POLLing for Satellites: Bowie's album Earthling

ha was gonna say lol 1997

I quite loved it in early '97. "Dead Man Walking" is a great song and performance. The rest...

I liked 'Seven Years In Tibet', it's the most Lodger-like track, at least until Gabrels turns up.

Also the opening track just reminds me of that air freshener commercial with the old woman in the rocking chair.

I still really like this album. "Looking For Satellites" gets my vote.

Yeah, "Looking for Satellites" was always the keeper for me. Great chorus, and the arrangement seemed to actually do what he alleged he was hoping to do throughout the album.

and at least on that one Gabrels is mixed down.

Good perf:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuzMpSlAg50&feature=related

I listened to it again today for the first time in about 10 years, and it does hold up a lot better than I thought it would. Fortunately there are no clumsy references to the internet, but it is one of those albums that's stuck in the time it was made. The big media hype at time was that it was 'Bowie does jungle', but the tracks that work best for me now are the ones where the jungle/industrial bits are downplayed and it becomes more mouse-clicky and cerebral. Having said that, 'Dead Man Walking' and 'Law' work in spite of their faults, because of the earnest enthusiasm with which they're put across. Bowie may have only liked jungle(mod/folk/glam/soul/etc) for a short time, but he did genuinely like it rather than simply use it because it was commercial.

"It's the most exciting set of beats since reggae!" he crowed during one college-radio interview at the time.

If only Bowie and Elton had collaborated on a reggae album in the 70s, it would have been perhaps the worst album ever.

Little Wonder was a bit of a laughing stock down my way at the time, but in retrospect it's a pretty great tune.

That one track does sound like it uses that 'standard jungle loop' used everywhere from ring tones to commercials.

voted 'battle for britain' over 'looking for satellites' and 'dead man walking'. i don't like either enough to still own them but i definitely enjoyed outside and earthling alot at the time, enough so to actually be disappointed by hours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slKNd22GGaQ

hours is one of his worst albums, def.

yeah hours is terrible. I try every year to listen to it and can only deal with maybe one song. abominable.

I liked this a lot at the time but don't listen to it much now. I'm afraid of americans is probably my favorite, although I liked the earlier version (with eno) a little more.

Bowie and Reeves Gabrels acoustic version of "Dead Man Walking" which made me realize that it's a really good song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n22ImOPXOnw

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

teeeeelllllllliiiiing liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiesssss

Let's face it, the bridge of Little Wonder sounds like Babylon Zoo

haha yes, yes it does

I found out earlier this month that my dad's favorite Bowie song is "I'm Afraid of Americans"

I dunno Babylon Zoo, but I always liked the "so far away" section.

So yeah, Bowiesongs has hit Earthling in full now and my god is this "Looking for Satellites" entry the business:

http://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/looking-for-satellites/

lol i love this record. it's the most 1997 record ever released but it's the bowie record i've been alternating with blackstar the most

album's major flaw is that there aren't more fractured mike garson piano solos over jungle rhythm tracks

ooh, ah, visionary
ooh, ah, missionary
feels like something's gonna happen this year

catch the last bus with me

listening to this now. and it actually sounds fresh. quite weird. i kind of wish he went down a slightly less obvious jungle route, like, maybe getting someone to deploy breaks a little more imaginatively, or less typically, but for the most part, it works with the songs (which are heaps better than people might remember). 'the most 1997 album ever released' is probably right. its bowies industrial-jungle-IDM-britpop record. if nothing else, i give him credit for wearing *that* union jack coat for the cover of a D&B-rock album. thats pretty inclusive, more than anyone in britpop at the time.

wow the chorus of seven years in tibet sounds just like TVOTR

I love this version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6vNxdASs58

SO weird hearing this in full as i never really bothered beyond a few songs at the time

but seven years is so TVOTR (well early TVOTR), more so than anything else by bowie i think, i wonder if they talked about it when he worked with them

Of all the crossdressing British bisexuals who have come and gone through the years, I'd been waiting for David Bowie to die of an anal rupture more than Gavin Rossdale. Not anymore. After a string of really fucking bad albums, David proves that life doesn't really begin at fifty but it's a good time to make it real again.

No, this isn't a jungle techno album. It had some dabblings here and there, but otherwise this is classic Bowie. Nasal, uppercrust vocals during the verses break out into soaring spears from the heart on choruses. And it doesn't suck. God save the Queen, indeed. (And don't spare Gavin!)

Booking @bluemoonseattle, Wed morn @KSERfm DJ, ex-Pitchfork scribe, current scribbler, music fan, St. Paul born, Seattle resident.

jesus fucking christ austin

it's a quote from some Pitchfork dude i think

yeah this guy https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/753707518321389568/t91pknnb.jpg

vintage fork

that's weird, he doesn't look like a rock critic

it's a quote from some Pitchfork dude i think

― Tom Watson in a fedora (Noodle Vague), Sunday, August 14, 2016 1:55 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my reaction stands

agreed, just filling in the detail

http://web.archive.org/web/20001015134723/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/b/bowie_david/earthling.shtml

And Earthling is totally boss.

THREE 90s BOWIE SHOWS BEING MADE AVAILABLE TO STREAM SOON

“Sending me so far away, so far away...”

DAVID BOWIE ‘LIVEANDWELL.COM’ 1997 LIVE ALBUM AVAILABLE TO STREAM FROM 15th MAY
LITTLE WONDER (LIVE IN NEW YORK) AVAILABLE TO STREAM FROM 8th MAY (https://lnk.to/DavidBowie-LittleWonderNY)

Parlophone Records is delighted to announce the first in a series of three David Bowie live releases from the 90s that will be released digitally over the coming months.

DAVID BOWIE LIVEANDWELL.COM is a live album, previously only available in limited quantities to BowieNet subscribers in 2000 and expanded for this edition to include two bonus tracks; Pallas Athena and V-2 Schneider.

LIVEANDWELL.COM is now a 12-track live album, recorded in New York, Amsterdam, Rio De Janeiro and at the UK’s Phoenix festival during the 1997 Earthling tour, all tracks have only been available on the very limited BowieNet release while the two bonus tracks were released as a 12” single under the punning Tao Jones Index, the name Bowie and his band used for an unannounced dance set in the Radio One Dance Stage at the Phoenix Festival on 19th July, 1997, the day before Bowie’s main stage performance the following day.

LIVEANDWELL.COM was Produced by David Bowie, co-produced by Reeves Gabrels and Mark Plati and mixed by Mark Plati at Looking Glass Studios, NYC. The musicians on the live recordings are David Bowie – vocals, guitar, saxophone, Zachary Alford – drums, Gail Ann Dorsey – bass, vocals, keyboards, Reeves Gabrels – guitars, synthesisers, vocals and Mike Garson – piano, keyboards, synthesisers.

DAVID BOWIE - LIVEANDWELL.COM TRACKLISTING

01 - I'm Afraid Of Americans (Radio City Music Hall New York, 15th October, 1997)
02 - The Hearts Filthy Lesson (Long Marston, Phoenix Festival, 20th July, 1997)
03 - I'm Deranged (Amsterdam, Paradiso, 10th June, 1997)
04 - Hallo Spaceboy (Rio de Janeiro, Metropolitan, 2nd November, 1997)
05 - Telling Lies (Amsterdam, Paradiso, 10th June, 1997)
06 - The Motel (Amsterdam, Paradiso, 10th June, 1997)
07 - The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty) (Rio de Janeiro, Metropolitan, 2nd November, 1997)
08 - Battle for Britain (The Letter) (Radio City Music Hall New York, 15th October, 1997
09 - Seven Years In Tibet (Radio City Music Hall New York, 15th October, 1997)
10 - Little Wonder (Radio City Music Hall New York, 15th October, 1997)
11 - Pallas Athena (Amsterdam, Paradiso, 10th June, 1997)
12 - V-2 Schneider (Amsterdam, Paradiso, 10th June, 1997)

DAVID BOWIE LIVEANDWELL.COM IS AVAILABLE TO STREAM FROM 15th MAY

FOOTNOTE: We are aware that the teaser video contains live footage other than from 1997. All will become apparent.

Also, go fuck yourself dude -

https://twitter.com/JasonJosephes/photo

I came across this by accident but it's my favourite version of "Seven Years in Tibet" ever. I particularly love that the mix is so bass-focused, Dorsey's lines on this song are absolutely brilliant and the groove is so fucking deep. Even Grohl is useful (but why not put him on the kit?).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-gDH6bXA2I