Continuing my look at the albums of 1975…
I did a deep dive into David Bowie’s catalog shortly after he died in 2016. Among the albums I covered was 1975’s Young Americans, Bowie’s ninth studio album. This record marked a shift away from his glam rock phase and into what he called “plastic soul.”
Bowie left England to record for the first time in the U.S., in both Philadelphia and New York. While the sessions resulted in plenty of material, only eight tracks ended up on the final tracklist.
‘Somebody Up There Likes Me’ is a deep cut on David Bowie’s ninth studio album, 1975’s Young Americans. This song, which took its title from the 1956 Paul Newman movie, takes aim at a villainous television celebrity.
Young Americans found Bowie in his “plastic soul” period, moving away from glam rock and toward R&B and soul. This detour would last about an album and a half.
1975’s Young Americans is the eighth David Bowie album I’m featuring in this retrospective, with all eight (plus a few I’ve left out) released over just nine years. And all of this happened 40 years before his death. What a remarkable run.
Young Americans kicked off Bowie’s brief soul period. Bowie got an assist from a young Luther Vandross, who performed on the album and co-wrote one track. Bowie described the album this way: “The squashed remains of ethnic music as it survives in the age of Muzak rock, written and sung by a white limey.”
Meet Me In Montauk 