From the seventh-floor penthouse of the Granville Towers in West Hollywood, David Bowie could see flames touching the sky.
It was May 1992, and Bowie was with his new fiancee, a model Iman, looking for an apartment in Los Angeles. But their quest for asylum was cut short by the riots that erupted after the acquittal of three policemen accused of brutal beatings Rodney King.
A wave of violence swept through Los Angeles, finally reaching the Sunset Strip.
Granville Towers built in 1930 and with the style of old Hollywood, was just a step away. Bowie had nothing to worry about. While Los Angeles police were satisfied that nearby Koreatown had burned to the ground, they stopped the mayhem from reaching West Hollywood by cordoning off the area with uniformed officers. Bowie watched the riots from ringside as he was light years away from them.
He was impressed by the contrast between the chaos unfolding a few blocks away and the antique opulence of his surroundings. As he and his then Somali-born fiancee searched for a multi-million dollar apartment, America's racial lines were crumbling, and pandemonium ensued. In the studio, after all, he sorted out his thoughts:
"I'm looking through African eyes, lit by the glow of the LA fire," he sang on the title track from "Black Tie White Noise," one of his most underrated albums that came at a pivotal moment in his career.
A year after the riots, exactly 30 years ago, Bowie released “Black Tie White Noise,” his 18th studio album. His first solo effort in six years was the sound of an artist hitting the reset button again. The record wasn't burdened with the crowd-pleasing desire that characterized 1987's "Never Let Me Down," the low point of his period as a mass-audience entertainer.
Also, he didn't try too hard to be cool, as was the case with the two collections he released with his band project "Tin Machine", which featured the future guitarist of the group "Cure". Reeves Gabrels.
Above all, it was here that Bowie came closest to coming to terms with the difficulties that alternately haunted and inspired him throughout his pop career. Title song-duet with the vocalist of "New Jack Swing" By Al B Surah reveals the tension behind Bowie's songwriting. He was a "white artist" raised in "Black Music" and explored these characteristics of his personality.
"The first artist I ever discovered was Little Richard when I was eight years old,” he said.
"I find it very exciting. One of the foundations of my interest in music is my own connections with black people”.
"Black Tie White Noise" was bigger than Bowie and his personal story. Reflecting the disconnect he felt as he watched the riots in Los Angeles, the lyrics called for racial tolerance and harmony, "let's get over race and hold hands."
Hiding the heart while maintaining that exquisite mystery, as Bowie did in “Black Tie White Noise,” was a feat few artists were capable of. But Bowie did just that, releasing a track that featured a lively groove and a blistering solo from his namesake, the Chicago trumpet maestro Lester Bowie.
When it came to America's racial problems, Bowie knew whose side he was on. A decade earlier, he turned an MTV interview on its head, asking a reporter why the fledgling music network essentially blacklisted African-American artists (a policy that only changed when Michael Jackson became a world star).
Now, with “Black Tie White Noise,” he's brought listeners to Los Angeles in the summer of 1992 and invited them to look at the burned-out place where the American dream died.
"It was more like a prison riot than anything else," Bowie recalled of the violence when speaking to Record Collector in 1993.
"I had the feeling as if the innocent prisoners of some huge prison were trying to break free from their shackles".
Paradoxically, this progressive and experimental album was produced by a collaborator who helped create Bowie's megastar period. In 1982, he was released from his restrictive contract with his former manager Toni Defriz, Bowie searched Nile Rodgers, with “dollars in their eyes”. Together they created the biggest hit of Bowie's career - the song "Let's Dance".
But in 1992, Bowie showed no interest in the second part of "Let's Dance", as Rogers was surprised and perhaps disappointed to discover.
"It was really different on this record, because David was leading everything," Rogers said, reflecting on "Black Tie White Noise."
"It was more his vision, whereas on 'Let's Dance' he showed me his vision and allowed me to interpret it. With 'Black Tie', it was more like 'this is what I want to do'. What Bowie wanted was sometimes difficult to interpret.
But despite all the eccentricities, he never lost sight of his goal, which was to write perhaps his most personal album to date. 'Black Tie White Noise' revolved around two central themes, the suicide of his mentally ill half-brother Terry Burns from 1985, who was a father figure to David in his youth, and his marriage to Iman from April 1992," Rogers points out.
"Writing the wedding music obviously made me think about what commitment means and why I got married at that age, what my intentions were and whether they were noble," Bowie said, adding:
"And what I really wanted from my life. I think this served as a turning point where I wrote a lot of quite personal stuff, putting together a collection that illustrated what I had been through in the last three or four years”.
Teri Burns, his tragically killed older brother, was, on the other hand, the ghost that haunts the lead single, "Jump They Say." In the early 1985s, Burns attempted suicide by jumping out of a window at Croydon Mental Hospital in Cane Hill. He failed, but in XNUMX he escaped from the institution and was hit by a train.
With "Black Tie White Noise," the 45-year-old Bowie was ready to turn the mirror on himself, which surprised Rodgers, who expected another collection of escapist pop music in the style of "Let's Dance."
"Maybe because we are older, the sessions are much more based on our personal life," said the singer.
"At the beginning of the eighties, sounds were the whole essence of our life. Ten years later, personal life begins to mean much more. This is beginning to be reflected in the music", believes Bowie.
"Black Tie White Noise" was Bowie's last UK number one single before his surprise return from retirement 20 years later with "The Next Day". Yet it is rarely mentioned in any discussion of his best work.
One of the reasons may be that four of the 12 tracks are covers, from Morrissey, Scott Walker, Crime and Moorish singers Tahre Mint Hembare. Two more tracks are instrumental.
"Black Tie White Noise" was pivotal for Bowie. In the eighties, he hopelessly chased the success of "Let's Dance". With "Black Tie White Noise" he returned to his artistic career, the direction in which he will continue.
Bonus video:
