RIP- musicians

[Jules Gray]

Indeed.  Hard to imagine living in a world without him in it.  Ziggy was my first LP* - he's always been here.

(* Well, my first proper LP - I did have one of those Ronco things.)

Jules

[hendo (Dave)]

I met my first wife in 1973.
She told me the story of the couple who rented out the flat above her parents house in Beckenham.
Aged 16 , she sat in this blokes flat and dyed his hair.
She was never star struck, Angie and David Jones were just the couple who lived upstairs. Hair colour was just something she did one Saturday afternoon.
Obviously , I never met him, he was long gone when we got together but I did check with her parents.
'Oh , yes, Angie and David rented our flat.
So to my first wife he was just this bloke she knew as a teenager.
For some reason, an icon you have lived with all your life dies makes you very aware of your own mortality.
I never saw him live, Hunky Dory remains my favourite album.

[Poor Will (Bill)]

A massive loss.
Has been a part of my life since I was 14.
One of my biggest regrets was that I never got to see him live.
RIP David

[Alan2]

I woke up to t he news on the radio, this morning. It seemed unreal, like Lennon's death but not so bad. What impresses me is he must have worked on the last album in the  knowledge he had little time.  

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

Only 69.....  Far too young, sad loss....  

 

[Will S]

The comparison with the news of Lennon;s death struck me too this morning - waking up to the radio with the news.  Never been a big fan - I have owned a few of his albums in the past, but never replaced them on CD - but his music is inescapable and part of my growing up and adult years.  RIP.

[Jules Gray]

I woke up to t he news on the radio, this morning. It seemed unreal, like Lennon's death but not so bad. What impresses me is he must have worked on the last album in the  knowledge he had little time.  

Yes, that would indeed be the case.  People will be listening to it again now, with that in mind.

Jules

[Dan O.]

RIP David - a true innovator and a law unto himself. Am currently listening to Hunky Dory, probably my favourite album of his, but that's a close call when there are so many great albums to choose from...

[David (terrrrrrrr)]

David Bowie. Never really got what he was doing as Ziggy. His music was much more the stuff my sister, seven years younger than me, listened to. His appearance on Live Aid was when I did start to see that he was the real deal. RIP.

[GubGub (Al)]

I woke up to t he news on the radio, this morning. It seemed unreal, like Lennon's death but not so bad. What impresses me is he must have worked on the last album in the  knowledge he had little time.  

Yes, that would indeed be the case.  People will be listening to it again now, with that in mind.

Jules

One of my first thoughts this morning once I had got over the shock was that it puts the song Lazarus in a very different light. I must listen more closely to the rest of the lyrics on the album. Though they are very different artists and took very different approaches to their illness in public, I am reminded of Warren Zevon who made his final album in similar circumstances and died just a few days after it was released. Some of those songs very much served as his own epitaph.

[Tasha]

Yes very sad. Part of my youth gone. I absolutely loved him in the 70's, couldn't get on with him in the 80's. That's when  I did see him live and to be honest i walked out!  it was terrible he was sleepwalking through the songs It was the infamous Glass spider tour- It all seemed so pretentious I was bitterly disappointed that he seemed to have disappeared up his own ass.  RIP Davy Jones

[madsue]

What a shock I had this morning when I heard the news.  Seems impossible that he is no longer with us, he was a great part of my youth.  RIP David Bowie  

[mickf]

After the weekend of Lemmy's funeral comes this body blow. Although two vastly different 'icons' they were linked by the fact that they never played it safe and always refused to compromise. As a 16 year old, 'Starman' and then later the Ziggy album were never off my record player. Then when I discovered 'Hunky Dory' and all the rest I realised that this bloke was special. Only Woody Woodmansey left from the Spiders now.

[davidmjs]

If you're tempted to buy some Bowie...buy it from Rough Trade.  All profits from Jan sales of Bowie stuff goes to Cancer Research UK

http://www.roughtrade.com/artists/1089

[PeteD]

The words Legend and Icon are of course much overused these days. Not so in this case. His legacy and impact on popular music is up there with Elvis and The Beatles.

Sad news.

[Chris]

Seen here in his first known TV appearance back in 1964

https://amp.twimg.com/v/cf7afd8f-a3c6-4e2c-9df4-97c0e405e02b

[davidmjs]

From Tony Visconti: "He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way. His death was no different from his life - a work of Art. He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift. I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn't, however, prepared for it. He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us. For now, it is appropriate to cry."

[Chris from Fieldtown]

A sad loss to music. Bowie, like the best artists, constantly re-invented himself and remained relevant and creative. I don't have the latest album but will be adding it to by Bowie stuff. I have to say it is the earlier albums that appeal to me most, but he evolved and I admire him for that

[RobertD]

I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep for some time, so I picked up my phone and turned it on and saw the headline. At first I didn't think I saw the right name in my haze but was very sad to hear about it. I'm only a periphery Bowie fan. Love the hits, and have heard a lot of him over the years, just don't own too much by him. But I appreciated him so much for constantly shuffling things around. Complacency is not a word I would ever associate with David Bowie in both the music and his fashion. I have a few acquaintances in the fashion industry here in NY, and on their feeds this morning was more for the loss of a fashion icon. Playing everything I have by him today.

[Andy]

My blog entry for today

11/1/16

So, David Bowie (née Jones) has died and the eulogies have begun to flow, lauding his creative energies and inspirational qualities. Fair enough, here's my contribution.

I recall initially hearing him perform him as an Anthony Newley sound-alike with the immortal "Laughing Gnome". Actually that first album had several standout tracks at the time, LG was one, "There Is A Happy Land" and "We Are Hungry Men" were two more. At the time Bowie was struggling to make a living and no doubt this route brought in a few quid from Decca, who obviously thought it worthwhile putting out.

Two years later, the quirky "Space Oddity" hit the charts, the first of several times it would enter them over the years. 1969 saw the first men land on the Moon, so people ignored the drug-related imagery and took the surface imagery at face value. Either way, a decent enough track that awoke the world to his talents beyond sounding nasal and slightly amusing.

1970 brought us "The Man Who Sold The World", at the time better known for the picture of Bowie in a dress on its cover. Lulu's cover of the title track was most people's entrée into this album, "Black Country Rock" was a standout at the time.

1971's "Hunky Dory" was when Bowie exploded onto the consciousness of many, "Changes" becoming his theme for years to come. Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits fame covered "Oh You Pretty Things" which brought the original to the notice of many and helped sales of this album. In fact it was truly seminal, the tracks on it were striking and memorable. "Life On Mars", "Andy Warhol", "The Bewley Brothers" were balanced by a brief reprise of his Anthony Newley days with "Kooks", an endearing song to his son Duncan (then known as "Zowie Bowie"), born that year with his then wife, Angie. The style "Queen Bitch" presages his next album, "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust".

Ziggy was a glam-rock creation by Bowie and much has been (and will be) made of this 1972 album. My brother was working at Boosey and Hawkes when it came out and brought home an early copy. It seldom left my record player on the few occasions he wasn't playing it. If there's a bum track on Ziggy, I have no idea what it is. From "Five Years" through "Soul Love", "Moonage Daydream", "Starman", "It ain't easy", "Lady Stardust", "Star", "Hang Onto Yourself", "Ziggy Stardust", "Suffragette City" to the finale, "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide", there wasn't a track that didn't surprise and delight me. It was also at this time that Bowie came out as bisexual, but that was retracted as “a mistake” years later. A bit sad, that.

Away from Ziggy, 1972 was a full-featured year, with skinheads beating up any bloke with hair over their ears, sta-prest trousers and Doctor Marten’s “bovver” boots a uniform for their gangs. A time of sexual repression, too. After the advent of the contraceptive pill in the mid-1960s, 1967’s legalisation of homosexuality and 1969’s Summer Of Love, 1972 was a reversion in some ways to old attitudes. As a 16-year-old I loved the music of the late 1960s and, in common with my friends, found Bowie’s music and attitudes refreshing and interesting.

In particular I remember a friend of my age called Steve. He was not a big strong chap. In fact he had a slight hump back and very much fled to the background of any social gathering. He was gay in an era when to be overtly gay was to ask to be beaten up by intolerant skinheads. When Ziggy Stardust was released it gave Steve the courage to get a Ziggy hairstyle and wear colourful clothes for the first time. He coloured his hair and frankly horrified his parents by wearing blusher and eyeliner. A strange thing happened, for he found the courage from Ziggy to be happily, blatantly himself and everyone that knew him was happy for him. He went off to art college shortly afterwards and I never saw him again, but my hope is that he found happiness. I’m sure he wasn’t the only person liberated by Ziggy, Bowie probably never realised the liberation he gave to Steve and many others to be themselves. For that alone, let alone the rest of his career, Bowie deserves accolades and immortality.

1973 brought an abrupt change in direction again with “Aladdin Sane” and the advent of teenagers with lightning rainbows on their faces as they went out in the evenings. Aladdin Sane brought us many good songs, “Watch That Man” and “Panic In Detroit” plus the song whose lyrics caused my Mum to have a conniption fit when I insisted on playing it repeatedly, “Time”. If you don’t know why, then I suggest you take a listen.

1973 also brought “Diamond Dogs”, a less successful album for me, although featuring “Rebel Rebel”. His covers album, “Pinups” made no impression upon me and 1975’s “Young Americans” even less so.

1976 brought “Station To Station” and 1977 brought “Heroes”, both successful albums that I bought and enjoyed.

From then on, Bowie became more successful in the USA and his influence on me and my friends waned somewhat. Over the following years I watched as he occasionally popped up with something interesting, but his days of impressing me with his musical versatility had passed. 1985’s appearance at “Live Aid” was a highlight, his collaboration with Mick Jagger on “Dancing In The Street” was highly enjoyable, his 4-song set concluding with “Heroes” was buried in a day of memorable sets.

I’ve no doubt many found Bowie after that date and enjoyed what he did, but for me, my real interest in his music lasted until the mid-1980s and after that, with kids, mortgages and whatever taking my interest, it was years before I was seriously interested in any music at all.

Bowie will be lauded and remembered for many things, but for me, the liberation of my friend Steve was the greatest achievement of David Bowie. Inspirational, joyous, nutty as a fruitcake,

RIP

[Photo over 400 days old. Removed by Admin.]