Rip David Bowie

[whippinpost91850]

We lost a "game changing Artist" last night. A real inspiration. RIP David Bowie, rest in peace

[ConstruKction]

Terrible news to start a day with. I couldn't believe it when I checked my Twitter this morning.

He made an album while he was dying of cancer, nobody even knew. That's crazy.

Rest in Peace.

[Trevor]

Yeah, I just heard, I rarely get bummed, this bummed me.His was some of the first and most brilliant music I heard as a child.

[mbenigni]

Great write-up on Guitar Moderne today:

http://www.guitarmoderne.com/artists/rip-david-bowie-champion-of-modern-guitar

[papabuss]

R.I.P. David.

Now you are in heaven.......

! No longer available

[aliensporebomb]

A real shock - the album came out friday, he died two days later.

And very many of his guitarists were GK users - Fripp, Belew, Reeves Gabrels, Chuck Hammer (Guitarchitecture), I'm sure there were more.

RIP.

[Elantric]

Sad news - back in 1982 I almost became Earl Slick's Guitar Tech for the Bowie Serious Moonlight Tour - but girlfriend / former wife back at the time put the "nix" on that move.

A great loss of a major conduit for guitar innovation



http://www.guitarmoderne.com/artists/rip-david-bowie-champion-of-modern-guitar

[mchad]

I am devastated. My wife came into the room last night and told me the news. I shrieked out when she showed me the news story on her phone. I didn't believe it at first. I am looking forward to his new album...not his passing!

Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do.

[Elantric]

http://tonefiend.com/music/brushes-with-bowie/

[Vade]

Bowie doing comedy...

[Toby Krebs]

I loved The Lodger and of course much of his solo work.

He introduced SRV to the masses.

Tin Machine was the best alternative band ever.

Artists like DB will inspire long after they are gone.

[Elantric]

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/great-belew-story-zappa-and-bowie-content.1660759/

Adrian Belew wrote>
It was February in Europe which meant it was icy cold outside, but for me it was even more icy inside. When you're touring, especially in a professional band of hired musicians, you tend to "partner up" with someone; one person you hang out with the most.
Frank was the person I hung out with. I often sat next to him as we traveled on planes and buses, I joined him at breakfast, etc. I had stayed at Frank's house many weekends during our 3-month rehearsal schedule and I felt we had some sort of friendship beyond employer/employee.

Of course he was entitled now to be distant to me. He had plucked me out of obscurity, taught me so many things, and shined a bright light on me. Frank was my mentor and he was not an ass**** to me, not ever! He was generous, funny as heck, brilliant, and informative. A genius. I had the time of my life around him. It was never part of my plan to leave Frank's tutelage forever.

We still had two weeks of touring left. Frank had already informed me of his intentions after the tour ended. He said he was going to rent a giant film editing machine and spend three or four months editing our live concert footage into a film called "Baby Snakes". He explained I would be kept on a retainer which meant I would be paid to do nothing but wait for Frank's next project. I received a call from my manager. Now it was official: I was being offered a 4-month tour with David Bowie. (In reality it turned into more than a year).

Later that day we were on a bus to an airport. I decided to break the ice. I walked to the very last row in the bus where Frank was sitting. I told him about David's offer. I reminded him of his plan to edit his film and pay me a retainer and asked him if it didn't make more sense for me to join David's tour for 4 months instead. I told him I would gladly return after the tour. Frank reached out and we shook hands.

That evening, February 26th, we played a concert in Brussels, Belgium. One of Frank's songs we did was "Yo Mama". But for that show Frank substituted the words "Your David". So this is what he sang:

"Maybe you should stay with your David,
He can do your laundry and cook for you,
Maybe you should stay with your David,
You're really kind of stupid and ugly too".

Two nights later the tour ended in London at the Hammersmith Odeon. There was an onstage occurrence which angered Frank. Fortunately I had nothing to do with it. Frank cut the show short and stormed off. The next day most of the band members flew back to L.A. where they all lived. I was told later that Frank fired the band on that flight home.

I got on a plane to Dallas for two weeks rehearsal with David Bowie.

The above story isn't going to make much sense to anyone without some backstory.

The third paragraph opens with, "Of course he was entitled now to be distant to me."

Why is that?

Well, because AB had already been on tour with FZ and at some point, Bowie had come to one of the shows to check Belew out. Bowie and Belew had attempted to discreetly discuss biz after the show by going to a restaurant (they were in Paris I think ??) and they happened to walk into a one that FZ had chosen just before them! So, Bowie tries to talk to FZ, who would, no matter what Bowie said, just say, "**** you captain Tom!"

Heres the first part of the story:

"
n 1978 I did my first tour of Europe as "stunt" guitarist and singer for Frank Zappa's band. The night we played in Cologne, Germany unbeknownst to me Brian Eno was in the audience. Brian knew David Bowie was looking for a new guitarist for his upcoming tour. He called David after seeing our show and told David he should come see the guitarist for Frank's band.

The next night we performed in Berlin. There was a part of the show where Frank took an extended guitar solo and most of the band members, including myself, left the stage for a few minutes. As I walked to the back of the stage I looked over at the monitor mixing board and saw David Bowie and Iggy Pop standing there.
Wow! I couldn't believe it!

So I walked over to David Bowie, shook his hand and said, "I love what you've done, thank you for all the music". And he said, "Great, how would you like to be in my band?" I motioned back towards Frank and said, "Well, I'm kind of playing with that guy." David laughed and said, "Yes, I know, but when Frank's tour ends my tour starts two weeks later. Shall we talk about it over dinner?"

David said he would meet me back at our hotel and sure enough when I arrived back at the hotel David Bowie and his assistant Coco Schwab were sitting on a couch in the lobby. As I walked past them they whispered to me, "Get into the elevator, go up to your room, come back down in a few minutes, and meet us outside. We have a car waiting."
It was like something out of a spy film.

When I came back down and went outside there was a black limousine waiting. The driver opened the door and I got in the back with David and Coco. David immediately launched into all this plans for his upcoming tour, the songs we would play, the staging, and so on, and how much he loved my guitar playing! It was so exciting! He said they were taking me to one of his favorite restaurants in Berlin.

How many restaurants are there in Berlin? 25,000?

We arrived at the restaurant, went in the front door, and who should be sitting at the very first table but Frank Zappa and the rest of the band! So the three of us sat down with Frank and the band. David, trying to be cordial, motioned to me and said, "Quite a guitar player you have here Frank."
And Frank said, "F••• you Captain Tom."
(note: Frank had demoted David from Major Tom to Captain Tom.)
David persisted, "Oh come on now Frank, surely we can be gentleman about this?"
Frank said, "F••• you Captain Tom."
By this point I was paralyzed. David said, "So you really have nothing to say?" Frank said, "F••• you Captain Tom."

David and Coco and I got up and went back out the front door. Getting in the limo David said in his wonderfully British way, "I thought that went rather nicely!"

[Elantric]

update :2016-01-27 There's something else which I'm sure you all would like to hear that I wish I could find. When Bowie/Jagger were recording Dancing In The Street, both of them, plus backing singers and the entire band, were playing together live (which is not always the case). They performed the song twice and nailed it. The vocals were then redone because of the lack of separation between the singers' microphones. Later on brass was added and the song was mixed by the great Bob Clearmountain - in NY. Well, after the initial session, I took home a cassette of the song in its raw state with no overdubs or mixing and I remember it sounding really fantastic. Years ago I tried to find it and couldn't but I'm going to look through a big box of cassettes again in case I missed it because I know you guys would appreciate it.


update: 2016-01-22 I think that Bowie probably wrote these lyrics quickly for the Springsteen impersonation which is first. I have no memory of us sitting around waiting for him to rewrite so it was probably done very quickly. If so, that's pretty impressive! . The imagery is definitely very Bruce.


RIP David Bowie. The impersonations on this YouTube posting were recorded in August '85, when Bowie came in to do the lead vocal. At the end of the session, he broke into the impersonations and I realized that these might get erased at some point, so I quickly put a cassette in and hit "record." I wish we could hear the other side of the dialogue but unfortunately that wasn't being recorded.

I was lucky enough to work with Bowie in 1985 at Westside Studios in London. My bosses, producer team Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley (Madness, Dexys Midnight Runners, Elvis Costello, Bush) were producing the soundtrack for the movie Absolute Beginners, for which Bowie was acting and writing songs (it was a better soundtrack than it was a movie!) and I was graduating from assistant engineer to engineer at that time.

The day Bowie was first due to show up at Westside, we were all a bit nervous — Bowie was the biggest star client for Clive and Alan at that point in time. We kept looking out the windows, waiting for a stretch limo to show up and an entire entourage to walk in, but then a black cab showed up and out popped the unaccompanied Bowie. He walked in, announced in what seemed a more cockney voice than I remembered, "Hi, I'm David Bowie," and shook our hands. He seemed smaller than I imagined he would be in person. A bit later I noticed that the cockney had dissipated somewhat and he also seemed to have grown more upright and taller, too. I thought, "Wow, he really is a chameleon," and wondered if the earlier exaggerated cockney was his way of reducing his superstar status temporarily to put people at ease on first meeting him.

see my full blog about working with Bowie and the recording of 'Dancing In The Street' with Bowie and



http://createdigitalmusic.com/2016/01/remembering-david-bowies-legacy-in-videos/

[Elantric]

[admin]

[chrish]

 Peter Gabriel performing the Bowie/Eno song "Heros"