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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2020 20:27:51 GMT
Of course. We've never been able to get serious, respectful discussion on him on BCB. He's become a kind of blood sport to amuse on these forums. I don't think that's true. The RIP thread on BCB is pretty special and of course very respectful. One of the very few occasions in my life I've ever felt like I needed that forum - and I'm sure I wasn't the only one. www.bcb-board.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=130148Of course...it was an RIP thread! The fact you're using it as an example proves my point!
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Post by Sneelock on Sept 28, 2020 20:34:42 GMT
II saw a movie recently that used “life on Mars?” at a very significant moment and it really tore me up. Of course I can’t think of the movie right now. Still, I think that is one HELL of a song. I think he had his share of those.
I was listening to some “alternate” versions of familiar songs on that “changesnowbowie” and I think a couple of those are better regarded as songs in these slowed down more crooney versions.
I started to answer same as I did in The Beach Boys thread but I got to thinking about when Bowie died. If it weren’t for Facebook etc.. I would have had precious few people to share my sadness with. Even though I see youngsters in tee shirts from time to time in my personal world his passing went almost unnoticed. Sure, it was mentioned but I just wasn’t convinced too many really cared. Well, those of us that do care will willingly take up the slack,
So, I vote overrated with an explanation. I think he wrote some marvelous songs and made some very exciting records.
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Post by sloopjohnc on Sept 28, 2020 20:36:34 GMT
If Minnie hears about this, Davey is going on a hit list.
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Post by Sneelock on Sept 28, 2020 20:37:34 GMT
It’s overdue.
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toomanyhatz
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Post by toomanyhatz on Sept 28, 2020 20:37:48 GMT
Only by Brits.
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Post by Half Machine Lipschitz on Sept 28, 2020 20:40:24 GMT
I think he deserved every bit of adulation and devotion that he got, so no, I don't think he was over-rated.
I don't think he was a musical genius, but he sure as hell knew what the fuck was going on and understood how to tap into burgeoning zeitgeists for a while. I've never paid too much attention to his post-70s output other than the odd song here and there, so can't comment on that, but I do think his final recorded statement is pretty impressive.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2020 20:45:27 GMT
And by Europeans. He's probably a bit too cultured for many of the colonials
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Post by sloopjohnc on Sept 28, 2020 20:48:43 GMT
I think he deserved every bit of adulation and devotion that he got, so no, I don't think he was over-rated. I don't think he was a musical genius, but he sure as hell knew what the fuck was going on and understood how to tap into burgeoning zeitgeists for a while. I've never paid too much attention to his post-70s output other than the odd song here and there, so can't comment on that, but I do think his final recorded statement is pretty impressive. Richard Barone of the Bongos wrote an autobiography and has a great chapter about what Bowie meant to him as a young man questioning his own gender. It's a pretty powerful testament about what traveling and seeing Bowie meant to someone like him, a budding musician and someone considering his own sexual preferences.
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Post by sloopjohnc on Sept 28, 2020 20:51:08 GMT
And by Europeans. He's probably a bit too cultured for many of the colonials
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Post by npht on Sept 28, 2020 21:07:00 GMT
No but mostly for his 70's and early 80's work. After that he has a few gems but nothing I would rate that high including his last.
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toomanyhatz
god
I've met him/her. He/she's great!!
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Post by toomanyhatz on Sept 28, 2020 21:16:35 GMT
To be serious for a second (not that I was totally unserious with my glib answer), I think Bowie has a unique place in the pantheon because he came along at a perfect time, and played very much to the notion of the 'other.' If you felt yourself to be in an alien world (as in Sloop's Barone example), it's understandable that he would be your world/and artist that seems to understand you. I think, similarly to the Beatles, he's such a benchmark that it's hard for him to be rated just right, because those who love him think of him as part of the family, or a best friend or something. Those that don't like him see him as something they have to knock down a peg, simply because they're tired of hearing how wonderful he is when it has no relevance in their lives.
I think certain albums by him are overrated - I've always thought of Scary Monsters as the beginning of the end rather than the end of the beginning, and find a lot of wishful thinking in the love of his 90s stuff, but for January 1970 through December 1979? He holds a unique place, and I'm not comfortable telling people who want to live in that world that they're seeing or hearing something that's not really there. I'm not part of that cult, but I get why someone would want to be.
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Post by npht on Sept 28, 2020 21:20:10 GMT
but for January 1970 through December 1979? He holds a unique place, and I'm not comfortable telling people who want to live in that world that they're seeing or hearing something that's not really there. I'm not part of that cult, but I get why someone would want to be. I agree he also during that time opened my mind up to a lot of different music that not sure I would have liked if he didn't start me down that path. So I have that thought of him always in my mind.
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~ / % ? *
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Post by ~ / % ? * on Sept 28, 2020 21:30:29 GMT
Like the Beatles, Prince, etc., Bowie tends to get over lionized by true believers who usually never listened beyond their heroes, so they credit them with far too much innovation. Especially now as Bowie and Prince have passed, they have been turned into trail blazing saints who created all and happened in a vacuum. I don't doubt these artists value to them personally, but they also have to be willing to see the bigger picture.
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Post by cousinlou on Sept 28, 2020 21:33:42 GMT
I'm a dissenter anyway. I find that most people on music message boards rate him much higher than I do. Yoiu're looking at a career of forty-odd years, four or five fine to outstanding singles, one great album, four more that are all right in patches: and some phases of his career when he put out the most dreadful shit. My take on him was that he desperately wanted to be an important artist, to have that cachet, but when it came to expressing himself, he found he didn't have much of interest or importance that he wanted to say, so he dressed it up with camp and theatre and absurd clothing. You’re forgetting his Crowley period.
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Post by daveythefatboy on Sept 28, 2020 21:33:47 GMT
I definitely think there’s something to his being about being “the other.” But that’s always felt weird to me too. This perfect Aryan guy costuming himself in the guise of the alien. But I guess that’s what it took to give some folks a gateway to that thought that they could relate to.
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