Station to Station is the tenth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 23 January 1976 through RCA Records. Regarded as one of his most significant works, the album was the vehicle for Bowie's performance persona the Thin White Duke. Co-produced by Bowie and Harry Maslin, Station to Station was mainly recorded at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles in late 1975, after Bowie completed shooting the film The Man Who Fell to Earth; the cover art featured a still from the film. During the sessions, Bowie was suffering from various drug addictions, most prominently cocaine, and subsequently stated that he recalled almost nothing of the production.
The commercial success of his previous release, Young Americans (1975), allowed Bowie greater freedom when he began recording his next album. The sessions established the lineup of guitarist Carlos Alomar, bassist George Murray and drummer Dennis Davis that Bowie would use for the rest of the decade, and also featured contributions by guitarist Earl Slick and pianist Roy Bittan. Musically, Station to Station was a transitional album for Bowie, developing the funk and soul of Young Americans while presenting a new direction influenced by German krautrock, particularly bands such as Neu! and Kraftwerk. The lyrics reflected Bowie's preoccupations with Friedrich Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, mythology and religion.
Preceded by the single "Golden Years", Station to Station was a commercial success, reaching the top five on the UK and US charts. After scrapping a soundtrack for The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bowie supported the album with the Isolar Tour in early 1976, during which he attracted controversy with statements suggesting support for fascism. At the end of the tour, he moved to Europe to remove himself from L.A.'s drug culture. The styles explored on Station to Station culminated in some of Bowie's most acclaimed work with the Berlin Trilogy over the next three years. Positively received by music critics on its release, Station to Station has appeared on several lists of the greatest albums of the 1970s and of all time. It has been reissued multiple times and was remastered in 2016 as part of the Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976) box set.
Background
David Bowie developed a cocaine addiction in the summer of 1974, following the release of the album Diamond Dogs. The Alan Yentob documentary Cracked Actor depicted Bowie on the Diamond Dogs Tour in September 1974 and showcased his mental state. Bowie said in a 1987 interview: "I was so blocked ... so stoned ... It's quite a casualty case, isn't it. I'm amazed I came out of that period, honest. When I see that now I cannot believe I survived it. I was so close to really throwing myself away physically, completely." After seeing an advanced screening of the film in early 1975, director Nicolas Roeg contacted Bowie to discuss a role in his upcoming adaptation of Walter Tevis's 1963 novel The Man Who Fell to Earth. Bowie accepted the role, and moved from New York to Los Angeles, California, where shooting was to take place.
On his arrival in L.A., Bowie stayed with Glenn Hughes, the bassist for the English rock band Deep Purple. He also visited his old friend, singer Iggy Pop, in rehab. The two would attempt to record some material in May 1975, but the sessions were unproductive due to Pop's heroin addiction. Hughes told the biographer Marc Spitz that Bowie lived in an increasingly paranoid state, recalling he refused to use elevators because of his fear of heights. His addiction severed friendships with the musicians Keith Moon, John Lennon and Harry Nilsson; he later said: "If you really want to lose all your friends and all of the relationships that you ever held dear, [cocaine is] the drug to do it with."
According to the biographer David Buckley, Bowie's diet now consisted primarily of red and green peppers, milk and cocaine. Bowie later admitted that he only weighed about 80 pounds and was "zonked out of his mind most of the time". Hughes said Bowie would not sleep for "three to four days at a time". Stories, mostly from one interview—pieces of which found their way into Playboy and Rolling Stone—circulated of the singer living in a house full of ancient Egyptian artefacts, burning black candles, seeing bodies fall past his window, having his semen stolen by witches, receiving secret messages from the Rolling Stones, and living in morbid fear of the Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. In an interview with Melody Maker in 1977, Bowie described living in L.A.: "There's an underlying unease... You can feel it in every avenue... I've always been aware of how dubious a position it is to stay here for any length of time." Three years later, he would tell NME that the city "should be wiped off the face of the earth". In April 1975, Bowie announced his retirement from music, stating: "I've rocked my roll. It's a boring dead end. There will be no more rock'n'roll records or tours from me. The last thing I want to be is some useless fucking rock singer." The biographer Nicholas Pegg attributes this quote to Bowie's decaying mental state; his "retirement" lasted less than six months. Shooting for The Man Who Fell to Earth began in June 1975.
Development
thumb|upright=0.7|alt=Nicholas Roeg in 2008|Before recording Station to Station, Bowie starred in The Man Who Fell to Earth, directed by [[Nicolas Roeg (pictured in 2008). Bowie's work on the film partially inspired the album.]]
Bowie's heavy drug use continued during filming. He recalled in 1993: "My one snapshot of that film is not having to act...Just being me as I was perfectly adequate for the role. I wasn't of this earth at that particular time." When shooting took place in New Mexico, he was reported to be in a much healthier state compared to his time in Los Angeles. During his days off from filming, he began writing a collection of short stories called The Return of the Thin White Duke, which he described as "partly autobiographical, mostly fiction, with a deal of magic in it;" he also recalled taking "400 books" for the shoot. He began writing songs throughout filming, including two—"TVC 15" and "Word on a Wing"—that would end up on his next album. On top of this, he was in line to compose the film's soundtrack.
In the film, Bowie portrays the lead role of Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien who travels to Earth in search of materials for his dying planet, eventually becoming corrupted by humans. Roeg warned the star that the part of Newton would likely remain with him for some time after the filming. With Roeg's agreement, Bowie developed his own look for the film, and this carried through to his public image over the next twelve months, as did Newton's air of fragility and aloofness. Newton served as a major influence on Bowie's next onstage character, the Thin White Duke.
Bowie's 1975 single "Fame", a collaboration with John Lennon, was a massive commercial success, topping the charts in the US. Bowie's label RCA Records were eager for a follow-up. After completing his work on The Man Who Fell to Earth in September, he returned to Los Angeles; his assistant Coco Schwab had recently acquired a house for him. Partly because of his drug addiction, his marriage to his wife, Angie, began falling apart. After recording backing vocals for Keith Moon's "Real Emotion", he was ready to record his next album.
Production
Studio and personnel
Station to Station was recorded primarily at Cherokee Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The studio opened in January 1975 and quickly became one of the city's busiest studios, attracting artists such as Rod Stewart and Frank Sinatra. Cherokee was more advanced than Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios, where Bowie had recorded Young Americans (1975); it featured five studio rooms, 24-track mixing consoles, 24-hour session times, more space and a lounge bar. On arriving at Cherokee, Bowie sang a few notes in Studio One, played a piano chord, and said: "This will do nicely." Producer Harry Maslin said the studio was chosen because it was new and quiet, with less paparazzi and media attention. With a more advanced studio and no time constraints, experimentation became the ethos of the sessions.
thumb|left|upright=0.70|alt=Earl Slick in 2011|Returning from the Young Americans sessions was [[Earl Slick (pictured in 2011), who played lead guitar on Station to Station.]]
Maslin, who co-produced "Fame" and "Across the Universe" on Young Americans, was brought back by Bowie to produce. Tony Visconti (who after a three-year absence had recently returned to the Bowie fold mixing Diamond Dogs and co-producing David Live and Young Americans) was not involved because of competing schedules. Also returning from the Young Americans sessions were guitarists Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick, drummer Dennis Davis and Bowie's old friend Geoff MacCormack (then known as Warren Peace). George Murray, a player from Weldon Irvine's group, was recruited as bassist. Bowie would use the rhythm section of Alomar, Murray and Davis for the rest of the decade. In mid-October, pianist Roy Bittan, a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, joined the ensemble at the suggestion of Slick. Bittan recalled: "David knew we were coming to town and he wanted a keyboard player. It must have only been about three days. It's one of my favourite projects I've ever worked on." Following the departure of Mike Garson, Bowie praised Bittan's contributions.
Although NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray surmised it was cut "in 10 days of feverish activity", more recent scholarship contends that the album was recorded over a period of about two months, with the sessions beginning in late September or early October 1975 and ending in late November. Both Slick and Maslin praised Bowie's "on-the-spot approach". Slick found the lack of rehearsals advantageous, resulting in a cleaner performance. he said it added soul to the "mechanical, fragmented, rather secondhand elegance" explored on Aladdin Sane (1973). "eerie avant-pop", "art-funk", and "ice-funk". Maslin told Circus magazine: "There was no specific sound in mind. I don't think [Bowie] had any specific direction as far as whether it should be R&B, or more English-sounding, or more commercial or less commercial. I think he went out more to make a record this time than to worry about what it was going to turn out to be." Pitchfork and Rolling Stone defined the track as a "momentous prog-disco suite" and a "Krautrock disco opus" respectively. With its krautrock influence, it is the album's clearest foretaste of Bowie's subsequent Berlin Trilogy.
The musical style of both "Golden Years" and "Stay" are built on the funk and soul of Young Americans but with a harsher, grinding edge. Bowie said the "Golden Years" was written for, and rejected by, American singer Elvis Presley, while Angie Bowie claimed it was penned for her. According to Pegg, the song lacks the "steelier musical landscape" of the rest of the album. Author James Perone argues "Stay" represents a merger of hard rock and blue-eyed funk. "TVC 15", the album's most upbeat track, has been compared to the music of the English rock band the Yardbirds. "Wild Is the Wind" contains funky elements in its electric guitar playing, while the rhythm section and acoustic guitar add a jazz flavour. AllMusic's Donald A. Guarisco likens the music of "Word on a Wing" to gospel and soul; Perone compares it to the sound of American musician Roy Orbison. Both tracks have been categorised as hymns and ballads. It concerns a character's girlfriend being eaten by a television. The song was inspired by a dream of Iggy Pop's featuring a similar premise, as well as a scene in The Man Who Fell to Earth where Newton fills a room with television screens, each tuned to a different channel. Pegg calls it the album's "odd man out".
Artwork and packaging
The album cover is a black-and-white photograph taken by Steve Schapiro on the set of the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, in which Bowie, as Newton, steps into the space capsule that will return him to his home planet. Bowie had insisted on the cropped monochrome image, feeling that in the original coloured full-size image the sky looked artificial; an all-white border was placed around the image, which Pegg believes reflects the "stark monochrome aesthetic" of both the Thin White Duke character and the 1976 tour. He also contends that the monochrome cover matches the "austere tone" of the album. The full-size, colour version was used for some subsequent reissues of the album. The back cover's photograph was taken in Los Angeles in 1974, also by Schapiro, and showed Bowie sketching the Kabbalah Sephirot with chalk. It was Bowie's first LP not to include lyric sheets in the packaging, Station to Station was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on 26 February. "TVC 15" was released in edited form as the second single from the album on 30 April 1976, backed by the Diamond Dogs track "We Are the Dead". Its release coincided with the European leg of the Isolar tour. It peaked at number 33 in the UK. "Stay" was first issued, in its full-length form, as the B-side of "Suffragette City" in the summer of 1976 to promote the Changesonebowie compilation. An edited version was subsequently released in July as an A-side in the US and other territories, backed by "Word on a Wing". It failed to chart. The song, however, did not appear on the compilation. (Changesonebowie was itself packaged as a uniform edition to Station to Station, featuring a black-and-white cover and similar lettering). In November 1981, as Bowie's relationship with RCA was winding down, "Wild Is the Wind" was issued as a single to promote the Changestwobowie compilation. The full-length version of "Golden Years" backed the UK single. Accompanied by a video shot specifically for this release, it peaked at number 24 in the UK and charted for ten weeks.
Critical reception
Station to Station received positive reviews from music critics on its release. Paul Trynka says overall, critics acknowledged that Bowie was exploring new territories. Ian MacDonald noted Bowie's musical growth in Britain's Street Life magazine, recognising it as one of his finest albums up to that point. He believed it was the first album he'd released where it felt he had total control. Writing for NME, Charles Murray praised the music throughout the record, but was critical of Bowie's vocal performance, particularly on "Word on a Wing" and "Wild Is the Wind". Another reviewer for NME found the album "a strange and confusing musical whirlpool where nothing is what it seems", ultimately calling it "one of the most significant albums released in the last five years". The magazine named it the second best album of the year, behind Bob Dylan's Desire. John Ingham of Sounds magazine gave immense praise to the album, naming "Golden Years", "TVC 15" and "Stay" some of Bowie's best songs up to that point and overall "a great record of our time". Musically, he viewed it as a cross between The Man Who Sold the World and Young Americans. Some reviewers found the lyrics' meaning difficult to comprehend, with Ingham citing "TVC 15" as an example. However, he felt it was part of the LP's charm. Rolling Stone writer Teri Moris applauded the album's 'rockier' moments but discerned a move away from the genre, finding it "the thoughtfully professional effort of a style-conscious artist whose ability to write and perform demanding rock & roll exists comfortably alongside his fascination for diverse forms ... while there's little doubt about his skill, one wonders how long he'll continue wrestling with rock at all". Critic Dave Marsh was extremely negative, calling it "the most significant advance in LP filler since Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music [1975]". Considering "Word on a Wing" the "only complete success" on the LP, he panned the tracks as overlong, unexciting and uninteresting, further arguing that "it's rather appalling that the best thing [Bowie] can think of doing with his talent currently is fool around."
Rock critic Lester Bangs, who had generally assessed Bowie's previous work negatively, praised Station to Station in Creem magazine, noting the presence of "a wail and throb that won't let up" and "a beautiful, swelling, intensely romantic melancholy" and calling it Bowie's "(first) masterpiece". In Circus, Cromelin, noting that Bowie was "never one to maintain continuity in his work or in his life", declared that Station to Station "offers cryptic, expressionistic glimpses that let us feel the contours and palpitations of the masquer's soul but never fully reveal his face". Cromelin also found allusions to earlier Bowie efforts, such as the "density" of The Man Who Sold the World, the "pop feel" of Hunky Dory, the "dissonance and angst" of Aladdin Sane, the "compelling percussion" of Young Americans, and the "youthful mysticism" of "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud", concluding that "it shows Bowie pulling out on the most challenging leg of his winding journey". Ben Edmonds did not find the LP one of Bowie's best works in Phonograph Record instead believing that Station to Station was merely a "stopping place" where he could reflect and plan his next steps. However, he noted the album's overall cohesiveness and praised the backing band, which he considered Bowie's finest since the Spiders from Mars.
Station to Station was voted the 13th best album of 1976 in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics nationwide, published by The Village Voice. Reviewing the record for the newspaper, Robert Christgau expressed some reservations about the length of the songs and the detached quality of Bowie's vocals, but deemed "TVC 15" his "favorite piece of rock and roll in a very long time" and wrote, "spaceyness has always been his shtick, and anybody who can merge Lou Reed, disco, and Dr. John ... deserves to keep doing it for five minutes and 29 seconds". He ranked it as the year's fourth best in his ballot for the poll.
Subsequent events
With the Station to Station sessions completed in December 1975, Bowie started work on a soundtrack for The Man Who Fell to Earth with Paul Buckmaster, whom Bowie worked with for Space Oddity (1969), as his collaborator. Bowie expected to be wholly responsible for the film's music but found that "when I'd finished five or six pieces, I was then told that if I would care to submit my music along with some other people's ... and I just said 'Shit, you're not getting any of it'. I was so furious, I'd put so much work into it." a contention backed by a young Gary Numan who was among the crowd that day: "Think about it. If a photographer takes a whole motor-driven film of someone doing a wave, you will get a Nazi salute at the end of each arm-sweep. All you need is some dickhead at a music paper or whatever to make an issue out it ...".
Influence and legacy
Station to Station was a milestone in Bowie's transition to his late 1970s Berlin Trilogy.