Bowiemas/Bowienalia January 8/10
January 8, 2024 5:23 AM Subscribe
Even as David Bowie gets a street named after him in Paris for his 77th birthday and the 8th anniversary of his ultimate persona transformation, we should perhaps observe the first Bowie death we all experienced: D. A. Pennebaker's film Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, the final rock and roll suicide , July 3, 1973. [Vimeo, 1h30m] New for this year, Louder Magazine writes about the making of an earlier album, The Man Who Sold The World. But, of course, 2024 is the 50th anniversary of Diamond Dogs [YT playlist], lauded recently in Far Out Magazine, so here is footage of Bowie playing in Hollywood in 1974 [Dailymotion, 40m].
If you really like this era of Bowie, here is a bootleg of Bowie in Anaheim. Audio only, 1h40m.
One thing is that Bowie was working on a musical of Orwell's 1984 at the time and that got kiboshed and so Diamond Dogs [Guardian].
And if you're really REALLY into Bowie, The David Bowie World Fan Convention will be in Liverpool this summer.
If you really like this era of Bowie, here is a bootleg of Bowie in Anaheim. Audio only, 1h40m.
One thing is that Bowie was working on a musical of Orwell's 1984 at the time and that got kiboshed and so Diamond Dogs [Guardian].
And if you're really REALLY into Bowie, The David Bowie World Fan Convention will be in Liverpool this summer.
The city of Berlin, Germany has a cool map showing David Bowie's Berlin: In the Famous Musician's Footsteps. I enjoyed walking by his former home in the Schöneberg district on Hauptstraße 155.
posted by wicked_sassy at 7:45 AM on January 8 [3 favorites]
posted by wicked_sassy at 7:45 AM on January 8 [3 favorites]
My hope is that one day his post-Low work gets the attention it deserves*.
Pretty much everything on mainstream articles fixates on his Aladdin Sane/Ziggy look, but the later stuff was way more musically interesting.
* Yeah OK not everything was great. But there are decades of music that came after his "Berlin" trilogy
posted by Ayn Marx at 7:50 AM on January 8 [5 favorites]
Pretty much everything on mainstream articles fixates on his Aladdin Sane/Ziggy look, but the later stuff was way more musically interesting.
* Yeah OK not everything was great. But there are decades of music that came after his "Berlin" trilogy
posted by Ayn Marx at 7:50 AM on January 8 [5 favorites]
Blessings of Bowietide to you and yours, hippybear, and to everyone who celebrates.
For Bowiemas, Wilco released a very nice cover of “Space Oddity” they performed on the West Virginia public radio program Mountain Stage.
“Following David Bowie to the World’s Most Exclusive Garden,” Laura Studarus, The Daily Beast, 08 January 2024
“Kate Bush explains how David Bowie had ‘everything,’” Lucy Harbron, Far Out, 08 January 2024
posted by ob1quixote at 8:01 AM on January 8 [6 favorites]
For Bowiemas, Wilco released a very nice cover of “Space Oddity” they performed on the West Virginia public radio program Mountain Stage.
“Following David Bowie to the World’s Most Exclusive Garden,” Laura Studarus, The Daily Beast, 08 January 2024
The rock legend was so moved by this Kyoto garden that he wrote a song about it. But getting into Kokedera is incredibly difficult—here’s how to do it.
“Kate Bush explains how David Bowie had ‘everything,’” Lucy Harbron, Far Out, 08 January 2024
posted by ob1quixote at 8:01 AM on January 8 [6 favorites]
>My hope is that one day his post-Low work gets the attention it deserves*.
Yes! I would put Outside or Earthling up with any of his older work. (And Blackstar is amazing.)
posted by The Manwich Horror at 10:14 AM on January 8 [5 favorites]
Yes! I would put Outside or Earthling up with any of his older work. (And Blackstar is amazing.)
posted by The Manwich Horror at 10:14 AM on January 8 [5 favorites]
So I’m an 80s baby and came to Bowie as Greatest Hits + Labyrinth + Outside + Earthling + Heathen (underrated!). I finally got around to listening to the earlier albums in full as of last year (covers eyes in shame) and Oh My God. The music is Solid. It’s as though he did a ton of psychedelics, had his ego death early in life, and had been channeling music direct from the Source ever since.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 10:16 AM on January 8 [1 favorite]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 10:16 AM on January 8 [1 favorite]
Unfortunately my only time seeing Bowie live was for The Glass Spider Tour. Sigh.
posted by hippybear at 10:27 AM on January 8
posted by hippybear at 10:27 AM on January 8
I may be the only one on the blue who likes Black Tie White Noise a lot, but it's my favorite post-Scary Monsters album by far.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:21 AM on January 8 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:21 AM on January 8 [2 favorites]
Unfortunately my only time seeing Bowie live was for The Glass Spider Tour. Sigh.
You and me both. It was something of a letdown after memorizing David Live as my first Bowie album just out of high school.
posted by the sobsister at 11:39 AM on January 8
You and me both. It was something of a letdown after memorizing David Live as my first Bowie album just out of high school.
posted by the sobsister at 11:39 AM on January 8
Blackstar and Last Day are fantastic albims that feel like they required the mixed output of the 90s (which is still better than many folks best) to refine whatever he was figuring out.
posted by kokaku at 11:44 AM on January 8 [3 favorites]
posted by kokaku at 11:44 AM on January 8 [3 favorites]
from the radio archive -- roughly seven years ago
Memories of a Free Alien [part one]
Memories of a Free Alien [part two]
posted by philip-random at 12:18 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]
Memories of a Free Alien [part one]
Memories of a Free Alien [part two]
posted by philip-random at 12:18 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]
Grew up listening to Bowie, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I really started listening to more of his stuff. Now I'm in the top 1% of Bowie listeners on YouTube Music for last year. ;)
posted by luckynerd at 2:38 PM on January 8 [2 favorites]
posted by luckynerd at 2:38 PM on January 8 [2 favorites]
I finally got around to listening to the earlier albums in full as of last year (covers eyes in shame) and Oh My God. The music is Solid. It’s as though he did a ton of psychedelics, had his ego death early in life, and had been channeling music direct from the Source ever since.
The Source was, notoriously, cocaine until about Low or so.
posted by kensington314 at 2:40 PM on January 8 [4 favorites]
The Source was, notoriously, cocaine until about Low or so.
posted by kensington314 at 2:40 PM on January 8 [4 favorites]
Yeah, after Diamond Dogs, Bowie would adopt the Thin White Duke persona and was doing enough cocaine to be visibly wobbly about reality in interviews. He left for Berlin as a location cure, which seems to have worked for him.
posted by hippybear at 3:23 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 3:23 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]
Yeah, after Diamond Dogs, Bowie would adopt the Thin White Duke persona and was doing enough cocaine to be visibly wobbly about reality in interviews. He left for Berlin as a location cure, which seems to have worked for him.
If we take him charitably at his word, the cocaine is why he went full-on Nazi-curious for awhile there. He was partly the inspiration for the Rock Against Racism tour ("Adolph Hitler was one of the first rock stars," and so on.)
posted by kensington314 at 3:28 PM on January 8
If we take him charitably at his word, the cocaine is why he went full-on Nazi-curious for awhile there. He was partly the inspiration for the Rock Against Racism tour ("Adolph Hitler was one of the first rock stars," and so on.)
posted by kensington314 at 3:28 PM on January 8
Here's a critical question though, since the FPP is partly about the 50th anno of "Diamond Dogs:" Is "Diamond Dogs" good?
It's weird to say this, but I've just never figured out if I like it, at all, in like 20+ years of listening to it. It has "Rebel Rebel," which is Stones-y but who needs Bowie for Stones-y, it has "Sweet Thing" (twice!) which is plodding blue-eyed-not-quite-soul, and it has the again Stones-y title track, it has a couple discarded songs from a concept album that never came together because Bowie wasn't smart enough at the time to pull it off.
But like, is there a single top-25 Bowie song on there? Or like . . . is it even 50% as good as "Lodger," which no one even really talks about very much? It's not as fun as "Aladdin Sane," it's not as sophisticated as "Station to Station," it's not as catchy as "Low," not as idiosyncratic and eclectic as "Kooks." Individual parts of it all sound good but the overall thing is disjointed and boring to listen to, to me.
Is "Diamond Dogs" good? I do love Bowie though.
posted by kensington314 at 4:03 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]
It's weird to say this, but I've just never figured out if I like it, at all, in like 20+ years of listening to it. It has "Rebel Rebel," which is Stones-y but who needs Bowie for Stones-y, it has "Sweet Thing" (twice!) which is plodding blue-eyed-not-quite-soul, and it has the again Stones-y title track, it has a couple discarded songs from a concept album that never came together because Bowie wasn't smart enough at the time to pull it off.
But like, is there a single top-25 Bowie song on there? Or like . . . is it even 50% as good as "Lodger," which no one even really talks about very much? It's not as fun as "Aladdin Sane," it's not as sophisticated as "Station to Station," it's not as catchy as "Low," not as idiosyncratic and eclectic as "Kooks." Individual parts of it all sound good but the overall thing is disjointed and boring to listen to, to me.
Is "Diamond Dogs" good? I do love Bowie though.
posted by kensington314 at 4:03 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]
Diamond Dogs is fucking great. For me, the only weakness is the title track. It's not bad at all but it does drag on a bit, and being the first proper song on the album, it amounts to a slightly sloppy start. But the rest of side one (the whole Sweet Thing - Candidate - Sweet Thing suite and then Rebel Rebel) is nigh on perfection. And then side two bats pretty much 1000 as well, with Rock'N'Roll With Me a particular standout mainly because it's been overlooked over the years -- a straight up sort of ballad that hints at the R+B stuff that's to come, but it's still very much coming from the Ziggy Stardust zone.
But what do I know? I've only listened to it all a few hundred times.
posted by philip-random at 5:07 PM on January 8 [3 favorites]
But what do I know? I've only listened to it all a few hundred times.
posted by philip-random at 5:07 PM on January 8 [3 favorites]
> Unfortunately my only time seeing Bowie live was for The Glass Spider Tour. Sigh.
>You and me both.
Thirdsies. That concert made me swear off arena shows.
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:42 PM on January 8
>You and me both.
Thirdsies. That concert made me swear off arena shows.
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:42 PM on January 8
Love all the links, thanks everyone. Sharing the most recent piece of Bowie-adjacent music that blew my lid off. A cover of Subterraneans from Low orchestrated by alva noto, with Martin Gore of Depeche Mode singing and ambient icon William Basinski on sax(!). Crank it up, truly gorgeous piece of sound sculpture.
posted by erebora at 7:44 PM on January 8 [2 favorites]
posted by erebora at 7:44 PM on January 8 [2 favorites]
Diamond Dogs is definitely the most Diamond Dogs album that Bowie ever recorded.
I personally feel it is a very transitional album, but the concert footage linked in the FPP is really grand.
posted by hippybear at 8:44 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]
I personally feel it is a very transitional album, but the concert footage linked in the FPP is really grand.
posted by hippybear at 8:44 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]
Unfortunately my only time seeing Bowie live was for The Glass Spider Tour. Sigh.
Tried to watch the concert special that I taped off TV, failed. (My GF saw him during the Let's Dance tour. Again not exactly "David Live", but as I remind her, it could have been worse).
Once read an article giving David "credit" (quotes mine) for said tour providing the template for the extravagant Concerts of today. The legacy of the Glass Spider...
But screw it. Merry Bowiemas everyone!!!
posted by gtrwolf at 10:32 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]
Tried to watch the concert special that I taped off TV, failed. (My GF saw him during the Let's Dance tour. Again not exactly "David Live", but as I remind her, it could have been worse).
Once read an article giving David "credit" (quotes mine) for said tour providing the template for the extravagant Concerts of today. The legacy of the Glass Spider...
But screw it. Merry Bowiemas everyone!!!
posted by gtrwolf at 10:32 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]
As both Bowiemas and Bowieanalia fall midweek this year, I propose (and am acting upon) a doctrinal proposal: As Bowie and His disciples Ss Pop, Eno, and Visconti arrived in Berlin with only one album's worth of recording equipment, but while in Europe were miraculously able to get clean and record three-plus-Iggy-Pop’s-The-Idiot-which-kinda-counts (a theologically complicated point), we may celebrate in this broader frame of the four days of Bowiekkah.
Blessings upon you all.
posted by Capybara at 5:35 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
Blessings upon you all.
posted by Capybara at 5:35 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
I'm not going to be the one to try to develop Bowiekkah into anything as I don't feel it is necessary.
Bowiemas comes with a much required break before Bowienalia. They are very close, but they are not related and they should not be combined.
The one is the entrance of a great hope into the world. The second is that great hope having realized as much as possible and surrendering to the final persona transformation.
This is not a continuum. This is not two related events except insofar as the being known as David Bowie was present on this planet between the -mas and -nalia dates. But unless something true can be developed, these are not connected except in weird calendar time.
If you want this to be a liturgy, you need to show some proof.
posted by hippybear at 4:37 PM on January 10
Bowiemas comes with a much required break before Bowienalia. They are very close, but they are not related and they should not be combined.
The one is the entrance of a great hope into the world. The second is that great hope having realized as much as possible and surrendering to the final persona transformation.
This is not a continuum. This is not two related events except insofar as the being known as David Bowie was present on this planet between the -mas and -nalia dates. But unless something true can be developed, these are not connected except in weird calendar time.
If you want this to be a liturgy, you need to show some proof.
posted by hippybear at 4:37 PM on January 10
Neighbor - Space Oddity - 12/28/23 Portland, ME
posted by ob1quixote at 6:32 AM on January 18 [1 favorite]
posted by ob1quixote at 6:32 AM on January 18 [1 favorite]
David Bowie: Out of this World (2021)—Inside The Music, 27 January 2024 [IMDB]
posted by ob1quixote at 2:02 PM on January 27
posted by ob1quixote at 2:02 PM on January 27
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posted by kimdog at 6:56 AM on January 8 [16 favorites]