It's very cold here at the station, I'm waiting for a train on this gray and wintry day, I don't know where I'm going, I just feel like taking a ride: here it comes, steaming and noisy. I get in the carriage, put on the walkman, and listen once again to "Station to Station". Inevitably, I think of the Thin White Duke who was born with that album, who in 1976 was unwell, very unwell, and probably he too boarded a train one day to take a break, to stop thinking about anything or anyone, ending up writing these six pearls full of nostalgia and solitude.

Those were heavy years for David, filled with anguish and cocaine, with delusions as you make us understand right from the title track, a monumental and stylistically perfect song with a slow and rising intro, up to the more lively finale, placed immediately at the beginning of the album: I find in this piece all the repertoire proposed up to that point, an excellent transition between the past and the imminent European future. The calmer "Golden Years" takes us to soul territories already addressed in the previous "Young Americans", a soft and light song, the only beam of light in the total darkness of the album that returns to despair in "Word on a Wing", a true prayer for help to God, a final appeal to religion to help him from cocaine, a chilling yet majestic image. "Stay" addresses the theme of casual encounters between people, a snapshot of human relationships; musically, it is the "strongest piece" of the album, a track still performed live today due to its very engaging funk-rock but, for those who write, remembered for Bowie's great vocal performance, here more the Thin White Duke than ever. Special mention for the experimental "TVC 15", a track that seems to anticipate the sounds that will come with "Low" and the following Berlin trilogy. This chapter closes with "Wild is the Wind", a ballad by Tiomkin impeccably covered by Bowie, who gives the song an unplugged aura and romanticizes it with his capital voice.

The journey ends, one can get off the train and reflect. You reflect on what you've just experienced: there's a lot of meat to put on the fire, there's the personal pain of an inner distress that is an obsession, a person living the lowest existential point, but not artistically given the great result, a bridge that connects what was and what will come, indeed in my opinion with "Station to Station" begins the Duc's best moment that will span five albums until "Scary Monsters".

You pack your bags, now you jump on the plane headed for Berlin, a new era begins.

Tracklist Lyrics and Videos

01   Station to Station (10:14)

The return of the Thin White Duke
Throwing darts in lovers' eyes
Here are we, one magical moment, such is the stuff
From where dreams are woven
Bending sound, dredging the ocean, lost in my circle
Here am I, flashing no colour
Tall in this room overlooking the ocean

Here are we, one magical movement from Kether to Malkhuth
There are you, you drive like a demon from station to station
The return of the Thin White Duke, throwing darts in lovers' eyes
The return of the Thin White Duke, throwing darts in lovers' eyes
The return of the Thin White Duke, making sure white stains

Once there were mountains on mountains
And once there were sunbirds to soar with
And once I could never be down
Got to keep searching and searching
Oh, what will I be believing and who will connect me with love?
Wonderful, wonder who, wonder when
Have you sought fortune, evasive and shy?
Drink to the men who protect you and I
Drink, drink, drain your glass, raise your glass high

TWO TIMES:
It's not the side-effects of the cocaine
I'm thinking that it must be love
It's too late - to be grateful
It's too late - to be late again
It's too late - to be hateful
The european cannon is here

I must be only one in a million
I won't let the day pass without her
It's too late - to be grateful
It's too late - to be late again
It's too late - to be hateful
The european cannon is here

Should I believe that I've been stricken?
Does my face show some kind of glow?
It's too late - to be grateful
It's too late - to be late again
It's too late - to be hateful
The european cannon is here, yes it's here
It's too late

It's too late, it's too late, it's too late, it's too late
The european cannon is here

02   Golden Years (04:00)

Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Golden years, gold whop whop whop

Don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere, angel
Come get up my baby
Look at that sky, life's begun
Nights are warm and the days are young
Come get up my baby

There's my baby, lost that's all
Once I'm begging you save her little soul
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Come get up my baby

Last night they loved you, opening doors and pulling some strings, angel
Come get up my baby
In walked luck and you looked in time
Never look back, walk tall, act fine
Come get up my baby

I'll stick with you baby for a thousand years
Nothing's gonna touch you in these golden years, gold
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Come get up my baby

Some of these days, and it won't be long
Gonna drive back down where you once belonged
In the back of a dream car twenty foot long
Don't cry my sweet, don't break my heart
Doing all right, but you gotta get smart
Wish upon, wish upon, day upon day, I believe oh lord
I believe all the way
Come get up my baby

Run for the shadows, run for the shadows
Run for the shadows in these golden years

There's my baby, lost that's all
Once I'm begging you save her little soul
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Come get up my baby

Don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere, angel
Come get up my baby
Run for the shadows, run for the shadows
Run for the shadows in these golden years

I'll stick with you baby for a thousand years
Nothing's gonna touch you in these golden years, gold
Golden years, gold whop whop whop (10 times)

03   Word on a Wing (06:03)

04   TVC 15 (05:33)

Oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh

Ohh
Up every evening 'bout half eight or nine
I give my complete attention to a very good friend of mine
He's quadraphonic, he's a, he's got more channels
So hologramic, oh my T V C one five
I brought my baby home, she, she sat around forlorn
She saw my T V C one five, and then baby's gone, she
She crawled right in, oh my
She crawled right in my
So hologramic, oh my T V C one five
Oh, so demonic, oh my T V C one five

Maybe if I pray every, each night I sit there pleading
Send back my dream test baby, she's my main feature
My T V C one five, he, he just stares back unblinking
So hologramic, oh my T V C one five
One of these nights I may just
Jump down that rainbow way, be with my baby, then
We'll spend some time together
So hologramic, oh my T V C one five
My baby's in there someplace, love's rating in the sky
So hologramic, oh my T V C one five

Transition
Transmission
Transition
Transmission

Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five
Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five
Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five
Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five

Maybe if I pray every, each night I sit there pleading
Send back my dream test baby, she's my main feature
My T V C one five, he, he just stares back unblinking
So hologramic, oh my T V C one five
One of these nights I may just
Jump down that rainbow way, be with my baby, then
We'll spend some time together
So hologramic, oh my T V C one five
My baby's in there someplace, love's rating in the sky
So hologramic, oh my T V C one five

Oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh

Transition
Transmission
Transition
Transmission

Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five
Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five
Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five
Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five
Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five
Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five
Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five
Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five
Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five
Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five
Oh my T V C one five, oh oh, T V C one five

05   Stay (06:15)

This week dragged past me so slowly
The days fell on their knees
Maybe I'll take something to help me
Hope someone takes after me
I guess there's always some change in the weather
This time I know we could get it together
If I did casually mention tonight
That would be crazy tonight

Stay - that's what I meant to say or do something
But I never say is stay this time
I really meant to so bad this time
'cause you can never really tell when somebody
Wants something you want too

Heartwrecker, heartwrecker, make me delight
Right is so vague when it brings someone new
This time tomorrow I'll know what to do
I know it's happened to you

Stay - that's what I meant to say or do something
But what I never say is stay this time
I really meant to so bad this time
'cause you can never really tell when somebody
Wants something or wants to stay
That's what I meant to say or do something
But what I never say is stay this time
I really meant to so bad this time
'cause you can never really tell when somebody
Wants something you want too

06   Wild Is the Wind (06:00)

Love me, love me, love me, love me, say you do
Let me fly away with you
For my love is like the wind, and wild is the wind
Wild is the wind
Give me more than one caress, satisfy this hungriness
Let the wind blow through your heart
For wild is the wind, wild is the wind

You touch me, I hear the sound of mandolins
You kiss me
With your kiss my life begins
You're spring to me, all things to me
Don't you know, you're life itself!

Like the leaf clings to the tree,
Oh, my darling, cling to me
For we're like creatures of the wind, wild is the wind
Wild is the wind

You touch me, I hear the sound of mandolins
You kiss me
With your kiss my life begins
You're spring to me, all things to me
Don't you know, you're life itself!

Like the leaf clings to the tree,
Oh, my darling, cling to me
For we're like creatures in the wind, and wild is the wind

Wild is the wind
Wild is the wind
Wild is the wind
Wild is the wind

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