1984 is disco? Couldn't imagine the disco queens boogying to that back in the day. It's straight ahead glam rock
Also, in my opinion there is often only a very fine line between good disco and funk, so I'll add Stay. I'd say Moroder's Cat People is disco too. Disco/rock. Definite disco! That's the DD track that previews Young Americans.
Is Fascination disco? I guess it’s more funky soul, not sure. Love that song, would love to have heard Stevie Wonder do it with or without David.
There is definitely an argument for some of the more dance oriented tracks on YA being Disco (Fascination and Win mainly). Fame has that sort of spacey feel but it isn't really disco.
Has anyone ever looked up a 101 Strings recording on Discogs to make sure there were indeed 101 strings? Or do they count each violin/viola/cello/upright bass as 4 strings?
spending some time with never let me down 1987, gotta say, in general, I prefer the vinyl edits. Sometimes concise is better. kinda makes me wish they had included a full vinyl edit version or maybe some sort of alternate version with Julie or something slipped on to replace too dizzy. time to settle into NLMD 2018.
Win? I don't think so. Not a dance track. YA doesn't cross into disco for me. But John I'm only Dancing (again) does.
There's some Donna Summer album tracks from the 1970s which IIRC are a bit like Win, although I can't recall which ones
Fascination is funky music To this day, I have no fking idea how Bowie is the first author of Fascination. He effectively did nothing except change the words "Funky Music" to "Fascination".
In its original incarnation (The 1980 Floor Show) 1984 was trying to be hard funk, with wah-wah pedals in the intro, and a funked-up drumming job that did not survive to the recorded version on "Diamond Dogs"; horns for the transition to "Dodo". Not "disco", exactly. More of a funk/Broadway pastiche. But in no way was it "glam rock", even the way it ended up on the album.
I’d add The Secret Life of Araaaaaaabia to that list too. Sort of a Bowie-verse version of Disco/Funk. Played it at a party once and it went down surprisingly well.
I guess that's just contractual ie part of working with a big name like Bowie. Didn't Eno IIRC create all the music for Warszawa, and it's credited Bowie / Eno? And Eno was already quite a significant figure in 1976-7. Whereas Vandross IIRC said he was grateful for Bowie giving him some prominence which helped his career? Not saying you're not quite right, probably isn't fair, like Yesterday being 100% Paul McCartney, but that's just the way it is / was, to quote Bruce Horny and the Range.
I'm with you 100% on this. The extreme hyperbole on here can be hard to take - particularly when it's not always apparent if things have actually devolved into "unlistenable" territory (which does happen) or if it's simply a downgrade, but not a fatal one. Personally, I think there's a line to be walked between clear, dynamic recordings and punchy, compressed recordings. For the most part, these boxes have walked that line, albeit stumbling here and there onto the latter side here and there. I don't want my rock records to sound like a symphonic recording with dead silence up to roaring crescendos. The genre demands a different kind of listening than, say, Mahler. That being the case, it's not wrong to punch it up a bit. At the same time, don't go bonkers with it. Unfortunately, that does make me a heretic to some around these parts, but I've never worn orthodoxy well, so I'll take it on the chin. As mentioned before, my only issue going forward in the boxes is that I have perfectly good copies of everything post-Tin Machine with extras galore, so it's less about SQ concerns for me and much more a question of, "Do I need duplicates if I'm going to be stuck keeping what I already have in order to not lose remixes, etc.?" At that point, the box bait will be the end-all-be-all. In the meanwhile, while I have no qualms with your dream of Tull-esque single album re-issues for Bowie, I'm happy with the Boxes I have (*insert obligatory dirty look at ANCIANT*). Others have mentioned it, but I'd say "Golden Years" fits the bill pretty well. The heavier drums on the remix really bring this home, even if the remix is a hot mess. Makes me think one could do some interesting "Extended 12" Dance Mix" treatment of GY given half a chance. Hell, I'd listen to it - but then I'm one of those weirdos who likes extended dance mixes.
Found an interview with Reeves Gabrels, which may or may not have been mentioned in this thread. It covers the times when Reeves discouraged Bowie from reworking Never Let Me Down. It also states that he and Bowie, in their first meetings and working together, recorded some Lodger material (love to hear that!) Finally it has a paragraph on the next box, which says nothing, basically. He is asked if they're working on it currently: "No. Every song will be remastered I imagine. We haven’t really looked at it closely yet, but because those records were basically — David never had misgivings about what we did — he liked what we did together. With Never Let Me Down David left instructions of what he wanted done. So we were basically following orders (laughs) The late 80s and 90s you know, he was happy with what we had done, so there’s no reason to do any radical re-workings." Which brings me to a moment where I must back off a previous conviction, and say - hang on, I've maybe backed the wrong horse here...... I love Tin Machine. I've mentioned this many times. I've also said it would be a travesty if Tin Machine weren't in the next box. Now I'm rethinking this, and I may actually be wishing for a dedicated Tin Machine box. Though others have mentioned this, they haven't given a reason I could agree with - usually something long the lines of "they weren't Bowie albums". A light bulb just went off in my head about something more important to me, and it leads me to wanting a dedicated box. Heres's the thing. If Tin Machine are in the next box, what exactly is going to be in there? All three albums, no doubt. Hopefully another full live show, such as the Japanese show, or another from somewhere. They had a lot of non-album singles and B-sides too...... But - it's got to be balanced with everything else in the box. So I think some things I'd dearly love, wouldn't get in, just because of the space restrictions. Whereas - if we get a Tin Machine box, they can go all out and give us something monstrous. There is so damn much Tin Machine material, both audio and video, that would make a package to die for. Maybe, in saying I hoped they'd be in the next box, I'm ultimately consigning myself to getting less Tin Machine? Hm.............. INTERVIEW: We talked to Reeves Gabrels, long-time David Bowie collaborator and one of the best rock guitarists alive
Huh. Sadly, since they weren't singles, we have no chance of getting that in the next box. Were those the versions on the Ryko disc?
I was just thinking along the same lines on Tin Machine this morning as I started playing through the new vinyl box. I would think they’d have to do it as it’s own box to include a representative sample. I think they will because they seem to be trying to put out as many boxes as possible.
