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David Bowie Passed Away

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David Bowie: astronomers give the Starman his own constellation

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/18/david-bowie-astronomers-give-the-starman-his-own-constellation

06GQ2vZ.jpg
 
mattiewheels said:
Marc Maron had some very lovely stuff to say about him before his latest interview on WTF...ironically, he was promoting the new album in an ad the day he died and was just elatedly saying DAVID BOWIE over and over. Any other day and it would've been normal, but it was kinda jolting that day, heh.
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I always appreciate Marc's emotional honesty.
 
Is the constellation named 'Bowie'? Assume it would be, though none of the articles explicitly mention it.

EvilKatarn said:
Been listening exclusively to Bowie since Blackstar came out trying to work through albums I had not yet listened to. That turns out to be a hard task when all I want to listen to is his stuff from Space Oddity to Tonight. That's 14 albums in the span of 15 years that I consider must-haves.
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Then you discover there are different masterings of each album... It's kind of astonishing how many releases there are.
 
shagg_187 said:
I always wanted to do this for a while. I decided to mashup "It's No Game", Pt 1 and Pt 2. Sounds quite eerie and fascinating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECTQ85glsvo
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That's pretty good, actually. Maybe at one point the two vocals were mixed together, before being separated into two tracks. They gel together really well.

Listening to Marc Maron, he mentioned Satellite of Love, which I'd totally forgot about. Had to play it immediately afterwards. Bowie's euphoric "ahhh-wooo" backing vocals completely make that song ending. Pity about the long fade, though; wish we had an extra 30 seconds of lead-out time.

NateDog said:
Is Bowie At The Beeb worth a buy? Tempted by it, even without the bonus disc.
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Yes, it's worth it. But try, try, try get the bonus edition version. It's a brilliant concert from 2000 and contains some absolutely masterful performances, arguably the best version of Absolute Beginners and a really lovely, fresh take on Always Crashing In The Same Car. The concert is one of his best live performances. Obviously, there's some really good stuff on the first 2 discs, but that bonus disc is something special. How can anyone not be blown away by this performance of Absolute Beginners?
 
Bowie's 70s output is pretty staggering, when you realize he was putting out an album a year (sometimes two), and they were all landmark works, all 10+ of em. What other artist was pulling that off, not to mention that changing genres every other album? Unbelievable streak of work. I can't really blame him for cashing out/running out of creative gas in the 80s, at a time when all the new wavers were continuing what he started in the 70s.
 
My store's warehouse has two so the problem is I can't tell if that would be that version or not. Was it strictly a first print run? Even then I might be OK just I can't be sure.
 
mattiewheels said:
Bowie's 70s output is pretty staggering, when you realize he was putting out an album a year (sometimes two), and they were all landmark works, all 10+ of em. What other artist was pulling that off, not to mention that changing genres every other album? Unbelievable streak of work. I can't really blame him for cashing out/running out of creative gas in the 80s, at a time when all the new wavers were continuing what he started in the 70s.
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Yup. It was especially during his time in Berlin when he went into full beast mode, because he also managed to do those two Iggy Pop records in between. The man's schedule at that time was crazy: In summer 1976, he and Iggy record The Idiot. Then, he immediately starts working on the Low album (which is released even before The Idiot is out). Then he goes on tour as Iggy's keyboarder. Then, back to the studio to record Lust for Life, followed immediately by the session for "Heroes". That makes four all time great albums, all released in 1977, recorded within 14 months. This is absolute madness.
 
Gurgelhals said:
Yup. It was especially during his time in Berlin when he went into full beast mode, because he also managed to do those two Iggy Pop records in between. The man's schedule at that time was crazy: In summer 1976, he and Iggy record The Idiot. Then, he immediately starts working on the Low album (which is released even before The Idiot is out). Then he goes on tour as Iggy's keyboarder. Then, back to the studio to record Lust for Life, followed immediately by the session for "Heroes". That makes four all time great albums, all released in 1977, recorded within 14 months. This is absolute madness.
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Coke. It's one hell of a drug.

NateDog said:
My store's warehouse has two so the problem is I can't tell if that would be that version or not. Was it strictly a first print run? Even then I might be OK just I can't be sure.
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It was a limited edition, which are usually first print runs, so I'm assuming any reprints were just of the 2CD set. The 3rd disc was the main reason I bought it, to be honest. However, there's some good stuff on the first two, though the sound quality on the first disc isn't that great.
 
I got into Bowie with "Outside", actually. My sister was visiting New York, went to a Tower Records there, and brought back that album for me as a souvenir. Changed my life.

That album had two discs. The second disc had a live version of "Moonage Daydream" on it that is... absolutely fucking incredible. The CD got scratched to hell at one point and when I went looking for another copy, I wasn't able to find any two-disc versions. I spent some time searching for that live version on YouTube one evening but turned up nothing.
 
Gurgelhals said:
Yup. It was especially during his time in Berlin when he went into full beast mode, because he also managed to do those two Iggy Pop records in between. The man's schedule at that time was crazy: In summer 1976, he and Iggy record The Idiot. Then, he immediately starts working on the Low album (which is released even before The Idiot is out). Then he goes on tour as Iggy's keyboarder. Then, back to the studio to record Lust for Life, followed immediately by the session for "Heroes". That makes four all time great albums, all released in 1977, recorded within 14 months. This is absolute madness.
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Yeah, that's what's even funnier, in the album-a-year era, he also produced and helped write The Idiot, Lust For Life and Transformer, and produced Raw Power. Those would be enough for any producer to be considered a legend, but that was just his side gig.
 
PedroPanache said:
Coke. It's one hell of a drug.



It was a limited edition, which are usually first print runs, so I'm assuming any reprints were just of the 2CD set. The 3rd disc was the main reason I bought it, to be honest. However, there's some good stuff on the first two, though the sound quality on the first disc isn't that great.
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Hmm I've seen a few on eBay for quite a bit but also a few used ones, going to see how high they go and if it's too much I'll get it from my store and just hope even though it's unlikely.
 
i know 'lodger' is the last album of his from the 1970s, but 'scary monsters (and super creeps)' feels more like the topper to that decade than 'lodger' did. i don't know. i can listen to 'low', "heroes", and 'scary monsters', but 'lodger' gets lost in there a bit.
 
AniHawk said:
i know 'lodger' is the last album of his from the 1970s, but 'scary monsters (and super creeps)' feels more like the topper to that decade than 'lodger' did. i don't know. i can listen to 'low', "heroes", and 'scary monsters', but 'lodger' gets lost in there a bit.
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Lodger has some great tracks, but it has a bit of a goofy feel to it that makes it feel odd as part of the trilogy. I enjoy it more than I used to but it probably gets the least spins out of his prime period after Young Americans and Pin-ups (but more spins by an order of magnitude than those albums).

Just taking a moment to say after the 90s and teenagewildlife.com kinda going dead, I haven't really talked much about Bowie except for my IRL friends or people I've tried to introduce to him outside of their narrow radio context.

It's been really great to see so many deep fans pop out on here over the last week :)
 
i really liked the covers for a lot of bowie's albums. my favorite might be for 'heathen':

Heathen.jpg


it's pretty simple, but all the choices here work. there are a few albums where it's sometimes bowie's face, but this one comes together really well.

David_Bowie_-_The_Next_Day.png


i also really like this one because i love "heroes" too. it feels almost blasphemous to do that to the "heroes" cover, but i think the plainness of the font and the white square works better to say 'forget the past, this is the new thing' than, say, a torn image of the cover would have.

Outsidebowie.jpg


all of bowie's 90s albums have kind of weird choices for typography. they all look super 90s with "hours..." being the worst offender. this and 'earthling' seemed most influenced by david carson in that department, but i think bowie's self-portrait works with it well. or maybe i just like the art that much. i think the art prepares you for the album itself at least, which is fucking weird.

Low_%28album%29.jpg


the cover is from 'the man who fell to earth', but the image sits in my imagination whenever i listen to 'art decade' or 'subterraneans'. it's more of a mood-setter for me, i guess.
 
AniHawk said:
i know 'lodger' is the last album of his from the 1970s, but 'scary monsters (and super creeps)' feels more like the topper to that decade than 'lodger' did. i don't know. i can listen to 'low', "heroes", and 'scary monsters', but 'lodger' gets lost in there a bit.
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To me, Lodger sounds a bit like a B-sides collection and I don't mean that disparagingly. Most of the songs are these weird and kind of goofy little experiments normally tailor-made for B-sides, but Bowie didn't do B-sides so he put out an album of them instead. It also lacks the stylistic cohesion of his other albums from that time.

I've grown to like it a lot over the years, but I agree that it is kind of the odd one out of his late 70s albums. From a stylistic point of view, Station to Station, Low and "Heroes" form a more convincing trilogy (these are his three r&b/krautrock hybrids, after all). And Scary Monsters seems like the more natural follow-up to "Heroes" because it takes up the latter's manic atmosphere and you also got Robert Fripp doing his "hairy rock'n'roll guitar" thing again.
 
I agree about Lodger, honestly I could never really get into it (and I made a few attempts at it), only track I can remember that I like off the top of my head is African Night Flight because it's just fucking weird but I love the tempo and melody of it. I still will give it a few more chances though to see if there's anything else I might get along with but of the 12/13 albums I have listened to since I started listening to Bowie, Lodger is the only one I could actually say I dislike.

uncelestial said:
A 550+ person choir performs an unbearably beautiful rendition of "Space Oddity."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKg1_fKO1sY&feature=youtu.be
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Only thing that annoys me about this is that I feel like the guitarist has the strumming all wrong for the verse but I can't tell.
 
NateDog said:
I agree about Lodger, honestly I could never really get into it (and I made a few attempts at it), only track I can remember that I like off the top of my head is African Night Flight because it's just fucking weird but I love the tempo and melody of it. I still will give it a few more chances though to see if there's anything else I might get along with but of the 12/13 albums I have listened to since I started listening to Bowie, Lodger is the only one I could actually say I dislike.
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I think Lodger gets better in its second half. The first half is a bit off-putting with its wild stylistic shifts. African Night Flight is awesome and hilarious, but it also throws you off completely coming right after Fantastic Voyage. And I think that Yassassin is just plain irritating.

From track five onwards it's a pretty great album though: Red Sails has that lovely, laid-back 'motorik' groove, D.J. is funny, poignant and could pass as a Talking Heads song (Bowie even sounds like David Byrne on that one), Look Back in Anger kicks ass, Boys Keep Swinging is hilarious with all that innuendo and especially with that music video, and Repetition is perhaps one of the most chilling songs about domestic violence. So, yes, there's actually some great material in there, but it doesn't jump at you straight away. It took quite a while for me to warm up to the album as well.
 
I'll speak up for Lodger and say it's in my top three albums of his. Red Sails, Boys Keep Swinging, Fantastic Voyage, Don't Look Back in Anger, Repetition (at this point, I'll end up doing the entire tracklisting) are some of my favourite Bowie songs. It's a bit more poppy and immediate than Low and Heroes, but stylistically I think it works well within the trilogy. Obviously, the experimental instrumentals are gone, but the sound and production are consistent with the two other albums.

It's a pity he kind of went off the boil in the 80s, that was my main exposure to music growing up, so consequently I spent all the 80s thinking he was a bit crap. Bowie meant to me, that awful Dancing In The Street video and just generic dad rock with songs like China Girl and Modern Love. Hating that shut me off from investigated him any further. He only really connected to me when he veered out of the mainstream and started writing for himself again with the likes of Black Tie, White Noise, Outside etc. at that point I became a fan. In 2002 I became a huge fan with Heathen and gobbled up his entire back catalogue in a summer.
 
AniHawk said:
all of bowie's 90s albums have kind of weird choices for typography. they all look super 90s with "hours..." being the worst offender
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'hours...' is a weird one because it was also released with this cover:
93ZCQyQ.jpg
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That was my first Bowie CD and I'm not sure if I've ever encountered the barcode bonanza album art until I got a later re-release for its bonus disc.
 
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