(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
David Bowie - "Fame"
Hit Number 1: September 20, 1975
Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks
There are some opinions on this planet that are hard for others to deny. One of those would be that David Bowie was one weird dude. All you have to do is take a look at his 1972 album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars to figure that out. The character of Ziggy Stardust was an androgynous, bisexual rock star who was apparently sent to Earth with the job of saving the planet before an apocalyptic disaster. This whole album tells this ridiculous story, and I guess I won't spoil the album's plot if there's anyone reading this that plans on giving it a listen. But as weird as the album was, people ate this kind of thing up because of how damn bizarre the whole thing was. Ziggy Stardust became Bowie's alter ego, and he achieved great levels of stardom from his Ziggy Stardust album, but this newfound stardom that Bowie was experiencing was eating away at him. It would even get to the point where he was getting irritated by it.
Bowie had a bit of an ego though too, and before his Ziggy Stardust album made it big, he was frustrated with his lack of fame because he thought he wasn't filling his potential. Part of the story of the album is Bowie's own dreams of becoming famous, or as he puts it, the fantasies of "every adolescent dreamer miming into a hairbrush in a suburban bedroom." (Only David Bowie could have a quote like that) But fame wasn't all that it was cracked up to be, which Bowie found out the hard way. Suddenly, Bowie was recognized everywhere he went, he was dealing with lawsuits with his manager Tony Defries after the two got into a contract dispute, and if that wasn't enough, a Broadway show that was concocted by Defries proved to be a massive flop. This show was titled Fame, and it was financed by MainMan, a company that was built around Bowie's newfound fame. The failure of Fame was the worst part of all of this, because it strained Bowie's and Defries' relationship and it also made Bowie look really bad.
So Bowie had had enough of all of this, and he was no longer recording for Defries. While staying in New York City, though, Bowie would meet John Lennon, who was in his own difficult part of life after his brief estrangement from his wife Yoko Ono. The two would jam together, which lead to the both of them having a one-day recording session at Electric Lady Studios. It's believed that this is where "Fame" was recorded, and it was all improvised right on the spot. "Fame" was inspired by many other different songs, a lot of them being funk stompers from the early '70s, but "Fame," of course, was not about dancing or some of that sweet, sweet love that a lot of funk songs talked about. "Fame" is a song sung by a very pissed off David Bowie and John Lennon, and Bowie would later say that most of his anger was aimed at MainMan, the company that financed the Fame show that failed. But Bowie was experiencing a lot of what Lennon was in 1965 with the Beatles, and Lennon came up with "Help!" But Bowie's not asking for help in "Fame." He's sick of the fame, and he doesn't appreciate the way Defries had been treating him. With Lennon dealing with his own crisis, we're given two music legends coming together in annoying times in their lives and making a song about how annoyed they really were with fame and the world in general.
Even though "Fame" is inspired by early '70s funk, it still sounds a little ahead of its time. This sounds like something you'd hear around 1979-1982, when new wave was beginning to take the world by storm. "Fame" is, sure, filled of that funky style that was already popular, but I hear little hints of new wave too. Since the song was basically an improvisation in one day at the studio, and one of those musicians is David Bowie, you're bound to hear some bizarre, experimental material. That's what "Fame" is to a tee. The song doesn't follow a specific format, and we're given some funky guitar strumming, sometimes incoherent ranting by Bowie and, most of all, Lennon's octave climbing "Fames" which he repeats over and over getting lower and lower. It's a very, very strange song, but it has a backstory that I find to be very fascinating.
Coming into this review, I wasn't that excited by "Fame." I had always thought of it as a strange novelty song that didn't fit with the other hits of the mid '70s. But there's something about coming into a studio and randomly coming up with something that, honestly, doesn't sound all that bad that I respect. I don't usually get songs like "Fame," and I probably still don't, but I do have a newfound respect for it. The main groove of the song is enough to get stuck in your head for the rest of the day, and the main "Faaaame" is a strange, little fun precursor to what Bowie's going to rant about next. So, "Fame." Incredibly bizarre song that's a lot to take in at once, but one that I think I can respect. Bowie would eventually get over his initial frustrations with fame, and he'll be back in this series again.
GRADE: 6/10
IN POP CULTURE:
The Killers did a cover of "Fame" in 2017, and they performed it in the Live Lounge. Here's a video of that:
(The Killers' highest-charting single was "Mr. Brightside" which made it to #10 in 2005. It's a 7)
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