Screwtube and old old memories.
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Vision
I just love the advent of (anything but) Youtube and the like. When I was about 11 or 12 years old or so, I got into watching an old show called The Midnight Special. Now, ya gotta understand, this was WAY before MTV or VH1 existed. Music videos were still in their infancy and used primarily to promote songs. They weren’t intended to be stand-alone products. As such, they were usually just clips of the performers singing their song. Also, 1973 was a period of transition socially as the flower-power children were giving way to newer trends. As such, just about everyone performing wore jeans and tie-dye t-shirts. Needless to say, it was usually boring. As such, you watched the live rock shows hoping to catch some great new tunes. Imagine my shock and amazement when sandwiched in between some Byrds performances, I saw THIS:
It was a clip of Time from David’s 1980 Floor Show. Eventually I’d get to see the entire show as a rerun, and from that point on rock was never the same for me. I went probably 20 years without getting to see that special performance as neither Bowie nor Midnight Special saw fit to package it or make it available to the general public. With the demise of Midnight Special, I figured that show was lost forever. Now, most all of it’s back, and viewable. The internet has become what I thought it could be, a special place that preserves all history by people who just care about stuff. This is so cool!
Tags: 1980-Floor-Show, david bowie, Midnight-Special, time, Vision
Jeannie Lewis
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
John from Australia sent me an email with a song attached and warned me that I may love this or hate it. Now, IMO, if you’re a true Bowie music fan, that’s the whole point. Almost every song that Bowie’s done I never liked upon first listening. Let’s Dance, Never Let Me Down, and Tonight were easy listening, but that’s it. Some of Bowie’s stuff I hated upon first listening, and still do. Some Bowie stuff I hated on first listening, but grew to love it. Most of it wasn’t meant to be pretty background music for elevators and doctors’ offices. It was meant to assault your senses. The beauty of the Ziggy era tours was it was a full bluntal assault that took on your visual, your hearing, and your logic.
Jeannie Lewis understood that in 1975. Her version of Bowie’s All The Madmen is different to say the very least. I’ll just wrap this up with this warning: You’ll either love it, or hate it.
I can’t find that Jeannie Lewis’ stuff is available to buy online. If anyone is aware that it is, please let me know so I can plug her stuff. I would venture to guess her stuff is quite interesting.
Thanks again John.
UPDATE: Mr. Kenneth just sent me yet another Jeannie Lewis Bowie remake. This just happens to be one of my all-time favorite songs. Time. If I were going to do Bowie song, for real, it would have either been Time or Heroes. Jeannie nails it. She gets the campiness of the song and the “flame” aspect of it as well. The only thing missing is Mick’s solo at the end. Here they are! Thanks as well Mr. Kenneth!
Tags: all-the-madmen, david bowie, Interpretations, jeannie-lewis, time
