special note : note the bold type towards the end. good read !
Bowie sings Springsteen
Glam with Fangs: Bowie’s Diamond Dogs Reissued
by Paul Grimstad
1974 was the year Bowie got into Burroughs, dyed his hair red, and recorded Diamond Dogs. He’d initially wanted to turn George Orwell’s dystopic novel 1984 into a musical, but when Orwell’s widow refused him the rights Bowie decided to scrap the idea (thank god). Still, the theme of coercive televisual propaganda fits nicely enough into our current political climate to make this reissue’s link with Orwell queasily appropriate.
The fat booklet included with the two-CD set (a second disc for the routine excavation of outtakes, alternate versions, rarities, etc.) features Bowie’s own amazing description of the concept behind the record:
I had in my mind this kind of half Wild Boys, half 1984 world, and there were these ragamuffins, but they were a bit more violent than ragamuffins…They’d taken over this barren city, this city that had fallen apart. They’d been able to break into windows of jewelers and things, so they’d dressed themselves up in fur and diamonds. But they had snaggle-teeth, really filthy, kind of like violent Oliver Twists…They were living on the tops of buildings…They were little Johnny Rottens and Sid Viciouses, really. And in my mind there were no means of transport, so they were all rolling around on roller skates, with huge wheels on them, which squeaked because they hadn’t been oiled properly. So there were these gangs of squeaking, roller-skating, vicious hoods, with bowie knives and furs on, and they were all skinny because they hadn’t eaten enough, and they all had funny-colored hair.
Feral glitz, futuristic urchins, proto-punk Dickensian squalor, and post-apocalyptic nomadism: all part of the ongoing self-fashioning of the world’s cleverest pop star. To get a sense of Bowie’s superhuman imaginativeness around this period—fresh after morphing through the cosmic insectism of Ziggy Stardust, the angular glitter rock of Aladdin Sane, and the impeccably curated cover-versions of Pin Ups—compare Dogs to Marc Bolan’s attempt, also in 1974, to graduate from teen dream to heavy conceptualist. He cut the extravagant dud Zink Alloy and the Riders of Tomorrow, a record that sounds like The Slider’s timeless boogie shoe-horned into a space suit.
The first thing you hear when you cue up Diamond Dogs is a sound like an air-raid siren crossed with a werewolf, followed by the (slightly hokey) spoken-word bit that puts the post-apocalyptic mise en sc讥 in place. Bowie then launches into the title track with the disturbing provocation, “This ain’t rock and roll, it’s genocide”—a good example of his gift for attention-getting. (Like Burroughs, Bowie is able to be both dark and delirious: “As they pulled you out of the oxygen tent/You asked for the latest party/With your silicone hump and your ten-inch stump/Dressed like a priest you was/Tod Browning’s freak you was.”) After the luxuriant and stagy “Sweet Thing,” the Shaft-like “1984” seems to anticipate the coked-up soul just around the corner on Young Americans. And the big single “Rebel, Rebel,” which vies with “Day Tripper,” “You Really Got Me,” “Satisfaction,” and “Superstition” for Greatest Riff of All Time, could be Bowie’s coolest song (one would also have to consider “Queen Bitch,” “Drive-In Saturday,” “TVC15,” “Joe the Lion,” and “Ashes to Ashes”). Rather than half-heard in an East Village tavern between “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Sunday Girl,” it’s refreshing to hear “Rebel, Rebel” nestled between the reprise of “Sweet Thing” and the gaudy “Rock and Roll with Me,” making it sound like the sexy gem at the center of a spastic collage.
The record comes to a close with the exciting and odd “Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family,” which, with its lopsided time-scheme and bare-bones arrangement, sounds almost proto–Pink Flag (I once saw Bowie in eager attendance at a Wire gig in NYC).
Diamond Dogs is a transitional record. Where Ziggy sounds strident, DD sounds patchworked. Or, to reverse the chronology, if Let’s Dance, with its Reagan-era gated snare drum (grace ࠬa chic desk-wiz Nile Rogers, who was also busy airbrushing Like a Virgin at the time) sounds cut from solid blocks, Dogs is as fractured-sounding as the junk-strewn urban war zone it takes as its backdrop. This isn’t a bad thing—it’s part of what’s really fun about the record—but it shows Bowie between moves, rather than delivering a finished piece. And while we’re at it, let’s divide up the recorded output from 1973–1983 into the definitive statements: Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Young Americans, Station to Station, Let’s Dance; and the intermediate transitions: Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, Scary Monsters; with a third division set aside for the two years of unbroken experimentation with Eno: Low, Heroes, and Lodger (saying these three records deserve their own category just isn’t saying enough). The most dramatic leap would then be from ’73 to ’75, as if the Ziggy persona were so absorbing it took the partial alien Aladdin and the darker sci-fi of DD to jumpstart the bionic soul brother of Young Americans.
Among the many curiosities on disc two of the reissue are the K-Tel version of “Diamond Dogs” and something forbiddingly titled “Rebel, Rebel (2003)” (which we’ll not discuss). There is also Bowie’s cover of Bruce Springsteen’s early effort at Dylanish picaresque, “Growin’ Up.” In Bowie’s hands, the Boss’s scrappy underdog allegory becomes something much more campy, but also shows the continuity between songwriters as diverse as Dylan, Bowie, and Springsteen, who (along with Village Green–era Ray Davies and Bryan Ferry’s tales of dissolute global fl⮥urie), account for the best rock verse there is.
After Tommy, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, and Hair, it made sense, in 1974, to want to use rock to amplify up all sorts of already inflated concepts. That Bowie was channeling The Wild Boys and 1984, rather than the Gospels or hippie mythology, means that he was both edgier and weirder, and that his futurism was more suited to the era of the music video that he continually anticipated, right up to the dawning of MTV in 1981 (at which point he triumphantly entered the medium as if he’d been there all along). And if the hegemony of the image as the preferred unit of global consumption has made Orwell’s tele-totalitarianism more than just scarily relevant political allegory, it also cuts across Bowie’s career at a telling diagonal, as if he were (again like Burroughs) more a prophetic antenna than a poised auteur. Alas, when Bowie sings, on a track left over from the abandoned musical,
Someone to claim us, someone to follow Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo Someone to fool us, someone like you We want you Big Brother
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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Bowie, quite by accident, had seen Springsteen play at Max's Kansas City in Feb 1973 - he wasn't introduced to Bruce at that gig, but he really dug the rock-orientated songs, which was the main catalyst for him then recording some.
For any of you Springsteen cover song completists out there......at the moments there are actually 2 different Bowie studio versions of "Growin' Up" and 2 different Bowie studio versions of "Saint In The City" out there in the music jungleland.
1a - "Growin' Up" (recorded July 1973) at sessions for the album PINUPS (Oct 73).................NB: this was was an unreleased outtake until 1990, when it finally appeared as a bonus track on the "Pinups Special Limited Edition" CD. This is the earliest verified studio cover recording of a Springsteen composition by any artist. It was recorded a few months before Allan Clarke recorded "If I Was The Priest".
1b - "Growin' Up" (recorded Dec 1973) at sessions for the album DIAMOND DOGS (Apr 74)...............NB: This was an unreleased outtake until 2004, when it finally appeared as a bonus track on the "Diamond Dogs 30th Anniversary Edition CD". This version appears to be partially the same recording as above, but with a different mix, some addtional effects and with added guitar (by Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones).
2a - "Saint In The City" (recorded Nov 1974) at sessions for the album YOUNG AMERICANS (Mar 75)..............NB: this version is still unreleased. I haven't heard it but I believe it may circulate unofficially among some hardcore Bowie collectors. It's a rough demo with only a loose guide vocal by Bowie and no other background vocals. This was the recording that Bowie wouldn't play for Bruce when Bruce and Ed Sciaky visited Bowie at his studio session in Nov 1974. Bowie didn't feel it was "ready" to be heard. Sciaky claimed he heard it soon afterwards, when Bruce wasn't around.
2b - "Saint In The City" (recorded Sep 1975) at sessions for the album STATION TO STATION (Jan 76)..............NB: this was an unreleased outtake until 1989, when it finally appeared in the Bowie rarities CD set "AfterToday". It was later issued on the Various Artists Springsteen covers tribute CD. Bowie may have used some elements of the original demo in the making of this version....there is a bit of confusion about that fine detail.
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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By Mike McGrath | The Drummer | November 26th 1974
Unwinding in the wee hours at Sigma Sound, Bowie talks about his music, the Philly concerts, Barry Goldwater and flying saucers.
When Bruce Springsteen played The Tower Theater recently, announcements were made of upcoming concerts - when David Bowie's scheduled Civic Center appearance was announced it was greeted by a large negative roar from the crowd. It caught off-guard a number of startled onlookers, including the announcer, who voiced concurrence with the crowd.
Some weeks later, during the recent Beach Boys concert at The Spectrum, the upcoming pair of Bowie shows were announced and greeted by a contest of boos and cheers from the crowd. It was obviously as fashionable to support Bowie as dismiss him. Also, judging by the crowds attracted, a lot of the booers came to see him anyway.
And at 1am Monday morning the 25th of November, David Bowie met and welcomed Bruce Springsteen while recording his latest album at Sigma Sound. In an open and candid evening he touched on his recent concert performance and spoke of audiences and flying saucers.
THE MIKE GARSON GROUP
At 7.00 Sunday night a group of about a dozen and half Bowie freaks stood watch outside the main entrance of The Barclay on Rittenhouse Square. Some had orange, Bowie-cut hair; others just stood with their hands in their pockets waiting for a glimpse of someone that would make their vigil worthwhile.
Mike Garson plays keyboards for Bowie, as well as being his musical director. As we left the Barclay for Sigma Sound Studios on North 12th Street, the kids outside called him by name. We stopped and talked to them for a few minutes. One displayed a gorgeous, large matte color close-up of Bowie, possibly from Monday night's concert.
Mike: That's nice - you gonna give it to Bowie?
Girl: No, I want him to sign it for me!
Mike is a 28 year old keyboard player who's been with Bowie for two years, has never been with one act that long before, and has no plans to move on. He comes, very noticeably, from Brooklyn, where his wife is awaiting his return at the end of this concert tour (about a week) so she can drop their second child in his lap. "We planned it so the kid'll be born the day after I get back."
He began playing classical piano at the ripe old age of seven (his three year old daughter already plays), went from there to jazz, and then to rock. Along the way he worked for people like Martha and the Vandellas and Nancy Wilson. A lot of influences: Bach, Beethoven, Art Tatum, Chick Corea, Stravinsky.
And, like Chick, Mike is a Scientologist. Not pushing hard for the cause - just mentioning that he was sceptical of it for about six months, took the plunge, and that it's helped him cope both as a musician and a person.
How did he become Bowie's musical director? "I was playing a gig, working with an avant garde jazz group, and one night I got a series of phone calls... the third was from Bowie. I didn't know who he was. I was heavy into jazz and had never come across him. I played four chords for him and Mick Ronson... I was hired for eight weeks... That was a hundred and twenty weeks ago."
The Mike Garson Band opened up the show Monday night. For them, the Spectrum ShowCo sound was perfect. A tight professional rhythm and blues-jazz-rock set of opening numbers was greeted first with mild indifference and later with boos, catcalls, and conspirational clapping designed to drive the group from stage. Never faltering once, they did their eight warm-up numbers and left the stage to return for one more after the intermission. Finally, after being subjected to an incredible verbal barrage, the group faded into the background and Bowie took the stage.
Bad sound, a weak voice, and shortened muddled versions of older songs interspersed with poor renditions of his new R&B numbers, combined to make this show his weakest yet in the city. Audience reaction was kind, bringing him back.
The next day consisted of bad reviews, bad feelings, and angry phone calls to WMMR-FM from concert goers who felt that the man had not delivered their money's worth (or as one leatherneck offered during the Garson's Band's warm up, "Get those ******* off the stage!")
Garson: He liked the show - he didn't know the sound was bad either. You know we can only hear the monitors blasting away on stage and they sounded fine. The audience reaction seemed very very good... In actual fact, the reviews on this tour have been better overall than the Diamond Dogs tour.
On Bowie: "He wanted to do something without the theatrics; he may go back to them, he may not. For this time he wanted to just get our there and sing. He's not afraid of change, he's always changing... He's full of surprises."
"On a good night his voice is better now than it ever was."
SPENDING THE NIGHT WITH DAVID BOWIE
We arrived at Sigma Sound a little after eight. Producer Tony Visconti was arched over a mammoth soundboard, pressing buttons, being generally pleasant to the half-dozen engineers and musicians in the control room, and peering into the large windowed studio directly in front.
The album was practically finished. The first rough mix had been accomplished since Bowie recorded the basic tracks some weeks ago, and this week had been devoted to clean-ups and overdubs. This was the final night in the studio for the album - the final touches would now be made.
I'm Only Dancing (She turns me on) was being played back. Pablo was in the studio, overdubbing a cowbell and some chimes onto an already lushly produced cut. Visconti easily shows his pleasure with the final product as Pablo finishes up. The cut is full and rich, almost a Phil Spector R&B wall of sound - Bowie's voice mixed way into the background.
10:30: and the jokes disintegrate into bad puns and poor taste; Tony explains palmistry to a member of the band - says that the late Bruce Lee's lifeline (gleaned from a gigantic close-up of his open fist) showed that he should've lived till 90.
11:30: Out of the corner of the studio comes an old, small brown guitar amp. Tony proudly announced that it belonged to Chubby Checker and was used to record the original version of The Twist. He sings, "Got a new dance and it goes like this..." The amps specialty is a fine dirty sound that you can't get from an amp unless it was made well about twenty years ago. After hearing a few licks played through, every guitar player in the room plots its theft.
Seven minutes to midnight: The door opens and in saunter Ed and Judy Sciaky, escorting the night's special guest star, a roadweary Bruce Springsteen, fresh off the bus from Asbury Park, New Jersey. Bruce is stylishly attired in a stained brown leather jacket with about seventeen zippers and a pair of hoodlum jeans. He looked like he just fell out of a bus station, which he had.
It seems that one of the tracks Bowie laid down was Bruce's It's Hard to be a Saint in the City. Tony Visconti called ed at WMMR and asked him if he could get Bruce into the studio. Contacted finally on noon Sunday, Bruce hitched into Asbury Park, then via the nine o'clock Trailways to Philly, where Ed met him "hanging with the bums in the station."
Said Bruce of his Odyssey: "That ride had a real cast of characters... every bus has a serviceman, an old lady in a brown coat with one of these little black things on her head, and the drunk who falls out next to you."
An hour later, the time passing with some more overdubs and a few improvised vocals by Luther of the Garson band (who sings a fine lead and whose vocal power adds a lot of strength to an already powerful album), enter David Bowie and Ava Cherry, white haired soul singer for the band.
David breezes in, takes account of the night's progress, lets his piercing eyes cast across the room a few times, listens to a tape and then leaves Tony to his work so as to chat with Bruce.
Five people hunched up in a far corner of the lobby, looking more like the fans (half a dozen of whom were still standing outside, savoring the vibrations) than the stars themselves.
David reminisces on the first time he saw Bruce - two years ago at Max's Kansas City - and that he was knocked out by the show and wanted to do one of his songs ever since. When pressed for another American artist whose songs he would like to record (as he did for British artists on the Pin-Ups album), david thinks a while and replies that there are none. A tired but interested Bruce lets a grin escape.
The conversation turns to a common problem: Stage jumpers.
Bowie: It doesn't bother me so much that they do it; I just wonder: What are they gonna do when they get there?
Bruce: Once I was onstage sweating so hard I was soaked with it. Really soaking wet. And this guy jumps up on stage and throws his arms around me; and I get this tremendous electric shock from the guitar. This guy doesn't even feel it! I'm in agony and he doesn't feel a thing; he wasn't feeling anything anyway; but I'm getting this shock and the guy won't let go. Finally, my drummer, Mad Dog, comes over and beats the guy off.
Bowie: And the guy went back to his friends saying, "Hey man, Bruce was really wired"... The worst was when a guy jumped up on stage and I saw the look in his eyes - all luded out - he was gone. Real scarey look in his eyes, and all I could think was 'I been waitin' for you. Four years and I been waitin' for one like you to jump on stage.' And I just smiled at him, and his eyes got okay again; then I looked closer and saw he was holding a brick in his hand...
Bowie is a tall skeletal leprechaun. Red beret tipped extremely to one side, the other revealing a loose patch of orange hair, leaning away from ears that uncannily resemble a Vulcan's up close. Intense hawk eyes; if they fix on you friendly it warms the room; unfriendly or even questioningly you're forced to turn away from them. Red velvet suspenders over high waisted black pants and a white pullover sweater complete the bizarre outfit, which, like any other, grows on you as the hours pass.
In fact, Bowie grows and fleshes out as the hours pass. From the secluded, mysterious figure portrayed by the press into a man of odd habits, but more personable as some time passes between you.
After an hour, I couldn't understand how Mike Garson could say he was easy and friendly to work with; very short and direct in his instructions to the band as he stand with Visconti at the board, overseeing some back-up vocals. After a few hours, a break, and some chatter about flying saucers, the erson seeps through. A real person.
The studio is a warm, fur covered cavern at 3am. Heads and bodies sway in time to a slow one. Yellows, blues, reds, and greens dimmed as low as possible light the control room and studio. The control room is a starship with endless banks of futuristic controls; punch panel, mixing decks, tape decks, blinking lights. A starship manned by a motley bunch of pirates. Obviously hijacked.
The talk turns towar the sound last Monday at the Spectrum. (Bowie: "It's the pits. The absolute pits.") Visconti is assigned to work on its improvement. A five o'clock sound check will be of little use since it's brought up that the acoustics change tremendously when the place fills with fourteen thousand sound absorbing bodies.
If anyone can look tired and energetic at the same time, it's David. Part the curtains in the studio and the silent sentinels below come to life and wave frantically; their big moment - contact with the event.
Bowie tried to record a vocal solo. It sounds terrible, the voice is hoarse and tired. "It's much too early yet - I'm not quite awake... I won't be able to record anything till about half past five."
He re-enters the studio and wraps a set of incredibly long, slender fingers around a cold steak sandwich (never having encountered one before, he was taught the correct hold and given seven different explanations as to what a hoagie was).
More on the Spectrum: "I was dreading it really. Everybody whoever played there warned me how terrible it was. I don't think you can get good sound there, but we'll try."
After a promise to meet again and talk further in New York, Bruce heads off with Ed and Judy for a 5am visit to the Broad Street diner. Max's Kansas City had been his first professional gig. Bowie was in from the start. Bruce leaves without having heard his version of Saint. The feeling is that it's not ready yet.
FLYING SAUCERS
Bowie: "There's one that you people probably haven't even heard of here, 'cause the U.S. government threw a blanket over it. It's all over Canada though... happened about three, four weeks ago in Akron, Ohio. Same sort of thing that Prof. Carr is saying happened at Patterson Air Force Base. There was a decompression accident and they have a ship and four bodies: three feet tall, caucasian, although weathered all over to make up for it, same organic stuff: cocks and lungs and such, but different, bigger brains.
"You know Barry Goldwater is resigning from politics to become President of a UFO organization... he's not really resigning from politics, he just realizes they can't keep it all secret much longer and he wants to be at the top when it breaks. It will break soon."
Next on the Bowie agenda is a long voyage down the Amazon; David will not fly and his next concert tour is in Brazil in January. Maybe the long boat ride will ease that throat. On some tracks of the new album (a single record which may include the Springsteen tune) his voice is clear and firm. On others it's mixed way back, so that Garson's group and the full production overpower a weak, hoarse attempt.
There is however, not a bad cut on the album. Hell, you can even dance to it.
As the sun came up and David talked on a bit of the Russians and their 3,000 flying objects sending communicative signals into space (Klaatu Barada Nikto?), the room took on the warm perspective of the remnants of an all night talk-rap-fantasize session. The kind where you come away fulfilled, for no other reason that you felt you got to know a handful of people a bit better.
A warm room, hard to leave. But work was about to resume, the sun was getting higher, and the deadline for his resume becoming tighter and tighter. A firm handshake, as firm and strong as Bruce's; they are much alike.
Outside, a dozen sentinels are huddled in cars, standing on the sidewalk, sitting on the steps, waiting for a little of the magic to pour out. This is Bowie's final night in the studio. When he leaves, they'll get into their cars and beat him to the Barclay. One last look at the man who makes his albums in Philadelphia.
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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Im sorry but you cannot compare these guys. It's ridiculous. They're SO different it's not even funny.
Bowie is far more creative, arty, conceptual, groundbreaking, diverse and interesting.
I PERSONALLY prefer Springsteen because I think he's just more musical and more my thing. But they're so different. I can understand a question of preference, but as to who's a better songwriter I think it's a stupid question.
Im sorry but you cannot compare these guys. It's ridiculous. They're SO different it's not even funny.
Bowie is far more creative, arty, conceptual, groundbreaking, diverse and interesting.
I PERSONALLY prefer Springsteen because I think he's just more musical and more my thing. But they're so different. I can understand a question of preference, but as to who's a better songwriter I think it's a stupid question.
Sorry. Just my opinion.
its my opinion too, can't compare. i happen to prefer bowie.
lay down all thoughts; surrender to the void
~it is shining it is shining~
To the thread starter, I know you told anyone who doesn't want to answer one or the other not to respond, but isn't it obvious that a predominantely American audience will go for Springsteen? He's the darling of America. But if you took a world poll Bowie would win hands down.
I'll re-iterate that I prefer Springsteen's music but that's how it is :-)
Im sorry but you cannot compare these guys. It's ridiculous. They're SO different it's not even funny.
Bowie is far more creative, arty, conceptual, groundbreaking, diverse and interesting.
I PERSONALLY prefer Springsteen because I think he's just more musical and more my thing. But they're so different. I can understand a question of preference, but as to who's a better songwriter I think it's a stupid question.
its my opinion too, can't compare. i happen to prefer bowie.
excellent ! Bruce: 15
Bowie 9
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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we all know Bowie sells out his shows over here in the USA,
and Bruce consistantly sells out all his shows over in europe too.
from http://www.backstreets.com/news
Less than three weeks now until the Seeger Sessions tour resumes... If you fancy seeing Bruce this fall with those fabulous European audiences, why not join our long time friends from Badlands who run trips to shows all around the globe. They take care of the ticket and hotel, and they have a great autumn itinerary planned for the Seeger Sessions tour, including Bologna, Rotterdam, Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Dublin, and all the U.K. shows. Click here :http://stores.channeladvisor.com/badlands-pre/Concert%20Trips/?sck=35274651?source=backstreets for details.
-September 14, 2006
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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can't really compare but if i must its gotta be BRUUUUUCE!!!
LOL
OK
Bruce : 16 Bowie : 9
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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I like most of Bowie's albums particularly earlier ones but I dont know any run of albums by anyone that can lyrically match Springsteen's 1st 4 (Dylan comes close obviously) I do think his magic touch has faded since but he's still clearly the Boss.
The guy is one of the most influenctial artists of all time, he's constantly changed with the times and normally sounds fresh whatever the era/decade (aside from the 80's). I thought anyone worships at the temple of Bowie, I can't believe a he's losing to workmenlike rocker Bruce fucking Stringsteen, that's just wrong, so wrong. Bit like saying Creed are better than The Doors, Brian Adams is better than Dylan.
The guy is one of the most influenctial artists of all time, he's constantly changed with the times and normally sounds fresh whatever the era/decade (aside from the 80's). I thought anyone worships at the temple of Bowie, I can't believe a he's losing to workmenlike rocker Bruce fucking Stringsteen, that's just wrong, so wrong. Bit like saying Creed are better than The Doors, Brian Adams is better than Dylan.
are you kidding me? you are putting bruce springsteen in the same basket as creed and bryan adams? that is ridiculous. not to mention insulting.
all my music listening life(and i'm talking since 1974) i have been aware of springsteen, and bowie for almost as long, and while i respect bowie for his influence and foresight as well as his ability to apparently reinvent himself, there is no one and i mean no one in the music industry that i have more respect for than bruce springsteen. his integrity, his songwriting, his defiance are what make him timeless and an artist worthy of everyone's respect whether you like his music or not.
hear my name
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
The guy is one of the most influenctial artists of all time, he's constantly changed with the times and normally sounds fresh whatever the era/decade (aside from the 80's). I thought anyone worships at the temple of Bowie, I can't believe a he's losing to workmenlike rocker Bruce fucking Stringsteen, that's just wrong, so wrong. Bit like saying Creed are better than The Doors, Brian Adams is better than Dylan.
I think it's a little unfair to call Springsteen a 'workmanlike' rocker. He's a great songwriter and the Brian Adams/Bob Dylan comparison is beyond harsh! I see where you're coming from, just. But Springsteen has done great things in rock n roll.
To the person taking the poll, you counted me as a Bowie vote, when I actually said I personally prefer Springsteen.
So it should be
Springsteen 17
Bowie 8
I'm sure Bowie would take it in a world poll though. Springsteen has built up a large fan base outside the U.S. but his music's still pretty exclusive to Americans. The rest of the world just can't identify with the themes in his music in the same way Americans can. Similar to the Paul Weller thing (a legend in Britain) who few people know about in the U.S.
The guy is one of the most influenctial artists of all time, he's constantly changed with the times and normally sounds fresh whatever the era/decade (aside from the 80's). I thought anyone worships at the temple of Bowie, I can't believe a he's losing to workmenlike rocker Bruce fucking Stringsteen, that's just wrong, so wrong. Bit like saying Creed are better than The Doors, Brian Adams is better than Dylan.
Whilst I will throw in another vote for Bowie, this comment was just so stupid it made me laugh.:)
Ok maybe the Creed/Brian Adams thing was abit over the top.
Maybe The Eagles Vs Pink Floyd would have been a better comparison. But as it's been repeatedly stated Bruce don't mean much outside the US (like the Eagles).
But as it's been repeatedly stated Bruce don't mean much outside the US (like the Eagles).
OK
this is just ignorant , as well as inaccurate.
Aside from the Bowie / Bruce debating and comparisons, just as a single artist , theres obviously some following in Europe, and still after all these years is very relevant , regardless if you fall into that subset of fans. http://www.brucespringsteen.net/live/index.html
Bruce Springsteen with the Seeger Sessions Band Fall European Tour
October 1 Bologna, Italy Palamalaguti Arena
October 2 Torino , Italy Palaisozaki
October 4 Udine, Italy Villa Manin
October 5 Verona, Italy Arena Di Verona
October 7 Perugia, Italy Arena Santa Giuliana
October 8 Caserta, Italy Giardini Della Reggia
October 10 Rome, Italy Palalottomatica Sport Palace
October 12 Hamburg, Germany Colorline Arena
October 13 Rotterdam, Holland Ahoy Arena
October 19 Madrid, Spain Plaza Detoroslas Ventas
October 21 Valencia, Spain Estadio Ciutat De Valencia
October 22 Granada, Spain Plaza De Toros De Granada
October 24 Barcelona, Spain Palau Sant Jordi
October 25 Santander, Spain Palacio Deportes Santander
October 28 Copenhagen, Denmark Parken Stad
October 29 Oslo, Norway Spektrum Arena
October 30 Stockholm, Sweden Globen Arena
November 6 Cologne, Germany Koln Arena
November 7 Antwerp, Belgium Sport Palais
November 9 Birmingham, England NEC Arena
November 11 London, England Wembley Arena
November 14 Sheffield, England Hallem Fm Arena
November 17 Dublin, Ireland The Point
November 18 Dublin, Ireland The Point
November 19 Dublin, Ireland The Point
November 21 Belfast Ireland Odyssey Arena
SEEGER SESSIONS TOUR BAND
Bruce Springsteen
Sam Bardfeld - Violin
Art Baron - Tuba, Mandolin, Penny Whistle Frank Bruno - Guitar, Vocals Jeremy Chatzky - Upright Bass Larry Eagle - Drums, Percussion Clark Gayton - Trombone Charlie Giordano - B3 Organ, Accordion, Piano, Pump Organ, Vocals Curtis King, Jr. - Vocals Greg Liszt - Banjo Lisa Lowell - Vocals Eddie Manion - Saxophone Cindy Mizelle - Vocals Mark Pender- Trumpet, Vocals Curt Ramm - Trumpet Marty Rifkin - Pedal Steel, Dobro Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg - Trombone, Vocals Patti Scialfa - Guitar, Vocals Marc Anthony Thompson - Guitar, Vocals Soozie Tyrell - Violin, Vocals
Most of these shows are Sold Out , or very close to it . Bruce sells out Europe at lightning speed. From what I understand, these recent shows in England / & or Ireland, broke onsale ticketsales time, beating out U2 , for fastest ticket sales ever .
This is all with the Seeger Sessions Band , if you substitute this for The E- Street Band , you can multiply these figures by 10 .
The ironic part is that Bruce has had some concern that the U.S. ticket sales have been unable to match the sales in Europe .
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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Bowie is the better songwriter, much more versatile and is better in the studio. Bowie really has an amazing portfolio of work spanning decades. So many genres done so damn well.
Bruce is the better live performer by far.
“One good thing about music,
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
this is just ignorant , as well as inaccurate.
Aside from the Bowie / Bruce debating and comparisons, just as a single artist , theres obviously some following in Europe, and still after all these years is very relevant , regardless if you fall into that subset of fans. http://www.brucespringsteen.net/live/index.html
Bruce Springsteen with the Seeger Sessions Band Fall European Tour
October 1 Bologna, Italy Palamalaguti Arena
October 2 Torino , Italy Palaisozaki
October 4 Udine, Italy Villa Manin
October 5 Verona, Italy Arena Di Verona
October 7 Perugia, Italy Arena Santa Giuliana
October 8 Caserta, Italy Giardini Della Reggia
October 10 Rome, Italy Palalottomatica Sport Palace
October 12 Hamburg, Germany Colorline Arena
October 13 Rotterdam, Holland Ahoy Arena
October 19 Madrid, Spain Plaza Detoroslas Ventas
October 21 Valencia, Spain Estadio Ciutat De Valencia
October 22 Granada, Spain Plaza De Toros De Granada
October 24 Barcelona, Spain Palau Sant Jordi
October 25 Santander, Spain Palacio Deportes Santander
October 28 Copenhagen, Denmark Parken Stad
October 29 Oslo, Norway Spektrum Arena
October 30 Stockholm, Sweden Globen Arena
November 6 Cologne, Germany Koln Arena
November 7 Antwerp, Belgium Sport Palais
November 9 Birmingham, England NEC Arena
November 11 London, England Wembley Arena
November 14 Sheffield, England Hallem Fm Arena
November 17 Dublin, Ireland The Point
November 18 Dublin, Ireland The Point
November 19 Dublin, Ireland The Point
November 21 Belfast Ireland Odyssey Arena
SEEGER SESSIONS TOUR BAND
Bruce Springsteen
Sam Bardfeld - Violin
Art Baron - Tuba, Mandolin, Penny Whistle Frank Bruno - Guitar, Vocals Jeremy Chatzky - Upright Bass Larry Eagle - Drums, Percussion Clark Gayton - Trombone Charlie Giordano - B3 Organ, Accordion, Piano, Pump Organ, Vocals Curtis King, Jr. - Vocals Greg Liszt - Banjo Lisa Lowell - Vocals Eddie Manion - Saxophone Cindy Mizelle - Vocals Mark Pender- Trumpet, Vocals Curt Ramm - Trumpet Marty Rifkin - Pedal Steel, Dobro Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg - Trombone, Vocals Patti Scialfa - Guitar, Vocals Marc Anthony Thompson - Guitar, Vocals Soozie Tyrell - Violin, Vocals
Most of these shows are Sold Out , or very close to it . Bruce sells out Europe at lightning speed. From what I understand, these recent shows in England / & or Ireland, broke onsale ticketsales time, beating out U2 , for fastest ticket sales ever .
This is all with the Seeger Sessions Band , if you substitute this for The E- Street Band , you can multiply these figures by 10 .
The ironic part is that Bruce has had some concern that the U.S. ticket sales have been unable to match the sales in Europe .
The population density is FAR greater in Europe and he doesn't tour as much here. It's not 'ignorant' to believe that Bruce is more popular in the States than the rest of the world. In my life, EVERY person who knows anything about the subject believes this to be common knowledge. The point isn't whether or not he's he's popular in Europe. It's whether he is in comparison with The States.
I'm sure the UK shows sold out quickly, but there are 70 million people in this country (that's more than a quarter of North America's population and we're smaller than Florida in area!), plus as I mentioned, he plays in England less than he does in The States. Probably less than he does most big American cities too.
The population density is FAR greater in Europe and he doesn't tour as much here. It's not 'ignorant' to believe that Bruce is more popular in the States than the rest of the world. In my life, EVERY person who knows anything about the subject believes this to be common knowledge. The point isn't whether or not he's he's popular in Europe. It's whether he is in comparison with The States.
I'm sure the UK shows sold out quickly, but there are 70 million people in this country (that's more than a quarter of North America's population and we're smaller than Florida in area!), plus as I mentioned, he plays in England less than he does in The States. Probably less than he does most big American cities too.
Bruce don't mean much outside the US (like the Eagles)
this just isnt true.
no matter how dense or whatever your prior argument was .
Obviously, he means alot for the masses in Europe to be flocking to these shows , even if its not our budddy Soupy there. :rolleyes:
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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Bowie sings Springsteen
Glam with Fangs: Bowie’s Diamond Dogs Reissued
by Paul Grimstad
1974 was the year Bowie got into Burroughs, dyed his hair red, and recorded Diamond Dogs. He’d initially wanted to turn George Orwell’s dystopic novel 1984 into a musical, but when Orwell’s widow refused him the rights Bowie decided to scrap the idea (thank god). Still, the theme of coercive televisual propaganda fits nicely enough into our current political climate to make this reissue’s link with Orwell queasily appropriate.
The fat booklet included with the two-CD set (a second disc for the routine excavation of outtakes, alternate versions, rarities, etc.) features Bowie’s own amazing description of the concept behind the record:
I had in my mind this kind of half Wild Boys, half 1984 world, and there were these ragamuffins, but they were a bit more violent than ragamuffins…They’d taken over this barren city, this city that had fallen apart. They’d been able to break into windows of jewelers and things, so they’d dressed themselves up in fur and diamonds. But they had snaggle-teeth, really filthy, kind of like violent Oliver Twists…They were living on the tops of buildings…They were little Johnny Rottens and Sid Viciouses, really. And in my mind there were no means of transport, so they were all rolling around on roller skates, with huge wheels on them, which squeaked because they hadn’t been oiled properly. So there were these gangs of squeaking, roller-skating, vicious hoods, with bowie knives and furs on, and they were all skinny because they hadn’t eaten enough, and they all had funny-colored hair.
Feral glitz, futuristic urchins, proto-punk Dickensian squalor, and post-apocalyptic nomadism: all part of the ongoing self-fashioning of the world’s cleverest pop star. To get a sense of Bowie’s superhuman imaginativeness around this period—fresh after morphing through the cosmic insectism of Ziggy Stardust, the angular glitter rock of Aladdin Sane, and the impeccably curated cover-versions of Pin Ups—compare Dogs to Marc Bolan’s attempt, also in 1974, to graduate from teen dream to heavy conceptualist. He cut the extravagant dud Zink Alloy and the Riders of Tomorrow, a record that sounds like The Slider’s timeless boogie shoe-horned into a space suit.
The first thing you hear when you cue up Diamond Dogs is a sound like an air-raid siren crossed with a werewolf, followed by the (slightly hokey) spoken-word bit that puts the post-apocalyptic mise en sc讥 in place. Bowie then launches into the title track with the disturbing provocation, “This ain’t rock and roll, it’s genocide”—a good example of his gift for attention-getting. (Like Burroughs, Bowie is able to be both dark and delirious: “As they pulled you out of the oxygen tent/You asked for the latest party/With your silicone hump and your ten-inch stump/Dressed like a priest you was/Tod Browning’s freak you was.”) After the luxuriant and stagy “Sweet Thing,” the Shaft-like “1984” seems to anticipate the coked-up soul just around the corner on Young Americans. And the big single “Rebel, Rebel,” which vies with “Day Tripper,” “You Really Got Me,” “Satisfaction,” and “Superstition” for Greatest Riff of All Time, could be Bowie’s coolest song (one would also have to consider “Queen Bitch,” “Drive-In Saturday,” “TVC15,” “Joe the Lion,” and “Ashes to Ashes”). Rather than half-heard in an East Village tavern between “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Sunday Girl,” it’s refreshing to hear “Rebel, Rebel” nestled between the reprise of “Sweet Thing” and the gaudy “Rock and Roll with Me,” making it sound like the sexy gem at the center of a spastic collage.
The record comes to a close with the exciting and odd “Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family,” which, with its lopsided time-scheme and bare-bones arrangement, sounds almost proto–Pink Flag (I once saw Bowie in eager attendance at a Wire gig in NYC).
Diamond Dogs is a transitional record. Where Ziggy sounds strident, DD sounds patchworked. Or, to reverse the chronology, if Let’s Dance, with its Reagan-era gated snare drum (grace ࠬa chic desk-wiz Nile Rogers, who was also busy airbrushing Like a Virgin at the time) sounds cut from solid blocks, Dogs is as fractured-sounding as the junk-strewn urban war zone it takes as its backdrop. This isn’t a bad thing—it’s part of what’s really fun about the record—but it shows Bowie between moves, rather than delivering a finished piece. And while we’re at it, let’s divide up the recorded output from 1973–1983 into the definitive statements: Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Young Americans, Station to Station, Let’s Dance; and the intermediate transitions: Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, Scary Monsters; with a third division set aside for the two years of unbroken experimentation with Eno: Low, Heroes, and Lodger (saying these three records deserve their own category just isn’t saying enough). The most dramatic leap would then be from ’73 to ’75, as if the Ziggy persona were so absorbing it took the partial alien Aladdin and the darker sci-fi of DD to jumpstart the bionic soul brother of Young Americans.
Among the many curiosities on disc two of the reissue are the K-Tel version of “Diamond Dogs” and something forbiddingly titled “Rebel, Rebel (2003)” (which we’ll not discuss). There is also Bowie’s cover of Bruce Springsteen’s early effort at Dylanish picaresque, “Growin’ Up.” In Bowie’s hands, the Boss’s scrappy underdog allegory becomes something much more campy, but also shows the continuity between songwriters as diverse as Dylan, Bowie, and Springsteen, who (along with Village Green–era Ray Davies and Bryan Ferry’s tales of dissolute global fl⮥urie), account for the best rock verse there is.
After Tommy, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, and Hair, it made sense, in 1974, to want to use rock to amplify up all sorts of already inflated concepts. That Bowie was channeling The Wild Boys and 1984, rather than the Gospels or hippie mythology, means that he was both edgier and weirder, and that his futurism was more suited to the era of the music video that he continually anticipated, right up to the dawning of MTV in 1981 (at which point he triumphantly entered the medium as if he’d been there all along). And if the hegemony of the image as the preferred unit of global consumption has made Orwell’s tele-totalitarianism more than just scarily relevant political allegory, it also cuts across Bowie’s career at a telling diagonal, as if he were (again like Burroughs) more a prophetic antenna than a poised auteur. Alas, when Bowie sings, on a track left over from the abandoned musical,
Someone to claim us, someone to follow Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo Someone to fool us, someone like you We want you Big Brother
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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For any of you Springsteen cover song completists out there......at the moments there are actually 2 different Bowie studio versions of "Growin' Up" and 2 different Bowie studio versions of "Saint In The City" out there in the music jungleland.
1a - "Growin' Up" (recorded July 1973) at sessions for the album PINUPS (Oct 73).................NB: this was was an unreleased outtake until 1990, when it finally appeared as a bonus track on the "Pinups Special Limited Edition" CD. This is the earliest verified studio cover recording of a Springsteen composition by any artist. It was recorded a few months before Allan Clarke recorded "If I Was The Priest".
1b - "Growin' Up" (recorded Dec 1973) at sessions for the album DIAMOND DOGS (Apr 74)...............NB: This was an unreleased outtake until 2004, when it finally appeared as a bonus track on the "Diamond Dogs 30th Anniversary Edition CD". This version appears to be partially the same recording as above, but with a different mix, some addtional effects and with added guitar (by Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones).
2a - "Saint In The City" (recorded Nov 1974) at sessions for the album YOUNG AMERICANS (Mar 75)..............NB: this version is still unreleased. I haven't heard it but I believe it may circulate unofficially among some hardcore Bowie collectors. It's a rough demo with only a loose guide vocal by Bowie and no other background vocals. This was the recording that Bowie wouldn't play for Bruce when Bruce and Ed Sciaky visited Bowie at his studio session in Nov 1974. Bowie didn't feel it was "ready" to be heard. Sciaky claimed he heard it soon afterwards, when Bruce wasn't around.
2b - "Saint In The City" (recorded Sep 1975) at sessions for the album STATION TO STATION (Jan 76)..............NB: this was an unreleased outtake until 1989, when it finally appeared in the Bowie rarities CD set "AfterToday". It was later issued on the Various Artists Springsteen covers tribute CD. Bowie may have used some elements of the original demo in the making of this version....there is a bit of confusion about that fine detail.
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Bowie meets Springsteen
By Mike McGrath | The Drummer | November 26th 1974
Unwinding in the wee hours at Sigma Sound, Bowie talks about his music, the Philly concerts, Barry Goldwater and flying saucers.
When Bruce Springsteen played The Tower Theater recently, announcements were made of upcoming concerts - when David Bowie's scheduled Civic Center appearance was announced it was greeted by a large negative roar from the crowd. It caught off-guard a number of startled onlookers, including the announcer, who voiced concurrence with the crowd.
Some weeks later, during the recent Beach Boys concert at The Spectrum, the upcoming pair of Bowie shows were announced and greeted by a contest of boos and cheers from the crowd. It was obviously as fashionable to support Bowie as dismiss him. Also, judging by the crowds attracted, a lot of the booers came to see him anyway.
And at 1am Monday morning the 25th of November, David Bowie met and welcomed Bruce Springsteen while recording his latest album at Sigma Sound. In an open and candid evening he touched on his recent concert performance and spoke of audiences and flying saucers.
THE MIKE GARSON GROUP
At 7.00 Sunday night a group of about a dozen and half Bowie freaks stood watch outside the main entrance of The Barclay on Rittenhouse Square. Some had orange, Bowie-cut hair; others just stood with their hands in their pockets waiting for a glimpse of someone that would make their vigil worthwhile.
Mike Garson plays keyboards for Bowie, as well as being his musical director. As we left the Barclay for Sigma Sound Studios on North 12th Street, the kids outside called him by name. We stopped and talked to them for a few minutes. One displayed a gorgeous, large matte color close-up of Bowie, possibly from Monday night's concert.
Mike: That's nice - you gonna give it to Bowie?
Girl: No, I want him to sign it for me!
Mike is a 28 year old keyboard player who's been with Bowie for two years, has never been with one act that long before, and has no plans to move on. He comes, very noticeably, from Brooklyn, where his wife is awaiting his return at the end of this concert tour (about a week) so she can drop their second child in his lap. "We planned it so the kid'll be born the day after I get back."
He began playing classical piano at the ripe old age of seven (his three year old daughter already plays), went from there to jazz, and then to rock. Along the way he worked for people like Martha and the Vandellas and Nancy Wilson. A lot of influences: Bach, Beethoven, Art Tatum, Chick Corea, Stravinsky.
And, like Chick, Mike is a Scientologist. Not pushing hard for the cause - just mentioning that he was sceptical of it for about six months, took the plunge, and that it's helped him cope both as a musician and a person.
How did he become Bowie's musical director? "I was playing a gig, working with an avant garde jazz group, and one night I got a series of phone calls... the third was from Bowie. I didn't know who he was. I was heavy into jazz and had never come across him. I played four chords for him and Mick Ronson... I was hired for eight weeks... That was a hundred and twenty weeks ago."
The Mike Garson Band opened up the show Monday night. For them, the Spectrum ShowCo sound was perfect. A tight professional rhythm and blues-jazz-rock set of opening numbers was greeted first with mild indifference and later with boos, catcalls, and conspirational clapping designed to drive the group from stage. Never faltering once, they did their eight warm-up numbers and left the stage to return for one more after the intermission. Finally, after being subjected to an incredible verbal barrage, the group faded into the background and Bowie took the stage.
Bad sound, a weak voice, and shortened muddled versions of older songs interspersed with poor renditions of his new R&B numbers, combined to make this show his weakest yet in the city. Audience reaction was kind, bringing him back.
The next day consisted of bad reviews, bad feelings, and angry phone calls to WMMR-FM from concert goers who felt that the man had not delivered their money's worth (or as one leatherneck offered during the Garson's Band's warm up, "Get those ******* off the stage!")
Garson: He liked the show - he didn't know the sound was bad either. You know we can only hear the monitors blasting away on stage and they sounded fine. The audience reaction seemed very very good... In actual fact, the reviews on this tour have been better overall than the Diamond Dogs tour.
On Bowie: "He wanted to do something without the theatrics; he may go back to them, he may not. For this time he wanted to just get our there and sing. He's not afraid of change, he's always changing... He's full of surprises."
"On a good night his voice is better now than it ever was."
SPENDING THE NIGHT WITH DAVID BOWIE
We arrived at Sigma Sound a little after eight. Producer Tony Visconti was arched over a mammoth soundboard, pressing buttons, being generally pleasant to the half-dozen engineers and musicians in the control room, and peering into the large windowed studio directly in front.
The album was practically finished. The first rough mix had been accomplished since Bowie recorded the basic tracks some weeks ago, and this week had been devoted to clean-ups and overdubs. This was the final night in the studio for the album - the final touches would now be made.
I'm Only Dancing (She turns me on) was being played back. Pablo was in the studio, overdubbing a cowbell and some chimes onto an already lushly produced cut. Visconti easily shows his pleasure with the final product as Pablo finishes up. The cut is full and rich, almost a Phil Spector R&B wall of sound - Bowie's voice mixed way into the background.
10:30: and the jokes disintegrate into bad puns and poor taste; Tony explains palmistry to a member of the band - says that the late Bruce Lee's lifeline (gleaned from a gigantic close-up of his open fist) showed that he should've lived till 90.
11:30: Out of the corner of the studio comes an old, small brown guitar amp. Tony proudly announced that it belonged to Chubby Checker and was used to record the original version of The Twist. He sings, "Got a new dance and it goes like this..." The amps specialty is a fine dirty sound that you can't get from an amp unless it was made well about twenty years ago. After hearing a few licks played through, every guitar player in the room plots its theft.
Seven minutes to midnight: The door opens and in saunter Ed and Judy Sciaky, escorting the night's special guest star, a roadweary Bruce Springsteen, fresh off the bus from Asbury Park, New Jersey. Bruce is stylishly attired in a stained brown leather jacket with about seventeen zippers and a pair of hoodlum jeans. He looked like he just fell out of a bus station, which he had.
It seems that one of the tracks Bowie laid down was Bruce's It's Hard to be a Saint in the City. Tony Visconti called ed at WMMR and asked him if he could get Bruce into the studio. Contacted finally on noon Sunday, Bruce hitched into Asbury Park, then via the nine o'clock Trailways to Philly, where Ed met him "hanging with the bums in the station."
Said Bruce of his Odyssey: "That ride had a real cast of characters... every bus has a serviceman, an old lady in a brown coat with one of these little black things on her head, and the drunk who falls out next to you."
An hour later, the time passing with some more overdubs and a few improvised vocals by Luther of the Garson band (who sings a fine lead and whose vocal power adds a lot of strength to an already powerful album), enter David Bowie and Ava Cherry, white haired soul singer for the band.
David breezes in, takes account of the night's progress, lets his piercing eyes cast across the room a few times, listens to a tape and then leaves Tony to his work so as to chat with Bruce.
Five people hunched up in a far corner of the lobby, looking more like the fans (half a dozen of whom were still standing outside, savoring the vibrations) than the stars themselves.
David reminisces on the first time he saw Bruce - two years ago at Max's Kansas City - and that he was knocked out by the show and wanted to do one of his songs ever since. When pressed for another American artist whose songs he would like to record (as he did for British artists on the Pin-Ups album), david thinks a while and replies that there are none. A tired but interested Bruce lets a grin escape.
The conversation turns to a common problem: Stage jumpers.
Bowie: It doesn't bother me so much that they do it; I just wonder: What are they gonna do when they get there?
Bruce: Once I was onstage sweating so hard I was soaked with it. Really soaking wet. And this guy jumps up on stage and throws his arms around me; and I get this tremendous electric shock from the guitar. This guy doesn't even feel it! I'm in agony and he doesn't feel a thing; he wasn't feeling anything anyway; but I'm getting this shock and the guy won't let go. Finally, my drummer, Mad Dog, comes over and beats the guy off.
Bowie: And the guy went back to his friends saying, "Hey man, Bruce was really wired"... The worst was when a guy jumped up on stage and I saw the look in his eyes - all luded out - he was gone. Real scarey look in his eyes, and all I could think was 'I been waitin' for you. Four years and I been waitin' for one like you to jump on stage.' And I just smiled at him, and his eyes got okay again; then I looked closer and saw he was holding a brick in his hand...
Bowie is a tall skeletal leprechaun. Red beret tipped extremely to one side, the other revealing a loose patch of orange hair, leaning away from ears that uncannily resemble a Vulcan's up close. Intense hawk eyes; if they fix on you friendly it warms the room; unfriendly or even questioningly you're forced to turn away from them. Red velvet suspenders over high waisted black pants and a white pullover sweater complete the bizarre outfit, which, like any other, grows on you as the hours pass.
In fact, Bowie grows and fleshes out as the hours pass. From the secluded, mysterious figure portrayed by the press into a man of odd habits, but more personable as some time passes between you.
After an hour, I couldn't understand how Mike Garson could say he was easy and friendly to work with; very short and direct in his instructions to the band as he stand with Visconti at the board, overseeing some back-up vocals. After a few hours, a break, and some chatter about flying saucers, the erson seeps through. A real person.
The studio is a warm, fur covered cavern at 3am. Heads and bodies sway in time to a slow one. Yellows, blues, reds, and greens dimmed as low as possible light the control room and studio. The control room is a starship with endless banks of futuristic controls; punch panel, mixing decks, tape decks, blinking lights. A starship manned by a motley bunch of pirates. Obviously hijacked.
The talk turns towar the sound last Monday at the Spectrum. (Bowie: "It's the pits. The absolute pits.") Visconti is assigned to work on its improvement. A five o'clock sound check will be of little use since it's brought up that the acoustics change tremendously when the place fills with fourteen thousand sound absorbing bodies.
If anyone can look tired and energetic at the same time, it's David. Part the curtains in the studio and the silent sentinels below come to life and wave frantically; their big moment - contact with the event.
Bowie tried to record a vocal solo. It sounds terrible, the voice is hoarse and tired. "It's much too early yet - I'm not quite awake... I won't be able to record anything till about half past five."
He re-enters the studio and wraps a set of incredibly long, slender fingers around a cold steak sandwich (never having encountered one before, he was taught the correct hold and given seven different explanations as to what a hoagie was).
More on the Spectrum: "I was dreading it really. Everybody whoever played there warned me how terrible it was. I don't think you can get good sound there, but we'll try."
After a promise to meet again and talk further in New York, Bruce heads off with Ed and Judy for a 5am visit to the Broad Street diner. Max's Kansas City had been his first professional gig. Bowie was in from the start. Bruce leaves without having heard his version of Saint. The feeling is that it's not ready yet.
FLYING SAUCERS
Bowie: "There's one that you people probably haven't even heard of here, 'cause the U.S. government threw a blanket over it. It's all over Canada though... happened about three, four weeks ago in Akron, Ohio. Same sort of thing that Prof. Carr is saying happened at Patterson Air Force Base. There was a decompression accident and they have a ship and four bodies: three feet tall, caucasian, although weathered all over to make up for it, same organic stuff: cocks and lungs and such, but different, bigger brains.
"You know Barry Goldwater is resigning from politics to become President of a UFO organization... he's not really resigning from politics, he just realizes they can't keep it all secret much longer and he wants to be at the top when it breaks. It will break soon."
Next on the Bowie agenda is a long voyage down the Amazon; David will not fly and his next concert tour is in Brazil in January. Maybe the long boat ride will ease that throat. On some tracks of the new album (a single record which may include the Springsteen tune) his voice is clear and firm. On others it's mixed way back, so that Garson's group and the full production overpower a weak, hoarse attempt.
There is however, not a bad cut on the album. Hell, you can even dance to it.
As the sun came up and David talked on a bit of the Russians and their 3,000 flying objects sending communicative signals into space (Klaatu Barada Nikto?), the room took on the warm perspective of the remnants of an all night talk-rap-fantasize session. The kind where you come away fulfilled, for no other reason that you felt you got to know a handful of people a bit better.
A warm room, hard to leave. But work was about to resume, the sun was getting higher, and the deadline for his resume becoming tighter and tighter. A firm handshake, as firm and strong as Bruce's; they are much alike.
Outside, a dozen sentinels are huddled in cars, standing on the sidewalk, sitting on the steps, waiting for a little of the magic to pour out. This is Bowie's final night in the studio. When he leaves, they'll get into their cars and beat him to the Barclay. One last look at the man who makes his albums in Philadelphia.
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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Bowie is far more creative, arty, conceptual, groundbreaking, diverse and interesting.
I PERSONALLY prefer Springsteen because I think he's just more musical and more my thing. But they're so different. I can understand a question of preference, but as to who's a better songwriter I think it's a stupid question.
Sorry. Just my opinion.
its my opinion too, can't compare. i happen to prefer bowie.
~it is shining it is shining~
I'll re-iterate that I prefer Springsteen's music but that's how it is :-)
excellent !
Bruce: 15
Bowie 9
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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and Bruce consistantly sells out all his shows over in europe too.
from http://www.backstreets.com/news
Less than three weeks now until the Seeger Sessions tour resumes... If you fancy seeing Bruce this fall with those fabulous European audiences, why not join our long time friends from Badlands who run trips to shows all around the globe. They take care of the ticket and hotel, and they have a great autumn itinerary planned for the Seeger Sessions tour, including Bologna, Rotterdam, Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Dublin, and all the U.K. shows. Click here :http://stores.channeladvisor.com/badlands-pre/Concert%20Trips/?sck=35274651?source=backstreets for details.
-September 14, 2006
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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OK
Bruce : 16
Bowie : 9
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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The guy is one of the most influenctial artists of all time, he's constantly changed with the times and normally sounds fresh whatever the era/decade (aside from the 80's). I thought anyone worships at the temple of Bowie, I can't believe a he's losing to workmenlike rocker Bruce fucking Stringsteen, that's just wrong, so wrong. Bit like saying Creed are better than The Doors, Brian Adams is better than Dylan.
are you kidding me? you are putting bruce springsteen in the same basket as creed and bryan adams? that is ridiculous. not to mention insulting.
all my music listening life(and i'm talking since 1974) i have been aware of springsteen, and bowie for almost as long, and while i respect bowie for his influence and foresight as well as his ability to apparently reinvent himself, there is no one and i mean no one in the music industry that i have more respect for than bruce springsteen. his integrity, his songwriting, his defiance are what make him timeless and an artist worthy of everyone's respect whether you like his music or not.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
I think it's a little unfair to call Springsteen a 'workmanlike' rocker. He's a great songwriter and the Brian Adams/Bob Dylan comparison is beyond harsh! I see where you're coming from, just. But Springsteen has done great things in rock n roll.
To the person taking the poll, you counted me as a Bowie vote, when I actually said I personally prefer Springsteen.
So it should be
Springsteen 17
Bowie 8
I'm sure Bowie would take it in a world poll though. Springsteen has built up a large fan base outside the U.S. but his music's still pretty exclusive to Americans. The rest of the world just can't identify with the themes in his music in the same way Americans can. Similar to the Paul Weller thing (a legend in Britain) who few people know about in the U.S.
Whilst I will throw in another vote for Bowie, this comment was just so stupid it made me laugh.:)
Springsteen 18
Bowie 10
BOWIE!!! BOWIE!!! BOWIE!!!...~
"Forgive every being,
the bad feelings
it's just me"
Thats vote 11 for Bowie, it could be a close one.:)
Maybe The Eagles Vs Pink Floyd would have been a better comparison. But as it's been repeatedly stated Bruce don't mean much outside the US (like the Eagles).
OK
this is just ignorant , as well as inaccurate.
Aside from the Bowie / Bruce debating and comparisons, just as a single artist , theres obviously some following in Europe, and still after all these years is very relevant , regardless if you fall into that subset of fans.
http://www.brucespringsteen.net/live/index.html
Bruce Springsteen with the Seeger Sessions Band Fall European Tour
October 1 Bologna, Italy Palamalaguti Arena
October 2 Torino , Italy Palaisozaki
October 4 Udine, Italy Villa Manin
October 5 Verona, Italy Arena Di Verona
October 7 Perugia, Italy Arena Santa Giuliana
October 8 Caserta, Italy Giardini Della Reggia
October 10 Rome, Italy Palalottomatica Sport Palace
October 12 Hamburg, Germany Colorline Arena
October 13 Rotterdam, Holland Ahoy Arena
October 19 Madrid, Spain Plaza Detoroslas Ventas
October 21 Valencia, Spain Estadio Ciutat De Valencia
October 22 Granada, Spain Plaza De Toros De Granada
October 24 Barcelona, Spain Palau Sant Jordi
October 25 Santander, Spain Palacio Deportes Santander
October 28 Copenhagen, Denmark Parken Stad
October 29 Oslo, Norway Spektrum Arena
October 30 Stockholm, Sweden Globen Arena
November 6 Cologne, Germany Koln Arena
November 7 Antwerp, Belgium Sport Palais
November 9 Birmingham, England NEC Arena
November 11 London, England Wembley Arena
November 14 Sheffield, England Hallem Fm Arena
November 17 Dublin, Ireland The Point
November 18 Dublin, Ireland The Point
November 19 Dublin, Ireland The Point
November 21 Belfast Ireland Odyssey Arena
SEEGER SESSIONS TOUR BAND
Bruce Springsteen
Sam Bardfeld - Violin
Art Baron - Tuba, Mandolin, Penny Whistle Frank Bruno - Guitar, Vocals Jeremy Chatzky - Upright Bass Larry Eagle - Drums, Percussion Clark Gayton - Trombone Charlie Giordano - B3 Organ, Accordion, Piano, Pump Organ, Vocals Curtis King, Jr. - Vocals Greg Liszt - Banjo Lisa Lowell - Vocals Eddie Manion - Saxophone Cindy Mizelle - Vocals Mark Pender- Trumpet, Vocals Curt Ramm - Trumpet Marty Rifkin - Pedal Steel, Dobro Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg - Trombone, Vocals Patti Scialfa - Guitar, Vocals Marc Anthony Thompson - Guitar, Vocals Soozie Tyrell - Violin, Vocals
Most of these shows are Sold Out , or very close to it . Bruce sells out Europe at lightning speed. From what I understand, these recent shows in England / & or Ireland, broke onsale ticketsales time, beating out U2 , for fastest ticket sales ever .
This is all with the Seeger Sessions Band , if you substitute this for The E- Street Band , you can multiply these figures by 10 .
The ironic part is that Bruce has had some concern that the U.S. ticket sales have been unable to match the sales in Europe .
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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the boss is a rock'n'roll legend.
the thin white duke is a rock'n'roll icon.
better?
Bowie : 11
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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its all in your mind
lol
~it is shining it is shining~
Bruce is the better live performer by far.
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
SUWEET!!!...~
"Forgive every being,
the bad feelings
it's just me"
The population density is FAR greater in Europe and he doesn't tour as much here. It's not 'ignorant' to believe that Bruce is more popular in the States than the rest of the world. In my life, EVERY person who knows anything about the subject believes this to be common knowledge. The point isn't whether or not he's he's popular in Europe. It's whether he is in comparison with The States.
I'm sure the UK shows sold out quickly, but there are 70 million people in this country (that's more than a quarter of North America's population and we're smaller than Florida in area!), plus as I mentioned, he plays in England less than he does in The States. Probably less than he does most big American cities too.
(London's sold out, which is a bummer)
OK Paul
go back to that thread you quoted
look at the quote i had there :
this just isnt true.
no matter how dense or whatever your prior argument was .
Obviously, he means alot for the masses in Europe to be flocking to these shows , even if its not our budddy Soupy there. :rolleyes:
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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State College 5/3/03
Camden 7/5/03
Camden 7/6/03
makes much more sense
to live in the present tense