David Bowie R.I.P

You can contribute via your erudition. For instance, can you tell the good people of ILX who Tony Visconti's wife was, which I just learned a second ago.

First #1 album in the states

Uff da

Has this been posted? Sterling Campbell's take on his life's connection and eventually career with Bowie:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1941338-sterling-campbell-my-time-with-david-bowie/

..which included some random variations on Oblique Strategies:

Every day I would have breakfast with Eno and he would share stories with me. Then we would go to the studio and just try left of center ideas, like Brian having the band play with “Baby Love” by The Supremes in our headphones. He told the band to play along with the song, but do something totally different from the song. David and Brian would listen to the results of the experiment and if they found something good, they would develop a song around it.

Has this been posted? Sterling Campbell's take on his life's connection and eventually career with Bowie:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1941338-sterling-campbell-my-time-with-david-bowie🔗/

im reading about the SNL "tribute". so they had Fred Armisen spend 1 minute introducing the Nomi/Bowie "Man Who Sold the World" clip and then showed 1 minute of the song, fading it out immediately after the first chorus. great "tribute" jerks.

They have free organ concerts Sundays in Balboa Park in San Diego and the lady that does them did "All The Young Dudes," "Life on Mars," "Space Oddity," and "Starman" today. Giant pipe organ and that stuff was booming around the area.

Tom D, I figured you for a Bowie fan, but couldn't be sure, maybe he was just someone your read about the Harmony Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock.

im reading about the SNL "tribute". so they had Fred Armisen spend 1 minute introducing the Nomi/Bowie "Man Who Sold the World" clip and then showed 1 minute of the song, fading it out immediately after the first chorus. great "tribute" jerks.

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, January 17, 2016 6:40 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

maybe take it down a notch

Yeah. Was Patton Oswalt involved in that too?

you guys don't think it sucks to take a legendary 3 1/2 minute performance and cut it down to 1 minute so that Fred Armisen can talk in front of it?

i see that all the time. Fred Armisen talks all the time. David Bowie and Klaus Nomi only did mainstream TV once. show the whole damn clip.

B-b-b-but doesn't he say "I'm just keeding!" afterwards?

it is amazing that Bowie snuck in some puppet dick in the "Boys Keep Swinging" performance. makes up for censoring the line "other boys check you out"

yeah that bbc five years doc was great

carlos alomar was awesome and fripp was p. funny

Fripp looks like Colin Newman.

maybe bowie should have made tin machine with wire instead

Yeah!

Love hearing Carlos talk about Bowie. He's one of the great sideman collaborators, like um, Bernie Worrell and Bruce Langhorne. Ugh

i believe 60 seconds is the maximum amount of time a SNL viewer looks up from his/her phone during the show.

Can't stand Fred Armisen.

Uh - sorry...

Yeah "Five Years" is excellent. Love Fripp's Pop vs. Rock N' Roll explanation. :)

A friend of mine organized this (a choir of 500 people singing "Space Oddity") and I didn't expect to be moved but I was very very moved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKg1_fKO1sY&feature=youtu.be

I'm drunk and just transitioned from "Rebel Rebel" to the Gin Blossoms *types "copyshrug.com" into address bar*

also idk if they followed thru on my suggestion or not, but my college radio station did a 6-hour(!) Bowie tribute; when pressed I requested "The Man Who Sold the World" -> "All Along the Watchtower" -> "Song for Bob Dylan"

In the Dutch TV interview linked above, he describes himself as an artist who "tries to capture the rate of change." What a great line.

Acoustic version of "Heroes" came up on shuffle while were driving home tonight and I bawled my eyes out

guess I'm not done crying after all :/

Sorry. I finally listened to "Life on Mars?" today after holding off and got a little verklempt myself.

Question: why does "Rebel Rebel" seem to be the goto tribute cover song? Easier chords (never tried to learn)? Distinctive opening riff after which who cares what you play or sing until the first stop?

why do you think it is?

What do you mean by "why?"?

"Rebel Rebel" seems kind of like the definitive Glam song that's actually about GLAM--and yes, THAT RIFF. It's one of the 5 or 6 Bowie Classic Rock Radio Staples in the US that still get regular airings (The others being "Space Oddity", "Fame", "Golden Years", "Let's Dance", and "Young Americans", the last of which has really taken off in the last 5-10 years).

xp what events led you to believe that 'rebel rebel' is the goto tribute song? i myself have not seen that song referenced

Is there another classic rock song that sounds very similar to Rebel Rebel? I keep thinking there is but I am drawing a blank on what it might be.

Or that has a riff similar to that riff?

i don't know, "Substitute"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eswQl-hcvU0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa6bI_95G9I

xp what events led you to believe that 'rebel rebel' is the goto tribute song? i myself have not seen that song referenced

You know come to think of it, "Rebel Rebel" is a glam song but at the same time it has a lot in common with a repetitive garage rock staple like "Gloria."

And it draws a line back through that to the fifties, if only through the title.

definitely one of the easier bowie songs to cover and I'm sure that helps -- easy chords, easy vocal melody, repetitive

4/4 Stomp Beat...similar to "Satisfaction" and a bunch of Motown songs.

Right, that too

Chord progression is kind of "So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star."

I could just about imagine the Boss working up a Thunder Road/Life on Mars? medley, but some of the crowd might get restless and leave, missing the rest of the 3 hour and 45 minute show.

hey whoa no springsteen shade in here

tbh i think the rebel rebel lyrics are kinda anthemic in their way, individuality, flying yr freak flag, 'ludes etc

hey whoa no springsteen shade in here

Trying to predict how many more such performances of "Rebel Rebel" we should expect. Wouldn't mind a Patti Smith version.

Also Troggs - "I Can't Control Myself"

Second part of the verses