‘A New Career In A New Town’ - David Bowie, 1977
Very busy today, so I’ve got to keep this one short. Bowie’s Low album is one of my favourites, as much for the atmospheric instrumentals as for the off-kilter pop songs like ‘Sound & Vision’ and ‘Be My Wife’.
Closing side one (if you had an LP or, in my case, as cassette of this), ‘A New Career In A New Town’ is a world-class slice of thumping drums, keyboard noodles and plaintive harmonica from Bowie. The song is heavily treated by producer Brian Eno’s tomfoolery - his fingerprints are all over the Low album, but especially on the instrumentals.
At this point in time, Bowie was trying to overcome a cocaine addiction, and decided that leaving Los Angeles and moving to Berlin (described in the ‘Station to Station’ [see previous post on this song] symbolism of the previous album) would be a good idea. While the song title seems hopeful, and the music optimistic and propelling, there’s something slightly numb and distant about it, like it’s being discussed while drunk. While you couldn’t call an instrumental piece autobiographical, the title pretty much gives it away.
If you like ‘A New Career…’, you should also like ‘Speed of Sound’, the instrumental that kicks off Low. These are two of my favourite musical pieces, and the experimental avant-garde pop explored on the Low album would come to be very influential on groups such as Joy Division, The Cure, and a host of other post-punk, new wave bands, all the way up to Nine Inch Nails.
Here’s a nice video with the song ‘A New Career…’ - the guy who made the video has moved to Milton Keynes. Now there’s a town I’d never have connected with Bowie. Nice video though.
Last 5 posts by Dave
- 'Sunflower' - Paul Weller, 1993 - December 18th, 2008
- 'Brilliant Mistake' - Elvis Costello, 1986 - December 16th, 2008
- 'Icky Thump' - The White Stripes, 2007 - December 11th, 2008
- 'Careering' - Public Image Limited, 1979 - December 10th, 2008
- 'We'll Meet Again' - Vera Lynn, 1939 - December 5th, 2008
