The Thin White Duke is one of Bowie’s best incarnations. It’s a great album from start to finish.

A masterpiece. One of Bowie's finest.

“Such is the stuff from which dreams are woven” is a reference to , or a paraphrase of, Shakespeare’s _The Tempest_ “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep”

The beginning " sound effect" is suppose to represent a distant train getting closer to the station ( Station to station ).

A magnificent album. Followed by Low, Heroes, to some extent Lodger, and then Scary Monsters. These few years Bowie was making eternal music.

Station to Station bridged the gap between Bowie’s “plastic soul” and his art-rock Berlin period. It's the best of both worlds.

This song makes me cry just for its sheer perfection

Tvc-15 is another great track from this album

The intro is a flanged noise guitar as "train" - hence, _Station To Station_ - a nod to Kraftwerk's _Autobahn._ The tension building, you have to imagine the '70s stadium Rock tour performance for which it was intended - Bowie as the Thin White Duke, walking out onto the stark lit stage, an audience enraptured in the atmospheric drama of the character.

Thank you so much for reacting to this song, probably my favorite one from Bowie. As for the signification, as usual with Bowie, you can give several to the song, most of them perfectly valid. Some lines clearly relate to his own cocaine-addiction, and how he personaly felt during this period. Others contain obvious references to mysticism (Kabbalah, Christian philosophers, Aleister Crowley...). You can also point out the historical references : the Thin White Duke persona has been seen by many critics as an immoral, insensitive and cold aristocrat with delusions of grandeur and, in some ways, a clear but awkward fascination with fascist ideology and iconography ("Making sure white stains", "The European cannon is here") from the 1930's (hence, the steam-train sound in the beginning), while being at the same time too individualistic to really adhere to such mass movements. For me, the Thin White Duke always felt like a man with an inability to feel basic human feelings (like love, mistaken with cocaine's side-effects), while singing with affected and artificial intensity (some kind of robotic crooner, roughly). The Thin White Duke was not a sympathetic character, obviously, but IMO, it's one of his most fasincating :) ! Clearly, with each listen, one interpretation or another prevails. That's the power of a true artist : after it's been issued, a real work of art's signification is left to the beholders... Musically, the band Bowie got together in this album may be the best he ever had : Roy Bittan on piano is killing it. Great Earl Slick's howling guitar is out of this world ! George Murray on bass and Dennis Davis on drums are stellar (just listen to "Stay" from the same album, you'll be convinced !). And on top of that, Bowie's vocals are both intense and detached. The perfect mix of ice and fire on one song, and actually on the entire album !

This is my favorite Bowie track ever.

The whole vibe is train. A real heavy train that grinds into movement and gradually accelerates. What a start to an album!

Station to Station, classic song, classic album. One of my favorite Bowie albums, not a clunker on it. In this album, Bowie used the thin white duke personna to express a feeling of cold detachment. At the time, Bowie was on a cocaine bing and said after he barely remembered the production. Being awake days at a time, he read books on the Kabbal and Christianity. Station to station actually refers to Christ's stations of the cross. At the suggestion of Jimmy Page, Bowie also read about Aleister Crowly, so the album was full of references to Christianity and the occult. Very high times.

The intro was the sound of a steam train (station to station). Bowie was living in LA & really in a bad way with drugs at this time. Shortly after he escaped back to Europe, Berlin, with his mate Iggy Pop, both with the plan to clean themselves up, which they did. The great Berlin trilogy followed & for Pop "The Idiot" & "Lust for Life", two great albums.

Bowie is my favorite solo artist. He was always over the top. ❤️

You had to be there in 1976 at this tour....Bowie striding out dressed in black and white and using only white lights.... after that intro with the guitar. That is train sound Bowie is going for. Magnificent album with a very tight band -- especially the bass and drums throughout.

The live version is a beast.

Thank you for your excellent analysis of a track that hit me between the eyes when I first heard it in 1976. Three of us were playing cards and shooting the breeze and listened to the first half of the album Station to Station - and we all said: "what just happened there?" And immediately listened to that side of the album again (a very rare occurrence believe you me). That tempo change in the middle of Station to Station is totally unexpected. And yes, the opening sounds are of a steam train engine - how else to travel from station to station?

He also was first musician artist to release a song or his music over internet to my knowledge... I saw this live in 1978 at age of 16 years...I was blown put water and totally mesmerised by him from that day on.. hence a life time fan still today..

If you love the keys just listen to Aladdin Sane, just the most awesome piano ever.

Bowie's best album and my favorite album ever. This song is about the transformative nature of reality and our search for meaning and purpose in life. From the material world (Malkuth, cocaine reference) to the spiritual (Keter, love). It's Bowie's life in one song.

Keter is the Crown and Neptune. Malkuth is Earth plane. Concave Earth

Some Bowie songs connect instantly. Others require repeated listening, with Station to Station it took me quite a few listens to really get into it. So that can be a problem when you are listening to a lot of different music and just giving a judgement on one listen. Some tracks just need the opportunity to grow on you.

Can't wait for Stay from the same album!

A classic- Listen to Aladdin Sane - “Lady Grinning Soul “or Diamond Dogs -- listen to the whole albums❤

StS is a dark song that somehow lifts you up. It’s been reported that during these sessions he lived on Milk, Green Peppers and .. the coke. ‘Wonderful, wonder who, wonder when’

Greetings from Brighton! I have been binging your channel for the last few hours, especially Pink Floyd. Thank God I have found an intelligent reactor to quality music! And now you have posted this, an epic song of David Bowie. I hope you will listen and react to Steely Dan. They are awesome lyrically and musically. Perhaps start with "Kid Charlemagne" 1976.

For whatever reason I have never been introduced to enough David Bowie to really appreciate his now seemingly genius songwriting. Thanks Syed!

Good reaction - you’ve shown me a different side of this song. Thank you!

FYI White Stains is a book of poems by Aleister Crowley, occultist and "the most evil man in the world."

I got to see Adrian Belew play this live about two weeks ago.

One of Bowie's greatest... first time in rock where jeans & T's are out the door, so are the flashing multi-colored lights & trash flash attire... Bowie is all black & white in every way! His vocals are now adjusted to his lower register for which he was mostly known throughout his life... check out 'Stay' from same Lp, killer hybrid rock funk original track

Considering you seemingly weren't familiar with this track you had a great pull apart of the lyrics, themes and possible interpretations. Well above average music reaction video man. Great to see you appreciate the soundscape that sets the scene on this too. Great stuff. Greetings from Glasgow.

One of my favourite album from Bowie, he has so many records that I consider 5 star albums so this is hard to place but It could be top 5 albums.

Wow another great one. This man just kept evolving constantly, and he always had really good musicians around him. Love it. It's doubtful that you will see this but I'm going to say it anyway. I love your actions and I watched a ton of them but consistently, you always have the content or the media volume abnormally low compared to your microphone. I would bump that shit up at least 6 dB. The way it is, it's so quiet compared to your voice and if I turn it up to where it's normal, much less if I want to crank it because it is something that really rocks, then your voice is thunderously loud and then I have to ride the volume up and down. You could solve it all in one Fell Swoop if you just permanently set your media playback volume up significantly. Just listen to a playback and test it basically

Ashes to Ashes is my favorite Bowie song.

My #1 Bowie tune ❤

oh man this will be fun

Just love him

The noise at the intro is ment to be the noise of a steam locomotive rather than just a electronical distortion.Its part of the metapher : train goes from station to station. Unfortunately nowadays youngsters wouldn´t even recognise...

I believe the beginning is the sound of a train which moves from Station to Station.

Masterpiece

Great reaction. Bowie is fascinating.

"Such is the stuff from where dreams are woven" is basically from Hamlet by Shakespeare.

Yes! Finally someone checked this it sounds really slow though

Great song and album. Reminds me of driving around with my friend who had a light blue Volkswagen bug listening to this, I forget if it was an 8 track or cassette.

This is from the Hebrew qabalah tree of life, the spheres both ascending and descending the tree of creation, from the ideal to actual. From Kether (crown) to Malkuth (foundation 3D actual). The dark space he is in is the area known as Daàth, between the top three spheres of Kether, Chokmah & Binah (the great sea) the ocean he's overlooking, and the lower triad of the spheres Geburah, Netzach and Tiphereth. Then you have the remaining spheres below to Malkuth.

It’s a train. Going from Station to Station.

Beginning part makes me think of a heartbeat.

Something tells me that David Byrne listened to this song (and album). I had not heard this track before, but I know his Berlin period and his trying to get clean and his work with Iggy Pop, etc. This song has a lot to say and a lot to digest. It's like Bowie is just getting stuff off his chest! But it presages some of the performance art that is Talking Heads, whose first album came out just a year later.

if you like the keys, react to Lady Grinnin Soul. Thanx for reacting BTW

There are several epic ‘live’ recordings of this track Bowie and his tour Band were on top-form, 1976-80 That is my favorite period of Bowie’s music. …of course, he was out of his head on Cocaine, and later claimed he couldn’t recall about some of this recording. Perhaps why the Live recordings are so grand, getting off major drugs, moving back to Europe.

This is one of the best albums ever.

This song isn't about trains. He's referring to the stations of the Kaballa. The rise of man to god. Kether to Malkuth.

great album RIP bowie

This period is great. My observation of your taste leads me to believe you would appreciate the Ziggy Stardust era a little more. Don't leave that out!

Later in life, Bowie would confess that he had little to no memory of making this album. This was at the height of his cocaine addiction and he barely slept or ate. It's a cliche to say "I don't know how he survived," but after seeing his clothes from this era up close, it was clear that he couldn't have weighed much more than 90-100 lbs. Great album, but I'm so glad we had him around for a few more decades after!

You should check out the live footage of this song from the Montreal Forum in 1976, it's mesmeric; as is the Christiane F version.

David Bowie’s strange fascist period with the Thin White Duke was always very controversial

When you start getting into Bowie's later career you need to check out Blue Jean. And another song that should be on your radar is Heroin by the Velvet Underground.

❤️❤️❤️

Best Bowie album and character

The Thin White Duke. Bowie revealing his darkest side until Blackstar. Much is autobiographical given his cocaine insanity at the time and the Duke’s obsession with the occult and right-wing esoterica

Bowie ♥️

check out "Secret Life of Arabia "off Heros. killer beat and guitar ...Vocal amazing...

As is said , cocaine is a helluva drug, and without a crushing addiction that led to psychosis, this era likely would have gone down much differently.The take away ,- however glamorous things might appear, - is that he stated repeatedly what a nightmare this era of his life was.No fun,- raving paranoia, and reduced to such flawed personal judgements that he nearly alienated all he loved, - and lost his life. Stay, TVC 15, and Golden Years are genius compositions, no question, and there is no filler on this LP.

You did both Dogs and Station to Station.? Instant follow.

It's a train. The clue is in the title.

I always thought that the second half of the song would have been crazy fun to polka too. Probably my Eastern European roots showing. 🙂

My favorite from Bowie

Absolutely stonking track, is it one of his best? Possibly! One question for all Bowie lovers out there: is this a slightly different recording to 'the norm'? When verse 2 kicks in sounds slightly slower and less vibrant than what I'm used to.

Great track. (Attaway to yak over the guitar solo)

Could Ziggy be so kind and propose Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise) for him?

The best David Bowie song IMO! Super strange, experimental, but also awesome and super visual. As for the next song you should do/a recommendation, I give you the song "Intrasport" by King Gizzard. Its a cool, super unusual introduction to a super unusual band, blending 90s acid house with the microtonality of Turkish folk music. All around, they're a really sick band and you should absolutely check out one of their songs if not "Intrasport?" (and with something like 23 albums out, they have plenty of songs to chose from)

Ahh the heavy cocaine use years! Still great though.

It's a train, dude. The song is called "Station to Station". It's a train.

The thin White warlock

The beginning is supposed to sound like a train thus station to station

In 1976 Bowie was heavily into drugs

This is what coke sounds like

It is pretty pointless but definitely interesting trying to analyse Bowie's lyrics. Pretty much everything he ever wrote is about personal isolation and alienation and as every human being is a victim of both, his lyrics, whether he meant them to be or not, will mean different things to each of us. At the same time, it feels as though he is writing for the listener personally. It is very, very clever and explains why he is so enduringly admired. It doesn't matter whether you are listening to his best work or his worst, every track is immaculately produced and played by outstanding musicians. I love listening to him,always have since I first saw him live in 1973, always will. Nice review, always interested to hear what other people are taking from his music.

Hey Syed, curious if you have a "mission statement" for your site - where you hope it goes and why? Love the Bowie so far.

I would like to suggest to you a Bowie song called Diamond Dogs.

kabbalah

a train station

Sounds like a train to me

Hey you should to react to the song Life without you by Stevie ray vaughan

The entire album was recorded in approximately 8 to ten hours on massive amounts of cocaine. David like to work fast. There were really no rehearsals.

The European canon is him right?

While your there... try STAY

Sounds like a train, perhaps? *coughing, stationToStation, cough, cough*

This is a fantastic song off a fantastic album, but you’ve still completely missed out his classic early albums Hunky Dory and - especially - Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. Unless you’ve heard these you’ve not really heard Bowie!!

no. life is but a dream.

I don't believe that he changed as a person, rather his artistic persona.

Diesel train.

bowie was so drugged during this album that he almost didn't remember working on it

Uh, dude, pretty sure the opening was supposed to invoke the sound of an old-fashioned steam locomotive. Y'know, as in *station to station.* Edit: Any more internet-know-it-alls want to give me shit for pointing out this starts with a train sound? Here's a quote from Rolling Stone: "A new musical direction was immediately evident on the album’s opener, the 10-minute title track. Starting with the sound of an approaching train, more than three full minutes pass of a slow, hypnotic instrumental march before Bowie’s voice appears. " I've got another one from Nicholas Pegg below.

A helicopter? Lol It’s called Station to Station. Not helipad to helipad

Its a train

Sounds like Gorillaz took something from this track for Clint Eastwood.