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“I gaze in defeat”

Today’s lyrics are track number eleven from The Next Day, How Does The Grass Grow? As you know, we’ve illustrated each set of words with something from the upcoming David Bowie is Exhibition at The V&A. @Victoriaandalbertmuseum

Today is a slight deviation in the shape of last weekend’s Sunday Times Magazine in case you missed it.

Entitled Oh! You Pretty Thing, the text is adapted from Theatre of Gender, by Camille Paglia, which is itself taken from the remarkably good value and absolutely beautiful David Bowie is Exhibition catalogue. (Exclusive online offer here)

The article is peppered with some great, if not slightly eerie, backstage shots of the Bowie mannequins in storage.

The online version of the item also has a fascinating video interview with designer Jonathan Barnbrook.

And so on to the words for How Does The Grass Grow? A song which (despite the cheerfulness of the Jerry Lordan inspired ya ya ya’s), is pretty harrowing stuff.

How Does The Grass Grow?  (David Bowie/Jerry Lordan)

 

There’s a graveyard by the station

Where the girls wear nylon skirts and

Sandals from Hungary

The boys ride their Riga 1’s

Upon the little hill

Such sadness and grief

The trees die standing

 

That’s where we made our trysts

And struggled with our guns

Would you still love me

If the clocks could go backwards

The girls would fill with blood and

The grass would be green again

Remember the dead

They were so great

Some of them

 

Ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

Ya ya ya ya ya ya

How does the grass grow

Blood blood blood

Ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

Ya ya ya ya ya ya

Where do the boys lie

Mud mud mud

How does the grass grow

Blood blood blood

 

But I lived a blind life

A white face in prison

But you made a life out of nothing

Now I ride my black horse

I miss you more

Than you’ll ever ever know

Waiting with my red eyes

And my stone heart

 

Ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

Ya ya ya ya ya ya

How does the grass grow

Blood blood blood

Ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

Ya ya ya ya ya ya

Where do the boys lie

Mud mud mud

How does the grass grow

Blood blood blood

 

I gaze in defeat

At the stars in the night

The light in my life burnt away

There will be no tomorrow

Then you sigh in your sleep

And meaning returns with the day

 

Ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

Ya ya ya ya ya ya

Where do the boys lie

Mud mud mud

How does the grass grow

Blood blood blood

“Fashion! Turn to the left, Fashion! Turn to the right”

There‘s a great piece in tomorrow‘s (Saturday) Independent Magazine written by Iain R Webb, who is, as you‘re no doubt aware, an award winning writer and Professor of Fashion at Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins.

Iain talks about Bowie’s massive influence on his outlook as a 14-year-old boy living in a West Country village, and, moreover, on the world of fashion design which continues to this day. Here’s the introduction from tomorrow’s eight-page feature:

I remember my first sighting of David Bowie singing “Starman” on Top of the Pops on 6 July 1972, the night before my 14th birthday. What a gift. Bowie was all the things my life in a West Country village was not: extraordinary, exotic and exciting. 

From that moment on, I devoted all my waking hours to lovingly documenting his every move in scrapbook after scrapbook (a dozen in all) and spent art class at school painting his portrait, mostly wearing outlandish new outfits designed by yours truly. I even fashioned a clay bust of him in pottery class.

Bowie’s influence on my life has been major, from the fundamental desire to never be labelled or pigeonholed to my profound love of glitter and penchant for a spikey haircut. And I am not alone.

Scroll through the images above using the little grey dots to see a snap of Iain’s scrapbooks and a preview of the magazine spreads. Thanks to Nick D at The Independent for the pointer.

“And the next day, and the next and another day…”

Hot-on-the-heels of the rockin’on item we posted recently, here are three more magazines and a couple more Japanese adverts.

The image on the left in our montage is from the very popular Asahi Newspaper in Japan, while the one on the right is the Japanese promotional poster for the album.

If you scroll across by clicking on the little dots above you will be able to view the covers for CDJournal, Record Collector, CrossBeat and aforementioned rockin’on covers too.

All four have generously allowed Sony Music Japan to make TND adverts from their front covers.

Thanks also to Sony Music Japan for giving us the exclusive on this. 

“The toppest top of all the tops”

Billboard reports that “On next week’s Billboard 200 chart, rock legend David Bowie is in the hunt for his first No. 1 album, while veteran group Bon Jovi could nab its fifth chart-topper.“

Now that balance seems a little unfair, frankly. Bon Jovi already has four number one albums under its belt and while Bowie has had four Top Ten albums on the Billboard chart, that top spot eludes him.

Those four Top Tens might surprise you:

1974 Diamond Dogs #5,

1975 Young Americans #9,

1976 Station to Station #3,

1983 Let’s Dance #4.

How nice would it be to read: 2013 The Next Day #1? So come on Bowie fans of the USA, you can do this. Let‘s make The Next Day #1 and the title of Bon Jovi‘s album, What About Now, even more ironic than it already seems. 

Now where did that random The Next Day square come from?

“The band was all together”

Jérôme Soligny has interviewed Zachary Alford, Gail Ann Dorsey, Gerry Leonard, David Torn, Earl Slick and Steve Elson about their contributions to the making of The Next Day, in an 8-page feature for the latest issue (548) of French music monthly, Rock&Folk. 

With a headline that roughly translates to Secrets Of A Comeback, the magazine also has The Next Day as their Record Of The Month in a glowing full-page 5-star review by Eric Dahan.

ROCK&FOLK is available any day now and we‘ll leave you with a few one liners kindly supplied by Jérôme:

David Torn : “It would be a severe understatement to simply say that i truly love working with David, and with Tony…… and, with the incredible people involved”

Gerry Leonard : “David just came out swinging right from the beginning with this project. That boy keeps swinging. He had strong song ideas. He had these really cool, super ruff, edgy demos for us as a jumping off point”

Gail Ann Dorsey : “One thing I have learned from working with David Bowie is a deeper respect for the power of music, and a deeper humility for being blessed with the opportunity itself.”

Zachary Alford : “Aside from being a genius in the truest sense of the word, David has also been one of the most comfortable people I’ve ever had the pleasure of recording with. Once you’ve experienced that almost nothing can compare.”

Steve Elson : “I got a phone call from Tony Visconti out of the blue. He asked if I was available to do some recording with a young blues musician from England who was in town. He said the name was Dave Jones. It took a second to realize what was going on”.

Earl Slick : “David is always open for ideas, he doesn’t tell you what to do. We sit there and talk about the songs, it’s actually really easy. He expects you to bring ideas which I like.”

“Dancing Out In Space”

Today’s lyrics are track number ten from The Next Day, Dancing Out In Space.

As you’ve no doubt noticed by now, we’ve illustrated each set of words with vaguely connected images from the upcoming David Bowie is Exhibition at The V&A. 

Today is a detail from the 1979 jumpsuit designed by Willie Brown with a graphic pattern inspired by Le Corbusier.

The outfit was worn by Bowie for his ‘future nostalgic’ performance of Space Oddity in December 1979 on NBC’s Dick Clark’s Salute to the Seventies.

Stills from the performance were used for various picture sleeve releases for Alabama Song/Space Oddity in February 1980.

Dancing Out In Space

 

Cutting through the water

Hands upon the ghost

To the city of solid iron

Through the kingdom of the ghost

Send your friend away now

Let him sail back home tonight

 

Something like religion

Dancing face to face

Something like a drowning

Dancing out in space

 

No-one here can see you

Dancing face to face

No-one here can beat you

Dancing out in space

 

Silent as Georges Rodenbach

Mist and silhouette

Girl, you move like water

You’ve got stars upon your head

You’ve got my name and number

You’ve got to take the floor

 

Something like religion

Dancing face to face

Something like a drowning

Dancing out in space

 

No-one here can see you

Dancing face to face

No-one here can beat you

Dancing out in space

 

Dancing face to face

Dancing out in space

 

Dancing face to face

Dancing out in space

 

Dancing face to face

Dancing out in space

“Look out you rock ‘n rollers”

Released today in America and Canada, among other places, The Next Day is straight in at #1 on the iTunes chart this morning.

Bowie is also on course for his first #1 album in nearly 20 years in the UK, according to this morning’s Official Charts Company sales data.

If The Next Day can maintain its lead going into the weekend, it will be Bowie’s ninth Number 1 album in the UK, his first since Black Tie White Noise, which topped the Official Albums Chart in April 1993.

The Next Day has also clocked up the biggest first day sale of any album this year (56,000 copies) and is currently outselling its closest competitor, Bon Jovi’s What About Now (Number 2) by nearly three to one.

Official Charts Company Managing Director, Martin Talbot, had this to say this morning:

Bowie is officially back! The Next Day is a true gift for all Bowie aficionados. It already sounds like a classic Bowie album – and its popularity this week is already showing that the great British public have taken it to their hearts.

Read more on this story on the Official Charts Company page. 

#TheNextDay #DavidBowie

“I look to the stars” 

And you though we posted a young picture of David Jones yesterday. In this detail from a contact sheet of 48 different images, the baby Bowie is pictured at just ten months old.

The wee nipper is undeniably looking to the stars in the selected frames (well, 1947 was the year of the Roswell incident), and that’s our tenuous link to today’s lyric, Boss Of Me, track number nine from The Next Day.

As we’ve suggested previously, we will endeavour to provide a daily marriage of lyrics from The Next Day to images from the upcoming David Bowie is Exhibition at The V&A. 

Boss Of Me  (David Bowie/Gerry Leonard)

 

Tell me when you’re sad

I wanna make it cool again

I know you’re feeling bad

Tell me when you’re cool again

 

Who’d have ever thought of it

Who’d have ever dreamed

That a small town girl like you

Would be the boss of me

 

We fly through the night

The tears on your lips

Life has your mind and soul

It spins on your hips

 

Who’d have ever thought of it

Who’d have ever dreamed

 

Who’d have ever thought of it

Who’d have ever dreamed

That a small town girl like you

Would be the boss of me

Would be the boss of me

Would be the boss of me

 

You look at me and you weep

For the free blue sky

I look to the stars

As they flicker and float in your eyes

And under these wings of steel

The small town dies

 

Who’d have ever thought of it

Who’d have ever dreamed

 

Who’d have ever thought of it

Who’d have ever dreamed

That a small town girl like you

Would be the boss of me

 

Who’d have ever thought of it

Who’d have ever dreamed

That a small town girl like you

Would be the boss of me

Would be the boss of me

Would be the boss of me

“What In The World?”

The Next Day has gone straight to the top of 40 different countries’ iTunes charts and it’s also Top 10 on iTunes in another 10 countries.