DAVID BOWIE – STATION TO STATION LP – Nr MINT A1/B2 UK 1976 ORIGINAL

David Bowie – Station To Station
(RCA Records  1976  APL11327  Orange RCA Label)
Matrix No’s: A1/B2 – UK Pressing

Sleeve in Excellent/Very Good+ condition
– some general rubbing and some wear to edges
No Insert

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie, was an English singer, songwriter and actor. He was a figure in popular music for over five decades, regarded by critics and musicians as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, his music and stagecraft significantly influencing popular music. During his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at 140 million worldwide, made him one of the world’s best-selling music artists. In the UK, he was awarded nine platinum album certifications, eleven gold and eight silver, releasing eleven number-one albums. In the US, he received five platinum and seven gold certifications. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

Born and raised in South London, Bowie developed an interest in music as a child, eventually studying art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. “Space Oddity” became his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart after its release in July 1969. After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with his flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of his single “Starman” and album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which won him widespread popularity. In 1975, Bowie’s style shifted radically towards a sound he characterised as “plastic soul”, initially alienating many of his UK devotees but garnering him his first major US crossover success with the number-one single “Fame” and the album Young Americans. In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. The following year, he further confounded musical expectations with the electronic-inflected album Low (1977), the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that would come to be known as the “Berlin Trilogy”. “Heroes” (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise.

After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 single “Ashes to Ashes”, its parent album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), and “Under Pressure”, a 1981 collaboration with Queen. He then reached his commercial peak in 1983 with Let’s Dance, with its title track topping both UK and US charts. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including industrial and jungle. Bowie also continued acting; his roles included Major Celliers in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), the Goblin King Jareth in Labyrinth (1986), Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Nikola Tesla in The Prestige (2006), among other film and television appearances and cameos. He stopped concert touring after 2004 and his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006. In 2013, Bowie returned from a decade-long recording hiatus with the release of The Next Day. He remained musically active until he died of liver cancer two days after the release of his final album, Blackstar (2016).

Station to Station is the tenth studio album by English musician David Bowie, released by RCA Records in 1976. Commonly regarded as one of his most significant works, Station to Station was the vehicle for his last great character, The Thin White Duke. The album was recorded after he completed shooting Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, and the cover artwork featured a still from the movie. During the sessions Bowie was heavily dependent on drugs, especially cocaine, and recalls almost nothing of the production.

Musically, Station to Station was a transitional album for Bowie, developing the funk and soul music of his previous release, Young Americans, while presenting a new direction towards synthesisers and motorik rhythms that was influenced by German electronic bands such as Kraftwerk and Neu!. This trend culminated in some of his most acclaimed work, the so-called ‘Berlin Trilogy’, recorded with Brian Eno in 1977–79. Bowie himself has said that Station to Station was “a plea to come back to Europe for me”. The album’s lyrics reflected his preoccupations with Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, mythology and religion.

With its blend of funk and Krautrock, romantic balladry and occultism, Station to Station has been described as “simultaneously one of Bowie’s most accessible albums and his most impenetrable”. Preceded by the single “Golden Years”, it made the top five in both the UK and US charts. In 2003, the album was ranked #323 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Track listing

All songs written by David Bowie, except where noted.

Side one

1. “Station to Station” – 10:14
2. “Golden Years” – 4:00
3. “Word on a Wing” – 6:03

Side two

1. “TVC 15” – 5:33
2. “Stay” – 6:15
3. “Wild Is the Wind” (Ned Washington, Dimitri Tiomkin) – 6:02

Personnel

Musicians

• David Bowie – vocals, guitar, tenor and alto saxophone, Moog synthesiser, Mellotron
• Carlos Alomar – guitar
• Roy Bittan – piano
• Dennis Davis – drums
• George Murray – bass guitar
• Warren Peace – backing vocals
• Earl Slick – guitar

Production

• David Bowie – producer
• Harry Maslin – producer
• Steve Shapiro – photography