''Baal'' is an EP by English musician

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

, comprising recordings of songs written for

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

’s play ''

Baal Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during Ancient Near East, antiquity. From its use among people, it cam ...

''. It is sometimes referred to as ''David Bowie in Bertolt Brecht's Baal'', as credited on the sleeve. The EP was Bowie's final release of new material for

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

; he signed with

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...

for his next album.

Background

In August 1981, Bowie had begun rehearsals to appear in the BBC version of ''

''. The lyrics to the songs were all translated by

Ralph Manheim Ralph Frederick Manheim (April 4, 1907 – September 26, 1992) was an American translator of German and French literature, as well as occasional works from Dutch, Polish and Hungarian. He was one of the most acclaimed translators of the 20th cent ...

and

John Willett John William Mills Willett, MBE (24 June 1917 – 20 August 2002) was a British translator and a scholar who is remembered for translating the work of Bertolt Brecht into English. Early life Willett was born in Hampstead and was educated ...

. Bowie did not think of the

television play A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contrast to a television movi ...

as a success on broadcast due to its cinematography, but had grown to appreciate it by 1983.

Dominic Muldowney Dominic Muldowney (born 19 July 1952 in Southampton) is a British composer. Biography Dominic Muldowney studied at the University of Southampton with Jonathan Harvey, at the University of York (with Bernard Rands and David Blake), and privat ...

provided all new musical settings, except for "The Drowned Girl", which was a setting by

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...

done originally for ''Das Berliner Requiem''. In September 1981, Bowie and

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

returned to the Hansa studios in Berlin to re-record the five songs Baal performed in the play. "Baal's Hymn" is a combination of the vignettes spread throughout the play and establishes Baal's amoral character. "Remembering Marie A." concerns Baal's reminiscences of a past conquest, where he can remember a cloud drifting overhead but not the face of the girl he was with. "Ballad of the Adventurers" is Baal's aggressive lament to the death of his mother. "The Drowned Girl" relates the suicide of one of Baal's conquests – a video clip for this song was shot by David Mallet at the same time as the one for "

Wild is the Wind ''Wild is the Wind'' is a 1957 film directed by George Cukor and starring Anna Magnani, Anthony Quinn, and Anthony Franciosa. It tells the story of an American rancher who, after his wife dies, goes to Italy to marry her sister, but finds that sh ...

". "The Dirty Song" is a short number, with Baal humiliating his lover Sophie.

Release

Bowie's performance as Baal was transmitted on 2 March 1982, and RCA issued the EP to coincide with this. Both the play and EP were well received, with the latter reaching No. 29 in the UK chart, commendable considering the unconventional tracks. In addition to the 7" edition, which came packaged in a double gatefold sleeve containing extensive notes pertaining to the musical content and a short biography of Bertolt Brecht, the EP was released as a 12", which gained it some play in clubs as well as radio airplay. It would mark Bowie's final new release for RCA Records. Bowie's next release was issued by

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

Reception

Chris O’Leary calls the EP “a kiss-off to a label Bowie had grown to hate” and writes that “Baal is often considered a strange cul-de-sac in Bowie’s career… But Baal, after Scary Monsters, is Bowie’s best record of the decade 980s”

Subsequent releases

"The Drowned Girl" was featured on the 2005 triple CD set '' The Platinum Collection'' and then the 2007 re-release of its third CD under the title ''

The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987 ''The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987'' is a compilation album by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. The CD was originally released by EMI as part of '' The Platinum Collection'' in 2005/2006. The 2007 release is part of EMI's two-disc ''Sigh ...

''; the latter also included a music video for the song on DVD. "The Drowned Girl" and "Baal's Hymn" are both included on the 2003 and 2014 expanded re-issues of '' Sound + Vision''. The EP was re-released as a digital download in 2007. All five tracks were also included as part of the ''Re:Call 3'' compilation disc, exclusive to the ''

A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982) ''A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982)'' is a box set by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, released on 29 September 2017. A follow-up to the compilations ''Five Years (1969–1973)'' and ''Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976)'', the set c ...

'' box set, released in September 2017.

Track listing

Personnel

– vocals, guitar, production *

– bass, production *uncredited

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

s – other instruments *Eduard Meyer – engineering Design *Andrew Christian – art direction *Partridge Rushton – design and artwork *John Timbers (

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...

) – photography *uncredited photographer –

portrait (from ''In Life, In Pictures, In Text'') *

Frans Masereel Frans Masereel (31 July 1889 – 3 January 1972) was a Flemish painter and graphic artist who worked mainly in France, known especially for his woodcuts focused on political and social issues, such as war and capitalism. He completed over ...

–

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

illustration (from ''The Radical Imagination'')

References

{{Authority control 1982 EPs David Bowie EPs Albums produced by Tony Visconti Albums produced by David Bowie RCA Records EPs