David Bowie died on this date 5 years ago and I'm still feeling flat in a Bowie-less world.
I thought I'd write about him again to cheer myself up. One day I'll dig out my scrapbook from the Seventies and post a few bits from it but till then...
Space Oddity was the first album of David's that I got. I bought it through a magazine called Disc, who were offering his first three LP's mail order, No idea why I didn't just go to a record shop.
This debut album was full of gems. Some were brilliant, some were just great and some OK. My favourites were Memories of a Free Festival, Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud, Letter to Hermoine [which I could never pronounce] and the epic Cygnet Committee, a personal favourite. Less appealing were Unwashed and Slightly Dazed, Janine and God Knows I'm Good. An Occasional Dream sits between the two somewhere.
The LP contained one of DB's most memorable images for me; the sun machine is coming down and we're gonna have a party, as found on 'Free Festival'. He also used a toy Bontempi organ on the song, a toy organ I had as well! I still have one [may be called a Rosedale].
I was hungry for more and got hold of his next album The Man Who Sold The World. A much rockier darker affair, I adored it with a passion. As with Oddity my preference was for the other tracks on the album rather than the title track and TMWSTW was stuffed with monsters. From the off it's simply a work of genius and the Width of a Circle, like Cygnet Committee, is the album's stand-out song.
A complex, sinewy journey, The Width of a Circle was deeply deep Bowie. I even used it as the basis if a school English essay, comparing it with Robert Browning's long poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came! What literary fun I had but i don't think the teacher agreed with me!
The Man Who contains so many other fantastic tunes.
Do you like Bowie?
I'm really only familiar with his chart singles, which I do like. I did see him perform once though, I was at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and he was brilliant.
ReplyDeleteHis chart stuff was brilliant Kev yeah. Him and Freddie must have been buddies. They sang together didn't they on something. I saw Bowie only once too, at Preston Guild Hall in the early Seventies. Stunning. I got a Bowie cut the next day!
ReplyDeleteYep, "Under Pressure" was the song, superb!
ReplyDeleteI didn't mind some of the earlier more rockier Bowie album tracks, Watch that Man, Panic in Detroit and Queen Bitch to name three favourites. The last album I bought was probably Diamond Dogs.
ReplyDeleteMy appreciation for Bowie is more about how he helped out one of my all time favourite bands, Mott the Hoople, by writing All the Young Dudes for them.
I really don’t get the hype about Bowie, I like someof the morefamous stuff, Heroes, Jean Genie, Life on Mars etc, but I don’t understand the cult status accorded to him. His passing doesn’t seem to have affected the music scene as drastically as it would appear, his last couple of releases just seemed to be pop songs. Give me Joy Division anytime!
ReplyDeleteIf you liked Bowie as a kid then that's all that matters really. He was part of the amazing glam backdrop to the Seventies, which like the Moon Landing and the space race, I'm glad I experienced as a youngster.
ReplyDeleteBowie's cult status is not just about the music.
ReplyDeleteHe also had a huge influence on fashion and modern visual culture, as well as being an icon for the gay and trans communities, which have emerged and grown since the 60s.
Mish.
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ReplyDeleteNah, not really. I prefer singers like Jim Reeves, Bing Crosby, Nat 'King' Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davies Junior, Mel Torme, Matt Monro, The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Julie London, The Andrews Sisters, Peggy Lee, Patsy Cline, Connie Boswell. In short, people who could actually sing.
ReplyDeleteTo me, too many singers or bands from the '70s were more about 'image' than music, and Bowie epitomises this. As Mish says above, he was an icon for certain minority groups, and I therefore don't comprehend what there was about him that would attract 'straight' kids. He was just far too girlie for my tastes, and apart from A Space Oddity, and The Laughing Gnome, in my view he never really did anything that merits his iconic status. Having said that, if he was what you were into when you were young, there's the nostalgia factor at play in your estimation of him.
It's not that I was ever a big fan of his, as such, it's just that I can see his appeal and influence was felt by several different groups, including many Sci Fi fans, which, when combined, add up to a lot of people.
ReplyDeleteHence his considerable cult status, way beyond the music.
Of Kid's list, I'd say Sinatra was similar, in that he was also a style and culture icon, not only a singer.
Mish
I'm just enjoying Hunky Dory. One of his finest LP's.
ReplyDeleteFor me, in the 70s, Bowie ruled. Could not get enough. Heroes was an album I played continually until it wore out. V-2 Schneider! The Secret Life of Arabia!
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