Just so anyone doesn’t get the wrong idea, this is Adrian Belew (and it’s the only cassette single I ever bought). Reeves Gabrels was the guitar player in Tin Machine, with Soupy Sales’ kids Hunt and Tony on Rhythm.
I actually kinda like some of the songs on the first side of their first album.
The Hunky Dory album was glorious. From there it was mostly downhill. Although he did write “All the Young Dudes,” which should be enough for any human.
He’s certainly not untalented, but what he’s done with that talent has mostly left me indifferent at best and considerably annoyed most of the time.
I was a janitor in a gay bathhouse in Chicago circa early ’80s and had the Gospel of Bowie preached to me by the rank and file. I heard a lot about his 4-octave range. My response was, “It would be nice if he bothered to distinguish it into tones of the scale.”
I do enjoy his do-it-yourself ethos. I can ‘hear’ him think through his compositions. I think what Bowie needed was an adamantly opinioned, equally talented, songwriting partner.
Much like how Spielberg focused Lucas via Indy Jones. Or the Fagen-Becker syndrome.
Eh. He got old, and he got rich. The former was inevitable, the latter deeply deserved. Neither of them are noted for focusing the creative energies of pop musicians, although there are a few notable exceptions. (Neil Young and… um… Neil Young? Although maybe “focus” isn’t really the word to use there.) At least he’s been willing to follow his own weird little muse, rather than doing another Sound+Vision tour every 3 years.
(Of course, I actually liked the first Tin Machine album, so you may rationally consider my opinion to be suspect at best, deranged at worst. But Reeves Gabrels was an awesome and hugely underappreciated guitarist.)
February 6, 2010 at 11:43 pm
The guitar player from Tin Machine was really good, I think they didn’t have any material.
Eat this.
February 6, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Steven Seagal sure can blow.
February 6, 2010 at 11:49 pm
PS Glamour happened. That’s what.
February 7, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Just so anyone doesn’t get the wrong idea, this is Adrian Belew (and it’s the only cassette single I ever bought). Reeves Gabrels was the guitar player in Tin Machine, with Soupy Sales’ kids Hunt and Tony on Rhythm.
I actually kinda like some of the songs on the first side of their first album.
February 7, 2010 at 8:15 am
Golden Years was a groovy little #. Beyond that, I never got the Bowie allure. But Mick Ronson played good guitar.
February 7, 2010 at 9:27 am
wha, wha, wha.
February 7, 2010 at 9:29 am
The Hunky Dory album was glorious. From there it was mostly downhill. Although he did write “All the Young Dudes,” which should be enough for any human.
February 7, 2010 at 9:45 am
He’s certainly not untalented, but what he’s done with that talent has mostly left me indifferent at best and considerably annoyed most of the time.
I was a janitor in a gay bathhouse in Chicago circa early ’80s and had the Gospel of Bowie preached to me by the rank and file. I heard a lot about his 4-octave range. My response was, “It would be nice if he bothered to distinguish it into tones of the scale.”
I do enjoy his do-it-yourself ethos. I can ‘hear’ him think through his compositions. I think what Bowie needed was an adamantly opinioned, equally talented, songwriting partner.
Much like how Spielberg focused Lucas via Indy Jones. Or the Fagen-Becker syndrome.
February 7, 2010 at 12:15 pm
“It would be nice if he bothered to distinguish it into tones of the scale.”
Brilliant.
February 7, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Those who can, do. Those who can’t, belittle. I am the latter, of course.
February 7, 2010 at 9:40 am
i remain convinced that none of the above persons are real.
February 7, 2010 at 10:08 am
i know
i’m
not
February 7, 2010 at 11:19 am
Heroes, the album and the song, is pretty fucking awe inspiring. And the whole of the Berlin Trilogy was the highlight of his career IMO.
But since we’re talking about music it’s mostly about opinion anyway. It evokes something in you or not. I love Heroes but YMMV.
Hell, music is so subjective that I cannot even decide whether Under Pressure is one of the cheesiest songs of all times or one of the best.
February 8, 2010 at 1:25 am
Eh. He got old, and he got rich. The former was inevitable, the latter deeply deserved. Neither of them are noted for focusing the creative energies of pop musicians, although there are a few notable exceptions. (Neil Young and… um… Neil Young? Although maybe “focus” isn’t really the word to use there.) At least he’s been willing to follow his own weird little muse, rather than doing another Sound+Vision tour every 3 years.
(Of course, I actually liked the first Tin Machine album, so you may rationally consider my opinion to be suspect at best, deranged at worst. But Reeves Gabrels was an awesome and hugely underappreciated guitarist.)
February 8, 2010 at 3:59 pm
FZ’s reply to Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and the whole MTV shit, back in ’84:
Be in my video,
Darling, every night
I will rent a cage for you
And mi-j-i-nits dressed in white
(teeny-little-tiny-little…)
Twirl around in a lap dissolve
Pretend to sing the words
I’ll rent a gleaming limousine;
Release a flock of ber-herna-herna-herna
Herna-her-nerds
Wear a leather collar
And a dagger in your ear
I will make you smell the glove
And try to look sincere, then we’ll
Dance the blues
Let’s dance the blues
Let’s dance the blues
Under the megawatt moonlight
Pretend to be chinese,
(one-hung-low)
I’ll make you wear red shoes
There’s a cheesy atom bomb explosion
All the big groups use
Atomic light will shine
Through an old venetian blind
Making patterns on your face,
Then it cuts to outer space
With it’s billions & billions &
Billions & billions and
Be in my video
Darling, every night
Everyone in cable-land
Will say you’re ’outa-site’
You can show your legs
While you’re getting in the car, then
I will look repulsive
While I mangle my guitar
Reen-toon-teen-toon-teen-toon
Tee-nu-nee-nu-nee,
Moo-ahhhh
February 8, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Thass waddah’m tawkin’ abowt!