David Bowie "Let's Dance" 1983***

I've been reading MOJO's account of the recording of Bowie's "Let's Dance" album and decided to take the old vinyl out for a spin. To me it was always Bowie's commercial pop LP: good for its time but not on a par with Ziggy Stardust. Re-listening to it now, it's obviously not as simple as that. Its elegant disco/funk rhythm was the obvious selling point, courtesy of the producer Nile Rogers (of Chic fame). Bowie approached him with a return to commercial hits in mind, and Nile successfully worked his magic to that effect. It's not surprising that I wasn't drawn to it back in the 80's. I wasn't above dancing as a teen, but I'd much rather play air guitar. If I had listened more carefully I might have marvelled at the restrained and tasteful licks by Stevie Ray Vaughan. He wasn't a guitar god then, just a talented young player singled out by Bowie at the Montreux jazz festival. But he injects just the right amount of rock into the proceedings to keep it from being a straight disco/new wave album - just like Eddie Van Halen did with Michael Jackson's "Thriller", the album that stole that year's Grammy right under Bowie's nose. SRV cuts especially loose on "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)", which is the saving grace of this particular version. 

Otherwise, the Giorgio Moroder-produced original from the Cat People soundtrack is a much stronger performance with a superior vocal. Which reminds me I've got to see the movie again and compare it to the film-noir 1942 original. Another feature of Let's Dance that I enjoyed more this time around is its jazzy saxophone, so prominent on tracks like opener "Modern Love" - as well as the doo-wop backing vocals. "China Girl" was a Bowie-Iggy Pop co-write from Iggy's '77 album The Idiot. Rodger's ultra-pop sheen took the single to no.2 at UK and no.10 at USA, but Iggy's performance is unsurpassed. "Let's Dance" has Rodgers' signature all over it. Apparently he took a "folky" demo and turned it into a discotheque staple. Being more familiar with the 7' single version, I found the one on the LP unnecessarily long. "Without You" is an elegant romantic tune and sounds curiously like a Roxy Music pastiche. With all four of the album's singles crammed on side one, side two is a more hodge-podge affair with the world music-influenced "Ricochet", throwaway disco of "Shake It", and a new wave cover of Metro's "Criminal World". I'm grateful for the alternative version of "Cat People" (I love both of them) but I'm sure it was recorded as a filler. Anyway, Let's Dance achieved its purpose to make Bowie a star again even though nowadays it isn't spoken of with the reverence everyone reserves for his earlier albums. It took a magazine article for me to really hear the R&B roots under the outdated disco production and re-appreciate it, but even so it's not among my favourite Bowie LP's.

***** for Cat People (Putting out Fire) 

**** for Modern Love,  China Girl, Let's Dance 

*** for Without You, Ricochet, Criminal World

** for Shake It