Month: May 2002

What made my life so wonderful?

An EMS AKS briefcase synth, a Stylophone and a couple of Theremins all left their distinctive voices on ‘Heathen’. In today’s journal, David tells us a bit about each of these “loony” instruments and what tracks they ended up on. Click on the image above to take you to the seventh instalment of The Heathen Journals.

While we’re about it, here’s another set of lyrics from the album for you, this time it’s ‘Afraid’.

Total Blam Blam – (European Correspondent)

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Afraid

I wish I was smarter
I got so lost on the shore
I wish I was taller
Things really matter to me

But I put my face in tomorrow
I believe we’re not alone
I believe in Beatles
I believe my little soul has grown
And I’m still so afraid
Yes, I’m still so afraid
Yea, I’m still so afraid on my own
On my own

What made my life so wonderful?
What made me feel so bad?
I used to wake up the ocean
I used to walk on clouds

If I put faith in medication
If I can smile a crooked smile
If I can talk on television
If I can walk an empty mile
Then I won’t feel afraid
No, I won’t feel afraid
I won’t be
Be afraid
Anymore

What’s Really Happening?

As David has already confirmed on the message boards, he will be playing live in Cologne, Germany at the ‘E-Werk’ festival on Friday 12th July. We are still waiting to hear times and ticket prices, and all that malarkey, but as DB says “the date is firm.”

David has also said on the MBs that he is working on getting an allocation of tickets for BowieNetters for the Live by Request show at Sony Music studios on June 15th. If he is successful, you’ll be the first to know, and we’ll obviously post any news on both of these shows as soon as we have it.

Something of David’s performance at the Tribeca Film Festival will be featured in the upcoming MTV documentary. ‘MTV Presents: Inside The Tribeca Film Festival’ due for broadcast this Friday 24th May at 8:30pm EST on the MTV channel in the USA and the next day May 25th at 9:00am. The programme will feature David Bowie, Sheryl Crow, Counting Crows and Wyclef Jean.

You Read ’em pal and grin…

In today’s instalment, David expounds his theory on pre-sets and how he uses self-tricking devices to hear his work properly. He also talks about his ability to seemingly coax the best performance possible from his musicians in the studio. It’s all good stuff!

Anybody’s point of view…

You’ve had nearly a week with the ‘Heathen’ snippets now, and judging by the message boards it would seem many of you are forming definite opinions of each of the 12 tracks. Well, we’d really love to know what you all think of the snippets, so the BowieNet designers have made another groovy little poll for you to tell us exactly that.

Simply click on the image above to take you to the ‘Heathen Snippets Poll’, David really does take in interest in your opinions on these matters, so please go and vote now.

Waiting for the gift of Sound & Vision…

BowieNet is proud to be able to provide our members with the opportunity to attend a series of very special ‘Heathen’ listening parties. These exclusive parties will take place all across the US during the month of May, and the privileged ticket winners will get to hear ‘Heathen’ up to two weeks before it hits the stores.

At each listening party, ‘Heathen’ will be played in its entirety accompanied by never-before-seen Bowie images. Tickets are free, but you can’t get in without one.Click on the image above for your chance to see the newest dates and enter the contest.

I’ll give you television…

The Museum of Television & Radio (MTR) in Los Angeles and New York will present the first-ever retrospective devoted to the extraordinary career of David Bowie. ‘David Bowie: Sound + Vision’ runs from June 7th through to September 15th, 2002, and the screenings will include:

* Rarely seen performances, outtakes, documentaries, and interviews
* More than fifty music videos, including “Life on Mars?,” “Ashes to Ashes,” “Let’s Dance,” “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean,” “Thursday’s Child,” and many more
* Alan Yentob’s classic BBC documentary Cracked Actor
* Commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Hare’s a bit from the press release which you can reach by clicking on the image above (if it’s not there just yet, please try again a little later):

“Culled from archives around the world, as well as Bowie’s own personal library, this screening series will showcase the artist’s pioneering work in the music video form along with rarely seen performances, outtakes, documentaries, and interviews. Organized chronologically and comprised of nearly one hundred elements, this five-part screening series traces the evolution of a rock icon who, over five decades, has continually reinvented himself and his art.”

With news like this, what I want to know is, how are those of us travelling to Roseland from around the world ever expected to go home again?!

CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS

Waiting for the gift of Sound & Vision…

BowieNet is proud to be able to provide our members with the opportunity to attend a series of very special ‘Heathen’ listening parties. These exclusive parties will take place all across the US during the month of May, and the privileged ticket winners will get to hear ‘Heathen’ up to two weeks before it hits the stores.

At each listening party, ‘Heathen’ will be played in its entirety accompanied by never-before-seen Bowie images. Tickets are free, but you can’t get in without one.

Click on the image above to see the newest dates and enter the contest.

How I wonder where you are…

Today’s lyric is from the hauntingly beautiful ‘Slip Away’. This is the song that started life as ‘Uncle Floyd’, that David mentioned as far back as his Journal for Tuesday, October 24th 2000!

Come back again tomorrow for Part 6 of The Heathen Journals.

Total Blam Blam – (European Correspondent)

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Slip Away

Oogie waits for just another day
Drags his bones to see the Yankees play
Bones Boy talks and flickers gray
Oh, they slip away
Once a time they nearly might have been
Bones and Oogie on a silver screen
No one knew what they could do
Except for me and you
They slip away
They slip away

(Chorus)
Don’t forget to keep your head warm
Twinkle twinkle Uncle Floyd
Watching all the world and war torn
How I wonder where you are

Sailing over Coney Island
Twinkle twinkle Uncle Floyd
We were dumb but you were fun, boy
How I wonder where you are

Oogie knew there’s never ever time
Some of us will always stay behind
Down in space it’s always 1982
The joke we always knew
Oo-oo
What’sa matter with you

C’mon, let’s go
Slip away
Oo-o

(Chorus)

Waiting for the gift of Sound & Vision…

BowieNet is proud to be able to provide our members with the opportunity to attend a series of very special ‘Heathen’ listening parties. These exclusive parties will take place all across the US during the month of May, and the privileged ticket winners will get to hear ‘Heathen’ up to two weeks before it hits the stores.

At each listening party, ‘Heathen’ will be played in its entirety accompanied by never-before-seen Bowie images. Tickets are free, but you can’t get in without one.

These are the currently confirmed dates for ‘Heathen’ listening parties:

San Francisco – SONY Metreon – 24 May – 7:00pm & 8:30
Portland, OR – NW Film Center – 29 May – 8:00pm
Cleveland – R&R Hall of Fame – 21 May – 700pm
Detroit – Magic Bag – 22 May – 6:00pm
Chicago – Gene Siskel Film Center – 22 & 23 May – 10:00pm
Austin – Mercury Club – 23 May – 8:00pm
Denver – Gothic Theater – 29 May – 8:00pm

New dates for additional ‘Heathen’ listening parties will be released via the ‘Heathen’ website as they are confirmed. Click on the image above for your chance to enter the contest.

BowieNet is happy to announce that we just placed several hundred tickets up for sale for the Roseland / BowieNet show for June 11th.

Because of these additional tickets, we are now (for a limited time) inviting members to purchase up to 4 tickets per membership. These tickets are expected to sell out quickly, so if you want additional tickets for this BowieNet exclusive show, go ahead to the ticket booth and order another pair.

See you at Roseland!