Loving the Bowie Voice(s), Playlist 5: Let’s dance in Walmart!

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by sandraphflowers

A lot of this album [“Never Let Me Down”] comes from a well of my own emotional responses to things. It’s not quite as cold or supposedly objective as some of my previous material has been. It’s a little more subjective. It even touches things like romance, which for me were almost an unknown and mysterious subject …in terms of a writer. I could never write clear-headedly about that. But now that’s starting to become almost a possible subject area.
David Bowie, Kay Rush – Interview with David Bowie ( Part 1), 1987

During December 2016, David Bowie fans watched ecstatically as ★ appeared on one best-album-of-the-year list after another. When the tallying was finally over, the album had placed in the #1 spot on 23 lists, #2 on 14 lists, and #3 on 9 lists. It also placed from positions #4 to #10 on numerous other lists (★ Album Dominates End of Year Polls).

Despite these accolades for the album…

It seems doubtful that ★ the song will ever become a pop classic of the kind you hear playing in Walmart (not to say that such a distinction was something he was striving for). Up until a week ago, I’d have said the same thing about the chances of hearing Let’s Dance in business establishments these days. Imagine my shock, then, upon hearing That Voice growling out “…the serious moonlight…” as I strolled down a Walmart cosmetic aisle leading to Iman products!

“What?” I mumbled to no one in particular. “’Let’s Dance??’ In Walmart??? Can’t be!”

Guess again. It was. Readers who’ve run across my giddy Twitter tweets about “Let’s Dance” would be right in betting that I’d retrace my steps until I found a spot where the voice poured down from the ceiling. Having located the source, I parked myself and my shopping in the midst of the sound. And danced a little bit while singing along. Very subtly, of course.

The Love Story We Love to Love

A regular customer of  this particular Walmart for years, I’d never, until that day, heard them play any Bowie music, much less “Let’s Dance.” Heck, they don’t even sell his music.

Yet here it is, 2017:  David’s been gone slightly more than a year. “Let’s Dance,” now 34 years old, is playing above the cosmetics display of Iman, whom David wouldn’t meet and marry until the early 1990s. An Iman signature picture stands at the end of her aisle. And I, poster girl for “Let’s Dance,” come wandering into this parallel universe in time to see, hear, and feel it all.

Of course, these elements coming together in this way could be just a quirky coincidence. Or maybe the work of a Bowie super fan who happened to be in charge of Walmart’s playlist that day. Or a natural consequence of ★’s success sending sales of all things Bowie over the moon.

I’m prepared to accept all these explanations, since one makes about as much sense as another.

“Starting to Become Almost a Possible Subject Area”

Putting Walmart aside for the moment, I want to return to the interview quoted above in which Mr. Bowie reveals that writing about romance was not one of his many fortes. Ironically, though, his original concept for “Let’s Dance” was a tender ballad suitable for slow dancing. You might have seen him offer that version at concerts now and then in the early 2000s.  But knowing the fans craved “the song they’re playing on the radio,” he’d turn the slow version over to them just in time for the first “and trem – ble like a flowrrrr.”

Still, though he never quite mastered the faculty of  writing about romance (as lamented in “Blue Jean”), Bowie’s romantic singing left little if anything to be desired. In support of that claim, and in tribute to his and Iman’s continuing love story, this playlist features a few of his most romantic songs. In the list below, initial release dates and writers are presented first, followed by Bowie’s initial release date and occasion.

Can You Hear Me, 1974 by David Bowie for the film he starred in that year, The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Wild is the Wind, 1957 by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington; first recorded by Bowie in 1976 for his Station to Station album.

Tonight, 1977 by David Bowie and Iggy Pop for Pop’s Lust for Life album; recorded by Bowie in 1984 with Tina Turner for his Tonight album.

God Only Knows, 1966 by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher of the Beach Boys; recorded by David Bowie in 1984 for his Tonight album.

Absolute Beginners, 1986 by David Bowie for the film of the same name which he starred in that year.

As the World Falls Down, 1986 by David Bowie for the film Labyrinth which he starred in that year.

Thank you for exploring this playlist. If you’ve enjoyed it, please like and retweet it on Twitter and share and like it on Facebook. You might also enjoy my other playlists and Bowie articles in the blogs section of DavidBowieNews.com. I’m also on Twitter @revisingmyself. God bless, be safe.