Velvet Goldmine Updated (song 239)

I originally commented on this song on 9/7/16 as part of my song-a-day tribute to Bowie. It was song #239.

“Velvet Goldmine” was a kind of throwaway song originally intended for the Ziggy album. I remain glad that Bowie left it off. To my ears, it is more juvenile and just an all around worse song than anything else he put on that album, or any other album, at least from the 1970s. It’s supposed to be a naughty song with various sexual and possibly gay innuendo. It’s bouncy and to someone who knows little about music, sounds to me like its influenced by whatever attracted Bowie to Kurt Weill (of “Alabama Song” and Baal etc). Some fans and critics really like “Velvet Goldmine” and (or) treat it as a rarity or a lost classic. But it’s been out there for a while and is easy enough to find.

I’m updating this entry because the link to the original video went down. I agree with everything I wrote six years ago and other than the above, don’t have much to add:

Here’s what I originally wrote:
Yesterday I mentioned that Ewan McGregor sang an Iggy Pop song in the movie, Velvet Goldmine.  Bowie would not allow any of his songs to be used in the movie, which is a thinly fictionalized account of Bowie and Iggy during the glam period.  So, despite the name, the Bowie song never makes it into the movie.  That was the second time this song missed out—it was originally slated to appear on the Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars but was replaced by “Starman” (the right call, in my opinion).