Flaming Lips Bowie Tribute

As promised, here is the tribute min-concert by the Flaming Lips, performed after Bowie’s death. There are seven covers here, all performed in the style of Bowie. Actually, I think the casual listener would be forgiven for thinking it was Bowie performing these songs. The sound quality is good but not great, so that adds to the ambiguity — I don’t think these guys are trying to imitate Bowie. Maybe the one song they take some liberties with is “The Man Who Sold the World.” In any case, this is really good. It’s worth hearing.

I found a New York Times interview with lead singer Wayne Coyne, in which he discussed Bowie: “The David Bowie [Death] probably affected us more than any of the others. For the last five years or so, any time we played near New York City, we’d put out an invite to him. And we would always get little notes back: He isn’t feeling well. He isn’t doing well. It stuck with us. And we even did a song [with Neon Indian, in 2011]; the title is “Is David Bowie Dying?” It’s a strange song about how your body simply decays, and there’s nothing mystical or magical about it. Bowie was already in a realm of the mythical character, like Jesus and Santa Claus — it’s hard to say if they were ever humans or not. But I always felt that did him a disservice. It’s so much cooler that he’s an actual man, and not a super being from outer space.”

So clearly, the song I posted yesterday and this tribute today were made out of love and admiration.