The title track is effectively three songs joined together - the first is a speeded-up tape of the sound of a train moving at great speed and phased so as to sound as if it is moving great distances in a short time. Due to his then fear of flying Bowie had spent a lot of time travelling the great distances of the States by train and this was doubtless a familiar theme to him at the time. The second part effectively begins when Earl Slick's guitar fades in over the train and the rythmn builds to a peak and Bowie sings the first line 'The return of the thin white duke... throwing darts in lovers' eyes'. During his stay in Los Angeles and the time spent making 'The Man Who Fell To Earth', Bowie had gone through periods of extreme depression enlivened by his use of cocaine and his dabbling in mythology and obscure religions. Several of these themes can be found on the LP - the Thin White Duke is a man who has been through a period of happiness - 'once I could never be down' - but is now waiting for a release and is not certain where it will come from - 'got to keep searching and searching but oh ! what will I be believing and who will connect me with love ? The same theme crops up again in 'Stay' when 'you can never really tell when somebody wants something you want too' but in addition to this the problem of drugs crops up again 'this week dragged past me so slowly, the days fell on their knees, maybe I'll take something to help me'. The single 'Golden Years' is the second track providing some light relief after the title track and introducing a spirit of optimism which is echoed in 'Word On A Wing'. 'I'll stick with you baby for a thousand years, nothings going to touch you in these golden years'. The feel of the song is a throwback to the previous album 'Young Americans' but with a much harder edge. The third song 'Word On A Wing' is a "song about my new optimism that has lacked since 'Hunky Dory'. I'm back in the scheme of things." It has a very religious feel with a choral effect on the backing vocals and a church-like organ sound. the idea seems to be that Bowie is holding a conversation with God and tells him that he is trying hard to fit among his 'scheme of things' although there are aspects of religious belief that he is not impressed with - 'I don't stand in my own light' but 'as long as I can I'll walk beside you, I'm alive in you'. This is one of the oddest songs he has recorded but is the first indication of some of the ideas that were to surface on the 'Lodger' and 'Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)' albums years later. Of this song, Bowie has said "I wrote the thing as a hymn. What better way can a man give thanks for something that he has dreamed of achieving, than doing it in a hymn ? I wrote it when I felt very much at peace with the world."
'TVC15' is one of his favoutrite songs and is explained thus : "That one is about a television set. This chap buys a television set with a holgrammic picture. It throws out a sort of three-dimensional picture on the carpet. The bloke brings over his girlfriend and the television eats her, or rather the girl just jumps into the picture. The song is a eulogy to the television set, asking it to throw her back out again." 'Stay' is one of his two or three finest songs and in common with other most popular Bowie songs finds him at his most personal and realistic, such as 'Fame', 'China Girl', 'Sound And Vision' and 'Ashes To Ashes'. Bowie is often at his best when writing personally as on 'Hunky Dory', 'Low' and 'Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)' .The lyrics of 'Stay' - 'This time I know we could get it together, if I did casually mention tonight, that would be crazy tonight... stay this time, I really want you so badly this time' refer to some personal crisis that he was undergoing at the time. Indeed the song is still a personal favourite of his. One of the themes of the song is loneliness - echoing themes from 'Space Oddity', 'Fame' and 'Ashes To Ashes'.The last song is 'Wild Is The Wind', written by Dimitri Tiomkin (who also provided music for several of the James Dean films) and the theme song for a film of the same name starring Anthony Quinn and sung by Johnny Mathis. Bowie said : "I've always loved that one. Its the only one on the album done live. It sounded so good that we left it like that." It was also the fourth single to be released from the album in late 1981 as part of the promotion for the 'ChangesTwoBowie' album with a black and white mimed video shot in a studio with session musicians and Tony Visconti playing the bass guitar. 'Station To Station' is an album of technical and artistic merit and fully deserved the praise given to it on release when it went to number 1 in Britain and number 3 in America. It is significant for two reasons - firstly it was the last of his 'character' albums and secondly it was the first time for five years (since 'Hunky Dory') to see him return to a personal style of writing which was to produce such strong work as 'Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)' and 'Lodger'.

In conclusion, the album lacks any degree of warmth, sincerity or emotion and was exactly matched by the way Bowie portrayed the Thin White Duke character on stage the following year.
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