Tag Archives: David Bowie

June 11 in music history

49 years ago: Them released their debut album The Angry Young Them in 1965 (read more)

“These five young rebels are outrageously true to themselves. Defiant! Angry! Sad! They are honest to the point of insult!” (original liner notes)
The Angry Young Them is Them’s first album. The album was released in the UK on 11th of June 1965. The band’s lead singer and songwriter was of course Van “The Man” Morrison. He was with Them on only two albums before deciding to go solo.

Them- The Angry Young- Frontal
 “Space Oddity” (released 11 July 1969) is a song written and performed by David Bowie and released as a music single in 1969. It is about the launch of Major Tom, a fictional astronaut; its title alludes to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, released the previous year. Incidentally, the protagonist of the film is called David Bowman. The lyrics have also been seen to lampoon the failed British space programme. The song appears on the album David Bowie (also known as Space Oddity). The BBC featured the song in its television coverage of the Apollo 11 launch and lunar landing, which took place in the days following the release of the song.  David-Bowie-Space-Oddity
 Frank Lee Beard (born June 11, 1949) is the drummer in the rock band ZZ Top. Beard was formerly with the bands The Cellar Dwellars, who originally were a three-piece band, The Hustlers, The Warlocks, and American Blues before starting to play and record with Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill as ZZ Top…and Egil & Hallgeir (keepers @ johannasvisions) are seeing ZZ Top this evening @ Bergenfest.  frank beard
 Glenn Carl Leonard (born June 11, 1947 in Washington, D.C.) is an American R&B and soul singer best remembered for serving as the first tenor/secondary lead singer of the Motown quintet The Temptations from 1975 to 1983.  glenn_leonard

Spotify Playlist – June 11

Today: Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars was released by David Bowie in 1972


bowie

I leaned back on my radio
Some cat was layin’ down
some rock ‘n’ roll ‘lotta soul, he said
Then the loud sound did seem to fade
Came back like a slow voice on a wave of phase
That weren’t no D.J.
that was hazy cosmic jive. 

– Starman

Ziggy the glam androgynous alien messiah fell to Earth, he changed Bowie from a prodigy to a superstar who transformed  music forever. His impact still lingers after 42 years and will continue to do so as long as there is music. No less.

My favourite Bowie album is Hunky Dory, but Ziggy sure comes close.

Ziggy Stardust – Dunstable June 21, 1972:


Continue reading Today: Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars was released by David Bowie in 1972

May 18 in music history

Today: The late Big Joe Turner was born in 1911 – 103 years ago (read More)

Big Joe Turner (born Joseph Vernon Turner Jr., May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985) was an American “blues shouter” (a blues-music singer capable of singing unamplified with a band) from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, “Rock and roll would have never happened without him.” Although he had his greatest fame during the 1950s with his rock and roll recordings, particularly “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, Turner’s career as a performer endured from the 1920s into the 1980s. Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

Big Joe Turner2
George Strait is 62 Happy Birthday!.

George Harvey Strait
 (born May 18, 1952) is an American country music singer, actor, and music producer. Strait is referred to as the “King of Country,” and critics call Strait a living legend. He is known for his unique style of western swing music, bar-room ballads, honky-tonk style, and fresh yet traditional Country music. George Strait holds the world record for more number-one hit singles than any other artist in the history of music on any chart or in any genre, having recorded 59 number-one hit singles as of 2012.
george-strait 
Lodger is the thirteenth studio album by David Bowie, released May 18 in 1979.

The last of the ‘Berlin Trilogy‘ recorded in collaboration with Brian Eno, it was produced in Switzerland and New York City, and was more accessible than its immediate predecessors Lowand “Heroes”, having no instrumentals and being somewhat lighter and more pop-oriented. It was still an experimental record in many ways and was not, by Bowie’s standards, a major commercial success. Indifferently received by critics on its initial release, it is now widely considered, along with Diamond Dogs, to be one of Bowie’s most underrated albums

LodgerRecord 
Warren Zevon is an album by Warren Zevon. This album was recorded in 1975 and released May 18 in 1976.

A remastered version of the album with special bonus tracks was released in 2008 by

Rhino Records.I am suspicious of singer-songwriters who draw attention to phrases like “hasten down the wind,” and I would suggest a moratorium on songs about the James Brothers that don’t also rhyme “pollution” and “solution.” But I like the way Zevon resists pigeonholes like “country-rock” while avoiding both the banal and the mystagogical, and I like quatrains like: “And if California slides into the ocean/Like the mystics and statistics say it will/I predict this motel will be standing/Until I pay my bill.”
– Robert Christgau

 Warren_Zevon_-_Warren_Zevon
Ian Kevin Curtis (15 July 1956 – 18 May 1980) was an English musician, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the post-punk band Joy Division.Joy Division released their debut album,

Unknown Pleasures, in 1979 and recorded their follow-up, Closer, in 1980. Curtis, who suffered from epilepsy and depression, committed suicide on 18 May 1980, on the eve of Joy Division’s first North American tour, resulting in the band’s dissolution and the subsequent formation of New Order.

 ian curtis
Richard Christopher “Rick” Wakeman (born 18 May 1949)

English keyboard player and composer best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock band Yes. He is also known for his solo albums, contributing to the BBC comedy series Grumpy Old Menand for Rick’s Place, his former radio show on Planet Rock that aired until December 2010.

 wakeman-2

Spotify Playlist –

Today: Iggy Pop released The Idiot in 1977

the-idiot

The Idiot is the debut solo album by Iggy Pop. It was the first of two LPs released in 1977 which Pop wrote and recorded in collaboration with David Bowie. Although issued after Low, the opening installment of Bowie’s so-called Berlin Trilogy, the pair began writing and recording songs for The Idiot in mid-1976, before Bowie started work on his own album. As such, The Idiot has been claimed as heralding the unofficial beginning of Bowie’s ‘Berlin’ period, being compared particularly to Low and “Heroes” in its electronic effects, treated instrument sounds, and introspective atmosphere. A departure from the hard rock of his former band the Stooges, the album is regarded by critics as one of Pop’s best works. Its title was inspired by Dostoyevsky’s novel The Idiot, three of the participants in the recording—Bowie, Pop and Tony Visconti—being familiar with the book. I will argue that there’s really a “Berlin-quintet” consisting of: The Idiot, Low, “Heroes”, Lust for life and Lodger.

Iggy Pop’s The Idiot, is equally a David Bowie album as a guest singer/composer; Davis Bowie co-wrote all the songs (except Sister Midnight that was co-written with Carlos Alomar and David Bowie) , played many of the instruments and produced it (kind of…). Tony Visconti tried to salvage the over-modulated tapes at the mixing stage.

 

Released March 18, 1977
Recorded July 1976 – February 1977,Château d’Hérouville, Hérouville, France, Musicland Studios, Munich, Hansa by the Wall, Berlin
Genre Post-punk, art rock
Length 38:49
Label RCA
Producer David Bowie (and Tony Visconti)

Iggy Pop (w/ David Bowie) – Funtime and Sister Midnight (live 1977):

“Poor Jim, in a way, became a guinea pig for what I wanted to do with sound. I didn’t have the material at the time, and I didn’t feel like writing at all. I felt much more like laying back and getting behind someone else’s work, so that album was opportune, creatively”
– David Bowie

So, Iggy Pop acted as a guinea pig. David Bowie seemed tired of his ever-changing narrative or masks, so he used the opportunity making an Iggy solo record as a way to start re-inventing himself as well as Iggy. Iggy Pop and David Bowie worked extremely well as a team.

Personell:

Iggy Pop – vocals
David Bowie – keyboards, synthesizer, guitar, piano, saxophone, xylophone, backing vocals
Carlos Alomar – guitar
Dennis Davis – drums
George Murray – bass
Phil Palmer – guitar
Michel Santangeli – drums
Laurent Thibault – bass
Continue reading Today: Iggy Pop released The Idiot in 1977