Tomorrow’s really on my mind…
I’m sure nobody reading this needs another reminder regarding the iSELECTBOWIE CD free with tomorrow’s
As you know, aside from the CD itself David has contributed an absorbing insight into each of the twelve tracks, and this one is no exception…
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Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing
I?d failed to obtain the theatrical rights from George Orwell?s widow for the book ?1984? and having written three or more songs for it already I did a fast about-face and recobbled the idea into Diamond Dogs: teen punks on rusty skates living on the roofs of the dystopian Hunger City; a post-apocalyptic landscape. A centerpiece for this would-be stage production was to be Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing which I wrote using William Burroughs?s cut-up method. You write down a paragraph or two describing several different subjects creating a kind of story ingredients-list I suppose and then cut the sentences into four or five word sections; mix ?em up and reconnect them. You can get some pretty interesting idea combinations like this. You can use them as is or if you have a craven need to not lose control bounce off these ideas and write whole new sections.
I was looking to create a profligate world that could have been inhabited by characters from Kurt Weill or John Rechy: that sort of atmosphere. A bridge between Enid Blyton?s Beckenham and The Velvet Underground?s New York. Without Noddy though. I thought it evocative to wander between the melodramatic Sweet Thing croon into the dirty sound of Candidate and back again. For no clear reason (what?s new?) I stopped singing this song around the mid-seventies. Though I?ve never had the patience or discipline to get down to finishing a musical theatre idea other than the rock shows I?m known for, I know what I?d try and produce if I did.
I?ve never been keen on traditional musicals. I find it awfully hard to suspend my disbelief when dialogue is suddenly song. I suppose one of the few people who can make this work is Steven Sondheim with works like ?Assassins? or ?Sunday in the Park with George?. I much prefer through-sung pieces where there is little if any dialogue at all. Sweeny Todd is a good example of course. Peter Grimes and The Turn of the Screw, both operas by Benjamin Britten and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Kurt Weill. How fantastic to be able to create something like that. – David Bowie 2008
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What a great read…Expect much more of the same tomorrow in the Mail On Sunday.
If you missed the previous two excerpts we posted here, check these out: 06.16.2008 NEWS: NEW BOWIE RECORDING ON M.O.S. iSELECTBOWIE CD & 06.22.2008 NEWS: LIFE ON MARS SINGLE IS 35 TODAY – DB REMEMBERS