David Bowie R.I.P

I wonder how much of a spike the back catalogue is getting, what with these reports of Amazon and record stores selling out of albums.

As of this afternoon, Blackstar was #1 on iTunes, Best of Bowie #2, Ziggy Stardust at #4 and Hunky Dory at #8.

Really surprised he's never had a #1 album in the US up to this point, in the UK he's had several.

I've had several in your mom up to this point.

Oh, do shut the fuck up, you tedious cunt.

Reading Bowie Blog a few years ago, I was fascinated by his post-LD chart trajectory. That "Absolute Beginners" got to #2 in the UK has to be an anomaly, right? A position based on the hype for the movie? What do you guys think of it? I never much liked his vocal but love that storing string arrangement, the percussion breakdown, and the sax, which sounds like someone imitating Bowie's sax playing.

Apparently "Day In Day Out," "Time Will Crawl," "Bang Bang" (!), and "Never Let Me Down" got AOR play, and MTV played the hell out of DIDO.

*soaring

His last top 10 in the US was (gulp) "Dancing In The Street."

"Jump They Say" didn't even chart. That's wrong.

I definitely remember hearing absolute beginners frequently enough that year but it might have been on mtv playing in the background rather than on the radio

Never knew Matthew seligman played on that!

Apparently "Day In Day Out," "Time Will Crawl," "Bang Bang" (!), and "Never Let Me Down" got AOR play, and MTV played the hell out of DIDO.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, January 12, 2016 7:40 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I heard "Bang Bang" all the time on WXRT in Chicago, even into the early 90s.

A modern rock top ten, and like I pointed out in my obit, I did hear it four or five times on my college radio station in April '93, but, yeah, a flop crossover. I do remember crazy promotion for Black Tie White Noise at Specs and Sound Warehouse: posters and cutouts. He did all the American shows too, including:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ_Fl3Ed7dk

i really, really love "absolute beginners"

its gentle pace, its length, its circular structure, its video

It's strange, even though 'Absolute Beginners' charted highly, I still wouldn't consider it to be one of Bowie's better-known tracks. I seem to remember VH1 playing the video for it a lot, many years after its release. I dunno, though, I keep forgetting about it!

you absolutely love it

I've gotten the impression that people like it more now. When Chris admitted he liked it on the blog the commenters were a bit surprised.

oh also that arsenio performance is awesome, thank you for linking it

sometimes "jump they say" is my favorite bowie song

He's the whole show!

This is the comp that in tape form I had in a couple of glove compartments for a decade. To me his best comp:

http://www.amoeba.com/admin/uploads/albums/covers/other//DavidBowie_TheSingles1969-1993.jpeg

sometimes "jump they say" is my favorite bowie song

― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson),

♥♥♥♥♥

I like 'Absolute Beginners' too, it's just that I find it so easy to forget about it... It's one of those tracks where I'll hear it and wonder why I keep neglecting it.

his coke-addled praise seems to be primarily for the efficacy of fascism's tactics, the goals towards which they were historically employed are not addressed.

Coke-addled is the word, not that it really matters that much if he was right wing or left wing or no wing. Certainly I can see those statements being more than enough to rile the Marxist-Leninist wing of the North London Branch of the Musicians' Union, ca. 1976.

^^Going for $99 & up on Amazon Marketplace ATM (CD version).

XPS The Ryko Singles comp

absolute beginners feels like a part 2 of heroes, maybe just the way it builds, i always think of them together

love it so much

I like all his 80s film songs a lot (prefer the soundtrack version of putting out fire to the lets dance version by a mile btw)

greatest offense of the "rock" mix of "jump they say" is how it splices the "got to believe somebody" hook into the first chorus. the delay is part of why it's so striking, the song seems to be sketching out this claustrophobic territory, then the lester bowie solo throws everything into brief anomie, then the song resumes and subtly expands

I want a comp of all his film songs rn

when he leaps out of that grumbled half-spoken verse voice to "They say, 'HEY, that's really something!'" -- goose pimples

absolute beginners feels like a part 2 of heroes, maybe just the way it builds, i always think of them together

love it so much

― Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, January 12, 2016 7

Part of his live repertoire from 2000 onward so I guess he agreed.

when he leaps out of that grumbled half-spoken verse voice to "They say, 'HEY, that's really something!'" -- goose pimples

god i'm gonna listen to it again

I always saw 'Teenage Wildlife' as part 2 of '"Heroes"', but strictly in a musical sense.

also think the "jump they say" video is one of mark romanek's best pastiches

After listening to a bunch of random albums - Let's Dance, Station to Station, the first side of Low, Young Americans, Aladdin Sane - I put on Changesbowie at dinnertime. You know, something easy for the family to hear. The kids are getting ready for bed and "Heroes" popped on, and I could barely make it through the whole thing.

:(

from a friend on FB:

I feel sad for a lot of my friends right now. They were sweet, sad, lonely, weird children who thought they'd die alone and misunderstood. David Bowie made their inner lives public and beautiful and made it possible for them to live as themselves. I know that need and the blessed relief that comes when an artist mirrors your reality. I got it from other artists but I would have died if I hadn't found it somewhere. This has been an occasion to remember that art makes life worth living.

RE: his coke use in the '80s…there was a Spin article in the mid '80s which more or less indicated, if memory serves, that he made next to no decisions about anything at all at the time and was principally interested in gack. It was Corrine "Coco" Shwab who called every single shot. I have read no references to her in the last 36 hours…like, does Alfred know what happened to her? there can be little doubt that he was very collected and alert during the Berlin period, and indeed, what I think was the trynka book (is it from the early 00s? can't find it) contends that the idea was to go to berlin to get away from LA…he traded the global coke capital for the european heroin capital, but he mainly drank with Iggy there, and then was pretty focused and straight for the late 70s. evidently he got back into it in the mid '80s, and the clear implication of that Spin article was the Schwab liked it that way because she could control him.

RE: whether velvet goldmine was accurate as to DB being a fuckin' asshole in 71-73 —that same book from the 00s claimed that he was hugely arrogant and indeed fucked people over all the time. To be sure, this could said of many many very successful people in their 20s looking to become more successful, much less a guy who wielded enormous power at that time. Many people would do whatever he asked…drugs, sex, you name it…again, he got over this fairly quickly and became universally pleasant. He certainly was to me.

the Spin article, I think, reflected some displeasure towards his mid 80s, Pepsi commercial with Tina Turner, NLMD, Peter Frampton mullet period, like "how could he do this? why does he want to be like Michael Jackson?" … I certainly thought that he was sucking after thinking he was fucking great, and it took getting the berlin records in the late 80s as well as Tin Machine (I liked them and saw them at the Academy on 43rd st., 1991) but this article might have been inspired by him having offended the Gooch in some manner…heaven knows Bob Jr. pursued grudges just as avidly as Jann W.

DB and I discussed smoking: he said that he was smoking 70 cigs a day before he quit. I don't recall if we talked about drinking. Again, I was nervous as a motherfucker because I had to ask him mortifyingly stupid questions, as Blender employees had to, but he set me at ease immediately and we had a delightful time.

Coco seems to disappear in the '90s. He used to say that he spent the mid '80s in Montreux painting. Is "painting" code for "booching"?

Coco was still his manager (PA?) in 2005

i just listened to Hunky Dory. wow. some of the songs get a little too daft but it's still fun. "Queen Bitch" is amazing. he is trying for Velvet Underground but inventing the New York Dolls. i love the attention to detail in the lyrics:

And I'm phoning a cab cause my stomach feels small
There's a taste in my mouth and it's no taste at all

this perfectly captures the feeling of being bombed out and dislocated.

Recent reference to Coco shows up in Adrian Belew anecdote.

whoever skipped Scary Monsters is crazy, it is The Lodger 2

I feel sad for a lot of my friends right now. They were sweet, sad, lonely, weird children who thought they'd die alone and misunderstood. David Bowie made their inner lives public and beautiful and made it possible for them to live as themselves. I know that need and the blessed relief that comes when an artist mirrors your reality. I got it from other artists but I would have died if I hadn't found it somewhere. This has been an occasion to remember that art makes life worth living.

― sleeve, Tuesday, January 12, 2016 8:01 PM (1 hour ago)

yes

it's like my whole world believes it this week

This has been an occasion to remember that art makes life worth living.

yeah

I know right? Every time I read that I tear up. It was written by Jon Nelson on FB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnOhBykB-z4

Sons of the silent age
Make love only once
but dream and dream
They don't walk,
they just glide in and out of life
They never die,
they just go to sleep one day

Gah how is it even possible that every DB song is actually about DB himself

i've never done good things
i've never done bad things
i've never done anything out of the blue

Has this been posted? Just seen on my twitter feed. Bowie + Cher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOmKLGNEYBw

Oh, is that where he kicks off "Young Americans" and breaks off into "Agadoo" or some such?

I saw that for the first time about 2 weeks ago..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezmLz19zsNU

this then..