david bowie

-- The Duly Impressed Mr. Jones (hobartarms@hotmail.com), May 11, 2002.

you are just another jaded out bitch.

I don't know Momus, i mean, David Bowie has now gone independant, away from record companies (and yes, he is fantastical rich) but we will see.

i havent heard it but am excited.

And you, sir, are not a gentleman!

That cover of the Pixies' "Cactus" - C or D?

There really are eight million Bowie threads on here.

Anyway, Bowie responds to his first American fan letter, 1967. Fun!

awww cuet

Very nice.

Lovely.

Would that 15 min film be that one where he's a painting and keeps popping up in real life just so the artist can kill him again and again?

That was on an NME Video compilation, aaages ago.

Bowie talks about No Down Payment in that letter, too -- I love that movie! Joanne Woodward, Sheree North, Tony Randall, marital discord and drink problems in a post-war housing development.

wow. really charming stuff

last thursday i was talking to tony viscounti

wtf

They even liked the single "Love You Till Tuesday".

it was always somewhat irritating that Doomie couldn't write to save himself

What the hell happened to Doomie anyway?

Very nice!

http://i47.tinypic.com/ra56ky.gif

I don't think I've posted this wonderful gif yet.

From the great "Bowie Meets the Fonz" tv moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1bRIwqv_tM&feature=player_embedded

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nasa_launches_david_bowie_concept

http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/NASA-Launches-R.article_0.jpg
Looks more like The Glitter Band

Mark Dery ('The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium') has written an interesting, "33 1/3" -esque piece:

Leper Messiah: A Jesus Freak’s Search for the Meaning of Bowie

Background here: http://www.markdery.com/archives/news/000119.html

(& apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere)

I always thought he (and P. Murphy) was saying "leopard messiah." I'd even do I *rowr rowr I'm a clawing leopard* gesture when i sang it.

I am truly annoyed now that this isn't the real lyric.

Viceory & I had a pretty spirited debate abt whether it was "leather messiah" or "leopard messiah," both of which are wrong (and superior?).

i know i suggest it everywhere, but the bowie blog where the author is writing essaylets on every song in chronological order of recording is astoundingly great...it's called "pushing ahead of the dame" he is up to soul love now

Never realized there was confusion about "leper messiah." ZS has always been one of my go-to karaoke songs and it's always been "leper"

i know i suggest it everywhere, but the bowie blog where the author is writing essaylets on every song in chronological order of recording is astoundingly great...it's called "pushing ahead of the dame" he is up to soul love now

Fantastic blog... His entry on "Life On Mars" is one of my fave bits of music writing.

where is this

http://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/

Thank you, Ned. Yes, Elvis, the Life on Mars one is mindblowing...he also finds these great photographs to lead off each song entry, and links to streaming versions of the demos and live versions he is discussing...

wow that "life on mars" entry is amazing

Let's hear it for the author of the astonishing "Pushing Ahead of the Dame" who has just completed his epic song-by-song catalogue, with brilliantly incisive essaylets on every recording he could get his hands on, up until Pin-Ups...check it out! This is historic stuff

obviously he is just getting started...I cannot wait for the Diamond Dogs entries!

bowiesongs.wordpress.com

jeez...
http://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/

Great blog.

Side two of "Heroes" sounded great walking to work in the sub-zero temperatures this morning.

http://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/end-of-chapter-four-1973-1975/

He got a book deal!

Very well deserved, that.

Apparently finally a new album on its way too:
Really surprised "Supper's Ready" made the list, but what the hell I vote that

Been strangely silent from the once so profilic act lately, but this is maybe finally some news.

http://www.countdowncow.com/when/new-david-bowie-album-coming-out-first-half-2011
(Sorry wrong link above)

I was all "wtf David Bowie's doing "Supper's Ready" on his new album?" for a moment there...

"Hello i love david bowie is he coming on tour next year to holland? And how can i write him greatings tiziana"

I was all "wtf David Bowie's doing "Supper's Ready" on his new album?" for a moment there...

Well he does have a habit of doing shit cover versions

Here comes Geir to say "that would be great though, ;)" or some such...

i guess i'm way behind the curve, but i guess need to track down Toys then ?

http://www.planetrock.com/newscentre/rock-news/unreleased-bowie-album-leaked-online-1671

That whole soundtrack is great. Besides Bowie, Sade "Killer Blow" and Ray Davies "Quiet Life" are favorites.

That movie was frustrating. There were sequences that worked well, but it was so uneven.

I'll probably watch it again some day. But.

I believe it’s David Bowies fav song too.

Y’all heard this? Your man from the Pushing Ahead.. blog thinks it’s the best version (or ‘the most complete’ at least) and I think he’s right. Always loved the album mix but this is a bloody marvel; Lisa Germano and John Frusciante are both on it too;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8nuT1rDB7o

The ending, just ... Bowie records a masterpiece that touches on themes from throughout his career while suffering from advanced cancer that was killing him and really should have had him laid up in a hospital. Do you think the audience might be interested in that? No? Okay then.

I was skeptical but that is an excellent version of Bring Me...

So this...

https://deadline.com/2023/03/midnight-special-youtube-channel-david-bowie-tina-turner-elton-john-fleetwood-mac-1235280405

Means that this is now available via YT, namely actual formal clips from the 1984 Floor Show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2DTwK5xysg

new laughing gnome take out

joyful

haha I love this shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFdCI5i0EWo

Funny, his voice on the talking bits was pretty much his 'personable/friendly' voice he had in his later (ie "Lets Dance" onwards) years!

Like, "The Laughing Gnome" was closer to the real David Jones than anything else.

Did a doubletake when I saw the hype sticker and price on that little box set on record store day. £79.99, featuring 1 unreleased take of The Laughing Gnome. cost of living crisis going to new heights here.

There are record collectors. And there are David Bowie etc

This is so great. He did this the day the news broke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nKb2JC7Qn0

I've finally got round to listening to the Toy 10" box set that came out a while back. I had full absorbed the Toy album from the big album box and I didn't like it very much, so I wasn't expecting to get anything out of more versions of it. What can I say, I'll suffer through a lot of bad Bowie.

But there's an alternate version called Toy: Unplugged and Slightly Electric that is miles better than the proper album. There's more space in it, less gloppy, more focus on Bowie's singing which is actually pretty good. It's still not a great album because the songs just aren't there, but it's an enjoyable listen and the casual nature suits the songs much better. Every other version of "Baby Loves That Way" makes me wince and I can actually get through this.

How do you feel about the original '60s versions?

(Speaking as someone who loves the Rhino Early On comp.)

Early On is pretty fun. I like that stuff more than a lot of the Deram material. The most difficult pre Space Oddity stuff for me is the stuff like "Sell Me A Coat" and "London Bye Ta Ta."

For the most part, the original versions are almost always better than the Toy versions but I'd have to spend more time with the Unplugged set because some of those tracks are really lovely. The full band Toy versions are so leaden and glopped up. "I Dig Everything" isn't a great song, but the original is sort of cute baby photo of Bowie. The Toy version is *cringe*.

"Silly Boy Blue" might be my favorite early Bowie track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0geQMFdt-90

Beautiful but it needs more reverb

reading an interview with Donny McCaslin, he says they recorded 16 songs during the blackstar sessions

anyone know if they're... circulating?

I guess ten are accounted for by Blackstar and No Plan?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=The7OIo2xtc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9EVdLeBkSI

Yesss, had been hoping for this to become available for a long time! Can't wait to play this loud

bowie once described himself as a tasteful thief.

You're a naughty one, saucy Jack...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3dpdpvj083o

10 years today :(

Was just listening to "Scary Monsters." Man, "Ashes to Ashes" ... between this and "Heroes" and a few others, melancholy Bowie may be the best Bowie.

This is a time-worn tale but good all the same.

Bowie in Berlin
Archive on 4
In 1976 David Bowie - mired in drugs, depression and divorce - moved to Germany. Friends and lovers from that time remember how Berlin saved Bowie's life and reinvented his career

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00230sd

Heading out to the Loser’s Lounge birthday bash / tribute later tonight.

i cried more when a friend messaged me re the death of bowie than when my dad died.
i still cannot listen to a lot of bowies catalogue as its to tightly connected to my life with bh.
i have listened to blackstar just the once.
not sure i will ever be able to listen to it again.

Oddly enough, mark, you're not alone there. My post from yesterday:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/some-weekly-173-147746183

xp I cried so much my wife was worried abt me

I also cannot really listen to Blackstar, although I have played some tracks on the radio recently I am still not up for the album as a whole.

Life changing for me in every way imaginable, checking out an LP copy of "Ziggy Stardust" from the public library at age 13 and I was immediately won over (well, duh).

I had bought Blackstar but hadn't listened to it yet when Bowie died. That day I listened to TND and Blackstar back to back. I've listened to both in the decade since but not that much. Oddly enough for someone whose music has been such a huge part of my life, I didn't cry when I heard the news. The feeling for me was and still is like being run over by a slow moving glacier. I did cry when George Michael died, despite not feeling as much of a connection with his music, because it felt much more personal, like a friend dying.

I still haven't the heart to listen to Blackstar all the way through, I almost wish he had done like a Calypso album as his last or something.

My wife worked on his back catalogue and was in the middle of prepping for the second of the big box sets, I remember much excited talk of the correct version of the lost 'Gouster' record, I woke up that morning and she was already sat up in bed, typing furiously on her Blackberry, 'Bowie's dead' was the first thing she said to me, it felt like a very bad dream. She had dozens of emails and messages going back and forth, I hardly saw her for the next week.

Bowie had been a near constant presence in our house, it was a big percentage of her work for a lot of years. She never got to meet him, always the management instead, who were very cool but never the man, sadly. We got to see him a good few times on the record company dime, I sat next to Eno during the famous Meltdown gig where he played all of Low and Heathen (which was very odd) and we have these lovely signed posters hanging in our stairwell.

I don't believe in conspiracies and the 'everything went to shit after Bowie died' conceit would be more of a supernatural belief, but it is kinda fitting. Later that year my wife was struck by a brain hemorrhage and had to stop working altogether, then we had Brexit, Covid, President Shithouse and all the rest of the chaos. So, it was the beginnings of a heavy time, maybe one day I'll revisit Blackstar.

(which was very odd)

the full-album double-header? or sitting next to Eno?

Sitting next to Eno watching the band play Low, I guess

Obv I cried— I didn’t have his number or anything but we’d met several times, had dinner in Alphabet City. Genuinely the most charismatic person I’ve ever encountered and it’s not even close.

His presence in my life has changed over the past ten years. Something shifted in my feelings about his lyrical style. Maybe it’s just that I’m such a sweaty writer, myself, and I like music with sweaty lyrics more than people doing a free association thing. Blackstar is great that it exists but listening to it has always felt more like homework than anything else.

The two most interesting things I’ve listened to in the past ten years were the Visconti redo of “Man Who Sold”, which is terrific— that album won’t supersede “Station” as my favourite 70s album but it has gotten a lot more play recently. And “The Gouster”, which is a weird one— “Americans” being a very low point for me in my Bowie adoration— still absorbing it and figuring out how I feel about it

Genuinely the most charismatic person I’ve ever encountered and it’s not even close.

It's good to know I'm second to Bowie.

I’ve been meaning for some time to dive into Bowie’s 90s and 00s catalog. I haven’t heard much beyond Never Let Me Down, which unfortunately did at the time. So this thread revive, and Alfred’s display name, seem like a good prompt.

I’ve been exploring Toy today. There’s some really great songs on there. I haven’t listened to him much in the last decade, and certainly not explored the ‘new’ stuff. Not sure why.

On Friday at work I asked my team to post their favourite five Bowie ‘things’ (there are four of us and I suspected we’d have BIG Bowie crossover: I was spectacularly correct). These were mine:

5. The fact that he basically "quiet quit" celebrity for ten years and lived low-key in Manhattan so he could walk his daughter to school and watch Spongebob. I love that.
 
4. Station To Station; 6 songs, all of them absolute BANGERS and really different to each other, yet somehow absolutely possessed of gestalt. His best album qua album, I reckon, with maybe one exception. And apparently he had no recollection whatsoever of making it because he was on a strict diet of cocaine, milk, and red peppers, and thus out of his mind the whole time.
 
3. Strangers When We Meet; maybe my favourite song, alongside "Heroes", this was originally on Buddha of Suburbia in 1993, but then he re-recorded it for Outside in 1995, and it's just amazing, an unsung gem in his ouevre.
 
2. That interview where he tells Paxman that no one has any idea how seismic the internet is going to be, and Paxman looks at him like he's a madman, and Bowie was absolutely right.
 
1. Blackstar, the whole recording, release, death affair. Just an absolutely incredible way to go, an extraordinary record recorded and released in an extraordinary way. On a weekend when Exeter City were playing a premiership team in the FA Cup, just like this year, exactly a decade later...

There was a time when I put "Strangers When We Meet" (the Outside version) on every mixtape I recorded for people; I was convinced it was the era's grand ballad.

Catching the Outside tour show I did was gratifying because he did both "Strangers" and "Nite Flights." Full setlist:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/david-bowie/1995/great-western-forum-inglewood-ca-4bd62bba.html

As I said in my Patreon piece, this was only one of two shows I ever saw him do and the other was a Tin Machine promo, and for a Bowie show where he was still steering away from the obvious back catalog choices the results were amazing (especially since both "Andy Warhol" and "Man Who Sold" were heavily reworked for that tour in particular -- a smart decision, in the case of the latter song, to not simply seem like he was riding off Nirvana's take).

There was a time when I put "Strangers When We Meet" (the _Outside_ version) on every mixtape I recorded for people; I was convinced it was the era's grand ballad.

I think it was you who turned me onto it.

i broke down and bought the I Can’t Give… box set and was delighted at the comprehensive book, and was not delighted by the tiny typeface

I was talking to my partner on the bus on the way to a massage - and out of nowhere she just said "oh David Bowie is dead" having read it on a headline - I told her that was clearly bullshit as it was there had been a few hoax-y death rumours, I remember Jeff Goldblum was one

anyway I finally accepted it was true and had to get off the phone, then I was lying on the massage table with my mind racing and I could hear my phone going buzz buzz buzz with pals messaging to tell me that bowie was dead

I was shocked by how upset I was, it was a really hot night in Sydney and my family was away and everything just felt fucked, the next day I drove to the beach and had a swim at sunrise and listened to Fantastic Voyage and the instrumental side of Low

that evening a friend came over and we listened to the classics, and talked about Bowie things - then I couldn't listen to Bowie for ages and ages - still haven't played Blackstar since my second spin (the day before he died)

I don't really get sad about people I don't know dying but with Bowie I felt like I needed to apologise to all those people who got sad about Princess Diana who I had thoroughly mocked at the time

oh yes I remember my young son being out and seeing a David Bowie Dead newspaper headline and telling his partner with surprise "look other people like David Bowie, it isn't just dad!"

*telling my partner!

I didn't cry when Bowie died but it was just so shocking -- the last thing I expected to read about that day, especially considering that he'd released an album two days earlier -- that I felt a dark cloud hanging over me for a few days afterward. I had assumed he was retired from the music business after 2005 or so, and had come to accept that. Then he returned out of nowhere and was gone a few short years later.

My favourite Bowie "thing": the possibility that Bowie inspired the sleng teng riddim.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIaESzQ1X9w

seu being great