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Bowie General > Images Vol. 59A

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homebrewPosted at 2026-01-31 15:18:41(1 hr ago) (Bowie General / Images Vol. 59A)


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Here is where even the author began to lose track of the installments. And they are getting much longer. I believe Jamie was getting a bit fatigued by it all at this point and that he was ready to just dump what he had left and be done with it. There are two articles in my archives titled "Vol. 59".  I will include them both as Vol. 59A and next week Vol. 59B.

As always 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 - I think it's part 59, however, I may be mistaken on that. If in
doubt just ask JIMMY, he'll know.
Oh, and by the way, I HAVE NOT READ ANY OF THIS , I simply wrote it, and
then I POSTED IT, therefore, if it's all fucked up, well, TOO FUCKING BAD!
Fans who "stake out" places in an effort to meet Bowie find entrances and
exits attractive places. Often they look for the limousine which Bowie is
riding in on his way to the venue, or the one he is leaving in. On the
Serious Moonlight tour however, this tactic only resulted in disappointment,
either coming, or going. I say this because a limousine is the LAST PLACE
you'd ever want to look, because they were not used on this tour. It is
expected that rock stars behave in a manner befitting royalty, their success
and their wealth demand a certain lifestyle, a  lifestyle leading to having
to shoulder an enourmous responsibility. This is having to maintain an
image, one of being "Larger Than Life," and a limousine is one symbol that
reflects this image. We all know that those who believe in their own
importance, the wealthy, and those who control pieces of the "SYSTEM" do not
usually drive, and if they are seen behind a steering wheel, it will not be
the steering wheel of something as cheap as a Lincoln or a  Cadillac. Rock
Stars ride in limousines, David Bowie rides in a van. I personally saw this
in 83 when myself ant two friends discovered where he was going to shoot the
opening waterfront scenes at the beginning of the 83 tour video. If I may, I
will take the credit for finding him too, because it was me. I happened to
notice two camper style vans parked in the lot of a former gas station, the
building at the time was vacant. It wasn't finding the vans that did it
though, it was the motorcycle. You see, with those vans there was a
motorcycle with one of "Vancouver's Finest" perched on the seat. When I saw
two parked vans with a police escort I thought, "Gee now, two and two equals
four. Therefore, two vans and a police escort equals David Bowie." As it
turned out, my math is pretty good. I got the right answer. David Bowie,
unlike his image, is very indiscreet. In other words, unless it's onstage or
for business purposes he keeps very low key. He portrays himself as
extremely flamboyant, and that is the side you see. Therefore, if you saw
Bowie on the street you would expect to see him as he is portrayed, and this
belief offers him a certain degree of privacy. With the gel gone and his
hair combed flat, parted on one side, a pair of normal glasses perched on
his nose, and adorned in street clothes, Bowie can look extremely "average."
People see him and think, "It can't be," before turning away. I know when he
is in Vancouver he stays in a private apartment and walks down Robson
Street. A lot of movies are shot in Vancouver, and so we get more than our
fair share of big name Hollywood actors. Robert Redford, Bruce Willis,
Jennifer Lopez, Tom Cruise, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russel live here, and so
does Shaquille O'Neil the basket ball star part time, along with Phil
Collins to name just a few. Michael Jordan was looking at houses here at one
time. Whistler, a local world class ski resort draws them in too. REM is
currently cutting an album in Vancouver. We have reasonably decent studios,
one owned by our local wonder Bryan Adams. We think it best that he move to
America. Robson Street is our answer to "Rodeo Drive" in Beverly Hills.
Trendy Robson Street, yep, Gucci, Armani, Roots, Versache and Starbucks
Coffee. This is the place to be "SEEN," and a haven for "STAR GAZING,"
because ALL THE CELEBRITIES HIT ROBSON while they are in Vancouver.
Personally, I avoid the place at all cost. One thing I will say though about
people here, and that is that celebrities are not harassed on the street
here, when they are shopping, or in resteraunts. This is one reason they
seem to like it here, they are treated "normal."  Bowie, as I said, walks
Robson, and he frequents a strip bar called No. 5 Orange. On tour, Bowie and
the band are transported to the venues in "camper" vans.
"Time to get into your silly suits," Bowie quipped, head poked into the band
room once in Japan, and later he will visit the band room. A pasta dinner
arrives in his dressing room. The pasta is hand delivered by promoter Ron
Delsener. The dinner was cooked at home especially for Bowie by Delsener's
seventy two year old father. Ron Delsener knows Bowie well, and has for
twelve years. It has been that long since Delsener book David Bowie into
Carnegie Hall on the 72 American tour. It goes deeper than that however. He
was the first American promoter to have faith in Bowie and take a chance on
booking him. In his words, "Twelve years ago I booked him into Carnegie
Hall, and I had a hard time doing it. Convincing them that he wasn't some
kind of freak." The attendance record for Madison Square Gardens is held by
Elton John, he sold the place out seven nights in a row. Bowie is doing two
shows. Delsener said, "I wish I could have gotten him to add even more
nights. He could have broken Elton's record here," adding, "David's hot
enough now." Speaking of "hot," how about the "HOT PINK?" I mean the Serious
Moonlight tour colours, gray and hot pink. The crews working on the tour,
and other personnel were all given grey custom made jumpsuits emblazened
with the  "DAVID BOWIE" logo in "hot pink", and underneath  "SERIOUS
MOONLIGHT TOUR '83." No, I don't know where to get one. No, I don't know
where to look. Yes, I am positive. I have never seen one myself, and if I
had I WOULD NOT HAVE TOLD YOU WHERE IT WAS UNTIL I BOUGHT IT. I mean, do you
honestly think I'd let YOU get it before ME. If you do you're crazy. When it
comes to Bowie, you can weep as far as I am concerned. It's ME FIRST! Yes,
hot pink as the official tour colour, only a David Bowie would dare. Oh, did
I mention the guitar pics used by Slick, Alomar, Rojas and Bowie? They were
"HOT PINK" too. Out on 8th. Avenue the limousines are piled three deep,
anyone and everyone are here. Those who could called in favours to get an
invitation to the "HOSPITALITY" suite, the post show party, or at the very
least a VIP ticket. This "EVENT" was so big, and the guest list was so small
and selective,  that securing any one of these PROVED THAT YOU WERE
IMPORTANT! Meeting Bowie was a rare honour bestowed on only a "priviledge"
few, and to do so gave you bragging rights among your peers. Susan Sarandon
tried to get a jumpsuit as a souvenier. She failed. Backstage things are not
normal, something is NOT RIGHT.  Everyone knows what it is too, especially
Bowie,  but no one is letting on. They are all trying to hide it, pretending
it doesn't exist. Everyone is trying to act normal and keep a straight face,
but it's not working well at all, everyone still knows. It's obvious. The
time? It's just under an hour until they are scheduled to hit the stage.
Bowie appears in the band room. "Why is it so quiet tonight? Is it just my
imagination," he asks? Lenny Pickett replies, "We can't talk, it's the
union." So, what's up? Is it really extra quiet tonight as Bowie thinks, or
is it his imagination? Truthfully, it isn't his imagination, it is unusually
quiet, but nobody is about to admit that. Bowie will not comment on it
again, because he does not want to press the point any further for FEAR that
someone may speak up and AGREE with him. He didn't have to ask , they all
know it's quiet, and they know the reason too. Everyone is a bundle of
nerves. They are all SCARED. And Bowie? Out of ALL of them he is the WORST.
This is NEW YORK, THE GARDENS. In under an hour they all must walk out on
that stage, and waiting for them are their peers. They know they are going
to be watched as if they were under a microscope, and not only will they be
watched, but every move they make, and every note they play, is going to be
scrutinized. Put yourself in their shoes for a minute. Supposing YOU are
Carlos Alomar. While you are out there playing you know Keith Richards has
his eye on you to see how good you really are, and he's only ONE OF MANY.
Ronnie Wood's eyes will be on Earl Slick. Jagger, and everyone else's are on
Bowie. Also, if you are Bowie, well, you hyped this tour as "THE MOST
IMPORTANT EVENT OF THE YEAR." All of these VIP's came to witness an "EVENT,"
and so you better deliver one. Think about the pressure everyone is under.
That audience expects an AMAZING PERFORMANCE, and YOU MUST DELIVER ONE. This
is NOT your average show, because tonight, ALL OF THEIR REPUTATIONS ARE AT
STAKE. The pressure, you can't fail. But what if you do? Except for me, and
God most of the time, nobody else is perfect. So, it stands to reason that
as a performer you are bound to have a few "off" nights. Blow a show in
Edmonton, no big deal, Seattle, Boston, Atlanta, no big deal.  They're okay,
but, New York, LA, London, Paris, Tokyo, Berlin are all places that you
don't blow gigs, period. Any fuck ups here are going to cost you severely.
None of these places however, is as important New York. The others pale in
comparison.
The time? Just over fifteen minutes to go. Bowie left for several minutes
but has now  returned. Glenis Daly has given him the final "once over"
before he sets foot on the stage. She has done his hair, his make up, and
tended to any of his other needs as he readied himself. Out of the six suits
he had custom tailored by the Met for the tour, Bowie has chosen to wear the
powder blue one this evening for the first half of the performance.
Underneath his jacket he is wearing a white Oxford shirt. When he enters the
room he immediately goes over to Carlos Alomar and they start talking. The
room is noisier now as the sound of horns are coming from the bathroom where
Steve Elson, Stanley Harrison and Lenny Pickett are practicing together in
the shower stall. Among the others in the room, nobody's talking much. It's
an eerie feeling when the floor starts to shake, and by now it's REALLY
MOVING. The shaking is caused by the thousands of people in the audience who
are  DEMANDING Bowie to appear by stomping their feet. Bowie has just told
Alomar that he wants to change the set list. He wants to move Red Sails to
follow Let's Dance. Great, twelve minutes to go and a setlist change to deal
with. What a hassle. Frankie Enfield is summoned. Although it doesn't seem
like one, it is a hassle, and a major one. What hassle? Make the change
Bowie wants, photocopy the new setlist, give each member of the band one,
and you're done. What's the big deal. Well, there isn't one if that was the
case, I mean, ten or so copies is nothing. However, this is NOT the case.
You see, it isn't just the band, there needs to be at least FIFTY COPIES
MADE, and then they have to be all handed out. For the musicians the new
setlist is either taped to the floor, or on a piece of equipment beside
them. However, copies must then be given to members of the tech crew, those
who are working the sound board, the lighting personnel, equipment handlers,
arena security, and the tour management. Outside on 8th. Avenue the ticket
scalpers have company,  they have been joined by sixty of "New York's
Finest," some on horseback. This number is "average for a major star"
according to the police captain in charge. "Ten minutes," the person chirped
when he opened the door. The wives and girlfriends have congregated by now
in band room two. They have been joined by Ian Hunter who is sitting in a
chair reading The New York Post. The door opens again, it's the same person
who just chirped, "Ten minutes." I forgot to tell you, he's the guy who was
with Jimi Hendrix. Yes, you heard me correctly, I said Hendrix.
He's wearing a Serious Moonlight jumpsuit, one hand is holding the door and
the other a flashlight. His name is Eric Barrett, and he is David Bowie's
Production Manager. Eric has a lifetime of experience behind him, at one
time even working for the man who "played it left hand" and "came on so
loaded man. " He was Jimi Hendrix's road manager.  There is no "road" this
time however, instead, Eric will light the way for Bowie and the band as
they navigate the tunnels which lead to the alley named after the former
coach of the New York Rangers. It is difficult to imagine, as they turn and
start walking down Emil's Alley, that only three hours priviously the power
to the stage hadn't even been hooked. Big George stands six feet ten inches
tall. As Bowie passes the end of the tunnel he grabs his hand and says,
"Have a good one." George is standing at the last security check point, only
the stage is next. Frankie, Coco, Glenis, David, the band, and a few more of
Bowie's tour managers are gathered by the equipment trucks just behind the
stage. Sum up Bowie's personality in ONE WORD. There's a question for you.
If you had to describe his overall demeanor in ONE WORD, what would your
answer be? I would say the answer is "COOL." Bowie is "COOL."  Minutes, or
maybe only seconds to go. Some of the band are bouncing up and down on their
feet   Everyone has on a "Brave Face," but none of them are working. You can
see the tension, and the noise from the audience is making it increasingly
worse. "Why does New York get everyone so uptight? It's just another bar,"
Bowie asks? The question is more like a statement, and not aimed at anyone
in particular. This time however, the "COOL" fails miserably. The look on
his face, the unconvincing tone of voice, and fact that he is pacing, are
all dead give aways. He knows what's at stake and it shows.  doesn't work at
allhide and they all Eric Barrett says, "Stand by guys." Bowie steps on the
Marlboro he has been nervously puffing on while walking his circular paces.
With the band leading, David Bowie dashes up the ramp and on to the side of
the darkened stage. While still invisible to those who are seated in the
audience out front, Bowie is visible to those seated in the rear partially
behind the stage. They start cheering, and it spreads. Jumping into the fire
first are Slick, Alomar, LeBolt, Rojas, Pickett, Elson, Thompson, Harrison,
and Frank and George Simms. Did I forget anyone? They all charge
enthusiastically out of the shadows and assume their places under the
blinding lights. Bowie is bouncing up and down, and looking at Barrett he
inquires, "Have they ALL gone? The whole band? They left me." The next words
heard come from George Simms as he announces, "Ladies and gentlemen!
............ On stage in New York............. for the first time in FIVE
YEARS...........DAVID BOWIE!" At that moment, to the sound of thunderous
applause and a shower of red roses, David Bowie walks out and appears on
stage in New York for the first time in five years. The first song the band
launches into is "Star." Most in the audience will not recognize the next
song. It is called "Lavender Blue," and "Lavender Blue" was a top single on
the Rock N' Roll Charts in 1959. The first line  goes like this, "Lavender
blue, dilly, dilly, lavender green." The next line Bowie substitutes,
singing something that rings a little more familiar, but with a twist. He
continues, "I'll be your king, dilly, dilly, you will be.............." That
line, Bowie does not finish before the all too familiar drone of Heroes
flows from Lebolt's keyboards. The band can see something familiar draped
over the barricade that is by now strained, the force coming from the mass
of people who are pushing towards the front. What they have noticed are the
familiar faces, the ones that they have seen night after night, Chicago,
Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Tacoma, Houston, Dallas. Some they see in three
of four different cities before they vanish, some they see five and six
times. Then there are those that the band almost EXPECT to see, because for
the American dates they have been there at the front for every performance
in every city the band has played so far. Looking out at them one can only
wonder just how long they will remain. Will it be one more gig, two, three?
Will they see them in Japan? Maybe. That's anyone's guess.
There is a barrier which exists between a performer and an audience, and I
am not talking about a security barricade, this one is invisible. There is
the audience, they came to be entertained, and so they watch. They want to
see if they are going to be entertained. The artist comes with the desire of
providing that entertainment with a  performance that will satisfy the
audience, so he watches too. He wants to know if they are being entertained.
To find these answers requires "INTERACTION," one between the "PERFORMER"
and his"AUDIENCE," yet, neither of them are able to communicate by regular
means. To break down this barrier is the biggest challenge an artist faces
on stage, it's called "Winning the audience over," and how many you win is
what measures the difference between a good gig, or a bad one. David Bowie,
as well as every musician on that stage faced the challenge of not just
winning over a New York audience, but winning over their peers as well. This
is the source of fear. The fifth song was Golden Years, and by this time
most of the barrier between the performers and those seated had long since
crumbled, what remained was in blasted to rubble by the opening notes of
Let's Dance, two songs later. The band and and twenty thousand others had
become one,   Bowie had a commanding interaction with the crowd, they were
entertained, and he knew it. At times Bowie had "PHYSICALLY" crashed through
that barrier by actually reaching out to his audience. He often made his way
close enough to touch some of the hundreds of of pairs of hands which were
outstretched toward him. Many times his hands returned clutching boquets of
floweres which he graciously accepted.  No more fear of failing remained,
they won them over, they had them ALL, every last one of them too. One sure
sign was the sight of Tina Turner, who was dancing away on the side of the
stage just out of sight of the audience. Coco stood beside her. There is one
person also on stage that the audience never sees, and that is Bowie's
bodyguard, Tony Mascia. "Big" Tony will spend his time crouched behind
LeBolts keyboards, several yards away from Bowie as he is performing, ready
to intervene should a fan jump onto the stage, or if Bowie is threatened in
any way.
Bowie knew that the majority of the audiences on this tour would be
comprised of his new fans, as well as the "casual" listeners who had been
caught up in the "EVENT" hype, so they came to see him perform. Bowie was
smart, as the first part of his set list contained his most recognizable
songs, Cat People, Let's Dance, China Girl, Rebel Rebel, Fashion, Jean
Genie, Heroes and Golden Years. This helped immensley in helping to overcome
any barriers by getting the crowd involved. Unfortunately, for his older
audience the set list was abysmal to say the least, especially when compared
to his previous tours. The sixteen song set for the first half ended with
the classic Velvet Underground number "White Light/White Heat," which in my
opinion should remain a classic Velvet Underground number, therefore it
should be left alone. Anyway, that's another story. Bowie leaves the stage
before the song ends, allowing Slick to do his " Guitar Solo Act."  Earl
Slick will meet The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood when he and the
band exit the stage at the end of the song. Wood will exclaim,"Hot show."
David is by now in his dressing room, drying off, wrapped in towels. Glenis
has his change of clothes ready, a lime green suit. Wearing a white suit is
Nile Rodgers, who is one of the few who passes through the brown curtain, to
find Bowie jokingly remark to him, "The show's terrible, it's rotten. The
second night in Madison Square Gardens is always better."  Part of  Emil's
Alley has been transformed into a "Hospitality Suite," and it is a safe
distance from Bowie's dressing room, close to the back of the stage.  It is
here that Bowie's peers mix company with merchandising agents, actors,
directors, record label executives, promoters, beer company executives,
publicity agents, as well as the top media executives from TV, radio, and
the senior staff from the major magazines and newspapers. All of "those who
matter," the elite of New York's most prominent have come. It is considered
to be the "ULTIMATE SNUB" to anyone who is a member of this exclusive club,
and did not receive a VIP invitation. Among those who are invited, when it
comes to actually meeting Bowie, even the most powerful among New York's
elite do not have enough influence, save for those who are summoned at
Bowie's own request. He can afford to do this now, he has made it beyond the
top. Five years ago, most of these people would not have given him the least
bit of attention, and now they court him as royalty. Why? It is because
Bowie now represents the height of success, and that means money, and the
powerful never pass up an opportunity to be seen with a "winner." Yet ,
there is a great irony here, and a wonderful one too. Look closely. Bowie
himself has succeeded in gathering together the most powerful people in New
York, and he has confined them all to a "HOLDING PEN," and it is here where
they will be snubbed waiting for a chance to meet him. My, how the tables
have turned. I think it's hilarious. Good for him. It's Eric's voice that is
heard once again in the band room, "Five minutes lads." It's time for round
two.
The band is led out first, and when they hit the stage David will still be
in his dressing room with a few friends. He is taking care of any last
minute details before Eric comes back to escort him down Emil's Alley as
well. He has time, the opening instrumental portion of Station To Station is
unusually long. Using a director's chair, Bowie performs a mime skit about
the superfisciality of fame during the song Cracked Actor. All of his
talents will be on display tonight.  Standing inside of one of the columns
Bowie is being washed in a sea of varying colours as he performs Ashes To
Ashes, and a few lines into the first verse the column starts moving towards
the front of the stage. Simple, yet effective. It is those three words,
"simple, yet effective," which best describe the special effects used on
this tour. Bowie had told stage designer Mark Ravitz from the beginning that
he wanted something which was different, effective, and most of all CHEAP.
This tour was designed to make money and Bowie was determined to make
everything related to it "cost effective." This included salaries, general
expenses, it was the reason for Jet 24, and a budget was put in place for
the cost of the stages. No more $400,000.00 Diamond Dogs extraveganzas this
time around. He got off cheap with the stage too in 83, but there was one
particular thing which saved him. His saving grace was the "Vari - Lights,"
and it was soley because of them that he could get dazzling effects on stage
by using ONLY lights, and four clear "plastic" columns. I want to remind you
here as well that we are talking TWENTY YEARS AGO, and things weren't as
they are now. The computer controlled pre progammable lights that are used
at most concerts now have become conventional, they are pretty much a
standard. That is now however, as I said, but not then. The lighting effects
that those audiences saw in 1983 on the Serious Moonlight tour were due to
the most recent advances in technology, and "VARI - LIGHTS" were the latest
innovation in lighting techniques. Now, do not quote me here, but Bowie was
the first, and if not, he was one of the first to ever use them on stage.
Trust me, almost no one had never seen anything like this before, and so,
Bowie, in true fashion once again set the standard for what was to come. The
83 tour forever changed the way rock concerts are presented. Now, lets
return once again to the stage in New York, where the impossible is about to
occur. Yes, the impossible. Rock concerts flow on a continual wave of
energy, and therefore nothing is done by the performer, or the audience, to
interrupt that wave. Things just keep going, song after song, with at
minimum break between each one. Don't touch the wave, because if you do
you're going to wreck the mood. It happened, yes it did, the impossible, and
it happened at the end of Space Oddity as TWENTY THOUSAND PEOPLE rose from
their seats and gave David Bowie a STANDING OVATION which lierally continued
on for MINUTES. I ask you. When was the last time you saw a rock concert
completely halted for MINUTES with a standing ovation given by an audience
in the MIDDLE of a set? The end of a concert, YES, in the middle of one, NO.
At least it's the first time I've heard of it happening. Bowie had brought
the entire crowd to their feet, including his peers, and the prominent. Who
had the "POWER" now? Even they believed. It stunned even those who were
working the gig, the tech crew, equipment handlers, the tour   management
staff, and Bowie's assistants, even Coco. They were all deleriously happy.
The band was awestruck. Bowie revelled in it. Beside him on the stage
illuminated by a spotlight was a balloon three feet in diameter that
featured a map of the world on in. Tomorrow Space Oddity would be dedicated
to a member of the audience, one whose name is Sean Lennon. But for now,
Bowie waits for the crowd noise to subside a bit. The noise dies down for a
moment, but it only to rises again to the opening notes of Young Americans.
Hand written notes, hotel room keys, flowers, stuffed toy animals, articles
of clothing, you figure out which ones, demo tapes and other assorted gifts
now lie by his feet.  During Young Americans one of these feet will
momentarily connect with the balloon on stage, and in one quick movement
propell it from its resting place into the hands of a delighted crowd. At
most of the gigs the "World" bounces around in this sea of hands for quite
some time, but not today. Almost immediately it is popped and pocketed as a
souvenier, or as a welcome addition to some serious collection. There will
be something else to grab later. "Someone's got a birthday today," Bowie
exclaims at the conclusion of Young Americans, "Happy Birthday!" It was for
Mick Jagger, he spent his fourtieth birthday in New York at a Bowie gig.
The set ends with "Fame" at 10:12 PM.  Bowie and the band give a bow and
wave before disappearing into the shadows at the side of the stage.
Offstage Bowie is greeted by three people.  Glenis for one, who has a towel
waiting for him, Coco who is ready with a Marlboro cigarette already lit,
and Arnold Dunn who is holding an open can of ice cold Budweiser beer. The
stomping of the crowd is making the floor shake more violently than ever in
a demand for for. Also sporting towels are the band, who are by now
exhausted and quiet as they reach into the ice chest packed with Evian
Water, Welch's Grape Juice, and Coors beer. What an incredible night. A
triumph.  Eric's voice, and the words, "Yo, guys, stand by," was the only
thing the band needed to hear. They knew, and these words sent them all
racing back up the ramp to the side of the stage. A moment to regroup before
rushing back out to their places. Madison Square Gardens was no longer dark.
The darkness was penetrated by thousands of stars, each one of them a simple
tiny flame emanating from a disposable lighter. Bowie needs no cue when to
return to the stage. With the towel gone,the beer handed back, the Marlboro
hits the concrete floor and is quickly covered over by his shoe, Bowie
returns to his adoring audience. He steps out to the sound of Jean Genie.
The driving riff of Modern Love will surely leave the crowd reeling with
energy, happy, yet wanting more, smiling. Yes, they will remember "THE EVENT
OF THE DECADE" for a long time to come, probably forever. They will never
forget the moment at the end of Modern Love when the velcro fasteners of the
large grey moon above their heads were opened sending hundreds of stars and
moon shaped pieces of gold foil spiralling down to earth, and into thousands
of waiting hands. The execution of the plan and the timing are impeccable,
and it is staged with such perfection that it is worthy of being compared to
an operation performed by the worlds most elite band of commandos. It is
called "THE GETAWAY,"  and it is done with military precision. There are no
exceptions on the tour, Bowie will perform two encores, and only two. Right
at the conclusion of Modern Love Bowie will leave the stage. Arnold Dunn and
one other person will be waiting for Bowie holding flashlights to guide him
down the ramp from the stage. He will be almost blind for several moments
while his eyes adjust from the effects of being exposed to the powerful
lights on stage, and then suddenly exposed to the darkness off stage.  In
Chicago this momentary blindness caused drummer Tony Thompson to run
directly into a pole when he bolted from the stage. Ouch! As he passes,
Bowie will hand Frankie his saxaphone, which he was playing during Modern
Love, and his fedora. The large moon over the crowd will be opened not more
than one minute after Bowie leaves the stage. However, he personally will
never see it. Bowie will not return to the hotel in a van, preferring a bit
of comfort after his energetic performance which has left him rather drained
of energy and tired. So instead, there will be a Lincoln Town Car limousine
waiting. The car will be parked no more than TEN FEET AWAY from the bottom
of the stairs which lead on to the stage. When he gets in to the car he will
be joining his bodyguard Big Tony, as well as his personal assistant Coco
Schwab, who will have been waiting. Even before the lights in the audience
have been turned on the door is closed, and the car pulls away exiting the
venue immediately. The band finishes Modern Love several seconds after Bowie
leaves the stage, and when they leave also, it is done in a pre detemined
order. First is Earl Slick. The band has a slogan, it goes like this, "THE
VANS WAITS FOR NO ONE." The reality is however that it is more than just a
slogan, it is in fact THE RULE OF LAW, it is the truth, the vans do not wait
for anyone  under ANY circumstances, no matter what. After the brief sprint
they all literally LEAP into the waiting vehicles. "Why," you ask? It is
because any lingering after a gig will only result in one thing, and that is
the forming of a mob. There will not only be the mob which gathers around
the band backstage, but another will form from the  multitude of fans who
will collect around the exits. This makes it exceptionally more difficult
when the band decides to leave as they  must now be forced to negotiate a
path through this collection of humanity. Even more problems face you once
you escape the backstage mob and get into the car. You see, as you leave the
driver must successfully navigate his way through a mob of your admirers who
are trying any way possible to join you in the car for a ride, even if it
means entering through the glass your beloved fans smashed with the
windshield washer which now sits some thirty feet behind you on the road.
Others try the tailpipe to get in, or where the headlights used to be. When
that is over, and you have finished running fifty people over, you are in
the clear, but only momentarily. The delay from waiting around has served up
a wonderful opportunity for eighty percent of the people who were at your
gig, as you have given them ample time to get to your hotel before you
arrive so they can greet you. The greeting which awaits you is more commonly
referred to as a RIOT. It has been proven that a FULL BLOWN RIOT can present
a formidable obstacle if happens to be between you and your hotel room, but
thankfully it will be the last hurdle to overcome. The only annoyances
remaining are sound of the ropes with grappling hooks attatched being heaved
at your balcony all night, and of course the sounds made by people who try
to visit you all night using conventional methods. By "conventional I mean
coming in through your door, with a battering ram that is. This will not
happen on the Serious Moonlight tour.  The audience at Madison Square
Gardens is still sitting in the dark sreaming for more when  Bowie's car and
the vans carring the band are outside on 8th Avenue.  On arrival back at the
Berkshire the lobby was orderly, and hotel security were preventing anyone
who was not a registered guest the from using the elevators. There are
exceptions to everything as you well know, and so there are sometimes
exceptions when the "GETAWAY" doesn't work as well as it should, like in
Arizona for instance. Oh, the Bowie and the band got out of the venue with
no problems, the airport is another story.  Rather than at an international
air terminal, Jet 24 was parked instead at a small municipal airport, and
when they arrived they were met by a few people who had arrived before them
to say goodbye. Fans. Yep, fans, and plenty of them. They had all come to
say goodbye to Bowie, and they weren't prepared to let him leave without
doing so. This explains why they were littered all over the runway. Jet 24
wasn't going anywhere. David finally went over to meet them, he talked a
bit, signed some autographs, and after he asked them to please move so the
plane could leave, which they did. The show is over.
The audience loving the show is one thing, but, the quality of the good
review that YOU KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO GET, that is if they ever want you to
speak to you again of course, is another matter all together. There are in
fact various degrees of good, if you didn't already know. There's "Alright,
Okay, Not Bad, Fine, Fairly Good, Pretty Good, Quite Good, Really Good,
Great, Exceptional, Really Great, Fucking Great, Excellent, Fabulous,
Spectacular, Amazing, Awesome, and The Most Amazing Fucking Thing Since Time
Began. Bowie would be especially interested in what pronouncement came forth
from The New York Times. The reason is that the Times has a reputation of
being a "tough" paper for several reasons. First, although it would be
beneficial to keep on speaking terms with Bowie, the New York Times would
not suffer in the least if he didn't. Also, the Times is one of the most
influential papers in America, it is quite conservative, and it enjoys a
reputation as being extremely credible. Now, forget ticket sales, as sell
outs by now are a guarantee. What a positive review would do for Bowie, is
it would go a long way towards helping to "SELL HIS NEW IMAGE," and not just
to "MAINSTREAM" America, but also to "CONSERVATIVE" America. Robert Palmer
is an ex musician who enjoyed a period of success with a few hit singles,
and he is also the music critic for the New York Times. Palmer is known to
be a very tough critic who is unforgiving, and also, as a musician himself,
he is not prone to becoming "STAR STRUCK." As it happened, when the Times
appeared the next day, any worries that Bowie might have suffered would turn
out to be completely unfounded. He couldn't have got a better review even if
he PAID for it.  Palmer called the show, "more moving" and "more dazzling"
than "ANYTHING the art world's most celebrated performance artists have come
up with." Do you think that's good? Just you wait, because that was the BAD
PART. The good part came at the end when Palmer proclaimed the show to be
"practically FLAWLESS." Yep, almost PERFECT. Bowie was scheduled to perform
two nights in New York, he did three, but more on that in a minute. After
his last gig Bowie hosted a party at Cafe Seiyoken,  a fashionable, yet
reletively unknown restaraunt located in Manhattan's warehouse district.
When word got out about the party, Isolar's phones got bombarded with those
who wanted invitations. This party however was no exception to any of the
others hosted by Bowie, and I mean in the sense that it was a highly
exclusive affair with a hand picked guest list. Out of all the attempts to
obtain a written invitation, most failed. Pressure among members of the
"social set" to obtain invitations increased even further when details of
the upcoming party were announced in the gossip columns. To give you a real
good idea of just how hot Bowie had become, you only need look as far as to
how important attending this party was to both New York's prominent, and New
York's socialites. Please, do me a favour here and skip the "how" and the
"why" because I don't know. At any rate, somehow, and for some unknown
reason, a few of these invitations managed to make it on to the "street,"
where they easily sold at a going rate of FIVE to SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS EACH!
There weren't enough of them printed in the first place however to  begin to
wet the lips, let alone satisfy even a tenth of the demand. Warhol, Jagger
Richards, Yoko Ono, Richard Gere, Billy Idol, Lorne Michaels, who is the
producer of Saturday Night Live, and Censored Hoffman were among the guests.
David Bowie showed up also, and this time he stayed quite a long time. As I
said, there were two scheduled performances for Madison Square Gardens, and
a third show was added. The third show is a story in itself, and one that I
am going to tell you now. Oh, and by the way, first, I strongly advise you
to sit down. This isn't very pretty.
Personally, I agree whole heartedly with New York promoter Ron Delsener, the
one who has handled Bowie since 1972. I believe also that in 1983 David
Bowie could have broken Elton John's attendance record of seven consecutive
sold out performances at The Gardens. Not only do I think he could have done
it, I also think that he could have broken that record easily, and I have a
reason to believe that as well. I will admit that where I live is
notoriously recognized as a haven when it comes to "BOWIE." Vancouver has
always been a city that is big on Bowie, and it appears that Bowie is big on
Vancouver. He rehearsed here in 76, shot the 83 tour video here, and has hit
the place on every tour, with the exception of the Outside tour which saw NO
CANADIAN DATES. That was fine, I saw it in Seattle, a three hour drive, and
the next night in Portland, four more hours south. Bowie was here  shooting
the film, "Exhuming Mr.Rice," or whatever the name of it is. They changed
it, didn't they? I hate to fucking admit this, but I haven't see the damn
thing yet, and I was anxious for it to be released, then, well, I guess I
forgot about it. Me, forget about Bowie? I know, it sounds bizarre, who'd
even dare to think it was possible? Well, alas, not only is possible, but it
is a reality sometimes. I do forget, like now for example, but hey, I just
reminded myself?  Now, all I  have to do is to remember the reminder. Is the
movie any good? I hope so. It can't be any worse than "Just a Giggle," or
that other one, "Happy Mother's Day Mr. Lawrence." Oh, there's that "Pasta"
movie too. That one, oh, and I almost forgot, there's the one where he's
wearing Tina Turner's wig. I think he's some kind of evil person. I know so,
because since it was a Bowie movie he knew I had to go and see it, but when
I got there he tortured me with The Muppets. What's more is the fact that I
was lured out to a theatre, and a theatre is not like home, because at home
when The Muppets are on television  I can rid myself of them by simply
changing the channel, turning the TV off, or throwing it out the window.
What can you do at a theatre? Change channels? Turn the movie off? No way.
All I could do was hope that he'd get drunk and stoned and wander into that
maze, or whatever it was, Linguini, Labrynth, or something or rather, and
then lose his way. Oh, not just get a little bit lost either, I mean REALLY
LOST, like for ETERNITY, or whatever comes AFTER IT. Maybe while he's in
there he could get devoured by WILD MUPPETS. That would have been a real
happy ending. In the last scene the GOOD FAIRY MUPPET, the one who battles
evil, and the one who led Bowie to the maze in the first place when he was
really hammered so he'd get lost, gives Tina her wig back. Oh, and then that
hot brunette in the film comes to live at my house. This Rice movie, it
can't be worse than those, can it? Anyway, what I was on about is Vancouver
having a large population of Bowie listeners, even so, the city only has one
and a half million people. The next major city close to us of any size is
Tacoma, Washington, eighteen miles south of Seattle, and Bowie played there
in 83. The reason I say that Bowie could have sold out The Gardens in New
York for a week easily, is because he played Vancouver FOUR TIMES in 83. He
sold out our football stadium twice, and that place holds sixty thousand,
and he sold out The Pacific Coliseum twice, and that's a conservative twelve
thousand per show. If he can do that in a place like Vancouver with a
million and a half people, imagine what he could have done in a city like
New York which has seventeen million. He'd still be fucking playing there
now. Can you see the sign, " MADISON SQUARE GARDENS PRESENTS DAVID BOWIE -
HELD OVER FOR ANOTHER TWENTY YEARS - GOOD SEATS STILL AVAILABLE." The demand
was there, I bet he could have sold the place out ten nights in a row if he
could have fit it into the tour schedule. How much of an arguement am I
going to get if I say that in retrospect Bowie booking two nights at The
Gardens was ridiculous? Now, I may be wrong because he probably had no idea
just how high the ticket demand would be, but even so, in my opinion I think
maybe that he should have prepared a little better in the event that there
would be a higher demand for seats than what was previously anticipated. He
could have planned ahead, making it either possible to add shows, or return
to a venue if necessary, if it turned out that demand exeeded expectations.
I know for a fact that he could have added a Hell of a lot more shows in 83,
and sold every one of them out. Probably in a few hours too. Even so, two
nights in New York was a mistake, oh, and that isn't my opinion by the way,
that is the truth, and I know it is because of what happened, and what
happened proves it beyond any doubt whatsoever. "Exactly what is it that
happened," you ask? Well, Let me tell you what happened.
First of all, the entire city of New York went completely beserk, I mean it
was even more beserk than usual. I'm not going to tell you why, you figure
it out. Here is a hint. The hottest commodity in show business rolls into
New York City which at the time had  a population of roughly SEVENTEEN
MILLION PEOPLE.  Now, there will be a total of FORTY THOUSAND PEOPLE out of
these SEVENTEEN MILLION that will be able to buy a ticket in order to see
the hottest show on the planet.  Before the show came to New York it was
drawing audiences of SIXTY THOUSAND, sometimes even drawing SIXTY THOUSAND
TWO NIGHTS in a row, and these were places that had in some cases A TENTH OF
THE POPULATION compared to NEW YORK. Do you think that there may have been
MORE THAN FORTY THOUSAND PEOPLE out of the SEVENTEEN MILLION that were
interested in seeing the hottest show on the planet? Guess what? There were
more. A lot more, and they WEREN'T TOO HAPPY EITHER. Two shows were nothing,
forty thousand seats didn't even begin to satisfy the demand. Think about
it, the promoter said he was sure Bowie could have SOLD ONE HUNDRED AND
FORTY THOUSAND SEATS in New York, there were FORTY THOUSAND AVAILABLE. Since
Bowie only scheduled two performances, this meant that THERE WAS STILL A
TOTAL OF ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE WHO WANTED TO GO BUT COULD NOT BUY A
TICKET. Yep, ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND! Do I have to tell you, or can you just
imagine what the scene was like? I'll tell you anyway, for Bowie fans it was
a state of panic. Not only had tens of thousands missed out, but Bowie had
made no mention at all about trying to schedule in at least one or two more
performances. Now, I ask you to please take note that the panic did not just
start after the second gig, it started long before when the realization came
that there was no chance at all they would see the tour, unless of course
they could get tickets in another city. If that was the case, good luck. The
only other alternative was to ask Bowie directly if he could possibly
accomodate his fans and add some shows. How do you do that though? First,
you have to get a message to him. That's the first problem. Second, there
was the risk, and Bowie happened to not be taking any at the moment. You
see, to avoid any losses due to poor ticket sales, Bowie would not even
consider adding any dates if didn't have certain guarantees that an
additional demand for tickets really existed, and a few people pleading for
another show is a far cry from what is needed to fill twenty thousand seats.
Well, that's the situation, so what do you do?  That's easy, all you do is
get a message through to Bowie asking him to add some more dates and prove
to him that the demand exists. There's nothing to it at all, it's that
simple. Whether this thought entered their heads, I do not know, what I do
know however is that it makes sense. If plubicity works well FOR Bowie, then
it should work ON him just as well. A novell idea, wouldn't you say? Let me
make this completely understood, please, it is important that you remember
this point, and the point is THAT IT WAS THE FANS. Remember, the FANS. Okay?
Now, what I am about to tell you is about one truly amazing effort. What you
will hear is a tale about the handywork of some truly dedicated Bowie
listeners, they did all the planning, they co ordinated it, and as a matter
of record, they orchestrated the whole entire thing.
The only way was to convince Bowie himself, and fortunately a few fans
decided it was at least worth a try, much better than just giving up,
because that would surely mean that their last chance had come and gone,
with them left out. These few fans came up with an idea. They decided to
mount a publicity campaign of their own, one that hoped would  send a
message to Bowie. The message they wanted to send was simple, "PLEASE DO
ANOTHER SHOW." They wanted this message to be not only delivered, but
"SIGNED" by THOUSANDS OF OTHER FANS. The number of other serious Bowie fans
who were were unable to get tickets became painfully obvious when notices
were put out seeking support. The numbers, quite frankly, were staggering,
and this is evidenced by the wave of support they received when the notices
were put out, as HUNDREDS of other fans readily volunteered to assist them
with the campaign in a matter of days. I should mention that the publicity
campaign they mounted was one worthy of being compared to the plublicity
hype that Bowie generated for the Serious Moonlight tour itself. These fans
were successful in recruiting a literal army of other fans, and they went to
work. Oh, sorry, I mean they went off to WAR! There were platoons sent out
on a massive poster campaign. Posters asking Bowie to add dates were slapped
up all over the city. Lamp posts, newspaper boxes, record stores, on walls,
and anywhere at all where one would stick  around the Berkshire Hotel. Bowie
couldn't look out a window anywhere in the hotel and not see one. They put
them up anywhere they could along the roads on the way into town from the
airport. Oh, and they did this on the routes leading in from BOTH MAJOR
AIRPORTS, JFK, and LaGuardia, just to be sure. He was bound to see them from
the car on his way to the hotel. Seventh and Eighth Avenue, and the other
streets around The Gardens were plastered with them. Anywhere, anywhere at
all, they pasted them anywhere that a remote chance existed where one of
them may catch Bowie's eye. This was just phase one. Next, they attacked
Bowie directly by sending him a MAIL BOMB. This part was made easier since
Isolar is located in New York. They literally BOMBARDED Bowie's management
company with  letters written by fans pleading for another few dates, most
were mailed, and many were personally dropped off. They were sucessful in
getting some newspapers and magazines to donate advertising space which was
then used to place even more requests for dates to be added. Soon to join
them in their  efforts were the radio stations, and in no time the small
alliance of Bowie fans had become a formidable lobby group. It seemed as if
three quarters of the population of New York were fighting along with them.
With such large and diverse audiences, having the radio stations involved
made an tremendous difference in getting the message out. The more people
that heard the message, the more support they got. To tell you the truth, it
was at fever pitch, and it worked. Yes, apparentley "someone else" heard the
cry, David Bowie, and he'd see what he could do. Disappointed, the fans did
not get "dates" added as they wished, however, they did get ONE. Bowie would
appear one more time at Madison Square Gardens. They did it! Whether it was
older fans, new fans, or just those caught up in the hype, doesn't matter,
it's unimportant. What is important though, is the show of fan support. An
effort from a few of the die hards leads to twenty thousand seats being
sold. Two things were accomplished here, and both groups benefitted. First
the fans. They got Bowie to agree to perform, and so they benefitted by
getting the show they so desperately sought. Second, BECAUSE OF THE FANS
David Bowie got an additional performance scheduled in on the tour that he
WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GET OTHERWISE, and so, he also benefitted. Don't
forget one thing, there was lots in this for him too. To start with, because
of his FANS wanting the show, David Bowie would gross somewhere in the
neighbourhood of THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS for that ONE PERFORMANCE.
Also, add on tour programs, T-shirts, hats, buttons, and all the other shit,
you come up with a FUCKING LOT OF MONEY, and I do mean, A LOT OF MONEY! You
see, everyone wins. Well, almost everyone. I say this because there was a
loser in all of this. "How? Who," you wonder?  There were losers, and, well,
although you won't believe it, I am not lying, it is true. The fans lost.
When the tickets went on sale for the additional performance the FANS
INSPIRED, six thousand of them were ALREADY SPOKEN FOR, in other words, SIX
THOUSAND of these tickets WERE NOT AVAILABLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. Oh, and
not just ANY SEATS EITHER, these ALL just happened to be THE BEST SEATS
THERE WERE IN THE GARDENS. When the new contracts were drawn up for this
show, the ticket sales agreement stipulated that DAVID BOWIE WAS TO HAVE
CONTROL OVER the DISTRIBUTION of the FIRST SIX THOUSAND SEATS. So, they
would be sold at HIS DISCRETION, and to whomever HE DECIDED TO SELL THEM TO.
The FANS, right? He let the FANS HAVE THEM, right? No, wrong. If you had
been the Bowie fan who came up with the idea FIRST to lobby for this extra
performance, actually started the campaign, organized it, got everyone
involved, and worked your own ass off in order to see Bowie perform, you
DIDN'T STAND A CHANCE OF GETTING A GREAT SEAT, and NOT JUST YOU EITHER, I
mean ANY FAN, that is unless you happen to be a CERTAIN SOMEBODY.  With the
ticket sales contract all signed, David Bowie used the "DISCRETIONARY
CLAUSE" to HOLD the FIRST SIX THOUSAND  SEATS FROM GENERAL RELEASE. To put
it simply, these tickets were UNAVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC, and so doing this,
David Bowie effectively kept these tickets OUT OF THE HANDS of his fans. I
know you are wondering where they went, so I will tell you where they went,
but first, let me tell you what they were "USED" for.  These tickets were
used for one purpose only, and sadly, that purpose was to play the "SELF
SERVING POWER GAME," so he could personally benefit from them. Therefore,
EVERY ONE OF THOSE TICKETS  went to a "select" group of individuals that he
wanted to "IMPRESS."  In this group were individuals who could help him
career wise, and business wise. Your "WORTH" lies in how popular you are,
because popularity means "STARDOM," and stardom means money, and money means
power, and power means control.  all know that in the "CELEBRITY WORLD" fame
is usually fleeting, you are on top one day, and forgotten the next. It may
be fleeting, but while there the power is weilded for all it is worth, and
it's FLAUNTED, the "LOOK AT ME, I MADE IT" attitude. The self glory is
strengthened by the ENVY of others who "wish they were you." For the brief
time they are on top, celebrities shove their success right down the throats
of their peers.  "STATUS," that's a game too, like the set of guest lists
that are used at parties thrown in Hollywood . There is an "A" list, and on
it are the most famous people at the moment, as well as the very wealthy and
the very powerful. You may not personally know some of these people, or even
like them, but you invite them anyway. Why? Well, it's because of status,
and part of a prominent person's status comes from being "SEEN" with the
"RIGHT PEOPLE." So, they try to get these people who are on the "A" list to
come to their parties, just to be seen with them. Apparentley, the twisted
reasoning of the famous dictates that hanging around with big celebrities
makes you more important as a person. In some fucked up way they think that
if celebrities hang out with you then you must be important, because
celebrites only hang out with important people. This is why they try to get
people that they don't know to come over to their houses, and that isn't
all, there is an "A" list for the the parties themselves. As a social
climber it is important to get invited to the "RIGHT" parties, and so
certain parties are worth more than other parties, because of whose house
they happen to be at. Superfiscial? Aw, c'mon, are you kidding. Celebrities
aren't that way, are they? This all sounds like perfect reasoning to me,
perfectly fucked up that is. Don't think for a minute that this didn't go on
around David Bowie in 83, because it did. The Bowie shows in New York were
the same as "A" list parties in Hollywood, and the guest list also had an
"A" on the front.  To the prominent people in New York's social circle,
being seen with David insured that they were "important," and because they
all flocked towards David Bowie, it insured that HE WAS IMPORTANT as well.
It's all a superfiscial game, and they ALL play it. This is why he kept
those tickets. You see, at Bowie's personal request those SIX THOUSAND
TICKETS were ONLY to be made available to IMPORTANT PEOPLE, so to get one,
you first had to qualify, and to qualify you had to fit into a certain group
of people. The tickets were to go ONLY to actors, other musicians,
politicians, record company executives, as well as executives of major
corporations. Anyone who had influnce in the recording industry, the film
industry, and in theatre were also included, as well as people who had
influence in the art world, such as those on the  governing boards of art
galleries, and art brokers. New York is headquarters to many high profile
advertising agencies, financial institutions, television networks, radio
stations, publishing houses, marketing agencies, and so forth. Since these
businesses cross over into the entertainment industry, tickets were made
available to their top executives. Last, but not least, were the "SOCIAL
SET," the rich, the famous, and those who were the top celebrities that
week, or, I mean that miniute. Oh, and they came too.
You're damn right they were there, if you're "ANYBODY" that is. To be seen
with the hottest celebrity on the planet was a MUST, this is why tickets to
his party fetched five or six hundred bucks. This is why the phones at
Isolar rang off the Godamn hook. I don't give a flying fuck who you are, or
what you think, for DAVID BOWIE TO DO THIS WAS WRONG. I know that THE
BOWIEZOIDS who worship the ground he walks on as if he is God will disagree,
but who cares, they are also deluded into actually thinking that they
"UNDERSTAND" Bowie as well, so why not morally bankrupt in there too. I
don't care one way or the other, I mean it's not that they matter or
anything. Oh, guess who went? Tony Defries, yeah, Defries, he counted as a
person of importance, and he bought THIRTY of those seats. Now, many may
wonder at this, thinking because Defries ripped David off, that he would
never allow him to get a VIP seat. That, again, is a misassumption, and as a
matter of fact, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if I discovered that
Tony Defries name was first on the list. I'd almost expect it. I know, I
know, ninety percent of the world runs around screaming how terrible Tony
Defries is and  usually comparing him to a parasite, or a thief of some
sort. The reality is that Defries saved Bowie. It is not unusual for a
person to expect to earn a profit from an investment, and yet, not one of
Bowie's previous managers had ever seen a profit from investing in him, they
did however see losses. It is quite understandable then, that after Ken
Pitt, there weren't too many others waiting in line so they could lose money
on David as well. I remember a total of one, yep, one, one who went by the
name of Tony Defries. It's an easy equation, no money, no career for Bowie,
Defries put in money, Bowie got a career. Simple. The reality also is that
financially, Bowie paid an extremely high price to get Defries to invest.
Was it too high? Well, that's a matter of opinion. However, what these
people who run around bashing Defries seem to forget, I mean to say are
completely ignorant of, is that an investors charge  rates of return based
on RISK.  A LOW RISK INVESTMENT means low rates, whereas a HIGH RISK
INVESTMENT means high rates, and the fact that because he had never returned
one cent in profit to ANY OF HIS INVESTORS, getting losses instead, made
DAVID BOWIE an EXTREMELY  HIGH RISK INVESTMENT. Therefore, David Bowie PAID
a HEAVY PRICE for being a HIGH RISK INVESTMENT. This isn't grade one
economics, it's kindergarten mathematics. Where would Bowie be without an
investor? So, where would Bowie be without Defries? Let me ask you, "WHO WAS
IT EXACTLY THAT WAS RESPONSIBLE GOR GETTING BOWIE SIGNED TO A MAJOR LABEL?"
Who, exactly? Yeah, Defries. How much credit does he get for doing that?
Right, NONE? Was the price Bowie paid WORTH IT to get signed to RCA Records
And Tapes? Where would he have been WITHOUT RCA, they saved his ass too you
know? Gee, now what? Look where Bowie is now, he's worth NINE HUNDRED
MILLION DOLLARS. Now, was it worth paying Defries all that money, you tell
me? You're FUCKING RIGHT IT WAS! Those who bash Defries are not only
IGNORANT, but HYPOCRITES as well. I say this because first, they don't
understand the Bowie's situation when Defries came into the picture, plus
they PISS ON DEFRIES for "supposedly" ripping Bowie off, but forget
something. What about Defries himself? Bowie was a BAD INVESTMENT TO BEGIN
WITH, Defries took a chance, so, now, what if David Bowie didn't make it as
an artist and Defries LOST ALL HIS MONEY? Then what? I will say this. How
many of these "FANS" who bash Defries for "ripping Bowie off" would have
FELT SORRY FOR DEFRIES IF HE LOST HIS MONEY? Yeah, what if Defries "got
ripped off" because he made a real bad investment, meaning the one he made
in David Bowie? Well, remember, Defries had NO GUARANTEES. Guess what the
answer is? The answer is NOT ONE. Right, not even one of these "BOWIE FANS"
could care less if the tables were turned, and Tony Defries suffered a major
financial loss because he invested in Bowie and Bowie failed. They couldn't
have anyway, because without Defries, THEY NEVER WOULD HAVE HEARD OF DAVID
BOWIE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Still, they are HYPOCRITES, compared to Defries,
Bowie's money is far more valuable  to them, FUCK DEFRIES is their attitude,
so what, who cares about Defries? Sorry, but the truth is the truth, they
are ignorant hypocrites, and also lacking in etiquette. They show absolutely
no appreciation whatsoever for what Tony Defies did for them. I, for one, am
INDEBTED to Defries, HE GAVE ME BOWIE, and for that I OWE HIM A DEBT SO
LARGE THAT IT CAN NEVER BE REPAID. EVER! Also, did you ever happen to notice
something?  Did you notice how IT IS ALWAYS THE "BOWIE FANS" who are
constantly bashing Defries, and NEVER DAVID BOWIE HIMSELF? Hmmmm? I wonder
why? Any ideas on that? I have. It could be because quite possibley Bowie
doesn't happen to share the same opinion of Tony Defries as his fans seem
to. He just may not think the same way. You see, those who despise Defries
are under the impression that Bowie does too. Their thinking is this, "Tony
Defries ripped Bowie off, so Bowie must hate him because he got ripped off,
and because David Bowie hates him, then we'll all hate him too." This is the
way THE BOWIEZOIDS think. It's blind "BOWIE WORSHIPPING," poor David. It's
quite interesting though, that none of these people can explain this. If all
of this stuff was true, and Bowie really despised Defries, then WHY DID HE
CONTINUE TO WORK WITH HIM AND RCA UP UNTIL1986 WHEN HE DIDN'T HAVE TO? Then
add to it the fact that it was all Bowie's doing. After the initial split,
it was David Bowie who contacted Defries and RCA wanting to create a working
partnership, it was Bowie who presented the offer. Why, if he despised
Defries so much? Explain why David Bowie let someone he despised purchase
THIRTY TICKETS THAT WERE RESTRICTED TO ONLY THOSE PEOPLE WHOM HE PERSONALLY
WANTED TO ATTEND the gig?
To be straight up, these people, well, they don't know anything, and if you
didn't know the situation either, and hated Defries based on what you were
being told, there is no problem, because now you do understand. Let me add
that Bowie, RCA, and Defies worked as a team up until 1986, and Bowie
ENJOYED playing the "BUSINESS GAME" with Defries, especially since he was
now on the "OTHER" side. Defries squaked about Bowie's videos, saying he re
recorded them from the "masters" that they co owned, so therefore he was
entitled to half the profits from them. You see, he PLAYED along too. Does
this sound like a Bowie who holds a great deal of animosity towards someone?
No. It shows a respect for them, and it was. They continued on, and all
three parties benefitted immensely. Even though the
Bowie/RCA/MainMan/Defries contract had expired, Tony Defries made over OME
MILLION DOLLARS in 1983 from his share of the profits derived SOLEY FROM
BOWIE'S BACK CATALOG. So, if he made a million, what did Bowie make? How
about RCA? See now why Defries got thirty VIP seats? He probably could have
had five hundred of them if he wanted. There is a DOUBLE STANDARD here at
work also, i mean with these "BOWIE FANS." I do not care who you are, Bowie
taking those seats away from his fans was wrong. I know there are those who
will say this, " Nobody has any right to complain about Bowie. The fact is
that David Bowie can do whatever he wants, therefore he had a perfect right
to make the decision as to who got these tickets,  after all it wass HIS
SHOW. If you don't like his decisions, then don't buy his stuff anymore,
it's up to you. He can do what he wants, and he doesn't need your approval."
How do I know this? Well I do, because I have posted this story before and
the BOWIEZOIDS reacted immediately by flaming me for daring to "challenge"
Bowie. What I have just said is the general context of what I was told,
however, I will mention that the tone they used was quite a bit harsher. The
funny thing is that I completely agree with them, it's true, I say that
Bowie has every right "to do whatever he wants," and I have never argued
that point at all. Ever. My point is, "So what? So what if David Bowie can
do whatever he wants?  I fail to understand their arguement. What does the
fact of David Bowie having the right to do whatever he wants have to do with
anything?" What I fail to see is how that makes something right. I mean,
just because someone can do whatever they want doesn't make it right. Guess
what? In my opinion it's a stupid fucking arguement. Does anyone care to
explain it to me? Yes, it is HIS show, yes, they are HIS tickets, yes, he
can invite who HE wants, but the fact remains that just because Bowie can do
whatever HE wants at HIS SHOW, DOES NOT MAKE WHAT HE DID TO HIS FANS RIGHT.
What does the freedom to act and behave the way you want have to do at all
with moral values, or behaving properly? That, after all, is my point, and
nothing else. Let me say that for the show of support Bowie got from his
fans, the show of support which gave  him the opportunity to play another
gig and rake in THREE HUNDRED GRAND, they did not deserve what they got in
return. They should NOT HAVE BEEN TREATED THIS WAY.  What was this worth to
him, after all he placed a higher value on his personal guests, the
celebrities, and others he could either profit from in some way, or fufill
some need by inviting those who he could posture in front of in his moment
of glory for personal gratification. Yep, I agree, he can do what he wants,
and he did, and it was morally wrong. Those fans who worked their asses off
to get this show were SCREWED OUT OF THE BEST SEATS IN RETURN, and that was
NO WAY TO TREAT THEM, instead they deserved some RESPECT, and a GREAT BIG
THANK YOU. If you agree with Bowie's actions then YOU HAVE NO RESPECT EITHER
FOR THE WORK THESE FANS DID WITH NO GUARANTEES WHEN THEY STARTED, and for
PAY. Yet, they PAID for their tickets, the ones they were allowed to buy,
and Bowie made a few hundred grand out of the deal. Not even a thank you.
Sure, you can say I'm wrong, and in that case I say that you better give
your head a real good shake, because, although you have a right to your
opinion, the fact remains that there is something that is still seriously
wrong with you, in the morality department that is. I had said earlier that
when David Bowie created "THE REAL DAVID BOWIE" it had some flaws that were
thought to me minor, and so not worth taking time to repair. They should
have, because this was caused by them, and as we all know when it comes to
problems they don't just go away by themselves, they need attention, and
when they don't get it and are left unchecked, they just continue to grow,
and in the process they become far more serious. They do, and they did here
as well. You'll see.
Apart from his behaviour David Bowie deserves all the credit in the world
for what he had accomplished up until now. As an artist, the "POP STAR
CHARACTER" that he created proved to be something far beyond anything that
even a certified genius could have conceived of. Now, so there are no
misconceptions here, I am NOT SPEAKING IN TERMS OF WHAT BOWIE'S  BEST MUSIC
IS. I am speaking in terms of something he created DOING WHAT IT WAS
DESIGNED TO DO, in other words, what he created having the DESIRED RESULTS.
In those terms then, artistically, nothing Bowie had ever created in the
past came close to this, it was the most brilliant thing he had ever done,
and only he could have done it, as nobody else posesses the talent he had to
do it. One more thing, what he accomplished as an artist is akin to Warhol's
soup cans, in the sense that it was all brought forth due to the unique
talent of ONE brilliant artist, NOBODY ELSE could have achieved it, and what
resulted was the pinnacle achievement coming from a creative mind which is
beyond all others, and what was created will serve as a permanent testament
to that fact. Also, what was achieve can only ever happen once, it will
never be repeated, or can it ever be copied. Disagree? Well, then you better
look a bit closer. Can Bowie act? "THE REAL DAVID BOWIE" was an act? Using
the skills of a character actor Bowie was acted out a role. So, how was his
acting ability, was he convincing as "PERFORMER?" Did he PLAY PART OF A POP
STAR WELL? His acting was beyond excellent, it was brilliant, worth a
fucking award. As far as his talent as an actor, well, if you recall he did
seem to have the entire world convinced that what they were seeing was not
an act, that is how believable Bowie made his character. Who else did you
say could have done this? Bowie, an actor? Nobody but him, it was
magnificent, so brilliant, it's beyond words. Bowie, a writer? He scripted
1983. I rest my case on that. Bowie as a composer who works with sound? He
used that talent to manufacture a Pop album that would took over the charts,
in almost EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. Bowie, his talents as a live perormer?
Ask THE TWO MILLION SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE who came to see him in the
space of EIGHT MONTHS! Actor, composer, writer, artist, performer, and also
add to that his business savy, then tell me what you have? Would you like to
see the definition of "multi media?" You just saw it. Had Bowie ever put
anything this elabourate together before? No. Has he done it since? No. This
was Bowie's "Soup Cans." Okay, now, lets get back to the tour, I have more
to tell you, and it gets better. The baseball team in Anahiem California
threatened Bowie with a lawsuit. The threat was over an alledged disruption
that his tour had caused at the box office, due the tickets for the Serious
Moonlight tour going on sale the same day as the baseball tickets. The team
blamed poor ticket sales on the fact that baseball fans couldn't get through
on the phone, or get near the window at the box office due to both being
jammed by tens of thousands Bowie fans wanting concert tickets. In the end
there was no suit filed. The tour continued through America, and along the
way it bounced into Canadian cities as well. It was the same story
everywhere it went, rave reviews, sell out crowds, and attendance records
continuing to be decimated at many venues.. Oh, I almost forgot. I nearly
forgot about the  money. Although I will cover the financial details of the
tour  in much greater detail a bit later, I want to give you some idea about
the numbers we're talking about. Dallas $235,000.00, two shows in Los
Angeles $506,000.00, Chicago $716,000.00 for three shows, Toronto set both
an attendance record, as well as a record for gross dollar amount when the
box office took in $2.3 MILLION, same thing in Vancouver, another record for
gross dollar amount, $1.3 MILLION, and the day before that he did $1.2
MILLION in Edmonton. The Winnipeg Sun newspaper ran a five page feature
article on the show under the banner, "BOWIE: NOW WE'VE HEARD
EVERYTHING!!!!." Of course the article ended by proclaiming it, "the rock
event of the decade." Gee, what a surprise that is. At a performance in
Vancouver there was a video shot for a pay per view special on HBO, Home Box
Office. Later it would be released to video retailers.
This next piece comes in two parts, and due to the subject matter I thought
it would be best to give you advanced warning. I know that some of you who
are reading Images are only concerned about  Bowie Facts and nothing more. I
know this based on the responses from people to the criticsm I have
solicicited to improve Images any way I can. Not only do I appreciate and
value the feedback I recieve, but I greatly respect the wishes of those who
are crazy enough to be reading this . Some readers have said that they do
not wish to read about my "PERSONAL" life when it comes to the experiences I
have had around Bowie, and how his work has effected me. That's is why I am
mental by the way. Out of respect, so I can avoid wasting anyone's valuable
time, or cause them to become aggrevated from having to read something that
they are not interested in, I want to say this up front. This way they can
skip over this next part if they wish. What is coming next is about me
personally. I wrote it for those who are interested in having a FIRST HAND
ACCOUNT from someone who was actually there at the time. It has to do with
what it was like to have Bowie return after five years with the album that
he did. It is also contains an unusual story of how I almost missed the
first gig I saw in 83. Lastly, it contains an overall  "REVIEW" of what I
thought of the shows in 83, as compared to all the other shows I saw on
previous tours. I am doing this strictly because many of you have stated
that what I write happens to be not so biased as a lot of other things
written about Bowie, which many of you say simply praise the ground he walks
on, and offer little in terms of painting an honest picture. Although no one
is obligated to agree with any of my opinions that are critical of Bowie,
the point remains that at least THERE ARE SOME. Also, I know for a fact from
the many letters I have received on this topic  that much of what I have
written that is critical is not confined to my own personal opinion.
Instead, much of what I have written  has apparentley accurately represented
the opinions and sentiments of the VAST MAJORITY of his OLDER listeners.
This however, I did not find surprising. Anyway, you can read the next part,
or skip it if you like. Okay? For those who plan to read it let me tell you
It starts off with me in JAIL!  Yes, JAIL. Seriously? What do you think?
You're Godamn right I'm serious!
Yep, I'm in fucking jail, it's six in the morning, and my plane leaves for
Edmonton at ten. The Bowie concert at Commonwealth Stadium starts at three
this afternoon. In my CELL I have done some caculations and determined that
Bowie goes on stage in NINE HOURS. Oh, why am I in jail? Wait, I'll get to
that in a minute. First of all let me say this. It's been five years of
bloody Hell for me, and a few thousand others who are clutching Scary
Monsters, the last thing we got from Bowie, and that was an agonizing three
years ago. Some of the pain is eased by cranking up bootlegs from the 78
tour and remembering the one I saw in Montreal. I heard the singles from
Let's Dance on the radio previously to the album being released. I had
already phoned A&B Sound, they are a local chain that sells electronics and
records, to find out when the first shipment of Let's Dance was arriving.
They day before they said they were getting them I called once more to make
sure. I was there, at the store, by nine forty five the next day, fifteen
minutes before the door opened. I was alone until about nine fifty, and just
before ten maybe about six others had shown up. They were obviously not
there for the same reason I was. I can assure you that nobody was stupid
enough, or that suicidal, to get between me and the shelf that was stacked
with brand new Bowie vinyl. The staff in the store moved right out of my way
when they saw me coming. One look at the way I was walking, well, I should
say charging like a mad bull actually, probably told them how determined I
was not to be stopped by anything. The psychotic look on my face, and the
drool running from my mouth and dripping off my chin leaving a trail behind
me may have had something to do with it as well. I grabbed two copies of
Let's Dance, yet another copy of Station To Station to replace the one I
bought a month ago that was now worn out, and a copy of Hunky Dory. I went
to the counter and paid for them, although if I had just walked out I don't
think anyone would have dared tried to stop me. When I got home I put one
copy on the wall, and the other one on my turntable. I should tell you that
beside the copy of Let's Dance, a lot of stuff went up on that wall when the
tour was announced. Oh, not just that wall either, three of them were floor
to ceiling Bowie. I couldn't do the fourth wall because the idiots who built
the house put a big window there for some silly reason, and  plus, the girl
that I was living wouldn't let me. Funny thing about her, she didn't
understand my behaviour in the least, constantly referring to it as "rather
odd." This didn't bother me at all because she was severely handicapped, the
reason is because not only had she NEVER seen Bowie, but she had NEVER
listened to him before meeting me.  So, as you can see, I was helping the
disabled at the time.. We are no longer together, I GOT ALL THE RECORDS. She
was pregnant at the time with our daughter, the kid who lucked out and got
the best dad in the world. I am not just saying this, I can prove it. I love
my kid so much that one time I took all of the money I had been saving up to
buy garbage bags for the kitchen and spent it on two tickets for her and a
friend to go and see Jay-Z and DMX. What other father, or person in their
right mind, would do that for their kid. I will admit though that I used
cash and sent my secretary to buy them. The day of the concert I was on
holidays in Vietnam and had been there already for over three weeks. Plane
tickets, hotel receipts, and a stamped passport are excellent ways to
substantiate an alibi.
Anyone who just discovered Bowie in 83 would not have been suseptable to
this, however I was. As the needle on my turntable left the final grooves on
Shake It, I had a strange feeling. Please try and understand what I WAS USED
TO LISTENING TO FOR THE PAST SIX YEARS, and that was the work found on Low,
Heroes, Lodger, and Scary Monsters. If you want, go back ten years and add
on Ziggy, Aladinsane, Young Americans, and all the rest. To go from being
used to those, and then having Let's Dance dumped on you was a REAL SHOCKING
EXPERIENCE. Any of his former audience will tell you that. I didn't hate
Let's Dance, but I will say that at the time I didn't understand it.  Scary
Monsters has depth, music wise, and lyric wise. That album has substance.
Fripp, Bittan, Teenage Wildlife, Scream Like A Baby, Up The Hill, and the
lyrics make one on the most poinent social statements you will find
anywhere, including books. Brilliantly written, observant, unsettling, and
absolutely true Bowie was, in everything he wrote. "Put on your red shoes,
the serious moonlight, catch the paper boy, shake it shake it, stumble into
town," Huh? "Serious moonlight," what? No. "Stand on platforms, blank looks
and no books. In the event that this fantastic voyage should turn to
erosion. Kether to Malkuth. Took him minutes, took her nowhere. Those
midwives of history put on their bloody robes," that's right, but "Serious
moonlight?" What the fuck is "SERIOUS MOONLIGHT?" Having LEARNED A GREAT
DEAL in the past from Bowie's INTELLECTUAL writing, I was having a great
deal of trouble finding the message in Let's Dance. Any message. Finally I
managed to find one in Ricochet. Where's the damn music gone? Really, what
happened to Belew, Eno, Fripp, Bittan, Mayes, Slick, Sandborn, Davis,
Murray, Townsend? Where's Alomar? No, I mean it. Where the fuck is Carlos
Alomar? I thought maybe he was out looking for everyone else, so, then, who
exactly are all these people. Thompson? Rojas? Harrison? Elson? LeWho? Frank
and George What? Sorry, I'm lost now. This is commercial pop. That
realization came several hours after I had finished playing the album over
and over again for several hours, and I was doing this because I thought
that I must surely be "MISSING SOMETHING," and I was trying really hard to
find it. I never did. Then I thought, "POP." It must be. It must be
"COMMERCIAL POP." That's all I could come up with. So, Bowie had made a
commercial pop album. Do you think that bothered me? Well surprise, because
it didn't. That attitude took awhile though. Initially I detested the
thought that Bowie would have even considered this, but that changed. Why?
Because I rationalized everything, and this is what I did. Looking back over
Bowie's career it wasn't too hard to see a series of completely radical
shifts with regards to the overall style of music he applied to various
albums. Man Who Sold The World compared to Hunky Dory, and Hunky Dory
compared to Ziggy, and from Young Americans, soul music, right after that he
recorded  Station To Station which had no similarities, and then to Low
which resembled nothing on the planet. There were lots of these instances,
Bowie was known for it, so why not a Scary Monsters to a Let's Dance, I
mean, it's only logical, no reason to get excited, let alone worry. How long
did these "changes" of Bowie's last? Not long. So, based on everything I
knew from the past Let's Dance was a ONE TIME OCCURANCE. This album was Pop,
guaranteed the next one will be COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. This rationalization
was based on sound reasoning, so with that I "settled down." Would I have
preferred another album similar to his previous work? Sure I would have, I
won't lie, but I could have cared less after I realized this was only going
to last for one album. Beside that, I did have a NEW BOWIE ALBUM, and he was
going to tour. When this was all determined and it was coupled with the tour
announcement I began to relax. I was going to sit back and enjoy. Bowie was
going on tour, and anyway, if the truth be told, I could certainly live with
Let's Dance.
You should have fucking seen me when I heard he was going on tour. Oh, and
it wasn't just the news on Bowie that did it, it was much more than that,
but I had to wait. I used to buy all the magazines, Rolling Stone, Cream,
Hit Parader, the whole lot, just to keep up on things. That is how I found
out, it was in one of the magazines. Slick. I couldn't fucking believe it,
no way, nobody could get that lucky, it wasn't possible that a dream like
that could ever come true. Seven years of prayer to any God I could find, I
even made up my own when I ran out of the conventional ones. There was the
Great Spirit Of Cherokee Studios, the Train Goddess, the Dennis Davis Diety,
The Wizard Roy Bittan, Maslin The Magnificent, Alomar The Great God Of
Rhythm, and Almighty Slick. They all lived in Station To Station Heaven.
That's right beside Young Americans Heaven, which is over by Low And Heroes
Heaven around where Hunky Dory Heaven is, and near Aladinsane Heaven which
is in the same area as Diamond Dogs Heaven. There is lots of them, the place
is really big. With my luck though, they were probably joking. It wasn't a
joke as it turned out, it was for REAL, and even when I knew for sure it was
real I had a real hard time accepting it. I was waiting for it to fall
apart, I expected it to actually, because this was too good to ever be true.
Things like this don't happen in real life. For those of you who do not know
me it's like this. In my opinion Station To Station is the greatest album
ever made. I don't mean the  greatest album ever made by Bowie either, I
mean the greatest album ever made by anyone, ever. Yes, Station To Station
is the greatest album ever made since the beginning of time. Now, I want to
add something here as well. Not only is Station To Station the greatest
album ever made, STATION TO STATION IS THE GREATEST THING EVER CREATED, next
to  God creating the Universe that is, and it is a real close second, God
isn't ahead by much. This is not an opinion either, because I can prove it
to you. How? Here's how. It takes a brilliant mind to write a great album,
does it not? I'm saying there has to be an enormous amount of talent behind
it, and talent can be found on a level equal to that which we label as
"GENIUS," right? Sure it's right. Now, great thinkers like  Plato, Socrates,
and others like them are considered geniuses. Then you have your music
geniuses,  people like Bach, Beethoven, Copeland, Mozart, and so on. Writers
who are said to be geniuses are, Tolkien, Chesterton, Lewis, Hemmingway, and
Twain, Inventors  and scientists, Albert Einstein was a genius, so was
Edison, Newton, Steven Hawking, Hubble, Bell, and these two categories
contain literally hundreds of names. Artists include Dali, Picasso,
Rembrandt, Van Gogh. Then you have David Bowie. The mere existence of
Station To Station  proves that it is the greatest thing ever created by
anyone since time began, and it proves it beyond a doubt. The genius behind
the creation of Station To Station far surpasses ANYTHING that these other
"geniuses" were able to achieve, so quite simply, Bowie is far more
brilliant. This I can also prove quite easily. Listen. Bowie is more
brilliant. You see, I have a question to ask you which proves all of this.
Answer this or me, If Einstein, Beethoven, Socrates, Newton, Hemmingway,
Picasso, Van Gogh, Mozart, and the rest of them are so brilliant THEN WHY
DIDN'T ANY ONE OF THEM CREATE STATION TO STATION?" Well? Think about it,
it's only common sense. If Einstein was so smart then he would have made
Station To Station, and same for the rest of them as well, but they didn't
now, did they?  What's that tell you then? See, I proved it! Now, knowing
what I just told you can you try and imagine what I felt upon hearing the
news that Stevie Ray Vaughn had been dropped from the tour and his
replacement was none other than EARL SLICK, and CARLOS ALOMAR was coming
along as a bonus? No, there is no way way you could even begin to imagine.
Then THE FEAR CAME, I got real scared, TERRIFIED actually, what would I do
if it happened. What if it happened? Just the thought kept me awake nights,
and being awake turned out to be good, that was just so I could avoid the
nightmares. They were horrible. The fear? That's easy to explain. As
horrible as it was the thought crossed my mind, "What if they don't play
Station To Station?" However, I did manage to overcome this fear  by
realizing that if they didn't play it I had several options to choose from.
I could go to the zoo and throw myself to some wild beasts, there's a ferry
I could jump off, we've got a few bridges here that are pretty high, then
there's the commuter train that couldn't stop in time, oh, and then the bus
comes every twenty minutes, the mountains are close and there's some really
great cliffs up there, I could go to the gun store and ask the guy behind
the counter if I could see that one over there for a moment, and I even
thought of the oven, it's electric, but I've got a lot of will power when I
need it. Unfortunately, the Glass Spider video hadn't been made yet. That
would have been the most painful, but it also would have been the quickest.
It was a Saturday night and I'm quite hammered at a nightclub with a few
friends. My friend Laurie says, "I got a friend in Edmonton., he can get us
Bowie tickets, you know we could go see him there, get back to Vancouver the
next day, and see him again that night. TWO DAYS IN A ROW." I don't make
decisions in haste, so I thought about it for a billionth of a trillionth of
a second before I said, "Get the tickets." Now, Edmonton may just be in the
next province over from where I live, but let me tell you that Canada is one
damn big piece of real estate, and even though Edmonton is next door we are
talking a twelve to fourteen hour drive, or an hour and ten minutes by air.
I am working, Laurie isn't, so I will fly, Laurie will sell some of his
record collection and  hitch hike. He said he'd meet me at the airport. "I'm
going to Edmonton to see Bowie," I told my girlfriend. She said, "What about
me?" I said, "You look great." Look, after paying for the plane fare I only
had enough for one Bowie ticket. Things were so tight that there was barely
enough money left to buy drugs. I am at The Paradise Club, it's around three
in the morning and my plane leaves at ten. What I am doing is partying my
ass off, remember, I've been waiting FIVE YEARS! Pulling out of the club's
parking lot my girlfriend says, "It's a "One Way" alley." I said, "No it's
not," as I turned. We started to argue about it. Now, I am wise, therefore I
know that if two people are argueing over something they can't seem to
settle, then get a SECOND OPINION from another person. That usually solves
the problem, so, to solve this one, I got a second opinion. I got it from
the cop who pulled me over just as I turned into the alley. I will admit it,
I mistaken, because it turned out that it was in fact a "One Way" alley, and
it was not the "One Way" I was going. He took my licence, vehicle
regristration, and my insurance papers before returning to his police car. I
sat and waited. I could just feel the "I told you so" attitude coming from
the passenger seat, she didn't have to say a word, but she did, "I told you
it was a "One Way," didn't I?" I didn't bother to respond to the obvious.
Sitting in the back of the Paddy Wagon that was summoned to transport me to
the  Vancouver City Jail I couldn't help wondering how I managed to get on
the "Wrong Path" in life. To the criminal justice system I was just another
"Crime Statistic," one more kid who got in with the wrong crowd and didn't
pay their  PARKING TICKETS. Yes, I was arrested for about ninety dollars
worth of UNPAID PARKING TICKETS, so, I guess when I get to the Police
Station I'll just pay them, go home and get ready, then off to the airport.
Then I realized, "Oh, my God, it's pinned up on the wall at home, I didn't
hide it. MY PLANE TICKET. My girlfriend could leave me in jail, not bring
the money, grab the ticket, go to Edmonton, meet Laurie, tell him some
bullshit that I couldn't make it, and see Bowie." I would have done it if
things were the other way around. No, I AM NOT A BAD PERSON, this is
different, this is Bowie, so there is no right or wrong. Everything is "Fair
Game." This is on my mind as they haul me into the station. "Okay, so where
do I pay so I can leave," I ask? "You can't, we are locking you up until you
talk to a Justice Of The Peace in the morning. They make the decision to
release you or not," was the relply. "Why can't I just pay," I pleaded.
"Because you didn't pay on time or show up for court so there was a warrant
issued for your arrest, and we can't release you without authorization, and
only a Judge or a JP can do that. Now take out your shoe laces and empty
your pockets," I was informed. "My shoe laces," I wondered. "Yeah, it's so
you don't use them to HANG YOURSELF," was the reasoning. "Over parking
tickets? Hang myself? You've got to be kidding," I said. He wasn't. When I
asked I was told that the Justice Of The Peace shows up anywhere between
seven and eleven in the morning. My plane left at ten, so I figured by nine
thirty I would definetely need my shoe laces back. I used the same two
hundred and forty six Gods to pray to that I used while begging that Bowie
would play Station To Station in an effort to get out of jail. At least one
of them worked, because at ten after eight the JP arrives, I sign a promise
to pay the tickets, grab my shoe laces, and I'm back on the street by
quarter to nine. My girlfriend was waiting, she had packed my stuff, so it
was straight to the airport.
Laurie was there all right, he was waiting for me at the airport. We went
from there to his friends house, I dropped my stuff off, and we went out to
eat, er, I mean drink. Commonwealth Stadium is your typical football arena,
and it is an outdoor venue, no roof. It is sunny and really warm, not hot
though, it's perfect, and we arrive at two, the tickets say a four o'clock
start. Laurie is my "concert accessorie," because he is six foot two, wide
and thick, and not an ounce of fat. Me, five foot six and thin. Laurie is
reminicent of a bulldozer as he plows through a crowd unhindered. He clears
quite a nice path for me as I follow right behind, and it has worked every
time. We're ALWAYS at the front for concerts. Peter Gabriel, and The Tubes I
think were scheduled first. Yeah, The Tubes in Edmonton and Duran Duran
replaced  Gabriel in Vancouver, I'm pretty sure anyway. This is strange, but
I have never seen a concert outside during the day, and it seems really odd,
and I am undecided whether I like it or not. It is really different not
being able to see the stage lighting which gives you that "surreal" effect
at concerts, the stage is well lit by the afternoon sun rendering the
lighting on it completely ineffective. The Tubes, they were more of a
novelty, they played one song I like though called "White Punks On Dope,"
which I always refer to as "White Dopes On Punk." Perter Gabriel was a
different story, I had never seen him before, Laurie is a big fan. I
remember distinctly lookin at Laurie after his set and saying,"David who?"
Yeah, he was that good. Really, he was truly awesome and I would have easily
gone to see him again anytime if he was the top billing. Then I saw Bowie
perform. He came out in that bright yellow suit. You should have seen that
in the sunshine, you needed sunglasses I'll tell you, it was blinding.
Laurie started out hitch hiking back to Vancouver right after the show
because there wasn't much time to spare if he hoped to make the journey back
to Vancouver in time to see Bowie again, nineteen hours from now. I spent
the night at his friends and flew back in the morning.
In Vancouver we went to the stadium right after the nightclub closed to wait
for the box office to open in the morning. They went on sale long before the
gig. We watched the line form. We however, were not in the actual line up.
Instead we were in a no parking zone drinking ang getting high. The car
doors were open with Bowie just blasting out of Laurie's speakers. These
were the speakers which were attatched to a real beautiful stereo system he
had, and I mean real beautiful. By morning the line up numbered thousands.
Just before the ticket window opened Laurie walks from the car to the front
of the line. He states, "We've been here all night, long before any of you,"
then he plows into the line up and bulldozes his way to the window. He
created quite a clear path, one of course which I was using. Out of the
thousands who had formed that line, we were the sixth ones to get our
tickets. We went to the concert together as well, because this time I knew
how much I would need him. B.C Place is the stadium from Hell as far as
concerts go. It is an enormous domed cavern with the accoustical quality of
an airplane hanger. Oh, and a hanger with a plane it it too, with all the
engines running full throttle. Make that two planes. We have tickets on the
floor. Ticket Master refers to this as "General Admission," but anyone who
has ever had these types of tickets in the past knows fucking well what it
really means, it  means "EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF." You know it and I know it,
it's a WAR ZONE on that floor. We made it, thanks to Laurie The Tank, but
not without having some real difficulty along the way. The crowd near the
stage was so packed Laurie had to actually grab people to shove them aside.
A couple of guys were almost stupid enough to take a swing at him. The Tubes
first, then Duran Duran who I am not that big on, and after them, Bowie,
yeah Bowie, this was twice now, in two days. The tour carried on and the
next day he left. After the Tacoma show that was it for me, no more Bowie
again until who knows when. Now it was all over. How depressing, to go from
such a high to such a low when you realize that fact, and then it really
sinks in. Fuck, is that all there is? I was still whining about how fast it
all happened and how I still didn't get enough when the unbelievable
happened. No one expected this. The Pacific National Coliseum in Vancouver
is where Bowie rehearsed for the 76 Station To Station tour, it's a hockey
arena and holds around sixteen thousand bodies. It has always turned out to
be a great venue for concerts, it is small enough that even the worst seats
offer a decent view of the stage, and from the better seats the view is
magnificent, plus, there is no general admission on the floor either, it is
all RESERVED seating. The sound is anywhere from good to excellent usually.
This is also the venue chosen by Bowie to play for two more consecutive
nights. I couldn't believe it, the "depression" vanished in an instant,
DAVID BOWIE WAS COMING BACK TO VANCOUVER, and if that wasn't enough already,
it was for TWO SHOWS as well, not just one. As you can see, these Gods I
invented worked great. It got even better than this too. The reason he was
returning was to shoot a television special for HBO, Home Box Office, a pay
per view cable network in the States, so these were the gigs that were going
to be filmed. As a result they greatly reduced the seating capacity of the
Coliseum, using just a bit more than half of the floor space to make a
"Concert Bowl." Room was also needed for the all of the equipment they
required to shoot the gigs, including cameras and extra lighting. The extra
lighting was needed to get the audience shots, and the crews also needed
space so they could move around freely at the front and sides of the stage
to get close ups of Bowie and the band. The smaller setting would also make
the concert more intimate. This setting made for a much better performance,
and one which would look better on video, rather than having one shot at
some massive stadium where the interaction between the performer and their
audience is often cold and impersonal. I scored tickets for both nights, and
surprisingly without too much of a hassle. I got good seats too. They were
at the end of the first section, about ten rows up on the right hand side
facing the stage.
Remember Bowie's own words about the SeriousMoonlight tour being "nothing
serious," and he wanted to come out simply as a "performer." Bowie said he
wanted to "entertain" and "just put on a darn good show." Did he? In my
opinion you're damn right he did. He put on a show that can only be
described as spectacular. The show was the best you could ever hope to see,
it was truly magnificent, and Robert Palmer, the critic for The New York
Times was right, it was almost flawless. Only Bowie could have done anything
even  came close to such a performance, it was absolutely brilliant. Now,
hearing me say this would probably automatically lead you to believe that I
would give the shows I saw rave reviews, sine I thought they were so
wonderful. The answer to that is, "Yes, I would give some of them the best
reviews I possibly could, and no, I would not give them good reviews at
all." There's your answer. Confusing, eh? No it isn't, it's not the least
bit confusing at all. Here, let me explain. You see, to be critical or not
depends on which perspective you happen to take, and what is it  exactly
that you are looking for in a show. Doing it this way tends to result in two
different answers to the very same question. This gets really easy to
understand once I show you. Watch. To look at the shows I saw on the 83 tour
from the perspective of them being "nothing serious" and simply for
"entertainment," they were marvellous. In terms of what Bowie projected,
coming acrosss  a "performer," the shows were incredible. The Serious
Moonlight tour as "ENTERTAINMENT" gets a ninety eight out of a hundred.
For the Serious Moonlight tour David Bowie designed a top notch performance
that was aimed at providing an audience with the same type of
"ENTERTAINMENT" that one would expect from a "SHOW." It was SUPERFISCIAL,
and he designed it as such, and  presented it as such. It was a show, and as
a show it was excellent. The performances I saw were the BEST QUALITY OF
SUPERFISCIALITY  YOU WILL EVER SEE, and Bowie was outstanding as a
"PERFORMER." The shows were the same tired and repetitive format that has
been used for centuries, the same one used by the other ten billion shows
out there, but Bowie's stood out among them all. What Bowie created once
again was another spark of absolute brilliance, because he took the same
thing we've all seen a zillion times and made it appear original and fresh.
Now look, I know the comparison has been used many times before, but I am
using it once again for a simple reason, and that is because it happens to
be true. David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, however, as a "PERFORMER," on that
tour Bowie was far greater than him, or anyone else for that matter, and
watching Bowie in 83  he was the epitome of what is commonly called STAGE
PRESENCE. He commanded that stage in every way possible, charisma,
sexuality, the looks of a fashion model, choreography, and there was the
CHARM, the Bowie charm we all know so well, and there he was, a "SINGER," a
singer who sang those SONGS, you know, those ENTERTAINING songs. In my
opinion, based on the six shows which I saw in 83, only served to provide
even more proof of Bowie's worth as an artist. He is unique in his ability
to be able to take an idea, and to forge, shape, manipulate, and ply it into
a work of unparelled proportions. Many say he lost his desire in 83 to
produce "experimental" work. I do not believe this personally, I say it was
after 83, and I will even say in many ways that I view  83 as a period
DRIVEN BY EXPERIMENTAL MOTIVATION. I will add a period of INNOVATION to that
also. Wait now, before you start yelling at me let me clarify this. When I
say Bowie's work was "experimental" and "innovative" in 83 I AM NOT
REFERRING TO HIS MUSIC, Nothing could be less innovative and experimental
than Let's Dance, the stuff is "POP. I am refering to the "ENTERTAINER" he
created, the "POP STAR" called "THE REAL DAVID BOWIE." He creates this
"ENTERTAINER CHARACTER," and after that he creates the perfect "POP ALBUM"
to go along with it. When that's all done he turns around and makes "THE
REAL DAVID BOWIE" into this "PERFORMER" who is a "WORLD WIDE SENSATION,  and
then he takes the whole "ACT" on the road and sells out stadiums.  Now, do
you want to talk about the definition of MULTI MEDIA? Well, do you? How
would you describe it? I say that I just did a damn fine job of it myself,
don't you? Okay, lets go to innovative. Do you see what he did? Who else,
may I ask, could have dreamed up any of the ideas that were behind this?
Last we have experimental. Who did you say had done anything like this
before David Bowie? Thank you. If you put it all together you have one of
the most brilliantly conceived and innovative MULTI MEDIA EXTRAVAGANZAS ever
to hit a stage. What's more, it worked, somewhere to the tune of tens of
millions of dollars. It was amazing  to actually watch. The brilliance of
his ideas, and his capabilities as an actor are unequalled. These qualities
enabled him to put on a show that was unparrelled. This doesn't mean I liked
it though. I had some trouble, in that I take David Bowie SERIOUSLY, and so,
there was a  problem, because what I saw was, as Bowie put it was, "a darn
good show," but it was "NOTHING SERIOUS."


They say, "Each to his own," so, since this appears to be the case I am at
liberty to say that for me things are different, and not only me either, a
lot of people, namely Bowie's older crowd. I know I speak for a great many
of them, the majority in fact. Every show I saw on the Serious Moonlight
tour was sadly lacking compared to the tours in 78, 76, 74, and from the
idea I have of those which were previous to 74. The 83 tour was highly
entertaining, and Bowie was masterful as a performer, but the fact is that I
have never ever considered my interest in David Bowie, or the reason I
listen to his work, as something that is to fufill a need to be entertained.
Simply put, David Bowie is NOT ENTERTAINMENT TO ME, rather, he is about the
furthest thing AWAY FROM IT YOU COULD FIND in my books! Also, when it comes
to deciding what is "entertaining," and what is not, people are individuals,
each having their own opinions. Personally, I am not entertained by "FLUFF."
I have little interest in things that are superfiscial, temporary, and
intellectually shallow. Am I entertained at all by David Bowie? That is a
tricky question. I will answer,"Yes," but I am not "entertained" in the way
that would be commonly defined as "ENTERTAINMENT." Rather than  just to
provide a momentary sensation of joy, or an emotional high for an hour or
two, I am entertained in the sense that I derive a great deal of pleasure
from what his work has been able to give me. I receive a tremendous amount
of satisfaction from Bowie's work because of what I get from it, and what it
gives me comes from the fact that it has an incredible amount of substance
to it. I was first attracted to Bowie because of the intellectual value
contained in his work. Now, you just fucking hold on here. I AM NOT STATING
THAT I CONSIDER MYSELF TO BE INTELLECTUALLY SUPERIOR TO ANYONE. Those who
know me are aware of how much I truly DESPISE AN EGO, and anyone of them
will tell you that the TRUTH IS THAT I CONSIDER MYSELF TO BE A PERSON WHO
POSESSES VERY LITTLE KNOWLEDGE IN FACT. It's true, I consider myself as
someone who knows very little and THIS IS WHY I LEARN. Yes, I FREELY ADMIT
that there are BILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO KNOW MUCH MORE THAN I DO, and there
are a ZILLION things that I know nothing about. Therefore, I am far more
ignorant than those people, and if you compare my knowledge and wisdom to
the knowledge and wisdom of Almighty God, then I am plain retarded. Being
unknowledgeable and knowing it is an asset, rather than a fault, because it
makes you want to learn. The reality is that it's those who fancy themselves
to be learned and wise  that have a fault. This is due to the fact that they
are under the impression that they know everything there is to know already,
and therefore, they never seek to learn anything whatsoever. The opposite of
learned is ignorant, and to be learned requires learning, and to be ignorant
requires that a person believe they are learned.  I will never be learned,
it's impossible, as I will never know all the things I want to. All I can do
in life is try to make myself a little bit less ignorant. Ignorance to me is
a fault, so I try to fight it the best way I know how. God gave  us a mind
for this purpose, and I only try to use it. This is the ONLY reason why I
shun that which is superfisicial, and seek out those things in life that
have some depth and meaning to them. That's known as substance. Going a step
further here, let me ask you something concerning "intellectual stimulation"
as a value. Isn't that supposed to be what the value of art is? Hmmm? Gee,
that fits pretty nice, eh? So, there you go.  People can be entertained by
SUPERFISCIAL forms of entertainment, or entertained by that which is NOT
SUPERFISCIAL. Things which have substance to them trigger an emotional
response, and cause you to think on a "serious" level. You can say "Okay,
that's fine, but entertainment also causes an emotional reasponse." Yes, you
are right, but not in the same way. You see, viewing things which we find
entertaining will create emotional and physical responses providing a
"high." Entertainment however consists of a momentary experience that
provides a tempory sensation of happiness. The bulk of the planet we live on
is made from things which are designed to entertainment us, and keeping us
entertained is the biggest business going. There is a reason for that as
well. There are so many different things to "entertain" us because we have
to KEEP BEING ENTERTAINED CONSISTANTLY, and this is due to the fact that the
stimulation we get from SUPERFISCIAL ENTERTAINMENT is short lived.  It
doesn't last, so like a drug, we constantly need more, and more, and more of
it, and in greater doses. To prove this, well, you only need to look as far
as the TV, and the television shows they produce for it. These shows are
supposed to provide entertainment, yet they have to become increasingly more
shocking to do so. This is because they are ineffective at being able to
keep us entertained for any lengthy period of time. This all of course
depends on exactly what a person defines as being "entertainment." In this
instance I am talking about it as being in the form of a "show," like a
television show, or something you would find on the stages in Las Vegas. You
could even use a movie as an example, one which features lots of visuals,
and little  in terms of a plot. Every show I saw in 83 was spectacular,
therefore they were all sadly lacking because they were so spectacular.
Look at it like this, all of the shows I saw would describe as being
spectacular, but they were spectacular IN COMPLETELY THE WRONG AREAS! Each
performance I saw was all show, with no substance behind it whatsoever.
Let's start with the set list.

David Bowie stated that he wanted to use this tour to get his "NEW FANS
AQUAINTED WITH HIS MUSIC." So, the question I ask, "If this is indeed true,
THEN WHY DIDN'T HE PLAY SOME?" Yeah, if he wanted to aquaint people with his
music he should have played some of it for them. You have eyes, you look at
the set list. China Girl, Let's Dance, Rebel Rebel, Fame, Cracked Actor,
Jean Genie, Space Oddity all look like SONGS to me. Now, I admit that
Heroes, Station To Station, Life On Mars, Scary Monsters and a few others do
not qualify as such, however, something happened to them on this tour, and I
couldn't help notice that all of a sudden they seemed to be quite
"different" from the way I remember them. They were different too, Bowie
had reworked them until they became SONGS as well!  Actually, come to think
about it, "Reworked" is not the right word I am looking for. I think that
the proper terminology in this case would be "MUTILATED." Yeah, that's
better, he MUTILATED Heroes, Life On Mars, Breaking Glass,What In The World,
Scary Monsters, and I am sorry, but right now I just can't bring myself to
say the names of a few of the others that fit into this category. Let me
just say that they are off of an album that has eight tracks on it, a black
and white cover, and it came out in 1976. Very little in the way of
substance was evident in most of the material he included in the sets he
performed. Now, notice I said "very little," in fact some were included, and
not only some, there were some in there that could be defined as being among
his BEST WORK EVER,  however, that didn't help at all unfortunately. I never
dreamed of the day when I could honestly say by the way he treated Heroes,
it completely lost almost all of its worth, and the same goes for the
others. Even more unsettling was the fact that the loss wasn't limited to
the value of his WORK, because also absent was anything which demonstrated
Bowie's own value as a creative artist musically. Artistically, other than
"THE REAL DAVID BOWIE" creation, his performances had virtually nothing of
value. I want to to illustrate this, and the best way to do that is with
your help. Being a Bowie listener yourself I can use what YOU KNOW ABOUT
BOWIE, rather than what I know, to help explain this. So, you tell me, "What
is Heroes about? Is there a story line behind it? I know it's the boy girl
thing, however, the circumstances and setting go far beyond a simple
romance. Heroes is a social political commentary, it offers hope, yet it
there is no hope. There is the emotional attatchment of two souls that
burns, giving  warmth, but even so, if it burns forever, never will it break
the cold. These are two people who have bonded as one, together, and
inseperable., a togetherness which has brought isolation. Two,  together,
that have never been together. They meet each other every day, and they
never will meet.  A love between two people that has no borders, yet it has
a border, a wall, a wall which will divide them for eternity. Does Heroes do
anything to you when you hear it? It does something to me. Now, most
importantly, what does the music reflect? Do you believe that there is some
sort of a reason why Heroes was written a certain way? That's all.

The lyrics in Heroes are secondary. Heroes is first a piece of music which
was written by David Bowie, and a somewhat incredible piece of music it is
at that. Heroes is one of the finest examples in existence of Bowie's
ability to write music that is a vehicle for self expression. The lyrics
contained in Heroes do nothing more than to make the message louder, not any
clearer. Now, I am not referring to the details concerning the storyline, I
am referring to the self expression contained in the writing of the music,
the emotion that is expressed, and the emotions you feel when listening to
it, emotions, which it is safe to say, that have almost become a trademark.
A listener would FEEL THE VERY SAME EMOTIONS LISTENING TO HEROES WITHOUT ANY
LYRICS, as they would with the lyrics, his writing is THAT BRILLIANT, but
then again, this is the value of MUSIC AS A FORM OF ART, as opposed to MUSIC
AS A FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT. This is what provides the depth and substance to
Bowie's work, and it is something which is not found in "POP," or anything
else which has no redeeming intellectual value, instead, being superfiscial,
lacking depth and substance, you could say something like "ENTERTAINMENT for
example. Where, may I ask, did the CONVICTION happen to go, because I MISSED
IT COMPLETELY? Not once did I see Heroes, or the others performed with any
conviction whatsoever, instead, he whipped through them as though they were
meaningless. Understand this, Bowie obviously wrote the music to Heroes in a
way that it would cause a listener to FEEL WHAT HE WANTED TO EXPRESS, self
expression in music is delivered to an audience through emotion. Now
understand this as well. An actor uses his body,  facial expressions,
movements, and voice in exactly the same way a composer uses music. It
stands to reason then that to preserve the INTENSITY OF HEROES, it should be
presented in a way that will not weaken its INTEGRITY. In 83 the integrity
of Heroes, and the rest, was not weakened, it was DESTROYED, literally
OBLITERATED BEYOND RECOGNITION! One look at the way Heroes was performed on
the Serious Moonlight tour video will confirm this beyond any doubt
whatsoever, and remember, I SAW THAT SHOW.  I also saw Heroes performed live
on the tour in 78, and in addition to that, I also have many versions of it
being performed live in 78 on video. The video  was shot in a host of other
venues in America, Europe, and Asia as wel, and I will tell you that when it
comes to Heroes, what I saw in 78, and the versions that I own on video are
absolutely breathtaking, they are THAT POWERFUL, and I am not exaggerating.
The way Heroes was performed on stage in 78 delivered, even though Belew
plays a "warmer" sounding guitar on the live versions, as opposed to the
chill of Fripp's playing on the album, and Roger Powell's keyboards are much
softer than Eno's, nothing was lost, the original message remained
completely in tact, and in some spots, it can be argued that it is
delivered it even more directly than the original version. At any rate, the
music had the desired effect, IT TOLD THE STORY, and it told it brilliantly.
That is just the music however, now add to that the fact that when Bowie
performed Heroes in 78, he literally POURED EVERYTHING HE HAD INTO IT, and I
mean everything.  Heroes was ablaze with PASSION, if you were in the
audience there was something unmistakable that Bowie's voice carried with
it, this something is called EMOTION, and you FELT THE EMOTIONAL WAVE WASH
OVER YOU AS HE SANG IT. There was a POWER to it, and I do not posess the
writing ability to be able to describe it to you. All I can say is that it
was stunning. Heroes means something, and I will never forget that meaning,
I can't. This is because of the way it was explained to me by Bowie, and the
way it was explained are FEELINGS THAT YOU DON'T EASILY FORGET.


So, he turned Heroes into a "POP" song. Sure, that may not be any problem
for his "NEW" audience, but it is one that greatly disturbs me, as it would
most people who see something that is precious lose all of its value. Bowie
performed Heroes in 83 as something which was "nothing serious," and
therefore he removed the very thing that gave it such enormous value. The
way Heroes was performed on the Serious Moonlight tour completely
CONTRADICTED the reason it was written. The characteristics of the music
Bowie used to convey the original meaning were abandoned, and so were the
methods he used on stage to effectively deliver the music in such a way as
it had an IMPACT. Those were ALL GONE. Oh, and this stuff doesn't just apply
to Heroes either, I mean ALL OF THEM. The music Bowie wrote for Heroes ihas
the ability to deeply affect a listener, and more so than almost anything
that I have ever heard. This, of course, is also due in a great part to the
exceptional abilities of Fripp, Eno, Alomar and the others who contributed
to the recording of it. The hopeless plight of these young lovers is felt by
the dry, almost mechanical coldness, contained in the music, and the hope is
expressed by through the joy the listener receives due to just the
overwhelming beauty of the music in general. As far as Bowie's voice is
concerned, unique engineering techniques that had never been tried before
were incorporated to enhance the drive and power of his voice. Intensity was
what they were after, and they got it.

Sitting in the audience during those shows I could not help but think that
Heroes, TVC15, Look Back In Anger, Red Sails, and THE OTHER SONG THAT I
WON'T MENTION YET, because it hurts too much, are not the best places to
show off how good your dance instructor was. Yes, judging by Bowie's
incredibly cool dance moves that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, I would
say it was money well spent. He used them well on stage too. He was smart,
as his dancing really did a lot to add to the "PERFORMER" image he wanted.
As an "ENTERTAINER" the dance moves were really good for portraying the
"sexuality" thing on stage, and I will say that with the moves I witnessed,
he certainly was spell binding at times. It was all really quite beautiful
to behold actually. However, I did not find them very amusing when he
"pranced" his fucking way through Heroes, GRINNING and WINKING at the
audience at the same time, just to top it all off. One thing too, when he
played Heroes I couldn't help noticing that the music had been altered
somewhat. The changes I became aware of almost immediately were that the
beat, tempo, and rhythm had been fucked with. The original version of Heroes
does not have a "beat" to it, however one was added in 83, one that was
steady and repetative. The tempo had been changed, so it was lighter and
faster, but it was most apparent is what he did to the rhythm. David Bowie
took the rhythm of Heroes and he added "breaks" to it. These "breaks" were
well defined and extremely pronounced, and they caused the rhythm of the
song to become "choppy," which is completely the opposite of the smooth
sound which is found on the original. Now, these rhythm breaks coincided
with the beat he added, and the rearranged "upbeat" tempo, and  what these
changes accomplished overall was to make the song "BOPPY." These things
combined gave Heroes a distinctly obvious beat that you could tap to rather
easily, and they also happen to be  the SAME CHARACTERISTICS THAT ARE
INCORPORATED INTO EVERY POP SONG! The further alterations he performed by
adding BRASS INSTRUMENTS did an amazing job of covering up the "dry
mechanical cold sound" of Fripp and Eno, the sound, which next to Bowie's
vocals, is responsible for making the song an emotionally charged
masterpiece, the epitome of music as an artform, with the artistic value
being in the form of emotional expressionalism. Yeah, he got rid of all that
"SERIOUS" stuff!  The passion and conviction demanded by the subject matter
of Heroes was replaced by flirtacious facial expressions, wide grins which
showcased his new teeth, a few poses that were well placed, and some dance
moves were injected at the proper time in order to draw the "right"
attention, this was so the "sexual ovatures" wouldn't go un noticed. In
short, the overall tone of the way he performed Heroes could best be summed
up as "friendly." All of the substance was gone. All of the depth was gone.
All of the values which define art had disappeared. This was nothing
redeeming about these performances, apart from being the most amazing and
brilliantly created form of "cheap entertainment" there ever was.  Bowie
said it, and he was right, there was nothing serious to be found here, and
his work was  presented as such.  You think about this fo a minute. If it
isn't serious, then it must be something else, and, so, what could that
something else be? All I can think of is that if it isn't serious, then it
must be irrelevant. If you wonder why his older audience despised what they
saw on stage in 83, there's your answer.


Bowie has a rare gift, and that is he is able to express himself through the
creation of sound, but not just any sound, there is more. Low and Heroes are
the two definitive pieces of work he created which truly illustrate the true
worth of Bowie's music, unfortunately, too many "Bowie fans" have never
noticed this, and many never will, and that is how profound his older work
was. The only words that I can find to attempt to describe what I am
attempting to say is this, "Bowie can write with such a depth of personal
expression that it can awaken the soul. David Bowie's work can reach that
deep, and I, and many others know this, having had it happen to us
individually on more than a few occasions." Heroes is unlike anything ever
written, and this comes from someone who does not consider the track his
best work, among them yes, his best, no. You describe it. How does it
compare to Seven, from the album Hours, or how about Time Will Crawl, China
Girl, or Blue Jean. How does it compare to anything. Am I just talking about
Heroes? No, I am not, I am talking about Word On A Wing, We Are The Dead, Up
The Hill Backwards, Speed Of Life, Right, All The Madmen, Sons Of The Silent
Age, Five Years, Aladinsane, Sweet Thing, Teenage Wildlife, An Occasional
Dream, and all the others like them. Heroes, emotionally tantalizing,
moving, amazingly  beautiful, and one of a kind. Name anything David Bowie
penned on sheet music after 1980 that can impart anything to a listener on
the emotional scale that is even close to what Heroes is capable of. The
sound on Heroes creates an ambience, you can FEEL THAT WALL. I, strangely,
felt something else when he performed it in 83, and what I felt wasn't too
good.

The first three shows I saw were stadium gigs, so, the best way to describe
them is the first three shows I saw were stadium gigs. A stadium is a
stadium, and I detest them with a passion. However, the two gigs at The
Pacific Coliseum to shoot the Serious Moonlight video were much different.
Nobody cares, it's underrated, and therefore it goes completely unnoticed
for the most part, but I think that Look Back In Anger is one of the best
things Bowie wrote as far as pure energy is concernced. Simply, the thing
KICKS ASS BIG TIME. Now, I had never heard it live, I never thought I would
either, and it was absent on the set list for shows one, two, and three. He
opened with it both nights at The Coliseum, and he put something into it.
Now, thinking back to 95 and the Earthling tour, if I compare the version
done then, to the version of Look Back In Anger in 83, I will say 95 wins
hands down, there is no comparison.  Anyway, that was 95 and we're talking
83, so, having never heard it before I was delighted, and he perfomed it
well. Everyone I know are careful, and they are also intelligent enough to
exercise extreme caution in my presence when they say ANYTHING concerning
Station To Station, because with me, Station To Station is a touchy subject,
and they ALL KNOW THAT!  You see, in my world there are three things, God,
Jesus Christ, and Station To Station. Also, let me say that they are not in
order of one, two and three either, God, Jesus Christ, and Station To
Station are all tied for number one. Some fools in the past, that's the only
way I can descrbe them, have made the grave error of trying to initiate a
debate with me on the true value of this album, their point being that I
place far too much worth on it. My reaction in situations such as this is
instantaneous, and the first words the person spoke that caused me to react,
will be the last ones they speak. "React" is a bad word, I should say
"Retaliate," and I WILL RETALIATE with a rather lenghthy tirade. This tirade
I can guarantee will quickly provide an advanced education on 1976, Station
To Station, The Thin White Duke, and the 76 tour, for  any idiot who is
stupid enough to  call into question the value of Station To Station. I will
not hesitate to severely pound this "education" into them as well. Oh, and
David Bowie himself is not excluded here either, as I would do the same
thing to him if he fucked up too. He saved himself on Golden Years, which I
thought was performed quite decently. I know, you say it's commercial, I
vehemently disagree with you, it IS NOT POP as most people think, and also
it is off of STATION TO STATION, so then, based on what I just told you it
is best now to SHUT UP, unless YOU want some schooling pounded into you
personally. Thank you kindly.

I have no anomosity against Steve Elson, Stanley Harrison, or Lenny Pickett.
David Sandborn is a genius, therefore, now you can see what my opinion is
concerning the saxaphone. Young Americans, also up there with God and the
other two, would not be close to the album it is without Sandborn. Now, as
beautiful as they are however, the saxaphone, and other brass instruments,
can be become instruments of terror and used as weapons of mass destruction.
There is no place that this is proven more than on that hideous thing called
"David Live." All I am saying is that instruments have their place. There
are certain instruments that should not be used in certain pieces of music,
for example, a banjo would not be an appropriate instrument to use for Word
On A Wing, you would not use a trombone on Speed Of Life, a kettle drum
would not sound good on Sweet Thing, or a harpsichord on Modern Love. This
reasoning dictates that a person should not violate every bit of human
decency and use a cow bell and a saxaphone as weapons to completely fucking
mangle and demean Moonage Daydream, such as what was done to it on David
Live. Now, I did not say weapons of destruction, I said weapons of MASS
destruction, so the damage on David Live is not just confined to Moonage
Daydream, everything, save two or three tracks, were destroyed. Pickett,
Elson and Harrison should have been stifled at times, as their presence had
a detrimental effect on some of the material Bowie performed, Heroes
immediately comes to mind. Look, I am going to tell you something, there are
some things that you do not fuck with. "Sacred" is the wrong word, what it
really comes down to is the fact that some things are QUITE FINE JUST AS
THEY ARE. There are some things  however which are more than just fine, they
are masterpieces, and masterpieces are usually ONE OF A KIND. What value is
usually associated with one of a kind masterpieces? Does the word
"priceless" ring a bell? They colourize old black and white movies in an
effort to "modernize" them, and in my opinion. they end up DESTROYING THEM
in the process.  That is the result of their modernization. Why the fuck do
they have to "modernize" things in the first place? The film Casablabca,
with Humphrey Bogart is a classic, and it is a cinematic masterpiece as it
is. Are we so spoiled that we couldn't possibly live through a black and
white film? Did anyone see The Elephant Man? What did you think? Colour
didn't seem to matter in that film, and it's MODERN. What's next, do we
colourize The Elephant Man in an effort to DEMODERNIZE IT?  Some things are
priceless and should not be tampered with. Would someone take paint and do a
few touch ups on the Mona Lisa? Forget I asked that. The point? The point is
just leave the fucking things alone. We won't though, because history proves
that as a race we've been stupid enough to consistantly keep reinventing the
wheel. When I hear music performed live, do I expect to replicate exactly
what the original piece sounds like? No, absolutely not. That isn't what I
want, it has happened, and I thoroughly disliked the experience. Live,
Adrian Belew does not play Heroes the same way as Fripp does on the
original. In fact, it's not even close. Robert Fripp's guitar work is very
sharp and precise on the original, and this is mostly what gives Heroes a
"cold" sound. Live, Belew's guitar work is much softer, making the music
more "inviting" with a much warmer feel to it. His playing is not as
"mechanical" as what Fripp's is, the notes are not played as "sharp."
Instead, Belew allows the notes to "overlap" rather than having them "break
clean," and this "overlapping" is the reason Heroes is not as "cold"
sounding in his hands.  Overall though, whether the guitar be in Belew's
hands, rather than Fripp's, doesn't really matter as the ambience of Heroes
is not adversily effected. It wasn't adversily effected by Earl Slick
either, in my opinion. I can find no complaints whatsoever by the way Heroes
was treated by Slick, it was the "OTHERS" who were responsible for the
abuse, namely Pickett, Elson, and Harrison. Now, I do not hold any of these
individuals personally responsible, as I am well aware they were "under
orders" that they obviously could not disobey, if they wanted to keep their
jobs that is. That isn't the point though. The point is that there is no
room in Heroes  for a bunch of fucking trombones, saxaphones, trumpets,
French horns, tubas, clarinets, kazoos, or whatever else they had at their
disposal and used. If you doubt me then I want you to go and listen to ANY
VERSION OF HEROES RECORDED BEFORE 1983, and then you go and listen to one
recorded on the Serious Moonlight tour. Oh, and while doing so you just
think about what I said, because if you do you'll notice it right away.
You'll notice that in 83 David Bowie turned Heroes into a DANCE NUMBER, he
turned in into a POP SONG.  Now, once you have accomplished that, I want you
to take it one step further. After you have finished listening to Heroes, I
mean RECOVERED from, I want you to go and view it on any piece of video that
was shot on the 78 tour. This is so you can see how it was performed on
stage back then. When you are done compare what you just saw to how it was
performed on stage in 83. You will notice that not only was Heroes turned
into some POP SONG you could dance to, but also the fact that Bowie took
full advantage of this opportunity to dance his way through the entire
thing, stopping only briefly several times along the way to strike a few
"POSES." So, I'll leave it up to you, okay? How much did Heroes seem to mean
to Bowie as he performed it on stage in 83, compared to the performances in
78? How much did you say? I say how about nothing. Am I close? No, I am not
close, in fact I am bang on the money, and so say otherwise is denying the
obvious. Hreoes was EMPTY the way David Bowie performed it on stage in 83.
There was NOTHING BEHIND IT WHATSOEVER, NO CONVICTION, NO PASSION, NO
INTENSITY, NO POWER, NO BELIEF, and NO SINCERITY.  What was really saddening
though is the fact that in 83 all of the EMOTIONAL INTEGRITY Bowie displayed
on stage when he performed it in 78 was gone, and it is because of this that
Heroes was rendered completely MEANINGLESS. Oh, I won't argue, people may
have jumped up and down when they heard it, but the only reason for that was
because he played something that they wanted to hear, it certainly wasn't
due to the "QUALITY" of it, that's for certain. In saying this I speak in
terms of his previous audience, and not for those who consider "POP" to be a
fufilling form of entertainment. Those people would have found the 83
version far more rewarding than what is on the original album, as the
original album is something that anyone who fancies "POP" would have tossed
in to the garbage after listening to it, and tossed it long before they ever
got close to side two.

Without fail I had the same problem that continually kept nagging at me
during every show I saw in 83. Don't get me wrong, Bowie is the epitome of
professionalism, every show I saw was FLASHY, ENTERTAINING, and as close to
perfect as you could get, in terms of stage presence that is. The downside
is the fact that David Bowie's performance, along with most of the music,
lacked any INTENSITY. Those of you who saw Bowie live for the firston the
Serious Moonlight tour are going to disagree with me on what I just said,
and I DO NOT BLAME YOU. I will not argue the point either, because if I were
you I would disagree with me as well. Any person seeing Bowie for the first
time in 83 could not have helped being OVERWHELMED by what they saw. With
the exceptionally high quality of the performances he gave on the tour Bowie
could not fail to win hearts. There was no escape, you had to love them,
they were that "slick." The shows were so impressive that anyone being in
the audience for the first time would have had a great deal of difficulty
find anything critical to say about what they saw. I agree with you on that
point, but, you have to remember that I am NOT JUST LOOKING AT 83, I am
looking at David Bowie in relation to his entire career, so I am dealing
with this tour, and his performances, by making COMPARISONS to what he has
done THROUGHT HIS CAREER on PREVIOUS TOURS. Yes, on it's OWN 83 stands up,
but that isn't the issue here. Eighty three stands up uo eighty three, but
how does it stand up against the seventy eight tour? How about seventy six?
Seventy four? That's the issue, and therein lies the problem. Compared to 76
and 78, his entire "ACT" in 83 was SUPERFISCIAL, it was PLASTIC and
TRANSPARENT. Now, I am going to get something cleared up here once and for
all. In the past I have been attacked, flamed, lectured, scolded,
reprimanded, insulted, screamed at more times than I can count by self
professed "BOWIE FANS" who accuse me of deriving a great deal of personal
pleasure and satisfaction from "BASHING" Bowie, so much so in fact that they
believe this is what I set out to do with my writing, as if this "BOWIE
BASHING" is some sort of a passion that I harbour. I have been informed on
literally countless of occassions that I AM NOT A BOWIE FAN. Furthermore,
with regards to my writing I have been told that "if I don't have anything
nice to say about Bowie, then don't say it. Even though my criticsms are the
truth, unless stated as opinion, which I always do. I have been told, "If I
don't like what Bowie does, then stop listening to him." In other words, "Go
away." The extent of this defies logic. I got flamed on one group for
posting an article on 1976 because it stated that Bowie used cocaine. This
person told me they felt "a need to protect him." Now, I may be a lot of
things, but idiot isn't one of them, neither is stupid or WILLFULLY
IGNORANT. Therefore, if I truly wish to engage solely in "BOWIE BASHING" it
stands to reason that I am not likely to waste the time it has taken me in
the almost two and a half years, or one and a half, I can't remember which
one it's been so long, and devoted it to Images. No one I know, save an
stupid idiot, is going to write some TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND WORDS, where
Images stands I was told as of the last count, for the single purpose of
BASHING David Bowie. No, it's true,  personally I do not keep track of the
length of Images, I don't even read what I write before I post it, it's
spell ckecked, then gone. So, the REAL TRUTH IS THAT PERSONALLY I HAVE
NEVER READ IMAGES, I rely on the words of others to tell me if the fucking
thing's any good. All I know for certain is that it's nearly sixty
installments and apparentley, so I am told by some ENGLISH ANGEL, 294 pages
in length. So, first of all, I am not an idiot, and I am also not stupid.
Second, what these morons fail to grasp is that you don't follow an artist
for over thirty years and one day just "walk away," and to even think it
seves only to demonstrate just how fickle they are. This next part makes me
laugh. Look at this for a moment, and you will see that there is one point
that is completely lost on these people, and that being the fact that never
once do they stop and think that those who critcize Bowie do so BECAUSE THEY
HAPPEN TO CARE! Yes, they actually CARE, unlike the people who bash any
person who criticizes. Those who bash me don't give a flying fuck what Bowie
produces. They don't care, Puff Diddy Duets, Meaningless Pop, Ziggy selling
banking services, commercial junk, Watch That Man selling Tommy Hilfigur
designs, or being forced to wait years sometimes for something original, and
in the mean time being asked to swallow five cd's in a row of remixes and
recycled material. It goes without saying that to these people,they're
satisfied with anything, to them nothing matters. Tell me then, "Who cares?
Well, I fucking do. There's one person to start with, and I know of a few
thousand more who do as well. If being a picky is a crime, then I am guilty,
because when it pertains to that which enters through my ears, hits my
eardrum, and then reverberates into the usefull mass God gave me which is
located between my ears, I am EXTREMELY PICKY. When I liseten to something
there is a certain quality I EXPECT, and that THIS IS WHY I STARTED
LISTENING TO DAVID BOWIE TO BEGIN WITH. So, like David Bowie himself, I too
have extremely high standards, and I will voice criticsm when they are not
met, especially when they are not met by one who is capable. You see, I GOT
MY HIGH STANDARDS FROM BOWIE, and so when Bowie fails to meet his own high
standards I AM ON THE LOSING END, and I do not like that. When I listen to
Hunky Dory I know what he is capable of, and to put on Tonight right after
is nothing more than really fucking painful. I am sorry to those people who
do not share this opion, but I will not apologize. High standards are one
thing I will never apologize for. This next little bit is simple for anyone
to grasp. In America, why didn't Low, Diamond Dogs, Station To Station,
Heroes, and the rest of his albums which were recorded before Let's Dance,
fail to capture the ears of a mainstream audience and sell? I am asking you
seriously, "Why?" There is only one reason you know? You only need look as
far as to discover what it is that interests the average record buyer. So,
what were they interested in when Low, Heroes, and Station To Station came
out? How about Hunky Dory. As always, their interests stopped at anything
which had any real substance to it, preferring instead to listen to that
which is "nothing serious."  The average record buyer at the time would have
had a great deal of difficulty if they were left to choose between Low,
Heroes, Hunky Dory, or Diamond Dogs, because they would be in a situation
where they had to make a decision on listening to the one that they least
DISLIKED! I can tell you it would come down to a decision between Hunky Dory
and Diamond Dogs, as Low and Heroes would be instantly discarded. However,
any problems making a decision would be instantly illiminated given the same
situation, but this time having to make a choice between the four Bowie
albums, and the soundtracks for Grease and Saturday Night Fever. Why? Am I
to believe that there is more value to be had in these soundtracks in terms
of music? Will choosing one of these soundtracks offer me a superior
listening experience if I am looking for artistic worth? You tell me, out of
all of these choices which ones have any substance? That is precisely why
Bowie's work not only DID NOT SELL, but it NEVER WOULD HAVE SOLD. David
Bowie had no chance of reaching the mass record buying public until all of
the substance was gone.

The problem that I had in 83, along with ninety nine percent of his older
audience, is the fact that David Bowie was an artist to be taken SERIOUSLY,
and so was his work. Isn't it odd how few actually did take him seriously in
the seventies when he put out his best work, and then how many took him
seriously when his work ceased to be relevent in terms of ARTISTIC
ORIGINALITY, and It stopped being defined in any terms relating to UNIQUE,
CREATIVE, INNOVATIVE, GROUNDBREAKING, or as the BEGINNING OF SOMETHING NEW!
You disagree? I'll put an end to your "disagreement" in a damn hurry. You
just imagine what the results would be if you did this. First, take the 83
setlist. Now, remove Rebel Rebel and China Girl, and insert Warszawa and
Speed of life in their place. Next, get rid of Let's Dance and Space Oddity
and put in Sense Of Doubt and Alabama Song. Then you chuck out three more,
Young Americans, Jean Genie and Fashion. Replace those with Blackout, Beauty
And The Beast and Rock N' Roll Suicide. Oh, let's not forget Ashes To Ashes,
put Weeping Wall in there instead. Now, you tell me how many stadiums that
set list would have filled with his "NEW fans? Tell me how many of those who
discovered Bowie through Let's Dance would have raved after hearing those
numbers performed for them?  Next,I want you to take this "new" setlist, and
the one performed in 83, and rate each of the numbers he performed in terms
of SUBSTANCE. What did you determine? You see, valued in terms of music with
meaning, the sets on the Serious Moonlight tour fail miserably. Sure, the
dance moves were nice, and the show was "glitzy," but I can find much more
rewarding forms of entertainment for myself, and so, when it comes to Bowie,
these things are of no value to me. David Bowie as a frontman? To anyone who
had been following Bowie for years it was obvious that the whole "PERFORMER"
routine was a "PACKAGED ACT." The dancing, the whole "look," his stage
presence, lets say the entire "SINGER" persona did not display the qualities
which first attracted me to Bowie, or were they what kept me devoted to his
work for the already two decades by the time 83 rolled around. These are
also not the reasons why I am willing to pay to see him perform several
times on a tour either. Listen, as for substance in a performance, well, I
have to say that Peter Gabriel upstaged Bowie completely at the first show I
saw in Edmonton. It was no contest music wise, Gabriel blew Bowie away. Did
I enjoy Gabriel more then? Are you kidding? I went to see BOWIE, and just
because Gabriel gave a better peformance as an artist, means only that
Gabriel gave a better peformance as an artist.  You better understand
something. Just because I didn't like the performances on the Serious
Moonlight tour compared to the other tours means nothing. This is DAVID
BOWIE I AM TALKING ABOUT HERE, meaning that I could care less if they were
any good, and given the chance I would have sat through EVERY PERFORMANCE HE
GAVE on the Serious Moonlight tour. Remember, I didn't like the first show,
and then I turned around and went to FIVE OTHERS RIGHT AFTER. Understand
that all I am doing here is telling the truth about the quality of them.


Previously I had only seen Life On Mars performed live in its entirety once,
and that was on TV when Bowie performed it on  The Johhy Carson Show in
1980.  Before that, I had only ever seen half of it done live when it was
included as part of a meldley he performed on the 76 Station To Station
tour.  I had wanted to hear Life On Mars performed live ever since the day I
first heard the absolutely breathtaking version he does of it on the 1972
Santa Monica Civic Centre bootleg. If you want to know how long I was
waiting to see it, well, lets just say that I've had the Santa Monica
bootleg since early 1974. I was excstatic when I heard the opening notes for
Life On Mars in 83, and music wise there was no disappointing moments. The
ending of it featuring Alomar backing away from the audience as he plays the
last few notes was spectacular, especially whith the lighting that was used.
The way it was presented was enough to easily cause shivers. First, this is
one fact you must know. ALL OF THE MUSIC on this tour was played in A LOWER
REGISTER THAN NORMAL, and if you compare the music to previous recordings
you will notice this in an instant. Why? Two reasons, one, to save Bowie's
voice, and the other reason was to make his voice sound better. With the
songs played in a lower register it would seem to the audience that  Bowie
was capable of hitting all of the high notes, but he did it without his
voice really having to go that high. His voice ONLY SOUNDED HIGHER because
THE MUSIC WAS IN A LOWER REGISTER. Nowhere is this fact more obvious than
listening to Life On Mars. Now, here is what greatly disturbs me. I am
disturbed by the fact that Bowie CAN USE HIS VOICE ANYTIME HE PLEASES, but
he often CHOOSES NOT TO. Don't you even try to argue this point, because I
can show you a hundred examples from a host of bootlegs that prove this fact
beyond any doubt whatsoever.You think Bowie has lost his voice with age? I
will admit that it isn't what it was, but not by much. David Bowie hasn't
lost it, and I know this because I have heard it personally. Not only have I
seen it, but I own some amazing examples which showcase his true vocal
ability both before 1983, and after  1983. I will have you know that these
examples stretch up to as recently as last year, 2002. Now, since we are
talking about Bowie's voice I have decided that I am going to let you in on
a little "secret" that I have kept mostly to myself for over twenty five
years. I have never said anything because it's like one of those things
which is just far too good to share with anyone. It's so good that you keep
it all to yourself to enjoy. Everybody knows that Bowie posesses incredible
vocal talent, and I know every person has their own examples they use to
demonstrate this fact to the "others," the "others" meaning the ones who for
some strange reason just don't seem to "get it" when it comes to Bowie. So,
since I also listen to Bowie you should have guessed that I personally have
a few of these examples as well. The exception is that MY EXAMPLES ARE THE
MOST FUCKING INCREDIBLE ONES YOU WILL EVER COME ACROSS, and yet, THEY HAVE
GONE UNNOTICED. I know this because I HAVE NEVER HEARD THEM MENTIONED IN ANY
DISCUSSION between his listeners on the subject of his voice. I have not
only read, but I have also participated in discussions where the subject
matter has been which are the best examples in existence that serve to
demonstrate the amazing range, scale, power, sustain and falsetto  Bowie is
able to accomplish with his voice. My examples are always missing. Are the
the two best? Well, that is a matter of opinion, all I will say is that
there is NOTHING I have ever heard that EVEN COMES CLOSE. First, you will
need to get the bootleg version of Stay that was recorded on the 23, or 26th
of March 1976 at The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale New
York. The bootleg goes under several names, but the most commonly known one
is Ressurrection On 84th Street. If you do not have it, then I seriously
reccommend you do something about it to fix this problem, and that is by
GETTING IT IMMEDIATELY WITHOUT DELAY! It is a magnificent recording, and I
should know as this is all coming to you from one who just happens to be a
76 collector. Once you have plopped it into your cd player I want you to PUT
HEADPHONES ON and go to 3:40 on the track Stay and listen to the sustain on
Bowie's voice. Next, listen to it at 3:56, oh, and by the way, these two are
nothing, they're just warm ups for what's coming. Go to 4:23. Sustain? Tell
me about the power and sustain of Bowie's voice. There it is, at 4:23, and
if you doubt me then YOU TIME IT, I have, and you will never find another
example like it. Also remember this, what you just heard was on a BOOTLEG,
which means that the sound of his voice could not have been manipulated, or
electronically enhanced. If there is any doubt remaining let me add that in
76 I saw him do this in front of me, and he did it as well as what you just
heard. Now, he performed Stay when I saw him on The Earthling tour in 95. On
most later live versions of Stay, the ones after 76, the part he does with
his voice at 3:40 is missing. The part that goes:
"Staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Incidently, this part does not appear on the original version of Stay from
Station To Station either.During Stay on The Earthling tourm when part he
does at 3:40 on the Nassau bootleg came up I was standing just in front of
Reeves Gabrels, and maybe six feet from Bowie. Just before this moment came
I screamed out, "PLEASE," as loud as I could. This moment came directly
after I had finished praying to the couple of hundred Gods I had invented,
oh, and by the way, these weren't the same Gods I used in 83 to get Station
To Station played, these were new all completely new Gods, they were "STAY
GODS." Yes, I screamed out "Please." That was followed by, "Please do it.
God please, just once before I die. Please do it." I know damn well he could
hear me too, I was so close he had to have, but, even so, I am certainly not
foolish enough to toy with the notion that my pleading actually did
anything. No, my pleading would do nothing. Yes, it's true. Unfortunately,
my cries didn't make a damn thing happen, nothing whatsoever, and for all
the good it did me I would have been just as well off if I had been alone in
the wilderness and pleading to myself.  It wasn't me, it was the "STAY
GODS," they did it. My prayers were heard and they were answered. The "STAY
GODS" I prayed to were merciful towards me, and with their supernatural
powers they FORCED BOWIE TO DO IT. Yes, the moment came and Bowie belted it
out. Was it as good as what is on the bootleg, and from what I remember. I
can't say yes, and I can't say no. All I can say is that I couldn't find the
least bit of difference between any one of them. Bowie, lost it? Sure. Where
have you been.

I have heard later versions of almost all of the material he played in 83,
and these were ones where he banged out every note. There are more than a
few instances where he sang them even better than the earlier versions which
were recorded near the time when the originals were first released. David
Bowie can sing, when he wants to that is, and it is too bad that he chose
not to in 83.  At every show I witnessed Bowie's voice lacked intensity, and
is one reason why the passion and conviction you felt from his performances
on the previous tours was noticeably missing. This also contributed to the
feeling that this was an "ACT" with no real substance behind it. Some
artists lose part of their vocal ability with age, and in a case like that
it isn't right to expect them to sound as good as they did twenty years
before. I do not expect Bowie to sound the way he did in the past, as all
artists lose some of their vocal ability, even Bowie. However, in a worst
case scenario  Bowie's loss of vocal ability due to age by 1983 was MINIMAL,
and it REMAINS MINIMAL TO THIS VERY DAY. You compare his vocals on Heroes in
78 to his vocals in 83. That's a mesely five year time span. I have heard
recent versions of Life On Mars which make the vocals on the 83 version
downright laughable. That is only two songs I have mentioned out of an
entire set list, and believe me, had the problem been confined to only two
songs, or for only a couple of shows, then it wouldn't even be worth
mentioning, because it isn't worth it. I am mentioning it though, and that
is because it was not confined to a few songs, or just a couple of shows,
his vocals were a real problem on most of what he performed at every show.
Now, if he couldn't do it fine, but how do you think I felt sitting there
knowing damn well that Bowie could have belted out those songs with
intensity, passion, and he could have hit every fucking note IF ONLY HE HAD
WANTED TO, but HE DIDN'T? Let me tell you that having seen the previous
tours I felt CHEATED as I sat there knowing what he could do with his voice
and him not doing it because he didn't want to. For those of you who saw
Bowie first in 83, you would not have recognized this, however his older
audiences would, and they did, it WAS THAT NOTICEABLE.  In that regard,
Peter Gabriel used the voice he has, and those familiar with his work are
already quite aware that it compares to Bowie's in every way,. Therefore,
Gabriel was far more interesting to listen to, well, he was thrilling to
listen to actually, and as a result of this his performace was much more
captivating. None of these things I have mentioned are condemning, but they
do add up, and when that happens they become irritating. You sit there
thinking it's enjoyable, but far less than what you're used to, and far
short of what Bowie is capable of. There were no occasions where you felt
his power as an artists, but you did fall victim to his power of charisma,
the power he has an over abundance of.

Many times I found it to extremely difficult for me to relax  during the
first show I saw. This is because I was quite often quite distracted. These
distractions were severe, yet they had absolutely nothing to do with Bowie's
performance, and they were not caused by anything going on around me. They
were "self inflicted" actually, due to worry. I was really worried to begin
with, and this condition started long before I even got to the gig, yet it
didn't become bothersome until the moment Bowie came on, and from there it
got worse as the time passed. What was happening to me were mood swings.
When Bowie first came on I was delighted and I  was getting an enormous rush
of anxiety between each song. However, when the next song started a feeling
of disappointment would strike me, and this was followed by momentary
feelings of depression.  A minute or so into the song though I would be
relaxed again, but near the end I would become really worried, and this was
again followed by an enormous rush of anxiety. The anxiety lasted until the
begnning of the next song, when I would a feel disappointed and slightly
depressed again. It was a vicious cycle that only got worse, and worse, and
worse the more Bowie played. I know I am not the only one who has
experienced this at a concert either, and as a matter of fact, I am willing
to bet that MOST OF YOU have been plagued by it at one time or another. It
is a perfectly normal reaction for a person to have at a gig, and the cause
of it is simple. It is caused from not knowing if your favourite songs are
going to be  performed. You desperately want to hear them but you don't know
if you will, so you wait, and this waiting and not knowing causes a great
deal of anxiety and worry. Between songs you get an enormous rush of anxiety
hoping what you want to hear is next, and then you feel a bit depressed when
the song starts and it is not the one you had hoped for. These mood swings
continue and the feelings intensify as the time passes. It is easy for a
person to become incredibley worried and more anxious and distracted as the
concert nears the end. This is caused the moment that reality sets in, the
reality that they may just not play what you so desperately wanted to hear.
What is really troubling at this stage is the fact that  you know damn well
that when it comes to the end, you may just be left with a whole bunch of
disappointment on your hands to deal with. I've had it happen lots of times,
and it was Bryan Ferry most recently. Now, it's not the last Roxy Music tour
I'm talking about here, that was more than perfect, and when I left I was
beyond satisfied. This gig was just Bryan Ferry himself. Just like the Roxy
gig that followed, Ferry was incredible. Although it was an exceptional
concert, and there isn't one bit of criticsm that I could honestly attatch
to his performance, but I left disappointed. Those of you who are avid
listeners of Bryan Ferry, as well as many of you who aren't, will know the
song Slave To Love. Ferry, David Gilmour on guitar, and I would be
committing an injustice if I attempted to convey the beauty of this piece
using mere words, therefore, out of respect, I won't even try. He never
played it. Out of all things, and it is one of his better known song. Now, I
FUCKING DESPISE THE ROXY MUSIC SONG "LOVE IS THE DRUG." It is repulsive and
vile, it is foolish and inane, it is WORTHLESS CRAP compared to their other
work. I hate it, and Ferry played it. No Slave To Love, I got the "DOPEY"
song instead. I was quite disappointed. The cause of my worries at the first
Bowie gig in Edmonton come down to three words. Those words are "STATION TO
STATION."

The waiting, the worry, and the thought that he may not play it were
agonizing. Between each song I got a rush of hope, then no Station To
Station, it was something else. Worry, worry, worry, song, after song, after
song. I am thinking at one point, "Why the fuck is he playing White
Light/White Heat when he could be using the time to play HIS OWN MATERIAL,
like Station To Station for example." I damn well hate it when he does that,
it really pisses me off, and beside, his renditions of other people's work
isn't all that wonderful. It usually rates on a scale consisting of bad,
really bad, awful, shitty, terrible, horrid, garbage, or as pornography,
because it's so offensive. Sometimes it's a weapon used to hurt people. If I
want to hear songs by Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Laurie Anderson, The Who, Pink
Floyd, or any others, I will go and see them. I attend Bowie gigs to hear
BOWIE'S WORK, not to hear other artist's work defiled, like Iggy's, or The
Velvet Underground. Anyway, I finally got my wish. The Gods I invented came
through for me, and eventually Heaven did arrived on Earth. A dream that I
never thought possible was coming true right before my eyes. I was pressed
right up against the front of that stage when I heard that train coming out
of LeBolt's synthesizer. There is no way to describe the sensation. I saw
Station To Station played immacuately by Stacy Hayden in 76, and by Belew in
78, which was excellent, but nowhere close to Hayden. Standing right in
front of me on that stage is Carlos Alomar. Standing there is the man who in
my opinion is responsible for carving out a rythmn that stands as the
greatest moment in recording history. Standing beside him is the man
responsible for the deadliest wail to ever proceed from the pick ups of an
electric guitar, Earl Slick. Soon, both will be joined by David Bowie. When
Bowie finally did appear on stage with Alomar and Slick, I watched the three
of them completely massacre Station To Station. I really can't quite begin
to tell you, in fact, I don't even know where to start, all I know for sure
is that they fucked it up so bad, that what was done to it is beyond any
human comprehension. I am still disturbed by what I witnessed, and even
though it happened twenty years ago, I believe the effect it had on me is
permanent, in other words, I am doomed to carry the memories with me a
lifetime. Truthfully speaking though,  I would not be surprised in the least
if these memories stayed with me beyond the grave, the impact of what those
three did was that powerful.  I am not going to go into any great detail
about the subject matter that Bowie deals with in Station To Station. Let's
me tell you however that if there is ANYONE IN THE UNIVERSE who knows that
track, it's me. I am not exhaulting myself when I say this, but I know that
album better than anyone, including Bowie. When it comes to Station To
Station, I know Bowie  hasn't been studying the thing for over twenty five
years, I have though, and dilligentley too if I may add. Yep, I know that
whole album in such detail that I could amaze even the most ardent skeptic.
This is not because I am any more intelligent than others who listen to that
album, it is because of all the fucking effort I put into studying it over
the years. When you take the amount of effort into consideration, and then
couple it with all the time I have spent, it only stands to reason that I
should have a more thorough knowledge of it than most, and if I don't, then
there is something terribly wrong. There is no way that I could not  know
Station To Station better than most after the time I devoted to it, and
given the same period of time with an equal amount of effort, even an idiot
would have obtained similar results. Therefore, I'm nothing "special" in
that regard. Now, first, when it comes to Station To Station, we are not
dealing with subject matter that anyone could define as "light," it is far
from light. Actually, come to think of it, not only is it far, but it also
happens to be in completely the opposite direction.

Here is a thought. I don't believe that it would lessen the value of
Quicksand and The Bewlay Brothers if they were remixed. The truth is that
they both sound too  "sombre," but this could be alliviated with the
addition of a nice backbeat, and having the tempo increased slightly. The
way Bowie treats the vocals make the verses unispiring, as hi voice is flat
and monotone. The vocals could be redone with Bowie adding more "spark" to
make them a lot livelier and more energetic. Both tracks would benefit
immensely if they sounded more perky. The music on both of these tracks
suffers in the fact that the sound isn't very full, and this is because of
the over use of an acoustic guitar. The acoustic guitar produces a flat
sound that is far too dry, leaving both tracks quite monotanous. However,
with the addition of a lot more instruments to "fill" in the music a bit,
they would both be a lot more "exciting" to listen David Bowie could have
Quicksand and The Bewlay Brothers remixed into dance numbers. That's a great
idea in my opinion. How do you think they would sound? It certainly wouldn't
harm them in any way, I mean it's not like they'd lose their meaning or
anything. If you agree with the above statements you are fucked in the head
beyond all hope of repair, you are a lost cause, your case is hopeless. Kill
yourself, I would if I were you, it's my only suggestion. Just imagine up
tempo versions of Quicksand and The Bewlay Brothers. Imagine if you added a
trombone, a saxaphone and a trumpet to them, and a beat. Now, picture this.
What would your reaction be if you attended a Bowie gig and he played both
of these? If I could create the "Ultimate Bowie Setlist" both would be
included among my picks. To see Quicksand performed ten feet away from me in
95 was a moment in life I will never forget. It was magic. I can only dream
now of one day hopefully seeing The Bewlay Brothers performed live before I
die. Tell me exactly what would your reaction would be at this gig if you
saw them both performed as "Pop Songs," with Bowie dancing to the music as
he sung? Would they LOSE ANY OF THEIR MEANING PERHAPS? Honestly? Are you
sure, I mean, do you really think they would be ruined? I don't think they
would be ruined at all, in fact, I would guarantee it.

I'll let you in on something. You are likely under the impression that
Quicksand deals with some pretty "heavy" stuff, and if I am right and you do
think this way, then let me tell you that your impressions are indeed
correct. You can trust me on this because I know, having been the author of
several rather "in depth" articles concerning the subject matters it deals
with. My interest in Quicksand is two fold. First, I decided to study it
based on it's own merits. Quicksand stands as one of the most  brilliant
pieces of writing I have ever had the pleasure of passing in front of my
eyes. Now, there is not even a hint of exaggeration to be found  in this
next statement. Quicksand has got to be one of the most intellectually
rewarding things that David Bowie ever gave me. To tell you everything that
I learned as a result of the research I did to untangle and retrieve as much
of the meaning as I could from the lyrics would literally consume at least
ten pages. Oh, and consider that ten as being conservative. Station To
Station was the other reason for pursuing Quicksand with a vigor, as the two
go hand in hand. You could say that Station To Station is almost an
extension of Quicksand, the only major difference being that the subject
matters  contained in Station To Station cover a much broader range, and in
far greater depth. You can't compare perfect to perfect in hopes of
discovering a difference between the two, and therefore you can't compare
Quicksand to Station To Station, it won't yield any results. So, in saying
this I want to make it quite clear that this IS NOT A COMPARISON BETWEEN
THEM. Station To Station however, well, what Station To Station  does is
that it takes the themes brought forward in the lyrics on Quicksand, and it
broadens them, and it exposes them in far more detail. Bowie deals with The
Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn on Quicksand. Aliester Crowley was an
extremely well known practitioner of the occult arts and was also a member
of The Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn for a period of two years in which
time he rose to occupy the position of being the second highest ranking
member. After leaving The Order and while travelling Crowley received a
revelation that is known as The Book Of The law. It was then when Crowley
became a prophet and preached his doctrine which was titled The Law Of
Thelma, Thema meaning "Free Will. It was "Free Will" that led to finding
one's "True Will," and to find True Will," led to finding one's "Soul."
Crowley left The Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn in1910 joining an order
called the OTO, where he quickly advanced to eventually become the
organization's leader. Heinrich Himmer, as most of the other the top Nazi's
including Adolph Hitler, were either practitioners of the occult, or
followed its beliefs. Himmler, head of the SS, established the Ahnenerbe,
which operated out of Wewelsburg, an SS headquarters. The
Ahnenerbe was the Ancestral Heritage Research and Teaching Society. Its
functions included research into Germanic prehistory, archaeology and occult
mysticism. Below the castle's great dining hall was special circular room
with a shallow depression which could be reached byclimbing three stone
steps. These steps symbolized the three Reiches. Inside the castle Himmler
and his inner circle would perform various occult rituals, which included
trying to contact dead Teuton heroes. Hitler himself never made a military
move without first consulting his astrologers. Inside the Nazi regime was an
order known as The Vril. This order was a descendent of The Thule Society.
which was greatly responsible for the shaping of Nazi philosophy. Members of
The Thule Society believed that Thule was a legendary island
in the far north, similar to Atlantis, supposedly the centre of a lost,
high-level civilization. But not all  secrets of that civilization had been
completely wiped out. Those that remained were being guarded by ancient,
highly intelligent beings similar to the "Masters" of Theosophy
or the White Brotherhood. The truly initiated could establish contact with
these beings by means of magic-mystical rituals. The "Masters" or "Ancients"
allegedly would be able to endow the initiated with supernatural strength
and energy. With the help of these energies the
goal of the initiated was to create a race of Supermen of "Aryan" stock who
would exterminate all "inferior" races. Also contained within the Nazi
organization was The Vril Society whose objective was to create a race of
"Supermen," and in an effort to do so the society explored occult phenomenon
that could be used for just this purpose. This super race was not to be
created through genocide but by understanding and using the mystical arts.
They
believed in The Hollow Earth Theory which tells of a race of highly advanced
people, similar to the inhabitants of Atlantis, who live within the earth.
The entrances to this world are at the north and south poles. Another of
their projects was to construct a "Vril Generator," and the purpose of this
generator was to  harness the Cosmic Power in the Universe that the Nazi's
believed they could then use to control the world. There were  certain
objects that the Nazis believed had the power to control as well, and this
is why Hitler sent out archaeologists in search of The Holy Grail, The Ark
Of The Covenant and The Spear Of Destiny. The spear was said to have
phenomenal power having once been used at the Crucifixion to wound the side
of Christ . According to legend, possession of the Spear would bring its
owner the power to conquer the world, but losing it would bring immediate
death. Crowley and Hitler shared similar beliefs, and it is known that early
on, when in the war was in its infancy, that
Crowley attempted to make contact with Hitler. He was unsucessful.

Knowing the information I just gave you should clear up much of the
"mystery" which surrounds the lyrics to The Supermen, Oh You Pretty Things,
Quicksand and The Width Of A Circle, plus a couple of others. There are
several examples of David Bowie's work that is connected by a link of
recurring themes, including Station To Station. Taking a look at the lyrics
Bowie penned for Station To Station it is notcible that several references
lift Aliester Crowley up once again to a position of prominence. David Bowie
makes his first appearance on the album Station To Station singing the line,
"The return of The Thin White Duke throwing darts in lovers eyes." It goes
without saying that to most people this opening line appears quite bizarre,
and I have asked many Bowie listeners in the past if they believe there is
any signifigant meaning behind it. Well, is there. What do you think?
Needless to say that the overwhelming answer I get to this question is,
"No." Many have said the line is only "symbolic." However, as unlikely as it
sounds the line is not symbolic, it does have a meaning to it. Even more
strange is that the reference in the line of  "Throwing darts in lover's
eyes" is rooted in FACT, in other words, it refers to an incident which
actually did occur. The meaning of "Throwing darts in lovers eyes" is a
reference to an incident which happened in 1918. You see, a young couple who
had flirted with Crowley's cult were lured to an island apartment just off
New York. Once there the couple were stripped by some of Crowley's
followers, tied up and then killed. They were killed by having darts thrown
at them. "Lost in my Circle," Bowie sings, and the "Circle" also being an
occult reference. "Making sure White Stains," he states. Well, you tell me,
"White Stains?" It's a book actually, the title is "White Stains," and
inside it contains the poetry of Aliester Crowley. There are "Majikal
Movements" mentioned in Station To Station, as well as "Demons." The most
well known mystical references come from the line  containing the words
"Kether to Malkuth" These references were taken directly from the literature
which is used in the practice of Jewish Mysticsm, from the Kabala. The
details I could write about these two references alone would easily amount
to a book in itself. Let it suffice then just to say that "The Tree Of Life"
is a symbol that is predominant in the practice of Kabalism, and it
represents the many paths which a soul can sojourn on the way to Heaven. The
Tree is a diagram consisting of ten spheres called "Sephiroth" linked by
twenty two paths. In various Majickal teachings we travel these paths in
life passing through the various Sephiroth, and  gain true a true
understanding of the "mystery" of life and God along the way. This
understanding will allow us to travel from the "Malkuth," which is the lower
Sephiroth representing Earth, to the top Sephiroth which is "Kether," or the
"Attainment." This "journey" is illustrated by Bowie on Station To Station
with the line, "Here are we, one magical movement from Kether to Malkuth."
The Tree Of Life is also found in The Bible, most notably in  The Book Of
Revelations. If you look at the picture on the back of the Ryco re issues of
Station To Station, on the ground Bowie can be seen drawing an illustration
of The Tree Of Life. Also, in the program issued by Isolar for the Station
To Station tour in 1976 program there is an enormous picture of Bowie
drawing it on a wall. Now, with all of the things I just told you, belive
me, it's just the start, and I could go on from here, and I have in other
articles I've written which specifically focus on these matters. If any of
you are interested in reading more on Bowie and this subject, er, I mean if
any of you are insane enough to want to read more on Bowie and this subject,
just email me and I will forward the articles. This is as far as I am going
to go on this topic here, which is already way too far. See, I got fucking
carried away again. Will someone please do me a favour? Would you mind
STOPPING ME NEXT TIME, please, just tell me to SHUT THE FUCK UP will you?
Please, I am begging?

YeS, uNforTunATELY For YoU,  tHere is More To ComE......................


AlAdinSAne

Last edited by homebrew on 2026-01-31 15:41:56



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