was also gonna recommend Trynka but couldn't remember his name til Ned posted
― Cognition (Remix) (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 2 March 2017 18:01 (seven years ago) link
Sheffield's book is very good, but by no means a bio. Really enjoyable passion piece by a huge fan. You can read it in an afternoon.
― flappy bird, Thursday, 2 March 2017 18:13 (seven years ago) link
Simon Reynolds' newish book on glam is at least half a Bowie bio
probably guilty of essayism though
― Number None, Thursday, 2 March 2017 20:55 (seven years ago) link
highly recommended: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n01/ian-penman/wham-bang-teatime
― willem, Thursday, 2 March 2017 21:02 (seven years ago) link
David Buckley wrote the best trad biography
Rob Sheffield wrote the best musical biography.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 March 2017 21:19 (seven years ago) link
off to the library, thanks!
the lrb article is good (if very long) and worth it for this picture alone:
https://cdn.lrb.co.uk/assets/edillus/penm01_3901_04.jpg
― niels, Friday, 3 March 2017 12:17 (seven years ago) link
David Buckley's the best I read. His take on Roxy/Ferry is also great.
― cpl593H, Friday, 3 March 2017 12:28 (seven years ago) link
agreed
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 3 March 2017 12:29 (seven years ago) link
― Nesta Leaps In (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 3 March 2017 18:09 (seven years ago) link
I finally watched Five Years and The Last Five Years last night, excellent documentaries. so much unseen footage! where did those films of performances of the instrumental stuff on Low come from?
― akm, Sunday, 5 March 2017 16:20 (seven years ago) link
Where did you watch them online?
― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 5 March 2017 16:54 (seven years ago) link
i stole them off the internet as torrents some time ago. Five Years I tink is available on the PBS site now.
― akm, Sunday, 5 March 2017 17:02 (seven years ago) link
Ha, that picture!
Every time I see a picture of Bowie around that era, I always find myself inspecting what's happening around him in the picture.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Sunday, 5 March 2017 19:02 (seven years ago) link
presumably that picture is in a tour bus, right -- note the netting on the right hand side of the frame: that's either in a bus cubicle, or on an impossibly swanky airplane the likes of which I don't think existed when Bowie was sporting that haircut. so this is probably his area of a tour bus (the back of a bus on which other musicians don't travel, most likely) and the table is the stuff he & whoever was on his bus was eating/drinking when he crashed out at some point during the night
― though the tempest rages, (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 5 March 2017 20:17 (seven years ago) link
One of my favourite photos, by Geoff MacCormack, shows Bowie asleep on a train, between stations, Vladivostok to Moscow, in 1973. It may be one of the only portraits we have where he is entirely at rest – mouth shut, eyes closed, no public gaze to contend with, no hunger in other people’s eyes, no need to scan the room or prepare an opening gag. The last cigarette of the day smoked, the last sentence in the latest book underlined, make-up sluiced away, dreaming like the rest of us of something ridiculous and sublime.
― niels, Sunday, 5 March 2017 20:22 (seven years ago) link
Wow now THAT is a context I wouldn't've guessed. And why isn't there a docudrama already about the time when Ziggy Stardust took the fucking Trans Siberian Railroad across the Soviet Union during the height of the Brezhnev era?
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 5 March 2017 20:24 (seven years ago) link
So awesome.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 6 March 2017 09:46 (seven years ago) link
That article made me cry.
― attention vampire (MatthewK), Monday, 6 March 2017 10:16 (seven years ago) link
Penman is bang on about that Morley book, too; I was given it for my birthday, and with the best will in the world, I'm not going to be able to finish it.
― mike t-diva, Monday, 6 March 2017 20:21 (seven years ago) link
The homages continue
http://io9.gizmodo.com/american-gods-teaser-shows-gillian-anderson-as-david-bo-1795548791
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 25 May 2017 18:53 (six years ago) link
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--2tUQa2cF--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/buqohgunbq08iqhllwxr.jpg
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 25 May 2017 18:54 (six years ago) link
I still can't get enough of the Blackstar version of 'Sue' ... what a great performance. The rhythm section on that is so fucking OTM.
― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Thursday, 25 May 2017 18:59 (six years ago) link
It's a tight wire, isn't it? I also love how the vocal is on a different planet to the band, the tension between them is thrilling,
― attention vampire (MatthewK), Thursday, 25 May 2017 21:04 (six years ago) link
David Bowie Narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf is on spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/1ZDPe7QlFtKG0nSjHSKaSE?si=ILfy_bvwSFmJtsSKXrQbFA
― niels, Saturday, 28 April 2018 20:23 (five years ago) link
revamped "Zeroes" is not bad https://open.spotify.com/track/4vGFi5HtNR3q6UHwUoKVfy
― niels, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 08:33 (five years ago) link
I think the original Zeroes already is pretty good, best track on Never Let Me Down along with Time Will Crawl. I've always quite enjoyed that album to be honest, could never agree with the bad acclaim even from the man himself.(I can understand Bowie's opinion on 'Too Dizzy' though, I've heard it once or twice and didn't regret at all that it was not included on the reissue I got.)
― Valentijn, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 09:14 (five years ago) link
I like "Too Dizzy"
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 11:06 (five years ago) link
Taking sides: Too Dizzy vs Sense Of Doubt
― Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 12:06 (five years ago) link
oh come on it's Sense Of Doubt by a mile
― Visibly Over 25 (snoball), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 17:49 (five years ago) link
yes, what is wrong with sense of doubt?
― akm, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 19:23 (five years ago) link
I think NLMD has a bad rap; it has more good songs than Tonight, for instance (though that album's 2 good songs, Blue Jean and Loving the Alien, are better than anything on NLMD) and I like it more than Hours. But the bad tracks are pretty bad. I'm interested in this re-do project; I like the redone Zeroes and always liked that remix of Time Will Crawl. So, cautiously optimistic. It's not going to be any worse.
― akm, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 19:25 (five years ago) link
I think I've posted this elsewhere - like NLMD better than Tonight and prefer both of them to BTWN and Hours
― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 19:41 (five years ago) link
hours is just a mess. mostly poor songwriting, terrible arrangements, bowie's voice sounds strangled on most of the tracks, stupid cover art. blech.
― akm, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 19:42 (five years ago) link
hours... is really the only album I dislike of his run from 1. Outside to Blackstar.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 19:50 (five years ago) link
For a long time I thought of Hours as his worst album. Not sure if I still do, I might but I did get to appreciate it a bit more over the past years, esp. hearing a lot of beauty in 'If I'm Dreaming My Life' and 'New Angels Of Promise'.
I prefer NLMD over Tonight as well but I also don't think too negative about Tonight. 'Blue Jean' never did it for me though - I often hear people name it as one of the better songs on it but it's one of my least fave.
― Valentijn, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 19:59 (five years ago) link
these new versions are p badass imohttps://open.spotify.com/track/5SPx7nQEDWkEscivnLs4Hl?si=2q95SCPfSTuqa_CuRsZsbg^^Beat of Your Drum (in the style of late career Bowie!)
― niels, Thursday, 20 September 2018 10:18 (five years ago) link
I'm rather enjoying them, but no amount of retweaking can make de-cheese that chorus. Interested to hear what they do with something like New York's In Love.
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 20 September 2018 10:29 (five years ago) link
Where are people talking about the Is It Any Wonder EP? It's very goodhttps://open.spotify.com/album/137bBAX7QKK24yqSgRNJq0?si=xT2Z5NaZThKryuS_A5ISNA
(would be disgusting but also neat if mods could enable spotify embeds)
― corrs unplugged, Wednesday, 26 February 2020 08:20 (four years ago) link
The Bowie tribute show planned for tonight will happen tomorrow instead:
We’ve been working around the clock for months putting together an amazing show for you. Due to the difficulties in the world and the situation with COVID in Los Angeles, we’ve had to move the show 24 hours to tomorrow at the same time. Hang in there with us - just for one day.— Mike Garson (@mikegarson) January 9, 2021
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 9 January 2021 02:17 (three years ago) link
My friend Jeffrey is running this four hour collection of vids on loop through tomorrow here: https://m.twitch.tv/soundawakeradio
― "what are you DOING to fleetwood mac??" (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 9 January 2021 02:44 (three years ago) link
Could be tasty this; directed by the same bloke that made the amazing Stones doc Crossfire Hurricane and Montage of Heck.
FIRST DETAILS OF MOONAGE DAYDREAM DOC ANNOUNCED
“Feels like something’s gonna happen next year…”
Following previous online whispers, details have finally been revealed regarding Brett Morgen’s Moonage Daydream film.
Announced today, the “feature-length experiential cinematic odyssey” is due for release in spring 2023. Keep reading for the full press release.
Neon has landed the rights to release “Moonage Daydream,” a new feature film, concert documentary and “experiential cinematic odyssey” that follows David Bowie’s life and musical career and is the first sanctioned by Bowie’s estate.
Brett Morgen is directing the film that is near completion and will feature Bowie’s own narration. Neon will release “Moonage Daydream” domestically, while Universal Pictures Content Group will release the film internationally, and HBO Documentary Films has North American rights for streaming and cable in spring 2023.
The film was designed from conception as a unique cinematic experience and will also be released in IMAX in select markets. The film will also be released in partnership with Public Road Productions, BMG, Live Nation Productions, and HBO Documentary Films.
“Moonage Daydream” illuminates the life and genius of David Bowie with a project that shows how Bowie himself worked across several disciplines, not just music and film but also dance, painting, sculpture, video and audio collage, screenwriting, acting, and live theatre. The film reveals the celebrated icon through his own voice and features 48 musical tracks, mixed from their original stems.
Morgen was granted access to Bowie’s archives by his estate in 2017 and presented him with master recordings as well as never-before-seen 35mm and 16mm reels of never-before-seen performances, all of which will appear on screen for the first time. In addition, all music in the film has been remixed from the original stems into Dolby Atmos, 12.0, 5.0, and 7.1/5.1.
“Moonage Daydream” is written, directed, edited, and produced by Morgen. The film’s executive producers are Hartwig Masuch, Kathy Rivkin-Daum and Justus Haerder for BMG; Michael Rapino, Heather Parry, and Ryan Kroft for Live Nation Productions; Bill Zysblat, Tom Cyrana, Aisha Cohen, and Eileen D’Arcy from RZO; Billy Gerber, and Debra Eisenstadt. BMG and Live Nation Productions financed the film.
Bowie’s long-time collaborator, friend and music producer Tony Visconti also worked on the film alongside sound mixer Paul Massey and David Giammarco, sound design team of John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone and VFX Producer Stefan Nadelman, who worked with Morgen on his film “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.”
The title “Moonage Daydream” references David Bowie’s eponymous song from the influential 1972 album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,” which introduced the world to his iconic, gender-bending, and groundbreaking stage persona, Ziggy Stardust.
NEON’s Jeff Deutchman negotiated the North America deal with Kevin Koloff, as well as Karen Gottlieb of Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, P.C. Submarine and WME handled sales for “Moonage Daydream.”
Stay tuned for further details shortly.
#BowieMoonageDaydreamFilm
https://aws1.discourse-cdn.com/drownedinsound/optimized/4X/8/4/c/84c8eb0144fbc21ebc6cc80c998ee173d9c143b9_2_1035x559.jpeg
― piscesx, Wednesday, 13 April 2022 22:59 (two years ago) link
It's unfortunate Morgen's the go-to guy for rock bio docs. The Robert Evans doc was fun but I HATED the Cobain doc, it was exploitive, lazy garbage. I get that his use of animation is appealing, but there's a lot that's awful about his work. (I enjoyed his Stones doc, but he had to pack in so much into 110 minutes, it felt kind of thin - hell, Scorsese gave Dylan more than 200 minutes in No Direction Home, and that stopped in the middle of 1966.)
― birdistheword, Wednesday, 13 April 2022 23:46 (two years ago) link
Haven't listened yet, but Spoon just dropped a cover of "I Can't Give Everything Away"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsM_7DBAEmg
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 8 January 2023 06:49 (one year ago) link
It’s great
― hrep (H.P), Sunday, 8 January 2023 10:11 (one year ago) link
That's really sublime. "Blackstar" is such a gift, I'm careful not to overplay it as it evokes a deep emotional response in me.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 8 January 2023 17:01 (one year ago) link
I’m such a starman-effer I went to a Ben Monder gig the week Bowie died - seven years ago this month! - to ask him about Bowie and Visconti.
― Farewell to Evening in Paradise (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 8 January 2023 17:12 (one year ago) link
Have any other recording artists attempted to create their own Blackstar in the seven years since? Was Bowie in a particularly unusual position in that he knew he was dying but was still coherent and active enough to be able to write and record? Are there any artists (thinking of Bowie's peers in particular) who you can imagine putting out an explicit "last testament" in the next few years? Would the reaction to the Bowie record have been different if he had died months before, or after the record's release?
― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 8 January 2023 17:21 (one year ago) link
Was Bowie in a particularly unusual position in that he knew he was dying but was still coherent and active enough to be able to write and record?
Yep.
Would the reaction to the Bowie record have been different if he had died months before, or after the record's release?
It was good for press, and, of course, it's wonderful to release an album that good days before your death, but no. I reviewed the album for a publication before his death; there was no dearth of positive reviews.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 8 January 2023 17:24 (one year ago) link
Leonard Cohen was right about there too -- You Want It Darker was released two weeks before his death and per his son Thanks For the Dance draws on vocal tracks Cohen did knowing that they would be worked on after he passed.
What Alfred says rings true -- I regard the three days (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) covering the album's release and Bowie's death as this wonderful suspended in air moment where he'd come up with something remarkable and widely enjoyed but no sense that time was about to call. That's why the announcement was such a gut punch. (I can say, though, that I know of one immediate and visceral reaction (not mine, someone else's) to hearing "I Can't Give Everything Away" on that Friday was "He's saying goodbye." Too right, sadly.)
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 8 January 2023 17:35 (one year ago) link
Johnny Cash did some kind of last will and testament but that was just a Rick Rubin thing so not as original.
― Farewell to Evening in Paradise (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 8 January 2023 17:41 (one year ago) link