David Bowie - Serious Moonlight (1984)
1982-83 was a rarely calm time for David Bowie. For once, there was no recording for the new studio album or playing live or anything of that sort. That's not to say he didn't work in other places. He had worked as the composer for the German film Christiane F. that released in late 1981 and later worked on films such as The Hunger and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, both releasing in 1983. But he would finally give in to his fans and start the Silhouettes World Tour that would span from early 1983-1984. His first solo tour, he would play both contemporary songs from his most recent album as well as old Beatles songs that he had performed on. All shows would include a performance of the Beatles' "Imagine" as a tribute to John Lennon. What was most noted by fans who went to these shows was Bowie's reworking of some his older songs, such as "Heroes" and "Changes", to fit a more modern dance-pop sound. This was the result of Bowie starting work on a new album in December 1982, something that fans didn't know just yet. Due to the tour, recordings was on and off, and, by the time of the tour's end, the album was still nowhere near finished.
Bowie had hired Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers to co-produce and help inspire a fresh, polished sound for his new record. In the last years of the 70's, Chic had become one of the most successful bands around, and Rodgers had written countless dance songs that would no doubt influence Bowie in the early 80's. Another overwhelming influence on the new album was the compact disc. Released only in 1982, a few artists such as Billy Joel had taken advantage of the new medium, releasing their newest albums as an alternative to the vinyl record. But Bowie wanted to take the idea further. Throughout 1983 and 1984 he recorded at least 15 tracks that he seriously considered for the album, a good amount of them over 5 minutes. Bowie's idea was to throw everything on there at once and commit to an hour album that would span only a single disc.
Both the LP and CD versions of Serious Moonlight would release on May 10, 1984. Critics and fans were immediately baffled when the album released, not only by the drasticly new sound Bowie had decided to pursue but also because of the CD release. Bowie knew that an hour long album on an entirely new way to store audio would be drastically expensive and almost certainly not worth it due to the album being recorded analog, resulting in less-than-desirable quality. But Bowie went through with it as an experiment for not only himself but also to see how the consumers would react. And they did not react well. The vinyl record almost tripled the sales of the CD release (ironically it would become Bowie's best-selling solo album of his entire career). This left the songs that weren't on the vinyl record somewhat rare until decades later when CDs became the primary medium for listening to music. The album was hailed as yet another left-turn for the musical chameleon that was David Bowie as well as for its collaborations with former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Retrospectively, it has been seen as a precursor to the bloated CD albums that would come to define the 1990's.
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