Low (David Bowie album)

''Low'' is the eleventh studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 14 January 1977 through RCA Records. After years of drug addiction when living in Los Angeles, Bowie moved to France in 1976 with his friend Iggy Pop to sober up. There, Bowie produced and co-wrote Pop's debut studio album, ''The Idiot'', featuring sounds Bowie would explore on his next record. After completing ''The Idiot'', Bowie began recording the first of three collaborations that became known as the Berlin Trilogy with American producer Tony Visconti and English musician Brian Eno. Sessions began at Hérouville's Château d'Hérouville in September 1976 and ended in October at Hansa Studios in West Berlin, where Bowie and Pop had relocated.

Grounded in art rock and experimental rock and influenced by German bands such as Tangerine Dream, Neu!, Harmonia and Kraftwerk, ''Low'' features Bowie's first explorations in electronic and ambient styles. Side one consists primarily of short, direct avant-pop song-fragments, with mostly downbeat lyrics reflecting Bowie's state of mind, and side two comprises longer, mostly instrumental tracks, conveying musical observations of Berlin. Visconti created the distinctive drum sound using an Eventide H910 Harmonizer, a pitch-shifting device. The cover artwork, a profile of Bowie from the film ''The Man Who Fell to Earth'' (1976), was intended as a visual pun, meaning "low profile".

RCA refused to issue ''Low'' for three months, fearing it would be a commercial failure. Upon release, it divided critical opinion and received little promotion from RCA or Bowie, who opted to tour as Pop's keyboardist. Nevertheless, it reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and number 11 on the US ''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tape chart. Two singles were released: "Sound and Vision", which peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart, and "Be My Wife". The success prompted RCA to release ''The Idiot'' in March 1977. In mid-1977, Bowie played on Pop's follow-up album '' Lust for Life'' before recording his album '' "Heroes"'', which expanded on ''Low''s musical approach and features a similar mix of songs and instrumentals.

In later decades, critics have rated ''Low'' one of Bowie's best works, and it has appeared on several lists of the greatest albums of all time. It influenced numerous post-punk bands such as Joy Division, and its drum sound has been widely imitated. A forerunner in the development of the post-rock genre of the 1990s, ''Low'' has been reissued several times and was remastered in 2017 as part of the ''A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982)'' box set.

Background and inspiration

In 1974, David Bowie developed a cocaine addiction. It worsened over the next two years, affecting his physical and mental state. He recorded ''Young Americans'' (1975) and ''Station to Station'' (1976), and filmed ''The Man Who Fell to Earth'' (1976), while under the drug's influence. Bowie attributed his growing addiction to Los Angeles, where he moved from New York City in early 1975. His drug intake escalated to the point where, decades later, he recalled almost nothing of the recording of ''Station to Station'', saying, "I know it was in L.A. because I've read it was."

After completing ''Station to Station'' in December 1975, Bowie began work on a soundtrack for ''The Man Who Fell to Earth'' with Paul Buckmaster, who worked with Bowie on the 1969 album ''Space Oddity''. Bowie expected to be wholly responsible for the music, but withdrew his work when he was invited to submit it along with the work of other composers: "I just said, 'Shit, you're not getting any of it.' I was so furious, I'd put ''so'' much work into it." ''Station to Station'' co-producer Harry Maslin argued Bowie was "burned out" and could not complete the work. Bowie eventually collapsed, saying later, "There were pieces of me laying all over the floor." Only one instrumental composed for the soundtrack was released, evolving into the ''Low'' track "Subterraneans".

When Bowie presented his material for the film to director Nicolas Roeg, Roeg decided it was unsuitable. He preferred a more folk-styled sound, although the soundtrack's composer John Phillips described Bowie's contributions as "haunting and beautiful". Six months after Bowie's proposal was rejected, he sent Roeg a copy of ''Low'' with a note that read, "This is what I wanted to do for the soundtrack. It would have been a wonderful score."

The soundtrack abandoned, Bowie decided he was ready to free himself from the Los Angeles drug culture and move back to Europe. He began rehearsals for the Isolar tour to promote ''Station to Station'' in January 1976; the tour began on 2 February. Though it was critically acclaimed, Bowie became a controversial figure during the tour. Speaking as his persona the Thin White Duke, he made statements about Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany that some interpreted as expressing sympathy for or promoting fascism. Bowie later blamed his erratic behaviour during this period on his addictions and precarious mental state, stating: "It was a dangerous period for me. I was at the end of my tether physically and emotionally and had serious doubts about my sanity."

After performing the 7 May 1976 show in London, Bowie caught up with ex-Roxy Music keyboardist and conceptualist Brian Eno backstage. The two had met occasionally since 1973. After leaving Roxy Music, Eno had released two solo albums in 1975 in the ambient genre: ''Another Green World'' and '' Discreet Music.'' Bowie listened to '' Discreet Music'' regularly on the American leg of the tour. Biographers Marc Spitz and Hugo Wilcken later recognised ''Another Green World'' in particular as a major influence on the sound Bowie aimed to create for ''Low''; Christopher Sandford also cites Eno's ''Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)'' (1974) as an influence. Bowie and Eno became infatuated with the German musical movement known as krautrock, including the acts Tangerine Dream, Neu!, Kraftwerk and Harmonia. Eno had worked with Harmonia in the studio and on stage, and Bowie exhibited a krautrock influence on ''Station to Station'', particularly its title track. After meeting, the pair agreed to stay in touch.

Development

At the conclusion of the Isolar tour on 18 May 1976, Bowie and his wife Angela moved to Switzerland, although the two would rarely spend time there. David booked studio time later in the summer at the Château d'Hérouville in Hérouville, France, where he made plans to write and produce an album for his old friend, singer Iggy Pop. Although the two had been friends for many years, the last time they worked together officially was in 1973, when Bowie was hired to mix the Stooges' ''Raw Power'' (1973). After the Stooges' demise, Pop descended into drug addiction. By 1976, he was ready to get sober and accepted Bowie's invitation to accompany him on the Isolar tour and then move to Europe with him. The two relocated to the Château, where Bowie had recorded his 1973 covers album ''Pin Ups''. Afterwards, Bowie travelled back to Switzerland, where he spent the next few weeks writing and planning his next album.

Bowie and Pop regrouped at the Château at the end of June 1976. Through August, they recorded what would become Pop's debut studio album ''The Idiot'' (1977). Bowie composed much of the music, and Pop wrote most of the lyrics, often in response to the tunes Bowie was creating. During the album's recording, Bowie developed a new process whereby the backing tracks were recorded first, followed by overdubs; the lyrics and vocals were written and recorded last. He heavily favoured this "three-phase" process, which he would use for the rest of his career. Because ''The Idiot'' was recorded before ''Low'', it has been referred to as the unofficial beginning of Bowie's Berlin period, as its music features a sound reminiscent of that which Bowie would explore in the Berlin Trilogy.

After completing ''The Idiot'', Bowie and Pop travelled to Hansa Studios in West Berlin to mix the album. Because Tony Visconti was already in line to co-produce Bowie's next album, Bowie called on him to help mix the record to familiarise himself with his new way of working. Bowie became fascinated with Berlin, finding it a place for a great escape. In love with the city, Bowie and Pop decided to move there in a further attempt to erase their drug habits and escape the spotlight. Although Bowie was ready to move fully to Berlin, he had already booked another month of studio time at the Château after ''The Idiot'', so recording began there. Although ''The Idiot'' was completed by August 1976, Bowie wanted to be sure he had his own album in stores before its release. Château owner and ''The Idiot'' bassist Laurent Thibault opined that "owiedidn't want people to think he'd been inspired by Iggy's album, when in fact it was all the same thing".

Recording and production

History and personnel

The ''Low'' sessions began on 1 September 1976. The album had the working title ''New Music: Night and Day.'' Although ''Low'' is considered the first of Bowie's Berlin Trilogy, most of it was recorded at the Château in France. Returning from the ''Station to Station'' sessions were guitarist Carlos Alomar, bassist George Murray and percussionist Dennis Davis. Along with Eno, new members included Roy Young, the former keyboardist for the Rebel Rousers, and Ricky Gardiner, former guitarist of Beggars Opera. A guest during the Château sessions was Visconti's then-wife Mary Hopkin, credited as Mary Visconti. She contributed backing vocals to "Sound and Vision".

Bowie and Visconti co-produced the album, with contributions from Eno. Visconti, who was absent for the recording of ''Station to Station'' because of conflicting schedules, was brought back to co-produce after mixing ''The Idiot''. In 2000, Bowie stressed Visconti's importance as co-producer, stating that "the actual sound and texture, the feel of everything from the drums to the way that my voice is recorded," was due to Visconti. Eno was not a co-producer, despite being widely perceived as such. Visconti said: "Brian is a great musician, and was very integral to the making of those three albums 'Low'', ''"Heroes"'' and ''Lodger'' But he was not the producer."

Like ''The Idiot'', the ''Low'' sessions began with Bowie and the rhythm players running through the backing tracks quickly, beginning in the evening and continuing into the night, which biographer Thomas Jerome Seabrook believes fit the mood of the music perfectly. As he had done on ''Station to Station'', Bowie left Alomar in charge of the guitar, bass and percussion arrangements, with instructions about how they should sound. Bowie brought many song ideas he had in Switzerland to the sessions; some, including "What in the World", were brought back from ''The Idiot''.

According to biographer Paul Trynka, Eno arrived after the backing tracks for side one were "essentially" finished. Shortly before arriving, Eno had recorded with Harmonia, who would serve as a major influence on the recording of ''Low''. On his arrival, Eno and Bowie sat down with the musicians and informed them of the next stage in the recording process. According to Young, they played tapes of the ''Man Who Fell to Earth'' soundtrack for the musicians and said they planned something similar. Young added he and some of the other musicians were not fond of the idea, as it was outside their experiences. Bowie thought RCA would feel the same way, warning: "We don't know if this will ever be released, but I have to do this." Visconti insisted on completing the project, telling Bowie and Eno: "Wasting a month of my time with David Bowie and Brian Eno is not wasting a month of my time." Two weeks into the project, Visconti compiled a tape and played it for Bowie, who was surprised and enthusiastic that they had an album.

Drum sound

''Low'' is noted for its unusual drum sound, described by biographer David Buckley as "brutal" and "mechanistic". Davis played the drums, which Visconti processed using an Eventide H910 Harmonizer. The Harmonizer was the first commercially available pitch-shifting device, which could alter the pitch of a sound without changing the speed. When Bowie asked what it did, Visconti replied, "It fucks with the fabric of time."

Visconti rigged the Harmonizer to Davis's snare drum and monitored the results through his headphones. Speaking to Buckley, Visconti said: "My brain nearly exploded when I found what I could do with drums." He fed the pitch-altered sound back into the device, creating "an infinite dropping of hepitch, ever renewing itself".

Buckley describes the sound, particularly evident on "Speed of Life", "Breaking Glass" and "Sound and Vision", as "revolutionary" and "stunning". Davis said it sounded "as big as a house". Bud Scoppa of ''Phonograph Record'' compares the sound to "cherry bombs exploding under tin cans". Trynka writes that Davis's "spirit and energy" propel the album's first side "ever onward". On its release, Kris Needs of ''ZigZag'' magazine called the drum sound one of the best sounds he had ever heard; Rob Sheffield of ''Rolling Stone'' later described it as "one of rock's all-time most imitated drum sounds".

Studio atmosphere

With no deadline or planned structure, the mood during the sessions, says Seabrook, was "upbeat and relaxed". The studio was in the middle of the French countryside, and the musicians bonded and experimented regularly. According to Trynka, Eno was responsible for Bowie's motivation. Even Alomar – the most resistant to Eno's "avant-garde bullshit" – warmed to the experimentation.

Seabrook writes that everyone ate together, watched the British television programme ''Fawlty Towers'' in their free time, and entertained each other with stories. Gardiner said, "We had some good conversations about music, astrology – the world." Davis was the "comedian" during the sessions, performing acts and telling tales. As well as contributing backing vocals to "What in the World", Pop was present throughout the sessions. Gardiner recalled him being "fit, healthy and positive". Like Davis, he encouraged a positive atmosphere by telling stories of his time with the Stooges.

The sessions were not without problems. Most of the Château's staff were on holiday, leaving an inexperienced engineer and a kitchen staff who did not serve a variety of meals. Months after the sessions, Visconti said: "We found the studio totally useless. The people who own it now don't seem to care. We all came down with dysentery." Bowie and Visconti both contracted food poisoning.

Bowie was in a fragile state of mind throughout the sessions, as his days of cocaine addiction were not far behind him. "''Low'' was largely drug-free," he remarked. "That was the first instance in a very long time that I'd gone into an album without anything like that to help me along. I was scared, because I thought that maybe my creativity had to be bound up with drugs – that it enhanced my ability to make music. But that album turned out okay." He also had conflicts with his wife and faced legal problems after firing his manager Michael Lippman; he left the sessions in September 1976 to work on resolving the case. Despite the problems, Visconti recalled that he, Bowie and Eno were working "at their peak".

By the end of September, Bowie and Visconti had grown tired of the Château. Bowie was mentally drained; Visconti frustrated by the lack of outside assistance. After recording the wordless vocals for "Warszawa", Bowie, Visconti, Pop and Bowie's assistant Coco Schwab left France for West Berlin. The sessions continued at Hansa Studios. According to Nicholas Pegg and Seabrook, it was not the same "Hansa by the Wall" location where ''Low'' would be mixed and ''"Heroes"'' would be recorded. At Hansa, the final tracks, "Weeping Wall" and "Art Decade", were completed, as well as vocal overdubs for the Château recordings. Recording continued until early October 1976, and mixing was finished later that month.

Songs

''Low'' features Bowie's first explorations of electronic and ambient music. ''Ultimate Classic Rock'' and ''Consequence of Sound'' retrospectively categorised ''Low'' as art rock and experimental rock, respectively. Along with its successor ''"Heroes"'', the songs on ''Low'' emphasise tone and atmosphere, rather than guitar-based rock. German bands like Tangerine Dream, Neu! and Kraftwerk influenced the music. Seabrook considers Neu! the biggest influence on Bowie's new musical direction; he explained that their 1975 album ''Neu! '75'' is, like ''Low'' and ''"Heroes"'', characterised by a song/instrumental split and contains a song titled "Hero". Ron Hart of ''The Observer'' recognised Kraftwerk's ''Radio-Activity'' (1975) as an influence, noting that album's harmony of "experimentalism and repetition" as providing the template for ''Low''.

Side one consists primarily of short, direct avant-pop song-fragments; side two comprises longer, mostly instrumental tracks. In 1977, Bowie said side one was about himself and his "prevailing moods" at the time and side two is about his musical observations of living in Berlin. Musically, one reviewer characterised side one as a direct extension of ''Young Americans'' and ''Station to Station''. Regarding the song/instrumental split, Visconti said: "We felt that getting six or seven songs with Bowie singing, with choruses and verses, still make for a good album ... then making the second side instrumental gave a perfect yin-yang balance." Biographer Chris O'Leary writes that the instrumental pieces share the theme of "a tour of an imaginary Eastern Europe by the isolate, paranoiac character of ''Low''s manic side". Some tracks, including "Speed of Life" and "A New Career in a New Town", were originally going to have lyrics, but Bowie could not come up with suitable words and left them as instrumentals. The instrumentals feature contributions from Eno, who used his portable EMS AKS synthesiser. Visconti recalled, "It had no keyboard, just a joystick, and he came up with wonderful sounds you can hear all over the album that weren't produced by conventional instruments."

Side one

Author Peter Doggett describes "Speed of Life" as a perfect opening track, in the sense that it brings the audience into "a subject too profound for words". It features a rapid fade-in that Pegg believes makes for a "bizarre" opener, writing that " t's as ifthe listener has just arrived within earshot of something that's already started". "Breaking Glass" is a song-fragment, featuring six lines of lyrics, two of them demanding the audience "listen" and "see". Eno said of the track, "the feeling around was that we'd edit together ... and turn it into a more normal structure" before Alomar vetoed the idea and recommended leaving it as it was. Credited to Bowie, Murray and Davis, Alomar recalled the trio mainly composed the song. O'Leary writes "What in the World" was created around the beginning of the sessions and was possibly slated for inclusion on ''The Idiot''; it features backing vocals from Pop. The song is one of the few tracks on ''Low'' to combine art rock with more straightforward pop. According to Pegg, it features a "wall of synthesiser bleeps against a barrage of guitar sound nddistorted percussion effects". The lyrics describe a little girl who is stuck in her room.

"Sound and Vision" contains wordless backing vocals from Hopkin, which she recorded before there were lyrics, a title or a melody. Bowie's vocals take a full 1:45 to appear; Eno insisted on this to "confound listener expectations". Described by Bowie as his "ultimate retreat song", the lyrics reflect his mental state following his long period of drug addiction. They provide a stark contrast to the music itself, which is more joyous and upbeat. Buckley writes that the track is the closest to a "conventional pop song" on the album. The lyrics of "Always Crashing in the Same Car" reference an incident when Bowie kept ramming his car into that of a drug dealer who was ripping him off in Los Angeles. In a broader context, the lyrics are a metaphor for making the same mistake repeatedly and Bowie's obsessive need to travel and change his lifestyle. O'Leary calls the song "the depression in the middle of the 'manic' side". Seabrook considers it the only song on side one that has a definite beginning and end.

Bowie described his lyrics to "Be My Wife" as "genuinely anguished, I think". They reflect Bowie's feelings of loneliness, his inability to settle, and constitute a plea for human connections. Several biographers have suggested the lyrics allude to Bowie's failing marriage. Musically, the track is led by a "barrelling bar-room piano", played by Young. Wilcken writes that "Always Crashing in the Same Car" and "Be My Wife" are the only tracks on ''Low'' that have more conventional song structures. "A New Career in a New Town", as its title suggests, is an instrumental that acts as a musical transition. It begins as an electronic piece, before moving into a more rock-style tune enhanced by a harmonica solo from Bowie. Doggett and O'Leary describe the solo as reminiscent of blues music. The title reflects Bowie's upcoming move to Berlin.

Side two

"Warszawa", the opening track of what O'Leary calls ''Low''s "night" side, is named after the Polish city of Warsaw, which Bowie visited in April 1976. He found the landscape to be desolate and wanted to capture this through music. Eno mostly composed the song. He heard Visconti's four-year-old son playing A, B, C in a constant loop on the studio piano and used this phrase to create the main theme. The piece is haunting, featuring wordless vocals from Bowie that Doggett describes as reminiscent of a "monkish vocal chorale". Buckley calls it the "most startling" piece on the album. In 1977, Bowie said that " Art Decade", a pun on "art decayed," is about West Berlin, "a city cut off from its world, art and culture, dying with no hope of retribution". Heavily influenced by Eno's ambient work, the piece paints visual impressions and evokes feelings of melancholy and beauty. O'Leary writes that for a time, the piece was co-credited to Eno. Hansa engineer Eduard Meyer played cello on the track.

Bowie played every instrument on the third instrumental, "Weeping Wall". Influenced by minimalist composer Steve Reich, the main melody is an adaptation of the tune " Scarborough Fair". Bowie uses synthesisers, vibraphone, xylophone and wordless vocals to create a sense of frustration and imprisonment. The piece is reportedly meant to evoke the pain and misery caused by the Berlin Wall. Bowie described "Subterraneans" as a portrait of "the people who got caught in East Berlin after the separation, hence the faint jazz saxophones representing the memory of what it was". Originally recorded for the aborted ''The Man Who Fell to Earth'' soundtrack, the piece contains wordless vocals similar to "Warszawa". Doggett describes Bowie's saxophone solo as "remarkable".

Artwork and release

George Underwood, Bowie's school friend, designed ''Low''s cover artwork. Similar to the artwork for ''Station to Station'', it features an altered still frame from ''The Man Who Fell to Earth''. Bowie is seen in profile as his character from the film, Thomas Jerome Newton, wearing a duffel coat set against an orange background. His hair is the same colour as the background, which Wilcken says "underlines the solipsistic notion of place reflecting person, object and subject melding into one". Wilcken notes that as ''The Man Who Fell to Earth'' was out of theatres by the time of ''Low''s release, the design choice was not to promote the film, but to show the connection between it and the album. Buckley writes that the cover was a visual pun, meaning 'low profile'; many did not understand the joke until Bowie pointed it out in a later interview.

Bowie's previous albums, ''Young Americans'' and ''Station to Station'', were massive commercial successes. RCA Records was eager to have another best-seller from the artist but, on hearing ''Low'', label staff were shocked. In a letter to Bowie, RCA rejected the album and urged him to make a record more like ''Young Americans''. Bowie kept the rejection letter on his wall at home. His former manager, Tony Defries, also tried preventing its release due to his royalty settlement in the artist's fortunes following their erroneous 1975 split. After Bowie refused to make any changes, RCA delayed ''Low'' from its original planned release date in November 1976. According to Seabrook, the label's executives considered the album to be "distinctly unpalatable" for the Christmas market.

RCA eventually released ''Low'' on 14 January 1977—less than a week after Bowie's 30th birthday—with the catalogue number PL 12030. The album received little to no promotion from both RCA or Bowie, who felt it was his "least commercial" record to that point. He opted to tour as Iggy Pop's keyboardist instead. ''Low'' became a commercial success, entering the UK Albums Chart at number 37 before peaking at number two the following week; Slim Whitman's ''Red River Valley'' kept the album from the top spot. It remained on the chart for 30 weeks. In the US, ''Low'' entered the ''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tape chart at number 82, peaking at number 11 four weeks later and remaining on the chart for 20 weeks.

Singles

"Sound and Vision" was released as the first single on 11 February 1977, with the instrumental "A New Career in a New Town" as the B-side. It reached number three on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Bowie's highest charting new single in the UK since " Sorrow" in 1973. The song did not fare so well in the US, peaking at number 69 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and signalling Bowie's commercial downturn in the country until 1983. Although Bowie did not promote it, Pegg writes the single was an "instant turntable favourite" and was bolstered by the BBC
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