The "Incredibly Impossible to Derail This Thread" thread | Page 1026 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

QuarryMan said

On the contrary though, I hear Aladdin Sane as the bridge between his glam rock era and the artier stuff that would come after. He is tired of Ziggy and wanting to move on, yes, but he’s doing so by making the music so much more interesting  

I get that more from Diamond Dogs, myself (which I’m very fond of, mostly because of ‘Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise)’ being one of the most magnificent medleys I’ve heard since Abbey Road , and also ‘We Are The Dead’ is fantastic, and I really dig Orwell’s 1984 ) — another charmingly clunky album; perhaps not as inspired as Ziggy, but still interesting.

And then another fabulous transitional album is S2S which is half plastic soul and half the premonitions of Berlin-era art rock.

QuarryMan said

I think Diamond Dogs is also a transitional record, as shown by the cover in which he seems to be half Ziggy and half something else, but the artier side of Aladdin Sane was already there IMO with that amazing piano playing by Mike Garson. I know a lot of jazz fans would hate me for saying this, but I think Garson’s solo in the title track is the best jazz piano playing I’ve ever heard, and I have heard a good amount of it by now.

Oh my gosh yes, that piano solo (the whole track really) is my favourite moment on the whole album, pretty much. Not that I know anything about jazz but it’s brilliant.

Bowie sure had a talent for picking out talented people –

Yes, yes, he sure did. Just a few of my favourite examples: Dennis Davis, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and of course the inimitable Rick Wakeman and Mike Garson. He had a positive genius for envisioning a musical texture, finding the right people to do the job, and then just letting them do what they do, because that’s what he picked them out for.

didn’t he have a fight with Frank Zappa over a guitarist once? 

I wouldn’t be surprised.

^HA! From Major to Captain, poor Tom. ‘I thought that went rather nicely,’ said David the ever-cool. Such a Bowie thing to say

that cover is parodied way too much, just like DSOTM and Abbey Road …

Von Bontee said
Great Belew anecdote up there, thank you for that! Nice to read a “musicial geniuses meet” story that isn’t inconsequential…As for the battle of the wits, with myself as sole judge: 

“F**k you, Captain Tom!” *throws down napkin, storms out* = A+

“That went rather well,” *arches eyebrow debonairly* = A+

IT’S A TIE  

Agreed 100%!
(I would personally add ‘smirks Bowie-ly’ to the latter )

ewe2 said
Agreed. I see the difference between them as that Bowie’s genius is to package a different musical angle and make it accessible to people who don’t have to know about music and getting great performances from people you wouldn’t otherwise know about.

Definitely. It was even said once, I disremember by whom (maybe Bowie himself), something to the effect of ‘Other people take “low” forms of art and make them posh, but Bowie takes “high” art down to the street level’. You end up with art that’s both accessible and, well, arty. I see a definite kinship between Bowie and the Beatles in that way — the free copping of ideas from anywhere at all, utter disregard for the bounds of genre, and always maintaining that central integrity and accessibility.