Album 97 | The Gouster

A box set of Bowie’s mid-70s material called, “Who Can I Be Now,” was issued a few years ago and included what was billed as a previously unreleased album called, “The Gouster.”  “The Gouster” is basically a first draft of what would become, “Young Americans,” and although some of the songs are slight variants of their more familiar versions on, “Young Americans,” all of them have been included, in one form or another, on reissues of the latter album.  In that respect, “The Gouster” is more a curiosity than anything really new or previously unheard.

The songs on the album are, “John, I’m Only Dancing “Again;” “Somebody Up There Likes Me;” “It’s Gonna Be Me;” “Who Can I Be Now?,” “Can You Hear Me;” “Young Americans;” and “Right.” 

Although the album was released in 2016, I only recently came around to listening to it.  This is in part because I’ve heard the songs before, and these are not among my favorite Bowie songs.  They aren’t even among my favorite songs from, “Young Americans” (“Young Americans” itself being an exception.  Missing are Bowie’s biggest hint from the album, “Fame,” the Beatles cover, “Across the Universe,” and, “Fascination,” which I have grown more fond of over the years.

What’s left epitomizes Bowie’s plastic soul sound, which to me is more like gospel than disco.  Most of them are slow moving, yet their lyrical are hard to decipher.  With help from lyric sheets, it turns out that most of these songs come off as pretty narcissistic.  “Somebody Up There Likes Me” is about a Trump-like demagogic con-man.  “Its Gonna Be Me” seems to be about a guy who had a one-night stand that his partner left dissatisfied, or worse, who regrets what happened but nonetheless wants a second chance.  Its all-too easy to interpret, “Who Can I Be Now?” to be autobiographical, with Bowie pleading, “please help me,” while wondering, “now that you found me, now can I be real?”  “Can You Hear Me” is more ambiguous, but seems to be about someone with a lot of lovers whose trying to convince one of them that he likes her (?) the most…without disavowing his wandering ways.  “Right,” to my ears, is a sound that’s typical of the album set to lyrics that are taken from some of the other songs (for instance, compare, “taking it all the right way,” from “Right,” to, “take it in right,” from, “Can You Hear Me”).  To my ears, there isn’t anything like a cohesive narrative.

The overall impression is that the album is about indulgence— a demagogue who think’s he’s blessed by God; a bad lover who thinks he deserves a second chance with someone he hardly knows; a philanderer who thinks he can convince a lover that she’s special to him, an English glam singer who thinks he can sing soul music.  

“Young Americans” is an improvement.  “Fame” is just a better song.  The Beatles cover isn’t great, but adds familiarity.  Some of what was removed (later to be added back to reissues” cut down on the excess.  

Meanwhile, I’ve read that some fans with knowledge of the “Gouster” recording sessions were hopeful that at least three less familiar songs would be included in this release that were left for— “I Am A Lazer;” “Shilling The Rubes,” and “After Today.”  Not sure why that was the case, but these songs exist on YouTube and I might address them later…