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Post by dharma4one on Jan 21, 2016 13:30:12 GMT -8
I haven't visited here in quite a while and I'm sorry for that. But now I'm on a mission. It's been 2 weeks since the passing of David Bowie and the media is clogged with stories and tributes and other appreciations. For all the weight that many of those writers carry, there was one voice in particular that I wanted to hear from. I came here for that voice.
Brian Anderson introduced me to David Bowie in 1974. In a way you could also say Bowie introduced me to Brian as it was a conversation in Bob Bennett's English class pitting Bowie against Black Sabbath that was the first brick in a path that leads the two of us to today. 42 years later I look to Brian to put Bowie's career in perspective. I see he took a moment to note the passing of Dale Griffon from Mott the Hoople. Maybe he's just getting warmed up.
When I think across the years to how many bands and artists Brian turned me on to, the list is staggering. He made these mix tapes for me, I still have every one of them, that opened up so many new avenues of enjoyment for me. I can hardly thank him enough. Bob Marley and the Wailers, Toots and the Maytalls, Peter Tosh, The Plimsouls , Mott the Hoople, Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson, Crowded House, Squeeze, Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello, Jules Shear, David Crosby, The Tubes. There are many more but you get the picture.
Brian, sit for a minute. Get your thoughts together and string a few words about Bowie. I'll be watching.
Sam Scibetta
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Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,803
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Post by Brian on Jan 22, 2016 0:14:39 GMT -8
Wow, thank you for that, Sam! I've been thinking about Bowie since I heard one of his songs in the other room at 12:20 a.m. on the 11th and stepped into the MSNBC news bulletin announcing his death. I don't know if I'm fit enough to write about the man or his work yet. Tonight I'll jot down a few personal thoughts instead.
I still think that "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" is the greatest album of all time. It changed my life when I first heard it in 1972 and became the only Bowie fan on campus. Some kids called me a fag because I wouldn't stop talking about him or playing his music in public every chance I got, yet that somehow didn't bother me. That was when I learned that there was nothing wrong about homosexuality. Later, I witnessed the power of Bowie's artistry to overcome prejudice as more and more people listened to him. And changed their minds.
It can take decades after their release for Bowie's songs to start vibrating on most eardrums. In 1977, he produced and co-wrote two Iggy Pop albums that we played constantly at the record store in Montrose but could hardly sell. How many times in the past ten years have the original recordings of "Lust for Life" and "The Passenger" been licensed for TV commercials?
Bowie's best songs are like time release capsules. I haven't bought his final album yet, but I hope I live long enough to fully appreciate it.
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Post by Oss Rae on Jan 23, 2016 19:13:40 GMT -8
I didn't really appreciate David Bowie's gender fluidity until I watched a biography about him on YouTube about four years ago. (I was in nursery school when Ziggy Stardust came out.) Last Tuesday KPFK had a two-hour tribute to him featuring his music and a discussion with a musician who was with Bowie from '72 to'05 (his name escapes me). archive.kpfk.org/index.php?shokey=gv_bettoHis 1986 movie Labyrinth is being rereleased to raise money for cancer research. I can't find any mention of it in L.A. www.zimbio.com/Movie+News/articles/v2ZEhHf-BgF/David+Bowie+Labyrinth+Returns+Theaters+Benefit One person told me it was coming to the Vista, but I didn't see anything about it on the Vista's website. I love the scene near the end of Labyrinth where he and Jennifer Connely are walking around in an Escher room (staircases in all directions). The Man Who Fell to Earth is probably my favorite of his movies that I've seen. I also remember him playing Pontius Pilate in Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ.
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