Bowie, seminal or overrated?
- Thread starter Mallard
- Start date
GarfieldLeChat
fucking awesome but wrong
His first single, iirc.
I don't think it even charted.
in 1967 it did nothing however in 1973 when it was rereleased it got to number 6...
and people say there was little consiquence of the drug taking in the 60's...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laughing_Gnome
GarfieldLeChat
fucking awesome but wrong
but the laughing gnome sucks more... much much more...
gentlegreen
I hummus, therefore I am ...
As good as the rock genre gets.
Ziggy, Diamond Dogs, Station to Station ... then the bleakness of the Eno collaborations..
Thanks to this thread I suspect my neighbours will now be subjected to my mildly inebriated singing before the weekend's out
Ziggy, Diamond Dogs, Station to Station ... then the bleakness of the Eno collaborations..
Thanks to this thread I suspect my neighbours will now be subjected to my mildly inebriated singing before the weekend's out
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
Never heard the laughing gnome. And I was a big bowie fan.
GarfieldLeChat
fucking awesome but wrong
you listened to the youtube of it now??
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
seminal and overrated.
Paul Russell
Psychogeographer
Yes, it's a cover version (Tiompkin and Washington), isn't it.
First recorded by Johnny Mathis, then Nina Simone apparently.
dream_girl
waiting for my ban
Nobody remember "Dancing In the Street" with Mick Jagger or "Tonight" with Tina Turner? Or what about "Drummer Boy" with Bing Crosby? All his duets suck.
Nah - he'd been going about 4 or 5 years by then - his first single was back in 1964.His first single, iirc.
me tooI prefer Laughing Gnome to Under Pressure!
gentlegreen
I hummus, therefore I am ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mallard
I prefer Laughing Gnome to Under Pressure!
me too
Me too - it's fairly harmless - of its time - touch of the cockney sparrer - Joe Brown about it ...
Paul Russell
Psychogeographer
Yeah, I was one of the people who bought it!
Indeed. Some of my mates also dislike Ogdens for the cocknality. I quite like it myself.
ouchmonkey
Singe Gainsbourg
He's a parasite. All his best ideas were someone else's.
His 'acheivement', like Madonna's is to take the underground into the mainstream.
The people he's borrowed from/collaborated with made better records,
Iggy & the Stooges, The Velvets/Lou Reed, Eno, Kraftwerk, whoever it was he thought he was when he was a 'soul' singer, the new romantics and, please let's not forget, his foray into drum and bass.................
Chairman Meow
Perth, WA
He's a parasite. All his best ideas were someone else's.
His 'acheivement', like Madonna's is to take the underground into the mainstream.
The people he's borrowed from/collaborated with made better records,
Iggy & the Stooges, The Velvets/Lou Reed, Eno, Kraftwerk, whoever it was he thought he was when he was a 'soul' singer, the new romantics and, please let's not forget, his foray into drum and bass.................
Utter bollocks.
ouchmonkey
Singe Gainsbourg
Utter bollocks.
It's a strong well reasoned argument you make there
and yet, you're wrong.
pity that.
He's a parasite. All his best ideas were someone else's.
His 'acheivement', like Madonna's is to take the underground into the mainstream.
The people he's borrowed from/collaborated with made better records,
Iggy & the Stooges, The Velvets/Lou Reed, Eno, Kraftwerk, whoever it was he thought he was when he was a 'soul' singer, the new romantics and, please let's not forget, his foray into drum and bass.................
I kind of agree, but not sure that's necessarily a bad thing. You could argue that Elvis, in a sense, served a similar function.
I think he's seminal AND over-rated
ouchmonkey
Singe Gainsbourg
I didn't say it was.
I tend to be with the general 'good in the 70's' consensus on Bowie
although I would never listen to him by choice there's some good tunes.
I just can't be doing with this Bowie is God, AND he invented, like, everything as well nonsense.
twistedAM
Left Of The Dial
He's a parasite. All his best ideas were someone else's.
His 'acheivement', like Madonna's is to take the underground into the mainstream.
The people he's borrowed from/collaborated with made better records,
Iggy & the Stooges, The Velvets/Lou Reed, Eno, Kraftwerk, whoever it was he thought he was when he was a 'soul' singer, the new romantics and, please let's not forget, his foray into drum and bass.................
That's exactly why I could never vote him as seminal but at least he tried to shake things around instead of churning out more or less the same old gubbins throughout his career like say The Rolling Stones or U2.
For some reason my fave is Hunky Dory.
dream_girl
waiting for my ban
That doesn't make him a parasite - he always paid his dues. He gave Lou Reed his biggest ever hit - and rehabilitated Iggy Pop (Iggy's own words). He positively encourgaed plenty of new bands in the late 70s - Talking Heads, blondie, Human League, etc. And it wasn't all one way exploitation. Pretty much the whole of the New Romantic movement in the 80s were inspired mainly by Bowie. Even 'punks' John Lydon and Mick Jones were big Bowie fans prior to joining the bands that made them famous.
In between the borrowed bits I believe Bowie produced much that was genuinely new - Ziggy stardust / Aladdin Sane / Diamond Dogs, and again later with Station To Station and Heroes - not entirely nicked from anyone - influenced by - but then what isn't influenced by something?
But the example of Madonna shows how brilliant Bowie was - Madonna is just exploitative.
Bowie never borrowed from New Romantics - he inspired them - its different.
And there's no way I'm goign to try to defend the drum and bass stuff. On the other hand - Bowie's latter era Scott Walker inspired stuff is great too.
dream_girl
waiting for my ban
ouchmonkey
Singe Gainsbourg
Hmm.
It's complex. I wouldn't deny those people were fans but what I'm thinking of there is the Ashes To Ashes video which basically seems to feature him getting a bunch of his fans who have started their own thing to walk along behind him while he nicks all their ideas.
dream_girl
waiting for my ban
Hmm.
It's complex. I wouldn't deny those people were fans but what I'm thinking of there is the Ashes To Ashes video which basically seems to feature him getting a bunch of his fans who have started their own thing to walk along behind him while he nicks all their ideas.
I knew you were thinking about that video.
Musically though - he never took anything from the New Romantics - in fact he immediately went off into a completely different direction - Nile Rogers produced Let's Dance / Iggy Pop covers / nostalgic retreads of his 70s personas, etc. I think that the Ashes to Ashes video was really done as a homage to the new movement which Bowie was associated with at the time. I find it hard to see it as exploitative.
"All their ideas" basically, in this case, being raiding the dressing up box. Which Bowie was hardly a stranger to in the first place.
If you're seriously suggesting that Bowie stole all, say, Steve Strange's ideas by dressing up as clown and looking a bit fey, it's difficult not to conclude that that was Strange's tough shit for not having any more ideas!
ouchmonkey
Singe Gainsbourg
If you're seriously suggesting that Bowie stole all, say, Steve Strange's ideas by dressing up as clown and looking a bit fey, it's difficult not to conclude that that was Strange's tough shit for not having any more ideas!
be true to your gimmick, innit!
"they look cool. ooh, I could get away with that"
it's the same impulse behind the drum & bass debacle
"that sounds cool, I could get away with that"
he's a chameleon, in the worst way. He's hollow and dishonest.
