Those familiar with Tin Machine will see I’m referencing their live album in the title (those unfamiliar, I encourage you to seek their music out. You will find some unexpected musical riches there). The reason for this is that they were such a brave and damn good live act. There was no messing around but very little script. Changes could happen at any time. It takes a lot of talent, instinct and communication to pull that off. As one Jazz musician said, “You think improv is easy? Try dealing with the pressure of having to make a masterpiece by midnight every night.” There aren’t too many bands (outside of punk bands) that start their set with a two-minute song about agnosticism (come to think of it, there aren’t too many punk bands that cover that topic either!).
After releasing a couple of abysmal albums in the eighties while trying to duplicate the success of “Let’s Dance,” David Bowie did not know what to do. He even considered retiring and just doing his artwork. But the music was gnawing at him. Reeves Gabrels wife was a publicist and met Bowie. They were friends enough that she could pass a tape of her husband’s guitar work to Bowie. Before this, she never mentioned that her husband was a musician. After a couple of weeks, Bowie listened to the tape and was amazed. David Bowie was always interested in experimental music and noise guitar. So he got Reeves Gabrels some studio and live spots with other artists, subsequently becoming good friends. One day David opened up to him and bemoaned how he couldn’t stand doing the commercial stuff. He felt it was gutting him. Reeves response (or more like a mantra or slogan) was repeatedly, “Don’t do it.”
It finally sunk in and David asked Reeves to do a project with him. After that Bowie stumbled on the Sales Brothers who were Iggy Pop’s rhythm section for his “Lust for Life” tour. Upon their joining, Bowie decided to make it an actual band with everyone providing input. No solo billing, this was to be an actual band (not “David Bowie and Tin Machine”). Unlike Bowie’s solo albums there were many first takes (warts and all) on the final product.
The resulting album blew his eighties music to pieces, more like OBLITERATED it! This is, I believe, a very accurate statement besides the fact that I really dislike “Tonight” and “Never Let Me Down” (I even think “Let’s Dance” was vastly overrated. But then it could also be because I was force-fed it so much!). It reminded him of why he got into music in the first place. David Bowie later said (more than once) that Tin Machine made it possible to carry on. Without that band the music beyond it wouldn’t have happened. It gave him renewed courage and support.
The Tin Machine albums had attitude (especially the first one), very aggressive on the most part and was not afraid addressing current issues. It was unlike anything Bowie did previously. He lost a lot of older fans but gained new ones. This band made me a returning fan and there were some of those as well. They scared the living daylights out of some people. They played a lot of small venues as opposed to the stadium gigs that Bowie used to do. In fact, their first gig happened at a club when they showed up unannounced! Hunt Sales was an incredibly aggressive drummer. One engineer commented that he never had a drummer do so much damage to his hearing. This along with Reeves Gabrels noise guitar had the people expecting “Let’s Dance” running. Bowie loved it. He was pushing boundaries again.
It had been said that the live album, “Tin Machine Live – Oy Vey Baby!” not selling well was the death knell for the band. It also has been said that the Sales Brothers’ fighting or Hunt Sales drug habits and bad temper did them in. In my opinion, it just ran its time. The main purpose was to give David Bowie new life. With the personalities involved, I find it a minor miracle they survived to make a second album.
“Tin Machine II” was good but it didn’t have the fire of it’s predecessor. It did have an edge but it was more polished. David bowie explained it as being the result of a better communication amongst them, that they were more comfortable. Maybe that was the problem. This band was not made for comfort, it was for challenging, it was for release, it was for protest. Though songs like “One Shot,” “Amlapura,” and “Betty Wrong” were great, it was becoming obvious that it was getting more like David Bowie. But it gave him fire. Without Tin Machine Bowie would probably not have the courage to anything interesting again. So raise a glass to Tin Machine, turn up the volume and scream!
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