““You know who I am,” he said”
You all know Donny McCaslin and his band via the magnificent work they contributed to David Bowie’s Blackstar album.
For our last DBDCOTD, we suspected Catherine Russell might opt for one of Bowie’s more jazz-flavoured recordings, given her own jazz leanings. But instead she went for Joe The Lion, from “Heroes”.
So, despite his own jazz credentials, we made no assumptions this time. Donny has chosen the superb Look Back In Anger from 1979’s Bowie/Visconti-produced Lodger album.
Promoted by the David Mallet directed video for the song, the track was released as an A-side 45 in the US and Canada in August, 1979.
With a nod to Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, the video may not have been a contributing factor to the record’s commercial failure. However, it’s hard to deny that as the film progressed Bowie wasn’t at his prettiest (see accompanying screen grab), albeit a look only achieved with the aid of make-up. Despite this, it’s a great video well worth a look.
Look Back In Anger was a live favourite, even kicking off proceedings for many of the 1983 Serious Moonlight shows.
Anyway, here Donny explains why he finds the song so special…
“I’ve been listening to Look Back In Anger recently and loving it. The urgency of the song hits me immediately. Drummer Dennis Davis is wailing on it from the beginning and David’s vocal is great. I love the strength of the melody he wrote and the triumphant way he sings it. Also I’m drawn to the way they orchestrated the sustained chords throughout, which is a great counterpoint to the busy bass line and drum groove.
The guitar “squawks” remind me of something similar from Blackstar.
After the guitar solo I dig how the bass goes to a new level of depth and resonance. It makes the whole song feel bigger and more climactic. Also, the acoustic piano’s rhythmic jabs bring a great addition to the sonic landscape and build to the end. Great production on this.
Lodger is a great, perhaps underappreciated, album worth a close look. Enjoy!”
Donny McCaslin – September 2016
Thanks Donny, excellent choice.
If you’ve not heard the song, treat yourself here. See if you can spot Brian Eno on Synthesizer, Horse Trumpets and Eroica horn?
Meanwhile Donny releases his latest album, Beyond Now, in ten days. Here’s an excerpt from a piece about it taken from today’s Guardian…
The experience of creating music with Bowie proved so deep, and its aftermath so jarring, that McCaslin decided to turn his new album, Beyond Now, out 14 October, into a tribute. It includes several transformative covers of Bowie songs, including Warszawa from Low, and A Small Plot of Land from Outside, along with a song McCaslin wrote inspired by a piece Bowie left off Blackstar. (That track, plus two other cuts that didn’t make that release, will come out on 21 October on the cast album from the musical Bowie wrote in his last year, Lazarus).
Read the full piece here. Keep up to date with all of Donny’s shenanigans, here on his FB page.
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