David Bowie R.I.P

gosh. What a day.

Just noticed that on RateYourMusic all the ratings are in black stars today.

So glad that I already had Bowie on my mind this morning... Thought about him last week on his birthday while listening to Blackstar... Joking around with some of you about that Magnavox CD player ad from the 80s that had a quasi-Bowie rocking out next to a quasi-Willie Nelson...

Even this weekend, I forgot how we got on the subject, but Sunny and I were talking about a close relative of mine who told me goodbye without my realizing it until two weeks later when they died. How I get to have that conversation in my head now instead of anything else.

And hell, the surprise of it all... "not doing interviews because he wants the record to speak for itself, etc." This guy, what a performer.

love Townshend's solos on "Because You're Young" and "Slow Burn."

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, January 11, 2016 7:38 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ditto; his playing on "Slow Burn" is so fucking blinding.

btw, very moving piece in Spin, Al, and glad to see love for "Jump They Say." Always thought it was an underrated track of his; it's an all-time fave for me (and the trumpet solo is by none other than Lester Bowie).

"jump they say" is a fuckin' all time jam

Hours later, and I still don't know what to say... I guess I'm still very much stunned and shocked by the news of Bowie passing away and it's going to take days to process it all. Not only am I a huge fan of his music, but the man was a huge influence on many of my all-time favourite artists, alongside Kraftwerk and Roxy Music. Part of me imagines that this is how it must have felt when the world lost John Lennon, but... for many, many reasons the loss of Bowie feels greater, much greater.

Today I was hit by this really precise memory, which is probably fake, or an amalgam of several memories, where I am walking to golf practice in high school listening to "Ashes to Ashes" on my ipod mini. In the memory, I am really focused on the part where Bowie sings "I've never done good things, I've never done bad things, I've never done anything out of the blue." It seems like a warning, written just for me, about the regrets i would have down the line if I continued down my current path, going through my days with my head down trying not to attract undue attention, good or bad.

I don't think I actually heeded Bowie's advice, certainly not at the time. The song didn't make me a bolder person. But it made me want to be one, which is still a really powerful thing for an mp3 to do to a shy sixteen year old.

speaking of Lennon, he says nice and touching things about Bowie at the one hour and 10 minute mark here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaTy3kSxyoo

"He writes in the studio. He goes in with four guys and a few words....I like that track, and I must say I admire the vast repertoire of talen the guy has..."

btw, very moving piece in Spin, Al, and glad to see love for "Jump They Say." Always thought it was an underrated track of his; it's an all-time fave for me (and the trumpet solo is by none other than Lester Bowie).

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, January 11, 2016 7:55 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"jump they say" is a fuckin' all time jam

― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Monday, January 11, 2016 7:56 PM (11 minutes ago)

I can't deny that part of what drove me to write it was giving "Jump They Say" its due in the canon. In the two-disc Rykodisc comp released in 1993 that is, to me, his best comp, it BELONGS.

I'm listening to "Voyeur of Utter Destruction" a lot today. One of my favourites.

I SAY.

What rarities/live shows/other are you all hoping the Estate will put out? I'd like a proper release of the Cracked Actor doc, a good show from the 1974 tour, and any and all Young Americans outtakes!

I tend to think he has no hidden material, given his penchant for recording in the studio.

I would like more live stuff like this. I love how much he enjoys Belew's playing in this clip. You can tell he loved working with hot-shit musicians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tWyIug2qP0

I've run across snippets and fragments of YA songs that haven't been on any reissues afaik--Shilling the Rubes is one I remember. But yeah, maybe there's nothing there. Related, isn't there quite a bit of unreleased Scary Monsters stuff?

I can't help but wonder, now that we've sadly reached the point where Bowie's discography is very much a "finished" thing, if people will be more willing to give some of his post-Let's Dance output more of a chance. How likely is it that we'd get any posthumous rarities/archival releases? Did, or does Bowie really have much in the "vaults", as it were?

I haven't even started to listen, tipsy, but yeah, Stay is such a killer live one. I love the Nassau '76, such a workout.

What's the earliest tour any ILMers saw him on? I saw the Let's Dance tour, Hartford, CT, good seats. The hair and the suit were what hit you first. I wasn't that old but even I felt like, wow, this is the 1980s.

My Bowie concert history is a comedy of errors. I missed his epic, legendary Ft. Lauderdale show in October 1997 (almost four hours) because my grad school had dropped my courses. In 2003 I was gonna see him in Philly until he canceled the show. I got credit for his Miami show in June 2004. I was grabbing a beer in the lobby when we learned that a roadie had fallen and died, forcing him to cancel the show.

I can't help but think that Bowie must have had a fair amount of abandoned/unfinished projects over the years... like Toy for example.

He is one of those dudes that has been remarkably tight on outtakes and unteleased stuff, as far as I know.

I never saw him, but he's hard-wired into my first concert memory -- U2's War tour, I remember "Modern Love" blaring from the PA while we were waiting for the band. It was the first time I'd heard the song, it hadn't been released as a single yet. I loved the U2 show like any first-time-concertgoing 13-year-old would, but the next day I had "Modern Love" in my head.

I dunno, the Ryko reissues seemed very generous at the time -- lots of demos and unreleased tracks.

In retrospect, when an album reissue today gets a multi-disc boxed set, it's quaint to think of the Rykos as offering the goods, but Bowie was (iirc?) the first to fill reissue CDs with almost another album's worth of rarities.

xp

My first Bowie show was the infamous Glass Spider tour at Anaheim Stadium in 1987. I didn't think the show was as much of a clusterfuck as folks say now, but for an enormo-show that requires connection and a strong set-list, Bowie just seemed lost in the spectacle. Siouxsie opened up and had to play during the daytime. Oops.

The Glass Spider has undergone reappraissal in recent years. Many of the shows are on YouTube and are far from embarrassing. In fact, the set lists are impressive ("Up the Hill Backwards," "Sons of the Silent Age," etc).

*The Glass Spider tour

I'm still having a hard time processing his passing, or figuring out how I should process it. But while we're talking about memories, I got to see him twice. Once, headlining Madison Square Garden, in ...2003? Somewhere around then. He was great, setlist was great. The other time was opening for Moby on the ill-fated Area 2 tour, where he was still great (played a bunch of Low stuff, iirc). But the latter show was telling, because of course he could have instead filled arenas himself as a headliner whenever he wanted. He could have done the Sound & Vision Tour (which I remember staying up to tape when it was broadcast live on the radio back in 1989 or 1990) over and over. But he didn't. He chose to open for Moby, or open for Nine Inch Nails, or rebrand himself Tin Machine and play theaters, rather than do the obvious and easy. Especially at the Moby gig, I'm amazed, in retrospect, how much I took him for granted. Oh, hey, it's Bowie, there he is. Like it was no big deal. Which I suspect is exactly what he wanted.

What's the best Bowie biography? Is there a really good one?

What rarities/live shows/other are you all hoping the Estate will put out

LEON. and whatever other fragments of the purported outside trilogy were actually recorded

i mean the leon jams are out there for anyone who takes a cursory look but i just find the entire process of making outside fascinating

The OUTSIDE fragments are cool in parts but listening to much of it is like walking in on a raucous in-joke session.

What's the best Bowie biography? Is there a really good one?

― Rod Steel (musicfanatic),

Chris Buckley's Strange Fascination is quite well-reported and has good insights, but Chris O'Leary's published Bowiesongs stuff is the best musical one (he's got a sequel in the works).

er, David Buckley

Terry Gross grates, as ever, but this '02 interview intrigues for the Anthony Newley content and "I wanted to write musicals."

http://www.npr.org/2003/09/19/1436453/musician-and-songwriter-david-bowie

Supposedly there are five more songs from the Blackstar sessions.

Curious to hear them but really like how Blackstar was kept pretty tight, each song has a nice place in the arc of the album.

If you like the Berlin period, Bowie in Berlin was pretty good iirc.

Yes. Good on tracks.

No one to vouch for the Paul Trynka book? I liked the one he wrote about Iggy.

lazarus is a pretty incredible song

Pretty sure all the Leon stuff is bogus as I dug into this all a number of years ago. It pains me to think he and Eno were discussing revisiting that so recently.

Josh OTM about taking him for granted – he's just been with us for so long. It's hard for me to process that my parents (both of whom liked him but are 5-8 years older than Bowie) have outlived him. It seems counterintuitive.

Another vote of love for Al's obit. Fine work.

Know that sounds almost ghoulish about my folks but it does feel weird to me.

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/12522990_10153166459701891_1724192041819334738_n.jpg?oh=b4edecadc290532bb88244ed26980568&oe=57074D0E

oh man, that photo!!!!!!

In fact, the set lists are impressive ("Up the Hill Backwards," "Sons of the Silent Age," etc).

I wish I could have heard one of those!

Pretty sure all the Leon stuff is bogus as I dug into this all a number of years ago.

the leon jams are discussed pretty earnestly on bowiesongs? their most recent form leaked pretty recently afaict

Another vote of love for Al's obit. Fine work.

― Naive Teen Idol,

thanks

Alfred, this is a wonderful eulogy - especially because it's probably the only one among thousands which links not only to Jump They Say and Fantastic Voyage but to Move On, the first song which gave me some sort of consolation while listening to tonight.
I avoided all the half-assed cobbled together texts (safe for the ubiquitous sharing of personal memories of which I can strangely not get enough of), but I really enjoyed reading this text.

Another vote of love for Al's obit. Fine work.

Yes, great. I like the point that he was a huge fan, he loved music.