The classic song David Bowie made in 15 minutes: “Let’s do the show right here”
No one could say that David Bowie wasn’t prolific throughout his career. Despite many of the biggest names in rock slowing down as they got older, Bowie never seemed content even when he hit his twilight years, continuing to make new music until his death and trying his best to capture a certain moment in time better than anyone else could. Then again, even when he was on a time crunch, Bowie could knock out a classic like ‘Fame’ in the time in takes most to have a shower.
That’s not to say that Bowie’s career started off like a walk in the park. Compared to other artists whose sound seems fully formed from the moment they start, Bowie was always pulling at the fabric of what he did, going from vaudeville rock and roll king to the kind of spaced-out Martian that everyone would come to know.
It would be one thing for Bowie to conquer the world as an average glam rock superstar, but would you be satisfied only playing ‘Changes’, ‘Suffragette City’, and ‘Rebel Rebel’ for the rest of your days? Bowie didn’t think so, either, and no one was prepared for the dramatic pivot into Philly soul on Young Americans.
Since half of the album was indebted to the smooth sounds of soul music and little to no glam rock guitar, Bowie seemed like he was still remaking himself in a new image. For all the posturing he could do on the title track, ‘Fame’ is still one of his most enduring songs, which is funny considering it only took a few minutes.
While most know how John Lennon came to be affiliated with the piece, his vocal contribution of the word “fame” led to Bowie wanting to capture the moment, telling Classic Rock Stories, “John carried on playing the rhythm guitar, and we just put the whole backing track together in about 15 to 20 minutes. It was a ‘Hey, let’s do the show right here’ Mickey Rooney thing. Then I took the idea of fame and ran away and wrote the lyrics for it.”
Despite the track having little to nothing to do with Bowie’s plastic soul on the rest of the album, the piece holds much more importance in Bowie’s catalogue than it does on the album. Whereas most albums close with a defining statement, ‘Fame’ is the kind of track that leaves you hungry for more and wondering where the hell the artist is going to go next, not unlike what Lennon himself did when making songs like ‘A Day in the Life’ from Sgt Pepper.
If anything, you can hear that dark side from Station to Station start to creep in a little bit here, albeit if the streamlined robotic sound suddenly developed an inherent sense of groove. Still, Bowie saw this as another good day’s work rather than writing another classic on the spot.
Even when talking about it later, James Murphy remembered Bowie being cavalier about the whole thing, telling Sonic Highways, “We were working with Bowie at [The Record Plant], and he says, ‘Well, downstairs is where we did ‘Fame’. I was just like, ‘I wish I could say that’. He just said it like, ‘Oh, I almost forgot! WE DID FAME DOWNSTAIRS.” Then again, if a track like this came to Bowie that fast, you might not exactly want to question it. The music was flowing through him, so it was best not to trouble the muse.