Blue-and-green-eyed soul

Young Americans is David Bowie’s most underrated album, but its bold cross-cultural concept deserves reappraisal, says Daryl Easlea (Read more: Part II)

The zenith of David Bowie’s flat-pack soul period, Young Americans was released in March 1975. It is an incredible and frequently overlooked record, which crisply spelt out its market in its title. After years of mobilising, young Americans now had some disposable income, and they were ready to party. Apparently, it was all about ‘emotional drive’, but Young Americans came to represent much more than that.

The album is the product of many factors: soul music; personal and public politics; sex; drugs; dancing; downtown New York and uptown Philadelphia. It is Bowie’s most affectionate postcard from his most favoured nation. Stood discretely between the Ziggy era and Thin White Dukedom, it is Bowie for the connoisseur.

But, while it’s not for everyone (Bowie himself had more than his share of issues with the work), at the time of its release, Young Americans touched a popular nerve, and hungrily reached out to the lucrative US market.

Who can I be now?

By the middle of 1974, the gaudy veneers of Diamond Dogs were beginning to wear thin. Tired of the concepts and conceits that he had scattered like stardust for more than a decade, David Bowie went on a quest for whatever remained of his real self, under his newfound layers of superstardom.

In 10 short …

by Daryl Easlea
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