Maps of Music

Low (1977)

Where the lyrics of Low take you, and where it was really made.

RCA refused to release the album for three months, fearing it would fail commercially, yet it reached number 2 in the UK.

Key places

Château d'Hérouville, where most of Low was recorded (1976)

Recording site Château d'Hérouville — Most of the Low sessions took place at the Château d'Hérouville in France, beginning on 1 September 1976. The studio sits in the middle of the French countryside. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Hansa Studios, where the sessions ended in West Berlin (1977)

Recording site Hansa Studios — After the Château sessions, the work continued at Hansa Studios in West Berlin, where the tracks Weeping Wall and Art Decade were completed. Recording lasted until early October 1976. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Low: eleventh studio album by David Bowie, released 14 January 1977 on RCA Records
• First of three Bowie collaborations with Tony Visconti and Brian Eno, later known as the Berlin Trilogy
• Bowie's first explorations of electronic and ambient music
• Side one: short, direct avant-pop song-fragments with mostly downbeat lyrics
• Side two: longer, mostly instrumental tracks on Bowie's musical observations of Berlin

Background

• Bowie moved to France in 1976 with his friend Iggy Pop to rid themselves of drug addictions
• There Bowie produced and co-wrote Pop's debut The Idiot, which featured sounds Bowie would explore on Low
• Bowie developed a cocaine addiction in 1974, and its influence is felt on Young Americans and Station to Station
• Bowie's planned soundtrack for The Man Who Fell to Earth was abandoned
• Bowie and Eno became interested in German bands such as Tangerine Dream, Neu!, Harmonia and Kraftwerk

Recording

• Sessions began 1 September 1976 at the Château d'Hérouville in France under the working title New Music: Night and Day
• Most of the album was recorded at the Château, and the sessions ended in October at Hansa Studios in West Berlin
• Bowie and Visconti co-produced the album, with contributions from Eno
• Visconti processed the drums with an Eventide H910 Harmonizer, a pitch-shifting device

Cover

• The cover is a profile of Bowie as his character from the film The Man Who Fell to Earth
• George Underwood, Bowie's school friend, designed the artwork
• The cover was intended as a visual pun, meaning 'low profile'

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Early life

• Born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London.
• Studied art, music and design; took up saxophone in 1961.
• Adopted the stage name David Bowie in 1966 to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees.

Career

• Breakthrough with "Space Oddity" in 1969, reaching the UK top five.
• Glam rock success in 1972 with the Ziggy Stardust persona and album.
• Berlin Trilogy (Low, "Heroes", Lodger) with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti in the late 1970s.
• Greatest commercial success with Let's Dance in 1983.
• Fronted the hard rock band Tin Machine from 1988 to 1992 before resuming a solo career.
• Final studio album Blackstar was released two days before his death in 2016.

Legacy

• Sold over 100 million records worldwide.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
• Widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• RCA refused to issue the album for three months, fearing commercial failure
• The album divided critical opinion on release
• Rolling Stone's John Milward: Bowie lacked the humour to pull off his avant-garde aspirations, and the second side was weaker than the first
• Record Mirror: the album was boring at first listen
• NME's Charles Shaar Murray: an extremely negative assessment, calling it a state of mind beyond desperation
• NME's Ian MacDonald: 'stunningly beautiful', and the only contemporary rock album
• The Village Voice's Robert Christgau: side one's fragments were almost as powerful as Station to Station, while side two was banal at first, later revised
• Billboard: side two described as adventurous, with appeal not yet certain

Reappraisal

• Critics continue to regard Low as one of Bowie's best works
• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine: the album confirmed Bowie's place at rock's cutting edge
• Pitchfork's Laura Snapes gave the album 10 out of 10
• Ultimate Classic Rock's Bryan Wawzenek listed Low as Bowie's greatest album
• Pitchfork named Low the greatest album of the 1970s in 2004
• Rolling Stone's 2013 readers' poll voted it Bowie's fourth best album

Records

• UK Albums Chart: entered at number 37 and peaked at number two, held off by Slim Whitman's Red River Valley
• US Billboard Top LPs & Tape: peaked at number 11
• Netherlands number 6, Australia and Norway number 10, New Zealand and Sweden number 12, Austria number 17, Finland number 30, Japan number 35, Canada number 56
• 'Sound and Vision' reached number three on the UK Singles Chart
• 'Sound and Vision' peaked at number 69 on the US Billboard Hot 100

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• RCA had planned a November 1976 release, but delayed the album after its staff considered it 'distinctly unpalatable' for the Christmas market
• Bowie kept RCA's rejection letter on his wall at home
• When Bowie asked what the Harmonizer did, Visconti answered with a joke that it messed with the fabric of time
• Joy Division's original name was 'Warsaw', a reference to 'Warszawa' on Low
• Philip Glass wrote a symphony based on the album in 1992, his first symphony
• Nick Lowe retaliated against the album's title by naming his 1977 EP Bowi (without an 'e')

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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