Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Ashes to Ashes (1980)
David Bowie's career was all about reinvention. He took on several personas in the 1970s: Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke, Major Tom, Aladdin Sane. By 1980, he was coming off a stupendous run of 10 excellent albums throughout the previous decade, including a trilogy of albums with Brian Eno (Low, Heroes and Lodger) but Bowie was looking to start something new.
Working with producer Tony Visconti, Bowie recorded 1980's Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). The lead single revisited his first big hit, 1969's "Space Oddity," which introduced Major Tom to the world. On "Ashes to Ashes," Bowie presents a different picture of the astronaut a decade later, addicted to drugs and stuck in space. Harnessing guitar synths, a complex piano riff, funky bass and vocal layering, the song sounds futuristic and detached.
"Do you remember a guy that's been/In such an early song?/I've heard a rumor from Ground Control/Oh no, don't say it's true/They got a message from the Action Man/'I'm happy, hope you're happy too/I've loved all I needed, love/Sordid details following'/The shrieking of nothing is killing, just/Pictures of Jap girls in synthesis and I/Ain't got no money and I ain't got no hair/But I'm hoping to kick but this planet is glowing/Ashes to ashes, funk to funky/We know Major Tom's a junkie/Struck out in heavens high/Hitting an all-time low."
Bowie and director David Mallet teamed to make the song's video, which at a cost of 250,000 pounds was the most expensive video made to that point. Mallet used a new computer graphics program to alter the color palette, making the sky black and the ocean pink. Bowie appears as a clown, an astronaut and an asylum inmate and the whole thing is gloriously weird.
"Time and again I tell myself/I'll stay clean tonight/But the little green wheels are following me/Oh no, not again/I'm stuck with a valuable friend/'I'm happy, hope you're happy too'/One flash of light but no smoking pistol/I've never done good things/I never did bad things/I never did anything out of the blue/Want an ax to break the ice/Wanna come down right now/Ashes to ashes, funk to funky/We know Major Tom's a junkie/Struck out in heavens high/Hitting an all-time low."
The musicians on the song include George Hammer on guitar synth, Carlos Alomar on rhythm guitar, Andy Clark on synths, Roy Bittan of the E Street band on flanged piano, George Murray on bass, Dennis Davis on drums and Visconti on percussion. While it only reached #101 in the U.S., "Ashes to Ashes" hit #1 in the U.K. and #35 in Canada, where I first heard it. I remember seeing the video and being fascinated by it. I knew Bowie at a young age thanks to songs like "Fame," but this really got me interested in his music.
Major Tom's drug problems mirror Bowie's own experiences with addiction in the '70s. The song ends with a haunting and twisted nursery rhyme that's repeated a few times: "My mother said, to get things done/You'd better not mess with Major Tom."
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) was a critical and commercial success, going to #12 in the U.S. and #1 in the U.K. Bowie chose not to tour to support the album (although he did perform the song on The Tonight Show; see below), instead focusing on acting in the Broadway production of The Elephant Man and appearing as himself in the 1981 movie Christiane F. He teamed up with Queen to record "Under Pressure" and also made the title song for the movie Cat People. Bowie also appeared in the movies The Hunger and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.
Bowie's next album would be 1983's Let's Dance, which was a massive hit for his new label EMI. The 1980s were a mixed bag for Bowie, but they couldn't have gotten off to a better start.
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