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Post by jhar26 on Jan 11, 2016 2:27:22 GMT -5
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Post by Dianna on Jan 11, 2016 2:32:46 GMT -5
wow .. we've lost another great artist. RIP Ziggy Stardust.
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Post by jhar26 on Jan 11, 2016 2:38:11 GMT -5
And he released a new album just a few days ago, which makes this even more shocking.
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Post by rick on Jan 11, 2016 2:43:44 GMT -5
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Post by jhar26 on Jan 11, 2016 2:55:59 GMT -5
His career went through many phases. He was sort of a chameleon, both in terms of the actual music and in the way he presented himself. Arguably his most important contribution imo is the fact that he brought the avant garde into the mainstream and made it attractive for a mass audience. He was one of the greats, no doubt about it. ...And so another one bites the dust. We're getting old folks.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2016 9:17:56 GMT -5
This is a shock; right after his birthday and a new album; RIP
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Post by erik on Jan 11, 2016 9:30:37 GMT -5
I don't think anybody saw this coming, that he had been battling cancer for a year and a half, and that it apparently was terminal. He was certainly one of rock's most unique talents and personalities of all times, and he will be missed.
As a little bit of trivia: "Space Oddity", which made him a star (no pun intended there), was partly inspired by 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and first released in July 1969 to coincide with the launch of Apollo 11 to the Moon, but was only a big hit in Bowie's home territory of England first. It did, however, manage to get up to #15 here in America in the spring of 1973 upon its re-release.
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Post by Dianna on Jan 11, 2016 13:54:37 GMT -5
A true legend and pioneer. I saw him in 1987 The Glass Spider Tour at Anaheim Stadium. What an amazing and talented person!
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Post by Dianna on Jan 11, 2016 14:29:29 GMT -5
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Post by Dianna on Jan 11, 2016 18:14:39 GMT -5
Nice documentary about David Bowie.
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Post by rick on Jan 11, 2016 21:32:22 GMT -5
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Post by sliderocker on Jan 11, 2016 21:37:04 GMT -5
The death of David Bowie was the first thing I saw this morning when I got up at 5 a.m.,and I thought what a sad way to start the day, knowing his birthday had just passed and didn't even know he had been ill with cancer. He was one of a few rock performers who could be called an innovator and someone for whom the genre was a constant work of art. The only difference was he made it interesting whereas others succeeded in making rock as art a pretentious, forgettable affair. David, planet Earth is blue as we say good bye to you.
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Post by rick on Jan 12, 2016 2:38:52 GMT -5
From the PBS NewsHour --
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Post by Goldie on Jan 12, 2016 4:06:48 GMT -5
I never felt much kinship with Bowie but did like a couple of his songs. He had a unique bohemian appeal. What do you want to bet his new album skyrockets?
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Post by rick on Jan 12, 2016 4:38:53 GMT -5
Dianna, thank you for posting the photo of Linda with David Bowie. I saw him in concert at The Forum in Inglewood, CA, on the night of Sunday, Feb. 8, 1976. He was touring in support of "Station to Station," his then just-released album, but he did a lot from "Young Americans" and earlier work, too.
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Post by erik on Jan 12, 2016 9:23:37 GMT -5
Quote by Goldie:
It's doing so right now even as we speak.
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Post by Mr. Kaplansky on Jan 12, 2016 11:40:19 GMT -5
That picture of Linda with David almost doesn't look like Linda!
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Post by JasonKlose on Jan 12, 2016 16:18:19 GMT -5
I've never been a David Bowie fan, but I always loved "Let's Dance" and "Modern Love" in 1983. "Blue Jean" and "China Girl" are good songs too. His death was a shock to me......I didn't know he had been ill. The music world has definitely lost a legend for sure. It makes you think of the mortality of his generation, which has lost quite a few great ones in recent years. It makes us all to think of our own mortality. RIP David.
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Post by Dianna on Jan 12, 2016 22:15:23 GMT -5
Really like this photo of David Bowie and his beautiful wife, Iman.. shows their love and adoration for each other.
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Post by erik on Jan 12, 2016 22:25:19 GMT -5
One should also take note of a film role that he had during his first peak of popularity in the mid-1970s, namely the title character of British director Nicolas Roeg's 1976 cult sci-fi classic THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH.
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Post by rick on Jan 13, 2016 15:14:25 GMT -5
One should also take note of a film role that he had during his first peak of popularity in the mid-1970s, namely the title character of British director Nicolas Roeg's 1976 cult sci-fi classic THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. This "alien" theme was a recurring one throughout Bowie's career. Besides the new album, Bowie has an off-Broadway musical going called "Lazarus" with Michael C. Hall ("Six Feet Under," "Dexter") in the lead role of Newton. The cast just recorded the cast album on the 11th, the day after David Bowie's death. That must have made the studio process take on even more meaning. Here are a few pieces about the "Lazarus" project -- After David Bowie's death, 'Lazarus' project takes on new meaning for fans From The Second Disc -- David Bowie: In Memoriam Lead paragraph -- " Ziggy Stardust, The Thin White Duke, Aladdin Sane, The Goblin King – David Bowie was a man of many faces. Yet ultimately his most haunting performance may have been as himself. Late 2015 was a period of remarkable and ever-innovative artistry for a man who released his first single in 1964. He revisited his film performance in The Man Who Fell to Earth by writing an off-Broadway musical, depicting its central character, the alien Newton (portrayed onstage by Michael C. Hall), as trapped in his life and hoping for the final escape of death. Joining Lazarus was the announcement of his 25th solo album, Blackstar, which featured the musical’s title song with its first line, “Look up here, I’m in Heaven…” and its concluding cry of release, “Oh, I’ll be free/Just like that bluebird/Oh, I’ll be free/Ain’t that just like me…”
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Post by rick on Jan 14, 2016 2:59:18 GMT -5
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Post by erik on Jan 21, 2016 19:48:35 GMT -5
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Post by moon on Jan 21, 2016 20:57:16 GMT -5
Wow that is something to wonder at. Could have been some awesome music. Was COlonel Parker still Elvis's manager at the time? Hard to imagine with CP's choke hold on Elvis that he would have allowed it.
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Post by sliderocker on Jan 21, 2016 21:33:38 GMT -5
Elvis's friend and associate, Marty Lacker, was skeptical of Bowie's claim, because the story he had heard was that Colonel Parker had approached Bowie about producing Elvis. Lacker, who was mainly responsible for getting Elvis to record at American Sound in 1969, pointed out that Parker feared letting Elvis near any other singer or actor lest they start comparing notes and Elvis discovered Parker was screwing him. Elvis's former girlfriend, Linda Thompson, said in an interview in the late 70s or early 80s that Elvis couldn't believe he was responsible for artists like Rod Stewart and David Bowie. As no one else around Elvis has ever said he ever expressed thoughts like that to them, it was a comment that couldn't be verified. Only problem with that is that Marty Lacker and Linda Thompson were not around Elvis the last year of his life. Much regret has been expressed about the fact Linda Thompson was not around Elvis as she would've been up with Elvis on the final day of his life, and might've prevented what did happen. Lacker was right though in that Parker would never have approached Bowie about producing Elvis. But, the question is, would Elvis have approached Bowie? The musicians who worked for Elvis said he was planning some changes, such as cutting back on the touring and had told them to find other jobs. Rumors were flying in 1977 that Parker was going to be fired at the end of the August-September 1977 tour and that several rock-oriented songs had already been chosen for a recording session that was to have begun in early 1978. It's possible Bowie may have scored a producing gig for Elvis. Although some couldn't see the two getting together, Elvis's musical tastes was a pretty large one and he was known for liking some artists or bands people wouldn't have expected him to like. Bowie was at Elvis's Madison Square Garden concert in 1972, having flown to New York from his own concert in Scotland. Bowie said he had good seats but hadn't had time to change and was still dressed up in his Ziggy Stardust persona. He arrived slightly late and recalled feeling like a right idiot because everyone was looking at him, presumably including Elvis. It would've been fascinating to have seen what could've happened, if things had been different.
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Post by erik on Jan 21, 2016 22:20:57 GMT -5
It would have been fascinating indeed to see what Bowie could have done in working with Elvis, presumably there in Memphis. But as sliderocker says, because the Colonel just didn't want Elvis being near anyone who might have given him ideas (witness both Steve Binder and Chips Moman), it would have necessitated Elvis finally firing CTP. He tried just three years earlier in 1974 after they got into a very nasty dispute in Las Vegas; and when the Colonel presented Elvis with a $3 million severance demand, Elvis' own father told him that they didn't have that kind of money. Another example of how insecure Elvis was, how the Colonel played into that, and how it may have played into an untimely demise for the King.
Given that the two men shared a wide-ranging love of musical styles, there's very little reason to suspect that Bowie and Elvis wouldn't have gotten along like a house on fire. The same probably could have been said about Linda, since she was/is, just in terms of her having done all of the wide-ranging styles that make up rock and roll, his female equal. But because Elvis still had a manager whose methodology was woefully outdated, that just never happened, which is probably the greatest tragedy of late 20th century popular music (IMHO).
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Post by moon on Jan 22, 2016 17:43:31 GMT -5
I thought I read once that Barbra Streisand originally wanted Elvis to play Chris Christopersons part in The star is Born . Apparently CP squashed that.
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Post by moon on Jan 22, 2016 17:44:53 GMT -5
I thought I read once that Barbra Streisand originally wanted Elvis to play Chris Christopersons part in The star is Born . Apparently CP squashed that.
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Post by erik on Jan 22, 2016 18:26:13 GMT -5
Well, the way the Colonel discouraged Elvis was to convince his client that Streisand was going to get paid more than Elvis was, which may very well have been the case. This, and just displaying a decided lack of enthusiasm for anything that the Colonel couldn't get his own hand into really wore Elvis down. As a matter of fact, the Colonel tended to do that on everything but B-movies, near non-stop touring, and routine Las Vegas engagements, all of which contributed, in my opinion, to the King's early demise.
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Post by sliderocker on Jan 22, 2016 21:30:34 GMT -5
Well, the way the Colonel discouraged Elvis was to convince his client that Streisand was going to get paid more than Elvis was, which may very well have been the case. This, and just displaying a decided lack of enthusiasm for anything that the Colonel couldn't get his own hand into really wore Elvis down. As a matter of fact, the Colonel tended to do that on everything but B-movies, near non-stop touring, and routine Las Vegas engagements, all of which contributed, in my opinion, to the King's early demise. Based on what I heard, some of it on Elvis Radio, some of the road blocks wasn't all Parker's fault. Parker wanted the usual movie fee of one million dollars plus the various movie and tv percentages, and top billing for Elvis. Elvis also had a problem with the fact that Streisand's then-boyfriend, hair dresser Jon Peters, wanted to direct the movie, which I believe he did or was credited as such. You couldn't blame Parker for asking what he wanted on Elvis's behalf. Streisand countered with they were only prepared to offer a percentage, no up front money, which would've been a risky move. If the movie had bombed, a percentage wouldn't have been worth anything. She also wanted her own top billing and also rejected equal co-billing. Another part of the story was that Streisand had a reputation for being difficult to work for and with, and by midway through the negotiations, Elvis started to lose interest in the whole idea. He wanted to be back in the movies but Streisand and Peters and Parker were all holding firm, each refusing to give an inch. Elvis or one of his Memphis Mafia assistants told Parker to end the negotiations. Much as I'd like to have seen Elvis back in the movies, I was never enamored of the idea of him doing Streisand's movie. Casting him as an aging, washed up rock star to Streisand casting herself as an up and coming singer of 20 (which for Streisand in her mid-30s was a serious stretch of acting and vanity) was ludicrous, given their actual age difference was only seven years or so. Also, I like Streisand as a singer but her movies were, for me, like Woody Allen's movies, not my cup of tea. The irony about Elvis trying to get back into the movies was that by 1974-75, he was actually looking into producing and maybe even writing his own movies. His interest leaned towards action movies and he actually came up with an idea for a movie, including some ideas for scenes and dialogue. But, because Parker was keeping him on the road too much of the time, I believe he passed on the job of writing the story and script to writer Rick Husky, who was a friend, I think, of Red West and Jerry Schilling. And I think Husky did do an early draft on the movie but never got a chance to confer with Elvis to see if he was on the right track as to what Elvis wanted. What's even more ironic was that story sort of dispelled the notion that Elvis was out of control and spiraling downward. He seemed to be extremely focused but the downfall came back to Parker. Parker was committing Elvis to everything Elvis didn't want to do, and one can't help but feel that Parker was intentionally sabotaging Elvis's artistic desires, instead of finding a way to make them work.
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