Comments on: Sound + Vision

By: mark s

mark s — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 15:43:39 +0000

i seem to remember him explicitly remarking – maybe round abt the time he did the voiceover for “peter and the wolf” (late 70s?) – that he was doing something for the real actual kids (ie pre-teens rather than “Ver Kids”), seeing as zowie was now [well depends when he said it, i guess]: so stuff like labyrinth fitted in w.that, and i think fans – if they needed to – put it on the “stuff for zowie’s generation” shelf and didn’t mind

By: st

st — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 20:53:38 +0000

Booed off Wire to get to the Tubes, huh? Wow… I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for sure, but that doesn’t sound like a choice I would have made.

By: Steve E.

Steve E. — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 17:07:18 +0000

As a 47-year-old, I’ll take great pleasure in stating that I am indeed old. Saw Bowie for the first time back in ‘72, supported by an almost unknown group called Roxy Music. Reminds me that even though Low was voted best album, it is apparent that the most influential musician throughout the Seventies (for his own work, plus Bowie’s, Devo’s, Talking Head’s etc, etc ) was Roxy’s synth supremo Brian Eno. I also found Wire having all three of their albums on the list highly amusing. They are the only band I’ve ever booed off stage (in fairness, I was completely off my head and desperate to see the Tubes for the first time in London, having been a fan across the water for over two years… )

By: Keith M Ellis

Keith M Ellis — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 06:55:53 +0000

“Funny that no one mentioned his role as Andy Warhol in Basquiat. It was definitely the most convincing Andy I’ve seen in a movie (not that I knew the guy, or anything).” I was going to mention this, too. His “Warhol” was the best thing about that film. He was absolutely fantastic. Accurate? Seems like it—but, like you, I didn’t know the man or anything. But that this is my favorite portrayal of Warhol is saying something given that my main man Crispin Glover memorably played Warhol in “The Doors”. Jesus, quit playing the old man, d^2. I’m pretty sure you’re not that old. I don’t have a problem with Ted’s comparisons and I’m 40.

By: radek

radek — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 00:45:00 +0000

“Surely, he’d crossed that line a long, long time before with “The Laughing Gnome?”” No, no, no. That’s a great song. “Why don’t you go gnome?” “I can’t, I’m a gnomad.” It takes a certain kind of genius to write that and get away with it.

By: novakant

novakant — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 00:32:44 +0000

ahem, make that “Just a Gigolo”

By: novakant

novakant — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 00:02:41 +0000

I’ve been a fan since I was twelve (was born the year Space Oddity came out, getting old, he) and went through his whole back-catalogue then. I must have displayed a bit of well earned arrogance when “Let’s Dance” came out and everybody who never had heard of him before borrowed it, but in the end I was happy that he acquired so many new fans, even though I harboured similar feelings to what planehalder described about the sell-out and creative crisis starting with this album. Tried hard to avoid/cancel my family’s summer holidays to see him live at the “Serious Moonlight” tour, alas, to no avail. “Tonight” was a bit of a letdown and the “Tin Machine” thing just awful (loved “Blue Jean” though), so my enthusiasm went away slowly but surely, until, sometime in the late nineties I noticed he was writing good songs again. I finally saw him live in 2003 in Berlin and he played for almost 3 hours, 33 songs a lot of not so well knowns too – one could feel he truly loved to be back in Berlin it was heaven. (You can get a good impression of the Reality tour on DVD, it was recorded in Dublin, pity the Irish had to murder “Life on Mars” with a big singalong :) ). So now I’m glad I never had written him off completely. As to the question “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” is really good, “The Hunger” was fair enough, I never managed to see “American Gigolo” (any good?), and don’t really want to see Labyrinth. Btw, did you know he “starred” and performed a few songs in a video game called “Omikron – The Nomad Soul”, it’s quite fun actually.

By: nick

nick — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 23:22:56 +0000

I’m glad that redshift mentioned Bowie’s cameo in Into The Night, which is a very fun film, although I suspect it’s dated terribly in the years since I last saw it. (Perhaps it’s my recent addiction to GTA: Vice City, but I’m feeling a little less embarrassed about the slick, pastel-coloured world of the 80s than I did a decade ago.)

By: Ancarett

Ancarett — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 21:48:19 +0000

I first became a Bowie fan when I saw his duet, on a Christmas special, with Bing Crosby. Talk about culture clash potential (but it worked). I didn’t have any problem with his movie roles. Labyrinth remains a favourite. They’re all part of his constant reinvention, which is a great part of his charm.

By: praktike

praktike — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 18:31:19 +0000

Everything he did with Eno was great, but Low is my fave.

By: cleek

cleek — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 15:11:04 +0000

Bowie on IMDB: 62 composer credits 25 acting credits 25 “misc” credits

By: chris

chris — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 10:19:09 +0000

Riley is right about Bowie’s trajectory after Ziggy Stardust. Of course this coincided with the point at which he became a mega-star, so quality control was subsequently out of the question, on celluloid or vinyl. It was also the point at which he stopped playing small theatres and colleges, so his live act suffered as well. Of course, I’m so old I can remember seeing him as a white-face mime in 1967, so you could say I’d had my suspicions all along.

By: ajay

ajay — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 09:54:07 +0000

“Note that “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” was a Viet Nam movie, very different from the other sci-fi/fantasy-type movies. I recommend it highly.” I agree, except that it was a WW2 film.

By: Planethalder

Planethalder — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 09:28:53 +0000

Sorry, “More films featuring Bowie”..

By: Planethalder

Planethalder — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 09:26:26 +0000

More films featuring films: + Just a Gigolo (with Marlene Dietrich) + Christiane F (just him singing but about a drugged up Bowie obessive) + Yellowbeard (walk-on part) + Absolute Beginners (all dancing, all singing Bowie) + The Linguini Incident (with Rosanna Arquette) + Twin Peaks (walk-on) + Everybody Loves Sunshine / Buster (Bowie as gangster boss – actually an excellent and convincing role in a very bad film) + Mr Rice’s Secret I’m ashamed to say I’ve watched every single one (I even own Just a Gigolo on video – I hunted it down on eBay).