The full story of David Bowie’s Young Americans is told in all-new interviews in the new issue of Uncut, dated February 2015 and out now.
Musicians including Carlos Alomar, Andy Newmark, Earl Slick, Geoff MacCormack, Ava Cherry, David Sanborn and Mike Garson recall how Lulu, Luther Vandross and 10 days of “freaky soul” in Philadelphia helped Bowie lay the groundwork for a whole new direction.
“He was on rare form,” Mike Garson remembers. “He was weird then, but the good music always sticks. He would have created that music with or without drugs. It just so happened he was on drugs.”
“I think that at the moment of Young Americans,” says Carlos Alomar, “theatrics were not necessary. I think it was, ‘I’m looking for the soul of Bowie on this record, I don’t need theatrics, I don’t need a mask. I am able to say what I want, say who I am and be who I am.’”
The new issue of Uncut is out now.