David Bowie - Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) [Box set #5]

If I was running a record label I'd release box sets that were comprehensive and rounded up all the relevant music for the fans, instead of little bits here, exclusives there, later limited coloured 10" vinyl presses after a couple of months etc.
But then I'm not a corporate money grabbing shark.

 

Get rid of the sets you rarely listen too. Nothing wrong at all with keeping sets you get a lot of value from, but keeping for the sake of keeping just makes little sense to me, and is potential money just sitting there on the shelf, which could be better used for music you would play more often, or equipment upgrades, or gigs

 

And that's fine, we're all different. Others have explained it above better than I

 

This is an award-winning guy who co-mastered Width of A Circle with Visconti and did the BLA tapes mastering. Brian Eno is Brian Eno.

 

I routinely get a refund. Latest just this morning for the Garbage vinyl remaster reissue. Pre-ordered for £26.99 and got a £4.94 refund as the lowest price was £22.05.

Mind you the current price is £22.04 so I spose I could moan about the 1p..

 

Are you saying that certain individuals unwillingly bought every single variation of McCartney's III album? I don't think so.

 

It looks like they were originally submitted when Bowie handed over the tapes to EMI/Virgin. It looks like revisionism to me. Hence, Toy, as we are getting it is really a compilation in my eyes.

 

He's been credited or thanked on many of Palophone's prior Bowie projects also, as a sort of junior engineer to Ray Staff at AIR. I enjoyed his work on the Bowie At The Beeb vinyl box, the studio albums in Five Years (except for Space Oddity, dunno what happened there), and Welcome to the Blackout

 

I did not say anything mysterious. Some people complain about "having to buy" albums. Of course if they do buy them then they chose. The point is that a good number of people online speak as though they are unwillingly forced to buy everything.

 

Totally. Visiting Hansa in Berlin was magical. Walking around Berlin while listening to "Heroes" for a week was sublime. You could 'feel' the history.

 

Yes, I’m pretty much like this myself. I have noticed forum members express anxiety over all these collectibles, whether because they are hard to track down and obtain, or because the cost adds up and they are hard to afford. Perhaps many on the forum are collector-addicts. I understand the impulse and the feeling, but after a certain point it gets ridiculous and enough is enough.

 

Well, sorry. But what’s rock and roll without a little poor taste from time to time? Didn’t mean to offend.

 

No one tell him about Simon & Garfunkels Sound of Silence...

 

sound of silence is rock n roll?

 

Ordered Glastonbury 2000 for the video (mostly)….where else could I start with live Bowie concert video? I’d love good 5.1 video to be essential, but am mostly ignorant to the Bowie video market at present and would like to have the two or three best concerts to watch since I missed him in the world (while being a huge fan…biggest regret in my concert history).

 

There are only a few officially released concert videos. A Reality Tour, Glass Spider and Serious Moonlight. Go for A Reality Tour on DVD.

 

There is not a huge amount that is officially available. Hopefully that will be addressed before too long.

1. Ziggy Stardust Motion Picture - live concert of the final Ziggy gig in July 1973 - the picture isn't what you would like from a live video but it has 5.1 sound and is an iconic show.

2. Serious Moonlight
A live show from 1983. An enjoyable show if you like David in his Let's Dance era.

3. Glass Spider
Not his best. Overly theatrical. David's end of tour voice means his singing is a little huskier than usual.

4. Reality tour
His final tour. Quite a good concert - slightly let down by some annoying editing and post production.

 

best place to start is YouTube. Then buy what you like the best.

Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture is the best Bowie live film. You will be disappointed if you want high definition. It was shot on film that was pushed a lot of stops. There are plenty of shaky zooms and often Bowie is out of focus. But it's brilliant and captures Bowie in the prime of his youth.

Serious Moonlight is good if you like the 80s arrangements (soft horns and synths replacing guitar riffs. Not my cup of tea).

Glass Spider is mental. Too heavy on the 80s songs (unless you like them!) and again the dreaded 80s arrangements which manages to make many of the songs sound like Duran Duran b-sides. The staging makes absolutely no sense because many of the inter-song expositions are missing. It looks like random dancers stomping around looking lost. Bowie - at 40 years of age - dressed in gold tin foil, codpiece and glittery angel wings AND with a mullet is really something you do NOT want to see (or hear) The Berlin show is a little better (on youtube, not officially released) because as with most Bowie tours, the earlier shows of the tour tended to have better set lists (Bowie would retire songs as his voice got tired).

Reality is a mess. Very jittery camerawork induces sea-sickness.



The TV broadcasts on YouTube are generally better than the officially available videos

The 1978 shows - Dallas, Tokyo, Musikladen - are excellent

Tin Machine Live in Hamburg. It's Tin Machine. Love it or hate it.

Lorely from the Outside tour is said by many to be excellent. The visuals are decent, it is well filmed, but the live mix of the sound is very very flat indeed and listening is hard going. I would love to see and hear this with the sound mixed properly.

BBC 2000 is excellent sound wise. Visually boring.

There are LOTS of videos from the Outside, Hours and Heathen tours online. The Heathen show from Berlin is good if you liked that tour.


And OF COURSE there is the brilliant Cracked Actor. The BBC documentary of the 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour. Lots of live footage from LA which is superb and revealing back stage and on the road footage and interviews with Bowie at the height of his paranoia, drug addiction and anorexia.

 

The comment as to why Uncle Floyd and Afraid are missing in the Uncut feature is kind of vague. Mark just said the songs came from a different headspace and weren’t approached in the same way as the rest of the album with the exception of Your Turn to Drive which was essentially born out of a jam.

 

Kind of like I was saying earlier. Full band in a room vs. tracks built up piece by piece

 

Her

 

I’d second Ziggy the Motion Picture if it’s 5.1 you’re interested in, as it’s got a decent dedicated Tony Visconti surround mix. The other live videos are the usual lazy audience cheers in the rear channels.

 

What exactly did Mark Plati say in Uncut re: Uncle Floyd and Afraid?

 

Thanks Bowie1979 and Bink. Really appreciate your insights (and…ordered).

 

I guess since Toy was never officially released, they are entitled to revise the tracklisting, but it would have been preferable to get the version which was originally intended, and that would have included Uncle Floyd and Afraid. It appears Liza Jane has also been omitted, because it was part of the leaked version, although it is included in the box set. I’m disappointed about Uncle Floyd the most; it is an excellent opening track.