Showing posts with label Aladdin Sane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aladdin Sane. Show all posts
May 15, 2021
December 9, 2016
David Bowie articles/mentions
~
– ★ (Blackstar)
Cat People & John Heard
The Man Who Stole the World's Heart
Reel to reel tapes*:
– ★ (Blackstar)
Cat People & John Heard
The Man Who Stole the World's Heart
Labyrinthitis ~ a dizzy proposition
Arif Mardin ~ Glass Onion
Mott the Hoople ~ All the Young Dudes
Prince ~ Purple Rain
Lou Reed ~ Transformer
Mick Ronson ~ Slaughter on 10th Avenue
Saturday Night Fever ~ Disco Daze 2
Tom @ 80 ~ the play list
Arif Mardin ~ Glass Onion
Mott the Hoople ~ All the Young Dudes
Prince ~ Purple Rain
Lou Reed ~ Transformer
Mick Ronson ~ Slaughter on 10th Avenue
Saturday Night Fever ~ Disco Daze 2
Tom @ 80 ~ the play list
January 10, 2016
David Bowie ~ The Man Who Stole the World's Heart
David Bowie died today. Somehow, I never imagined that would happen! I was stunned when I heard the news; he had cancer but I wasn't aware of it. He carefully planned his end. There is an article about this in the Guardian (link below). He was 69 years old.
I recall seeing him on September 17, 1983, during his Serious Moonlight Tour at the Oakland Coliseum; I had also seen Pink Floyd there years earlier.
It was the transition from his previous androgynous glam rock look . . .
I recall seeing him on September 17, 1983, during his Serious Moonlight Tour at the Oakland Coliseum; I had also seen Pink Floyd there years earlier.
Serious Moonlight Tour poster
It was the transition from his previous androgynous glam rock look . . .
David Bowie performs Rebel Rebel
on TV show TopPop - 1974
photo by : Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns
. . . and he looked fantastic!
photo by Denis O’Regan
I don't think I've ever seen a man so stylishly and impeccably dressed.
There are so many of his songs I like. My favorites are, Cat People (Putting out Fire), from the 1982 film, Cat People, starring Nastassja Kinski, and featured on the Let's Dance album. Recorded in July 1981, the song was written by Bowie with producer Giorgio Moroder, a pioneer of synth disco and electronic music.
Another favorite song is "Heroes", from the album of the same name, written by David Bowie and Brian Eno in 1977.
Bowie also made many films. My favorite was the 1976, Sci-Fi movie, The Man Who Fell to Earth. He received the Saturn Award for Best Actor for this film. Some of the music used in the film was by John Phillips, of The Mamas & the Papas, and Japanese percussionist-composer Stomu Yamashta,
Another favorite song is "Heroes", from the album of the same name, written by David Bowie and Brian Eno in 1977.
Bowie also made many films. My favorite was the 1976, Sci-Fi movie, The Man Who Fell to Earth. He received the Saturn Award for Best Actor for this film. Some of the music used in the film was by John Phillips, of The Mamas & the Papas, and Japanese percussionist-composer Stomu Yamashta,
The photo at the top of the page is David Bowie in the ‘Tokyo Pop’ vinyl bodysuit designed by Yamamoto Kansai for the Aladdin Sane Tour, 1973.
"I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring."
- David Bowie
(Madison Square Gardens on his 50th birthday)
Net links:
David Bowie articles on the Viewfinder:
David Bowie 1 ~ Hunky Dory
David Bowie 2 ~ The Man Who Sold the World
David Bowie 3 ~ Aladdin Sane
David Bowie 4 ~ Pin Ups
David Bowie 5 ~ Space Oddity
Discography
Filmography
The Guardian ~ David Bowie Planned His End
Obituaries:
The New York Times
BBC News
The Guardian
The Hollywood Reporter
David Bowie songs on YouTube:
"Heroes"
He is gone but his work will live on forever!
Styrous® ~ Sunday, January 10, 2016
~
~
February 18, 2014
101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes 42: David Bowie 3 ~ Aladdin Sane
album back detail
detail photo by Styrous®
I have hundreds of reel-to-reel, pre-recorded tapes in addition to my 20,000 Vinyl LP collection I'm selling. This is an entry about one of them. I will have Aladdin Sane, the third in the series of my David Bowie tapes, up for sale on eBay on May 15, 2014. (link below). I currently have other David Bowie reel-to-reel tapes on eBay for sale right now. Interested? Contact me by email, please, not by a comment.
~ ~ ~
Aladdin Sane is a pun on "A Lad Insane". An early variation was
"Love Aladdin Vein", which David Bowie dropped partly because of its
drug connotations. Although technically a new Bowie 'character', Aladdin Sane was a development of Ziggy Stardust in his appearance and persona, as evidenced on the cover by Brian Duffy and in Bowie's live performances throughout 1973 that culminated in Ziggy's 'retirement' at the Hammersmith Odeon in July of that year.
Aladdin Sane was his sixth album and the follow up to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. It had a tougher rock sound than its predecessor Ziggy Stardust, especially on tracks like Panic in Detroit (built around a Bo Diddley beat) and Bowie's breakneck version of the Rolling Stones' Let's Spend the Night Together. It is basically a prog rock album; although, there are some good songs on it, it is a lot of dissonance but not much interesting experimenting going on with one exception.
The exception, and my favorite song on the album, is, Lady Grinning Soul, a beautiful ballad that has a spectacular, dramatic piano intro. The piano (played by Mike Garson) is an integral element in the song. Garson described his own performance as "about as romantic as it gets … French with a little Franz Liszt thrown in there". It also has a wonderful Spanish guitar accompaniment. Author, Nicholas Pegg considers the track "one of Bowie's most underrated recordings … quite unlike anything else he has ever done." Bowie's first meeting with American soul singer Claudia Lennear in 1972 has been cited as the inspiration for the song.
The major hits from the album were, The Jean Genie and Drive-In Saturday. Genie is a heavy R&B chug with lyrics loosely based on Iggy Pop. It is the only song on the album that Bowie has played in concert throughout his career. Drive-In is a futuristic doo-wop number describing a time when the population has to relearn sex by watching old porn movies (umm . . interesting).
The 'Genie' look of Aladdin Sane was the team effort of Celia Philo, who did the album cover design, Pierre Laroche, who did the make-up, and the photography of Duffy Philo.
Striped bodysuit for Aladdin Sane tour, 1973
Design by
Kansai Yamamoto
Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita
© Sukita / The David
Bowie Archive 2012
Aladdin Sane was his sixth album and the follow up to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. It had a tougher rock sound than its predecessor Ziggy Stardust, especially on tracks like Panic in Detroit (built around a Bo Diddley beat) and Bowie's breakneck version of the Rolling Stones' Let's Spend the Night Together. It is basically a prog rock album; although, there are some good songs on it, it is a lot of dissonance but not much interesting experimenting going on with one exception.
The exception, and my favorite song on the album, is, Lady Grinning Soul, a beautiful ballad that has a spectacular, dramatic piano intro. The piano (played by Mike Garson) is an integral element in the song. Garson described his own performance as "about as romantic as it gets … French with a little Franz Liszt thrown in there". It also has a wonderful Spanish guitar accompaniment. Author, Nicholas Pegg considers the track "one of Bowie's most underrated recordings … quite unlike anything else he has ever done." Bowie's first meeting with American soul singer Claudia Lennear in 1972 has been cited as the inspiration for the song.
The major hits from the album were, The Jean Genie and Drive-In Saturday. Genie is a heavy R&B chug with lyrics loosely based on Iggy Pop. It is the only song on the album that Bowie has played in concert throughout his career. Drive-In is a futuristic doo-wop number describing a time when the population has to relearn sex by watching old porn movies (umm . . interesting).
The 'Genie' look of Aladdin Sane was the team effort of Celia Philo, who did the album cover design, Pierre Laroche, who did the make-up, and the photography of Duffy Philo.
reel-to-reel box front cover
album cover design by Celia Philo
make-up by Pierre Laroche
photo by Duffy Philo
detail photo by Styrous®
album cover design by Celia Philo
make-up by Pierre Laroche
photo by Duffy Philo
detail photo by Styrous®
It was one of six Bowie entries in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time (at #277) and ranked #77 on Pitchfork Media's list of the top 100 albums of the 1970s.
Bowie described Aladdin Sane as simply "Ziggy goes to
America"; most of the tracks observations he composed on the road
during his 1972 US tour—the reason for the place names following each
song title on the original record sleeve. Biographer Christopher Sandford believed the album showed that Bowie "was simultaneously appalled and fixated by America".
Bowie's mixed feelings about the journey stemmed, in his words, from
"wanting to be up on the stage performing my songs, but on the other
hand not really wanting to be on those buses with all those strange
people... So Aladdin Sane was split down the middle." This kind of "schizophrenia",
as Bowie describes it, was conveyed on the cover by his makeup, where a
lightning bolt represents the duality of mind, although he would later
tell friends that the "lad insane" of the album's title track was
inspired by his brother Terry, who had been diagnosed as a
schizophrenic.
Bowie himself came up with the idea of the lightning bolt over his
face, but said the teardrop was Brian Duffy's idea: "He [Brian] put on
that afterward, just popped it in there. I thought it was rather sweet."
Aladdin Sane debuted at the top of the UK charts and reached #17
in America, making it Bowie's most successful album commercially in both
countries to that date. The album is estimated to have sold 4.6 million
copies worldwide, making it one of Bowie's highest-selling LP's.
Track listing:
Side one:
No. Title Length
1. "Watch That Man" - 4:30
2. "Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?)" - 5:06
3. "Drive-In Saturday" - 4:33
4. "Panic in Detroit" - 4:25
5. "Cracked Actor" - 3:01
Side two:
No. Title Length
1. "Time" - 5:15
2. "The Prettiest Star" - 3:31
3. "Let's Spend the Night Together" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) - 3:10
4. "The Jean Genie" - 4:07
1. "Time" - 5:15
2. "The Prettiest Star" - 3:31
3. "Let's Spend the Night Together" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) - 3:10
4. "The Jean Genie" - 4:07
5. "Lady Grinning Soul" - 3:54
Personnel:
Personnel:
- David Bowie – guitar, harmonica, keyboards, saxophone, vocals
- Mick Ronson – guitar, piano, vocals
- Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
- Mick "Woody" Woodmansey – drums
Additional personnel:
- Mike Garson – piano
- Ken Fordham – saxophone
- Brian "Bux" Wilshaw – saxophone, flute
- Linda Lewis – backing vocals
- Juanita "Honey" Franklin – backing vocals
- G.A. MacCormack – backing vocals
Production personnel:
- David Bowie – producer, arrangements
- Ken Scott – producer, engineer
- Mick Moran – engineer
- Mick Ronson – arrangements
Music links:
Aladdin Sane (complete album) on YouTubeAladdin Sane on YouTube
Lady Grinning Soul on YouTube
The Jean Genie on YouTube
The Prettiest Star on YouTube
Time on YouTube
Drive-In Saturday on YouTube
Panic in Detroit on YouTube
Cracked Actor on YouTube
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane reel-to-reel tape on eBay
reel-to-reel listings on eBay
more reel-to-reel tapes on the Styrous® Viewfinder:
reel-to-reel tape archive
reel-to-reel tape archive
Styrous® ~ February 18, 2014
~
January 3, 2014
101 Reel-To-Reel Tapes 31: David Bowie tapes on eBay in 2014
Album cover design by Celia Philo
make-up by Pierre Laroche
photo by Duffy Philo
detail photo of front cover and photoshop by Styrous®
~ ~ ~
In addition to my 20,000 Vinyl LP collection I'm selling, I have hundreds of reel-to-reel, pre-recorded tapes I am selling as well. This is an entry about five of my David Bowie reel-to-reel tapes that will be up for sale on eBay in 2014 (see dates and links below). As I list each one on the auction site, I'll make a new blog entry about it. Interested? Contact me by email but please, not through a comment.
reel-to-reel tape box
photo by Brian Ward
photo of box cover by Styrous®
on eBay on February 15, 2014
1972 US release on RCA Records
reel-to-reel tape box
photographer unknown
photo of album cover by Styrous®
on eBay on March 15, 2014
David Bowie ~ Aladdin Sane
reel-to-reel tape box
Album cover design by Celia Philo
make-up by Pierre Laroche
photo by Duffy Philo
photo of tape box by Styrous®
on eBay on May 15, 2014
photo of album cover by Styrous®
on eBay on June 15, 2014
David Bowie ~ Space Oddity
reel-to-reel tape box
photo by Brian Ward
photo by Brian Ward
photo of album cover by Styrous®
on eBay on July 15, 2014
David Bowie reel-to-reel tapes for sale on eBay:
February 15, 2014 Hunky Dory
March 15, 2014 The Man Who Sold the World
May 15, 2014 Aladdin Sane
June 15, 2014 Pinups
July 15, 2014 Space Oddity
March 15, 2014 The Man Who Sold the World
May 15, 2014 Aladdin Sane
June 15, 2014 Pinups
July 15, 2014 Space Oddity
Styrous® ~ January 1, 2014
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)