  |
 David Bowie Quickie Rate...., Results of those Golden Years! |
| Track this thread - Email this thread - Print this thread - Download this thread - Subscribe to this forum |
 18th June 2020, 09:28 PM
Post
#21
|
|
 Shakin Stevens
Joined: 29 December 2007
Posts: 46,151 User: 5,138 
   |
Cool thanks for the actual list. How gutting is it that the performance of 'Space Oddity' was lost - assume it was recorded in July 69?
Not sure I saw the 1987 performances on the old totp repeats? And why would they only show a clip of one of them? Strange decision as you'd have thought a Bowie performance would have been a huge moment for the show. 'Starman' probably the most iconic performance by him for me. This post has been edited by Steve201: 18th June 2020, 09:29 PM |
 |
 
|
|
19th June 2020, 07:07 AM
Post
#22
|
|
 BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,828 User: 17,376
  |
It's not just Space Oddity that was erased (it would have been September or October 1969 after I'd left the country on 1st Sept as I never got to hear the record until 1973 when it was a hit in the USA), it was pretty much the entirety of my childhood and early teen years, and I'm still bitter about losing performances by so many acts that I remember loving, especially the more minor acts who have no other footage existing. I think we only have Starman because of a Glam Rock special video that was put together, along with Virginia Plain and some others, and it's pure luck that The Jean Genie turned up recently from a private collection.
The bloke who chose which episodes to junk was clearly old with no idea of pop culture cos he saved ones which had Bill Haley, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra appearing as older veterans singing old tat in the case of Bing & Frank. I don't recall either of those Bowie performances from 1987, I may have missed the second one as I was on holiday in California for 2 weeks around that time! I guess the first one was dropped if the record dropped in the charts before screening - they were pretty fixed rules then, only tracks going up or holding in the charts could be on, or new releases. |
|
|
|
|
22nd June 2020, 06:47 PM
Post
#23
|
|
|
BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,828 User: 17,376
|
16. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1977) 4 points
By Bowie standards, this single, the second off 'Heroes' was a relative flop, peaking at 39 in the UK charts in early 1978, and hitting nowhere else. That's because it's quite an intentionally difficult track to listen to - Bowie had had flops before (Be My Wife stiffed, which I rather liked and bought), but this one was too schizophrenic for my tastes at the time, possibly something to do with Bowie weaning himself off drugs during his Berlin phase in the same way John Lennon's Cold Turkey isn't a barrel of laughs either. I can hear later tracks like Scary Monsters in it from the vantage of 40-odd years on, but it charted at a relatively modest 25 for me, on a par with TVC25, only beating the annoying Knock On Wood which I never charted, though also improving on the other 1974 tracks I didn't rate either, Diamond Dogs, and errr one coming up later on in the rundown. Plus side, it's got Robert Fripp on guitar, Brian Eno on synths/production, and it's loved by Callum who voted it his 3rd fave Bowie track. |
|
|
|
|
23rd June 2020, 06:35 PM
Post
#24
|
|
|
BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,828 User: 17,376
|
15. Fashion (1980) 5 points
David spear-heading a music movement heavily influenced by, errr David Bowie, those New Romantics and synthpop, visually in videos and sonically in the production. with fashion sort of merging earlier funky-Bowie, with synth-Bowie, and a dose of Ziggy-guitar-Bowie, and doing it beautifully. I've heard this one blasting out loud from speakers on the Saturday night Duckies at Vauxhall Tavern sporadically over the last 15 years and it always sounds fab, gets me gyrating manically. Second single off Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) Bowie was back in the big league again as the 80's started up, for me his best period since Aladdin Sane/Ziggy Stardust, much as I loved the inbetween stuff for the most part, there wasn't the singles consistency - and I love singles more than albums, always have. Robert Fripp is back to lend a hand, and the single hit 5 in the UK, and also gave Bowie his first Hot 100 entry in 4 years, albeit a lowly 70, and 4 in my charts. One critic thought it was an attack on the clothes-based New Romantic movement - having Steve Strange in the previous video, and a Legion of Bowie-worshippers in the new club scene, of which he was well-aware, would suggest otherwise, I say. Voted for by AH & Rollo, hooray! |
|
|
|
|
23rd June 2020, 06:53 PM
Post
#25
|
|
|
BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,828 User: 17,376
|
14. Rebel Rebel (1974) 5 points
Hands-up, I was hugely disappointed when this came out. A straight-dirty-Rolling-Stones-pastiche (reportedly to wave bye bye Glam and piss off Jagger), it seemed like he'd taken his Pin-Ups phase to heart and gone back to 1968 for the riff-laden rock song, not helped by there being no Bowie on UK TV at all - no Top Of The Pops, no video - if only they'd shown this video I would have been more likely to be convinced. As it was, it was far and away my least fave Bowie single that I'd heard to date, not fit to be compared with The Jean Genie (bizarrely not in the list) or Drive-In Saturday (ditto) or The Man Who Sold The World, the Lulu version riding high in my charts thanks to a fab Bowie helping-hand and cool image. Time has been kind, it's a great rock track despite the lack of fab Mick Ronson, and the critics loved it, and the fans too, hitting UK 5, and Hot 100 at 64. 12 months later the tables would turn as I embraced the Plastic Soul Bowie of Young Americans and Bowie fans everywhere scratched their heads in bemusement. Rebel Rebel went top 10 for me though, eventually - in 2014, on it's 3rd chart appearance, oops! Loved by dandy, Dexton, and Rob S, so the first track to get 3 voters on the list. |
|
|
|
|
23rd June 2020, 07:03 PM
Post
#26
|
|
|
Shakin Stevens
Joined: 29 December 2007
Posts: 46,151 User: 5,138
|
'Fashion' is a really underrated Bowie track, remember the re-released version from 1989.
Absolutely love 'Rebel Rebel'! |
|
|
|
|
23rd June 2020, 07:52 PM
Post
#27
|
|
|
BuzzJack Platinum Member
Joined: 3 January 2017
Posts: 10,156 User: 23,961
   |
I've found both of those TOTP performances on youtube. Never Let Me Down was part of TOTP USA which explains why we have never seen it. Time Will Crawl is introduced by Gary Davies with David starting the song on the stage and finishing it amongst the audience,even dancing with one of them. They must have been thrilled.
|
|
|
|
|
24th June 2020, 07:03 AM
Post
#28
|
|
|
BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,828 User: 17,376
|
Thanks for the clips Rollo, I'm very fond of that period Bowie as I was in the USA West Coast for a touring holiday around then, and I also saw Bowie at Wembley stadium on his Glass Spider Tour. The knives were out critically, though, as I recall (cos I tend to remember maulings when I dont agree with them
 )
|
|
|
|
|
24th June 2020, 12:17 PM
Post
#29
|
|
|
Shakin Stevens
Joined: 29 December 2007
Posts: 46,151 User: 5,138
|
Class thanks for postin Rollo. I mean why on earth did they not show that on the BBC 4 shows? Must have been round the time when McCartney and the Bee Gees performed new material.
Also, what was a 'power track'? |
|
|
|
|
24th June 2020, 02:12 PM
Post
#30
|
|
|
BuzzJack Platinum Member
Joined: 3 January 2017
Posts: 10,156 User: 23,961
|
Yes,BBC4 could easily have shown an extended version of that show to include David Bowie.
I think 'power track' might have been added to the original caption by another broadcaster. I noticed there is a logo in the top left hand corner which looks like MCP. My guess is that the full episode was shown on TV somewhere else in Europe and someone recorded it onto a VHS tape. The person who put it on youtube comes from Greece so maybe it was shown there in 1987. |
|
|
|
|
24th June 2020, 06:55 PM
Post
#31
|
|
|
Shakin Stevens
Joined: 29 December 2007
Posts: 46,151 User: 5,138
|
Yeh true that may be it.
Crazy they didn't show it still. |
|
|
|
|
26th June 2020, 06:49 PM
Post
#32
|
|
|
BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,828 User: 17,376
|
13. Blackstar (2015) 6 points
Well this one is a surprise rating at 13, recorded while he was basically dying of liver cancer with a New York Jazz band, and almost ten minutes long. The first 4 and a half minutes is avante-garde drum 'n' bass jazz, at which point it morphs into a melodic middle short segment, before the "I'm a Blackstar" more-traditional pop-structured hook and a tempo-slowing gradual fade to jazz again. It's about mortality, legacy, as I see it though the abstract video shot 4 months before Bowie died (2 days after his 59th birthday in January 2016, and 2 days after the Blackstar album had been released) just confuses me further, it's all very dark and sombre. I tend to suspect the title similarity to Elvis Presley's Black Star is a clue to the point of the song "“When a man sees his black star, he knows his time … has come.” Peaking at UK 61 and US 78 is fairly good for the download era and a very non-commercial creation, and though it's not my favourite Bowie track (I have never got on with freeform jazz-styled music, I like structured variation and melody, which is why the second-half is much better than the first-half to my ears) it still did better in my charts than actual charts at 40. Leww and Jade, on the other hand, presumably rated it a number one, so 40 is still quite modest! |
|
|
|
|
27th June 2020, 01:15 PM
Post
#33
|
|
|
BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,828 User: 17,376
|
12. Boys Keep Swinging (1979) 7 points
Bowie at his most fun and playful on this single, and the gender-bending (as it was then known) video is fab - he'd always had a penchant for being provocative right back to the album cover for The Man Who Sold The World in full-on drag. needless to say that didn't play in the USA, and neither did this UK single and video which remained an album track. In the UK though, it hit 7 in the charts and 6 in mine, and it kick-starts the Party section of the Bowie results. Taken from the Lodger album, still with Brian Eno in Berlin, his regular band swapped instruments to get a garage-rock vibe to it, so if it comes over all Velvet Underground or Stooges that'll be intentional. I love the fuzzy, squealing guitar, the frantic rhythm-section and the chanting chorus. Such a great single, returning him to the top 10 for the first time in 2 years, and Bowie's intent with the lyrics? "I do not feel that there is anything remotely glorious about being either male or female. I was merely playing on the idea of the colonization of gender." Me, I liked the line "other boys check you out" - less so the next line, "you get a girl". Doh! Just about clothes then  AH Gold's second-fave Bowie track gets it to 12 in the rundown.
|
|
|
|
|
27th June 2020, 01:33 PM
Post
#34
|
|
|
BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,828 User: 17,376
|
11. Sound & Vision (1977) 7 points
Two years before Boys Keep Swinging, Bowie returned with another upbeat catchy single, this one with the long almost Easy-listening instrumental intro - were it not for the chorus of synthchords and funky rhythm that is. The first Bowie single you could dance to since Golden Years and Fame, and it's far too short! Turn it up loud in a club and wig-out! Loved this one and I genuinely loved that it sounded like nothing before, either in structure or sound, it sounded like something from the near-future - at least until the genuine sound of the future turned up a couple of months later in Donna Summer's I Feel Love. Off 1977's Low, it peaked at 3 in the UK charts, top 10 across Europe despite the lack of a video or TV appearance, and a mere 69 in the USA, too off-the-wall for US radio I guess. Oh, and Mary Hopkin is on backing vocals. Yes, Those Were The Days, Eurovision, Apple Records Mary Hopkin. She was then-married to Tony Visconti, Bowie's long-time co-producer/producer and had put her career more or less on ice from hereon. Anyway, just short of the top ten and on the list as Chris' 2nd-fave Bowie track. The next-three tracks are all up-tempo and two of them are pure party tracks.... |
|
|
|
|
28th June 2020, 01:02 PM
Post
#35
|
|
 Mansonette
Joined: 7 March 2006
Posts: 35,304 User: 54
             |
Some amazing tracks featuring here - I'm fond of pretty much everything that's appeared so far, cutting the vote down to 5 was such a task and I'm not sure I'd have picked the same 5 on another day. Love me some Sound and Vision, such a unique sounding track for the time
|
|
|
|
|
28th June 2020, 09:45 PM
Post
#36
|
|
|
Shakin Stevens
Joined: 29 December 2007
Posts: 46,151 User: 5,138
|
Not surprising 'Blackstar' appears quite high as younger BJers will remember it. Always was gutted it did give him a final original release hurrah in the top 40! People went for his classics when he sadly passed away.
|
|
|
|
|
29th June 2020, 07:13 PM
Post
#37
|
|
|
BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,828 User: 17,376
|
10. John I'm Only Dancing (1972) 10 points
OK, this is at 10 as my fave Bowie track (at least on the day I voted, it changes according to mood) - it was a Ziggy Stardust-era single that wasn't on the album, and it rocked! You can dance to it, though it's not a dance record, it's clearly Ziggy, though it's not on the album, and the video is fab. Yes, an actual video in the sense of a promo designed to avoid having to appear doing trashy Top Of The Pops Orchestra versions, or re-records. Contrary to popular opinion, Queen didn't invent the promo in 1975, The Beatles were doing them in the 60's, and many acts even further way back. Bowie, clearly, had control over how he was presented, and I remember loving a promo on Top Of The Pops (but not this banned androgynous promo) - I was a big fan of promo videos from day one as I still can't stand cheesy re-recorded versions, and I'm not too fussed about recorded live performances either, they aren't the same as being there, and they also aren't as good as what I consider a completed work of art. One doesn't keep painting over the top of a finished painting, or adding bits to a book, especially asking someone else to faff about with it. I want it to sound like it did when it was released, and a video allows that. What was more surprising was that Bowie tried it...did it again with Jean Genie, and then gave up till Boys Keep Swinging was a proper effort 7 years later. Hey ho, I was 14, my name is John, and I love dancing to music - what's not to love about this!? Great vocal, great cracking sounds after "turns me on". It's also the only Bowie song to chart in 3 different versions, the original in 1972, and a double A in 1979 with an alternate (but similar) 1972 version as the flip to the radio-promoted plastic-soul-era 1975 re-record which was nothing like the original, a dull, plodding affair that must have seemed like a good idea at the time - "ooh disco is big let's make a literal dancing track and cut out the potentially risque gay-lyrics". Just no. Peaked at 12 in the UK (not issued in the USA, too controversial) in 1972, and errr, 12 again late 1979. Consistent! |
|
|
|
|
30th June 2020, 06:34 PM
Post
#38
|
|
|
BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,828 User: 17,376
|
9. Modern Love (1983) 11 points
Third of the Nile Rodgers trilogy of Let's Dance singles, hitting UK 2, 14 US and topping my charts, for a hat-trick of fab pop songs of Bowie at his most-commercial and orthodox. Nile Rodgers was hot as a producer by 1983 as his Chic-career was fizzing out, and his protoges like Sister Sledge and Sheila & B. Devotion had given way to one-off's like Carly Simon's fab Why single, so Bowie totally knew what he was doing for his new record-deal and the Serious Moonlight tour complete with smart suit and blonde permed hair. Sales were big worldwide...and then Bowie dissed that period as not really representing his artistic ambitions. I can see why he would think that, but errr, Nile Rodgers wanted to help Bowie make an avante-garde album, and it was Bowie's own instruction to make it commercial, and he did that beautifully. I'd suggest that there's nothing wrong with the songs at all, and Modern Love is a great song with a chunky delicious rhythm - as you'd expect from Rodgers. It would be a while before Bowie was this consistently good on an album, even ignoring the mess that was Tin Machine, though Absolute Beginners and other one-offs like This Is Not America were classic enough. On the list thanks Bigwiglaf and Callum rating it highly. |
|
|
|
|
30th June 2020, 08:43 PM
Post
#39
|
|
|
Shakin Stevens
Joined: 29 December 2007
Posts: 46,151 User: 5,138
|
It always confuses me why big single with huge chorus are looked at as commercial and uncool, is that not what we love about pop?
Great song Modern Love! |
|
|
|
|
1st July 2020, 10:21 AM
Post
#40
|
|
|
Mansonette
Joined: 7 March 2006
Posts: 35,304 User: 54
|
Modern Love is great but the Let's Dance era is pretty awful outside of the singles so I can see why he would not be totally happy with the project as a whole.
|
|
|
|
|
| Time is now: 24th April 2024, 04:31 PM |
Copyright © 2006 - 2024 BuzzJack.com
About | Contact | Advertise | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
