Bowie Mug Shot
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie
Via The Smoking Gun. Some guy is trying to sell the original Bowie mug shot from 1976. See the full details and story at The Smoking Gun.
Why does his mug shots even look cool?
Tags: 1976, david bowie, new-york, rochester, The World Of David Bowie
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie
Bowie sure has had a strange effect on some people. Saul Williams has created a “piece” based somehow on Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust apparently. Now, I’m not sure if this some kind of reference to Bowie per se, or, it’s Trent Reznor’s influence on Saul. Kind of hard to tell since the only overt reference to anyone else seems to be the song Sunday Bloody Sunday
I might just give this one a shot. If nothing else, I am curious.
A sidenote, Saul is doing the radiohead thingy whereby you can download his stuff either for free or make a donation. I love this. I really do. Do the right thing peeps and make this work. The sooner music isn’t dominated by the RCAs and Sonys the sooner we’ll get back to real music that makes people learn and think.
Tags: david bowie, indie, niggy, radiohead, rca, saul-williams, sony, sunday-bloody-sunday, tardust, The World Of David Bowie, trent-reznor, U2
Ron Mueck
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie
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
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:
And here’s a little movie on some of his stuff and how he does it:
Pretty incredible huh?
Tags: labyrinth, realism, ron-mueck, The World Of David Bowie
Why Iggy should be in the rock n roll Hall of Fame
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie
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.
Tags: cincinnati, crowd-surfing, Eddie-Vedder, hall-of-fame, iggy-pop, neil-young, pearl-jam, rock-n-roll, rolling-stone, The World Of David Bowie
The Guitars of David Bowie?
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie
Luke Slater over at TinMachine does a really neat survey of the guitars Bowie has used through the years. He comes to the conclusion Bowie basically has two guitars. One acoustic, one electric. Luke then finishes up with a conclusion that loses me. He thinks this is sad.
Now, ya gotta remember that for the most part, Bowie never considered himself a guitar player. Sure, he’s strummed a lot, but find a video where Bowie gets down on a guitar. It don’t happen. He plays piano, keyboards, saxophone, whatever it takes to get the sound he wants. No biggie. Also, consider the guitar players he’s hung out with over the last forty years or so:
- Mick Ronson
- John Lennon
- Jeff Beck
- Peter Frampton
- Stevie Ray Vaughn
- Nile Rodgers
- Charlie Sexton
- Earl Slick
- Carlos Alomar
- Adrian Belew
- Robert Fripp
- Reeves Gabrels
- David Gilmour
If I could count on that line-up to make me sound good, I’d have two less guitars than Bowie does.
Tags: Adrian-Belew, Carlos-Alomar, Charlie-Sexton, david bowie, David-Gilmour, Earl-Slick, guitar, Jeff-Beck, John-Lennon, mick ronson, nile-rodgers, Peter-Frampton, Reeves-Gabrels, Robert-Fripp, Stevie-Ray-Vaughn, The World Of David Bowie
Freddie Mercury
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie
From the “official” Freddie Mercury website:
Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5th 1946 in Zanzibar, to parents Bomi & Jer Bulsara. Freddie moved to India in 1947. He attended boarding school in Panchgani, just outside Bombay. Whilst there he began his piano lessons, reaching Grade 4 in practical and theory. The family, with the addition now of younger sister Kashmira, moved to England in 1963.
Freddie left Isleworth school in 1964 with three “O” levels and one “A” level in Art. He went to Ealing College of Art to study Graphic Illustration. He left college in 1969 with a Diploma in Graphic Art & Design (the equivalent of a Degree). Freddie joined his first serious band in 1969, the were called IBEX.
Freddie stood 5ft 9 inches tall with black hair and dark brown eyes. He was single and shared his large house and garden with several cats, creatures he adored. He loved opera and ballet, Marilyn Monroe was his favourite actress and Aretha Franklin just one of his many favourite singers. He liked to drink either Champagne or iced Vodka and Indian food was one of his favourites. He sadly died on November 24th 1991.
Now, what this incredibly brief bio leaves out really, is how a young quite gay Zanzibarian living in India being trained in classical piano would wind up being a huge rock star in the United States. Queen sort of faded towards the end, but when I was a teen, they ruled. A much better bio is on The Biography Channel. However, it’s a lot easier to just state the obvious. Queen was getting a little airplay, and very little critical acclaim, until they released one song that changed everything both for them, but for music video and rock in general as well, Bohemian Rhapsody
From that point on, Freddie had the resources to do whatever he pleased. Although never quite as wild as say, Bowie or Elton John, Freddie developed a reputation for putting hellacious shows that were, let’s say, extravagant. And, quite frankly, in very short order, it became rather obvious that Freddie was quite gay. Not your closet gay, but your extremely flaming gay. He didn’t come right out and admit it, but like George Michael, you just knew it. Mercury was quite private. Not in a denial sort of way, but just very quiet about everything. He espoused no political views, he was firm in his religious faith but never spoke of it, and was extremely gay and never said anything about it. Even in the homophobic rural area I live, Queen rocked. You just sort of ignored how he acted.
In 1981 Queen teamed up with Bowie, their first collaboration outside of their own group. The result was a monster favorite of mine during a period where Bowie teamed up with several other performers. I had no idea it was coming, and the song hit me like a ton of bricks as it was by far the most powerful song he had done in a few years. Without any reason to babble on more about “Under Pressure”, here it is performed by Freddie and Queen in 1986 or so:
In 1990 Vanilla Ice exposed what rap was all about by blatantly ripping the bass line from Under Pressure. The criticism he got over that pretty much ended his career ( that and the fact he basically sucked ).
In 1992, a decade after Bohemian Rhapsody burned up the charts and made Queen famous, Mike Myers would give it an entirely newl life of it’s when it was featured in Wayne’s World
Things were going just fine for Freddie Mercury, except for one problem. He had AIDS. Like the rest of his life, he kept this issue very private. People speculated as his physical health very obviously deteriorated. Finally on November 23, 1991, Freddie announced publicly his situation:
“Following enormous conjecture in the press, I wish to confirm that I have been tested HIV positive and have AIDS. I felt it correct to keep this information private in order to protect the privacy of those around me. However, the time has now come for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth, and I hope everyone will join me, my doctors and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease.”
The next day, he died.
In April 1992, a benefit for Freddie Mercury was performed with a rather incredible line-up. However, a couple of Bowie performances stood out:
And, more importantly, Bowie was about to lose yet another person he had performed magically with for years. Mick Ronson would die almost a year to the date later of cancer. This would be the last time they ever played together:
The main legacy Freddie gave to rock was opera. With their promo video for “Bohemian Rhapsody”, artists suddenly were no longer restricted to touring and toying with songs to test their marketability. Bohemian Rhapsody pre-dated MTV. But, what it did was set the stage FOR MTV. With David Bowie, Queen, Gary Numan, and a hand full of others, rock became more than just music. Because it became more than just music, a venue other than radio had to exist. That new venue was music TV. Now, for us older rockers, every time I see a well made music video ( which is getting kinda rare these days ), I either think of Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes, or, more appropriately, the four faces opening Bohemian Rhapsody.
Tags: AIDS, annie-lennox, bohemian-rhapsody, daivd-bowie, freddie-mercury, mick ronson, MTV, queen, The World Of David Bowie, under-pressure
Femme Fatale
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie
Sparkalot sent me a link to a video of Nico performing with Lou Reed. It’s gone now. However, I did find another of her performing with Velvet Underground. So, here goes.
This was Lou and the boys a few years before he would team up with Bowie for Transformer
Nico was the main babe of the New York alternative/punk scene during it’s climax. As that scene eventually faded, so did Nico. She died of a brain hemorrhage in Ibeza in 1988.
Lou is still performing today.
Femme Fatale is by far my favorite Nico song. I leave this post with a video of my favorite Lou Reed ditty. And, it’s not Walk on the Wild Side.
Tags: femme-fatale, Lou-Reed, Nico, sweet-jane, The World Of David Bowie, walk-on-the-wild-side
Michael Oberman’s nature shots
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie
I have been toying with Flickr a lot lately. I like it. It’s a vibrant community that shares most of its personna and thoughts through pictures. It’s also a wealth of history through the eye of a lens. I was recently pointed to Michael Oberman’s pics on Flickr. For the most part it has lot of pictures of birds, flowers, and other nature stuff. In the middle of all that, it has this shot:
That’s Michael, his brother, and a very young David Bowie sitting on Oberman’s mom’s couch. It was Bowie’s first night in the United States, sometime in January, 1971. He was here to promote his newest album, The Man Who Sold the World, as well as pushing his yet to be released album, Hunky Dory. His first US performance was in Washington DC. While here, he started working on his next album. It would be Ziggy Stardust. The first time he came to the US, he had to shack up in someone’s mom’s house. The next time he came back, a year later, he was a star.
To think it all started on Michael’s mom’s couch in Silver Spring.
Tags: david bowie, michael-oberman, The World Of David Bowie
Lindsay Kemp and The Jean Genie
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie, Vision
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.
Tags: david bowie, incredible-orlando, jack-birkett, jean-genet, john-im-only-dancing, lindsay-kemp, The World Of David Bowie, the-jean-genie, the-mask, Vision, width-of-a-circle
Stooges snubbed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, again
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie
In 1969, things were kind of boring. The Flower Power generation was burning out on acid, MTV, VH1, XM, and the internet were a generation away, and the only thing allowed on the radio was pretty boring stuff for the most part. Don’t believe me? Here’s the biggest hits of 1969:
| # 1 |
Aquarious/Let The Sunshine In - The 5th Dimension
|
# 1
|
| # 2 |
In The Year 2525 - Zager & Evens
|
# 1
|
| # 3 |
Get Back - The Beatles
|
# 1
|
| # 4 |
Sugar, sugar - The Archies
|
# 1
|
| # 5 |
Honky Tonk Women - The Rolling Stones
|
# 1
|
| # 6 |
Everyday People - Sly & The Family Stone
|
# 1
|
| # 7 |
Dizzy - Tommy Roe
|
# 1
|
| # 8 |
Wedding Bell Blues - The 5th Dimension
|
# 1
|
| # 9 |
I Can’t Get Next to you - The Temptations
|
# 1
|
| # 10 |
Crimson And Clover - Tommy James & The Shondells
|
# 1
|
| # 11 |
Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye - Steam
|
# 1
|
| # 12 |
Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet - Henry Mancini
|
# 1
|
| # 13 |
Leaving On a Jet Plane - Peter, Paul & Mary
|
# 1
|
| # 14 |
Come Together - The Beatles
|
# 1
|
| # 15 |
Someday We’ll Be Together - Diana Ross and The Supremes
|
# 1
|
| # 16 |
Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley
|
# 1
|
| # 17 |
Crystal Blue Persuasion - Tommy James & The Shondells
|
# 2
|
| # 18 |
Proud Mary - Creedence Clearwater Revival
|
# 2
|
| # 19 |
Spinning Wheel - Blood, Sweat & Tears
|
# 2
|
| # 20 |
A Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash
|
# 2
|
Now, don’t get me wrong, some of those tunes were excellent. However, exciting is not the word to describe 1969. Except, one band particularly kind of went a different route. It pretty much guaranteed they wouldn’t be heard on FM radio for a decade. The Stooges absolutely shattered the recording norm for 1969 featuring a LOT of distortion, feedback, and recorded so loud it sometimes didn’t make a lot of sense. Nowadays that’s pretty much the norm with a lot of bands. In 1969, it wasn’t terribly accepted. So, The Stooges became concert staples, but sold very very few albums compared to most. Some songs sort of teetered on the edge of popularity, but it wasn’t till about a decade later with “Real Wild Child” in 1976 that Iggy and The Stooges got some airplay. Nowadays Lust for Life and The Passenger are used for commercials. In 1976 there were considered a little too edgy for most FM at the time. But, they still did pretty good on the charts. “Real Wild Child”’s had a life of it’s own, I guess it would be Iggy’s biggest claim to fame.
However, apparently old habits are hard to break. For the sixth time, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has turned down the godfathers of punk. I don’t know why. The Sex Pistols got in, but there would have never been The Sex Pistols if it weren’t for The Stooges. It’s that simple.
Send a message to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that they need to recognize the trendsetters a lot more than the followers.
You can even sign a petition here.
Tags: david bowie, iggy-pop, stooges, The World Of David Bowie
