Rick Wakeman
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie
Rick Wakeman is arguably the most gifted keyboardist to ever grace rock. His breakthrough came in 1973 with The Six Wives of Henry VIII. However, in 1969 he was still pretty much unknown, not having joined Yes for the first time. Somehow he teamed up with Bowie to do a couple of songs, one of which being Space Oddity. Rick then teamed up with Bowie again to do most of the songs on Hunky Dory. This album particularly showcased Wakeman’s talent. Changes and Life on Mars being two particularly good piano pieces. As far as I know, this ended the Bowie/Wakeman colaborations, much to the loss of both. Although Wakeman enjoyed some success for a few years, especially teaming up with Elton John for Madman Accross the Waters, the piano riffs of Changes remain probably the most memorable effort he ever made. With Bowie’s creativity and Wakeman’s talent, there could have been some really good stuff there. And, given Wakeman’s tendency to go way over the top in total absurdity ( see this description of the live performance of King Arthur ), I can’t help but wonder why it is whenever Bowie records with someone, they either die or go temporarily nuts?
Here’s my versions of a few Bowie/Wakeman tunes.
And here’s the originals:
Tags: changes, david bowie, hunky-dory, oh-you-pretty-things, quicksand, rick-wakeman, space-oddity, The World Of David Bowie
