David Bowie – Let’s Dance
“Let’s dance” is one of David Bowie’s most important songs. In March 1983 this song marked a watershed in the career of this unreachable artist. Written and arranged with the great Nile Rodgers, the song tells us, also with a video of exceptional impact, how easy it is (in the 80s and even more today) to lose sight of your own history and values when you reach an apparently more comfortable, luxurious and socially admired lifestyle, summarized by red shoes. When the young guys see the shoes againd in the shop window, however, they remember their past, their values and their affections that they have put aside, and choose to go back to their origins.
The song marked a watershed in 1983 because a new generation of young people, actually my generation, had certainly not lived Bowie’s career during the 1970s. They certainly heard of him, but they could not have lived his career. And then comes this beautiful song, with a video of great impact, showing a Bowie with a renewed and more modern look. And in fact, “Let’s dance” became Bowie’s most commercially successful song, the first to top charts in both England and the United States.
Still, Bowie was uncomfortable, because he realized he didn’t know and belong to this new generation. In fact, in later works Bowie tried to get in closer touch with these new young people, but slowly and gradually had to give up. Perhaps it was inevitable; the young people of 1983 were ready to idolize glamorous twentysomethings such as Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Madonna. Bowie was certainly glamorous, he was an absolute master in this, but perhaps he had lost the lightness of his twenties. A genius like him, at the age of 36, has a depth and a standing that for sure cannot be sacrificed to make easy music.
The video is still a masterpiece. Filmed in Australia, some scenes involve Aboriginal extras who were filmed almost without knowing what they were doing. In the bar scene, when young people start dancing while Bowie plays, the people in attendance didn’t really know who David Bowie was, and everything is both natural but also anachronistic. And the spectacular views of the Australian outbacks do the rest.
#quotefromthe80s
Let's sway
You could look into my eyes
Let's sway
Under the moonlight, this serious moonlight
#DavidBowie #LetsDance
David Bowie on Wikipedia
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