Recording for the new album officially began in May 1984, less than five months after the end of the Serious Moonlight tour. Bowie arrived to the sessions with eight of the nine songs that would appear on the album. This surprised collaborator Carlos Alomar, who said "it was the first time in the eleven years that I've been with the damn man that he's brought in anything." Along with Alomar, the majority of the personnel from "Let's Dance" and the tour returned for the new record, alongside newcomers Mark Pender, Curtis King and Guy St Onge. Pegg writes that Onge's contributions on marimba provide the album with "its most distinctive instrumental identity". The saxophone section, keeping inline with the tour's brochure, was dubbed "the Borneo Horns". Like "Let's Dance", but unlike most previous Bowie albums, Bowie played no instruments on the record, and he delegated almost all responsibility for the music played to his musicians, only occasionally offering critical input. He confessed at the time: "I very much left everybody else to it. I just came in with the songs and the ideas and how they should be played and then watched them put it all together. It was great!"