SFTBH

A re-appreciation of 80's vinyl.

[songsfromthebighair]

David Bowie - Lazarus

33. In the final three years of his life, David Bowie worked on two projects simultaneously…in addition to battling cancer. The man was amazing! One of the projects is the musical LAZARUS. Bowie had always wanted to write a musical, so LAZARUS brought his lifelong dream to fruition. The show is a sequel to THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, the 1976 sci-fi movie in which he starred. It’s basically a “jukebox” musical, in that most of the songs sung in the show are from Bowie’s back catalog. He did write four new songs and he worked closely in consultation with the writer and the director in its creation. In fact, the basic storyline is his. I have yet to see it, so the story is a mystery to me and I plan to keep it that way until I see it. I do have the cast recording, however. I can’t say I like it very much. The biggest problem is Michael C. Hall, who plays Bowie’s character from the film. He is a wonderful actor but I really, really loathe his singing voice. And, as with many “jukebox” musicals, it suffers from sounding like a bunch of people doing karaoke. (Although I have one exception: Sophia Anne Caruso. I love her voice and the way she interprets the three Bowie songs she’s given to sing. She’s my only reason to ever play the cast recording.) The other project Bowie worked on during this period was his final studio album: BLACKSTAR. Released on his 69th birthday, BLACKSTAR is one of the weirdest, most experimental albums Bowie ever recorded. It’s very jazz influenced. He even used a local NYC jazz combo as his backing band. The album is odd, dense, depressing, complex, extremely non-commercial, and could very well be the masterpiece that many critics claim it to be. He wanted it to be his swan song, a goodbye gift to his fans. It’s a somewhat difficult listen, but I’m sure as time goes on I’ll grow to love it more. Not that I dislike it. I still have a hard time listening to it because it makes me sad. The album is very short. There's only seven songs. (And three terrific songs – all better than several of the album tracks – were kept as bonus tracks on a Bowie-sung bonus disc for the LAZARUS cast recording. These would have made BLACKSTAR a perfect 10-song album, but who am I to complain? HA!) This is the only Bowie album where he did not appear on the cover in some way. Unless, I suppose, the black star is to represent the cancer inside his body. The title track is 10 minutes long and is interesting in that it essentially contains a song within the song. “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)” is one of the strangest songs Bowie’s ever recorded. It’s certainly my least favorite on the album. My favorite song is “I Can’t Give Everything Away,” which appears as the final track. On every previous #Bowiecelebration post I’ve always presented my favorite song off each album, but this time I’m going to post the song “Lazarus” instead. Why? Because it’s the last music video Bowie ever made and it’s incredibly moving to watch. This music video (and the video for “Blackstar”) also introduced us to Bowie’s final alter-ego/character: Button Eyes, which alarmingly seems to depict Bowie as a corpse (or, at least, something corpse-like). When you see Bowie move slowly backwards and seal himself into the wardrobe (coffin) at the end of the video, you’ll be hard pressed not to be affected. I’m sure a dissertation could be written about BLACKSTAR…the music, the packaging, the videos…it’s like he was designing and directing his own fucking funeral. A brilliant artist to the end. David Bowie died two days after the release of BLACKSTAR. The world is at a loss without him. Bowie…forever and ever. <3

[songsfromthebighair]

(You Will) Set the World On Fire - David Bowie

32. On June 25, 2004, after singing his final song (“Ziggy Stardust”) at the Hurricane Festival in Scheesel, Germany, David Bowie collapsed as he left the stage. He was helicoptered to a local hospital where they performed an emergency angioplasty. The remainder of the Reality Tour was canceled and Bowie never toured again. After his heart attack Bowie essentially removed himself from public life, preferring to spend time with his wife Iman and their young daughter Lexi. Ten years had passed since the release of REALITY. Many people (myself included) started to believe that he’d completely retired and we’d never get to hear new music from him again. Then, on his birthday (January 8) in 2013, Bowie released a new song on iTunes with no publicity or fanfare: “Where Are We Now?” The song flew up the charts and news quickly came that it would be included on an upcoming new studio album called THE NEXT DAY. Boy, was this album worth the wait. It’s fantastic! “Valentine’s Day,” “Boss of Me,” “The Next Day,” & “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” are some of my faves. But the absolute best song, far above the rest, is “(You Will) Set the World on Fire.” I loooooove this song! I’m still flabbergasted that it was not released as a single. I think that after 10 years of silence if it had been the first single (rather than the dull ballad “Where Are We Now?”), the song would have conquered the world and renewed interest in Bowie would have skyrocketed. It’s classic glam rock Bowie. It’s amazing. The one thing I’ve never understood about this album, however, is the cover art. It’s basically the same album cover as “HEROES” but with a large white square obscuring the original picture. The former album’s title is crossed out and “The Next Day” appears in large letters inside the white square. The guy who designed the cover claims that it’s supposed to connote “forgetting or obliterating the past.” It’s certainly original, but I still think it’s a shitty album cover. For this album Bowie reportedly recorded 29 songs in secret over a three year period, 14 of which appeared on the album (22 total on the super deluxe edition that was released the year following). That means 7 songs still remain unreleased. I often wonder about how many songs Bowie recorded throughout his career that still haven’t been released for public consumption. I hope as time goes on some of them will see the light of day.

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David Bowie - Live By Request (2002)

31. I was fortunate enough to see David Bowie in concert three times. The first time was for the Glass Spider Tour at Dodger Stadium in 1987. Siouxsie and the Banshees was the opening act. It was the biggest concert I had ever attended. It was an elaborate, over-the-top production and I loved it! It was the 80’s! (Oh, how I miss the glorious 80’s, when bands had style and didn’t just grow beards and act sullen.) The second time I saw Bowie live was the 1990 Sound & Vision tour, also at Dodger Stadium. Lenny Kravitz was the opening act. I remember the big selling point for this tour was not only to promote the reissues of his entire back catalog, but Bowie proclaimed that it was the last time he’d play any of those old songs live. (Yeah, right. LOL!) I recently found a promo poster for the tour that advertises the exact show I went to at Dodger Stadium. It now hangs proudly on my wall. And the last time I saw Bowie live was 2004’s Reality Tour, this time at the Shrine Auditorium. Macy Gray was the opening act, but we were late to the show due to horrible traffic and missed her entire set. This was my favorite Bowie performance of the three. The setlist was amazing. Our seats were even more amazing. We had front row balcony seats! Aaaaahhhh!!!! I could see him smiling through the entire show! Which brings me to the other reason this was my favorite concert…Bowie was in amazingly good spirits. He was feeding off the adoring crowd and seemed to be having the time of his life. I had never felt more connected to him than on that night. It’s still one of the best nights of my life. Thankfully, two of these three concert tours are preserved on home video. The Reality Tour video, unfortunately, suffers from really horrible direction/editing and at times is almost unwatchable. But I also have a bootleg copy of this tour that doesn’t have the horrible editing problems. Yay! Now if only they’d release a DVD/Blu-ray for the Sound & Vision Tour… Now that Bowie’s gone I look back at my life and wonder why I didn’t see him live more often. I suppose I could blame my finances, lack of awareness/information (no internet), etc., but I really wish it was more than three. There are many, many live performances/clips I could have chosen to post for my #BowieCelebration entry about Bowie “in concert,” but I’m going to go with the most recent Bowie show I’ve watched: A&E Live by Request. It’s the full 90-minute telecast and since I didn’t have cable TV in 2002 I only discovered it recently. He seems to be in a silly mood during the show, probably because of the nature of the gig itself (people calling in to talk to him and request a song).

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David Bowie - "Fly"

David Bowie -"Fly"

30. David Bowie’s REALITY will always feel like a lesser cousin to his previous brilliant album HEATHEN. Not that it’s a bad album, because it isn’t, but it’s far less cohesive and far less interesting to me. It definitely has some standout tracks though, like the two singles, “Never Get Old” and “New Killer Star.” I also really like his cover of George Harrison’s “Try Some, Buy Some.” But far above the rest, my favorite track is “Fly.” Technically it only appears on the bonus disc of the deluxe edition and not on the album proper, but as the song doesn’t appear on any other Bowie release except as part of REALITY I consider it to be a part of the album…especially because the 2-disc deluxe edition was released simultaneously with the single-disc version. (This was back when record companies first started putting out multiple versions of albums in order to get more money from us even though it could all fit on one CD.) I love “Fly” so much more than anything else on the album it makes me sad that people might never have heard it unless they forked over the extra dough for the deluxe version. It’s certainly his most 80’s sounding song since his 80’s period. Speaking of the 80’s, I should also note that Bowie did one of the strangest covers (or maybe THE strangest cover) of his career during this period: Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s “Love Missile F1-11!” It appears as the b-side to “New Killer Star.”

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David Bowie - Sunday

29. After the 9/11 tragedy many artists released “let’s all hug each other and everything’s gonna be OK” type music. Not David Bowie. He released HEATHEN, his most angry, anxiety ridden music in years…and it’s his late career masterpiece. Bowie would go on to claim that the album wasn’t really influenced by the 9/11 attacks [Would you want your art forever linked to that?], but Bowie was living and recording in New York City at the time and you can see it in the lyrics of several of the songs. Plus, there’s the album artwork, which is probably my favorite of his career. His face is on the cover, sullen, looking skyward, eyes full of stars, with the album title inverted. Aside from the cover’s title, all other text throughout is written with a strike through it, as if redacted. The back cover is a close-up of his hands ripping pages out of a book (the Bible?). The inner booklet has his hands holding a crucifix, but the crucifix is scratched out. There are also various classical religious paintings that have been defaced with paint blotches or rips in the fabric. And then there’s the full body shot of Bowie descending an illuminated staircase, presumably leaving his faith behind. I think a tragedy like 9/11 can have anyone questioning their faith. Bowie was agnostic at best, but the artwork speaks volumes regardless. HEATHEN was the first Bowie album produced by Tony Visconti since 1980’s SCARY MONSTERS. Visconti would go on to produce every consecutive album for the rest of Bowie’s career. Bowie released no music videos for this album, letting the music speak for itself. (Although an unused video for “Slow Burn” did eventually leak onto the internet many years later.) Visconti considered HEATHEN to be Bowie’s magnum opus. “I told him, ‘That was more like a symphony,’” Visconti recalled. I love this album so much. So, so, so much. It’s on my top 5 all-time and certainly my #1 favorite of his post-millennial output. Every song is so good I could pick almost any as my favorite. But in the end, I have to pick the album opener, “Sunday.” This song is so amazing I almost couldn’t believe it when I first heard it. I had suffered through a somewhat lackluster Bowie 90’s period (comparatively speaking) and this song just knocked my socks off. “Welcome to a rejuvenated, exciting new period of Bowie’s career,” it said to me, as it crescendoed to its explosive finale and Bowie’s rebirth (“Everything has chaaaaaaaaaanged…”).

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David Bowie - Shadow man (Toy - Unreleased album 2001)

28. Recorded at the dawn of the 21st century, TOY is a David Bowie album that still remains unreleased. Bowie had the idea to revisit some of his early songs from the 60’s (including “Silly Boy Blue”…my favorite off his eponymous debut) and remake them in a contemporary style. While that was the initial impetus for the album, he went on to write four original tunes for inclusion on the album as well. Word is that the record label was unhappy with the album and refused to release it. (This is how stupid people can be.) Nevertheless, many of the songs on the 14-track album showed up on future Bowie releases: Two of them were re-recorded for this next album HEATHEN, four were released as b-sides off that same album, and two were released on a 2014 3-disc greatest hits compilation called NOTHING HAS CHANGED. The entire TOY album leaked onto the internet in 2011 (although the leaked version is rumored to be somewhat different than the intended release version). Nevertheless, it’s all I have to go on. It’s an amazing album and it’s truly a shame that it still has no official release. Maybe someday… It’s hard to pick a favorite song because they’re all so good. The remade classics are fascinating (and, aside from “Silly Boy Blue,” better than the originals) and the new songs are a great sample of the amazing Bowie music to come. I’ve been struggling between two particular songs for my final choice, including one new song (“Afraid”) and one re-worked oldie (“Shadow Man”). In the end I’m going to go with “Shadow Man” because it’s a really beautiful song, it’s one of Bowie’s best vocal performances, and it’s the more rare track of the two since “Afraid” was re-recorded for his next album HEATHEN.  

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David Bowie - If I'm Dreaming My Life from 'hours . . . '

27. After EARTHLING, David Bowie began working with a video game developer on a video game called OMIKRON: THE NOMAD SOUL. Not only did he write lots of music for the game, but he also appeared in it as two different characters. It was a dystopian sci-fi adventure game that combined elements of first-person shooters, fighting, and puzzle games. It was released on Sega Dreamcast and Windows PC. It wasn’t too successful and it never got released on alternate gaming platforms. I’ve never played the game myself but have always been intrigued, considering Bowie’s involvement. Released in 1999, HOURS (stylized as ‘hours…’) was the last album of Bowie’s 90’s period. Seven of the ten tracks on the album are from the OMIKRON game, albeit re-recorded versions. Other songs from the game turned into b-sides and Japanese bonus tracks. I’ve always thought this was a pretty boring Bowie album. And when you look at the songs released as singles (“Seven,” “Survive,” “Thursday’s Child”), you might agree. But upon reassessment, the album’s not quite as dull as I originally pegged it. It’s still not a great Bowie album, but it’s got some good stuff on it, like “New Angels of Promise,” “The Dreamers,” and my favorite track, the 7-minute epic “If I’m Dreaming My Life” (which is one of the three songs not written for the game). The song “What’s Really Happening?” has lyrics written by a fan, via a contest Bowie had on his website at the time. This was, thankfully, the last time Bowie was to work with his “bad-luck charm” Reeves Gabrels. Bowie’s output got so much better after Gabrels was gone. #bye #sorrynotsorry

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I'm Afraid Of Americans -  David Bowie

26. 1997’s EARTHLING is David Bowie’s “drum and bass album.” I type that with a huge sigh, as I absolutely despise drum and bass music. It’s probably my least favorite genre of dance music. To me it sounds like a rinky-dink, cheapo Casio keyboard sped up 3x too fast. It’s annoying and I don’t understand why people like it. Nevertheless, it became popular at the time and Bowie jumped on the trendy bandwagon. I prefer Bowie when he’s paving his own original path, so this album is a disappointment to me. Let’s blame Reeves Gabrels… In truth, only about half the songs have the telltale frenetic beats of drum and bass music, so technically only half the album is annoying. The other songs still fall in the electronica music category (although there is prominent guitar throughout) and they are much better. The one big standout on the album is my favorite track, “I’m Afraid of Americans.” It’s so different as to not really be representative of the rest of the album. This may be because it originally appeared on the soundtrack to the movie SHOWGIRLS (when the chorus was “I’m afraid of the animals,” rather than “Americans”) and Bowie re-recorded it for inclusion on this album. When it was released as a single it was remixed by Nine Inch Nails. This NIN single version seems to have lived on as the definitive version, as it has appeared on every Bowie greatest hits collection since, as well as in the official music video. Bowie described the song as being less hostile and more sardonic in its criticism. He wrote it in reference to American corporate imperialism, after seeing a new McDonald’s pop up while he was traveling in Java. The music video has a more literal take on the title, with Trent Reznor chasing Bowie through the streets of NYC. I do love that Bowie was not afraid to criticize Americans (who, generally speaking, are historically bad at taking criticism).

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David Bowie - Strangers When We Meet

Strangers When We Meet is a song written and performed by David Bowie. It is from the album Buddha Of Suburbia in 1993.

25. David Bowie’s next album, commonly known as OUTSIDE, is a dark and dreary set of songs. The full title is 1. OUTSIDE (THE DIARY OF NATHAN ADLER, OR THE ART-RITUAL MURDER OF BABY GRACE BLUE: A NON-LINEAR GOTHIC DRAMA HYPER-CYCLE). That grandiose, Grand Guignol title seems a bit pretentious to me. But then, Bowie isn’t perfect. It’s a concept album about a dystopian future where crimes, such as murder, have become outsider art and a governmental bureau is in charge of deciding what is considered art and what is considered a crime. It’s an interesting concept, in theory, and every song is to be sung by a different “character” in the “story,” but I think he failed in its execution because most of these songs I don’t find very appealing or auditorily pleasing. Maybe if these were actual songs from a movie or stage musical and there was a coherent story and visuals to go with them I’d like it better? Who knows? Anyway, Bowie worked with Brian Eno on this album. It was their first time working together since the Berlin Trilogy. Sadly, the magic wasn’t recaptured. The lead single, “The Hearts Filthy Lesson,” came with an equally grim music video that depicted scenes of torture and ritual sacrifice. I think Bowie was far too enamored with Nine Inch Nails at this point, even going on a co-headlining tour with them. (Or maybe cleverly, calculatedly curating a new audience?) It’s one of the better songs on the album though. LOL! When “Hallo Spaceboy” was released as a single it was remixed by Pet Shop Boys, who made the song more dance-oriented with extra vocals sung by Neil Tennant. I like it much better than the album version. My favorite song (again!) is “Strangers When We Meet.” It appears at the end of the album, like a bright light at the end of a very dark tunnel. It’s a re-recording of the same song from THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA. I prefer the re-recorded OUTSIDE version (primarily because of Bowie’s vocals) and since this time around it was released as a single, Bowie made a music video for it. You can now listen to both and see which you like better. :)

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David Bowie - Strangers When We Meet

David Bowie The Buddha of Suburbia 1993

24. David Bowie released THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA only six months after the release of BLACK TIE WHITE NOISE. Ostensibly a soundtrack to the BBC miniseries of the same name, only the title track ended up being featured in the TV show. (Or so I’ve heard. I’ve never seen the miniseries myself.) As for the rest of the songs, I’m not sure if it’s all original music “inspired” by the TV show or if he took themes & cues written by himself for the miniseries (whether used or not) and expanded upon them, making it a more fully realized solo album…similar to what Peter Gabriel did with PASSION, his re-worked, expanded soundtrack to THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST. Nevertheless, this is an entire album of new Bowie material and more than half of the songs have vocals. And I really enjoy it. Like the second Tin Machine album, this is a Bowie record that I didn’t actually hear until after his death. When it was released in 1993 it was import-only (no American release until years later) and the album cover was atrocious (which, thankfully, got changed for all reissues). Since it was billed as a soundtrack I assumed it would be mostly, if not all, instrumental. This was pre-iTunes/Wikipedia, mind you. I was also a starving college student at the time, so I didn’t want to spend the extra money for an import soundtrack CD with a hideous cover that was probably all instrumentals. Oh well, I suppose it’s for the best because purchasing it after his death has been like getting a surprise extra Bowie album! My favorite song on the album is “Strangers When We Meet.” Bowie apparently felt this was a great song as well because he ended up re-recording it for his next solo album. Bowie once proclaimed that THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA was his favorite…most likely to shine a light on his #1 most over-looked album.

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David Bowie: I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday

From the Black Tie White Noise dvd. Buy it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Bowie-Black-White-Noise/dp/B0006TNAEI/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=123555428...

23. Released in 1993, BLACK TIE WHITE NOISE was David Bowie’s first solo album after the 6-year Tin Machine detour. The album was inspired by his recent marriage to supermodel Iman, calling it a wedding gift to his bride. In fact, three of the songs he had specifically written for their wedding ceremony. Bowie enlisted Nile Rodgers to produce the album. This was the first time they’d worked together since Rodgers produced the mega-selling LET’S DANCE album. Sadly, the magic wasn’t recaptured. It’s an extremely uneven album. There are some really great songs, like the first single “Jump They Say” (which was written about his schizophrenic brother who committed suicide), “Miracle Goodnight” (which, to me, sounds like it could have been on the LABYRINTH soundtrack), “Don’t Let Me Down & Down,” and “I Feel Free.” But there are some terrible songs on here too, particularly the three instrumentals. There’s a tremendous amount of horns (saxophone/trumpet) on this album and they appear obnoxiously so on the instrumentals. There’s even a picture of a saxophone on the album’s back cover! I also really dislike the title track, a duet with Al B. Sure!, which is possibly the strangest pairing of Bowie’s career. Nevertheless, ignore any criticisms you may have just read because this album is worth owning if for nothing else than the song “I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday.” It’s a cover of a Morrissey song, which originally appeared on Morrissey’s album YOUR ARSENAL. That album was produced by Mick Ronson, who was Bowie’s guitarist with The Spiders From Mars. It’s my favorite Morrissey album and it was the last album Ronson produced before his death. Morrissey wrote the song in the “style” of a Bowie song (Bowie himself called it a parody of his song “Rock and Roll Suicide”), so Bowie decided to claim it as his own. Bowie doing Morrissey doing Bowie. And I love it! I don't particularly like the music video he made for it, but since it wasn't released as a single I guess I should be happy that one even exists. I remember reading an interview with Morrissey many years ago when he recalled the time Bowie played his version of the song to Morrissey. Morrissey stated that when the song finished he remained silent and didn’t say a word because he felt if he started to speak he would begin to cry. Sadly, the admiration between these two artists would vanish a few years later when Bowie asked Morrissey to be the opening act on the European leg of his Outside Tour. Rumor has it that Morrissey hated performing for half-filled auditoriums of Bowie fans and two weeks into the tour, after he and Bowie had a huge tiff, Morrissey dropped out. He’s made jabs at Bowie in the press ever since. *sigh* Oh, Morrissey, does anything make you happy?...

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Tin machine you belong in Rock n Roll

Tin machine you belong in Rock n Roll

22.  Tin Machine actually made a second album: TIN MACHINE II. And, believe it or not, it’s not that bad. I hated the first Tin Machine album so much that I never bothered buying the second one, so I never heard it until after David Bowie’s death when I began to re-examine his entire oeuvre. The first three songs on the album, in fact, I like quite a bit. The album sounds more like traditional Bowie material rather than the endless, droning noise of the first Tin Machine album. There is one giant flaw on this album, however: two of the twelve songs are sung by drummer Hunt Sales. Tin Machine was still a band, mind you, so I guess Bowie wanted things a bit more egalitarian…even though he had sung every track on the first album! Unfortunately, those two songs are atrocious and they mar what is otherwise a very recommendable album. This album marked the second time Bowie had to have male genitalia excised from an album cover. As with the dog penis on DIAMOND DOGS, the four ancient Greek statues adorning the TIN MACHINE II album cover had to have their penises airbrushed off for the U.S. release. Yes, puritanical America was the only country that required the removal. Although written by Bowie, the song “A Big Hurt” sounds like it could be a Pixies cover. The Pixies was one of Bowie’s favorite bands. My favorite track on the album is “You Belong in Rock n’ Roll.” It’s the one song that’s most Bowie-like, with a sound far removed from Tin Machine’s first album. Plus, it has a fun video with all kinds of Bowieness in it. (Work those shoulders! Suck that toe! Oh, I love him…) In 1999, when Virgin Records remastered and reissued Bowie’s entire back catalog, the first Tin Machine album was rebranded as a David Bowie album with the title TIN MACHINE. The second Tin Machine album was ignored and not reissued, presumably because of the poor decision to include two songs sung by the drummer, and/or the fact that the album sold very poorly in the first place. It’s unfortunate because this album is a million times better than the first.

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Under The God (1999 Remastered Version)

Provided to YouTube by Warner Music Group Under The God (1999 Remastered Version) · Tin Machine Tin Machine ℗ 1999 Jones/Tintoretto Entertainment Company LLC...

21. After the critical drubbing David Bowie got from NEVER LET ME DOWN and The Glass Spider Tour (even though they were both financially successful), Bowie had a creative crisis and wanted to rejuvenate himself artistically. So…he cut his hair, grew a beard, and formed a new band called Tin Machine. The band included Reeves Gabrels on guitar, Tony Sales on bass, and Hunt Sales on drums, all of whom drove Bowie towards a hard rock sound with their new music. This would be the first time he would work with Reeves Gabrels, who would continue to be Bowie’s lead guitarist and sometime co-songwriter/co-producer for the rest of the 1990’s. I call him Bowie’s bad-luck charm, since the 90’s is my least favorite period of Bowie’s career. Although technically released in 1989, I always consider Tin Machine’s debut album TIN MACHINE to be the start of Bowie’s 90’s period. I really do not like this album. It’s probably my least favorite Bowie album ever. It includes a cover of John Lennon’s song “Working Class Hero” and I don’t even like that very much. Basically, he went from making what he considers to be his worst album to what I consider to be his worst album. LOL! Remember now, I became a Bowie fan with 1983’s LET’S DANCE and all I really knew was 80’s-pop Bowie, so this album was a drastic and unwelcomed change for me. The good part of me hating this album and his new “band” is that it ignited my desire to go back and explore his earlier work that I wasn’t as familiar with. And boy did his earlier work make up for the dreadful Tin Machine project! I can’t pick a favorite track to post off this album because I don’t really care. I’ll go with “Under the God,” since it was the first song released as a single. Eight years after its release, Bowie re-recorded one song from TIN MACHINE under his own name. This re-recording of “I Can’t Read” appeared on the soundtrack to the movie THE ICE STORM and it’s far superior to the Tin Machine version. Far superior!

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David Bowie - Time Will Crawl

Music video by David Bowie performing Time Will Crawl.

20. The final album of David Bowie’s 80’s pop period is 1987’s NEVER LET ME DOWN. Most critics consider this to be the nadir of Bowie’s recording career. Bowie himself even admitted it’s the one album he regrets releasing. (Primarily because he felt that he had too little input in how the songs were produced.) But as I’ve said before, I love 80’s Bowie so I disagree with him. I think it’s a good album. Granted, it’s my least favorite from his 80’s period, but I still enjoy it very much. And it was commercially successful! Bowie wrote most of the songs on the album as the basis for a very grandiose tour he was planning: The Glass Spider Tour. It was his most expensive tour to date and included the largest touring set ever made (at that time), which was designed to look like a giant spider. After the Glass Spider Tour ended, Bowie never performed any song from NEVER LET ME DOWN live ever again. One thing that’s unique to this album is that it’s the only time Bowie retracted a song. “Too Dizzy” only appears on the original release. He had the song removed from all subsequent reissues. I’m not particularly sure why he hated this song so much as to have it removed, but I suppose if he couldn’t retract the entire album he could at least retract his least favorite song?...Who knows? I like the song. I’m glad I have a copy of the original CD that includes it. I really love all three songs that were released as singles off this album, but my favorite is “Time Will Crawl.” It has a gloriously 80’s-style music video complete with cheesy backup dancers in funny outfits. Enjoy!  

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Labyrinth-Within You

Stair scene From the movie Labyrinth

19. I already penned one post discussing David Bowie: the Actor, but I must return to his film LABYRINTH because the soundtrack is (albeit with instrumental tracks from the original score) essentially an original Bowie EP and in many ways is essential to his discography. Bowie wrote all five songs that appear in the film and he sings four of them. (For some reason I always thought Bowie sang “Chilly Down” and they just modified his voice for the different characters, but that song is actually sung by the actors portraying those characters in the film…including Kevin Clash, who would go on to voice Sesame Street’s Elmo.) LABYRINTH, a fantasy film directed by Muppet creator Jim Henson, received mixed reviews and was initially a box office failure. (It was the last feature film directed by Henson before his untimely death in 1990.) The film has since gone on to amass a large cult following, I’m sure due in part to Bowie’s involvement. I watched it again a year ago and I still think it’s a fun movie…and Bowie is clearly having a good time playing a cartoonish bad guy with a giant codpiece. As with many things from the 80’s, it holds a lot of sentimental value for me. There were two songs from the soundtrack released as singles: “Underground” and “Magic Dance.” But my favorite song from the film is “Within You,” which plays during the M.C. Escher inspired climax of the movie. Fun side note: Bowie performed all the baby’s vocals in the song “Magic Dance!”

[songsfromthebighair]

David Bowie - Loving The Alien

18. After the huge success of LET’S DANCE, David Bowie spent much of the 80’s feeling compelled to capitalize on that success and he continued to make more commercial music in order to retain his new larger audience. He would later refer to this period as his “Phil Collins years.” (It's funny that even Bowie makes fun of Phil Collins!) Many people malign Bowie’s 80’s period, but I absolutely love it. Admittedly, that is when I fell in love with his music, so I’m sure there is a lot of sentimental value to his 80’s albums for me. But I also fucking love 80’s pop music!!! TONIGHT is an odd album in that it’s not a technically covers album, but 5 out of the 9 songs on it actually are. Bowie hadn’t written many new songs while on the Serious Moonlight tour, but he wanted to get a new album out ASAP, so he resorted to covers. Similar to “China Girl,” both “Tonight” and “Neighborhood Threat” are remakes of songs off the Iggy Pop album LUST FOR LIFE that Bowie co-wrote and produced in 1977. “God Only Knows” is a Beach Boys song. “I Keep Forgettin’” is an old R&B tune by someone named Chuck Jackson. And “Don’t Look Down” is another Iggy Pop song, but this time coming from a Pop album that Bowie was not involved with. Iggy Pop, in fact, worked substantially on TONIGHT with Bowie, co-writing 2 of the 4 new songs. “Blue Jean” and “Tonight” (which Bowie turned into a duet with Tina Turner) were both singles off the album, but my favorite track is the third single, “Loving the Alien.” As weird as the music video is for this song, it makes one wonder how he thought he could be courting mainstream success with it. LOL! I guess you can never take all of the weird out of Bowie, and that’s why I love him. POSTSCRIPT: I also wanted to mention that the 80’s were the heyday for the 12” vinyl single and that “Loving the Alien” is a perfect example of the glories of this period. (Or, of physical media in general, since now no one seems to care about holding music in their hands.) The UK 12” single was in a gatefold sleeve. The inner gatefold was adorned with pictures from the music video as well as printed lyrics to the song. And it also included a large fold-out Bowie poster! Alternately, in the US the 12” single was released as a picture disc. Ah, I miss singles… And don’t get me started on how much better remixes were in the 80’s compared to the horribly uninventive remixes we get nowadays. 

[songsfromthebighair]

"Forever... Forever and ever"

17. One can't do an assessment of David Bowie's career without discussing his acting roles. I think he was a very underrated actor. He only starred in a few films, and played small yet significant minor roles in several other movies, but no matter what film he was in he was always infinitely watchable. Part of the reason there was a three year break between SCARY MONSTERS and LET'S DANCE was that Bowie decided to concentrate on acting for awhile. And during this time he starred in what I consider to be his two best roles: as Major Jack Celliers in Nagisa Oshima's MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE and as John Blaylock in Tony Scott's THE HUNGER. Both of these films came out in the same year (1983), so it was a one-two punch for Bowie showing us his acting chops. (Prior to working on these films he also starred in the title role of THE ELEPHANT MAN on Broadway to great acclaim.) Bowie plays a rebellious military officer stuck in a Japanese internment camp during World War II in MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE. Admittedly, I haven’t seen this film in quite some time, but it’s a harrowing story about the horrors of war, cultural differences, and a bit of an unrequited lust from one of the Japanese officers (Ryuichi Sakamoto) towards Bowie’s character. And Sakamoto (also a great musician) wrote the amazing score to the film. It’s not a happy movie, which is probably why I haven’t re-watched it in a long time, but it’s a very powerful film and Bowie’s performance is fantastic. And then there’s THE HUNGER, which not only contains my favorite Bowie performance, but it’s also one of my favorite movies of all time. The movie is light on plot, but heavy on style. I think one critic called it “the greatest perfume ad ever made” or something to that effect, but I think that comment does the film a disservice. It’s based on a novel by Whitley Strieber, but the film jettisons many plot points from the novel (including completely rewriting the ending). Even though much isn’t directly explained, I think the film has great impact. I like films that don’t spoon feed you information, anyway. It’s a vampire story. I’ll just leave it at that because I hate spoilers. Bowie’s performance is so subtle, so beautiful. I really can’t get enough of this movie. And it also has an amazing soundtrack. I add this film (along with Ridley Scott’s LEGEND) to my list of films where style wins over substance. Sometimes that’s OK. And this movie has style for days… Bowie went on to star in a few more films (LABYRINTH, THE LINGUINE INCIDENT, MR. RICE’S SECRET), but most of his future acting roles were small parts, often playing famous figures, like Nikola Tesla in THE PRESTIGE, Andy Warhol in BASQUIAT, and Pontius Pilate in THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST. In lieu of posting the theatrical trailer for THE HUNGER I’m just posting this clip from the film. Not too much happens, but it’ll give you a sense of the tone of the film. And it has Bowie’s line “…forever and ever,” which, for some reason, is one line from the movie that has always stayed in my head. And it’s why I’ve been using the hashtag ‪#‎Bowieforeverandever‬ on all my posts. [Warning: There is brief, partial nudity in the clip.]