All Things Bowie

^ An "all things Bowie" thread should indeed include his film career. It's a chequered one. Most of the time I didn't much like hs acting but I did like his Colin the hitman in the rather overlooked Into The Night. I loved his Tesla in The Prestige, probably my favourite film performance of his (and an excellent film overall). I say 'probably' as I like The Man Who Fell To Earth.

I have this little personal list of my favourite scenes in films depicting people having a drink - any drink, not just alcohol. The most obvious one being the beers in Ice Cold In Alex. Another good one is the Billy Zane character in Dead Calm thirstily drinking the fresh-squeezed lemon juice prepared by Nicole Kidman. Travolta sipping his vanilla coke in Pulp Fiction. The reason I'm droning on about all this is that I include on that list Bowie (Newton) in The Man Who, shortly after arriving on Earth, eagerly dips his metal cup into a river and gratefully drinks.

All those scenes make me feel thirsty.

Quote from Backdrifter

Travolta sipping his vanilla coke in Pulp Fiction.

Not Samuel Jackson guzzling the 'tasty beverage' to wash down Brett's big kahuna burger before he goes all biblical?

Quote from thewatcher

Not Samuel Jackson guzzling the 'tasty beverage' to wash down Brett's big kahuna burger before he goes all biblical?

In truth I'd forgotten that. On balance yes I'd probably include it.

All other suggestions gratefully received but in the film thread would be best.

Bowie is an artist who I admire greatly and love work throughout his career. However, with a few exceptions, I have never gotten fully into his albums. I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps his circle of work only overlaps my circle of taste partially, so I really like some stuff and am disinterested about the rest.

Bowie's 2004 Isle of Wight performance is on Sky Arts tonight at 9pm

Just watched it, great stuff. Good festival set, ranging across his career.

He had such a good band. That rhythm section, oh man.

Quote from Backdrifter

^ An "all things Bowie" thread should indeed include his film career. It's a chequered one. Most of the time I didn't much like hs acting but I did like his Colin the hitman in the rather overlooked Into The Night. I loved his Tesla in The Prestige, probably my favourite film performance of his (and an excellent film overall). I say 'probably' as I like The Man Who Fell To Earth.

I have this little personal list of my favourite scenes in films depicting people having a drink - any drink, not just alcohol. The most obvious one being the beers in Ice Cold In Alex. Another good one is the Billy Zane character in Dead Calm thirstily drinking the fresh-squeezed lemon juice prepared by Nicole Kidman. Travolta sipping his vanilla coke in Pulp Fiction. The reason I'm droning on about all this is that I include on that list Bowie (Newton) in The Man Who, shortly after arriving on Earth, eagerly dips his metal cup into a river and gratefully drinks.

Quote from thefarmer

Hadn't thought about his acting when I set up this thread , so great for bringing it up. couldn't tell if his acting was crap or great. Certainly intriguing. Always Bowie. He held you just looking at him . He was perfect fit for MWFTE. Haven't seen the other two mentioned or Twin Peaks. My favourite Bowie film is Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence . And of course there is the Genesis connection - The Last Temptation of Christ .

You two named my favorite performances of his on film, i.e., Tesla in The Prestige (one of my very favorite Christopher Nolan films, and he has had a lot of great films), Newton in The Man Who Fell To Earth (I also like this film very much, despite its being considered by many as a "completists only" kind of film), and Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation Of Christ. (Could anyone play Pontius Pilate as well as Mr. Bowie? Of course not - what a silly question.)

Quote from thewatcher

As the thread is all things Bowie, I thought I'd comment aimlessly on this: I really got into him after hearing I'm Deranged on the lost highway soundtrack. I subsequently became a huge David Lynch fan, and particularly of Bowie's performance in the Twin Peaks movie. He played a deeply mysterious FBI agent that - despite what amounted to a cameo - became an essential part of the story. The Twin Peaks revival was being heavily talked about and I think had started filming when news of his death broke. There had been intense speculation firstly about whether he would participate or not, and then whether he had had a chance before he died. The production was incredibly secretive... Zero details before it actually started to air.

Ultimately he obviously never did. Lynch said he didn't understand why Bowie had declined, not knowing he was sick. Apparently also Bowie wasn't happy with the Louisiana accent he had put on for the original part. So to somewhat honor his feelings about it, Lynch hired someone from Louisiana to voice the role, and turned the agent into a giant industrial machine that looked a bit like a teapot (not Lynch's intention but he had put a spout on it without realizing what it would look like). It speaks to the strength of Bowie's performance (or at least his Louisiana impersonation) that when I first saw the revival without knowing the truth, I wasn't sure whether it was actually him reprising the role. Which was kind of cool.

Funny how secrets travel...

And a P.S.!

I loved his performance in Fire Walk With Me too. (And I love all things Lynch in general, Twin Peaks in particular).

I'll also add Into The Night - another slightly more than a cameo role, but he plays it well (he plays a hitman, I believe). A very 80s film (Michelle Pfeiffer and Jeff Goldblum were the big stars in this film - enough said); still, the brief and unexpected appearance of the man himself makes the film more interesting by definition.

Quote from thefarmer

Just watched an old clip of Bowie doing Heroes on TOTP. As that was.the main platform to sell your single then no wonder if flopped. The great driving riff and Fripp's guitar well down on the mix , maybe not Fripp at all . (Didn't they have to re record it for the show.) Didn't sound too good. I was a Bowie fan at the time and remember being underwhelmed by it but have long since wondered why .Maybe it was because of the TOTP performance and half listened to crackly AM radio. Didn't buy it then. Never disliked it but wasn't until years later that I loved the track .

It was more that the BBC didn't want a live performance, but the Musician's Union insisted they didn't mime to the actual recording, so they had to make a fresh recording for the show. A friend of mine worked at the BBC, and occasionally did TOTP (He's a sound engineer) and apparently many of the mics you see are wooden mockups y used to use. Good job given the way OMD dropped theirs during Locomotion once. £700 a time for the real thing.

This version by King Crimson should cheer you up:

Quote from thefarmer

Just watched an old clip of Bowie doing Heroes on TOTP. As that was.the main platform to sell your single then no wonder if flopped. The great driving riff and Fripp's guitar well down on the mix , maybe not Fripp at all . (Didn't they have to re record it for the show.) Didn't sound too good. I was a Bowie fan at the time and remember being underwhelmed by it but have long since wondered why .Maybe it was because of the TOTP performance and half listened to crackly AM radio. Didn't buy it then. Never disliked it but wasn't until years later that I loved the track .

"Flop" might be a tad harsh, it was top 30 in a period when his singles performed quite patchily anyway for whatever reason. That lull lifted come the 80s.

Quote from Backdrifter

"Flop" might be a tad harsh, it was top 30 in a period when his singles performed quite patchily anyway for whatever reason. That lull lifted come the 80s.

....when unfortunately his singles became quite patchy!

I've seen/heard plenty of Bowie commemorations over this weekend, now it’s been Five Years since his death. 3 consecutive programmes on BBC4 on Friday all showed the same 3 tracks (Queen Bitch, Oh You Pretty Things & Starman) from the 1972 BBC archives. Admittedly all 3 are excellent & bear repeated watching, but it was interesting to see & hear some lesser known songs & clips too on other channels.

Quote from boredatwork

....when unfortunately his singles became quite patchy!

I've seen/heard plenty of Bowie commemorations over this weekend, now it’s been Five Years since his death. 3 consecutive programmes on BBC4 on Friday all showed the same 3 tracks (Queen Bitch, Oh You Pretty Things & Starman) from the 1972 BBC archives. Admittedly all 3 are excellent & bear repeated watching, but it was interesting to see & hear some lesser known songs & clips too on other channels.

I don't agree the singles themselves became patchy. If that's how you're describing Beauty and the Beast then I'm afraid I'm going to have to fight you.

You often see the same archive clips appear over and over. Don't forget that rock music shows were extremely sparse on tv during the 70s so when they featured big names those clips will be endlessly recycled. As you say, it's nevertheless good to see them. One show ran the superb TOTP clip of Jean Genie thought lost until rediscovered 10 years ago.

6music have done a lot of DB stuff this weekend, they ran a 1979 radio show presented by Bowie playing some picks of his own, very varied with 60s pop, Danny Kaye, Lennon, King Crimson and Talking Heads. He also played Ronni Spector's very nice version of George Harrison's Try Some Buy Some, which I love and which Bowie himself later did very nicely on Reality.

Definitely worth catching up with the 6music stuff, Garvey, Lamé and Maconie all had some less obvious material.