David Bowie - Low (1977)

Steve:

Prior to 1985, my knowledge of David Bowie was limited mostly to his huge hits on Let's Dance (1983) and Tonight (1984), plus I remember seeing the music video for "D.J.", a song from his Lodger album. Come the CD age, Dan purchased ChangesOneBowie, a popular 70s compilation that featured Bowie's greatest hits through 1976. I became very familiar with and fond of these songs, but I was not immediately moved to venture into the original albums. A year or so later, Dan appeared with a CD copy of Low, and it made a big impression on me.

I was familiar with Brian Eno at the time, again thanks to Dan (see our review of Another Green World), and I was quite surprised to see how deeply Bowie was entrenched in the same kind of abstract/ambient musicmaking on Low. I learned that Bowie actively collaborated with Eno during this time, and the second half of the album is a dead giveaway of that influence as it consists of atmospheric instrumentals aimed at creating visual images in one's mind and abstract emotions in one's soul. All four pieces are wonderful, but "Warszawa" takes the prize. It's hard to believe that this piece was conceived by a pop star, and a pop star half out of his mind on cocaine, at that. 

The first half of Low contains standard rock instrumentation, but in each short track the pop/rock song format is fractured in some way. Both "Speed of Life" and "A New Career in a New Town" are soundtrack-like instrumentals. "Breaking Glass" and "What in the World" include disorienting sonics and uncomfortable rhythmic shifts. "Sound and Vision", the single, rides a single mellow groove for its duration and doesn't make room for a chorus. Both "Always Crashing in the Same Car" and "Be My Wife" come closest to satisfying pop song norms, but the mood in both cases is depressive and/or paranoid, reflective of Bowie's state of mind at the time.

Bowie had a wide-ranging and distinguished career with an impressive discography. There are plenty of his albums I either have never heard or have only heard a handful of times (everything since the mid-80s, in fact), but the presence of an album like Low in his discography guarantees Bowie an esteemed place in my heart. This is an album I have internalized and lived with for decades, owned several copies of, and consider an all-time favorite. Even the other two "Berlin-Trilogy" albums (Heroes and Lodger) don't even come close.  

Dan:

I didn't own any Bowie albums back in the 70s, but the compilation album was handy for the hits he made, especially my favorite, "Space Oddity." Then one night in Copenhagen, I found myself at a colleague's flat listening to music after visiting a jazz club. John played two albums for me: a collaboration between Gerry Mulligan and Astor Piazzola, and Low by David Bowie. John made a point of playing "Warszawa," which grabbed me just as my host must have known it would. It was exciting to hear the deep somber drones that conveyed such a sense of austerity. Since I was in Europe to work with people from Denmark, Austria, Germany and the UK, I felt closer to the horror of World War II and its aftermath. Music such as "Warszawa" and the rest of Low's side 2 could only have been made by Europeans with experience of the war and postwar periods. Their profound impact remains with me to this day.

I acquired Low and Heroes at about the same time. There were tracks on Heroes that were similar to Low's dark instrumentals, but I agree with Steve that Low is the real thing and the other albums in the trilogy are less powerful. (Confession: I have never heard Lodger). I also appreciate the role of Brian Eno as an arranger/composer and "presence" over albums in progressive rock. I like to imagine Eno as a wise and worldly magician who can cast spells over musicians, recording engineers, and record executives. It's amazing how he managed to influence so many of my favorite rock albums, often without playing a single note. 

Finally, an observation about the serendipity of discovering prog. Were it not for that night in Copenhagen, and the good taste of my host John, I might have never heard Low. Based on that hearing, I purchased the copy of Low that Steve first heard in the early 80s. From those experiences, I've learned to be attentive to opportunities because they may only come once!