Ten on Tuesday . . .
Today's Ten on Tuesday theme is: 10 Favorite David Bowie Songs.
I was saddened to wake yesterday and hear of David Bowie's passing. So hard to believe that I won't hear anything new from him any more . . . Blackstar just dropped on Friday, so there's that - made all the more poignant by producer Tony Visconte's assertion that Blackstar was David Bowie's parting gift to his fans. I'm so clueless I didn't catch on just watching the videos that were released. And of course, now that I know, I can't stop watching them and listening to the other tracks - listening and watching a man who apparently knew that he was dying. Hearing what he had to say - watching him make compelling art out of yet another stage - the last one - of his life.
I have a vivid memory from the early 1980s of putting my money in the jukebox at the Officer's Club in Heidelberg, Germany (my boyfriend was the bartender), and punching in the number for Under Pressure and dancing to it. Over and over. By myself. In the bar. And I remember how completely pissed I was at Vanilla Ice for sampling that iconic baseline. I've been a Bowie fangirl from the beginning, and I lived in Germany in the late 1970s/early 1980s when he was writing in Berlin and was so popular.
It's just so hard to think that one of my favorite musical artists is gone at what seems to me to be the relatively young age of 69. But, as author, J.T. Ellison (I had the pleasure of meeting her on the Isle of Skye a few years ago) said yesterday on her blog, "It is inevitable, these deaths, I am at an age now where this is becoming more and more clear."
So am I - at an age . . . it's unnerving.
I'm very grateful that I saw him live in Denver in June 1990. It was the Sound + Vision tour. It was amazing. And then, in November 2014, the only American stop for the Victoria & Albert Museum's exhibition, David Bowie is was at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art - both the concert and the exhibition were seen with a bestie - my dear friend, C - who, although she liked his music found him vaguely creepy to watch for any great length of time - which is kinda funny to me since I've always found him to be that cross between compelling and attractive.
I had plans to go back to the MCA to see "David Bowie is" again before it left town, and had I not been in a car accident I would have. I'd have taken a day, got the earliest ticket I could, and gone and stayed in the exhibit all day, watching and reading every bit of it. The catalog, thankfully, rests on one of my bookshelves - just as a number of his CDs rest on my music shelves and in my iPod, in reasonably heavy rotation.
So, in no particular order, here are 10 of my favorites. You've seen many of them in my posts here over time, but I never tire of watching and hearing them again.
1. Space Oddity - It's not the original, but I like this version which was done in 1972
2. Life on Mars. Most people watch what is called the "bleached" version, but I like the unbleached one. I think this was in the early 70s, too.
3. Young Americans. Live from the old Dick Cavett show. Yes, that's Luther Vandross in the blue leisure suit singing back up. 1974
4. The heartbreaking Where are we Now? 2013
5. Heroes - Still my very favorite, I think. Here are a couple of versions
The original - late 70s
And a 2002 version - live in Berlin.
6. Thursday's Child - 1999
7. Changes - turn and face the strange, baby . . . Best to just listen to this one :-) 1972
8. Under Pressure - a massive favorite. Seriously - David Bowie and Queen. What's not to like? This is the Queen mix.
Here's the "official music video" 1981
9. Survive 1999
10. Rebel Rebel 1974
I was saddened to wake yesterday and hear of David Bowie's passing. So hard to believe that I won't hear anything new from him any more . . . Blackstar just dropped on Friday, so there's that - made all the more poignant by producer Tony Visconte's assertion that Blackstar was David Bowie's parting gift to his fans. I'm so clueless I didn't catch on just watching the videos that were released. And of course, now that I know, I can't stop watching them and listening to the other tracks - listening and watching a man who apparently knew that he was dying. Hearing what he had to say - watching him make compelling art out of yet another stage - the last one - of his life.
I have a vivid memory from the early 1980s of putting my money in the jukebox at the Officer's Club in Heidelberg, Germany (my boyfriend was the bartender), and punching in the number for Under Pressure and dancing to it. Over and over. By myself. In the bar. And I remember how completely pissed I was at Vanilla Ice for sampling that iconic baseline. I've been a Bowie fangirl from the beginning, and I lived in Germany in the late 1970s/early 1980s when he was writing in Berlin and was so popular.
It's just so hard to think that one of my favorite musical artists is gone at what seems to me to be the relatively young age of 69. But, as author, J.T. Ellison (I had the pleasure of meeting her on the Isle of Skye a few years ago) said yesterday on her blog, "It is inevitable, these deaths, I am at an age now where this is becoming more and more clear."
So am I - at an age . . . it's unnerving.
I'm very grateful that I saw him live in Denver in June 1990. It was the Sound + Vision tour. It was amazing. And then, in November 2014, the only American stop for the Victoria & Albert Museum's exhibition, David Bowie is was at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art - both the concert and the exhibition were seen with a bestie - my dear friend, C - who, although she liked his music found him vaguely creepy to watch for any great length of time - which is kinda funny to me since I've always found him to be that cross between compelling and attractive.
I had plans to go back to the MCA to see "David Bowie is" again before it left town, and had I not been in a car accident I would have. I'd have taken a day, got the earliest ticket I could, and gone and stayed in the exhibit all day, watching and reading every bit of it. The catalog, thankfully, rests on one of my bookshelves - just as a number of his CDs rest on my music shelves and in my iPod, in reasonably heavy rotation.
So, in no particular order, here are 10 of my favorites. You've seen many of them in my posts here over time, but I never tire of watching and hearing them again.
1. Space Oddity - It's not the original, but I like this version which was done in 1972
2. Life on Mars. Most people watch what is called the "bleached" version, but I like the unbleached one. I think this was in the early 70s, too.
4. The heartbreaking Where are we Now? 2013
5. Heroes - Still my very favorite, I think. Here are a couple of versions
The original - late 70s
And a 2002 version - live in Berlin.
6. Thursday's Child - 1999
7. Changes - turn and face the strange, baby . . . Best to just listen to this one :-) 1972
8. Under Pressure - a massive favorite. Seriously - David Bowie and Queen. What's not to like? This is the Queen mix.
Here's the "official music video" 1981
9. Survive 1999
10. Rebel Rebel 1974
Shit. How can you pick only 10???
Fame, Let's Dance, The Jean Genie, Ashes to Ashes, I could go on, and on, and on . . .
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