Month: September 2017

 

“Standing tall in the dark…”

 

(ANCIANT = A New Career In A New Town)

 

Day two of our daily look at the promotional videos Bowie made in the period covered by ANCIANT, perfectly timed for today’s 40th anniversary of the release of the “Heroes” single, more of which, later.

 

Another sparse affair, the Nick Ferguson-directed “Heroes” promo film followed the feel of the previous two Bowie videos, Life On Mars? and Be My Wife, albeit in negative.

 

As opposed to the bleached out white background, Bowie was dressed in dark clothing, backlit in a darkened room with no props.

 

Watch the full video here.

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #ANewCareerInANewTownBox  #DBHERO40  #BowieHeroes  #BowieVideo

 

“I, I can remember”

 

On Friday 23rd September 1977, David Bowie released the title track from his forthcoming album, “Heroes”, as a 7″ 45 backed by V-2 Schneider. The track has a rich history and a prominent place in popular culture, deservedly so.

 

Originally Bowie claimed that “Heroes” was inspired by a pair of young lovers he used to watch from the studio window of Hansa as they met by the Berlin Wall: “I thought of all the places to meet in Berlin, why pick a bench underneath a guard turret on the Wall? And I, using license, presumed that they were feeling somewhat guilty about this affair and so they had imposed this restriction on themselves, thereby giving themselves an excuse for their heroic act. I used this as a basis.”

 

Co-producer Tony Visconti later revealed that Bowie was simply covering for Tony’s secret rendezvous with his lover, “Heroes” backing singer Antonia Maaß. “It was us. Coco was sitting up in the control room with David, and both of them said, ‘We saw you walking by the wall,’ and that’s where he got that idea from. Because I was married at the time, David protected me all these years by not saying that he saw Antonia and me kiss by the wall.”

 

In 2003 Bowie confirmed the truth: “I always said it was a couple of lovers by the Wall that prompted the idea for “Heroes”. Actually, it was Tony Visconti and his girlfriend. Tony was married at the time, so I couldn’t talk about it. But I can now say that the lovers were Tony and a German girl that he’d met while we were in Berlin. I think possibly his marriage was in the last few months. And it was very touching because I could see that Tony was very much in love with this girl, and it was that relationship which sort of motivated the song.”

 

Apparently, Antonia Maaß also helped David with the pronunciation of the German version of “Heroes”, Helden.

 

It remains one of Bowie’s most covered songs, with a just released studio version by Depeche Mode joining the likes of (in no particular order), Arcade Fire, Prince, Blondie, Oasis, Nico, Depeche Mode, Motörhead, P.J. Proby, LCD Soundsystem, Peter Gabriel, Billy Preston, Janelle Monae, King Crimson, Philip Glass, Kasabian, Magnetic Fields, TV On The Radio, The Wallflowers and many, many more.

 

But it wasn’t always this way.

 

The single was announced in the music press in the UK via news snippets and an enigmatic advert, bottom right in our montage.

 

The video didn’t come till a bit later and certainly wasn’t screened anywhere at the time of release. The performance on Marc Bolan’s TV show was broadcast five days after the release.

 

Neither of RCA’s clever slogans: “Tomorrow Belongs To Those Who Can Hear It Coming” and “There’s Old Wave, There’s New Wave and There’s David Bowie” accompanied the UK single release (they came later with the album), and UK reviews weren’t too good either. So it’s not surprising that “Heroes” only managed a peak position of #24 on the Official UK Singles Chart.

 

It’s not like Bowie himself didn’t do his bit in terms of promotion. Alongside lots of interviews, Bowie performed the song on different TV shows several times during the promotion. The record also came out in picture sleeves around the globe, though again, not in the UK. “Heroes” fared better in many other countries than it did in the UK, including top ten positions in both The Netherlands and Ireland.

 

The album was received far better in the UK, but that’s another story.

 

There were versions issued with German, French and English vocals, see the Helden advert and the French and German picture sleeves in our montage.

 

The picture sleeve at top right is the German 12″ released in 1981, with the following tracks:

 

A: “Heroes”/”Helden” (English/German Version)

B: “Heroes”/”Héros” (English/French Version)

 

This was the first time the title Héros was used for the French version.

 

The “Heroes” limited edition 40th-anniversary 7″ picture disc was issued yesterday via Parlophone, and we have a sneaky feeling it might fare a little better this time around than it did originally in the UK.

 

“Heroes” (Bowie/Eno)

Original UK release date: September 23 1977

Highest chart position: UK: #24 US: N/A

Originally appeared on: “Heroes”

Produced by: David Bowie, Tony Visconti

Video directed by: Nick Ferguson

 

FOOTNOTE: Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed the release date on the UK demo label in our montage of 23 AUG 1977. This was an RCA error and some of the copies were corrected manually in ballpoint pen!

 

 

#DBHERO40  #BowieHeroes  #BowieVinyl  

 

“Share my life”

 

(ANCIANT = A New Career In A New Town)

 

With just one week to go till the September 29th release of the David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town (1977–1982) box set, we thought we’d take a daily look at the promotional videos Bowie made in the period covered by ANCIANT.

 

Originally released in the UK on June 17th 1977, Be My Wife was the 2nd and final single from Low. Despite a promotional video, the single didn’t chart, not helped by the fact that it was almost impossible to view it anywhere in the UK back in 1977.

 

Filmed in Paris in June 1977, Be My Wife was Bowie’s first official video since the Mick Rock-directed Life on Mars? film in 1973.

 

Indeed, the Stanley Dorfman-directed Be My Wife had a feel of Rock’s production with Bowie performing against a bleached out white background, using a red Fender Stratocaster as a prop, while half-heartedly miming the guitar part. He somehow manages to appear nonchalant and anguished at the same time, in this bizarre plea for marital union.

 

Apparently Bowie’s make-up and mannerisms in the video were influenced by the comic, Buster Keaton, whose work Bowie was a fan of. He would reprise the Keaton look for the Miracle Goodnight video in 1993 and even had a full page Steve Schapiro picture of the man in the Isolar Tour programme. Schapiro also shot a pic of Bowie holding the cover of a Keaton biography up to his face, inviting comparisons between the two.

 

Watch the full video here.

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #ANewCareerInANewTownBox  #BowieBeMyWife  #BowieLow  #BowieVideo

 

“We could steal time, just for one day”

 

As if you didn’t already know, the “Heroes” limited edition 40th-anniversary 7″ picture disc is issued today via Parlophone.

 

 

DAVID BOWIE “HEROES” LIMITED EDITION 40th ANNIVERSARY 7″ PICTURE DISC

 

A-Side “HEROES” (Single version 2017 Remaster)

(Lyrics by David Bowie, Music by David Bowie and Brian Eno)

Produced by David Bowie & Tony Visconti

Recorded at Hansa by the Wall, Berlin and Mountain Studios, Montreux

 

AA-Side “HEROES” (‘Marc’ show version)

(Lyrics by David Bowie, Music by David Bowie and Brian Eno)

Recorded for the television show ‘Marc’ on 7th September 1977

 

 

The previously unreleased live version of “Heroes” from ‘Marc’ is a performance that remains dear to fans who heard it at the time, as it was the first televised performance of the song. Recorded on the 7th of September 1977 but not broadcast until September 28th, by which time Bolan had passed away in a tragic accident.

 

Watch Bowie’s performance here.

 

 

#DBHERO40  #BowieHeroes  #BowieBolan  #BowieVinyl  

 

“And it won’t be forgotten”

 

The November 2017 issue of MOJO has a generous 15 pages (plus cover), dedicated to “The Berlin Trilogy”. Here’s their blurb from the MOJO site…

 

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DAVID BOWIE ALWAYS HAD a problem with Lodger. “We both felt the mix sounded thin and muddy,” producer Tony Visconti tells MOJO’s Mark Paytress in the new MOJO magazine, in UK stores from Tuesday, September 26. “David and I always said we’d remix it one day. But like a thousand other projects, it never manifested.”

 

But during the spring of 2015, between work on Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, Visconti revived a long-cherished project to revitalise the oft-underestimated last instalment of “The Berlin Trilogy” (actually recorded in what Visconti describes as the “very unsexy” Montreux, Switzerland). The producer’s efforts have been rewarded with star billing in the new multi-disc box set David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town [1977-1982] and, more importantly his late employer’s own delight and approval.

 

“As soon as David heard the tom fills at the start of Fantastic Voyage,” says Visconti, “a big smile broke out on his face. Then the special effects that were never there before. The reverb on his vocal. The guitar sound. He was so happy.”

 

The full story of Lodger – its construction in exile, experimental excursions and crazy cover photo session – can be enjoyed in MOJO 288, along with new perspectives on Bowie’s Berlin period from Visconti, guitarist Carlos Alomar and Hansa Studios engineer Eduard Meyer. But among the tall tales of sleazy fun in the divided city’s bohemian demi-monde, there are more sobering insights.

 

“It was a very sad period for David,” says Carlos Alomar. “I don’t want to put it in some glamorous place. He was fighting for his marriage, his son; his business was horrible, the touring exhausting and taking every bit of money that he had… Nobody looks at the loneliness.”

 

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Also, free with the new issue is a 15-track covermounted CD, Neu Decade, celebrating the music that fed into Bowie’s Euro-exile – including Can, Cluster, Popol Vuh and Michael Rother.

 

Go here for more detail regarding the November issue of MOJO, which is out on September 26th.

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #BowieMOJO  #BowieBerlin

 

“We can be Heroes, for ever and ever, What d’you say?”

 

In addition to tomorrow’s “Heroes” 7″ picture disc release, Friday 22nd also sees the digital release of two new mixes of the song by Klax and Filburt especially commissioned for the 40th anniversary of the original single release.

 

These new 40th anniversary mixes see Leipzig’s Filburt and Brighton trio KLAX take the track into uncharted territory…

 

KLAX: “Bowie has been in our collective consciousness since birth and has undoubtedly been a huge influence on our musical development. The Berlin Trilogy is our favourite of Bowie’s many ‘eras’, and the track ‘Heroes’ sticks out as one of the greatest songs of this period. To be given the opportunity to add our own touch to such an iconic track was both daunting and astonishing. We wanted to maintain the emotion of the original track while placing it firmly in the ‘here and now’, staying true to Bowie’s forward thinking and boundary-pushing legacy. It was easily the highest pressure remix we’ve ever done but we are really happy with the results and hope others feel that too.”

 

Filburt: “It was a very great honour to work with the original material. When I first heard the single stems, I got goose bumps. For me, David Bowie has always been an exceptional talent, and the song reflects the urge for freedom and change. When working on the remix, it was important to transport the feeling of the original to the modern age, but also to generate a classic disco feeling in the groove.”

 

Listen to the tracks at NME and BEAT now.

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #ANewCareerInANewTownBox  #DBHERO40  #BowieHeroes  #BowieVinyl  

 

“Listen to tracks by Sam Therapy and King Dice”

 

The November 2017 issue of Uncut magazine has a 9/10 review of David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town (1977–1982) by John Robinson. Here’s his concluding paragraph to give you a flavour of the thing…

 

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Much as the idea of ‘the 1960s’ meant more than the strict confinement of a decade, Bowie’s Berlin is more about a state of mind, a population and it’s thinking than actual place. Brian Eno and his intellectual playfulness; Robert Fripp’s alien guitar; Tony Visconti’s embrace of meaningful technology. Between them they gave Bowie the materials to build a city larger and more magnificent than anywhere you could hope to find on a map.

 

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Elsewhere in the mag there’s a full page advert for DAVID BOWIE: A LIFE IN PICTURES (due on September 28th), which we’ll tell you more about next week.

 

Go here for more detail regarding the November issue of Uncut, which is on shelves tomorrow.

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #BowieUNCUT  

 

“He opened strange doors that we’d never close again”

 

(ANCIANT = A New Career In A New Town)

 

With just ten day to go till the September 29th release of the David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town (1977–1982) box set, the subject of our album focus this week is 1980’s Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps).

 

Watch a clever little animation over on DBFB.

 

Listen to the album on the official ANCIANT playlist now.

 

Pre-order ANCIANT here.

 

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #ANewCareerInANewTownBox  #BowieScaryMonsters

 

“Questioning saint-like and fantastic “Heroes””

 

The upcoming release of the David Bowie ‘A New Career In A New Town (1977-1982)’ box set will be celebrated with an event at the world-famous Hansa Studios, Berlin, on Tuesday 26th September which will be live-streamed via www.facebook.com/davidbowie.

 

The live event will feature a Q&A session with guests including Carlos Alomar (Bowie’s guitarist from 1974 to 1987), Eduard Meyer (the former sound engineer at Hansa Studios) and Chris Duffy (son of photographer Brian Duffy, and director of the Duffy Archive) who will be discussing Bowie’s work from 1977-1982. The official Bowie Facebook page will also be featuring previously unheard audio streams on the day of the event.

 

Hansa Tonstudio or ‘Hansa By The Wall’ as it came to be known was where Bowie recorded parts of his ground-breaking LOW album along with “HEROES” which celebrates its 40th anniversary this month.

 

YOUR CHANCE TO GET INVOLVED

 

Do you have a burning question that you’ve always wanted to ask Carlos Alomar, Eduard Meyer or Chris Duffy? Well, now you can. Post your question in the comments section here and the most suitable will be asked on the night.

 

The official Bowie Facebook page will feature a stream of the audio for the playback from 19:00 (CET) and a live-stream of the Q&A at 20:00 (CET).

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #ANewCareerInANewTownBox  #BowieHansa

 

“What can I do? Standing next to you”

 

Marc Bolan died forty years ago today on September 16th, 1977, two weeks before his 30th birthday.

 

He was a close friend of Bowie’s right up until the last. The pair are pictured here when they appeared together on an episode of ‘Marc’, Bolan’s 1977 TV show.

 

‘Marc’ was recorded in Manchester on September 7th, 1977, and broadcast on September 28th, 1977.

 

Today’s lyric quotation is from the song they wrote and attempted to perform together, Standing Next To You. However, the recording was truncated when Marc fell off the stage.

 

Bowie also performed “Heroes” on the show, a performance that remains dear to fans who heard it at the time, as it was the first televised performance of the song.

 

If the music of Marc Bolan and T Rex has somehow escaped you thus far, you really must treat yourself. And there’s no finer place to start than the Tony Visconti produced Electric Warrior.

 

 

FOOTWEARNOTE: Swipe picture for a Polaroid of David Bowie at Andy Warhol’s Factory on September 14th, 1971, ten days before the release of Electric Warrior. Bowie is sporting a pair of shoes given to him by Bolan, a footwear choice which impressed Warhol. The picture is taken from TASCHEN’s superb, Andy Warhol: Polaroids 1958-1987

 

 

#BowieBolan  #MarcBolan