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Donny McCaslin talks about working with Bowie on Blackstar

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On the new Albumtoalbum podcast. He was great to chat with, and lots of brilliant details about being in the studio with the Dame, Visconti and the band. We talked for ages, and I invited musician, writer and manager of the Visconti Studio at Kingston Uni, Leah Kardos to join in too. It made me re-listen to Blackstar and get over the loaded associations I had with it and really appreciate the joy and verve captured in the studio as Bowie and McCaslin’s band set each other off beautifully.

This is first of three episodes and hope you might enjoy!

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/davidbowie-albumtoalbum/id1355073030#episodeGuid=tag%3Aaudioboom.com%2C2020-06-21%3A%2Fposts%2F7612878

Diamond Dogs tastes of Twiglets

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Bargepole’s recent review of Bowie’s Diamond Dogs album left a bad taste in my mouth. Nothing up with the review, it’s just that I remember ordering the record from Britannia Music as young pup and have clear memories of listening to it with my Dad, one evening. We had a little portable record player and I’d put it on the kitchen table once tea and homework had been cleared away. We sat listening, my dad explaining about George Orwell, Big Brother and 1984 to me. It must have been the festive season as there was one of those multi compartmentalised dishes around with various snacks in – peanuts, those little fish shaped salty biscuit things, and Twiglets. I’m not sure if I’d had them before but I was fascinated and repulsed by the taste. Now I can’t hear or read about Diamond Dogs without ‘tasting’ marmite nor can I eat the black stuff on toast without breaking in to a quick chorus of the Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family. Anyone else got any sensory experiences triggered by music, or vice versa?

The Next Bowie Box Set….

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With the announcement of Bowie’s “Berlin” box set, A New Career In A New Town, I’m wondering what the next one will be called? Given they are named after songs, i’d hazard a guess at Dancing With The Big Boys? Which would contain:

Let’s Dance Tonight Never Let Me Down Black Tie White Noise Serious Moonlight live Glass Spider live Re:Call 4

Any other suggestions?

Your ideas for a better Bowie memorial than this, if you please

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It seems that “A crowdfunding campaign to erect a permanent memorial to David Bowie has been launched by a team of south London designers.”

Now I don’t like the idea myself – do they think prople are going to be interested enough in his work after seeing this that they’ll become fans?

My idea is a Black Star (yes!) in some form or other, perhaps on the pavement somewhere significant. Heddon Street for example, the place where the coer for Ziggy was shot. Any better ideas?

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/29A2/production/_94785601_1bba5282-eb10-4e3c-b5be-e56dc0c347d0.jpg http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-39044933

He’d like to get a letter – Everyone says Hi

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So the Royal Mail are producing Bowie Stamps in March. I seem to remember buying Bowie stamps a few years ago. I’ve also been a little dissapointed by the number of Bowie merchandise popping up on various websites over the last year. I suppose it was to be expected but it made me think about Bowie turning down Royal honours and yet the ‘Royal Mail’ is very happy to sell Bowie stamps. They would probably sell Jack the ripper stamps if they thought they had a market. Maybe they should have stuck with a second class edition!

http://www.royalmail.com/davidbowiestamps?iid=PEVU_MGProjectDJ_DD_05

Sex crime c-c-c-crime….it’s 1984 on the Afterword Almanac

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And so we arrive at the dark heart of the eighties. Much maligned as the era of bland corporate rock, it was soundtracked in my student world anyway by New Order, The Sisters of Mercy, The Smiths, The Cramps,The Fall and The Pogues. I think in the original Word magazine I mentioned in the obits to Lux Interior about club The Coven next to Oxford Ice Rink, when on goth night we would tot up the Cramps v Sisters plays. Happy days indeed for indie fans, and for Def Leppers (see below). Oh and a certain Prince Rogers Nelson became a global superstar with Purple Rain. Frankie goes to Hollywood ruled the UK charts and scandalised the nation. Some headlines from the NME Rock N Roll Years to get you going, and the rules as ever are anything and everything from the year in question.

And finally, people who appeared on the Band Aid single included Jody Watley and Kool and the Gang. David Bowie provided a spoken-word message on the B-side.

As Christmas approaches, the British charts become a battle ground for television-promoted albums. Mega-labels CBS and WEA alone are promoting ten albums between them this year, while » Continue Reading.

Bowie At The Beeb vinyl bargain

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The 4-disc Bowie Radio Sessions vinyl box set is currently at the bargain price of just £29.99 on Amazon UK. I snagged one a couple of hours ago with a gift voucher, and have just checked and it’s still the same price, so probably not a mistake, just a good bargain. It’s £75 on HMV!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bowie-Radio-Sessions-68-72-VINYL/dp/B019PJII6O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1476520184&sr=8-1&keywords=bowie+bbc+vinyl

Late Vintage

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The two most romantic stories in art are surely the Young Gun(s) from Nowhere Change Everything With their Debut; and the Late Vintage: or the Gang Get It Together, Despite all they’ve /he’s/she’s been through, for One Last Time.

From Shakespeare’s Late Plays to Kurosawa’s Ran and Matisse’s cut-outs there’s been a poignancy and mystique attached to final works that seem to possess a simplicity and clarity that can only have been achieved after a substantial creative career. Often they allude or overtly deal with the vexed problem of Leaving The Stage, age and mortality – or conversely are a joyous celebration of what made them so Insanely Great in the first place.

The Beatles, as in so many other ways, set the rock template here with Abbey Road – when they asked George Martin to make one last record with them ‘the way we used to do it’ after the mess of the Let It Be sessions and the experimentalism of The White Album. David Bowie of course made what might be the most astonishing Late Vintage albums ever with The Next Day and Blackstar.

I’ve recently been listening to the last two Sonic Youth albums, Rather Ripped » Continue Reading.

Bowie Klaxon

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The Guardian has details this morning of unreleased 1974 soul and funk lp The Gouster that became Young Americans coming in the next box set of reissues:

A previously unreleased David Bowie album is set to be released. The Gouster, recorded in 1974, was Bowie’s experiment in soul and funk, which later morphed into Young Americans, released in 1975. It will appear later this year in a box set, Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976).

Below the line is an entertaining commentary on cash-ins/its not unreleased/was on the 1991 CD reissues/there’s real unreleased stuff not included still

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/22/david-bowie-unreleased-album-box-set-who-can-i-be-now-the-gouster

Bowiewallow

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There’s been admiration here for Adam Buxton’s 2013 appreciation of David Bowie (highlight for me is Buxton’s uncanny imagining of Bish Bosch-era Scott Walker covering ‘The Laughing Gnome’).

Bowiewallow parts 1 and 2 is/are Buxton’s personal response to Bowie’s death and includes interviews with various slebs and civilians whose lives were touched in some way by the odd-eyed Chameleon of Rock. In part 1 there’s a skype interview with Dara O’Kearney, who had a long correspondence by email with The Dame (one highlight for me was Buxton’s response to the background barking of O’Kearney’s dog).

Part 2 contains a (for me) extremely illuminating interview with Johan Renck, who directed the videos for Lazarus and Black Star and who, for a non-native speaker, has a formidable command of demotic English. I even learned a new expression – ‘butt-hurt’.

http://adam-buxton.co.uk/ad/2016/03/24/podcast-ep-13-14-bowiewallow-pt-1-2/

Yes, him again

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I’ve heard it said by people who dislike David Bowie say he is too much of an Actor and doesn’t really mean it, man, that there’s a detachment to his delivery which gets in the way of feeling. This is clearly nuts.

So I’m making a playlist for a work mate of “late Bowie” and this just had to be on it. If it gets me at a low point it can easily make me cry. Sometimes I think it’s the best thing he has ever done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkrA-OTU8OM&fmt=18

Bowie tributes

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Madonna did one, Kanye threatened one, Gaga did one, there’s a big one planned for New York, and an all-star supergroup are rumoured to be performing one at the Brit awards. But do we really need all of these Bowie tributes? Now don’t get me wrong, I was surprised at how upset I was by his death, and much of the last month has found me rediscovering Bowie’s music and being struck by how varied its is and how well so much of it stands the test of time. But isn’t that enough? Blackstar by itself stands as a much greater tribute to what he was about than a bunch of rockstars performing meat-and-potatoes cover versions of his greatest hits. Looking at the line-up of the New York shows (see link) I can see a few acts with a real Bowie connection, whether through history or spirit, but equally there are others whose presence is mystifying to say the least. Then there’s the rumoured line-up for the Brits; lots of star-power for sure, but it fair makes the heart sink to imagine what it’s going to sound like.

No doubt Bowie meant as much, if not more, to many » Continue Reading.

Bowie (Again)

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I suspect like many on here, following The Dames dramatic exit, I have been reacquainting myself with his legacy. I remain convinced amongst his greatest output is Stage.

I have a CD which I think is a retail version from long ago. It sounds awful. The mix is tinny and does not do justice to the quality of the performance.

Can anyone help me with the best remastered version available, ie. bin number, reference or whatever?

Many thanks.

Goodbye David Bowie

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Today I played Blackstar for the first time. I wanted to allow my first listening to be untarnished and uninfluenced the hyperbole surrounding its release.

He has since died.

It is a masterpiece. It is superb. It is an amazing, considered epitaph. What a glorious exit.

Never a great Bowie fan, but I was knocked sideways when I first heard ‘Stage’ in the late ‘70’s or early ‘80’s and today found a spliced DVD of the live album on YouTube. The production is not great, but it contains everything you need to know about his importance, his place and his impact in popular music.

Rock n’ Roll.

Thank you.

Goodbye David Bowie

ATM: Tin Machine

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Hipster confession: I was a Bowie obsessive till the Tonight LP at which point we parted company for a decade or so. Okay more like two decades. He was the soundtrack of my life, if you’ll excuse the cliche, until that point. The Next Day sent me back to a journey of rediscovery, helped largely by reading through the excellent “Pushing Ahead Of The Dame” blog (Props Due)

Since then I have listened to everything post Tin Machine. I still skipped those records for some reason. Maybe I thought it wasn’t “proper Bowie.” So, long story short, can I please have a playlist, or even just a list, of the best of Tin Machine? Ta.