Never Let Me Down

''Never Let Me Down'' is the 17th studio album by English musician David Bowie, released on 20 April 1987 through EMI America Records. After a series of miscellaneous projects, Bowie hoped to make his next record differently following his disappointment with ''Tonight'' (1984). It was recorded at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland and the Power Station in New York City from September to November 1986. It was co-produced by Bowie and David Richards and featured contributions from Peter Frampton on guitar. Musically, ''Never Let Me Down'' has been characterised as pop rock, art rock and hard rock; Bowie himself considered the record a return to rock and roll music. The cover artwork features Bowie surrounded by numerous elements from the songs.

Released with different runtimes on vinyl and CD, ''Never Let Me Down'' was a commercial success, peaking at No. 6 in the UK. Three singles were released, all of which reached the UK Top 40. Despite this, the album was poorly received by fans and critics, with its production singled out for criticism. Bowie supported it on the Glass Spider Tour, named after one of the tracks, a world tour that was at that point the biggest, most theatrical and elaborate tour he had undertaken in his career. The tour, like the album, was commercially successful but critically panned. The critical failure of the album and tour were factors that led Bowie to look for a new way to motivate himself creatively, leading him to create the rock band Tin Machine in 1989; he did not release another solo album until ''Black Tie White Noise'' in 1993.

Retrospectively, ''Never Let Me Down'' is generally regarded as one of Bowie's weakest releases, although his biographers consider it superior to ''Tonight''. One track, "Too Dizzy", has been deleted from subsequent reissues due to Bowie's dislike of it. Throughout his lifetime, Bowie was critical of ''Never Let Me Down'', distancing himself from the arrangement and production of the finished album. He expressed a desire to remake it numerous times, eventually remixing "Time Will Crawl" for inclusion on his career retrospective '' iSelect'' (2008). Its remixer, Mario J. McNulty, brought Bowie's idea to remake the whole album to fruition in 2018. Released as part of the box set ''Loving the Alien (1983–1988)'', '' Never Let Me Down 2018'' features new production and instrumentation over Bowie's original vocals. Reviewers consider the new version an improvement over the original album.

Background and development

David Bowie's rise in fame and success from '' Let's Dance'' and the Serious Moonlight Tour in 1983 made him feel disconnected from his newfound fanbase. After the poor reception of 1984's ''Tonight'', he worked on a series of miscellaneous projects that included collaborations with the Pat Metheny Group for "This Is Not America" (from the soundtrack to the film ''The Falcon and the Snowman'') and Mick Jagger for "Dancing in the Street". He also continued acting and composing for film soundtracks such as '' Absolute Beginners'' (1985) and ''Labyrinth'' (1986).

Wanting another record, EMI compiled a compilation of 12" mixes from ''Let's Dance'' and ''Tonight'' following Bowie's successful performance at Live Aid in 1985. Titled ''Dance'', it reached the artwork stage before being shelved. In mid-1986, Bowie produced and co-wrote multiple tracks with his old friend Iggy Pop for his solo album '' Blah-Blah-Blah'', and recorded the title song of the 1986 film '' When the Wind Blows'' with Turkish musician Erdal Kızılçay, before commencing work on his next studio record.

Writing and recording

Bowie spent mid-1986 in his home in Switzerland writing songs with Iggy Pop. He bought a Foster 16-track and AHB mixing console to record elaborate home demos, which he recorded with Kızılçay before regrouping with a full band. Having worked together sporadically since 1982, Bowie greatly appreciated Kızılçay's musicianship, proclaiming, "He can switch from violin to trumpet to French horn, vibes, percussion, whatever... His knowledge of rock music begins and ends with the Beatles! His background is really jazz." During the sessions, Kızılçay played keyboards and synthesisers and, according to biographer Chris O'Leary, "provided any sound" Bowie requested. Unlike the sessions for ''Tonight'', Bowie encouraged collaboration for the new album's sessions, mainly wanting "better" versions of his home demos.

''Never Let Me Down'' was recorded between September and November 1986, beginning at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, and completing at the Power Station in New York City. It was co-produced by Bowie and David Richards; both had co-produced ''Blah-Blah-Blah'' and the latter previously engineered '' "Heroes"'' (1977). ''Let's Dance'' engineer Bob Clearmountain returned for ''Never Let Me Down''. According to Bowie, he was responsible for the album's "great, forceful sound". Returning from the ''Tonight'' sessions was regular collaborator Carlos Alomar on guitar, Carmine Rojas on bass and a group of saxophonists known as the Borneo Horns. With Kızılçay, they were joined on lead guitar by Bowie's former classmate Peter Frampton, whom Bowie hired after listening to his latest record ''Premonition'' (1986). He stated at the time, "I always thought it'd be good to work with him 'cause I was so impressed with him as a guitarist at school." Frampton played on all but three tracks; lead guitar duties for "Day-In Day-Out", "Time Will Crawl" and a cover of Iggy Pop's "Bang Bang" were done by Sid McGinnis, a some-time member of David Letterman's band. For the first time since 1980's '' Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)'', Bowie played instruments in addition to singing, contributing keyboards, synthesiser and rhythm guitar on some tracks, and played lead guitar on "New York's in Love" and "87 and Cry". The band worked from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.. Kızılçay recalled Bowie being "very disciplined" during the sessions and "always" trying new things.

Bowie, Richards and Kızılçay recorded backing tracks at Mountain for the first two weeks, after which Alomar and Frampton were flown in for guitar overdubs. Sessions then moved to the Power Station, where horns and backing vocalists were added, with additional percussion from Errol "Crusher" Bennett. According to Richards, these were elements that Bowie said "you can only get in New York". Regarding Bennett's contributions, Richards recalled: " eet all his 'bangers' and 'scrapers' on a table, which I miked at each end. So whenever he moved around, the sounds would pan with him, creating some strange spatial effects." The majority of Bowie's vocals were taken from guide vocals recorded at Mountain, although some were later redone at the Power Station. Richards explained that most of he guidevocals were so good and had such great spontaneity that they ended up on the record." "Never Let Me Down" was a last-minute addition to the album, written and recorded in one day during the last week of mixing at the Power Station. Actor Mickey Rourke also performed the mid-song rap for "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)". The two had met in London where the actor was based while filming ''A Prayer for the Dying'' (1987) and requested to contribute. Two tracks were recorded that ended up as B-sides, "Julie" and "Girls", the latter of which was briefly considered for inclusion on ''Never Let Me Down'' in late 1986.

Songs

The music on ''Never Let Me Down'' has been characterised as pop rock, art rock and hard rock. At the time, Bowie said the musical styles reflected the different styles he wrote with over the preceding years, and further stated the sound and style was reminiscent of ''Scary Monsters'' and less like its immediate predecessors, calling it "an eclectic hybrid of long-standing influences and personal nostalgia." At the time, a writer for the Canadian Press considered the record "a basic serving of high-energy, guitar rock", representing a departure from his "adventurous" late 1970s works and the " R&B-flavoured" ''Let's Dance''. Biographer Paul Trynka says the record contains mostly "conventional music, lyrics and sounds".

Side one

The opening track, "Day-In Day-Out", offers the artist's commentary on the treatment of the homeless in Los Angeles. Author James E. Perone states that the song is a good example of Bowie's experimentation with the R&B genre. "Time Will Crawl" was inspired by the Chernobyl disaster and the idea that someone from one's own neighborhood could be responsible for the end of the world. Compared to Prince's "1999", Bowie said his vocals on the song were indebted to Neil Young, and noted that the variety of voices he used on the album were a nod to the musicians who had influenced him in the past. Bowie called "Beat of Your Drum" a Lolita song, a "reflection on young girls... 'Christ, she's only 14 years old, but jail's worth it!'" Biographer Nicholas Pegg, who called the song one of the album's better tracks, noted that it could be called a "direct ancestor", both lyrically and musically, to Tin Machine's " You Belong in Rock n' Roll" (1991). Perone finds it resembles the contemporary techno craze, while further exhibiting punk rock influences.

The title track is about Bowie's long-time personal assistant, Coco Schwab. The song's direct reference to her acts as a counterpoint to the rest of the songs, which the artist felt were mostly allegorical. Bowie attributed his vocal performance to John Lennon. One reviewer later called it one of Bowie's "most underrated songs". "Zeroes", which ''Rolling Stone''s Steve Pond called the most heartening and successful track on the album, is a nostalgia trip. Bowie explained: "I wanted to put in every 60s cliche I could think of! 'Stopping and preaching and letting love in,' all those things. I hope there's a humorous undertone to it. But the subtext is definitely that the trappings of rock are not what they're made out to be." Musically, the track features a sitar reminiscent of George Harrison's work with the Beatles and references Bowie's earlier songs "Diamond Dogs" (1974) and "Heroes" (1977) in its music and title, respectively.

Side two

"Glass Spider" marks a return to the electronica of Bowie's late 1970s Berlin Trilogy, as well as influences of psychedelic folk and heavy metal. It presents a mythological story based on a documentary Bowie had seen about black widow spiders, describing how they lay the skeletons of their prey out on their webs. Echoing the ''Diamond Dogs'' track " Future Legend" (1974), he thought that the Glass Spider's web would make a good enclosure for a concert tour, thus giving the supporting tour its name and stage dressing. Bowie described "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)" as one that "reflects back-to-street situations, and how people are trying to get together in the face of so many disasters and catastrophes, socially around them, never knowing if they're going to survive it themselves. The one thing they have got to cling on to is each other; although it might resolve into something terrible, it's the only thing that they've got. It's just a little love song coming out of that environment." He rejected the notion that his "high, little" voice (which he attributed to Smokey Robinson) in the song was a new character, instead saying it was just what the song needed, as he had tried the song in his regular voice and did not like the outcome: "That never bothered me, changing voices to suit a song. You can fool about with it." "New York's in Love" is a dance track that Bowie described as a sarcastic song about the vanity of big cities. Pegg later called it "a strong contender for the... wooden spoon" of the album.

"87 & Cry" was written as a statement about then-UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, referring to the distinction between the authoritarian government and the citizens. Bowie acknowledged that the lyrics verged on the surreal, describing people "eating the energies of others to get to what they wanted." "Too Dizzy" was the first song Bowie and Kızılçay wrote together for the album and was written in homage to the 1950s. The former said, "a real Fifties subject matter was either love or jealousy, so I thought I'd stick with jealousy because it's a lot more interesting". Bowie covered Iggy Pop's "Bang Bang", which originally flopped as a single, for ''Never Let Me Down'' as he felt it could be a hit. For his version, Bowie imitated Pop in his vocal performance, while lyrically, it contains themes present in other album tracks. Perone compares Bowie's version to the work of Talking Heads' David Byrne.

Release

EMI America Records released "Day-In Day-Out" as the lead single to the album on 23 March 1987, with "Julie" as the B-side. The single performed decently in both the UK and the US, peaking at Nos. 17 and 21, respectively. The song's music video, directed by Julien Temple, contained controversial content and was banned by some networks. A version of the song sung in Spanish, recorded to promote Bowie's first-ever concerts in Spain during the Glass Spider Tour, was released for the first time in 2007 when the "Day-In Day-Out" EP was released digitally.

''Never Let Me Down'' followed a month later on 20 April 1987, with the catalogue number and . It was released in a variety of different formats, and was the first Bowie record to feature simultaneous releases on vinyl and CD. Both of these formats had different lengths in the runtime, with four tracks on the CD release up to a minute longer. In Australia, the album appeared on blue vinyl and in Japan, a Japanese vocal version of the outtake "Girls" was included. The cover artwork was designed by Mike Haggerty, who designed the artworks for ''Let's Dance'' and ''Tonight'', and taken by photographer Greg Gorman. It was described by Bowie as being in a "vaudevillian" style. It depicts the long-haired Bowie jumping through a circus ring surrounded by elements from the album's songs, including a drum, a skyscraper, a "candyfloss" cloud, and an angel from the "Day-In Day-Out" music video.

Initial sales of the album were strong, peaking at No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart, but dropped off disappointingly. Bowie was not concerned with the album's relative poor performance in the charts, saying "I've made about 20 albums during my career, and so far this is my third biggest seller. So I can't be that disappointed, yet, it is a letdown that it hasn't been as buoyant as it should be.... But I don’t really feel that negative about it. As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the better albums I've made. As I've said, ''Never Let Down'' has been a pretty big seller for me. So I'm quite happy." "Time Will Crawl" was released as the second single from the album in June 1987, backed by "Girls". It stalled on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No. 33. Bowie pre-recorded a performance of the song for the BBC
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