David Bowie - Station to Station
(1976) RCA Canada cat #CPL1 1327
Runouts: TIX CPL1-1327 A and
TXD CPL1-1327 B
Transcription:
Ariston RD-11s turntable
Fidelity Research FR-12s tonearm
Nagaoka MP30 MM cartridge
Yamaha phono stage
M-Audio sound card for A-D conversion
33rpm vinyl rip @24bit/96.1khz resolution
Post transcription:
ClickRepair 3 Wavelet mode @39
Manual touchup on missed clicks
Manual touchup on leadin/out areas
Package peak levelled to 96.27%
WMA conversion by Easy CD-DA extractor
Personal Restore rating:
8.0/10 due to a bit of calcium in a couple of tracks
Notes:
An RCA Canada 'Gold Label' pressing, the new label
colour represented a downhill slide in their product.
This copy was slightly above average for the time,
coming in at 113 grams which was on the heavy side
considering many of their albums weighed as little as
95 grams.
This transcription was the fourth play for this copy.
There is studio hum in this recording, clearly heard
in places. I remember reading at the time of the recording,
the engineer (I presume this was Harry Maslin) told Mr Bowie
that there was some hum in the recording, to which Mr B
replied that 'there is noise everywhere in the universe'.
A translation of that remark might also be 'I could care less',
but who knows what really goes on in the mind of someone else.
The rumble in the banding is a bit high but part of that
is accounted for by the residual hum in the recording.
With the exception of the start of A1, it really had no
effect on the finished product.
There was a bit of calcium noise in the fade out of
'Golden Years' which needed a bit of filtering. Sorry
'bout that.
Side one ends in the runout groove with less than 1 second
until the end. That section will always have poor signal
to noise when engineered that way.
There were numerous small flaws in the master used for this
pressing. The 2010 "Original Analogue Master" reissue
didn't seem to have those flaws. Wonder which one was the
'original'?
The cover scans were sourced externally and are only similar
to this Canada released LP. The label scans match the copy
presented here. As a side note, the inside sleeve carries
the USA cat# APL1 1327.
Even though it is not rare, this version of the album
does not seem to surface that frequently.
Synopsis:
The second consecutive 'manufactured' album following
Young Americans, Mr Bowie tried to tie in and cross promote
his movie career in 'Man Who Fell To Earth' while
capitalising on his newfound Fame in actually receiving a
fair bit of AM radio play for the Golden Years single.
In many ways this album, more or less, is an attempt to
stretch 5 original songs into an entire LP. Hence the
manufactured comment, since this was clearly an album
designed to become a monster hit. Of course this was not
the breakthrough album to make Mr B a household name, which
necessitated a retreat into the avant garde with his next
3 albums. That magic formula would elude him until Nile
Rodgers could finally deliver that magic touch to give
Mr B all that success which he knew he deserved.
Track listing:
A1 - Station to Station
A2 - Golden Years
A3 - Word on a Wing
B1 - TVC15
B2 - Stay
B3 - Wild is the Wind
Comments:
It's my opinion this would have made a great EP, by chopping
5 minutes off of A1 and dropping B2 altogether. But the
artist designed this as an album and this is what was
delivered. I liked it at the time it came out, but I feel
some of his other work better stands the test of time.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
"And I don't stand in my own light"