The song David Bowie called “almost quaint”
It took David Bowie a few years to refine his vision for mass consumption, but by the early 1970s, he had emerged as one of his generation’s most influential creative forces. Building on the promise of his earlier works like ‘Space Oddity’ and Hunky Dory, Bowie reached new heights with his groundbreaking concept album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.
Throughout the mid-1970s, Bowie continued to innovate, achieving another pinnacle of artistic expression with his revered Berlin Trilogy: Low, “Heroes”, and Lodger. Departing from the glam-era extravagance of Ziggy Stardust, these albums embraced experimentation, incorporating cutting-edge synth textures and production techniques, thanks to the likes of Brian Eno and Tony Visconti.
The Berlin Trilogy was near-ubiquitously inspired by Bowie and Iggy Pop’s adventures in mainland Europe. As one might guess, they spent most of their time in the German capital, Berlin, which, at the time, was divided into two halves by the 155km Berlin Wall separating East and West Germany. The most famous reflection of this backdrop was, of course, 1977’s ‘Heroes’.
Following the release of ‘Heroes’ and its parent album in 1977, Bowie got cracking on the final instalment of his Berlin Trilogy, Lodger. The album failed to connect on the same level as Low and “Heroes” but still housed some musically enjoyable and lyrically inspired moments.
Among said moments was the mellifluous, unoffensive opener ‘Fantastic Voyage’. The song settles the listener into the album on a subtly apocalyptic note. Bowie sings, “In the event that this fantastic voyage should turn to erosion and we never get old, remember it’s true, dignity is valuable, but our lives are valuable too”. He wrote the track in reaction to the collapse of relations between the West and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, conscious of impending disaster.
“It’s almost quaint, this one,” Bowie said, examining the track in a 2008 interview with the Daily Mail. “It has a strong feel of the 1950s variety show to it. A cavil in passing – if I’d been in the position of the mid-1960s Rolling Stones, I definitely would have gone on Sunday Night At The London Palladium show’s revolving stage.”
Bowie revealed that ‘Fantastic Voyage’ is instrumentally related to another piece on Lodger. “This song’s chord structure appeared on the album Lodger in two forms. First, as it appears here and then further in as ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ (they were men’s dresses, I tell you). Both the tempo and top-line melody are rewritten.”
Bowie created two versions of ‘It’s No Game’ to bookend his 1980 follow-up Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). “I did this again on the album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). It proved nothing,” he said. “Thinking about it, Guy Mitchell would have done this song proud.”
Listen to David Bowie’s ‘Fantastic Voyage’ below.
