"Lodger" by David Bowie

It's a great album. I think LOW is better (Bowie's best, or maybe my favorite, I don't know) and I love all three of the "Berlin Trilogy" (and I agree, they all send more modern than a lot of older Bowie stuff). I'm not sure I'd say start with LODGER over ZIGGY STARDUST though, only because it's less accessible. It's probably the best one to start with of the three "Berlin" albums, though.

While I think the other two Berlin albums are better, more accomplished works of art, this one is definitely the most fun. "D.J." is one of my favorite jams.

Great album, but I agree that the other two Berlin albums are better. Especially Low. That's not a slam on Lodger though - I think the Berlin trilogy is the man at his peak.


I think "Move On" is an underrated track on Lodger. That song has a real sonic texture to it, and I really like when Bowie gets into it at the end.

I can't imagine how I could judge Lodger as a standalone. It's so much the summation of the Berlin trilogy that I've never been able to look at it as a singular work. It's the most fun, it's Bowie crawing out of that experimental period back toward genuine pop music. And I agree it's a great intro to Bowie.

What's funny is I found an article not long ago that argues the exact opposite about Lodger's place in the Berlin trilogy.

I stumbled across the write-up because I was interested if anyone had really written about the obvious mutual admiration club that Bowie and Scott Walker had going on around then. The author made the vague connection, but then some folks in the comments noticed what I did - "Look Back in Anger" is Bowie's take on the sound Scott Walker developed on the Walker Brothers' 1978 Nite Flights album (example). And I wouldn't be surprised if Walker hadn't picked up on that style (which was quite new for him) from Low (1977), in the first place. Bowie's definitely a Walker fan. He's talked him up in the press from the beginning and I'm betting he started covering Brel's "My Death" during the Ziggy era due to Walker's cover of it. And Bowie later covered "Nite Flights" on Black Tie/White Noise.

Interestingly, Bowie redid "Look Back in Anger" in the 90s with a heavier groove, and it sounds more dated than the original, which is one of my favorite Bowie songs, period.

It's also "All the Young Dudes" played in reverse!

And Red Money is essentially the same arrangement as "Sister Midnight." I love it all though.

Uh, holy shit to Scott Walker. Completely new to me. Thanks DaveB!

Years back, a local college station did a Walker retrospective called "Eyes Full of Rain" that I wish I'd recorded-- he's often full of shit, but sometimes he's almost the genius he thinks he is, and the guy who programmed this was unerring in hittng the high points; made the case for Walker better than he does himself.

As for Bowie-- Station to Station all the way for me, but those Berlin albums are still in my regular rotation.

Weird. Walker seems relatively unassuming in the more recent documentary on him. Which makes sense, since it would be hard for him to make a case for himself as an unerring genius given all of the lousy cover albums he put out for the near-decade between Scott 4 and Nite Flights.

Well, as I say, this was some years back. Haven't seen the documentary, though thanks for reminding me about it: just added it to my Netflix queue.

This is why I love this place. What two or three albums of Scott Walker's should I get or should I get the Walker Brothers stuff?

"Heroes" has always been my favorite of the Berlin albums. It seems to combine the best of both Low and The Lodger. Also, constant (abridged) radio play and awful Wallflowers covers can't make '"Heroes"' any less of an amazingly great song. I've always thought that's what love must sound like on drugs.

Well, the Walker Brothers (whose "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" tops the Righteous Brothers for me personally) were only a "group" at the start, and after a couple of albums became Scott Walker's personal project (really, his voice pretty much dwarfs the others' contributions from the start). There are several good singles collections (look for tracks like "Make It Easy On Yourself," "No Regrets," "My Ship Is Coming In," "After The Lights Go Out," "Archangel," "Orpheus," and "Mrs. Murphy").

Scott Walker released his next few albums under his own name in the late 60's: Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3, and Scott 4. He's hugely influenced by Jaques Brel (he covers almost a dozen of his songs over the years), Broadway, and European cabaret music (Bryan Ferry is another artist who acknowledges a big debt to Walker). Guy's an amazing singer, but not everyone takes to the hyper-melodramatic vocals and lush orchestrations (America certainly didn't, as he never had another hit in the States). Rock it's not-- really, it's "pop" as a pre-Beatles generation might have understood the term, cranked way past 11; and while I don't doubt his sincerity, the doomed boho act can go so far over the top that parody is almost a given much of the time. There's debate among many of his aficionados as to the relative merits of the four; I kind of like 3 and 4 best, but if you take to the sound of any one of them, they're all worth hearing.

He reunited the Walker Brothers in the 70's, and their last album is usually regarded as their best: 1978's Nite Flights, which is the one that Bowie and others cite the most often. This one moves away from the cabaret and into a synth-rock future that will include everyone from Echo and the Bunnymen to Soft Cell to Joy Division, only no one knew that yet.

Most of Walker's solo output since then seems to me to range from indulgent to indifferent to kind of boring (it's like he wants to be Tom Waits but can't be bothered putting in the work), but again his more serious fans might well take issue with that. I will acknowledge that hearing him sing like Donald Duck on "The Escape" (from The Drift) is the kind of experience one doesn't get every day.

Haven't heard Climate of Hunter. The Drift and Tilt have their moments.

I think The Drift is one of the best albums of the past ten years. It's not where anyone should consider starting with Walker though. Tilt neither. They're challenging records to say the least.

A guy like Scott Walker, half the fun is following his progression. I'd recommend picking up the last Walker Bros album (or just listen to it online) then start with the 60's Walker solo's and go on from there. Walker seems to be consistently digging deeper and deeper into darkness as he gets older. And unlike Bowie, he never seemed to stop pushing himself.

Anyone think it's worth having a dedicated Scott Walker thread? The topic of his stuff turned up in another thread recently, and there's plenty to talk about with that guy. I agree about his whole career being a progressive decent into darkness, and as much as I'd like to hear more from him The Drift would make a pretty appropriate swan song. Love it or hate it, it feels like the record he was slowly building towards for the previous three decades.

Incidentally I get the feeling Bowie was trying to channel late-period Walker (specifically Farmer In The City) with the opening track 'Sunday' from Heathen.

Lodger is one of the 70's Bowie albums I'm least familiar with but somehow it never sucked me in the way Low and Heroes did instantly. Everyone calls it a trilogy, but it doesn't click with the others the way the other two do to each other. Maybe I just miss the cool instrumentals, I don't know. But this thread gives me good excuse to revisit it.

I'm not sure if I've ever actually listened to Lodger all the way through. I'm going to have to rectify that soon. I also don't think I've ever heard any Scott Walker at all. Going to need to rectify that too.

Certainly, there aren't many pop performers with an artistic trajectory as interesting as Walker's.

I listened to Lodger again this morning. It's been awhile since I've heard it, and I was struck by how similar it sounded to the Talking Heads in places. This is obviously because of Eno's involvement, but it never really was as apparent to me as on this listen. "Yassassin" wouldn't sound at all out of place on Fear of Music.

The thing is, Eno's involvement has been greatly over exaggerated in all three of the "Berlin Trilogy" (so has the fact that they were all made in Berlin...only one of the albums was recorded there in completion).

Eno performed on all the records and co-wrote some of the songs, but all the albums were produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti.

I do get the Talking Heads comparison. I think parts of it sound a little like Remain in Light, but that's probably because Adrian Belew plays guitar on both albums.

I actually did read an inverview with Bowie where he said pretty much the same thing, that Visconti hasn't gotten nearly enough credit over the years for those albums. I think Eno's influence was much greater on David Byrne (much to the dismay of the rest of the band, I'm sure).

I didn't know Belew played on both albums, though. That would certainly explain some of the Remain in Light similarities.

I highly recommend reading Bowie in Berlin: A New Career in a New Town (get it from CHUD!). It's really detailed and entertaining. It goes in depth in equal parts on Bowie's life at the time and the creative process of the albums starting with Station to Station all the way to Lodger. It even includes the Iggy Pop albums.

The book demonstrates that Eno was indeed influential but his involvement in the creative process was greatly exaggerrated. Tony Visconti is the most important collaborator. Carlos Alomar probably was also a more important collaborator on the "Berlin Trilogy than Eno.

Concerning Lodger, for some reason I just can't get into it. So far, it's the only Bowie album I kinda regret buying, along with The Man Who Sold the World (no "kinda for this one). Maybe I just need time to "get it".

Since this is the closest thing to a Bowie thread that I could find, check this out: http://www.feministe.us/blog/archive...fragette-city/

I know the article's co-opting him for feminist purposes, and I ain't got a problem with that seeing as how the examples she provided could apply to the GLBT community as well as...well, any other confused-as-hell individual.

That being said, I tend to agree with her premise, especially in light of the fact that many people are bringing up Lady Gaga doing the same shit that Bowie did as a fairly new/erudite thing (pretty sure Dave/Phil/Somebody pointed this out in a Gaga thread).

When I was in my early teens, I thought Bowie was weird for the exact reasons that she describes in the article. Now that I'm older and have a little more perspective, I can appreciate why he did all that and am pretty nuts for him as a musician. Thoughts on the article or his transformations in general?

(I know that post is all over the place, I'm trying to finish up work stuff. Ain't lookin' at no Salma Hayek titties though)

EDIT: Also, while I'm thinking about it - are there any good books on Bowie other than the one that Alexor just mentioned?

Definitely. Bowie's pretty user-friendly when it comes to co-opting. His 70s work alone plays with so much imagery and works on so many levels that it's easy to find inspiration for a lot of things. I mean, the guy's a classic rock staple who played with gender in his persona, claimed bisexuality when it was anything but a safe career move, occasionally indulged in some fascist imagery, made some radio-unfriendly experimental albums, etc.

However, there are some who argue that glam (and drag queens) are not necessarily feminist gestures. Glam and drag reinforce gender stereotypes by relying on them for aesthetic effect or shock value. That is, glam and (male-to-female) drag wouldn't have any bite if they didn't emphasize the most traditional aspects of femininity, but by emphasizing those aspects, they're not really subverting them so much as legitimizing them. And it's additionally problematic that glam artists and drag queens can play with the fun, shallow aspects of femininity and then simply take off their dresses, etc. and be guys again.

It's kind of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't argument, but it probably bears mentioning that Bowie, the New York Dolls, Bolan, etc. were dressing like women, in large part, to attract women.

Yeah, that's certainly come up. My main problem with Gaga isn't her embrace of Bowie or Madonna or whomever; it's that I find her music kind of uninspired and boring. And when I do, it's pointed out that her image, not her music, is the thing. That just seems weak to me, since Bowie and others have balanced image-making and music-making so much more successfully.

This one's on glam, in general, and does tend to get pretty academic in parts, but it discusses some of the issues brought up in your post and the linked article. It's pretty good.

Fantastic Voyage is an incredibly sublime album opener.

Did someone mention Scott Walker?