Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

producer of his biggest-selling album to date, Let’s
Dance. Surely there is an element of logic to this,
and Bowie’s new label, Savage Records, was happy
to pony up a large advance at the prospect of
another Let’s Dance. Hollywood has basically run on
the theory for a century, and whether it’s Hepburn
and Tracy or DiCaprio and Winslet, they will continue
to do so, forgetting each time that you can’t re-create
a zeitgeist. Let’s Dance was a moment in culture a
decade and a half in the making, not merely a hit
record. After virtually building modern British pop
and videogenic theatricality, it was Bowie’s time to
be honored by the masses. There’s also the crucial
matter of, well … good material. You can put Allen
and Keaton up on a screen, but without the
inspiration you have Manhattan Murder Mystery
rather than Annie Hall. Like Let’s Dance, Black Tie
White Noise, Bowie’s next studio effort and a
reunion with Nile Rodgers as producer, sounded
great. Unlike Let’s Dance, the songwriting was just
okay, and the special guests (like lightweight R & B
heartthrob Al B. Sure!) felt like relevance gambits as
opposed to exciting showcases for unknown
megatalents like Stevie Ray Vaughn had been.
Ironically, Duran Duran would fall victim to the same
thing fifteen years later, counterbalancing middle
age with Justin Timberlake and superproducer
Timbaland on their Red Carpet Massacre album. In
a Record Collector interview from the period, Bowie
is actually asked the following question: “In the past,
you’ve sung with people like Mick Jagger, Freddie