EARTHLY MESSENGER - AYLESBURY'S TRIBUTE TO IT'S ADOPTED SON


Hello,  and welcome back.  It's been a while since I've done one of these.  Starting off today with the event that saw the unveiling of the Bowie sculpture in Aylesbury - Earthy Messenger.  You can find it in the Market Square - just across from Aylesbury Friars used to stand.

Created by Andrew Sinclair it's an amalgam of the various Bowie's we've seen down the years.  And if you're in the area it's well worth a visit - and yours truly made the trip up from South Devon especially to be there.

Enough talk then - here are the photos of from the event.

BOWIE, BERLIN AND THE 3 HEROES

Artist: DAVID BOWIE; Title: HEROES; Label: RCA VICTOR; Format: 7"EP;  
Cat. No.: 60629; Year: 1980; Country: AUSTRALIA.

Inspired to do this post on after seeing BBC Newsnight last Friday - and their coverage of the 25th Anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down and guess whose song they used? Yep Bowie's anthem from his 2nd LP from 1977 - "Heroes".

So as a result of that, I'm today looking the 1980 Aussie EP that pulls together all three versions of the song.  Side One kicks off with the original English version - and one of those songs that can justifieably be called a classic! Next up is the less than brilliant french version - mainly due our David's french phrasing being ropy at best, and best regarded as acollectionj filler to be honest.

Side Two gives you "Helden" - the German version and probably the one that works the best. The German translation was handled by backing singer Antonia Maass, who was one of the lovers kissing by by The Wall that the song's about, and her lover? None other than producer Tony Visconti who she was having an affair with at the time.  The proceedings are rounded off nicely by Bowie's tribute to Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider - in the shape of "V-2 Schneider", and I really love the honking sax on the track.  Sounds like the band were enjoying themselves!

THE LONDON BOYS - BOWIE'S MOD CLASSIC

Artist: VARIOUS; Title: THE LONDON BOYS; Label: DECCA; Format: 7" EP; 
Cat. No.: FR 13864; Year: 1980; Country: UK

Side One: - 
David Bowie: The London Boys
Dobie Gray: The "In" Crowd

Side Two: -
Small Faces: Hey Girl
The Birds: Leaving Here

Looking today at this 1980 EP featuring 4 faves then current with the revived Mod scene from the late 70's, compiled by Gary Crowley (remember him) and a few like-minded individuals.  Just one quibble with the sleeve blub.  This has 4 tracks which makes it an EP rather than a Maxi Single, having said that it does an alittrative ring to to it.

Anyway onto the most important thing - the music!  Side One opens with the title track, Bowie's 1966 masterpiece that is 'The London Boys".  It's probably the first of Bowie's song dealing with alienation, and the fag of the Mod dream (fag being used here in the British rather the US context) where maybe it's not really all it's cracked up to be.  Next up is Dobie Gray's classic "The "In" Crowd" and of those tunes that quite happily made the transition from the Mod to the Northern Soul scene.  And rather fine it is too!

Side Two has another brace of fine tunes.  Starting off the Small Faces' rather excellent "Hey Girl" from 1966, which sees Steve Marriott and co in particularly fine form.  The proceedings are rounded off with the band that introduced the world to the talents of Ronnie - The Birds and their version of Eddie Holland's "Leaving Here".  It's one of those tracks that I'd tend to associate more with Freakbeat - but that's the great that a song can be picked on one music scene/genre whilst quite happily associated with another one at the time.  The only other example of that i can think of is The Seeds 'Pushin' Too Hard' which works both as a Psyche tune as well a Northern track!

WHEN MAJOR TOM MET THE WILD-EYED BOY AND MR WALKER

ARTIST: David Bowie; TITLE: Space Oddity; LABEL: PHILIPS; FORMAT: 7"; Cat. No.: BF 1801; YEAR: 1969; COUNTRY: UK

Welcome back from the Vinyl Consultancy now relocated down in here sometime sunny South Devon.

Today I'm focusing on Bowie's 1969 breakthrough - yep "Space Oddity".  As I'm sure everybody's well aware it was inspired by the moon landing of that year and another Bowie's songs about alienation, a subject first tackled on "The Gospel According To Tony Day" which cropped up on the flip side to the Laughing Gnome".  This is the 2nd version Bowie recorded - the first being for the soundtrack of "Love Me Till Tuesday", although the video for that version was then married with one when the song got to the number 1 slot in 1975.  The third and probably the starkest version is the 1980 version which premiered on British TV on New Year's Eve 1979/1980 and as precursor to "Ashes to Ashes" - making you wonder if the journey Major Tom was even into space at all!  The arrangements come courtesy of cellist Paul Buckmaster - and on the fadeout there seems to a nod in the direction of Ferde Grofé's "Grand Canyon Suite".

The flip side gives you the stripped down version of "The Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud" which I prefer to full orchestrated version of the parent LP.  Here you just have Bowie on 12 string acoustic and Paul Buckmaster on cello.  Which has the advantage of being able to hearing the lyrics a lot more clearer which being swamped by orchestration (not producer Tony Visconti's fave tune perhaps?), and when you do it's clear to hear the influence that Scott Walker has having on Bowie's writing at time.  Interestingly this one of those songs the survived into the Ziggy era - as it's part of the farewell set recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon.  It's also from Bowie's Tibetan phase - part of the cycle that began with "Silly Boy Blue" on the 1st album, and completes with "Karma Man" which saw the light of day on Decca's "world Of David Bowie"set released just after the "Space Oddity" or David Bowie "2" if you will. And which apparently originated in Bowie's mine piece which he'd toured around the UK with Lyndsey Kemp in 1968.  The song was also one on Marc Bolan's favourites as well.

That's it for 2013 - here at the Vinyl Consultancy.  See you back again sometime early 2014!  Wishing you all the best for the festive season!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. BOWIE - DAVID JONES IN SOME OF HIS PHASES!

Hello for 2013 - and a wishing you all a Happy-ish New Year!  First up for this year is the recent birthday boy - David Bowie and wishing you a Very Happy 66th.

This is done in roughly chronological order - so that the records are from the year that they were released - rather than in the case of the reissues from when they'd first appeared.  The reason being that as is this based on my record collection it's a question of cost - especially so in the case of Bowie's stuff from the 60's!

First up here's the sleeve for the Spanish issue of "Starman" from '72.  And more than likely Spain's introduction to Ziggy.

Next we have what's probably one of Bowie's earliest classics - "The London Boys" originally released on Deram in 1966 as the flip side to 'Rubber Band', and here reissued on Decca in 1975.  

The song deals with the darker side of the Mod Dream and showing that's it not really all it's cracked up to be - whether Bowie's putting any of himself in this character I'm not sure - and works as cautionary tale of what can happen if you get yourself into something too deep too soon! 

1978 saw Decca reissuing Bowie 1964 "Liza Jane" which had virtually zilch in the way of publicity - and unless you were a long term-fan how many people would immediately connect Davie Jones & The King Bees with Bowie?  Griping aside what's it actually like - pretty good in fact! A admirable bit of mid 60's British R'n'B - the song's one of those that been done by a lot of people down the years - and the other version that immediately springs to mind is the one Nina Simone did.  The B Side gives you a version of "Louie, Louie Go Back Home" which is no way as near as an Illustrated Record on Bowie would have you believe - OK it's got it's limitations but you can here the band giving it their all - and it is Bowie's debut after all!

The 45 for consideration is this Dutch only issue of the track from 1979's criminally neglected 'Lodger' LP - namely the Turkish/Reggae tune that is "Yassassin".  The title translates from Turkish as "Long Live" and apparantly inspired by Bowie's time in Berlin where he was living the Turkish quarter.  It's a track I like and shows that our man Mr. Jones (alongside Mr Eno) wasn't afraid of introducing non-western musical influences into his stuff! Plus you also get Hawkwind's Simon House on electric violin as well!

Here's the sleeve for the 1982 12" version of Bowie's version of the Brecht "The Alabama Song" - which confusing reuses the Ziggy era sleeve from the 1972 reissue of the 'Space Oddity' LP - whereas as anyone in the know knows that the version here is the stripped down 1980 version that acted as a primer for Bowie's return to the saga of Major Tom on 'Ashes To Ashes'.  Back to the music - "The Alabama Song" was recorded during the sessions for the 'Lodger' LP and was written by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weil for the 'Threepenny Opera' (also the origin point for 'Mack The Knife') and uses Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies to good effect with the drummer and bassist swapping places and shifting key changes and tempos for each verse.  Along with the stripped down version of "Space Oddity" the third track which thematically matches the other two is Bowie's version Jacques Brel's "Amsterdam".  And which despite the slagging off it gets in some quarters actually isn't that bad!

Bowie's other major bit Brecht was the 1982 drama he did for the BBC - his first major play "Baal".  The songs Bowie performed in were released as an EP and received a pretty positive response both on screen and for the music - which Bowie and producer Tony Visconti did at Hansa Tonstudios in Berlin where they'd done 'Low' and 'Heroes'.  In someways what you get with "Baal" is Bowie coming full circle. A decade after the theartrics and sexual ambivalence that brought him into the public gaze via Ziggy Stardust, here he is playing a character with at least some of those attributes on screen.  It's also pretty much the end of an era - as this would the last bit of original Bowie material that RCA would issue - before he moved over to EMI.  

And on the subject of Bowie at EMI here's the two single he did for Parlophone in 1965 reissued as a handy 10" EP by See For Miles in 1982.  Side One gives you the single released by Bowie's group of the time The Manish Boys - first up a version of Bobby Bland's "I Pity The Fool" which features a blistering guitar solo from Jimmy Page. Next up is the first Bowie song to make it onto vinyl - the distinctly Mod-flavoured "Take My Tip".  Side Two has our man billed as Davy Jones & The Lower Third - and the tracks on offer here are firstly "You've Got A Habit Of Leaving" - which if it sounds slightly Who-ish should be too surprising as it's produced by Shel Talmy who was producing both bands at the time - and again featuring a Jimmy Page solo. The proceeding are rounded off with "Baby Loves That Way" another Bowie original and somewhat typical of the period.

LONG LIVE BOWIE'S TURKISH REGGAE

Artist: David Bowie. Title: Yassassin. Label: RCA Victor. Format: 7". Country of issue/origin: Netherlands.  Cat. No.: PB-9417.  Year: 1979.


Dutch issued single from Bowie's underrated 1979 LP 'The Lodger' and the last of the trio done with Brian Eno & which received pretty much zilch in the way of promotion from his record company (and one of the reasons Bowie gave from parting company with RCA in the early 80's).  But perhaps RCA's decision was coloured by the shock reaction to the video for the lead single from the album 'Boys Keep Swinging'.   The A Side is the rather good "Yassassin" - turkish for long live (in case you didn't know), and the best description is Turkish reggae.  And inspired by Bowie's stint in the turkish quarter - Neukoln itself a track on the previous LP.

The flip side is the excellent "Repetition" and a very hard hitting song about the subject matter's shortcomings  - Johnny.  And Johnny's frustrations taken out on that person closest to him - his wife.  No wonder then that the song became a favourite of the feminist new wave bands of the late 70's - The Au Pairs recorded a version on their '79 album and featured it in their live set.

HEROES OF OZ

Artist: David Bowie. Title: "Heroes". Label: RCA Victor. Cat. No.: 20629. Format: 7" EP. Year: 1977. Country of origin/issue: Australia. 


Just in case anybody's wandered across this post thinking it may cricket related - I can confirm that this blog doesn't do sport - less o' course it's Liverpool stuffing Scumchester Utd 3-1 like they did on Sunday!  Anyway... here's today post which features this Aussie EP from Bowie which gives three versions of the classic Eno co-written wowness that is "Heroes".

Side One kicks off the original English version. It's followed by "Heros" - which is the French version - and to be honest it's the least successful of the 3.  Whether this was done as an oblique tribute to the bard of Brussels Jacques Brel (one of Bowie's own heroes/influences) I'm not sure.

Side two of the EP offers up the brilliant German version "Helden" which works the best - and here the influences are kind of obvious - Kraftwerk, plus Bowie was living in Berlin at the time - as you are no doubt aware!  The proceedings are rounded off nicely with Bowie and Eno's tribute to the co-founder of said Kraftwerk Florian Schneider in the wonderful form of "V2-Schneider".