Musings on the byways of popular culture
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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!
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Teaser from Donny McCaslin’s upcoming album Beyond Now; the voice is Jeff Taylor’s.
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As expected, an expanded version of the Album of the Year* is to be released before the end of 2016, and it looks like it’ll be a three or even four disc set. Should keep Santa busy.
*IMO, anyway.
http://davidbowienews.com/2016/09/blackstar-expanded-edition-due-out-soon/
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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.
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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
An hour of chat encompassing Macca, life as a music journo, Bowie, Deaf School, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello and more.
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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/
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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
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Don’t worry, it’s not one of the usual “Old people being bemused by young people’s music” kind of videos, as they’re mostly all around Bowie’s age. I just thought it was really nice and wanted to share.
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.
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.
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“Tonight, Matthew…”
I’m afraid it’s all a little bit Butlins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fGBZhsa4VU
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
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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.
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Because I know you love podcasts.
Unjustly Maligned is a pretty decent theme for a podcast. Take something that common knowledge tells us is crap, and get someone to stick up for it.
The most recent show focuses on a certain band based Bowie side project, so will no doubt be of interest to most Afterworders.
(for the record, I always liked You Belong In Rock and Roll and Baby Universe, but never bought either Tin Machine album)
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we may already have had the two best albums of 2016. Blackstar and Lucinda’s The Ghosts of Highway 20 are gonna be hard to beat. What are you looking forward to in what’s left of the year?
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I felt a little sceptical clicking this on YouTube. But I ended up blubbing.
No gimmicks. Just a hugely moving and uplifting version of a wonderful song.
Springsteen kicked off his 1980 River tour in Pittsburgh last night, opening the encore with a tribute to David Bowie, one of his earliest supporters. Unsurprisingly he manages to make Rebel Rebel sound like just another foot-stomping Bruce Springsteen bar song. Nice try, I suppose, but there’s an air of ‘will this do?’ about it.
Incidentally, new tour, same old stage wardrobe for Bruce and the E Streeters. He truly is not the chameleon of rock. On the plus side he seems to have dropped about 8 non-essential members from the band. Just the 10 (ten) of them now.
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I have no words – https://www.facebook.com/gordon.wilson.921/videos/10203940174905208/
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New album out. May as well. Alphabetical, of course.
After All Aladdin Sane All The Madmen All The Young Dudes Always Crashing In The Same Car Ashes To Ashes The Bewlay Brothers Blackstar Drive-In Saturday Fame Fantastic Voyage Fashion Five Years Golden Years Hallo Spaceboy The Heart’s Filthy Lesson “Heroes” I’m Deranged It’s No Game 1&2 The Jean Genie John, I’m Only Dancing Jump They Say Kooks Lady Grinning Soul Lady Stardust Let’s Dance Life On Mars? Little Wonder The Man Who Sold The World The Motel Moonage Daydream Repetition Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide Queen Bitch Quicksand Slip Away Some Are Sound And Vision Space Oddity Starman Station To Station Stay Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing Time Time Will Crawl We Are The Dead Win Where Are We Now Young Americans Ziggy Stardust
Probably.
Just post a top 10 if you’re not an uberfan. Let’s not have the argument again, though.
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and we don’t know what it is, do we, Mr Jones?
Well, here’s the new Bowie… There’s at least four songs in here, and they’re all good. Echoes of 1.Outside and ‘Pallas Athena’ Uneasy listening at its best. Portentous? Yes, indeed! Pretentious? But of course!
It’s a ‘Hmmmmmm…*strokes chin*….’Yes, I think’ from me.
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This footage of a clearly ill but still effortlessly brilliant Mick Ronson playing in an empty Hammersmith Odeon never fails to move me
It’ll all be over bar the months of recrimination and slide towards a re-run of the whole thing at Christmas tomorrow.
Here’s David Bowi- er, I mean Anthony Newley’s take on it all
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Driving home from soccer training, number 1 son just told me with some enthusiasm that his music homework is to analyse 3 pieces from an artist of the 60s or 70s, colour tone, variation etc. Seems like a nice idea and he’s obviously into it. I have to point out at this juncture that any dialog with a 15 year old is rare, so anything that goes beyond monosyllables and grunts is amazing in the first place, let alone enthusiasm. Car rides tend toward silence usually.
So anyway, he said his first thought was HJH, but it seems like everyone else in the class is going that way. You also have to bear in mind this is in a music department talent night where the boys did a *very* convincing Pat Metheny cover where I wasn’t biting my knuckles, so awareness and choice aren’t an issue. Anyway, I piped up with The Dame (70s, Ziggy era, and he’s a fan), but he was ahead of me….he’d already picked the Kinks, all on his lonesome. Fair bought a tear to the eye it did.
Anyway, his “research” (presumably the first 3 results on Google) reveal that some deranged lunatic reckons “All » Continue Reading.
