“Didn’t do it justice”: The one album David Bowie rushed
David Bowie went through spells in his career when he appeared to be a superhuman who was incapable of doing any wrong.
The term genius is regularly overused in a musical context, but Bowie is one of the few era-defining figures where it’s entirely accurate. In the 1970s alone, his defining decade, Bowie didn’t stop and released 11 studio albums at a frantic pace, producing enough material to ensure his status as an all-time great.
However, one issue with working at such a frantic pace was that Bowie was constantly thinking about whatever project he was working on next, even when the initial assignment was still going on.
A prime example of Bowie’s excellence during this chapter of his career was his Berlin trilogy, which saw Bowie embrace the experimental and avant-garde with the help of Tony Visconti and Brian Eno. Crucially, it was also a period of personal, as well as musical, development for Bowie as he got himself clean from hard substances, with his art playing a pivotal role in his road to recovery.
After releasing the first two instalments of the trilogy, Low and Heroes, in 1977, Bowie embarked on an expansive world tour before completing the set of records with Lodger. While it was part of his Berlin trilogy, the record was made in Switzerland and New York rather than West Germany. As much as Bowie adored the record, he later admitted that he would have done things differently if more time were available to him.
The recording process began during a brief break in the tour in 1978, and after his stint on the road, Lodger was finally completed many months later at the legendary Record Plant studios in New York.
Much to his frustration, Bowie wasn’t provided with the star treatment he felt like he deserved at the facility. However, time was of the essence following the touring-related delay, and he just accepted that it would have to suffice.
Speaking to Uncut in 2017, Visconti said: “We had a horrible studio to mix in. After Ziggy Stardust, David’s big hits were mainly in the rest of the world; they weren’t big sellers in America. By the time we got to Lodger, he’d dropped in status. So we were assigned Studio D. It was really bad. But we had a deadline to finish the mix.”
From a commercial and critical standpoint, there are no complaints to be had with Lodger. But, Bowie was a perfectionist and was never content with the standards of the mix, which most typical listeners wouldn’t even majorly notice. Although his songwriting on the album was never an area of upset, Bowie believes he didn’t do those songs justice.
In an interview with Mojo in 2002, Bowie was asked whether he agreed that Lodger felt like an “odd one out” in the Berlin trilogy. In response, he admitted: “I think it wouldn’t if Tony and I felt we hadn’t rushed through the mixing process. We didn’t do it justice. It’s one of the few albums that Tony and I have always thought, God, I’d love to get my hands on that album again and re-mix it.”
“It was done so quickly,” he admitted. “It contains so many nuggets, I really like the stuff on it, but I don’t think it was ever brought to its fullest state. We sold it short in the mixing, but it’s a lovely album. I do like it a lot”.
Thankfully, there’s a happy ending to this tale. Decades later, while Bowie was working on his final album, Blackstar, Visconti secretly began mixing Lodger and fulfilled his longtime collaborator’s wishes. After completing five mixes, he finally showed it to Bowie, who “absolutely loved it” and permitted him to finish the project, which finally came into the world in 2017.
