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fourteen. Being fined by James Brown (for missing
his ‘hit me’ cue), or hanging out with Chuck Berry –
rock ‘n’ roll poet and notorious skinflint – helped
shape Alomar’s Buddha-like calm but cutting-contest
competitive persona. Alomar brought his wife,
session singer Robin Clarke, to the sessions at
Sigma Sound in Philadelphia; together with their
friend Luther Vandross, the couple were probably
the key influence in the genesis of what would
become Young Americans – ‘They glued it all
together,’ as Ava Cherry remembers. ‘Carlos was
very even-tempered, never got mad; and he made
David feel he could bridge the gap between soul and
where he was.’
Tony Visconti, called back for a proper production
job at last after a brief reunion with David, to mix
Diamond Dogs and David Live, was overjoyed to
be back in the creative pressure cooker. But he was
worried about the singer’s obviously fragile state.
When the pair discussed his condition, David
assured him he was fine. ‘And I kind of believed him.
In retrospect,’ says Visconti, ‘it’s hard to know
exactly why, but I did. Whereas Phil Lynott told me
much the same thing and I didn’t.’ But Visconti’s
souvenir photo of David at the Sigma Sound desk
shows him as skeletal, his skin grey and papery. As
one of those in the studio with him remarks today,
‘David must have had an angel watching over him.
That photo says it all – but in person, it was even
more horrible.’
Inside the cocooning safety of Sigma Sound – a
studio he’d first tried out with Ava Cherry, on 9 July –