Tell Me :
Talk
David Bowie Refused to Collaborate with Coldplay
January 19, 2016 2:07 PM
Bowie
During his lengthy and storied career, David Bowie collaborated with many artists, including Arcade Fire on their 2013 album Reflektor. But not Coldplay.
Speaking with NME, Coldplay’s drummer Will Champion said vocalist Chris Martin wrote Bowie asking if he would contribute harmonies to a song they had written that seemed suited for his particular style.
Bowie’s response? “It’s not a very good song, is it?”
Champion took the rebuff in stride, saying about the late artist, “He was very discerning. He wouldn’t just put his name to anything. I’ll give him credit for that.”
_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......
LOL!
Low price on ITunes, their best seller, a Diamond certified album, it has Satisfaction, PIB, SFTD and Gimme Shelter, their most popular songs on the download era.
Thank You! That's the best article I've read about Bowie since his passing.
Yes, thank you. Very good article.
*Yes, was not expecting it/ poignant when 'Starman' came thru-saw it last weekend
“That was based on Elvis having heard Bowie’s Golden Years, and I thought ‘Oh my God, it’s a tragedy that he was never able to make that,” - Dwight Yoakham
Hmmmm...interesting. Not so sure about that one, but who knows.
Reagarding Golden Years, according to a local dj I heard the other day, it was indeed offered and presented to Elvis, but he turned it down.
Again, who knows...perhaps someone with more detailed info.
_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......
He looks positively Keithish in that pic (but for the hair).
----------------------------
"Music is the frozen tapioca in the ice chest of history."
"Shit!... No shit, awright!"
About the session : [bowiesongs.wordpress.com]
He does a really convincing Lou Reed (and also Iggy Pop)
My guess :
1 - Bruce Springsteeen
2 - Bob Dylan
3 - Tom Waits
4 - Lou Reed
5 - Anthony Newley
6 - Iggy Pop
7 - Neil Young
edit-
Mark Saunders remembers the Absolute Beginners sessions (including Dancing in the Street recording session)
Original post on Mark Saunders blog : [www.marksaunders.com.hostbaby.com]
RIP David Bowie. “Space Oddity” was the first Bowie song that I was aware of and it still blows me away. It was so very unique at the time and he continued on that path of uniqueness up to this day. So many brilliant songs: “Changes,” “Starman,” “TVC15,” “Fashion,” “Rebel Rebel,” “The Man Who Sold the World,” “Suffragette City,” “Modern Love”… the list is amazingly long.
I was lucky enough to work with Bowie in 1985 at Westside Studios in London. My bosses, Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley (Madness, Dexys Midnight Runners, Elvis Costello, Bush) were producing the soundtrack for the movie Absolute Beginners, for which Bowie was acting and writing songs (it was a better soundtrack than it was a movie!) and I was graduating from assistant engineer to engineer at that time.
The day Bowie was first due to show up at Westside, we were all a bit nervous — Bowie was the biggest star client for Clive and Alan at that point in time. We kept looking out the windows, waiting for a stretch limo to show up and an entire entourage to walk in, but then a black cab showed up and out popped the unaccompanied Bowie. He walked in, announced in what seemed a more cockney voice than I remembered, “Hi, I’m David Bowie,” and shook our hands. He seemed smaller than I imagined he would be in person. A bit later I noticed that the cockney had dissipated somewhat and he also seemed to have grown more upright and taller, too. I thought, “Wow, he really is a chameleon,” and wondered if the earlier exaggerated cockney was his way of reducing his superstar status temporarily to put people at ease on first meeting him.
When the band was recording the backing tracks, Bowie would sing a “rough” vocal along with them and every one could have been the master — he had an amazing voice. But with every song, when he came to sing the vocal for real, he would sing one line at a time, stop, listen to it and then do the next. He would often have a Walkman with him and check how he’d sung the line on his demo before continuing. I thought this was very odd considering what a great voice he had.
One day in June, we recorded “Absolute Beginners,” the title track of the soundtrack. It was an awesome session. The band was great — mostly musicians who’d been playing with Thomas Dolby, plus Steve Nieve (Elvis Costello’s brilliant keyboard player) — and the song was epic, perfect for a closing titles movie song. But in the mid afternoon a rumor circulated that Mick Jagger was coming to the studio — something to do with the upcoming Live Aid concert. We assumed that we’d record a message from Mick and Dave asking people to donate money, but a while later that afternoon a percussionist and two female backing singers showed up and said, “We are here for the Bowie/Jagger session,” at which point Clive, Alan and I looked at each other with “What the @#$%&!” looks on our faces. Bowie hadn’t mentioned a thing about this to the band or us.
Around 6 p.m., I think, David announced that we were to stop working on “Absolute Beginners” because at 7 p.m. Mick Jagger was coming to the studio and they were going to record the Martha and the Vandellas hit song “Dancing in the Street” for Live Aid — and they would only have three hours to finish it, because he and Jagger would be going straight off to shoot the video for the song, which would have to be finished before sunrise! No pressure! The band had equal measures of panic and excitement on their faces, as did, I’m sure, the rest of us, especially the studio maintenance guy, who quickly realized that this session would be the largest number of musicians and singers all performing at the same time in the studio’s history — and he realized we didn’t have enough microphone cables. He went off and spent the next hour furiously soldering extra microphone cables together. Bowie handed a cassette of the original version to the band and they took it into the live room, huddled round a boom box, and started figuring out their parts.
The recording of the movie soundtrack had been going on and off for weeks or months and up until this day no movie people except the director, Julien Temple, had ever bothered to show up at the recording sessions to check on how the music was coming along. But with the rumor that Jagger was coming in to the studio, movie people started showing up — like, movie producers with their kids! By the time Jagger walked in, there were around fifteen people — aside from Clive, Alan and me — in the studio control room. Jagger looked a bit shocked when he walked in and saw the crowd. I thought he might throw a fit and have everyone kicked out (as one might expect a big rock star to) but he was totally cool with it and just got on with the job at hand.
The band was still working on different sections of the song, so there was a lot of stopping and starting, and it was as if Mick was wired to the sound because he could be in the middle of a serious conversation and when the band started playing he’d immediately start dancing and when the band stopped, he would, too. Not a full-blown Mick Jagger-on-stage kinda dance, but an on-the-spot dance that would enable him to continue his serious conversation. I thought this was awesome — like, he’s the real deal; music is in his blood and he just can’t even help himself!
The drummer was the brilliant Neil Conti, and I remember him really helping keep the band focused and nailing the track. Everybody played together live, and in one booth, Bowie, Jagger and two backing singers sang along, too. They did two takes and the second one was deemed the master, but both were fabulous takes with great vocal performances. The vocals were re-sung afterwards purely because there was no separation between the vocal mics. In other words, David’s vocal could be heard on Mick’s mic and vice versa, which would have compromised the mixing process somewhat. Jagger did two vocal takes and we used all of one take except one word from the other. Clive Langer was the one who suggested that maybe the one word from the other take might be better — by this point he’d had a few glasses of wine to calm his nerves — and I remember Jagger looking a bit surprised because there wasn’t a lot in it between the two takes. Afterwards I caught Clive’s eye and he gave me “I can’t believe I just did that!” look.
I don’t know if he’s always like this in the studio, but Mick gave a performance on the mic like he was performing to a packed Madison Square Garden. Maybe it was because of the extra people in the control room, I don’t know, but for me, who was sitting at the mixing board directly in front of Jagger — which is only about ten feet away with just a big plate glass window between us — this was an incredible “can you @#$%& believe this” moment! This was one year and one day after I started working in a recording studio, for God’s sake!
Bowie did his trusty line-by-line technique, pretty much nailing each line with one take, and I was sweating at the controls because the three-hour deadline was approaching and some of the vocal lines were really close together. If I’d put the tape machine into record a hair too early, I could have erased part of Bowie’s previous line. Not something I wanted to do with David Bowie in front of me and Mick Jagger standing over my shoulder! It was a high-pressure three hours, but bloody fantastic. When “Dancing in the Street” was released, it was one of my first engineering credits on a record.
During the recording of the soundtrack, the film was simultaneously in production and a lot of the time, Bowie was acting on the film set from very early morning until the evening and then coming to the studio at night to record vocals. I was really impressed that someone of his level of fame would still put themselves through that pressure when they clearly would never need to. Bowie was always very respectful to the producers and me and very smart about getting what he wanted in terms of sound and performance from both the musicians and us. You never felt that he was using a big rock star “Hey, I’m David Bowie and I want it done my way” tactic; he always gently steered the direction to what he wanted whilst letting everyone have a say and try things their own way first. It seems pretty obvious that this is a better way to go to keep the creativity flowing, but I’ve worked with other big artists who definitely don’t get that point!
I was really impressed with the bass player Matthew Seligman’s performance when we were laying down the backing tracks for the song “Absolute Beginners.” It was inspired, brave and incredibly musical, and he played some lines that were more like lead guitar lines than regular bass lines. After everyone came in the control room to listen back to the overall take and it was given the thumbs-up as a keeper, Alan Winstanley said, “OK, let’s redo the bass, then.” This is quite common practice, especially back in the squeaky clean ‘80s when everything had to be really tight and precise — in the pop world, anyway. The bass and other instruments would be re-recorded to be “locked in” with the drum take, often to the detriment of the feel of the track, in my opinion.
Anyway, when Alan uttered those words there seemed to be audible gasps in the room from Clive Langer, the musicians, and probably me, and a deflated look on Matthew’s face — because I think we all knew the bass performance was really special. David calmly looked at Alan and said, “Sure, you can redo the bass, but whatever you do, please don’t lose Matthew’s first take.” The bass was never redone!
The impersonations on this YouTube posting were recorded at a later date, when Bowie came in to do the lead vocal. At the end of the session, he broke into the impersonations and I realized that these might get erased at some point, so I quickly put a cassette in and hit “record.” I wish we could hear the other side of the dialogue between Bowie and Clive and Alan, but unfortunately that wasn’t being recorded.
I’m shocked and very sad at the loss of Bowie — plus I’m amazed by the vast numbers of other people who have been so greatly affected. It’s heartwarming to see all the wonderfully positive stories of people’s experiences working with him, and I feel very lucky to be one of them. I spent all day after hearing of his death listening to Bowie and realized that a) because he was so out-there, original, pioneering and didn’t follow trends, a lot of his music doesn’t sound that dated and b) he managed, most of the time, to achieve the above without compromising on great songwriting. A lot of commercially successful artists/bands decide that they are going to put out a record that’s more “dark and edgy” — usually when they’ve made tons of money or get heavier into drugs (or both) — and the songwriting goes right out of the window.
Clearly, right to the end, on Blackstar, Bowie’s songwriting prowess is undeniable, and even more amazing to me, despite a failing body, his voice sounds superb.
I have hope however, that if anyone could ever make the ultimate comeback sometime in the future, that it be Bowie! In the meantime, I hope he’s working on new material with Mick Ronson, because, personally, I love that era of Bowie.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2016-01-22 03:34 by kowalski.
I heard it as written for Elvis too.
Talk about your favorite band.
For information about how to use this forum please check out forum help and policies.
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
Hairball
()
Date: January 20, 2016 03:48
David Bowie Refused to Collaborate with Coldplay
January 19, 2016 2:07 PM
Bowie
During his lengthy and storied career, David Bowie collaborated with many artists, including Arcade Fire on their 2013 album Reflektor. But not Coldplay.
Speaking with NME, Coldplay’s drummer Will Champion said vocalist Chris Martin wrote Bowie asking if he would contribute harmonies to a song they had written that seemed suited for his particular style.
Bowie’s response? “It’s not a very good song, is it?”
Champion took the rebuff in stride, saying about the late artist, “He was very discerning. He wouldn’t just put his name to anything. I’ll give him credit for that.”
_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
TornAndFried
()
Date: January 20, 2016 08:53
Article in Quartz about some of the musicians who collaborated with Bowie over the years including Mike Garson, Reeves Gabrels, Gerry Leonard and Earl Slick.
[qz.com]
[qz.com]
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
jlowe
()
Date: January 20, 2016 10:28
Home come Hot Rocks is still selling?
Re- release?
ABKCO promotion drive?
Re- release?
ABKCO promotion drive?
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
DandelionPowderman
()
Date: January 20, 2016 10:34
Quote
Hairball
David Bowie Refused to Collaborate with Coldplay
January 19, 2016 2:07 PM
Bowie
During his lengthy and storied career, David Bowie collaborated with many artists, including Arcade Fire on their 2013 album Reflektor. But not Coldplay.
Speaking with NME, Coldplay’s drummer Will Champion said vocalist Chris Martin wrote Bowie asking if he would contribute harmonies to a song they had written that seemed suited for his particular style.
Bowie’s response? “It’s not a very good song, is it?”
Champion took the rebuff in stride, saying about the late artist, “He was very discerning. He wouldn’t just put his name to anything. I’ll give him credit for that.”
LOL!
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
georgelicks
()
Date: January 20, 2016 11:22
Quote
jlowe
Home come Hot Rocks is still selling?
Re- release?
ABKCO promotion drive?
Low price on ITunes, their best seller, a Diamond certified album, it has Satisfaction, PIB, SFTD and Gimme Shelter, their most popular songs on the download era.
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
Wild Slivovitz
()
Date: January 20, 2016 11:51
Quote
TornAndFried
Article in Quartz about some of the musicians who collaborated with Bowie over the years including Mike Carson, Reeves Gabrels,Gerry Leonard and Earl Slick.
[qz.com]
Thank You! That's the best article I've read about Bowie since his passing.
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
crholmstrom
()
Date: January 20, 2016 12:57
Quote
Wild SlivovitzQuote
TornAndFried
Article in Quartz about some of the musicians who collaborated with Bowie over the years including Mike Carson, Reeves Gabrels,Gerry Leonard and Earl Slick.
[qz.com]
Thank You! That's the best article I've read about Bowie since his passing.
Yes, thank you. Very good article.
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
camper88
()
Date: January 20, 2016 14:57
Waiting for Bowie
An article on Medium about Bowie living in New York and his personal influence on a student. Very touching
An article on Medium about Bowie living in New York and his personal influence on a student. Very touching
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
Bellajane
()
Date: January 21, 2016 07:04
Hope this already hasn't been mentioned, but his song Starman is featured in the movie The Martian. It was a nice surprise to hear it. Good movie by the way!
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
TornAndFried
()
Date: January 21, 2016 09:16
Interesting interview with some of the jazz musicians who played on David Bowie's last album 'Blackstar.'
[observer.com]
[observer.com]
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
35love
()
Date: January 21, 2016 12:15
Quote
Bellajane
Hope this already hasn't been mentioned, but his song Starman is featured in the movie The Martian. It was a nice surprise to hear it. Good movie by the way!
*Yes, was not expecting it/ poignant when 'Starman' came thru-saw it last weekend
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
crholmstrom
()
Date: January 21, 2016 13:56
A little levity. From thedailymash.co.uk :
U2 FRONTMAN Bono has paid tribute to David Bowie by promising to stop singing.
The idea came to Bono after listening to the succession of increasingly brilliant albums Bowie made in the 1970s.
Bono said: “Bowie’s passing brought home what a leather-bound cockmonger I am. I am not cool or likeable and if you take away the stupid glasses I look like a postman.
“For me to carry on now would be an insult. Our plodding bilge is the absolute antithesis of everything Bowie stood for.
“I told the band they can either get a new frontman or just retire to their vast houses and do bad watercolour paintings of fruit, which is what I’m going to do.”
Bono has donated his leather trousers to charity, and now wears the River Island chinos that he has craved for years.
He said: “These chinos are so much more breathable, with plenty of give around the waistline. I feel like I’ve come home.
“Thank you David.”
Hahahaha. Dreaming is free...
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-01-21 13:58 by crholmstrom.
U2 FRONTMAN Bono has paid tribute to David Bowie by promising to stop singing.
The idea came to Bono after listening to the succession of increasingly brilliant albums Bowie made in the 1970s.
Bono said: “Bowie’s passing brought home what a leather-bound cockmonger I am. I am not cool or likeable and if you take away the stupid glasses I look like a postman.
“For me to carry on now would be an insult. Our plodding bilge is the absolute antithesis of everything Bowie stood for.
“I told the band they can either get a new frontman or just retire to their vast houses and do bad watercolour paintings of fruit, which is what I’m going to do.”
Bono has donated his leather trousers to charity, and now wears the River Island chinos that he has craved for years.
He said: “These chinos are so much more breathable, with plenty of give around the waistline. I feel like I’ve come home.
“Thank you David.”
Hahahaha. Dreaming is free...
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-01-21 13:58 by crholmstrom.
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
Deltics
()
Date: January 21, 2016 14:24
Elvis Presley asked David Bowie to be his producer, claims country star.
The Guardian
"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"
The Guardian
"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
mrfancyman
()
Date: January 21, 2016 14:30
Picture posted by Mick Jagger on Facebook, jan 13, 2016.
David reading to school children in Mustique.
David reading to school children in Mustique.
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
Hairball
()
Date: January 21, 2016 19:00
“That was based on Elvis having heard Bowie’s Golden Years, and I thought ‘Oh my God, it’s a tragedy that he was never able to make that,” - Dwight Yoakham
Hmmmm...interesting. Not so sure about that one, but who knows.
Reagarding Golden Years, according to a local dj I heard the other day, it was indeed offered and presented to Elvis, but he turned it down.
Again, who knows...perhaps someone with more detailed info.
_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
latebloomer
()
Date: January 21, 2016 19:40
The WaPo had an article a few days ago about the money making business that happens after an artist's death. It happened to Elvis, Marley, and Michael Jackson and it's already begun with Bowie. I kinda think he wouldn't be too upset about it, after all he even created his own bonds.
The death of an artist sets off a wave of moneymaking opportunities
There is no better time to be an artist than when you’ve just died. Showbiz sages have watched it happen again and again: As soon death silences a popular entertainer, and suddenly all the work he has created becomes all the work he will ever create, his popularity and financial worth soar. Last week, it happened for David Bowie. The album he released two days before he died became his first to top the Billboard charts. Tickets to the musical he co-wrote, which opened in New York last month to middling reviews, sold on StubHub for $1,900. His videos broke a streaming record on Vevo, and SiriusXM radio brought back an entire channel devoted to his music.
While fans are wistfully humming “Space Oddity,” a cluster of his associates — heirs, estate planners, lawyers, managers and creative directors— will begin scrambling for ways to make this Bowie boom last long after the Twitter tributes disappear. Should there be a Bowie documentary? A coffee-table book? A“Ziggy Stardust” restaurant? A “Life on Mars” theme park?
And how can they be created tastefully, in a way that doesn’t exploit a beloved dead icon?
“Everyone I see trying to do this looks at an artist’s body of work like vultures over a dead animal, looking for pink flesh to pluck off and feed the machine,” said Jeff Jampol, whose company manages the legacies of Jim Morrison, the Ramones, Otis Redding and the Doors. “What we try to do is reanimate the body, lift it up, and revenue streams will come with it.”
He’s speaking figuratively, but that’s sometimes the problem: Without the artist there to govern the work, the decisions are left to heirs, who usually hire lawyers and creative managers to run the estate.
“Music is very subjective and creative. Business is business,” said Gary Gilbert, whose lawfirm manages the estates of Rick James and Miles Davis. “Marrying those two concepts is kind of weird sometimes.”
It’s not as simple as dividing up assets based on a will. Imagine if all the furniture your grandpa left behind is worth millions of dollars. And it could make many more millions for years to come, if it is shared and promoted in just the right way. Keeping an artist’s work alive takes more than hoping their music still gets played on the radio. The key seems to be giving fans experiences that connect them with not only the artist’s music, but also the artist’s persona.
The Elvis Presley estate has Graceland, the mansion in Memphis that was the singer’s former home. It opened as a museum five years after his death and today attracts more than 600,000 visitors each year.
Branded products are big moneymakers, too. Nearly 35 years after Bob Marley’s death, you can drink Marley Coffee or the relaxation tea “Marley’s Mellow Mood” while listening to “One Love” on your House of Marley headphones.
Then there’s the artist’s story, ripe for books and documentaries. In 2015, there was “Montage of Heck,” a second Kurt Cobain documentary; “Amy,” the Amy Winehouse documentary; “The Amazing Nina Simone”; and “Janis: Little Girl Blue,” about Janis Joplin.
The Joplin documentary, while capturing the highlights, is explicit about the scabs on her career. Jampol, who runs her estate, said they would never dare to gloss over her drug use.
“That’s the hardest conversation with the heirs or beneficiaries,” Jampol said. “Because you never know if what you think you’re protecting is the part that is the key, the secret ingredient.”
The worst you can do by an artist, experts say, is nothing. If Bowie’s music and image are not promoted, they will inevitably begin to fade. Whitney Houston, for example, was beloved and revered in life. But after her 2012 death, the remembrances that received the most publicity were a Lifetime movie denounced by her estate, and a memoir by her mother called “disrespectful” by her daughter, Bobbi Kristina. The conversation surrounding her name today is most often about the death of Bobbi Kristina and related family drama.
Compare that with the story of the ultimate artist turnaround: Michael Jackson. In the 2000s, his finances were known to be dismal, child molestation accusations exploded and he was most often seen on the cover of tabloids. Then he died, and suddenly the King of Pop reigned again. There was “This Is It,” the Michael Jackson movie; “Bad 25” the Michael Jackson documentary; “One,” the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas; and “Immortal,” the Vegas show’s 157-city world tour.
“He was essentially touring at two places at the same time, and he’s not even alive anymore,” said Zack O’Malley Greenburg, author of “Michael Jackson, Inc.” and senior editor at Forbes, which publishes an annual ranking of the worth of deceased celebrities.
MJ topped the list with $115 million earned last year, beating out Marley, Elvis, and “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz. That brought Jackson’s total postmortem earnings to more than $1 billion.
A key component to the Jackson estate’s success is the wealth of unreleased material he left behind. There are plans to release 10 new Michael Jackson CDs, each a chance to spark renewed interest.
Tupac Shakur’s estate has been similarly blessed, said attorney Dina LaPolt, who helped his mother, Afeni Shakur, manage the estate for 13 years. Each unreleased piece of art is instantly more valuable because the artist who made it is gone.
“Death will exaggerate the commercial value of your business more than winning five Grammys, 10 Oscars or 14 Golden Globes,” LaPolt said.
It’s unclear how much music Bowie left behind, considering he released an album just before he died. Producer Tony Visconti told Rolling Stone that Bowie did write and demo at least five songs that were meant to be released after his album.
Chances are, Bowie, who knew his cancer was terminal, made sure to get his “affairs in order,” as they say. He was known as a savvy and innovative businessman; in 1997, he sold the rights to his future earnings in “Bowie Bonds,” a risky but innovative move that made $55 million. Analysts have said that he played the Wall Street game just right, entering when the interest in unusual investments was peaking.
Good timing will be key if the Bowie estate wants to ride the interest in his music for as long as possible, said Joshua Rubenstein, national chairman of trusts and estates for the firm Katten Muchin Rosenman.
“Musical tastes change so quickly, you don’t want to wait too long until you’ve missed your opportunity,” Rubenstein said. “There are people like Elvis, who are unique, because the interest never dies. Whether Bowie is unique waits to be seen.”
John Branca, who co-runs the Michael Jackson estate, said there will inevitably be a “greatest hits” album of some kind. Beyond that, you can’t compare Bowie to other artists to find the answer.
“What you do for Jim Morrison is not the same as what you do for Michael Jackson. You have to stay true to the artist,” Branca said. “You have to sit down and study who he was. What would Bowie have done?”
For now, fans are keeping the Bowie boom going, with memorials taking place across the world. There’s Bowie street art, photography exhibits, film screenings and memorial concerts. A tribute concert at Carnegie Hall per-scheduled for March 31 was reconfigured as a memorial concert. After the concert promptly sold out, the organizers added a second show at Radio City Musical Hall on April 1. VIP tickets, which ranged from $325 to $3,000, sold out in one hour.
A message on Bowie’s Facebook page stated: “While the concerts and tributes planned for the coming weeks are all welcome, none are official memorials organized or endorsed by the family.”
The discussions on how to carry on his legacy will likely start soon, but Bowie ensured there was plenty of nearly new material for his fans to devour the moment they heard he was gone: his best-selling album yet and a musical, “Lazarus” — the name of the man in the Bible who died and, soon after, was raised back to life.
[www.washingtonpost.com]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-01-21 19:43 by latebloomer.
The death of an artist sets off a wave of moneymaking opportunities
There is no better time to be an artist than when you’ve just died. Showbiz sages have watched it happen again and again: As soon death silences a popular entertainer, and suddenly all the work he has created becomes all the work he will ever create, his popularity and financial worth soar. Last week, it happened for David Bowie. The album he released two days before he died became his first to top the Billboard charts. Tickets to the musical he co-wrote, which opened in New York last month to middling reviews, sold on StubHub for $1,900. His videos broke a streaming record on Vevo, and SiriusXM radio brought back an entire channel devoted to his music.
While fans are wistfully humming “Space Oddity,” a cluster of his associates — heirs, estate planners, lawyers, managers and creative directors— will begin scrambling for ways to make this Bowie boom last long after the Twitter tributes disappear. Should there be a Bowie documentary? A coffee-table book? A“Ziggy Stardust” restaurant? A “Life on Mars” theme park?
And how can they be created tastefully, in a way that doesn’t exploit a beloved dead icon?
“Everyone I see trying to do this looks at an artist’s body of work like vultures over a dead animal, looking for pink flesh to pluck off and feed the machine,” said Jeff Jampol, whose company manages the legacies of Jim Morrison, the Ramones, Otis Redding and the Doors. “What we try to do is reanimate the body, lift it up, and revenue streams will come with it.”
He’s speaking figuratively, but that’s sometimes the problem: Without the artist there to govern the work, the decisions are left to heirs, who usually hire lawyers and creative managers to run the estate.
“Music is very subjective and creative. Business is business,” said Gary Gilbert, whose lawfirm manages the estates of Rick James and Miles Davis. “Marrying those two concepts is kind of weird sometimes.”
It’s not as simple as dividing up assets based on a will. Imagine if all the furniture your grandpa left behind is worth millions of dollars. And it could make many more millions for years to come, if it is shared and promoted in just the right way. Keeping an artist’s work alive takes more than hoping their music still gets played on the radio. The key seems to be giving fans experiences that connect them with not only the artist’s music, but also the artist’s persona.
The Elvis Presley estate has Graceland, the mansion in Memphis that was the singer’s former home. It opened as a museum five years after his death and today attracts more than 600,000 visitors each year.
Branded products are big moneymakers, too. Nearly 35 years after Bob Marley’s death, you can drink Marley Coffee or the relaxation tea “Marley’s Mellow Mood” while listening to “One Love” on your House of Marley headphones.
Then there’s the artist’s story, ripe for books and documentaries. In 2015, there was “Montage of Heck,” a second Kurt Cobain documentary; “Amy,” the Amy Winehouse documentary; “The Amazing Nina Simone”; and “Janis: Little Girl Blue,” about Janis Joplin.
The Joplin documentary, while capturing the highlights, is explicit about the scabs on her career. Jampol, who runs her estate, said they would never dare to gloss over her drug use.
“That’s the hardest conversation with the heirs or beneficiaries,” Jampol said. “Because you never know if what you think you’re protecting is the part that is the key, the secret ingredient.”
The worst you can do by an artist, experts say, is nothing. If Bowie’s music and image are not promoted, they will inevitably begin to fade. Whitney Houston, for example, was beloved and revered in life. But after her 2012 death, the remembrances that received the most publicity were a Lifetime movie denounced by her estate, and a memoir by her mother called “disrespectful” by her daughter, Bobbi Kristina. The conversation surrounding her name today is most often about the death of Bobbi Kristina and related family drama.
Compare that with the story of the ultimate artist turnaround: Michael Jackson. In the 2000s, his finances were known to be dismal, child molestation accusations exploded and he was most often seen on the cover of tabloids. Then he died, and suddenly the King of Pop reigned again. There was “This Is It,” the Michael Jackson movie; “Bad 25” the Michael Jackson documentary; “One,” the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas; and “Immortal,” the Vegas show’s 157-city world tour.
“He was essentially touring at two places at the same time, and he’s not even alive anymore,” said Zack O’Malley Greenburg, author of “Michael Jackson, Inc.” and senior editor at Forbes, which publishes an annual ranking of the worth of deceased celebrities.
MJ topped the list with $115 million earned last year, beating out Marley, Elvis, and “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz. That brought Jackson’s total postmortem earnings to more than $1 billion.
A key component to the Jackson estate’s success is the wealth of unreleased material he left behind. There are plans to release 10 new Michael Jackson CDs, each a chance to spark renewed interest.
Tupac Shakur’s estate has been similarly blessed, said attorney Dina LaPolt, who helped his mother, Afeni Shakur, manage the estate for 13 years. Each unreleased piece of art is instantly more valuable because the artist who made it is gone.
“Death will exaggerate the commercial value of your business more than winning five Grammys, 10 Oscars or 14 Golden Globes,” LaPolt said.
It’s unclear how much music Bowie left behind, considering he released an album just before he died. Producer Tony Visconti told Rolling Stone that Bowie did write and demo at least five songs that were meant to be released after his album.
Chances are, Bowie, who knew his cancer was terminal, made sure to get his “affairs in order,” as they say. He was known as a savvy and innovative businessman; in 1997, he sold the rights to his future earnings in “Bowie Bonds,” a risky but innovative move that made $55 million. Analysts have said that he played the Wall Street game just right, entering when the interest in unusual investments was peaking.
Good timing will be key if the Bowie estate wants to ride the interest in his music for as long as possible, said Joshua Rubenstein, national chairman of trusts and estates for the firm Katten Muchin Rosenman.
“Musical tastes change so quickly, you don’t want to wait too long until you’ve missed your opportunity,” Rubenstein said. “There are people like Elvis, who are unique, because the interest never dies. Whether Bowie is unique waits to be seen.”
John Branca, who co-runs the Michael Jackson estate, said there will inevitably be a “greatest hits” album of some kind. Beyond that, you can’t compare Bowie to other artists to find the answer.
“What you do for Jim Morrison is not the same as what you do for Michael Jackson. You have to stay true to the artist,” Branca said. “You have to sit down and study who he was. What would Bowie have done?”
For now, fans are keeping the Bowie boom going, with memorials taking place across the world. There’s Bowie street art, photography exhibits, film screenings and memorial concerts. A tribute concert at Carnegie Hall per-scheduled for March 31 was reconfigured as a memorial concert. After the concert promptly sold out, the organizers added a second show at Radio City Musical Hall on April 1. VIP tickets, which ranged from $325 to $3,000, sold out in one hour.
A message on Bowie’s Facebook page stated: “While the concerts and tributes planned for the coming weeks are all welcome, none are official memorials organized or endorsed by the family.”
The discussions on how to carry on his legacy will likely start soon, but Bowie ensured there was plenty of nearly new material for his fans to devour the moment they heard he was gone: his best-selling album yet and a musical, “Lazarus” — the name of the man in the Bible who died and, soon after, was raised back to life.
[www.washingtonpost.com]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-01-21 19:43 by latebloomer.
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
Boognish
()
Date: January 21, 2016 20:35
"The death of an artist sets off a wave of moneymaking opportunities"
You can thank Col. Tom Parker for that.
You can thank Col. Tom Parker for that.
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
Greg
()
Date: January 21, 2016 21:13
Quote
mrfancyman
Picture posted by Mick Jagger on Facebook, jan 13, 2016.
David reading to school children in Mustique.
He looks positively Keithish in that pic (but for the hair).
----------------------------
"Music is the frozen tapioca in the ice chest of history."
"Shit!... No shit, awright!"
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
TornAndFried
()
Date: January 21, 2016 22:20
Article about a newly discovered recording of Bowie from 1985, imitating some of his favorite vocalists including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop.
[m.pitchfork.com]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-01-21 22:23 by TornAndFried.
[m.pitchfork.com]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-01-21 22:23 by TornAndFried.
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
jlowe
()
Date: January 22, 2016 01:22
If the March tribute concerts haven't been officially endorsed by the family, I doubt somehow that Mick or Macca will be peforming.
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
kowalski
()
Date: January 22, 2016 02:23
Quote
TornAndFried
Article about a newly discovered recording of Bowie from 1985, imitating some of his favorite vocalists including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop.
[m.pitchfork.com]
About the session : [bowiesongs.wordpress.com]
He does a really convincing Lou Reed (and also Iggy Pop)
My guess :
1 - Bruce Springsteeen
2 - Bob Dylan
3 - Tom Waits
4 - Lou Reed
5 - Anthony Newley
6 - Iggy Pop
7 - Neil Young
edit-
Mark Saunders remembers the Absolute Beginners sessions (including Dancing in the Street recording session)
Original post on Mark Saunders blog : [www.marksaunders.com.hostbaby.com]
RIP David Bowie. “Space Oddity” was the first Bowie song that I was aware of and it still blows me away. It was so very unique at the time and he continued on that path of uniqueness up to this day. So many brilliant songs: “Changes,” “Starman,” “TVC15,” “Fashion,” “Rebel Rebel,” “The Man Who Sold the World,” “Suffragette City,” “Modern Love”… the list is amazingly long.
I was lucky enough to work with Bowie in 1985 at Westside Studios in London. My bosses, Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley (Madness, Dexys Midnight Runners, Elvis Costello, Bush) were producing the soundtrack for the movie Absolute Beginners, for which Bowie was acting and writing songs (it was a better soundtrack than it was a movie!) and I was graduating from assistant engineer to engineer at that time.
The day Bowie was first due to show up at Westside, we were all a bit nervous — Bowie was the biggest star client for Clive and Alan at that point in time. We kept looking out the windows, waiting for a stretch limo to show up and an entire entourage to walk in, but then a black cab showed up and out popped the unaccompanied Bowie. He walked in, announced in what seemed a more cockney voice than I remembered, “Hi, I’m David Bowie,” and shook our hands. He seemed smaller than I imagined he would be in person. A bit later I noticed that the cockney had dissipated somewhat and he also seemed to have grown more upright and taller, too. I thought, “Wow, he really is a chameleon,” and wondered if the earlier exaggerated cockney was his way of reducing his superstar status temporarily to put people at ease on first meeting him.
When the band was recording the backing tracks, Bowie would sing a “rough” vocal along with them and every one could have been the master — he had an amazing voice. But with every song, when he came to sing the vocal for real, he would sing one line at a time, stop, listen to it and then do the next. He would often have a Walkman with him and check how he’d sung the line on his demo before continuing. I thought this was very odd considering what a great voice he had.
One day in June, we recorded “Absolute Beginners,” the title track of the soundtrack. It was an awesome session. The band was great — mostly musicians who’d been playing with Thomas Dolby, plus Steve Nieve (Elvis Costello’s brilliant keyboard player) — and the song was epic, perfect for a closing titles movie song. But in the mid afternoon a rumor circulated that Mick Jagger was coming to the studio — something to do with the upcoming Live Aid concert. We assumed that we’d record a message from Mick and Dave asking people to donate money, but a while later that afternoon a percussionist and two female backing singers showed up and said, “We are here for the Bowie/Jagger session,” at which point Clive, Alan and I looked at each other with “What the @#$%&!” looks on our faces. Bowie hadn’t mentioned a thing about this to the band or us.
Around 6 p.m., I think, David announced that we were to stop working on “Absolute Beginners” because at 7 p.m. Mick Jagger was coming to the studio and they were going to record the Martha and the Vandellas hit song “Dancing in the Street” for Live Aid — and they would only have three hours to finish it, because he and Jagger would be going straight off to shoot the video for the song, which would have to be finished before sunrise! No pressure! The band had equal measures of panic and excitement on their faces, as did, I’m sure, the rest of us, especially the studio maintenance guy, who quickly realized that this session would be the largest number of musicians and singers all performing at the same time in the studio’s history — and he realized we didn’t have enough microphone cables. He went off and spent the next hour furiously soldering extra microphone cables together. Bowie handed a cassette of the original version to the band and they took it into the live room, huddled round a boom box, and started figuring out their parts.
The recording of the movie soundtrack had been going on and off for weeks or months and up until this day no movie people except the director, Julien Temple, had ever bothered to show up at the recording sessions to check on how the music was coming along. But with the rumor that Jagger was coming in to the studio, movie people started showing up — like, movie producers with their kids! By the time Jagger walked in, there were around fifteen people — aside from Clive, Alan and me — in the studio control room. Jagger looked a bit shocked when he walked in and saw the crowd. I thought he might throw a fit and have everyone kicked out (as one might expect a big rock star to) but he was totally cool with it and just got on with the job at hand.
The band was still working on different sections of the song, so there was a lot of stopping and starting, and it was as if Mick was wired to the sound because he could be in the middle of a serious conversation and when the band started playing he’d immediately start dancing and when the band stopped, he would, too. Not a full-blown Mick Jagger-on-stage kinda dance, but an on-the-spot dance that would enable him to continue his serious conversation. I thought this was awesome — like, he’s the real deal; music is in his blood and he just can’t even help himself!
The drummer was the brilliant Neil Conti, and I remember him really helping keep the band focused and nailing the track. Everybody played together live, and in one booth, Bowie, Jagger and two backing singers sang along, too. They did two takes and the second one was deemed the master, but both were fabulous takes with great vocal performances. The vocals were re-sung afterwards purely because there was no separation between the vocal mics. In other words, David’s vocal could be heard on Mick’s mic and vice versa, which would have compromised the mixing process somewhat. Jagger did two vocal takes and we used all of one take except one word from the other. Clive Langer was the one who suggested that maybe the one word from the other take might be better — by this point he’d had a few glasses of wine to calm his nerves — and I remember Jagger looking a bit surprised because there wasn’t a lot in it between the two takes. Afterwards I caught Clive’s eye and he gave me “I can’t believe I just did that!” look.
I don’t know if he’s always like this in the studio, but Mick gave a performance on the mic like he was performing to a packed Madison Square Garden. Maybe it was because of the extra people in the control room, I don’t know, but for me, who was sitting at the mixing board directly in front of Jagger — which is only about ten feet away with just a big plate glass window between us — this was an incredible “can you @#$%& believe this” moment! This was one year and one day after I started working in a recording studio, for God’s sake!
Bowie did his trusty line-by-line technique, pretty much nailing each line with one take, and I was sweating at the controls because the three-hour deadline was approaching and some of the vocal lines were really close together. If I’d put the tape machine into record a hair too early, I could have erased part of Bowie’s previous line. Not something I wanted to do with David Bowie in front of me and Mick Jagger standing over my shoulder! It was a high-pressure three hours, but bloody fantastic. When “Dancing in the Street” was released, it was one of my first engineering credits on a record.
During the recording of the soundtrack, the film was simultaneously in production and a lot of the time, Bowie was acting on the film set from very early morning until the evening and then coming to the studio at night to record vocals. I was really impressed that someone of his level of fame would still put themselves through that pressure when they clearly would never need to. Bowie was always very respectful to the producers and me and very smart about getting what he wanted in terms of sound and performance from both the musicians and us. You never felt that he was using a big rock star “Hey, I’m David Bowie and I want it done my way” tactic; he always gently steered the direction to what he wanted whilst letting everyone have a say and try things their own way first. It seems pretty obvious that this is a better way to go to keep the creativity flowing, but I’ve worked with other big artists who definitely don’t get that point!
I was really impressed with the bass player Matthew Seligman’s performance when we were laying down the backing tracks for the song “Absolute Beginners.” It was inspired, brave and incredibly musical, and he played some lines that were more like lead guitar lines than regular bass lines. After everyone came in the control room to listen back to the overall take and it was given the thumbs-up as a keeper, Alan Winstanley said, “OK, let’s redo the bass, then.” This is quite common practice, especially back in the squeaky clean ‘80s when everything had to be really tight and precise — in the pop world, anyway. The bass and other instruments would be re-recorded to be “locked in” with the drum take, often to the detriment of the feel of the track, in my opinion.
Anyway, when Alan uttered those words there seemed to be audible gasps in the room from Clive Langer, the musicians, and probably me, and a deflated look on Matthew’s face — because I think we all knew the bass performance was really special. David calmly looked at Alan and said, “Sure, you can redo the bass, but whatever you do, please don’t lose Matthew’s first take.” The bass was never redone!
The impersonations on this YouTube posting were recorded at a later date, when Bowie came in to do the lead vocal. At the end of the session, he broke into the impersonations and I realized that these might get erased at some point, so I quickly put a cassette in and hit “record.” I wish we could hear the other side of the dialogue between Bowie and Clive and Alan, but unfortunately that wasn’t being recorded.
I’m shocked and very sad at the loss of Bowie — plus I’m amazed by the vast numbers of other people who have been so greatly affected. It’s heartwarming to see all the wonderfully positive stories of people’s experiences working with him, and I feel very lucky to be one of them. I spent all day after hearing of his death listening to Bowie and realized that a) because he was so out-there, original, pioneering and didn’t follow trends, a lot of his music doesn’t sound that dated and b) he managed, most of the time, to achieve the above without compromising on great songwriting. A lot of commercially successful artists/bands decide that they are going to put out a record that’s more “dark and edgy” — usually when they’ve made tons of money or get heavier into drugs (or both) — and the songwriting goes right out of the window.
Clearly, right to the end, on Blackstar, Bowie’s songwriting prowess is undeniable, and even more amazing to me, despite a failing body, his voice sounds superb.
I have hope however, that if anyone could ever make the ultimate comeback sometime in the future, that it be Bowie! In the meantime, I hope he’s working on new material with Mick Ronson, because, personally, I love that era of Bowie.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2016-01-22 03:34 by kowalski.
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
TornAndFried
()
Date: January 22, 2016 05:10
Here's the recording of the vocal impersonations that are mentioned in the article above. Bowie does this song in the style of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Anthony Newley.
[m.pitchfork.com]
[m.pitchfork.com]
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
with sssoul
()
Date: January 22, 2016 10:04
Amusing! Neil Young and Tom Waits are in there to, no?
Love and light to him, and thanks and praises
Love and light to him, and thanks and praises
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
Olly
()
Date: January 22, 2016 14:43
Were those who had heard 'Blackstar' before Bowie's death at all surprised by the news of his demise?
Perhaps I am underestimating hindsight.
.....
Olly.
Perhaps I am underestimating hindsight.
.....
Olly.
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
Maindefender
()
Date: January 22, 2016 15:12
Yes I was surprised and I bought the album on the 8th.
I was thinking of starting a new thread but it's probably too late. I saw him in Boston '78 on his Stage tour. But if you had a tour you could go back in time and see which one would it be?? For me it would have to be the Diamond Dogs/Philly soul tour of '74. An incredible upheaval period of transition and decadence!!
I was thinking of starting a new thread but it's probably too late. I saw him in Boston '78 on his Stage tour. But if you had a tour you could go back in time and see which one would it be?? For me it would have to be the Diamond Dogs/Philly soul tour of '74. An incredible upheaval period of transition and decadence!!
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
DEmerson
()
Date: January 22, 2016 17:00
That's a great article.
I saw the last show in Boston last night of the 'Holy Holy' tour- Bowie producer/bassist, Tony Visconti, along with original Spiders drummer Woody Woodmansy, qnd a superb backing band doing all of The Man Who Sold the World. The band really did justice to the music - they sounded great! A bunch of other Bowie songs ended the evening, bringing the Wilbur Theater to its feet - joy, tears...the works. Tony, Woody and singer Greg Gregory making several comments during the clearly emotional evening about David and the events of the past 12 days or so - and you can tell the respect, and love they all have for Bowie.
A cathartic, and ultimately rockin' night.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-01-22 17:01 by DEmerson.
I saw the last show in Boston last night of the 'Holy Holy' tour- Bowie producer/bassist, Tony Visconti, along with original Spiders drummer Woody Woodmansy, qnd a superb backing band doing all of The Man Who Sold the World. The band really did justice to the music - they sounded great! A bunch of other Bowie songs ended the evening, bringing the Wilbur Theater to its feet - joy, tears...the works. Tony, Woody and singer Greg Gregory making several comments during the clearly emotional evening about David and the events of the past 12 days or so - and you can tell the respect, and love they all have for Bowie.
A cathartic, and ultimately rockin' night.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-01-22 17:01 by DEmerson.
Re: R.I.P David Bowie
Posted by:
BeforeTheyMakeMeRun
()
Date: January 22, 2016 17:27
Quote
Hairball
“That was based on Elvis having heard Bowie’s Golden Years, and I thought ‘Oh my God, it’s a tragedy that he was never able to make that,” - Dwight Yoakham
Hmmmm...interesting. Not so sure about that one, but who knows.
Reagarding Golden Years, according to a local dj I heard the other day, it was indeed offered and presented to Elvis, but he turned it down.
Again, who knows...perhaps someone with more detailed info.
I heard it as written for Elvis too.
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
Online Users
Guests:
1634
Record Number of Users:
206
on June 1, 2022 23:50
Record Number of Guests:
9627
on January 2, 2024 23:10