I have been hearing about Republicans in state legislatures across the country trying to ban drag shows (Tennessee just succeeded). This is apparently a resonant issue with people who are very different than myself. The first question that occurs to me, of course, is why? Why would this be a good thing to do even if it wasn’t a waste…

OK, this song is starting to grow on me. It’s still pretty bad, but at least it doesn’t sound worse upon repeated listening. This is Bowie’s demo version from 1967. The sound quality is awful, but the singer is very recognizably Bowie, and because of that this sounds much more like a Bowie song (if that makes any kind of…

Here’s the exceptionally obscure version of “Silver Treetop” by the equally obscure band, “The Slender Plenty,” which I mentioned yesterday. The song still stinks, but I actually think this is the best version I’ve heard thus far, maybe because the lyrics are a little easier to make out.

I mentioned a few days ago that I was listening to an oddball compilation album of Bowie covers called, Oh! You Pretty Things: The Songs of David Bowie. Unlike most cover albums, this one mostly doesn’t feature Bowie’s greatest hits performed by other artists, but rather— and it took me a while to figure this out— mostly songs Bowie was…

I was hesitant to select this one as cover of the week because there are already so many covers of “Heroes,” even just on this blog. But most of the performances posted this week are of oft-covered songs (“The Man Who Sold the World,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “Rebel Rebel,”) and, more importantly, I thought the quality of this performance was best.…

I continue to think of Kardos as the most brilliant of Bowie analysts. I have nothing to add to what she says here other than that her level of thinking puts me to shame. In the lecture, she says that it will be the last promotional talk she will give in support of her book, Blackstar Theory, which I read.…

The British Victoria and Albert Museum acquired 80,000 items that it’s collectively calling the David Bowie archives, which the museum will make public. Most of what there is to say can be found in the press release, a link to which is here. I was wondering whether this will essentially turn into a permanent home for the David Bowie Is…

Since I brought a CD player to my office, I’ve been cycling through my extensive collection of Bowie CDs. The exercise takes me away from what I’m otherwise normally drawn to, only to be reminded that even lesser Bowie or Bowie related albums tend to be pretty good. The last three I’ve listen to are: Welcome to the Blackout (Live…

The 2016 song-a-day tribute I did during the year of Bowie’s death took place against the backdrop of the presidential campaign that ultimately left us with Donald Trump as President. I selected this song to go along with the Super Tuesday that Trump was expected to (and did) win to the point that his improbable nomination was secured. And that’s…

There’s something fun about naming the worst of something, maybe more so when it’s the worst of something one generally likes. Somehow, “the worst” of Bowie has been a recurring topic in recent weeks in this blog. When I came across, “Buzz the Fuzz,” I contemplated whether that was Bowie’s worst song ever (it might be), then I speculated about…

According to its website, “Since 1974, Goldmine has been the world's most renowned publication for music collectibles and music memorabilia, covering all genres, but anchored in rock and roll. Each issue features articles about and interviews with recording stars of the past and present, as well as reviews of new releases and music collecting news and tips. Goldmine is available…

Amidst the expected weekly covers of “Heroes,” “Space Oddity” and “The Man Who Sold the World,” I found this one, of the less-covered, “Loving the Alien.” I have a feeling that the title of this song is more familiar than the song itself. Bowie had to be deliberately deceptive in that the song has nothing to do with space aliens,…

‘hours…’ (1999). Bowie used the cover art of ‘hours…’ to signal another stylistic change. The “new” Bowie held, Pieta style, an exhausted— or dead— looking Bowie much as he had appeared over the past few years. The loud period was over, as was Bowie’s final (overt) attempt to appeal to a younger audience. From here on out his music would…

Tin Machine (1989). Though I don’t think I’ve ever seen it expressed this way, Tin Machine marked the beginning of Bowie’s return to being loud. Loud and angry. With fourteen tracks to choose from, there’s both good and bad on this album. I have long thought the best is a short song, “Bus Stop.” I also think the album is…

Let’s Dance (1983). After a three year break between albums, Bowie reinvented himself as a pop star with this, one of his most successful releases. The album is anchored by its strong first three songs, “Modern Love,” “China Girl” and “Let’s Dance,” and I’m going to say the title track is both the strongest and probably song that had the…

Young Americans (1975). My least favorite Bowie album from the 70s, this one still has some great songs. I’m going to say “Fame” is on top here. It was Bowie’s first #1, at least in the U.S., and its a song he continued to perform late into his career. I’m not so partial to the so-called plastic soul songs. This…

This is another meaningless list that captures how I feel at a particular point in time, but for me it’s an amusing exercise. The trick here is that with many Bowie albums, there are no bad songs, so the choice between best and worst is not between good and bad. For purposes of this exercise, I’m including only studio albums…

This is a bizarre video. The audio is Bowie’s studio recording of the 2013 song, “Valentine’s Day,” which I have always interpreted as being about a school shooter. Here, an actor named Billy Mowbray portrays Ziggy Stardust lip-syncing the song in a school dance setting where the events of the song play out as someone poisoning the punch. After the…

In this cover of the week feature, I typically highlight an unknown band (or at least a band that’s unknown to me) that very recently posted a Bowie cover. I have not only been impressed by the sheer number of bands that post Bowie covers on a weekly basis, but that most of them sound pretty good. This is yet…

There was recently an item in the news that Bowie’s handwritten lyrics for “the Jean Genie” were auctioned off for a price of £57,000. Last year, the handwritten lyrics for “Starman” sold for £200,000. There’s not much more to the story than that, but it gives me this excuse to post this video of Bowie singing the song live from…

Since I was listening to my 1995 reissue of Never Let Me Down, I thought I’d post about this obscure song that was included as a bonus track but wasn’t on the original album. This is too bad, because it’s actually a decent song. Like many Bowie songs from my 1980s, the upbeat pop sound is belied by dark lyrics.…

Yesterday I mentioned Bowie’s version of the song, “Girls,” and linked to audio of that song. I mentioned that he wrote it for Tina Turner who probably has the better known version. Today’s post is just a link to her official video for “Girls.” Unless I’m missing something, it’s not a deep song. Maybe, one interesting way to think about…

In the last few weeks I’ve commented on some of Bowie’s worst music, including through a blog post in which I quoted from Nicholas Pegg writing about some of the songs he apparently likes least. Many of those songs came from the album, Never Let Me Down, which has been regarded as a low point for Bowie since its release…

Bowie famously starred on Broadway in The Elephant Man, as well as playing the lead or major supporting roles in a handful of movies. But he also made many cameos and acted in other less-well known projects, including those that are unfamiliar to me. Along those lines, I was surprised to find out that Bowie hosted the second season (1999-2000)…

So, because lists are fun, this is my latest, totally subjective list of the funniest movies of all time. This is a tough list to pull together for several reasons. To begin with, I pretty much feel like I have to limit one movie per filmmaker, otherwise half the top 10 would be occupied by Mel Brooks and Monty Python…

Most of the covers I select for the “cover of the week” series are performed by bands or singers I have never heard of. No so for L7. I own and like their 1994 album Hungry for Stink. I’m a little surprised the band is still around, but glad to hear that they are, and they are proving that middle-aged…

I write these updated posts when the videos attached to my original posts go down. I try not to read what I originally wrote and add what’s on my mind about the song now. “Queen Bitch” is not a typical update because it is one of my favorite songs. In one sense, it’s an odd candidate to be one of…

A few days ago I reposted the well-known video for “Life on Mars” to illustrate a discussion about Bowie’s music videos, prompted by an article that name it his best and named him as the overall best video-creator. The image of a heavily-made up Bowie, wearing his vermillion Ziggy mullet, in a powder-blue suit that would only have been made…

I have heard Bowie’s music interpreted in different ways including as classical music. Bowie’s long-time pianist Mike Garson translated Bowie songs into piano jazz a while back. Bowie himself occasionally veered in the direction of jazz, especially in his final album, Blackstar, featuring jazz musician Donny McCaslin, who himself adapted some Bowie songs for his own subsequent records. This disc,…

Not only did Bowie record hundreds of songs, and hundreds of others have recorded his songs, but there are quite a few songs that either mention Bowie or are flat-out about Bowie. This is one such song, by the 90s grunge (?) band Veruca Salt. I don’t recall ever hearing this song before and now I can’t get it out…

Nicholas Pegg possibly knows more about David Bowie than anyone else. His The Complete David Bowie has been my main reference guide for all the time I’ve been making my own contributions, via this blog and going all the way back to my 2016 song-a-day Facebook tribute. I cannot overstate my respect and indeed admiration for Pegg. he probably would…

I missed this, but Tom Verlaine passed away on January 28th. Verlaine fronted the band, Television, but what I known most about him was that he wrote the song, “Kingdom Come,” which Bowie covered on Scary Monsters. Posted here is Verlaine’s version, which if you listen to carefully has some slightly different lyrics (for instance, the original has the “face…

Once again I have chosen a later Bowie song as the cover of the week, this time, arguably his latest in the sense that “I Can’t Give Everything Away” closed out his last full album, Blackstar. And before going forward its worth noting that since I’ve been posting these covers of the week, I have never been at a loss…