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

Navigation

Poll


You must be logged in to view polls
Bowie General > Images Vol. 46

You are in:  Forums / Bowie General / Images Vol. 46
Locked
homebrewPosted at 2025-11-01 13:54:26(1 day ago) (Bowie General / Images Vol. 46)


Uploaded: 152.57 GB
Downloaded: 375.96 GB
Posts: 157

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 46


The video for Ashes To Ashes did go on the road, as I said, and I meant
that literally. The problem before was Bowie's "image," and a lot of
radio stations refused to give his music the airplay it deserved because
of it. Now however, Bowie was "straight," and legitimate, and still it
did nothing much in the way of increasing the airplay his work received.
Now, the problem was his music, it was too "progressive" for most AM
stations, and although FM radio is far superior in music quality, it was
a hit on AM radio that broke the market for an artist back then. Once
again, RCA would not have their "HIT," that they so desperately wanted
from Bowie. They would  succeed in attracting the press to Bowie's work
however, a feat that was difficult in the past. Copies of the video for
Ashes To Ashes were distributed to the press in the major centers,
accompanied by a press release. The press release stated that once again
David Bowie had proven himself an innovator, this time in the field of
video. The resulting articles proclaimed Bowie as a trend setter for the
eighties. This proved to be a truly brilliant move by RCA, as it
solidified Bowie's reputation, and guaranteed him a position of
importance, as an artist going into a new decade. This type of publicity
is of major importance to any artist. The reason is that it makes you
"relevant," and therefore "WORTHY" of attention. The looming danger for
any artist is to be labeled as a "has been," and therefore not worth any
significant media attention. Every artist knows that if you are out of
the media, you are soon forgotten, and once forgotten, that's it, you
are finished. Thankfully Bowie would not suffer this fate.

Bowie was approached by director Herman Weigel about appearing in his
new film, Christiane F, which is based on a true story. This is a
gripping film about a fourteen year old girl who becomes a heroin
addict, trying it for the first time at a David Bowie concert, she then
turns to prostitution to support her habit. For the movie Bowie
recreated the stage he used for the 1978 Heroes tour, in order that a
live concert segment could be filmed. The scenes were all filmed in
Manhattan, and in true Bowie style, everything  was completed in one
day. The following day David Mallet joined Bowie. The  Christiane F. set
was dismantled and replaced by the set used in the video for Fashion.
The single was released on October 24th, where it did well in the UK
reaching number five on the charts, but in America the results were
disappointing, as Fashion peaked at number seventy. Coincidentally on
the same day, Free Spirit, a book containing the memoirs of Angela
Bowie, was published in London. Now, in addition to Scary Monsters And
Super Creeps, there was another full length David Bowie album released
in 1980. If you want to put your knowledge of David Bowie trivia to the
test, this is an excellent question. Bowie fans will immediately
recognize the tracks on this album, but the album itself is rather
obscure. Do you know which album I am talking about? If you get the
right answer, and can name this album, I want to congratulate you on
your knowledge of Bowie's discography, because it is one Hell of a lot
better than mine. I wouldn't have got the answer to it, and the only
reason I know it now is because I stumbled upon it while doing my
research for this segment of *Images*.

Looking at this album one can see that it has "TONY DEFRIES" written all
over it. The whole  packaging and marketing concept is the epitome of a
"classic Defries." Now, remember that Tony Defries still had the
copyrights to all of David Bowie's back catalog, beginning with Young
Americans. This gave him the legal authority to package Bowie's music
and sell it any way he saw fit, and you can trust that Defries was
always looking for ways to make a nice tidy profit. This deal was Tony
Defries at his best., and it was a mirror image of some of his past
"schemes."  A "classic Defries" works like this. You have someone make
something, there  no effort required on your part, you have them do all
of the work, and you just sit there. Not only that, you pay nothing, as
you have someone else pay all of the manufacturing expenses. So, no
work, and no cash outlay on your part. Next, when it is finished you
have them give it to you for nothing. Those who made it, and paid for
it,  have no rights to it at all, it is exclusively yours to do with as
you wish, FOREVER. Now, you take it and you "rent" it to someone for a
period of time, so they can make copies and sell them. In order to
"rent" the product for a few, years they must not only pay you millions
of dollars in rental fees, but must also pay you a portion of every copy
they sell. The people who rent it must also agree to pay all of the
expenses to copy it, market it and distribute it, and if they do not
sell enough copies you can take it all back. The person who made the
product is also required to pay for a place for you to live. In order to
live you require two condominiums, two houses and one mansion. These
homes must be furnished as well, and  all of your living expenses are to
be paid, including food and clothes. In addition all of your business
expenses are to be paid by the person who manufactures the product. This
includes two  offices in America, one in the UK, and one in Japan. All
of the salaries for the employees are to be paid and all of the
operating expenses for each office. You will be booked in first class
whenever you travel, and a limousine with a driver will be provided. In
return for all of this you will have to attend some meetings, but only
if you really want to, and you get to pick the meetings. Also, if you
run up one hundred thousand dollar hotel bills, and three quarters of a
million dollars in advertising fees and the person who made the product
can't afford to pay them, the bill is to be paid by the people who
rented the product. Now, it is obvious that to organize all of this
requires a lot of planning, and work, on your behalf. After all, you
have to arrange to make sure that things are made and given to you for
no cost, you must keep track to insure all of your expenses have been
paid, and to make sure that the rent and royalty money has been  paid.
In return for this, along with the rental and royalty fees you receive,
you will also be paid five separate management salaries. In addition,
because you have to go to the trouble of renting the product for the
person who made it, then the person who made it must pay you half of
everything they earn. That's all.

K-Tel is a New York based company that specializes in compiling and
marketing greatest hit albums, and anthologies. The albums are not sold
in any retail outlets, instead they are marketed using television
advertisements, and sold exclusively through telephone mail order.
Although these advertisements can best be described as "cheesy," they
are highly successful when it comes to generating revenue for the
company. Using this method K-Tel had sold, as of 1985, ONE HUNDRED
MILLION anthology, and greatest hits packages, worldwide. In the late
nineties K-Tel became an "Internet" retailer, and the stock went through
the roof, rising from $3 to $40, and over 30% of the total company was
sold to the public in just one month. K-Tel and Tony Defries were made
for each other, and therefore it should be no surprise, using RCA as a
go between, that they made an arrangement. Bowie had no say in the deal
at all, because legally, Defries was not required to notify him. Once
again, and true to his form, the only work Defries would do, was to
collect the rent, the royalties, and avoid personally paying any of the
expenses involved in the project. K-Tel would select the sixteen tracks
to be included on the album, and it would be sold as "The Best Of
Bowie." This you may find this rather interesting.  One point I have
strived to make in this series is concerning Bowie's popularity. I have
tried to illustrate the fact that, unlike the UK, David Bowie, had an
extremely limited fan base in North America. In most places Bowie had
nothing more than what is described as a "cult" following. I know that
there are many of you who may have difficulty accepting this fact. I do
not blame you for this one bit, as it is difficult to believe. I say
this because you look at Bowie as he is now,  a well known celebrity who
enjoys the recognition he has as an international multi talented artist,
and one who has a substantial following. I can understand how it would
be hard to imagine the man you see now as having such a small group of
dedicated listeners, especially considering his talent, and the quality
of the work he produced in the seventies. It is however, true. This
might serve to support my point. Even with the highly successful method
K-Tel had of selling albums they refused the North American marketing
rights to The Best Of Bowie, and the reason will give you an accurate
picture of Bowie's "commercial worth in the American market, as opposed
to the rest of the world. This may surprise you considerably.

This information came from George Lukan, who worked for K-Tel. In 1981
it cost $500,000.00 to run a successful advertising campaign. In order
to break even K-Tel would have to sell 700,000 units. Taking the United
States and Canada, with a combined  population of over THREE HUNDRED
MILLION, K-Tel felt that they would be unable to sell enough copies of
this package to cover expenses. Now, you may shake your head and wonder
about the sensibilities behind this decision, but from a strictly
business stand point, there was no other decision that was possible. All
you had to do was look at Bowie's North American sales figures, and they
made the decision for you. Bowie released seven albums from 1976 to
1980. Hear that, SEVEN ALBUMS IN FOUR YEARS, I remember the GOOD OLD
DAYS. Do you want to talk about now? I didn't think so. Anyway, out of
those seven albums, FIVE sold UNDER 350,000 copies. Out of those five
two sold UNDER 200,000 copies, those were Stage and Lodger. Heroes and
Low both fell under 280,000 copies. At 552,791 copies, Station To
Station accounted for his highest selling studio album. As you can see
all fell far short of what K-Tel required in volumes to make any profit,
and instead they would have suffered tremendous losses. Even though
Changesone sold 1,331,247 copies, when this number is looked at compared
to the "average" sales expectancies for a Bowie album, the volumes
looked like a "freak accident," and unlikely to repeat itself. The risk
was far too great. K-Tel selected the sixteen tracks to be included in
the package, and put them in chronological order on the album. Included
was a series of photographs depicting Bowie's "characters" in different
stages of his career. It was released on December 5th, in Western
Europe, New Zealand, Australia and Japan. Now, where K-Tel worried about
being able to sell 700,000 copies in America, The Best Of Bowie went to
number two on the British charts, as was a hit in almost every other
country. As difficult as it is to imagine, it is true. K-Tel recently
filed for Bankruptcy Protection provided for under US law. It was
another, in the long list of  over 250  companies that became victims,
when the technology bubble burst on NASDAQ.

The videos sent out by RCA did little in the way of stimulating sales of
Scary Monsters, as the album only sold 347,413 in North America, as of
June 1983. What they did not do for sales though, they did for Bowie's
image. MTV was not on the air yet, and therefor music videos were still
a brand new format. The press were intrigued by the videos sent to
promote Ashes To Ashes and Fashion. The result was more positive reveiws
for Bowie, and he was achieving a growing reputation as a MULTI TALENTED
ARTIST, it could not have been better. The New York Times wrote glowing
editorials about Bowie for his work in The Elephant Man, and at the same
time were heralding his as great pioneer in the entertainment field.
This editorial, written by John Rockwell, appeared in the paper. He
wrote, "  Ashes To Ashes and Fashion is not so much the *images* as the
brilliant way they are edited and how they expand on the music itself,
rather than merely accompanying it or even contradicting it. These
little shorts are genuine music theatre in a new and modern guise and
they deserve to be seen by anyone interested in either rock or opera.
The real hero of the rock video revolution so far is that perennial
pioneer David Bowie." Now, I want to draw on a couple of points here. I
wrote a scathing piece in a segment of *Images* awhile back concerning
rock videos, and television channels such as MTV. I wrote that most
videos destroy music by removing the individual interpretation from it,
and this is something ALL ART should posses. I did however, cite Bowie's
videos as being different from most others, as his videos preserve,
rather than remove, individual interpretation. If you have been
following this series my personal view of music critics and journalists
will be well known to you. I regard most of them as completely ignorant,
and many are plain stupid. John Rockwell is one critic however, who has
earned my respect and admiration. This is because he is the only critic
I have encountered who was brilliant enough to notice that Bowie's
video's did not alter, or outright destroy, the integrity of the music
by removing individual interpretation. This was evident when he wrote,
"they expand on the music itself, rather than merely accompanying it or
even contradicting it."  This article is also a testament to Bowie's
scope as an artist. Rockwell wrote, "Ashes To Ashes and Fashion is not
so much the *images* as the brilliant way they are edited." You must
remember that Bowie wrote, directed, and edited the video for Ashes To
Ashes. David Mallet was co-director, and as it turned out he had
virtually no involvement in the making of this video, other than to
provide advice when asked. It was ALL BOWIE.  So, when John Rockwell
wrote, "These little shorts are genuine music theatre in a new and
modern guise and they deserve to be seen by anyone interested in either
rock or opera," he was referring to the VERY FIRST VIDEO Bowie ever
wrote, directed and edited himself. This is truly a monumental
achievement by Bowie, and he well deserves the highest recognition for
it, which in my opinion, he does not receive. Several months after this
review appeared in the New York Times, MTV went on the air. The video
for Ashes To Ashes was shown in its first week of broadcast.

If David Bowie was a literary critic, I can assure you that Angie's
book, "Free Spirit," would not have received a very positive review, at
all. If Bowie's close friends are to be believed he was apparently
rather "horrified" after reading it. His concern over the contents of
the book did not stem from any thoughts about his personal reputation,
but more on what the effects of the book could be on their son. Joey was
now ten years old, and Bowie was quite certain he would read the book
one day. Bowie wondered if Joey would think differently about his
parents after reading about some of their behaviour, which was better
left out of the public eye. Bowie was saddened that Angela gave little
regard to this fact, before writing her book, and exposing the "family
secrets" to the whole world. He knew she did it only for the money, but
the fact was that she put money before the well being of their son. Now,
I have a few personal thoughts about Angela , as well as the two books
she wrote about her life with Bowie. In my opinion at first, the jury
was out, according to her. I will admit at times I believed she got a
rather rough ride, and was treated unfairly. I was also of the opinion
that she was royally screwed when it came to the divorce settlement. I
have mellowed a bit on my position regarding the divorce, but I still
feel that she was "robbed" on the financial settlement she got. I think
$700,000.000 was an insult considering Bowie's finances at the time, and
had the divorce case been heard in America, rather than Switzerland, she
would have faired much better. As opposed to America, where the opposite
is true, Swiss family courts are heavily weighed in the favour of men.
On the other end however, my opinion of her has been  altered since I
read her books.

I have lost a great deal, almost every bit actually, of respect that I
had for Angela Bowie. This came about after seeing her a few times on
afternoon talk shows, and reading both of her books cover to cover. In
my opinion she had a wonderful opportunity to redeem herself in the eyes
of the media, and the public, with her books. I will openly confess that
I was personally very excited when I heard that there was a book coming
out that was written by her. The reason for this was that SHE WAS THERE.
You see, her book would not be like this series I am writing, or other
accounts of Bowie's life. My information, as well as the information in
most of the other accounts, is obtained from other written sources, and
therefore it leaves us at a disadvantage. Angela, she was there, SHE SAW
IT ALL, a FIRST HAND ACCOUNT, and a TRUTHFUL ONE AT THAT. Okay, I will
come completely clean. I was fucking DROOLING thinking of all of the
possibilities while I waited for that book to come out. You couldn't
imagine some of the thoughts I had. She was around when Bowie wrote his
songs, so she must know a lot about them. I bet she knows what The
Bewlay Brothers is about, and that could be in her book. I may get a
first hand account of how Bowie recorded some of his albums, by someone
who WAS ACTUALLY IN THE STUDIO. There could be first hand information
about Visconti, Ronson and others, where little is known as far as how
they work. I envisioned a book that would be a virtual gold mine,
priceless in terms of useful, and never before revealed, information
about Bowie.

I really like sex, but it ceased to be a topic of discussion for me
around the age of seventeen. After that there was no more need to join
in with others to exclaim my individual sexual prowess. You know, all of
the boys together  trying to "up" one another by giving detailed
accounts of their various "conquests," and which most of the stories
were nothing more than wishful thinking. Sex became a personal matter,
no longer "dirty," and my mind sought out more intellectual pursuits.
Sometimes, I think I am different. Why? Well, it seems like the whole
fucking world is preoccupied with sex, I'm not, and I can't understand
others. I just don't get what the big deal is about it. We are human,
sex is fun, so we like to fuck. And? So what. We all do it pretty much
the same way, so why is there a need to talk about it? In my opinion,
sex is really quite boring, and most often infantile, as a topic for
discussion. You have all seen the discussions based on Bowie's sex life
floating around on various news groups. When I see this I just shake my
head, and wonder. I can't help thinking, "Don't these idiots have
anything more intelligent to discuss about Bowie than this? I mean, who
cares who he's fucked? Why does it matter?" The only conclusion that I
can arrive at to answer these questions is that these people are just
plain ignorant. Some of you may say that I have no business saying that,
and in all fairness, you may very well be right. However, my opinion
remains that if that is what they feel is worth discussing about Bowie,
they obviously have missed any relevance he has as an artist, either
that, or quite probably the music is way over their heads. There is also
the possibility that they believe there is some importance to this,
rather than the unique recording processes first developed, and used, on
Heroes. I don't, and I believe that thinking is for those who will never
ever understand the essence of Bowie. I am thankful that those who have
been members of this group before me have always frowned on this form of
discussion, and strongly discouraged it. That fact is a real credit to
them, and it sets this group apart from the others, as being much more
worthwhile in terms of content.

Her first book was far beyond useless. It was a discredit to the value
of paper to put her thoughts on it. However, I am human, and as a result
I have hope, which at times  really amounts to not much more than
stupidity. You see, I put faith that her second book, Backstage Pass,
would be the book that I was so desperately hoping to have, and Angie
would be redeemed. I forget which talk show it was on , oh, I remember
now, it was Joan Rivers. I'm pretty sure anyway. I saw Angie on there as
a guest, to promote her second book. While I was watching out it came,
"I caught my husband in bed with Mick Jagger." I couldn't fucking
believe what I had just heard. I went, "WHAT? Of all the stupidest
things to say in order to sell a fucking book." I am unable to
understand how a person can have so little integrity, or self respect,
that they could go on an afternoon talk show which is viewed by
millions, and lie right through their teeth for the sake of money. Not
only that, how could they have so little honour as to say something
about another person that was not true, and in doing so damage that
person's reputation, for the sake of a few dollars. Any respect that I
had for her vanished, and Bowie demonstrated the utmost class by not
responding to her nonsense, and by not saying one negative thing about
her to the media. Yes, I have the book, and yes, I read it. I got it for
eight bucks in a bargain bin. I wasn't ready for what I read, and I
never could have prepared myself sufficiently beforehand, even if I
tried. It is no wonder The Rolling Stones threatened to sue her into
oblivion if she so much as copied one word from their song Angie, which
was of course written about her. Sex. I slept with her, he slept with
her, I slept with him, he slept with him, they slept with us, she slept
with us, we all slept with them, her and I slept with them, I slept with
it, I slept with that, for page after page, after page, page after page,
after page.  My reaction to all of this was, "SO FUCKING WHAT? WHO CARES
WHO YOU FUCKED? I don't get it at all, am I supposed to be IMPRESSED by
this, or something? Do you want a medal, or a "goody" biscuit  for doing
something that practically ever person on the planet has done? Are you
aware that you are not the only one engaged in this activity?"  I
couldn't help thinking that if I were that sexually immoral, and
disrespected myself, my wedding vows, and my partner to this degree, I
certainly would not be bragging about it to the world, and displaying my
lack of integrity like it was some sort of a badge of honour. Another
one of my initial reactions after  reading these books, was the fact
that there were quite a few of her statements that were so absolutely
ridiculous, I found it difficult to believe that any person would take
them seriously. This was an error on my part . I say this because shortly
after the release of Backstage Pass  I saw some of the best examples of
the most ridiculous statements taken from her book, and quoted as if
they were the "gospel truth," in some of the most trusted magazines and
newspapers. Now, I am not insinuating that those fans of Bowie's who
have bothered to learn something about him would believe these
statements, it is usually those who do not know much about him,  that
are easy prey for books of this nature. It is not just these books
either. I am also referring to all of the ignorance I see flowing out of
many of the articles I read on Bowie in the media. There are a large
number of people out there, even Bowie fans, who believe everything that
they hear, and read. I see examples of it all the time. Every once in a
while I mention Bowie around a group of people I do not know well and
someone will say, "He slept with Mick Jagger." I used to snap right back
at people who said things like that, and correct them. They would then
get a little bit of advice from me. I would tell them that going around
making statements about things you know nothing about, before finding
out if what you are saying is even the truth or not, can really make a
person look like a fool. I don't do that anymore, I just think to
myself, "What an idiot." These books are  useless as a source to learn
anything about Bowie, and in fact they will severely damage your
knowledge about Bowie, if you accept most of what is written in them as
being factual. This is because most of the information has no
credibility whatsoever.  I have had disagreements with people who have
attempted to use parts of these books as evidence to support their
statements. However, I will not accept anything that Angela says as
being valid as evidence, for the simple reason that she has no
credibility. This is proven simply by the fact that there are
incidences that Angela claimed happened, that can be proven to NOT have
happened. These things were written as an act of revenge, and you can't
rely on any of the statements made about a person, when the person
making the statements is motivated by revenge. My overall opinion of her
books is, what a waste, when we could have had so much.

By December 5th, 1981, the day the K-Tel package was released, Bowie had
accomplished  everything he had wanted to. In addition, he had two more
talents he could add to his resume, one as a serious Broadway stage
actor, and another as a video writer, director, actor and editor. There
were still two more things Bowie wanted to do as soon as possible. He
wanted to have his paintings displayed in reputable art galleries. He
had told those around him that he  wanted to embark on a world tour in
the spring of 1981, now only a few short months away. Based on the last
tours, it was easy to expect that this one would be just as spectacular.

AlaDInSAnE

More stuff will be added later.............


""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. 46063homebrewby homebrew
2025-11-01 13:54:26
David Bowie - NMC BBC SESSIONS 1969 19728508john1981by SillyBoyBlue
2025-10-31 20:32:50
Bowie - explains Ashes To Ashes lyrics0192imperialby imperial
2025-10-29 19:35:45
Images Vol 450271homebrewby homebrew
2025-10-25 18:01:19
Images Vol. 442421homebrewby homebrew
2025-10-23 19:22:44
Images Vol. 431540homebrewby professormouse
2025-10-13 23:55:17
Boston '7251285averybowieby imperial
2025-10-06 16:10:13
1997-09-16 Warfield, San Francisco, csb > d7 source5695interplayby Steveboy
2025-10-06 13:43:29
Images Vol. 420403homebrewby homebrew
2025-10-04 14:03:16
DONATIONS11134988Steveboyby Steveboy
2025-10-02 14:19:47
how do you record a spotify stream ?71097professormouseby professormouse
2025-09-28 22:17:26
Images Vol. 410659homebrewby homebrew
2025-09-26 19:39:37
Very Poor but possibly uncirculated Bowie, Forum, Inglewood, April 6, 197881327butterkingby butterking
2025-09-24 19:58:22
I Can’t Give Everything Away234031Portlandbillby professormouse
2025-09-24 00:10:29


Online Users

Newest Members
Modified by JanErik |- Page Generated In 0.055205 secs.
-|- RSS Feed -|- Feed Info
Theme Base By: Nikkbu | Modified by: paperdragon | Graphics by: MossGarden
Email: bowiestation(AT)bowiestation.com