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Bowie General > Images Vol. 49

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homebrewPosted at 2025-11-22 16:06:06(2 hrs ago) (Bowie General / Images Vol. 49)


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These articles appear just as they were posted in the Usenet group alt.fan.david-bowie by group member Jamie Soule aka AladINSAnE. I have made no attempt to alter the formatting, spelling, grammar or edit in any way.

IMAGES: PART 49

As for movie's, well, Bowie had ideas of his own that he was attempting
to promote when the opportunities arose, and this is how he met
screenwriter, turned director, Paul Schrader. As a screenwriter he will
always be best known for his work on the film Taxi Driver. Schrader was
determined to make a film based on the life of Japanese novelist Yukio
Mishima, who happened to be a personal favourite of Bowie's. David
wanted a part in this picture if it was at all possible. It was during
one of their casual discussions that Schrader mentioned that he was
doing a re make of the 1942 classic, Cat People. The music for the title
song to the film was written by Giorgio Moroder, and it had no lyrics.
Schrader asked Bowie if he would write lyrics to  fit Moroder's music,
as well as sing them. Bowie agreed, and he was in fine company with
Moroder, as he had an impressive list of credits to his name. Among them
an Oscar Award for the music score he wrote for the film Midnight
Express, as well the hits such as Flashdance for Irene Cara, and several
more for Donna Summer, to name only a very few. I still do not
understand why I continue, especially after all these years, to torture
myself with questions such as, "Which version of a song do I prefer?
What is my favourite song, or album?" I say this because these questions
merely serve to confuse, puzzle, scramble and infuriate one's mind.
Furthermore, the questions serve absolutely no purpose, save an opinion,
that no one, including you, really needs to hear. In addition, they
force the mind to perform at a dangerously high level as it  attempts to
sort out the information to reach an answer, only to have the all of the
solutions it arrives at unusable, because the answers to the questions
defy logic and reason. Are you lost yet? Okay, let me explain. There are
questions such as, "What song is better, Day In Day Out, or Heroes?" The
information one must process to reach the answer, Heroes, does not
contradict itself, it is easy to understand, the mind can utilize a
process of basic logic to determine the answer, and most of all, the
answer will not emotionally disturb you. This, however, is far from the
case concerning some of Bowie's music.

Station To Station, Quicksand, The Bewlay Brothers, Right, Five Years,
Lady Grinning Soul, Sweet Thing, Life On Mars, Warszawa and Heroes. Ten
songs, which ones are much better than the others, list them in
numerical order, starting with the best, to the worst. There you go,
there's an assignment. This, my friends, is EXACTLY WHAT I TRY TO AVOID.
I finally decided on my favourite Bowie song, it's Station To Station.
It took a mere twenty two years of torturing my mind to discover that,
and for what? Putting these ten songs in order is relatively the same
process which deals with contradictory logic. I could probably put
Station To Station first, and then not feel too good about it because I
have just said that the other nine are not as good. Coming to number
two, I have also come to a dilemma of unreason. I really like Right, but
how could I ever say it is superior to Warszawa. Now, comes the
unthinkable, it isn't possible to discredit The Bewlay Brothers, by
putting it fourth, Quicksand fifth when it is as good as Station To
Station. Never. Where do I put Five Years? Number eight? No, I can't
because it is as good as Right and Warszawa. To think that I could ever
say Heroes does not belong in Bowie's top five is not logical. The
problem is that THEY ALL BELONG IN BOWIE'S TOP FIVE, ALONG WITH TWENTY
MORE. How does one's mind solve that? Well, I have the answer to the
problem. The answer is to STOP comparing his material, except to
identify that work, which you believe is abnormally substandard. Easy?
No! It is fucking impossible, in my case anyway, because it is human
nature to compare. Therefore, the battle over the things I do not need
to contemplate, will continue to rage, and probably forever. I may be
completely mistaken. but I tend to believe that I am not the only one
afflicted with this condition.

It was the reoccurrence of debilitating human nature which led me to ask
myself the question. "Which is the better version of Cat People."  I
have heard the later one, from 83, dismissed as too commercial, which to
me is a useless observation, as it proves nothing. I don't care if ten
million, ten billion, or a hundred zillion people bought the single, or
the album. Also, I do not care if the song was played twenty four hours
a day, seven days a week for twelve years, because NONE OF THIS takes
away from the fact that the song kicks ass.  Stevie Ray Vaughn's guitar
work on that track, especially the intro, is absolutely stunning. The
vocals are extremely powerful, captivating really, and the remainder of
the band delivers a stellar performance. I saw multiple performances in
83, and each time Cat People was a definite highlight. The 83 version is
the best, it beats the movie version. Then there is the version from the
movie. Never before, with the exception of Station To Station, have I
ever heard a song build with such gripping, inescapable suspense. You
are held, spellbound, and you can't walk away from it no matter how hard
you try. I would be hard pressed to give you an example that even comes
close to what Bowie accomplishes with his voice on this version. It is
EXPLOSIVE. The movie version is the best, it beats what is on Let's
Dance. See, they are BOTH better than each other, and with Bowie's
music, that statement actually makes perfect sense.

Do you want to hear something funny? Okay. Lyrical depth on am AM radio
hit. HA! HA! HAI HA! HA! HA! Funny, eh? I think so. More like
impossible. Montruex, Switzerland, is where Queen was recording, and
Bowie happened to be there at the same time. How it happened, does not
matter, the point is that it did happen, Bowie went to the studio, and
they recorded together. The result was Under Pressure, and lyrically, it
was dynamite. Musically? Well, perfection comes to mind. Truthfully, it
took me a long time to realize that. I never really cared for it before,
as it sounded to me that it was recorded only for one reason, to be a
commercial success. I stand corrected now however.  Since we are on this
subject I have to say this. Are you all aware that you got seriously
deprived again? Are you? Do you know what you never will see? Let me put
it this way, Under Pressure was not the only thing Queen and Bowie
recorded. How many songs they recorded together, I do not know. However,
I do know of at least one more. The one I know about is called Cool
Cats, recorded apparently the same time as Under Pressure was. And?
Well, all I can say is that
Under Pressure WAS NOT the only exceptional piece of music recorded
during that session. Freddie Mercury drives this song with a falsetto
that is so exceptional you can't help but think the word, "staggering."
Now, add one David Bowie to an already amazing piece of music, and you
tell me what you have? Exactly. Unfortunately however,  this track sits
on a shelf in the massive pile of other goodies which we will never see
released officially. It is a great song, and I believe that those others
who have heard it will agree with me.

The BBC adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's Baal was produced by Louis Marks,
and directed by Alan Clarke. Both flew to Switzerland in order to
approach Bowie about taking the lead role in the play. The purpose of
the meetings were to discuss the various obligations one would be
required to fulfill for the production, and to discover how Bowie felt
about accepting the part. Surprisingly, considering his overwhelming
success in The Elephant Man, Bowie was reluctant to take the part. This
after all, he reasoned, was a new medium he had little experience in.
Bowie asked Clarke to leave some videotapes of some of his past work,
and both men returned home without receiving any firm  commitments.

Bowie finally agreed to  accept the part in Baal, not because of money,
but because he wanted to. As it was in the case of The Elephant Man, the
fee Bowie accepted to play the lead role, was the standard fee normally
paid  to actors by the BBC, one thousand pounds. In addition, Bowie
insisted that two special provisions be made for him in return for
accepting the part. First, complete secrecy. No one outside of the
production, especially the press, was to know that he was involved in
the play, or even in England for that matter. Two, still in fear from
what happened to his friend John Lennon, he was to be given a personal
bodyguard as an escort. With those terms agreed to, Bowie left
Switzerland for London in August to begin work on the project. Again,
Bowie made an impression,  and not as a selfish, self centered, ego
driven, complaining celebrity who is NEVER satisfied, but as a true
professional. The rehearsals took a month and Bowie worked the full
period. According to Louis Marks, Bowie was never late, and he worked so
hard that he was completely exhausted by the end. Bowie had been
studying Brecht's work for years, and therefore he adapted well to the
part because he was so familiar with it. Markes called it a "natural
instinct." The working conditions were far from easy, as one would
imagine it would be for a taped television production. Like Bowie,
Markes was a perfectionist, and often he demanded five or six takes of a
scene before he was satisfied. The conditions in the studio have been
described as "overheated," due to the lighting requirements, and it
proved to be quite a challenging situation that the actors had to work
in. There were no problems with Bowie. Sometimes he would be drenched in
sweat and exhausted after many takes of a scene, and he would still ask
Markes if he wanted the scene repeated. They recorded the songs at the
end and during the last five days they could only work in the afternoon.
The mornings were "lost," courtesy of someone in the basement of the BBC
who decided it was a good time to operate a pneumatic drill. David Bowie
wanted to have a recording made of his renditions of the songs from the
play, and he turned to his long time friend and producer, Tony Visconti,
for assistance. According to Visconti David wanted the record merely for
a "souvenir," fully realizing at the time it had little commercial
potential.  Bowie's objective was to recreate the sound of a German pit
orchestra on the album. Therefore, the only instruments he used  was a
violin, a trumpet, an accordian, and one viola.

Having finished the work on Baal, Bowie returned to Switzerland. An
announcement about his starring role in the play was finally made to the
media, after production had wrapped up, and he was  safely back home.
Under Pressure was released on November 2nd. in the UK where it
immediately went to number one on the charts, and without any comment
from Bowie. Considering they had been kept uninformed, it was natural
that the media was expecting to receive some sort of a statement from
Bowie concerning his work with Queen, as well as his role in Baal.
Instead, all requests for interviews were refused. For the most part, it
was impossible for anyone to contact Bowie directly, and to send a
message, there was a procedure that EVERYONE, no matter who it was, had
to follow. Anyone wishing to reach Bowie must first phone RCA, and leave
a message, then RCA relayed the message to Coco, and Coco delivered it
to David. This procedure even applied to Louis Markes, he had to do this
to reach Bowie while they were filming Baal. For the better part of the
next six months Bowie would remain in seclusion in Switzerland, with
only a few brief trips to New York and London, one trip being to see The
Rolling Stones perform at Madison Square Garden in September. Meanwhile,
RCA  released yet another single compiled from his back catalog, this
one being Wild Is The Wind, with Golden Years on the B side. RCA was not
finished either. Hoping to repeat the success of CHANGESONE, which sold
over a million copies, they, along with Defries, went to work compiling
the various tracks to be included on CHANGESTWO. Now, a funny story I
read in some Bowie biography some time ago. At RCA Bowie had a
reputation as being an artist that was unable to deliver any hits. He in
fact only really had one to date. As a joke an RCA promotions executive
suggested a subtitle on the album cover reading, " David Bowie's All
Time Greatest Hits," implying that he had many hits, and not just one.
As usual, RCA grabbed anything, no matter how lame, in their desperate
attempts to sell Bowie's work. So, not realizing it was a sarcastic
joke, and without thinking how ludicrous it sounded, they had it printed
on the cover, right under the title. The promotions executive was
dumbfounded at the fact that anyone could have possibly thought he was
serious. It was released on November 19. The British premier of
Christiane F. was on December 17.

There was one wish for Christmas that was shared by Bowie fans, and RCA
alike. That wish was that Bowie would re emerge in 1982. The fingers of
everyone were were tightly crossed.


AladInsaNE

If I'm still crazy enough, I might add to this sometime.


""I don't begrudge any artist for finding an audience"
- David Bowie abt. 1987
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