random bowie - the shel talmy recordings

howdy pop pickers

indeed i was hesitant, if not quite reluctant, to include this in my set of "random bowie" posts. this most recent of releases, The Shel Talmy Recordings, doesn't claim to be an "album", look you see, instead being as direct (or honest) enough to say it is very much a bunch of recordings taped together as a bit of a compilation. some of these have surface before, a few have not. besides, there is a (quite) strong likelihood this might be the last time we get a significant amount of "previously unreleased" Bowie material all at once. i dare say his taste for the subversive would be amused at a "final (mostly) new" release would feature his first ever recordings. 

but, one may ask, are these recordings the first ones he ever gone done? probably, likely but no one is all that sure, really. one (you and i) have to remember that the unreleased until now ones were mostly all forgotten about. for the sake of simplicity, or an easier life, perhaps we should just say yes, the first recordings what he ever gone done are held in (on) this tape (disc). 

and is it any good? does this release offer anything of remote quality, or interest beyond it being David Bowie (and a few others of note) on it, or is it simply a bit of a "cash grab", dangerously if not perilously close to scraping the bottom of a barrel? yes, no and maybe are all (oddly) not unreasonable answers to both extremes, which places a fair review in the middle. 

who(m), exactly, is Shel Talmy? must confess i had not heard of him, so did a bit of research. whereas no, not quite a legendary figure as some producers of the 60s, a very decent track record (sorry for the play on words) with some musicians, notably The Who and The Kinks. also took a bit of a flyer, or if you will a calculated risk on a young David "Davie" Jones, who he felt might be quirky enough to produce a few hits but accepted probably not. so he signed him up, encouraged him to write songs and brought in musicians to play on some records. as has widely been reported, one of them just so happens to be (i think on 4 songs) a certain Jimmy Page, who(m) started off as a very much in demand session musician. beyond that, was interested to see Nicky Hopkins appears too. for the more casual fan it may well be so that the name doesn't immediately trigger a memory, but i promise you that you have heard either his organ (so to speak) or piano playing on some of the greatest rock songs ever. 

this will sound terribly (and incorrectly) like i am damning with feint praise but the booklet, with extensive liner notes, is the treasure here. it tells the story of Shel, who was not, say, George Martin or, for better or worse, Phil Spector, but all the same was an integral component of that legendary era in the 60s when pop music well and truly became a thing. for anyone interested in rock history, or all of the mythology, it is fascinating stuff. 

music, though? well, said booklet makes (abundantly) clear not to play it with any expectations whatsoever. no "lost classics" exist here, but there is also nothing "bad" and certainly not a song one could suggest is an "embarrassment" for either (as we came to know him) Bowie or the musicians that feature. you get decent mid-60s sounding pop and proper rhythm and blues (not the horrendous style which appropriated the the term in the 90s) for the most part. good, but not what one would realistically deem "great", and certainly nothing likely to challenge The Beatles, The Kinks, Gerry & The Pacemakers, etc, etc as being the toppermost of the poppermost. 

 

once upon a time you could walk into shops and they would have tapes (actual) and then discs called things like "the best of the sixties". a more better (accurate) title was invariably "the best of the sixties songs that are either cheap to licence or free to use". invariably they comprised of "one hit wonders" or artists none but a few ever recalled. again it feels like i am unfairly slating this record, but being completely honest would be to say that any of the songs here would not feel "out of place" on such a set. 

do we (at the least) get the distinctive David Bowie vocal on the songs? partially. impossible for me to say but i suspect that if you played it for someone without telling them it was Bowie they would be able to work it out. although there answer would possibly be "sounds like Bowie mimicking Roger Daltrey", or Eric Burdon, or even (not then but still) Sir Mick. entirely likely that this was what he was doing, really, since they were the popular vocalists of the day (well, outside of The Beatles). certainly the evidence here is his ability to hold a note and be a strong vocalist, but you have to temper that with the fact it was a 17 year old lad, famously with a lack of ego or self belief. were anyone foolish enough to let moi into a recording studio when i was 17 then i dare say i would have tried, in my own head if not actually, to sound like who(m)ever was popular. major difference is that Bowie (Jones) does a really good job of pulling off a vocal which could be marketed along the lines of "if you like The Who or The Animals you will love this guy".

stand out, or outstanding songs? closest to such will be the ones you are (possibly) familiar with, for they are the songs that he re-recorded for Toy, be it in the never released intended version or the ho hum variation that eventually got released. to that end the first track, You've Got A Habit Of Leaving, stands out somewhat. of the four (4) tracks featuring Mr Page (two songs with two different vocal takes) easily the best is the rather decent I Pity The Fool, with Take My Tip being resoundingly ok.

for the week (or so) that i have actually had it the tape (disc) has not been replaced by another on the stereo. not sure if this is due to it being peculiarly compelling, or if i am resigned to knowing that in  week or so there is little, if any, chance of me playing it again. once more that is not quite the damnation of it that it feels like it sounds, more a reality. 

how has the rest of the world taken to this set (or if you like compilation)? reasonably well. it got up to number seventeen (17) in the UK album chart. quite the lovely touch, since that was his age when most if not all of these were recorded. 

were it so that someone said "oh yes, you can clearly tell his genius is present already in these early songs" they would be hard pressed to elaborate (or clarify). by the same margin, if one were to lambast this, saying it was rubbish (or just plain sh!t), then likely they are being far too harsh or exacting, or otherwise went into listening with far too many exalted expectations. ultimately it is a record way closer to pleasant curiosity than it is patchy cash in, which is fair enough. 

should for some reason you wish to read just a fraction more of the (vast) acres of waffle i have managed to gone done on Bowie over the years, this link to a "bootleg best" has a link to all of the random bowie editions (i think). 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

random bowie - toy

howdy pop pickers

yes, a "revival", of sorts, of that random bowie thing what i did. having gone done a decidedly amateurish, just a fan overview of his albums (here, look you see) it seems appropriate to continue (and tag) such with this, a "new" album off of David Bowie. except, of course, it is not "new" as such. yes, newly released and now official, as  it were, but that's it. 

for those of you reading who have missed what this might all relate to, it's Toy. this album off of David Bowie got released on 7 January 2022, on the eve of what would have been (or is) his 75th birthday, north of 20 (twenty) years after it was recorded and not released, north of ten (10) years after it rather infamously "leaked" online. with regards to the latter, it got "leaked" in a more complete version that this actual release, but i shall get to that. you will too, i suppose, if you keep reading. 

certainly i did go and get this on the day of release, off of HMV. full well i knew they were charging £3 or so more than the official website for it, but then the website would have piled on postage costs, and it was obvious that the packaging for it wouldn't have gone in a conventional letterbox, so it would have been the faff and fiasco of trying to catch Royal Mail parcel delivery and arranging redelivery. ultimately, buying it off of HMV was supposed to be nostalgic, but turned out to be depressing. no sign of it on display in the shop (hence no pics), with them instead trying to sell me Adele, Abba and Ed Sheridan (or whatever). i had to ask a nice man at the counter, and yes, they had a couple behind the counter. 

the first thing one will note of Toy is, of course, the eye-watering price on it. quite a challenge to Bowie fans, that, especially as January is generally considered a poor month financially, what with the excesses of Christmas and what have you. after that, it's difficult not to note (or notice) is the album cover. indeed, yes, it is hideous. January 7 2022 is the day, or date, then, when Never Let Me Down lost the title of being the worst ever David Bowie album cover. quite a bit of noise from the Bowie Estate has been made, clarifying that the image was "designed and created" by Bowie himself. this was never ever in doubt, for David Bowie imposing a (then) recent image of David Bowie on a baby picture of David Bowie is about the most non-musical David Bowie thing i can think of. but i have my doubts he intended for such to ever be used in furtherance of album art. 

if you were looking for, or seeking, a quick idea of whether or not Toy in an official variation is worth it or any good, well done for pushing in so far to this text to find that and the answer is kind of. leaving aside, for now, the needless way in which this release has been bloated, the record, as in the music itself, is a determined personification of "average". so far all the reviews i have seen, written by people what get paid to review vibes (i do not) have been diplomatic, with the echo of "it's nice to have but not an essential album" ringing through them all. quite an accurate description of it. none of the songs are particularly that bad, yet very few stand out. 

essentially, or effectively, what happened with this record at the time? well, no one knows for certain. claims were that Bowie was "inspired" by his consideration for his Glastonbury set to go and rush record a "surprise" album of spontaneous choices, with Toy being it. alas, the record label disagreed, with the official line being that they didn't believe an album of mostly re-recorded pre-fame Bowie songs would be as successful or as "commercially viable" as an album of new material. cynical types would suggest that Bowie's plan was somewhat less spontaneous, with some of the songs appearing in sets a year or so before release. for the label, owing to how publishing rights, licencing and all that works, the income split for the album would have been 80% David Bowie, 20% record label. so the record label told him to f*** off back to the studio, please. 

above is the cover of the booklet inside the lavish box what Toy has come out in. yes, indeed, i agree that would have made a considerably better cover than what came out. but, here we are. 

mostly, then, what Toy consists of is Bowie re-recording some songs off of his less famous era, mid to late 60s. surprisingly he resisted the obvious temptation to revisit Laughing Gnome or When I'm Five, but for the most part, at least, did go and select some songs from his past that were full worthy of attention beyond cheap to licence cash-in releases by the initial rights holders. undoubtedly, or certainly, this is true of one particular tune which he particularly hammered in the year or so prior to recording Toy, the rather good Can't Help Thinking About Me. 

on my personal list of "all time favourite Bowie songs of all time" there sits the relatively obscure tune that is Conversation Piece. i first heard it on the Space Oddity CD release of, what, 89 or 90, and more or less immediately fell in love with it. some delight, then, in seeing Bowie pick it out to try and ensure it got a bigger audience in the modern world, much like he did (with a shorter turnaround time) with the magnificence of Strangers When We Meet in the 90s. not sure i am overtly keen on this slowed down version, hearing it here again (three times) on Toy. 

quite a few people, myself included, will of course have already heard this re-recorded Conversation Piece in an official way, for it was one of the bonus tracks included in the "deluxe edition" of the album Bowie f****d off to the studio to record when Toy was declined a release. that one was Heathen, a not too bad album but not memorable. 

going back a bit on the basis of that, be it all non-linear or non non-linear, it's a bit interesting (i guess) that the official release of Toy doesn't quite match the tracklisting of the leaked, or if you will bootlegged, version of the record. i did some checking, and sure enough two (2) songs are omitted. they, or them, would be the ones that were relatively (so far as anyone knows) new compositions and recordings, which got reworked and re-recorded for inclusion in Heathen. 

undoubtedly there are reasons - licensing, rights ownership, etc - why the official, expensive version of the album is not quite so complete as the freely available bootleg, but still. for a few years, from what i remember, no less than Brian Eno used to use his Twitter thing to share links to download the bootleg variation of Toy with the world, not sure but possibly every year on what would have been Bowie's birthday. in all honesty, and completely excluding the debate about piracy, the idea of having this record in a form that was taped off of Brian Eno shall always seem totes cooler than any official version. 

best i can do for you, that picture above is, of what is inside the box for Toy, limiting the view of that hideous artwork as best i can. yes, it is on the front of each of the three (3) discs inside, but i figured it would be more better to try and show the tracklisting for them. oh, goodness me, yes, there is a lot of repetition across the discs. for those interested, the sequence of images in the booklet you can vaguely make out in the image are portraits of all the artists what appeared on the record, with the attribution that Bowie himself gone done them portraits. a reasonably rare insight into his art, then. reduced here to images barely the size of a conventional stamp. 

a not unreasonable question would be why now? exactly, why now? this release of Toy shall have been considered and planned long in advance of the recent deal, in which Warner have bought the Bowie catalogue for some very serious money. more on that later (if i remember), but i suppose there was always an intention to put this one out at some stage. putting out an officially (ahem) new album for what would have been (or is) his 75th birthday makes a degree of sense. 

just strange, though, that it all seems to have come at the cost (or instead) of any particularly special or decent celebration of the 50th anniversary of Hunky Dory. considering how hard and large they hammered the 50th anniversaries of Space Oddity and The Man Who Sold The World (the latter was subject to two CD issues), that all we get for (arguably) his first truly great album is one (1) vinyl picture disc of an 8 (eight) year old pressing of it. worth mentioning that Hunky Dory is the album home to Changes, a song which one could suggest defined his career, and Life On Mars?, a song which routinely gets voted as his "greatest ever" when they do polls. 

so it is, then, that Toy marks (probably) the final, last release before Warner take over the issuing of the Bowie catalogue to we, the people. for those who are responsible for the Bowie Estate, if the reported US $250 million is anywhere near what they got, good business, especially as they seem unable to work out what to do with what they have (refer to the Brilliant Live Adventures debacle). for Warner they have paid a huge some of money for effectively priceless art. as to us, the humble fans, everything about their track record says good days are ahead. look to how Warner have gone done reissues of classic Prince albums, and that album which has strong claim as being the greatest ever, Rumours off of Fleetwood Mac. the overwhelming majority of their music releases gives every indication of them subscribing to the idea that if you give the fans what they want, fairly, they are happy to pay. we are. 

oh, yeah, Toy. what this post is supposed to be about, but i figured it would be amiss for me not to mention the recent developments, and a separate post would have been excessive. rather get it all out in a longer, bigger one. so to speak. 

effectively, the spirit of the reviews in general (mentioned earlier) sum it up well. besides the well covered "leak" of it, more than half of the songs here have turned up on CD singles (remember them, i miss them), extras on albums of even "best of" sets. the whole of Toy amounts to Bowie re-recording some of the obscure things from his early days, long before such was popular. him being ahead of the game is not really a new thing, or at least wasn't. 

the main problem, or barrier, prohibiting getting excited about this is how needlessly bloated it is. i cannot stress enough how you end up with rather more than less of it being three discs all of the same thing. certainly some "audio experts" will note differences, but me not so much. disc two, called alternate mixes and extras (i think only an extra two songs), don't feel far removed from the album proper, whereas the third, a quasi acoustic "unplugged and somewhat slightly electric" take on most of the songs, amounts more or less to demo versions. not bad but no, not essential. 

comments on the actual music, beyond what i have done? ok. the standout, or outstanding, one is certainly Can't Help Thinking About Me. no surprise, really, as he had been playing it for close on two years before deciding to do a studio version, and of all the tunes it sounds the closest of them to the original 60s recording. as for the titular Toy (Your Turn To Drive), it's also great. weird, though, as the piano bit sounds like it is "borrowed" off of that Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton, yet seems to have been recorded a year or so before that song. various reports and comments suggest that one tune, Shadow Man, has been kicking around in a lyrical form since the Ziggy Stardust sessions, with this incarnation turning up on some variations of Heathen bonus discs. no, it isn't a lost or newly discovered masterpiece, sorry. 

putting this out as a full tilt, loaded one disc affair would, i suspect, have been wiser. sure, on the one side it's kind of interesting to have (quite close to) all recordings of one album sometimes, but i am unconvinced Toy is such an album. still, done now, obtained and, after some shuffling, on the shelf with the remainder of my Bowie collection. where, i suspect, it won't get moved much. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

random bowie - is it any wonder?

howdy pop pickers


well, this is unexpected. i had reasonably expected, look you see, to add no more episodes (or editions) to my random bowie series. the truth, if truth be told, is that i am not, at time of writing, certain that Is It Any Wonder?, the 2020 "compilation" of a highly limited release nature, should be included. but, well, my blog, so there you go. but yes, they are calling the six track release an EP rather than an album. however, Station To Station "only" had six tracks too, so i am counting it. also, the running length exceeds 20 minutes (just), so it would not be allowed in any "singles" chart, if we still had such.

so, the usual provenance and fantastic facts? a bit tricky here, since it isn't officially an album as it has been defined or categorised, and certainly does not feature music recorded with the intention of all of it all being one record. but, here we are.

the six tracks here (which i might as well go one by one with) were initially available by "streaming" only, with one track being "dropped" every week for six weeks. of the six tracks, approximately 66% are re-recorded versions of songs, with a claim that a further (roughly) 16% (as in one more) is also a re-recording of sorts, and a possibly telling 33% of the album entire are songs made famous previously by tin machine. most, if not all, of the material here has been available before, although in some cases only via "fan club" releases.

a range of Bowie opinion exists. one end, but of course, sees Charlie Watts of The Ro££ing $tone$ stating that he was "not some sort of genius". at the other are the zealots and the acolytes "horrified" by the large commercial operations underway with Bowie's music, getting "offended" on behalf of David and saying there is "no way" he would ever have wanted or authorised the exploitation of his music for money.

let us get something cleared up. there is no secret that i love Bowie's music, hence all these posts. but the latter group mentioned in the previous paragraph are being absolutely absurd. under no circumstances whatsoever would Bowie have wished, after his passing, his family to "fend for themselves" and not bring in money off his work. also, anyone who thinks Bowie was shy about financial ambitions have not paid attention. your attention is thus drawn to that 70s film Ziggy Stardust, where Bowie is sat studying the receipts from the gig just moments before going on stage. further, the 80s documentary Ricochet, in which Bowie happily includes a scene outlining how much money he will make. and finally, well, for the 90s you just google "Bowie bonds".

being perfectly honest, the arrival of Is It Any Wonder? is a very, very welcome break, or respite, from the absolutely relentless re-issuing of Space Oddity. whilst the "anniversary edition" released late in 2019 was really good, another re-issue is happening now, this time a "limited" 12" vinyl picture disc. enough now, we all have as many copies of that record as we can carry, and, well, he did do other stuff.

to cut to the chase, so to speak, and do the bit that normally comes at the end, is it worth getting Is It Any Wonder? at all? well, i believe the cd is now sold out and the vinyl too probably, so is it worth doing a "streaming" or buying a download? objectively no, subjectively yes.

yes, that is the cd of Is It Any Wonder which i was fortunate enough to get, and also yes, indeed, that is the overtly and highly (to say the least) priapic db logo what he had on the go from 1995, in and around all that 1. Outside business. which makes sense, as the period (or era) covered here is 95 - 97. you know, that "hey kids, i am down with this drum and bass thing" era, and a time when he was very keen to let all know that he was still most enthusiastic about that sort of thing, which is to say doing a sex.

for every Bowie fan that will say 1987's Never Let Me Down was the low point of his career, there is another who will say no, not so, 1997 with Earthling was, with many finding the whole "drum and bass" variation to be dull, monotonous, tedious and boring. ultimately, there is no such thing as "bad Bowie", though, for he did it so there must be something of interest in it.

how about that track by track that i mentioned earlier? well, sure. for more "factual" or information based stuff on each song, i would say head off to the official Bowie site, for they have extensive notes on each tune. what follows here is just me being a simple fan.

Baby Universal 97 - a re-recording of the Tin Machine single off of Tin Machine II. it sounds not unlike the Tin Machine original, which is hardly surprising as it features 50% of Tin Machine (just Tony and Hunt missing). the reason for re-recording it seems to be an idea of maybe including it on the Earthling album after playing it frequently on Outside tours (refer to the splendid bootleg A Night In Loreley).

the main issue, or gripe, with this version of the song is that it is a little bit too polished and produced. one of the things i love about the Tin Machine original is the Hunt Sales backing vocal, which is best described as being off a key and out a step. here Gail Ann Dorsey does a perfect backing vocal, which is great, but not what my ears are used to. also, at the end Bowie adds some of them "gordon bennet cor blimey guv i done a sex" grunt noises which he beautified certain aspects of Earthling with, Telling Lies in particular.

Fun - i was led to believe that this was a "quasi" re-recording of Fame, which is presumably why we get a lyric from Fame as the title. sorry, but (alas) i do not hear any remains or remnants of Fame in this song. perhaps that is because it is a "clownboy mix", whatever that may mean.

neither good nor bad, really, this one. mostly it just is, i guess. the most distinct thing about it is all that "wobbly bass" sound, which echoes aspects of Outside and some of what Bowie's mate Trent was doing with Nine Inch Nails.

Stay 97 - starts off really, really well, peters out, ends quite badly. not really a fate i would wish upon a song taken from my all time favourite Bowie album (if i was forced to pick), and one that David was perhaps reluctant to see come, hence this being generally unreleased up to now.

there is absolutely no fault with the Bowie vocal on this "new" version (it is now 23 years old), and Reeves Gabrels absolutely nails the devastating guitar on. my (for want of a better word) problem is that this polished re-recording has stripped away the desperate, desolate isolation of the original. the backing vocal, for instance, feels supportive and inclusive rather than a lament.

i think (or suspect) the purpose of re-recording this would be to see if it would go well live. that would explain the nature of the lengthy instrumental at the end. it feels like it was done to allow David to go off stage for a bit, either to do a costume change, have a cigarette or two, or maybe do a sex, or probably all three.

I Can't Read 97 - perhaps the real gem on this release, although it was released as a single at the time, most of us (i am guilty) just ignored it or were not aware of it. anyway, originally this was a particular highlight on the debut Tin Machine album (self titled), but here we have a version re-recorded for a film called The Ice Storm. with respect, there was another re-recorded song by a different artists released at the same time which kind of got all the attention.

this stripped down, acoustic take on the song is really, really good. brilliant, perhaps. Bowie takes the haunting, slightly disturbing original and turns it into something all the more haunting. a few of the lines have changed, perhaps to suit the song or simply to remove the swear words, but it all works. very much worth having. if you were unable to get the Is It Any Wonder? CD, and are not prepared to pay north of £10 for the CD single second hand, then you can find it on the soundtrack CD for The Ice Storm, with prices for it normally south of £5.

Nuts - the only bona fide, genuinely "previously unreleased" song to feature on Is It Any Wonder? which immediately means this has some interest, but (alas) that is some interest which fades away quite early on. unless you are a big fan of Earthling, and always wished for more.

over on the official David Bowie website this is generously described as being a "semi instrumental". my interpretation of this would be that it was a song David was fiddling with, working on, threw a few words on that felt as though they might fit, decided that the song wasn't really going anywhere interesting, and so just left it unfinished.

again, i state, or confess that Earthling is the one David Bowie album i am pretty sure shall never ever taste the laser of my stereo equipment ever again. had Nuts ever got finished off as a complete song then it would have sounded absolutely perfectly in place on the record. that is as diplomatic as i can make my thoughts on this repetitive, droning tune.

The Man Who Sold The World - this is the studio recording billed as the "live Eno mix", meaning it is a rehearsal (of sorts) of how David and the band would do it live, what with the song being made all of a sudden (at the time) tres popular via Nirvana's version. previously this was to be found on the Strangers When We Meet single.

it's ok and it is all right, this. a good, solid enough version, but all in all my preference would be for the original album version, or the Nirvana take. yes, surely, this re-recorded take is better than the one what Lulu did.

right, well, that's that. four familiar songs re-recorded in a mostly agreeable or at worst not too objectional way, two previously unreleased (well one, the other might as well be classed as so for it was difficult to find) tuned that would not have been all that a great loss had they remained so. but nice to have them, all the same.

what next for Bowie releases? i believe a "highlights" edition of his (very heavily bootlegged) 50th birthday concert is due quite soon. after that, the next two years will see the 50th anniversaries of The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory and a certain The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. it would be quite a surprise if re-releases of these did not turn up.

do i, as a simple Bowie fan trying to make his way in the world, feel like i am being exploited or ripped off with these releases? not really. under no circumstances have i ever bought a Bowie release against my will. some of them, like a couple of the live releases and compilations, i have very easily skipped over, thanks. but i do like having the choice, so long may they keep releasing them.




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

random bowie - for the more chronological fan

howdy pop pickers


and so what next. that's an interesting question, if only for me, look you see, now that i have ostensibly completed writing of all recognised Bowie albums and a few that were not officially seen as his albums as such.

for now, then, and before i waffle on, here's all editions, or if you like episodes, what i have done of random bowie. and for those who like nice neat piles, here are the links in chronological order in terms of the way in which they were released, rather than the order in what i wrote them. for good measure, and for the sake of completeness, i have included a lengthy rant i wrote in defence of Tin Machine quite a few years ago.

should you be of a mind to do so, simply click on a lyric that took my fancy off of that particular album and you will be taken away, via the magic of the internet, to that album's write up.

i saw a photograph of jesus

and the day will end for some as the night begins for one

got laid by a young bordello who was vaguely half asleep

bipperty bopperty hat

songs of darkness and disgrace

putting on some clothes i made my way to school

when they said sit down i stood up

in the cellar of a church with the door ajar

took him minutes, took her nowhere

and once i could never be down

don't you wonder sometimes

maybe we're lying, then you'd better not stay

learn to drive and everything

don't ask me, i don't know any hallways

tremble like a flower

i'm gonna write a poem in a letter

the power of voodoo

when i believed in nothing

i'm grey and blown to hell

my friend don't listen to the crowd

all our friends now seem so thin and frail

do you like girls or boys

sleepy time bashful but nude

or seven ways to die

you say you'll leave me and when the sun is low

all the corners of the building

here i am, not quite dying

something happened on the day he died

doesn't matter, i've seen everything, anyway

your turn to drive

i pity the fool that falls in love with you

well, there you go, for those who asked for it. or indeed those of you who read one or two of them, found that for some reason they were interested in more but simply could not be bothered (or find the time) to search for further. 

it would, no doubt we can all agree (partially at least) for me to avoid too much sixth former wankery about this whole thing. let me avoid, then, any such discussion of catharsis, or "coming to terms" with or "healing" of the loss to the world of a chap i never met and yet his music meant and continues to mean so very much to me. 

but, that said, any thoughts? yes. i have thoroughly enjoyed repeated plays of each album, selected at random, one each month over the course of the last two and a bit years. this has done little but reaffirmed my love of the overwhelming majority of the music he produced. sure, there are one or two albums that are now unlikely to taste the insides of my stereo again - Young Americans and Let's Dance, i look at you. but to balance that, i have rediscovered just how much i love some of them - the inexplicably unpopular and wrongly slated Tonight, for example.

do i get to do some dedications in respect of all these episodes (editions) of random bowie? well, why not. firstly, if i may hope, then i can only hope that Charlie Watts has enjoyed some of these volumes, for he spoke eloquently and kindly of Bowie's death. fans worldwide were reassured when Charlie declared that Bowie was "not some sort of genius", and further seemed quite perplexed and generally annoyed with people being sad at his passing. 

another dedication? sure. let us be honest - the reasons anyone gets into rock and roll are to avoid having to get a proper job, to get loads of money, fame, sex, drugs and what have you. once all those are achieved, all you can hope for is a reaction. Bowie got plenty of those, with the last one accomplished in his lifetime being in 2014, with the speech he gave Kate Moss to give on his behalf. one plucky braveheart reacted admirably to that, courageously threatening to delete his entire (never clarified if legally obtained or not) Bowie collection off his laptop in protest. a mere two years later this open minded, tolerant Scottish national resurfaced to comment on Bowie's death, expressing how delighted he was that the "Unionist c***" was dead, and further said that he hoped it was a really excruciatingly painful demise. well, except he did not use "excruciatingly", with that word perhaps being far too complex for his observed vocabulary, 

one lingering disappointment is that, to date, no one has stepped forward and claimed or requested the smart "heroes" stamp and postcard i offered at the time of doing that album.

it's still available, if anyone has any interest. don't go leaving any personal details here, though - rather leave a message or something and we will work out a way to contact and connect, perhaps by that facebook business, and i will happily send it on. should no one want it, well, someone will somewhere. maybe.

mostly, predominantly, though, this has all been for me and for you. i am just a simple fan, writing about music i have loved and shall continue to love, on the off chance that some, any or a bit of it has been of mild interest to anyone out there who feels the same. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

random bowie - station to station

howdy pop pickers


and so here we are. this, look you see, is the last, or if you will final, edition (or if you prefer episode) of these random bowie things which i accidentally started. as far as i am aware this one marks me having covered all of the commonly agreed solo albums, along with two which are regarded as such but not officially counted. i have covered bits and bobs along the way, and over the years have dedicated much of my life to championing the easily and incorrectly dismissed Tin Machine venture.

for the last episode, then, i have saved the one which i dread writing of the most. this is because it, being Station To Station, is, for the want of a better word, my "favourite", the one which i hold closest to my heart. one, or simply i, often finds it a struggle to speak (to write) coherently about that which is held dearest. let me try.

i shall no doubt waffle and be distracted as i go, but first some quickfire fantastic facts? surely. Station To Station is, or was, the 10th studio album proper by David Bowie, as per the commonly agreed method for counting them. it came at quite a chaotic time for the artist. recorded during and shortly after his film debut "proper", The Man Who Fell To Earth, as has been well documented in the past this was a time of Byronic, hedonistic, indulgence, excess, darkness and despair.

as i would do a great disservice in not at least mentioning some of the interesting myths and legends of the time, so here they are. up to you whether to believe them, want to believe them, dismiss them, consider them irrelevant or find them a reason to love Bowie all the more. stories added together for the 75 - 76 period of Station To Station suggest it was a time for Bowie of huge volumes of sex across all genders and ages, of drugs, in particular cocaine, on Fleetwood Mac Rumours levels, of sustaining life by consuming milk and peppers alone, of being convinced that witches were attempting to steal his blood (changed to semen in some of the more exciting tellings) for no specified reason, and living in fear of Jimmy Page out of Led Zeppelin, who Bowie apparently believed was trying to "get him" via the dark arts taught by Aleister Crowley.

with respect to the above, i would once again - possibly for the last time - refer you to Bowie's own comments about if he'd ever do an autobiography. sadly i do not have the exact quote to hands, but his response was effectively "just look at all the books already written about me. find the one you consider the most interesting, or would wish was true, and take it as it is". for ever music fan that wants their stars to be all wholesome and clean cut, there's one who really loves the excesses of gratuitous sex and drugs and rock and roll, feeling that it is the only reason to become a megastar. my interest, despite finding such stories entertaining, has always been of what the music says to me, of how it makes me feel.

now then, in order to have some form of pretence of structure or order here, how about i have a go at one of them "track by track" things for this album? yes? sure. but it feels wrong to break it down part by part.

Station To Station - the titular track and, i think, by some 13 or 14 seconds, the longest single studio recorded track by Bowie. whereas "epic" should not automatically be taken as "great" in general, it does have to be said that this opus does make a mockery of a presumably jealous Charlie Watts off of the Rolling Stones claim that Bowie "was not some kind of genius".

despite the somewhat literal meaning one could take from the title, the opening trainesque sounds and the wailing, evoking train engine images sound of the guitar, Bowie maintained that a train journey was not the reference intended. rather, he noted, it was intended to conjure up images of the stations of the cross, or if you will the christian way of sorrows. this is very much in keeping with a key theme to the album, that of a challenged and questioned faith, that we will get to.

lyrically, the first half of the song is a downbeat, gloomy and somewhat marauding wallowing in alienated solitude. the second half is pure Bowie subversion, with the downbeat gloomy sense forever remaining all whilst celebrating a bleak optimism for breaking the alienation and solitude. if that makes any sense. here i'm trying to write of something that i at once find indescribable and giving me thoughts and feelings i would never wish not to have.

prior to hearing this album for the first time i really quite liked Bowie. things changed after this set of lines -

once there were mountains on mountains, once there were sun birds to soar with, once I could never be down, i've got to keep searching and searching, and oh what will I be believing and who will connect me with love?

maybe it was the time, the place, the state of mind, the who i was, what i could be, what i could become and all that when i first heard it, but those words just really struck me. at the point those words impacted on me, i knew then as i know now that i would become acolyte and advocate of Bowie, whatever was to come or happen across however much time i had would be soundtracked by what he had to say. i do not believe this has been incorrect.

or, you know, you could say "bit long but a really good song".

Golden Years - a seemingly conventional quasi ballad of a love song, with an ace groove and a funky beat. interestingly - and this will be of relevance later on - Bowie was quite happy to say that he wrote this in the hope that The King, Elvis Presley would consider recording it, but alas He did not.

i said "seemingly". there is a great danger in reading too much into stuff, into making connections that are not there. but, anyway, my observations. whenever i hear this set of lines, late in the song, i can't help but think that it's connecting to two previous tunes, Cracked Actor off Aladdin Sane and Fame off Young Americans -

some of these days, and it won't be long, gonna drive back down where you once belonged, in the back of a dream car twenty foot long

just the idea of the big car being a symbol - and trapping - of the signs and the excesses of "success", perhaps.

another line of interest would be i'll stick with you baby, for a thousand years. other than surprise that a good deal more fuss was not made about the (not actually there but still) possible third reich connotations when some corners of the press (have a guess) were trying to nail Bowie as a neo-nazi, this got echoed a few years later in Cat People (Putting Out Fire), i can stare for a thousand years. again, maybe looking for a connection that is not there.

on that last point, measurements of time seem to have been a constant in Bowie's lyrics. perhaps one day that Pointless tv show will have a category that is name a David Bowie song which mentions or makes reference to the measurement of time. off the top of my head, Five Years, Golden Years, Time, Thursday's Child, Seven, Seven Years In Tibet, Time Will Crawl and others. i can recall a fan asking him about it in one of those Q&A things, from what i remember Bowie claimed not to have noticed the pattern.

who is the ostensible man, woman or child that's the "baby" of the lyrics? a little bit of research says that every single man, woman or child in the life of Bowie at that time has made a claim that it was written about them. in all probability, a combination of people or no one at all, it just sounded good. and the song does sound really, really good.

Word On A Wing - considering His love of gospel, one really cannot help but wonder if Bowie would not have had greater success had he offered this song to The King, Elvis Presley to record.

a song that their can be no mistaking the meaning or intention of. lines such as Lord i kneel and offer you my word on a wing, and i'm trying hard to fit among Your scheme of things and my prayer flies like a word on a wing, does my prayer fit in with Your scheme of things? can leave little doubt, surely, of christian faith, of devotion to a God as creator and an omnipotent God who might make sense of things.

but it is not a blind faith devoid of conflict. another truly great line to be found on the album is just because i believe, don't mean I don't think as well, don't have to question everything in heaven and hell. at no stage in his life did Bowie ever shy away from the fact that he had faith, that he believed, but the same is also true in the form of his frustration, disappointment and perhaps even loathing of what "man", in the form or organised religion, had done to such faith.

we also have Bowie on record saying that this song in particular was written in the depths of darkness and despair. he had commented that the lyrics came about as his cocaine habit became all consuming, as he felt pressed to breaking point by the fame, adulation, pressure of being Bowie and huge demands of playing the role of The Man Who Fell To Earth all at once. it would be fair to say this beautiful, poignant song is then Bowie catharsis, clutching for hope and light.

i don't really have anything constructive or intelligent to say about this point, but i do feel obliged to draw your attention to Bowie's performance at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert at this stage. you know, the one where he concluded by kneeling and saying The Lord's Prayer.

TVC15 - let it not be said that drugs are all bad, then. although often for sad reasons of desperation and a need to escape, a great many people commence a relationship with narcotics because they are just so much damned fun. they can, for instance, make you hallucinate the idea of being sucked into a television set, which is what happened during one session on the lash for Bowie and his chum Iggy Pop, with this song being a recollection of that.

it's a fun, witty, almost ragtime jazz piece.  the "oh OH ho Oh HO" bit is absolutely wonderful to sing along to.

did this song perhaps echo over the years which followed? maybe. the concepts and ideas of holograms, indeed virtual reality, had surfaced in science fiction before, but this is surely one of the first instances of such being the subject of a pop song. mostly, with this song, i have often wondered if the one line from Talking Heads in Burning Down The House, i don't know what you expect staring into a tv set was some form of subtle nod to this song.

Stay - the last original composition on the album. yeah, six tracks. when i first picked up the record, looking at the number of songs rather than the running time, i confess that i did wonder if it was "some sort of EP" rather than an album.

one can have little doubt about the ostensible subject matter of Stay. the sultry, dirty guitar, the impassioned drawl of Bowie's vocals and the obscenity of the thumping bass all point to the joys, or perils, of sexual conquest and sexual gratification. however, i seem to disagree with the commonly shared view. there's a clue in the title. whereas most journalists, critics and writers who i have read what they have to say of the song seem to limit focus to it being about a "one night stand", for me the key is the lingering longing to not have that, to have someone to "stay", to have the will and desire to stay with someone. i would have thought my understanding of the song was the most obvious?

an interesting dynamic - possibly subversion - for me in terms of this song is that it's thematically at odds with the rest of the album. or perhaps not. whereas all other songs apparently deal with movement or passing - being station to station / stations of the cross, the passing of time, into a tv set, the flight of a prayer - this one laments the passing, and clearly expresses a wish, a will or a desire to remain still. but then maybe it is not so much at odds, but Bowie underlining the point or the ethos of the quasi narrator of the album, the "thin white duke".

Wild Is The Wind - at least one cover version was the norm for a Bowie album up to this time. here he selected this ballad, apparently inspired to by a meeting with Nina Simone that by all accounts left him quite besotted with Nina Simone. and why not.

sigh, in this day and age where one cannot have a full, frank and honest conversation, i can totes see someone picking on me and slamming me for some form of racism here. which is a shame. as a pale white English boy, i absolutely fully get Bowie's fascination with Nina, and others. it is an often unspoken thing, but for the majority of us pale white English boys (the less savoury right wing types being an obvious exclusion), well, we get "quite excited" and have "funny feeling" in a very, very good way indeed as and when a lady of colour from a more exotic part of the world happens to glance our way. just how we are, really, happily. for further illustration of this, by all means stick Prince Charles in a room with Tina Turner and watch what happens to him, it's quite class it is, to be sure.

many have hailed this as Bowie's "best, greatest and strongest ever" vocal performance. for me that kind of came every single time he opened his mouth, but there is absolutely no doubting or questioning that this is a truly remarkable delivery. alas, for reasons of association and other things it's not one that i have ever been too fond of. it does not do much for me as a song, and whilst i don't reach to switch it off, it is not like i actively go and play it.

phew, ok, that's the song by song stuff done. in a clumsy, poorly written way, i would accept, but i can only do what i can do. now, then, i am free to waffle even more than i have, in the hope it makes some sense.

one of the reasons i so dearly love this album is because it is what i believe to be his most personal. my listening to it says that the artist poured every ounce, every calorie of their heart and soul into the words, the sounds, the structure and the feel. this is at odds with the general view. in what might be the greatest act of subversion ever done by Bowie, he routinely dismissed questions about the album with the line "i did so many drugs at the time that i cannot remember a single thing about writing or recording it". what a lovely rock legend, and Bowie must surely have known that journalists would happily just run with that juicy headline and not worry so much about looking for anything else.

Bowie once said that he had never read an article about Station To Station which he believed "got" the record. in that i can feel safe in writing as i have on the topic, then, for surely i can be no more wrong than anyone before me. part of me, then, is curious in connection to the above. when all those journalists happily went off with their sensational headline "ha ha Bowie can't remember doing an album because he did so many drugs", was it that they were lazy or did they simply miss the clue, the line (so to speak) in the title song it's not the side effects of the cocaine?

what does it mean when we speak of an artist being "brave"? there are those who would say that describing people as "brave" or "having courage" should be reserved for those who serve and defend, those who put their literal life on the line for others. but, how about exposing your entire heart and soul to the world through your art? you surely risk utter (and yes, granted, self-inflicted and self-absorbed to a degree) destruction of you as a person if rejected. when artists have done this, it's invariably been less the commercial success or the fame to gain, more to grasp at an acceptance, and understanding, to connect. examples of this, off the top of my head, would be Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, The Joshua Tree by U2, Automatic For The People (maybe excluding Sidewinder but all need to smile sometimes) by REM, maybe Misplaced Childhood by Marillion and possibly The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses, although none of us shall ever penetrate the majesty of that one. for the darker side, see (or hear) also In Utero by Nirvana, and in particular The Holy Bible by Manic Street Preachers. in saying absolutely none of them are better or worse or greater or smaller than each other, it would be to me that Bowie with Station To Station laid out a sort of blueprint for those albums to follow.

back, then, to Bowie's apparent casual dismissal of the album, and how i believe that's quite the act and the art of subversion which has been hit on several times in these random bowie episodes, or if you like editions.

for an album Bowie would go on and describe as one that he either "couldn't remember" recording, or did but said he "didn't connect to it", he sure spent a lot of time going back to it. the recently released Glastonbury 2000, for example, features four of the six songs from the album in the set, including the title track.

also, if not everything, then a lot of Blackstar, or if you prefer ★, said "please go back to look at and listen to Station To Station". for example, and as some of you quite like, i believe, bullet points

• the title song Blackstar is the longest one Bowie's done since the title song for Station To Station
• Blackstar only has seven songs, the smallest number on a Bowie album since Station To Station
• the song Blackstar references The King, Elvis Prelsey, who Bowie wrote a song that he had hoped He would perform that was on Station To Station
• in the video for Lazarus, in particular the last ever moving image we shall ever see of Bowie, Bowie is dressed as identically as he can be as to how he appeared on the back cover artwork and promotional images for Station To Station. 

oh, to be sure, there are probably a lot more references to Station To Station tucked away in Blackstar. but, to be just as sure, certainly those strikingly obvious ones are enough to see and say that Bowie wanted anyone interested in doing so to reconsider Station To Station. 

for those with an interest in how the record industry works, the 89 / 90 "Ryko" CD release of Station To Station featured two live tracks from Nassau Coliseum, Word On A Wing and Stay. lovely quality, far superior to the "taped off the radio" bootleg which had done the rounds for it, and i have tucked away somewhere. despite the masters clearly being available then, it was only in the 2000s, when a lavish deluxe reissue of Station To Station was Bowie's will, that the whole set got released. it is a really, really good live album - in particular as the official release trims some of the lengthy, monotonous drum solo from Panic In Detroit. went on for 12 or so minutes on the bootleg.

i bring up the above to illustrate that nothing ever seems to be "wasted". stuff gets stored, and sat on, waiting for release. to this end, the myths of the soundtrack for The Man Who Fell To Earth, which has cropped up in previous episodes. many myths and rock legends exist about Bowie's proposed soundtrack. the top two are that he was so trashed on cocaine that he simply couldn't record one, or that he was so trashed on cocaine that what he produced was garbage. neither were true. as the linear notes of the recently issued used soundtrack state, Bowie went off and "did a soundtrack" without considering the timing and tempo requirements for matching music to move. what he did was good but simply not suitable. i contest, then, that there is no great "lost" album in the form of Bowie's soundtrack for The Man Who Fell To Earth; as far as i am concerned he will have simply used what he did on tracks for Station To Station, Low and perhaps "heroes" too.

everyone has "their" Bowie. by that what i mean is when you say to someone "David Bowie", they imagine him by the image they hold. some would have an image of him as Ziggy, or resplendent with the Aladdin Sane lightning flash. others may think of the swaggering pop icon of Let's Dance and Live Aid. more than would be prepared to admit it would instantly think of the massive hair, massive codpiece Goblin King of Labyrinth. some might even think of the mid to late 90s, mid life crisis, "i am down with the kids and i done a sex" Earthling Bowie. several might consider those final images we had of him. for me, whenever someone says Bowie, i picture the impeccably dressed, torn, tormented, desperately lonely, wishing to connect, wanting love, longing to believe Bowie of Station To Station. this is the Bowie i lay prostrate before, this is the Bowie i unashamedly fell in love with. 

which would be why, in the year of his passing, my (considerably) better half set her talents to work so as to produce this magnificent portrait painting for my birthday. quite the gift of love and understanding, for this would not be the Bowie which would come to her mind, but knows that it is most decidedly the one which comes to mine.

the conclusion of these episodes has normally been is the album discussed worth a listen or a purchase by you, the casual Bowie listener. well, yes. it is an album i would suggest everyone should own a copy of. should it be, in bizarre and unimaginable circumstances, i was forced to select just one Bowie album and one Bowie album only to listen to for the rest of my days, it would be Station To Station. and i am not alone - if my reading of facts and figures is correct, this album (despite feeling like it was always a bit under the radar) remained the biggest selling of all his releases in the USA, up until the coming and the aftermath of Blackstar.

a quick wrap of other 70s work not covered in other posts? sure. The Man Who Fell To Earth is a quite strange but very satisfactory film, in which you see Bowie do nudies if that is your thing. All The Young Dudes what he did for (and with) Mott The Hoople is an amazing tune. them two records what he done with Iggy Pop, The Idiot and in particular Lust For Life (featuring the brothers Sales, and thus making it a sort of quasi prototype Tin Machine), are outstanding records. his narration of Peter And The Wolf is also most worthwhile. 

so, that is that. at some stage, and by popular request, i will do a "mega post" which features links to all of the episodes of random bowie. the only thing left here for me is to thank you, sincerely and very much, for indulging my passion and dealing with my poor writing across these posts. i really hope someone, somewhere, found something of interest in one or two of them.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!