The 16-bar call-and-response section that is the centrepiece of the Young Americans track ‘Right’ is one of my favourite Bowie moments. The Cracked Actor documentary features some in-studio footage of Bowie describing his vision for the song to his backing vocalists Ava Cherry, Robin Clark and Luther Vandross, and when I visited the ‘Bowie Is…’ exhibition at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image last week I was thrilled to be able to study the very same handwritten vocal guide featured in the video.
Unfortunately I cannot reproduce the page here. Photography at the exhibition, much like the film clip to Bowie and Mick Jagger’s rendition of ‘Dancing in the Streets’ in certain forward-thinking nations on the grounds of taste, is expressly forbidden.