Turntable Tuesday

Turntable Tuesday! David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” Record Store Day Exclusive (Full Length Demo)

January 18, 2022

It’s Turntable Tuesday because life is too short not to listen to great music! This week on Turntable Tuesday I am opening my vinyl copy of the Record Store Day Exclusive (as they say on the label) of the David Bowie “Let’s Dance Demo” and share a few photos of the cover.

I hope you are staying warm in your location as winter is in full swing north of the equator with snow outside here as I write this! Crank up your music device, enjoy vinyl, or get out there and support your favorite live band! Stay safe! What are YOU listening to right now?

On the piano stool this week is the front cover of the “Let’s Dance” vinyl. It was just announced that David Bowie is the best selling vinyl artist of the 21st century. The late musician’s vinyl sales for the 2000s of 582,704 (calculated up until January 6) place him ahead of the only other act to top half a million units on the format (535,596 sales for The Beatles).
The RSD silver sticker on the shrink wrap of the vinyl. This is not to scale at all and the actual size can be seen in the upper left of the front cover in the photo above.

December, 1982. David Bowie steps into the Power Station studio in New York City to record eight new tracks for his upcoming album “Let’s Dance.” Within 17 short days he has completed 8 tracks for the album with producer Nile Rogers. A standout on this album is the 28 year old unknown guitarist at the time Stevie Ray Vaughn. Stevie Ray plays on 6 of the 8 tracks on the full album. David Bowie had seen Stevie and Double Trouble on stage in Switzerland at the Montreux Jazz Festival in the same year as this studio session. Nile Rogers did not hit it off with Stevie in the beginning and there are stories of Stevie not reading music but when he plugged his guitar in he was something special. It would not be long before most of the music world would find out the name of Stevie Ray Vaughn. He would live only 8 more years beyond this recording and his output of incredible albums with his band is something to behold. One can only image the direction of music had he not stepped on a helicopter at Alpine Valley, Wisconsin on that foggy night in 1990.

When you listen to the tracks of the entire album you can hear how great it is. There is something very hybrid about the sound from the dance and disco riffs mingling with blues-tinged rock and roll. David did not play any instruments on this record and he recorded his vocals in a mere two days. The full album is great and at some point I would like to cover all the tracks but this week I am covering this special demo version. I just listened to this album for the first time on 45 RPM vinyl. There are only two tracks as in a live track on one side and the long demo on the front side. After the demo completes you can hear David happily say “Cut it!” I cannot find this demo on streaming channels but if you can locate the vinyl it is very cool.

The back cover on one of the piano stools.

As soon as David completed the recording of the Let’s Dance album he booked a flight to Australia in February of 1983 to film two videos. The videos were for the tracks “Let’s Dance” and China Girl.” He later made a statement that he went there to make a point that racism is never ok. The video shows a young Aborigine couple doing activities that draw them to commercialism of white urban Australia. The video is intended to represent the treatment of Aborigine people by white urban capitalists.

Bowie was interviewed as saying the “China Girl” video was one of clashing perspectives, juxtaposing Sydney executives against the city’s Chinese population. I am not sure this message made it though to the MTV nation but these videos were in very heavy rotation back in the early days of Music Television.

That’s all I have to share this week on Turntable Tuesday. Stay warm and safe. Until next time I’ll see you, down the road.