David Bowie R.I.P

"He spoke on behalf of what is highest in all of us."

ok, mourning has jumped the shark

― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius),

jump they say!

gooood you guys idgaf about the album, the video duet is great u should watch it

you think Tonight is worse than NLMD, Alfred? and I don't know in what sense "untested" could mean w/r/t Hugh Padgham in 1984.

Yes. At least NLMD is entertaining and scowl-inducing: a freak like Bowie attempting a Springteen-ian AOR crossover with Peter Frampton -- and he tried! Tonight he didn't try at all.

For all of the split opinion about Never Let Me Down, Tin Machine and even some of Bowie's '90s works, it's rather telling that Tonight is one of the Bowie albums that gets talked about the least. At least Never Let Me Down, Tin Machine etc. still provoke a reaction... Tonight just sits there in his discography, gathering dust and being forgotten about. For good reason, too, it's a woeful record and undoubtedly one of his lesser works, if not his worst. To think it was the follow-up to Let's Dance, too, which may not have been to the tastes of those that loved the artist leanings of his 1976-1980 work and even before, but I could never consider it to be a bad record.

*artier

(essentially the same horn section heard on Let’s Dance, but far more reined in, as though tied to its paddock)

This is why I adore Marcello right here

Some Bowie 80s Movie Singles Poll

apologies if this was already linked, ctrl-f "Star Special" not found

https://youtu.be/ATSTjjEMmuk

In May 1979, David Bowie did a two hour radio show called Star Special in which he played some of his favourite records.

is Anthony Newley on it?

I can't think of a major artist -- even Dylan! -- in that period who released such a shambles:

Ever heard Down In The Groove? If not, count yourself lucky.

Xpost Mekons are on it.

just realized that blackstar is the only album cover of his that doesn't feature his image (something which wikipedia confirmed, though i thought i was sooooo clever)

I had three thoughts.

http://nedraggett.tumblr.com/post/137233893492/i-didnt-pitch-any-sort-of-general-appreciation

http://nedraggett.tumblr.com/post/137244312272/for-my-second-of-three-thoughts-today-i-move-into

http://nedraggett.tumblr.com/post/137248587797/my-final-extended-bowie-thought-at-least-for

untested producer

wait, padgham was an "untested producer"?

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/david-bowie-planned-post-blackstar-album-thought-he-had-few-more-months-20160113

but yeah bowie's movie singles in the late '80s were all unbelievably superior to the records. including single "when the wind blows," which is awesome and which i hadn't heard before this week

actually:

absolute beginners
cat people
underground
as the world falls down
when the wind blows
this is not america

^^^ would've been a great bowie album

Ever heard Down In The Groove? If not, count yourself lucky.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat)

I have and it's marginally better.

wait, padgham was an "untested producer"?

― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson),

I think he meant the aptly named Derek Bramble.

always have a soft spot for underground. a minor bowie single im sure but a pleasant, melancholy tune.

I think he meant the aptly named Derek Bramble.

oh yeah i have no idea who that is

he played bass in heatwave?

belew part two: https://www.facebook.com/AdrianBelew/posts/10150589290144995

xxpost What Mekons record did Bowie play?
Fun facts, or quotes and snapshots anyway (keep scrolling past massive etc. for chunks of text)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3397384/David-Bowie-kept-feet-ground-say-cousins-Yorkshire.html

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/TheManWhoSoldtheWorld.jpg

i don't think this album has gotten enough attention (apart from the title track.) what a banger width of a circle is

i used saviour machine on my college radio show to bridge a lumerians song with a neu! song. everyone went wild i imagine

width of a circle though.... "So I cried for all the others till the day was nearly through, for I realized that God's a young man too"

all the madmen might be kind of juvenile as a mission statement -- what was bowie the, 21? -- but those synth arpeggios, stately yet urgent, was there much that sounded like it in 1970?

Anyone returned to Never Let Me Down? "Day In Day Out" remains a horror, and the second side is disgusting (anyone who claims Bowie didn't care should note he plays lead guitar on "New York's in Love" and "'87 and Cry"), but "Time Will Crawl" works despite the choice of vocal performance and "Beat of Your Drum" compensates for its wtf chord changes and hellish lines ("I like the smell of your FLESH") with enthusiasm; it's Bowie doing "Glory Days."

not used to you piling on to critically maligned 80s albums by 60s/70s artists -- it and 'tonight' must be *really* bad

Ha. Have you heard Tonight?

a large part of the problem, as I wrote in my obit, is that Bowie can't lean on "craftsman" songwriting; he's no good at it.

"Loving the Alien" is my fave Bowie single from the 80s and one of his greatest vocal performances imo.

I listened to part of Tonight on Spotify about an hour ago. I made it as far as the title track. The version of "God Only Knows" didn't bother me much, 'cause I only like two Beach Boys songs anyway and that's not one of 'em; the reggae versions of Iggy songs were perverse, but interesting.

"Loving the Alien" sounds good in theory but the arrangement and blatant attempt at a Bryan Ferry vocal sink it.

Speaking of, Ferry's been quiet. He was always wary of Bowie, who himself was generous about praising his greatest rival.

Huh, interesting. Didn't Bowie help him with a big break in the Ziggy years?

probably still stunned by jerry hall getting engaged to rupert murdoch

the idea of Bryan Ferry tweeting is like imagining Fred Astair on a jackhammer.

*Astaire

I had three thoughts.

[...]

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, January 13, 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Those are great, Ned, thank you.

actually:

absolute beginners
cat people
underground
as the world falls down
when the wind blows
this is not america

^^^ would've been a great bowie album

Do any of the Bowie comps include all of these?

No As The World Falls Down but:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_of_David_Bowie_1980/1987

the '93 Ryko comp includes "Absolute Beginners" and "Cat People" but that's it.

Tonight's dreadul, I have gone back to it multiple times thinking 'it can't be that bad can it?' only to learn once again, that it is in fact even worse than I remember.

uh wow, from FB

Unreleased pro live footage from the 1978 tour, supposedly televised in the US (but no one seems to have any specifics on that). Though shot in April, the slate shows a date of Nov. 7. (Post-production completion date? Air date?)

Six songs: "What in The World," "Blackout," "Sense of Doubt," "Speed of Life," "Hang On to Yourself," and "Ziggy Stardust."

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

oops that's just the last track, here's the rest (but w/Ziggy cut off)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOO0FjHbwh4

i have not read this thread but this has affected more than i ever thought it would. we simply lost an icon.

RIP David Bowie

also, everyone (i mean people who have Cable or DirecTv ect) will get Showtime turned on for free this weekend. anyways, Showtime is playing something called David Bowie Five Years on Friday the 15th. Since it will be on anyways you should try to catch it, i know i am.

Anonymous piano-practising neighbour who this morning out of the blue launched into Space Oddity: thank you. Really stopped me in my tracks.

I assume Five Years is the BBC documentary, I think from 2013 originally. I watched it the night before last and thought it very good. Well worth seeing.