STATION TO STATION WAS A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN DAVID BOWIE’S 1970s WORK – IT BRIDGED THE SOUL STYLINGS OF YOUNG AMERICANS (1975) AND THE EUROPEAN COOL OF LOW (1977). THE 1976 ALBUM WAS MADE IN A COCAINE-FUELLED CREATIVE STORM DURING LATE 1975, WITH BOWIE LATER ADMITTING HE REMEMBERED NOTHING OF THE GENESIS OF IT OTHER THAN THAT IT HAD BEEN RECORDED IN LOS ANGELES…
Integral to the creative process was the free-spirited rock guitarist Earl Slick, who had originally joined the Bowie machine for the DIAMOND DOGS tour in 1974, and then featured on the YOUNG AMERICANS album. STATION TO STATION was incalculably heightened by Slick’s unforgettable riffing on, amongst its six tracks, the soul / blues single GOLDEN YEARS and the classic STAY. Slick and Bowie parted ways amidst miscommunication before the record was taken out on the road, though they reconvened for 1983’s enormous SERIOUS MOONLIGHT tour, when Bowie’s commercial stock was at its peak after the LET’S DANCE album. Slick later played with Bowie on the HEATHEN and REALITY tours in the early 2000s, and featured on 2013’s surprise comeback album THE NEXT DAY. More recently he was part of the tribute to Bowie at the Brit Awards – where Bowie’s final band poignantly reconvened without their singer. Next month Slick will tour the UK with an all-star band (which includes Rolling Stones’ backing singer Bernard Fowler and Spandau Ballet’s Steve Norman) playing STATION TO STATION in full (ticket links below).
In this very special 175th edition of The Mouthcast Earl Slick talks from his home in New York, remembering his years as a close colleague and friend of David Bowie, and reflecting on his passing…
Photo by Chuck Lanza
Our recent interview with Steve Norman here
April 24th NORWICH Arts Centre here
April 26th GLASGOW O2 ABC here
April 28th LIVERPOOL O2 Academy here
April 29th ISLINGTON O2 Academy SOLD OUT
April 30th COLCHESTER Arts Centre SOLD OUT
May 1st LONDON The Lexington here
Some of our previous David Bowie coverage:
Editions of The Mouthcast, featuring
Woody Woodmansey (here), Reeves Gabrels (here)
Gerry Leonard (here), Lisa Ronson & Glenn Gregory (here)
and the DAVID BOWIE IS Exhibition at the V&A (here)
Interviews with Bowie authors Peter Doggett (here)
and Simon Goddard (here)
