We're revisiting David Bowie's 1977 masterpiece Low, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this month.
The fast life in Los Angeles was taking a serious toll on David Bowie by the mid-1970s; fortunately, the singer-songwriter saw the danger signs and opted for a new career in a new town, moving to Europe. Recorded in France and Berlin, Low reflects the influence of krautrock and ambient music, with Brian Eno a key collaborator along with producer Tony Visconti (whose use of an Eventide H910 Harmonizer created the set's distinctive drum sound).
The 1977 collection is split between a side of shorter art-rock songs (the classic Sound and Vision) and a side of atmospheric, predominantly instrumental tracks (Warszawa), a combination that label executives initially balked at releasing. Yet the album reached the Top 10 in England and just missed it in America, and outlets such as Pitchfork, Q and Paste now cite it as one of the decade's greatest. David Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on this day in 1996, and the radical self-reinvention of Low is one of the reasons why.
David Bowie | ‘Sound And Vision’
David Bowie | ‘Warszawa’
This month, celebrating Bowie’s 75th birthday (Jan 8th) and 50 years to the day since the U.K. release of Changes as a single (Jan 7th), Hunky Dory has been reissued as a limited edition 50th anniversary picture disc, featuring the 2015 vinyl remaster and a poster featuring the annotated back cover image of the album. Get it, here.
GET DAVID BOWIE ALBUMS & MERCH, HERE.
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