#30daysofbowie

“Sister Midnight” from the Reality tour. This performance from the Vienna show is particularly good IMO, darker than usual with brilliant vocal harmony.

It’s no secret I am a mega David Bowie fan. My obsession began when Ryko started re-issueing Bowie’s entire RCA catalog back in 1990. I knew of Bowie of course, and I was a fan, but I wasn’t quite the maniacal rabid fiend yet. The discovery sent me spiraling back and digging up every one of his older releases and drooling in anticipation for the next one. I joined a Bowie fan club and won tickets to see Tin Machine in LA. Got there early as fuck and stood at the very front withstanding the pressure of masses squashing my wee frame. 

I decided to take a stab at writing music because nothing else could capture the feeling he evoked in me — his music, yes, but it was more than that, he was art come to life.

word count of everything i wrote about each song i posted: 10,527 words

list of songs posted:

space oddity

rebel rebel

moonage daydream

love is lost

teenage wildlife

station to station

thru these architects eyes

afraid

lazarus

heroes

john i’m only dancing

i can’t read

starman

dancing in the street

dancing out in space

stay

life on mars?

i have not been to oxford town

hallo spaceboy

under pressure

velevet goldmine

five years

diamond dogs

all the young dudes

boys keep swinging

everyone says hi

it’s no game (part 1 + part 2)

dead man walking

the next day

(Better take care) The moon flows on to the edges of the world because of you (Again and again) And I'm awake in an age of light living it because of you (Better take care) I'm looking at the future solid as a rock because of you (Again and again) Wanna be here and I wanna be there Living just like you, living just like me

(Forever!...) Putting on my gloves and bury my bones in the marshland (Forever...!) Think about my soul but I don't need a thing, just the ring of the bell in the pure clean air

And I'm running down the street of life! And I'm never gonna let you die! And I'm never ever gonna get old! And I'm never ever gonna get I'm never ever gonna get...

#30daysofbowie - day 30!!!

when i started out this little project i’ve had a vague plan and this song was always meant to be, if not last, then somewhere in the last week, because it’s our birthday, innit? bowie’s and mine. and we’re sooooo old apparently but also, so so not gonna get old. seriously, look at how young he looks. this is from 2003/4, during A Reality Tour aka The Last Tour... and it was an amazing one. every time i watch something from it i love it, but i’m also always astounded-anew by how friggin young he looks in it.

now of course this is over a decade ago. but bowie still looks so young and he’s still never getting old. i assure you. and here’s the thing, i planned this song for today but of course now today has come and i listened to Blackstar and i really want to post something off it!! but i also can’t not post this song, can’t not mention this tour at least a little bit. also, this song has had huge importance for me and will probably continue to have it, but specifically this last year -- throughout my 25th year i’ve listened to this song a LOT. well, i’ve listened to bowie in general a LOOOOT, but this song was a popular pick for me, you could say!!

for me, when i listen to this song i always imagine myself addressing it to bowie. and i often think a lot of bowie’s songs really are addressed to himself, in a way, to a different persona maybe. but here i realize... i listen to this song and think about him, he performed this song and thought about ME. well, his audience. i’m not saying that’s the one stable addressee of this song, but here, in its live performance on A Reality Tour? he’s addressing the song to the fans. so i love the reciprocity of it.

so, let’s talk about this tour. A Reality Tour was such a huge endeavor for bowie. it was meant to be his longest tour ever. he had established his amazing band and made them learn ALL HIS SONGS (well, very many of them) so he could rotate the setlist often, which he did. they had a very good relationship and good energy and david’s outfit! ah, i can go on about the outfit. it’s not featured full here because he’s not wearing his jackets, but it consisted of simple (tight!) jeans and a tshirt, a scarf or two, a velvet jacket and another awesome destroyed jacket layered on top of it. (i’m probably describing it all badly but take a look at my A Reality Tour tag, it’s nothing really but it can be a nice intro to what this tour looked like) -- OH, AND THE HAIR! the hair was amazing, dyed blonde swept over his forehead... ah.

so he looked young, he sounded young, he acted young... this tour was amazing, like he was finally finding or reaching what he needed to be in that age, in that time. good band, playing all sorts of songs with a balance between old classics the audience expected and very new stuff. and he looked like he was having fun! then it all went to shit.

i hate it when people tell about these kind of things with an ominous vibe, and of course you can’t really read about or watch clips from A Reality Tour without very much knowing that this tour was cut short because of sudden heart problems, and that it would end up being Bowie’s Last Tour Ever. so, sure, yeah, we’re all thinking about it. but i hate it when people have to talk about things as if they were bad omens for what we know now was to come. like, bowie got a cold at some point during the tour, had trouble singing one night and cancelled a performance. and if i have to hear about the Lollipop Incident one more time (in one of the very last shows someone threw a lollipop and it hit bowie in the eye (the good eye? i think?) -- he joked about it and that was that!! but of course because it was a bit before... ugh. but i’m not immune, in the not-so-distant past i’ve searched specifically for clips from the Very Last Show (at the Hurricane Festival in Scheeßel, Germany, June 25th 2004), and watched them with a fearful curiosity. 

They can’t get enough of that doomsday song They can’t get enough of it all Listen! […] Here I am! Not quite dying! My body left to rot in a hollow tree Its branches throwing shadows on the gallows for me And the next day, And the next, And another day!

#30daysofbowie - day 29

penultimate day!!! there are so many songs i didn’t get to post, because i was keeping it spontaneous and posting all sorts of random stuff that FELT RIGHT on that day. that resulted in me never getting round to posting another song from this album, that i LOVE, and have planned (and promised) to talk more about in general. i almost didn’t write anything much about it but then i was like, shit, i’ve got things to say! so it got long.

so, this album. the return album. what struck me at some point after listening to it a few times is how accessible it is, how not-that-weird, quite-fun-and-dancey it is. and the lyrics, though very deep at times, tell clear stories, with named characters (something bowie has always loved and sometimes copied from lou reed, hmm...)

i’ve read, i’m pretty sure in marc spitz’s bowie biography, the suggestion that bowie tends to go back and forth between putting out something very strange and putting out something quite commercial (and that he’s not the only artist who does that). and that does sound like a useful strategy for someone who wants both to create weird, artistic, innovative stuff, and to be a popular star -- and those indeed seem to be bowie’s goals throughout his career. but does he still need to do that? i mean, it’s bowie, doesn’t he come with a built-in devout audience who will eat up any bloody thing he’ll give us (especially after the Silent Decade, god!) well, YES. no one is safe and automatically appreciated, even rock gods, but mostly: bitch wants to challenge himself. i can’t help but think here about that time in the 90′s, pre-Outside i believe it was, when bowie toured with the nine inch nails and performed (a set that included totally new songs!!) in front of nine inch nails fans, and had people in the audience walk out after NIN left the stage and bowie came on. he challenges himself. he doesn’t take this shit (success, acceptance, popularity, love) for granted.

and he’s very aware. aware of the state of pop culture, of how people see him, of media, everything. so putting out this album was very very self-aware. hell, the cover is meta as fuck. the first single references his most-critically-acclaimed berlin era, and the video for “The Stars Are Out Tonight”... and i don’t think The Next Day being easy or not-that-weird is bad. fuck, it’s one of my favorite bowie albums ever! i think it’s because the music is really good rock while the lyrics are deep an interesting. and i also love its stories, because i love stories

(all that being said - you know what this means. and we know what will come: Blackstar is gonna be a fucking weird album. of course it’s going to, we know this already. but look at how it fits what i said about going from something more-commercial to something more-artistic-and-new...)

so i was debating between two The Next Day songs to post: “The Stars are Out Tonight”, which is good but i mostly would wanna talk about the video, and this one, the title track, whose video i don’t really wanna talk about at all (it’s long and confusing and honestly, i don’t think i ever understood it but will endeavor to get it in future) - but the song, i love the song. “The Next Day” is probably my favorite song off The Next Day, and i don’t mind saying it! it’s one i love blasting and dancing wildly to, and if i could i would always scream the very important and amazing chorus. but it also has really dark twisted lyrics with an ancient religious story that i don’t fully grasp being told in it. none of my attempts at an interpretation will even satisfy me, so i won’t try just now

And I'm gone gone gone Now I'm older than movies Let me dance away Now I'm wiser than dreams Let me fly fly fly While I'm touching tomorrow And I know who's there When silhouettes fall

And I'm gone, like I'm dancing on angels And I'm gone, through the crack in the past Like a dead man walking 

#30daysofbowie - day 28!!

so this #30days project is almost over and it's officially well into birthday-week (two days before our birthday - bowie's 69 and my 26 - eek!), so i thought i'll finally get to posting some growing-old songs. haha if i had more days i'd probably have more songs to post -- about growing up, growing old, the passage of time.... after all, this (time and the future) is one of bowie's distinct themes throughout his career (that and space, mostly)

it’s also, finally, time to post a song from Earthling (1997). i love this album, but i think i mostly love the era. like, if i had to rate bowie aesthetics/styles, the Earthling look will be like, second or third. that’s how much i love it. it’s a development of the Outside look, not that different, but now with hair dyed the shade of red i’ve seen described as copper (though he will change his hair in all sorts of interesting ways throughout this era, including a MOHAWK, it will mostly maintain its cool spiky style -- oh, and that goatee!!), and outfits designed by Alexander McQueen (who was really just starting out as a designer at the time).