40 Year Itch: Bowie's St Valentine's Day Massacre

[Purchase Aladdin Sane]

  With the likes of Truman Capote, Salvador Dali and Todd Rundgren in the audience, David Bowie took the Radio City Music Hall stage to perform an unforgettable sold out concert on Februaru 14, 1973. It was unforgettable alright.

After a fan leaped on stage to embrace Ziggy during "Rock And Roll Suicide", Bowie fainted. Some people thought it was part of the act. Others could swear they heard gunshots. But those who have listened to the concert bootleg, St Valentine's Day Massacre, couldn't hear anything like that.


     An attending nurse blamed the ordeal on exhaustion. Someone with a medical degree added that Bowie's blocked up pores from all that Ziggy Stardust make-up probably didn;t help matters. David Bowie slept for 12 hours straight and performed again the next night.

SET LIST
1. Ode to Joy (Introduction)
2. Hang Onto Yourself
3. Ziggy Stardust
4. Changes
5. Soul Love
6. John I'm Only Dancing
7. Moonage Daydream
8. Five Years
9. Space Oddity
10. My Death
11. Watch That Man
12. Drive-In Saturday
13.Aladdin Sane
14 Panic in Detroit
15 Cracked Actor
16 The Width of a Circle
17. Time
18. The Prettiest Star
19. Let's Spend The Night Together
20. The Jean Genie
21. Suffragette City
22. Rock N Roll Suicide

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40 Year Itch : The Lost Jean Genie Performance

On January 3rd, 1973, David Bowie recorded this performance of "The Jean Genie" live to air the following night on the BBC's "Top of the Pops". Check out Mick Ronson's extended guitar solo and Bowie's extended harmonica solo! Tapes of the show had been wiped and the video was lost for decades before the only man with a copy, cameraman John Henshall (whose fish-eye lens shots are used several times here),  made it available for the BBC to re-air in 2011, much to the delight of rock fans worldwide.

 

"The Jean Genie", featuring its dirty Bo Diddley riff and lyrics that may be about Iggy Pop, was released November 24, 1972 and peaked at #2 in the UK but only #71 in the US. The Sweet's "Blockbuster", released in January of 1973, shares the same beat and heavy guitar sound. But both Bowie and Sweet have all agreed it was coincidence.
     Songwriter Nicky Chinn described a meeting with Bowie at which the latter "looked at me completely deadpan and said 'Cunt!' And then he got up and gave me a hug and said, 'Congratulations...' After all "Blockbuster" went #1.

 

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40 Year Itch: David Bowie Writes "Time"

[Purchase]

David Bowie performed two concerts in New Orleans in mid November. The first was uptown, November 14 at the Jesuit university, Loyola, which always had a better meal plan than Tulane University across the street. The second was November 22 at The Warehouse downtown, where Jim Morrison performed his last show with The Doors and where a friend of mine made out with a shockingly beautiful girl at a 1982 Talking Heads concert and discovered she was a he. It was sometime during this week that he wrote "Time" which would greatly benefit from the piano theatrics of Mike Garson when it was recorded a month later at Trident Studios.

The song is best known for its line : "Time; He flexes like a whore/ Falls wanking to the floor". RCA was fine with the masturbation imagery but removed the line "in quaaludes and red wine" from the US single. Not a big fan of the cabaret theatrics of Bowie, I like other things on 1973's Aladdin Sane a great deal more ( "Panic In Detroit", "The Jean Genie", "Cracked Actor").

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40 Year Itch All The Young Dudes

[Purchase]


Mott The Hoople had practically thrown in the towel for reasons previously discussed when bassist Pete Overend got a call from David Bowie offering Mott  "Suffragette City". Hours after Overend idiotically declined, Bowie called back with a new song he had written, a glam rock anthem that would revive Mott.  The single "All The Young Dudes" was released in July of 1972 and  peaked at #3 in the UK and #37 in the US.

On September 8, 1972 the Bowie produced album All The Young Dudes, one of my favorite albums of all time, was released. I knew nothing of Bowie swooping in to save the band. I just heard greatness.I found a cassette copy of the album in a Reno pawn shop. There was no case. No cover. I made my own cover using the bubblegum card photo of Elvis sailing.

Well, it is better than the album cover Mott used.And surprisingly, not that different from the originally planned cover photo -shot by Mick Rock. It might have been one of the seminal rock n roll photos of all time had it been used. No one from Mick to Ian Hunter can remember why it wasn't.

All The Young Dudes has one of the greatest A sides in rock history. It's also extremely sexual with sadists, evil mothers, schoolgirls in need of "reincelibation", a black man's balls and a singer who's been wanting to do "this" for years.

    It kicks off with a cover of the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane" written by Lou Reed who was also in the process of getting a make-over from Bowie. The result would be Transformer and  the single "Walk On The Wild Side".



Love the second cut, "Momma's Little Jewel", with its false beginning ( that's Bowie supposedly saying "Don't stop ...No...Carry on" and playing the dissonant sax at the end) and made up word: "Don't know why but I'm gonna try/ to reincelibate you ".



That's followed by the glorious title track and then another favorite of mine, "Sucker" , with its opening line " Hi there, your friendly neighborhood sadist want to take you for a ride".



The great "A" side ends with "Jerkin' Crocus", the Sticky Fingered tale of an aggressive "nads puller". There's the oft quoted line "I know what you want, just a lick from an ice cream cone." Jesus the riffs on this one!



It's a shame Side Two can't keep up the momentum. It's probably mostly noted for the single "One Of The Boys" and the first appearance of "Ready For Love" which Mick Ralphs would take with him when he joined Bad Company after 1973's classic Mott. Yes, a lot of fans say the best was yet to come for Mott The Hoople but All The Young Dudes will always be my favorite.

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40 Year Itch: Oh Lordy! Oh Lordy!

On September 1, 1972 David Bowie released the single "John, I'm Only Dancing". A gay anthem? It never struck me as such in my teenage years. I figured Bowie was dancing with John's girlfriend and explaining to his mate "we're only dancing". But because of the supposed subject matter, the song didn't get played in the US even as Bowie strutted onstage in full Ziggy Stardust mode, drawing full houses for his concert tour.

 In the UK, the single peaked at #12 as would the 1979 sequel "John, I'm Only Dancing ( again)". Queen stole the strumming guitar intro for "Crazy Thing Called Love". Trevor Bolder is playing the walking bass lines. The official video, seen below, was banned for its sexually suggestive dancers.


 

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Peter Murphy's All Time Top 10

From SMASH HITS JUNE 24, 1982 courtesy of Brian at Like Punk Never Happened

Peter Murphy provided this list for Smash Hits around the same time the single "Spirit" had charted. The forthcoming album The Sky's Gone Out featured covers of Brian Eno ( "Third Uncle") and, as a bonus track, David Bowie ("Ziggy Stardust") which may explain why those artists show up twice on this list.




   1. DAVID BOWIE The Bewlay Brothers - The lyrics are abstract but they convey something special to me
2. SCOTT WALKER If You Go Away- A very haunting love song beautifully sung

3. JACQUES BREL My Death- The lyrics are really strange.  They're also very moving because it celebrates death (which is how I think it should be approached because it's a rebirth.
4. JOHN LENNON Working Class Hero- I just totally agree with the lyrics.
5. THE BEATLES Within You Without You- It's a great psychedelic dance and it's way ahead of its time
6. BRIAN ENO Sparrow Fall Part Three- This conveys more in its simplicity than many songs manage in all their complexity
7. PATTI SMITH Horses- It's a strong poem set perfectly to music. Patti Smith sings like she's possessed and sometimes she goes into hysterical, indecipherable sections which amaze me



8. MARC BOLAN Life's A Gas- It's really sad when you think of him not being here anymore. And this is nice to remember him by
9. DAVID BOWIE All The Madmen- "And I'd rather play here with all the madmen for I am quite content they are all as sane as me."
10. DAVID BYRNE AND BRIAN ENO The Jezebel Spirit- This is set to a recording of an exorcism. It's very interesting.

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40 Year Itch: Like A Leper Messiah

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"I fell for Ziggy too. It was quite easy to become obsessed night and day with the character. I became Ziggy Stardust. David Bowie went totally out the window. Everybody was convincing me that I was a Messiah, especially on that first American tour (late 1972). I got hopelessly lost in the fantasy." - David Bowie ( 1976)

With The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, released June 6th , 1972, we can all witness David Bowie making love to his ego. Or is it his alter ego?




1972's best release ( there, I've said it) is a concept album and a statement about Bowie's own conflicted desire for stardom. The earth has five years left. (suggesting 1977, the year punk broke out, would be a pivotal year) Doom is at hand when a space invader arrives and offers salvation. To spread his message Ziggy Stardust becomes an androgynous rock star and takes the stage with The Spiders From Mars. But stardom lasts little longer than a cigarette and Ziggy's downfall ends on stage in a rock and roll suicide.

"At this point I had a passion for the idea of a rock star as meteor and the whole idea of The Who's line 'Hope I die before I get old'. At that youthful age you cannot believe that you'll lose the ability to be this enthusiastic and all-knowing about the world, life and experience. You think you've probably discovered all the secrets to life. Rock n Roll Suicide was a declaration of the end of the effect of being young"-DB

Bowie created his own myth and The Rise and Fall is its bible. If his band really was The Spiders From Mars then surely Bowie was Ziggy Stardust, a combination of Iggy Pop, Marc Bolan and Brit rockabilly star Vince Taylor who once confided to Bowie that he knew where all the UFOs were going to land.

"He was the inspiration for Ziggy. Vince Taylor was a rock n roll star from the Sixties who was slowly going crazy. Finally, he fired his band and went on-stage one night in a white sheet. He told the audience to rejoice, that he was Jesus. They put him away." DB


 
                 outtake from album cover photo shoot

When he began recording Ziggy, Bowie was at the height of his creative powers. Just weeks after Hunky Dory's release, Bowie knocked out the cover of Ron Davies's "It Ain't Easy " in September of 1971. November proved more fruitful with "Hang on to Yourself", "Ziggy Stardust", "Rock 'n' Roll Star" (later shortened to "Star"), "Moonage Daydream", "Soul Love", "Lady Stardust", and "Five Years". "Starman", "Suffragette City", and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" were all recorded in early '72.

Mick Ronson leads the band with his jet fueled guitar lines. Listen to his call and response to Bowie's lyrics on "Moonage Daydream" and then witness the string arrangements he helped Bowie write.

5 Interesting Facts About The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust

1. Ziggy came from the name of a London tailor's shop, Ziggy's,  and reminded Bowie of Iggy Pop. Stardust came from Bowie's label mate "The Legendary Stardust Cowboy" whose novelty song "Paralysed" Bowie had been obsessed with.

2. Echo and The Bunnymen's Ian McCulloch remembers Bowie's performance of the album single "Starman"on The Old Grey Whistle Test (seen below) as life affirming:

  'In 1972, I’d get girls on the bus saying to me, "eh la, have you got lippy on?", or "are you a boy or a girl?" Until he turned up it was a nightmare. All my other mates at school would say, ‘Did you see that bloke on Top Of The Pops?’ He’s a right faggot, him!’ And I remember thinking, ‘You pillocks’, as they’d all be buying their Elton John albums, and Yessongs and all that crap. It made me feel cooler.’


  3. The Sweet wrote a parody of Ziggy Stardust and the song Star called Rock And Roll Disgrace:
 You're a heterosexual dream/ a super phallic machine/ Well who do you think you are?/ Well you think you're a star yeah a rock and roll star, you are





  4. The prominent K. West sign seen on the cover has nothing to do with Kanye West of course. It was the name of a distribution company which shipped animal furs.

 5. Bowie used his new level of stardom to produce three consecutive classic albums for other rockers: Mott The Hoople's All The Young Dudes (1972), Lou Reed's Transformer (1972)and Iggy Pop's Raw Power (1973).

                                                         Megan Fox with Ziggy Stadust

for more great facts about David Bowie and his Ziggy Stardust era check out this website.

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40 Years Ago Today: Mott The Hoople Break Up ( Or Do They?)

[Purchase Brain Capers]

It happens more often than we'd like to remember. Great bands end not with a bang but with a whimper. And so it would have been for Mott The Hoople. On March 26, 1972 Ian Hunter and the boys decided to call it quits. Had it not been for David Bowie, Mott's last album would have been Brain Capers ( a hard rocking effort that kicks off with  "Death May Be Your Santa Claus") and their last single would have been their cover of Danny Whitten and Neil Young's "Downtown" ( aka "C'mon Baby Let's Go Downtown") which features the lead vocals of not Ian Hunter but Mick Ralphs.



It was, of course, a huge flop! But by then, so was Mott The Hoople. They rocked as hard as ever but that didn't translate in ticket or record sales. They were actually losing money on tour. In Zurich they landed a gig at a club that was once a huge gas holder As Ian Hunter remarked "If this is fame, then forget it."

When they returned to England the band members set off in their own directions with Overend Watts calling up David Bowie to see if he needed a bassist. Bowie, who had once offered Mott "Suffragette City", got the band together and played them a new song he'd written. That song was "All The Young Dudes" and it would not only revive Mott's career but would make them one of the biggest rock n roll acts in the mid-70's.

I'll post a whole lot more on  Mott The Hoople  on September 8, the 40th anniversary of All The Young Dudes.

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