The Eventide H910 Harmonizer was was the world’s first commercially available digital audio effects unit, introduced in 1974. The pitch of a sound could be altered without changing the speed. Jon Anderson of Yes was the first to receive a prototype for testing, though the first official use was in television. Local New York station Channel 5 used it to slow down reruns of I Love Lucy which had been sped up in the past to fit in additional commercials, which then also raised the audio pitch. Jimmy Page and Frank Zappa used the 910 for guitar effects. AC/DC used it for the track “Back in Black.” But its most famous and influential use is heard on Dennis Davis’s drums on David Bowie’s 1977 masterpiece Low.

Though known as the first of the ‘Berlin Trilogy’ of albums Bowie recorded with Brian Eno and producer Tony Visconti, Low was begun in France at the legendary Chateau d’Herouville studios, the Honky Chateau, where Bowie had recorded Pinups. Bowie met with Eno backstage after a show in London on the Station to Station tour. He had been very influenced by Eno’s album Discreet Music. Both men were consumed with the German music known as Krautrock which blended avant garde, rock, psychedelia, and electronic music. Bowie wanted to create an album blending these elements and song fragments with Eno’s ambient sounds. Tony Visconti had acquired the H910, telling Bowie he had a unit that “f#$ks with the fabric of time.” For the recording, Tony rigged the Harmonizer to the snare drum and listened on headphones during the recording, adjusting the settings in the process. He fed the pitch-altered sound back into the device, which caused the pitch change to regenerate endlessly. He said “my brain nearly exploded when I found what I could do with drums.” The sound of the album is unlike any to come before, so unique as to never become dated. The album consists of eight short avant-garde song fragments on Side 1, with four longer ambient pieces on Side 2, co-written with Eno. The final track on the album, “Subterraneans,” was one of the pieces Bowie had submitted to film director Nicholas Roeg for The Man Who Fell to Earth. Bowie took back the track for himself after finding out he wouldn’t be composing the full score.

RCA Records had enjoyed two consecutive hits with Bowie, with Young Americans and Station To Station having big commercial success with hit singles, and RCA expected another commercial album. Label execs were shocked when Bowie turned in Low, flat out rejecting it. Bowie refused to change anything, so RCA sat on the release for 3 months, waiting until after the Christmas season, releasing it out in mid-January ’77. The first single was the great “Sound and Vision,” released 47 years ago today, backed with the instrumental “A New Career in a New Town.” It was a #3 hit in the UK but stalled at #69 in the US. RCA did little to promote the album, Bowie did even less, even going so far as to play keyboards in Iggy Pop’s band on tour in support of Iggy’s The Idiot. The only promotion Bowie did was film a promo for the 2nd single, “Be My Wife,” which didn’t chart at all:

Despite the lack of promotion and generally less than positive reviews, Low has gained recognition over the years, now widely seen as one of Bowie’s greatest achievements. In 1992, Philip Glass composed The Low Symphony, based on 2 of the ambient pieces, “Subterraneans” and “Warszawa.” He would go on to compose classical adaptations of the Low follow-ups “Heroes” and Lodger. Gary Numan, Human League, Joy Division, OMD, Gang Of Four, and The Stranglers are a very few of the bands to have been directly influenced by Low. The now famous drum sounds on “In The Air Tonight” can be directly traced to Low. Robert Smith and The Cure referred to the album constantly while recording the Seventeen Seconds album. Trent Reznor based the Nine Inch Nails album The Downward Spiral on Low.

Bowie himself consistently included Low songs in his live show, with “Sound and Vision” and “Be My Wife” often performed. He also pulled out the sublime “Always Crashing in the Same Car” from time to time:

In honor of today’s 47 year anniversary of the release of “Sound and Vision,” Today’s Playlist is a SomethingIsHappening compendium of some of the music that inspired and influenced Bowie to create Low:

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