Am I the only Bowie fanatic around here?

You know, I've got to hand it to Bowie. He's been around 35 years, has dozens of albums out, and yet no two of his songs sound alike. The man is so far ahead of his time that I don't think the rest of us have even caught up to his first albums yet. Not to mention that he is also a great actor and the sexiest creature on the planet!

Okay, enough gushing for now.

Favorite songs: There are too many to choose from. All the obvious ones, of course, like "Changes," "'Heroes'," "Space Oddity," etc.

Some of the more obscure songs I like are "Secret Life of Arabia" ("I was running at the speed of light, from one-inch thoughts and fantasies...."), "Life on Mars," "Width of a Circle," "Black Country Rock," "Quicksand," "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud," "Moonage Daydream," "Janine" ("Janine, Janine, you'd like to know me well, but I've got things inside my head that even I can't face"), "Station to Station," "Stay," and on and on and on!

"Station to Station" is the only one of the obscure songs I've ever heard.

I actually prefer the Wallflowers' version of "Heroes".

My favorite David Bowie song, which is also the first one I ever heard, or at least remember hearing first, is "China Girl". I also like "I Am A DJ", "Fashion", and a few others.

I know his discolored eye is the result of an accident he had when he was a kid, but anyone know if he's blind in that eye?

I actually prefer the Wallflowers' version of "Heroes".
Blasphemy! (Just kidding.)

I'm not sure about the eye, but I've never heard anything about Bowie being blind. Assuming he can see all right, it was a happy accident. The eyes just add to his mystique.

'Sweet Thing' is my favourite.

In no particular order, I also like 'Absolute Beginners', 'After All', 'All the Madmen', 'Because You're Young', 'Blue Jean', 'Criminal World', 'Cygnet Committee', 'I'm Afraid of Americans', 'Glass Spider', 'Zeroes', 'Five Years', 'Station to Station', 'Thru These Architects Eyes', 'If I'm Dreaming my Life', It's Hard to be a Saint in the City', 'Lady Grinning Soul', 'The Man Who Sold the World', 'Move On', 'Tin Machine', 'Scary Monsters', 'Strangers When We Meet', 'Sex and the Church'... the list goes on! I first got into him through 'Labyrinth' - one of the best films ever made.

Apparently, the eye thing was from a playground fight or something.

I don't really rank the "Heroes" album itself very highly at all. Low was fantastic, as was Lodger, but of the Berlin sets, "Heroes" never really did it for me.

Bowie songs I like:

"'Heroes'", "China Girl", "Ashes to Ashes", "Scary Monsters (Super Creeps)", "Blue Jean", "Modern Love", "Five Years", "Suffragette City", "Moonage Daydream", "Fashion", "Rebel Rebel", "Changes", "Golden Years" and his duet with Queen, "Under Pressure".

I saw Bowie in concert back in `96, when he toured with nine inch nails. It was a kind of perversed show. Bowie had at that point sworn off of doing his hits any more (understandable on the one hand, but, uh, dude, what do you think people are going to your shows to hear?). The biggest hits he performed that night were "Scary Monsters" (as a duet with Trent Reznor of nine inch nails) and "Under Pressure" (very much worth the price of admission). Still, it was an interesting show.

Bowie was one of Stevie Ray Vaughan's earliest supporters. As a matter of fact, that's SRV playing guitar on the Let's Dance album. (You can really hear him on "China Girl" and "Let's Dance".)

The way I hear it , Benn, SRV was set to tour with Bowie but quit when he couldn't get payed more than scale. I saw that tour as MSG, he did a lot of back catalog stuff at that time. And, doesn't "China Girl" belong on the "Cover Songs" board?

Believe it or not, Barbara Streisand did "Life On Mars". I heard it at my father's one night, still not sure if I'm over it...

Stevie was invited to tour with Bowie. There were other factors involved in Vaughan turning down the gig. For one thing, SRV and Double Trouble's first album, Texas Flood had just been released. Stevie wanted to support the record. He was also uncomfortable with abandoning, even temporarily, Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon (Double Trouble). A temporary solution was arrived at that would have Stevie and Double Trouble to open for Bowie.

During some two days of downtime for the Bowie tour, SRV's manager lined up a gig for Double Trouble on an influential German music program. Bowie balked when he heard about the side action. He didn't like the idea of his support musicians upstaging him and advancing their own careers in the middle of a Bowie tour.

Bowie demanded Stevie's manager resign for the duration of the tour. Chesley Millikin, SRV's manager, hit the roof. He demanded to renogiate Stevie's contract, insisting Bowie increase the $300 a night fee.

When he asked Bowie's lawyer, Lee Eastman (yes, that Eastman), if the contract had been rewritten, Eastman said. "What contract?" That's when SRV bailed out of the tour.

(All the above information was taken from the book Stevie Ray Vaughan Caught In the Crossfire by Joe Nick Patoski and Bill Crawford. I highly recommend it to all SRV enthusiasts.)

MSG? Uh, I'm not sure what you mean, Miko. If you're refering to the nails/Bowie tour, yeah, Bowie did do a lot of obscure cuts.

"China Girl" was originally Iggy Pop, right?

Bowie quiz. An easy one. What is Bowie's real, and why did he change it?

Umm... that "as" should have been "at" (from my last post). Sorry 'bout the carelessness. And MSG is Madison Square Garden. I saw the "Let's Dance" tour there. I can see where the confusion came from...

Thanks for providing all the details regarding the SRV thing. He definitely did the right thing, he was already a known commodity when Texas Flood came out, no doubt due to his association with Bowie.

"China Girl" was originally released by Iggy Pop on The Idiot. Bowie produced and shares writing credit.

I'll take a stab at the name thing: His given name is David Jones and I suspect he changed it because of that other Jones guy.

The one with the Locker? Naw. The Thin White Ziggy Stardust was indeed born David Jones. And he did change his name to avoid The Monkees association.

Thanks for the clarification, Miko. I'm not sure I would've guessed MSG stood for Madison Square Garden though. I thought it had something to do with food additives at a Chinese Restaraunt.

PJW, you mentioned some great songs, especially 'After All', 'All the Madmen','Cygnet Committee', and 'Zeroes.' I already said this on the impromptu music board we had going on Religious Musings, but I love the guitar riff in the middle of 'Criminal World.'

"Strangers When We Meet" is a nice song. That one and "Thru' These Architect's Eyes" seem so out of place on the "Outside" album, because they are rather upbeat (at least the melodies are. I don't know about the lyrics. I think if I tried too hard to understand Bowie's lyrics, my head would explode!).

The "Outside" album really surprised me. Like I said above, no two of Bowie's songs sound alike to me, but something about "Outside" reminded me of his very early stuff. The theme of the album is very disgusting, but I like a lot of the songs on it. Besides the ones already mentioned, I also thought "Hallo Spaceboy," "The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)," "We Prick You," and "I'm Deranged" were very cool (right, why don't I just list the whole album?). My favorite is "No Control." I can never describe exactly why I like a Bowie song. I think his music works on a subtle, subconscious level, or at least more so than most artists.

Believe it or not, I just heard "It's Hard to be a Saint in the City" for the first time the other day, when I bought the "Sound + Vision II" album used. I really like that cut. I must own 20-odd Bowie albums, but there are so many songs I still have not heard. I kind of like it that way. There are always new (old) songs to be discovered.

Benn, I liked your picks from "Ziggy Stardust." "Suffragette City" is so fun. That goofy "Hey, man!" chorus, and the "Aaaawwww, wham bam thankyou ma'am!" My husband doesn't know a lot of English, but he asked me to teach him that line just because I shout it out so gleefully when ever I listen to that song. I thought it was untranslatable, but on the version of the album sold in Japan, someone has translated it perfectly, even down to the rhythm, rhyme and humor, as "Dotan battan gokurousan!"

"Ziggy" is another album that I would have to list every single song as a favorite. But to pick just a few others, "Hang on to Yourself," "Soul Love," and "It Ain't Easy" are also great.

I seem to remember hearing that at least one song on that album was a cover, either "It Ain't Easy" or "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide." Does anybody know which one, and who did the song originally?

The cover tune is probably "It Ain't Easy". It's the only one Bowie didn't write, or co-write.

Juli, that's so very true. I've heard covers on Bowie tribute albums of 'Holy Holy' and 'Girls', and these are the two songs I've yet to hear 'properly'. 'Girls' in particular sounds cool - a melancholic fusion of guitar and lyric.

'Outside' is fantastic, and a shot in the eye to all these people who continually chuck up 'Tin Machine' by way of summing up Bowie's later output, as though 'Tin Machine' was the be all and end all. And besides, there are certain tracks on the Tin Machine albums that (pours water down ants nest) are GOOD!

For me, there is almost always one song per album I'm not keen on. I don't tend to diss albums, but cuts. On 'Tonight', for example, I hate 'Don't Look Down'. But, as I see it, with all the experimentation Bowie does/did, you have to expect failures. Which is why for Tin Machine, I like the title track, for example. Bowie is not just about how something is said, but what is said - and the song 'Tin Machine' upholds this and actually reminds me of the 'Diamond Dogs' track, ('Leaning on the fire escape/not exactly well' in particular).

I saw in yesterday's paper where Bowie is being considered for the part of Frank Sinatra in a biopic of the Chairman of the Board. Wasn't his duet with Bing Crosby enough?

I know his discolored eye is the result of an accident he had when he was a kid, but anyone know if he's blind in that eye?
That's news to me. I never knew that about him, but then I don't really follow him, either.

Juli, do have just his records or do have them all on digitally remastered CDs? And how do you think they sound? Better?

Sorry, PJW, which part of what I said was so true?

I'm afraid I don't know much about Tin Machine. I bought one of their albums in 1989 and it didn't live up to my expectations. The next year I came to Japan, where cd's cost $30 a piece, and I've been here ever since, so my music collection is not growing as much as I would like it to. To make a long story short, I was never able to give Tin Machine a proper chance. Somebody gave me the "Tin Machine II" cd, but I haven't really listened to it more than a couple of times. The group just sounded kind of "noisy" to me. I'll have to give that cd another listen sometime soon. Can you recommend some good Tin Machine songs? Maybe I can find some used albums next time I go to the city.

Funny you mention "Tonight." I just saw that cd in the rental section of a video shop a few minutes ago and was thinking of renting it when my husband and I get videos later on tonight. That's another album I have in storage back in the States. I left a lot of my music there on purpose so I could "rediscover" it years later. I always liked "Don't Look Down," but I'll listen to it again tonight and see if there is some subtle awfulness to it that I never picked up on. I'm looking forward to hearing "Loving the Alien" for the first time in X years.

The only Bowie album I absolutely cannot stand is "Never Let Me Down." The whole thing is just to fluffy for me, and I don't love the Glass Spider stuff either, although it did seem to make for a cool stage on the tour of the same name (I've only seen it on video). I do like the song "Zeroes" from that album, though.

Juli, do have just his records or do have them all on digitally remastered CDs? And how do you think they sound? Better?
Well, Mark, I take what I can get! I started with "Let's Dance" on cassette when I was about 15 years old, and got hooked from there. I bought all the cassettes I could find, then I moved to LPs (cd's hadn't come out yet), which I copied onto cassettes because I'm such a klutz that I ruin records right away, and because our huge old record player was stored in the basement, not exactly the most pleasant place to listen to music. The first cd I ever bought was, I believe, the first Tin Machine album. Now cds are all I buy.

I like the crackly LP sound for some albums--it really suits "Diamond Dogs" and some of the early albums like "Space Oddity." I'm afraid I can't really answer your question beyond that, Mark, because I've never compared the various media on one decent sound system. I do think cds are vastly overrated, though. It seems like there is something "missing"--or is it just me?

Hmmmm. Bowie as Sinatra. Okay. What song did Bowie do with Bing Crosby, Benn?

Juli! A Bowie fan like you and you don't know about Bing and Bowie's duet!? Oh man. I don't know what year it was, mid-70's, I'd guess, and Crosby had a Christmas special on TV. Bowie was a guest (God knows why Bing would know about Ziggy, much less have him on his Christmas special). But at one point, he did a duet with Bowie; "Little Drummer Boy". I think it's a medley with "Peace On Earth". Don't quote me on that though. But God! I can't believe you've never seen that! Bing looks so uncomfortable! (Bowie's, er, lifestyle, perhaps?) It's hilarious! You can just tell Crosby wants to get the hell out of there.

I have no idea if it's on video, or if an audio recording exists. It's a clip that's usually shown on VH1. I hope you get to see it sometimes, though.

The Harry Hill / Burt Kwouk parody of the Bowie and Crosby duet (which lasted all of ten seconds) was funny. Ha. Ha. And indeed, Ha.

Not much of a fan, myself, but I'm starting to become interested in Bowie's work now. I like "Space Oddity", "Life on Mars", "Changes" and some of the other singles. Can anyone recommend an album to start off with?

I'm sorry, Benn, I'm a loser. What can I say? Would you believe I haven't even seen Bowie in concert? He doesn't come to Maine or Japan very often for some reason. (Hmph. Sting came to Portland in 1988, why not Bowie? Grumble grumble.)

I never watched music stations like VH1 or MTV very much, which might partly explain why I've never seen the Bowie/Crosby clip. Anyways, like I say, it's part of my plan to "save" stuff like that for the time when--god forbid--Bowie stops producing new work. Which should be (*checking watch*) sometime around the year 2050.

Not much of a fan, myself, but I'm starting to become interested in Bowie's work now. I like "Space Oddity", "Life on Mars", "Changes" and some of the other singles. Can anyone recommend an album to start off with?

Mwahaha, fresh blood. Sven,darling, would you like to step into my parlor? The Hunky Dory album has "Life on Mars" and "Changes" on it. Most of the songs on it are pretty kooky (in fact, there's one called "Kooks," as well as a hysterical tribute to Andy Warhol), but the melodies are nice and the album is quite creative and full of surprises.

"Space Oddity" comes from the album of the same name. I love it, but the hippy-dippy stuff might be hard to get into if you haven't listened to much Bowie.

I think The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is a great place to start off. It's a rock and roll classic, but with a nice twist of Bowie madness, and it introduces you to the quintessential Bowie "persona."

Juli, I would never think of you as a loser. I'm just shocked that you have never seen the Bing/Bowie duet.

Yeah Ziggy Stardust is an excellent starting point for a Bowie collection. From there, I defer to Juli and her wisdom in all things Bowie.

Thank you, everyone, thank you!

Juli, I dunno if you get any US commercials there (I'm guessing not) but there are a couple here (I think they're some sort of internet ads) and they use Bowie's song, "Changes" for their jingle, and I was just wondering if you've seen them? The first one has a bunch of different breeds of fish, each in it's own glass bowl, and the second one has a kid but that's all I remember cuz I usually don't pay it hardly any attention.

I think I've heard "Changes" in a TV ad here, but I'm not sure it was the ones you're thinking of. I don't pay much attention to commercials either. We do get some American commercials here, but I never know they're American until I go back home and see the same commercial on American TV, like with the Blue Man Group Pentium ads.

There is a commercial where a New York businessman is in a diner in Maine buying lobster, and the owner says something like, "You heah for vacation?" and the business man says, "No, lunch." Then he speeds back to New York. I assume it's a car ad, and it must be American, because the Maine accent is pretty passable. Ever seen it?

You wouldn't believe all the celebrities who appear in Japanese commericals. Stallone used to do ads for ham and sausage. Harrison Ford did car ads, Bruce Willis is doing a bizarre ad for--I have no idea what, and Nicholas Cage does some really funny ads for a chain of pachinko parlors. Madonna, Sharon Stone, Tiger Woods, Stevie Wonder, Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Jennifer Lopez are some others who do a lot of commercials here. I guess they figure they can rake it in in Japan without damaging their "image" in the U.S. They'd better hope those ads never see the light of day back home; the writing and acting is awful! (DiCaprio in an ad for a credit card: "Orico Card, okay?" Lopez in a car ad: "He's the man...with the key...to accelerate...my heart.")

Anyway, back to Bowie. I've heard "Star Man" in an ad recently, and also "'Heroes,'" and a few other Bowie songs that surprised me. I don't think they're American ads, though.

Sven, let us know how you like Ziggy Stardust!

"Pachinko parlors"? What are they? Places where pikachu and other Pokemons go to get erotiv messages?

That should be "erotic" messages. |Sigh. Another day, another screw up.|

No, pachinko parlors are places where my husband goes to lose all his spare cash. Pachinko is a kind of upright pinball game, but instead of points, you win (and lose) lots of money. The name comes from the sound it makes when you flip the balls--"pa-chin!" (But the Pikachu connection was a nice try. )

In Japan, there is a pachinko parlor on almost every corner, and they are lit up inside and out with lots and lots of neon and are very noisy and smoky. Aside from the pinball type, there is another game that is more like a Vegas slot machine, only there is some skill and knowledge involved in lining up the 7's, and there is a higher chance of winning, although the jackpots are not as big. Pachinko fans think nothing of spending 10 or 12 hours in a parlor in one day, and a loss of a couple hundred dollars is a disappointing setback, but no big deal, because you'll win at least part of it back over the next few days.

Gambling is ostensibly illegal in Japan, so when you win you take your coins/balls to the counter and get "prizes" (little plastic chips and a chocolate bar) instead of money. Then you go outside around to the back to a little window where there's a person (hidden, so you can't see each other) who takes your "prizes" and gives you real money. Very seedy, very pragmatic, and very Japanese. But everybody does it, like we would get a $2 lottery ticket in a supermarket.

In one of Nicholas Cage's commercials, he is doing a press conference, and a woman reporter happens to be wearing a pearl earring, which falls off and rolls across the floor. Cage imagines the pearl as a silver pachinko ball, gets a crazed look on his face, starts to sweat, screams, "I LOVE PACHINKO!!!" and takes off for a Sanyo pachinko parlor, leaving all the reporters wondering what th' heck happened.

In the other commercial, Cage is doing an appearance somewhere, and two lookalike buxom bleach-blondes come up to talk to him. His jaw drops, and he says, "You're twins?" Then one more blonde appears out of the crowd, and they say in unison, "No, we're triplets!" Cage gets that dazed look again and says, "T-t-t-triplets?!?!" Then he imagines the blondes replaced by three 7's, flips out, and splits for the Sanyo parlor again.

I guess you hadda be there.

We've got a similar situation here in Dallas. There are a bunch of video/slot machine parlors around here. They're supposed to be illegal, but the owners have found loopholes to stay in business. I've seen 7/11 type stores that have those one armed bandits in 'em. The city's trying to crack down on them, though. Seems like I've seen headlines in the DMN (Dallas Morning News) where the police are raiding these places.

Well, the police never raid pachinko parlors. They're a part of the landscape now, anyway, and most likely a billion-dollar industry. But I could never figure out where they were allowed in the first place.

These convenience-store slot machines in Dallas, do they spit out real money when you hit the jackpot?

Oh, I listened to Never Let Me Down the other day, and I don't hate it nearly as much as I thought I did. "Bang Bang" isn't bad, and there were a couple of other songs I liked. It's okay, I guess.

One album that I liked and forgot to mention was 'hours...'. "Thursday's Child," "What's Really Happening," and "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell" are all pretty good.

I guess the only recent Bowie cd that I don't really care for is Earthling. I don't know, it's not bad, but it just doesn't seem to have a lot of depth. Bowie said they wrote practically the whole thing in something like nine days, and I believe it.

I don't know if they spit out money or not. I assume so, but I've never played them, nor watched someone else play 'em. A few years back I lived in Illinois. This one girl I was foolin' around with would play those machines in some of the bars we'd go to. I think Jennifer said she once won $20 off one. I dunno. I don't like to bet my money unless it's a sure thing.

About those commercials with American actors in them: Do the Japanese find it strange to see Americans promoting their national products? I mean, do they think it's weird that Nick Cage would be so into pachinko, much less know what it is?

I just asked my husband, and says that those questions do occur to him briefly, but he doesn't think about it much. Come to think of it, it's a common device in Japanese commercials--to do whatever it takes to make the viewer say, "Huh?"

I'm guessing that nobody thinks of these actors as Americans, anyway, because they are just so familiar. Bruce Willis is not "an American," he is Bruce Willis, International Movie Star, if you see what I mean.

What I think is strange is no-name Caucasian models in commercials and catalogs. A few here and there, I can understand, but sometimes it seems like they outnumber Japanese models. However, most Japanese people will tell you they have something of an inferiority complex when it comes to Americans, whom Japanese think as being blonde and blue-eyed. (And here I am, perpetuating the stereotype!)

What happened to the rest of the Music threads? We're the only ones here, and we're not even talking about music!

I dunno. I'm over at a friend's house right now. He's got the CDs Bowie The Singles 1969 to 1993. I've started to listen to it. I noticed that "The Jean Genie" does bear a resemblence (maybe only a vague one) to "Rebel Rebel". Meanwhile, "Sorrow" rips off The Beatles' "All Too Much." "With your blonde hair/And your eyes of blue."

Hey Juli! I was over at a friend's house last night. He's got a CD collection that rivals mine. Anyone, he's got a bunch of Christmas discs. I happen to flip through them whilst Frank was working on his computer. Lo and behold! The Bing Crosby, David Bowie duet does exist on a CD. The album is called Coolest Christmas. It was released in 1994 on the Oglio Entertainment label. I think it's a subsidiary of Sony Music. Now, I have no idea whether it's something that gets released every X-Mas. But come, say, November, you can check Amazon.com or CdNow for it.

Thought I'd let you know.

Hey, I missed your previous post, and I almost missed this one--I was just about to shut down when it caught my eye.

I'll have to look out for that cd. Especially now that we have Amazon.com in Japan (amazon.co.jp). Thanks for the tip!

Re your other post, I guess that's a response to my saying that no two of Bowie's songs sound alike. I stand corrected. But I think the "Jean Genie" and "Rebel Rebel" resemblance is only a vague one, like you say. I don't know the Beatles song your referring to, so I can't really comment, but I trust your judgement. :D Anyway, it's still a pretty good record for someone as prolific as Bowie, doncha think?

When I made that comment about Bowie's music, I was kind of thinking of artists like Melissa Etheridge and REM, where you've heard one of their songs and you've heard them all. Or at least most of them. (Please don't anyone kill me for that comment. It's just my honest opinion.) You could say the same of the Beatles and the B-52s, but for some reason the similarity in style doesn't bother me, maybe because their songs are more consistently high-quality.

Yeah, I know what you mean about the sameness of R.E.M. and Melissa Etheridge, yet I still like their music, to one degree or another. And as I said, the resemblence between "Jean Genie" and "Rebel, Rebel" is slight. Like you said, Bowie's doing real well if that's the worst case of self-plagiarism to be found.

Good luck in searching for that Christmas disc. While you'll at least be able to hear it, I really wish you could see it, too. Just for Der Binger's look on his face.

Juli, I happen to check Amazon.com yesterday. They do list Coolest Christmas. $14.99 new, $8.99 used. But keep in mind that's the American version of Amazon.com. Good luck!

Okay, Bowie fans, hope you've got your barf bags ready. I just found out that Ziggy is re-doing "This Is Not America". It'll be retitled "American Dream". That's not the reason for the barf bags. It'll be done for the soundtrack to the movie Training Day, starring Ethan Hawke and Denzel Washington. That's still not the reason for the warning. The reason you'll need the barf bags is because, |heaves a sigh of resignation and sadness| he's doing the remake with Sean "Puffy-P-Diddy-Daddy" Combs.

Now, you can start vomiting.

The Crosby/Bowie duet of "Little Drummer Boy" was taken from what I think was Crosby's last Christmas special for NBC. Crosby was in Europe to tape it in mid-1977, and he died, I believe, on a golf course in Spain.
Anybody have an opinion on Bowie's newest CD, "Heathen?"

Yahoo! Messenger has window "IMVironments," which is a themed message window with a background, sounds, and interactive features.

One of the new ones is a "Bowie: Heathen" theme, and you can listen to the cd from in there. I've listened to some of it, and it's good. ^_^

Weee! A place for Bowie-obsessing!

I first got involved with Bowie's stuff a couple years ago, when my friend Kat, to whom I am eternally indebted, dragged me to her house to watch Labyrinth. I thought it was pretty cool, and looked it up online, then bought it. This promptly snowballed into a full-blown obsession with the movie, and I found some fellow obsessives. This gave me some ideas, and I quickly set about jotting down a few words here and there to analyze the film. Soon I had a fairly massive analysis on my hands, which currently runs to eighty-four (!) pages. You can find it here. It's been fairly praised by those who claim to be educated in psychological matters.

However, for all my Labyrinth obsessing, I still didn't have much of a clue about The Man Himself, except that he was sort of odd-looking and dressed funny and my mom and sister didn't like him (they still don't, actually). So I asked my cousin to lend me the ChangesBowie CD for a week, to see if I liked it. If it was good, I'd buy it. If not...eh, no harm, right?

Well. I was completely blown away. The strange little man just killed me then and there. I rapidly began collecting every one of his CDs I could get my hands on, and I currently have 22 CDs in my possession, not counting the Labyrinth soundtrack. My favorite song (the one I want to be married and buried to) is Changes, with Strangers When We Meet being a close runner-up. The best CD is, unquestionably, Hunky Dory. Simply mind-blowing. My writing improved 110% just listening to it.

I've since slowed down a bit and have become more selective in my Bowie collecting. My collection totals as follows: Early On, The Deram Anthology, Space Oddity, The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, Young Americans, Station To Station, Low, "Heroes", Scary Monsters, Let's Dance, Black Tie White Noise, 1. Outside, Earthling, 'hours...', Heathen, and the compilation CDs Bowie at the Beeb and ChangesBowie. Admittedly my collection is small, but I haven't been actively collecting his stuff from the late '80s to early '90s (eg. ordering it online), and said items are hard to find in shops, let alone cheaply. I was fortunate to have found Black Tie White Noise at a discount bin for four dollars.

As for the Heathen review...I bought Heathen the day after it came out. I got hold of the two-CD set (yes, it can come as a set) for only $12! Overall...eh. Not bad. Not electrifingly brilliant, but not bad. Very low-key and nostalgic, with a slightly depressed thread running through it. One song in particular is terrible: Slip Away, or what I like to call "Bowie's Impending Senility". The first time I heard the lyrics I thought it was a joke, that nothing could be that bad. I've never heard such inane drivel in my life. The rest of the CD can be best described as "cute". That's about it. And speaking of self-plagarism...he filches from his back catalogue right and left, which is not surprising, as the CD is a collaboration with his old cohort Tony Visconti.

Gee, this is only two years late

"Sorrow" rips off The Beatles' "All Too Much." "With your blonde hair/And your eyes of blue."

Actually, you've got it backwards. "Sorrow" was originally done by a band called The Merseys. The Beatles threw that verse into "It's All Too Much" as a tribute to the song, and Bowie covered the whole thing in the '70s for similar reasons.

Well I personally love Bowie and have also got his new album "Reality". it's a much brighter album than "Heathen" which I also loved- quite simply, the best work he's done in over 15 years.
Of the original songs I do enjoy "Never Get Old" and of the covers I like the George Harrison-penned "Try some, buy some".
What's even better is his Reality tour hits Australia in February and he performs in Adelaide two days before my 30th birthday. Guess who's sitting two rows from the front? ME!!!! (Should I do a sign like "Hey David, It's my 30th Birthday in two days time- please sing "Happy Birthday"?)
Of his earlier stuff I personally adore the Space Oddity, Hunky Dory, Man Who Sold The World and Ziggy albums. His 80's albums have never really done much for me I'm sorry to say. Black Tie, White Moise is also a damm fine album as well.

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT!!!! AM I EXCITED??!!! YOU BET YOUR SWEET PINEAPPLE I AM!!!!

Full report tomorrow!

I finally got this posted online - here's a pic of me with Trevor Bolder.

http://toddmpence.blogspot.com

Maybe I should have pointed out Trevor is the one on the right, with the longer hair (just in case you couldn't tell).

Just a quick happy 60th birthday to David (frequent Nit C visitor that he is ;) ). Hard to believe he is that age. It seems like only yesterday we were celebrating his 50th. I hope he brings out a new album this year along with superb reissues of his back catalogue.