I was embarrassed to admit that I didn’t recognize the name of Ryuichi Sakamoto when I began to see stories about his recent death, all the more so because most of those stories connected him to David Bowie. A pioneer in electronic music, I take it from what I have read in the past few days that Sakamoto’s innovative music…

I came across this video of Beck transforming “Sound and Vision” into…something bigger. There are endless videos of people covering Bowie songs. Most of the selections I make for the “cover of the week” come from lesser known performers and I always select those from among recently posted videos. The point in part is to both show how Bowie’s music…

I listen to several Bowie covers this week. I chose this one as the cover of the week because the band adds something new to the song, which is a fairly obscure song from one of my favorite albums, 1. Outside. ReleveleR is a real band with several albums, and this track is off the album, Silhouettes 3, which was…

This is another example of a work of art in which “David Bowie” is meant not to refer to the actual person. The song is not like a Bowie song. It isn’t about Bowie and other than his name, doesn’t contain references to anything really related to Bowie. “David Bowie” means success. The song is about someone whose partner has…

A strong contender for the worst song Bowie ever wrote, let alone performed, “Over the Wall We Go” is better known as a version performed by Oscar, whose real name was Paul Nicholas. It’s a supposedly comedic song about a prison break. I’m posting Bowie’s demo version for… April Fool’s Day, because it is a foolish song. (Also, I understand…

Far Out, the online magazine that frequently publishes articles about Bowie, recently posted a story about this Ziggy demo. Bowie sings the demo accompanied only by his own acoustic guitar. It’s a slower version that the article compares to some of his earlier folk-style music (it’s much better than any of that). There’s nothing shocking or especially revelatory here, and…

YouTube keeps sending me these recordings of complete concerts, and as I listen to them, I’ll post them! That said, you will notice that there is no video link. For some reason, YouTube won’t let me link to it. Before reading any further, try this link. I hope you are able to find this video. In a way, something like…

This is the other song Bowie did with Queen. Close readers of this blog will recall I’ve posted a version much earlier— I went back and checked, and Bowie is barely discernible on the version I posted back then. Not so with the version I’m posting today. Bowie’s voice is unmistakable on this version, which purports to be a demo.…

Yesterday I posted my selection for “Cover of the Week,” but it was a tough choice this week. I really like this cover of, yes, “Heroes,” the song that most frequently comes up, week after week when I’m looking for new Bowie covers. Well, it’s a great song and I liked this performance so much I decided to post a…

I had more than one good options to choose from for the “cover of the week,” so I’m taking advantage of this being my blog, which probably nobody reads or looks to for rules or regularity and will post the other one I really liked tomorrow. But I’m selecting this for “cover of the week” in part because it is…

I came across this article and accompanying video about an art instillation in New York City by “underground” artist Jennifer Elster. I included a link to the article about the exhibit, so I won’t repeat it, but it features artifacts of and work inspired by Bowie’s album art for the 1995 album, 1. Outside. The centerpiece is a painting (?)…

A few days ago I posted a recording from a CD that I had previously never heard of called, By Popular Demand. That’s a live album from Bowie’s 1990 Sound and Vision tour, which was conceived of as his last greatest hits tour. Back then, I saw the concert in Hartford. The idea was that Bowie was going to perform…

The Guardian recently ran a spread of photos by Geoff MacCormack, who, according to the publication “spent years with Bowie on the road.” MacCormack’s photographic memoir “reveals untold stories and nearly 150 candid photos.” These are some of those photos.

2023 is the 50th anniversary of Pin Ups, and nostalgia about Bowie’s glam-era cover album is popping up. I’ve been posting Midnight Special videos largely featuring Bowie promoting songs from the album, and this month’s issue of Mojo is the second recent magazine to feature an altered version of the album’s cover art on its own cover (you may recall,…

This is the latest Midnight Special adaptation of one of Bowie’s performances from The 1980 Floor Show. Broken up into pieces, I’m reminded that The 1980 Floor Show came out during the short window that Bowie was promoting the album, Pin Ups. Pin Ups is a 100% cover album and kind of a filler project, but its a good album.…

It’s hard for me to say “Memory of a Free Festival” is an underrated Bowie song, because, what exactly does that mean? Its the final song on a well-known album (Space Oddity) and will come up again when I write a forthcoming blog entry about how Bowie tended to close out his albums. It’s not exactly unknown, but at the…

One of the great things about YouTube is that it has an idea of what I like and, from time to time, gives me something that I have never heard before. This is an entire concert of Bowie performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2002, while he was promoting Heathen. Wow. This is an excellent concert. The sound quality…

The above video purports to be “unseen” footage of Bowie performing, “The Jean Genie” as part of the 1980 Floor Show. So, first of all, I’m not sure that the footage is not actually synced to an unrelated performance. Maybe not. Anyway, the footage is “unseen” probably because it just stops about a third of the way through the song.…

I’m posting this one for St. Patrick’s Day on the thin connection that “Gloria” was written and originally performed by Van Morrison, who is Irish. Actually, the connection is slightly less thin— a recording of the song appears earlier on the blog during which Bowie says that it was written by a great Irishman, and to help him sing it,…

Nope, I never heard of Mother Denim before I read that the brand launched a high-end line of Bowie-inspired clothing. Attached are some pictures and if you want to read more, here’s a Link to the company’s web site. On its face, I think these pieces are pretty cool, but not terribly different than the more run-of-the-mill swag you can…

“I Can’t Explain” has popped up in this blog a few times recently, including its inclusion on a “worst of” list (I disagreed with that). This is another in the new YouTube series of performances originally aired on the show, The Midnight Special. As with the last one I posted, it appears to be a modified version of Bowie’s performance…

I came across this video discussing Bowie’s literary influences. I think it’s well done and a good summary of what for the most part is pretty well known among fans. In some cases, such as the influence of Orwell’s 1984 on Diamond Dogs, the influence is pretty obvious, and in others, such as the influence of A Clockwork Orange on…

This is the latest commentary by Leah Kardos based on her book, Blackstar Theory. She’s covered much of what’s in the book, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the last of the series. As usual, her level of analysis is far beyond anything I am capable of doing myself and I don’t have a whole lot to add……

The old music show, Midnight Special, has turned into a YouTube channel and is posting appearances from various artists including Bowie. This is the second such posting. Alas, this is a modified clip from the 1980 Floor Show, footage from which I’ve posted before. I’m guessing that The Midnight Special adapted the original show, maybe for an American audience. That…

I recently reads that there’s an effort afoot to launch virtual Bowie concerts, featuring holographic avatars, similar to the successful Voyage concerts featuring the band ABBA, as its members appeared in the 70s. Here’s how an Esquire article described the ABBA event: “Instead of flesh and blood ABBA, the show is performed by life-sized, animated CGI avatars of the four…

The Midnight Special was, as the name implies, a late-night music show featuring stars from the 70s through early 80s. I think— I think— I remember Wolfman Jack hosting the show (maybe it ran in syndication at an earlier point in the day?). Anyway, old performances are going to be used on a new YouTube channel and Bowie is one…

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…

Having recently posted the Phish song, “David Bowie,” which, despite the words, “David Bowie” comprising two-thirds of the lyrics of the song, appears to have no other connection to Bowie, I now present, “Is David Bowie Dying?” The Flaming Lips is a band I’ve heard of but don’t remember ever actually hearing. Lead singer Wayne Coyne has acknowledged Bowie’s influence…

Dennis Graumann is another professional musician, with a following and a substantial body of work … who I never heard of before finding this new video of him covering “I’m Afraid of Americans.” Graumann has his own extensive website, which you can get to from this link. According to that website, this is his 100th YouTube video. I also looked…

It was inevitable that I post this song at some point. Years ago a friend of mine who was a big Phish fan told me about, “David Bowie,” which I listened to at the time, liked it well enough but concluded that it has little to do with David Bowie. “David Bowie” and “UB40” are the only lyrics to what…

I do these updates when the video link I originally used for earlier posts break down. I think I originally linked to a live version of Tin Machine performing this John Lennon cover. I didn’t write much about what I thought about the song in my original post— I mostly don’t like it, and worse, see it as a missed…