David Bowie, "Red Money"




SiriusXM now has a Bowie channel subbing in for The Loft (channel 30) until Sunday.  All Bowie, all the time, which probably oughta be a thing anyway, the way Springsteen has a station and the Dead have a station and Elvis has a station.  Hell, if Pearl Jam has a station (and they do).  But it's probably a licensing thing, right?  Money has to change hands and things have to be signed, I think.

(Not that it ought to permanently replace The Loft.  I loves me The Loft.)

Anyway, they played this when I was driving home the other evening, "Red Money" from Lodger (1979), and I wondered why the hell I didn't already have it scheduled for the week's Bowie playlist at Giant Midgets.  It's not a track I have tons to say about, though it's off of Bowie's best album (aside from all the other ones), the last of the "Berlin Trilogy" and Eno-ey goodness.  Plus (and this is the main reason I was thinking, "Man, add this to the list" on the drive home) those Carlos Alomar guitars on "Red Money" are something else.

I was also thinking--and this is in keeping with how Bowie was always a few moments in the future--how much this track sounded like something Talking Heads might have done a year later (on, if you want to be specific, Remain In Light (1980)).  Which may just be the Eno influence--he produced Light and the Heads' '79 record Fear of Music.  But still.  What a weird, wonderful cut.

You may or may not have figured out I picked out a whole bunch of tracks and scheduled 'em through the week, and occasionally came in and added another one here or there.  I don't know how many more I'll do; I mean, I can tell you how many more are currently scheduled through Friday, I just can't tell you if the number will grow.  There's a little voice in me that says I'm neglecting Bowie's '80s output, and I think probably his '90s output, too.  I mention this and give you the peek behind the curtain only because if I don't toss up something from Let's Dance (1983), Earthling (1997), or even Tin Machine (1989) it's not because I think any less of those records or anything like that.  It's just that there's a lot of Bowie, you know.  And if I don't pop up a track you loved, well, you should go listen to it again.  That's all.



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