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Never Let Me Down
Studio album by David Bowie
Released	April 27, 1987
Recorded	Mountain Studios, Montreux, Switzerland 1987
Genre	Rock, Pop rock
Length	53:07
Label	EMI America Records
Producer	David Bowie and David Richards
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Robert Christgau (C+) link
David Bowie chronology
Tonight (1984) Never Let Me Down (1987) Sound and Vision (1989)

Never Let Me Down is an album by David Bowie, released April 1987. It drew some of the harshest criticism of Bowie's career, condemned by critics as a faceless piece of product and ignored by the public — Bowie himself said that the album featured good songwriting that was ruined by overly commercial and dull production. However, it featured more of Bowie's own compositions than its predecessor, Tonight.

Tracks from Never Let Me Down formed the backbone of Bowie's highly theatrical Glass Spider world tour in 1987 (an official "video album" was released from this tour which was also called Glass Spider). The album's second track, "Time Will Crawl", was also used in the French arthouse movie Les Amants du Pont Neuf (The Lovers on the Pont Neuf).

Describing the album, critic Ira Robbins wrote "although this casual loud-rock outing... seems on first blush to be slapdash and slight, the first side is actually quite good, offering provocative pop-culture lyrics delivered with first-take enthusiasm and carefree backing."^[1]

Quote from Bowie on Never Let Me Down

Track listing

All tracks by David Bowie unless otherwise noted.

LP: EMI / AMLS 3117 (UK)

1. "Day-In Day-Out" – 4:38
2. "Time Will Crawl" – 4:18
3. "Beat of Your Drum" – 4:32
4. "Never Let Me Down" (Bowie, Carlos Alomar) – 4:03
5. "Zeroes" – 5:46
6. "Glass Spider" – 4:56
7. "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)" – 4:05
8. "New York's in Love" – 3:55
9. "'87 and Cry" – 3:53
10. "Too Dizzy" (Bowie, Erdal Kizilcay) – 3:58
11. "Bang Bang" (Iggy Pop, Ivan Kral) – 4:02

• released digitally for the first time in 2007 on iTunes (minus "Too Dizzy")

CD: EMI / CDP 7 46677 2 (UK)

1. "Day-In Day-Out" – 5:35
2. "Time Will Crawl" – 4:18
3. "Beat of Your Drum" – 5:03
4. "Never Let Me Down" (Bowie, Alomar) – 4:03
5. "Zeroes" – 5:44
6. "Glass Spider" – 5:30
7. "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)" – 5:04
8. "New York's in Love" – 4:32
9. "'87 and Cry" – 4:18
10. "Too Dizzy" (Bowie, Kizilcay) – 3:58
11. "Bang Bang" (Pop, Kral) – 4:28

Reissues

The album was one of the first to feature different mixes on vinyl and CD, with the latter being generally longer. "Too Dizzy" has the dubious status of being deleted from subsequent reissues of the album, most likely because of the irony-free borderline misogyny of the lyrics. Bowie himself has said of the song "It's a throw-away." In 1995, Virgin Records rereleased the album on CD with three bonus tracks. EMI did the second rerelease in 1999 (featuring 24-bit digitally remastered sound and no bonus tracks).

CD: Virgin / CDVUS98 (UK) (1995 Reissue)

11. "Girls" (extended edit) (Bowie, Kizilcay) (1987 B-side of "Time Will Crawl" single) – 5:38
12. "Julie" (1987 B-side of "Day-In Day-Out" single) – 3:45
13. "When the Wind Blows" (from the When the Wind Blows soundtrack 1985) – 3:36

Production credits

• Producers:
  • David Bowie
  • David Richards

• Musicians:
  • David Bowie – vocals, guitar, keyboards, tambourine, background vocals
  • Carlos Alomar – guitar, guitar synthesizer, tambourine, background vocals
  • Erdal Kizilcay – keyboards, drums, bass, trumpet, background vocals, violins
  • Peter Frampton – lead guitar
  • Philippe Saisse – piano, keyboards
  • Carmine Rojas – bass
  • Earl Gardner – flugelhorn
  • Crusher Bennet – percussion
  • Stan Harrison – alto saxophone
  • Laurie Frink – trumpet
  • Steve Elson – baritone saxophone
  • Lenny Pickett – tenor saxophone
  • Robin Clark, Loni Groves, Diva Gray, Gordon Grodie – background vocals
  • Sid McGinnis – lead guitar on Bang Bang, Time Will Crawl and Day-In Day-Out
  • Mickey Rourke – mid-song rap on Shining Star (Makin' My Love)

Charts

Album

Notes