Young Americans (1975)

The Bowie Project #9 – Young Americans (1975)

A change was taking place within David Bowie, after waving goodbye to the glam-rock aesthetic that had brought him so much success in his previous record Diamond Dogs, he was ready to embrace a new soul-based sound that we find we find on Young Americans, his ninth studio album first released on 7 March 1975 by RCA Records. It was throughout 1974 during the “Diamond Dogs Tour” that Bowie’s style started to majorly shift, the tour originally consisting of elaborate props and set-pieces meant to highlight that concept album’s dystopian Hunger City setting, however Bowie’s continued and worsening cocaine addiction meant the high-levels of theatricality required were too difficult and in October of that year he re-branded it as “The Soul Tour”, a stripped back affair with a more soul and funk influenced sound. This tour is expertly captured in the 1975 BBC television documentary “Cracked Actor” which highlights his fragile mental state during this period. Bowie later spoke about that early more theatrical part of the tour as being “so stoned during the entire thing that I'm amazed I lasted with it even that one trip across America before I ditched it”.

Bowie began to seek out new musicians to play with originally attempting to hire the MFSB (Mother, Father, Sister, Brother) a pool of more than 30 soul and funk musicians based out of Philadelphia’s Sigma Sound Studios he could not get all of them but with the new pool of black soul musicians Bowie had made the first significant excursion into the world of black soul music by a mainstream white artist, which paved the way for a whole host of other artists to follow suit such as Elton John with his single “Philadelphia Freedom”, Roxy Music with “Love is a Drug”, or Rod Stewart with his album Atlantic Crossing, not to mention all the other bands who would play with a soul and funk infused sound like the Talking Heads. Bowie recruited a variety of musicians including guitarist Carlos Alamor, who would become one of his most frequent collaborators for the rest of his career, as well as backup singer Ava Cherry, who it’s believed he began an affair with, as well as the then unknown singer Luther Vandross. Bowie referred to his newfound sound as “plastic soul” a term coined by Paul McCartney in 1965 to described soul music that is completely lacking in authenticity. Bowie described Young Americans as “the definitive plastic soul record. It's the squashed remains of ethnic music as it survives in the age of Muzak, written and sung by a white limey”.

The album that becomes Young Americans started off as The Gouster, an album recorded in 1974 that remained unreleased until 2016 with the boxset “Who Can I Be Now?”, this version was to feature the disco re-recording of Bowie’s 1972 song “John I’m Only Dancing” titled “John I’m Only Dancing (Again)” which was later released as a stand-alone single 1979, that song was a minor success and peaked at number 12 in the US charts. The Gouster is mostly interesting for what’s not included in it as opposed to what is, that record was all recorded and could have easily been released before Bowie decided to do more sessions in New York and it’s a good thing he did because that original record is missing what would end up becoming Bowie’s first number one hit in the US the John Lennon collaboration “Fame”. This whole album is interesting because while it does see Bowie experimenting with new styles and finding a huge level of commercial success it can at times feel a little bit slow-moving in comparison to his previous glam-rock style, I imagine it was incredibly alienating for previous Bowie fans at the time when after coming off the proto-punk Diamond Dogs you could be expecting a rawer, harsher, record than the highly produced blue-eyed soul that’s found here.

The album starts strong with the title track “Young Americans” a song Bowie described as being about “a newly-wed couple who don't know if they really like each other” and as an ode to classic American life it starts to highlight the darker sides of American society with references to McCarthyism, black repression through Rosa Parks, as well as the Watergate scandal name dropping Richard Nixon who had resigned the presidency just two days before the recording session. It also directly steals the line “I heard the news today oh boy!” from the Beatles song “A Day in the Life” alluding the collaborations with former Beatles John Lennon to be found later on the record. It was Bowie’s first top 40 hit in the US and now having moved away from his glam-rock style allowed Bowie access to the more mainstream American listener. The song is so brimming with energy and musicality, and part of me wishes the entire record maintained this level of energy throughout, the way it builds with Bowie’s voice becomes increasingly frantic until the conclusion is expertly done. 

Coming off the back of all that energy is the slower ballad “Win” which Bowie says was written about people “who don’t work very hard” stating “it’s easy, all you’ve got to do is win”. With switches between 6/8 and 4/4 timing the song showcases the complexities of Bowie’s songwriting as well as the dexterity of the hired musicians. Guitarist Carlos Alomar claims that Bowie was very particular about how he wanted the instrumentation on these songs to progress with instruments building on each other throughout stating, “Bowie doesn’t want to hear the same thing in the beginning as at the end – there has to be some development in the song”. Critics claim that “Win” is the track that mostly foreshadows the direction he would take with his next record Station to Station.

Things pick up steam with the funk influenced “Fascination” (and I think due to Covid going on I can’t help but hear “Vaccination” when I listen). Co-written by Luther Vandross the song has its origins in a track he wrote called “Funky Music (Is Part a of Me)”. When Bowie asked Vandross his permission Vandross said, “I'm living in a building with an elevator that barely works and you're asking me to 'let' you record one of my songs”. The groovy track has, by the end, Bowie singing in almost whisper with his booming backup vocalists coming in behind him, it’s a good track and probably the most outwardly funky track we’ve heard from him up until this point.

Closing side one is “Right” a repetitive groovy call-and-response track that see’s Bowie go over and back between himself and his backup singers. Bowie described the song as a mantra saying, “People forget what the sound of Man's instinct is—it's a drone, a mantra. And people say, 'Why are so many things popular that just drone on and on?' But that's the point really. It reaches a particular vibration, not necessarily a musical level”. The track is noted for its complex vocal arrangement which Bowie painstakingly plotted in the studio which Carlos Alomar called “a total clusterfuck, but they nailed it every time”.

Bowie devised a complex ‘dot’ system for the backup singers

“Somebody Up There Likes Me” takes its title from the 1956 film of the same name. The song focuses on the cult of celebrity and its encroachment into the world of politics. Like some of the work on his previous album it highlights Bowie’s fascination with the power of figureheads in society and totalitarianism. He said the song a “rock and roll sociological bit” expressing “watch out mate, Hitler’s on your back”. The longest track on the album, it might overstay its welcome a little bit.

Then it’s the Beatles cover “Across the Universe” which features John Lennon on guitar and backup vocals. Lennon said “I thought, great, because I'd never done a good version of that song myself. It's one of my favourite songs, but I didn't like my version of it” which Bowie agrees with calling the Beatles version “very watery” and that they “wanted to hammer the hell out of it”. Hammer the hell out of it they did, you can’t say Bowie doesn’t give it his all as he passionately delivers the vocals. Critics have given the song predominantly negative reviews with Pete Doggett saying it was a “bizarre way of impressing Lennon” and Douglas Wolf of Pitchfork calling it “the album’s one genuine embarrassment, Vegas-y and bombastic”. I have to admit I generally think the cover songs are usually the lowest points on Bowie albums, but I get this weird enjoyment out of this song, I think it’s because it’s so over the top in comparison to the Beatles song, Bowie’s repeated “Nothing! Nothing Nothing!” is done with such gusto I have to give it a little bit of respect.

“Can You Hear Me” is a love ballad originally for Scottish singer Lulu (the recording of which has since been lost) and Bowie has described it as “a real love song” that “was written for somebody but I’m not telling you who it is” with most biographers agreeing it was likely Ava Chery. The slow track is quite beautiful with a smooth alto saxophone and soft backup vocals. It’s a straight up blue-eyed-soul track without any of the layers of pastiche or Bowie-isms that usually come with his interpretation of new genres.

David with Ava Cherry

Lastly, is Bowie’s biggest hit in his career so far with “Fame” co-written with Carlos Alomar and John Lennon it deals with Bowie’s (and Lennon’s) dissatisfaction with the troubles of fame and superstardom with lines like, “Fame puts you where things are hollow”. In 1974, Bowie met John Lennon in what has been called his “lost weekend” period when he was estranged from his wife Yoko Ono for 18-months, and the two decided to collaborate. The music was inspired by Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Kool and the Gang as well as their shared love of disco music. This track along with “Across the Universe” were both last minute additions to the album and represent the most significant change from the original Gouster album. Bowie spoke about the track and the tribulations of fame in 1990 interview stating:

“I’d had very upsetting management problems and a lot of that was built into the song. I’ve left all that behind me, now … I think fame itself is not a rewarding thing. The most you can say is that it gets you a seat in restaurants. Other than that, there’s very little about it that anybody would covet. It’s really not much of a deal. I still have my favourite times when I’m not recognised, or at least left to my own devices.”

Young Americans received mixed reviews when it was first released with some critics unsure about the new direction Bowie was taking. Bowie himself has had a mixed relationship with it in late 1975 saying it was “the phoniest R&B I've ever heard. If I ever would have got my hands on that record when I was growing up I would have cracked it over my knee” and in 1976 calling it “a phase”. However, in later years he was less harsh and in 1990 said, “I shouldn't have been quite so hard on myself, because looking back it was pretty good white, blue-eyed soul”. For many, this is an essential Bowie record, and for others it’s a transitional one before he transforms into full “Thin White Duke” mode on the next album Station to Station. I think it’s a great record, musically it’s fantastic to see Bowie taking so many risks and becoming even more complex in his instrumentation, working in different styles and exploring black soul music in a way no previous white musician had done, opening many of the artists who influenced it to a more mainstream audience.

Young Americans - ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ [8/10]