed by "oppressive corporate structures."^[4] The lyrics were taken from a backlog of unused lyrics; the line "this dot marks your location" was a reference to a "lengthy irritating stay" at a New York Hotel (Bowie had been looking at the hotel room's fire escape map), and "Your family is a football team" was a reference to the immigrant families working in New York; "the whole family [has] to work together for survival."^[4] The track elicited this from Bowie:

“	There's a particular sound I'm after that I haven't really got yet; I'll either crack it on the next album or retire from it. I think I got quite close to it on "Dancing with the Big Boys." ... I got very musical over the last couple of years - trying to write musically and develop things the way people used to write in the Fifties. I stayed away from experimentation. Now, I think I should be a bit more adventurous. And in "Big Boys," Iggy and I broke away from all that for one track, and it came nearer to the sound I was looking for than anything else.[1]	”
—David Bowie, 1984

The "irreligious" "Loving the Alien" was described as Bowie as a very "personal" bit of writing that didn't fit in with the rest of the album because it's such a dark song amdist lighter fare.^[1] He said, ""Alien" came about because of my feeling that so much history is wrong - as is being rediscovered all the time - and that we base so much on the wrong knowledge that we've gleaned."^[1] Bowie cut the demo for the song in Montreux (Switzerland) with a guitarist and a drummer he had drafted from a local Swiss band.^[4]

Iggy Pop spent a good deal of time in the studio with Bowie and the band while the album was being recorded, stating "I worked extensively on that album. There's a lot more work there than is reflected in just the simple co-writing credit for two songs and some of the old stuff."^[4] When asked why Bowie included so much Pop-written material on the album, Iggy could only guess. "I think he just wanted the songs heard more,"^[4] a sentiment Bowie would echo again when covering Pop's "Bang Bang" on his next album, Never Let Me Down.^[6]

Singles and videos

The album spawned three singles: "Tonight," "Blue Jean" and "Loving the Alien." "Blue Jean" in turn spawned several videos, including an "elaborate" 20-minute long collaboration with Julient Temple which was described as more of a "minifilm" than a video, and represented Bowie's interest in making actual movies.^[1]

Critical reception

Despite some positive contemporary reviews of the album,^[7] other contemporary reviews recognized this effort as "more of a stopgap than a startling new burst of creativity"^[1] and Padgham, who co-produced the album, admitted at the time it wasn't as innovative as other Bowie albums.^[4] One reviewer later dismissed the album as "rotten,"^[8] and eventually Bowie himself has admitted that the album was not one of his better efforts.^[9][10]

Track listing

LP: EMI DB 1 (UK)

Side one

1. "Loving the Alien" (David Bowie) – 7:11
2. "Don't Look Down" (Iggy Pop, James Williamson) – 4:11
3. "God Only Knows" (Brian Wilson, Tony Asher) – 3:08
4. "Tonight" (Bowie, Pop) (performed by David Bowie and Tina Turner) – 3:46

Side two

1. "Neighborhood Threat" (Bowie, Pop) – 3:12
2. "Blue Jean" (Bowie) – 3:11
3. "Tumble and Twirl" (Bowie, Pop) – 5:00
4. "I Keep Forgettin'" (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) – 2:34
5. "Dancing with the Big Boys" (Bowie, Carlos Alomar, Pop) (performed by David Bowie and Iggy Pop) – 3:34

Reissues

In 1995 Virgin Records rereleased the album on CD with three bonus tracks. EMI did the second rerelease in 1999 (featuring 24-bit digitally remastered sound and no bonus tracks).

CD: Virgin CDVUS97 (UK)

10. "This Is Not America" (1985 single release) – 3:51
11. "As the World Falls Down" (from the Labyrinth soundtrack 1986) – 4:46
12. "Absolute Beginners" (from the Absolute Beginners soundtrack 1986) – 8:00

• 1995 reissue

Production credits

• Producers:
  • David Bowie
  • Derek Bramble
  • Hugh Padgham

• Musicians:
  • Carlos Alomar: Guitars
  • Derek Bramble: Bass guitar, Guitar, Synthesizer, Background Vocals
  • Carmine Rojas: Bass guitar
  • Mark King: Bass on "Tumble and Twirl"
  • Sammy Figueroa: Percussion
  • Omar Hakim: Drums
  • Guy St. Onge: Marimba
  • Robin Clark, George Simms, Curtis King: Vocals
  • David Bowie, Tina Turner: Vocals on "Tonight"
  • David Bowie, Iggy Pop: Vocals on "Dancing With The Big Boys"

• The Borneo Horns:
  • Stanley Harrison: Alto sax, Tenor sax
  • Steve Elson: Baritone sax
  • Lenny Pickett: Tenor sax, Clarinet
  • Arif Mardin: Arrangement of strings, Synthesizers

Band equipment

Carlos Alomar used the following guitars in the recording and production of the album: an Alembic stereo, a Stratocaster, a Kramer, a prototype Steinberger, a Martin 12-string acoustic, "an old Guild" six-string acoustic, and a gut-string cuarto guitar.^[4] Derek Bramble played the following synthesizers: an Oberheim OB-Xa, a Jupiter 8, a Yamaha DX7, a PPG a Fairlight and a Roland 6-707 guitar synthesizer. He also played a Steinway piano and a Music Man Cutlass bass.^[4] Carmine Rojas played a Fender Precision bass and two ESP custom basses.^[4] Omar Hakim played a Gretsch drum set and a Simmons SDS-5 electronic drum kit.^[4]

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1984	UK Albums Chart	1
	U.S Billboard 200	11
	Norway's album chart	3
	Swiss album chart	8
	Swedish album chart	4
	Austrian album chart	8

Single

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1984	"Blue Jean"	UK Singles Chart	6
		Norway's single chart	3
	"Tonight"	UK Singles Chart	53
1985	"Loving the Alien"	UK Singles Chart	19

Preceded by Now That's What I Call Music 3 by Various Artists

UK number one album 6 October 1984 – 12 October 1984

Succeeded by The Unforgettable Fire by U2

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Murray, Charles Shaar (25 October 1984), "Let's Talk, A Conversation with David Bowie", Rolling Stone magazine (433): 14,18,74 
2. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r714078
3. ^ http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=david+bowie
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t} Fricke, David (December 1984), "David Bowie Interview", Musician magazine (74): 46-56 
5. ^ ^{a b} Scott Isler, Musician Magazine, August 1987: p.64
6. ^ Amsterdam Glass Spider Press Conference, 30 March 1987
7. ^ "Learning to love the Alien: Bowie haunts a calculated, kaleidoscopic seance" by Timothy White, Musican magazine, December 1984, pages 98-99
8. ^ "Bowie: Boys Keep Swinging," Melody Maker magazine, 24 March 1990, pp 24-26
9. ^ Mary Campbell for the Associated Press, 6 August 1993
10. ^ "David Bowie" by Scott Cohen, Details magazine, September 1991, pp 86-97