Month: August 2015

 

“And he was alright, the band was altogether”

 

Following on from last week’s focus on the Ziggy Stardust album, this week we’re looking at, and listening to, the live album that sprang from the first American tour in the autumn/fall of 1972 in support of Ziggy Stardust.

October 20 1972 was the first of two dates at the Civic Auditorium, in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California. The show was broadcast live by local station KMET-FM, and quickly became the first and one of the most popular live Bowie bootlegs of all time.

Santa Monica was released officially by EMI thirty six years later in 2008 as Live Santa Monica ’72.

It’s a wonderful snapshot of a slightly nervous but confident Bowie as Ziggy Stardust, with a well-honed Spiders From Mars augmented by brilliant new boy, Mike Garson.

If you’ve not heard it before, you’re in for a real treat.

 

#FiveYearsBox  #DavidBowie  #ZiggyStardust  #SantaMonica72

 

“Sometimes I’m so glad, so glad”

 

Released this day (August 20th) in 1965 was the Davy Jones 45, You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving.

Baby Loves That Way was on the flip and both songs were composed by the young Jones before he Bowied-up for his next release the following year.

Produced by Shel Talmy (who was producing The Who and The Kinks at the time), and backed by The Lower Third, the influence of Townshend and his gang is more than apparent on both sides of this disc.

The 18-year-old mod is pictured here around the time of the release, shadowed by his older brother Ziggy who copped the same hairdo seven years later.

Listen to both the original sides and the 2000 remakes below:

 

Habit Original

Habit Remake

Baby Original

Baby Remake

 

“Nothing’s gonna touch you in these golden years”

 

Golden Years will be the last of the 40th anniversary 7″ picture discs for 2015. Originally released on November 21 1975, the single had a lot to live up to.

As we said in our previous item, 1975 was a good year for Bowie chart action. Fame had given Bowie his first #1 Stateside and the Space Oddity rerelease became Bowie’s first UK #1.

The UK press advert for Golden Years reflected this success while making the following bold prediction:

 

October No. 1…Fame…USA

November No. 1…Space Oddity…UK

December No. 1…Golden Years…WORLDWIDE

 

In the event, Golden Years did make it into the Top Ten in the UK, peaking at #8. Nevertheless, it was a great advert for the upcoming Station To Station album, even though it was a bit of a curveball stylistically.

The general upbeat flavour of Golden Years didn’t begin to hint at the emotionally cold Thin White Duke who was waiting in the wings of 1976.

 

Here are the track details:

 

GOLDEN YEARS 40th ANNIVERSARY 7″ PICTURE DISC

Release date November 13th

 

A-Side

Golden Years (Single Version)

(David Bowie)

Produced by David Bowie & Harry Maslin

 

AA-Side

Station To Station (Single Edit)

(David Bowie)

Produced by David Bowie & Harry Maslin

 

Both the A & AA side features photos by Steve Schapiro, the AA side is a previously unpublished shot.

 

Listen to the original UK single edit of Golden Years here.

 

#GoldenYears40

 

“My friends talk, of glory, untold dream”

 

Andy Price from Anthem Publishing / MusicTech magazine has been in touch with an exclusive preview of an interview he’s done with Tony Visconti. Here’s a bit from the intro…

 

“Of all the towering figures in music production history, there is no-one quite as innovative (and unpredictable) as Tony Visconti, from his early days working with a young Marc Bolan to the career-defining highs with David Bowie, Visconti has always been keen to push the boundaries of what is possible in the studio. Andy Price sits down for a chat with a bona fide production legend…”

 

And here’s just one of the questions from the 5-page feature.

 

MT: With David, you produced The Man Who Sold The World and a whole range of classic, and stylistically, varied albums throughout his career. How did the experience of making the early work compare to working with David in his later, more experimental days on the Berlin Trilogy?

TV: Over the years, David and I have developed a vocabulary and a musical frame of reference. We met in 1967 and discovered we had very similar tastes in music, like The Fugs, The Velvet Underground, the Stan Kenton Orchestra, The Beatles, The Kinks and many, many more. The list has grown into modern music as well. We’re good friends, too, which helps, although I hardly see him unless we’re making a record. Recently, we made a single with the jazz composer, Maria Schneider, called Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime). Since we were all on the same page with Stan Kenton, Gil Evans and Maria herself, who was Gil Evans’ apprentice, we just flew through making that exciting recording.

 

Check out the full Tony Visconti interview in MusicTech‘s 150th issue, out August 20th.

 

#MusicTech  #TonyVisconti

 

“There’s a sailor who sings”

 

A limited edition pressing of David Bowie’s Man Of Words/Man Of Music album is to be issued on blue vinyl, alongside classic versions of Amsterdam and My Death as a limited edition orange vinyl 7″ single.

The records are being released via Parlophone to celebrate the opening of the V&A’s David Bowie is at the Groninger Museum, Groningen in the Netherlands, on December 11th, 2015. The records are exclusive to the exhibition. (http://smarturl.it/DavidBowieGoingDutch)

Man Of Words/Man Of Music was the US version of the 1969 David Bowie album on Mercury, aka Space Oddity.

Amsterdam is Bowie’s 1971 cover of the Jacques Brel song (with lyrics translated to English by Mort Shuman). Produced by David Bowie and Ken Scott, the track was originally recorded during the early sessions for the Ziggy Stardust album at Trident Studios, in London. It was eventually released as the B-side of the Sorrow single in October, 1973.

Despite the simple arrangement of Bowie’s vocal and Mick Ronson’s acoustic guitar, it’s a thrilling version of the song.

The recording of My Death (Brel/Blau/Shuman) on the B-side, was recorded live at Carnegie Hall, in New York on September 28th, 1972. Both Amsterdam and My Death were popular performances during live Ziggy shows.

 

 

MAN OF WORDS/MAN OF MUSIC BLUE VINYL LP EXCLUSIVE TO THE NETHERLANDS DAVID BOWIE IS’ EXHIBITION

Release date December 11th for the exhibition opening at the Groninger Museum, Groningen, the Netherlands.

 

 

AMSTERDAM 7″ ORANGE VINYL EXCLUSIVE TO THE NETHERLANDS ‘DAVID BOWIE IS’ EXHIBITION

Release date December 11th for the exhibition opening at the Groninger Museum, Groningen, the Netherlands.

 

A-Side (45 rpm)

Amsterdam

(Jacques Brel/English lyrics: Mort Shuman)

Produced by Ken Scott & David Bowie

 

B-Side (33 1/3 rpm)

My Death (Live)

(Jacques Brel/Eric Blau/Mort Shuman)

Recorded live at Carnegie Hall 28th September, 1972

 

Front cover photo is a previously unpublished shot by Brian Ward. Reverse cover photo is a live shot from Carnegie Hall, 28th September, 1972 by David Gahr.

 

#BowieNL  #BowieExclusivesNL  #DavidBowieIs

 

“Commencing countdown, engines on”

 

No prizes for guessing the next limited David Bowie 7″ picture disc will be the 40th anniversary edition of Space Oddity.

Of course, we’re not talking about the anniversary of the original 1969 issue on Philips, which gave Bowie his first Top 5 hit on the UK singles chart, or even the 1973 US release which reached #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973. No, we’re celebrating the 1975 RCA re-issue which furnished Bowie with his first ever UK #1 single.

Originally issued in the UK on Friday September 26th 1975, the single followed hot on the heels of Bowie’s first #1 hit in the USA with Fame.

This 40th anniversary disc of Space Oddity is scheduled to be released forty years and 5 days on from that original 1975 release date, and it will be available from Friday October 2nd, 2015.

Here are the track details:

 

A-Side

Space Oddity (UK single edit)

(David Bowie)

Produced by Gus Dudgeon and arranged by David Bowie and Paul Buckmaster

 

AA-Side

Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud (single B-side with spoken introduction)

(David Bowie)

Produced by Gus Dudgeon and arranged by David Bowie and Paul Buckmaster

 

Both sides stereo

 

A Side image from the David Bowie Archive, originally used for the 1969 Philips French picture sleeve

AA Side photo by Vernon Dewhurst

 

#SpaceOddity40

 

“I could play the wild mutation as a rock & roll star”

 

In the run up to the release of The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, the boundaries between David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust became more blurred.

This was in no small part due to the advertising campaign which proclaimed: “David Bowie is Ziggy Stardust!”

The creation of a cartoon Ziggy Stardust, with more than a passing resemblance to Bowie (drawn by David’s friend George Underwood), also served to add another layer of mystery to the whole concept of who and what Ziggy was.

As you can see from our montage, this cartoon image was reproduced for various posters, press adverts and even skin transfers…not to mention a prototype Ziggy Stardust doll.

One thing that was definitely for real though, was the incredible accompanying musical soundtrack to the tale of Ziggy Stardust.

 

#FiveYearsBox  #DavidBowie  #ZiggyStardust  #DavidBowieIsZiggyStardust  

 

“Baby, baby, I’ll never let you down”

 

We’re sure you will all want to join us in wishing many happy returns of the day to Alexandria Zahra Jones…known to her friends and family as Lexi.

She’s pictured here, a new-born in her father’s arms, back in 2000.

Happy Birthday Lexi, love ‘n stuff from everybody here and no doubt anybody else who thinks your father is a top-hole type of chap.

 

#HappyBirthdayLexi  #Lexi15

 

“Don’t think you knew you were in this song…”

 

The BBC were instrumental in promoting Bowie in the run up to the release of The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.

From January 1972 right up to the release of the album, aside from catching Bowie live, the only way you were likely to hear any of the Ziggy material being performed would have been via various BBC radio sessions.

This culminated with Starman on the BBC’s Top Of The Pops (TOTPs) as we mentioned yesterday.

But before that, in February 1972, the very first sighting of Ziggy and The Spiders on TV was via the BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test (TOGWT). TOGWT was a late night TV show with a more ‘serious’ adult audience, but it didn’t have the reach of TOTPs.

Bowie and the band recorded Queen Bitch, Oh! You Pretty Things and Five Years, though OYPT wasn’t shown till many years later. So the very first televised Ziggy song was an emotional rendition of Five Years with Mick Ronson in less familiar role of pianist. You can watch it here.

 

Listen to Ziggy Stardust here now.

 

#FiveYearsBox  #DavidBowie  #ZiggyStardust  #FiveYears

 

“Switch on the TV we may pick him up on…”

 

We’ve been talking about Brian Ward’s January 1972 Bowie photo session for the sleeve of The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars album in London’s Heddon Street and the studio shots created by Ward for the promotion of Ziggy Stardust and the Starman release.

It seems the first use of a picture from this session was for an interview feature by Danny Holloway in NME dated Jan 29th, 1972. It was the same image as used for the Starman single sleeve three months later.

Though the album title was mentioned in the Holloway article, there was not much more said about it, aside from this brief synopsis of the concept…

 

“As we sat in the living room of the huge Victorian house he shares, David played the new Biff Rose album, followed by tapes of his next – titled “The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.” It`s about the adventures and eventual break-up of a pop group. Ziggy Stardust is the lead singer and The Spiders From Mars are his back-up group (David is trying to persuade his group to call themselves the Spiders.)”

 

The music press adverts for Starman in April were still plugging Hunky Dory, with no hint of the upcoming Ziggy album whatsoever.

Released on April 28th, Starman gave fans their first Bowie picture sleeve in the UK and two tunes from Ziggy Stardust ahead of the album’s release. The B-side was Suffragette City.

The single finally scraped into the Top 50 UK singles chart two months after its release and after a slow accent it reached the Top Ten, no doubt helped by this …among other things.

 

Listen to Ziggy Stardust here now.

 

#FiveYearsBox  #DavidBowie  #ZiggyStardust  #Starman