WHOT Episode 150 – “Sweet Thing / Candidate / Sweet Thing (Reprise)” by David Bowie
Hosted by Mangus Khan

[Needle down. Soft, dissonant piano creeps in. A slow breath. The mood is already uneasy.]

“One hundred and fifty episodes.

One hundred and fifty nights of ache, sweat, signal, silence.

And we mark it not with triumph, but with transformation.

This is Late Night Grooves.
WHOT—the hottest in the cool.

And I’m Mangus Khan.

Still here.

Tonight’s track?

We’re not just playing a song.

We’re walking through someone else’s mind—with the lights off.

David Bowie – ‘Sweet Thing / Candidate / Sweet Thing (Reprise).’

From Diamond Dogs, 1974.

This isn’t Ziggy.
It’s not The Duke.

This is the man between masks.

The sound of an identity molting.

And it’s unsettling.

Part one—‘Sweet Thing’.

Bowie’s voice is smooth. Seductive. Almost safe.
But there’s a crack in the foundation.

The words don’t line up. The melody drifts sideways.

You feel like you’re standing too close to something that might collapse.

And then it does.

‘Candidate’ slams in.

No warning. No mercy.

Suddenly Bowie isn’t whispering anymore—he’s selling something.

“I’ll make you a deal / Like any other candidate…”

Politics, seduction, self-loathing, power—they all blur.

And that’s the brilliance of it.

He’s showing you what happens when performance and truth fuse so tightly, you forget which is which.

And then—

‘Sweet Thing (Reprise)’.

A return, yes. But not a redemption.

The voice is thinner now.
Broken around the edges.

Like someone who’s finally come down… but doesn’t know what to do with the silence.

And this—this whole suite—it doesn’t resolve.

It dissolves.

Into echo.

Into static.

Into the sound of identity trying to survive itself.

That’s the genius of Bowie.

He never gave you answers.

He gave you mirrors.

And dared you to stand still long enough to see what was actually looking back.

Episode 150.

Not a celebration.

A checkpoint.

For the artists who shapeshift to survive.

For the listeners who know that the groove isn’t always warm.

Sometimes it’s cold. Unforgiving.

But still—necessary.

David Bowie.
Sweet Thing / Candidate / Sweet Thing (Reprise).

This is Late Night Grooves.
WHOT.

And I’m Mangus Khan—

Still lost in the mirror.

Still broadcasting for the brave.

Still here.”

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