>> DAVID BOWIE :: LODGER

This is a strange album, both dark and light. We dropped the ambient-side-two concept and just recorded songs! We had fun, but nevertheless an ominous feeling pervaded the album for me. The song, "Move On" was written while listening carefully to a tape of "All The Young Dudes" played backwards. So accurate were the reversed chord changes, that when we flipped the tape over and played "Move On" backwards, David and I were able to vocalize "All The Young Dudes" and record it. When we flipped it back over and played it the right direction you can hear the results towards the end of the track. It's weird!

"Fantastic Voyage" and "Boys Keep Swinging" are the same exact chord changes and structure, even in the same key, just the tempo and instrumentation are different. We even recorded a third song with the same structure, but it never got finished. "Red Money" is Iggy Pop's track "Sister Midnight" slowed down slightly with some instruments taken off and new ones added. I love "African Night Flight", which began as a jam based on Dale Hawkins' "Susie-Q". We were also treated to the creative inclusion of Adrian Belew, late of Frank Zappa's crew, for this album.

My only regret is that we went to New York to finish this album, and it suffered at the mixing stage because New York studios simply were not as versatile or well-equipped as their European counterparts in those days! The heavy New York vibe (in the '70s cocaine was ubiquitous and naively abused) added more darkness to this album.