Young Americans

The story behind David Bowie's song 'Young Americans'
David Bowie Young Americans 1975 single front cover

DETAILS

Album: Young Americans

Released: 21 February 1975

Recorded: Sigma Sound Studios, Philadelphia, United States – August 1974

Length: 5:10 (album version), 3:11 (single version)

Production: Tony Visconti

Musicians: David Bowie (vocals, guitar), Carlos Alomar (guitar), Willie Weeks (bass), Mike Garson (piano), Andy Newmark (drums), David Sanborn (sax), Larry Washington (congas), Ava Cherry (backing vocals), Robin Clark (backing vocals), Luther Vandross (backing vocals)

STORY

The story behind ‘Young Americans’

The first studio result of his mid-1970s obsession with soul music, ‘Young Americans’ was a breakthrough hit for David Bowie in the United States. Recording began on the first day of the sessions for the Young Americans album at Philadelphia’s Sigma Sound studios, 11 August 1974.

The music was matched by a cynical lyric sketching an Englishman’s impression of twentieth-century America, with references to McCarthyism (“Now you have been the un-American”), black repression via Rosa Parks (“Sit on your hands on a bus of survivors, blushing at all the afro-sheeners”), and Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal.  Nixon had resigned the U.S. Presidency just three days before the recording session on 8 August, making Bowie’s line “Do you remember President Nixon?” hugely topical.

In addition, there’s an undercurrent of violence and despair running through the lyrics, especially the lines “would you carry a razor in case, just in case of depression?” and “ain’t there a woman I can sock on the jaw?”

The syncopated “Young American” backing vocal arrangement was added at the suggestion of Luther Vandross. However, a minute-long excerpt from a Sigma reel tape dated 13 August 1974, which labels the track as ‘Young American take 3’, reveals an early version of the song. Whilst the lyrics are all present, the saxophone and Vandross-inspired backing vocals are absent, and there are significant differences in Bowie’s vocal delivery which is more conventionally on the beat.

‘Young Americans’ received its public premiere in Los Angeles on 2 September 1974 at the opening of the Philly Dogs tour, Bowie introducing the song under its working title ‘The Young American’.

The British single release in February 1975 was identical to the five-minute album cut, whereas the American single was edited and remixed to a radio-friendly 3’11”. It reached #28 in the U.S. charts, significantly raising Bowie’s profile in America.

WATCH

Promos & performances of ‘Young Americans’

David Bowie performs ‘Young Americans’ on US TV’s Dick Cavett Show on 4 December 1974:

The US TV advert for ‘Young Americans’ featured a painfully thin David Bowie miming to the track:

LISTEN

Listen to the single version

Listen to the album version

LYRICS

‘Young Americans’ Lyrics

They pulled in just behind the fridge
He lays her down, he frowns
Gee my life’s a funny thing, am I still too young?
He kissed her then and there
She took his ring, took his babies
It took him minutes, took her nowhere
Heaven knows, she’d have taken anything, but

All night
She wants the young American
Young American, young American, she wants the young American
All right
She wants the young American

Scanning life through the picture window
She finds the slinky vagabond
He coughs as he passes her Ford Mustang, but
Heaven forbid, she’ll take anything
But the freak, and his type, all for nothing
Misses a step and cuts his hand, but
Showing nothing, he swoops like a song
She cries where have all Papa’s heroes gone?

All night
She wants a young American
Young American, young American, she wants the young American
All right
She wants the young American

All the way from Washington
Her bread-winner begs off the bathroom floor
“We live for just these twenty years
Do we have to die for the fifty more?”

All night
He wants the young American
Young American, young American, he wants the young American
All right
He wants the young American

Do you remember, your President Nixon?
Do you remember, the bills you have to pay
For even yesterday?

Have you have been an un-American?
Just you and your idol singing falsetto ’bout
Leather, leather everywhere, and
Not a myth left from the ghetto
Well, well, well, would you carry a razor
In case, just in case of depression?
Sit on your hands on a bus of survivors
Blushing at all the afro-Sheilas
Ain’t that close to love?
Well, ain’t that poster love?
Well, it ain’t that Barbie doll
Her heart’s been broken just like you have

All night
All night was a young American
Young American, young American, you want the young American
All right
All right you want the young American

You ain’t a pimp and you ain’t a hustler
A pimp’s got a Cadi and a lady got a Chrysler
Black’s got respect, and white’s got his Soul Train
Mama’s got cramps, and look at your hands ache
I got a suite and you got defeat
Ain’t there a man you can say no more?
And, ain’t there a woman I can sock on the jaw?
And, ain’t there a child I can hold without judging?
Ain’t there a pen that will write before they die?
Ain’t you proud that you’ve still got faces?
Ain’t there one damn song that can make me
Break down and cry?

All night
I want the young American
Young American, young American, I want the young American
All right
I want the young American, young American whoa whoa

Young American, young American
I want what you want
I want what you want
You want more
I want you
You want I
I want you
I want what you want
But you want what you want
You want I
I want you
And all I want is a young American
Young American

CHARTS

‘Young Americans’ Chart Positions

ChartPeak position
Australia27
Canada33
Ireland13
New Zealand7
UK18
USA28

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