Month: May 2011

Scanning life through the picture window…

Many happy returns of the day to film director Duncan Jones who is pictured above at the tender age of twenty nine filming a rock concert at the Roseland Ballroom, NYC, in June 2000.

Before he became the internationally-renowned director we know him as, he would occasionally do ‘favour’ jobs to keep his hand in while he learned his trade.

This particular concert was a performance by his father, the Glam Rock singer, David Bowie, who is worth checking out if you’ve not stumbled upon him. Seems to be an abundance of talent in this particular family.

Anyway, hope you’re having a great day, Duncan…much love from everybody here at BowieNet and here’s to your continued success in that there movie business.

CHEEKY FOOTNOTE: Could I also take this opportunity to abuse my position and wish my own daughter, Holly, a wonderful 21st birthday today!

I gazed a gazely stare at all the millions here…

Following on from Sorrow‘s appearance in this same poll a few days ago, (05.23.2011 NEWS: SORROW IN GIBSON’S TOP 50 BEST COVER VERSIONS) Gibson.com has now placed Nirvana‘s version of The Man Who Sold the World at #14 in their poll of the fifty best cover versions of all time. Here’s what they said about the recording…

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Kurt Cobain?s affection for this title track from David Bowie?s 1970 album was palpable when Nirvana performed it during the band?s MTV Unplugged appearance.

In Nirvana?s hands, the song took on a warmer hue than the Bowie original, although the band was careful to preserve the mystery at the heart of the song.

Cobain?s faithful rendering of the haunting riff ? which had originally been played by the great Mick Ronson ? was transcendent. ? Russell Hall

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Under normal circumstances I guess that would be quite impressive. However, seeing as how SPIN magazine had the very same track at #1 in an identical poll a couple of years back, (10.03.2009 NEWS: NIRVANA’S TMWSTW VOTED BEST COVER VERSION OF ALL TIME) it kind of takes the shine off this achievement a little.

Check out that original SPIN news item for an amusing quotation from DB regarding his own mid-nineties live performance of the song.

On a related note, Nirvana;s original drummer, Chad Channing, reckons he turned Kurt on to The Man Who Sold The World in the first place…here’s a bit from a piece by Greg Prato over on ugo.com, on what the group listened to on the tour bus during their Bleach tour of 1989…

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“There was the one David Bowie record, The Man Who Sold the World, which I bought this copy of the record, because it had a little poster in it. I think in a music store in Boston. And I bought some blank tapes – we were at somebody’s house, and I put the record on tape, and put that in the player and started playing that.”

“Those guys were like, “Whoa! That’s a trip, what’s this? Well, I think Krist [Novoselic] heard it before…I know Kurt [Cobain] hadn’t though, because he asked me who it was, and I said, ‘This is David Bowie'”

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You can read the full thing here.

What can I do? Standing next to you…

On what would have been his 65th birthday, legacy.com takes a brief look back on the life and career of Mick Ronson.

You can read the full thing and watch a couple of videos here, but here’s an excerpt in the shape of a comment from DB which he made on The Arsenio Hall Show shortly after Mick?s death

?The band ? The Spiders From Mars ? that was the whole situation that sort of got me the kind of fame I had in the early ’70s. The lead guitarist for that band was Mick Ronson and unfortunately, tragically, he succumbed to cancer 3 or 4 days ago… and in his passing I want to say that of all the early ’70s guitar players Mick was probably one of the most influential and profound and I miss him a lot.?

Meanwhile, if you’re in Mick’s hometown of Hull on June 4th, you may want to attend the second annual Mick Ronson Legacy charity event. Full details and musical acts booked for the day can be viewed here.

We performed Heroes, just for two days…

For those of you that didn’t manage to get along to the live New York premiere of Philip Glass‘ “Heroes” Symphony on May 20/21, (11.28.2010 NEWS: NY PREMIER OF PHILIP GLASS’ HEROES SYMPHONY) you may be pleased to learn that you can hear the whole thing online courtesy of NPR.

The image above is of Brad Lubman conducting the Wordless Music Orchestra, and Signal Ensemble as they performed the piece on the first night (May 20), at New York’s Society for Ethical Culture.

You can listen to the performance here, but you should allow yourself a little under fifty minutes if you want to hear the entire “Heroes” Symphony.

In fact, if you also want to listen to the other pieces by Gyorgy Ligeti and Jonny Greenwood, you need to set aside an hour and thirty eight minutes.

Drink, drink, drain your glass, raise your glass high…

Congratulations are due to David Bowie and EMI and everybody involved in the Station To Station marketing campaign last year…with particular thanks to Jo Brooks and Nigel Reeve at EMI who have scooped the 2011 Music Week Catalogue Marketing Campaign Of The Year Award at a ceremony at the Roundhouse in London.

Despite my mild cynicism in the shortlist announcement news item, (04.18.2011 NEWS: S2S SHORTLISTED IN MUSIC WEEK AWARDS NOMINATIONS) when I suggested that perhaps winning the same award several years earlier might reduce the chances of winning this year’s award, I was very happy to have been proved wrong and glad to see that great work triumphs.

I think most of you will agree that the deluxe box version of Station To Station set the bar for how these repackages should be handled. And who could argue that the 3 disc special box version wasn’t incredible value for money too.

Here’s to future Bowie catalogue releases receiving the same loving treatment and attention to detail.

You’re out there playing your high class games of sorrow…

The folks at Gibson.com have kicked off another of their popular polls with what they reckon to be the Top 50 Cover Songs of All Time.

In the first instalment they have listed ten covers from #50 down to #41 and David Bowie’s 1973 cover of Sorrow is at #46. Here’s what they had to say about it…

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46. ?Sorrow,? David Bowie (The McCoys, The Merseys)

This track from Bowie?s 1973 Pinups covers album foreshadowed the crooner style Bowie would often adopt on the albums that followed. Sporting a less sprite arrangement than The Merseys? 1966 hit upon which it was based (The McCoys, of ?Hang on Sloopy? fame, had actually first recorded the song), Bowie?s version was power by watery keyboards and a sax-fueled bridge. His performance of ?Sorrow? on the legendary 1980 Floor Show was a highlight of that TV spectacle. ? Russell Hall

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The Merseys‘ 1966 single reached #4 in the UK chart, while Bowie’s version released seven years later managed to scrape in one place higher at #3 on the same chart.

Though the UK chart position was more than respectable, the Bowie cover made it to #2 in Ireland and it reached the top spot in both New Zealand and Australia.

This success Down Under was reflected in the issuing of sheet music (bottom left in above montage) which wasn’t common for that territory.

The blue sheet music next to it above, was one of three versions released in the UK..the other colours being red and green.

Finally, the big bonus for fans was the appearance on the B-side of a non-album cover version, the Mort Shuman adaptation of Jacques Brel‘s Amsterdam, aka, Port Of Amstrerdam.

At the time, I reckon I played this as frequently as the A-side, such was the strength of Bowie’s emotional and slowly-building, brilliant and breathless performance.

In fact, the French picture cover made it look as though the A and B sides had indeed been flipped, see top left in above montage, but this wasn’t the case.

She could’ve been a Killer if she didn’t walk the way she do, and she do…

Pictured above are of Montreal, with frontman Kevin Barnes at the… erm… front and Killer, Brandon Flowers peering over his shoulder.

Both have featured on these pages previously and they’ve both had something to say about David Bowie again recently. Here’s an excerpt from avclub.com wherein Kevin Barnes talks about one of his all-time favourite onstage personas…

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David Bowie?s Thin White Duke

KB: I?m more frightened by the Thin White Duke than I am by Aladdin Sane or Ziggy [Stardust]. He?s a little bit frightening because he has a little bit of a Third Reich influence, which is clearly extremely fucked up. The music that he did in that time period, whatever you call them, The Berlin Trilogy of records, are so amazing. They?re not really commercial successes, but they?re incredible artistic successes.

You have someone like Bowie, who had complete commercial success and was a rock star, one of the most famous faces on the planet. For him to go in a completely other direction on those albums is really inspiring for me, as an artist, to know that someone like that can take chances and it?s not going to kill his career to do it. I think it adds a lot of credibility to his oeuvre.

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You can read the full thing here.

I’ll leave you with a bit from the UK’s Independent newspaper called: The song that changed my life.

Brandon Flowers is among the songwriters that reveal the tracks that made the biggest impact on their careers…

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Brandon Flowers of The Killers – “Changes” by David Bowie

I still remember when I heard “Changes” for the first time. I thought it was Bob Dylan because of the way he sings the verses. I found out it was Bowie and it was from this album called Hunky Dory. It’s the most important record to me, ever. I appreciate that he’s still able to write songs, because even when there’s a rough album, there will always be that one song on there that grabs you. But Hunky Dory is the pinnacle ? there’s not one song I skip past.”

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She ain’t more than a thousand times three (USD)…

An original 1964 stock copy of Liza Jane by Davie Jones with The King Bees on the Vocalion Pop label has sold on eBay for the incredible sum of £1,839.00 GBP. (Approximately $2,975.69 USD)

This is for a record that wasn’t even described as mint and with the steady increase in the value of rare David Bowie vinyl, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a mint copy of this one tip the scales at £2,000 GBP by the end of the year.

Who needs pension funds? Invest in rare Bowie if you really want a return on your hard-earned.

Who will heart Aladdin Sane?…

As you are hopefully well aware, we regularly feature the many appearances of Aladdin Sane‘s trademark lightning bolt on these pages…and so, it’s time for another round-up as they’re coming thick and fast right now.

Here follows a line or two about each with online links where they exist, starting in a clockwise direction from top left on the above montage…

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Under the Radar has a special Music vs. Comedy issue out now, wherein indie rock musicians and comedians interview each other. The cover shows comedian Aziz Ansari (NBC’s Parks & Recreation) all Aladdin Saned up. He talked to both Toro Y Moi?s Chaz Bundick and TV on the Radio?s Dave Sitek for this issue.

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Continuing clockwise is team captain, Fearne Cotton, sporting an Aladdin Sane flash top on the outrageous ITV2 comedy quiz show, Celebrity Juice. For the record, I don’t agree with Keith Lemon, I think she’s quite lovely and her nostrils don’t trouble me…in fact, I’d like to smash her back…(that’s enough of that – Decency Ed)

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Top right, Harry Potter meets Aladdin Sane by Russell Walks. Apparently this is part of a planned series of iconic album covers mashed with iconic pop-culture characters that the gifted illustrator is working on right now.

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Bottom right is the arm of an unidentified fan who just got their Bowie ink. This is from a list of 20 Awesome Album Cover Art-Inspired Tattoos posted by Judy Berman, view the full-size version and the other tatts here.

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Bang in the middle is the love heart with Aladdin Sane flash tattoo that appears on the upper thigh of Rachel Wood. The legs above are indeed belonging to Rachel and not to Fearne Cotton as you may have suspected.

Rachel expressed her love for all things Bowie in a recent Esquire interview/feature…Here’s an excerpt…

Halfway between Louis Jordan and Björk in the bar’s post-brunch playlist, “Oh! You Pretty Things” comes on. Don’t you know you’re driving your mamas and papas insane… . “I love this song,” Rachel says. “I grew up in love with David Bowie.” (She has a tattoo on her upper thigh to prove it, a heart with an Aladdin Sane lightning bolt.) “So I was always into very androgynous things. Guys, girls … I’m into androgyny in general.” She says this helps explain the appeal of her ex Marilyn Manson.

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Between Rachel’s legs is Hollyoaks actor Alex Carter dressed as Aladdin Sane for no apparent reason…The snap appeared in one of the quiz rounds on aforementioned Celebrity Juice when Alex was a guest on the same episode that Fearne wore her lightning bolt top…What are the chances of that?

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Finally, bottom left is a grab from the latest BlackBerry for Everyone TV advert, which you can view here.

You can’t get enough, but enough ain’t The Old Grey Whistle Test…

We don’t usually highlight compilation CDs with a Bowie track on them these days, simply because there are too many to mention.

However, here are a handful of the more interesting recent releases that feature something other than Life On Mars? or Space Oddity…or any of the other popular usual suspects…

First up is the 3CD DAD Ultimate Guide To Rock which has been produced in the style of a Haynes manual, normally reserved for the world of motor vehicle maintenance. Released last year, this one contains the live version of Rebel Rebel from A Reality Tour, complete with “Tiocfaidh ár lá” pronouncement at the end of the song.

Next we have Dirty Water 2 – More Birth of Punk Attitude. Released in March this 2CD set, compiled by Journalist/Author/DJ, Kris Needs, contains Suffragette City. Aside from fitting in nicely with the theme of the album, I imagine the song is quite close to Kris’s heart in that he would have been among the first few people to hear the song performed live. Being a resident of Aylesbury, Kris got to see many early Bowie shows, not only in Aylesbury but several times in the surrounding locations throughout 72/73.

Finally, the 3CD The Old Grey Whistle Test 40th Anniversary set due next month includes Oh! You Pretty Things. Though the third CD in this set is of live performances from the show, I should tell you that the Bowie track is simply the Hunky Dory studio version from 1971 in case you are led to believe otherwise.