BLUE JEAN

Tonight (1984) is generally seen as one of the weakest Bowie albums, and I have to agree. Let's Dance (1983) had been a gorgeous comeback into the charts; the superb hits 'China Girl' and 'Let's Dance' still sound very good and can truly be considered as pop classics. The follow-up album continues in the same direction but fails artistically -- commercially it did quite well, though. The album contains just two highlights, or, to put it more plainly, two good songs in the first place. One is the exciting opener 'Loving the Alien' and the other is 'Blue Jean'. Both were released as singles and are among his best known songs of the 80's.

'Blue Jean' has a bold attitude, an effective sharpness. The music video by Julien Temple is quite enjoyable too, featuring Bowie in a double role: as a fancy-dressed performer and as a clumsy ordinary man on his miserable date with a beautiful woman. Of course the composition itself is pretty repetitive, but the execution is very succesful. The marimba (or is it xylophone?), the delicious drum fills ("She's got turned-up nose" ...) and a terrific vocal job. 3½ stars for 'Blue Jean', not quite deserving a classic status.

The B side also comes from the album Tonight, sadly. 'Dancing With the Big Boys' is... frankly, disgusting to my ears. It is noisy and all over the place, but with very thin substance -- musically or lyrically. The composition itself could serve as a harmless album filler, but the angry, hard arrangement finished with painfully sharp brass sounds and shouty vocals, shared with the co- writer Iggy Pop, makes it intolerable to me, thus dropping my rating to just two stars.