I heard the news today…* Previously unheard Bowie song released; Bowie on Australian Guitar cover; Sophia Anne Caruso to star in new play; Bowie movies streaming; Bowie and Existentialism interview and MUCH MORE!
Welcome to my weekly roundup of Bowie news! Read on for summaries of Bowie-related stories that posted this past week, and click on the bolded story names to link to the original articles…
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NEWS
Bowie’s previously unheard ‘Today’ demo from 1965 Shel Talmy Recordings. The previously unheard 1965 demo “Today,” a melancholic stripped-back ballad anticipating elements of Bowie’s later musical style, has been released ahead of the September 18 release of 1965 Shel Talmy Recordings, which collects early recordings made before David Jones adopted the Bowie name and includes contributions from Jimmy Page, The Yardbirds and Nicky Hopkins.
Australian Guitar Magazine Features Bowie. Australian Guitar #169 commemorates ten years since Bowie’s death with reflections from collaborators including Adrian Belew, Peter Frampton and Carlos Alomar on playing with Bowie, his approach to guitar and his personality.
Sophia Anne Caruso to Star in Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen. Sophia Anne Caruso, who originated the role of Girl in Bowie’s Lazarus, will lead the world premiere of Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen, a new stage musical with music and lyrics by two-time Tony Award winner Duncan Sheik and direction and choreography by Rob Ashford. Caruso says she has been developing the project for years and will star in the production this fall, though the location and specific dates have not yet been announced. Note: this is an original story based on social media posts and does not link to another article.
Labyrinth now on Hulu. The now-40-year-old movie recently left Netflix but is apparently now available on Hulu.
The Prestige On Netflix. As director Christopher Nolan gets more and more attention with every movie, like this year’s hit, The Odyssey, his intersection with Bowie, who acts in The Prestige, gets a new round of attention. Now you can see the movie on Netflix.
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars – 4K Restoration. A 4K restoration of D.A. Pennebaker’s film of Bowie’s July 3, 1973 final performance as Ziggy Stardust at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, featuring a remastered soundtrack and restoration overseen by Frazer Pennebaker, will screen at Toronto’s Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema on September 4.
Whitney Houston honoured with new Barbie doll. Bowie is among the stars previously honored with a Barbie Signature Series doll, a group now joined by Whitney Houston.
Rebel Rebel cabaret review: A fun night out. A David Bowie-themed cabaret hosted by Dusty Limits runs at The Voodoo Rooms during the Edinburgh Fringe through August 16, featuring a rotating cast of performers, including Aidan Sadler, while raising money for Cabaret vs Cancer.
Budapest Classic Film Marathon to Screen The Hunger. The Budapest Classic Film Marathon, running September 15-20, will screen 100 restored films including Tony Scott’s 1983 vampire film The Hunger, starring Bowie, Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon.
Cherry Red Collects The Riot Squad, Including David Bowie Recordings. The Riot Squad’s 83-track anthology I Take It That We’re Through: Anthology 1965-1967, due August 21, includes the four songs recorded during Bowie’s brief March-May 1967 tenure with the band, when he introduced greater theatricality to its performances and recorded three originals and a cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Waiting for the Man.”
Hollywood Vampires Tribute Bowie At Montreux Jazz Festival. Hollywood Vampires, featuring Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry and Tommy Henriksen, have released their 2018 Montreux Jazz Festival performance of Bowie’s “Heroes,” with Depp on lead vocals, as a track from their live album Hollywood Vampires At Montreux Jazz Festival.
The Molotovs kick off King’s Cross Summer Sounds festival. The fast-rising neo-punk trio The Molotovs opened the King’s Cross Summer Sounds festival at Coal Drops Yard with songs from their debut album Wasted on Youth and a cover of Bowie’s “Suffragette City,” fittingly performed near the David Bowie: You’re Not Alone immersive experience.
Carl Hester’s wild Bowie finale in Aachen. Carl Hester and Fame scored 82.3% to finish seventh in the World Dressage Championships freestyle with a new Bowie-themed routine, despite Fame (the horse he was riding) becoming unusually hot and spooky in Aachen’s main arena.
Alex Sharpe Explores Bowie and Christian Existentialism at Manchester Cathedral. Professor Alex Sharpe of the University of Warwick delivered a free public lecture on David Bowie and Christian existentialism at Manchester Cathedral on Thursday, examining Bowie’s life and music through the ideas of Søren Kierkegaard and Simone Weil. Sharpe described the evening as featuring a curious and engaged audience, while the cathedral called it a fascinating discussion. See below for my interview with Professor Sharpe. This is an original story and does not link to a separate article.
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FEATURES AND REFLECTIONS
John Cameron Mitchell Isn’t Interested In Anything Without Hope. John Cameron Mitchell’s I’m Afraid of Americans – A Bowie Song Cycle uses Bowie’s apocalyptic and fascism-facing songs alongside more hopeful material to explore contemporary politics and Bowie’s profound influence on Mitchell and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
How Radio Luxembourg helped launch David Bowie’s career. Bowie credited Radio Luxembourg’s London studios with giving him his first experience of recording music and later returned there to record the original version of “Moonage Daydream” in 1971.
Quote Of The Day By David Bowie. Bowie’s featured 1997 advice to venture beyond one’s comfort zone and go “a little out of your depth” reflected a creative philosophy of constant experimentation and resistance to expectations that defined his career through Blackstar.
Quote of the Day by David Bowie, pt. 2. Bowie believed that retaining a sense of wonder about being alive sustains curiosity, imagination, openness to change and continued personal growth.
New Book Reconsiders Bowie And Prince. Blackstar Rising and the Purple Reign, edited by Daphne A. Brooks, brings together essays, interviews and criticism examining how Bowie and Prince challenged boundaries of race, gender, sexuality, sound and performance and how their cultural legacies continue to generate new meanings.
Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey recall their days with David Bowie. Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey are bringing Holy Holy’s farewell tour to Ireland, performing Bowie’s music as musicians who helped create it while reflecting on their decades with Bowie, the social context of songs such as “Star,” and their own history together.
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PROFILES
John Cameron Mitchell. John Cameron Mitchell said Bowie considered adapting Ziggy Stardust for the stage, a career opportunity he regrets declining, while also describing “Heroes” as Bowie’s favorite song because of its emotional complexity and dark inspiration.
Tony Visconti. Tony Visconti argues that AI-generated music should make way for human artists, while Bowie anticipated as early as 1999 that the internet would radically blur traditional distinctions between art, media, creators and audiences.
Eric Barrett. Veteran roadie and tour manager Eric Barrett, best known for his three years working with Jimi Hendrix, recounts a nearly five-decade career that later included touring with Bowie, the Beatles, Madonna and numerous other major artists in his memoir Experienced: On The Road With Jimi Hendrix and Beyond.
Tim Pope. Music video director Tim Pope recalls calling Bowie “a proper cunt” at their first meeting in the 1980s and later witnessing Bowie reunite with Lou Reed after years of estrangement while preparing to film Bowie’s 50th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden in 1997.
Luther Vandross. After years as an often-uncredited background vocalist and studio musician whose work included singing on Bowie’s Young Americans, Luther Vandross finally emerged as a successful solo artist at age 30 with the 1981 release of Never Too Much.
Roger Taylor. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” transformed the band’s career, while Roger Taylor especially enjoyed making “Under Pressure” with the fascinating Bowie, including finishing the track together at New York’s Power Station and recording Cream songs for fun.
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THIS WEEK IN THIS BLOG
August 9: Last week’s news
August 10: David Bowie Covers of the Week: Three Former Guests Cover Bowie!
August 11: Meta’s Apocalyptic Misuse of Bowie
August 12: The End of the World as He Knew It — Bowie’s Top 10 Songs About the Apocalypse
August 13: Who was Bessie Love and what is the Bowie connection?
August 14: Prof. Alex Sharpe, Bowie and Existentialism Preview
August 15: Prof. Alex Sharp on Bowie and Existentialism
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LISTS
15 Kate Bush facts. Kate Bush attended Bowie’s final Ziggy Stardust concert on July 3, 1973, shortly before turning 15, and later praised the extraordinary quality, volume and lasting cultural impact of his work.
The 5 Best Rock Albums Of 1971. The greatest rock albums of 1971 combined enduring musical quality with lasting influence and innovation, exemplified by artists such as Black Sabbath and Bowie.
These 11 songs actually make the end of the world sound like a good time. “Five Years,” the opening track of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, depicts the chaos and despair following news that Earth will end in five years, with Woody Woodmansey’s deliberately apathetic drumbeat establishing the apocalyptic mood and Bowie delivering an intensely emotional one-take vocal.
65 BEST ALBUM COVERS OF ALL TIME. Bowie refined his Ziggy Stardust image for the 1973 cover of Aladdin Sane with the red-and-blue lightning bolt across his face, creating what became his defining visual look.
Orchestral Albums Every Classic Rock Fan Should Own. Bowie’s 1969 self-titled album, commonly known as Space Oddity, was an early example of groundbreaking orchestral rock, with Tony Visconti using Bowie’s 12-string acoustic guitar to anchor elaborate arrangements that transformed his psychedelic acoustic songs into a more ambitious and innovative record.
13 Famous Models Who Married Musicians. Iman and Bowie became an iconic fashion-and-music couple, marrying in a civil ceremony in Switzerland in April 1992 before holding a larger wedding celebration in Florence several weeks later.
3 of the Best First No. 1 Hits of 70s Glam Rock. This includes “Space Oddity,” which is not from the 70s and not really glam rock.
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CHURNALISM
This section separates genuine Bowie news and original writing from recycled “churnalism” stories that offer little original reporting and often use vague click-bait headlines to repackage familiar information, but may still be of interest if readers have not seen it before.
1972 Glam Rock Song, Written By David Bowie, Became a Legendary Band’s Career-Saving Hit. Bowie’s “All the Young Dudes” became a career-defining 1972 hit for Mott the Hoople, rescuing the band from the brink of breaking up and launching a new chapter in its career.
1972 Signature Hit Was the Final Song Performed Before David Bowie’s Death. Bowie wrote “Changes” in 1971 amid a prolific period that produced more than three dozen songs for Hunky Dory and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, with the song becoming one of his signature works and an influential rock classic.
The “most drug-oriented” album David Bowie ever made. Bowie later described The Man Who Sold the World as the most drug-oriented album he made, attributing its creation to his heavy use of cannabis and amphetamines while producer Tony Visconti recalled that Bowie was frequently absent during the recording sessions.
Ten Years Ago, David Bowie Released His Most Radical Album . Ten years after its release, Blackstar is remembered as Bowie’s daring final album, using mortality-themed songs such as “Blackstar” and “Lazarus” to confront his impending death while affirming his enduring artistic legacy.
The 1977 album Brian Eno never gets tired of. Bowie’s 1977 album Low emerged from his retreat to Europe and fascination with German electronic music, with Brian Eno helping him realize a new hybrid of American urban music and European electronic textures partly inspired by Eno’s Discreet Music.
1973 Hit Song, Written by 25-Year-Old Iggy Pop, Ranked Among ‘Best Rock Songs’ of All Time. With Bowie’s support in securing a record deal and producing “Search and Destroy,” Iggy and the Stooges reunited and created a song inspired by the Vietnam War that became a rock classic despite never charting.
Pioneer Rock Hit, Loved by David Bowie, Was Written in a Greyhound Bus Kitchen. Little Richard’s 1955 breakthrough “Tutti Frutti,” born from his frustration while working as a dishwasher, helped define rock and roll and profoundly influenced Bowie, who recalled hearing the song as an overwhelming experience of “energy and color and outrageous defiance” that he likened to hearing God.
1975 Rock Song, Written With John Lennon, Became an Accidental No. 1 Hit. Nearly five years after The Beatles broke up, John Lennon collaborated with Bowie on “Fame,” which appeared on Young Americans in 1975 and became Bowie’s first U.S. No. 1 single while also topping the Canadian singles chart.
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And with that, “we’ve finished our news…”**
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*“I’ve heard the news today” is Bowie’s adaptation of the Beatles lyric, which is heard in “Young Americans.”
** “We’ve finished our news” is a line from, “Oh You Pretty Things”