Transformations
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Sound
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?
Tags: arnold corns, david bowie, mick ronson, moonage daydream
Arnold Corns
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Sound
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.
Tags: arnold corns, david bowie, freddie-buretti, hang-on-to-yourself, looking-for-a-friend, man-in-the-middle, mick ronson, mick-woodmansey, moonage daydream, ronno, rudi-valentino, Sound, star, trevor-bolder, Ziggy-Stardust
