Ashes to Ashes

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

Ashes to Ashes

He was apparently offered a knighthood in 2003 but knocked it back as he had done with other gongs previously offered.

[Calvert]

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Jagger & Morrison appear to be a pair of total ballbags anyway.
Fucking knighthood, indeed.

Sounds like an estate agency, doesn't it?

[Ray de Galles]

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Yes, he quite famously appears on the list of those that have refused honours which gets wheeled out when someone such as Danny Boyle does the same.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

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Ah well that's good (that he was, indeed, offered one). Would have been a travesty if not.

[meregreen]

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Radio 6 was pretty good this morning. Suitably respectful and reverent without being too maudlin. Quite impressive considering they will have had no time to prepare for the show.

Hard to think of a figure who's had more of an influence on British pop culture. I know it's utterly trivial in the context of his life, death and career, but I've never known anyone's death utterly dominate my Facebook timeline in this way. Everyone seems to have been touched by him.

Be interested to hear MSD's thoughts when she's had time to digest the news and reflect upon his legacy.

[dalliance]

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Chatting there to a chap I know to exchange pleasantries with. We agree that it's really sad news and I ask him if he was a Bowie fan. He says oh yes and follows up by saying he owns the Best of Bowie.

I refrain in the circumstances from caustic comeback.

[Calvert]

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Dear god.

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

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As we are a football forum:

[Duncan Gardner]

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Sensible restraint Dall. There are plenty of football fans around who only watch the EPL and CL on TV. They'd be no less upset if say, Maradona died prematurely.

Far right front row looks a bit like Ray Davies. Wrong side of London and three years oler though.

[MsD]

Ashes to Ashes

meregreen wrote:
Be interested to hear MSD's thoughts when she's had time to digest the news and reflect upon his legacy.

Thanks for thinking of me, my heart is broken.

Read Tony Visconti in NME, and Iggy's tribute.

Have friends coming around. Have had Valium. Yep, that bad.

[Nocturnal Submission]

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The BBC News website's front page is quite something.

Not sure I've ever seen them announce a story with so much space.

Sympathies to MsD and all those others who have been hit hard by this.

[Calvert]

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It's certainly an oddity.

I'll be celebrating his genius with a lovely Lebanese veggie extravaganza later with Bowie on Spotify, some wine and some laughs.
Spotify might crash, though.

If I hear the words 'musical chameleon' or 'constantly reinventing himself' again today though...

[Knowlesy]

Ashes to Ashes

It's silly. I never knew the guy obviously, but I still feel so utterly empty and lost since I heard the news. It is almost like losing a family member. What a shitty thing to have to hear on a Monday morning. Absolutely gutted. One of my few heroes.

[Bored Of Education]

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Yes, it was odd this morning as the top news when I woke up at 6.30 was the C of E conference which, even then, seemed an odd priority. However, half an hour later, my wife came in quite upset about it and we were both amazed that it was only the third item and they hadn't said much about it especially considering the Lemmy coverage on the Today programme last week. Of course, what had happened was that they had had it confirmed as the news was going out and there was a hughr amount of coverage after. It was timely actually as they then had the Archbishop of Canterbury and Jeremy Corbyn on for scheduled interviews and they were able to ask them for their tributes. I can't quite see them commenting on Lemmy's death in the same way.Similarly, the British astronaut tweeted his sympathy from the ISS - a more fitting tribute I can't imagine.

While Bowie hasn't been intrinsic to my musical life as, say, Motorhead, AC/DC or Iggy Pop, he has been a constant thread running through my life almost without me realising it. The first time I was asked to sing publicly - by primary school mates - it was, bizarrely, 'Sound and Vision' which was in the charts and I had being going around the playground singing.

Several girlfriends and, indeed, my wife have been obsessed to different levels by Bowie so I ended up almost loving many of his songs by osmosis. Of the stuff that I would say I love first hand, it is, as someone of a rockist bent, Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane that I have always preferred although I owned a much-played copy of Scary Monster as well. I liked his stuff enough to go and see him at the Milton Keynes Bowl which was a great gig and his band at the time were brilliant. I also thought the exhibition at the V & A was excellent stuff which really brought home how much of a phenomena he had been and, to an extent, still was.

Of course, we all have our own views of when and if he went crap and there was some turkeys in his output but, for someone who was obviously committed to having a vast and varied canon, he was going to make some mistakes but, I think, the good stuff more than outweighed it.

It's odd as, due to him having disappeared somewhat from the public eye for now obvious reasons, it is hard to say he will be missed as his stuff is still so omnipresent and, largely, fresh that it will always be with us, as it were. For instance, just when you think you have heard the last of 'Heroes', it pops up again.

It occurred to me this morning that, in reality, I probably like more of his stuff than the Beatles and Stones put together. Also, Space Oddity in 1969? Amazing.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

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Calvert wrote

If I hear ... 'constantly reinventing himself' again today though ...

I remember back in the day, Bowie said he was always far more comfortable playing a character than being himself. If anything, the characters wrote and performed the songs, more than "he" did. That made perfect sense to me. Every time I saw Bowie as "himself" when I was young - on chat shows, or on that wonderful Bing Crosby's Christmas special clip - he came across as really quite shy and reticent, quite in contrast to the flamboyance of his stage creations. He was, it seems, an actor, as much as anything, an actor seeking new role after new role to spark his creativity. His role just happened to be musical genius.

[Come along, Min]

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Bored of Education wrote: the British astronaut tweeted his sympathy from the ISS - a more fitting tribute I can't imagine.

Ground control to Major Tim (Peake).

[dalliance]

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I worry about someone for whom Bowie was less musically intrinsic than Motörhead. For how long can Ace of Spades give you musical sustenance?

Bowie was one of those rare artists for whom my favourite track would shift and change over time. When I was a teenager it was Ashes to Ashes and in the intervening decades it has moved through Golden Years, Sound and Vision, The Supermen and Life on Mars. For a while now it has been Boys Keep Swinging.

[Bored Of Education]

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dalliance wrote: Chatting there to a chap I know to exchange pleasantries with. We agree that it's really sad news and I ask him if he was a Bowie fan. He says oh yes and follows up by saying he owns the Best of Bowie.

To be fair, if it is that triple album, there is shitloads on it. Actually, to be really fair, if he likes the music, he likes the music, there isn't an exam he has to pass.

I can hardly claim to be his greatest fan but I am still moved by his death.

[Bored Of Education]

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dalliance wrote: I worry about someone for whom Bowie was less musically intrinsic than Motörhead. For how long can Ace of Spades give you musical sustenance?=

Perhaps apposite that you posted that while I was replying to your post judging someone else's enjoyment of Bowie.

I am not going to come on a Bowie thread and argue why I prefer Motorhead but, you know, it's objective, isn't it? Lots of people loved him in lots of different ways and to lots of different levels and that was part of his genius.
As I say, I loved Sound and Vision enough as an 11 year old to be going around singing it in primary school and still was into him enough to be enthralled by a massive exhibition of him well into my 40s. That's enough, isn't it?

[dalliance]

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If Sal Solo died and someone said they liked him and had The Best of Classic Nouveaux then I'd not bat an eyelid.

But it's rather different with an artist who had the breadth and scope of Bowie. As great as the greatest hits are, they barely scratch the surface of the man and his music.

[dalliance]

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It's absolutely objective of course. I was just a bit taken aback by Motörhead. And AC/DC too if truth be told.

[Bored Of Education]

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MsD wrote:

Be interested to hear MSD's thoughts when she's had time to digest the news and reflect upon his legacy.

Thanks for thinking of me, my heart is broken.

Read Tony Visconti in NME, and Iggy's tribute.

Where is Iggy's tribute?

[Calvert]

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Come on, if you meet someone who claims their favourite Motörhead track was Ace Of Spades you wouldn't automatically think 'part-timer'?

[Bored Of Education]

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dalliance wrote: It's absolutely objective of course. I was just a bit taken aback by Motörhead. And AC/DC too if truth be told.

What I was trying to show is how he could be liked and, to an extent, influence those of a staunchly rockist slant.

As i say, I am not going to derail this thread giving the merits of AC/DC and Motorhead.

[dalliance]

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To me it would be akin to someone claiming their favourite Toto Coelo song wasn't 'I eat cannibals'.