Tin Machine (album)

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Tin Machine
Tin Machine cover
Studio album by Tin Machine
Released 22 May 1989
Recorded Montreux; Nassau, August 1988 - early 1989
Genre Rock
Length 56:49
Label EMI
Producer(s) Tin Machine and Tim Palmer
Professional reviews
Tin Machine chronology
Tin Machine
(1989)
Tin Machine II
(1991)


Tin Machine is the debut album of Tin Machine originally released by EMI in 1989. The group was the latest venture of David Bowie, inspired by sessions with guitarist Reeves Gabrels. Hunt Sales (drums) and Tony Sales (bass) formed the rest of the band, with "fifth member" Kevin Armstrong providing rhythm guitar. (The Sales brothers are sons of American comedian Soupy Sales.)

The project was intended as a back-to-basics album by Bowie, with a hard rock sound and simple production, as opposed to his past two, somewhat overblown, solo albums. Unlike previous Bowie bands (such as The Spiders from Mars), Tin Machine acted as a democratic unit.

At the time of release, Tin Machine met with some success, winning generally positive reviews and reaching #3 in the UK album charts. However, long-term sales were not as good, and since then the album has been regularly ridiculed as a low point of Bowie's career (often by people who have not heard it).[citation needed]

Later reissues have been in line with the rest of Bowie's back catalogue, and the spine and disc of the 1999 reissue gives the artist as David Bowie, with Tin Machine as the album name.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Heaven's in Here" (Bowie) – 6:01
  2. "Tin Machine" (Bowie, Gabrels, Sales, Sales) – 3:34
  3. "Prisoner of Love" (Bowie, Gabrels, Sales, Sales) – 4:50
  4. "Crack City" (Bowie) – 4:36
  5. "I Can't Read" (Bowie, Gabrels) – 4:54
  6. "Under the God" (Bowie) – 4:06
  7. "Amazing" (Bowie, Gabrels) – 3:06
  8. "Working Class Hero" (Lennon) – 4:38
  9. "Bus Stop" (Bowie, Gabrels) – 1:41
  10. "Pretty Thing" (Bowie) – 4:39
  11. "Video Crime" (Bowie, Sales, Sales) – 3:52
  12. "Run" (Armstrong, Bowie) – 3:20
  13. "Sacrifice Yourself" (Bowie, Sales, Sales) – 2:08
  14. "Baby Can Dance" (Bowie) – 4:57

The 1995 Virgin Records reissue of the album included a live, country-styled version of "Bus Stop" recorded in Paris on the band's 1989 world tour.

[edit] Production credits