Low Album UK: 1977

A Berlin Trilogy Ambient Masterpiece

Released as a vinyl LP in the UK on January 14, 1977, on RCA Victor (catalogue: PL 12030), David Bowie’s Low — the first of his Berlin Trilogy — was a groundbreaking ambient/experimental rock album. Produced by Bowie & Tony Visconti at Château d’Hérouville and Hansa Tonstudios, this 11-track set featured “Sound And Vision,” “Be My Wife,” and the instrumental side B. side it peaked at No. 2 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart where it resided for 17 weeks.

It is the first of three collaborations with producer Tony Visconti and musician Brian Eno, collectively known as the Berlin Trilogy. The project began after Bowie moved to France in 1976 with his friend Iggy Pop to overcome their drug addictions. In France, Bowie produced and co-wrote Pop's debut studio album, The Idiot, which included sounds that Bowie would later explore on his own album. After finishing The Idiot, recording sessions for Low started at Château d'Hérouville in Hérouville in September 1976 and concluded in October at Hansa Studios in West Berlin, where Bowie and Pop had moved.

An art rock album inspired by German bands like Tangerine Dream, Neu!, Harmonia, and Kraftwerk, "Low" marks Bowie's initial foray into electronic and ambient music styles. The first side primarily features short, direct avant-pop song fragments with mostly somber lyrics reflecting Bowie's mindset, while the second side includes longer, mostly instrumental tracks that capture musical impressions of Berlin.

Visconti crafted the unique drum sound using an Eventide H910 Harmonizer, a pitch-shifting device. The cover art, showing a profile of Bowie from the film "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976), was meant as a visual pun, indicating a "low profile."

RCA delayed the release of Low for three months, concerned it might not succeed commercially. When it finally came out, it sparked mixed reviews and received minimal promotion from RCA and Bowie, who chose to tour as Pop's keyboardist instead. Despite this, it climbed to number 2 in the UK and number 11 in the US charts. Two singles were released: "Sound and Vision", which reached the UK top five, and "Be My Wife". The album's success led RCA to release The Idiot in March 1977. In mid-1977, Bowie contributed to Pop's next album Lust for Life before working on his album "Heroes", which built upon Low's musical style and included a similar blend of songs and instrumentals.

In subsequent decades, critics have regarded Low as one of Bowie's finest works, and it has been featured on numerous lists of the greatest albums ever. It inspired many post-punk bands, and its drum sound has been extensively emulated. As a precursor to the post-rock genre of the 1990s, Low has been reissued multiple times and was remastered in 2017 as part of the A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982) box set.

“It’s as plain as night and day, no its not ”

following text from

https://www.davidbowie.com/blog/2022/1/14/low-album-released-45-years-ago-today?

January 14 1977 saw the release of the first instalment of what came to be known as Bowie’s Berlin trilogy. That album was the Bowie/Visconti produced Low and it was followed later the same year by "Heroes" with the trilogy completed in 1979 by the arrival of Lodger.

Most of the music across the three albums wasn't even recorded in Berlin, the unifying factor actually being Bowie, Visconti and Eno.

The evolution of the Low album sleeve started with a couple of sketch artwork ideas David created for the album when it was still called New Music: Night And Day. And before that he was toying with an altogether different title again, providing another example of his fondness for recycling.

Steve Schapiro produced the artwork which became Low following the poster/advert he created for the US release of the The Man Who Fell To Earth utilising David’s character, TJ Newton, in a still from the film.

In the event, it seems the name change to Low was truly last minute. The album was already mentioned in various forthcoming release lists for January 1977 as New Music: Night And Day and allocated the same catalogue number as Low.

The stickered back as opposed to a proper printed tracklist on the sleeve also suggested a rush job. It seems there was no press kit or even a press release for Low and RCA’s advertising campaign was non-existent before the release. Adverts only appeared after the album had already charted in the UK.

This may be down to the fact that RCA didn’t seem too keen to release the album, suggesting it seemed unfinished and needed more work. By all accounts one RCA exec even offered Bowie a house in Philadelphia if he made another Young Americans. Thankfully, Bowie stood by the finished work and insisted that was what would be released.

Anyway, it’s a great sleeve even if not everybody got the visual pun of Low profile. Here's Bowie shortly after the release:

“You see the album, has a profile of me on it, and on the album itself I keep a very 'low profile'. I was very disappointed no one picked up on that. I thought it would've been obvious.”

Much has been written about the brilliance and braveness of the music on Low, and rightly so. It’s probably hard to imagine with the ears of today how utterly unique the record sounded back in 1977.

Apart from the obvious slicing of the album into two distinct sides (reflected better in the original working title of New Music Night And Day), Visconti gifted Low that distinctive drum sound, among other things, via his latest gadget, the Evantide Harmonizer. The Eventide was a machine that Visconti described to Bowie and Eno in a conference call before the sessions, thus: “It fucks with the fabric of time.”

Though Low was a record purportedly informed by the likes of Kraftwerk and other German musicians of the time, it sounded far more organic and not at all mechanised. This was in no small measure due to the nucleus of the band Bowie had favoured during this whole period (starting with Station To Station), of Dennis Davis (drums), Carlos Alomar (guitar) and George Murray (bass), otherwise known as The DAM Trio.

Despite a very mixed press reaction to Low, the album was a commercial success, peaking at #2 on the UK Albums Chart and #11 on the US Billboard Pop Albums chart. "Sound and Vision" and "Be My Wife" were released as singles; the former reaching #3 on the UK Singles Chart.

Low sounds as fresh today as it ever did...thirty nine minutes of untouchable genius.

Album Overview

Release Details

Label: RCA Victor.

Format: Vinyl LP, Album, Stereo.

Side A

1. Speed Of Life

2. Breaking Glass

3. What In The World

4. Sound And Vision

5. Always Crashing In The Same Car

6. Be My Wife

7. A New Career In A New Town

Side B

1. Warszawa

2. Art Decade

3. Weeping Wall

4. Subterraneans

- LP, Album – RCA PL 12030 – UK – 1977

UK Variants:

- Cassette, Album – RCA PK 12030 – UK – 1977

A1 Speed Of Life

A2 Breaking Glass

A3 What In The World

A4 Sound And Vision

A5 Always Crashing In The Same Car

A6 Be My Wife

A7 A New Career In A New Town

B1 Warszawa

B2 Art Decade

B3 Weeping Wall

B4 Subterraneans

- 8-Track Cartridge, Album – RCA PS 12030 – UK – 1977

A1 Speed Of Life

A2 Breaking Glass

A3 What In The World

A4 A New Career In A New Town

B1 Sound And Vision

B2 Always Crashing In The Same Car

B3 Be My Wife

C1 Warszawa

C2 Weeping Wall

D1 Art Decade

D2 Subterraneans

Production and Context

Produced by David Bowie & Tony Visconti. Recorded at Château d’The Man Who Fell To Earth. No synthesizers.

Singles Released and Chart Performance

- Sound And Vision (February 1977) – UK No. 3

Album Chart Performance

Peak position: 2

17 weeks – entry January 29, 1977

37 → 2 → 5 → 9 → 12 → 21 → 18 → 11 → 12 → 16 → 18 → 21 → 24 → 28 → 27 → 31 → 59

Do you have Low in your vinyl stack? Ready for sound and vision? Share in the comments!

Sources

Information is drawn from my personal knowledge and supplemented by web sources, including Discogs, 45cat, AllMusic, Rate Your Music, Wikipedia, BBC Official Charts Company, Billboard Chart History

Whilst every effort is made to provide accurate information, mistakes do happen. Simply leave a comment and the post will be updated. Thank you.