By Diamond Dogs Bowie was in a quandary. His Ziggy character was proving immensely successful, but having to constantly right glam-rock songs from space was getting old. This album is a bit of a pivotal point, which is why I included a few tracks on the previous playlist and few on this one. Bowie still had the spiky red mullet and the weird concept album plot going on with Diamond Dogs but it was even more half-hearted than Aladdin Sane. He was playing with the new disco rhythms that were starting to percolate across the Atlantic and wanted to really dive into the Philly-based blue-eyed “plastic” soul.

So for his next album, Young Americans he switched things up again. He cut his hair short and let it go back to blonde. He started writing songs with Luther Vandross and John Lennon, giving his songs a more polished pop sound. It was icy cold and very aloof, but it was undeniably danceable and catchy as hell.

While this ended up proving nearly as successful commercial as the Ziggy Stardust stuff, it was hard to maintain that kind of veneer and remove. The only way to keep that up at a reasonable pace was piles and piles of cocaine. So much cocaine that Bowie himself has no recollection of making the album Station To Station at all.

Clearly this was not a sustainable way to continue. But where could Bowie go to “dry out”? And who would he bring with him. Tune in next week…