David Bowie: Confessions of a Vinyl Junkie

[Stuart Frazer]

A nice piece on his top 25 picks from his collection of 2,500 vinyl LPs. Maybe, it would have been better to have seen his top 50 or 100 as these lists can be very difficult to condense down.

http://scallemang.ca/bowie25albums/

 

[Minstrel SE]

Thanks .....I will favourite page that and search some albums out

 

[foursticks]

Thanks for the link

 

[SAP7]

Top 25 unusual maybe, but try listening to that lot and you'll be reaching for another list.

Good talking points, but hard work as a listening exercise. .

 

[blossomchris]

What



Bloss

 

[mr.datsun]

BANANA MOON!

George Crumb!

THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND!

Three nice surprises.

 

[Graham H]

Harry Partch, Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan - 3 more!

I enjoyed reading the link, interesting to hear his take on different music. More informative than most of the miles of garbage that has been written since his death.

I also remember a BBC Radio program (Radio 3 Sunday evenings?) in the mid 70s where each week a musician was asked to host and play records from their personal collection. Bowie was interesting, and began with North Star by Philip Glass (which had just been issued by Virgin - so it must have been 1977). I had to obtain a copy. Would like to hear the program again; anyone have a copy or know of a link?

 

[andrew d]

I posted this link in one of the recent Bowie threads. If you read what he says, he hasn't bothered to list the obvious stuff but has made the rules up as he went along. A great selection!

 

[John_73]

Harry Partch, Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan - 3 more!

I enjoyed reading the link, interesting to hear his take on different music. More informative than most of the miles of garbage that has been written since his death.

I also remember a BBC Radio program (Radio 3 Sunday evenings?) in the mid 70s where each week a musician was asked to host and play records from their personal collection. Bowie was interesting, and began with North Star by Philip Glass (which had just been issued by Virgin - so it must have been 1977). I had to obtain a copy. Would like to hear the program again; anyone have a copy or know of a link?

Was it the following program by any chance?

http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/david-bowie-becomes-a-dj-on-bbc-radio-in-1979.html

I have both shows downloaded if you need them, they were on iPlayer a few years back.

 

[herb]

Interesting link thanks.

Sorry off topic but what about his associated list of books though!

http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/david-bowies-list-of-top-100-books.html

Fascinating, I have a few of those.

 

[Graham H]

Quad2, I think that's it. Will have a listen later, thanks.

 

[bigtall1]

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, some really interesting stuff here which merits further investigation.

 

[madmike]

That radio programme from the 70s, there was a Phil Collins one too...King Crimson were mentioned, Larks Tongues PtII Coda with BB meeting his sticks at the crucial section, recorded for posterity

 

[mr.datsun]

I knew Bowie liked North Star, but I'm somehow still more impressed that he listed the anarchic, meandering Bananamoon album. I like to imagine him enjoying the 15 minute long freakish Stoned Innocent Frankenstein/Land of the Flip. It seems so un-Bowie-like.

I do have a memory of him talking about Glass's use of numbers (Einstein) in a later interview.

Has anyone noticed the very strong Terry Riley (Rainbow in Curved Air) influence in parts of North Star? (Victor's Lament). The sound is almost exactly Riley's.

 

[stephen bennett]

I knew Bowie liked North Star, but I'm somehow still more impressed that he listed the anarchic, meandering Bananamoon album. I like to imagine him enjoying the 15 minute long freakish Stoned Innocent Frankenstein/Land of the Flip. It seems so un-Bowie-like.

Me too. I wonder what Daevid would have thought?

Stephen

 

[Graham H]

He'd have probably thought Bowie was just a Laughing Gnome, you know, from Radio Gnome Invisible.

 

[Graham H]

BTW, I'm conflating Bowie playing 'Einstein On The Beach' (1979) with Derek Jewel playing 'North Star' (which would have been upon its release in 1977). Simon, I quickly lost interest in Glass when I delved into Partch, Reich, Riley, Feldman, Cale, Young, Cage et al.

Bowie's Top 25 is much more interesting to my mind than the stuff he played on his radio program. But we'll never know how much of a free hand he really had in his choice of material for Aunty Beeb.

 

[mr.datsun]

> Bowie's Top 25 is much more interesting to my mind than the stuff he played on his radio program. But we'll never know how much of a free hand he really had in his choice of material for Aunty Beeb.


My memory of Bowie talking Glass may have been a newspaper interview or radio, I do not know.

I bought Glass's 12 parts when it came out, but somehow North Star seemed too pop to me at the time. His music did not engage me in the long run.

Agree, the top 25 is more discursive than the list Bowie played on BBC1, linked to above. Reading that list he was clearly paying homage to his peer group. But also the top 25 is the result of many years listening since. There are plenty of things on there I do not know like the Tom Dissevelt & Kid Baltan you (Graham) picked up on.

 

[Graham H]

Dissevelt and Baltan's work is available on several CDs of Dutch Electronic music released by Basta (old LPs on Philips - which I don't have). They are also represented on An Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music Volumes 1 to 7 on Sub Rosa. A great, essential 'achronology' of electronic music from it earliest incarnations to the present day.

 

[mr.datsun]

Dissevelt and Baltan's work is available on several CDs of Dutch Electronic music released by Basta (old LPs on Philips - which I don't have). They are also represented on An Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music Volumes 1 to 7 on Sub Rosa. A great, essential 'achronology' of electronic music from it earliest incarnations to the present day.

Thanks for the heads up. I've got vol. 3 of 'Noise' but failed to buy the rest.