Station to Station is the tenth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 23 January 1976 through RCA Records. Regarded as one of his most significant works, the album was the vehicle for Bowie's performance persona the Thin White Duke. Co-produced by Bowie and Harry Maslin, Station to Station was mainly recorded at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles in late 1975, after Bowie completed shooting the film The Man Who Fell to Earth; the cover art featured a still from the film. During the sessions, Bowie was suffering from various drug addictions, most prominently cocaine, and subsequently stated that he recalled almost nothing of the production.
The commercial success of his previous release, Young Americans (1975), allowed Bowie greater freedom when he began recording his next album. The sessions established the lineup of guitarist Carlos Alomar, bassist George Murray and drummer Dennis Davis that Bowie would use for the rest of the decade, and also featured contributions by guitarist Earl Slick and pianist Roy Bittan. Musically, Station to Station was a transitional album for Bowie, developing the funk and soul of Young Americans while presenting a new direction influenced by German krautrock, particularly bands such as Neu! and Kraftwerk. The lyrics reflected Bowie's preoccupations with Friedrich Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, mythology and religion.
Preceded by the single "Golden Years", Station to Station was a commercial success, reaching the top five on the UK and US charts. After scrapping a soundtrack for The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bowie supported the album with the Isolar Tour in early 1976, during which he attracted controversy with statements suggesting support for fascism. At the end of the tour, he moved to Europe to remove himself from L.A.'s drug culture. The styles explored on Station to Station culminated in some of Bowie's most acclaimed work with the Berlin Trilogy over the next three years. Positively received by music critics on its release, Station to Station has appeared on several lists of the greatest albums of the 1970s and of all time. It has been reissued multiple times and was remastered in 2016 as part of the Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976) box set.
Background
David Bowie developed a cocaine addiction in the summer of 1974, following the release of the album Diamond Dogs. The Alan Yentob documentary Cracked Actor depicted Bowie on the Diamond Dogs Tour in September 1974 and showcased his mental state. Bowie said in a 1987 interview: "I was so blocked ... so stoned ... It's quite a casualty case, isn't it. I'm amazed I came out of that period, honest. When I see that now I cannot believe I survived it. I was so close to really throwing myself away physically, completely." After seeing an advanced screening of the film in early 1975, director Nicolas Roeg contacted Bowie to discuss a role in his upcoming adaptation of Walter Tevis's 1963 novel The Man Who Fell to Earth. Bowie accepted the role, and moved from New York to Los Angeles, California, where shooting was to take place.
On his arrival in L.A., Bowie stayed with Glenn Hughes, the bassist for the English rock band Deep Purple. He also visited his old friend, singer Iggy Pop, in rehab. The two would attempt to record some material in May 1975, but the sessions were unproductive due to Pop's heroin addiction. Hughes told the biographer Marc Spitz that Bowie lived in an increasingly paranoid state, recalling he refused to use elevators because of his fear of heights. His addiction severed friendships with the musicians Keith Moon, John Lennon and Harry Nilsson; he later said: "If you really want to lose all your friends and all of the relationships that you ever held dear, [cocaine is] the drug to do it with."
According to the biographer David Buckley, Bowie's diet now consisted primarily of red and green peppers, milk and cocaine. Bowie later admitted that he only weighed about 80 pounds and was "zonked out of his mind most of the time". Hughes said Bowie would not sleep for "three to four days at a time". Stories, mostly from one interview—pieces of which found their way into Playboy and Rolling Stone—circulated of the singer living in a house full of ancient Egyptian artefacts, burning black candles, seeing bodies fall past his window, having his semen stolen by witches, receiving secret messages from the Rolling Stones, and living in morbid fear of the Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. In an interview with Melody Maker in 1977, Bowie described living in L.A.: "There's an underlying unease... You can feel it in every avenue... I've always been aware of how dubious a position it is to stay here for any length of time." Three years later, he would tell NME that the city "should be wiped off the face of the earth". In April 1975, Bowie announced his retirement from music, stating: "I've rocked my roll. It's a boring dead end. There will be no more rock'n'roll records or tours from me. The last thing I want to be is some useless fucking rock singer." The biographer Nicholas Pegg attributes this quote to Bowie's decaying mental state; his "retirement" lasted less than six months. Shooting for The Man Who Fell to Earth began in June 1975.
Development
Bowie's heavy drug use continued during filming. He recalled in 1993: "My one snapshot of that film is not having to act...Just being me as I was perfectly adequate for the role. I wasn't of this earth at that particular time." When shooting took place in New Mexico, he was reported to be in a much healthier state compared to his time in Los Angeles. During his days off from filming, he began writing a collection of short stories called The Return of the Thin White Duke, which he described as "partly autobiographical, mostly fiction, with a deal of magic in it;" he also recalled taking "400 books" for the shoot. He began writing songs throughout filming, including two—"TVC 15" and "Word on a Wing"—that would end up on his next album. On top of this, he was in line to compose the film's soundtrack.
In the film, Bowie portrays the lead role of Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien who travels to Earth in search of materials for his dying planet, eventually becoming corrupted by humans. Roeg warned the star that the part of Newton would likely remain with him for some time after the filming. With Roeg's agreement, Bowie developed his own look for the film, and this carried through to his public image over the next twelve months, as did Newton's air of fragility and aloofness. Newton served as a major influence on Bowie's next onstage character, the Thin White Duke.
Bowie's 1975 single "Fame", a collaboration with John Lennon, was a massive commercial success, topping the charts in the US. Bowie's label RCA Records were eager for a follow-up. After completing his work on The Man Who Fell to Earth in September, he returned to Los Angeles; his assistant Coco Schwab had recently acquired a house for him. Partly because of his drug addiction, his marriage to his wife, Angie, began falling apart. After recording backing vocals for Keith Moon's "Real Emotion", he was ready to record his next album.
Production Studio and personnel Station to Station was recorded primarily at Cherokee Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The studio opened in January 1975 and quickly became one of the city's busiest studios, attracting artists such as Rod Stewart and Frank Sinatra. Cherokee was more advanced than Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios, where Bowie had recorded Young Americans (1975); it featured five studio rooms, 24-track mixing consoles, 24-hour session times, more space and a lounge bar. On arriving at Cherokee, Bowie sang a few notes in Studio One, played a piano chord, and said: "This will do nicely." Producer Harry Maslin said the studio was chosen because it was new and quiet, with less paparazzi and media attention. With a more advanced studio and no time constraints, experimentation became the ethos of the sessions.
Maslin, who co-produced "Fame" and "Across the Universe" on Young Americans, was brought back by Bowie to produce. Tony Visconti (who after a three-year absence had recently returned to the Bowie fold mixing Diamond Dogs and co-producing David Live and Young Americans) was not involved because of competing schedules. Also returning from the Young Americans sessions were guitarists Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick, drummer Dennis Davis and Bowie's old friend Geoff MacCormack (then known as Warren Peace). George Murray, a player from Weldon Irvine's group, was recruited as bassist. Bowie would use the rhythm section of Alomar, Murray and Davis for the rest of the decade. In mid-October, pianist Roy Bittan, a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, joined the ensemble at the suggestion of Slick. Bittan recalled: "David knew we were coming to town and he wanted a keyboard player. It must have only been about three days. It's one of my favourite projects I've ever worked on." Following the departure of Mike Garson, Bowie praised Bittan's contributions.
Although NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray surmised it was cut "in 10 days of feverish activity", more recent scholarship contends that the album was recorded over a period of about two months, with the sessions beginning in late September or early October 1975 and ending in late November. Initial working titles for the album included The Return of the Thin White Duke and Golden Years, named after the first track recorded. According to O'Leary, "Golden Years", which Bowie began writing before he began filming The Man Who Fell to Earth, was completed in ten days and issued as a single while the album was still being finished. Recording for "TVC 15" began shortly after the completion of "Golden Years".
A cover of "Wild Is the Wind", written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington and first performed by Johnny Mathis in the 1957 film of the same name, was recorded during the sessions. Bowie was inspired to record it after he met Nina Simone, who had recorded her own version of the song in 1966. He recalled in 1993: "Her performance of ["Wild Is the Wind"] really affected me. I thought it was just tremendous, so I recorded it as an homage to Nina." A guest during the sessions was Frank Sinatra, who praised Bowie's recording of "Wild Is the Wind". His feedback prompted Bowie to include it as the album's closing track. While he had begun writing "Word on a Wing" during filming, both "Stay" and the title track were written and recorded entirely in the studio. The three tracks were composed throughout October and November, rather than in one quick rush. Slick stated: "He had one or two songs written, but they were changed so drastically that you wouldn't know them from the first time anyway, so he basically wrote everything in the studio."
Recording process