R.I.P David Bowie: 8th January 1947 - 10th January 2016

David Bowie was my big teenage coming of age school girl crush. I had his picture on my wall. I thought he had the best cheek-bones ever. I went to see the hunger which was R18 when I was not, I remember rehearsing the wrong date of birth over and over beforehand in case I was asked when buying the ticket. I remember seeing Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence 3 times. And crying when his character died even though I knew it was coming. I remember seeing him in concert the first time in 1987 as part of the Glass Spider Tour. It was only my second rock concert, a biker stood on my foot and one of my friends hit him - but we lived to tell the story and it was a great concert. I remember getting Ziggy Stardust for Christmas when I was 12 and playing air guitar to Ziggy Stardust and leaping into the air during Suffragette City when the rest of the family was out and I had the stereo and the volume control too myself. Our neighbours must have hated me.

I remember saving pocket money to afford magazines when they had a new interview and I remember miming all his dance moves to Let's dance and Modern Love.

Most of all I remember thinking that he made me feel like being a bit different was ok, or wanting to be a writer and not an accountant was alright. I remember the false bravado he helped inspire and how something in him gave me the courage to hold my nerve.

I loved him then I love him still. I always will. He'll live on forever. RIP David.

 

Kooks - Lost Beep Tapes

 

Sad and inspiring

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03f8qql

 

David Bowie & Gail Ann Dorsey - Under Pressure , from 1997

As good as the original or better?

 

https://www.facebook.com/berkeleybr...44512.10815.108793262484769/1114294865267932/

 

A story from Adrian Belew:

In 1978 I did my first tour of Europe as "stunt" guitarist and singer for Frank Zappa's band. The night we played in Cologne, Germany unbeknownst to me Brian Eno was in the audience. Brian knew David Bowie was looking for a new guitarist for his upcoming tour. He called David after seeing our show and told David he should come see the guitarist for Frank's band.

The next night we performed in Berlin. There was a part of the show where Frank took an extended guitar solo and most of the band members, including myself, left the stage for a few minutes. As I walked to the back of the stage I looked over at the monitor mixing board and saw David Bowie and Iggy Pop standing there.
Wow! I couldn't believe it!

So I walked over to David Bowie, shook his hand and said, "I love what you've done, thank you for all the music". And he said, "Great, how would you like to be in my band?" I motioned back towards Frank and said, "Well, I'm kind of playing with that guy." David laughed and said, "Yes, I know, but when Frank's tour ends my tour starts two weeks later. Shall we talk about it over dinner?"

David said he would meet me back at our hotel and sure enough when I arrived back at the hotel David Bowie and his assistant Coco Schwab were sitting on a couch in the lobby. As I walked past them they whispered to me, "Get into the elevator, go up to your room, come back down in a few minutes, and meet us outside. We have a car waiting."
It was like something out of a spy film.

When I came back down and went outside there was a black limousine waiting. The driver opened the door and I got in the back with David and Coco. David immediately launched into all this plans for his upcoming tour, the songs we would play, the staging, and so on, and how much he loved my guitar playing! It was so exciting! He said they were taking me to one of his favorite restaurants in Berlin.

How many restaurants are there in Berlin? 25,000?

We arrived at the restaurant, went in the front door, and who should be sitting at the very first table but Frank Zappa and the rest of the band! So the three of us sat down with Frank and the band. David, trying to be cordial, motioned to me and said, "Quite a guitar player you have here Frank."
And Frank said, "F••• you Captain Tom."
(note: Frank had demoted David from Major Tom to Captain Tom.)
David persisted, "Oh come on now Frank, surely we can be gentleman about this?"
Frank said, "F••• you Captain Tom."
By this point I was paralyzed. David said, "So you really have nothing to say?" Frank said, "F••• you Captain Tom."

David and Coco and I got up and went back out the front door. Getting in the limo David said in his wonderfully British way, "I thought that went rather nicely!"

(watch for the postscript tomorrow)

 

Rumours that Dave will be making a guest appearance on Gorillaz new album.

 

that show circulates as an excellent stereo board tape. It's the show that Frank took "Rat Tomago" and "The Sheik Yerbouti Tango" from. This meeting was probably during Yo' Mama.

 

That's great!

 

If this hasn't been posted yet, some comments from Elton John:

"We know David Bowie the figure, the singer, the outrageous performer, but actually, we don't know anything about him -- and that's the way it should be in music," he says at SiriusXM Town Hall taping.

After taking a group picture with fans at a SiriusXM Town Hall taping Tuesday night (Jan. 12) at the Wiltern in Los Angeles, Elton John swiveled around on his bench and began playing his red piano. "Ground control to Major Tom," he sang, breaking into a lush piano version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" as his band was still setting up their instruments and the crowd of only 50 fans and reporters remained hushed.

"There are so many incredible words written about him in the last couple of days," John told veteran rock journalist David Fricke, the night's moderator. "It's so wonderful. We all know how inspiring he is. We all know that his music stands. We don't have to say anything about the music: It speaks for itself. He was innovative, he was boundary-changing, and he danced to his own tune -- which in any artist is really rare.

"But what I loved about him towards the end was his incredible privacy during what must have been 10 years of incredible bad luck with illnesses, heart attacks, cancer, whatever," he continued. "He kept it private in an age we're living in with Twitter when everyone knows everything about everything -- he kept it to himself. He made two albums without anybody knowing he was making them. He had treatment for his illnesses without anyone knowing or anyone saying anything. And that is the mystique of the man, because we know David Bowie the figure, the singer, the outrageous performer, but actually, we don't know anything about him -- and that's the way it should be in music and should be in any art form whatsoever."

John also recalled how Bowie's music connected him with his early collaborators. "If it wasn't for David Bowie, I would never have found my original producer Gus Dudgeon and Paul Buckmaster, who arranged the first three albums for me," he said. "Because when I heard 'Space Oddity,' I thought it was probably the most incredible record I'd ever heard and for a long time after that point. And the production and the arrangement of that song, I said, 'Whoever did that, I really want to work with them.' And so I got in touch with Gus Dudgeon and Paul Buckmaster, and we made the Elton John album together and many more albums, so I've got David to thank for that."

http://www.billboard.com/articles/n...ribute-david-bowie-siriusxm-town-hall-wiltern

 

I'm glad I am starting to delve into his catalog this week. Before I got more familiar with "Ziggy Stardust", this was really the only Ziggy I knew...

 

To me yes, I was only just starting to really find the Beatles and John in 1980, whereas I have had a 33 year rollercoaster ride with David Bowie. I have a huge collection of cds, records, dvds and books.
I find it sad that some almost sound offended by your remark. For me it's pretty similar, but even harder. He released an new album on his birthday and died two days later. OK he was 69, but there are people older, who have had the same kind of lifestyle. Still shook by it all now.

 

Nice words from Elton actually.

 

Milo and Bill smoking Gitanes just kills me.

 

My daughter Natasha is front and center in my avatar. The picture was taken in front of the bean in Chicago the day we saw the "David Bowie Is" exhibit. She drew this last year.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?....467632291549.277605.675001549&type=3&theater

 

One of my regrets is not seeing him live here in Iceland in 1996. I was 18 years old. Guess I hadn´t gotten into him at the time..

 

One of the most subversive 3:16 ever put on television

 

Pitchfork has some great tributes from other artists who worked with Bowie.

I thought Niles Rodgers' tribute was really beautiful in recounting his time working with Bowie and who Bowie was as an artist and a human being.

http://pitchfork.com/news/62847-nile-rodgers-reflects-on-david-bowie/

 

I know what you mean, but I think 69 Bowie years equates to about 300 'normal' ones.

 

Very, very true. My feelings were resting more on the unexpected loss of his talent and presence. As a child/teen, a world without Lennon and Bowie seemed inconceivable. Now, it's a reality, and the world seems foreign (to me, at least).

I believed we were at the beginning of the last stage of his career. 2 new albums, a greatest hits package, the beginning of a series of box sets, a musical. All in the span of 3 years. I expected maybe one last round of performances...maybe just a short residency in New York.

 

Amazon UK were sold out of pretty much all Bowie product with a couple of hours of his death being announced, so this doesn't surprise me at all...

I think something like 13 of his albums will make the UK charts this Friday.

Can I say that it will be nice to see some decent music in the charts again.

 

Is there an expression of sentiment that more clearly shows that Bowie's death is really all about us?

 

I have to say that his 10 year 'break' seems to make sense now. I assumed that he was just taking time to smell the roses. I didn't think he was in poor health.

Looking back, Bowie was always a hard worker. A new album or event at least every couple of years. In the 70s he put out a new album every year. Two in some cases! It was odd that he'd apparently given it all up.

Of course, Bowie always looked great. He never looked or appeared ill. Even in his last photos he looked fantastic!