David Bowie’s Let’s Dance. My first album by him. Great place to start.

Modern Love is a horrible song. Still today. It's diabolical.

However, on your point about it not being rolled up with artist expectations - I want to defend that somewhat. The thing is, if you were around at the time of release, then you had expectations going in. That's perfectly natural. You've been following an artist for years, they have a new album out, and you grab it. You grab it based on expectations that you liked everything else, why should this be any different? Sure Bowie changed somewhat, but he was never less than interesting. That is, until Let's Dance.

Of course, if you came late to the party then a lot of expectation things is irrelevant, especially in a streaming age. I get that.

Either way - I can't think of any good excuses for Modern Love and China Girl.

 

But that depends on your opinion of the new album being that it is uninteresting, in its own right. If it’s just that it’s merely different from what you were expecting from that artist (which seems like a silly way to approach Bowie by that time, right?), but it’s still good, then that’s an unfair judgement, IMO.

Now, your judgement of Let’s Dance seems to be that it is uninteresting (I disagree, but that’s personal taste). You wouldn’t like it if it had some other artist’s name on it, either. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about more of a Dylan-goes-electric reaction, maybe?

 

Ridiculous.

 

Ya, simply rubbish.

 

I'm not even sure what we're discussing here. If you have a favorite artist, and they release something new, how do you NOT go into it with certain expectations? Arn't expectations the very essence of what makes you interested in the artist in the first place? Bowie had recorded thirteen albums before Let's Dance, and I'd bought all of them and knew them well. Of course one goes in with expectations, and one of the expectations is that I'll actually like it.

Further, with Let's Dance I've had almost 40 years to assess and reassess it. My original thoughts weren't wrong (it goes without saying, others may disagree). I even went to an associated show to see the great man. It was not good, imo. Being "different" is hardly an issue here. We'd already have Young Americans, Low, Scary Monsters etc. by the time Let's Dance arrived. Bowie was master at undermining expectations - but that said, he was always interesting. Let's Dance on the other hand is vapid pop music, all gloss and sheen with no content. That's simply my view. A perfect example of this is the horrible re-recording of Cat People, which went from a dark, compelling song, to a lightweight bit of fluff. He'd made a misstep, for me for the first time in his career. This was evidenced at the show with his bleached hair and powder blue suit. Yikes.

We all have expectations. If Sabbath had suddenly recorded a hip hop album, I think peoples expectations might have been thwarted. I don't think expectations are a bad thing, or limiting on the artist. We just like what we like.

 

Got anything more than a one-liner or single sentence? Or are you too busy being rude to take time to discuss?

 

If you think Modern Love is crap then there something wrong with you. If he’d said “Shake It” is ****e I’d be more amenable.

 

But if Sabbath’s hip hop album was a good hip hop album, and the reason fans didn’t like it was only because they were not hoping for a hip hop album, that is different than if it was truly a bad album.

 

Sure, I have never heard any song described as "diabolical". I have also posted earlier in this thread, if you have read anything earlier in
this thread before you posted. In all fairness that was the first time I have ever used the word "rubbish". Maybe that's rude?

 

Not a whole lot of context or explanation in posting the word "Rubbish" and leaving it at that. So yeah, it's rude, imo. This is a discussion forum, after all.

As for "Get me to the church on tiiiiime", it is indeed, diabolical; some sweet confection dreamed up by Satan and served up as tincture for dead ears. IMO. YMMV.

 

You're extrapolating far too much. You judge each album on its own merits. You either like it or not. But as I say, if you've been following an artist for 15 or so years, you'll obviously have expectations that you'll like their next effort. I've no idea how being a fan of someones work can be any different. Hell, the song Let's Dance is pretty good - I just wasn't expecting the rest of the album to be....... that. I can remember seeing "Cat People" listed on the cover, and knowing I liked that (I already had the soundtrack version). So yeah, it was a bit of a shock to find it murdered in full view.

 

It's certainly not my favorite song on the album. - I have been beaten by nuns, so I know "getting to a Church" can be diabolical. - So, o.k. ...

 

In my defense, even Bowie saw this was a dead end.

And just to add more confusion into the pot, I've made friends with Tonight after all these years. We're humans, not machines thinking in binary. We like what we like, and explaining why can be difficult. Still, every time I give Let's Dance again, those two damn songs just drag me down.

 

I suggest making a Playlist and just leave those two songs out. I never waste time listening to songs I don't like on an album.

 

Of course you’d have expectations of liking it. And then you didn’t like it. But you didn’t like it because of its own merits (or lack thereof, in your opinion), not because it wasn’t what you specifically wanted from David Bowie’s next album. If you would have liked it with a different artist’s name on it, that is a different thing than truly not liking it as it stands on its own.

 

Oops! That is correct.

In rereading my original post I find it a little harsh. It wasn't my intention to demean anyone who likes the Let's Dance LP. I certainly enjoy the singles when I hear them randomly (especially Modern Love) and Bowie's plastic dance music is definitely a cut above Duran Duran's. And after all, Let's Dance is simply another brilliant chameleon phase in a career filled with them.

Bowie had been previously accused of "selling out" and "going disco" in 1975-1976 but the Young Americans LP actually contains some pretty personal lyrics while Golden Years is so damn irresistible and great that it can't be seen as anything but a high point.

I suppose Let's Dance is a good accessible entry into Bowie's catalog in that (except for Tonight and Never Let Me Down) (and Dancing In The Street, yeccch) there really is only one direction to go and that's up. Unfortunately every time I hear the title song I flash on that shot in the video of Bowie pretending to play guitar while wearing white gloves.

 

It’s great that everyone has a different opinion of Let’s Dance.

I knew when starting this thread it would be a mixed bag.

 

"Let's Dance" was my first new Bowie album as well. My dad had "Ziggy" so I knew the name but "Let's Dance" indefinitely resonanted more with me. It wouldn't take long until classmates started bringing Bowie records to school, RCA "Best Buy" series. Some of the sleeves intrigued me. Even though it would take me a couple of years to really dive in. In 1983 Bowie felt like God. There wasn't an "80's period" yet.

 

I'm three years younger than you, but my uncle used to play me his Bowie and T. Rex albums, so I was about eight when Aladdin Sane came out (I loved the 'Drive-In Saturday' single) and I can remember loving the sound of it, but obviously the decadence and seediness of it passed me right by. For years! But I can remember most of the kids at school being interested in the pop of music of the day. I used to buy singles with my pocket money from a market stall then, where they were cheaper - you just waited till they fell out of the top 50. Saving for an LP took about two months, but I would get them for birthdays and at Christmas as presents, so that boosted my collection. Then, once you left school, you could buy all the stuff you could never get before. That was a great feeling! I still love all that Glam-era stuff, T. Rex, Bowie, Roxy, etc.

Did you see Bowie and the Spiders performing 'Starman' on Lift Off With Ayshea, Bobby? This was before the famous TOTP appearance. I used to come home from primary school and watch that. I remember Olivia on there, singing 'Banks of the Ohio'...

 

Haven’t really got strong memories of Lift Off.. I’m sure I watched it, but if I did it would around mid to late 1973. Never saw ONJ on there.

I remember Supersonic and Shang A Lang better than Lift Off.

Yes, LPs had to be thought out when you were a kid. Couldn’t go wasting £2-odd on a record you might not like.

I wouldn’t have dared buy a Bowie album in 1973... As much as I liked his singles, I think he scared me a bit.

 

Ah, even Alice Cooper didn't scare me (I'm still a big fan of his).

I remember Shang A Lang and that Arrows show around the same time (and another one with Stephanie de Sykes and Gordon Bennett, but the name escapes me), but Supersonic was great at the time. I've got a DVD, T. Rex on TV, which features many of Marc Bolan's appearances on there, including the infamous 'white swan' sequence. Then, of course, there was Marc...

 

Hmm, Let's Dance normalised him and there didn't seem to be much left after that. A big part part of his appeal was that people thought he was weird, or at least strange.

 

'Shake It' is terrible. Thank goodness it's the last track.

 

Great song.

Confessional: I've never tried to "dance the blues".

 

If you ever wonder where they got the production style for the song Let's Dance from, it might be from this effort, which dates from the spring of 1982 -

Hambi and the Dance, Standing in the Rain: