January 23, 2020 marks the anniversary of David Bowie's Station To Station album released in 1976. Bowie was just entering his "Thin White Duke" phase which was basically an extension of the character he played in The Man Who Fell To Earth, Nicholas Roeg's movie that Bowie had just finished shooting when he entered the recording studio.

Station to Station was a bit of a transitional work for Bowie, incorporating the soul music of Young Americans(his previous album)with more synthesizer-heavy music that prefigured his next three albums(which would collectively be known as the "Berlin" trilogy). This mid to late 1970's period, by the way, would be critically regarded as some of Bowie's greatest work.

The album Station to Station wasn't critically well-received on it's release, but has stood the test of time. And now, many critics look upon it as a landmark album from Bowie. The album had only six tracks(three on each side), but only the first single, "Golden Years" was under five minutes, and the title track was over ten minutes long.

Sadly, Bowie had stated a number of times that because of his then enormous drug use(specifically cocaine), he barely remembers anything of the recording sessions or even the writing of the songs for the album. Thankfully, it was not too long afterwards, that he made the decision to move to Germany where his drug-use lessened greatly, and he entered what many have called the greatest creative phase of his career with the albums that became his "Berlin" trilogy(Low; "Heroes"; Lodger).

If you're a Bowie fan(heck, even if you're not)and you've never listened to Station to Station, you really should check it out. Some parts are not easy to penetrate, but with repeat listens, the rewards are many.

 

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