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Bitterblogger 
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Joined: November 04 2007
Location: United States
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Points: 1719
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 Topic: David Bowie memories
Posted: January 17 2016 at 23:05 |
When I got my stereo installed in my first car, among the very first cassettes purchased was Diamond Dogs. Saw him only once in concert, but it was a smash--Anaheim Stadium for the Glass Spider tour, with Peter Frampton. And who couldn't love someone who gave a major boost to Rick Wakeman's burgeoning career?
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Nightfly
Special Collaborator
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Joined: August 01 2007
Location: United Kingdom
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Points: 3659
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Posted: January 15 2016 at 13:33 |
My first Bowie records bought were 7" singles of some of his hits like Life On Mars and The Jean Genie when i was a kid growing up in the seventies. I didn't actually buy any albums of his until Station To Station (remains my favourite to this day) and Low came out. That was a great period where I thought he was particularly inventive. A fter that I back tracked and bought everything else and bought all his new releases up until Tonight. Since then I dipped in and out buying occasional albums. The next Day was a great comeback after 10 years away and re-awakened my interest.
I'm really glad to have caught him Live which i did on the Serious Moonlight tour in 83. He had a great band with him including Earl Slick on guitar. I always felt his albums were better when Earl Slick was around, his best guitarist partner baring Mick Ronson IMO.
Have only heard bits of the new album but I'm going to wait until i can get a Vinyl copy and listen properly with a Malt Whisky in hand.
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The.Crimson.King
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Joined: March 29 2013
Location: WA
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Points: 4596
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Posted: January 15 2016 at 11:36 |
 cstack3 wrote:
The.Crimson.King wrote:
After the "Heroes" album came out I heard he was making a stop in Oakland on the '78 tour. While I wasn't a huge Bowie fan (I loved Lodger & liked Heroes) the chance that Fripp might be on the tour was enough to convince me to buy a ticket. Well, no Fripp, but we did get Belew on guitar and Roger Powell on kybds. The main thing I remember is they opened with Heroes (the song) and Bowie just nailed it. And the audience was the most bizarre collection of costumed and made up people this side of the SF Exotic Erotic Halloween Ball 
RIP Bowie... |
Bob Fripp speaks about that a bit in this clip:
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Thanks for that vid Chuck, fantastic stuff! And I love your Zappa/Bowie story in the other thread...still has me laughing this morning. I can just see Zappa pissed at getting his new "stunt guitarist" poached by Bowie..."F you Major Tom" indeed 
Edited by The.Crimson.King - January 15 2016 at 11:37
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Tom Ozric
Prog Reviewer
Joined: September 03 2005
Location: Olympus Mons
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Points: 15926
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Posted: January 15 2016 at 04:00 |
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^ Nah, he's a chameleon............
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octopus-4
Special Collaborator
RIO/Avant/Zeuhl,Neo & Post/Math Teams
Joined: October 31 2006
Location: Italy
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Points: 14209
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Posted: January 15 2016 at 03:54 |
Last year on Sky Italy a famous journalist specialized in crime investigations has realized a number of "fake investigations" called "Almost True" about various rock urban legends. They were very funny, realized as they were true facts. The first was about Paul McCartney and his death. We all know that a sosia has taken his place in the Beatles before Abbey Road. Also Elvis Presley is not really dead, of course. One was about David Bowie. He is supposed to be a vampire and a number of evidences was brought in support of this fact...
So I like thinking that, as all the immortals, he has just simulated his death in order to change identity and start a new life somewhere else.
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I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution
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cstack3
Forum Senior Member
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Joined: July 20 2009
Location: Tucson, AZ USA
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Posted: January 14 2016 at 21:07 |
The.Crimson.King wrote:
After the "Heroes" album came out I heard he was making a stop in Oakland on the '78 tour. While I wasn't a huge Bowie fan (I loved Lodger & liked Heroes) the chance that Fripp might be on the tour was enough to convince me to buy a ticket. Well, no Fripp, but we did get Belew on guitar and Roger Powell on kybds. The main thing I remember is they opened with Heroes (the song) and Bowie just nailed it. And the audience was the most bizarre collection of costumed and made up people this side of the SF Exotic Erotic Halloween Ball
RIP Bowie... |
Bob Fripp speaks about that a bit in this clip:
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Rednight
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 18 2014
Location: Mar Vista, CA
Status: Offline
Points: 4812
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Posted: January 14 2016 at 20:57 |
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Bowie's performance of TVC 15 with Klaus Nomi as a backup singer on Saturday Night Live was very special.
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"It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno
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The.Crimson.King
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Joined: March 29 2013
Location: WA
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Points: 4596
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Posted: January 14 2016 at 16:58 |
After the "Heroes" album came out I heard he was making a stop in Oakland on the '78 tour. While I wasn't a huge Bowie fan (I loved Lodger & liked Heroes) the chance that Fripp might be on the tour was enough to convince me to buy a ticket. Well, no Fripp, but we did get Belew on guitar and Roger Powell on kybds. The main thing I remember is they opened with Heroes (the song) and Bowie just nailed it. And the audience was the most bizarre collection of costumed and made up people this side of the SF Exotic Erotic Halloween Ball
RIP Bowie...
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dr wu23
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 22 2010
Location: Indiana
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Points: 20631
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Posted: January 14 2016 at 16:04 |
My best friend's first wife was a huge Bowie fan so we all went to see him in 1983 during the Serious Moonlight tour at Rosemont in the Chicago area . It was a good show and they had this chair thing attached to a lift that carried him high up into the air over the front of the stage and seating areas when he did Major Tom. We weren't all that close so it was hard to get a good look at him but he was solid throughout the whole performance. That's about all I can recalll since back in those days we were usually in an altered state when attending shows.
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One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin
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moshkito
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
Status: Online
Points: 17776
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Posted: January 14 2016 at 11:36 |
Hi, When I heard ... "gound control to major tom ... " I was intrigued and it took me almost over a year to find who this was and finally was able to find it in California after we moved to Santa Barbara. By that time, I was already tired of the "space" theme, and was specially tired of Kubrick fans, telling us what "space" was, and hearing this was kinda nice, and I enjoyed it. And, that song was a big ... as in BIG ... FM standard in the early days ... you can even ask Jim Ladd about that! Have not been a "fan" per se, but have always enjoyed a lot of his music, and my roomate one time, had fun playing 3 different versions of "Heroes" back to back ... in different languages, of course, and this was definitly a treat ... and a great laugh for many of us. All in all, a lot of this is not considered "progressive", because in the end we have created a definition that only fits one or two groups and not a musical process and vision, and in the end, this hurts the ability to identify folks properly and correctly, when one is but the next one with the same thing, is not. Or my favorite, the same information fits, but the music has no electricity in it! RIP and wish the best to Iman and family ... for one of the very good and true artists in our lifetime. PS: Very nice art work, Dean
Edited by moshkito - January 15 2016 at 08:56
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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com
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AEProgman
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Joined: August 11 2012
Location: Toadstool
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Points: 1787
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Posted: January 13 2016 at 12:18 |
The Dark Elf wrote:
If I had an Eternal High School Soundtrack endlessly looping through my head (which often occurs, but might be after effects of teenage mescaline overuse), Bowie would be on the playlist, particularly the albums Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs - I still love those albums. Dean had mentioned the Bowie Effect on his sister in the 70s, and I would say that same feeling was shared by teenage girls over here in the states. The girls in my high school loved him; in fact, to show you how pervasive Bowieism was in the mid-70s, I remember my school's cheerleaders doing a routine to Bowie's "1984" at football games. Obviously, the parents paid little attention to the lyrics, which made it even cooler. |
I always loved Diamond Dogs, it had that darker apocalyptic feel to it as it was meant to be. It was also my first exposure to Bowie and was fascinated by it. The album does not seem to get as much attention as some of his albums of that period other than the song Rebel Rebel.
Very cool indeed, cheerleaders doing "1984" 
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Intruder
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 13 2005
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Points: 2206
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Posted: January 13 2016 at 12:05 |
Bowie's Serious Moonlight tour was my first major concert.....I'd been to shows at county fairs and hootenannies with my folks, mainly Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Statler Brothers, Merle and Waylon.....back in the late 70s when their collective stars were well-faded and their shows sparsely attended; in fact, I remember at one gig Johnny Cash coming out to shake hands with the small crowd after his set was over. Anyway, Bowie - 1983 - greatest hits tour with Alomar and Slick on guitars and Ansley Dunbar on drums....bright yellow suit with mint green tie.....four rows back being fed wine from a flask and making out with a Bowie mom perhaps twenty years my senior.....got to second base for the first time in my life right there among 20,000 fans at the Hershey Park Stadium.....best concert ever. Cut to a few years later when Bowie brought this monstrosity of a stage to the RFK Stadium in south Philly; got ticketed for underage drinking in the parking lot, then lost my girlfriend in a sea of 100,000 fans, then sat thru the most excruciating 90 minutes of my concert-going life. The Glass Spider tour put me off of Bowie for nearly a decade. It wasn't until the 2004 Reality Tour that I gave him another shot.....and I'm glad I did.
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I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there.....
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Intruder
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 13 2005
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Points: 2206
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Posted: January 13 2016 at 11:56 |
Does anybody remember Bowie's appearance on an American TV show, maybe the Dick Clark Show, in the late 70s in which David was carried out in this one piece legless space suit? He deadpanned Space Oddity making no pretentions of not lip synching; during the whole of the 4 minute piece, I could not keep my eyes off the screen - totally mesmerized by this alien freak. I also remember the Cher show much earlier in the 70s where Bowie did this campy medley with Cher of his more danceable singles, but that memory is a bit foggier. Of course, everyone has seen him with Bing doing White Xmas, but what we don't remember is how well he sang without an ounce of irony.....he did have a beautiful voice when he crooned. And then there was the Dick Cavett show - if you haven't seen this interview, Bowie comes off as a bit shy and unassuming, but when the music began (the best version of Young Americans I've ever heard), that persona was washed away.....no more Ziggy, he was a rotten toothed, frazzle eyed r&b singer doing American soul to a whitewashed audience. Bowie - the guy wore many hats in his time.....some fit better than others, but he never shied away from taking a trend and making it his own.
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I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there.....
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hellogoodbye
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Posted: January 13 2016 at 08:06 |
My first girl friend bought me the lp of Heroes, the french version with these famous words "Les dauphins savent nager"(Dolphins can swim). Heroes, with Low, Lodger, The man who sold the world, Ziggy, Hunky Dory, A lad insane, Station to station, Young Americans, Scary Monsters, Outside & Blackstar are among my favorite albums of all time.
I was listening yesterday to that song from his first album, B side of The Laughing Gnome. Great song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0BM-5E3J3c
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someone_else
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Posted: January 13 2016 at 07:58 |
The first time I heard of David Bowie was in the last days of 1969. I remember watching a television program in which about a dozen of hits from that year passed the scene. Ekseption's Air and David Bowie's Space Oddity (reached #8 in the charts) were two of these (the ones I liked most); I cannot recall which the others were. I was 10 years old at the time and not very interested in popular music.
A few years later he became big. In the days of his next hit, The Jean Genie, I was nicknamed "Bowie" by my classmates because my hairstyle looked very similar to his when I had walked against the direction of the wind.
Edited by someone_else - January 13 2016 at 07:59
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The Dark Elf
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Posted: January 13 2016 at 07:23 |
If I had an Eternal High School Soundtrack endlessly looping through my head (which often occurs, but might be after effects of teenage mescaline overuse), Bowie would be on the playlist, particularly the albums Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs - I still love those albums. Dean had mentioned the Bowie Effect on his sister in the 70s, and I would say that same feeling was shared by teenage girls over here in the states. The girls in my high school loved him; in fact, to show you how pervasive Bowieism was in the mid-70s, I remember my school's cheerleaders doing a routine to Bowie's "1984" at football games. Obviously, the parents paid little attention to the lyrics, which made it even cooler.
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...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined
to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology...
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Warthur
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Joined: January 06 2008
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Posted: January 13 2016 at 05:37 |
I'd heard bits and pieces of his stuff growing up, but the first time I got deep into him was when I picked up the Best of Bowie 1969-1974 CD when it emerged in 1997 - I'd have been 15 at the time.
Three years later I was in my first year at university, went to a college Halloween party. Someone put Starman on and then abruptly decided against it and took it off. There were a few howls of protest from the crowd, and someone actually asked me if I was gay just because I mentioned that I thought they should have let the song finish. (Someone objected at that point, but in a defensive "Just because you like Bowie doesn't mean you're gay" rather than a "why is that even relevant?" way.) That helped me learn the importance of finding the right crowd and not prioritising being popular amongst people you don't actually have anything in common with.
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gr8dane
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Posted: January 12 2016 at 15:01 |
My memories : Bowie in concert Diamond Dogs tour Madison Square Garden NY US 1974 Low tour Copenhagen Denmark 1978 Let's Dance tour in Berlin Germany and Toronto Canada 1983.
Edited by gr8dane - January 12 2016 at 15:06
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Shake & bake.
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Logan
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Posted: January 12 2016 at 12:53 |
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I have nothing interesting to say, but...
My first experience with Bowie that I can remember was when I was a little kid and my brother bought the Changesonebowie compilation album- -- I just loved it. That and Gary Numan's Replicas were my favourite albums. Over the last few months I have been mostly listening to David Bowie as I have been delving into more of his stuff and revisiting his classic albums. Also, several of his films had a big impact on me, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and The Hunger. The Hunger was my favourite movie when I was a teen, which was partially a hormonal thing.
I have one negative Bowie-related memory from when I was 12. Was left camping alone with a man who tried to get me drunk and molest me. He asked me if I liked David Bowie earlier in the evening. I said yes, and he said, you know he's bisexual, don't you?
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octopus-4
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Posted: January 12 2016 at 10:10 |
I went to know Bowie initially for his passion for SciFi. I was a fan of the genre as well and obviously my first approaches to his music were songs like Space Oddity, Life On Mars and Starman. I loved him as actor. The Man Who Fell On Earth is a great movie. Glass Spider is the first concert I went to with my future wife, with the Alien Peter Frampton blowing into his guitar's magnets. I have watched Labyrinth dozen of times with my daughters, one is 22 and the other 7 years old. I like thinking of Jareth moving a crystal sphere between his fingers telling Death "You don't have any power over me".
Edited by octopus-4 - January 12 2016 at 10:11
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I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution
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David Bowie memories
