A smooth and erudite Cavett tries to engage Bowie ("David, what kind of student were you in school?") and the result is peculiarly gripping TV viewing. Bowie's halfway on another planet, of course, rambling on about "black noise" killing entire cities. Bowie's never been easy to pin down, but at this early stage in his career and with the personal problems he was undergoing, he comes across as vulnerable and arrogant at the same time. "I'm a storyteller and a storywriter," he says. "…Nothing that I do is on any kind of intellectual slant." You just want to pack this poor emaciated lad off to a spa for a week of rest, really.
The album includes on the DVD/CD new audio mixes by Tony Visconti in 5.1: DTS sound, which I unfortunately don't have the equipment to check out. The liner notes also include a nice look back at the recording and reaction to Young Americans as well as a chronology of what Bowie was up to in 1974 and 1975. The three "extra" tracks here, "John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)," "Who Can I Be Now?" and "It's Gonna Be Me (with strings)," have all been issued in previous releases of this disc, so there's nothing new here, and I find them less essential than the rest of the album.
One of Bowie's later big hits was titled "Let's Dance," but frankly that might have been an even better title for this album. Nowhere else in the thin white duke's resume will you find an album so consumed by the beat. The rare video footage included here is a real time capsule bonus and a glimpse into Bowie's fractured mindset of the time. If you've never heard Young Americans before, this is the perfect edition to get your groove on again with.
Article comments
1 - zingzing
i have a love/hate relationship with this album. i love the idea and about half the songs. i think bowie really got into soul and wanted to record his take on it, but went about it too fast and just didn't have the songs to back it up. the highs are as high as anything in his career, but the lows are pretty bleak things.
still, the 74-76 bowie stuff is some of his most interesting... kind of like his 69-71 stuff, where he changed direction with every album. he almost always came out ahead, particularily on hunky dory and station to station, but he could fall flat on his face as well. that's what so great about bowie. he always took chances and teetered on the edge.
2 - Connie Phillips
Congrats! This article has been forwarded to the Advance.net websites and Boston.com.