David Bowie is twenty-eight, with eyes bigger than his stomach, and he absorbs everything in his path: America and its urban romanticism, the soul that whitens under his gaze at the idea of being savagely possessed, and those powders that wash poorly but scrub rich brains clean, from Park Avenue to Hollywood. Recorded in Philadelphia and New York ("Fame" features John Lennon as a guest), "Young Americans" is laden with the chic trappings of a perfectly mastered funkiness. It features the saxophone of David Sanborn, the voice of Luther Vandross, and the guitar of Carlos Alomar, a companion on the road during those years.