Total Blam Blam's blog

“One of these nights I may just, Jump down that rainbow way”

Released on April 30th 1976 as the follow-up to worldwide smash, Golden Years, TVC 15 was the second single from Station To Station, albeit in a severely edited form at two minutes shorter than the album version.

Apparently inspired by a hallucinatory episode during which Iggy Pop believed the television set was swallowing his girlfriend, TVC 15 was one of the lighter songs on Station To Station, becoming a live favourite during the attendant tour.

Unusually for the UK there was no RCA press advert for the single, possibly

“So I picked on you-oo-oo”

Well, if life begins at forty, Starman is one year old today.

Released this day in 1972, it still sounds as good now as it did way back then.

The proof is here.

“And I'm busting up my brains for the words”

American novelist and short story writer, Rick Moody, (possibly best known for his 1994 novel, The Ice Storm, which featured a specially re-recorded version of I Can’t Read on the film’s soundtrack) has successfully persuaded David Bowie to contribute 42 words for a “sort of a work flow diagram for The Next Day”.

Moody has used the words in an incredible 14,000-word critique, “produced in two short weeks”, of The Next Day for The Rumpus. If you have a fair few minutes to spare, you can read the whole thing over on therumpus.net.  

Meanwhile,