Today should be a Tribute to Bowie

Listening to Space Oddity on LP in my older brother's room is one of my earliest musical memories. Sad to hear the news today.
 
I wasn't really a fan back in the day either. In high school, mid-70s, he was sort of THE guy with virtually all of my friends. I was always far more into rougher, blues based stuff like the Stones, Faces, Beck, Clapton, Hendrix, etc. As a purist of sorts, Bowie always had too much of a show-biz angle for me. So smooth and rehearsed and tight - I liked stuff a bit edgier, some improvisation, I was pretty into the guitar heroes, back when the term was being invented and had some meaning. But, as with other acts that I sort of rebelled against because everyone else liked them more than I found warranted (I didn't like Zeppelin at the time either, even though they met ALL of my criteria!), I came to like and respect Bowie a lot over the years, even the stuff I didn't care for in high school. The cream eventually rises even if it's not exactly your taste. I've looked at him that way for quite a while now...

-Ray

Ray, not exactly a secret, but if you haven't heard Bowie's Live at the Tower recording check it out. Not blues-rock by any stretch, but still rocks very hard. Earl Slick on guitar is very underrated, and David Sanborn on sax adds a great dimension. One of the albums I wore out as a kid.
 
Ray, not exactly a secret, but if you haven't heard Bowie's Live at the Tower recording check it out. Not blues-rock by any stretch, but still rocks very hard. Earl Slick on guitar is very underrated, and David Sanborn on sax adds a great dimension. One of the albums I wore out as a kid.
That album came out at the beginning of my junior year in high school. I was a year young for my grade, so all of my friends were driving, but I wouldn't get my license until the end of that school year. Which meant I relied on friends for rides and double dates and cruising around town in cars on Friday nights. I spent more nights than I can possibly count riding around in three different friends cars that year, one hopped up Mustang, one old Saab, one beater Fiat - the only thing they had in common was that album playing on the bad 8-track machine. CONSTANTLY! To say I knew that album well would be the understatement of my youth. I didn't know it was from the Tower Theater until I'd lived in the Philly area for a while, but it wouldn't have meant anything to me in my Southwestern youth anyway. I listened to it again yesterday and it brought back some pretty specific memories... :cool: That album is indelibly imprinted in my memory whether I always want it there or not!

I like Bowie now, and I didn't hate him then. I just didn't worship him, which I guess made it seem like I hated him to those who did? I was always a Stones guy more than a Beatles guy. I LOVE the Beatles, am absolutely amazed by the huge volume of incredible songs and albums they put out over what I now realize was a very very short time. BUT, I was just more into the edgier, bloozy stuff like the Stones. More of a John guy than a Paul guy when it came to the Beatles, by a huge margin! To me, Bowie had more Beatles in him than Stones. Even if he did evidently have quite a bit of Jagger in him at one point ;) A lot of his singing almost sounds like a Broadway performer (he even works "On Broadway" into Aladdin Sane on that Live album, and it fits!) - it's great stuff, he was a huge talent - it just wasn't my thing as much as a lot of other people who were making music at the time. Some of his more basic stuff - Rebel Rebel, Changes, Jean Genie, All the Young Dudes, etc, I really love(d) about as much as anything. And over the years, I changed and lord knows HE constantly changed and I came to like him a lot. But except for a few days of nostalgia and tribute, he never has been and probably never will be in regular rotation in my house or car. Someone I sometimes listen to with interest, but not much passion.

I was always into a lot of jazz and blues and roots type stuff (American and British) and most of the rock I liked came from those directions as well. The Stones, the Dead, Springsteen, Petty, Dylan, Richard Thompson, Bonnie Raitt were more my cup of tea. Bowies was one of those guys I respected more than liked, but I came to like him too over the years...

-Ray
 
... the only thing they had in common was that album playing on the bad 8-track machine. CONSTANTLY! To say I knew that album well would be the understatement of my youth...

That's interesting Ray. I'm a few years younger, but I never thought the album had any mainstream popularity. I don't recall anyone I knew ever owning it until they heard my copy, and it always seemed hard to find.

What a different music world today. Everything available for immediate consumption at any time.
 
That's interesting Ray. I'm a few years younger, but I never thought the album had any mainstream popularity. I don't recall anyone I knew ever owning it until they heard my copy, and it always seemed hard to find.

What a different music world today. Everything available for immediate consumption at any time.
My friends were REALLY into Bowie - I don't know how popular it was at the time, but it was popular with those guys. We had a pretty good record shop down by the University area that seemed to have anything. They had Ziggy and Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs too, but when that live album came out, that's what was playing for most of my junior year. By the end of that school year, I was driving too and whoever was driving controlled the tunes, so I went in other directions! ;) And the next year Young Americans was all over the radio, but I don't remember them being that into that one. But since I was driving more, I just might not have heard it as much... That Live album doesn't seem to be reviewed very well and I don't love some of the versions on it, but again, I'm not that much of a Bowie aficionado to begin with...

-Ray
 
i listen to space oddity constantly! such sadness!
i really loved im afraid of americans also.. mainly because im generally afraid of americans as well, and im constantly blurting out "why dont i live in france?!" lol
 
David Bowie 69- cancer, Alan Rickman 69- cancer, Glenn Frey 67- multiple...

I was at the point after Rickman of wondering if another 69 year old..

So much talent there..
 
David Bowie 69- cancer, Alan Rickman 69- cancer, Glenn Frey 67- multiple...

I was at the point after Rickman of wondering if another 69 year old..

So much talent there..



I've just reached 69 years last December ... obviously not talented ........ but it makes you think! ...

Off to S Africa today for our usual few weeks, back in March .... great photo opportunities ........ as usual I cannot wait ....... I'll play Major Tom on the Airbus A380-800 which carries around 800 to 850 passengers, (frightening I know) ....... I always think of the toilet capacity on a 12 hour flight ... must have big tanks!!!!
 
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