"Modern Love"
Single by David Bowie
from the album Let's Dance
B-side"Modern Love (Live)"
Released12 September 1983 (1983-09-12)
RecordedDecember 1982
StudioPower Station, New York City
Genre
Length3:56 (single)
4:46 (album)
LabelEMI America
Songwriter(s)David Bowie
Producer(s)
David Bowie singles chronology
"China Girl"
(1983)		 "Modern Love"
(1983)		 "Without You"
(1983)
Music video
"Modern Love" on YouTube

"Modern Love" is a song written by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was released as the opening track on his 1983 album Let's Dance and issued as the third single from the album later in the year. Co-produced by Bowie and Nile Rodgers of the American band Chic, it is a rock song that contains elements of new wave music. It was recorded at the Power Station in Manhattan and was one of the first tracks recorded for the album. It was performed by Bowie on the Serious Moonlight Tour, where it often closed the shows. A music video for the song, directed by Jim Yukich and featuring a performance of the song during the tour, was released in 1983 and played frequently on MTV.

Since its release, "Modern Love" has received critical acclaim from music critics, who praised Bowie's songwriting, its production, and its power as an opening track. It is generally considered one of the best songs on Let's Dance, along with "China Girl" and the title track, and has since been called one of Bowie's greatest songs. The single release was a commercial success, peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart and number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100. "Modern Love" has appeared on various compilation albums and was remastered for the 2018 box set Loving the Alien (1983–1988).

Background and composition

Nile Rodgers performing in 2012
Nile Rodgers co-produced the song.

After its title track, "Modern Love" was the second song Bowie recorded in December 1982 at the Power Station (formerly Avatar Studios) in Manhattan, New York City.[4] It was co-produced by Nile Rodgers of the American disco band Chic, who had originally hoped to make a "very noncommercial, avant-garde album" with Bowie.[5] Following the recording of the title track and "Modern Love", however, Bowie asked Rodgers to "make [a] great commercial record...".[5] They finished recording the album in 19 days.[5] Rodgers described the track as "an old barrelhouse rocker with a real pounding Little Richard-type piano, while on top it has a very sophisticated jazz horn sound"; he would later call the track one of his favourites.[6] Bowie said Little Richard, his "earliest rock hero", was an inspiration for songs like "Modern Love", specifically the call-and-response sections.[6] Like the rest of Let's Dance, the song features guitar by then-rising blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan.[7][8] The song also features a boogie-woogie piano by Robert Sabino that is almost buried in the mix according to author Nicholas Pegg.[6]

"Modern Love" is a rock song that has elements of new wave and soul music[2] and features a "chukka-chukka" rhythm that's "at once funky and strange", followed by a "soothing" electronic riff.[9] According to biographer Marc Spitz, the song is "the sound of someone who's been away, reflecting some [in the lyrics] 'It's not really work / It's just the power to charm'."[9] Spitz continues, "the new times terrify him some but he's going to use the fear and stay positive".[9] Lyrically, Pegg writes that "[the song] establishes the album's recurring theme of conflict between 'God and Man' in a secular world".[6] The song's spoken intro parallels the closing mantra of "Ashes to Ashes", specifically the lyrics "get things done".[6]

Release

"Modern Love" was released on 14 April 1983 as the opening track of Let's Dance.[10] It was later released on 12 September 1983 by EMI America on seven-inch vinyl (as EA 158, featuring the shortened single version), and on twelve-inch vinyl (as 12EA 158, featuring the full length song) as the third single of the album, with a live version, recorded in Montreal in July 1983,[6] as its B-side.[11] The single reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, and number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100.[12] By the time "Modern Love" was issued as a single, Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour was underway.[13]

The song was a staple of the tour, where it closed the show on most nights,[14] allowing Bowie to "wave bye-bye" to the crowd per the lyrics.[15] It was featured during Bowie's set at Live Aid in 1985, and his subsequent Glass Spider and Sound+Vision tours of 1987 and 1990. He performed it occasionally during his 2003–04 A Reality Tour.[15] To promote the Glass Spider Tour, Bowie re-recorded the song with Tina Turner for a commercial as part of his commitment to Pepsi for their sponsorship. The commercial aired briefly in 1987.[16]

Music video

The song's music video used footage of Bowie and his band performing the song during a concert on the Serious Moonlight Tour. It was directed by Jim Yukich who, according to Kyle Ryan of The A.V. Club, "captured what looks like Bowie and his band re-emerging for an encore during a four-night stand at Philadelphia's Spectrum theater. The look of Bowie and band presages the swing revival that would follow a decade later."[13] Ryan writes: "As a video, 'Modern Love' is as straightforward as it gets, especially compared to the others Bowie did that year, 'China Girl' and 'Let's Dance'."[13]

Reception

Since its release, "Modern Love" has received acclaim from music critics, who praised Bowie's songwriting, its production and its power as an opening track. In a positive review of Let's Dance at the time of its release, Ken Tucker of Rolling Stone wrote that the album as a whole was "thin and niggling", but enjoyed "Modern Love", "Without You" and "Shake It", calling them "three pristine lovelies".[17] He continued:

This trio of songs offers some of the most daring songwriting of Bowie's career. The lyrics are so simple they risk simple-mindedness, yet I'd give a hundred 'Space Oddity's for the elegant cliché twisting at the climax of 'Modern Love': 'Modern love gets me to the church on time/Church-on-time terrifies me.' As a rock statement about growing up and facing commitments, that couplet beats the hell out of Jackson Browne.[17]

Tony Visconti, Bowie's longtime producer, considers the song one of the album's best.[6] In a review of Let's Dance, which Robert Christgau found "perfunctory" and mused "whether Bowie-the-thespian really cares much about pop music these days", he felt that "Modern Love" was the album's "only interesting new song".[18]

In his retrospective review of the Let's Dance album, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic praised the song as an opening track, writing, "[the album] comes tearing out of the gate, propulsed [sic] by the skittering 'Modern Love'."[10] He calls it, along with "China Girl" and the title track, a "catchy, accessible song that has just enough of an alien edge to make [it] distinctive".[10] Rolling Stone's Andy Greene agreed, describing the three tracks as a "triple shot".[19] AllMusic writer Dave Thompson described the song as a "high-energy, effervescent rocker", writing, "it epitomizes all that was good about Bowie's 1983 reinvention as a willing superstar."[20] While he believed that the song's production had started to sound dated in subsequent decades, it is "nevertheless a furiously punchy number, redolent of an old-time rocker".[20] Ryan wrote, "'Modern Love' is basically one long hook, which perhaps obscures the anxiety about faith — in both the almighty and relationships — at the song's core. Few pop songs can pull off sing-alongs to the lyrics 'God and man, no religion'."[13] Ryan concluded his review saying, "[the song] sounds both modern and timeless."[13] Pegg deemed it energetic, "brilliantly performed" and "undeniably catchy", but criticised it for being "depressingly superficial" compared with Bowie's previous work.[6]

Legacy

"Modern Love" has appeared on numerous compilation albums, the first being Changesbowie in 1990.[21] The song was remastered, along with the entire Let's Dance album, for the 2018 box set Loving the Alien (1983–1988); the shorter single version and live versions recorded in 1983 and 1987 are also included.[22] Biffy Clyro covered "Modern Love" in February 2018 for The Howard Stern Tribute to David Bowie, which was hosted by Tony Visconti.[23]

Following Bowie's death in 2016, "Modern Love" was named as one of Bowie's greatest songs by numerous publications. Rolling Stone listed it as one of Bowie's 30 essential songs, writing "[the song] reveals Bowie at his catchiest and most nihilistic."[7] Ultimate Classic Rock, in their list of Bowie's 10 greatest songs, listed it at number eight, labeling it the best "pop song" of Bowie's career, praising its spoken intro and its "infectious chorus".[8] The publication also named it the artist's 13th best single.[24] In 2018, the writers of NME listed "Modern Love" as Bowie's eighth greatest song. They noted the "tragic irony" to the track, in that it is not about how Bowie managed to "make a perfect song about his cynicism at the world", but rather that his "prescient observations" of the 1980s music industry exposed the "hollowness" of his 1980s works.[25]

Personnel

According to biographer Chris O'Leary:[26]

Production

  • David Bowie – producer
  • Nile Rodgers – producer

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1983–2016) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[28][29] 6
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[30] 3
Belgium (VRT Top 30 Flanders)[31] 3
Canada (RPM 50 Singles)[32] 2
France (SNEP)[33] 26
Ireland (IRMA)[34] 3
Israel (Media Forest)[35] 2
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[36] 9
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[37] 10
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[38] 6
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[39] 17
UK Singles (OCC)[40] 2
US Billboard Hot 100[41] 14
US Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks[41] 6
West Germany (Official German Charts)[42] 27

Year-end charts

Chart (1983) Position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[28] 44

Certifications

Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[43] Gold 50,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[44] Gold 400,000‡

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ↑ "David Bowie: Album guide". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  2. 1 2 Breihan, Tom (19 January 2016). "Greg Dulli – "Modern Love" (David Bowie Cover)". Stereogum. Archived from the original on 22 March 2016. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  3. ↑ Stanley, Bob (13 September 2013). "1985: What the Fuck is Going On?". Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop. Faber & Faber. p. 600. ISBN 978-0-571-28198-5.
  4. ↑ Buckley 2005, p. 335.
  5. 1 2 3 "100 Best Albums of the Eighties". Rolling Stone. 16 November 1989. Archived from the original on 6 September 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Pegg 2016, p. 403.
  7. 1 2 3 Rolling Stone Staff (11 January 2016). "David Bowie: 30 Essential Songs". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 3 December 2019. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  8. 1 2 Kaufman, Spencer (11 January 2016). "Top 10 David Bowie songs". Ultimate Classic Rock. Archived from the original on 31 December 2019. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  9. 1 2 3 Spitz 2009, p. 322.
  10. 1 2 3 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Let's Dance – David Bowie". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  11. ↑ O'Leary 2019, Partial Discography.
  12. ↑ Joel Whitburn (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications)
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 Ryan, Kyle (14 January 2016). "In "Modern Love", David Bowie mixed the modern with the timeless". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 18 November 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  14. ↑ Spitz 2009, p. 325.
  15. 1 2 Pegg 2016, p. 404.
  16. ↑ Loogman, Antoine (May 2007), "Bowie in Holland: Glass Spider", The Voyeur, archived from the original on 29 October 2013, retrieved 25 June 2013
  17. 1 2 Tucker, Ken (26 May 1983). "Let's Dance". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2 April 2011. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  18. ↑ Christgau, Robert (31 May 1983). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on 3 January 2010. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  19. ↑ Greene, Andy (11 August 2014). "20 Insanely Great David Bowie Songs Only Hardcore Fans Know". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 27 July 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  20. 1 2 Thompson, Dave. "'Modern Love' – Davie Bowie". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 4 July 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  21. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Changesbowie – David Bowie". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 28 July 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  22. ↑ Loving the Alien (1983–1988) (Box set booklet). David Bowie. UK, Europe & US: Parlophone. 2018. 0190295693534.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  23. ↑ Stern, Howard (6 February 2018). "The Howard Stern Tribute to David Bowie". Howard Stern. Archived from the original on 28 March 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  24. ↑ "Every David Bowie Single Ranked". Ultimate Classic Rock. 14 January 2016. Archived from the original on 24 July 2021. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  25. ↑ Barker, Emily (8 January 2018). "David Bowie's 40 greatest songs – as decided by NME and friends". NME. Archived from the original on 3 November 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  26. ↑ O'Leary 2019, p. 189.
  27. ↑ Buskin, Richard (April 2005). "CLASSIC TRACKS: Chic 'Le Freak'". Sound On Sound. Archived from the original on 21 June 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  28. 1 2 "Kent Music Report – National Top 100 Singles for 1983". Kent Music Report. Retrieved 22 January 2023 – via Imgur.
  29. ↑ bulion. "Forum – ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts – CHART POSITIONS PRE 1989". ARIA. Australian-charts.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  30. ↑ "David Bowie – Modern Love" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  31. ↑ "Modern Love – DAVID BOWIE". VRT (in Dutch). Top30-2.radio2.be. Archived from the original on 9 April 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2013. Hoogste notering in de top 30 : 3
  32. ↑ "Top Singles – Volume 39, No. 10, November 05 1983". Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on 24 February 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  33. ↑ "David Bowie – Modern Love" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  34. ↑ "The Irish Charts – All there is to know". IRMA. Archived from the original on 2 June 2009. Retrieved 29 July 2013. 2nd result when searching "Modern love"
  35. ↑ "Media Forest weekly chart (year 2016 week 02)". Archived from the original on 2 October 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  36. ↑ "Nederlandse Top 40 – David Bowie – Modern Love" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  37. ↑ "David Bowie – Modern Love" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  38. ↑ "David Bowie – Modern Love". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  39. ↑ "David Bowie – Modern Love". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  40. ↑ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  41. 1 2 "Let's Dance awards at Allmusic". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Archived from the original on 17 March 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
  42. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – David Bowie – Modern Love" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  43. ↑ "Canadian single certifications – David Bowie – Modern Love". Music Canada. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  44. ↑ "British single certifications – David Bowie – Modern Love". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 21 August 2023.

Bibliography

  • Buckley, David (2005) [1999]. Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story. London: Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-7535-1002-5.
  • O'Leary, Chris (2019). Ashes to Ashes: The Songs of David Bowie 1976–2018. London: Repeater Books. ISBN 978-1-912248-36-0.
  • Pegg, Nicholas (2016). The Complete David Bowie (7th ed.). London: Titan Books. ISBN 978-1-78565-365-0.
  • Spitz, Marc (2009). Bowie: A Biography. New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-71699-6.
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