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RIP David Bowie

H

hollywood

MegaPoke is insane
Gold Member
May 29, 2001
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Was up late working on a project and flipped over to yahoo to read headlines and was shocked to see this announcement. I didn't know he had cancer.

https://www.yahoo.com/music/legendary-artist-david-bowie-dies-69-064252101.html

Just two days ago (Friday) I read a short blip about him releasing a new album to celebrate his 69th Birthday and there was no mention of any health problem. This one came out of the blue for me.
 
I caught parts of the Bowie documentary on showtime Friday night. It's a good show with interviews with some of his musicians.

I wasn't a big fan but enjoyed several of his songs.

 
Just read some of the tributes pouring in for him. Talk about a wide spectrum of musicians praising him and claiming how much of an influence or inspiration he was to them: From Gene Simmons to Kanye West, to Weird Al Yankovich. His 69th birthday was on the 8th, which he used to release his final album and he only lived another 2 days.
 
Heard he had been fighting some type of Cancer for about 1.5 years but he, and his family, wanted to keep it private.

Sad deal. He was clearly one of the greats.
 
I didn't believe it at first, thinking it was another Internet hoax. So sorry to hear of his passing. Great, great musician and entertainer. He'll be sorely missed and impossible to replace. RIP David.
 
I'm not a fan so would love to hear some perspective on how he made such an impact....clearly was very creative and dynamic with his image, not as familiar with his music apart from a few of his most popular songs.
 
He virtually created the "Glam Rock" movement of the late 60's/early 70's after space oddity and Ziggy Stardust, wrote the rock classic "All the Young Dudes" made famous by Mott the Hoople on a record he produced, did some funk tunes in the 80's that landed him an appearance on Soul Train, had numerous top 10 songs and performed and inspired so many other artist you lose track.

Heck, he even sang "little drummer boy" in a duet with Bing Crosby.

Major influence on the music scene for 45 yrs, while often taking off for 4 -5 yrs to capture an entire different sound in completely different genres than what he had done before, played guitar, drums and saxophone. (and likely more.)

Like I noted above, how often have you seen such a diverse group of musicians come out and sing his praises. Gene Simmons basically credits him for giving Kiss the idea of playing in character on stage, as Bowie had been a pioneer in that field.
 
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What's the over/under on the number of artists that covered/sampled Bowie tunes?
 
I never loved much of his music (altho "Ziggy" is a perfect album, and he had 7 or 8 classic singles---and he produced his hero Lou Reed's seminal "Transformer'), but I always loved his persona and performance. Without Bowie's adventurous presentations of fashion, visual art, gender and sexuality, and musical collaboration and synthesis, popular culture would look very different today.

No doubt he and Lou are well into their fifth or sixth set back on their home planet.



david_bowie_ziggy_lou_reed_kiss.png
 
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Anodyne said:
I never loved much of his music (altho "Ziggy" is a perfect album, and he had 7 or 8 classic singles---and he produced his hero Lou Reed's seminal "Transformer'), but I always loved his persona and performance. Without Bowie's adventurous presentations of fashion, visual art, gender and sexuality, and musical collaboration and synthesis, popular culture would look very different today.

No doubt he and Lou are well into their fifth or sixth set back on their home planet.

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Freddie Mercury is likely participating as well.
 
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Marshal Jim Duncan said:
Here he is performing (probably) my favorite of his on The Dick Cavett Show! (12/4/1974):

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Great song, great performance. He vamps as early Elvis. Wears a deconstructed zoot suit/proto-yuppie costume. Samples "A Day in the Life" ('I heard the news today, oh boy...") and unabashedly rips-off the Philly soul-style backing vocals and the Staxx-style acapella 'break down and cry...' Has lyrics about current events in an ironic historical voice ("Do you remember President Nixon?"). The personification of postmodernism. David Sanborn on the sax.
 
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Anodyne said:
Great song, great performance. He vamps as early Elvis. Wears a deconstructed zoot suit/proto-yuppie costume. Samples "A Day in the Life" ('I heard the news today, oh boy...") and unabashedly rips-off the Philly soul-style backing vocals and the Staxx-style acapella 'break down and cry...' Has lyrics about current events in an ironic historical voice ("Do you remember President Nixon?"). The personification of postmodernism. David Sanborn on the sax.
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John Lennon sings backing vocals on two songs on the Young American album. One is Fame (for which Lennon received a co-writing credit) and a cover of Lennon/McCartney's Across the Universe.
 
100TonsofOrangeFury said:
To each his own. I'll wager we share different musical opinions on a great number of acts.
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Musical subjectivity has nothing to with the merits of his fame. No pun intended.

The guy was an innovative and productive musician with an impressive body of work spanning decades. Famous for being famous is more of a Kim Kardashian thing.
 
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MegaPoke said:
Musical subjectivity has nothing to with the merits of his fame. No pun intended.

The guy was an innovative and productive musician with an impressive body of work spanning decades. Famous for being famous is more of a Kim Kardashian thing.
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His current rep is outsized compared with what it was 10 years ago or 10 days ago, simply because he passed.

As of two days ago he's this crazy McCartney-level legend. Last week he was a nichey old dude that did some funky stuff ahead of his time 30 years ago before selling out to write pop songs. I'd put the list of "more important rock musicians than David Bowie" at about 100. When you're past #100 and haven't done anything of import in 30 years, you are in the territory of famous for being famous IMO.
 
Tons,

Name 20 "more important rock musicians" than Bowie. I'm just curious what your list looks like.
 
100TonsofOrangeFury said:
His current rep is outsized compared with what it was 10 years ago or 10 days ago, simply because he passed.

As of two days ago he's this crazy McCartney-level legend. Last week he was a nichey old dude that did some funky stuff ahead of his time 30 years ago before selling out to write pop songs. I'd put the list of "more important rock musicians than David Bowie" at about 100. When you're past #100 and haven't done anything of import in 30 years, you are in the territory of famous for being famous IMO.
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that's a BRT level response.
 
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Anodyne,

Referencing Lou Reed's seminal album Transformer and playing the major role in producing that album is a great start. Then when you consider that nearly at the same time, book-ending Transformer, he also produced the albums Idiot and Lust for Life for Iggy Pop takes it to a whole other level. For those who don't know, the song China Girl, while co-written with Bowie, was first recorded by Iggy after he fell in lust with the Asian girlfriend of a French singer who was recording an album at the same popular recording studio, a converted castle in France.

Between those three albums, if he stopped right there (in 1973) he would have done enough to influence a couple of generations of musicians.
 
Lots of great tributes on YouTube but this might just be the best one....RIP Major Tom

From YouTube:

"Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield spent five months in space — a time in which he gained international fame for his extensive use of social media while floating above Earth. But one of his most impressive accomplishments was his cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" — not only the first musical recording in space, but a cover Bowie called "possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created."

 
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