Just reworked the chapter on The Idiot, to take in an interview with Laurent Thibault, who engineered and played bass on the album. Together with the Phil Palmer interview, Marc Zermati, and the woman who inspired China Girl, who I went to see in June, I feel I’ve finally cracked the story of this mysterious album - which isn’t only crucial in Iggy’s history, it was a pivotal recording for Bowie, too. Listening to it recently, I think I’ve under-rated the album for many years; it’s a terrific work, and defined much of the architecture of post punk. So often, I tend to think of Bowie as considered, almost managerial; the recording of Low shows how wrong you can be, for he was on an inspirational creative roll, ideas pouring out of him as fast as they could be recorded.
A few snippets from Thibault’s interview, which revealed for the first time who played what on the record.
“At the beginning David has tapes on a cassette and he was practising with the tape some song... So I recorded the piano and his voice.. and he was working on a song and he asked me if I knew a drummer. He wanted a very solid one, a very rough one, like a logcutter. I say yes I know one exactly the same - it was the drummer of Alan Stivell, Michel Santageli, he says, Can he come, I say I will see. So we phoned Michel, he was in Britanny, and ask if he can come. And it was funny, Michel said, for joking, it’s for Paul McCartney? I said, No, it’s for David Bowie.
“Two days after I was working in the studio with David, Jimmy was always sat on the floor with a lot of papers around writing these words. And they call me and say Michel just arrived. I said, David the drummer is here, Okay, let him go in. And nobody came! After a moment David said, Where is your drummer? I phone again [down to the hotel part of the Chateau] and they said, Michel has just realised he came really for David Bowie... he believed it was a joke.. he’s completely paralysed.
“Michel came very shy, at first, so David said, OK, will I put the mikes on the drums and we start. I asked Michel to [set up] fast, I put some mikes on, I didn’t have the time to tune the drums. David was turning around and finally said, Let’s go now. He plays piano, Michel is playing his drums. Michel had to stand up to see David over the [screens], I put the music in the cans, so David asked him to play on what he was doing... during that time [I was] trying to [get] some sounds. After maybe two complete songs, not more, David says, Repetitions! With [an]English accent! Then after two songs he said “record”. So I record what they have done. Michel was playing, always trying to see David, David made signs with his head to say, That’s a break. So, when they finish the first take, [David] came to the control room to have a listen. Michel came too and listened to the track and [then] said to me, OK, in French, I think I understand what he wants I can do it now, we can do it better, in French. David doesn’t answer. Then he said , ‘Next! Suivons’! [ie on to the next song]”