David Bowie performed on Soul Train on November 4, 1975, to promote the Young American Album. There had never been a white solo artist who played on the show. He might have performed 'Fame'' from the album (I can't remember). But it was a deal in 1975. This hit crossed over to Soul and R&B radio and topped the rock charts too.
my buddies and I were horrified by this record and despised it for the disco feel it had. We were big hard rock and prog fans at the time, and loved Bowie's previous harder-edged material. Strange as hell - about a decade later, this album was one of my top favourite Bowie albums.
So glad you hit this song, it's one of my Bowie favorites. This entire album is dance oriented. Check out Fascination, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Can You Hear Me and the studio version of Fame (with John Lennon). Bowie started using Carlos Alomar on guitar on this album. Alomar was the guitarist of The Apollo house band and played on more Bowie albums than any other artist. A few other Bowie suggestions: Life On Mars, 5 Years, Suffragette City, Golden Years, Jean Genie, Rebel Rebel, Heroes, Under Pressure (with Queen), Fashion, Let's Dance... oh, there's so many more!
YAY !!!! at a strange time in life and coming of age David Bowie was a real hero to me as a young artist. Thank you David Bowie. So much energy at his concerts. Wow
This is About the Carefree Dance Thru Life Attitude of the Young Americans Lifestyle of the 70s. Bowie is Expressing his Admiration & Envy for the Carefree Happy Attitude of Young Americans at this Point in time
❤🩹❤🩹❤🩹So many Bowie favorites. Try "Jean Genie", "Under Pressure", "Rebel Rebel", "Suffragette City", "Changes", "Let's Dance", "Modern Love" and "Heroes". You should watch the official video for "I'm Afraid Of Americans".
Create analysis, and I do absolutely love his vocal performance on this, it shows his flexibility. I wouldn't say he was rebuilding his career because he was so hot at the time, but he was always changing. Always changing. Kind of ironic given one of his earliest hit songs, which I hope you react to, Changes. It was a massive hit and it was on the radio all the time and I just know you'll love it.
Ahh, that voice, that sax! A favorite of mine is “Blue Jean.” It was a song they played on the dancefloors! You already reacted to my favorite, “Space Oddity”
I watched an enjoyable documentary on the making on this album as Bowie infiltrated Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia. Those Phillie musicians didn't know what to make of this "skinny white cat with orange-red hair". But all the soul brothers ended up appreciating David's talent and the album "Young Americans" did very well in the US, peaking at #9 (#2 in the UK). The title track reached #28 on the US Hot 100, #18 in the UK.
This is one of my favorite Bowie songs because of the R&B flavor of it. I don't think most of us analyzed lyrics the way young people do today. Hip-Hop has conditioned young people to analyze lyrics, since Hip Hop is more about lyrics than the music. Back then, it was kid of a luxury if we had access to the lyrics at all. If they weren't printed on the album sleeve, most of us would never know what the lyrics actually were until the Internet came along. Most of us were more interested in the music than the lyrics and knew every note of a song. We'd try to understand the lyrics but if we couldn't, it wasn't that big of a deal. The chorus and maybe a few lines was enough for most of us. When you're dancing or rocking out, it's the music that drove us. I'm still finding out what some of the songs from the 70s and 80s were actually about.
It's interesting that most young people seem to know and understand rap lyrics and can recite them much more than older vocal singing lyrics and can remember mostly the chorus rather than the entire song. I may be wrong, this is what I've experienced.
If you liked Young americans i think tha the Next must be Golden Years. Another funky-soul gem from Bowie.........or you can try something diferent like Héroes or something from His Ziggy Stardust era like Moonage daydream😎
You'd very likely enjoy his song LET'S DANCE which of course is a dance song, but be sure to listen to the full length version rather than the FM radio play version which cut a section of the instrumental segue. Great reaction btw. Love how you always go into the details and history of artists and songs.
Oh, did you catch the Beatles reference in the backing vocals midway through the song? "I heard the news today oh boy" ... A Day in the Life by the Beatles.
The lyrics is a diatribe, but ironic the (Young) americans loved this tune: Sex: “It took him minutes, took her nowhere” Little awarenes of histore/politics/anything: “Do you remember, your President Nixon?Do you remember, the bills you have to pay? Or even yesterday?” Suicide: “Well, well, well, would you carry a razor. In case, just in case of depression?”
David's albums Young Americans and Station to Staition are my two favorites. "Win", "Right" are perhaps two of my favorite songs in the world. However, "Stay", "TVC 15" and "Station to Station" are right there. Add "Word on a Wing" and "Wild is the Wind" make me confused as to what album I prefer. Add "Quicksand" and "The Bewley Brothers" from Hunky Dory and I don't know where my heart lies. Keep listening.
Bowie said at this time he wanted badly to be a Philadelphia-style soul singer, but that no matter how he tried, he was still a white Englishman. I think he did pretty damn well. You’ll have to get to ‘(The Rise and Fall Of) Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars’ sometime. I like “Hang On To Yourself”, but the next two tracks, “Ziggy Stardust” and “Suffragette City”, are glam rock classics too. Stevie Ray Vaughan is all over Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ album. I saw Bowie on that tour in 1983, called “Serious Moonlight Tour”, in Austin. Bowie played guitar and saxophone. Thanks!
@@ShawnSalvadori I'm glad...you only have about 400 more of his songs to go😊(just kidding, of course...although he really does have hundreds more great ones, IMO😊)
Bowie was obsessed with , maybe even was in love with America, at least before he moved here…when he was young he had a fascination with American football even, which , to this day is an odd thing for the soccer obsessed Brit’s & Europeans to have.
Luther was a giant, gentle, very quiet, & shy dude then…Bowie gave him confidence & helped bring him out of his shell for his own career that was right around the corner.
Philly soul sound - that's Hall and Oates sound too that you like so much! Speaking of which, time for another H&O; maybe one with the music video as they are so fun. :)
Bowie once said that he barely remembered 1975 at all... He was doing a lot of drugs then. The next 3 albums were done in Berlin, where he attempted to cut down on that shit. Though, based on one of those subsequent songs being about a TV that ate his girlfriend, I'm not sure he was all that successful at kicking the habit... but damn he was brilliant! ;-]
Actually, the song you refer to (TVC15) comes from the next album (Station to Station) in '76, which was recorded in the US (L.A., I think). It's this particular album Bowie famously said he had no memory of recording, because of the drugs. And it's only after this album that he relocated to Europe (France first, then Berlin) to escape the toxic surrounding of his life in the US at this period. Oh, and TVC15 is based on a friend of David's dream : guy's name was Iggy Pop... Oh, and Station to Station is a masterpiece, from beginning to end !
@@hijikaelemenope3127Indeed, thanks for the corrections, my memory isn't what it was... I'd forgotten S to S was done in the U.S.A. Ah, so it was Iggy's dream... Seems I'd forgotten that too! Lol Just to be clear, making a joke about the song doesn't mean I don't think it's brilliant... I agree with you, the whole album is a masterpiece! I was attempting to prepare our young friend to expect the unexpected with this artist since he mentioned how different this song was from the others he'd heard. 😁
@@robertcartier5088 No problem 🙂 : you wouldn’t believe how many times I got corrected in YT comments about Bowie related infos, even though I consider myself a die-hard fan 😅 ! And you’re right : our young friend cannot expect anything but the unexpected with Bowie : can’t wait until he discovers tracks from Low, Heroes, Scary monsters or 1-Outside. Not to mention Blackstar...
'I heard the news today Oh Boy!' - spot the lyric....
Right! A little nod to The Beatles' "A Day in the Life." 😊
They did do a song together the same year, and big fans of one another, so... :)
David Bowie performed on Soul Train on November 4, 1975, to promote the Young American Album. There had never been a white
solo artist who played on the show. He might have performed 'Fame'' from the album (I can't remember). But it was a
deal in 1975. This hit crossed over to Soul and R&B radio and topped the rock charts too.
This was Bowie's "Plastic Soul" era. The title comes from Bowie's hat tip to Motown Records, whose slogan was "The Sound of Young America."
Bowie is in elite status as a singer & musician of all time….. ❤️🙏🏻🥲
This song never gets old....
my buddies and I were horrified by this record and despised it for the disco feel it had. We were big hard rock and prog fans at the time, and loved Bowie's previous harder-edged material. Strange as hell - about a decade later, this album was one of my top favourite Bowie albums.
One of the backup singers on this song is a young Luther Vandross! He really got him his big break. He even did some of the vocal arrangements.
So glad you hit this song, it's one of my Bowie favorites. This entire album is dance oriented. Check out Fascination, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Can You Hear Me and the studio version of Fame (with John Lennon). Bowie started using Carlos Alomar on guitar on this album. Alomar was the guitarist of The Apollo house band and played on more Bowie albums than any other artist. A few other Bowie suggestions: Life On Mars, 5 Years, Suffragette City, Golden Years, Jean Genie, Rebel Rebel, Heroes, Under Pressure (with Queen), Fashion, Let's Dance... oh, there's so many more!
YAY !!!! at a strange time in life and coming of age David Bowie was a real hero to me as a young artist. Thank you David Bowie. So much energy at his concerts. Wow
Bowie was a glamourous force of nature with Young Americans
This is About the Carefree Dance Thru Life Attitude of the Young Americans Lifestyle of the 70s. Bowie is Expressing his Admiration & Envy for the Carefree Happy Attitude of Young Americans at this Point in time
I haven't had the chance to listen to your reaction here yet Shawn but i know it's insightful. This whole album is exceptional. Thanks!
Great. My fav Bowie tune.
Dude in a Metallica t-shirt grooving to YA is as 2023 as it gets.
Just doesn't get much better ❤Bowie forever
Shawn thanks for this. Love your energy. You love "our" music and it shows.
I'm a forever fan...miss him 🌹❤️
Bowie is a solid sax player himself but he brought in a pro's pro with David Sanborn on this track.
This one and "Fame" are the well-known tracks on this album but the two bosses for me are "Win" and "Right"
master forever
OHHHHH OKAY SO YOU DID FAME ALREADY, FROM THE SAME ALBUM SHAWN! 👍😊 COOL COOL!
This song has such a great beat that doesn't stop.
❤🩹❤🩹❤🩹So many Bowie favorites. Try "Jean Genie", "Under Pressure", "Rebel Rebel", "Suffragette City", "Changes", "Let's Dance", "Modern Love" and "Heroes". You should watch the official video for "I'm Afraid Of Americans".
One of David’s best!
A great reaction can give a new perspective on songs like this that I've heard a thousand times. Thanks
Create analysis, and I do absolutely love his vocal performance on this, it shows his flexibility. I wouldn't say he was rebuilding his career because he was so hot at the time, but he was always changing. Always changing.
Kind of ironic given one of his earliest hit songs, which I hope you react to, Changes. It was a massive hit and it was on the radio all the time and I just know you'll love it.
If nothing else can be said about him he was very eclectic. Be sure to check out Let's Dance, Modern Love and china doll
Although David plays Saxophone he didn't on this, it's Sax great David Sanborn.
I love the analog Beatles “sample” or, homage, or hat tip, in this song….whatever u want to call it.
Ahh, that voice, that sax! A favorite of mine is “Blue Jean.” It was a song they played on the dancefloors! You already reacted to my favorite, “Space Oddity”
Love the MTV awards live version!!
Space Oddity is timeless!
@@doriwiljt so do I! It’s amazing!
I watched an enjoyable documentary on the making on this album as Bowie infiltrated Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia. Those Phillie musicians didn't know what to make of this "skinny white cat with orange-red hair". But all the soul brothers ended up appreciating David's talent and the album "Young Americans" did very well in the US, peaking at #9 (#2 in the UK). The title track reached #28 on the US Hot 100, #18 in the UK.
And, vocal help from young Luther Vamdross 😎
You'll want to hear his song "Changes".... You'll like it
The Man Who Sold the World
AHHHHH YESSS, MY FAVORITE BOWIE ALBUM SHAWN 75'S ( YOUNG AMERICANS ) 👍😊THE OTHER HUGE HIT WAS : FAME 😊ENJOYYYY MAN!
I love all his older stuff. Rebel Rebel, Changes, Jean Jenie,...
This is one of my favorite Bowie songs because of the R&B flavor of it.
I don't think most of us analyzed lyrics the way young people do today. Hip-Hop has conditioned young people to analyze lyrics, since Hip Hop is more about lyrics than the music. Back then, it was kid of a luxury if we had access to the lyrics at all. If they weren't printed on the album sleeve, most of us would never know what the lyrics actually were until the Internet came along. Most of us were more interested in the music than the lyrics and knew every note of a song. We'd try to understand the lyrics but if we couldn't, it wasn't that big of a deal. The chorus and maybe a few lines was enough for most of us. When you're dancing or rocking out, it's the music that drove us. I'm still finding out what some of the songs from the 70s and 80s were actually about.
It's interesting that most young people seem to know and understand rap lyrics and can recite them much more than older vocal singing lyrics and can remember mostly the chorus rather than the entire song.
I may be wrong, this is what I've experienced.
I love this song, and this album, such a great sound, and vibe! You should also listen to "Let's Dance", another great Bowie-song.
If you liked Young americans i think tha the Next must be Golden Years. Another funky-soul gem from Bowie.........or you can try something diferent like Héroes or something from His Ziggy Stardust era like Moonage daydream😎
You'd very likely enjoy his song LET'S DANCE which of course is a dance song, but be sure to listen to the full length version rather than the FM radio play version which cut a section of the instrumental segue. Great reaction btw. Love how you always go into the details and history of artists and songs.
If you want to hear a real funky side of DB try "Stay". ❤
“Stay” became even more epic, on the ‘live’ recordings we have from tours 1976-‘79! 🎸😎
Oh, did you catch the Beatles reference in the backing vocals midway through the song? "I heard the news today oh boy" ... A Day in the Life by the Beatles.
The lyrics is a diatribe, but ironic the (Young) americans loved this tune:
Sex:
“It took him minutes, took her nowhere”
Little awarenes of histore/politics/anything:
“Do you remember, your President Nixon?Do you remember, the bills you have to pay? Or even yesterday?”
Suicide:
“Well, well, well, would you carry a razor. In case, just in case of depression?”
First heard this song in the movie 'Sixteen Candles'
David's albums Young Americans and Station to Staition are my two favorites. "Win", "Right" are perhaps two of my favorite songs in the world. However, "Stay", "TVC 15" and "Station to Station" are right there. Add "Word on a Wing" and "Wild is the Wind" make me confused as to what album I prefer. Add "Quicksand" and "The Bewley Brothers" from Hunky Dory and I don't know where my heart lies. Keep listening.
Saw Bowie in 70s even had his haircut very big. In 70s
Bowie said at this time he wanted badly to be a Philadelphia-style soul singer, but that no matter how he tried, he was still a white Englishman. I think he did pretty damn well. You’ll have to get to ‘(The Rise and Fall Of) Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars’ sometime. I like “Hang On To Yourself”, but the next two tracks, “Ziggy Stardust” and “Suffragette City”, are glam rock classics too. Stevie Ray Vaughan is all over Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ album. I saw Bowie on that tour in 1983, called “Serious Moonlight Tour”, in Austin. Bowie played guitar and saxophone. Thanks!
Great reaction to a great song, thanks😊
Thank you and no problem ☺will definitely hit up his songs again!
@@ShawnSalvadori I'm glad...you only have about 400 more of his songs to go😊(just kidding, of course...although he really does have hundreds more great ones, IMO😊)
THIS WAS MY FAVORITE BOWIE ALBUM BESIDES ZIGGY SHAWN BUT IT'S MOST LIKELY AN AGE THING, I WAS (15 ) WHEN THIS CAME OUT IN 75 😊
Bowie was obsessed with , maybe even was in love with America, at least before he moved here…when he was young he had a fascination with American football even, which , to this day is an odd thing for the soccer obsessed Brit’s & Europeans to have.
I can source this if anyone wants to be a dick about it, lol.
David is a chameleon. I recommend "Blue Jean" the live version from the MTV awards.
The line - I read the news today oh boy - is from a Beatles song - A Day In The Life
This album is in my old collection
Luther Vandross and company on backing vocals
Luther was a giant, gentle, very quiet, & shy dude then…Bowie gave him confidence & helped bring him out of his shell for his own career that was right around the corner.
That is the great,but very young Luther Vandros singing in the background singers. That chorus of young Americans on repeat was his idea.
Philly soul sound - that's Hall and Oates sound too that you like so much! Speaking of which, time for another H&O; maybe one with the music video as they are so fun. :)
👍👍👍👍👍
Summit or another done said it I bet but Luther Vandross himself sayng on this 'un. Belted out 'is soul, he did...
IF YOU WANT A BANGERRRR SONG, THE ALBUM BEFORE THIS,HIS CONCEPT ALBUM SHAWN ( ZIGGY STARDUST ) THEN DO : SUFFRAGETTE CITY 💯😊
Please do life on mars,china girl and starman(the top of the pops performance)
I hear proto-David Byrne style singing is this one…Byrne before Byrne.
Bowie once said that he barely remembered 1975 at all... He was doing a lot of drugs then. The next 3 albums were done in Berlin, where he attempted to cut down on that shit. Though, based on one of those subsequent songs being about a TV that ate his girlfriend, I'm not sure he was all that successful at kicking the habit... but damn he was brilliant! ;-]
Actually, the song you refer to (TVC15) comes from the next album (Station to Station) in '76, which was recorded in the US (L.A., I think). It's this particular album Bowie famously said he had no memory of recording, because of the drugs. And it's only after this album that he relocated to Europe (France first, then Berlin) to escape the toxic surrounding of his life in the US at this period.
Oh, and TVC15 is based on a friend of David's dream : guy's name was Iggy Pop...
Oh, and Station to Station is a masterpiece, from beginning to end !
@@hijikaelemenope3127Indeed, thanks for the corrections, my memory isn't what it was... I'd forgotten S to S was done in the U.S.A. Ah, so it was Iggy's dream... Seems I'd forgotten that too! Lol
Just to be clear, making a joke about the song doesn't mean I don't think it's brilliant... I agree with you, the whole album is a masterpiece!
I was attempting to prepare our young friend to expect the unexpected with this artist since he mentioned how different this song was from the others he'd heard. 😁
@@robertcartier5088 No problem 🙂 : you wouldn’t believe how many times I got corrected in YT comments about Bowie related infos, even though I consider myself a die-hard fan 😅 ! And you’re right : our young friend cannot expect anything but the unexpected with Bowie : can’t wait until he discovers tracks from Low, Heroes, Scary monsters or 1-Outside. Not to mention Blackstar...
😊
Luther Vandros sang backup for this song.
Check out here on UA-cam Bowie's live cover of Neil Young's "I've Been Waiting for You." It's a banger!
Please react to David Bowie moonage daydream
🌿♥️🇳🇿
Check out the Standells- Dirty Water❤
Uhuh. Right.
There IS another Great song from the 80's: This IS not América.........one of the varios Great Hit songs ffrom Bowie in the 80's
This guy is really fixated about young Americans. OK..