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Tonight (Music)

 Tonight (Music)
type
TVTItem
 Tonight (Music)
label
Tonight (Music)
 Tonight (Music)
page
Tonight
 Tonight (Music)
comment
Tonight is the sixteenth studio album by David Bowie, released in 1984 through EMI America Records.Bowie had finally hit the big time with his predecessor Let's Dance, both commercially and financially. Having gained a new audience of adoring fans, Bowie realised he had no choice but to retain them through releasing new music as soon as possible. However, having just finished touring for Let's Dance a tired Bowie was struggling to overcome writer's block.What followed was an album that featured just two original compositions for the album by Bowie alone. Five songs involved his longtime friend Iggy Pop (who, unlike Bowie, had fallen on hard times), three of those Pop-involved songs are covers, and two songs are covers of songs by other artists. Bowie himself would thusly describe the album as a rough sequel to his 1973 Cover Album Pin Ups in an interview.Like Let's Dance before it, Tonight was a considerable commercial success for Bowie, topping the charts in the UK and the Netherlands, peaking at No. 11 on the Billboard 200, and going double-platinum in Canada, platinum in the United States, and gold in the UK, France, New Zealand, and Spain.Tonight was supported by three singles: "Blue Jean", Bowie's cover of the Title Track (originally an Iggy Pop song), and "Loving the Alien". The first of these three was accompanied by Jazzin' for Blue Jean, a 21-minute Direct to Video short film directed by Julian Temple in which Loser Protagonist Vic (played by Bowie) falsely claims that he personally knows legendary and eccentric rock musician Screaming Lord Byron (also played by Bowie and a sort-of self-parody) to impress her and goes to absurd lengths to try and hold the lie together when she challenges his claims.
 Tonight (Music)
fetched
2023-09-03T17:45:38Z
 Tonight (Music)
parsed
2023-09-03T17:45:38Z
 Tonight (Music)
processingComment
Dropped link to IggyPop: Not a Feature - IGNORE
 Tonight (Music)
processingComment
Dropped link to LustForLife: Not a Feature - ITEM
 Tonight (Music)
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Dropped link to PetSounds: Not a Feature - ITEM
 Tonight (Music)
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Dropped link to Reggae: Not a Feature - ITEM
 Tonight (Music)
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Tonight (Music) / int_120d0e3f
type
Adam Westing
 Tonight (Music) / int_120d0e3f
comment
Adam Westing: Screaming Lord Byron is essentially Bowie parodying his image from the first half of the '70s, being a cartoonishly eccentric style-over-substance rock musician with severe neuroses and an affinity for bizarre costumes & make-up and ridiculously sexual stage performances. At the end of the film, Vic relentlessly lambasts Byron, among other things stating that "your record sleeves are better than your albums!" Note that Vic and Byron are both played by Bowie himself.
 Tonight (Music) / int_120d0e3f
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Tonight (Music) / int_120d0e3f
 Tonight (Music) / int_1f37a427
type
Face on the Cover
 Tonight (Music) / int_1f37a427
comment
Face on the Cover: David Bowie, done as a painting with his head deep blue (though some scans and prints make it closer to purple) and his hair bright yellow.
 Tonight (Music) / int_1f37a427
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Tonight (Music) / int_1f37a427
 Tonight (Music) / int_23b0d78
type
Title Track
 Tonight (Music) / int_23b0d78
comment
Title Track: "Tonight", the only such instance where a Bowie title track was a cover of somebody else's song.
 Tonight (Music) / int_23b0d78
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Tonight (Music) / int_23b0d78
 Tonight (Music) / int_361d0d58
type
Concept Video
 Tonight (Music) / int_361d0d58
comment
Concept Video: Jazzin' for Blue Jean is a Short Film depicting the comic tale of a Celebrity Lie that features Bowie in two roles.
 Tonight (Music) / int_361d0d58
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Tonight (Music) / int_361d0d58
 Tonight (Music) / int_3f1f6c04
type
The Cover Changes the Meaning
 Tonight (Music) / int_3f1f6c04
comment
The Cover Changes the Meaning: Bowie's cover of "Tonight" omits the spoken introduction, which establishes that the narrator is singing to his girlfriend, who's dying of a heroin overdose. As a result, the song becomes a bog-standard love song. Bowie stated that the reasons for this alteration were because he felt the introduction was an "idiosyncrasy" of Iggy Pop that didn't fit his own vocabulary, and because he thought the original song's dark context would've made Tina Turner, with whom he sang on the song, uncomfortable.
 Tonight (Music) / int_3f1f6c04
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Tonight (Music) / int_3f1f6c04
 Tonight (Music) / int_4c6e3b05
type
Uncanny Valley Makeup
 Tonight (Music) / int_4c6e3b05
comment
Uncanny Valley Makeup: David Bowie as Screaming Lord Byron during his performance of "Blue Jean" in the mini-movie Jazzin' For Blue Jean is given such a makeup job that could be described as making him look like a living painting.
 Tonight (Music) / int_4c6e3b05
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Tonight (Music) / int_4c6e3b05
 Tonight (Music) / int_5262cf20
type
Longest Song Goes First
 Tonight (Music) / int_5262cf20
comment
Longest Song Goes First: The album opens with the 7:11 "Loving the Alien".
 Tonight (Music) / int_5262cf20
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 Tonight (Music) / int_5262cf20
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Tonight (Music) / int_5262cf20
 Tonight (Music) / int_5df06b20
type
Religion Rant Song
 Tonight (Music) / int_5df06b20
comment
Religion Rant Song: "Loving the Alien" is a "Hate the Leaders" one, condemning dogmatic believers who use scripture for their own personal ends, among other things comparing the Arab–Israeli Conflict to the Crusades in a manner that is critical of both.
 Tonight (Music) / int_5df06b20
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Tonight (Music) / int_5df06b20
 Tonight (Music) / int_6053dc28
type
Record Producer
 Tonight (Music) / int_6053dc28
comment
Record Producer: David Bowie, Derek Bramble, and Hugh Padgham, the latter of whom came on board at the last minute.
 Tonight (Music) / int_6053dc28
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Tonight (Music) / int_6053dc28
 Tonight (Music) / int_74149c93
type
Epic Rocking
 Tonight (Music) / int_74149c93
comment
Epic Rocking: "Loving the Alien" is just over seven minutes long.
 Tonight (Music) / int_74149c93
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Tonight (Music) / int_74149c93
 Tonight (Music) / int_786bf97f
type
Real Life Writes the Plot
 Tonight (Music) / int_786bf97f
comment
Real Life Writes the Plot: "Tumble and Twirl" was based on Bowie's exploits vacationing in Bali; he would later have his ashes scattered there after his death in 2016. The lines "this dot marks your location" and "your family is a football team" in "Dancing with the Big Boys" were inspired by Bowie & Pop's "lengthy, irritating stay" in a New York hotel. Specifically, the former line came from the hotel's fire escape map, while the latter came from the cooperation observed among an immigrant family staying at the place.
 Tonight (Music) / int_786bf97f
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Tonight (Music) / int_786bf97f
 Tonight (Music) / int_78f72406
type
Endearingly Dorky
 Tonight (Music) / int_78f72406
comment
Endearingly Dorky: Jazzin' for Blue Jean, a 20-minute long-form video, is based around the Talky Bookends story of Vic, a lovestruck-but-clumsy man who tells a Celebrity Lie to the woman of his dreams and now has to find a way to personally introduce elegant, supercool rock star Screamin' Lord Byron to her. Bowie plays both men, and Vic doesn't get the girl in the end for all his trouble — which Bowie doesn't think is fair.
 Tonight (Music) / int_78f72406
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Tonight (Music) / int_78f72406
 Tonight (Music) / int_a6cda066
type
Rule of Three
 Tonight (Music) / int_a6cda066
comment
Rule of Three: Three of the album's tracks are covers of Iggy Pop songs from the late '70s.
 Tonight (Music) / int_a6cda066
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 Tonight (Music) / int_a6cda066
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Tonight (Music) / int_a6cda066
 Tonight (Music) / int_b24ce4b2
type
Rearrange the Song
 Tonight (Music) / int_b24ce4b2
comment
Rearrange the Song: Roughly two decades after the album's release, Bowie would perform an acoustic rearrangement of "Loving the Alien" during his 2003-2004 A Reality Tour, stating that this new version was closer to how he felt the song should've sounded in the first place.
 Tonight (Music) / int_b24ce4b2
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Tonight (Music) / int_b24ce4b2
 Tonight (Music) / int_b32aca10
type
Packaged as Other Medium
 Tonight (Music) / int_b32aca10
comment
Packaged as Other Medium: The album cover is done up to resemble a stained-glass window.
 Tonight (Music) / int_b32aca10
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 Tonight (Music) / int_b32aca10
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Tonight (Music) / int_b32aca10
 Tonight (Music) / int_ce6555f0
type
Lighter and Softer
 Tonight (Music) / int_ce6555f0
comment
Lighter and Softer: Even more so than Let's Dance.
 Tonight (Music) / int_ce6555f0
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Tonight (Music) / int_ce6555f0
 Tonight (Music) / int_cf1845d7
type
Yellow/Purple Contrast
 Tonight (Music) / int_cf1845d7
comment
Yellow/Purple Contrast: Bowie's purple/blue face on the front cover pops out against both his butter-blonde hair and the predominantly yellow background.
 Tonight (Music) / int_cf1845d7
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Tonight (Music) / int_cf1845d7
 Tonight (Music) / int_cff53786
type
Cover Version
 Tonight (Music) / int_cff53786
comment
Cover Version: Roughly half the songs on the album are covers. In order, you hear Bowie perform Iggy Pop's "Don't Look Down" (from New Values), The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" (from Pet Sounds), the Title Track, originally an Iggy Pop song that Bowie had co-written (from Lust for Life), Iggy Pop's "Neighborhood Threat" (also from Lust for Life), and Chuck Jackson's "I Keep Forgettin'" (an R&B standard written by Leiber and Stoller).
 Tonight (Music) / int_cff53786
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Tonight (Music) / int_cff53786
 Tonight (Music) / int_d9761a10
type
Performance Video
 Tonight (Music) / int_d9761a10
comment
Performance Video: Besides the Jazzin' For Blue Jean mini-movie, David also created this kind of video for "Blue Jean" specifically for MTV airplay (the mini-movie was a direct-to-video release). The performance video version is also featured on a TV screen in Jazzin' For Blue Jean, where it's established to be footage of the character Screamin' Lord Byron.
 Tonight (Music) / int_d9761a10
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Tonight (Music) / int_d9761a10
 Tonight (Music) / int_ddf8c5ba
type
Album Filler
 Tonight (Music) / int_ddf8c5ba
comment
Album Filler: A common criticism of the album, given that more than half of it is made up of song covers, and of the four songs that are original compositions, half of those are co-written by Iggy Pop and ended up fairly naff by Bowie standards. Bowie himself agreed with this critique of the album, with the two songs he wrote by himself ("Loving the Alien" and "Blue Jean") being the only ones featured in live performances (all the way up to his final tour in 2003-2004).
 Tonight (Music) / int_ddf8c5ba
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Tonight (Music) / int_ddf8c5ba
 Tonight (Music) / int_e40f6792
type
Design Student's Orgasm
 Tonight (Music) / int_e40f6792
comment
Design Student's Orgasm: The album cover features an elaborate painting done up to look like an abstract stained-glass window, typing in perfectly with the opening track and its critique of religious dogma.
 Tonight (Music) / int_e40f6792
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Tonight (Music)

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Tonight (Music)
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British Music / int_cc96f5a2
 Tonight (Music)
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Concept Video / int_cc96f5a2
 Tonight (Music)
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Design Student's Orgasm / int_cc96f5a2
 Tonight (Music)
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Longest Song Goes First / int_cc96f5a2
 Tonight (Music)
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Packaged as Other Medium / int_cc96f5a2
 Tonight (Music)
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Progressive Rock / int_cc96f5a2
 Tonight (Music)
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Rarely Performed Song / int_cc96f5a2
 Tonight (Music)
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Tagline / int_cc96f5a2