Modern Love

Written by: David Bowie
Recorded: December 1982, January 1983
Producers: David Bowie, Nile Rodgers

Released: 14 April 1983

Available on:
Let’s Dance
Serious Moonlight (Live ’83)
Glass Spider (Live Montreal ’87)
Moonage Daydream

Personnel

‘Modern Love’ was the opening song on Let’s Dance, David Bowie’s 15th studio album. It was released as a single in September 1983.

In a 1997 edition of Guitar World magazine, Bowie was asked for “60 minutes of music he’d loan to Major Tom on his next space flight”. His replies included ‘True Fine Mama’, a 1957 recording by Little Richard.

Even though it shows off his strong church background, it rocks like hell. When I do my little call-and-response things on songs like ‘Modern Love’, it all comes from Little Richard.

Tony Visconti was upset not to have produced Let’s Dance, although he singled out the title track and ‘Modern Love’ for praise.

I was asked to record the next Bowie album [after Scary Monsters], and two days before I was due to leave London for New York, he had already met Nile and I was told that he was going to try some tracks out with Nile, which eventually evolved into Let’s Dance. I was a little disappointed, but when I heard it… I really liked ‘Let’s Dance’ and ‘Modern Love’. Of course, it sounds like Bowie singing with Chic, but what a great success it was for him. I’m a big fan of the records that Bowie made without me. There is no jealousy, only admiration.

The promotional video for ‘Modern Love’ was directed by Jim Yukich. It contained footage from Bowie’s concert in Philadelphia on 20 July 1983, during the Serious Moonlight Tour.

If you look at Chic album credits, we never specify what song anyone plays on, and that is because Bernard [Edwards] and I wanted everybody to go out and be successful. We used to say to them ‘Look, if no one knows what you did, but they know that you’re on it in some way, I don’t care if you lie and tell people “Oh yeah, I did that song.”‘ We used to tell them to do that all the time, and they did. Like with David Bowie’s Let’s Dance, no one knows what songs [Chic’s] Tony Thompson played on because I never put that in the credits. They say ‘Drums: Omar Hakim and Tony Thompson.’ So, when you see the video and you think ‘Oh, that’s Tony playing on ‘Modern Love’,’ I go ‘No, that’s Omar Hakim playing on ‘Modern Love’. Tony Thompson is playing in the video because he was on tour with Bowie.’ So, we did that purposely and I still do that to this day. I just want it to be a sort of communal effort. And I admit that I love looking at credits and saying ‘Oh shit, that’s who played bass on that song,’ but with Chic it’s more about the collective organisation, it’s not about who played what on what.

In the studio

‘Modern Love’ begins with a 6/8 guitar riff by producer Nile Rodgers, before launching into a swing beat not far removed from Elton John’s 1983 hit ‘I’m Still Standing’. The two songs were released within weeks of one another, making any similarity almost certainly coincidental.

We spent almost every waking hour together until we got into the studio. The thing that we all have to understand and respect about artists is that sometimes their greatest capital is the way they’re perceived by the public. That might be the most powerful thing that they have. Once I knew he wanted a hit – and he didn’t say ‘hit single’, by the way. He said hit album. He wanted the whole thing to be great. And that’s why we had not only ‘Let’s Dance’, but also ‘Modern Love’, which was groundbreaking. I don’t think he thought it was possible.

The Let’s Dance sessions took place at New York’s Power Station in December 1982 and early 1983. Bowie recorded the vocals for five songs, including ‘Modern Love’m in a single day.

Every single Chic record starts with a hook. When we did ‘Modern Love’, I felt that it had to have some kind of interesting intro to hook you right at the top too. David did the lead vocals for ‘Criminal World’, ‘Modern Love’, ‘China Girl’, ‘Let’s Dance’ and ‘Shake It’, all those vocals in one day. And we got most of the instrumental solos done in a day too. Kenny Loggins later told me, ‘I stole the guitar riff from the intro to ‘Modern Love’ for the beginning of the song ‘Footloose’, it’s exactly the same!’