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Bowie General > Images Vol. 19

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homebrewPosted at 2025-04-06 18:49:45(3 wks ago) (Bowie General / Images Vol. 19)


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These articles appear just as they were posted in the Usenet group alt.fan.david-bowie by group member Jamie Soule aka aladInsaNE. I have made no attempt to alter the formatting, spelling, grammar or edit in any way.

Images: Part 19

The favourite time of the year over at RCA Records And Tapes was
Christmas. They just loved it, and the people who loved it the most were
the ones who sat as the board of directors and the people who headed up
the accounting and finance departments. This was not because these
people were especially religious in nature, it was more because
Christmas is a time when the record buying public spend shit loads of
money. Appropriately they were already wringing their hands with glee at
the thought of having a new David Bowie album to release just prior to
shopping rush. I am sure they had visions of every good little boy and
girl waking up on Christmas morning to find a nice new David Bowie album
in their stockings. Ooooh, imagine all that money. The shareholders will
be delighted.

Bowie happy delivered Low to RCA on schedule, happy because to him the
album was exactly what he wanted, it was a personal triumph. The
executives at RCA couldn't quite believe their ears when they heard it.
It was certainly different, in keeping with the Bowie style, but there
was something missing on it. The album was played several times and they
did discover a number of things, but each time the same conclusion was
reached, there was definitely something missing. Now, as I said, there
were several discoveries made when Low was played and each of these were
well worth noting, due to their characteristics if nothing else.  They
discovered that What In The World seemed to have a fresh approach to
lyric writing and they had never before heard anything even remotely
similar. They weren't used to songs with just three or four lines that
get repeated over and over and over and over again for several minutes.
Always Crashing In The Same Car got special attention because no one
could quite figure out why anyone would record something like this. I
mean, this wasn't music. They all really perked up at the sound of side
two. Those two lengthy songs that last six and seven minutes really
caught their attention. The lifeless ones with the endless repetitive
drones and unintelligible lyrics. Eventually they did discover what was
missing on Low. It was missing anything that resembled a hit single. The
album had no hit potential whatsoever. This wasn't what good little boys
and girls get for Christmas, this was the punishment for the naughty
ones. They all agreed on one point, this is one David Bowie album that
they couldn't release.

RCA was frantic. The result of the meetings were that Low either had to
be "fixed" or scrapped altogether. They decided to attempt to have it
fixed first.  Still, getting it fixed wasn't going to help the situation
much as it was certain that there wasn't enough time to have it ready by
Christmas. Say goodbye to all that cash.  RCA asked Bowie to come in so
they could tell him what they thought about the album and ask for his
input regarding what the best ways might be to solve this problem. When
Bowie came in they basically told him that Low was not marketable the
way it was and  asked how it might be fixed. To get some airplay for
promotional reasons they needed a single off of Low that could be
distributed to the radio stations, and currently there was nothing they
could use. Unfortunately Bowie could offer no suggestions to fix Low as
he saw no problems with it and the fact that it had no commercial
potential was not a bother to him. Low was written with artistic merits
in mind, not money. Well, if Bowie had no suggestions RCA was full of
them, and they told him in no uncertain terms what he was going to do to
fix Low.  They told him to get his ass back into the studio. First of
all Warszawa. Two things, no big deal. It need something added to it,
lyrics, and the tempo speeded up a bit with some drums added. On, while
he is at it he might as well add some lyrics to those other "songs" that
didn't have any as well. Take a song from Low and remix it so it is
playable on AM radio. It was then that Bowie had an idea and he decided
to run  it by the people at RCA to see what they thought.

Bowie's idea was that RCA could fuck right off. It was his album and it
was exactly what he wanted. Under his contract he was required to
deliver it and he did. There was nothing to fix. RCA was not happy with
Bowie's suggestion, they had another idea. They told Bowie he could fuck
right  off, and they fully intended to use this idea without delay. To
put the idea into its proper perspective, so David could fully
understand the implications, they told him that there was nothing to
market on Low in its present form and therefore they were unprepared to
spend any money on it. They went on to further clarify themselves by
saying that what they meant by spending no money on Low was spending NO
MONEY, NONE, not even to press it. They told Bowie that he can keep the
master tapes and do whatever he wanted with them because RCA had no use
for them at all. The decision was made, RCA refused to release Low. That
was final.
Bowie was a mixture of devastated and furious over the decision of his
record label. They had always sided with him in the past as well as
bailed him out of some fairly messy situations, such as the ones that
were quite commonplace when Bowie was still an artist in the MainMan
portfolio. He could not help but feel that RCA hand slighted him, along
with his work, as he considered Low to be a personal achievement. He
felt strongly enough about his work on this album that he was not going
to take this lying down.  He decided to fight, something he would never
do before, but this character he had adopted was not to be crossed. RCA
should have known that.

Unsure of what rights he had Bowie contacted a friend, who was a lawyer,
in order to investigate all of the possibilities, if any, that existed
as a recourse to the actions of RCA. His friend wanted to first see a
copy of the contract that existed between Bowie and his label. I imagine
Bowie was apprehensive about this because of what might be found in the
small print, considering the fact that it was contracts that were used
in the past to rob him blind. However, having nothing to lose in this
case, and everything to gain, Bowie produced the contract. When he
finally heard back from the lawyer he was told something which would not
have been unexpected,  he heard it many times before. He was told that
there was something in the small print of his contract with RCA and it
would settle this matter, immediately. Bowie contacted RCA and arranged
for a meeting to be held regarding their decision not to release Low.
They were upbeat at the prospect of this meeting thinking of course that
Bowie had come to his senses and would agree to remaking parts of the
album that they wanted changed. Now it could be back to business as
usual, a little late, but back to normal. Although I did not attend the
meeting personally, I was busy that day  giving the cat a flea bath, I
can imagine that everyone was in rather jovial spirits, Bowie included,
with everyone knowing that this situation was about to be resolved.
First of all RCA asked was if Bowie was going to go back into the studio
to apply the fixes to the album RCA wished to have done. The answer was
no. If that was not the case then they wanted to know why they were
wasting their time in a meeting, the decision was final, they would not
release Low under any circumstances until their demands were met.  It
was at this time that RCA was informed that they were going to release
Low, immediately. No they weren't they asserted. As the contract was
placed in front of them they were told that RCA had NO CHOICE, according
to the terms of Bowie's arrangement they HAD TO.  Low was released
January 14, 1977. Low went to number 2 on the British charts and number
11 on the American charts, Sound And Vision, the single chosen from the
album made number 3 in Britain but only went to number 69 in the States.

"A schizoid production, experiments in drone, confounding, stylistic
inconsistency," were some of the words which the critics applied to Low
when they wrote their reviews. In most cases the press was quite unkind
and as Bowie fans we know why. They didn't understand it. We all knew
that they weren't ready for it when it came out, we knew damn well Low
and Heroes were light years ahead of their time. It was proven that we
were right as well. because decades later the community of record
critics that condemned it back then now hail it as one of Bowie's finest
album, if not his best album ever.  To RCA these reviews were reason for
concern, however with enough help from Bowie personally promoting the
album sales should be okay. Bowie was never a big seller but he was
consistent. Radio interviews, magazine interviews, talk shows, plus TV
and personal appearances is what Bowie would do to promote Low. Wrong.
RCA contacted Bowie and he refused to do ANYTHING to promote Low.
NOTHING.  Every request made by the media for an interview with Bowie
was turned down. He would not speak to any member of the media about
Low.  Repeated pleas from RCA were ignored until finally he refused to
take any of their calls. Then he disappeared. The media were getting
rather annoyed at being turned away on every attempt to get some
information, and some questions answered about this new album which was
quite bizarre in most opinions. Fed up they gave up on Bowie, who by now
had slipped away to Berlin without telling anyone to embark on a six
month drinking spree.  Instead they went after Eno and producer Tony
Visconti to get some answers. Eno was quite helpful when asked about
Low. He said it was a  "drifting" kind of a "new muzak" and the opposite
of rock. It had a lot of "anchorage." They asked Visconti if Bowie had
abandoned the pop mainstream to which Visconti answered, "He was never
in it."

Low remains as one of the most brilliant compositions ever written by
anyone. If you are a Bowie fan and you are unkind to Low you do not
understand Bowie. There is a chance you never will. If you dismiss Low
you dismiss the essence of David Bowie. Do not get angry at me for
saying this. You see there is a reason that Bowie refused to promote
Low. He said, "It doesn't need to be discussed. It speaks for itself."

Enough said for now.

ALadINsaNE

To be continued...................


""I don't begrudge any artist for finding an audience"
- David Bowie abt. 1987
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