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★ ~ The David Bowie Thread ~ ★

^ I have mixed feelings on that, Felid. Yes, he's a (justifiably) legendary artist but he originated 50 years ago and arguably his key material is 40ish years old. Music nerds will generally know who he is but should anyone else? He's not Elvis or The Beatles.

He got more attention around his death but he had been one of those ancient artists that are often in the media but he'd done music little that was much cop since 1980. Blackstar is genuinely great but that ended up being overshadowed by his passing.
 
^ I have mixed feelings on that, Felid. Yes, he's a (justifiably) legendary artist but he originated 50 years ago and arguably his key material is 40ish years old. Music nerds will generally know who he is but should anyone else? He's not Elvis or The Beatles.

He got more attention around his death but he had been one of those ancient artists that are often in the media but he'd done music little that was much cop since 1980. Blackstar is genuinely great but that ended up being overshadowed by his passing.

I'd classify him as a "cult megastar", very successful, massively influential on an Elvis or Madonna level, but those who loved him (rather than liked the occasional song or album) took him to their bosom like a favourite brother and never felt that love dim, no matter how many Tin Machine tracks there were. Some will even tell you Tin Machine were underrated.
 
He's influential on an enormous scale but he's not known to the degree that Madonna is and certainly not Elvis. "Cult megastar" is a good way of putting it but there are limits.

Paul McCartney "collaborated" with the odious Kanye West a few years ago an there were some Tweets, presumably from younger people, asking "who is this old fart jumping on Kanye's bandwagon?" Presuming that these Tweets were written unironically and not piss takes, bots or Russian trolls; there might be some people who don't know who McCartney is; though I'd imagine few in the West who haven't heard of the Beatles. McCartney is now old enough to be a great-grandad and the 60s are long time ago, even if it was an incredibly culturally important decade.

I'm conflicted about how we see the past, as much as I think we should respect cultural innovators, honour "the canon" and what are effectively "traditions"; too much adherence to this results in cultural stagnation and becomes yet another manifestation of "it was much better in my day", I also feel nauseated that the coke-preserved corpses that constitute The Rolling Stones are still touring and charging horrendous prices for tickets.
 
Thanks for your input, OW.
Is there a Bowie song that you still enjoy listening to?


I'd classify him as a "cult megastar", very successful, massively influential on an Elvis or Madonna level, but those who loved him (rather than liked the occasional song or album) took him to their bosom like a favourite brother and never felt that love dim, no matter how many Tin Machine tracks there were.
Some will even tell you Tin Machine were underrated.
Hand.
I adore the first TM album.

Good work from DB after 1980:
Let's Dance
Reality
Earthling
Black Tie White Noise


I'm still discovering worthy material from his mid-late 90s albums and his pre-1973 albums. Gotta credit the output. I've been an avid fan since 1983 and even yet there are great diamonds popping up from out of somewhere to fill my heart - tracks that impact For example, this song I'd not heard until this year: The Motel


 
Thanks for your input, OW.
Is there a Bowie song that you still enjoy listening to?


Hand.
I adore the first TM album.

Good work from DB after 1980:
Let's Dance
Reality
Earthling
Black Tie White Noise


I'm still discovering worthy material from his mid-late 90s albums and his pre-1973 albums. Gotta credit the output. I've been an avid fan since 1983 and even yet there are great diamonds popping up from out of somewhere to fill my heart - tracks that impact For example, this song I'd not heard until this year: The Motel

I perhaps came off as more negative than I meant to. I really like much of the 70s era stuff and have never gone off it. I don't like his commerical 80s period much, especially this:


AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH. NUKE IT FROM ORBIT.

This exponentially improves it:


An questionably brilliant bit of 80s Bowie:


I like some of Outside and occasional other songs but admit I'm not too familiar with his stiff from Scary Monsters until Blackstar, though I've heard much of it at least once. I'm no hardcore Bowie fan and am still discovering stuff, I've yet to hear Lodger or Pinups for example.
 
Best album for person who's never had a Bowie album would be?
 
So after all the emotional online high fives, the performer in this video ( a stand up as it turned out) put the record straight that he wasn't actually homeless at all, he was making a statement for the homeless .. either way, it's a powerful performance of the David Bowie & Mick Jagger tune ..

 
Just had to post this here - have not heard much better live from Bowie - just complete classic - perhaps I should have posted under 'what music?' in Chat but can't bring myself to separate it from this thread - someone up thread mentions it as an earworm and points out it's themes, so many Fortean themes in Bowie's lyrics.

 
Best album for person who's never had a Bowie album would be?
Bowies 1969 album simply called "David Bowie". It has his 1st big hit Space Oddity. He did cut his 1st album in 67 but I don't believe it went as far.
 
Best album for person who's never had a Bowie album would be?

My personal favourite is Space Oddity, mainly because it contains the most sublime track Bowie ever put on vinyl - Cygnet Committee.
Best all-round album though is probably Hunky Dory.
 
^ Superb band. Great songlist. Great guests. Great show. First time I've seen this thing in its entirety. Sub-woofing is a must. GA Dorsey shines. A really outstanding concert in every way. Watch it.
 
If they wanted to make a Bowie biopic as creatively adventurous as the man himself, they should get Todd Haynes: his Bob Dylan film was like no biopic ever made, before or since. He might feel he's partly covered it with Velvet Goldmine, mind you.
 
Righto, that Bowie doc is on tonight on BBC2 at 9, and it's called Finding Fame. It's all about his early years and sounds fascinating, including interviews with those who knew him back then - I think Hermione Farthingay is among them, if only she'd stayed with him he wouldn't have had all that trouble with Angie. I really like 1960s Bowie, so have high hopes for this.
 
Hermione FarthinGALE, sorry Hermione. Anyway, the collage/montage style really works wonders for the Bowie story, this was just as good as the other two docs in the series. I suppose it's lucky he was careful to record himself visually as well as in sound, and so early, almost as if he knew he was destined for greatness, despite his early setbacks. Some great interviews, new and old.
 
Never forget David Bowie masterminded "the biggest art hoax in history"
On April Fools’ Day, 1998, the crème de la crème of the New York art scene gathered for a party in the studio of Jeff Koons. David Bowie played host, and while a Who’s Who of the art crowd mingled over canapés and cocktails, the mastermind behind what would be (perhaps over-zealously) dubbed “the biggest art hoax in history” prowled the perimeters of the party. It was the key event to launch an elaborate practical joke concocted by Bowie and his friend, the Scottish novelist William Boyd, multi-award-winning author of numerous novels, most famously "Any Human Heart." Bowie and Boyd met while both members of the editorial board for Modern Painters magazine and quickly hit it off. Both were outsiders in the sense that they were art lovers but not involved in the art world directly, as a rock star and a star novelist. After a meeting in 1998, they bounced the idea around of introducing a fictitious artist into the magazine. Rolling with this idea, Boyd developed a fictitious history of a “lost American artist” by the name of Nat Tate.
https://www.salon.com/2019/02/23/ne...masterminded-the-biggest-art-hoax-in-history/
 
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