Archive for the 'Vision' 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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Suffragette City at Imperial College
EKOMusic made this excellent find and either posted it on Youtube, or found it there. I dunno. However, since I posted an equally obscure video of Bowie performing and got banished from Youtube, and needless to say that upload got deleted, I don’t feel too safe with this piece of rock history being purged forever. So, I’ve fleeced it and posted it in a slightly safer place I think.
This is a performance Bowie did of Suffragette City at Imperial College on February 12, 1972.
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The rise and eventual liberation of Lord Royal Highness
In about one hour, after months of anxiously awaiting, Bowie makes his cartoon debut ( as far as I know ), as Lord Royal Highness on the Spongebob special Atlantis Squarepantis!
Don’t know about you all, but me and the Moonlet will be watching!
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Space Oddity on Hits A Go Go ( have you seen THIS outfit before? )
If you wanna see the evolution of David Bowie in its entirity, just watch all the videos of Space Oddity. Or just do it here, I’ve got a bunch of them. And, I’ll probably have a bunch more. Never one of my favorite recordings, his live performances most often were much better than the studio. Unfortunately, this is not one of those. This is possibly the only time, outside of demo videos, you’ll see Bowie lip syncing here. However, the unusualness of this performance is worth watching. Remember Tommy James circa 1970 or so? Just watch, it’s a great chuckle to me:
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Space Oddity, the original motion picture
Most people consider the RCA/Mick Rock video of a shock-red-haired androgynous Bowie as the original Space Oddity video. A lot of sources will cite it as such. However, about three years before that, while he was still David Jones, he actually prepared a demo for Space Oddity that is a hoot to me to this day. This is a very young Bowie showing some of the almost child-like imagination that seemed prevalant through his early years. I actually like it more than the glitzier RCA version of 1972. If anyone has better information on this video, I’d love to have it here. Here it goes:
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Lindsay Kemp and The Jean Genie
This is probably the most difficult person to write on I’ve ever dealt with on this blog. Very, very, very early in Bowie’s career, he made some unusual life choices. First of all, he teamed up with a rather odd character named Lindsay Kemp.
And, he dabbled in Buddhism. Now, the thing about Lindsay Kemp, especially in the late 60’s, was he was into pantomime. Bowie, was singing and looking very, very, normal. This made for a career that was basically going nowhere. However, once Bowie teamed up with Kemp, things started getting strange real quick.
First, he tried his hand at mime. That didn’t go anywhere on the charts. So, he added music to his mime:
That went a lot farther!
Now, you have to look kinda close, but one of the scary looking people is Lindsay Kemp ( I think ). Actually it’s Jack Birkett. See his excellent comment which leads to his Myspace page!
Now, you can read all you want about Kemp at Wiki or whatever. But, it was his very odd mix of Kabuki and dance IMO that gave us this:
Now, I picked this particular song for a reason. Lindsay Kemp was a huge fan of a fellow named Jean Genet. Now, Jean Genet was not your everyday run of the mill bum/author/poet/prostitute/political activist. He apparently was quite gay as well, being kicked out of the army for indecency. I think it’s quite obvious what song Jean Genet inspired:
A small Jean Genie snuck off to the city
Strung out on lasers and slash back blazers
Ate all your razors while pulling the waiters
Talking bout Monroe and walking on Snow White
New York’s a go-go and everything tastes right
Poor little GreenieCHORUS
The Jean Genie lives on his back ( prostitute )
The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks ( homosexual )
He’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls ( protests everything )
Jean Genie let yourself go! ( friendly sarcasm )Sits like a man but he smiles like a reptile
She loves him, she loves him but just for a short while
She’ll scratch in the sand, won’t let go his hand
He says he’s a beautician and sells you nutrition
And keeps all your dead hair for making up underwear
Poor little GreenieCHORUSHe’s so simple minded he can’t drive his module
He bites on the neon and sleeps in the capsule
Loves to be loved, loves to be loved
I know there has to be some song Bowie did that was based on Lindsay Kemp, but so far I can’t think of which it would be. But, it was Bowie meeting and teaming up with Kemp that led to Ziggy Stardust and Bowie’s most visual and writing creativity for a decade. In other words, although there may be no specific song acknowledging Kemp’s influence on Bowie, what Bowie became IS that tribute.
Jean Genet died about 20 years ago. Lindsay Kemp is about 70, alive, and pretty much retired. If you want to see some very odd, and visually and mentally challenging stuff, Google Lindsay Kemp ( and Jack Birkett, aka the incredible Orlando ). I really can’t do their stuff justice here.
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Arthur and the Invisibles
Bowie’s apparently in another movie, in voice only:
Looks like one to take the Moonlet to see. This is very cool.
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Memory of a Free Festival
Before Bowie was Ziggy, before he was The Thin White Duke, before he became African or animated, he was a long haired hipster singing folk songs, looking something like this:
However, also from the same album as Space Oddity was an odd little tune that gave everyone a truer idea of what he was thinking at that time, Memory of a Free Festival:
The Children of the summer’s end
Gathered in the dampened grass
We played Our songs and felt the London sky
Resting on our hands
It was God’s land
It was ragged and naive
It was Heaven
Touch, We touched the very soul Of holding each and every life
We claimed the very source of joy ran through
It didn’t, but it seemed that way
I kissed a lot of people that day
Oh, to capture just one drop of all the ecstasy that swept that afternoon
To paint that love upon a white balloon
And fly it from the toppest top of all the tops That man has pushed beyond his brain
Satori must be something just the same
We scanned the skies with rainbow eyes and saw machines of every shape and size
We talked with tall Venusians passing through
And Peter tried to climb aboard but the Captain shook his head
And away they soared
Climbing through the ivory vibrant cloud
Someone passed some bliss among the crowd
And We walked back to the road, unchained
“The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We’re Gonna Have a Party”
OK, we’ve got Zen Buddhism, Woodstock, Heaven, God, ecstasy, aliens, bliss, and freedom. And, to finish it off, we’re gonna have a party. With the references to “Sun Machines”, bliss, and ecstasy, you’d think this song was written this year. However, it was written a long time ago, about 1967 or so. Somehow or another Bowie packed everything his world encompassed musically into one song. And, it also signaled a musical pattern Bowie would follow a lot for about a decade, meandering through a story without really saying anything. Who are the Children of the summer’s end? Hippies? Could be, we don’t really know. How many people would describe London as “ragged and naive, it was God’s land”? That’s not the London I know. Who is Peter and why do we care? Do Venusians speak English on Venus? So many questions, no answers. Just a strange, strange story. That’s what I liked about Bowie then. Every good song left you with the feeling of “WTF?”.
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Here’s my version, I just did it on my new PC.
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Here’s the original version via Sony
, it’s like 99 cents or so.
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Memory of a Free Festival originally appeared on
Space Oddity ( Man of Words, Man of Music ).
I’d suggest the album first. I like my version a lot, but I refuse to allow anyone else hear me sing it!
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The Little Fat Man
And, ever true to his prognostications of his own day to day life, immediately after retiring, he’s been caught performing for TV. The result is the new smash hit, The Little Fat Man. Here’s the lyrics as I couldn’t catch it quick enough:
Little fat man who sold his soul,
Little fat man who sold his dream…
Pathetic little fat man,
No one’s bloody laughing,
The clown that no one laugh’s at,
They all just wish he’d die.
He’s so depressed at being hated,
Fatso takes his own life,
He blows his stupid brains out,
But the twat would probably miss.
He sold his soul for a shot at fame,
Catchphrase and wig and the jokes are lame,
He’s got no style, he’s got no grace,
He’s banal and facile, he’s a fat waste of space
See his pug-nosed face…Pug, pug, pug, pug,
See his pug-nosed face…Pug, pug, pug, pug,
See his pug-nosed face…Pug, pug, pug, pug,
The little fat man with the pug-nosed face, Pug, pug, pug, pug,
Little fat man, pug-nosed face, Pug, pug, pug, pug,
He’s a little fat pug-nosed face, Pug, pug, pug, pug.
Apparently Bowie’s going to be fairly regular on Extras. According to an email I received, he’s going to make another appearance on Extras for season two.
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