Tonight - September 1984

Remember 1974?
Back when all David Bowie wanted was to adapt George Orwell’s ‘1984’ into a Ziggied-up musical?
The end result was ‘Diamond Dogs’, a crackin’ album. 10 years later ‘Tonight’ was everything ‘Diamond Dogs’ wasn’t. The phenomenal success of ‘Let’s Dance’ and the resulting tour transformed Bowie into a mainstream pop commodity once more, which apparently is where the cash was in the early 80’s. I was looking forward to this album because I like a bit of 80’s cheese and I loved the last batch of singles.
But ‘Tonight’ feels rushed out to feed the market. And boy do the songs suck!

What’s Good
The album opens well with ‘Loving the Alien’. As songs about religious intolerance go it’s not at all bad, although I’d take a radio mix over the 7 and a half minute album cut any day of the week. Talk about out staying your welcome, SHEESH!
‘Blue Jean’ is a pretty good pop song. Albeit one with more saxophone then I personally enjoy.
Interestingly these are the only tracks on the album that are solely credited to Dave-oh. Maybe it would have been smarter to release a double a-side and spare everybody concerned a whole album?

What’s Bad?
I guess the Bow-ster was having a hard time writing songs at this point because the rest of the tracks are covers, old songs from Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust for Life’ (which of course Ol’ D.B. produced) and one ‘collaboration’. The collective result is a reggae album. I’ve said it all before but it bears repeating: hands up who wants reggae from David Bowie?
Where did all the hands go?
Nothin’ wrong with reggae, but it’s something the man just do not do well.

And did I mention there’s a Tina Turner duet?



Leiber and Stoller cover ‘I keep forgettin’ ‘ was voted worst song of all time by one Bowie fansite (the seemly defunct teenagewildlife.com). Which seems a little unfair when you consider most of the tracks on ‘Young Americans’.
But it seems like a downright injustice when you listen to the cover of Brian Wilson’s Beach Boys gem ‘God Only Knows’. The Bowie version is so, so bad. It kills the gentle beauty of the song with over the top BVs and a horn section. It’s so bad that I broke a golden rule of ‘two thousand and Bowie’ and vowed never to listen to it again during the very first hearing. I’m telling you, it actually manages to tarnish the original. Dave-Oh hasn’t sounded this dreadful since he covered ‘Across the Universe’.

How many good tracks? 2 out of 9
How many evil tracks that suck the joy out of life? 1 out of 9
How many highly embarrassing examples of the worst of 80’s pop trash? 6 out of 9

Bowie-o-meter: 10 Ziggys - all looking shame faced. That’s 10 for every good song and minus 10 for every act of musical sacrilege.

So there you have it, ‘Tonight’: highly regrettable and mostly forgettable. NEXT!

The alternative Let's Dance

If post-disco-white-boy-funk isn't your cup of tea, you might enjoy these versions of the first 3 killer tunes from 'Let's Dance'.

First up:
'Modern Love' gets the haunting slide guitar and girly vocal treatment from The Last Town Chorus



And now for the original Iggy Pop version of 'Little China Girl'.



Last but by no means least, my favourite of the 3:
M. Ward's acoustic folk take on 'Let's Dance' as featured in the fantastic New Zealand indie flick 'Eagle Vs Shark'.

Let’s Dance – April 1983

After all that ‘Berlin trilogy’ stuff (yawn) our chum David seems to have his sights set firmly on being a global pop phenomenon in 1983. So he hooked up with Disco Legend (or should that be ‘Disco Leg End’ by ’83?) Nile Rodgers to unleash ‘Let’s Dance’ on an unsuspecting world. The single rocked a million dance floors and the album proved to be his biggest global hit since ‘Station to Station’ in 1976. The title track is still an iconic groove, but how does the rest hold up 25 years later?
Well, for an album with an open invitation to dance for a title it’s surprisingly down beat…..

What’s Good
2 words: MODERN FREAKIN’ LOVE!
Wait, is that 3 words or 2 words with a little gramma 2.0?
Either way, ‘Modern Love’ is the bendy parts on a bee’s leg. It is the Wrath of Khan. It is finding you’ve learnt Karate when you thought you were waxing an old man’s car. It is a single mum scribbling in a café all day only to find she has written the biggest seller in the history of children’s literature. It is your best friends baby daughter.
Well maybe not. But it’s good. It’s really really good.
Okay so it’s cheesey. But cheesey-like-good-cheesey, not cheesey-like-bad-cheesey.

‘China Girl’ is a good little pop song. Plus it’s nice that the Bow-ster put it on this album just so Iggy Pop could continue eating, (or so the story goes).

I really like ‘Let’s Dance’ but I’ve heard is so many times growing up that it’s impossible to dissect what makes it good. Just like ‘Space Oddity’ and James Bond movies on a bank holiday weekend. It should have it’s own English Heritage blue plaque.

‘Without you’ is a pretty nifty tune and was a single in some countries.

What’s Bad?
Everything else. ‘Richoet’ is a song of 2 halves: it starts out decent enough but becomes another bout of flippin awful Bowie reggae. Who would ever dance to this?
‘Shake it’ is more upbeat but pretty naff. The other 2 tracks are just forgettable filler.
And I could have done with out 7 and a half minutes of the title track, ta.

How many Good tracks? An uninspiring 4 out of 8.

Bowie-o-meter: 50 Ziggys.
10 for every good song, an extra 5 for ‘Modern Love’ and an extra 5 for being the first Bowie album this year that my wife let me play in the car.

There’s nothing wrong with calling your album ‘Let’s Dance’ and filling it with slightly dour songs. But what is disappointing is how forgettable most of this album is, especially when compared to the first 3 “killa choons”.
Are these really the best 8 songs he could come up with at the time?
If so, wouldn’t it have been better, artistically speaking, for Ol’ Dave-oh to wait until he had a few more songs you could hum?
‘Let’s Dance’ is yet another Bowie album with some brilliant obvious singles but very little else in it’s favour. Sadly as it was a platinum seller, he didn’t learn a thing from this disappointing album. As we’ll see with his next long player: ‘Tonight’.

Christiane F. – April 1981

The Bow-sters next release isn’t really a proper album. It was released as a tie in with the movie of the same name, which tells the true story of a young drug addict and Bowie fan in 70’s Berlin. Dave-0h even makes a cameo as himself.

The album’s two songs of interest are a version of ‘Heroes’ which is mostly sung in German and a natty live version of ‘Station to Station’.

The rest of the album features the best songs from ‘Station’, ‘Low’, ‘Heroes’ and ‘Lodger’, making it a nice little retrospective of the years that Ol’ D.B. was either influenced by or working in Berlin.
Track listing wise it’s “All Chilla’ and No Filla’ ”, making it every German’s favourite Bowie album. And a pretty good purchase for anybody unfamiliar with this period of his work and not to sure where to start.

Scary Monsters – September 1980

After sharing creative credits on his last 3 albums ‘Scary Monsters’ sees a more independent David Bowie, apparently determined to mold himself into a Pop Star once again. ‘Low’, ‘Heroes’ and ‘Lodger’ had done for him what ‘Kid A’, ‘Amnesiac’ and ‘Hail to the Theif’ did for Radiohead. They freed Ol’ D.B. from the public’s previous perceptions of his work and sound, sold OK and even introduced him to some new fans along the way. But just like Radiohead, after 3 albums of ‘experimental music’ Bowie found himself in a brand new pigeon hole, and one which appeared to bar him from mainstream success.
According to producer Tony Visconti Dave-oh abandoned his ‘Berlin’ loose approach of developing songs in the studio, often writing lyrics at the last minute. Instead he worked alone to craft his songs, coming to the studio ready to go. The resulting album sounds a lot more focused and a lot more pop orientated then anything since Pin Ups in 1973. But is it any good?
I’m glad you asked.

What’s Good?
‘Scary Monsters and Super Creeps’ is a typical Bowie single and could have been on any of the last 3 albums. It’s infectious, memorable and still sounds a little bit edgy even 28 years later. And it kicks off the most consistent runs of decent songs of any Bowie album.
‘Ashes to Ashes’ is personally my favourite Bowie single and helped to kick start the music video revolution of the early 80’s. But don’t hold any of that against this sublime pop tune which overshadows the whole of the rest of the albums, and to an extent, the whole of the rest of the guys career.
‘Teenage Wildlife’ is a piece of work; both immediately up lifting and condemning. It features some interesting lyrics in which D.B. slates the New Wave kids who had named him as an influence and were busy racking in the pop £’s.
And ‘Fashion’ is good fun. “BEEP BEEP.”

What’s Bad?
Whilst there’s nothing bad on the album, a few of the songs are pretty forgettable. There’s certainly nothing special about ‘Kingdom Come’ and ‘Because your Young’ and it’s a shame they are lumped together towards the albums close. The only track I really didn’t like was ‘Up the Hill Backwards’, mostly because of the chorus line backing vocals. Perhaps it sounded fresh in 1980, but it’s pretty crud now.

How many good songs?
6 out of what the track lists says is 10. But really it’s just 9. So er, 6 out of 9 then, right?
Bowie-o-meter: 80 Ziggys.

Scary Monsters was a UK number 1 album and is the album that ALWAYS gets a name check when David Bowie releases anything new (“His best album since Scary Monsters!”). So it did a good job of getting our boy back into the main stream, shifting the units AND influencing those all important music journo’s.
28 years later it holds up pretty well. Some of it now sounds a bit ‘worthy’ (this was the decade that brought us super star charity singles by the truck load).
But overall it’s still a very solid album.

Lodger - 1979

Ol’ D.B. spent 1978 touring ‘Low’ & (shudder) “Heroes” before going back to the studios with Messers Eno & Visconti to work on ‘Lodger’. The album is considered the 3rd part of the ‘Berlin Trilogy’, which is daft as it was produced in New York City and Switzerland. This time around there are no instrumentals and things are a bit more pop orientated. At times the album has a playful tone. Production anecdotes abound of band members swapping instruments and songs being contracted out of the shared chord sequences. ‘Lodger’ is one of the more forgotten Bowie’s albums. It’s easy enough to get hold of the CD re-issue, but it’s not an album that gets talked about much. Unlike Hunky Dory and “Heroes” which are both rubbish, as regular readers know well ;-)

What’s Good?
‘Red Sails’ romps along like it really does have the wind behind it. Weirdly the instrumental synth section sounds just like the music in the bar in Superman 2.
‘Boys keep swinging’ is sing-a-long light hearted fun about the wonders of masculinity. ‘Look back in Anger’ is flippin nuts, one of the best Bowie songs I’ve ever heard. Apparently the NME described it as the “low point of the album” which is proof that they don’t know nothing.

What’s Bad?
“Heroes” ended with some pretty bad world music, and ‘Lodger’ picks it up and stretches it out a bit with ‘African Night Flight’ and ‘Yassassin (Turkish for Long Live)’. Hands up who wanted a David Bowie reggae song? (Please leave the internet if your hand is raised).
‘Red Money’ is a bore and a disappointing closer to an otherwise pretty good album.

How many good songs?
6 out of 10? Not bad

Bowie-o-meter: 70 Ziggys.

Lodger is a fairly average album with it’s share of stand out moments that make it worth a listen, but you’re just as well down T’other day Rueben described this and ‘Heroes’ as ‘Bowie in the studio cranking out albums when he should have been taking some time to figure out his next move.” The man has a point!

“Heroes” - 1977

“Heroes”

See those speech marks? Apparently they’re ironic. Hmmmmm.

Following on from the triumphant experimentation of ‘Low’, “Heroes” was released just 10 months later. The album is the only one of the ‘Berlin trilogy’ that lives up to it’s name as it was recorded and fiddled with in West Berlin, a mere stones throw from the dreaded Wall. The same wall David Hasselhoff would one day tear down with his bare teeth during his frantic search for freedom.
“Heroes” followed the previous albums format with one side devoted to songs and the other to heavily Eno influenced instrumentals. The title track is one of the best loved Bowie singles and was named his best song ever last April by Mojo magazine.
It was the NME album of the year back in ’77 and has 5 stars on the American ‘Allmusic’ guide.
I flippin loved ‘Low’ so I came to this with my tongue hanging out, eagerly expecting to lap up more of the same.

What’s bad about it?
First track ‘Beauty and the Beast’ gets things off to a very under whelming start, featuring dire lyrics and a terrible (and terribly loud) female backing singer. Closing track ‘The Secret Life of Arabia’ is equally naff, a piece of cod-world music with more nonsense lyrics. Any album book ended by these two duffers would have a hard time. The rest of “Heroes” is an even split between decent stuff, some of it very good, and dull filler. Ultimately it’s the filler tracks that are the biggest problem with the album, making “Heroes” a highly forgettable album.

What’s Good?
Who doesn’t love the title track? The production job is a land mark in rock history and the song itself isn’t too bad either.
‘Joe the Lion’ is a crackin’ song, as desolate as “Heroes” (the song) but with out the star crossed lovers. Apparently it’s a tribute to an artist who had himself nailed to his VW Beetle in 1974.
‘V2 Schneider’ is a fun instrumental dedicated to the Kraftwerk co-founder and ‘Moss Garden’ is among the best of the Eno-Bowie instrumentals.
But 4 good tracks is a pretty poor showing.

How many good tracks?
4 out of 10

Bowie-o-meter: 45 Ziggys.

Before I knew a single Bowie album track I knew the legend of “Heroes” and it’s status as a ‘classic album’. It beats me how such a bland collection of material ever made a dent in popular culture. For me this is one of Bowie’s weakest albums yet. I can’t even think of anything pithy to say about it, it’s that forgettable.

Low - 1977

Poor David Bowie. Years of the cocaine fuelled excesses of mid 70’s rock stardom nearly wiped him out. How else do you explain ‘Young Americans’ (pause for laughter). After touring ‘Station to Station’ and finishing the publicity rounds for his first big acting job (‘The Man who fell to earth’) it seems Dave-oh wanted to keep a low profile. In interviews of the time he talks about being so reliant on his ‘people’ that he didn’t even know who to book a plane ticket. I guess he figured it out some how as ‘Low’ was recorded in Paris with all twiddly bits done Berlin in 1976. This was the start of his ‘Berlin trilogy’; three albums synonymous with synthesizers, experimentation, and former Roxy Music member come ambient daddy Brian Eno.

‘Low’ is nothing like any previous Bowie album. There are no big characters, no sweeping narratives and few songs. Half of the album is given to instrumental pieces whilst the songs that do make it are short and sketchy.

30+ years after it’s release in January ‘77 Low still regularly makes music critic lists of all time greatest albums. Stroof, Pitchfork have it as the greatest album of the 1970’s. But is it any good?

What’s good?
There’s only so much Bowie the average person can take. As much as I liked ‘Station to Station’ as this fortnight started I needed a Bowie break. I begrudgingly pressed play on track 1 I was knocked out. ‘Speed of Life’ was a revelation, all catchey hooks and synth’ cool.
‘Breaking Glass’ and ‘What in the World’ are good enough little songs in their own right, with the latter sounding like a Mario Bros remix years before the Nintendo revolution.
‘Sound and Vision’, ‘Always Crashing in the same car’ and ‘Be my Wife’ are three of the best Bowie songs ever. Each one is more infectious and atmospheric then the last. Then ‘A New Career’ breaks the tension with what sounds like Bowie making a guest appearance in The Red Hand Gang or The Kids from Degrassi Street. That’s side one. Side two is more relaxed but no less compelling.

What’s Bad?
You must have got the idea by now, this album don’t do ‘bad’.

How many good tracks?
11 out of 11. SCORE!

For my money ‘Low’ is easily Bowie’s most compelling and inventive album since Ziggy. Best of all, for every track that’s experimental or atmospheric there is a killer “choon” to balance it out. ‘Low’ is pop reinvention at it’s best.

Bowie-o-meter: 99 Ziggys, all trying to keep a low profile amongst teh freaky teens in late 70's Berlin.

Station to Station - 1976

This is a weird album, which shouldn’t work. For one thing, it came off the back of the travesty that is Young Americans. For another, it sees Dave-oh lazily going back to doing ‘another character’. Perhaps he thought it would win back his alienated fan base? It’s widely reported that the Bow-ster only had a couple of songs when he went into the studio and that he and the rest of the band were massive cocaine fiends at the time.
So this album shouldn’t work. But it does. It honestly does.

What’s Good about it?
‘Golden years’ is a killer groove and appears to achieve in one song everything that Bowie failed to do over the whole course of the Young Americans album. Probably his best single since ‘Jean Geanie’.
‘Station to Station’ is like ‘Width of a Circle part 2’, a colossal opening track that never out stays it’s welcome.
‘TVC15’ is pure rock pop about Iggy Pop’s girl friend being swallowed by a telly. Who could ask for more?

What’s bad?
Not much. It lacks some of the energy of the earlier albums like Man Who Sold the World or the excitement of Ziggy Stardust. But it feels like I’m just picking holes.

How many good songs?
7 out of 7. Not bad huh.

Bowie-o-meter: 89 Ziggys, all pretending to be trapped in a big glass box

Station to Station is a classy album where the whole is greater then the sum of it’s parts, making it one of those records that rewards repeated listening.

Young Americans

In 1975 David Bowie dropped glam rock like glitter covered filth and embraced a sound he would later describe as “plastic soul”.
You can’t blame him for getting bored with rock n roll in 1975. Listen to even the more acclaimed albums of that period now (eg Lou Reed’s Transformer or the New York Dolls) and it all sounds pretty similar. According to music journalists “by ‘75 Glam Rock was like, TOTALLY OVAH!” or something.
Besides, a jazzy soul album wouldn’t be the first jarring change of musical style in ol Dave’oh’s career.
And of course this album was written and recorded whilst on tour in America, a place where country music stations and talk radio pretty much rule the airwaves if you‘re between cities. In 1975’s ‘Cracked Actor’ BBC documentary a skinny Davey can been seen taking solace in a “black station” on a car radio and having a lovely sing song to ‘Natural Women’. Just the kind of activity British people end up doing on the long straight roads through Nowhere’s Ville USA.


But if I can understand the change in musical direction, one thing I can’t fathom is why the songs on this album are so flippin bland!

What’s Good about it?
‘Fame’ is okay. ‘Young Americans’ and ‘Win’ have grown on me. That’s it.

What’s wrong with it?
Oh so much.
At first I wondered if I just wasn’t getting it. But then the horrific cover of the Beatles ‘Across the Universe’ crashes into your speakers and howls away like a rapid dog impersonating the Rat Pat. After that it’s all very clear: David Bowie had gone completely mental and didn’t have anyone around him who could tell him to stop, have a sit down and eat some proper food.
Rueben has correctly railed against the far to prominent saxophone and backing singers in his review over at Line of Best Fit. But for me the worst elements are the songs themselves. “Weak” doesn’t begin to cover it.

How many good songs?
3 out of 8

Bowie-o-meter:
I’ll give it 10 Ziggys for every half decent song, that seems fair. So 30 in total. Pah!

This was the album where my Dad lost interest in Bowie. He describes it as “bad R n B”. He was right about it in 1975 and he’s still right in 2008.
From here until the ‘Let’s Dance’ LP I’ll be the first of the family line to chart these waters!

Cracked Actor - TV film from 1975

Having given up on the UK and decamped to the USA, Davey boy was in the middle of his massive Diamond Dogs stadium tour. The beeb got a few interviews and filmed a show. The end result was the ‘Cracked Actor’ TV documentary. Filmed in 1974 and broadcast in early ’75, it’s the nearest thing that exists to a concert film of the Diamond Dogs shows.

Watching it is a very confusing experience, mostly because the film makers don’t explain what you are seeing. For one thing David Bowie seems out of his head or bored stupid and most of the footage of him seems to come from one interview in a car travelling to a gig. There are the usual interviewees including rapid fans and some very odd young Americans who seem to think the documentary is about them.

It’s neither insightful nor very interesting, and only worth watching for the live section in which the Bowster sings a song from inside a giant blue hand. OOOOH, that’s arty!

David Live - 1974

OK, so we're not offically 'doing' live albums and videos, etc as part of two thousdant and bowie. But I happened to get 'David Live' for my birthday. So here's a little something about it and what I thought of it:

In 1974 David Bowie dumped playing live in the UK and followed the smell of cash to the USA, touring Diamond Dogs coast to coast. The tour famously started life as a theatrical feast of gloomy distopian rock ‘n’roll fun. It featured a great big set of ‘hunger city’ (the album’s setting) and Bowie singing from inside an oversized blue hand. The tour took a break in which the Bow-ster recorded the Young Americans album. When Bowie played the remaining tour dates the theatrics were gone, replaced by big suits and the sound of ‘Philadelphia Soul’.
David Live was recorded on the first leg of the tour, but the saxophone freak outs and over blown backing singers turned up loud that would dominate his next album are all present on this record.

The Diamond Dogs tracks are the best thing on the album which is dominated by over blown reworking of the classic Ziggy songs. The simple rock n roll Ziggy tunes loose their finesse under the weight of all that sax.
David Live is an underwhelming record that out stays it’s welcome.

Diamond Dogs

Ziggy Stardust didn’t really die in 1973. He just changed his name to ‘Halloween Jack’ and got a part in a Broadway adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984. Or as near as makes no difference.

The well warn story goes that after publically retiring Ziggy and sacking his Spiders from Mars backing band, ol’ D.B. wanted to do a musical adaptation of 1984. He got a few songs together (would they be ‘1984’ and ‘Big Brother’ by any chance?) but he never did manage to get the rights. Not one to sit on his hands, Dave’oh used the material he’d written to pad out his latest character driven glam rock concept album: ‘Ziggys twin brother wakes up in a nightmare vision of the future’, or Diamond Dogs to give it it’s official title.

What’s Good about it?
Everything.
‘Diamond Dogs’ is everything you could want from a David Bowie album. I didn’t even miss Mick Ronson and the Spiders. Apparently Bowie plays most of the guitar on the album himself and a lovely, scratchey, dirty, rocked out job he makes of it too. The album starts with a great little spoken word intro that sets the pace for a conceptual narrative that is a lot more central to the album then it was on ‘Ziggy’. Stand out tracks ‘Diamond Dogs’ ‘Rebel Rebel’ and ‘Rock n Roll with me’ are all thumping great pop songs. Most of the first side is taken up by ‘Sweet thing’ ‘Candidate’ and ‘Sweet thing (reprise)’ , essentially one long song, which takes the Bow-ster back to the same epic territory as ‘Unwashed and Some What Slightly Dazed’ and ‘Width of a Circle’. And very welcome it is too.

What’s bad?
‘We are the Dead’ is YET ANOTHER song along the lines of ‘Quicksand’ and ‘Time’. It’s a bit less dull then those two and sits better in the general flow of the album, but it’s nothing to get excited about.

How many good songs?
10 out of 11. But really there are only 7 songs on the album, so maybe that should be 6 out of 7.

Bowie-o-meter: I give it 85 Ziggys!

‘Diamond Dogs’ betrays it’s origins and sounds more like a distopian sci fi musical then a rock n roll album. But if west end shows sounded like this I for one would go!

Pin Ups

Pin Ups is a quickly recorded album of cover songs made to cash in on the Ziggy mania that was apparently sweeping the nation in 1973. So it should be rubbish, right? A big bloated cash cow, like that Robbie Williams swing album. Let's have a listen shall we...

What's good?
It sounds like Bowie is having fun with this record. There are lots of comical production tricks like the vary speed backing vocals on Floyd cover ‘See Emily Play’. After the fake laughter on ‘Love you till Tuesday’, the long haired pseudo hippy stuff in 1969 and the rock posturing of the Ziggy era, it’s nice to hear what sounds like people mucking about with different arrangements just for a laugh. Mick Ronson earns his keep yet again, and it’s a great shame that this was his last Bowie album.
‘The Shape of things to come’ is a strong favourite with me. It’s a good song, a hilariously stereo typical Bowie vocal performance and a nice early use of the reverse echo studio effect made infamous by Stephen Street with the Smiths on ‘How Soon is Now’ and 'Meat is Murder’.
‘Friday on my mind’ is another belter, again it's good song made better because the band sound like they are having fun.

What’s bad?
I had high expectations for this album because Rueben and my Dad really like it. But for me some of the songs are a bit boring, particularly ‘Rosalyn’. After hearing my mother in law singing away to this album whilst decorating I’ve come to the conclusion that if you know the original versions of these songs (which I don’t) it must be a more interesting and arresting listening experience. But Pin Ups is unlikely to make my top 5 Bowie albums.

How many good songs?
A very respectable 8 out of 12

Bowie-o-meter: 70 Ziggys

There’s a lot of good stuff on Pin Ups. The best songs are the ones that sounds like grown up pop fans piddling around in a recording studio. But for me the track listing isn’t consistent enough to make this an out and out Bowie classic.

Ziggy Stardust the Motion Picture

Rueben and myself had been trying to open a portal to 1973 in the corner of his lounge so we could watch a David Bowie gig form the Ziggy Stardust tour. We used science and everything, but we just couldn’t get it to stabilize. Fortunately Rueben had ‘Ziggy Stardust the motion picture’ on his Sky+ box so we just watched that instead.
And strike a light, it was an odd mix of guitar wizardry, rock n roll swaggering, embarrassing theatrics, red lights and slightly out of focus camera work.
It’s well worth seeing just for Mick Ronson who totally stole the show for us. At times he’s every bit the silly big hairded rock guitar slinger, gurning and making some quite scary faces. With his heavy eye makeup he looks a lot like Skeletor. But the sounds he makes are incredible. David Bowie HAS to dress like an alien just so you notice him when he’s next to Ronson during a solo.
As for Bowie himself the film is the best of times and the worst of times. He hits a lot of bum notes (particularly during his harmonica solo in ‘Cracked Actor’) and comes across as a bit of a berk most of the time. I’d read that the Ziggy live show was all about ‘theatrics’ but in reality these mostly consist of sudden (and silly) costume changes. But what nothing could prepare me for was the mime. Who goes to a rock show expecting the front man to pretend to be stuck behind a glass wall and flap his arms like a bird in flight during the solos? Bowie does all of that and more, whilst wearing bangles the size of footballs. He certainly had conkers back in the day, you’ve got to give him that.

The film is famous for capturing ol’ D.B.’s apparent ‘retirement’ from live concerts (or is it Ziggy’s? Or is it just his way of sacking the Spiders?) as he announces that this will be the bands last show. Watching it back in 2008 this isn’t a very poignant moment, there’s no sudden out break of mass hysteria and the release of ‘David Live’ the very next year only serve to further under mine it’s status as a defining moment in Rock history. As it is, two boys invade the stage during the last song and that’s pretty much it.

The set list itself is a bit too medley heavy for my taste (I want to hear the whole of ‘All the young dues’ and ‘Wild eyed boy from Free Cloud’ not little bits!). But generally all the big Ziggy songs are there, plus a few others. And even ‘John I’m Only Dancing’ sounds half decent with some live energy behind it.
But pity the ‘other two’ Spiders from Mars as they barely get a look in. The fuzzy red camera work is almost totally dedicated to Bowie and Ronson. We see far more of the live audience then the other two musicians, which hardly seems fair.
All in all, the filming is pretty sub standard but it does give a flavour of the time and this is pretty essential viewing for Bowie fans.

Aladdin Zane

How exactly do you follow a massive commercial and critical success?
Seems like the Beatles didn’t have a clue after Sgt Pepper and put out everything and anything they had (‘the White album’). Radiohead got fed up with guitars for a bit after Ok Computer (Kid A). Marc Bolan tried to do Electric Warrior over again but with louder backing vocals (Slider).
And so we come to 1973’s Aladdin Sane, or ‘Ziggy goes to America’ as David Bowie himself is quoted as saying some where. We find Dave’oh in ‘Search for Spock’ territory as he attempts to follow his personal ‘Wrath of Khan’ that was ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust’. I can only imagine that it was the first in a planned series of albums in which Ziggy would be found in different locations:
‘Ziggy gets to the shops and finds he’s forgotten his purse’
‘Ziggy takes a leak on his computer’
Finishing with ‘Ziggy chokes on his own elbows’, the last in the series (hello Boosh fans).

But sadly it was not to be and this is Ziggy’s last official appearance on a long player.

What’s Good?
Things get off to a cracking start with ‘Watch that Man’. It’s all whaling black lady backing singers and dirty guitar licks, as if Bowie and Mick Ronson are on stage in Vegas. ‘Panic in Detroit’ is more of the same, but a little more laid back.
‘Cracked Actor’ is am infectious and darkly cynical rock and roll romp about fading stardom. But is Ziggy the withered old has been or has he encountered some kind of Hollywood vampire? Who cares when you can hum the tune?
‘Let’s spend the night together’ is everything a foot stomping rock n roll record should be and way better then the Rolling Stones ever sounded.
‘Gene Jeanie’ is the perfect slice of 70’s glam pop.

What’s Bad?
The title tracks starts out as one of the most haunting songs that the B-boy has written and makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. But it ends up as jazz piano freak out - NEXT!
I’ve always hated ‘Drive in Saturday’. I’ve got nothing against Doo Whop music, but this is a boring song with some unpleasant lyrical content about watching dirty films after a nuclear holocaust. Why would anybody choose to put this out as a single? You can file this one in the same box as ‘John I’m only Dancing’ from the previous year.
‘Time’ is another dull slow number in the same self mythologizing vain as ‘Quicksand’ from 1971’s ‘Hunky Dory’ album. And it’s got some nasty lyrics that fill your mind with unhelpful images of David Bowie being rude all by himself. Most unwelcome!

How many good songs?
6 out of 10

Bowie-o-meter: 65 Ziggys.

Aladdin Sane has a much dirtier rock sound then ‘The Rise and Fall…’ and some air punching high points. But the weaker songs really let things down making it at best a very average album.

“Watch out coz here we come!”

“It’s been a while but we’re back in style,
So get set to have some fun,
We’ll bring you action and satisfaction”!

It’s been a busy old year so far and although I kept up with the Bowie albums, the blog fell off my to do list a while ago.

But Rueben would never let you down and he’s kept up with his brilliant ‘Year of Bowie’ articles over at Line of Best Fit. I’ll be posting links to those and my own precious thoughts about each Bowie alum over the next few days.

Now where were we? Oh yeah, 1973.

(Thanks to Alvin and the Chipmunks for their words of support and wisdom that meant so much to so many. C.H.I.P.M.U.N.K.!)

Press your space face close to mine

So here we are in 1972 for David Bowie album no’ 5: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (and I thought MWSTW had a some what cumbersome title!).

Stuff of note: Incase you weren’t sure , this is the album where he puts on make up and pretends to be from space. What the betting that Dave’oh was so off his box one day that he thought Marc Bolan was the saviour of mankind, only to realized upon sobering up that he had a crackin’ idea for a concept album. In doing so he finally scored a hit on the album charts (no 5 in the UK no less), got on Top of The Pops and had a single in the UK top 10 (‘Starman’). Oh and his last 3 albums were re-issued and charted as well. Let’s hear it for perseverance!

The good bits
All of it, there’s not a bad track. I first got this a year ago and was blown away. From opening track ‘Five years’ to uber album closer ‘Rock n Roll Suicide’ it’s quality all the way. None of those dodgy rhymes that plagued some of the previous albums and every single tune is a winner. The lyrics to ‘Lady Stardust’ are like a career blue print for all the bands that have meant the most to me. And did I mention ‘Moonage Day Dream’ yet?

The bad bits.
None. Not any.
I didn’t rate ‘Hang on to yourself’ when I first heard it. But it’s so good on the ‘Ziggy’ live album that I grown to enjoy the album version to.

How many good tracks? 11 out of 11. 7 of which are amazing.
How many bad songs? 0

Bowie-o-meter: I give it 95 Ziggys
(because only God gets 100, though I’m not sure why he’d want them)

Pa-ru-pa—pa-pumb. Me and My drum.

The only surviving member of the all conquering Electric Warrior T.Rex line up is drummer Bill Legend.
He’s got his own charming little web site that tells his story, complete with scans of aeroplane menu’s from old tours and photos of his church. It’s a cute little home grown site, especially the part about how much he loves being a Christian and drumming. See for yourself!

http://www.presentation-partners.co.uk/legend/Story/lifestory.html

Bowie vs Bolan round 5 : 1971, The ‘T.Rex-tacy’ edition!

So far it’s 3:2 to Marc Bolan. And ain’t no way Ol’ D.B. is going to equalize this year.

Here’s why:

So it’s ’71 and Dave’oh has released one of his best singles (‘Changes’) and Hunky Dory which is still his most critically acclaimed album some 37 years later, but which neither Simon nor I have a lot of love for. And none of it bothered the UK charts in any shape or form, despite Radio 1 airplay.

Marc Bolan on the other hand released Electric Warrior, which also remains his most critically acclaimed album some 37 years later. But unlike Bowie, it scored a UK no’ 1. And better still, it’s one of the most atmospheric and yet still fun albums I’ve heard. He also had two no’1 singles and a journo some where dubbed the nations teens as suffering from “T.Rex-tacy”.

So an easy win for Marc Bolan then.

See you next year.