Recorded during an insane time in Bowie's life, the album stands as his masterpiece to these ears.
That said, RtBE aren't the biggest Bowie fans. His early work can be too thin, his Berlin Trilogy is too ambient, and his later years were more miss than hit. He is a good Greatest Hits artist, but for full albums, Station to Station is the one that will get played top to bottom.
Reading about the recording of this album should be enough to keep anyone off cocaine, as his Thin White Duke persona emerged from his drug fueled days and nights. The cover photo sets the tone, taken during filming The Man Who Fell to Earth, the black and white, other worldly sense of isolation is exactly what Bowie was going for on Station to Station.
The album works so wonderfully because it is an amalgamation of all of Bowies styles as an artist, sometimes from line to line. Funk, pop, soul, art rock, repetition, noise, theatrical drama, spacey wandering, it all comes together here. Each song runs long, but perhaps only "Word on a Wing" feels bloated, the rest seem like they could ramble on forever.
That is especially applicable for the title track, RtBE's favorite Bowie song. The artsy beginning lends itself perfectly for the band to kicking up into driving, funk adjacent rock that just feels like it could roll on forever, and I am sure some nights for these guys it did. "Golden Years" calms, the freakout down, polishing the funky beats a bit pop for the masses, but it still bumps gloriously. The B-side kicks off with more angular funk of "TVC15" as Bowie is clearly in transition on this album before his arty Berlin days and his 1975 funk/soul phase.
That bit of transition is the key to unlocking the artist in Bowie. Always searching, always moving and evolving from one alter ego to the next. The album ends with his version of the standard "Wild Is The Wind" which none other than Frank Sinatra complimented him on, as Bowie delivered a tribute to his favorite version of the tune, sung by Nina Simone.
So on this day, let's enjoy the album, here are a few tunes to get you started:
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