Don’t you know we’re back on trial again today…
Twenty years ago today, David Bowie released his seventeenth studio album, Never Let Me Down.
The album hasn’t weathered well over the years…it’s had a track surgically removed from it, never to be spoken of again, and even it’s creator hasn’t said the kindest things about it. This bad feeling for the album is reflected in the current BowieNet poll, where NLMD is fourth from the bottom, only just ahead of Tonight and the two Tin Machine studio albums.
Even the sleeve has been the subject of some fairly vicious criticism, though I have to say, while it ain’t Diamond Dogs, I personally love the cover of Never Let Me Down. But, I am with the majority regarding the musical content. Obviously there are stand-out moments, but it’s a patchy album at best, blighted by a typically nasty eighties production.
However, the album does have its fans. BowieNetter Dez, among others, has been quick to jump to its defence when ever the album is being trampled upon on the MBs. Dez has written an uncharacteristically short piece for the news about his feelings for the release in the context of 1987, but he recently posted a characteristically long, and an even more typically excellent, appreciation of the album on the MBs that you can read here.
Before I hand you over to Dez, I should tell you that you need to come back tomorrow for your chance to win one of only five NLMD press folders, signed, very kindly, just this last week by David, see above.
The folders are empty and have been a teeny weeny bit dinked in transport, but it is David Bowie’s 2007 autograph for goodness sake, and they’re ideal for framing, as they say on eBay.
Over to you Mr Tinch…
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So in 1987 Bowie did it again, he stubbornly courted controversy by releasing Never Let Me Down. A guitar driven LP that was his equivalent of Shakespeare?s ?As You Like It? (Shakespeare wrote that play to assuage the demands of his audience and patrons). It was an LP built to be toured, just like Reality.
True to form it split his audience and following on from the success of Let?s Dance the audience was especially large. Never Let Me Down is a sonic expressionistic assault on the savage world of 1987. This is how I read/hear it now when I hear it in that 1987 context (all supposition of course).
As DB reached the zenith of popular sub culture life should have felt good, after all, it was all he ever wanted ? a street with a deal ? but then he turned to face the strange world and what did he see?
A world of the disenfranchised (Day In Day Out),
A polluted world – where fascists assume control from humble beginnings (Time will Crawl),
A mass communicative world where the media can show you what you want and make you want it (Beat of Your Drum),
An unforgiving world where the love, companionship and forgiveness of a good friend can see you through the dark times (Never Let Me Down),
A nostalgic world where a hankering for the past can temporarily camouflage the awfulness of the present (Zeroes),
An isolationist world where we are left on our own and to our own devices with no matriarch/patriarch to show us the way ? we need you ? Big Brother (Glass Spider),
A world of extremes where the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ can live together and not recognise each other for what they are (Shining Star and New York?s in Love),
A world where there is no such thing as society, where it?s dog eats dog, where there is no need to feel responsible for others or actions and where we live with somebody else?s depression (87 and Cry),
A world where jealousy is reason enough to be violent (Too Dizzy) and,
A world where loneliness can be assuaged by desire and where people are willing victims because they know what they want (Bang Bang).
Never Let Me Down is, for me, a glorious and nihilistic guilt trip. Of course, who of us wanted to hear that when we had Whitney Michael and the Bangles at number 1 and a comedian extolling the virtue of having ?loadsa? money?
Here we are as the twenty first century dies if we want to know why just look back to ?87 and cry.
Happy Birthday Never Let Me Down – thanks DB.
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Thanks Dez, much appreciated. I’m sure there are many more of you that agree NLMD is undervalued, and who knows where it will sit in a favourite album poll in another ten years from now.
