The comparison to "Kids Are Alright" shows how far off the mark "Daydream" is. It also avoids the apparently dreaded "talking heads" style but manages to become coherent, engaging and thrilling. You get an actual feel for the band - even the uninitiated will understand the group pretty well - and you get why they were great. Whereas "Daydream"? Not so much.
Well the BBC covered his career extensively with the docs Five Years, The Last Five Years, and Finding Fame, which were “talking head” documentaries. Moonage Daydream provides an alternative to those. He said as much in an interview on BBC breakfast tv.
I explained my own theory in a spoiler upthread. Rather than making you hunt for my theory, which is mine, I'll just offer this spoiler. Spoiler: SOMETHING should have been kept in the closet Not this film. David's shirt in this show is pilling like a hopped-up mod. In IMAX, it's stunning yet horrifying. Bowie's a vain clothes-horse. No way would he put this in cinemas on a big screen.
Given that the movie didn't work for me on an IMAX screen, I can't imagine I'll like it less on my HT.
I saw it for a second time in Imax yesterday, and it seemed like the sound wasn't as loud as the first viewing. I was 2 rows further back this time, but that shouldn't have mattered. Also, FWIW, I loved it even more this time. Went alone for a matinee, and just immersed myself in it. I picked up on more of the dialogue this time, as I was unaided by weed. I like how some snippets anticipate the criticisms ahead of time. (Paraphrasing a bit here) "Artists are a figment of the audience's imagination, they don't exist." "I have grown to disagree with my earlier comments." I also think it's hilarious that he couldn't understand a word Fats Domino was singing. Really David, not even Blueberry Hill?
I think Bowie was an incredibly unreliable narrator about his own life. Always best to take many of his statements with a grain of salt.
Yes, loved that line - I think it was something like "Yes, I've grown to have a distaste for that statement."
It wasn't that he claimed he had never heard it (he hadn't), but that he claimed that he couldn't enjoy any of it (even though he hadn't heard it). I didn't view the '80s segment as presenting Bowie as a sell-out. Certainly, it included clips of people claiming that he had, but I think it tried to present Bowie as trying something new, and ultimately being unfulfilled with what his art had become.
That segment was as close as the film came to ever saying "and then this happened". (i.e., he became known as some kind of sellout). Just once, I wanna see stealth home video of Bowie drunk off his ass, saying "FU. 'Tonight' was brilliant, you rube."
I sat in the next-to-last row, because the last time I went to an IMAX film, (Shine a Light with the Stones, IIRC,) I left with a throbbing headache... (not due to the sound, but visual intensity). But it shouldn't matter where one sits in regard to the volume, right? Because it's surround sound?
Absolutely. And those documentaries are the definitive histories of his career so far for me, even though the format is not perfect. My point is we should not dismiss talking head documentaries outright. If they present the artist's views as well as the key collaborators and cover the arc of their career then I think they are essential. All artists should have an officially sanctioned talking head doc. Many don't. There is of course room for other types of documentaries too.
Well neither did I. And which source would that be based on... bootleg (probably from FM after possible adjustments), official RCA release (probably doctored) or subsequent Ryko/EMI, 40th anniversary remix, Mayhew ? I've come to understand some releases have Ronson dialed down in the mix, not making things more simple.
Just the first chord of "Ziggy Stardust". Disastrously out of tune, timed as it was with the 'outfit reveal' (tastefully edited to appear over some other audio in the MD film)
As far back as the days of home stereo, there have always been illustrations telling you the best place to sit vis a vis your speaker placement.
On the Santa Monica ‘72 concert there’s a moment I always enjoy - after soloing on Width of a Circle, Ronno goes back into the verse riff and is so disastrously out of tune, that he actually stops playing for a couple of seconds (presumably to tune up).
I dunno. "MD" pushes that Pepsi ad awfully hard, along with the much-condemned Glass Spider show. Sure looked like "Bowie sold out" stuff to me.
Once I get the MD Blu-Ray, I can finally ditch my VHS of the Pepsi ad. ("Look out! Here comes Tina Turner!")
thanx, I understand better now, that first chord is indeed a mess but my guess would be that the 2nd guitar is having tuning issues, not Ronson. they both play the intro in synch, and Ronson is doing fine before and also after that first chord (I haven't scoped the whole concert again...) just my guess, appreciate your feedback though
The Vittel TV ad tells a more coherent David Bowie story than MD. And goes back to "Hunky Dory", even.
