In 1990, David Bowie met Iman Abdulmajid on a blind date set up by their mutual hairdresser Teddy Antolin, Bowie stated that it was love at first sight and his attraction to her “was immediate and all-encompassing” adding “I couldn’t sleep for the excitement of our first date. That she would be my wife, in my head, it was a done deal. I’d never gone after anything with such passion in all my life.” At the time Bowie was finishing up work on his band Tin Machine’s second album. That record was released to crickets and apathy, the band toured the album and then due to numerous factors including drug addiction within the group, they split up for good. On April 24, 1992 Bowie married Iman in a private ceremony in Lausanne, Switzerland. Later that month the newlyweds witness the 1992 Los Angeles Riots after a jury acquits four police officers from LAPD charged with excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King.
This would all influence the content of his next album, Black Tie White Noise (released on April 5 1993 by Arista Records) which is primarily separated into themes of racial harmony and marriage. This album reunited Bowie with Let’s Dance producer and Chic bandleader Nile Rodgers although this time instead of a mainstream record filled with pop hits we get an exploration of art rock, electronic, soul, jazz, and hip-hop influence with huge prominence given to Bowie’s often under-utilised saxophone work. While at the time of release, both Bowie and Rodgers spoke positively about working together in later years they both expressed disappointment at the final product. Tin Machine guitarist Reeves Gabrels said that Bowie felt pressure from his studio to hire Rodgers as producer and that Rodgers wanted to make a follow up to Let’s Dance while Bowie was more interested in a grand artistic statement about this point in his life.
The album would feature guest performances from many previous Bowie collaborators, some of whom he had not worked with in decades. You’ve got the return of Mick Ronson from the Spiders from Mars who he hadn’t worked with since Pin Ups in 1973, there’s pianist Mick Garson who we haven’t seen since Young Americans in 1975, the album also features significant contribution from jazz trumpet player Lester Bowie who David had been attempting to work with throughout the 1980s. Bowie biographer Nicolas Pegg said Lester’s playing, which is featured on six of the album’s tracks, gives the record its “essential musical identity” especially when paired with Bowie’s sometimes haphazardly erratic saxophone work. Nile Rodgers referred to Bowie’s saxophone work stating: “I think David would be the first to admit that he's not a saxophonist in the traditional sense. He uses his playing as an artistic tool. He's a painter. He hears an idea, and he goes with it.”
This album is Bowie's attempt to find a new sound. After the experimentation of Tin Machine, he was ready to return to his solo career creatively renewed, he had something to say and sweetly that something is that he’s gotten married and believes he has finally truly once and for all found the love of his life. The record was released amid the rise of Britpop, a musical movement that would be unthinkable without the influence of Bowie, with bands like Blue and Suede directly acknowledging that influence. Mentions of the effect Bowie had on these types of bands would lead to renewed interest in him and extra attention to the release of this album versus the last couple of years. Bowie is trying to come into the modern age and as such you can feel the direct electronic influence, these are the type of sounds that would guide him through the 1990s but unfortunately at this point and the way they come across on this record things come across as a little bit dated sounding today.
Bowie didn’t tour to support the release, newly married he felt like he had already given so much of his life to touring and didn’t feel like he wanted to do it this time. Instead, he released a companion film to the album which was a hybrid of documentary, music video film, and music video compilation as well as an interactive CD-ROM which would give users the chance to remake a music video from the album using pre-existing footage from the Black Tie White Noise film. The interactive CD was not well received although it was innovative for its time. Bowie was initially really excited about this CD but when it didn’t turn out the way he envisaged he lost interest and by 1995 it he said he “absolutely loathed it”. Although once again this shows Bowie as ahead of the curve as in just 2021 Kanye West announced a stem player that would allow users to customise any song from his latest album Donda, it seems now almost 30 years later artists are still trying to perfect this interactive concept.
The album opens with the instrumental piece “The Wedding” a funk adaptation of track he had composed for their wedding celebration (they were official married in a private ceremony two months previous in Switzerland) an affair attended by the likes of Brian Eno, Yoko Ono, and U2’s Bono that Eno described as being confusing so “promotional private at the same time” and event that was difficult to distinguish between theatre and real life, the day was commemorated over a 23-pagre spread in Hello! magazine, with Bowie stating it was important for him to crate a piece of music that bore no representation to institutionalised nature of organised religion. The wedding celebration provided much of the inspiration for this album, hence the name Black Tie White Nosie. This is some of Bowie’s most personal work but is also incredibly stage managed, Bowie is trying to offer fans a window into his world but strictly on his own terms. The working title of the record was The Wedding Album and Bowie described this opening track, as well as the album’s closer which is a reprise of this song just with lyrics, as ‘confectionery’ saying: “It’s all icing with a couple on top.”
The first vocal track on the album, "You've Been Around", marks Bowie’s return as a solo singer, but this track is holdover from his previous band Tin Machine. Bowie’s decision to use tracks that were supposed to for that project signifies that the band is truly over. The song featured overlays of distorted guitars, keyboard, trumpet, and heavily processed vocals over funk beat. The inflection “you’ve ch-ch-ch-changed me” acts as a call back to his song “Changes” from his 1971 album Hunky Dory demonstrating this as an album that while looking ahead toward a new sound for the future is still acknowledging the influence of the past.
“I Feel Free” is a cover by 1960’s psychedelic rock band Cream, a song he’d played live back in 1972 with the Spiders for Mars, and initially intended on covering on his 1980 album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). The band holds a personal significance for him as when he was younger his half-brother Terry Burns suffered a schizophrenic episode outside a hall where Cream was playing. This song featured Mick Ronson, former guitarist from the Spiders from Mars who he hadn’t played with on record since the bands acrimonious split after recording Pin Ups in 1973. Ronson was receiving cancer treatment at the time and died shortly after the album was released with this song acting as a bittersweet swan song to their collaborative relationship. The track has got an upbeat funky beat to it and you can really hear the influence of Nile Rodgers more commercial production methods seeping through but unfortunately I think it pales in comparison to the original Cream version.
Unusual for a Bowie record, the song “Black Tie, White Noise” features guest vocals by American R&B singer Al B. Sure! (a strange choice and an artist whose career never really took off). The song was inspired by the 1992 LA riots in reaction to the police brutality enacted against Rodney King and was supposed to highlight concerns around black identities being absorbed into white communities and an attack on conformity and corporation. With Bowie saying witnessing the riots felt like the start of a revolution. Bowie started writing the song as a critique on interracial brotherhood tracks like “Ebony and Ivory”, “We are the World” and “We Shall Overcome” which he felt were slogans aimed at making liberals feel better about doing nothing. Bowie’s interracial marriage to Iman surely influenced his opinions around these issues stating that he would occasionally hear snide remarks about their marriage. The song is an unusual mishmash of styles, and the guest vocals make it feel a little bit out of place with the rest of Bowie’s work and ultimately it was a little too slow to be a hit.
The most well-regarded and I would say best track on the album is “Jump They Say” which for the first time since way back on the early 1970s was explicitly inspired by his half-brother Terry Burns, in particularly his suicide in 1985. Burns was a huge influence on the young Bowie introducing him to jazz music, books, and philosophical ideas with Bowie saying he had developed a type of “hero-worship” for his mentally struggling sibling. Terry Burns took his own life on 16 January 1985. He left Cane Hill mental asylum early in the morning, crossed the road to Coulsdon South railway station, and, as a train approached, jumped onto the track. He laid down and was killed by the impact. Bowie didn’t attend the funeral because he felt his fame would derail it. The track has got a funk and contemporary jazz sound climaxing in an extended solo from jazz trumpet player Lester Bowie. It was marketed as a comeback single for Bowie would be his last entrance into the UK Top 10 singles charts in the 20th century, reaching number nine.
“Nite Flights” is a song originally recorded by the Walker Brothers for their final album in 1978. The band leader and main songwriter Scott Walker has been a huge influence on Bowie his entire career, with Bowie often mimicking Walkers distinctive singing style in this song and others. Nile Rodgers production adds heavy electronic sounds, electric drums, and multiple synthesisers to the track.
An interesting moment on the record is “Pallas Athena” a powerful instrumental track originating from Bowie’s wedding celebration. With a few spoken word lyrics including “God is on of it all, that’s all” and “we are, we are, we are praying” upon it’s release Bowie told NME “I don’t know what the fuck it’s about.” With grand instrumentation allusion to Greek goddess of Wisdom Athena the song is carried through with Bowie’s saxophone and Lester’s trumpet. You just got to take it as it is.
A slightly strange love song for his new wife “Miracle Goodnight” is a track that acknowledged that decay and passing is part of our existence and that an awareness of this makes love all that more beautiful. Released as a single the track didn’t make much of an impact but it’s light touch and off beat nature make it a favourite of mine for this album.
“Don’t Let Me Down and Down” might just be the most obscure cover Bowie ever did, going through Iman’s record collection he found a CD by Tahra Mint Hembara a Mauritanian musician. Bowie heard the song and loved it, recording it as a wedding gift for Iman.
“Looking for Lester” is an instrumental track whose primary purpose is to showcase the talents of jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie. David and Lester trade saxophone and trumpet duties throughout the song playing off one another. This song also features piano work by Mike Garson who is known in Bowie circles for adding the intense avant-garde piano solo to the title track in for Aladdin Sane in 1973, a feat that helped rise Bowie out of mainstream pop circles and allowed his music to start being discussed as serious art. This track was co-written with Nile Rodgers and was at attempt emulate John Coltrane’s “Chasing the Train”. At this point in his career Bowie is on a real jazz vibe and I think needs to get this one out of his system.
Then we get to the Morrissey cover “I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday” which I image for the former Smiths frontman must have been an incredible moment as he is on record as stating Bowie was like a god to him with the release of “Starman” in 1972 representing one of the most important moments in his life. This track was written as Morrissey’s attempt to create his own version of Bowie’s “Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide” so there is a certain amount of playfulness in the choice. The two musicians first met in 1990 and Bowie had an admiration for the indie star. The song is grand and epic with choral backing and it’s powerful and effective. I am not sure Bowie would have choose to do a Morrissey cover in this day and age as he progressively started to spout more and more right-wing bullshit but at this point in the 1990s you can understand why it’s here.
Finally, the album closes with “The Wedding Song” a reprisal of the opening track this time with lyrics making sure to all fans that if they somehow didn’t read between the lines, see interviews in the newspaper and music magazines, or catch the 23-page picture spread in Hello! that Bowie is now a happily married man, and who could blame him? After a life filled with excess, a disastrous relationship with the mother of his child and ex-wife Angie, drug addiction that brought nearly to the point of complete collapse, he has finally found some peace and he has found someone with whom he would share the rest of his life with. “Heaven is smiling down, heaven’s girl in a wedding gown.” Bowie now believes in magic, he’s found it.
When this album was released, it received relatively good reviews from critics who believed it to be a comeback from a lacklustre late 1980s. Contemporary reviews praised its experimentation and that it seemed he had reignited his creative spirit. Without any obvious hit single it wouldn’t break through in the way previously albums had but for those interested in Bowie it was a great return to form. Retrospectively it’s considered to be the beginning of a revival and the start of a new phase in his career, but also that things would continue to improve throughout the 90s. The production makes the record sound a little bit dated, but overall, it stands up pretty well. I personally think it might lack of a bit of cohesion and that lyrically Bowie isn’t that strong, this is primarily about the funk sound, synthesiser background and most important the trumpet work by Lester Bowie and David’s own saxophone playing which he really gives himself room to explore on this album. Overall, it's a welcome relief to see him back front and centre after trying to blend into the background throughout the Tin Machine years, and it brings hope for all that is come.
Black Tie White Noise ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ [6/10]
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