How would you rate "Tonight" (1984) by David Bowie?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Haristar, Jul 27, 2017.

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  1. MHP

    MHP Lover of Rock ‘n Roll

    Location:
    DK
    I have always felt that this record was indeed a weak effort.
    However, the song sequence are also totally wrong-headed.
    Here is my attempt at a tracklist which gives the album a better flow.:

    Side 1:

    Loving The Alien
    Neighborhood Threat
    Blue Jean
    Tonight

    Side 2:

    Tumble And Twirl
    Don't Look Down
    I Keep Forgetting
    God Only Knows
    Dancing With The Big Boys
     
  2. footprintsinthesand

    footprintsinthesand Reasons to be cheerful part 1

    Location:
    Dutch mountains
    That's a modest first step. Now replace all the tracks that are covers with the originals and for the remaining tracks use the demo versions and you're done.
     
  3. pottsbotts

    pottsbotts New Member

    Location:
    Salt Lake City
    Three covers in a row? God only knows how you thought that was a good idea.
     
  4. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc

    Location:
    England
    An admirable effort but mine would have to be:

    Side 1:

    Blue Jean


    Side 2:

    Loving the Alien
     
  5. Markyp

    Markyp Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louth
    Side 1
    Blue Jean
    Loving the Alien

    Side 2
    The rest

    That saves playing side 2 at all and getting out your chair to flip it!
     
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  6. Khaki F

    Khaki F Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kenosha, WI. USA
    I guess we all have our personal reactions to Bowie's releases. My first contact with his music was hearing "All The Madmen" on the radio. I didn't get that album, but as soon as "Hunky Dory" came out, I grabbed a copy and became a fan instantly. Ziggy was mind blowing to me, Aladdin Sane was a bit of a disappointment, and I loved Pinups.

    BTW after Ziggy came out I got his whole back catalog at that time.

    Diamond Dogs was a bit of a disappointment. It kind of dragged. I didn't like Young Americans much at all. Station To Station brought me back, and as much as I tried to like Low, it didn't do much for me. Heroes did less, and Lodger was a real disappointment. Scary Monsters struck me as his best album in ages, and I loved Let's Dance. Then, Tonight came out... I jumped off the Bowie train when I heard it, and never got into his work again.

    Is "Tonight" that bad of an album? Probably not. For me, it was just another less-than-eventful event in Bowie's career, and by that time I'd had enough of those. Guess you could say it was the album that made me tired of Bowie.
     
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  7. MHP

    MHP Lover of Rock ‘n Roll

    Location:
    DK
    Not quite a Bowie fan, are you?
    More a casual listener of selective works. Right?
     
  8. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc

    Location:
    England
    Interesting stuff although I differ on several bits, and very interesting first exposure. Not many people I guess had All the Madmen as their first exposure?

    I remember as a kid circa 1982 reading the title of that song in a piece on the favourite music of then Bauhaus singer Peter Murphy. That and Bewlay Brothers were his favourites, and being a Bauhaus fan I made a mental note to check them out as soon as I could! I only had Ziggy and Scary at that point IIRC, and a few random used Bowie 45s.
     
  9. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc

    Location:
    England
    Or, could get out of the chair and put this side 2 on instead... :)

    [​IMG]
     
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  10. Sidsalinger

    Sidsalinger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, Texas
    I hadn't listened to Tonight for 20+ years (it wasn't included in my 1990's transition from vinyl to CD as I recalled it being pretty inferior Bowie). However, a recent listening convinced me it was better than I remembered. So much so that I sought out a rare-ish japanese CD with superior dynamic range.
     
  11. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Guess I missed this thread originally!

    "So-so, not great but not bad"

    One great song, one very good one, a couple of decent tracks and then some blech!
     
  12. Khaki F

    Khaki F Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kenosha, WI. USA
    Wrong. I thought Space Oddity through Pinups were fantastic. Aladdin Sane sounded muddy to me, so I didn't like it as much, but still consider it good work. I thought Live at Santa Monica was great, and the Ziggy movie is something I've watched a lot, in spite of the shoddy camera work and less than stellar sound. I've seen the 1980 Floor Show quite a few times, and have attended three of his concerts.

    As I've mentioned, I thought Station To Station, Scary Monsters, and Let's Dance were good comeback efforts. I think that qualifies as being a little more than casually into his work.
     
  13. DrJ

    DrJ Senior Member

    Location:
    Davis, CA, USA
    I also voted option 3. For somewhat similar reasons. I was a young dude in college when it came out, no money but having a blast, with a hot, music-loving (and Bowie-lusting) girlfriend. Life was simple, and good...hey, what the hell happened?! :laugh:

    Apart from the two tracks everyone else has mentioned as strong ones, I really like "Don't Look Down" and "Tumble and Twirl" as well, and "Tonight" and "Neighborhood Threat" are inoffensive. On the other hand I do think he misfired badly on "God Only Knows" (partly because it's just a difficult song to cover without sounding mawkish - and how you gonna match up to the sublime original?), and "Dancing With the Big Boys" is tedious.

    So yeah, LET'S DANCE was the best from this period, but TONIGHT isn't half bad, and better than NEVER LET ME DOWN and BLACK TIE, WHITE NOISE.
     
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  14. Audioresearch

    Audioresearch Forum Resident

    I have it only to complete My collection
     
  15. NightGoatToCairo

    NightGoatToCairo Forum Resident

    Location:
    .
    Along with NLMD?
     
  16. dividebytube

    dividebytube Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grand Rapids, MI
    Ugh - When I was a pre-teen I was a raving Bowie fanatic and thought Scary Monsters was the best thing I had ever heard. But when Let's Dance came out, it was an inferior album to my ears. Tonight was just the capper - I lost all interest in Bowie by then. As a teenager I went in a completely new musical direction, and haven't returned to the Bowie fold until just a few years ago. Now I'm back to being a big, big fan.

    But Tonight - with the two exceptions already mentioned - still doesn't do much for me. Though I do sorta-kinda like God Only Knows but I'm a sentimental slob ;)
     
  17. NightGoatToCairo

    NightGoatToCairo Forum Resident

    Location:
    .
    Pre-teens are so immature ;)
    What made you return to Bowie?
     
  18. dividebytube

    dividebytube Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grand Rapids, MI
    Record collecting - I had one or two Bowie albums that I bought cheaply for my wife to listen to. And then I remembered how much I enjoyed Bowie, and realized how much impact he had on my life: in what I like about music, and as something different than what I experienced growing up in a very conservative backwater of a suburb. A large percentage of the music I listen to today could be associated with Bowie in some way - like post-punk, new wave, dark wave, cold wave, etc.
     
  19. NightGoatToCairo

    NightGoatToCairo Forum Resident

    Location:
    .
    So what was the first newly released album you picked up after the hiatus?
     
  20. DHamilton

    DHamilton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Earth
    don't look down is awesome...
     
  21. NightGoatToCairo

    NightGoatToCairo Forum Resident

    Location:
    .
    It's one of the better tracks.
     
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  22. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Do you have the 2003 DVD? I thought it offered massive auditory improvements compared to prior releases...
     
  23. DHamilton

    DHamilton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Earth
    wasn't the original LP mastered by Rob Ludwig? I know my copy sounds pretty pretty good.
     
  24. Khaki F

    Khaki F Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kenosha, WI. USA
    I do, but I haven't watched much of it. I'm really not that much into Bowie these days.
     
  25. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    Oh, I love Tonight, especially the first side with highlights being "Loving the Alien" and "God Only Knows". The only really bad track on this is the cover of "Neighborhood Threat" - it really hurts fans of the original!

    There are many better Bowie albums, but personally I put Tonight at least on par with Ziggy Stardust. I'm digging that sweet 80s pop music! ;)
     
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