Line #39 Music/NeverLetMeDown


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/16_never_let_me_down.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"You've arrived in the land of a thousand different names."'']]
3	[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click to see the cover for ''Never Let Me Down 2018'']]\
4	https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/never_let_me_down_2018_small.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
5
6	->''"'Provocative lyric.' 'Powerful sound.' 'Precisely Bowie.'"''
7	-->--'''{{Tagline}}''' for the leadoff single, "Day-In Day-Out".
8
9	''Never Let Me Down'' is the 17th studio album by Music/DavidBowie, released in 1987 through Creator/EMIAmericaRecords.
10
11	Bowie, having grown disconnected from his ''Music/LetsDance''/''Music/{{Tonight}}'' fans, wanted to [[RevisitingTheRoots return to making a more rock-and-roll based album]], marking the first time since ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps'' that he played instruments in addition to singing. He collaborated with Music/IggyPop, multi-instrumentalist Erdal Kızılçay, and co-producer David Richards (all of whom previously worked with Bowie on Pop's solo album ''Blah-Blah-Blah'' the previous year) with the view of putting the songs into a theatrical tour.
12
13	The album was commercially successful, selling more copies than ''Tonight'', and spawned three UK Top 40 singles in the title track, "Day-In Day-Out" and "Time Will Crawl". The album additionally peaked at No. 6 on the UK Albums chart and at No. 34 on the Billboard 200, going on to be certified platinum in Canada and gold in the UK, the US, and France. The tour the album spawned, the Glass Spider Tour, ended up being the longest and most expensive tour Bowie had embarked upon at the time, with its elaborate set being called "the largest touring set ever." Despite its unprecedented expense, it too was a huge commercial success, making $86 million USD at the box office across its three legs and 86 shows.
14
15	In 2018, two years after his death, a GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion of the album using the original vocals and a new backing track was released through Creator/ParlophoneRecords, Creator/{{EMI}}'s former sublabel and ultimate successor label. Titled ''Never Let Me Down 2018'', the album was released exclusively as part of the BoxedSet ''Loving the Alien (1983-1988)''. The re-do was a project Bowie had been trying to get off the ground as early as late 1987, first being talked out of it by Reeves Gabrels due to its close proximity to the original version's release before later revisiting the idea in 1996 just prior to starting work on ''Music/{{Earthling}}''. However, in both cases the idea never went far enough for anything to actually be recorded. The closest Bowie got to redoing ''Never Let Me Down'' in his lifetime was in 2008, when he appointed Mario J. [=McNulty=] to produce a new backing track for "Time Will Crawl" for the compilation album ''[=iSelect=]''. Bowie did, however, manage to have some degree of influence on the final 2018 product, having hand-picked at least some of the musicians included on the remix.
16
17	The original version of ''Never Let Me Down'' was supported by three singles: "Day-In Day-Out", "Time Will Crawl", and the TitleTrack. The 2018 version, meanwhile, was supported with just one single: "Zeroes" (with "Beat of Your Drum" included as a BSide).
18	----
19	!! 1987 Tracklist:
20	# "Day-In Day-Out" (5:35)[[note]]4:38 on the original LP and cassette releases[[/note]]
21	# "Time Will Crawl" (4:18)
22	# "Beat of Your Drum" (5:03)[[note]]4:32 on the original LP and cassette releases[[/note]]
23	# "Never Let Me Down" (4:03)
24	# "Zeroes" (5:46)
25	# "Glass Spider" (5:30)[[note]]4:56 on the original LP and cassette releases[[/note]]
26	# "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)" (5:04)[[note]]4:05 on the original LP and cassette releases[[/note]]
27	# "New York's in Love" (4:32)[[note]]3:55 on the original LP and cassette releases[[/note]]
28	# "'87 and Cry" (4:18)[[note]]3:53 on the original LP and cassette releases[[/note]]
29	# "Too Dizzy" (3:58)[[note]]Removed from all reissues[[/note]]
30	# "Bang Bang" (4:30)[[note]]4:02 on the original LP and cassette releases[[/note]]
31
32	----
33	!! 2018 Tracklist:
34	!!! LP One
35	[[AC:Side One]]
36	# "Day-In Day-Out" (5:26)
37	# "Time Will Crawl" (4:26)[[note]]This is the exact same track included on the ''[=iSelect=]'' compilation in 2008, likely because it was the starting point for ''Never Let Me Down 2018'' and already followed its beats close enough to not need any amendments or re-recordings (re-re-recordings?).[[/note]]
38	# "Beat of Your Drum" (5:27)
39
40	[[AC:Side Two]]
41	# "Never Let Me Down" (4:26)
42	# "Zeroes" (5:06)
43	# "Glass Spider" (6:53)
44
45	!!! LP Two
46	[[AC:Side Three]]
47	# "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)" (5:32)
48	# "New York's in Love" (4:33)
49	# "'87 and Cry" (4:25)
50	# "Bang Bang" (4:42)
51
52	[-Note: CD releases of the 2018 version are on a single disc; on LP copies, side four contains an etching of the "David Bowie" logo featured on the front cover.-]
53
54	----
55	!!''Life is like a broken arrow; memory a swinging trope'':
56	* BigApplesauce: "New York's In Love" is an upbeat portrait of life in the titular city, depicting it as the center of life in America.
57	* {{Bowdlerize}}: The music video for "Day-In Day-Out" features the protagonist's baby arranging letter blocks to spell "MOM," "FOOD," and "FUCK," representing the cycle of dependency. TV airings edited it to say "MOM," "LOOK," and "LUCK" instead. Bowie reacted to the edit with disdain, calling it "ludicrous" and claiming that the censors made a knee-jerk reaction to the "FUCK" blocks instead of trying to grasp their meaning. The TV edit also removes a scene at the end of a man peeing on UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan's Walk of Fame star.
58	* CoverSong: "Bang Bang", Bowie's final Music/IggyPop cover. The Pop version was a flop when it released, motivating Bowie to record it for this album, as he felt it had potential to be a hit. Ironically, the song was never released as a single (barring a promo release of a live recording from the Glass Spider Tour).
59	* CreepyBlueEyes: The spoken-word intro to "Glass Spider" mentions how the title creature "had blue eyes, almost like a human's," juxtaposed with the unsettling description of her other traits to provide an eerie effect.
60	* DarkerAndEdgier:
61	** The 2018 remix of "Glass Spider", which transforms a fast-paced, SynthPop song into a slow, moody industrial rock track that sounds like it jumped right out of ''[[Music/{{Outside}} 1. Outside]]''.
62	** The album itself, in both its 1987 and 2018 iterations, is this compared to ''Music/LetsDance'' and ''Music/{{Tonight}}'', at least in regards to its lyrics. Songs on this album aren't afraid to more explicitly discuss dark subject matter, featuring topics such as homelessness, drug addiction, and nuclear holocaust.
63	* DoorstopBaby: "Day-In Day-Out" mentions how the song's protagonist was "born in a handbag, love left on a doorstep."
64	* DoubleDoubleTitle: "Bang Bang".
65	* {{Ephebophile}}: According to Bowie, "Beat of Your Drum" is meant to be narrated by one, with Bowie dubbing it "a ''Literature/{{Lolita}}'' number" as a result.
66	* EpicRocking: The 2018 version of "Glass Spider" clocks in at just short of 7 minutes long thanks to the new ambient-industrial angle it takes.
67	* FaceOnTheCover: Bowie, in both versions. In the 1987 version, he's shown [[SpikingTheCamera leaping towards the camera]] among a small room cluttered with circus knickknacks themed after the album's songs. In the 2018 version, he's shown standing triumphantly behind the ring of fire in the same room, peering into the distance and making a monocle gesture with his hand.
68	* GenreRoulette: The 2018 version shifts between pop rock, art rock, straight pop, straight rock, AlternativeRock, and even industrial rock from song to song.
69	* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: The 2018 remix, a substantially different take on the album that replaces almost all the synthesizer parts with strings, guitars, and horns and alters the mix to fit Bowie's more typical style of art rock. The only remaining synths were the ones that Bowie played himself.
70	* InTheStyleOf:
71	** Bowie's vocals on the TitleTrack are deliberately intended to evoke the singing style of Music/JohnLennon, with whom Bowie had collaborated in January 1975 during production of ''Music/YoungAmericans''.
72	** Mario J. [=McNulty=] described the 2018 version of "Glass Spider" as being based on the works of Music/BrianEno, Music/ScottWalker, and Music/NineInchNails; Eno's style is most prominently displayed during the song's spoken-work introduction, Walker's during the second third of the song, and [=NIИ's=] during the last third.
73	* LyricalColdOpen: The 2018 version of "Zeroes", which cuts out the concert-style intro and jumps straight into Bowie's "yeah, yeah!" just before the acoustic guitar comes in.
74	* LyricalDissonance:
75	** "Day-In Day-Out" is an upbeat, horn-heavy track that brings up subjects such as child abandonment, misguided patriotism, crushing poverty, and (implied) police brutality.
76	** "Beat of Your Drum" is an anthemic love song that just so happens to be narrated by an {{ephebophile}}.
77	* NewSoundAlbum: Compared to the post-disco of ''Music/LetsDance'' and the standard pop rock of ''Music/{{Tonight}}'', ''Never Let Me Down'' is far heavier on synth effects, rooted in the pop zeitgeist of the late '80s. Bowie retrospectively attributed this to him taking a backseat on the album's production, though other circumstantial evidence[[note]]namely the similar synth-rock style of Music/IggyPop's ''Blah-Blah-Blah'', which Bowie co-produced, and a 1984 interview where Bowie claimed that the effect-laden "Dancing With the Big Boys" was the one song on ''Music/{{Tonight}}'' that got the closest to the sound he wanted at the time[[/note]] points to it being intentional on his part.
78	* OneWordTitle: "Zeroes".
79	* ParentalAbandonment: The lyrics to "Glass Spider" are narrated by the title creature's offspring, which cry out for her out of loneliness.
80	* PerformanceVideo: The music video for "Time Will Crawl" features Bowie and a troupe of dancers performing the song on a rehearsal stage, acting as a teaser for the Glass Spider Tour.
81	* PoliceBrutality: Implied in "Day-In Day-Out": the bridge ends with a mention of a "police shakedown," and the last verse mentions the protagonist being gunned down by ironically-described "angels everywhere;" the music video juxtaposes these lyrics with scenes of battering ram tanks ramming into her house.
82	* RealLifeWritesThePlot:
83	** The album, in spite of its seemingly cheery melodies, focuses a great deal on themes of loss and abandonment in its lyrics, likely influenced by the lingering grief from the suicide of Bowie's half-brother Terry two years prior.
84	** "Glass Spider" was born out of a documentary Bowie watched describing how black widow spiders decorate their webs with the corpses of their prey.
85	* RecordProducer: David Bowie and David Richards, with the addition of Mario J. [=McNulty=] on the 2018 version; Richards previously collaborated with Bowie on the theme song to ''ComicBook/WhenTheWindBlows'' and on Music/IggyPop's solo album ''Blah-Blah-Blah'', and he would continue working with Bowie until ''Music/{{Outside}}'' in 1995. Based on Bowie's comments about the making of the 1987 version of this album, he himself seemed to be an example of the invisible variety, retrospectively describing himself in an interview as having been "indifferent" towards the album's production when it was first recorded.
86	* ReCut:
87	** Most songs on the original LP release of the album were cut down to allow everything to fit on one disc without compressing any of the grooves; these edits were also present on the cassette release. The full songs, however, would be included on all CD releases, and would eventually come to vinyl with the ''Loving the Alien [1983-1988]'' BoxedSet and the standalone 2019 reissue of ''Never Let Me Down'' in its original form (with the LP edits being relegated to the set's ''Re:Call 4'' compilation).
88	** Reissues of the album drop "Too Dizzy" at Bowie's request. This even extends to the 2018 RemixAlbum, with producer Mario J. [=McNulty=] stating that he never intends to touch it.
89	* RevisitingTheRoots: The 2018 mix attempts to bring the album closer to Bowie's earlier art rock style, tying in with his original intentions for the project.
90	* RemixAlbum: The 2018 version remixes the original songs to fix the problems Bowie had with the 1987 release.
91	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: "Time Will Crawl" was born out of Bowie's learning of the Chernobyl disaster during a stay in Switzerland.
92	* SpecialGuest:
93	** Music/PeterFrampton plays lead guitar on the album and sitar parts on both the 1987 and 2018 versions of "Zeroes".
94	** Lenny Pickett and Earl Gardner of the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' in-house band respectively provide tenor sax and fluglehorn parts.
95	** CBS Orchestra player Sid [=McGinnis=] provides lead guitar on "Day-In Day-Out", "Time Will Crawl" and "Bang Bang".
96	** Music/{{Chic}} backing vocalist Diva Gray provides backing vocals throughout the album.
97	** Contemporary classical musician Nico Muhly provides string arrangements for the 2018 versions of "Beat of Your Drum", "Never Let Me Down" and "Bang Bang".
98	** "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)" features a verse rapped by actor Creator/MickeyRourke on the 1987 version and spoken by Music/LaurieAnderson on the 2018 version.
99	* SpokenWordInMusic:
100	** "Glass Spider" opens with an extended introduction featuring Bowie reading off an expository passage about the titular creature.
101	** The 2018 version of "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)" features Music/LaurieAnderson reciting the rap verse in this manner.
102	* TakeThat:
103	** "Day-In Day-Out" is an extended critique of life under the UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan administration, highlighting the dissonance between the PR and the policies. The uncensored music video cements this by ending on a shot of a man peeing on Reagan's Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
104	** "'87 and Cry" is one to the UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher administration, featuring Bowie sarcastically prattling off a number of shallow, feel-good slogans characteristic of the Thatcher era.
105	* TimeTitle: "Day-In Day-Out", the opener, uses its title to invoke feelings of ennui and ironically juxtapose them against a portrait of a woman living in poverty. The track right after it is "Time Will Crawl", whose title refers to the approaching death of humanity after a nuclear disaster (having been inspired by UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}}).
106	* TitleByYear: "'87 And Cry", named after the year the song was released as a means of tying into its riffs on the UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher administration.
107	* TitleTrack: "Never Let Me Down".
108	* AWildRapperAppears: Actor Creator/MickeyRourke performs a rap verse on the 1987 version of "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)". The 2018 version replaces Rourke with Music/LaurieAnderson, who instead performs his part as soft-voiced spoken-word.
109	* TheXOfY: "Beat of Your Drum".

Context Music / NeverLetMeDown