Bowie's Rosedale Organ

My old plastic Rosedale organ has come out of the loft for the Grandkids.

Famously used by Bowie on his Space Oddity album, I adored this thing as a kid.

It's gaspy sound is capable of really beautiful notes and chords.

Did you have a Rosedale or another keyboard instrument readers? 

MY BLUE-GREEN ROSEDALE ORGAN

 

This is a picture of the Rosedale electronic organ just like the one I had as a kid. I adored this thing and couldn't get enough of its reedy gaspy notes.

Like everything I had it got chucked.

Fortunately I found another one about 10 years ago and could once again enjoy those wispy keys.

Did you have one?

BOWIE MEMORIES

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?

STATIC FROM THE ATTIC

 I ventured into our attic today.

Hard to believe this used to be the office for my international power selling ebay toy shop 15 years ago! What a mess!

At least one corner is more or less tidy!

I went up to find a Century 21 Mobile Tank turret that Wotan gave me 12 years ago. As expected I didn't find it but I did unearth lots of old tat toys!

A very tall knockoff [KO] Spidey from a Greek holiday I think.

An old colouring book with a gorgeous space cover, one of the first things I ever found at a car boot sale, maybe 25 years ago.

Old super hero stuff, calender, paper cups and easter egg boxes. I kept everything!

Vintage games including one from Zodiac Toys, my fave toy shop when I was a lad.

Another Mediterranean holiday find from years ago. Mystery Man. I love this Batman KO!

The pose of Mystery Man looks familiar. Ring any bells?

A more recent morsel. Gorilla! Old Kongy has light-up eyes and likes to eat rockets - alas not included - but I did get a plastic palm. From a pound shop about 10 years ago.

Ahh, our old black and white telly! me and the Missus watched everything on it at one time when we were just married paupers in the early 80's. A casualty of the tech wars now. You'd just get static from its analog brain. What would Alexa say?

And even older, a Rosedale electric organ, the very same model I had as a kid in the 60's. I adored this instrument and when I saw one at a car boot about 15 years ago I snapped it up. The reedy misty sound is amazing and even David Bowie thought so too. He used one on his first album Space Oddity on a track called Memory of a Free Festival!

Anything look familiar readers?

memory of a kite festival

Last weekend we visited the local Heath Kite Festival in the village of mansions.

Its a beautiful event towards the end of September and the early autumn breeze seems perfect for lifting the kites.

Me and Missus Moonbase, although not flying, strolled lazily through the spectacle like a couple of wide-eyed schoolkids!

There is something special about soft shapes eeling high in the air especially when they include a twenty foot long octopus, which was really magical to see wafting over the heath.

Do you have a kite festival readers?

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Oddly enough seeing lots of kites over parkland like this always reminds me of David Bowie's early song Memory of a Free Festival, which I loved as a young teenager and still do. I adore the final lines about the sun machine coming down. The song's of interest to vintage toy fans too because Bowie uses an old plastic Rosedale organ to create the childlike notes, just like the one I had and no doubt many of you! You'll recognise the sound!

david bowie's memory of a free festival and my christmas rosedal organ

One of my most musical Christmas gifts as as a kid in the Sixties was a light blue plastic Rosedale organ.

Here's one I saw on Ebay.

I managed to pick one up at a car boot sale years ago too so its back in my hands.

It produces a sort of church-like sound, which when notes and chords are combined, is quite beautiful. I loved messing with it as a young Rick Wakeman.

Probably its most famous public airing was when David Bowie no less, played it on the song Memory of a Free Festival on his early Space Oddity album. This is the Wikipedia entry about the song.

You can listen to it on You Tube.

Did you have a Rosedale organ?