Quote:David Bowie's last release, Lazarus, was 'parting gift' for fans in carefully planned finale

The producer of Blackstar confirms David Bowie had planned his poignant final message, and videos and lyrics show how he approached his death

...Tony Visconti, the producer who worked with Bowie to complete his final album, has released a statement saying it was deliberately created and timed as a "parting gift" for his fans...

In a statement on his Facebook page, he said: "He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way.
"His death was no different from his life - a work of Art.
"He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift.
"I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn't, however, prepared for it.
"He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us....

...Visconti has previously spoken of creating the album, which was recorded in just three sessions over the course of three months at the beginning of 2015.
It now appears the singer and those closest to him arranged its release at the end of his life, after 18 months of living with cancer....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/12092542/Bowies-last-album-was-parting-gift-for-fans-in-carefully-planned-finale.html

Quote:I still remember the first time I heard David Bowie’s 1969 classic, “Space Oddity.” I was in college, hoping to pursue a career in music, and struggling to make sense on what exactly that meant. At a time where, prompted by technology, music was being endlessly categorized into tiny boxes of subgenres, I felt like I was late to the party. I didn’t fit in as a jazz musician, and didn’t fit in as a pop musician, either.

I’m not sure how “Space Oddity” ended up on my Hewlett-Packard dorm room computer. I probably downloaded it from Napster, truth be told (it was the early 2000s, in case that wasn’t obvious). All I remember is listening to it for the first time and thinking, “Why am I just now discovering David Bowie?”

“Space Oddity” wasn’t like the rock songs I had heard before. It was cinematic. It had lots of chord changes and an unusual form. It seemed to have more in common with the tradition of opera than rock. I immediately sought out more Bowie albums – Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Heroes – and found that, as different as each one sounded, they each had the unmistakable stamp of an artist that simply made the music that he wanted to make. David Bowie didn’t follow trends; he made them. By the time the rest of the world caught on to what his was doing, he was already out the door. He was eternally the kid that refused to color within the lines, yet somehow managed to turn the page into a beautiful work of art.

I sat down at the piano today to reflect on Bowie’s extraordinary life in music and the lessons he gave to artists everywhere – lessons that continue to inspire all of us that dare to color outside of the lines from time to time. Here’s “Space Oddity,” as I remember hearing it so many years ago. It’s my way of saying, “thanks.”

(01-11-2016, 10:13 PM)Tusk Wrote:

A Piano Tribute to the Late David Bowie, By Scott Bradlee

Quote:I still remember the first time I heard David Bowie’s 1969 classic, “Space Oddity.” I was in college, hoping to pursue a career in music, and struggling to make sense on what exactly that meant. At a time where, prompted by technology, music was being endlessly categorized into tiny boxes of subgenres, I felt like I was late to the party. I didn’t fit in as a jazz musician, and didn’t fit in as a pop musician, either.

I’m not sure how “Space Oddity” ended up on my Hewlett-Packard dorm room computer. I probably downloaded it from Napster, truth be told (it was the early 2000s, in case that wasn’t obvious). All I remember is listening to it for the first time and thinking, “Why am I just now discovering David Bowie?”

“Space Oddity” wasn’t like the rock songs I had heard before. It was cinematic. It had lots of chord changes and an unusual form. It seemed to have more in common with the tradition of opera than rock. I immediately sought out more Bowie albums – Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Heroes – and found that, as different as each one sounded, they each had the unmistakable stamp of an artist that simply made the music that he wanted to make. David Bowie didn’t follow trends; he made them. By the time the rest of the world caught on to what his was doing, he was already out the door. He was eternally the kid that refused to color within the lines, yet somehow managed to turn the page into a beautiful work of art.

I sat down at the piano today to reflect on Bowie’s extraordinary life in music and the lessons he gave to artists everywhere – lessons that continue to inspire all of us that dare to color outside of the lines from time to time. Here’s “Space Oddity,” as I remember hearing it so many years ago. It’s my way of saying, “thanks.”

Quote:The Story Behind David Bowie's Unlikely Christmas Duet with Bing Crosby

In the long list of David Bowie's collaborators – Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Queen, Trent Reznor, TV on the Radio – there's one slightly odd standout: Bing Crosby.

And the pair's duet on "Little Drummer Boy" for the 1977 TV special Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas has indeed become something of an outlier in Bowie's career, landing as it did in the middle of Bowie's particularly strange – even for him – late '70s run, that found him making stark, groundbreaking albums like Low while sequestered in Berlin. The clip usually pops up around Christmas every year as part of All-Things-Bowie Internet round-ups, and that's that.

...The writers found a solution: Craft a counter-melody that Bowie could sing while Crosby proceeded with "Little Drummer Boy." "It all happened rather rapidly. I would say within an hour, we had it written and were able to present it him again," Kohan explained to PBS. Bowie loved the resulting melody, called "Peace on Earth," and the rest was history.

...Nathaniel Crosby suspected some strings were pulled behind the scenes to ease the transition. "It almost didn't happen," he told the AP. "I think the producers told him to take the lipstick off and take the earring out."

http://www.people.com/article/david-bowie-bing-crosby-christmas-little-drummer-boy

(01-18-2016, 09:17 PM)john Wrote:

EAGLES ~ "LYIN' EYES" 1977