David Bowie: The next thread and the next thread...

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That MTV interviewer is a complete disaster. I'd like to think times have changed, but I'm not so sure. "We can't only think about people in NYC and LA, but in Poughkeepsie and the Midwest, which will be scared to death by Prince".

He was such a gentleman there, though. Never yielded, but never became aggressive. Can't say I would have reacted the same way.
 
Love that video from the 80s that's doing the rounds of him admonishing an MTV idiot about them not playing black artists.


And the VJ tried his best but I wonder why he bothered trying to defend (outside of defending his employer and being courteous to Bowie) considering he had nothing to do with MTV programming of videos and is merely a VJ.


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I've been looking for an interview, and I can't find it I don't remember if it's video or text, but there's something I saw, maybe on Cracked, from back in the late 60s, where Bowie was being interviewed and he talked about how he was going to be famous, not if he became famous, anyone familiar with that?
 
That MTV interviewer is a complete disaster. I'd like to think times have changed, but I'm not so sure. "We can't only think about people in NYC and LA, but in Poughkeepsie and the Midwest, which will be scared to death by Prince".

He was such a gentleman there, though. Never yielded, but never became aggressive. Can't say I would have reacted the same way.

That was Mark Goodman, one of the 5 original Veejays.
He was in a tough spot there, its not like he was responsible for the programming content on MTV.
 
Tough spot, sure, but there were a couple of things he said that were like "WOAH" that's fucked. Times change, I guess. But yeah, how good is Bowie in it. Even when it was clear he was in vehement disagreement he just does this wry smile. What a man.
 
Well it looks like I'm going to get something published on Bowie :) Just $60, but still, I'm smiling. 10 deep cuts. Throw your suggestions at me. Maybe something like...

Memory of a Free Festival
Eight Line Poem
Time
Lady Grinning Soul
Word on a Wing
A New Career in a New Town
Joe the Lion
A Small Plot of Land
Sunday
Heat
 
Memory of a Free Festival
The Width of a Circle
Quicksand
Hang On to Yourself
Lady Grinning Soul
Sweet Thing/Candidate
Station to Station
A New Career in a New Town
Joe the Lion
Teenage Wildlife
 
Always Crashing in the Same Car
Bring Me the Disco King


YES.

I want to include Station to Station but I wonder if it's not deep enough. I mean it is the title and first track to an album that has universal critical acclaim. Quicksand is a great suggestion though.


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I'm envisioning this article as a primer for people who only know Bowie for the hits. It's unlikely that they would know Station to Station.

If you want a really deep cut from Station to Station, go with Stay.
 
Memory of a Free Festival
The Width of a Circle
Quicksand
Hang On to Yourself
Lady Grinning Soul
Sweet Thing/Candidate
Station to Station
A New Career in a New Town
Joe the Lion
Teenage Wildlife

Nothing from 1980 onward? :rolleyes:


Seconding the votes for Bring Me The Disco King (which would have also been a great final track had he retired/died after Reality), Strangers When We Meet, and Sunday. Though for that last one, Heathen (The Rays) would also work.
 
Nothing from 1980 onward? :rolleyes:

Don't give me the eye roll. I mean well. I simply haven't listened to that much of his music post-1980.

I've heard Heathen once, but I'm not overly familiar with the deep cuts. Same with Outside. Never heard Earthling. Reality doesn't have anything on it as good as the tracks I mentioned and neither does The Next Day. Blackstar is too new to include.
 
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Bowie's the best. I had no idea there was so much love for him. In the 90s he was a joke


This is way off. Black Tie White Noise didn't make many waves in the U.S., despite collaborating with Let's Dance producer Nile Rodgers again, but it went to #1 in the UK and had a big single with Jump They Say. But he made a very sharp left turn 2 years later with his Brian Eno reunion. Outside wasn't a popular success overall, but the video for Heart's Filthy Lesson made a big splash on MTV, and combined with his shocking new look (the spiked red hair) he became "cool" again among the alternative rock crowd, leading to the tour with Nine Inch Nails. That was a big fucking deal.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. And as pointed out above by someone else, the I'm Afraid of Americans collaboration with Trent Reznor was another huge alternative hit, even if the album Earthling wasn't a major seller.

So while he did take a nosedive after this period, he was hardly "a joke" in this decade.
 
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Bowie was cool as fuck from 1995-1998. The Brian Eno/Trent Reznor era was divisive but at least he was trying. David Lynch brought him and Reznor on board for Lost Highway, for God's sake. Of course he was cool.
 
(You Will) Set The World On Fire
Cat People
It Ain't Easy
I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship
Up the Hill Backwards
Girl Loves Me
Outside
Fascination
 
Little Wonder, from the same album that gave us ...Afraid of Americans got some love too. That album is pretty good.


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This is way off. Black Tie White Noise didn't make many waves in the U.S., despite collaborating with Let's Dance producer Nile Rodgers again, but it went to #1 in the UK and had a big single with Jump They Say. But he made a very sharp left turn 2 years later with his Brian Eno reunion. Outside wasn't a popular success overall, but the video for Heart's Filthy Lesson made a big splash on MTV, and combined with his shocking new look (the spiked red hair) he became "cool" again among the alternative rock crowd, leading to the tour with Nine Inch Nails. That was a big fucking deal.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. And as pointed out above by someone else, the I'm Afraid of Americans collaboration with Trent Reznor was another huge alternative hit, even if the album Earthling wasn't a major seller.

So while he did take a nosedive after this period, he was hardly "a joke" in this decade.

You're right. Way fucking off. Show me someone at least 20 years old in 1995 (like myself) that would agree with what Hollow said. And hell, I can speak as someone in Middle America at the time - and every 'cool' person I knew worshiped at the altar of Outside. So yeah, if he was relevant here, he was doing okay everywhere.

I'm listening to Small Plot of Land from Outside as I type this. Probably the best piece of improv I've heard in my life. I mean, really, I don't know for certain that it is improv but the way it punches in and the entire feel - and knowing some about the background of the sessions - I have to think it's essentially (mostly) improvised. Or was definitely born from that and 'arrived' very shortly thereafter (with overdubs either way).

Anyway - Bowie touring with Reznor right at the same time was pretty much representative of how highly esteemed he was by people with slightly more sophisticated taste, the people that weren't convinced Hootie had just made the best album of the year or that Bush was a good substitute for Nirvana or that Alanis Morrissette was ever "alternative". Bowie was the shit right then, even in Red State Middle America and thereafter (Earthling wasn't a smash either but I knew tons of people that loved it).

80's? Different story. I was a kid but all I knew was I always liked him. I can honestly say that - even with Modern Love and all that. I remember seeing the weird Ashes to Ashes video as a kid - with androgynous Bowie or whatever we want to call it - and I'm not saying I understood it but I knew even at that age that I loved that voice and the weirdness.
 
That just made me sad at all the people who've stopped posting here. If Bowie's death can't bring them out of the woodwork... :(


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Somewhere on here someone suggested Bowie was a joke in the'90s', & early '00's, I suggest whoever that was go and listen to The Buddha Of Suburbia, The Outtakes from the 1.Outside sessions, Hours, imo along with Space Oddity his most under rated album, & correct me if I'm wrong, didn't he release Heathen in the early '00's, some output for a "joke" also the songs he wrote, or co-wrote in that period, for musicians who worked for him, the outstanding, Pretty Pink Rose, Isn't It Evening, Saviour, Planet Of Dreams, just because sales weren't exactly through the roof, doesn't mean there weren't some absolute gems, lets face it Bowie's worst is better than most other artists best, judging by both UK & US charts of the last couple of decades high sales are definitely not a mark of quality.
 
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