David Bowie's 1978 band

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Bent Fabric
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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby Bent Fabric » 18 Oct 2017, 19:10

Count Machuki wrote:
Bent Fabric wrote:Oh, yes - and how frustrating to be an artist in the scenario you describe. You go through all kinds of shit and have all of these peak experiences and for what? So that 75% of your audience can decide that some ancient passing phase was "the real you", or - at the very least - "the only you that mattered".


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it's in the DSM


I've always secretly believed that some "nothing to see here, folks" one hit wonder type (Smashmouth, Tommy Tutone, the Romantics, Johnny Rivers, Rick Dees, etc.) was writhing in existential agony, cranking out the hit at state fairs summer after summer while privately and anonymously developing all sorts of different "musics" (deeply personal and forward thinking epochal miracles) that the public would - sadly - never know about.

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bobzilla77
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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby bobzilla77 » 18 Oct 2017, 20:45

Indeed, what a shame Bowie wasn't more like Mike Love in that regard.

He shoulda stick to the formula.
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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby Tactful Cactus » 18 Oct 2017, 20:54

bobzilla77 wrote:Indeed, what a shame Bowie wasn't more like Mike Love in that regard.

He shoulda stick to the formula.


I would have gone to the 40th Anniversary Ziggy Stardust "Moonage Daydream" tour with hologram Mick Ronson and an encore of Dancing in the Street

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Snarfyguy
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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby Snarfyguy » 18 Oct 2017, 20:58

Johnny Rivers actually had a lot of hits.
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Bent Fabric
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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby Bent Fabric » 18 Oct 2017, 21:44

Snarfyguy wrote:Johnny Rivers actually had a lot of hits.


Yeah, he's certainly shorthand for something, but - much like, say, Gary Puckett - I'm loathe to diminish his contributions. By all accounts, he'd probably sue.

("Summer Rain" is the real sleeper for me - once you get past the garish Beatles reference, the Wrecking Crew are doing some good shit)

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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby fange » 19 Oct 2017, 01:02

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Needs more bouzouki.
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The Modernist
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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby The Modernist » 19 Oct 2017, 01:37

This thread has totally lost me!

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Count Machuki
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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby Count Machuki » 19 Oct 2017, 02:51

The Modernist wrote:This thread has totally lost me!


When Rick Dees' harrowing, confessional man-and-a-guitar record is finally exhumed from the archives THEN you'll get it.

I know he's got a Pink Moon in him, and I hope the record is called Dees is Nuts.
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Hightea
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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby Hightea » 19 Oct 2017, 22:10

Nice clip from that tour, wish I saw that tour in such a small venue. I was at one of the Stage album shows. It was the first time seeing Bowie and was blown away. Of course I don't have the same opinion about this show as most if not all here. The mix of Carlos Alomar with Belew was wonderful. Belew (who we had already seen with Zappa) gave all the great accents this tour needed. The setlist was nice although the best stuff for this band was the Low/Heroes/Station to Station. I thought the Ziggy stuff sounded a little off. The early 70's band covered it much better.
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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby Bent Fabric » 20 Oct 2017, 13:04

Hightea wrote: It was the first time seeing Bowie and was blown away. Of course I don't have the same opinion about this show as most if not all here.


Oh, for sure - I can comparatively nitpick various iterations of his thing over the years while watching a YouTube clip played on my computer 40 years after the fact, but I'd surely trade nearly any Bowie show I subsequently saw (this assuredly includes Tin Machine...rarely has being front row for Bowie meant so little) for the Stage version. Quite a few of my "older brother" type Bowiephiles claim either 1976 or 1978 Bowie as their first live music experience ever - I would imagine that would cast a fairly long shadow. "Warsazawa" and "Art Decade" are the two I always imagine as "yeah, that would've been the shit, for sure".

He always kept a fair amount of Low material in the act on tours I saw towards the end of his performing career - and, yes, they were always the highlights of the gig.

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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby Hightea » 20 Oct 2017, 14:31

Bent Fabric wrote:
Hightea wrote: It was the first time seeing Bowie and was blown away. Of course I don't have the same opinion about this show as most if not all here.


Oh, for sure - I can comparatively nitpick various iterations of his thing over the years while watching a YouTube clip played on my computer 40 years after the fact, but I'd surely trade nearly any Bowie show I subsequently saw (this assuredly includes Tin Machine...rarely has being front row for Bowie meant so little) for the Stage version. Quite a few of my "older brother" type Bowiephiles claim either 1976 or 1978 Bowie as their first live music experience ever - I would imagine that would cast a fairly long shadow. "Warsazawa" and "Art Decade" are the two I always imagine as "yeah, that would've been the shit, for sure".

He always kept a fair amount of Low material in the act on tours I saw towards the end of his performing career - and, yes, they were always the highlights of the gig.

ha yes I saw the Tin Machine Tour up close too. Then again I forgot to mention when I saw Bowie in 78 my brother got tickets by sleeping in front of the spectrum for tickets we had 10th row center. I saw a few tours after(glass spider tour, outside tour) that just weren't as good. Then I was lucky to catch Bowie for the last time(except for a few songs he played with Arcade Fire) on his 5 boro NYC tour-I caught him in the Bronx at Jimmy's Cafe(500 people tops). But year nothing compared to that first time.

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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby The Modernist » 20 Oct 2017, 14:40

The Serious Moonlight tour is where it's at!

maybe not.

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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby Bent Fabric » 20 Oct 2017, 14:53

Hightea wrote: I saw a few tours after(glass spider tour, outside tour) that just weren't as good


Yeah, I was certainly excited to see Outside at the time (was going to be my second Bowie show, and first in five years), and...yeah, that was a pretty major letdown. I can (and certainly do) admire his bravery (taking a very "difficult" and awkward act out on the road, no hits whatsoever, performing mere seconds after a huge contemporary act had come out and performed all of their hits) until the cows come home, but I'd be stunned if anyone looked back on those sort of robotic and stilted arrangements of "Andy Warhol" and "The Man Who Sold The World" and claimed it as their peak Bowie experience.

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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby Jimbly » 20 Oct 2017, 17:53

The Modernist wrote:The Serious Moonlight tour is where it's at!

maybe not.



only time I saw him.

it was shite
So Long Kid, Take A Bow.

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The Modernist
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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby The Modernist » 20 Oct 2017, 18:23

Jeemo wrote:
The Modernist wrote:The Serious Moonlight tour is where it's at!

maybe not.



only time I saw him.

it was shite


It was great to see him and it was a great setlist. But I was very aware I was getting a mass appeal Bowie and the band were too given to 80s excess. They weren't exactly sympathetic arrangements.

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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby Jimbly » 20 Oct 2017, 18:33

The Modernist wrote:
Jeemo wrote:
The Modernist wrote:The Serious Moonlight tour is where it's at!

maybe not.



only time I saw him.

it was shite


It was great to see him and it was a great setlist. But I was very aware I was getting a mass appeal Bowie and the band were too given to 80s excess. They weren't exactly sympathetic arrangements.


in Edinburgh it rained all day, never stopped, stood in an endless puddle, fags got soaked, had to suffer Icehouse and the Thompson Twins. then Bowie came on, kept well back from the front of the stage in case he got wet. my memory is the backing vocalists did most of the heavy lifting.
So Long Kid, Take A Bow.

Bent Fabric
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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby Bent Fabric » 20 Oct 2017, 18:35

His recorded body of work seems to invite something approaching "general consensus", but those of us who saw him really got a wide range of experiences - and, statistically, we'd have all had different opportunities to see him. different points of entry, etc. You go see, I dunno, X or Buzzcocks and there's a pretty good sense of what's going to happen. Your average Bowie fan, on the other hand, was nearly always engaging in something of a gamble.

You could easily survey people on this sort of thing and probably get a wide range of responses to shared experiences (i.e. nothing about Glass Spider makes me wish I'd been there, but...I have friends who ONLY saw him then and are probably eternally grateful for the experience).

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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby The Slider » 21 Oct 2017, 17:58

Frankly he was never a truly great live act
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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby naughty boy » 21 Oct 2017, 18:14

R. Swipe wrote:as with all Bowie eras - I'd much rather listen to the records.
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.

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Re: David Bowie's 1978 band

Postby The Slider » 21 Oct 2017, 18:20

The records are perfect
His live interpretations rarely come close
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