Young Americans


Young Americans is the ninth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 7March 1975 through RCA Records. A departure from the glam rock style of previous albums, the record showcased Bowie's interest in soul and R&B. Music critics have described the sound as blue-eyed soul; Bowie himself labelled the album's sound "plastic soul".
Recording sessions began at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia in August 1974, after the first leg of Bowie's Diamond Dogs Tour. The record was produced by Tony Visconti, and includes a variety of musicians, such as the guitarist Carlos Alomar, who became one of Bowie's most frequent collaborators, and the backing vocalists Ava Cherry, Robin Clark and then-unknown singer Luther Vandross. As the tour continued the setlist and design began to incorporate the influence of the new material. The recording sessions continued at the Record Plant in New York City at the tour's end. A collaboration between Bowie and John Lennon yielded a cover of Lennon's Beatles song "Across the Universe" and an original, "Fame", during a January 1975 session at Electric Lady Studios, produced by Harry Maslin. The album's cover artwork is a back-lit photograph of Bowie taken by Eric Stephen Jacobs.
Young Americans was Bowie's breakthrough in the US, reaching the top 10 on the Billboard chart; "Fame" became Bowie's first number one hit single. Bowie continued developing its sound on Station to Station. Young Americans has received mixed critical reviews on release and in later decades; Bowie himself had mixed feelings about the album. However, the album proved influential, as Bowie was one of the first white artists of the era to overtly engage with newly emerging black musical styles; other British artists followed suit. The album has been reissued multiple times with outtakes, and was remastered in 2016 as part of the Who Can I Be Now? box set.

Background and development

released his eighth studio album Diamond Dogs in May 1974. His final album in the glam rock genre, it contained two songs, "Rock 'n' Roll with Me" and "1984", that exhibit elements of funk and soul, which predicted the musical direction for Bowie's next project. While his interest in soul music dated back to his mod days in the mid-1960s, he began listening to soul records extensively and incorporating soul material into his live sets. In July, towards the end of the first leg of his Diamond Dogs Tour, he performed covers of the soul songs "Knock on Wood" by Eddie Floyd and "Here Today and Gone Tomorrow" by the Ohio Players for shows in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania; these shows were recorded and released on the live album David Live in October 1974. Bowie had grown tired of the tour's lavish set-pieces and theatricality and was ready to fully embrace black soul music.
In early 1974, Bowie met the funk guitarist Carlos Alomar, an Apollo Theater session musician who had played with James Brown, Chuck Berry and Wilson Pickett. One of Bowie's favourite records was Brown's Live at the Apollo, so meeting a musician who played at the Apollo meant a lot to him. Alomar had never heard of Bowie when they met, but they immediately connected and formed a working relationship that would last almost 15 years; Alomar became Bowie's guide into American black music.
While in Pennsylvania, Bowie visited Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia to work on recordings with the American musician Ava Cherry. Sigma Sound was the home of Philadelphia soul and the favourite studio of the writer-producer duo Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff; the two had co-founded Philadelphia International Records, the home of many well-known black American musicians. At the end of the first leg of the tour, Bowie returned to New York City to mix David Live, listening to various black albums in preparation for his return to Sigma Sound.

Recording history

For the backing band, Bowie wanted to hire MFSB, Sigma Sound's house band of over 30 session musicians. Due to conflicting schedules, all members were unavailable except the percussionist Larry Washington, so Bowie went to New York City for further recruitment. Mike Garson, David Sanborn and Pablo Rosario were retained from the Diamond Dogs Tour, while Earl Slick was replaced by Alomar on guitar. At Alomar's suggestion, Bowie hired Andy Newmark, a former member of Sly and the Family Stone, and Willie Weeks of the Isley Brothers to replace Tony Newman and Herbie Flowers on drums and bass, respectively. The producer Tony Visconti joined the project immediately after Bowie informed him of Weeks' involvement; Visconti co-produced much of Bowie's work for the rest of the decade. Cherry, Alomar's wife Robin Clark, then-unknown singer Luther Vandross, Anthony Hinton and Diane Sumler performed backing vocals for the sessions.

Philadelphia sessions

Demo work began at Sigma Sound on 8August 1974, with official work starting three days later on 11August upon Visconti's arrival. Before Philadelphia, Bowie had spent most of his recording career in Britain, where recording methods were different from those in the United States. At Olympic and Trident Studios in Britain, engineers applied equalisers and reverb as they were recording, so these effects were heard upon playback. At Sigma Sound, however, the engineers applied effects during the mixing stage. Bowie was initially confounded when hearing the tapes back, as according to the biographer Chris O'Leary, he "hadn't heard his 'naked' voice on tape in years".
The sessions were productive and moved rapidly, only taking two weeks to complete. It was agreed early on to record as much of the album as possible live, with the full band playing together, including Bowie's vocals, as a single continuous take for each song. According to Visconti, the album contains "about 85% 'live' David Bowie". Most of the material was built out of jam sessions. Bowie allowed the musicians to come up with ideas that he used to write lyrics and melodies.
During his time at Sigma Sound, Bowie completely immersed himself in soul music. He created a new persona called "The Gouster", a slang term for a hip street boy, which became one of the album's working titles. Visconti commented: "It wasn't so much a concept as a way of setting the tone that we were going to make a very hip album." Bowie's cocaine addiction heightened at a rapid pace during the period; he often stayed awake day and night recording while the band slept. Alomar said the sessions were "fuelled" by drugs, recalling: "He used drugs to keep himself awake. it was more a functional thing , so he'd be 'on' whenever the moment came to record." Bowie's cocaine use affected his voice, creating what Bowie himself called "a real raspy sound" that prevented him from singing higher notes. He believed the album contained the highest notes he ever sang on record.
The sessions produced numerous outtakes, including "After Today", "Who Can I Be Now?", "It's Gonna Be Me", a rerecording of Bowie's 1972 single "John, I'm Only Dancing" titled "John, I'm Only Dancing ", "Lazer", "Shilling the Rubes", a scrapped rerecording of Bruce Springsteen's "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" and "Too Fat Polka". After these sessions, Bowie was eager to perform the new work live. Embarking on the second half of the Diamond Dogs Tour, lasting September to December 1974, this portion is nicknamed the Soul Tour due to the influence of the new material. The shows were heavily altered and no longer featured elaborate set-pieces, due to Bowie's exhaustion with the design and wanting to explore the new sound he was creating. Songs from the previous leg were dropped, while new ones were added, including some from the upcoming album. On 2 November, Bowie appeared on The Dick Cavett Show and performed "1984", "Young Americans" and a version of the Flairs' "Footstompin. He was inarticulate and visibly drugged during his interview.
Bowie and Visconti added overdubs and started mixing following the conclusion of the Soul Tour in November 1974. Local fans, whom Bowie referred to as the "Sigma Kids", waited outside the studio over the course of the sessions. On the final day of tracking, these fans were invited into the studio to listen to rough versions of the new songs. The album's many working titles included The Gouster, Dancin, Somebody Up There Likes Me, One Damned Song, Shilling the Rubes and Fascination. An early acetate of The Gouster provided by Visconti showed "John, I'm Only Dancing ", "Who Can I Be Now?" and "It's Gonna Be Me" in the track-listing.

New York sessions

The Soul Tour ended in December 1974, after which Bowie, Visconti and Alomar regrouped at the Record Plant in New York City to record two new songs, "Fascination" and "Win". At this point, Bowie told Disc magazine the album title was Fascination ; "John, I'm Only Dancing " was still in the track-listing and the two new tracks replaced "Who Can I Be Now?" and "Somebody Up There Likes Me". Visconti, who believed the album was completely finished, returned to London to record string arrangements for "Can You Hear Me", "Win" and "It's Gonna Be Me" at AIR Studios, while Bowie remained in New York, working on separate mixing with in-house engineer Harry Maslin.
During this time, former Beatle John Lennon was working at the Record Plant on his covers album Rock 'n' Roll. Lennon, who was in what he later termed his "Lost weekend" period, had met Bowie in Los Angeles in September 1974. The two connected and decided to record together. With Alomar, the two convened at New York City's Electric Lady Studios in January 1975, recording a cover of Lennon's Beatles song "Across the Universe" and a new song, "Fame". In Visconti's absence, the session was co-produced by Bowie and Maslin. Alongside Alomar, Bowie invited Slick and the drummer Dennis Davis, making their debuts on a Bowie record, as well as the bassist Emir Ksasan from the Soul Tour band. Ralph MacDonald contributed percussion, while Jean Fineberg and Jean Millington sang backing vocals.
Mixing for Young Americans was completed at the Record Plant on 12January 1975. Bowie contacted Visconti about the collaborations with Lennon two weeks later. Bowie was apologetic and requested the two tracks be on the final album; they replaced "Who Can I Be Now?", "It's Gonna Be Me" and "After Today". Visconti later said: " beautiful songs and it made me sick when decided not to use them. I think it was the personal content of the songs which he was a bit reluctant to release, although it was so obscure I don't think even I knew what he was on about in them!" The album was mastered by the engineer Greg Calbi.