Not Another Music Series - "This is Not America"

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I’m not joking when I say that this is it. The end. Of this particular music series, that is. The final song, one that I always found a tad underrated, personally: “This is Not America,” a collaboration between David Bowie and the Pat Metheny Group. Pat Metheny is a Multi-Grammy Award-winning jazz artist and composer (Fun Fact: Metheny is the only artist to have won Grammy Awards in ten different categories) and leader of the Pat Metheny Group (themselves 11-time Grammy winners.) David Bowie was, well, David Bowie. “This is Not America” was recorded for the soundtrack to the 1985 film, The Falcon and the Snowman (“This is not America” is a line of dialogue in the movie.) It started out as a Metheny instrumental piece for the movie, titled “Chris,” that the jazz guitarist wanted to turn into a full tune. Bowie wrote the lyrics and performed vocals. Considering Metheny’s extensive jazz background, “This is Not America” is certainly not jazz. Described as “moody” and “brooding” (the film is the story of two young American men that sold secrets to the Soviet Union,) the song is actually a nice, mid-tempo pop tune. Or, put it another way: In the 80’s, I worked on an Adult Contemporary radio station. We were a little hipper than most AC stations - we pushed the envelope a bit. We didn’t play “This is Not America,” but we should have. It would have sounded great in our rotation! Remember when I said I felt it was a bit underrated? Here in the States, the song reached #32 (Top 40 - respectable) on the Billboard Hot 100 (no thanks to our station) but Top 10 in 11-different countries. That’s good taste! I’m looking at you, Netherlands! (#1.) Link to the song: