Side One
Young Americans
Win
Fascination
Right
Side Two
Somebody Up There Likes Me
Across The Universe
Can you Hear Me?
Fame
DISCOVERY; Getting back to my own record collection in my new room in the basement. Have I mentioned the room in the basement? I think I have but it's worth describing one more time. The main door to the house entered the kitchen through the breeze-way which separated the garage from the house. Only Fish the cat used the door which entered the living room. If anyone ever came to that door the whole house was instant panic. Only a complete stranger, a foreigner or salesman ever came to that door. Or the cat. As you came into the kitchen from the breeze-way a choice presented and you could go straight down the steps into the basement. It made sneaking into the house late at night (when I was older) a bit more of a sure thing. In the basement, the main room with a tiled floor, clothes dryer and furnace. Large space mirroring the living room above. Under what was the kitchen above, a laundry area half tucked under the stairs and a bathroom in the corner. So yes, living in the basement I had a private bath at 15. The "west wing" as we referred to the new addition, the new part of the basement under the folk's new bedroom was unfinished, bare cinder blocks, a greasy workbench, shelving for the Christmas decks and a gigantic pile of firewood we threw in through a side window easily removed. That was the emergency sneak into the house point of entry.
Last but not least to the right hand side at the bottom of the stairs was my (glorious) room. As large as the two rooms above it, with a Davenport bed, a fireplace, a bar, a phone and the old refrigerator which still works BTW. The piece of gear which let it down at this point was the sad fold open GE stereo. I could have replaced it any time if I hadn't been saving for the guitar, the guitar amp, the microphone, mic stand, cables, guitar strings and all the other paraphernalia as well as (thinking ahead) a PA system! Becoming a rock star would take money! So I could suffer with my shitty record player because soon enough I could buy the whole record store and sound system to blast my amazing collection to the world. I intended to put the music room on the fourth floor of the mansion I was designing overlooking the two swimming pools and the marbled pavilion with fluted columns where I would greet guests, journalists and other rock n roll dignitaries.
Anyway, it's a new year, a new Bowie album and a new David Bowie to go with it. I wasn't sure I liked this album until I heard Fame. I thought OK, if that's what "soul" music sounds like, I'm all in. And there he was collaborating with my favourite Beatle? How do these things happen? I wondered what John Lennon would think of the mansion I was designing and if I could get the two of them to come over for a jam session once it was built.
So, the mansion I find myself in at the moment isn't quite to the scale of the original design but somewhat more manageable, just the two floors and the four rooms. I'm still waiting for maybe Brian Eno and Paul McCartney to rock up and have a bit of a jam... maybe just in the living room... without the sound system.
WHERE & WHEN; I missed Bowie's appearance on the Dick Cavett Show, Robert described it for me, said David was "an odd fellow" who drew pictures on the carpet with his cane. Meanwhile I had seen the Pennebaker "retirement" film shown on In Concert which left no doubt, Bowie was in a league far above us mere mortals. Also convinced me that his raison d'etre was that of rock n roll super-god. So I was reasonably hopeful this foray into Philadelphia soul would be an anomaly. As it turns out Young Americans has become one of my favourite Bowie albums. It is a dense, multi-layered, intricate, intelligent work. It stands apart from anything else he did and wears well on the ears. Very much worth pursuing.
HIGHLIGHTS: Young Americans - Win - Fascination - Right - Somebody Up There Likes Me - Fame
STATUS; CD
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