David "Bowie" Robert Jones; 1947 – 2016

To me David Bowie was a very progressive rock artist. Using pop camouflage in his first move of adroit irony he sold some exquisite and among a few fun tracks a lot of very serious albums. A huge and amusing deceit; he sold an image and provided great music. Outside, Earthling, Black Star, Heroes, Station To Station, Scary Monsters, Low, Lodger, Reality, The Next Day, Diamond Dogs (for the most part) are hardly top 40 oriented fare and when he did (Ziggy Stardust it was a set of how fine pop and pop rock could be). He even managed to get Fripp into the pop charts (Heroes). Bet RF never saw that one coming.

He paired up with some superb guitarists, and other major collaborators (Eno) created terrific bands; changed direction and even his lesser moments (the Young Americans album) has classic material - the title track and Fame.

He staged his entrance, his stay, even, to an extent his exit.

Just playing his Montreux 2002 concert; almost certainly worthy of official release like so many other Montreux releases. Low is the encore. He and all are having a fun and great time.

He had a bit of a run in with FZ (worth seeking out Adrian Belew's story of that; it was about Adrian Belew) and like FZ I shall mourn his passing by playing and so celebrating their most worthy lives and musical accomplishments. And yes, he was a fine actor as well. His portrayal of Nikolai Tesla (The Prestige) had me thinking... that was Bowie?

Goodbye Spaceboy.

He will be missed. I had a cassette copied from LP of Heroes for a while back.  I didn't seriously get into his music until I bought the album Outside when it came out. Then he was one of those artists where I had to get the new album right away when it came out 

As I explored backwards in his discography, I found lots of great stuff.  Some fans might differ with me, but his best albums are those that have at least one progressive rock musician.

I've always been a huge fan of his and was shocked to hear of his passing.  Dismayed that Bowie is gone.  Tonight I'm listening to his album The Next Day and strangely enough the lyric to the first song/title track goes something like "Here I am, not quite dying, my body left to rot in a hollow tree."  Seems somewhat prophetic, considering...Rest in peace, sir.  Thank you for sharing your music with all of us. 


Edited by The Doctor - January 13 2016 at 22:51

Should checkout Bowie live at the Beeb (BBC) Box set

Disc Two has some great guitar licks by Ronno ( such an underrated guitarist), also has a killer version of White Light/White Heat

R

What is it now.. Wednsday?... yeah.. Wife confirms it. Been in a daze I suppose.

I've had Aladdin Sane in my pickup for 3 days now and .. well... that album and especially the title track encapsulated Bowie to me.



What a loss, that was a shock that was to hear of Monday morning. Labelling musicians as geniuses is as overdone as it is many times simply idiotic. As we all know, Bowie was special, he just didn't make good music. He transcended that.


Needless to say.  RIP man and thanks for so much enjoyment your music gave me. 

Speaking of Aladdin Sane. I thought this summed up what Bowie was especially well.  That song gave us what could be easily considered one of the top insturmental solos of the modern rock era.  If you can think of any more famous piano or keyboard solo, you would be a better man than me.  It is a famous one, but it was vintage Bowie how it came to exist.

http://indieethos.com/2013/04/20/40-years-later-mike-garson-recalls-what-it-was-like-to-record-aladdin-sane-with-david-bowie/

'I had told Bowie about the avant-garde thing. When I was recording the Aladdin Sane track for Bowie, it was just two chords, an A and a G chord, and the band was playing very simple English rock and roll. And Bowie said: 'play a solo on this.' I had just met him, so I played a blues solo, but then he said: 'No, that’s not what I want.' And then I played a latin solo. Again, Bowie said: 'No no, that’s not what I want.' He then continued: 'You told me you play that avant-garde music. Play that stuff!' And I said: 'Are you sure? ‘Cause you might not be working anymore!'. So I did the solo that everybody knows today, in one take. And to this day, I still receive emails about it. Every day. I always tell people that Bowie is the best producer I ever met, because he lets me do my thing




Edited by micky - January 13 2016 at 15:14

Start with "Low" his most prog related album (he was not a prog artist as we all know). Then the wonderful "Station to Station and "Scary Monsters". Grab "Ziggy Stardust" and you have what I have rated with five stars on this site. "Heroes" could also please your ears for its prog orientation. Enjoy the music of this GREAT man.

Shock to the system. Been listening to my Bowie Vinyl & CDs all day. Thought to listen to something else but can't seem to ......

RIP Starman

Terribly sad and unexpected. A unique mixture of cult artist and rock star , I´m not sure everybody is aware of the depth (and in a sense, darkness) of his music. Interestingly, I had been "rediscovering" his work thanks to my teenage daughter during the last year.I don´t think there will ever be another like him, not because there aren`t talented musicians around, but due to the negative changes in music industry in the last decades. But the thought just occured, that we`re nobody´s children at all...after all

Tragically, Eno has revealed that Bowie wanted to work with him again, perhaps picking up where Outside left off.

So sad...wasn't aware he had cancer until today.