Bowie Track of the Day - "Boys Keep Swinging"

Fripp, Eno, Bowie

Following his commercial success in America in the mid-70s with soulful hits such as Young Americans and Golden Years, David Bowie was suffering badly from the excesses of living in LA - his perceived solution to his drink and drug problems was to leave it all behind and move to "the dark side" of Cold War-era Berlin. Sharing an apartment with "partner-in-crime" Iggy Pop, he embarked on yet another new direction in music, working with the masterful combination of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, who became a lifelong friend:

In a recent statement, Eno said: "David's death came as a complete surprise, as did nearly everything else about him. I feel a huge gap now. We knew each other for over 40 years, in a friendship that was always tinged by echoes of [comic characters] Pete and Dud.

"Over the last few years – with him living in New York and me in London – our connection was by email. We signed off with invented names: some of his were 'Mr Showbiz', 'Milton Keynes', 'Rhoda Borrocks' and 'The Duke of Ear'.

"I received an email from him seven days ago. It was as funny as always, and as surreal, looping through word games and allusions and all the usual stuff we did. It ended with this sentence: 'Thank you for our good times, Brian. they will never rot'. And it was signed 'Dawn'. I realise now he was saying goodbye."

Bowie and Eno's "Berlin Trilogy" of albums had a mixed reception. Low was considered by many to veer too far away from David's preceding musical style, and was not a huge success. Heroes on the other hand was a triumph - and its title track became one of his lasting legacies; many consider it his meisterwerk.

His third album with Eno, Lodger marked the end of that phase of their collaboration (they got together again on several occasions over the years), but, for all its accusations of being "piecemeal" and "half-finished", it produced a couple of songs that neatly pre-empted the styles and sounds of the next decade.

The 80s really began with this song, and it remains a bit if an "anthem" here at Dolores Delargo Towers (of course)...

Which one is 'Rhoda Borrocks' and which is 'Dawn', I wonder..?

David Bowie - Boys Keep Swinging

Heaven loves ya
The clouds part for ya
Nothing stands in your way
When you're a boy

Clothes always fit ya
Life is a pop of the cherry
When you're a boy

When you're a boy
You can wear a uniform
When you're a boy
Other boys check you out
You get a girl
These are your favourite things
When you're a boy

Boys
Boys
Boys keep swinging
Boys always work it out

Uncage the colours
Unfurl the flag
Luck just kissed you hello
When you're a boy

They'll never clone ya
You're always first on the line
When you're a boy

When you're a boy
You can buy a home of your own
When you're a boy
Learn to drive and everything
You'll get your share
When you're a boy

Boys
Boys
Boys keep swinging
Boys always work it out

Indeed.