“But I know you’ll hold your head up high”
A very moving message from proud son to his father.
#DuncanJones #59thGrammyAwards #Grammys2017 #BowieGrammyAwards #BowieBlackstar #Blackstar
Sound And Vision is forty today
“And I will sing”
Originally released on Friday February 11th 1977 in the UK, Sound And Vision became a #3 hit when it was released as the lead single from the extraordinary Low LP.
It was unusual for a single not to precede an album release, and considering this and the fact that RCA didn’t really promote either the album or the single in the UK, it’s surprising Sound And Vision performed so well on the chart.
This lack of promotion for Low was probably meant as a bit of a rap across the knuckles for Bowie from RCA. The label was still smarting after Bowie’s stablemate, Lou Reed, delivered Metal Machine Music in 1975. RCA didn’t know what to do with Low, they wanted another Young Americans or Station To Station and their lack of vision was matched by some of the hostile music press reviews of the album.
Thankfully, Bowie fans and the record buying public had their ears and minds open and rewarded this artistic bravery by getting Low to #2 on the UK album chart.
Sound And Vision itself was a brave release too, in that the lead vocal didn’t appear until half way through the song. Brilliantly produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, the song features a guest vocal from Mary Visconti (Nee Hopkin), the co-producer’s then wife. It also boasts a backing vocal from Brian Eno and was the first record to enter the UK singles chart featuring his voice, albeit not too obviously. (Eno didn’t sing on the early Roxy Music hits and his solo singles didn’t make the Top 40.)
Yesterday saw the release of the limited edition 40th anniversary Sound And Vision picture disc on Parlophone. The A side of this release has a brand new remaster of Sound And Vision, while the AA side sees the first physical release of the 2013 Sony Experia mix of the song, as remixed by Sonjay Prabhakar.
#BowieSoundAndVision #DBSAV40 #BowieVinyl
Last chance to hear Exploring 'Life On Mars?'
“To the seat with the clearest view”
Another final chance to hear one of the many excellent BBC Bowie tributes from last month. This time it’s Tris Penna’s fascinating Exploring 'Life On Mars?', presented by Martin Kemp and originally broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on January 9th.
If you have access to the BBC, you really have to listen to this very well-researched documentary while you still can...and that’s not only for the reveal of the hilarious dialogue at the end of the recording of Life On Mars?
Go here within the next eight hours to catch it.
We’ll leave you with the blurb from the BBC Radio 2 page.
#ExploringLifeOnMars #HunkyDory #LifeOnMars #BowieAtTheBBC
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Is 'Life on Mars?' Bowie's legacy song - the one he will be most remembered for? We have exclusive access to unheard recordings of Bowie's original demo and other archive.
'Life on Mars?' is one of David Bowie's most astonishing songs, prompting some observers to describe it as Bowie's own 'My Way'. The irony is, it very nearly was: in 1968, Bowie wrote an early lyric (A Fool Learns to Love) to French singer Claude Francois' 'Comme D'Habitude' which was rejected - Paul Anka's lyrics weren't & the song eventually became Sinatra's 'My Way'. Three years later when 'Life on Mars?' was released on the Hunky Dory album 'Inspired by Frankie' is written in David Bowie's handwriting on the back cover.
We tell the story of how the song came about and we learn what it was like working in the studio with Bowie. Bowie described it as being 'a young girl's reaction to the media'; the lyrics best described as being 'painting-like', impressionistic. Contemporary singer/songwriter Marc Almond examines the lyrics and uncovers the origins of inspiration for the song. We speak to Sophia Anne Caruso, the 15 year old actor who worked with Bowie on his musical Lazarus and is now singing 'Life on Mars?' in the London production.
We speak to Bob Grace who was Bowie's music publisher, record producer Ken Scott, studio engineer Ray Staff, and we hear from Mike Garson, who played the piano in Bowie's live performances, and he played the song over 200 times live. We also hear from Mick Rock who filmed the video for the song, from singer Dana Gillespie, friend of Bowie - Wendy Kirkby, Music Publisher Geoff Heath, Bowie biographer Kevin Cann & author Nicholas Pegg.
Presenter: Martin Kemp, Presenter/Writer & Co-producer: Tris Penna. This is a Sue Clark Production for BBC Radio 2.
No Plan EP clear blue vinyl 12"
“Distorted view, see through baby blue”
Aside from the formats of the No Plan EP we announced a couple of days ago, (CD and two vinyl 12" versions) there will now be a clear blue vinyl 12" produced exclusively for independent record shops.
This numbered limited edition (one-run only), also features the laser etching on the B-side of the vinyl. It will be released internationally on April 21st.
Here’s a recap of the different configurations of the physical No Plan EP.
~ CD - FEBRUARY 24 (available via all usual outlets)
~ BLACK VINYL 12" - APRIL 21 (available via all usual outlets)
~ LIMITED EDITION NUMBERED CLEAR BLUE VINYL 12" - APRIL 21 (available exclusively from independent stores)
~ LIMITED EDITION NUMBERED MADE-TO-ORDER DIE-CUT WHITE VINYL 12" WITH EXCLUSIVE ARTWORK LITHOGRAPH - MAY 26 (Available exclusively here.)
Read previous No Plan EP news item, here.
And for anybody wondering about today’s lyric quotation.
#BowieNoPlan #BowieNoPlanEP #BowieVinyl
UK MOJO Ziggy souvenir for March 7 only
“It’s the last show that we’ll ever do”
CinEvents and MOJO have given us the exclusive reveal of the Ziggy souvenir cover that will only be available to attendees of the March 7th Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars screenings in UK cinemas. Every attendee will receive a copy of the magazine which will fully document the Ziggy-era.
This is a special limited edition cover for the April 2017 issue (281) and it is set to be one of the rarest covers ever produced by the award-winning MOJO team. It will not be available in the shops or at screenings outside of the UK on March 7th.
In addition to the main attraction, the evening will include a new film produced by MOJO magazine exclusively for these screenings. This film will feature MOJO’s Editor-In-Chief Phil Alexander in conversation with The Spiders From Mars drummer Woody Woodmansey. Re-living that fateful night in 1973, Woody will provide further insight into what he describes as “the adventure of a lifetime”.
Go here to book tickets at your nearest participating cinema.
Keep reading for the full press release.
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REMINDER: Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars screening at London Eventim Apollo next week
There are still February 16th tickets available for the separate screening and live event at the scene of the original concert, London Eventim Apollo (formerly the Hammersmith Odeon), here. - It should be noted that the MOJO Ziggy souvenir cover will not be available and the Woody film will not be screened at this event. Go here for the full February 16th event press release.
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#ZiggyStardust # ZiggyStardustMoPi #ZiggyHammersmith #ZSMoPi2017 #SpiderWoodyWoodmansey
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CinEvents brings Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars back to cinema.
The concert film Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars will be broadcast to an international cinema audience on March 7, 2017, in celebration of the life and music of David Bowie, courtesy of recently launched event cinema company, CinEvents. The evening will include a new film produced by MOJO magazine exclusively for this screening.
The film will be screened in multiplex and independent cinemas across the UK as well as selected countries across Europe; Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Germany, France and with further details to come.
Directed by pioneering rock film-maker D.A. Pennebaker, this documentary and concert film captures Bowie and his band, The Spiders From Mars, performing at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on July 3, 1973. It was at this now-infamous concert that Bowie made a sudden announcement, shocking fans and media alike by stating “it’s the last show we’ll ever do”. Rather than marking his withdrawal from music, his declaration signalled the retirement of the Ziggy Stardust persona, and the end of a hugely influential chapter in Bowie’s own story.
In addition to the concert movie, the evening will include a new film produced by MOJO magazine exclusively for these screenings. This film will feature MOJO’s Editor-In-Chief Phil Alexander in conversation with The Spiders From Mars drummer Woody Woodmansey, whose own acclaimed memoir, My Life With Bowie: Spider From Mars, has just been published by Sidgwick & Jackson. As well as re-living that fateful night in 1973, Woody will provide further insight into what he describes as “the adventure of a lifetime.”
CinEvents are working with MOJO magazine – Britain’s biggest-selling music magazine, which Bowie guest edited in 2002 – to further enhance the cinema-going experience. Every attendee will receive a copy of the magazine which will fully document the Ziggy-era, and which will also feature an exclusive David Bowie/Spiders From Mars Collectors’ Cover. This special souvenir cover will not be available in the shops, and is destined to become one of the rarest covers ever produced by the award-winning MOJO team with a retail value of £7.99
Tickets will be on sale from 11 January and customers will be able to find their closest participating cinemas via www.ziggystardust-cinevents.com
Picturehouse Entertainment is partnering with CinEvents for distribution of this event.
Bowie’s top 100 books - the complete list
“Lend us a book we can read up alone”
It’s likely that most people reading this will have already seen either the original story on openbookstoronto.com last week, or a version of it referring back to that original list of “DAVID BOWIE'S TOP 100 BOOKS”.
There have also been numerous suggestions of a Bowie Book Club to tackle each of the 100 volumes. However, there was a problem with that particular openbookstoronto.com feature in that only 75% of the books were actually listed!
For anybody planning on completing this epic voyage of discovery, we’ve listed every single one of the 100 books here (in no particular order) for your reference.
You may have also noticed the two chaps in the middle of our montage. Well, it’s none other than David Bowie sporting a Clockwork Orange T-shirt (the book by Anthony Burgess is in the list) with his old chum, George Underwood.
George kindly supplied the previously unpublished photograph, which according to him was taken aboard Amtrak somewhere between New Orleans and Chicago on the first US tour in 1972.
And so, on to that COMPLETE list of David Bowie’s Top 100 (count 'em) Books.
Interviews With Francis Bacon by David Sylvester
Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse
Room At The Top by John Braine
On Having No Head by Douglass Harding
Kafka Was The Rage by Anatole Broyard
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
City Of Night by John Rechy
The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Iliad by Homer
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Tadanori Yokoo by Tadanori Yokoo
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
Inside The Whale And Other Essays by George Orwell
Mr. Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Halls Dictionary Of Subjects And Symbols In Art by James A. Hall
David Bomberg by Richard Cork
Blast by Wyndham Lewis
Passing by Nella Larson
Beyond The Brillo Box by Arthur C. Danto
The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
In Bluebeard’s Castle by George Steiner
Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
The Divided Self by R. D. Laing
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Infants Of The Spring by Wallace Thurman
The Quest For Christa T by Christa Wolf
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter
The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodieby Muriel Spark
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Herzog by Saul Bellow
Puckoon by Spike Milligan
Black Boy by Richard Wright
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima
Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler
The Waste Land by T.S. Elliot
McTeague by Frank Norris
Money by Martin Amis
The Outsider by Colin Wilson
Strange People by Frank Edwards
English Journey by J.B. Priestley
A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Day Of The Locust by Nathanael West
1984 by George Orwell
The Life And Times Of Little Richard by Charles White
Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock by Nik Cohn
Mystery Train by Greil Marcus
Beano (comic, ’50s)
Raw (comic, ’80s)
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom by Peter Guralnick
Silence: Lectures And Writing by John Cage
Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews edited by Malcolm Cowley
The Sound Of The City: The Rise Of Rock And Roll by Charlie Gillete
Octobriana And The Russian Underground by Peter Sadecky
The Street by Ann Petry
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
Last Exit To Brooklyn By Hubert Selby, Jr.
A People’s History Of The United States by Howard Zinn
The Age Of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby
Metropolitan Life by Fran Lebowitz
The Coast Of Utopia by Tom Stoppard
The Bridge by Hart Crane
All The Emperor’s Horses by David Kidd
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos
Tales Of Beatnik Glory by Ed Saunders
The Bird Artist by Howard Norman
Nowhere To Run The Story Of Soul Music by Gerri Hirshey
Before The Deluge by Otto Friedrich
Sexual Personae: Art And Decadence From Nefertiti To Emily Dickinson by Camille Paglia
The American Way Of Death by Jessica Mitford
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Teenage by Jon Savage
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Viz (comic, early ’80s)
Private Eye (satirical magazine, ’60s – ’80s)
Selected Poems by Frank O’Hara
The Trial Of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes
Maldodor by Comte de Lautréamont
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders by Lawrence Weschler
Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Transcendental Magic, Its Doctine and Ritual by Eliphas Lévi
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Leopard by Giusseppe Di Lampedusa
Inferno by Dante Alighieri
A Grave For A Dolphin by Alberto Denti di Pirajno
The Insult by Rupert Thomson
In Between The Sheets by Ian McEwan
A People’s Tragedy by Orlando Figes
Journey Into The Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg
#BowieBookClub