There are many David Bowie songs that I like a lot, but I've never been a member of the cult of Bowie and esteemed him in a god-like status like many of his fans do. I've never seen him in concert (or have a big desire to), and I didn't own any of his albums, just borrowed my sister's ChangesOne greatest hits album (which I later replaced with my own copy on CD). I've never even seen him in the movie "Labyrinth". That being said, he put out a good album in 1983, Let's Dance that had a number of good songs that were popular and played a lot on the radio back in the 80's.
The thing I really love about today's song of the day, "Modern Love" is the intro. Especially the opening zipper-y sounding guitar (Steve Ray Vaughan and Nile Rodgers of Chic fame played guitar on this song. Rodgers also produced the Let's Dance album), and then the drums kick in and start pounding. Tony Thompson (RIP) was one of the coolest drummers (playing with Chic, Powerstation, and on this song along with Omar Hakim). The saxophone by Robert Aaron ain't half bad either. But the best part is the deadpan delivery by Bowie of the mundane line, "I don't want to go out. I want to stay in. Get things done". Just singing that line always seemed funny to me and made me laugh. To this day, when I'm feeling like having "an inside day" I'll sometimes mouth those lines, and crack myself up.
There were a number of these good one liners on this album. I also like it very much in the song "China Girl" when he says "And when I get excited, my little China Girl says, "Oh Baby, just you shut your mouth!!". I almost picked that song for the song of the day, but watching the video today it just seems so politically incorrect, and I thought that Bowie seemed really pussified and smarmy in the video and it just kinda grossed me out, so I picked this song instead.
David Bowie's real name is David Robert Jones. He was born in 1947 and grew up in England. The David Bowie story and career is long. He is considered an eclectic performer and a rock-n-roll innovator and has a cult like following; but to give you an idea of where he had been prior to the 80's and the release of this song.
When he was 9 years old Bowie's father brought home a collection of American records by artists such as The Platters, Fats Domino, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Elvis Presley and Little Richard. Bowie is quoted as saying, "I saw a cousin of mine dance to 'Hound Dog' and I had never seen her get up and be moved so much by anything. It really impressed me, the power of the music. I started getting records immediately after that". His half-brother introduced him to modern jazz like John Coltrane and Charles Mingus.
In 1962 he was injured at school when his friend George Underwood, who was wearing a ring on his finger, punched Bowie in the left eye during a fight about a girl. Bowie had a series of operations and stayed out of school for 4 months. It was feared he would lose his sight. The damage could never be fully repaired; however he did not lose his sight. It left him with faulty depth perception and a permanently dilated pupil. People mistakenly think that David Bowie has two different colored eyes, but are blue, but it's just that one has that dark dilated pupil. Despite this incident, Bowie and his friend Underwood remained friends, and Underwood even created the artwork for some of Bowie's early albums.
Bowie formed his first band at age 15. He played in a series of blues bands. In the mid-Sixties he changed his name from Davy Jones to David Bowie to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the band The Monkees. He chose the name Bowie after the frontiersman Jim Bowie and the type of knife he brandished. Bowie played in a series of other bands and did solo work. In 1969 he released his first hit "Space Oddity" t5 days before the Apollo mission to the moon. It became a Top 5 hit in the UK. He also married Angela Barnett that same year. She had a great impact on his style at the time. His next album, 1970's Man Who Sold the World was less folksy and more rocking. During the tour for this album he got the idea to create an androgynous space age character called Ziggy Stardust. He based the character on a melding of Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, so on the next tour out he died his hair red, cut it into a spiky shag haircut, wore make-up and spacey costumes and became Ziggy Stardust and his band was known as The Spiders from Mars. This catapulted him to stardom and started his cult like status, especially with kids who felt misunderstood, or androgynous, gay or bisexual, as they felt his Ziggy Stardust spoke to something in them and was someone that made them finally feel like they fit in, and was someone they could relate to.
After awhile brandishing this character Ziggy Stardust took its toll on Bowie. It was affecting his personality and in 1973 he went into an abrupt retirement while onstage. He moved to the United States in 1974 living in New York and then Lost Angeles. His 1974 album Diamond Dogs saw him going in a new direction, playing more soul and funk. His 1974 tour was choreographed by Toni Basil, a dancer and actress who later had a hit song in 1982 with "Mickey". During the tour Bowie was abusing cocaine heavily and was experiencing paranoia and emotional issues. He took a break from the tour in Philadelphia and recorded some new more soulful material that he called "plastic soul". The songs from that recording appeared on his 1975 album Young Americans (singer Luther Vandross sang back-up on this song. The "Allllll Night" parts and such). This new musical direction alienated some of his earlier fans.
On his next album 1976's Station to Station he introduced a new character based on the character, Thomas Jerome Newton, an extraterrestrial he portrayed that same year in the movie "The Man Who Fell to Earth". This new character was called the "Thin White Duke". He was still struggling with cocaine and overdosed several times that year. His health was severely affected. He moved to a chalet just north of Lake Geneva in Switzerland in 1976, but his cocaine use persisted. He began pursuing other interests such as painting and photography. By the end of 1976 he moved to West Berlin. He shared an apartment with Iggy Pop and took his music in another direction, working on ambient music with Brian Eno. The result would be 3 albums known as his Berlin Trilogy which were not as well received by the fans, but praised to some extent by the critics. In 1977 he recorded a Christmas song with Bing Crosby "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" In Germany he also cleaned up his drug addiction and divorced his wife Angela in early 1980.
As Bowie moved into the 80's he revived the character of Major Tom from his "Space Oddity" days. He visited the Blitz club in London which was home to the New Romantic musical movement (1979-1981) which touted new wave music and eccentric fashions and make-up and was inspired. In 1980 he released the album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and released the song "Ashes to Ashes". He recruited many regulars at the Blitz Club including Steve Strange (who later became lead singer of the band Visage) to appear in the video for "Ashes to Ashes".
Bowie became involved in a variety of projects around this time. He starred in the Broadway play "The Elephant Man" for 3 months. He teamed up with rock band Queen and released a single called "Under Pressure" in 1981. He did a soundtrack for a documentary called Christiane F., and was on the 1981 BBC televised version of Bertolt Brecht's play "Baal" and recorded a five track EP of songs from the performance. He also released the title track for the 1982 movie "Cat People".
Which brings us to 1983 when the "Let's Dance" album came out. It contained the hit songs "Modern Love", "China Girl", and "Let's Dance" and was co-produced by Chic's Nile Rodgers. The album went platinum and he embarked on the "Serious Moonlight Tour" in support of it. Bowie was at another peak of popularity with this album.
After this he stayed quite active during the 1980's. He collaborated with Tina Turner and Iggy Pop and released another album Tonight in 1984. He performed at Wembley Stadium for 1985's charity concert Live Aid (see the 80's quest post for Band Aid on January 20th). He dueted with Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones on a song and video for "Dancing in the Street". He worked with the Pat Metheny Group on a soundtrack for the movie The Falcon and the Snowman. In 1986 he appeared in the film Absolute Beginners, and that same year played Jareth, the Goblin King in Jim Henson's movie Labyrinth. He wrote 5 songs for that film, and put out another solo album in 1987, Never Let Me Down which Bowie considered to be one of his worst albums. As 1989 rolled around he ditched his solo career and for a short while became part of a band called Tin Machine.
The 1990's rolled in and he got married again in 1992 this time to Somali supermodel Iman. He released various albums of varying musical styles during the 90's and created the soundtrack for Omikron, a 1999 computer game.
In 2004 he experienced chest pains while performing in Germany. What was originally thought to be a pinched nerve turned out to be a blocked artery requiring heart surgery. Since recuperating from his emergency angioplasty Bowie has reduced his musical output and only does infrequent work on stage or in studio.
Yet his lifetime of work is recognized and accoladed often. In 2002 the BBC ranked David Bowie #29 on it's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. In 2004 Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #39 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time" and #23 on their list of best singers of all time. In 2006 he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His importance and legacy to the rock world was once explained by famed British radio DJ John Peel who said, "The one distinguishing feature about early 70's progressive rock was that it didn't progress. Before Bowie came along, people didn't want too much change."
Lyrics:
I don't want to go out
I wont stay in
Get things done
I catch a paper boy
But things don't really change
I'm standing in the wind
But I never wave bye-bye
But I try, I try
There's no sign of life
It's just the power to charm
I'm lying in the rain
But I never wave bye-bye
But I try, I try
Never gonna fall for
Modern love - walks beside me
Modern love - walks on by
Modern love - gets me to the church on time
Church on time - terrifies me
Church on time - makes me party
Church on time - puts my trust in god and man
God and man - no confessions
God and man - no religion
God and man - don't believe in modern love
It's not really work
It's just the power to charm
I'm still standing in the wind
But I never wave bye bye
But I try, I try
Never gonna fall for
Modern love - walks beside me
Modern love - walks on by
Modern love - gets me to the church on time
Church on time - terrifies me
Church on time - makes me party
Church on time - puts my trust in god and man
God and man - no confessions
God and man - no religion
God and man - don't believe in modern love
Modern love - walks beside me
Modern love - walks on by
Modern love - gets me to the church on time
Church on time - terrifies me
Church on time - makes me party
Church on time - puts my trust in god and man
God and man - no confessions
God and man - no religion
God and man - I don't believe in modern love
Modern love, Modern love, Modern love, Modern love, Modern love, Modern love
Modern love, Modern love, Modern love, Modern love, Modern love, Modern love
Modern love - Modern love, walks beside me
Modern love - Modern love, walks on by
Modern love - Modern love, walks beside me
Modern love - Modern love, walks on by
Never gonna fall for
Never gonna fall for
No comments:
Post a Comment