David Bowie’s 16th studio album, Tonight, was released on September 24, 1984, by EMI Records. The sound and style of the record is mostly a continuation of his previous release, the hugely commercially successful Let’s Dance, although this album does add a more reggae influenced sound to the mix. The success of the previous record had a lot to do with the influence of its producer, the Chic bandleader Nile Rodgers, who gave Bowie a more commercial mainstream sound and was known as a guaranteed “hit maker”. This album however was not produced by Rodgers and as an attempt to repeat what made that record so popular it mostly fails, this record is seen by many, Bowie included, as an attempt to retain his newly found fan base without actually being fully aware of what it was they were responding to in him, it kept most of the same personnel, features plenty of cover songs and reworkings of old material, and creatively is a low point for the artist. In a lot of people’s estimation this might just be one of the worst David Bowie album. In the past Bowie had failed artistically before and sometimes his albums would not succeed but the attempts at artistic expression were always genuine, always ambitious, never before had Bowie been so apathetic about the work he was making.
There is a reason for this disinterest too, Bowie was not ready to go back into the studio when he started work on this album, he had just finished the Serious Moonlight world tour and had written very little new material, however pressure from his label to release a follow up to Let’s Dance as soon as possible, so in the spring of 1984 he entered the recording studio unprepared. Bowie chose Derek Bramble, the former bassists of the band Heatwave, to co-produce Bramble said he has no idea why Bowie chose him, saying “he just came searching for me”. Iggy Pop was also heavily involved in the album's recording, many of the songs here are new versions of previous Pop songs from their work on The Idiot and Lust for Life together some years before. Bramble wasn’t a good fit for producer and apparently kept asking Bowie to re-do vocal takes long after he felt they were finished with guitarist Carlos Alomar later saying, “Bramble was a really nice guy, but he didn't know jack-shit about producing”.
Eventually there was a falling out between Bramble and the rest of the crew and sound engineer Hugh Padgham took over producing duties although he wasn’t a fan of much of the album considering the chosen songs “too poppy” and much preferring the more experimental left-field songs Bowie and Pop had composed together during the recording sessions. He later admitted he wished he pushed more for those songs to be included later stating, “Who am I to say to Mr. David Bowie that his songs suck?” It seems Bowie may have been a victim of his success around this time, having only contributed to vocals and playing no instruments, this is like a record where he took a back seat and allowed the album to happen around him. It is unfortunately not a labour of love.
The album opens strong with “Loving the Alien”, one of only two tracks that was written solely by Bowie and is commonly considered to be the only song from the album that can stand up to the gravitas as his more critical acclaimed work. While Bowie was not totally anti-religion and had at one point in the 70s gave stock to the notion of being a devote believer (most apparent in the song “Word on a Wing”) this song expresses Bowie’s intense dislike for organised religion and is a direct condemnation of those who use religion as a weapon for war. The seven-minute track is addressing the ongoing holy wars between Christianity and Islam and Bowie is on record saying that anyone who believes it’s supposed to be about “little green men” is way off the mark. Bowie has always used sci-fi images of space to address wider issues whether that be isolation in “Space Oddity” or addiction in “Ashes to Ashes” the use of this type of iconography always served a bigger point.
The problems with this album start to truly rear their head on the record's second track “Don’t Look Down”. The song is a reggae reworking of an Iggy Pop song from his 1979 album New Values. I am not sure how well this reggae style works for Bowie and unfortunately you’re never quite sure if it’s meant to be some sort of homage or parody of Bob Marley. Whatever it’s supposed to be doing I don’t think it fully works. Slightly, I am sad to say, cringe.
This album was the first Bowie record I ever had on vinyl. A family friend had given me his old collection when I was a kid and I was so happy to find some David Bowie in there and it was Tonight. I guess after the huge success of Let’s Dance he decided to get on the bandwagon. Then when I went to play the album I did not get the revolutionary proto punk glam rock sound I was looking for but was instead greeted with overproduced creatively spent mid-80s Bowie. I didn’t quite know what to make of the record and I especially didn’t know what to make of the only cover song I recognised, the Beach Boys “God Only Knows”. Let me preface this by saying I love the original song, I think it’s one of the most incredible tracks ever made in the entirety of music, I don’t think it’s one that anyone should cover. But saying that when I take this just as it is, in the context of this album being considered a complete failure artistically for Bowie, when I remove all expectations, I start to develop a bit of a soft spot for this cover. Bowie biographer Chris O’Leary said that in this song Bowie sounds “like a man lost in a cathedral who begins to deface the walls in panic” the vocals are over the top theatrical, the strings are in your face obnoxious, the song might just be so bad that it comes full circle and I start to enjoy it. God only knows why.
The title track is another reggae reworking of an Iggy Pop this time with guest singer Tina Turner. “Tonight” doesn’t feel like as much of a reggae parody as the previous one and Turner’s backup vocals do really add to it even if she is a bit underutilised. I’m a big fan of xylophone like backup instrumentation. The original Iggy Pop version contained a spoken world monologue which depicted a lover dying of heroin overdose and gave the song a distinctly darker tone. However, Bowie said he didn’t want to inflict that on Turner who was on the same record label as him, her previous album Private Dancer was hugely successful and featured a cover of Bowie’s song “1984” so they were keen to work together.
Like the previous track “Neighbourhood Threat” is an Iggy Pop cover originally from Lust for Life. A song of social commentary, it deals with urban decay, anguished children and distressed mothers. Bowie himself has distanced himself from the recording saying he wishes he never recorded the cover, that it sounded wrong and too tight and claustrophobic. I can understand where he’s coming from in that the gritty realism of Pop’s version is completely lost here, it’s upbeat, fast and I’ll admit quite enjoyable but in terms of packing that emotional punch and making a statement it’s got nothing on the original. It’s an interesting track but it’s first and foremost an Iggy Pop track.
“Blue Jean” was written entirely by Bowie and was the lead single from the album. Inspired by the movie-like music video for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” the year before the song was accompanied with a 21-minute long music video called Jazzin’ for Blue Jean. The short film actually won a Grammy Award in 1985 in the category that is now called “Best Music Video” (and at the time was called “Best Video, short form”) and is the only competitive Grammy Bowie ever won in his lifetime. The video features Bowie playing two characters, one is the socially incompetent Vic, and the other is the rockstar Screaming Lord Byron. Vic tries to win the heart of a girl but Lord Byron swoops in and steals her from him, proving that the only one who can steal a girl from David Bowie is David Bowie. The video feels a little dated and low quality these days but is definitely a treat for any curious Bowie fans and is quite a bit of fun. The track itself is quite catchy, not too imposing, and pretty enjoyable. Definitely doesn’t stand up to the great Bowie songs but I can definitely groove to it. I quite like “Blue Jean”.
“Tumble and Twirl” was a new track co-written with Iggy Pop and was destined to be is one of the most forgettable moments on the whole record. Nothing I can pin down that’s so wrong with it but it’s just got nothing for me to hook onto, nothing to get excited about, it doesn’t even really stay in your head. It’s upbeat and it’s fine but it’s just too long.
Things pick up steam with “I Keep Forgettin’” a cover of the 1962 soul track by Chuck Jackson. Upbeat soul with infectious saxophones, groovy guitar solos, it’s like this song is accomplishing everything this album could be, a cover done out of a serious love of the song and its style. It’s also one of the few tracks on the album that doesn’t feel so hopelessly of the 1980s and feels a little more timeless. I can’t fault it, as a cover it’s everything you want.
The closing track, "Dancing with the Big Boys", is another song co-written with Iggy Pop and Carlos Alomar and is the only track that also features Iggy Pop on vocals and it’s a welcome alternative. The lyrics are mostly free-associated phrases grabbed from notebooks with lyrics like “your family is a football team” and its willingness to experiment lyrics is reminiscent of the way the two worked together with Brian Eno during the Berlin Trilogy a number of years before. It’s two legends of rock ‘n’ roll having some fun together, nothing ground-breaking happening, but that’s ok.
Overall, Tonight is probably the least loved number one record of its era. After the success of Let’s Dance everybody bought this album in droves, and then as they listened to it and word got around the sales started to slowly dissipate. Bowie wasn’t quite ready to go into the studio and record another album and even later stated “it’s the only record I’ve ever done to try and prove something to other people, and it was a huge mistake”. There was too much pressure, too many half-baked ideas about what the album can be, there’s a reggae style hanging over it that isn’t fully committed to, there’s collaborations with the likes of Iggy Pop and Tina Turner that are underutilised. It’s just not everything it could be, Bowie has lost his way, and it does take him a little while to get himself back into artistically fulfilling territory. This is considered by many to be the absolute worst Bowie album and I understand why people say that, but after spending some time with it, really giving every track a good decent chance and getting used to them, there’s also quite a lot to enjoy. It’s not the best album, but I don’t think it’s fair to label it as absolutely awful either.
Tonight (1984) ★ ★ ★ ★ [4/10]
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