David Bowie’s return to Europeanism in the 1970s
From LA to Berlin
By the time David Bowie finished his 1976 art-rock/disco album, Station to Station, he had become somewhat disillusioned with the idea of America.
During his most controversial period — from flirting with fascism to studying the occultist Aleister Crowley — he had pushed himself to the brink in his pursuit of artistic expression and exploration, which was exasperated by his excessive use of cocaine.
His Thin White Duke persona served as his fractured mask that would embody the extreme ideas he was exploring.
The question is, what led Bowie down such a dark path, to begin with?
The Thin White Duke was a sinister version of the Young Americans Plastic Soul-era Bowie, one that lost hope in the idea of what America could be.
His hair got shorter and turned orange from blonde; the sleazy, clown-like suits he wore for Young Americans were replaced by tailored, white-collared shirts paired with elegant waistcoats.
But if Bowie had lost faith by ’76, he set himself up to lose from the onset of creating Young Americans.
This album’s lyrical content, while more structured and based on narrative storytelling, was still critical of American life, but with the backdrop…
