Showing posts with label David Bowie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Bowie. Show all posts
Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks
Labels: Classic Rock, Rock 'n' Roll,
Clive Davis,
David Bowie,
Elvis Costello,
Paul Weller,
Ray Davies,
Sir Bob Geldof,
The Kinks,
Waterloo Sunset
Keyboard Icon Rick Wakeman and Legendary Astronaut Chris Hadfield Pay Tribute To Stephen Hawking and David Bowie At Starmus Festival 2016
In a rare meeting of the minds, keyboard icon Rick Wakeman and
legendary astronaut paid tribute to Stephen Hawking at the Starmus
Festival in Tenerife,
Spain on July 1, 2016! The two legends performed a
moving tribute David Bowie with their rendition of his classic song “Space
Oddity”.
The Starmus Festival was born with the aim of making the most universal science and art accessible to the public. Traditionally the perfect symbiosis between astronomy, art and music, STARMUS 2016 brought together not only the brightest minds from these areas but many others besides, as we debate the future of humanity with scientists, business people at the cutting edge, and celebrities of all kinds.
Chris Austin Hadfield is a retired Canadian astronaut who was the first Canadian to walk in space. An engineer and former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot, Hadfield has flown two space shuttle missions and served as commander of the International Space Station.
Commander Hadfield originally performed a cover Bowie's “Space Oddity” on board the International Space Station in 2013. He posted the video on the internet which immediately became a global sensation, being the first ever music video performed in space. Although he had made the video for a number of reasons, Hadfield felt that, “Maybe most importantly, it was a chance to let people see where we truly are in space exploration”. David Bowie himself responded saying that the cover of his 1969 song was “possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created”. The guitar Hadfield used to perform the song is still on the space station where it will remain forever!
Rick Wakeman, who played mellotron on the original version of Bowie's “Space Oddity” says, “It’s a real honour to have played on probably the two most iconic versions of 'Space Oddity', the brilliant original with David of course and now this very special version with Chris that was born 300 miles from planet earth!”
While the Starmus Festival 2016 was paying tribute to Hawking, the promoters also decided to pay tribute to David Bowie! Why? Because Bowie and Hawking share the same birthday - January 8th. Also, Bowie was very much inspired by Space, Astronomy etc… He was invited to Starmus but the invitation arrived the same day he passed…
For more information: http://www.starmus.com/
Labels: Classic Rock, Rock 'n' Roll,
Chris Hadfield,
David Bowie,
Rick Wakeman
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - Moonage Daydream
26th May 1946, Born on this day Mick Ronson, guitarist, producer, singer, songwriter, who is best known for his work with David Bowie, as one of The Spiders from Mars
Labels: Classic Rock, Rock 'n' Roll,
David Bowie
David Bowie and Marianne Faithfull as Sonny and Cher
Labels: Classic Rock, Rock 'n' Roll,
David Bowie
Mott The Hoople - All the Young Dudes
I'm not sure why, maybe it was the M. C. Escher cover art (although I had no idea at the time who M. C. Escher was) or maybe it was the fact that the first cut was a cover of the Kink's, 'You Really Got Me' (it was a rockin' version but I was somewhat disappointed that it was an instrumental), that made me buy Mott the Hoople's first album.
I bought it on eight-track at the grocery store where my aunt worked. It was an impulse buy, ninety-nine cents. Bargain bins were everywhere back in those days.
There was something about that cover that attracted me, and of course, the name, Mott the Hoople. What was that all about?
The first thing I noticed was they sounded a lot like Bob Dylan. This was in 1971 and I was eighteen and still listening to Dylan's classics 'Highway 61 Revisited' and 'Binging It All Back Home'. Ian Hunter, the lead singer, had Dylan's vocal style and every once in awhile, a rolling organ played in the background ala 'Like a Rolling Stone'...it was a good buy at the time and in retrospect a really great buy.
I pretty much forgot about them though, until a year or so later when 'All the Young Dudes' crashed onto the scene through the David Bowie connection. Bowie was apparently a Mott the Hoople fan.
In fact, he might have been their biggest fan.
I bought it on eight-track at the grocery store where my aunt worked. It was an impulse buy, ninety-nine cents. Bargain bins were everywhere back in those days.
There was something about that cover that attracted me, and of course, the name, Mott the Hoople. What was that all about?
The first thing I noticed was they sounded a lot like Bob Dylan. This was in 1971 and I was eighteen and still listening to Dylan's classics 'Highway 61 Revisited' and 'Binging It All Back Home'. Ian Hunter, the lead singer, had Dylan's vocal style and every once in awhile, a rolling organ played in the background ala 'Like a Rolling Stone'...it was a good buy at the time and in retrospect a really great buy.
I pretty much forgot about them though, until a year or so later when 'All the Young Dudes' crashed onto the scene through the David Bowie connection. Bowie was apparently a Mott the Hoople fan.
In fact, he might have been their biggest fan.
* * * * *
Album: Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes
Original Release: 1972
Label: Columbia
Before my kids grew up and moved away and came back home and moved away and came back home - I think there is a pattern developing here - we used to hang out down in the basement on Saturday afternoons and listen to records. That was back in the days of records and back in the days when my kids didn't mind hanging out with me.
Before my kids grew up and moved away and came back home and moved away and came back home - I think there is a pattern developing here - we used to hang out down in the basement on Saturday afternoons and listen to records. That was back in the days of records and back in the days when my kids didn't mind hanging out with me.
And, every now and again, I'd pull out something I thought they might like and try to broaden their musical horizons and impart what little rock and roll knowledge I had acquired through the years.
In other words, in the words of my daughter, I was acting like a boring old fart...BOF, a popular acronymn in our house at the time.
Anyway, one Saturday afternoon I pulled out a copy of Mott the Hoople's 'All the Young Dudes', I slapped it on the turntable and as the opening chords of 'Sweet Jane' burst from the speakers, I launched into my weekly lecture, that went something like this...
"This is Mott the Hoople, and as you will soon see, they are connected to the greater rock and roll world through a number of channels, mainly David Bowie, who not only wrote the title cut, but also produced this album, but this song was written by Lou Reed.
Lou Reed was one of the founding members of the Velvet Underground. They were sort of the house band for Andy Warhol's art scene in New York back in the mid-sixties, you've seen the soup can art, right? OK, well this is a Lou Reed song, probably suggested by David Bowie. Bowie and Lou Reed were long time friends and sort of at the forefront of a style of music called glitter-rock.
Anyway, Mott the Hoople had been around for several years but never really had much success. They had a loyal following in England but never really made it big and were actually on the verge of calling it quits when Bowie, who was a huge Mott the Hoople fan, stepped in and produced this album for them and wrote what turned out to be their first big hit and their only really big hit, the title cut, 'All the Young Dudes'.
Bowie basically saved their career, but, as it turns out, the success that came with 'All the Young Dudes' also ended up tearing the band apart.
Now, interestingly enough, at the time 'Alll the Young Dudes' was released, Bowie had a guitar player in his band by the name of Mick Ronson. Later on, after Ian Hunter, the lead singer for Mott the Hoople, left the band, he and Mick Ronson hooked up as the Hunter/Ronson Band and put out a couple of albums and did some touring together. Mick Ronson just died a couple of years ago. (1993 - this lecture took place somewhere in the mid-nineties)
Now, coming up, you're going to hear a song you might recognize as a Bad Company song, (my youngest son was taking up guitar at the time and was familiar with Bad Company as were most kids his age...Bad Company still had an allure for teenage rock and rollers then) 'Ready for Love'.
That song was written by Mick Ralphs, the lead guitar player for Mott the Hoople, he actually left the left band to hook up with Paul Rodgers, the lead singer from a band called Free, who had a hit song called 'All Right Now', and they formed Bad Company and had a hit with 'Ready for Love'.
After Bad Company broke up, Paul Rodgers hooked up with Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin and put together a band called The Firm who had a hit with a song called 'Radioactive'.
Mick Ralphs was replaced by a guy called Luther Grosvenor who had been with a band called Spooky Tooth and was just leaving a band called Stealers Wheel. When he joined Mott the Hoople, he changed his name to Ariel Bender. I'm not sure why.
Now, the first guy to leave Mott the Hoople was their organ player, Verdin Allen. He left to put together his own band that included a couple of guys called James Honeyman-Scott and Martin Chambers. Those two guys were later in The Pretenders. I can't remember what the band was called, but they never released anything.
Anyway, during all of these changes and break ups, Mott the Hoople continued on, they shortened their name to Mott for a couple of albums, and then, at the end, a couple of the guys formed a band called British Lions and put out a couple of albums.
And, that is your rock and roll history lesson for today."
The response, to say the least, was underwhelming. They didn't even ask about the name. If they had, I could have told them about Willard Manus.
Perhaps, I should have just played 'Ballad of Mott the Hoople' from 'Mott' the follow-up to 'All the Young Dudes' instead.
Oh well.
Labels: Classic Rock, Rock 'n' Roll,
David Bowie
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