Talk:Low (David Bowie album)/Archive 1

Archive 1

Errors

There are a number of errors in this article:

1) It's not true that the album was "only mixed" in Berlin. "Weeping Wall" was written and recorded in Berlin, and the vocals to "Always Crashing In The Same Car" were recorded in Berlin (reference: Hugo Wilcken's book on Low for the 33 1/3 series, pages 91 and 123)

2) Side 2 does not comprise "mostly instrumentals": only one track (Art Decade) is entirely instrumental; the other three feature vocals. (reference: listen to the bloody album!)

3) Most of the music was not "intended for the soundtrack to Man Who Fell To Earth": only the reverse base part of Subterraneans was a hold-over from the aborted Man Who Fell To Earth soundtrack. (reference: Bowie interview in Uncut, 2001, and also Wilcken's book).

4) The reason Bowie's soundtrack for The Man Who Fell To Earth wasn't used had nothing to do with "time constraints". It was rejected by the film's director Nic Roeg. (reference: Wilcken, page 18-19)

5) The album was not "written off by many mainstream critics at the time". It received praise from all of the U.K.'s music weeklies at the time.

6) I don't think Bowie and Eno assisted Glass in the creation of his Low Symphony, although I don't have a reference for that. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.217.96.47 (talk • contribs) 16:26, 17 November, 2006 (UTC).

Whoever you are (why not get a user name?), most of your criticisms are valid and sourced, so why not be bold and edit the page? Re. item 2, given that most of the vocals were effectively wordless, describing Side 2 as being "largely instrumental" rather than comprising "mostly instrumentals" may be the best way to put it. Re. item 5, I think you'll find US critics were a bit less enthusiastic but it was certainly well-received in the UK. Re. item 6, believe you're right; Glass himself in his CD liner notes for the symphony makes no reference to any active participation in its development by Bowie/Eno. Cheers, Ian Rose 23:27, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Kid A reference

I dont know about that, Kid A (which i own and adore) sounds really nothing like Low, Low is actually, despite the title, quite upbeat and funky, Its amazing aswell; but Kid A is alot more moody. Plus the fact theres no reference proving the theory. Terrasidius (talk) 15:00, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Disregarding Kid A fpr a moment, Low probably sounded darker and scruffier, more tense at the time than (some of) it does now. Back in '77 this kind of sparse, disjointed production, cavelike drum sound and subdued vocals were nowhere near as familiar as they would become from the eighties on. U2. to pick just them, have a huge debt to Low throughout their career - not that they have ever made a major secret of it.

Bowie's vocals are much more downplayed on Low than on any other of his albums to that point. There's a review quoted on Amazon saying that "Where you'd expect to hear Bowie's voice there's some other instrument, or nothing at all...The essence of the disc is that the 'star' is either absent or alarmingly in your face". That sums up, I think, a big part of what made Low sound so unnerving in 1977 - and obviosuly since then both new wavers, disco producers and hiphop have picked up on those cut-and-paste methods so we don't hear it the way it sounded back then.Strausszek (talk) 15:36, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

- I just want to say that this is a very good point, Strausszek. You summed up this album's influence just beautifully.80.202.103.132 (talk) 22:00, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Assessment comment

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There are a number of errors in this article: 1) It's not true that the album was "only mixed" in Berlin. "Weeping Wall" was written and recorded in Berlin, and the vocals to "Always Crashing In The Same Car" were recorded in Berlin (reference: Hugo Wilcken's book on Low for the 33 1/3 series, pages 91 and 123) 2) Side 2 does not comprise "mostly instrumentals": only one track (Art Decade) is entirely instrumental; the other three feature vocals. (reference: listen to the bloody album!) 3) Most of the music was not "intended for the soundtrack to Man Who Fell To Earth": only the reverse base part of Subterraneans was a hold-over from the aborted Man Who Fell To Earth soundtrack. (reference: Bowie interview in Uncut, 2001, and also Wilcken's book). 4) The reason Bowie's soundtrack for The Man Who Fell To Earth wasn't used had nothing to do with "time constraints". It was rejected by the film's director Nic Roeg. (reference: Wilcken, page 18-19) 5) The album was not "written off by many mainstream critics at the time". It received praise from all of the U.K.'s music weeklies at the time. 6) I don't think Bowie and Eno assisted Glass in the creation of his Low Symphony, although I don't have a reference for that.

Last edited at 14:20, 21 August 2011 (UTC). Substituted at 15:17, 1 May 2016 (UTC)

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Eno Made This

Everyone knows Eno made this. And the others. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.38.104.150 (talk) 06:39, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

What's the point of this comment? – zmbro _(talk) 16:40, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

Eno has only one writing credit for Low as co-writer of Warszawa, which some say may not reflect his actual contribution. Eno and Bowie were called a 'duo' by this reviewer: https://observer.com/2017/01/david-bowie-concept-album-low/ Thelisteninghand (talk) 22:20, 28 March 2021 (UTC)

Thelisteninghand Regarding Low, Eno for sure had input in making "Warszawa", but he showed up late in the sessions so his influence wasn't as big as "Heroes" or Lodger. There's a lot of of misconception regarding the Berlin Trilogy, especially Low, regarding Eno's involvement in the whole thing. Eno had the "least" input in the production of Low, and had much greater input when making "Heroes" and especially Lodger. I have no idea what the random IP above meant by that comment, as it's incredibly invalid. – zmbro _(talk) 03:05, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

Zmbro, thanks again - this is of huge interest to me. I am not concerned about production credits, but none go to Eno for Low, Heroes or Lodger, which are all credited as produced by Bowie/Visconti. Eno's role was not producer but musician. The comment by the random IP is incorrect but I would argue has some factual basis. Eno has no performance credit for his vocal on Warszawa for example. (the high part is beyond Bowie's range and he has never sung it live) The Low writing credits - the composition of the music - especially the four pieces on side 2 which are all credited to Bowie alone (excepting Warszawa) while interviews record Eno's use of 'Oblique Strategies' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies - a compositional technique - and other organisational input to the composition process. Thelisteninghand (talk) 20:34, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

Thelisteninghand Yeah Eno was not a producer, he was merely a collaborator (anyone who says Eno produced this trilogy is dead wrong). On Low, Eno helped make "Warszawa" and I think had some input in "Art Decade" but both "Weeping Wall" and "Subterraneans" were made entirely by Bowie alone. Eno's Oblique Strategy cards were actually not used at all on Low. The cards had a small part in the making of the instrumentals on "Heroes" but were especially used on I believe every track for Lodger. – zmbro _(talk) 22:43, 30 March 2021 (UTC)