[Login] or [Signup]
Login
Username:
Password:
[Signup]
[Recover Account]

Navigation

Poll


You must be logged in to view polls
Bowie General > Images Vol. 36

You are in:  Forums / Bowie General / Images Vol. 36
Locked
homebrewPosted at 2025-08-24 14:02:56(6 days ago) (Bowie General / Images Vol. 36)


Uploaded: 152.57 GB
Downloaded: 375.96 GB
Posts: 144

Ratio: 0.41
Location: United States of America


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

IMAGES: Part 36

One executive at RCA turned to the person seated beside him and asked,
"What do you think of those girls?" The reply was, "One of them isn't
too bad looking." The executive was probably in shear delight to hear
that answer, it was, I imagine, exactly what he wanted, as he couldn't
have asked for a better one. The set-up was perfect, now, time to drop
the bombshell. "They're ALL Bowie," were the next words spoken. Then you
heard, "Really?" He wouldn't have been the only one caught off guard
either, when viewing the video for Boy's Keep Swinging. It would have
made a great company motto for RCA to apply to Bowie, "Caught Off
Guard." I mean,  they usually were. This time though, well, was the same
as the last, and the one before, and the one before that, and the one
before that. Bewilderment. The executives at RCA were once again as
perplexed as the last time Bowie handed them a new album. On the
positive side, well, in five long years Lodger was the first studio
album that contained at least ten VOCAL tracks. This was a step in the
right direction, as far as they were concerned, but it didn't take any
more than one listen to realize that once again, there were no hits.
They must have thought of those other labels who were cashing in on the
Disco craze, and what do they get? Lodger. They all knew by now that
there was no use in fighting, they were stuck with it, period. Now came
the difficult part.

Most record labels, except Bowie's, recoup their investment and hope to
make a profit by selling the artist's work. They now were faced with the
task of getting someone to buy it. Demographics can often help, you look
the record buying audience as a whole, then you divide them into groups
according to specifications such as age, music preferences, what
attracts them to a product, and so forth. Once you have this then you
"target" certain segments  of the audience,  by tailoring a marketing
and advertising campaign at those groups which have been selected. The
feeling would best be described as sickening when analysing the
demographics to market Lodger. An overall look at what the record buying
audience consisted of, would have revealed a vast sea of eager
purchasers just drooling for anything that had a beat they could dance
to. This first bit of demographic information would be used as a
comparison to the tracks on Lodger. Okay, they want dance tunes. Now,
lets see, we have, Fantastic Voyage, African Night Flight, Move On,
Yassassin, Red Sails, D.J., Look Back In Anger, Boys Keep Swinging,
Repetition and Red Money. Nobody, RCA included, in their right mind
anyway, could imagine anyone kicking up their heels to African Night
Flight, Move On, Yassassin or Repetition at a Disco on Saturday night.
Upon further review, the same conclusion would be reached on the other
tracks as well. The majority of record buyers would not buy Lodger,
plain and simple, so no use targeting them. Punk? Well, Bowie worked
with Iggy. Iggy qualifies, but it would be uncertain if Lust For Life,
or The Idiot, qualified as Punk. If so, since Bowie wrote, them it may
be possible to promote him to this segment of the audience. It became
clear that those who listened to the Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedy's, Alien
Sex Fiend, The Clash, Skinny Puppy, The Cramps or The Stooges, were not
about to slam dance and spit along to Fantastic Voyage, Red Money, or
D.J. In addition, RCA was unlikely to succeed in getting Look Back In
Anger, or Red Sails played between sets at CBGB's, in an attempt to
reach this audience. I could see Speed Of Life appealing those who were
leaning toward New Wave at the time. Too bad it was two studio albums
ago. All RCA saw so far was trouble. This trouble however would end,
Rock was the answer. Of course, Bowie is a Rock N' Roll musician. This
album has lyrics, and sort of an edge like Ziggy, Aladinsane, Man Who
Sold The Word, Diamond Dogs, Station To Station, SURE! It was when the
marketing team turned on a Rock station that they would truly discover
that they were not in any trouble at all, instead they learned that they
were FUCKED! Out of all of the music that they would hear the stations
play, NONE OF IT was anything like Lodger. The ONE saving grace that
they had, would have been when they discovered that there was an
extremely strong market base to the Progressive oriented audience. They
would buy it, all they had to do is sell it.

There was no way in Hell, they quickly discovered, to pass Lodger off as
a "progressive" album. It may be a progressive audience that would buy
Lodger, but Bowie was not a progressive artist in the sense of the word,
and Lodger was not a progressive album either, for the same reason. It
would be easy to say, "What is the problem? RCA has been marketing his
work for years, by now they should know how. You would be right in that
assumption, up to a point, that point would be 1976. RCA could market
his work that year, and previous, because they knew what it was. Low
ended that. With Low they were rendered helpless, also remember Bowie
refused to lift one finger, or give even one interview, in support of
it. With Heroes, well Bowie handled most of that, and this left RCA with
absolutely no experience. I personally could have helped RCA  market
Lodger at this at this point, by telling them that I will buy a copy.
After that, well, they are on their own. Press releases, whether
internal company ones, or the ones let out to the media, are designed
for one purpose, and one only, that is "hype." They are in most cases
sent out in advance, and are supposed to describe the product in such a
way to increase anticipation. The record labels use them all the time,
and RCA is no exception. I like wall to wall carpeting, mine needs to be
cleaned by the way. No, I have not "FINALLY" snapped. It is because I
sincerely care about your carpets that I am telling you this. If you
have anything close that could fall and stain your carpet, please move
it. You may laugh so hard at this you will knock things over. RCA was at
a total and complete loss as how to even describe Lodge, that is evident
by what you will soon read. How do you write a press release for an
album that you can't understand? Do you know? I do, because I found out
from the internal RCA press release for Lodger. The answer is, you grasp
at straws in panic.

The internal RCA advance press release, to create an air of excitement,
described Lodger as a "concept" album. They did not go on to say that it
was a concept that they did not understand though. After reading a few
more lines you would have learned that, "The Lodger is a homeless
wanderer, stunned and victimized by modern life's pressures and
technology." Are you with me so far? Okay. Next came some friendly
advice from RCA, well, more like instructions. These instructions were
on how to listen to Lodger. It said, "It is absolutely necessary that
you "listen" to Lodger until you can "HEAR" it." WOW! That was my first
reaction. Guess what? I tried it, and it works. Not only that, I tried
it with a King Crimson album, and it worked also. Coincidence? I thought
so at first. Well, I tried it once more, with Station To Station. I get
tired sometimes of just looking at the picture on the front cover of
that album, after all it is all over my house. Well, imagine my delight
when I put it on,  and following RCA's instructions I listened to it,
and I "HEARD" it! Really. Oh, this gets much better. The following line
after these instructions contains a guarantee from RCA. It says, "The
music "IS" there." What they are really saying is that they know it is
there, and hope that you can find it,  because they failed. The press
release summed up everything about Lodger into a final description. What
was Lodger exactly? Get ready. "It would be fair to call Lodger, Bowie's
Sgt. Pepper," they said. How accurate. There you go. Do you think that
is fair? I think it is fair to say that they didn't "GET" it. At all.

It wasn't before long that RCA realized that there may be another
"slight" problem, this time with the video's for Boy's Keep Swinging,
and DJ. Bowie dressing up as three women may have a rather negative
effect on the sale of Lodger. This is due to the fact that the general
public thought Bowie was already "weird" enough, and this was just fuel
for the fire. This video they surmised was "passable," but DJ was
"another story. Bowie kissing a man was "dangerous" goods. In certain
ways the gay community had moved along way towards acceptance by 1979,
in certain ways, however some things remained unchanged. The main
success came in the form of getting mainstream society to recognize in
fact that the gay community existed, and this meant acceptance, to a
degree. Realizing they were there however, was one thing, having it
"thrown in your face," quite another. There were also many parts of the
country, and places away from the city, where attitudes remained
unchanged. It was only eight years previous that the radio stations in
the US refused to play any music made by a "Transsexual," thus keeping
Hunky Dory off  of the airwaves. It was only seven years previous that
Bowie received death threats for his appearance. While Bowie is walking
through Earls Court, followed by several people, at the end of the video
for D.J, he "kisses" one of the males following him, and he makes SURE
it is captured, and unable to miss, by the camera. RCA knows full well
that there are many people out there who were likely to take offence to
this, and a backlash was not ruled out. This was especially feared
considering Bowie is wearing dresses in the other video that accompanies
it. RCA had spent a lot of money trying to "undo" damage from the story
that Tony Defries and Angie conjured up, and then getting Bowie to tell
the writer from Melody Maker that he was gay. The UK was a lot more
accepting concerning this "admission," and the resulting media coverage
saved a fourteen date tour to promote Hunky Dory, probably saving
Bowie's career in the process. In America however the announcement was
accepted in a far different manner. In many ways it literally destroyed
any opportunity for Bowie to break into the mainstream American market.
"Unwillingly", he said in a few interviews, Bowie became an icon for the
gay community. He was now labelled, and as a result many radio stations
refused to play any of his records, and many times in the press he was
portrayed like an exhibit in a freak show. RCA had been trying to temper
the public perception of Bowie in an attempt to make him more palatable
to a mainstream audience.  These videos were certainly not going to aid
that effort.

Look Back In Anger did not fall into the "dangerous" category. It was
"safe." In my opinion this is a fantastic video. I can't remember when I
saw it for the first time, I do know however it was YEARS after the
release of Lodger, because I live in Canada, a nation deprived. Please,
do not get me wrong, we are certainly not deprived of music, we can get
anything, the problem is that YOU HAVE TO GO OUT to get it. I read
somewhere that Canada has some of the cheapest prices for cd's in the
world, compared to other countries. I don't know, Brian Kelton, Ziggy1,
on this group should be able to give a solid opinion on our prices
compared to the UK. This is because he attacked Canada last year, it was
an all out war at many pubs. Looking the wrong way before crossing a
street, because people in the UK haven't learned the correct side of the
road to drive on yet, Brian was almost hit by a car after leaving a
"battlefield." I would have pitied the remainder of the car. This is in
average, and in US dollars,  cd's range from $12.00 to $15.00, so you
can decide. What we may make up in cd prices we lose on television.
Truthfully, we get sweet fuck all when it comes to music on TV, except
of course MTV, and Much Music, which is the Canadian equivalent. It
didn't used to be like that however, when I was in my teens we used to
get some great shows. Two that come instantly to mind are The Midnight
Special, and Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. Stones, Bowie, and just keep
going from there, including many of the largest acts from that period.
These days? NOTHING. I asked a good friend in England a while ago if she
had any Bowie on video that I may be interested in. She said that she
didn't have anything "special," only stuff she recorded from the
television, and was convinced that I would have most of it anyway. Well,
all I can say is that I sure hope she finds a lot more of this stuff
that I "already have. "The tape was LOADED, interviews, concert footage,
as well as copies of a few things I already have, but the quality of the
video she sent put mine to shame. We would never get anything of that
nature on TV here unfortunately. Deprived, as I said This explains the
reason that I did not get to see the Look Back In Anger video for
several  thousand years after its debut. David Mallet and Bowie based
the story line for the video on a novel by Oscar Wilde called The
Picture Of Dorian Gray. Even with their concerns about the "gay" slant
on Boy's Keep Swinging and DJ, the marketing department at RCA had
decided to use them aggressively anyway, to draw some attention to
Lodger. What they did was extremely unique, for the time anyway.

Although it was not yet recognized, the money saved from the reduction
in travelling expenses, would turn out to be the largest benefit to be
derived from video. As it stood now, record labels were required to send
their artists all over the world on promotional tours to sell a new
album. Talk shows, radio spots, magazines, autograph signings,
appearances at record stores, and all of them required the "personal"
touch. It was dreadfully expensive for the record labels, and very
demanding mentally and physically for the artists because of the
constant travel. Video changed all of that, allowing the promotion of an
artist all over the world with no demands on the artist's time, and
little expense to the record companies. RCA did use the videos from
Lodger, but only pieces, instead of using each of them in their
entirety. RCA instead had a "new" video made that featured the many
"faces" of David Bowie. When completed, the four minute video aired on
the Promo Vision network, running non stop in one hundred stores
belonging to the major record retailers across the country. It was also
decided that RCA would organize some  press and promotional parties,
where they could air the video and rely on the subsequent write ups.
They tried to book some space in a mental institution in New York for
one promo party, no, I am not kidding, and failed in their attempt,
being turned down also by two ballet schools, finally managing to secure
the Explorers Club. For these parties RCA had a separate twelve minute
video produced, which focused more on the current album. Bowie did not
have a watch ,and he still doesn't, being quite apparent as he waltzed
in a ultra high fashionably three hours late for the screening. When he
arrived the guests were ushered into a room to view the video on a large
screen, and after they had access to Bowie so he could field questions
about his new album. The marketing minds at RCA and Bowie seemed to have
quite different opinions about what Lodger was. Rather than call the
album his Sgt. Pepper, Bowie borrowed from the work of painter and
filmmaker Salvador Dali, calling Lodger, "Dada Pop."

Bowie was always complaining that RCA did not do enough to promote his
work, always blaming his consistently poor album sales on them, and the
lack of spending. I have often contemplated if it ever crossed his mind,
even once, that when the bulk of people are listening to Disco Inferno,
Boogie Nights, YMCA and Dancing Queen, they are not about to purchase
albums with The Secret Life Of Arabia, Subterraneans or Red Sails on
them. The extra investment made by  RCA in the five videos, the spots on
Promo Vision and the promotional parties meant little, the war between
them still raged, turning nuclear for the most part. Bowie did not fight
in person anymore, instead attacking by sending his personal assistant
Coco Schwab to deliver the blast. Everyone was asked to draw a straw at
a meeting of  RCA executives, and it was a man named Pat Gibbons who
drew the shortest one. This meant that it was he who got the job of
being the liaison between RCA and David Bowie. Now, I have never seen a
picture of Pat Gibbons, but I find it fun sometimes to just imagine what
the people you hear about, but have never seen, look like. Do you ever
do this? I imagine Pat Gibbons as a man in his fifties, who used to be a
bit on the heavy side, but has since lost a tremendous amount of weight.
I see him as a soft spoken, mild mannered, easy going, and well educated
man. His education provides him with the ability to assess situations
and find logical solutions. I see him as becoming completely dumbstruck
by those who do things that don't make any sense, or try their best to
make a bad situation even worse. One can only guess at such a man's
reaction when someone that you employ, and pay millions of dollars to,
simply "disappears," and won't tell you where he lives. If he ever does
surface, meetings are held where they request, after all precautions are
taken to make sure that they are not being followed by you. Bewildered,
as well as puzzled, would be a normal reaction that you would expect to
see, to a person who complains that YOU do not do enough to promote
their work, who hand you a new album, refuse to help you do anything to
sell it, and  instead run off to a foreign country to get drunk for
eight months, leaving no forwarding address. A person would require a
great deal of patience to have to deal with a person who will not meet
with you face to face, instead sending others to deliver messages on
their behalf. This would also require a person to have an extremely long
fuse, able to put up with ongoing and reoccurring problems over and over
and over, and over, and over and over and over again. An easy going
demeanour would allow one to not take things personally when you are
constantly being blamed for everything, and can't seem to do anything
right. This is especially true when you only discover what you
supposedly did from a magazine, an interview, a media press conference
or some other public forum. I believe that Pat Gibbons must have had a
very supportive wife, if she didn't pack up and leave in the middle of
the night. She would never force her opinions on Pat, but would probably
offer her advice. For instance, she may have calmly suggested that it
would be nice if Pat found a different line of employment, rather than
deal with recording artists, suggesting a circus clown, migrant farm
worker, septic tank cleaner, or stunt man as alternatives. Probably a
social drinker at one time, Pat can now put back an eight ounce glass of
straight vodka in one swig. He would do this I am sure when he downs
five or six number ten Valiums, or some other sedative, his ulcer
medication, or just before bed when he takes his sleeping medication.
The constant demands of the corporate world would cause him to forego
just regular medical check ups, but instead going quite frequently,
sometimes thinking that he might one day be under the constant care of a
physician. Pat is probably bald, he shaves his head, because for some
reason he developed a "twitch" that caused him to pull his hair out for
some inexplicable reason. One thing odd about Pat though, if his wife
asks him if he would care for some Hot Coco, he looks rather insane.

aLaDINsaNE

To be continued.....but not very  much


""I don't begrudge any artist for finding an audience"
- David Bowie abt. 1987
Report This Post Go to the top of the page
 

<< Prev  1   Next >>

Locked
You are not permitted to post in this forum.

Latest Forum Posts
Latest Topic TitleRepliesViewsAuthorLast Post
Images Vol. 37020homebrewby homebrew
2025-08-30 15:27:47
DONATIONS1121944Steveboyby gordy45
2025-08-29 07:16:27
Clairville Grove?3593LouFarrellby LouFarrell
2025-08-25 16:01:10
Images Vol. 360330homebrewby homebrew
2025-08-24 14:02:56
A cry for help!9759steve23yhby Portlandbill
2025-08-22 17:50:21
Re: cdrs2438bowie78by bowie78
2025-08-22 08:43:22
Images Vol. 351527homebrewby homebrew
2025-08-17 21:28:49
I Can’t Give Everything Away161452Portlandbillby professormouse
2025-08-17 09:51:00
Health Issues8112668Steveboyby paulybauls
2025-08-14 22:14:46
VIDEO from Dutch TV show 'Fan Club' in November 19672613MEXMODby CosmicJive
2025-08-13 09:47:11
David Bowie | Live on Musikladen Extra | Complete Show | 2025 Restoration by Nacho10714learmby GwonamLord
2025-08-12 07:28:11
some unreleased i'd love to see5878professormouseby professormouse
2025-08-11 22:22:47
Images Vol. 340410homebrewby homebrew
2025-08-09 13:55:41
Images Vol. 331457homebrewby dag97
2025-08-02 16:08:18
How to do a new post3853steve23yhby steve23yh
2025-07-29 17:00:20


Online Users
No Users Online

Newest Members
Modified by JanErik |- Page Generated In 0.057837 secs.
-|- RSS Feed -|- Feed Info
Theme Base By: Nikkbu | Modified by: paperdragon | Graphics by: MossGarden
Email: bowiestation(AT)bowiestation.com