Archive for the 'Sound' Category
Heroes and the Glass Spider
One of my favorite performances of ‘Heroes’ was during Glass Spider. Now, a lot of critics panned the tour. I am however, biased. I was there. It was what I expected of Bowie. A little glam, some bizarre choreography, and great tunes performed to perfection. It was his second “happy” tour, featuring a lot of his recent hits at the time. However, he threw in some staples, and, some off-beat stuff such as Sons of the Silent Age. However, the song that got me absolutely over the edge was the same song that always got me pumped:
Immediately after ‘Heroes’ was over, and I was still enthralled with the entire effect of the sound and vision, my date asked me when he was going to perform White Wedding or Rebel Yell. That was her last concert with me.
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Transformations
Most of Bowie’s most popular songs, and some of his lesser known songs, don’t quite resemble the originals. Space Oddity has taken on several re-mixes and re-recordings. But, it stayed pretty close to the original. The song that always caught my attention when it came to do-overs is Moonage Daydream. Now, this is purely an audio experience because I’m not sure there is any video footage of Bowie performing as Arnold Corns. As such, in order to fully appreciate the scope of this transformation, you have to listen to the entire version of both to appreciate the conclusion I come to at the end of this post. Ready? For newbies, I’m quite certain you’re not expecting what you are about to hear. This is the original version of Moonage Daydream, as recorded by David Bowie performing as Arnold Corns:
Now, once you’ve finished that one in its entirety, here’s what it became as Ziggy Stardust:
Finished? Now, the conclusion you’ve been waiting for:
It’s amazing what Mick Ronson can do to a song, huh?
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Bowie does Scarlett Johansson?
OK, so what does an aging rocker do when he’s tired of crowd surfing and trying to one-up teens screaming mindless words to over-abused way-too-distorted chords? Why, hang out with the hottest Hollywood babe going, of course:
That’s what Bowie is doing these days. Folks, he’s old enough to be her grandfather. He was nailing models before she was even born. Now, granted I don’t think his current model-wife would allow extra-marital flings at this point, he did the next best thing I would think. He did what he does best. He recorded an album with her. Now, nothing Bowie’s ever done has screamed normal. So, he teams up with the hottest Hollywood babe going and records a couple of songs originally recorded by Tom Waits:
Now, for those unfamiliar with Tom, he sings like a real man. Gravelly baritone. Nothing artistic or fancy about Tom, just ballads with simple music. Nothing glam either. In other words, nothing like a red-hot babe or a artsy glam-rock new-wave kinda guy. Nothing. So, to me, this is perfect. I’d like to catch a tune or two from this album. And, I will.
( Is it JUST a coincedence that Scarlett
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The Prettiest Star
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
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
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 youSo 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 piecesStaying 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 StarOne 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 StarStaying 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 StarOne 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 predicts.
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Arnold Corns
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
- “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.
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Space Oddity
It just suddenly struck me that in my desire to “interpret” some of my favorite Bowie tunes, I’ve forgotten probably his signature song, Space Oddity
It was basically the final farewell as Mick and David wouldn’t perform together for nearly two decades. The original demo to Space Oddity is a riot. But, it just doesn’t seem quite right here. So, I’ll save it for later. For reasons beyond my comprehension, the 1980 Floor Show has never been released in any capacity. Bowie would quickly ditch Ziggy after this show for the Young American and his glam days were over. But, boy, did he go out with a bang. More on that later.
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All The Madmen
When I was a kid, I used to watch Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert a lot. I also was glued to The Midnight Special. One particular evening this oddball guy with bright red hair and wearing bizarre clothes came on and sang a couple of songs on Don Kirshner’s show. I loved both songs and decided I had to have them. Now, you gotta understand, living in a small rural town pre-MTV and pre-internet made that no small task. I searched K-Mart and the local stores and just couldn’t figure out what the songs were. So, I did what most people did at that time, I went to the local head shop. The hippie running the place immediately identified the first song, Space Oddity
Getting past All The Madmen, the album took a breather with a couple of songs, then came hammering back with Running Gun Blues. Now, this song would make Slipknot and Korn nervous with lyrics like:
I count the corpses on my left, I find I’m not so tidy
So I better get away, better make it today
I’ve cut twenty-three down since Friday
But I can’t control it, my face is drawn
My instinct still emotes it
But I’ll slip out again tonight
Cause they haven’t taken back my rifle
For I promote oblivion
And I’ll plug a few civilians
And, the chorus went something like:
I’ll slash them cold, I’ll kill them dead
I’ll break them gooks, I’ll crack their heads
I’ll slice them till they’re running red
But now I’ve got the running gun blues
That was kinda unnerving to me. I hadn’t heard quite a harsh tune like that before. Saviour Machine didn’t let up too much either with lyrics like:
‘Please don’t believe in me, please disagree with me
Life is too easy, a plague seems quite feasible now
or maybe a war, or I may kill you all
Don’t let me stay, don’t let me stay
My logic says burn so send me away
Your minds are too green, I despise all I’ve seen
You can’t stake your lives on a Saviour Machine
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more violent, along comes She Shook Me Cold:
We met upon a hill, the night was cool and still
She sucked my dormant will
Mother, she blew my brain, I will go back again
My God, she shook my cold
I had no time to spare, I grabbed her golden hair
And threw her to the ground
Father, she caved my head, Oh Lord, the things she said
My God, she should be told
I wasn’t really sure what to make of that. He was either getting a blow job or committing violent rape. I went with the blow job. He then returned to his older style with The Man Who Sold The World and the spacey The Supermen.
It took me a while to move on through the other albums. The song I was looking for was Time from Aladdin Sane
Here’s my versions:
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Brian Eno
I honestly don’t have a clue how to do this one right. Brian Eno. That should say it all? Problem is, it doesn’t. Especially to the younger audiences. The VH1 and MTV greatest lists never mention Brian Eno. You don’t see kids getting blisters trying to emulate Eno riffs. You don’t see classical performers comparing Eno keyboards to the likes of Bach or Beethoven. You don’t see Eddie Vedder praising Brian Eno. Hell, you don’t even see Alicia Keyes praising Brian Eno. All of them should. Here’s just a little list of Eno’s contributions that I personally enjoy a lot.
| David Bowie | Sound and Vision, Breaking Glass | |
| David Bowie | ‘Heroes’ is possibly my all time fave. | |
| Devo | Whip It, Mongoloid | |
| Talking Heads | Take Me to The River | |
| Talking Heads | Life During Wartime, Heaven | |
| Talking Heads | Once in a Lifetime | |
| U2 | Pride | |
| U2 | Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Waiting For, With or Without You, Bullet The Blue Sky | |
| U2 | Zoo Station, Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, Mysterious Ways, One | |
| Peter Gabriel | Steam | |
| U2 | Numb, Lemon | |
| U2 | Beautiful Day | |
| About Everything John Cale ever did. | John Cale |
The list goes on and on for practically eternity. Eno seemed to zone in on the bands I liked best. And, they usually came out with a classic as the result.
Here’s some of my Mooned Eno’s:
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Stevie Ray Vaughn
Stevie Ray Vaughn had been sort of lurking in the shadows of rock stardom. Everyone knew he was great, but he hadn’t had that breakthrough song to put him over the top. In 1982 or so, David saw Stevie doing a show and invited him to work on his newest album. Let’s Dance is not my favorite Bowie album, but it did provide a distribution mechanism for one of my favorite songs, Cat People. However, this post is about Stevie. Stevie took an otherwise droll pop song Bowie did and turned into a classic hit that is still played today. The hook to Let’s Dance is all Stevie Ray Vaughn. Stevie got the mass audience he deserved when Let’s Dance became Bowie’s first #1 hit in 1983. In 1986 Stevie would find his own claim to fame when Pride and Joy was released. Four years later, Stevie died in airplane crash. The original Let’s Dance sounds like a studio recording. There’s several very similar versions floating around on radio. What you won’t ever hear on the radio is the Serious Moonlight dress rehearsals. Stevie just does his thing all the way through the songs. On the Let’s Dance rehearsal, he plays both the hooks that make the song fun, but he also fills in the vocal track as well. It’s more fun to listen to than the studio recording. Someone did a midi that I think is supposed to be the dress rehearsal of Let’s Dance. I prettied it up some, but not much. It gives a good feeling for what the live Stevie sounded like on the Let’s Dance dress rehearsal tape. Hope you enjoy it.
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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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