Greatest, gayest, album of all time?
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
A while back I did a post on “Bands that make you gay“. It was a fairly all-reaching list that included pretty much anyone that ever recorded a song. Bowie didn’t fair too well on that list. However, once one of those bands has made you gay, Bowie apparently fairs much better. According to Out magazine, the greatest, gayest, album of all time is Ziggy Stardust. Bowie gets later mentions for Hunky Dory and Diamond Dogs as well.
As with any list, I find this one rather conspicuous. For me, the gayest album of all time, bar none, had to be Village People’s Macho Man and Cruisin. Before that point, it was one thing for people to think someone was gay, after that point, EVERYONE had to be gay. Otherwise normal teen boys were suddenly running around doing dances and moves that they learned from extremely open gay guys. What everyone thought meant the Young Men’s Christian Association suddenly meant a place to get hit on by old gay guys. No longer was it suggested that a singer was gay, they tossed it at you as part of their marketing. Village People busted down the doors the Elton John and others would strut through poudly and loudly. YMCA’s not even on this list.
A close second would be Frankie Goes To Hollyood’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome
Ziggy Startdust on the other hand I never interpreted as being about being gay. It was a story about the moral decline of civilization right about the time it finds out it has only a few years left to survive and how some of the indivual characters responded. It wasn’t sending the message that it was OK to be confused about your sexual orientation, it was painting the picture that they just were confused. Elton John was sending that message at about the same time, but Bowie really didn’t on Ziggy. There were all kinds of people illustrated on Ziggy, gays faired no better or worse than cops, priests, robots, or anything else. They faired a lot better a few years later with YMCA.
As far as the individual effect of Ziggy went, I think it meant different things to different people. Sure, “you’re not alone” might appeal to the sexually confused young teen struggling to find their identity. But, it appealed equally to the thoroughly straight teen who couldn’t grasp how to relate to members of the opposite sex. Moonage Daydream wasn’t about sticking a penis shaped object close to one’s face, to others it was a fubar drug trip with sexual overtones. And, I always felt it was about mechanical sex devices, like in robots. Another great, gay, musician that was totally omitted from the list, Gary Numan, would take that trip even farther with “Are Friends Electric?“. His “friend” was “a man outside”. There was no ambiguity.
The beauty of Bowie’s early stuff, especially in the three albums Out mentions, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, and Diamond Dogs, is the ambiguity. They can be interpreted so differently by anone listening to them that you almost wouldn’t recognize what people are comparing. The fact that Out seems to think Ziggy is the greatest, gayest album of all time I think is simply a statement to how incredibly masterful Bowie was with that ambiguity in 1972.
Tags: are-friends-electric, cruisin, david bowie, diamond dogs, elton john, frankie-goes-to-hollywood, gary-numan, goodbye-yellow-brick-road, hunky-dory, lady-stardust, macho man, moonage daydream, pleasuredome, relax, rock-n-roll-suicide, village people, ymca, Ziggy-Stardust
Bowie in Space Chimps
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
The family commentary on Space Chimps is on my main blog. But, I had to comment on how much I emjoyed the concept of monkey-birds discussing David Bowie in a kid’s cartoon movie. People couldn’t understand them of course, it just sounded like squawking 
Tags: david bowie, monkey-bird, moonage daydream, space chimps, squawk
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
Moonage Daydream
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Sound
Moonage Daydream was the song that would make Ziggy famous. Somehow it morphed from a funky folk ballad Bowie originally sang as Arnold Corns with Freddie Buretti. That version was a classic in itself, but to me, the Ziggy Moonage Daydream was the heaviest thing I’d ever heard. I don’t really know what Mick was doing to his quitar, sounds like he was playing along with synthesized strings, but his solo just went everywhere. It was the closest thing to rock mayhem Bowie would get on vinyl for a long, long, time. I’m not sure who convinced Bowie to let Mick loose for once, but it worked. They should have done it a lot more, Mick’s talent was rarely fully explored with Bowie. Moonage Daydream has always been my Bowie staple. Other songs come and go in my Top 10 list, but Moonage Daydream, both versions, have remained way up there on the list, usually #1.
Here’s my version, I like it. It’s one of my favorite remixes.
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If you want just the song, you can get it on Itunes |
September 25, 2006 UPDATE: Here’s Bowie’s best performance EVER of Moonage Daydream.
Tags: david bowie, mick ronson, moonage daydream, Sound, Ziggy-Stardust
