The DARK History Behind David Bowie’s ‘Young Americans’
As David Bowie transitioned out of his glam phase, he set his sights on Philadelphia and Philly Soul. What came from this was the upbeat “Young Americans” and the album of the same name. This is the story of how that coincided with an incredibly dark period if Bowie’s life. This is the dark history behind Bowie’s “Young Americans.”
👉 Subscribe for More Vinyl Videos: https://youtube.com/c/AndyFenstermaker/?sub_confirmation=1
WATCH NEXT:
✓ The Story of Bowie’s Eyes: https://youtu.be/EA_jkTZ4sOc
✓ The WILD Story of “Soldier” by Iggy Pop: https://youtu.be/Hc8tjiyAFUs
✓ Bowie’s Greatest Embarassment: https://youtu.be/oGifSXOPbSQ
✓ The Story of “Andy Warhol” by David Bowie: https://youtu.be/2f8Gux3JLOU
🎥 Poetic Wax Music History Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLylroYWVYWWXL84MH1T4Qr0wrRzjwlGMR
Get This Band on Vinyl 🎧
✓ “Young Americans” on Vinyl: https://amzn.to/4hXY32S
✓ More David Bowie on Vinyl: https://amzn.to/3XrANCc
Poetic Wax is hosted by Andy Fenstermaker.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 The Dark History Behind Young Americans
1:14 Bowie’s Fascination with America Turned into a Nightmare
2:41 From Glam Rock to Plastic Soul
4:28 ‘Young Americans’ & A Paranoid Portrait of the U.S.
6:39 The Legacy of Young Americans
7:21 Bowie’s Descent into Darkness
9:16 The End of an Era and an Escape to Berlin
CLIP CREDITS:
David Bowie Interview (The Russell Harty Show, 1975) https://youtu.be/PKsZOTLqAyg?si=36k9Ty0iy0qOlpFa
David Bowie Interview (Dick Cavett, 1974) https://youtu.be/RSSf3k4UU64?si=nIBadAsWLl4RjVuU
David Bowie “Discipline” Interview (1975) https://youtu.be/rEGSN79V-1w?si=3GVrA5mhxNGNYNnI
David Bowie “Young Americans” (Live on Dick Cavett, 1974) https://youtu.be/ydLcs4VrjZQ?si=xp_mDSarqfIAvoR1
Nixon Resignation Speech https://youtu.be/ZEOGJJ7UKFM?si=QEt4OF4hSxMKBChF
David Bowie “Station to Station” Thin White Duke Clips https://youtu.be/tBOnE79LTQE?si=aF__ZOJtgjdD5BEK
#davidbowie #youngamericans #plasticsoul #thinwhiteduke #vinylcommunity #vinylrecords #vinylcollection #andyfenstermaker #fensepost #vinylchannel #poeticwax #musicessay #musicstory #albumstory #musichistory #albumhistory #musicdocumentary
@AndyFenstermaker
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Around the time of Station to Station, Bowie had a white witch help him conduct an exorcism on his swimming pool. Check out that story here: https://youtu.be/7Lcrjc5Mzm4
@mrmustard007
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
It was critically ranked in the 16 on the high side to anywhere as low as 20 in his portfolio. Heathen was low on songwriting & creativity and especially on sales. The shine and patina of Carlos had since faded and Pete Townsend added little or nothing noteworthy. The album was soft on entertainment and big on self indulgence.😮
@TooSkinnyKenny
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
said it before but I'll say it again..if Bowie wanted to make authentic Philly soul he should have worked with the masters of Philly soul, Gamble and Huff.
@RickyFarryss
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Devid no david😅
@Apathesis0
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
80lbs!? Insane. He must have looked like Christian Bale in 'The Mechanic'
@Alexander-xh7zm
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
These videos have made my weekend – thanks for the rabbit hole tour!
@EarthlingBowie
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Being a Bowie fan can be difficult because we can see a title like this and know exactly what it is. It takes the surprise out of it 🤣 That's why his loss is so intense because the only surprises left were his new releases. You have great content on Bowie and all the artists actually keep up the good work!
@rencelani-ty2sc
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
His first wife said he was the strangest person she had ever known and just got worse and weirder every day
@CG_Karas
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Nobody talks about the refrain…I heard the news today oh boy. A musical quotation, melody and all, it makes the song magic, and it's a wonderful bow to Lennon
@yesmanfetrue
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Very talented but still of the synagogue of Satan deceivers to sway and corrupt the youth.
@mikehamblen9917
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Good analysis. Young Americans was the second Bowie I bought. Diamond Dogs being the first and which I consider one of his best. Young Americans was a very hyper album. You could tell he was hyped up on something. Also on that album was the great sax player, David Sanborn. Amazing how Bowie could get the most talented musicians all the time to work with.
@Dr.Mabuse4Prez
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
I'm "Perot?" Like Ross Perot? Or were you trying to say "dog" in Spanish?
@AlfonsoXIVdeColchón
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
What came next is Bowie’s genius and very best era. Station to Station, his very best album, Low, Heroes, Lodger, Scary Monsters, Let’s Dance. After this monumental run, he was never the same and it took him a decade to find his footing again.
@robertwilson214
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
We need an AI to make another bowie glam album after DD.
@K.KILLORAN
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Dean Stockwell and Bowie visited Iggy Pop in rehab and brought him cocaine. It’s a hilarious story.
@carlodave9
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
His Nazi comments weren’t crazy. Hitler WAS the first modern rockstar. Any intelligent rockstar understood the same fascist dynamics going on.
@fredricclack7137
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
ThanQ Amin! 💕
@RSBurgener
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
And yet, later he said "if I'd had the album, Young Americans, when I was a kid, I'd have cracked it over my knee." He worked so hard on it, yet he hated it.
@mark-riva
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Please stop fawning over David Jones like he matter's any more.
@chronic_johnson_a.r.a.b
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Dress up as Bill Kelliher all you like, I know that's you under that moustache, Macaulay Culkin.
@RenePeraza
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Well done! I tend to scrutinize these types of bio-clips because they're often inaccurate or simply wrong but you did your research well! I've followed Bowie's career since the early 80s, and he is who inspired me to pursue music, more on that at my channel here!
@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Shit is getting too weird…I better go to Berlin.
@Kamick91
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Great video but 1) it was not a nazi salute and 2) in late 1974 bowie was truly in transition and not the thin white Duke at all. TWD was really born for the Isolar Tour after filming the man who fell to earth. But overall great video 🙂
@martybee6701
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
The location references in the Station to Station song are actual points on the Satanic Chart. Huge Alesteir Crowley influence.
@martybee6701
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
That incongruity of melody/lyrics is something Elvis Costello achieved on "Armed Forces" ( subtitled emotional Fascism) . Acid anti establishment lyrics set against tuneful family friendly ABBA type keyboard pop melodies e.g. "Oliver's Army" .
@Homebrew58
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
The change in Bowie actually began during the Diamond Dogs tour when he discovered that his manager, Tony Defries, had been cheating him from the day they formed their partnership.
David and Tony supposedly had a 50/50 partnership when they formed MainMan. Tony Defries, was a contract lawyer before he started managing Bowie and was really good at writing obfuscated contracts and with MainMan he wrote many contracts for the various subsidiaries and co-companies that served MainMan. There was an entertainment management company, a personal management company, a publishing arm, etc.
In each of these companies Tony Defries acted as president, CEO, manager or whatever title he chose to give himself. Now back the the supposed 50/50 deal with his primary artist… Buried in the contracts was the fact that Defries got his 50% up front and David only saw his 50% AFTER expenses. Plus, the contracts were written so that all expenses were paid from David's 50%. Bowie saw so little money from his "half" that he was forced to live off of the artist allowance also written into the contract. That allowance came to $75.00 per week. That is all David Bowie was getting up until 1974. In the end he ended up OWING money in the neighborhood of hundreds of thousands of dollars when his "half" was not enough to cover those expenses.
Now one of the really devious parts of Defries contracts – in each of those companies in which he was given the title of president, CEO, etc. Tony was paid a salary. Employee salaries were an expense and who paid the expenses… go back and read the previous paragraph in case you forgot. Devious contract trickery No. 2 is that there was no end date to the management contract between Bowie and Defries meaning that David Bowie belonged to Tony Defries FOREVER.
It was while on the Diamond Dogs tour that someone in the organization let it slip that David didn't actually own what he thought he owned. Bowie hired an independent accountant and probed some trusted people around him, including Coco Schwab who would remain loyal in protecting David's interests until the day he died, and finally uncovered the depth of Defries deception.
Every Bowie fan knows that the Diamond Dogs tour started off as one of if not the most elaborate rock stage ever conceived and then because of its complexity was scaled down and the second half of the tour was dubbed the Philly Dogs or Soul tour. While I have no proof of my next account it is curious that it was in July 1974 as the first leg of the North American tour was winding down when David learned of the deception and then the tour was scaled back when it picked up in September. Rather than the reason for this being that the set was overly complicated could it be that after learning he was the one paying all of the bills that David himself said 'hey, I'm not paying for all of this myself!". He was contractually obligated to continue the tour so he couldn't just back out but he could reduce expenses… expenses that he himself had to pay by trimming the fat.
Making a decision that immense was quite a milestone for Bowie. Because up until that point in his life David was very passive and dependent on others around him. This betrayal from his manager, his partner, his protector and friend sparked a rage and determination to take control of his own destiny. He cut off all communication with Tony Defries and all those loyal to Tony in the organization. He began the lengthy and costly litigation process from which he would not be free until 1982.
July 1974. That is when David Bowie's darkness emerged. That was the real birth of The Thin White Duke.
@miraeja
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Ugh this guy again. Histrionic gesticulating millennial voluntary-tics style of narration. Just work for Vice already
@johngordon880
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
I communicated with David Bowie a year After his passing….he was in a Dark mater studio with John Lennon, and sent me a hymn they'd written as id written a tribute song for him and told him about it a year before his death on his Facebook page…he used the name Sailor as no one believed it was him when he chatted with me…true story..
@brido8
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
Crap
@Colin-r6b
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 am
The Lyric that strikes me in Young Americans is as follows.. But the freak and his type all for nothing, misses a step and cuts his hand, showing nothing it soothes like a song she cries where have all papas heroes gone. This means that even in 1974 youngsters in America are soft, mummy cuddled and spoiled, fantastic how Bowie would portray his feelings about America's Youth in a song.
Comments are closed.