I Love Music | johnozed

It’s David Bowie’s birthday. And Elvis Presley and Shirley Bassey and a whole lot of other people I am sure. But today for me it’s all about David Bowie. I only recently started appreciating Elvis Presley and that is mainly consigned to his Sun Records period. David Bowie has been part of my life for a lot longer. When I was growing up I was more into pop music, Elton and whatever was on the top 40 I guess. Sure the Beatles were around in different variations, mainly as solo acts with the Fab records being historical artifacts by the time I was aware.

The ‘bad’ kids liked David Bowie. Diamond Dogs was the big shocker, at least album cover wise despite the removal of the dog’s bollocks. I being a good boy, or rather a pussy, I stayed away from those kids who were mostly boys, squeezing a breast and copping a feel of girls that I knew most of my life. The girls seemed to allow it, at least on a class trip to the Hayden Planetarium. I guess it was the autumn of 1976 when I really heard David Bowie for the first time and I wasn’t sure if I liked it.

It was Ziggy Stardust, and most of the kids knew it. Hang On To Yourself, Suffragette City and Ziggy. I went to CYO. I didn’t really fit in with my freshman class in high school and missed the kids I went to school with for 9 years. They didn’t seem to miss me and made new friends from their new school. My high school was regional and there was no one I knew from school in my neck of the woods. And David Bowie seemed to reflect my alienation. He didn’t help and showed me how alone I really was.

It was such an unpleasant and lonely evening, seeing my former classmates growing up faster that I was and I didn’t like David Bowie for providing that soundtrack. Only a few weeks later did my sexuality come into bloom and that was a whole other nightmare with a most depressing soundtrack by Elton John, Blue Moves. To be a gay teenager in Bergen County in 1976, going to an all boy Catholic school was no fun at all and I set about constructing a closet that would provide some shelter for a few years that followed.

It was when David Bowie started getting weird to American ears, that was when I started to take interest. My brother gave me a cassette of Young Americans but I only played the first song on side A, Young Americans and the last song on side B, Fame. Oddly enough the tape folded in on itself and those two songs were the only ones playable since everything else wound up being played backwards. I also liked Golden Years and then Bowie went to Berlin and got too weird for most US fans.

I liked Low, and bought Heroes for my brother Brian (and I wound up stealing it from him years later). The first Bowie album I bought for myself was Lodger, the last in the so called Berlin Trilogy along with Low and Heroes. In 1980 I did see David Bowie on Broadway in The Elephant Man. I went with Laszlo Papp and Debbie Robinson from work and we sat in the first row center. At the end of the show, people in the second row behind us gave David roses for which David thanked us, much to the rose purchaser’s dismay.

A few years later I met my good friend Jet Watley who it turned out was quite a Bowie fan from back in those Ziggy days. He also liked T Rex and the other Glitter bands, but David Bowie was it for Jet. Jet slowly got me into Bowie, playing me certain tracks that were overlooked and unheard in the St Francis de Sales auditorium in 1976. So I began to appreciate David Bowie. Jet died a few years after that and I got most of his record collection, including Bowie, T Rex and Jobriath. And they were mainly all washed away by Hurricane Sandy last year.

Years pass, and Bowie is part of my DNA. Everyone I know likes Bowie, I like Bowie. I find myself working at Right Track Recording. I meet big names and the biggest was David Bowie. I was reminded of Karen Lynn Gorney’s character in Saturday Night Fever who worked in a recording studio much like myself. In the movie she is telling Travolta and friends about David Bowie going to her studio, but the lunkheads in Bay Ridge didn’t know who David Bowie was. I made jokes when I started in the studio about being like Karen Lynn Gorney and here I was actually meeting David Bowie.

And David Bowie and I hit it off. He always said hello and one time I recall just sitting there and chatting with him for about a half hour. Then when he left I called my sister to tell her sotto voce that I was just talking to the Thin White Duke. He was great and so nice. He had a promo cassette of the Earthling album and gave it to me, taking it back a few minutes later so he could properly autograph it for me, ‘For your collection, my Best Wishes, Bowie 97’.
Now THAT, I still have.

Around that time, or rather this time 15 years ago, David Bowie turned 50 and thanks to someone named Darrell Shines I was able to attend the show celebrating his birthday at Madison Square Garden. And David Bowie was phenomenal. It was a great show, guests like Foo Fighters, Robert Smith, Frank Black, Sonic Youth, Billy Corgan and Lou Reed all sang a song or two with David. A week later I met David again at the studio and I could not look at him the same way.

The bloke I was chatting with was David Bowie in a chair, but I had just seen David Bowie on stage, in his element and was blown away. He laughed and shrugged it off when I mentioned that so many people had ripped him off with his stage moves and manners. Obviously it was nothing he hadn’t heard or seen before.

I actually thought David Bowie’s birthday was yesterday. It is today apparently. I caught myself and posted a video about how I had the day’s wrong. Harpy posted a wish that David would record again and I posted that I guess he had retired for good, since no new music came from him in ten years. A couple of hours later, my friend John in Munich posted word of a new Bowie record.

I was taken aback and with some rapid legwork, I confirmed John’s posting. And I also posted all over Facebook, the info, the price of the single ($1.29) and the album ($13.99) available for preordering. I duly preordered. I could have gotten it for free, but opted to throw some money to the Dame. Harpy’s wish came true, a little Christmas miracle.

The song is wistful with a tint of sadness. The video is fascinating and also a bit sad. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great but sounds world weary, yet hopeful. It’s only one song I heard so I don’t know what the rest of the album sounds like. I’m posting the video here in case you haven’t heard or seen it yet.
The return of the thin white Duke, throwing darts in lovers eyes.

A nice, mellow Saturday night. For the past couple of hours I’ve been playing Port St. Willow- Holiday. I obviously am enjoying it, if I wasn’t I don’t think I would have it on repeat since 4PM, and it’s now after 7PM. I read a posting from Brian Eno about Port St. Willow and since I trust Eno with regards to music I checked it out and even posted it on my Facebook page. Good ol’ Rand stepped in with the bandcamp linkage (http://music.portstwillow.com/) and I felt obliged to get a copy for myself. It was most definitely worth it.

It’s been described as sad, but I would rather say it was between words, between being awake and being asleep. It reminds me of a few things, some Radiohead, some Arcade Fire, a little bit of My Bloody Valentine. Because it’s a one man show I am tempted to compare it to Bon Iver but this is much more interesting. I tried taking a nap while it was playing in another room and had some strange short dreams that quickly dissipated once shaken awake. All the songs seem to melt into one another and this guy, Nick Principe originally from Oregon and now in Brooklyn has quite a voice and vision. And ear.

I was pretty much out and about today in Hoboken and it was almost like old home week. I saw Phil who owns the liquor store on the corner and went in and shook his hand, congratulating him on his reopening. Then I ran into Martin Kelly at CVS and while on line in that very same CVS, ran into Alison Lee whom it is always good to see. Also saw Mike Korman and his son off to some sporting event and finally Nelson, a kid who used to work at Maxwells back in the day. He was working on the floor where Julio works. So it was a mini Maxwells Old Home Week on the 4:30 Movie for an hour or so today.

Last night was extra super-duper special for Bill and myself. I am sure I wrote earlier this week about going to see Sinbad at the Apollo Theater. Bill had never been to the Apollo and I think it was my third time. We scored 5th row center seats in the orchestra which was dicey since Bill can be quite rambunctious when he laughs but compared to the other fans in the seats Bill was somewhat subdued. He laughed alright, but this was the Apollo where the audience talks back to whomever is on stage. And there was a lot of that going on, feeding Sinbad’s act.

Sinbad is pretty funny, he’s clean, doesn’t do blue. And it was a two hour show, no opening act. Classic 1970’s soul played beforehand and a few times the opening to Adore by Prince was played, then promptly shut off for the next song. The Apollo is a great theater and I am glad I was able to take Bill for his first visit. Who knows? Perhaps someday he will perform on that stage, one way or another. I don’t think I had ever seen a live comedy show before.

I did see David Brenner with Florence Henderson opening up in August 1977 with my parents in Smithville NJ. It was an interesting show and it was around the same time that David Berkowitz was caught. Smithville is an 1700’s type of village which is a tourist attraction. As far as I knew it was known for selling yards of beer, which my parents got my brother Brian for a souvenir. It sat for years gathering dust on the top of the cabinets in my parent’s house.

That was an interesting vacation with my folks. We stayed in Central NJ, went to Great Adventure and Smithville and also visited friend of my parents in Jackson. These friends had a few kids and I remember hanging out with one son in his basement bedroom listening to Neil Young. This kid was wearing gym shorts and nothing underneath, giving me an inadvertent show and a sexual awakening as well as a fetish for terry cloth gym shorts for a few months.

I think after this go round on the player, I will give Port St. Willow a break. I contacted them since I was having problems getting the tracks on my iPod. I also asked them if it’s Port Saint Willow or Port Street Willow. I need to know these things.

Port St. Willow- Holiday is my record of the year.