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I recall Stevie being pissed off at Bowie for appearing to play SRV's guitar part in the Let's Dance video, and refusing to tour based on that. But that's my 42 year old brain trying to recall something my 11 year old brain took in.

 

I have the same issue with Mrs. Sharp's rack.

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One of the very few eclectic rockers who reinvented himself with great success through out his whole career.  

I remember a Ptichfork list of 'best albums of the 70s' and Aladdin Sane was #1.  Very cool.  

Never a huge fan, but Hunky Dory and Ziggy!  Come on!!

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One of the things that's always bugged me about the way Bowie is usually covered is the agreed upon assumption that his 80s sellout was awful. If it wasn't for his 80s sellout, I'm not sure I would've discovered him. If I didn't discover him, I'm not sure I would've discovered the Velvet Underground and Iggy Pop.

 

Let's Dance is a good album. Tonight and Never Let Met Down are pretty awful, but if those albums drew others like me to dig further into his catalog, his influences, and those he influenced, then selling out was the best damn idea he ever had.

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Blackstar is a really good record.  I was fortunate enough to listen to it a couple times this weekend, before we all heard the bad news on Monday.  Knowing what we know now about his health struggles, the record certainly takes on a new level of meaning and poignancy.  But it's still a good record on its own.  Musically it's a cool and weird blend of styles and textures and sounds and all things Bowie.  Vocally, David's voice is still just amazing, and astonishing for someone 68 years old.  I haven't had enough time with it to process all the lyrics, but Lazarus is definitely a great song lyrically.  

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theashtraysays: Your post is eerie. I am sometimes on a music podcast. We recorded one re Blackstar on Thursday. Listening to the conversation today sent chills down my spine, for reasons similar to what you described. Seeing what you wrote, I feel compelled to offer the link below.

 

I'm struggling with this more than I have struggled with a celebrity death in a while, perhaps since Jay Bennett died (not comparing Jay and Bowie, of course). Maybe Phillip Seymour Hoffman, but again, he did not have anything close to the cultural impact that Bowie did/does; I was just a huge fan. Even Lou Reed's death did not set me reeling like this.

 

The last few days have been a great reminder of why music is so powerful and important. Think about how specific and deeply ingrained all of our feelings and associations with Bowie are to us, both individually and collectively. Can any art accomplish the same effect? I doubt it.

 

And I just want to say to you all that when the day comes that members of Wilco pass, I will be relying on you all to get me through it.

 

Anyway, here is the link to our podcast where we express naive (in retrospect) excitement about Bowie's new album and what it signals for what he may do next:

 

http://www.chunkyglasses.com/content/episode-148-david-bowie-black-star

 

Patrick

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I agree. I went on a huge Bowie binge Friday night. I loved it. Listened to Blackstar about 3x as well as some of the stuff I don't listen to very much, including the very crappy Never Let Me Down. I am really struck by how Bowie created his swan song. The album, the Lazarus video, the guy knew exactly what he was doing.I'm guessing he was really holding on strongly to outlive the release of Blackstar.

 

I never expected the outpouring of grief shown to him. 

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Blackstar is a really good record.  I was fortunate enough to listen to it a couple times this weekend, before we all heard the bad news on Monday.  Knowing what we know now about his health struggles, the record certainly takes on a new level of meaning and poignancy.  But it's still a good record on its own.  Musically it's a cool and weird blend of styles and textures and sounds and all things Bowie.  Vocally, David's voice is still just amazing, and astonishing for someone 68 years old.  I haven't had enough time with it to process all the lyrics, but Lazarus is definitely a great song lyrically.  

 

Yeah, I really like "Lazarus", and the video for it is intense.

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What is all this nonsense about Bowie's "''80s sellout"?  If Bowie legitimately wanted to make a pop/dance record with Nile Rogers, and MTV videos to go along with it, then how is that a sellout?  I've never heard anything about Bowie doing something he wasn't genuinely interested in just so he could make money.

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What is all this nonsense about Bowie's "''80s sellout"?  If Bowie legitimately wanted to make a pop/dance record with Nile Rogers, and MTV videos to go along with it, then how is that a sellout?  I've never heard anything about Bowie doing something he wasn't genuinely interested in just so he could make money.

I don't think Let's Dance was the sellout - it's the two albums that followed that could be considered such:

 

From wikipedia's Let's Dance entry:

 

 

The success of the album surprised Bowie, who felt he had to continue to pander to the new pop audience he acquired with the album. This led to Bowie releasing two further solo albums in 1984 and 1987 that, despite their relative commercial success, did not sell as well as Let's Dance, were poorly received by critics at the time and subsequently dismissed by Bowie himself as his "Phil Collins years".[5] 
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A lot of bands made albums like that back then. That was the sound of a lot popular music in the early/mid 1980s.

 

I don't often listen to his albums but when I do I always listen to all the ones I have (Space Oddity through Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs). I saw a documentary once somewhere that had an interview with the guy who played the piano parts on the Aladdin Sane album. I recall it was rather interesting. 

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I still don't see how that's a sellout.  Did he not want to make those albums in that style?  Pursuing success is not the same as selling out.  Granted, the two albums after Let's Dance are not very good.  But to sell out, there must be an element of pandering, and I don't detect that.

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A lot of bands made albums like that back then. That was the sound of a lot popular music in the early/mid 1980s.

 

I don't often listen to his albums but when I do I always listen to all the ones I have (Space Oddity through Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs). I saw a documentary once somewhere that had an interview with the guy who played the piano parts on the Aladdin Sane album. I recall it was rather interesting. 

I wonder if that's the same one I saw earlier this year. It was a recent doc, called "5 years" - which looked at 5 crucial years in Bowie's career. I think the BBC made it. It was very interesting.

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I still don't see how that's a sellout.  Did he not want to make those albums in that style?  Pursuing success is not the same as selling out.  Granted, the two albums after Let's Dance are not very good.  But to sell out, there must be an element of pandering, and I don't detect that.

I tried to find a youtube clip of an interview in '87. I remember watching it at the time. He pretty much admitted to it. The only quote I could find from the interview is unsourced, but I remember it like it was yesterday because my brother and I discussed it quite a bit.  

 

"I don't begrudge any artist for getting an audience. That's rubbish. I've never found that poverty meant purity." David Bowie

 

Again, I don't mind the attempt to grow his audience. It brought me into the fold as an adolescent and helped expand my music beyond Men at Work, Billy Joel, and whatever else radio and MTV were selling at the time.

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I would say which ones - but I actually just got all the albums except for the second one the night he died. I haven't listened to them enough to know the song titles. Which reminds me - I may get that Bowie album Pin Ups.

 

The internet is a funny place. The woman from the China Girl video is giving her two cents about how Bowie changed her life. And then around that you see posts about how he objectified Chinese women in the video.

 

Iggy Pop actually wrote that song with David and it is on Iggy's album The idiot (1977). 

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