15 August 2009

Greatness

By request:

13 comments:

  1. Ohh Montana - you've made my evening with this. I'm a huge Bowie fan (well, until he went a bit crap) and I've always loved this song, off the superb Station to Station. Never seen the vid before.

    I think this version may even surpass the great Nina Simone's.

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  2. Now you've put me in a Bowie mood.

    Drink, drink, raise your glass, raise your glass high

    The brilliant Station to Station and a very good live version which unfortunately suffers from poor sound quality - but the train noise bit at the beginning is amazing. (I think it's probably off the live album Stage.)

    One of Bowie's other great covers is Jacques Brel's Amsterdam.

    By whose request, if I might ask?

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  3. Bitterweed's request. Just call me DJ Tana.

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  4. Thanks, Montana (and BW)! He was top of my guess list.

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  5. Just watched this again and have 2 questions:

    1) Who's the drummer (he's hot)? Tony Thompson, is it?

    2) Is the lyric "don't you know your life itself", or, "don't you know you're life itself"? A point that has always niggled!

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  6. I've always assumed it's:

    "don't you know you're life itself"?

    And yes it would be Tony Thompson, assuming they used the 76 line up in the 81 video. Knowing Bowie, it probably is.

    Bowie's one of my favourite English rock musicians (along with Ian Dury and a handful of others). He OWNED the Seventies; in my opinion non-one was consistently so interesting and capable of such high quality throughout the decade.

    And what a range of material...

    Plus he just LOOKS like a rock star, effortlessly, naturally, and he's a pretty cool guy in interviews too.

    Bastard then really.

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  7. Thanks, BW - agree with all.

    Used to have a book "Bowie in his Own Words" that was a collection of interview snippets. Completely engrossing and very intelligent: he'd contradict himself from one interview to the next, but obviously just for effect and for whatever persona he was assuming at the time.

    And charm? He has it, in spades. As well as the incredible musical talent.

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  8. Oh and yes, I've generally leaned toward "you're", but the other is an intriguing possibility.

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  9. "he'd contradict himself from one interview to the next, but obviously just for effect and for whatever persona he was assuming at the time."

    Yes, and yet he never felt like a crank or a fraud... just seemed intriguing.

    As for personal charm mixed with that rock star gene... saw him interviewd on Parky a few years ago. As he finished the interview he was his faintly louche, yet razor sharp, almost modest artist, who had clearly beguiled Parky and won the audience with his wry, self effacing chat... then he got up, and the transformation between that moment and him taking the centre of the soundstage for the closing two numbers was pure stage-acting masterclass. He became, in that few moments crossing the studio, a swaggering, utterly irresistable rock god, with a dangerous and interesting band and just as much relevance now as 1973.

    I really don't do hagiography but this telling little "turn" was just about as phenomonally well done as anything I've seen on a stage. Just effortlessly, unassailably cool. And that was before he'd even opened his gob again !

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  10. This clip of Lady Stardust has an amazing montage of photos showing that quality.

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  11. Great, will check that out tomorrow, laters,.

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