Archive for May, 2007
American Fantasy Idol?
Marc Hirsh of MSNBC had a fantasy idol competition. The contestants were:
- 12th place: Sting
- 11th place: Marvin Gaye
- 10th place: Stevie Nicks
- Ninth place: Johnny Cash
- Eighth place: Chrissie Hynde
- Seventh place: Courtney Love
- Sixth place: John Lennon
- Fifth place: Mama Cass Elliott
- Fourth place: Whitney Houston
- Third place: Stevie Wonder
- Final two: Aretha Franklin and David Bowie
- Winner: David Bowie
Now, being a Bowie fan, I’d like to think my years of suffering at the hands of all the testosterone driven music freaks who thought Motley Crue was good music has finally paid off. However, I think this is somewhat biased. John Lennon would have sung sweeter, Stevie Wonder would how wowed them. Aretha Franklin would have just knocked them completely off their feet.
Simon Cowell would have kicked Bowie off the show because of his hair, crooked teeth, mis-matched eyes, weird clothes, and limited vocal range. Bowie’s talent would never have been an issue.
( Courtney Love would never have beaten anyone on the list. )
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Freddie Mercury
From the “official” Freddie Mercury website:
Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5th 1946 in Zanzibar, to parents Bomi & Jer Bulsara. Freddie moved to India in 1947. He attended boarding school in Panchgani, just outside Bombay. Whilst there he began his piano lessons, reaching Grade 4 in practical and theory. The family, with the addition now of younger sister Kashmira, moved to England in 1963.
Freddie left Isleworth school in 1964 with three “O” levels and one “A” level in Art. He went to Ealing College of Art to study Graphic Illustration. He left college in 1969 with a Diploma in Graphic Art & Design (the equivalent of a Degree). Freddie joined his first serious band in 1969, the were called IBEX.
Freddie stood 5ft 9 inches tall with black hair and dark brown eyes. He was single and shared his large house and garden with several cats, creatures he adored. He loved opera and ballet, Marilyn Monroe was his favourite actress and Aretha Franklin just one of his many favourite singers. He liked to drink either Champagne or iced Vodka and Indian food was one of his favourites. He sadly died on November 24th 1991.
Now, what this incredibly brief bio leaves out really, is how a young quite gay Zanzibarian living in India being trained in classical piano would wind up being a huge rock star in the United States. Queen sort of faded towards the end, but when I was a teen, they ruled. A much better bio is on The Biography Channel. However, it’s a lot easier to just state the obvious. Queen was getting a little airplay, and very little critical acclaim, until they released one song that changed everything both for them, but for music video and rock in general as well, Bohemian Rhapsody
From that point on, Freddie had the resources to do whatever he pleased. Although never quite as wild as say, Bowie or Elton John, Freddie developed a reputation for putting hellacious shows that were, let’s say, extravagant. And, quite frankly, in very short order, it became rather obvious that Freddie was quite gay. Not your closet gay, but your extremely flaming gay. He didn’t come right out and admit it, but like George Michael, you just knew it. Mercury was quite private. Not in a denial sort of way, but just very quiet about everything. He espoused no political views, he was firm in his religious faith but never spoke of it, and was extremely gay and never said anything about it. Even in the homophobic rural area I live, Queen rocked. You just sort of ignored how he acted.
In 1981 Queen teamed up with Bowie, their first collaboration outside of their own group. The result was a monster favorite of mine during a period where Bowie teamed up with several other performers. I had no idea it was coming, and the song hit me like a ton of bricks as it was by far the most powerful song he had done in a few years. Without any reason to babble on more about “Under Pressure”, here it is performed by Freddie and Queen in 1986 or so:
In 1990 Vanilla Ice exposed what rap was all about by blatantly ripping the bass line from Under Pressure. The criticism he got over that pretty much ended his career ( that and the fact he basically sucked ).
In 1992, a decade after Bohemian Rhapsody burned up the charts and made Queen famous, Mike Myers would give it an entirely newl life of it’s when it was featured in Wayne’s World
Things were going just fine for Freddie Mercury, except for one problem. He had AIDS. Like the rest of his life, he kept this issue very private. People speculated as his physical health very obviously deteriorated. Finally on November 23, 1991, Freddie announced publicly his situation:
“Following enormous conjecture in the press, I wish to confirm that I have been tested HIV positive and have AIDS. I felt it correct to keep this information private in order to protect the privacy of those around me. However, the time has now come for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth, and I hope everyone will join me, my doctors and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease.”
The next day, he died.
In April 1992, a benefit for Freddie Mercury was performed with a rather incredible line-up. However, a couple of Bowie performances stood out:
And, more importantly, Bowie was about to lose yet another person he had performed magically with for years. Mick Ronson would die almost a year to the date later of cancer. This would be the last time they ever played together:
The main legacy Freddie gave to rock was opera. With their promo video for “Bohemian Rhapsody”, artists suddenly were no longer restricted to touring and toying with songs to test their marketability. Bohemian Rhapsody pre-dated MTV. But, what it did was set the stage FOR MTV. With David Bowie, Queen, Gary Numan, and a hand full of others, rock became more than just music. Because it became more than just music, a venue other than radio had to exist. That new venue was music TV. Now, for us older rockers, every time I see a well made music video ( which is getting kinda rare these days ), I either think of Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes, or, more appropriately, the four faces opening Bohemian Rhapsody.
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Vanishing into the vast ether…..
Love this video made by my occasional bud sparkalot. Watch it closely, it has a lot of embedded meaning. We’ll discuss those myriad of interpretations in the comments if you choose. Until then, let’s watch:
Yeah, it’s short.
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Youtube brings out the Bowie in all of us apparently.
I like Youtube. I like it for several reasons. One of the main reasons is the format allows otherwise unknown people to broadcast their talent to the world. No longer do we have to rely on RCA or Sony to present the talent they want to market. It’s all out there. I’ve featured several amateurs here doing Bowie stuff and probably enjoy their work as much or moreso in some cases than the marketed acts. Here’s another one. I only know him as Stevie Riks. He sent me a note on Youtube just wanting me to subscribe to his videos. I checked out the one he sent and went right ahead and subscribed real quick. Here’s why:
and:
Check out all his other stuff, he’s NUTS! ( In a most definitely good way. )
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David, Lou, and Bono hang out at Syracuse University
Oh man, this is an unreal meeting.
Lou Reed was honored with the George Arents Pioneer Medal For Excellence In The Arts by his alma mater, Syracuse University. Besides Bowie, Bono was there as well to honor Lou. Now, I think I would have actually gotten pretty nervous if I had been given the chance to squeeze in the middle of a pic with Lou Reed, Bono, AND David Bowie. One on one would be super-cool, all three at the same time near mind-blowing for me. These guys didn’t just play music, they defined my entire generation for me. If you were way out there, you were a Lou Reed fan walking on the wild side. If you were into exploring alternative sounds and weren’t intimidated by distractions such as sexuality or hipness, you were into David Bowie. If you wanted to impress the babes and hopefully score, you were into U2. The rest of the stuff was pretty safe depending on which trend you bought into. By being into Reed/Bowie/Bono combined, you pretty much told the world you were into intellectual qualities of music such as the lyrics. These guys didn’t write rap and hip hop, they wrote stories, sagas, tragedies, and ethical odes that meant something.
So, why do you suppose a rocker like Lou Reed would be honored by Syracuse University? That’s where he got his degree. Honorary anyway, in English. Reed credited his musical writing style to a professor he had at Syracuse, Delmore Schwartz. Reed described it as “to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music,”. In other words, to tell a story. Intelligently.
No one even tries any more. And, the three best at doing that were all there in the same room at the same time. Lou’s last real hit was over 30 years ago and people are still honoring him. I wonder how many hitmakers of 2007 will be remembered in 2037?
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Bowie gets a webby
Bowie was honored by the Webby Awards by receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. In my opinion, this is LONG overdue. Very early on Bowie was using the internet in developing very unique interactive applications such as mashing song, adding lyrics, remixing songs, submitting art, selling tickets, buying music and stuff, the whole works plus some. Now, it’s sort of a given that bands will do some of this stuff. He should have gotten the first Webby Lifetime Award. But, this one will do for me. Very cool, just a little late.
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