Tonight
	Produced by David Bowie, Derek Bramble & Hugh Padgham
	Released on September 1984
	UK CHART POSITION #1 . . . US CHART POSITION #11 . . . PLATINUM RECORD (11/21/84)
	Find it at GEMM
SJ-17138 cover [high resolution photo]

W hen I purchased the Tonight elpee, it came with a sticker and a free single of “Blue Jean.” Missing was the counterculture icon of the ‘70s, the sci fi acolyte turned beglittered fashion idol turned brooding enigma. In his place was David Bowie, the lumbering left fielder whose free agency had cost one label a fortune. At the time of its release, I had yet to reconcile myself to Let’s Dance; it would take years of staring at one bright disappointment after another before that album looked good. When Tonight arrived, I was cautiously optimistic, and an unconventional video of “Loving The Alien” (conceived with fashion sensibilities that suggested Jean-Paul Gaultier’s futuristic perversion of history) implied that Bowie might have gotten back on track. Or thrown himself on the tracks in anticipation of the gravy train. There are a few bright stars visible on Tonight: “Blue Jean” is brilliant, “Tonight” an appealing novelty, “Loving The Alien” atmospheric and exotic (not to mention eerily prescient in its focus on Christian/Islamic tensions through the ages, although you didn’t need a telescope to see that coming). While dull by comparison, there is the flicker of palatable album filler past on “Dancing With The Big Boys” and “Neighborhood Threat.” Less substantive by far is the unnecessary unearthing of an old Iggy Pop/James Williamson track, “Don’t Look Down,” and the new Bowie/Pop composition “Tumble And Twirl.” As it turned out, Iggy showed more interest in the new album than Bowie did, cowriting five of the eight songs on here. And when his skeletal friend’s well ran dry, Bowie plucked pointless covers of The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” and the old Lieber/Stoller classic “I Keep Forgetting” to plug the gaps. The result was an album that initially looked seaworthy but sank soon enough, leaving only a stalwart few to cling to the capsized hull of a once mighty Bowie while the rest of us swam for the islands we’d stocked with his earlier fruits.

SJ-17138 back cover	SJ-17138 lyric sleeve	SJ-17138 sticker insert

TRACK LISTING

1. LOVING THE ALIEN    (David Bowie)    7:07
2. DON'T LOOK DOWN    (Iggy Pop/James Williamson)    4:08
3. god only knows    (Brian Wilson/Tony Asher)    3:04
4. TONIGHT    (David Bowie/Iggy Pop)    3:42
5. NEIGHBORHOOD THREAT    (David Bowie/Iggy Pop/Ricky Gardiner)    3:10
6. BLUE JEAN    (David Bowie)    3:09
7. TUMBLE AND TWIRL    (David Bowie/Iggy Pop)    4:56
8. I KEEP FORGETTING    (Jerry Lieber/Mike Stoller)    2:32
9. DANCING WITH THE BIG BOYS    (David Bowie/Iggy Pop/Carlos Alomar)    3:32

CREDITS

DAVID BOWIE -- vocals, mixing
CARLOS ALOMAR -- guitars
THE BORNEO HORNS -- horn arrangements
   STEVE ELSON -- baritone sax
   STANLEY HARRISON -- alto sax, tenor sax
   LENNY PICKETT -- tenor sax, clarinet
DEREK BRAMBLE -- bass guitar, guitar, synthesizer, background
SAMMY FIGUEROA -- percussion
OMAR HAKIM -- drums
CARMINE ROJAS -- bass guitar
Robin Clark -- vocals
Curtis King -- vocals
Arif Mardin -- strings & synthesizer arrangements, conductor
Mark Pender -- trumpet, flugel horn
Iggy Pop -- vocals (9)
George Simms -- vocals
Guy St. Onge -- marimba
Tina Turner -- vocals (4)
Hugh Padgham -- engineer, mixing
Mick Haggerty -- art direction & design

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