Damn Youtube

Posted on July 23, 2007 by Moonage

In case anyone hasn’t noticed yet, I got banned from Youtube for posting the ‘Heroes’ 78 video. They not only deleted the video, they pretty much banished me forever from youtube. Over the next bit of time, I’ll be moving the references over to a service that has been a LOT more pleasant to deal with than Youtube. I’m not even going to try to appeal or whatever with Youtube. So, just bear with the videos for a little bit, they’ll be back. These people freaking out over obscure videos no one has seen for nearly thirty years and they won’t market or allow others to see is really getting on my nerves. I would have been more than happy to have acknowledged the copyright owners and point people to a source to buy their product. However, I had NO CLUE a performance broadcast free to the entire planet is supposed to be heavily protected property that no one is allowed to see. This attitude is killing the music industry, and they could care less.

Just a word for those lawyers visiting this site, when someone broadcasts something into MY home, it becomes MY property and I’ll do with it as I please. If I want to put what I saw on MY tv on MY computer, I’ll do it. If I want others to see what I saw on MY tv via MY compute, I’ll do it. I make no money from doing this and only want the world to enjoy what I have enjoyed for decades and remind artists that they all don’t have to be trash. It’s pretty dang hard to do that with the gestapo attitude of copyright lawyers. If the people who own the copyright to the ‘Heroes’ 78 broadcast had any God given sense in their heads at all, and this includes NBC as well, they’d realize that if it were not for people like me pushing these obscure videos that have been locked in vaults for decades, those obscure videos will become totally lost and forgotten and therefore their copywritten product will become 100% worthless. How many copywritten performances have already been completely forgotten? How many people were sitting around discussing David Bowie’s tv performance in 1978? This is absurd and ridiculous and yeah, I’m po’d.

The Prettiest Star

Posted on July 19, 2007 by Moonage

Now, song for song, in my own opinion, Bowie peaked from 1969 to about 1973 or so. He’s had some great to good songs since, but for sheer volume, those five years he cranked them out en mass. Now, the problem with that is that there is so much awesome content in that period that otherwise excellent songs got lost in the mix. To me one of the best of forgotten songs during that era was The Prettiest Star. Mixed in with The Jean Genie, Time, Panic in Detroit, Cracked Actor, and other songs that screamed for attention, The Prettiest Star was just a very simple, very beautiful song. It almost seemed to be a filler at the time. However, of all the songs on Aladdin Sane, The Prettiest Star probably had the most interesting history. I didn’t realize there even was a history to this song until today when I stumbled upon yet another Youtube viewer made movie where some guy was professing his love for his “prettiest star”, his girlfriend. That’s all fine and good, but the sound of the song caught me by surprise. Take a listen:

This wasn’t The Prettiest Star I grew up with. I thought I had heard every bootleg and version of every song he’s done. I was obviously wrong. In the discussion, they casually mention it’s the pre-Aladdin Sane version with Marc Bolan. How did I NOT know all this? I mean, I had memorized TeenageWildlife.com and all it mentioned there was it was written for Angie. Well, here’s the story according to Wiki.

Following the success of Space Oddity in 1969, Bowie and Visconti went back to the studio to crank out another single. Visconti was insistent on using “London Bye Ta Ta”, Bowie had written another song he used to propose to Angie over the phone. That song was “The Prettiest Star”. At this time Bowie had become friends with Marc Bolan and therefore got Bolan to do the original guitar solos. Bowie won out over Visconti and released The Prettiest Star instead of London Bye Ta Ta. It reputedly sold about 800 copies and was forgotten. Bowie later re-recorded it for Aladdin Sane and Mick Ronson repeated the guitar work note for note.

Now, this whole love story on youtube was getting a little stale. In order to have heard this version, they were probably 50-somethings. But, then it became clearer to me what was going on in an unlikely way. In the 2005 movie Kinky Boots they somehow got ahold of the original Bowie/Bolan version and feature it to a drag queen strutting the catwalk. Now, being as Kinky Boots is only a couple of years old, this means the lovers on Youtube are quite young and the joys of youthful love are being explored to the most appropriate Bowie song. All is perfect again.

The Prettiest Star is one of the songs I feature over there –>

Other than the Kinky Boots soundtrack, I have no clue where it could be found outside of bootlegs.

What it means is one of the clearest messages Bowie ever delivered in any song:

Cold fire, you’ve got everything but cold fire
You will be my rest and peace child
I moved up to take a place, near you

So tired, it’s the sky that makes you feel tried
It’s a trick to make you see wide
It can all but break your heart, in pieces

Staying back in your memory
Are the movies in the dark
How you moved is all it takes
To sing a song of when I loved
The Prettiest Star

One day though it might as well be someday
You and I will rise up all the way
All because of what you are
The Prettiest Star

Staying back in your memory
Are the movies in the past
How you moved is all it takes
To sing a song of when I loved
The Prettiest Star

One day though it might as well be someday
You and I will rise up all the way
All because of what you are
The Prettiest Star

It meant he thought he was going to hitch a ride on Angie’s stardom because she was so beautiful. Amazing how things don’t always work out like one expects.

Ron Mueck

Posted on July 18, 2007 by Moonage

Bowie has appeared in a lot of films. Some bit parts, some just plum weird, and some not so weird. Probably his most popular appearance was in the movie Labyrinth as the Goblin King. It is a fantasy movie with lots and lots of special effects. Some of the most memorable effects were by a guy named Ron Mueck. I received an email from Mrs. Moon about Ron Mueck this morning. This is what it had to say:

Ron Mueck is a London-based photo-realist artist. Born in Melbourne to parents who were toy makers, he labored on children’s television shows for 15 years before working in special effects for such films as Labyrinth, a 1986 fantasy epic starring David Bowie.

Eventually Mueck concluded that photography pretty much destroys the physical presence of the original object, and so he turned to fine art and sculpture. In the early 1990′s, still in his advertising days, Mueck was commissioned to make something highly realistic, and was wondering what material would do the trick. Latex was the usual, but he wanted something harder, more precise. Luckily, he saw a little architectural decor on the wall of a boutique and inquired as to the nice, pink stuff’s nature. Fiberglass resin was the answer, and Mueck has made it his bronze and marble ever since.

That didn’t quite prepare me for what was to follow. Here’s some of Ron’s works currently on display:

Ron Mueck's art

And here’s a little movie on some of his stuff and how he does it:

Click To Play

Pretty incredible huh?

Arnold Corns

Posted on July 16, 2007 by Moonage

In 1971, Bowie was busy touring, sorta, busier chasing records companies, and writing music. Now, this is pre-Hunky Dory we’re talking about. Bowie wasn’t too heavy at this time. However, he was already into his changing personnas. And, while bored on the road, he was writing his big project. As the story goes, RCA wasn’t too keen on his new project since basically no one knew who Bowie was, but he was wanting to do a double-lp anyway ( which was pricey in those days ). So, Bowie decided to do a test run with his new line-up and release some of the songs RCA was bucking. His new line-up was quite odd to say the least:

He enlisted Freddi Buretti, aka Rudy Valentino, to be his front man. According to legend, Rudy didn’t really sing or play any instruments. He eventually became Bowie’s designed for the Ziggy tours. Rudy eventually became immortalized in song:

Tony went to fight in Belfast
Rudi stayed at home to starve
I could make it all worthwhile
as a rock & roll star….

That’s opening lines to “Star” on Ziggy Stardust. Bowie also hooked with a band called “Ronno” as his backup. Ronno consisted of Mick Ronson on guitar, Trevor Bolder on bass, and Mick Woodmansey on drums. Originally Ronno was going to go it alone after the demos, but apparently changed their mind. This odd lineup resulted in four songs:

“Hang on to yourself”. This became a staple opening song for Bowie on several tours.
“Looking for a friend”. Pretty much disappeared after it was recorded.
“Man in the middle”. Pretty much disappeared after it was recorded, but has been a cult favorite for Bowie fans since. And last but not least:
“Moonage Daydream”. Now, to me, this is where it gets odd. This ain’t the Moonage Daydream you’re used to. This is something completely different. I had it bootleg version for a long time and loved it. However, the CD did what all CD’s eventually do and refused to play after a few years. I went a long time without hearing it. However, a while back, JeniQ wondered why her version of Moonage Daydream didn’t have the common opening lyrics of “I’m an alligator”…… To which I had to reply with the only idea I had, she MAY have the original Arnold Corns version. To say the least, it’s different. I bittorrented and found a copy of the original Arnold Corns demos. It flooded me with memories. And, it was exactly as I had explained. It has almost totally different lyrics. So, I was trying to figure some way to host the songs here when I stumbled upon a youtube edit some guy did with the original Moonage Daydream. I was flabbergasted. So, without further todo, here it is. Moonage Daydream as performed by Arnold Corns:

It’s so different, yet eerily the same. I love both versions!

Needless to say, after Bowie formed the Spiders, Ronno was no more. Freddi returned to the fashion industry as far as I cantell. I can’t find anything on the guy at this time. Not sure what his contribution was to creating Moonage Daydream, if any.

Why Iggy should be in the rock n roll Hall of Fame

Posted on July 4, 2007 by Moonage

One very simple reason. Just watch this video:

What’s so special about it you say? Bands have been doing it for years. Pearl Jam was famous for their surfing vids a long time ago. However, they credit Neil Young as their inspiration. However, Neil never did anything like this. While Neil was whining with Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Iggy was inventing a whole new concept for concerts. So, to put this in perspective for the younger crowd that’s used to punk and crowd surfing. The “wildest” thing people were watching was The Rolling Stones. The biggest hit of the year was “Aquarius”. And, the people most likely to have experienced the birth of crowd surfing ala Iggy would have been your grand-parents. Eddie Vedder might have experienced it, but I doubt it. He wasn’t in pre-school yet.

So, I just believe in giving credit where it’s due. Although few will claim it, almost every hard-edged rock band has emulated Iggy Pop for the last thirty-something years. You’d think Rolling Stone would know that.