Month: July 2015

 

“He said I was his friend”

 

The Man Who Sold The World, has sounded pretty good in the hands of others. Regular visitors to this page will know Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey’s Holy Holy with Glenn Gregory have been faithfully reproducing the album live over the past year to very enthusiastic audiences.

Possibly one of the better known renditions of the title track was Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York version (recorded in November 1993), which introduced the song to a whole new audience. And then there was Midge Ure’s version.

Forty one years ago a 25-year-old Lulu released the first of a few career resurrections in the shape of the Polydor 45, The Man Who Sold The World/Watch That Man.

Produced and arranged by David Bowie and Mick Ronson the track reached #3 on the official UK singles chart, Lulu’s first top ten hit for five years.

The unlikely coupling created lots of press for the release, the Daily Mirror article in our montage being just one such item.

The success of the single prompted RCA to take full page adverts for the Bowie album of the same name with the wording: Contains the original version of The Man Who Sold The World.

It’s a cracking record with a superb arrangement and unmistakable Bowie backing vocals on the chorus, not to mention a great Bowie sax riff and guitar licks from Ronno that aren’t on the original Bowie version. Apparently DB is a bit partial to the Lulu version himself.

Lulu went on to record a couple more songs with David that ended up on his own Young Americans album after he decided to keep them for himself…but that’s another story.

See Lulu’s promo video for The Man Who Sold The World here on YouTube.

 

#FiveYearsBox  #TheManWhoSoldTheWorld  #BowieLulu

 

“She had an horror of rooms she was tired”

 

The Stardom and Celebrity of David Bowie is a two-day (17/18 July) multi-discipline symposium at ACMI that brings together artists, academics and cultural commentators to reflect upon the influences of and on David Bowie in rock, pop, film, art, fashion and performance.

Among the speakers is BowieNetter, Dr Leah Kardos, who kindly supplied the following regarding her contributions to the symposium

 

My involvement is on the first of the two days, which kicks off with a keynote from Professor Will Brooker, with whom I work with at Kingston University. His keynote will be pretty exciting, as it sounds like a kind of academic analysis never attempted in this field before: a ‘performance’ of Bowie’s various personas with aim of teasing out important ideas on his ’sameness’ rather than ‘changes’ – the key artistic traits and constant central concerns present throughout his career.

 

My involvement is in two different panels – the first looking at Bowie’s creativity, will be special because I get to share/co-present with Meagan Wilson (“Mego” from Bowienet of yore). In it I will be looking at Bowie’s music (actual musical analysis, something that doesn’t often happen when talking about Bowie in academic contexts!) for patterns and evidence of a constructed language. Some members of the London fan community have been helping me with this research, most notably Phil Blackhouse and Liz Tray. Mego’s presentation will be looking at lyrical themes to do with characters in domestic/interior spaces and the idea of escape.

 

The second panel I’m involved with is all about covers and collaborations and I will be talking about my “You Can’t Hide Beat” project, made for/with the Bowienet community in 2011. 

 

Do listen to Leah’s superb “You Can’t Hide Beat” collection of six Bowie covers, which includes her version of The Man Who Sold The World which ties in nicely with this week’s featured album.

Check out the dedicated Bowie Symposium page for ticket links and the full schedule. 

 

#bowiesymposium

 

“Why too dark to speak the words?”

 

Tom Hingston’s wonderfully atmospheric video for David Bowie’s Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime), won ‘Best in Show’ at the 61st Type Directors Club awards in New York on Tuesday evening. That’s Tom on the right in our picture, with TDC President Matteo Bologna. (Photo by Catalina Kulczar)

The TDC award recognises craft in typography and though there is a clever and stylish use of projected type throughout the film, historically the award often goes to a piece of work that’s print based. So that makes this accolade for a video or the more special.

View the video and read more about the award here.

 

“It’s happening now” 

 

After what seems an extraordinarily long build up (we first mentioned it almost a year ago), the people of Australia are now savouring the audio/visual feast that is David Bowie is at The Australian Centre for the Moving Image. (http://smarturl.it/acmiBOWIE)

Pre-sales for the exhibition, part of the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces program, have set a new record at ACMI and reactions from yesterday’s preview day have been very enthusiastic.

Our montage shows related images to the exhibition (which runs from July 16 to November 1, 2015), borrowed from the ACMI Instagram page. Keep reading for links to that and other useful ACMI pages.

 

#BowieACMI  #DavidBowieis 

 

ACMI website: http://www.acmi.net.au/exhibitions/bowie

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acmionline

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ACMI

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/acmionline

Instagram: https://instagram.com/acmionline

 

Fan site: http://www.bowiedownunder.com/

Fan Instagram: https://instagram.com/davidbowieis_inmelbourne/

 

“You’re face to face with”

 

In the run up to the release of the David Bowie (Five Years 1969 – 1973) box set (due September 25th), we’re taking a look at each of the LPs contained within. This week we’ll be focusing on the second album in the set, The Man Who Sold The World.

This Tony Visconti-produced LP was David Bowie’s third studio album and it was released in April 1971 in the UK and the previous November in the US.

Pictured here (clockwise from top left) are the original US and UK versions, the German round cover, and the standard worldwide 1972 RCA reissue.

Four great sleeves, one classic album. Remind yourself here.

 

Design:

Mike Weller – Illustration (US)

Keef (Keith MacMillan) – Photography (UK)

Witt (Hamburg) – Design (Germany)

 

Released: November 1970

Label: Mercury

Producer: Tony Visconti

 

Original tracklisting:

01 The Width Of A Circle

02 All The Madmen

03 Black Country Rock

04 After All

05 Running Gun Blues

06 Saviour Machine

07 She Shook Me Cold

08 The Man Who Sold The World

09 The Supermen

 

Stay tuned for more The Man Who Sold The World celebrations throughout the week.

 

#FiveYearsBox  #TheManWhoSoldTheWorld  

 

“I gazed a gazely stare”

 

This week we’re looking at The Man Who Sold The World ahead of the release of the David Bowie (Five Years 1969 – 1973) box set (due September 25th).

You’re probably familiar with the ‘dress’ sleeve for this album which originally only made it to the UK and Australia. But that’s a whole other story.

Pictured here is an alternative shot from the session by Keef (Keith MacMillan) which we’ve mocked up to a finished sleeve.

We also made another one with David wearing his other less flamboyant ‘man’s dress’, which you can view by swiping/scrolling the picture here.

Listen to The Man Who Sold The World here.

 

#FiveYearsBox  #TheManWhoSoldTheWorld  #ManDress

 

“You’ve really made the grade”

 

We’ve been looking at Space Oddity this past week, the first album in the David Bowie (Five Years 1969 – 1973) box set (due September 25th).

Why not have another listen to the album here.

Stay tuned for a look at The Man Who Sold The World starting tomorrow.

 

#FiveYearsBox  #SpaceOddity  

 

“…five, four, three, two, one, lift off…”

 

As you’ve no doubt noticed, we’ve been looking at Space Oddity this week, the first album in the David Bowie (Five Years 1969 – 1973) box set (due September 25th).

Today is 46 years since the release in the UK of the title track that put David Bowie’s name firmly in the public arena with his first top five hit.

One of his most popular songs, Space Oddity still sounds amazing today. But, if you think you could improve on the original mix, don’t forget you can create your own version via the iklax Space Oddity iPhone app.

Stay tuned for our final Space Oddity celebration tomorrow before we move on to The Man Who Sold The World on Monday.

 

#FiveYearsBox  #SpaceOddity  #SpaceOddityAPP 

 

“And the papers want to know”

 

As you may have noticed by now, in the run up to the release of the David Bowie (Five Years 1969 – 1973) box set (due September 25th), we’re taking a look at each of the LPs contained within.

This week we’ve been looking at the first album in the set, Space Oddity. Our montage shows just a few of the various press pieces relating to the single which preceded the album and gave Bowie his first Top 5 hit in the UK.

One of David’s music press supporters at the time was Penny Valentine, whose review in Disc and Music Echo must have persuaded a few buyers to help the record reach that #5 spot. Here’s the full thing which was even reprinted on the front of the RECORD RETAILER trade magazine.

 

David Bowie Space Oddity single review by Penny Valentine, Disc and Music Echo. (Published July 10, 1969. Cover date July 12, 1969)

 

David Bowie – an amazing sound!

 

I have a bet on in the office that this is going to be a huge hit – and knock everyone senseless. There are disbelievers among us! David Bowie has always been talented but had a nasty knack of sounding like Tony Newley. Good records came from him but nothing to actually make you fall over. This does though. In fact I listened spellbound throughout, panting to know the outcome of poor Major Tom and his trip into the outer hemisphere. Apart from that – and some really clever lyrics – the sound is amazing. Mr. Bowie sounds like the Bee Gees on their best record – “New York Mining Disaster” – and has managed to arrange the backing to sound like a cross between the Moody Blues, Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel. It’s obviously going to do well in America, which is nice. OUT TOMORROW

 

Stay tuned for more Space Oddity celebrations.

 

#FiveYearsBox  #SpaceOddity  

 

“And the stars look very different today”

 

We’ve been looking at Space Oddity this week, the first album in the David Bowie (Five Years 1969 – 1973) box set (due September 25th).

To promote the reissue of both the Space Oddity and The Man Who Sold The World albums by RCA in late 1972, the label released the title track from each album in a picture sleeve single in the US in early 1973.

The single was further promoted with a new video shot by Mick Rock in New York in RCA’s studio 3. The promotion paid off as it gave Bowie his first American Top 20 single when it reached #15 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Check out Mick Rock’s Space Oddity video here on YouTube.

Stay tuned for more Space Oddity celebrations.

#FiveYearsBox  #SpaceOddity  #MickRock