What Bowie are you listening to this week?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by wavethatflag, Jan 15, 2016.

  1. PlushFieldHarpy

    PlushFieldHarpy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indiana
    Hearing the Pet Shop Boys remix of Hallo Spaceboy the first time. I like it, not more than the version on the album, but I can see why it was used for the single. The original is so aggressive, and the PSB remix more melodic.
    Cool video. Strange, this was not promoted on MTV at all at the time, despite being fully in the vein of what was popular. Bowie must have been out of vogue, although '95 was the year I first heard him, with Ziggy. I would not hear Outside until 20 years later.



    The remix that I don't like is James Murphy's version of Love Is Lost. Takes away the cool art rock vibe of the original in favor of a generic dance music sound.
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  2. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Punk

    Location:
    England
    Hallo Spaceboy was all over the place on UK TV during the Outside period 95-96 in its original and Pet Shop versions. Most memorable were the original live on BBC Later With Jools Holland just before Outside was released, an absolutely blistering performance (I recorded the broadcast at the time in good sound thank goodness, as it sounds mono or not as good on YouTube that I've seen), the original live on Channel 4 The White Room was also good (although Voyeur was better, with Reeves Gabrels throwing paint all over the set during the freakout "call it a day" climax), and the stage performance with the Pet Shop Boys from the ITV Brit Awards 1996, after Bowie had been given some lifetime award. I don't like the Pet version but he looked absolutely spectacular and it was really well staged with very cool lighting etc.
     
    oldturkey likes this.
  3. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Punk

    Location:
    England
    Summary IMO of the easily available versions, excluding many people's favourite, the 80s RCA CDs.

    | Ryko USA / EMI UK 1991: bassless, tinny, but OK if you EQ it up.

    | Virgin USA / EMI UK 1999: processed, boomy, bassy. Listenable but cannot be made better. Horrible on headphones.

    | EMI 2009: Slightly dead sounding (from NR?), but neither of the above problems.

    | Parlophone 2015: Almost very, very good but source problems: tape dropouts and fluttering, these are not disastrous though IMO.
     
  4. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    That went right over my head - my sense of humour is not so sophisticated! I'm glad it's really not true.
     
    Price.pittsburgh likes this.
  5. Maseman66

    Maseman66 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Westchester, NY
    I checked out the first Tin Machine cd from the library and I'm really liking it a lot. I have no idea why I dismissed this album when it first came out, but better late than never.
     
    dthomas850 likes this.
  6. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    Get "Tin Machine II" next:):)
     
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  7. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    I remember that. That performance of HS got me back into Bowie after not really bothering with him much after the 80s. It was a great period for Bowie. I think Bowie probably knew that if he agreed to the PSB remix he would get a hit, which he did. I was so annoyed when I heard it - it took all the guts out of the song.

    I also really love the performance from the 1996 Phoenix festival (it's on this cd http://www.discogs.com/Various-Phoenix-The-Album/release/1128880) and a bootleg. I was at that gig, and it was fantastic.

    Will have to check out the White Room performance. Don't seem to remember that.

    Honestly, I really can't listen to the PSB version.

    Ground to Major, bye bye Tom.
    For God's sake!
     
    BlueSpeedway likes this.
  8. Price.pittsburgh

    Price.pittsburgh Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    lol it's all good. At least you're mature enough to admit it. There was another Bowie thread that asked for his best songs and I posted Let's Dance, China Girl, Modern Love, Dancing in the Streets and Little Drummer/Peace on Earth. But I had to add a "Just kidding" to it. :)
     
    oldturkey likes this.
  9. motionoftheocean

    motionoftheocean Senior Member

    Location:
    Circus Maximus
    thanks for the info. how would you rate the 2009 40th anniversary edition vs. the West German RCA?
     
  10. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I love the PSB remix of "Hallo Spaceboy". In fact I think it's a lot better than the album version, which is something of a disjointed mess.

    I've always thought Bowie should have done a dance record produced by the PSB. It would have been a lot more interesting than Outside, which just ended up being pretentious.

    Agree with the first two, but "How Does The Grass Grow" is an album highlight. I find the "60's" bit is what makes the song so interesting - it feels very much like something from The Man Who Sold The World.

    I've thought for some time that The Next Day should really have been two separate records. There was plenty of material recorded, and I think some of the "lesser" cuts from The Next Day might have shone a bit brighter in different surroundings.

    Still, I don't think there's a single track on the record as weak as the "lesser" cuts from Heathen or Reality, and both of those records are decent if not brilliant work.
     
  11. JoeF.

    JoeF. Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    I've been watching YouTube and marveling about how much Bowie popped up on American Television during the '70's--and beyond. Including daytime TV--such as The Dinah Shore show, where one episode from 1974 featured Bowie and his band doing three songs and then chatting it up with the host--alongside Nancy Walker, Henry Winkler, aka "Fonzie"; and a karate instructor! Only in the '70's.....

    Then there's Dick Cavett, Soul Train, The Tonight Show--with Carson extolling his praises--and many others. He really did expose himself--and his music-- to America. If the NFL wasn't so square during the '70's through most of the '90's, he would have made an excellent choice for a halftime show; maybe his inaction from '04-'13 kept him from consideration. He probably would have done it.

    There is so much Bowie available on YouTube.
    For now.....
     
    Last edited: Feb 11, 2016
    oldturkey and not yonder like this.
  12. Halloween_Jack

    Halloween_Jack Senior Member

    Location:
    Hampshire, UK
    Mine's the 2003 edition. Is the 2014 a re-issue or a fresh mastering?
     
  13. eskaton

    eskaton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania, USA
    I appreciate the project as a necessary outlet for Bowie to find his footing and identity as an artist again after losing his way in the 80s, but with the exception of a few tracks ("I Can't Read," "Baby Universal" in particular) it just never clicked with me. That said, like you I recently revisited their music and it wasn't as bad as I remembered it being when I first heard it. I'd still put most of it in the "blues lawyer/dad rock" category, though.

    As for which Bowie record I've been listening to this week, I've been back and forth between Heroes and Blackstar, with a smattering of Diamond Dogs.
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  14. maxnix

    maxnix Forum Resident

    Heathen>Reality>The Next Day>Blackstar . . . even with the time gaps between, man,what a run. I never gave Heathen the time it deserves, and I'm now finding all sorts of surprises. How did I miss "...Gemini Spacecraft"?
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  15. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Punk

    Location:
    England
    :) Although I embrace contrasting tastes and opinions to mine, since I was young I've never understood the accusation of "pretention" at any kind of music or culture, ever since some of my favourite childhood bands (most of which are now "legendary") were constantly and offensively slammed as "pretentious" by music critics like Steve Sutherland in the early 1980s.

    Bowie's Outside co-creator Brian Eno fortunately agrees, like in his newspaper piece headed "Pretentious - it's a compliment" from 2001:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4723144/Pretentious-Its-a-compliment.html

    (excerpt: "My assumptions about culture as a place where you can take psychological risks without incurring physical penalties make me think that pretending is the most important thing we do.")
     
    oldturkey likes this.
  16. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Actually, I think something can be both pretentious and successful. The problem with Outside is that while it's certainly the former, it fails at being the latter. I thought the record was something of an overproduced mess at the time, and it still sounds like one today.

    Earthling suffers from the same issue, although at least it's a bit more fun...
     
  17. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Punk

    Location:
    England
    Outside's "We Prick You" is almost fun.

    But considering the Outside album's subtitle / accompanying booklet text was The Art Murder of Baby Grace (or whatever), I don't think Bowie/Eno were hunting for fun in the conventional sense. Although Bono has described working with Eno as "like having your fun Uncle in the studio with you" so who knows? :)
     
  18. ledsox

    ledsox Senior Member

    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    I'm only recently hearing Heather and I'm digging it too. Grabbed it from the library and then bought it when I saw it in a store.
    I really like that version of Gemini...also. Still need to hear the original
    It went on a Pin Ups II comp I made. I have been in a Bowie comp making mood.
     
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  19. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    There's so great a range in Bowie's music that here's something for everyone!

    I find that most of the music I listen to is quite often pretentious/arty. For example I always liked the more arty "pretentious" 80s bands like Visage/Japan/Magazine/This Mortal Coil than Yazoo, Duran Duran or PSB because I found their music more interesting - something apart from the normal drudgery of everyday life and something to think about.
    Maybe that's why I didn't like Reality so much - it's more of a touring LP and less a work of art.

    Also, 1.Outside for me was the Bowie record I'd been waiting for since Scary Monsters. It is self-consciously "a piece of art" and I love it for that.
     
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  20. Futurecity

    Futurecity Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nevada
    I don't know, but from other reviews I have read, the 2014 reissue apparently uses the 2003 mastering and it says as much in my booklet...2003 Digital Remaster. However, it's still possible that the 2003 and 2014 sets sound a drop different or have slightly different volume levels...who knows?
     
  21. Futurecity

    Futurecity Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nevada
  22. frogsborne

    frogsborne Forum Resident

    Location:
    MANCHESTER, UK
  23. karmaman

    karmaman Forum Resident

    standard brickwalled master for all. bonus material varies in quality from title to title. on some it's largely remixes so it depends whether you consider those "essential" (i rarely listen through them once, so for me they're larger filler), but there are a few things worth having on each.
     
  24. Bowieboy

    Bowieboy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville
    Its lack of promotion in the US isn't surprising because PSB had essentially lost America by 1995 and were mostly a cult act by then.

    I do remember MTV playing Heart's Filthy Lesson for a month or two back in fall 1995 though and them promoting the tour with NIN. Hallo Spaceboy remix was a hit in Europe where PSB's career continued to thrive but in the US sadly they were basically off the map outside of the dance and some alternative sectors after 1990 or so.
     
  25. MLML

    MLML Forum Resident

    Location:
    Aarhus, Denmark
    Ziggy Stardust. Every week.
     
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