I got into Bowie during the '80s, when all of his classic pre-Let’s Dance albums were out of print. I had a copy of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy etc which I got from a K-mart cheap cassette bin and I eventually found a copy of ChangestwoBowie, but I think I mostly satisfied my Bowie jones by reading biographies of him*. I think I read three of them.
*I first heard about Eno from reading one of these, Stardust: The David Bowie Story by Edwards and Zanetta. The book claimed that Eno used to film himself having sex because he felt his technique should be preserved.
This is exactly the cognitive reframing my emotional brain needs today (actually, make that every day). Same landscape, much better view. Thanks for sharing this.
When I bought my first CD player in the 80’s, a Bowie album was the first disk I bought for it - ChangesOneBowie,
First time I saw him live in concert wasn’t till I was 21 in 1987.
At the time, he was touring with Frampton on guitar, which was a pretty cool little bonus…
I saw him live several other times and I’m trying to think of someone that could command a stage like that and I cannot.
As a young kid, I used to sneak and stay up late and watch this video show (pre-MTV) and this is what got me hooked on his music at age 13 -
About ten ago while my wife was away on business, she called me from an airplane just prior to takeoff and whispered “David Bowie is on my flight.” We had tickets to see his show in the coming weeks and I was super excited that she was sitting on a plane with him. I asked her if she could try to get him to scribble an autograph on a napkin for me and her response was “No, I’m not going to bother him.” I’m so glad that I married such a sensible person. Looking back now, I would have been mortified if she had done that on my behalf. Anyway, we went to his show a couple weeks later and had the time of our lives. Words can’t adequately describe what an enormous talent he was.
“Let’s Dance” is one of the first albums I remember listening to with any regularity as a child (my dad friggin loved that album, he played the tape over and over when we were in the car). I don’t have many strong memories connected to my dad since he my parents split when I was young, and he died when I was only 16 (so I didn’t really get to know him as an adult), but that album is one of my strongest memories of him. I was never really a fan of much of his music, but for that connection to my dad alone, I am sad for his passing today.
I had never had any Bowie albums before, although I liked what I heard of his collaborations with Eno. So, I just got “Outside” yesterday, and was planning to listen to it today. Only to start my day reading of his passing. Faaaahk…
Nobody but his closest family and collaborators did, it seems; even Brian Eno, who says he and Bowie corresponded fairly constantly, was shocked to hear he’d been ill and had died.[quote=“popobawa4u, post:53, topic:71910”]
So, I just got “Outside” yesterday, and was planning to listen to it today.
[/quote]
While I enjoy lots of stuff on Outside, I’ll warn you that it’s a challenging listen, even by Bowie standards. A better place to start for Bowie/Eno would be “Heroes” or Low, in my opinion.
That’s the only time I saw him (I was 17). I’m not sure which memory is stronger: the Glass Spider, or a potential date for the concert turning me down.
That’s why I chose it! I very much prefer uncompromising and unclassifiable music to most any pop - even extremely well-crafted pop.
Probably. Although I have heard these before. Over the years, I have been exposed to most of Bowie’s more well-known work. I shared a loft for a year or two with a friend who almost exclusively listened to his 60s and 70s stuff. So I wanted to get something which I also hadn’t heard before - apart from “Deranged”, which Lynch used in Lost Highway. I am looking forward to listening into some Bowie, rather than having it played in the background or at a party. Also, “Heroes” and Low are regarded more as classics, so I probably would not have scored either for the pittance I paid for Outside. There was a confluence of factors.
