FORGET THAT IM 52 COS YOU JUST GOT BLOGGED
how strange
that i was thinking of a blogge about bowie n reed et al
that certain moment those guys made it all seem
like it could make sense
1972 -1974
poor billy dolls
overdosing on mandrax
mick ronson
boy he could play guitar
easy to underestimate actual impact at the time
youve had 30 odd years to get used to all that stuff
but in dull olde 1972
ziggy was space manna from hevven seventeen
of course its like watching an old episode of doctor who now
you can laugh at the tinseliness of the whole thing
and all the gay stuff seems kinda silly to me now
at least all that preening pouting posturing
n occaisional absurd get-up...
wow! do they really wear their mums blouse on mars?
but there were some great life altering bits too
like the guitar solo at the end of moonage daydream
it made me want to burst outta lyneham
i wanted the real thing laid on me
and the church of manlove
or the church of man, love
careful with that comma, eugene
thats a big distinction!
anyway these strings come in at end
they sound kinda weird n thinned out n speeded up
and bowies going in out in out
and oh yeah
hes reconciled the great opposites of space n sex
in out
the guitar climbs higher
its like theres all this squeaky stuff hanging on to it
the guitar moans n howls in deep echo
wow
it made me feel like i was in on something important
i realised pretty soon that bowie had booted bolan off #1 position
bolan was already losing his vitality
while bowie oozed possibilities
there was no contest
i was hooked on ziggy
i got all the rest..
space oddity n man who fell to earth
although i loved em
i didnt get the same hit from em as ziggy
hunky dory was close tho
tho i didnt like cover that much
at heart i guess im fairly butch
n too much men dressing up as women
quite frankly bores n eventually pisses me off
i doonae see any appeal or entertainment in that bit
listening to ziggy right now
its all very squealy n camp
anyway eventuall along came alladin sane
which i loved almost as much as well
and then diamond dogs
which i loved more than ziggy
and the bad reviews at the time were BULLSHIT!
bowie revealed what a fucking cool guitarist
n keyboard player he himself was
playing virtually every note on here
bar bass drums n some chucka chucka guitar bit
sweet thing was my fave
"i'll make you a deal like any other candidate"
boy i rolled that phrase round in my mouth
then young americans n david live
which i liked some n hated some
then station to station
i loved golden years n word on wing
but the rest left me a little cold kinda
i dunno i guess that opening track like the train is ok
wild is the wind is bowie singing in that affected way
which i liked then but i hate now
aint that strange
the older i get the less artifice i want
then low
i love low
i still do
the instrumental stuff is gigantic
especially considering the times
singing in his own language too
its colossal its genius i reckon
or as close as we get in rock
i loved heroes too
but not love lodger.....
i hated that remake of sister midnight
bowie i felt
was starting to show the 1st signs of not caring
and if they dont care i dont care
thats what its all about
caring
and it shows
whatever you think about what i do
at least its obvious that i care
some of its good
some of its probably rubbish
but its all been cared about
and loved too
scary monsters..
a twilight album
between bowie as he was
and the bowie after lets dance
the only thing i like about lets dance
was the cover of criminal world
n china girl too
after that bowie n i part ways
tonight except for loving the alien was pathetic
then its just a bit of a blur
i mean i had em or blagged em from emi
but boy
talk about not caring
seeming lost
unable to tell good from bad
listen to never let me down
one faintly good song
i cant even remember its name
the one about the migraine
tin machine...i dunno
i hated it
both of em cept for that one song on the second one
ok theres been the odd thing since then
under pressure etc
hallo spaceboys pretty good
thursdays child too
i mean i want to like bowie
i really do
im already predisposed to it
but that silly affected singing
and seemingly random lyrics
that dont really make feel...anything
but dont get me wrong
bowie is one of the big ones
for me
and everybody else
even if he'd only done ziggy he'd be immortal
as it is
hes innovated and paved the way
for loadsa loadsa people
me bigly included
hes up there in some dumb pantheon i guess
eventually however
i just felt he wasnt caring about it
as much as i wanted him to care about it
which is his business
i realise that
if he wants to just toss stuff off without care or love
if he wants a orrible bleeding guitarist like reeves whatsisname
ruining all the songs with his cliched heavy tripe....ok
just dont ask me to be interested
but god
i will treasure some of this stuff for as long as i live
crystal japan
subterraneans
sons of the silent age
rocknroll suicide
"gimme yer hands cos yer wonderfull!"
gimme yer comments cos some of ya are wonderfull
nevzzy killdust
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63 comments:
I hope I'm one of the wonderful ones....
I found myself saying "yeah! yeah! I thought that too" more times than I expected while reading your blog today. Kinda fun. :-)
Played Aladin Sane over n over again too - "ate all the razors while pulling the waiter", "talkin' bout monroe and walkin' on snow white"
Missed out on Ziggy and the Spiders but msut check it out.
I agree with you Bowie entirely, immensly talented, great voice, but not dynamic anymore.
Thanks for the insight
Love
Celticat
me agree with you on the bowie thing, me love me bauhaus version of "ziggy stardust" way better...
Jonny Hollywood
time makes fools of all men
while men try to fool time
love fools time
most of the time
but who really knows?
who's who
and who's the fool.
me? i? u?
who knows?
and why know?
you Know?
and why know knows?
who's who
and time
but fools love time
but who's really who? the fool?
i, me, u and
who
makes time of all men
men try to fool time
most of the time
i'm loving music 101 this term mr kilbey
if only music at school could have been this educational and inspirational
love your work
xx
professor kilbey, i really enjoy this musicology course. forever interesting because it seems you are dead on the money so many times and then at others specifically with your own music...so off. but bless you for both and thanks for almost making me delve into the seventies which would have been anathema even 3 years ago.
blessed one,
richard
OY CAPTAIN! ME CAPITAN!?
"Heathen" made up for lottsa lost ground.
Lurv, El Glynnie
I'm a Bowie aficionado myself, Mr Kilbey. I'd concur with much of your analysis.
I would have to agree with you about your own work too. I don't like all of it ('Dabble' in particular just doesn't do it for me) but no one could ever say that you don't put the care into your music.
i appreciate dabble quite a bit. like hearing a long lost friend.
r.
Ziggy Stardust is my favorite
Bowie album of all time.
I still have my vinyl all the
early stuff rare imports, but
I lost interest after Diamond
Dogs, what a great cover painting
on that one.
I bought a print of Ziggy at the
Sea pool, you really captured the
essence of Ziggy.
It's a cold Halloween night in
So. Cal. wine country
Boo,
Maxine
i totally agree with your comments re:bowie, it broke my heart what happened after scary monsters, all that amazing innovation kinda just got swallowed up into bland tripe. however i heard a copy of 'outside' that when he played his label they refused to release it, i'll send a copy your way, it's very different from the released version and it's very good, a bit dark and broody, hardly any vocals,
heathen was pretty good, back with tony visconti there seemed to be something more thoughtful in the iintent behind the tunes but then 'reality' was kinda patchy.
But the cd that kinda went under the radar was the soundtrack, 'buddah of suburbia' which bowie made for the bbc, it's fantastic. (i'll pass that on as well)
it wasn't till i started playing in bands myself i realised how clever a musician he was, we used to do a few bowie covers and in looking at some of those song structures, he was a real artist. subterranians is awesome, its a painting in sound.
i'm with eek on this one: i found myself saying to myself "yeah i hear ya" while reading today's entry....
and i found myself humming "suffragette city". (that's always a good one~~whenever it comes on the radio, believe me, the volume gets cranked way up!!) i've always loved bowie, especially the earlier stuff. i'm crazy about "china girl", but haven't really gotten into much by him after that.
steve, it's VERY obvious that you care about your music. i've never thought anything else about you in that respect. i love and appreciate the way you put so much of yourself into what you do, like you cherish each creation. and because you do, i do. YOU are wonderful!!
lotza love....
i remember late 70's falling in love with low, letter to hermione is beautiful too ... who else can switch from style to style apart from him and you its the chameleon quality
at a db concert in 83 somebody threw a bottle during the models support and split my friends head open so we spent the evening in the hospital, paul dainty gave her some compo i think she bought a washing machine with the money or maybe it was a fridge, cold comfort anyway
pretty devastated by that red shoes business ...
but he still puts on a great show
does a bit of painting too
i was walking along the street in soho the other night and the lights were on in his penthouse i have to admit it was pretty exciting he didn't feel the need to pop down to the corner shop for some milk or a chiko roll at that moment though unfortunately
Ah, SK, yer takin' a page right out of my life here. I was 17 going on 18 when Ziggy Stardust came out, though I had a copy of Space Oddity before that courtesy of my older brother, which really captured my imagination. I immediately set about to learn the chords to Oddity on my cheap Alvarez acoustic guitar and felt so satisfied to get it right, I love it to this day for it's forlorn, lost feeling. But the Ziggy persona, man - I went out and bought that one at Oz Records & Tapes in Atlanta and studied it intently. Hmmm. ..he went from long blonde in a dress to red feathered spaceman, and I was captivated. Ronson's Les Paul slashes and tone, great solid-body sound, informs the whole thing. Bowie's live schtick of fellating Mick's guitar made me squirm a bit when I saw them at the Omni in 74 (was it?), my older brother dug it - he's gay. Rebel Rebel, whatta riff - Bowie could play pretty good himself; The Jean Genie, great songs. All this amidst my flaming prog-rock phase, what with Close to the Edge and it's ilk high on my playlist back in 72, it was yin and yang for me. Bowie was rock power & glory and uncomplicated.
He started to lose me after Heroes, which was such a strong statement and comeback of sorts. I loved that vocal effect he got by standing back from the mic and shouting in that achingly defiant sort of way, "and the shame - is on the other side, we can beat them - just for one day." I cried when I heard it; tears welled-up.
Today, yes he's entitled, it's his business, but - I was saddened when the stock shares were sold for his catalog, like some sort of Wall St. exchange commodity; I don't know. And his teeth are perfect now too. The duet with Bing Crosby on Little Drummer Boy, ok...the Dark Crystal. It's his legacy to do as he likes. He's among the immortals. It's Ziggy I remember most. Ziggy played guitar - indeed.
JJ
Side 2 of Heroes...Fanbloodytastic!!!
Oops the comment above was from me...rehan
Yikes!!! November already. Maybe this is the final countdown.
Fingers crossed Time Being won't close forever, maybe just go on holiday.
Great blogs lately, you've truly been inspired. Blast from the past about Bowie, now I won't be able to get his songs outa my mind.
Love Therese
Great blog today but in reference to "F.U.Q...", I would like to know if the tb range has t-shirts with these words emblazoned nearest thine most handsome visage (even WITH beard) "Gone Bohemian After Reading The Time Being"..??
After being such a t-shirt expert, couldn't ya knock some up, baybee?
I would LOVE a t-shirt containing Kilbey ONLY!
Yeah, I agree with the whole androgyny thing being well over-played and uninteresting (making the whole music aspect left feeling cheap)
Bowie defintely was cheapened with time and struggle. maybe he gave into a manager. I always felt - despite some of his earlier mentionables - has led a tongue-in-cheep catalog. I know that most will scoff at this. No harm meant, but it's what I do feel.
There are no more bands that hold wide appeal to the discriminating. It's broken completely open and there are so many out there now making great music. The internet is a great way to find new ones.
it's pretty funny what get's you to comment. Someone hails "db" and lo here he descends down upon the scrambling flock to retort with dense and melodic commentary.
Come back to the states , will you, man? damn commas.
Btw, I added a new song
I remember working at Peaches Records in Dallas in 1977. I was a mild Bowie fan, didn't know what to make of him. One day I was stocking a new orange album called LOW. The rest of the staff loved it and played it twice a day for weeks and each listen was torture for me - I hated it so much. It was too foreign to anything I had ever known or imagined. Nails on a chalkboard. The sound of Martians wilting. Pathetic and annoying. I begged them not to play it anymore to no avail. And then one day, about the 50th time I heard it, it was if a door that wouldn't open in my brain was finally kicked in. And there stood LOW, in all its twisted fucked up glory. The music bathed over me and showed me dull colors I'd never seen before. There was no curve of realization, I just suddenly GOT IT. LOW was a masterpiece, it was ME who was wrong! It's the best example I've ever had of an album refusing to give up on me, repeating itself until I was conquered. I loved it passionately that day and all the way to this day. LOW is a vitamin that opens yer mind. Vitamin L. And then Heroes the same year! 1977 belongs to him and Talking Heads. Hated them too at first. Was I born with a narrow mind?
I was heavily into Bowie too. I even pursued albums I already had, but on different labels (Man Who Sold the World etc.) I hung on doggedly through Let's Dance, but he lost me with 'Tonight'. No matter, I'd already discovered Oz rock by then, especially The Church!
I must say that 'Reality' is pretty good, though...
PS: Later in 1982, I went to see T Bone Burnett play in Dallas at a small club The Church would later play in - so I went to the soundcheck to try and meet him. Well, there was T Bone (take a deep breath, go up and say hi..) and standing next to him, completely unexpectedly was MICK FUCKING RONSON! I asked, "What are YOU doing here?" T Bone's guitarist had gone ill at the last minute so T Bone called Mick and there we all were standing at a bar. Mick handed me a beer and suggested we sit at a table to chat. He was amazingly nice and good humored. I have been amazingly unlucky at times in my life. On this day, the opposite was true, because I became casual friends for half an hour with one of the coolest people ever made. Met him again later when he toured with Ian Hunter and he was just as nice, but there's nothing like seeing him in the room when he wasn't supposed to be there. God is good, god is great, how should we retaliate? Amen...
Ah, Criminal World. A great song. I really love the original and that entire album by Metro. What an underappreciated band.
Bowie leads the Pantheon.
Who else has has a decade of such consistent diverse genius output as he did in the 70's.
There's been a return to some kind of form from The Hours onwards and his last tour kicked serious ass. Can't decide if the newer albums are good or just not as bad as the 80's ones.
At least he had the sense to fire Reeves 'twiddly widdly squeely' Gabrels.
He's even cool enough to cover Tom Verlaine and nice enough to put me on his guest list after a rough night flight back from a Choich gig in Noo Yoik in 99.
God he's almost as good a bloke as you. Almost as good a songwriter too.
And He coulda been a Killa if he didn't walk the way he do.
Bet he likes a bitta Popol Vuh with his green tea & m honey an all.
Enough from me. May moondust cover you all,
Franky Belfdust
dearet Kil-O
"aint that strange
the older i get the less artifice i want"
... which sums up that which you offer as well as it does that which you wish for, olde bean.
dearest, even.
Quality not quantity
first thing lindsay said after the show was how impressed she was by how much you care about the music
I meet Bowie in Wellington, not as many nerves as meeting SK. But what a man. There will only ever one bowie.
Ashes to ashes burns my soul with other world feelings, even now more than ever
But for pure brilliance try "Outside" 1999.........His very best ART/MUSIC/PROSE/SPACEROCK.
a FUCCIN RIDE TO THE David Jones dark side Love et!!!
M
If I didn't enjoy your blog so much already, you'd have won me over with this one. I'll be a rock 'n' rollin' bitch for you any day, SK... :)
DON'T STOP BLOGGING! hehehe....
your blog today reminds me of something that - for me - sets the Church apart from most others (including Bowie)
I don't think, or say, of The Church "I liked their earlier stuff better"
Ditto Richard above.
Bowie! Man, no-one disappointed me more in latter years than Bowie. One of my first idols along with Bolan .. the subjects of my very first serious high school portraits. Mick Ronson – god! Bowie music lost me a long time ago but I still have huge appreciation for those early years. I didn’t even like China Girl …hated hated hated Lets Dance...cringe!!Ashes to Ashes was v good and I did buy the single of ‘Absolute Beginners’... Tried to like Tin Machine, was he purposely trying to rid his newer audience with that one? An actor acquaintance did hide him out on visits to Oz at his secluded house in Qld hills but I was never around when he was. I’d be in awe tho’… no doubt about that....he's still Mr Cool even tho' I hate those perfect teeth. The killer guitar tunes ie Diamond Dogs, Suffragette City, Jean Genie, Rebel Rebel (‘got your mother in a whirl, she’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl’…god yeah, great riffs there … great songs (I seem to like the heavy guitar ones). They still live on for me, play’em loud and then there’s Heroes, All The Young Dudes, Ziggy Stardust, Sorrow, Changes, Be My Wife (Low’s a great album) etc… the bad ones slowly fade away. And I’ll always be grateful for his part in Lou’s ‘Transformer’ and Iggy’s Lust for Life.
sk Im so grateful you care! it shows. I think u were spot on with Bowie.
sorry! got a bit carried away there with Bowie! Rushing off now to play some.
Easily the best Bowie performance of the last 10 years was his acoustic rendition of "Dead Man Walking" on the Conan O'Brien show here in the states. Reeves Gabriel's didn't have his effects, he had to settle for an acoustic, so I hear you there, man. If Bowie turned into a folkie, it'd be the best thing for him. His voice, lyrics and melodies really shine through in this format.
Like Grant Hart of Husker Du once said, "if you can't play a song on an acoustic guitar and have it sound good, then you don't have a good song to begin with". Indeed.
Peace and Love SK,
puccifish
steve,i just think the thin white duke has run out of places to go.you guys are still learning to play,write,sing,discover yourselves,and the world around you.just look what this blog thing has done!the feedback is so cool,these people aren't awestruck 'fans' they consider you a very good friend indeed.i think you have allowed a lot of people into your heart,to be sure are a lot of places round the globe where your'e ok for a veg curry glass of jag and bed for the night! hope all new projects go well,all the best,andy L.-----nepenthine-----nepenthine-----nepenthine.
I'm with RICHARD
your blog today reminds me of something that - for me - sets the Church apart from most others (including Bowie)
I don't think, or say, of The Church "I liked their earlier stuff better"
Couldn't have put it any better!
Celticat
During the Third Bowie Renaissance of a few years ago, I slavishly collected everything on re-release up to and including Never Let Me Down. What tosh! Time Will Crawl is the only hint of any saving grace.
Spread too thinly on the burnt toast of the 80's, it still left a bad taste in the mouth.
I bought Heathen and traded it in for a second hand copy of the Christiane F soundtrack. My heart was at the Zoobahnhoff at the time. I think it still is.
But, oh....
Up The Hill Backwards
Fantastic Voyage
Sons of the Silent Age
Sound and Vision
Station To Station
(Young Americans....cough)
Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing
Sorrow
Time
Lady Stardust
Quicksand
All the Madmen
Cygnet Committee
yea, verily, and even London Boys...
Canonical, Exemplary, Paragons of Song, all.
I mean, Cygnet Committee...
"We had a friend, a talking man
Who spoke of many powers he had
Not of the best of men, but ours
We used him
We let him use his powers
We let him fill our needs
Now we are strong..."
Much has been made of Bowie's fading powers. I think of him as the man in this song, exhausted beyond all measure until his spirit has all but departed, his elegant blond shell miming to the strains of Forgotten Song as the crowd below adores without passion...
After many, many years I finally got to see Mick Ronson in 1990, with Ian Hunter. In the middle of the set, Ronno sang White Light White Heat. 8 months later the news came through that he'd got cancer.
That soaring, yearning solo at the end of Moonage Daydream - those long, elegiac, extended notes...
God bless you, Mick.
a slinky space bowie cat
slants the mic
leg over legs
station-between-station
tail would leave tracers of
moondust, strum n acoustic
hey, hold on to yourself
I said, hey
dont do it! Heathen!
yu did..its all ch..ch..changes
chasin your own tail now
now its too self-conscious
contrived expression
to love..
the oddity
strung out on heavens high
feeling an all time low
Well your still beautiful you pretty thing
I think of you fondly
liked seeing you singing
with trent reznor playing sax softly
you are capable of such a world
Bowie lives y'all
nothing can be perfect
cuz you can never really tell
if somebody wants something you want to
Stay
thats what I meant to say
and dont you wonder
sometimes
bout Sound and Vision..
cool tribute
nevzzy killdust..
Space is the place.
jaime r....
i agree china girl was great, but you fail to mention stevie ray vaughns playing on that album?
"tin machine...i dunno
i hated it"
I remember seeing Tin Machine on Saturday Night Live. It was...terrible.
John
completely agree with your bowie history...he was always playing in my house (along with the beatles) cause my mom was way into him. loved ziggy, low, etc. by the time lets dance came out, i had just a couple of years earlier started really finding bands and music on my own. for the most part didn't like lets dance...mom did though. i only liked china girl off that one. then in '87 i guess, he was on that big production which was the glass spider tour. my mom asked me and my best friend to go with her...we gladly accepted the invite. it was a good show really. some of it too much, overdone...a spectacle! but when he played the older stuff i loved it, but more importantly saw my mom turn into a 20 year old again...that made it all worth it. so what if he had peter frampton playing guitar on that tour! still love bowie today, but yeah, wished he care more about his art now. with you steve...that's never in question.
fuc it.Bowie is the best EVER!!!!!
tHATS All nevets\\people write music,Bowie INVENTS IT.
end of story
that was cool, thanks essss-k-k-k-kay. enjoying this music edjumucation. i know books pretty well, but my music background is patchy. i'm so depressed and disgusted with music today - c-rap and godawful hip hop and whiny angry white guys (take your nickel back, please!). For the past several years i've pretty much ignored it all and stuck with the choich and related projects.
glad for this chance to fill in my back catalog and go exploring. :-)
ryan
jj, it was Labyrinth, NOT the Dark Crystal Bowie was in.
sorry HAD to clear that up.
Now then Dear Orpheus, I am responding here as well
as the other place.
While not everyone will like every Bowie album,
neither does He, and rightly so.
BUT a god He is, the top of the music Pantheon for me,
(with The Church and The Damned a very close second).
Tin Machine MUST be recognized for the galvanizing
experience is was at the time. It gave him back His
rock n roll soul.
I could go on and on and on ad nauseum, but I won't
for I do love thee and thy music so. Many a time
have I wondered at the lack of comapairson
between The Church's space music and Bowie's.
ah well, what the critics dont' know...
xo
Mary
"Ah, that shows you the power of music, that magician of magician, who lifts his wand and says his mysterious word and all things real pass away and the phantoms of your mind walk before you clothed in flesh".
- Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc / Mr Twain
Church and Bowie?
Didn't Nevets take acid just before going to see Bowie in Los Angeles during the recording of Starfish, and subsequently write Reptile about the way Bowie's eyes on the video screen seemed to be staring right into SK's like a snake about to devour a mouse?
As far as Bowie goes, I always dug him for what ever he was doing. It was definitely something different each time, each record, each film etc. I even loved "Earthling"...it was just so different for him, but it too worked. He's just a cool chap...that's it. He's quirky and wierd, but he's suave and refined, a great self re-inventor.
Hey, he also played a great "Nik Tesla" in "The Prestige" I thought.
So, yeah, I guess I would have to say that I too have been greatly influenced by good old Davie Bowie. He's definitely one of the big ones.
SK, you ,however, are one of the GRAND ones in my book :) No worries...
Thanks, Steve, for your great, great blog. I absolutely love it and am proud that I can say I am a reader of TTB. You gotta know that by now though. Peace to you and the fam.
Have a great day,
Ben V.
bowie and his masks. i don't know i used to think he was great, but ultimatly throughout all his music thiers a coldness, clever but cold, thier would be no love and rockets or church without him, but even thier not that important pop music is not that important family is important health is important
Steve, I know I'm probably the wrong person to comment, but everything you have been involved in since 1981 blows everything Bowie has been involved in since 1981 into oblivion. No question about that.
Forget Yourself probably even tops anything Bowie was involved in ever, in my humble opinion.
I am obviously making these observations through the lens of having perfect taste in music myself.
Brian
52. Life, universe, everything just Ten Years After. Went there Saturday.
SK,
I suspect I'm not one of the wonderful ones, but I am a loyal one.
Strangely enough Ziggy was the first lp I ever bought. 1972 - I was 7 and it was on a kind of bendy vinyl. I've bought and let go lots of Bowie over the years but I've only retained Hunky, Ziggy & Aladdin. I love loads of Hunky, bit and pieces of Aladdin but I still adore Ziggy. Partly for the memories but also 'cos it still takes me somewhere else.
I got hold of the "Inside Bowie & the Spiders, 69 - 74" DVD for xmas last year. It's a must have 'cos there's loads of stuff with Trevor B & Woody. No Ronson for obvious and tragic reasons. But it's great to see Trevor talking about the bass-line to John, I'm Only Dancing & then playing it.......wonderful. Oh for such an insight into your work SK, but then...we've got the blog, which has to be one of the most joyous experiences of my life. To be this close to an artist you idolise is just amazing. Your careful with that comma Eugene line. Makes me humble to have the chance to get this close.
And last thing: it constantly amazing how little rubbish you do put out...next to nothing in 27 years. Talking of that long-haired glam-rock "thang" I went and had a look at piccies you in your first band on the Shadow Cabinet site last night! Cute!! If any fiends out there haven't had a look, it's a must!!! Made me think about your blog a few weeks ago when you mentioned about your Dad finally giving up telling you to get your hair cut!
The great rocker Ian Rilen died on Monday morning.
Listen to his subatomic bass.
The last two blogs, bud, were exceptional. That whole argument that 'writing about music is like dancing about architecture' is largely true, but you have managed to capture the incomparable joy that music can give and communicated that, to so many, it is a lifeblood, a non-negotiable 'must have' that drowns the dust of everyday living. Must sheepishly admit, I quoted a few lines from this in me own blog, so apropos were they. Don't put away your aching typing fingers just yet; we're all loving it.
Mick Ronson RIP.
Check out his crazy slide guitar solo on The Wildhearts track "My Baby Is A Headf*ck".
We have to be the luckiest generation ever music-wise traveling thru the 60's, 70's on to the 80's and 90's. When I think of all the incredible music I've listened to over those years, I'm amazed. And you reeling off all the Bowie albums I grew old with was such a nice nostalgic reminder! Thanks.
Ed in Florida
Mandn/Mary - yes, Labyrinth - thanks, been a while.
JJ
Memphis --James Jackson and his buddy Andre Peeples reeled in a little more than they hoped for while fishing Sunday afternoon. "I was just sitting on the barge and this half a mountain, half a car just floated right by," Jackson says.
It is no mountain, or car. "Long head, knots all over. Thought it was an alligator or crocodile," Peeples says. It's the kind of thing you just have to see to believe. And we get a good look up above from News Chopper Three. A manatee swimming in the fresh waters of the Wolf River Harbor on Mud Island. "I couldn't do anything for about 15 minutes. (Reporter) Scary? (Jackson) Scary," Jackson says.
Manatees aren't from around here. They like the warm waters of Florida and Brazil. Authorities believe at 8 to 10 feet, this big boy made his way up the Mississippi River by way of Louisiana. Even Memphis Zoo curators can't believe the sea cow is so far from home. "No, I was pretty surprised, complete shock," Andy Kouba says.
Authorities with the the U-S Coast Guard, Tennessee Department of Wildlife, and Memphis Zoo spent most of the afternoon monitoring the sea mammal, while spectators tried to get a glimpse. They even tried to feed him a couple founds of cabbage, just to see if he'd bite. They also want to keep him safe until they find out what they should do with him.
Authorities here do believe he's a strong manatee, stong enough to survive the cooler temps here. They will be back here Tuesday morning to see if he is still here, but they think he may just swim back south on his own.
They're also still waiting on direction from the feds since this is a threatened species.
Wolf River Harbor - A manatee rescue team from Sea World Orlando is on the way to Memphis to rescue our warm-water visitor, and their arrival can't come too soon... as our temperatures keep dropping.
Memphis has no manatee experts, so police and the coast guard are following the lead of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources agency and Florida Game and Fish experts.
They're trying to keep the animal corralled until proper help can arrive.
Normally you'll find what some call "sea cows" in the warm waters of the coast from Florida to Texas. But they do like to travel and have even made it all the way up to New England.
But the midwest? Cargill manager Joe Sparks thought it was a joke.
"Police officers came in the door and said someone called in and said a hippo was down here and I told him to be careful and watch for the elephants." laughed Sparks, a Cargill Inc. manager.
These gentle creatures are not predators, and just wander around looking for food. The Memphis manatee has attracted quite a crowd since word got out, and not all of them are happy.
Here's the problem: Manatees need warm water to survive. They can't live in water below 60 degrees without suffering from hypothermia. The water here is said to be warmer than the Mississippi river, but I'm told the river level rose about 5 feet overnight, sending more cold water into this harbor.
And manatee lovers say this one does NOT need to stay.
"It needs to be gotten out of the water." said Kathy Curtis of midtown who isn't one bit happy about the lack of action from wildlife officials. She wants the manatee captured, removed and kept warm until it can be moved to Florida.
"They made no effort to try to keep this manatee from going back into the Mississippi where it could have been struck by a tree or anything." she said. Curtiss has gone swimming with Florida's manatees several times and knows how gentle and curious they are. She doesn't want to see it die as Memphis temperatures continue to drop.
And neither do any of the neighboring businesses here who have pledged to do all they can to save this gentle creature.
"If there's anything we can do, we'll give 'em all the assistance we can."
Manatees are noriously hard to catch, and have to be kept constantly wet when moved.. but it can be done. Local officials don't want to chance doing the job themselves because they don't know these animals.
That's why the Sea World team's arrival, probably sometime Wednesday, will be crutial to the survivial of the Memphis manatee.
well now, I'm so glad I reminded you of Bowie because your response surprises me to no end. Excellent to see your thoughts. I agree with most everything you said although I still love everything he does. He was at his 'peak' during the Warhol years. The scenes at the factory and parties are quite commical! hahahah falling to earth.....
bowie and bolan. they were my two heroes. i was a kid at high school, violent alcoholic parents ,poverty, depression. when i heard the music of these two my head did a spin. i was instantly hooked. the whole glam rock thing. how it gave me a diversion from everyday life. i could lose myself totally in their music. space oddity was the first single i bought. later on i was to buy electric warrior. "lifes a gas" was my fave. anyway enuf from me i guess,
i will be seeing you at the NSC gigs in melbourne.
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