Archive for September, 2004
Ziggy Stardust
No Bowie fanzine would be worthy of its bytes unless it had a tribute to the song that really kicked Bowie into hight gear. Although other songs that will be saluted here sold more, Ziggy was what set the stage for all the rest to make it. It put Bowie on the level of the various members of the Beatles, the Stones, Elton John, and the other great writers of the 70’s. From this point forward Bowie could pretty much do whatever he wanted musically. Ziggy shattered the bubblegum mystique that big stars had to be pretty, wholesome, sing well, or write songs about important issues. Ziggy was none of that. An ashen skinny kid with orange hair and dressing in curtains singing about questionable sexually oriented aliens and the end of the Earth. Yeah buddy, that’s gonna sell. Oh, and did we mention we’re gonna do mime during the show as well? If that don’t get it, we simulate homosexual felacio on guitars.
Well, to the surprise of everyone except probably Bowie, it did sell. All of a sudden, everyone was going over the top, the punks were accepted, Elton John came out of the closet, Bowie taunted John, Right when it was pretty much accepted that Bowie could do glam and hard rock forever, he ditched it for soul. Ziggy sold the world, and Bowie then set out to sell it again.
And possibly the second best remake, outside of my own, Bauhaus’s version:
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“Heroes” artwork
This contribution is from Luke Pepper:
If you’re interested in purchasing an original drawing, contact Luke Pepper. He is selling this one for £120 ( British ). He has another of Diamond Dogs that I hope he sends me as well.
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‘Heroes’
When I first began listening to Bowie, Young Americans was a hit. But, it wasn’t really my style at all. I bought the album, but outside of “Young Americans” and “Fame”, the album didn’t appeal to me at all. He very shortly afterwards released “Station to Station”, which was a far superior album, and closer to my style, but it still didn’t click quite the way his old stuff did. Bowie then cranked out “Low”, which was so bizarre it was hard to get any of my friends to sing along to. My interest in Bowie was starting to wane. I heard that he was working on Part 2 of the Eno Trilogy
, so it had to be good, but Part 1 had left me somewhat disappointed. A couple of good songs, but nothing exciting. Around Christmas time we went on one of our usual family vacations. I was in a hotel room somewhere in Florida with the entire family in the same room. I heard that Bowie was going to be on the Bing Crosby Christmas Special and new I was going to have problems getting to see it. About the time it was to come on, I actually had to turn the hotel tv around backwards, crammed up against the wall with barely enough space for my head to wedge between the tv and the wall. I could barely turn the volume up at all without my dad yelling, so I kept it very low, and in order to get a better idea of what was going on, crammed a cassette recorder against the tv speaker. He came on and did a skit with Crosby doing an improvised version of Little Drummer Boy that is still a classic, and much later in the show, they played his new video. It was “Heroes”. I got so excited seeing something that looked like rock from Bowie that I turned the tv up a little. For a long time I treasured that recording. My first exposure to what would become possibly my all time favorite song by Bowie, by anyone for that matter, with my dad yelling at me in the background. In order to get that recording, I had to be a hero. Just for one day.
I don’t know that too many people ever actually get to feel a sense of pride in their favorite performer, but when Bowie played “Heroes” for the 9/11 emergency personnel, seeing Bowie pleasing those heroes with the song that had always pleased me just made me feel like a king. I knew he could do it, and he did it fabulously. He even remembered all the words this time.
The second most notable performance of Bowie doing “Heroes” had to be the Freddie Mercury tribute. Seeing Mick Ronson play the song he should have been playing all along, knowing he wouldn’t be around much longer, was just heart wrenching for me.
The third most notable performance for me had to be when I saw him during Glass Spider. I took my significantly younger date with me. All through the show Bowie performed pretty much the show I would have asked for. I yelled, I danced, I screamed, I was a kid. At the time I thought I was just embarassing her, but I didn’t care. When he did Heroes I went ballistic. I think it was about that time she asked me when he was going to do Rebel Yell or White Wedding. I never took her to another show. In fact, I don’t think we saw each other much after that.
And my other favorite performance of “Heroes” was a bootleg video I found scouring the ‘net. It’s suggested to be his trial run for the song. The venue is definitely German, which is where he recorded it, so I have no reason to doubt it. It’s definitely rough, and Bowie as usual, slaughters the lyrics. But, it’s about the only time I’ve seen him feature the instrument that gave the recording its unique sound, the ‘lectric fiddle combined with the crying guitar. He should have tried that combo more, it’s a very haunting sound.
Here’s the original:
And a couple of GREAT performances I mentioned above:
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Cygnet Committee
Another of my all time favorites. Bowie’s first truly production album featured Space Oddity. However, as great a song it is, Cygnet Committee was Space Oddity on steroids. At over nine minutes long, it tells the story of a rebellion from both the perspective of a financial supporter, and then from a rebellion leader as well. It meanders, the music builds somewhat, and it ends in a over-emotional plea that the rebellion member just wants to live. This to me was Bowie at his most bizarre and creative self. He didn’t have elaborate instrumentation, Wakeman and Ronson were yet to on the scene. It was primarily Bowie with accoustic guitar and little else. This was folk on acid. The lyrics are funny as hell in their bitterness and IMO, confusion. Before you listen to anything else from this pre-Ziggy era, listen to Cygnet Committee.
Here’s my version. I think it sounds better musically, but I’ve got a lot more to work with than Bowie did then. It’s also from another Lunamagic midi as well, which means it’s great.
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Silly Boy Blue
I was introduced to Bowie during Diamond Dogs/Young Americans. Living in the country made trying to figure his career out initially quite confusing. We didn’t have MTV, VH1, or for that matter, FM radio. You did it by reading Rolling Stone and other rock mags. So, what you wound up doing was seeing someone on something like Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert or the Midnight Special, and then just blindly buying albums until you figured whether you liked them or not. When Young Americans and Fame became hits, RCA rushed out a bunch of albums cashing in on their investment. One of those was “David Bowie“, recorded and released in 1967. Bowie would release “Rubber Band”, “The Laughing Gnome”, and “Love You Till Tuesday”. IMO, it was at that moment Bowie began his knack of not releasing the best songs on any album. Hidden away, never released, and since the album flopped, pretty much totally forgotten was “Silly Boy Blue”. Ever since I found my original copy of “David Bowie” way back whenever, this has been one of my favorites as well. It was recorded raw, as Bowie didn’t have much instrumentation to work with in 1967, but I could tell that with just a little nurturing, this could be a beautiful song. Some time ago, the Bowie midi-maestro Lunamgagic, redid Silly Boy Blue in midi. No one does Bowie midi’s better than lunamagic. I then took it and played with it in Cakewalk. This is my version, I like it a lot:
The lyrics to this very early Bowie effort were outstanding:
Mountains of Lhasa are feeling the rain
People are walking the Botella lanes
Preacher takes the school
One boy breaks a rule
Silly Boy Blue, silly Boy BlueYak butter statues that melt in the sun
Cannot dissolve all the work you’ve not done
A chela likes to feel
That his overself pays the bill
Silly Boy Blue, silly Boy BlueYou wish and wish, and wish again
You’ve tried so hard to fly
You’ll never leave your body now
You’ve got to wait to dieLa la la la la la la la la la (x2)
La la la la la (x2)
Silly Boy Blue, silly Boy BlueChild of Tibet, you’re a gift from the sun
Reincarnation of one better man
The homeward road is long
You’ve left your prayers and song
Silly Boy Blue, silly Boy Blue
Silly Boy Blue, silly Boy Blue.
Unless you can find the original “David Bowie
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Moonage Daydream
Moonage Daydream was the song that would make Ziggy famous. Somehow it morphed from a funky folk ballad Bowie originally sang as Arnold Corns with Freddie Buretti. That version was a classic in itself, but to me, the Ziggy Moonage Daydream was the heaviest thing I’d ever heard. I don’t really know what Mick was doing to his quitar, sounds like he was playing along with synthesized strings, but his solo just went everywhere. It was the closest thing to rock mayhem Bowie would get on vinyl for a long, long, time. I’m not sure who convinced Bowie to let Mick loose for once, but it worked. They should have done it a lot more, Mick’s talent was rarely fully explored with Bowie. Moonage Daydream has always been my Bowie staple. Other songs come and go in my Top 10 list, but Moonage Daydream, both versions, have remained way up there on the list, usually #1.
Here’s my version, I like it. It’s one of my favorite remixes.
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If you want just the song, you can get it on Itunes |
September 25, 2006 UPDATE: Here’s Bowie’s best performance EVER of Moonage Daydream.
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The Man Who Sold The World
Here’s my version:
This is Bowie’s best performance:
Here’s the best non-Bowie version:
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But Nobody’s Home
Several years ago I spent some time with a gal who lived in a small town in the middle of nowhere. She had been a long distance track runner in high school, blue eyes, blonde hair, a knockout body, and of course, tons of energy and endurance. The perfect physical specimen of any female just out of high school and something all males would fantasize about. However, that fantasy babe fit Scary Monsters
She had an horror of rooms she was tired you can’t hide beat
When I looked in her eyes they were blue but nobody home
She could’ve been a killer if she didn’t walk the way she do, and she do
She opened strange doors that we’d never close againShe asked me to stay and I stole a room
She asked for my love and I gave her a dangerous mind
Now she’s stupid in the street and she can’t socialize
Well I love the little girl and I’ll love her till the day she dies.
And of course it finishes with
…..keeps me running, running scared
And I did.
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