Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

from the bar circuits thanks to high-profile
appearances at jazz and blues festivals like
Switzerland’s Montreux (where Bowie first saw him
in ’82). By the time “Let’s Dance” topped the charts,
he had released his own hit record Texas Flood and
opted out of playing on the Serious Moonlight tour
(there were rumors that he’d fallen out with Bowie
after Double Trouble were booked and then dropped
as the opening act for the entire tour). Nobody has
sounded quite like him since his death in a
helicopter crash in August 1990, and each time
another guitarist (whether it’s Earl Slick, who did the
tour in ’83, or Peter Frampton, who toured with
Bowie in ’87) plays the song, they can do nothing but
humbly imitate the man. Most people stop listening
to Let’s Dance here, but the album still has much to
offer. “Without You” is a classy midtempo ballad that
strongly resembles early-eighties Roxy Music.
“Criminal World” has a pop reggae groove that acts
like Sade and UB40 would do much with as the
decade wore on. “Cat People (Putting Out Fire),”
Bowie’s 1982 collaboration with Giorgio Moroder,
reappears as well. “Shake It,” with its falsetto
delivery and female backing vocals, is something
like a godparent to U2’s 1993 hit “Lemon.”
Straight Bowie appears stripped to the waist and
shadowboxing on the album’s sleeve. He is tan,
rested, with a little meat on his bones (he actually
looks like he might be able to take you in that fight).
The real achievement is the hair, however, his most
radical tonsorial statement since the Red Hot Red