The cover David Bowie called “saccharine”
There’s a good chance that if you are an artist concerned with only producing your best work, many of the pieces you put out into the world fall below the high watermark you might set yourself. One artist certainly troubled by such a dichotomy is David Bowie, who has always been one of his fiercest critics.
One decade that has often felt the wrath of the Starman was the 1980s, a period in which Bowie believed he had released some of his worst songs and compromised his artistry in a bid for commercial success. While much of that disagreeable nature was aimed towards his Let’s Dance era, the same could also be said for his album from the following year, Tonight.
Consisting of only nine tracks, with only six original numbers, Tonight isn’t considered one of his best. Let’s Dance had been such a smash that Bowie neglected to jump in on songwriting too quickly and instead provided a record packed with covers. He took on some of Iggy Pop’s songs with a helping hand from his shirtless friends and also saw Bowie take on one of his most famous covers, ‘God Only Knows’ by The Beach Boys.
The Thin White Duke adds a heavy dose of his dulcet tones on this harmony-driven classic. It’s one of the greatest songs ever written, which are some pretty big shoes to fill, unless, of course, you’re David Bowie. The song, originally written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher, would lay the foundations for popular music because of Wilson’s use of an unorthodox and pioneering selection of instruments during its period of recording.
Brian Wilson’s impeccable writing is given yet another lease of life by Bowie here who adds not only another layer of vocal purity but the sultry and sexy nonchalance of an artist who knows exactly what he’s doing. However, Bowie wasn’t exactly pleased with his cover.
“I think that this album gave me a chance, like Pin Ups did a few years ago, to do some covers that I always wanted to do,” revealed Bowie to NME in 1984. “‘God Only Knows’ I first did – or tried to do – with Ava Cherry and that crowd, The Astronettes, when I tried to develop them into a group. Nothing came of that! I still have the tapes, though.”
But with a new opportunity to take on the track, Bowie jumped at the chance: “It sounded such a good idea at the time and I never had the chance to do it with anybody else again, so I thought I’d do it myself.” But, in typical self-effacing style, Bowie played down the track, “it might be a bit saccharine, I suppose.”
If there is a sweeter-than-sweet element to this song, it is Bowie’s appreciation of the songwriting and the candy-coloured production he adds to the original. But, with Bowie’s unique tone and desperation to put space between himself and the pop stylings of his previous release, this cover stands as one of his best.
