Modern Love

Let’s Dance, 1983

Distinctly touched by the hands of the 80s and a Nile Rodgers co-production which, while surely benefiting its title track, did very little to enhance the music elsewhere, Let’s Dance’s exuberant opener was as straightforward and superficial as anything Bowie ever offered up for public scrutiny. Finally in full commercial control (after years of fulfilling contractual obligations to ex-manager Tony Defries’s Mainman organisation), Bowie was determined to make some real cash, and if anything was going to appeal to mainstream audience it was Modern Love’s romping Little Richard-inspired repetitions. It ultimately flew as the closing climax to all dates on 1983’s box officebusting Serious Moonlight tour.