Bones and Oogie on a silver screen…
Here’s the third of our unpublished pieces from David’s fellow musicians that didn’t make it to
So far we’ve had tributes from Joan Wasser (07.16.08 NEWS: MORE UNCUT CELEBRITY TRIBUTES TO DAVID BOWIE) and J Mascis (07.20.2008 NEWS: J MASCIS UNCUT TRIBUTE TO DAVID BOWIE) and now it’s the turn of DB’s old pal,
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Moby on Slip Away
It?s almost impossible to pick a favourite Bowie song, but if someone put a gun to my head, I?d have to choose “Slip Away”. He lives across the street from me. At the time he was making Heathen, I was working on an album and we were kind of collaborating on it. So I watched Heathen come together. As far as I can tell, it?s written about him and Iggy Pop, and their very loving friendship of the late ?70s and early ?80s. The thing about Bowie was, he seemed like a wise old man even when he was 23. And “Slip Away” is such a heartbreaking song. A lot of his music is emotional, but it?s often as if he?s taking the part of an objective bystander. But this one seems really autobiographical. It?s a song about lost love, I guess, between him and Iggy. And every time I listen to it, it brings tears to my eyes.
The first time I met him was when he was on tour with Nine Inch Nails. I went to the show and he was playing “The Man Who Sold The World”. The kid sitting next to me said “Oh, how cool! He?s doing a Nirvana song.” I almost strangled him. Then I went to the aftershow party, summoned up some liquid courage, and went over to talk to him. I was so nervous, because he was my favourite musician of all time. Creatively, he was at his peak from Low through to Scary Monsters. Lodger gets a bad press, but I think it?s an amazing record. Songs like “Yassassin” and “Look Back In Anger” are wonderful. So what did we talk about? Real estate! He was in the process of moving back to New York and looking for an apartment, so we were talking about different neighbourhoods. I like to think I had a hand in where he ended up living. I see him occasionally, but it?s so random. I?ll be walking down the street and see him in the deli.
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I have to admit I was surprised to read Moby’s interpretation of the lyric, unless he’s been privy to some insider information, I can’t really see how he arrived at that conclusion about David and Iggy. One thing’s for sure, this is what David said about the song in his
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Both ‘Slip Away’ and ‘Afraid’ were recorded early last year and as I liked these two so much, I just moved ’em forward to this album. We completely re-recorded ‘Slip Away’, over one of Matt’s great loop parts. Back in the late 70’s, everyone that I knew would rush home at a certain point in the afternoon to catch the Uncle Floyd show. He was on UHF Ch: 68 and the show looked like it was done out of his living room in New Jersey. All his pals were involved and it was a hoot.
It had that Soupy Sales kind of appeal and though ostensibly aimed at kids, I knew so many people of my age who just wouldn’t miss it. We would be on the floor it was so funny. Two of the regulars on the show were Oogie and Bones Boy, ridiculous puppets made out of ping-pong balls or somesuch. They feature in the song. I just loved that show.
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Thanx to Rob Hughes at UNCUT for the Moby piece. Stay tuned for even more.