With the release of his 1983 multi-platinum album Let’s Dance, David Bowie achieved commercial success on a scale he had never experienced before or since. Yes, he was a respected and successful recording artist for a good dozen years prior, but Let’s Dance elevated him into superstardom. With massive hits like “China Girl”, “Modern Love” and the title track, the uncompromising Bowie was now about as mainstream as you could get, with his videos in heavy rotation on MTV and even landing on the cover of Time Magazine.
Bowie quickly followed up Let’s Dance in 1984 with a half-hearted effort called Tonight. Slickly produced and seemingly tailored toward his new audience, the album was filled with questionable cover versions and a few new originals. But it sold well and produced the hit single “Blue Jean”, the album’s saving grace.
After these back to back successes, Bowie geared up for his first ever stadium tour. Unfortunately, the album he recorded to support it was one of his weakest ever. Never Let Me Down, released in 1987, is an ‘80’s production in the worst sense. It is bloated and bombastic as was the accompanying tour. Since Bowie is such a strong songsmith a few tunes stick out like “Time Will Crawl” and the title track, but he seemed to be losing both his hardcore fans who wondered what happened to the intransigent artist and his new audience who really just wanted more hits in the vein of the smashes off the Let’s Dance album.
As the tour progressed Bowie was becoming uninspired by the music he was making and now admits he was directionless. For a time, he even considered giving up writing and recording.
But all of that would change in 1988 when he met experimental noise guitarist Reeves Gabrels. Gabrels encouraged Bowie to stop making music geared towards the masses and once again be true to himself. They decided to form a new band: Tin Machine.
The Tin Machine project was the complete antithesis to the music Bowie had put out the past several years. It was spontaneous, often improvised and at times, dissonant rock n’ roll. Bowie and Gabrels were backed by brothers Tony and Hunt Sales on bass and drums respectively. Bowie had known the brothers for years, as they were most notably the rhythm section on Iggy Pop’s Lust For Life album which he had produced.
Their first album, simply titled Tin Machine, released in 1989, was considered somewhat of a shock at the time. The reviews were generally favorable and reestablished Bowie to his core audience. The stripped down sound was refreshing after the bloated productions of his previous 2 albums. Stand out tracks include the hard-hitting “Under the God”, the ambiguous “I Can’t Read” and the opening track “Heaven’s In Here”, which really encapsulates much of what the band was about in 1 song. Not everything works, but it reenergized Bowie and was easily his most vital music since Let’s Dance. The band also toured smaller venues further reconnecting Bowie with the people to which his music mattered most. Bowie would record a second Tin Machine album in 1991 before laying the band to rest.
Tin Machine proved to be an important role in the career of David Bowie and would pave the way for one of the more adventurous and relevant latter day careers from an elder statesman in rock n’ roll.
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