Lodger (album)
Lodger is the 13th studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 25 May 1979 through RCA Records. Recorded in collaboration with the musician Brian Eno and the producer Tony Visconti, it was the final release of his Berlin Trilogy, following Low and "Heroes" (both 1977). Sessions took place in Switzerland in September 1978 during a break in the Isolar II world tour, and in New York City in March 1979 at the tour's end. Most of the same personnel from prior releases returned, and the future King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew joined from the tour. The sessions saw the use of techniques inspired by Eno's Oblique Strategies cards, such as having the musicians swap instruments and play old songs backwards.
Lodger
25 May 1979
September 1978, March 1979
- Mountain (Montreux, Switzerland)
- Record Plant (New York City)
34:38
- David Bowie
- Tony Visconti
The music on Lodger is based in art rock and experimental rock. It lacks the electronic and ambient styles and the song/instrumental split that defined its two predecessors, favouring more conventional song structures and explores styles such as avant-pop, world and new wave music. Lyrically, the album is divided into two major themes: travel (side one) and critiques of Western civilisation (side two). Pop artist Derek Boshier took the cover photo, portraying Bowie as an accident victim across the gatefold sleeve.
Lodger was a modest commercial success, peaking at number 4 in the UK and number 20 in the US. It produced four singles, including the UK top 10 hit "Boys Keep Swinging". Innovative music videos directed by David Mallet accompanied three of the four singles. The album initially received mixed critical reviews, with many calling it the weakest of the Berlin Trilogy. Reception has grown in subsequent decades and it is now widely considered to be among Bowie's most underrated albums. Its world elements have been highlighted as particularly influential. Bowie and Visconti were dissatisfied with the album's original mix and, in 2015, Visconti remixed the album with Bowie's approval for inclusion on the 2017 box set A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982), along with a remaster of the original.
Background[edit]
In the second half of 1976, David Bowie moved to Switzerland with his wife Angela to remove himself from Los Angeles' drug culture.[1][2] He began a very productive schedule that would continue for the next few years. He moved to the Château d'Hérouville in Hérouville, France, with his friend, the singer Iggy Pop. There, the two recorded Pop's debut studio album The Idiot (1977).[3] He then met the musician Brian Eno in the same year,[4] and began a series of collaborations with Eno and producer Tony Visconti that would become known as the Berlin Trilogy.[2] The first instalment, Bowie's 11th studio album Low, was recorded at the Château from September to November 1976,[5] with additional recording taking place at the Hansa Tonstudio in West Berlin, following Bowie and Pop's move there.[1][6]
After Low's release in January 1977, Bowie toured as Pop's keyboardist.[7][6] After the tour's completion, the two returned to Hansa Tonstudio, where they recorded Pop's next solo album Lust for Life (1977) in two and a half weeks, from April to May 1977.[8] Bowie then began his next collaboration with Visconti and Eno, his 12th studio album "Heroes", which was recorded at Hansa sporadically in July and August 1977.[9] Bowie undertook extensive promotion for "Heroes", released in October 1977,[10] conducting numerous interviews and performing on various television programmes,[9] including recording a collaboration, "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy", with the singer Bing Crosby on Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas television special in 1977.[10] He then recorded narration for an adaptation of Sergei Prokofiev's classical composition Peter and the Wolf, released as an album in May 1978,[8] acted in the David Hemmings film Just a Gigolo,[11] and began the Isolar II world tour, which lasted from March 1978 to the end of the year.[12]
Lyrics and themes[edit]
Though missing the song/instrumental split that characterised Low and "Heroes", Lodger has been interpreted as covering two major themes— travel and critiques of Western civilisation on sides one and two, respectively.[13][33] In early 1977, Bowie said, "I don't live anywhere, really. I travel 100% of the time," further noting, "The more I travel, the less sure I am about exactly which political philosophies are commendable. All my traveling is done on the basis of wanting to get my ideas for writing from real events rather than from going back to a system from whence it came."[39] Because of this, Lodger is interpreted by some as a concept album.[2][28] Some songs showcase heavily politicised lyrics, including "Fantastic Voyage", which deals with the "depression" brought on by Cold War leaders and the possibility of nuclear war,[37][36] and "Repetition", which deals with domestic violence.[39] James Perone finds a general theme of political oppression and insanity.[28] Eno was unhappy with the direction Bowie took for the lyrics.[13]
Regarding side one's theme of travel, Pegg writes that the songs revive a "perennial motif" prevailing throughout the Berlin Trilogy, highlighting the line, "I've lived all over the world, I've left every place" from the Low track "Be My Wife",[46] pointing out the journey is both metaphorical and geographical.[13] Between the Montreaux and New York sessions, Bowie traveled to Kenya with his son Duncan Jones, which inspired the lyrics for "African Night Flight".[47] The same trip, along with ones to Japan and Australia, inspired "Move On", which reflects the theme of wanderlust throughout side one.[48] Regarding the song titles, Doggett quips, "After his 'African Night Flight', what else to do but 'Move On'!"[38] When asked about "Red Sails", Bowie said in 1979: "Here we took a new German music feel and put it against the idea of a contemporary English mercenary-cum-swashbuckling Errol Flynn, and put him in the China Sea. We have a lovely cross-reference of cultures. I honestly don't know what it's about."[49] Pegg writes that "Red Sails" symbolises Bowie's venture away from the mainstream.[13] "Yassassin" is Turkish for 'long live', from the word yaşasın.[38] Like the instrumental "Heroes" track "Neuköln", the song is about the discrimination Turkish immigrants who lived in Berlin faced, although its lyrical approach is more direct.[40]
The lyrics of side two primarily critique Western society.[33] "D.J." takes a sardonic look at the world of the disc jockey. On the song, the DJ is looked at solely for what he is on the outside: "I am a DJ, I am what I play".[45] Swiftly compared to Elvis Costello's "Radio Radio" (1978),[38] writer Ian Mathers describes the song as "a horror story about a human being reduced to nothing more than work".[39] "Look Back in Anger" sees Bowie encounter an angel of death who has come to claim his soul.[45] "Boys Keep Swinging" contains gender-bending lyrics, particularly, "When you're a boy, other boys check you out."[50] In 2000, Bowie said of the track: "The glory in that song was ironic. I do not feel that there is anything remotely glorious about being either male or female. I was merely playing on the idea of the colonisation of a gender."[39] In "Repetition", the narrator conveys no emotion when beating his wife,[33] leading Buckley to describe it as Bowie at "his most chilling".[31] "Red Money" proclaims the message "project canceled".[38] Regarding the "red boxes" that appear throughout, Bowie stated: "This song, I think, is about responsibility. Red boxes keep cropping up in my paintings and they represent responsibility."[41]
Artwork[edit]
Bowie collaborated on the cover design for Lodger with English pop artist Derek Boshier, who would later design the artwork for Bowie's 15th studio album Let's Dance (1983). The original gatefold album sleeve featured a full-length shot by photographer Brian Duffy of Bowie in a tiled bathroom looking like an accident victim, heavily made up with an apparently broken nose and a bandaged hand.[13][33] This was inspired by the self-portraits of Egon Schiele.[51] To accomplish the shot, taken in February 1979 at Duffy's London studio, Bowie balanced himself on a steel frame while the photographer captured the image from above. The broken nose and facial morphing were accomplished using prosthetic make-up and nylon threads. Bowie's bandaged hand was genuine; according to Pegg, he had burned it with coffee that morning and decided to incorporate the hand into the photo.[13] At Bowie's request, the image was taken in a low resolution with a Polaroid SX-70 type camera; outtakes from the photoshoot have appeared in the 2014 book Duffy/Bowie – Five Sessions. The front features a postcard with the album title in four different languages, enhancing its theme of travel. Inside the gatefold are pictures of Che Guevara's corpse, Andrea Mantegna's painting Lamentation of Christ and Bowie being readied for the cover photo.[33] Rykodisc did not reproduce these images on their 1991 CD reissue.[13]
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[112] The track numbers refer to CD and digital releases of the album.
Production