RIP David Bowie

I never was a fan but I cant deny his importance.....RIP

DAVID BOWIE
Right now, it feels as if the solar system
is off it’s axis, as if one of our
main planetary anchors has
lost it’s orbit. That said—I am
certain that wherever Bowie is
now—I want to be there someday.
—Michael Stipe

nice tribute

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/church.organists.breathtaking.david.bowie.tribute.goes.viral/76364.htm

The David Bowie Song That Fans Are Listening to Most: ‘Heroes’

When an artist as complex as Mr. Bowie dies, what work do we remember him by?...

With today’s streaming audio, that information is centralized. We asked one of the biggest music streaming services in the world, Spotify, to dig it out....

Mr. Bowie’s death was announced early Monday, roughly at 1:30 a.m. Eastern. His plays spiked, most likely from Europe. Most of America didn’t learn the news until after awakening hours later. You can roughly pinpoint when that moment was: 8 a.m.

By that point, the Spotify streams for Mr. Bowie’s songs were over 27 times more popular than usual, leaving a clear delineation of what songs fans remember Mr. Bowie by. No. 1 is “Heroes.” Next was “Let’s Dance,” followed by “Life on Mars?”

The data reveals the unexpected twists of fans’ fond memories. “Heroes,” an introspective rock ballad produced with Brian Eno, was more or less a flop when it came out, falling short of getting on the Billboard charts. “Let’s Dance,” an up-tempo dance tune, was the biggest hit of Mr. Bowie’s career, reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1983.

“Space Oddity,” the 1969 tale of an astronaut -- “Ground Control to Major Tom”-- was one of his first songs to reach a mainstream audience, and two years ago it was performed in space by the Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and generated over 28 million views. On Monday it was fifth on the list.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/12/upshot/david-bowie-songs-that-fans-are-listening-most-heroes-starman-major-tom.html

I listened to Heroes first this week even though I wore the grooves off my Ziggy Stardust LP by playing it so often when it was issued.

How David Bowie Challenged MTV on Race

David Bowie was always going somewhere — Africa, Japan, outer space, “the hinterland, the hinterland” (from “Red Sails”), up, down, in, out, across. One wavelet of Internet tributes paid to Mr. Bowie after his death on Sunday recalled a trip he took to a hotel room, in 1983, to pick a bone with MTV.

Futzing, at first, with his sock, he mentions to the V.J. Mark Goodman that the network, which was about two years old, barely played black artists: “The only few black artists that one does see are on about 2:30 in the morning.” Mr. Goodman explains. “We have to try and do what we think not only New York and Los Angeles will appreciate but also Poughkeepsie or Midwest. Pick some town in the Midwest that would be scared to death by Prince — which we’re playing — or a string of other black faces.”

Mr. Goodman observes that more white artists are playing so-called black music, which should make that music more palatable to the network’s white audience. But in kicking the can down the road, he missed an aspect of Mr. Bowie’s point: Black artists matter to black people, too.

The exchange is refreshing for its candor, sobering for its continued relevance and useful for what it says about Mr. Bowie’s sense of social awareness.



http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/arts/music/how-david-bowie-used-his-stardom-and-race-to-challenge-mtv.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

MTV VJ defending needing to play what the audience is perceived to want - "Valid point?"
Bowie (with a sharp smile) "I understand your point"

Bowie was a very articulate guy and scary smart

Starman - Top of the Pops - July 5, 1972


The Jean Genie - Top of the Pops - January 3, 1973

Thanks to all who posted the videos.  Brought back many good memories of his music and the times.

Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne & Geezer Butler Remember Lemmy & Bowie

Craig Rosen
Writer
January 15, 2016

Yahoo Music had the pleasure of sitting down with Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler to discuss their forthcoming final “The End” tour, which kicks of Jan. 20 – and during our interview (which will be posted next week), we offered Osbourne condolences on the passing of his longtime friend, Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister, who died Dec. 28 from cancer. We also heard Ozzy and Butler’s thoughts on the passing of another rock icon, David Bowie, who succumbed to cancer on Jan. 10.

While Osbourne and Butler weren’t friends with Bowie, both were huge fans of his music. “Nobody knew he was so ill,” Osbourne said. “I thought he stopped touring because a few years ago he had a heart attack, but when I heard he passed away, I was like, 'No way!’ I couldn’t believe it. I met him one time; he was a very, very talented man, extremely talented, and he took some great risks and he pulled them off. He’s up there with the Beatles, the Stones, Led Zeppelin. He was a very clever man. I was a big fan of his music. Everybody was.”

Butler said, “I think I’ve got practically every album that he’s done. He’s one of the few people where you looked forward to his albums coming out. Kind of takes you back to the old Beatles days, when you used to queue up outside record shops for the record to come out. I always used to look forward to a Bowie album, because he always changed from one album to the next.”

Ozzy concluded, "He took some incredible risks. I mean from Ziggy Stardust in the ‘70s to what he was doing in the '80s. It was just incredible. I saw him perform a couple of times. Great, great artist.”
(Read More:) https://www.yahoo.com/music/black-sabbaths-ozzy-osbourne-geezer-butler-004132041.html

Watch Bruce Springsteen pay tribute to David Bowie

At the Friday night kickoff of “The River Tour 2016” in Pittsburgh, Springsteen started the encore of the three-hour plus show by reminding fans that he and the recently deceased British superstar had a long history.

“He supported our music way, way back in the very beginning, 1973… He covered some of my music and was a big supporter of ours … Anyway, we’re thinking of him,” Springsteen said. And with that, the band kicked into a taut cover of “Rebel, Rebel.”

Take a look and listen:

http://music.blog.ajc.com/2016/01/18/watch-bruce-springsteen-pay-tribute-to-david-bowie/