#bowiecelebration

[songsfromthebighair]

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…”).

[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.

[songsfromthebighair]

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.

[gmrstudios]

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2517 - Happy 75th Birthday David Bowie! https://sensedoubt.blogspot.com/2022/01/a-sense-of-doubt-blog-post-2517-happy.html #happybirthdaydavidbowie #bowieforever #bowie75 #bowiecelebration #bowiebirthday #davidbowiefan #GOAT https://www.instagram.com/p/CYhPV6OP2BMPEGhvVsnL-UU1XaIhsRiiqVjBHc0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[stolenduck]

On this day ; “Blackstar “is the twenty-fifth and final studio album by David Bowie was released , coinciding with Bowie's birthday ..... . . . . . . . #blackstar #davidbowie #bowiecelebration #vinyloftheday #ziggystardust #gayicon #vinylcommunity #beardedguy #vinyloftheday #musiconvinyl #vinylisbetter #vinyl #beardmodel #beardswag #vinylcommunity #duranduran #recordbirthday #nowspinningonvinyl #pride #beardsofinstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CJzhTK2MUPj/?igshid=f5c4ilqfpgu1

[songsfromthebighair]

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.”

[songsfromthebighair]

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.