david bowie

I love Eno but his "songwriting credits are decided by whoever is paying for the studio time" comment always struck me as being pretty gross)

I never heard this comment, but it strikes me more as a wry observation than a maxim

Eno was probably thinking of working with Talking Heads. He and the band members were asked for a breakdown of songwriting share splits for every song on the record, and of course everybody's perception of how much they all had contributed was irreconcilable with each other.

I got the most recent box set that focuses on his 90’s work and i’ve been wading through it. The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell might be my least favorite Bowie song.

mea culpa, I have been trying to find the Eno "quote" above and I think I might've misremembered or conflated some unrelated quotes from the Pushing Ahead of the Dame project - weird cos it's really wedged in my head - anyway, sorry Brian!

Glad you liked it, Austin---a very long time ago, I saw Bowie and his band with Dorsey (who I thought was Michelle Ndegeocello)do a live concert on MTV, filling in at the last minute for the Rollings Stones: no prob, place was in flames, another day at the office for them, looked like, though Bowie was creeping around with a piratical leer, kinda relishing the pandemonium. One of the MTV lackeys blurted, "Man, I'm GLAD the Stones didn't make it!" Easy there, son, not supposed to talk about the talent like that.
Also I think she was in his rock orchestra when he played a by-request show on A&E around that time: they ripped through about 15 years of singles just for a start, then the callers could figure out what to ask for.

Or they may have taken some calls during the opening onslaught, but you could see they were going to play all your obvious choices (and then some) anyway.

I feel lucky to have seen him twice in the later years and two fairly iconic performances, the Meltdown Festival show where he decided to play all of Low and Heathen, the some of the hits, which was incredible and made even more surreal by the fact I was sat next to Eno.

Also the Hammersmith Apollo gig from 2003, where he played an epic set including The Bewlay Brothers (apparently for the first time). They were such a great band, capable of reproducing anything from his past without making it sound too modern or showbizzy, tweaking the arrangements just enough.

wowwww

Both are on YT too! (although the audio-only boot of Meltdown is better than the video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDWOvTABmD0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKZig2F-9RQ

That "...Anger" video is great, I don't think I ever noticed those congas in the mix before, and they're mixed so high, too, and I can't imagine that song achieving lift-off without them

i wish there were better videos of those Heathen/Low shows out, like a professional one (maybe there is and I haven't looked). I missed that tour because in the US it was part of a festival thing with Moby at a venue I hate in the bay area, but I deeply regretted it later. I did get to see him three times though: first with Tin Machine, which was frankly incredible; with NIN on the Outside tour; and then on the last Reality tour, in a pretty fucking small space in Berkeley (high school theater).

interested in the small venue bit akm - was it a special show or was he just playing smaller venues on that tour? in Australia he was still a pretty major concert draw - although admittedly he hadn’t been here since 1987 (except to record tin machine ii!)

Have tickets to see Moonage Daydream tonight. Pretty stoked.

Yeah seeing it here in a few hours myself. Proper huge IMAX screen, not one of those weird demi versions.

i saw it on one of those demi versions and it was still mindblowing, really really great, could have been 2 hours longer and I probably wouldn't have gotten sick of it.

Only a few minor quibbles: 1) a little too much footage is repeated (I'd seen enough of what appear to be outtakes of footage from the Let's Dance videos after I'd seen Bowie on an escalator for the third time) 2) wish Morgan had run some AI cleanup on the late 70's/80's videotape footage which looks awful at IMAX scale 3) really doesn't include much of anything post-Earthling, though there is some footage from blackstar videos and one line. It's not a chronological documentary as such though.

I thought this was brilliant. Kind of had diminishing returns as it neared the end (I never connected with his 90s or 00s output), but in general surpassed by expectations.

Agree with those criticisms (though I like how Morgen lights Forlorn Bowie like a character in a Tsai film), also how the film largely eschews biopic cliches EXCEPT for the moment Iman walks into his life.

tony viscounti

Doesn’t Visconti mean viscounts?

tony biscuits

Okay that works

I saw it in IMAX yesterday and loved it, though agree it dragged a bit in the last 10-15 minutes. I admired how it was an impressionistic portrait rather than the usual parade of dates and talking heads—as I left the cinema, it occurred to me that they didn’t even mention any album titles. I saw a review criticize this approach a bit, but I figure that anyone seeing this film already knows the Bowie story, and doesn’t need the same tired anecdotes repeated.* The sections about Ziggyy/LA were really thrilling; I liked how it incorporated all the clips of Kenneth Anger etc. as context, and applying effects to live footage. Reminded me of the recent Velvet Underground film, and would love to see a film in this manner just about Bowie in the early 70s.

*Biggest disappointment in this regard was going to the one-night only theater showing of the Beatles’ Eight Days a Week. I thought I’d see a deep dive into their touring years but it ended up being rehashed Anthology stories.

Yeah it was a joy, if not perfect-as-such I really had no complaints; there's a big interview with Morgen in a supplement to that relaunched Creem debut issue I need to look through here to get a better sense of his editorial choices. Alfred's many points on his blog are well kept in mind. I did appreciate they got in "Hallo Spaceboy" (I was half expecting "I'm Afraid of Americans" but then again in retrospect the closest thing to a duet performance they showed was the Tina Turner Pepsi ad -- so no "Under Pressure," "Dancing In the Streets" (going with "Absolute Beginners" was a smart touch), or the Freddie tribute duet with Annie Lennox, etc.)

I dunno, I think the absence of deep Blackstar reflections as such is easily explained that there's no interview material from him about it or The Next Day. What were they going to play otherwise as the running commentary? Framing the film with "Blackstar" video footage and doing the mix of the women in the ritual from that with "Memory of a Free Festival" was a sharp touch, and again sorta said what was needed to as I felt it.

Seeing Morgen did all those edits and mixes soundwise impressed me. Put it up there with Soulwax's DAVE video/audio mix, frankly, and in a much different way. Also got to see a one-off screening of The Man Who Fell to Earth a few days beforehand so having that fresh in my head was helpful given all the footage used. (I did find it VERY fascinating if weirdly appropriate that essentially his Young Americans and just after era were barely represented outside of a performance clip or two with different audio over it; instead it was mostly the Cavett interview, the Yentob documentary and Man Who Fell.)

I did run through various things in my head about what they left out and amused myself at thinking what an alternate cut could be like; leaving everything from before "Space Oddity" aside from Love You Til Tuesday mime snippets fits I suppose, the "Fame" era as noted, but imagine if the focus was the Peter And The Wolf recording, the "God Only Knows" cover, gamely playing along as Hunt Sales did his bloooooz thing on "Stateside" with Tin Machine, The Linguini Incident, and the VH1 Storytellers special for ...hours. (I almost wondered if they were going to ignore Labyrinth so I was happy to see that crop up; mildly surprised nothing from Baal though? And was there nothing from The Hunger? I might have at least thrown in bits of the Pontius Pilate and Tesla performances. And what exactly was that one audiovisual performance where there was a spine and a gas mask in front of him and the films projected behind? That and the moment of him in the shadow of a stagelight with the flower petals raining down were my 'I wish I knew what this was from' moments, along with that SE Asian tour footage as Alfred mentions.)

Oh and gamely going with two of the big standard classics as credits playout music was kinda fun. I hope everyone did stay to the very end to catch the last little bit.

Framing the film with "Blackstar" video footage and doing the mix of the women in the ritual from that with "Memory of a Free Festival" was a sharp touch, and again sorta said what was needed to as I felt it.

True.

"And what exactly was that one audiovisual performance where there was a spine and a gas mask in front of him and the films projected behind? "

i felt like those were outtakes from the Hearts Filthy Lesson video but I could be totally wrong.

Yes!

Also very much enjoyed the movie, I liked how even though it was not comprehensive it still presented a good evolving portrait of him. The contemporaneous interviews really let you hear where he was (creatively, geographically) at different points. It's striking to hear his sudden shift in the '80s into "I'm an entertainer!" mode, and then to hear him turn against that again the next decade — like he'd let himself be seduced if not corrupted. All well put together, if a little baggy here and there.

'Hunky Dory' box. incoming - https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/david-bowie-a-divine-symmetry-the-journey-to-hunky-dory/

I was with Moonage Daydream for a while, even though most of my favourite songs weren't there ("Kooks," "Hang on to Yourself," "Panic in Detroit"). My favourite part was how he dropped "Love Me Do" into "Jean Genie" in that one clip (though you don't really get to hear "Jean Genie"). I thought the middle part, L.A. and Berlin, was okay--I'd actually like to see a conventional documentary on his two years in L.A.

After that...well, it reminded me of how much I'd come to hate David Bowie through the '80s (before reconnecting to early favourites much later on), especially the MTV era. I found his pronouncements on life and art and the Emotional State of David Bowie interminable, and every time I thought the film was over, I'd realize there were still things to cover.

My friend's a big Bowie fan, and he liked it a lot, and people here seem to have liked it a lot, so I guess I'm just not Bowie fan enough, even I view some of those early songs to be as great as the '70s got.

Bowie himself hated 80’s Bowie

He seemed a little conflicted on that--besides the entertainer angle, he was also, at first, explaining the MTV years as a back-to-basics thing.

When I watched all those British teenagers in thrall to him circa 1972, I started thinking about my own high school years ('74-79) and how I just don't remember anybody who seemed to emulate him in any way. (Like in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, where there's not one but three Pat Benatar clones at school.) Maybe it was just that no one was bold enough in a small-town high school.

Following Scary Monsters, I think he had enough singles in the '80s that altogether add up to a respectable pop album. May be on the long side, but I'd enjoy these twelve programmed together:

Under Pressure
Cat People (Putting Out Fire)
Let's Dance
China Girl
Modern Love
Blue Jean
This Is Not America
Loving The Alien
Absolute Beginners
Day-In Day-Out
Time Will Crawl
Never Let Me Down

I actually loved the '80s section of the movie, because that was my own direct contemporaneous experience of him. It was interesting to me to see that period in the larger context of his career, how he kind of worked his way up to it and then how he felt about it afterward, the whole stadium superstar brand name.

This is the Bowie I knew -- a vague brand name in 1987. The guy (wasn't he gay, we'd speculate) who recorded "Let's Dance." He still earned long interviews on MTV and world premieres through the first Tin Machine album.

In all the dense collage of influences/inspirations/fellow travelers, the one I didn't see was Warhol. Had to have been in there and I just missed it. The VU flashed by, but I didn't see Warhol (or any of his art).

Also loved "All the Young Dudes." Weird, but that song can actually make me tear up at times!

xp: lol, I always thought that was some Parker Lewis- or Zach Morris-type.

Prince Myshkin Can't Lose

The first album I remember buying was The Man Who Sold the World, the one with the "comic book" cover. I found it in the cutout bin at Radio Shack. It completely blew my mind; Pepper notwithstanding, I'd never heard anyone make music quite that weird. I've had great love for him ever since, despite a, to put it generously, uneven output.

and thank god for the uneven output. It's probably Bowie who long ago reinforced the theory that poseurs need failed expeRiments.

Following Scary Monsters, I think he had enough singles in the '80s that altogether add up to a respectable pop album. May be on the long side, but I'd enjoy these twelve programmed together:

Under Pressure
Cat People (Putting Out Fire)
Let's Dance
China Girl
Modern Love
Blue Jean
This Is Not America
Loving The Alien
Absolute Beginners
Day-In Day-Out
Time Will Crawl
Never Let Me Down

the solution :

https://www.discogs.com/master/97355-David-Bowie-The-Best-Of-David-Bowie-19801987

LOL, it even has a bonus DVD of the videos!

Too bad it's mastered by Peter Mew. I don't like the way he mastered Bowie's CD's - compressed, way too bright and NoNoised.

Yeah I love that 8087 best of but I recreated it with versions from older CDs so that it’d sound good

I'm kind of charmed that Bowie (presumably) said to the compilers, "make sure you toss in 'Alabama Song' and something from Baal!"

Bowie Alabama Song = duuuuuuud

I like it, but admittedly it doesn't add anything to the Doors version

I just figured he was doing the collectors a solid - quite a few non-album songs on that compilation, so the more the merrier.

Almost every one of my favorite 80s Bowie tracks is non-album

"Come for 'Let's Dance' - stay for 'Drowned Girl'"!

I'm a big "Absolute Beginners" fan, I even bought the soundtrack just to have the song. (For $2 in a cutout bin in 1989 or something, but still.)