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.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 18 September 2022 16:35 (one year ago) link
"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.
― akm, Sunday, 18 September 2022 18:43 (one year ago) link
Yes!
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 18 September 2022 18:44 (one year ago) link
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.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 19 September 2022 05:06 (one year ago) link
'Hunky Dory' box. incoming - https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/david-bowie-a-divine-symmetry-the-journey-to-hunky-dory/
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 28 September 2022 14:17 (one year ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Saturday, 15 October 2022 02:31 (one year ago) link
Bowie himself hated 80’s Bowie
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, 15 October 2022 02:50 (one year ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Saturday, 15 October 2022 03:05 (one year ago) link
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 PressureCat People (Putting Out Fire)Let's DanceChina GirlModern LoveBlue JeanThis Is Not AmericaLoving The AlienAbsolute BeginnersDay-In Day-OutTime Will CrawlNever Let Me Down
― birdistheword, Saturday, 15 October 2022 04:42 (one year ago) link
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.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 15 October 2022 04:58 (one year ago) link
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.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 October 2022 09:32 (one year ago) link
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!
― clemenza, Saturday, 15 October 2022 14:57 (one year ago) link
xp: lol, I always thought that was some Parker Lewis- or Zach Morris-type.
― peace, man, Saturday, 15 October 2022 15:18 (one year ago) link
Prince Myshkin Can't Lose
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 15 October 2022 17:48 (one year ago) link
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.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 15 October 2022 18:25 (one year ago) link
and thank god for the uneven output. It's probably Bowie who long ago reinforced the theory that poseurs need failed expeRiments.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 October 2022 18:30 (one year ago) link
the solution :
https://www.discogs.com/master/97355-David-Bowie-The-Best-Of-David-Bowie-19801987
― mark e, Saturday, 15 October 2022 18:31 (one year ago) link
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.
― birdistheword, Saturday, 15 October 2022 18:44 (one year ago) link
Yeah I love that 8087 best of but I recreated it with versions from older CDs so that it’d sound good
― realistic pillow (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 16 October 2022 22:02 (one year ago) link
I'm kind of charmed that Bowie (presumably) said to the compilers, "make sure you toss in 'Alabama Song' and something from Baal!"
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 17 October 2022 01:08 (one year ago) link
Bowie Alabama Song = duuuuuuud
― Cow_Art, Monday, 17 October 2022 01:10 (one year ago) link
I like it, but admittedly it doesn't add anything to the Doors version
― Zelda Zonk, Monday, 17 October 2022 01:24 (one year ago) link
I just figured he was doing the collectors a solid - quite a few non-album songs on that compilation, so the more the merrier.
― birdistheword, Monday, 17 October 2022 03:14 (one year ago) link
Almost every one of my favorite 80s Bowie tracks is non-album
― realistic pillow (Jon not Jon), Monday, 17 October 2022 04:06 (one year ago) link
"Come for 'Let's Dance' - stay for 'Drowned Girl'"!
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 17 October 2022 14:28 (one year ago) link
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.)
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 17 October 2022 14:47 (one year ago) link
my fav 80s bowie song by a mile
― corrs unplugged, Tuesday, 18 October 2022 08:35 (one year ago) link
That whole soundtrack is great. Besides Bowie, Sade "Killer Blow" and Ray Davies "Quiet Life" are favorites.
― Hideous Lump, Tuesday, 18 October 2022 08:54 (one year ago) link
That movie was frustrating. There were sequences that worked well, but it was so uneven.
― death generator (lukas), Friday, 28 October 2022 05:38 (one year ago) link
I'll probably watch it again some day. But.
I believe it’s David Bowies fav song too.
― Mark G, Friday, 28 October 2022 10:12 (one year ago) link
Y’all heard this? Your man from the Pushing Ahead.. blog thinks it’s the best version (or ‘the most complete’ at least) and I think he’s right. Always loved the album mix but this is a bloody marvel; Lisa Germano and John Frusciante are both on it too;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8nuT1rDB7o
― piscesx, Friday, 28 October 2022 10:31 (one year ago) link
The ending, just ... Bowie records a masterpiece that touches on themes from throughout his career while suffering from advanced cancer that was killing him and really should have had him laid up in a hospital. Do you think the audience might be interested in that? No? Okay then.
― death generator (lukas), Friday, 28 October 2022 17:47 (one year ago) link
I was skeptical but that is an excellent version of Bring Me...
― death generator (lukas), Friday, 28 October 2022 19:33 (one year ago) link
So this...
https://deadline.com/2023/03/midnight-special-youtube-channel-david-bowie-tina-turner-elton-john-fleetwood-mac-1235280405
Means that this is now available via YT, namely actual formal clips from the 1984 Floor Show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2DTwK5xysg
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 6 March 2023 22:38 (one year ago) link
new laughing gnome take outjoyfulhaha I love this shit
― corrs unplugged, Friday, 5 May 2023 08:29 (eleven months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFdCI5i0EWo
― corrs unplugged, Friday, 5 May 2023 14:06 (eleven months ago) link
Funny, his voice on the talking bits was pretty much his 'personable/friendly' voice he had in his later (ie "Lets Dance" onwards) years!
Like, "The Laughing Gnome" was closer to the real David Jones than anything else.
― Mark G, Saturday, 6 May 2023 10:24 (eleven months ago) link
Did a doubletake when I saw the hype sticker and price on that little box set on record store day. £79.99, featuring 1 unreleased take of The Laughing Gnome. cost of living crisis going to new heights here.
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Saturday, 6 May 2023 10:27 (eleven months ago) link
There are record collectors. And there are David Bowie etc
― Mark G, Saturday, 6 May 2023 10:30 (eleven months ago) link
This is so great. He did this the day the news broke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nKb2JC7Qn0
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 30 June 2023 07:41 (nine months ago) link
I've finally got round to listening to the Toy 10" box set that came out a while back. I had full absorbed the Toy album from the big album box and I didn't like it very much, so I wasn't expecting to get anything out of more versions of it. What can I say, I'll suffer through a lot of bad Bowie.
But there's an alternate version called Toy: Unplugged and Slightly Electric that is miles better than the proper album. There's more space in it, less gloppy, more focus on Bowie's singing which is actually pretty good. It's still not a great album because the songs just aren't there, but it's an enjoyable listen and the casual nature suits the songs much better. Every other version of "Baby Loves That Way" makes me wince and I can actually get through this.
― Cow_Art, Monday, 24 July 2023 17:09 (nine months ago) link
How do you feel about the original '60s versions?
(Speaking as someone who loves the Rhino Early On comp.)
― Hideous Lump, Monday, 24 July 2023 17:52 (nine months ago) link
Early On is pretty fun. I like that stuff more than a lot of the Deram material. The most difficult pre Space Oddity stuff for me is the stuff like "Sell Me A Coat" and "London Bye Ta Ta."
For the most part, the original versions are almost always better than the Toy versions but I'd have to spend more time with the Unplugged set because some of those tracks are really lovely. The full band Toy versions are so leaden and glopped up. "I Dig Everything" isn't a great song, but the original is sort of cute baby photo of Bowie. The Toy version is *cringe*.
"Silly Boy Blue" might be my favorite early Bowie track.
― Cow_Art, Monday, 24 July 2023 18:22 (nine months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0geQMFdt-90
― MaresNest, Monday, 18 September 2023 15:26 (seven months ago) link
Beautiful but it needs more reverb
― willem, Monday, 18 September 2023 22:45 (seven months ago) link
reading an interview with Donny McCaslin, he says they recorded 16 songs during the blackstar sessionsanyone know if they're... circulating?
― corrs unplugged, Thursday, 21 March 2024 07:06 (one month ago) link
I guess ten are accounted for by Blackstar and No Plan?
― assert (matttkkkk), Thursday, 21 March 2024 08:36 (one month ago) link