Chapter 51: (Don't Fear) The Reaper (September 1976 - August 1977)

September - November 1976

David Bowie and Iggy Pop in West Berlin, Germany, late 1976.

To say that the Rolling Stones' Thin White Duke period - largely fronted by David Bowie - had been controversial would be an understatement. By the end of summer 1976, it was announced to the press that Bowie would be parting ways with the rest of the Rolling Stones - Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. Bowie would later be replaced by Ronnie Wood, who was also a part of George Harrison and Ringo Starr's post-Ladders group, the Dark Horses alongside Eric Clapton and Vangelis Papathanassíou. A common nickname for the supergroup was "ABC", referring to former members of Aphrodite's Child (Vangelis), the Beatles (Harrison and Starr) and Cream (Clapton), respectively.[1]

DAVID BOWIE: "I think it was for the best that I'd left the Stones. My music was becoming far more experimental and the rest just couldn't keep up with me. What happened with the Duke just further solidified that, and I didn't want them to share the burden that I'd brought upon them. The good thing about the split was that I could focus more on Hunky Dory... if Syd and the rest were willing to work with me. I'm still kind of surprised they wanted anything to do with me after the Thin White Duke fiasco." (1985)

IGGY POP: "Yeah, we could've just ditched Dave outright and have nothing to do with him after the Thin White Duke, but he was practically the reason we were part of Hunky Dory to begin with. He'd done some stupid shit, but so did we in the past. Everyone's got good and bad in them. I'd written some new material myself and wanted to get it down on record with the guys." (2002)

The sessions for the next Hunky Dory project, Kicks, marked the beginning of what would later be called David Bowie's Berlin saga. Getting back together with Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt, the sextet of crazy diamonds recorded Kicks at the recently established Hansa Tonstudio in West Berlin, Germany. Bowie and Pop were especially prolific while the remaining four had brought in leftovers from previous projects. A double album wouldn't do, and a triple was out of the question. This meant that the material would have to be spread over two single albums, as well as a duet project between Bowie and Pop.

14 January 1977

Hunky Dory - Kicks

Released: 14 January 1977

Recorded: September - November 1976

Producer: Hunky Dory and Tony Visconti

Track listing[2]

Side A

Speed of Life
No Man's Land
Sonia
Funtime
City Waltz
Kicks

Side B

Solar Flares
Sweet Deceiver
Weeping Wall
Feel
Nobody's Business
I'm Sick of You

Hunky Dory's sixth album barely missed the Top 10 in the United Kingdom at #11, while it topped out at #23 in the United States. The influence of the musical scene in Germany could be felt throughout, what with Bowie taking in interest in the likes of Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Harmonia, the latter of whom Brian Eno was a member of, who would later work with Bowie on the latter's future solo projects. Kicks would later be regarded as Hunky Dory's greatest work in retrospective reviews by professional critics.

21 January - 6 July 1977

Pink Floyd - The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking

Released: 21 January 1977

Recorded: April - December 1976

Producer: Pink Floyd

Track listing[3]

Side A

Apparently They Were Travelling Abroad (4:30)
Running Shoes (4:33)
Arabs with Knives and West German Skies (4:37)
For the First Time Today, Part 2 (4:39)
Sexual Revolution (4:41)
The Remains of Our Love (4:47)

Side B

Go Fishing (4:50)
For the First Time Today, Part 1 (4:56)
Dunroamin, Duncarin, Dunlivin (4:58)
The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (5:01)
Every Stranger's Eyes (5:06)
The Moment of Clarity (5:11)

Meanwhile, things were similarly interesting for Syd Barrett's former band, Pink Floyd. Following their Animals tour, the band took a hiatus from work to spend time with their families. However, tensions were growing between Roger Waters and his childhood sweetheart turned wife Judith Trim to the point that they cheated on each other. Divorce was finalized by the end of 1975 and the couple had no children. Waters would later go on to marry Lady Carolyne Christie, niece of the 3rd Marquess of Zetland, Lawrence Dundas, the following year. Trim would not remarry until 1996 to Leonard Hessing before dying of breast cancer in 2001 at the age of 57.

DAVID GILMOUR: "Roger called us back into the studio that April to present us with a concept dubbed The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. He didn't disclose to us that it was inspired by his divorce with Judy until after she died. It wasn't that hard for me, Nick and Rick to connect the dots, but at least Rog decided to come clean with us." (2005)

(On the 2001 reissue of The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, and all future reissues, the liner notes would include the sentence, at Roger Waters' request, "Dedicated to Judith Trim, my first love whom I left behind.")

The story being Pros and Cons focused on a man's scattered, conflicting thoughts and feelings in the middle of a road trip through California, such as his ongoing midlife crisis and fantasies of adultery with a female hitchhiker he's picked up along the way. He then faces other fears and paranoia, with all of these events taking place in real time between 4:30 and 5:12 in the morning of an unspecified day.[4]

Pink Floyd's tenth album was also the first to have every song credited to Roger Waters, whereas on the previous album Animals, the track "Dogs" was credited alongside David Gilmour, although Waters received greater royalties. Rick Wright later felt bad for not pushing forward material of his own, and Nick Mason recalled Gilmour getting frustrated over not getting royalties over it. If Animals was the album where it felt to Waters that he was the sole writer for Pink Floyd, then The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking was the album that seemed to further solidify this delusion.

Pink Floyd performing live at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Canada, the last show of their infamous In the Flesh Tour, July 6, 1977. During the performance, Roger Waters angrily spat on a fan for being disruptive.

Pros and Cons topped out at #13 in the United States, but it did better in the United Kingdom at #6; the title track was released as a single there and hit #76 with "Every Stranger's Eyes" as the B-side. Compared to Animals or even The Dark Side of the Moon, Pros and Cons received mixed reviews, although they did lean more towards positive. Rolling Stone was among the more negative reviews, giving the album one out of five stars for saying it felt less like a Pink Floyd album and more like a Roger Waters solo album. "At least Animals had David Gilmour contribute 'Dogs (Raving and Drooling)'!" the review stated.

Shortly after the release of The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, Pink Floyd went on their next concert tour, the In the Flesh Tour, lasting from 23 January to 6 July 1977. The last show took place at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Canada; throughout the past five months or so, Pink Floyd had experienced playing at large stadiums for the first time, their size making the band feel nervous and Waters was constantly on edge, often yelling at disruptive audiences for screaming during the quieter numbers.

During the Montreal show, the final straw was when a particularly rowdy group of fans in the front row irritated Waters so much that in retaliation, he spat at one of them. The incident was later humorously (although rather tastelessly, given the circumstances) dubbed "the spit hitting the fan." It only got worse afterward when Pink Floyd performed a blues jam for those refusing to let them leave the stadium; a small riot took place at the front of the stage when they eventually left.

ROGER WATERS: "I was just so fucking done. We'd reached the top, but it was not glorious as we thought it'd be. Once you've reached it, it's all downhill from there. We'd become big, and that alienated us from our fandom. Pink Floyd took a break following that damned tour, but I wanted out altogether. I told Nick that I was leaving the Floyd and there was nothing he, Rick or Dave could do to change my mind. It wasn't made public yet, and it was not even two months that I announced my departure when I got a call from Rosemary [Syd Barrett's sister]..." (1987)

15 July 1977

David Bowie & Iggy Pop - Sound and Vision

Released: 15 July 1977

Recorded: September 1976 - February 1977

Producer: David Bowie and Tony Visconti

Track listing[5]

Side A

Sound and Vision
Nightclubbing
Always Crashing in the Same Car
V-2 Schneider
Tiny Girls
Be My Wife

Side B

Dum Dum Boys
Breaking Glass
Sense of Doubt
Baby
Blackout

David Bowie and Iggy Pop's duet album, Sound and Vision, was largely recorded during the same sessions that ultimately produced Hunky Dory's Kicks. After its release, it topped out at #2 in the United Kingdom and #11 in the United States, with the title track being released as a single with "Nightclubbing" as the B-side (#1 UK for one week in the midst of Bee Gees domination, #26 US). Although Sound and Vision was divisive upon release, it has since been regarded as David Bowie's best work, as well as one of the best Hunky Dory solo projects (while the band was still active) and the point where Iggy Pop's solo career could truly begin in earnest, with Lust for Life coming out on August 29 under Highway 61 Records (also produced with Bowie).

5 - 28 August 1977

Hunky Dory - The Idiot

Released: 5 August 1977

Recorded: March - April 1977

Producer: Hunky Dory and Tony Visconti

Track listing[6]

Side A

Sister Midnight
Observation
What in the World
Here I Go
She's My Best Friend

Side B

Diminished But Not Finished
A Gift
Rats
Mass Production
A New Career in a New Town

LOU REED: "When we put out The Idiot, we figured that it was high time that we finally got off our asses and go out on a tour in Europe. Much of it was attributed to David, of course." (2001)

KEVIN AYERS: "I didn't even like going crazy with promotion on my solo albums, or with Hunky Dory, but since a lot of Europeans didn't give much of a shit about crazy-ass guys like myself or Syd, I figured, what the hell." (2007)

Not too long after the release of Hunky Dory's seventh album, The Idiot (#6 UK, #38 US), the sextet began their tour throughout Europe, starting in Switzerland on 8 August. Later performances would then take place in Italy, Greece, Poland, Norway, and then back to their current "hometown", West Berlin, Germany, taking place on 24 August. In between shows, there was the odd bit of sightseeing, but all of that would come to an end shortly after the West Berlin performance.

A drunken man had accidentally stumbled in front of Hunky Dory's tour bus, causing the driver to pull on the steering wheel, accidentally causing the bus to flip over while doing so. All six members plus the bus driver were quickly taken to the nearest hospital to recover while the drunken man was taken into the police station for questioning. David Bowie, Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt all had relatively minor injuries, but Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and the bus driver would have to stay in order to recover. The sole casualty was Syd Barrett, having died from his injures a few days later on 28 August 1977 at the age of 31.[7]

SYD BARRETT: "Shine on..." (his last words, though often debated but were along those lines, 28 August 1977)

Syd Barrett, August 1977; the last photo of him ever taken. Barrett had requested for an older picture of him on the cover of Hunky Dory's The Idiot just so he wouldn't look older than the rest of the group due to his receding hairline.

ROBERT WYATT: "'Shine on.' Those two words. Our last album with him while he was still alive was his final legacy before he was so cruelly taken away from us. He may have been a little crazy, but he was our friend, an inspiration to us all." (1977, less than a month after Barrett's death)

With Syd Barrett's death, Hunky Dory's planned performances in the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom were cancelled. It was Barrett's death, alongside the later deaths of a few members of Lynyrd Skynyrd (Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and sister Cassie), Marc Bolan of T. Rex and Shirley Brickley of the Orlons that brought forth the topic concerning the trend of music artists dying between the ages of eighteen and 35, later to be known as the 27 Club (27 being the statistical average between the minimum and maximum ages of dying young; however, it remains debated as to whether it should refer to artists who actually died at 27 or between the ages of eighteen and 35).

When Roger Waters got the word of his friend's death from Rosemary Barrett, he had now found himself in a difficult situation, especially when he was forced to temporarily reunite with the band that he had just departed following the aftermath of the last show of the In the Flesh Tour...

Footnotes

1. This is a reference to the short-lived UK supergroup, XYZ, consisting of Jimmy Page, Chris Squire, Alan White and Dave Lawson. The name is derived from eX-Yes-&-Zeppelin, as it consisted of members from Yes (Squire and White) and Led Zeppelin (Page).
2. Tracks are sourced from David Bowie's Low, Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs, Robert Wyatt's Ruth is Stranger Than Richard, Iggy Pop's The Idiot and Raw Power, Kevin Ayers' Sweet Deceiver, and Lou Reed's Coney Island Baby.
3. All tracks are sourced from Roger Waters' solo album of the same name.
4. Roger Waters began developing The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking as early as 1977. However, with Animals being developed earlier and released in 1975, it's very likely the same could've happened with Pros and Cons.
5. Tracks are sourced from David Bowie's Low and "Heroes", and Iggy Pop's The Idiot.
6. Tracks are sourced from Iggy Pop's The Idiot, Kevin Ayers' Sweet Deceiver, David Bowie's Low, Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, and Lou Reed's Coney Island Baby.
7. In OTL, Syd Barrett died on 7 July 2006 at the age of 60 from pancreatic cancer.

Author's Comments

At long last, we kick off the third phase of Strawberry Peppers! And what a way to kick off too!

First point of discussion is that David Bowie has left the Rolling Stones. This was brought up to me by Will Steadman on Discord as he believed that Bowie would've felt that the Stones weren't being experimental enough for him to want to stick around. Thinking about that more, I decided that I agreed with him and so from 1977 onward, David Bowie is more or less a solo act. How this will affect the Rolling Stones following his departure (and Ronnie Wood's arrival), we have yet to see. It'll be interesting to see if I can change up their 1978-1986 output to improve upon the weak spots, but we'll find out if it's feasible.

Next up, it's Syd Barrett dying nearly three decades earlier than he did in OTL; there's some further Gummaumma influence there, along with Roger Waters deciding to leave Pink Floyd altogether, only to be forced back in following Barrett's death. "But just for one album," he says. Finally, we'll get to see this universe's Wish You Were Here! Next post will be about this universe's definition of the 27 Club, and after that, chapter 52, returning to the lives of the Fab Four.