Ep. 12 | David Bowie - Let's Dance

Beyond The Beat

David Bowie was not a fan of vacations and taking time off. Holidays to him are boring. So as the tireless workaholic went away to the south pacific in 1982, to cure the boredom he brought along his favourite blues and R&B records from when he was a kid. Little Richard, James Brown, Buddy Guy, Albert King. Little did he know, but that vacation would shape his whole future sound and direction. It shaped him deciding on 'Chic' hit-maker Nile Rodgers as producer, it shaped him bringing along an unknown Texas blues guitarist by the name of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and it shaped the enthusiasm and optimism of Lets’ Dance as a whole. Let's Dance was an attempt at recapturing that warmth he felt from that old stuff. As Bowie told MTV in 1983, “It’s fundamentally trying to regain the same kind of immediacy and excitement that one feels in one’s old record collection." Who says you can't recapture the good ol' days. Let's Dance sent Bowie into the stratosphere as a pop artist, attaining number 1 status in Britain, but also more crucially in the U.S., having largely ignored him since the mid-70's. Thanks to clever videos for the title track as well as "China Girl", Let's Dance was his biggest selling album up to that point (and since). Proof that the risky ambition paid off of exchanging all the mystery about him for mass connection. Let's Dance is Bowie being communal: it’s intended to be shared. Bowie embraced his own nostalgia, and with it achieved the same outcome as those old impressionistic artists from 50's.