Archive for May, 2006
David Gilmour
Shortly after retiring from the music industry again, Bowie appeared onstage with David Gilmour at Albert Hall. He helped Gilmour with Arnold Lane and Comfortably Numb. The video is Arnold Lane.
I’d kill to see the Comfortably Numb performance. Now, I have it. This bootleg was filmed with a phone. Sound’s bad, video’s a little blurry, but you get the idea.
I knew cellphones would bring a whole new era of bootlegs. This is pretty cool.
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Jack Kevorkian and The Supermen
Two events are occurring right now. Last week or so, Livescience discussed the ethics of immortality. In the news today are articles about Jack Kevorokian dying in prison. Needless to say, the debate over Kevorkian’s actions assisting people to end their lives has had a rather lively debate. This isn’t a current event. It’s more events over a topic that has been pondered probably as long as man has been able to rationalize. Bowie apparently thought a lot about his own ending and what occurred afterward. In 1969 Bowie addressed the issue of death with The Supermen. It would be released on The Man Who Sold The World in 1970, possibly his best album lyrically. Here’s the lyrics to what I consider one of the Top 10 Bowie songs of all time.
When all the world was very young
And mountain magic heavy hung
The supermen would walk in file
Guardians of a loveless isle
And gloomy browed with super fear their tragic endless lives
Could heave nor sigh
In solemn, perverse serenity, wondrous beings chained to lifeStrange games they would play then
No death for the perfect men
Life rolls into one for them
So softly a supergod criesWhere all were minds in uni-thought
Power weird by mystics taught
No pain, no joy, no power too great
Colossal strength to grasp a fate
Where sad-eyed mermen tossed in slumbers
Nightmare dreams no mortal mind could hold
A man would tear his brother’s flesh, a chance to die
To turn to moldFar out in the red sky
Far out from the sad eyes
Strange, mad celebration
So softly a supergod criesFar out in the red sky
Far out from the sad eyes
Strange, mad celebration
So softly a supergod dies
At the time Bowie was also performing Jacques Brel’s My Death as a staple during his Ziggy tours. It’s a horrid song that goes on forever. However, it illustrates Bowie’s near obsession with the afterlife at the time.
In his usual way, Bowie gives you a situation, a moment in time, tosses in a social issue, and gives no opinions or solutions. The question is all that remains. As mankind races towards becoming Supermen without population control, already limited and stretched resources, advanced medical care only for certain geographic regions, and polar opposite social values and mores, we’ve got to ask ourselves, do we really want to live forever? And, if someone chooses not to, do we respect their decision or just force them to find more creative ways to “tear his brother’s flesh, a chance to die, to turn to mold”?
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Cygnet Committee - Lyrics
I’m going to start featuring some of my favorite Bowie lyrics on the blog. IMO, one of the things that has always separated Bowie from anyone else has been his rather unique writing style. In his hey-day, his lyrics were often complex and full of double-entendre that left the song in it’s finished form translatable to just about whatever you wanted it to mean. Because of that, I’d like to have other people’s interpretations as comments. I have my own, but that doesn’t mean anything.
The song, lyric wise, that takes the cake IMO, is Cygnet Committee. It rambles on and on and on for about ten minutes and he never stops singing the entire time. To me, the song is about revolution, but with a very different take than the Beatles were demanding. It was how a revolution builds from the bottom up and corrupts itself with power. To make it a little more interesting, he views that revolution from two separate perspectives, a benefactor and the revolutionary. In this case, the benefactor is the victim of a corrupt revolutionary running on love, freedom, and economic class. I really see this as Bowie’s interpretation of the Russian revolution. Let me know what you think. However, there are deeper intonations basically questioning religion in general: “Where all is God, and God is just a word.” Think about that for a minute. Then fire up my version down there somewhere, you have to sing it yourself, so here are the lyrics:
I bless you madly, sadly as I tie my shoes
I love you badly, just in time, at times, I guess
Because of you I need to rest
Because it’s you that sets the testSo much has gone and little is new
And as the sparrow sings
Dawn chorus for
Someone else to hear
The Thinker sits alone growing older
And so bitterI gave Them life
I gave Them all
They drained my very soul…dry
I crushed my heart to ease Their pains
No thought for me remains there
Nothing can They spare
What of me?
Who praised Their efforts to be free?
Words of strength and care and sympathy
I opened doors that would have blocked Their way
I braved Their cause to guide, for little pay
I ravaged at my finance just for Those
Those whose claims were steeped in peace, tranquility
Those who said a new world, new ways ever free
Those whose promises stretched in hope and grace for meI bless you madly, sadly as I tie my shoes
I love you badly, just in time, at times, I guess
Because of you I need to rest, oh yes
Because it’s you that sets the testSo much has gone and little is new
And as the sunrise stream
Flickers on me,
My friends talk
Of glory, untold dream, where all is God and God is just a word“We had a friend, a talking man
Who spoke of many powers he had
Not of the best of men, but Ours
We used him
We let him use his powers
We let him fill Our needs
Now We are strongAnd the road is coming to its end
Now the damned have no time to make amends
No purse of token fortune stands in Our way
The silent guns of love will blast the skyWe broke the ruptured structure built of age
Our weapons were the tongues of crying rage
Where money stood
We planted seeds of rebirth
And stabbed the backs of fathers
Sons of dirtInfiltrated business cesspools
Hating through Our sleeves
Yea, and We slit the Catholic throat
Stoned the poor on slogans such asWish You Could Hear
Love Is All We Need
Kick Out The Jams
Kick Out Your Mother
Cut Up Your Friend
Screw Up Your Brother or He’ll Get You In the EndAnd We Know the Flag of Love is from Above
And We Can Force You to Be Free
And We Can Force You to BelieveAnd I close my eyes and tighten up my brain
For I once read a book in which the lovers were slain
For they knew not the words of the Free States’ refrain
It saidI believe in the Power of Good
I Believe in the State of Love
I Will Fight For the Right to be Right
I Will Kill for the Good of the Fight for the Right to be RightAnd I open my eyes to look around
And I see a child laid slain on the ground
As a love machine lumbers through desolation rows
Ploughing down man, woman, listening to its command
But not hearing anymore
Not hearing anymore
Just the shrieks from the old richAnd I Want to Believe
In the madness that calls now
And I want to Believe
That a light’s shining through
SomehowAnd I Want to Believe
And You Want to Believe
And We Want to Believe
And We Want to Live
Oh, We Want to LiveWe Want to Live
We Want to Live
We Want to Live
We Want to Live
We Want to LiveI Want to Live
I Want to Live
I Want to Live
I Want to Live
I Want to Live
I Want to LiveLive
Live
Liiive
- Here is my version of it.
Bowie DEFINITELY needs to update this song, it’s a classic that could only sound better with new technology.
- Here is the original which appeared on the original Man of Words, Man of Music, re-released as Space Oddity.
- The only live version I’m aware of is on Bowie at the Beeb. Get it. It’s the best compilation of rare live Bowie songs there is.
- Bowie’s reputed as telling someone during his VH1 all request show that it’s impossible to know all the words to the song. I do and sing it all the time to the version I made. Nothing passes 10 minutes travelling better than wailing Cygnet Committee. Just have to trust me on that.
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The Mask
Ever wonder how Bowie developed his stage personna? Lots of trial and error I think. This is Bowie in his formative years as David Jones doing a mime presentation called The Mask:
Why does this remind me a LOT of Rocky Horror?
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Rock Heroes
Bowie was named one of rock’s greatest heroes by NME readers. Of course they considered Pete Doherty the second greatest hero of all-time so the list is meaningless to me. Kurt Cobain to this crowd is their greatest hero. Whew. Next. With awards like this, I can see why Bowie decided he was fed up with the music industry. I’m feeling that way too.
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Darth Vader mash-up
Took a few days off to see some music. My buddies at Independent Sources apparently didn’t relax one bit and came up with this Bowie/Darth Vader mash-up. This is very cool but I wish they had done the entire song!
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