No-one can burn like me...
Hot Hot Heat are the latest band to feature a David Bowie song on their ultimate compilation CD for this week's NME Burn It feature.
Steve Bays chooses Five Years.
One or two songs on a mix tape have to be anthemic. It's like the theme from a great coming of age movie. The arrangements are epic and a bit different to most pop songs.
Last week's Burn It, from 'punk-pop's blonde bombshell' Harry also included one of David's songs. This time it was Cracked Actor.
I love the lyrics - "Crack baby crack... smack baby smack... suck baby suck'. I love that Bowie period, it's really hard to choose a track but it's the one I've been listening to this week.
These two add to a long and still growing line of bands and artists who have all selected a Bowie song for 'Burn It'. As is only fitting for the person NME chose as Most Influential Artist Of All Time. You can check out more 'Bowie' Burn It selections in these earlier BowieNet News items.
Princess Superstar on Station to Station. (02/27/02 NEWS: PRINCESS PICKS BOWIE FOR NME)
I love this track and 'TVC15' - in fact the whole 'Station To Station' album is so crazy and funky and conceptual. The track is long - you can put on your make-up and be done by the end of the song. It's from his real, mid-'70s cocaine period.
The Dove's Jimi Goodwin on Quicksand. (07/26/02 SNIPPET: BOWIEPHILES)
If there's an afterlife I'm buying Bowie's version ? 'Don't believe in yourself/Don't deceive with belief/Knowledge comes with death's release'. That's not fatalistic. It's fucking Zen-like! Quicksand should be taught at primary... OK, maybe secondary schools! Sing it at morning assembly.
Danny Goffey of Supergrass on In The Heat Of The Morning. (09/01/02 NEWS: THE STARS COME OUT FOR DAVID BOWIE)
It goes (poor Bowie warble), 'In the heat of the mo-ho-rning-ah!' and it's got this mad organ solo. It's from the 60's, I think it was on a rarity album, before Ziggy and all that. It's weird it was never more popular. We tried to cover it, we're in the process of maybe covering it live.
Corey Taylor of Slipknot on Ashes To Ashes. (09/01/02 NEWS: THE STARS COME OUT FOR DAVID BOWIE)
I don't give a fuck what anybody else says, David Bowie is fuckin' awesome. Sure, he's had his days where you just look at him and go, 'Dude, what were you thinking?' But this is just a great song.
Sym Gharial of The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster on Moonage Daydream (12/30/02 NEWS: MATCHBOX B-LINE DISASTER FOR BOWIE)
When I was in the biggest psychosis of my life, it was the light at the end of my long, dark, twisted tunnel.
Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips on "Heroes" (01/15/03 NEWS: WAYNE COYNE CHOOSES BOWIE FOR NME'S BURN IT)
Even though I've listened to it a million times, I don't know what he's getting at. But it's an uplift either way and at the end you feel satisfied, either with fighting the fight or fucking the fuck.
Anthony Roman of Radio 4 on "Heroes" (03/01/03 SNIPPET: BOWIEPHILES)
Quite possibly the best vocal ever put to tape. The peak of the Bowie/Eno relationship which continues to fascinate us all.
Thanks to Blammo for all of these stories.
:))