30 years have passed since David Bowie released his 15th record Let’s Dance. Co-produced by Nile Rodgers and featuring a track listing including the title song, “China Girl” (co-written with Iggy Pop), “Modern Love” and “Cat People (Putting out Fire)” — which was later used to maximum effect in the Inglourious Basterds soundtrack — Let’s Dance sold 7 million copies and established Bowie as a superstar on par with contemporaneous peers like Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and Prince.
While the record is now seen as a gateway to work that even Bowie has described as his “Phil Collins years,” Dance is a masterpiece that mixes infectious, danceable melodies to poetic lyrics and incendiary guitar leads from a then-little-known bluesman named Stevie Ray Vaughn.
The Serious Moonlight tour that supported the record was Bowie’s longest, largest and most successful, counting 2.6 million tickets sold over 96 performances. The spectacle was captured in the documentary film Ricochet. Let’s drop in on the Teenage Wildlife fan page for some hilarious, surreal commentary:
The style is part fly on the wall part contrived. I can imagine this would have looked quite a stylish video back in 84. I’m not sure about some of the sub-themes in there, the boys trying desperately to get tickets to go see him. and As for the the spy man character that pops up everynow and then. Is that meant to make us feel like there are spies in singapore?
I like the bit where it just shows him going up and down the escalators for about 5 minutes with the backing music of Sense of Doubt, strangly the 2 work well together…
I like the questions he asks anyone from a taxi driver to the person who is meant to be interviewing him. But when he gets asked question his the normal artful dodger that he is with straight answers. Such as “is your music getting back to basics?”. actually his answers said he was going to get back into electronic music. yeah right Dave.
Watch Ricochet in its entirety below
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