This was my favorite song off of the Lets Dance album released in 1983.
Stevie Ray Vaughan played guitar on this song. Bowie asked him to play on the Let’s Dance album after seeing him perform at a music festival.
David Bowie and Nile Rodgers wrote this song. Modern Love peaked at #14 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, #2 in the UK, and #6 in New Zealand in 1983. The album was also produced by Bowie and Rodgers.
Nile Rodgers said that Bowie came into his apartment one day and showed him a photograph of Little Richard in a red suit getting into a bright red Cadillac, saying “Nile, darling, that’s what I want my album to sound like.”
How cool is that?
From Songfacts
This is about the struggle to find solace in love and religion. It has also been suggested this song contemplates the old adage “The more things change the more they stay the same.” Explaining how he remained a force in pop music for so many years, Bowie sings, “It’s not really work it’s just a power to charm.”
Bowie said this song’s call-and-response vocal arrangement “all comes from Little Richard.” A defining moment in Bowie’s childhood was when his dad came home with a copy of “Tutti Frutti.”
This sounds very similar to Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing.” They were both recorded around the same time and Bowie nor John were aware of each other’s song.
In 1987, Bowie re-recorded this with Tina Turner for a Pepsi commercial where he plays a scientist who creates the perfect woman (Turner), with a little help from Pepsi. The storyline is cribbed from the 1985 movie Weird Science.
Modern Love
I know when to go out
Know when to stay in
Get things done
I catch a paper boy
But things don’t really change
I’m standing in the wind
But I never wave bye-bye
But I try, I try
There’s no sign of life
It’s just the power to charm
I’m lying in the rain
But I never wave bye-bye
But I try, I try
Never gonna fall for
(Modern love) walks beside me
(Modern love) walks on by
(Modern love) gets me to the church on time
(Church on time) terrifies me
(Church on time) makes me party
(Church on time) puts my trust in God and man
(God and man) no confession
(God and man) no religion
(God and man) don’t believe in modern love
It’s not really work
It’s just the power to charm
I’m still standing in the wind
But I never wave bye bye
But I try, I try
Never gonna fall for
(Modern love) walks beside me
(Modern love) walks on by
(Modern love) gets me to the church on time
(Church on time) terrifies me
(Church on time) makes me party
(Church on time) puts my trust in God and man
(God and man) no confession
(God and man) no religion
(God and man) I don’t believe in modern love
Modern love (modern love)
Modern love (modern love)
Modern love (modern love)
Modern love (modern love)
Modern love (modern love)
Modern love (modern love)
Modern love (modern love)
Modern love (modern love)
(Modern love)
(Modern love)
(Modern love)
(Modern love)
Modern love, walks beside me
(Modern love)
Modern love, walks on by
(Modern love)
Modern love, walks beside me
Modern love
Modern love, walks on by
Modern love
Never gonna fall for
Modern love
Modern love
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Well, I’m not a fan of this song, but your post this morning means you are safe from the tornado I hope?
Yes I am thank you…I live in a county beside Davidson County which holds Nashville.
I was on my way to work this morning knowing nothing…I get a call from the Mother In Law telling me what happened. I just got to work because of traffic.
It hit around 2-3 miles from where I work. Everything here is ok though.
It was a violent storm. Glad everything is okay at your home and work.
Thank you again. I’m just finding out. There are 40,000 people without power around where I am now. I’m just now looking at the news.
OHHH K. I was wondering, too. Watching the news…
Glad you are safe!
Good to know. Stay safe.
I think this is my favorite David Bowie era and album. I had no idea Stevie Ray Vaughn played on it. Great job!
I always thought that was Pete Frampton on guitar! He was on the glass spider tour on a couple of tracks so I just assumed….learn something everyday. Cheers!
Hang on, just listening now. You’re writing about modern love right? That’s a sax solo. Don’t you mean Let’s dance? That’s the one with the solo I thought was Pete Frampton….hmmm
You are completely right. I was going to do Let’s Dance…I’m an idiot…I couldn’t decide which one to do…damn it.
I think I felt the indecision — I brought up let’s dance in apple music first because of the solo, then checked your post again and switched to modern love…thinking hmmmm, I can’t remember much of a guitar solo on this one lol
Not at all. Yep that is the only thing that I started…about Stevie and that was it thankfully. That is what I get for doing a post at midnight.
Midnight?!…straight to bed with ya! Out of interest how long do you spent blogging each day?
Usually around 20-30 minutes…depends on if it’s a rare song…when you see a hit song like this one…I needed to get it finished lol.
I still can’t believe I did that…but sometimes I do two at once and save the other for a future date.
So 20-30 each song? sounds about right. But you’re sometimes posting 2 or 3. A labour of love!
I really enjoy the Star Trek things…not Star Trek but different items. It’s fun venturing out of music. I didn’t start with just music everyday…but it’s too hard to come up with a pop culture item a day.
I like your blog because you never know what is going to be there…I like the unexpected.
Dude… Stevie DID play guitar on this song. I went to a few more places and all said Stevie.
David Bowie – vocals
Stevie Ray Vaughan – guitar[6]
Nile Rodgers – guitar
Carmine Rojas – bass guitar
Omar Hakim – drums[24]
Robert Sabino – keyboards; piano[5]
Robert Aaron – saxophone
Stan Harrison – saxophone
Steve Elson – saxophone
Sam Figueroa – percussion
Yep absolutely SRV. Just listening is enough. I just always thought it was Pete frampton. You know I can’t quite imagine srv and Bowie in the same room — they seem like they were from different galaxies
Two different worlds and philosophies… Bowie though looked past that and got one of the best. At that time…it had to be a big break for SRV.
Testament to the effect of seeing SRV live in his prime. He must have been awesome
I’ve seen that Austin City Limits video of him…my jaw dropped with his guitar playing. Aggressive as hell but precise.
Oh you mean modern love as well? Geez I’m confusing myself now lol
YES on Modern love lol…it wasn’t much but he is listed.
Man you talked me out of it. I changed it and then someone said…hey I read where it was SRV…I checked again…and sure enough it was him. No solo or anything but him.
Ha!… Think we were both thinking of that SOLO on the let’s dance…not that a few chords don’t count…but you know…
Yes you got me thinking that…there wasn’t one on here. His playing was pretty much wasted…being him and all.
I corrected it…Thanks Jeremy. I was stuck between the two and working on both of them…bad choice!
By far and away the best two on the album so there’s that….
I was confused, too.
No it IS Stevie Ray Vaughn that plays the guitar though
Yeah. I was reading that.
I was confused over the post. I didn’t recall a guitar solo on Modern Love. I was like “all I remember is sax.”
Yea that is the reason I thought Jeremy was right…he is pretty good…but it’s just guitar.
I just checked a few more places…not a solo but guitar on the song…and much of the Let’s Dance album. I thought I got it confused but I didn’t
Back then, I’d never heard of SRV. Had no clue.
This is in my top 10 Bowie songs. Huge fan. Thanks for the write up. I don’t get the ‘I’m Still Standing’ comparison.
They do sound a like…not song wise but sound wise.
A little on the production side, but as far as I’d go.
You pinpointed the reason I didn’t like some of the music I grew up with in the 80s…They loved production in the 80s
Voila.. Empire Burlesque 🙁
I read that Stevie Ray Vaughan played guitar on the song. Bowie starts out saying not singing the first three lines of this song. I think he is saying that it is good to party, but if you need to get things done, it is better to stay home. He likes to keep up with current events (catch a paper boy), but it seems like “things don’t really change”. Things are tough “I’m standing in the wind”, however he doesn’t quit “But I never wave bye-bye”. His life seems empty, “There’s no sign of life”, although he is not upset by this as he sees that, “It’s just the power to charm”. He is “lying in the rain”, but he is still going to try and he is “Never gonna fall for” Modern Love.
I had him first but Jeremy swore it’s Peter Frampton… I was doing Let’s Dance and this one at the same time…stupid thing to do…but I was right to begin with. Thanks Jim…I’ll change it back to what I had
Geez…. And, here I thought the Let’s Dance guitar solo was Bowie. Silly me.
Frampton playing would have changed the sound of that song, thinking about it.
Love this song, and ‘Let’s Dance’ too. I didn’t realize you lived in Tennessee… awful news about the tornado and destruction but glad you are safe!
eden
Thank you…yes it was pretty bad. I live around 20 miles from Nashville in a place like Mayberry lol. I’m finding out more about it now…it was 2 miles from where I work.
I never knew Stevie Ray Vaughan played guitar in this song!
I didn’t either! The two don’t seem to go together…but it was great.
I agree!
This is a brilliant song every which way. The lyrics are melancholy to me and remind me of a starving person looking longingly into the shop window of a bakery for just a morsel. It’s a brave and honest song and shines for what it doesn’t say as much as for what it does. The musical arrangement with the answering chorus is musical genius. I also love what Bowie says about him wanting to sound like the picture of Little Richard. Great choice today, Max.
Thanks Lisa….
I loved that he gave him that picture…
I gravitated to this song in the 80s…such an honest song.
This was a little less for me then “Let’s Dance” or “China Girl” but still a good melody and a text: ” I don’t believe in modern love!”
The call and response is what hooked me on it…. Well that marks you out if you don’t believe lol.
Never seen “Weird Science.” Used to see it at Blockbuster all the time but never rented it. This is a great song, though.
I really liked the call and response to this song.
Easily my favorite off that album; probably his most listenable single since “Golden Years”
I have this on a compilation, but never realised it was from Let’s Dance – sounds like it’s a little later, as I don’t like it much as China Girl or Let’s Dance.
I like the bouncy part of it. I didn’t like his followups to this very well…until Tin Machine.
Great song. And… it’s weird but I thought this was on the Glass Spider tour DVD (which is great and which I have), but is seems it isn’t! What the heck am I thinking of? I must’ve been watching youtube too much!!
Oh, it is! The track listing must be wrong! https://youtu.be/GDI8OkyQZeE
What a great video of him. I really regret never seeing him. Life On Mars is in my top 10 favorite songs ever. I always thought he would revisit Ziggy one time…but true to his nature…he never did.
I never saw him either, unfortunately.
SRV didn’t play guitar on this song. He played on all songs from the album except Modern Love and Ricochet.
https://srvarchive.com/discography/side-projects
Ok…thank you!
Actually my error, he played on Ricochet, at the very end. You can clearly hear his solo. However I’m struggling to hear him on Modern Love. I’ll do some more research.
I like to be truthful on these and I really appreciate it. It was probably songfacts that said he did but they are occasionally wrong.