David Bowie A New Career In A New Town 1977 1982 Boxset 3

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Zach Johnson, Dec 28, 2016.

  1. nick jones

    nick jones Forum Resident

    where's the alternative Lodger album?
    Portrait Of An Artist
    Fury
    Working Party
    Emphasis On Repetition
    I Bit You Back
    The Tangled Web We Weave
    Pope Brian
    Enos Jungle Box
    Burning Eyes
    Aztec
     
  2. LesMcQueen

    LesMcQueen Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    How many of those are early demos of songs released on the album? Hopefully we'll get'em on the Supa-deluxe in 2029. Or the Cantdiewithoutmoredave special in 2050.
     
  3. karmaman

    karmaman Forum Resident

    mostly working titles only.
    unreleased: Aztec, Eno's Jungle Box, Pope Brian (a synth instrumental), Working Party
    retitled: Burning Eyes > African Night Flight; Emphasis on Repetition > Repetition; Fury > Look Back In Anger; I Bit You Back > DJ; Portrait Of An Artist > Fantastic Voyage; The Tangled Web We Weave > Move On
     
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  4. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I like it more than I like most of Lodger.
     
  5. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    Lodger really turns a lot of you off - I don't get it.
    As Steve Carroll said upthread the vocals on Lodger are really good - great depth/resonance. Adrian Belew's guitar is like aural fireworks. How anyone cannot see Boys Keep Swinging as such a riot - a tongue-in-cheek hook-laden alternative pop song (it should have been a #1 hit) is beyond me. Fantastic Voyage is a beautiful opener and such a human lyric. Ditto Move On. Repetition is a great brave song for the 1970s - ahead of its time and a very unusual arrangement. Red Sails and DJ are stunners. I'm not too keen on Look Back In Anger but I don't really know why. Maybe overrated. Red Money isn't as good as Sister Midnight on The Idiot African Night Flight still almost leaves me stunned it's so out there. When the Cricket Menace comes in it's just so perfect.

    How can people not see it?

    I notice the old "Which is the front of the Lodger sleeve" conundrum has been added to by this set.

    [​IMG]
     
  6. karmaman

    karmaman Forum Resident

    it's not you who doesn't get it. their loss.
     
  7. Zach Johnson

    Zach Johnson Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    African Night Flight is excellent, as is Yassassin, which reminds me quite a bit of Adrian Belew's later solo work. I actually hear a lot of Belew in Lodger. I know he didn't write any of the songs, so perhaps he was just influenced by Bowie and Lodger going forward into his own albums.
     
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  8. karmaman

    karmaman Forum Resident

    i think bowie gave his musicians the freedom to bring their own ideas to the table. belew's contribution to lodger is huge.
     
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  9. pobbard

    pobbard Still buying CDs

    Location:
    Andover, MA
    I love Lodger, although I admit it didn't grab me quickly like Low or Scary Monsters; it was a slow burn. It also is without parallel, in terms of sonics and thematics, in the DB catalog, and that makes me appreciate it even more.

    It's always interesting to see what other Bowie fans like/dislike, but I'd include tracks like "African Nite Flight" and "Move On" and "Boys Keep Swinging" as among my favorite DB tracks, ever.

    As far as the remix goes, I'm curious to see what Visconti comes up with as I know he'd made noises over the years about being unhappy with the final mix. But it can't replace the mix that's been burned into me for 20+ years. (Although given the track record of DB remixes to date - Ziggy Stardust and Station to Station - the bar for a decent or at least interesting remix is pretty low now).
     
  10. dumaisaudio

    dumaisaudio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    I have to agree, Boys Keep Swinging isn't one of my favorites, and I usually skip it, same with Repetition.

    As for the bonus tracks, I don't see why anyone would expect the Ryko exclusive tracks to show up here. Heck, some of them are in question as to whether or not they actually originated from this period. In Nicholas Pegg's book, Visconti says he doesn't remember hearing or recording I Prey Ole or All Saints before 1991, which suggests that they were heavily reworked at that time. The re-recording of Look Back In Anger is from 1988, and the remixes are pretty bad and dated. Plus, if you want that stuff, the Ryko CD's are easily had and for $10 a piece usually.

    To me, the main reasons of the box sets are to get these albums back in print on vinyl. If you're a casual fan, the main albums are available individually. If you're a bigger fan, the box sets offer you some more. There will always be something missing that fans will complain about, but I think on the whole, it's a good reissue campaign which is doing justice to the Bowie catalog. And thankfully, the industry as a whole has come back around to doing good remasters (look at the recent Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin reissues as well), so they sound good and faithful to the originals.
     
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2017
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  11. Steve Carroll

    Steve Carroll Forum Resident

    Location:
    Palm Springs CA
    Ah, the cover art. Believe me I have tried to 'get it' as an artistic statement, and despite ruminating on it and reading various articles about it, I have failed. Having two Lodgers' in the set enables a "I plead the 5th" to the question of "Which is the front of the Lodger Sleeve". Perhaps this is the real reason we are being presented with two copies of said album. It certainly gave shelf stackers a conundrum back in the day: "Do I go with blurry legs, or the blurry bent nose face that looks sod all like that Bowie bloke".
     
  12. Pavol Stromcek

    Pavol Stromcek Senior Member

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    It's funny, I actually agree with almost everything you say here, and I'm also not super keen on "Look Back in Anger." But I think for me it's that I like the albums on either side of it (as well as Low) more. For example, Low and "Heroes" have zero weak tracks, in my humble opinion, whereas Lodger has an inferior remake of "Sister Moonlight" that feels to me like filler; the aforementioned "Look Back in Anger," which I just don't find all that interesting; "Repetition" is cool, but I wouldn't rank it up there with his best work; ditto "Red Sails," though arrangement and Belew's work on the latter are wonderful. I can definitely appreciate the manic, experimental nature of "African Night Flight," though as a composition, for me it doesn't have the same emotional resonance of many of his other songs from the late 70s. So, that's five songs - half the album - that I don't really consider to be top drawer Bowie; it's good stuff, but not outstanding. However, I think the rest of the album is superb. But as I've said above, I also think this is a weird case where the murky sound hinders the album ever so slightly. So, I guess my point is that, for me, Lodger suffers only in comparison with the albums that surround it in terms of consistency and overall sound.
     
  13. Curveboy

    Curveboy Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    I'd I'd say Look Back in Anger is essential Bowie...maybe top 10 Bowie.
     
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  14. Pavol Stromcek

    Pavol Stromcek Senior Member

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    I know a lot of people seem to like that song; it's just never really done much for me.
     
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  15. Cenobyte

    Cenobyte Raving & Drooling

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    Pre-ordered... this is the one I've been waiting for (though I've picked all of them up!), and it includes everything I figured it would with some surprises, which is awesome. Lodger is one of my personal fave Bowie albums, top 5 for sure... looking forward to hearing what Visconti has done with it! ;) Kind of wondering why Scary Monsters isn't remastered though... also wondering what remasters they're using for the earlier albums in the set.
     
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  16. johnnyyen

    johnnyyen Senior Member

    Location:
    Scotland
    I think he's primarily referencing Polanski's film, but I'd be surprised if he hadn't thought about this film as well.
     
  17. dumaisaudio

    dumaisaudio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    Look Back In Anger is one of the stronger songs on the album in my opinion.

    The vinyl box is down to $225 on Amazon, not as good as that $159 deal some of us got though!
     
  18. TonyCzar

    TonyCzar Forum Resident

    Location:
    PhIladelphia, PA
    Good catch. We were just discussing a couple pages back that SM is the only studio album in the set that's (so far) been remastered and released since 1999: for a 2003 double-layer SACD. I never picked up on the fact that it seems to have been left alone for this box.
     
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  19. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    There's a couple of poorer tracks on Heroes and Scary Monsters too - I'm not saying bad - just not as good. If Bowie had cut off Red Money and Look Back In Anger and added a couple of spooky instrumentals such as Crystal Japan/Abdulmajid or the like or maybe added Alabama Song it would have kicked some serious bottom.
     
  20. FrixFrixFrix

    FrixFrixFrix Senior Member

    Location:
    Parts Unknown
    Lodger over 'Heroes' all day, every day
     
  21. Big Lodger fan here. Almost every track.
     
  22. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc

    Location:
    England
    What?? They are reusing the 1999 or 2003 for this box set ?? Surely not?
     
  23. Jet Age Eric

    Jet Age Eric Forum Resident

    Location:
    SIlver Spring, MD
    I couldn't disagree more, and I say that only to (further) demonstrate how subjective this all is. :) -E
     
  24. rihajarvi

    rihajarvi Forum Resident

    no, i reckon the confusion here is due to some press release screw-up. the entry at apple music has all scary monsters tracks down as remastered
     
  25. obi

    obi Forum Resident

    It is remastered. For some reason it's only listed as "(remastered)" for the digital editions in the press release, but that has to be an error. There would be no reason to do a remaster and then omit it from the CD and vinyl versions
     
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