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Lodger (album)

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Lodger is an album by David Bowie, released in 1979. The last of the "Berlin Trilogy" recorded in collaboration with Brian Eno, it was generally regarded as more accessible than its immediate predecessors Low and "Heroes", having no instrumentals and being somewhat lighter and more pop-oriented. Yet it was still an experimental record in many ways and was not, by Bowie’s standards, a major commercial success.

The final track on "Heroes", "The Secret Life of Arabia", could be seen as providing a foretaste of the mock exotic feel of much of Lodger. "African Night Flight" was a surreal and exuberant tribute to the music and culture of the veldt. "Move On" was lyrically Bowie’s ode to his own wanderlust, sonically his earlier classic "All the Young Dudes" played backwards. "Yassassin" was an incongruous reggae song with a Turkish flavour. "Red Sails" was a swashbuckling epic inspired in part by the ambient motorik of German band Neu!.

The first single from the album, "Boys Keep Swinging", was seen partly as a witty riposte to the Village People but also, combined with its cross-dressing video clip, a somewhat more disturbing comment on ideas of masculinity; musically it was notable for guitarist Carlos Alomar and drummer Dennis Davis in the unfamiliar roles of drummer and bass player, respectively. The second single, "DJ", took a sardonic look at the world of the disk jockey. Other tracks included "Repetition", Bowie's exploration of a wife-basher’s mentality, sung in a deliberately unemotional tone that served to highlight the lyric and the unnatural slur of the bass guitar; and "Red Money", a Bowie/Alomar tune with new lyrics that had originally appeared as the song "Sister Midnight", with lyrics by Iggy Pop, on the latter's album The Idiot.

Lead guitar on the album was played not by Robert Fripp, as on "Heroes", but by Fripp’s future King Crimson stable mate, Adrian Belew. Though well-received by some in the music press at the time of its release, the LP was criticised for its breakneck changes of pace and style, as well as for having a thinner, muddier mix than Bowie’s previous albums. Nevertheless it has, as predicted by some critics soon after its release, ‘grown in potency’ over the years to take its place among Bowie’s key releases.

The Built to Spill track "Distopian Dream Girl" references the album:

My stepfather looks just like David Bowie
But he hates David Bowie
I think Bowie's cool
I think Lodger rules
I think my stepdad's a fool
Contents

Track listing

All tracks written by David Bowie except: "Fantastic Voyage", "African Night Flight", "Red Sails", "Look Back In Anger" and "Boys Keep Swinging" lyrics by Bowie, music by Bowie and Brian Eno; "D.J." lyrics by Bowie, music by Bowie, Eno and Carlos Alomar; and "Red Money" lyrics by Bowie, music by Bowie and Alomar.

  1. "Fantastic Voyage" – 2:55
  2. "African Night Flight" – 2:54
  3. "Move On" – 3:16
  4. "Yassassin" (Turkish for Long Live) – 4:10
  5. "Red Sails" – 3:43
  6. "DJ" – 3:59
  7. "Look Back in Anger" – 3:08
  8. "Boys Keep Swinging" – 3:17
  9. "Repetition" – 2:59
  10. "Red Money" – 4:17

Reissues

The album has been rereleased twice to date on CD, the first being in 1991 by Rykodisc (containing two bonus tracks) and the second in 1999 by EMI (featuring 24-bit digitally remastered sound and no bonus tracks). The re-recording of "Look Back in Anger", with Reeves Gabrels on guitar, has been noted as sonically more similar to the first Tin Machine album than to Lodger itself.

1991 reissue bonus tracks

  1. "I Pray, Olé" (Previously unreleased track recorded 1979) – 3:59
  2. "Look Back in Anger" (New version recorded 1988) – 6:59

Production credits

References

 

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