Music

[hedge]

His basic acoustic guitar stuff as well as his heavier electric stuff is about as good as it gets for me, but yeah, some of his eletronica and pure noise musical identities I couldn't get down with. Luckily, it seems like that was about a 10 year phase of doing that kind of whacky stuff, then he went back to his roots...

[eCat]

His basic acoustic guitar stuff as well as his heavier electric stuff is about as good as it gets for me, but yeah, some of his eletronica and pure noise musical identities I couldn't get down with. Luckily, it seems like that was about a 10 year phase of doing that kind of whacky stuff, then he went back to his roots...

In the 80's he paid the bill with Let's Dance and China Girl - MTV wore those out.

I'd have to say my favorite song of his is Golden Years - but I readily admit to a shallow favoritism of his songs. Major Tom was always too out there for me.

[hedge]

I was referring to Neil...

[hedge]

Panic in Detroit is probably my favorite Bowie song. That or Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars. Weird title for a song, but a good, straightforward rocker...

[eCat]

I like Buffalo Springfield stuff

[hedge]

Bowie never really got too far out there musically (as much as he did as far as different personas and costumes and stuff) irregardless of whatever genre he was fooling around with. All of his stuff is at least listenable. But some of the stuff Neil did in the early 80's I can't even listen to...

[eCat]

Neil Young is the only artist in the history of modern recording to be sued for refusing to be himself. The suit, filed by Geffen Records, Young’s label for much of the Eighties, charged that he was violating his contract by recording ‘unrepresentative’ albums. In other words, Neil Young wasn’t making Neil Young music.

The problem with Geffen’s suit was that there has never been any such thing as a ‘representative’ Neil Young album. Young has made a decades-long career out of keeping his fans guessing what he’ll do next.

Even before he signed with Geffen, his ever-changing style included raw and edgy, melodic and romantic, dark and melancholic, acoustic and electric, and introspective and retrospective, with a bit of punk thrown in for good measure, all backed by whatever band he’d assembled at the time. It’s just how he worked (and still does).

Young has recorded on the Reprise label throughout his 30+ year solo career, except for a period during the 1980s, known as the Geffen years. Record executive David Geffen had founded a new label and brought Young aboard.

The collaboration was contentious almost from the start. Geffen rejected Young’s country-esqe album Old Ways, insisting on something more rock ‘n’ roll. So, for the first and only time in his career, Young found himself trying to create to order. He came up with with the album Everybody’s Rockin.

Young really liked it. He thought it was exactly what Geffen wanted. But Geffen thought it was still too country. So he sued (for around $3 million), claiming that both albums were “musically uncharacteristic of Young’s previous recordings.” Young countersued for breach of contract, claiming he’d been promised artistic free rein.

With the litigation ongoing, Young hit the road, touring with a group of Nashville musicians he put together and called the International Harvesters. It required a whole new approach, he recalls, because the audiences and venues were very different from what Young was used to. Imagine this: state fairs all over the country, with Neil Young playing electric guitar alongside first-rate fiddlers and pickers with names like Rufus, Spooner, and Pig. That’s how it was. “We were having the time of our lives,” Young recalls.

After 85 concerts, the suit settled, with Geffen apologizing to Young, and Young recording two more albums on Geffen’s label. By the time the Geffen years were over, Young’s album sales were at an all time low, and he’d lost commercial relevance.

[hedge]

He came back strong in the 90's, though...

[Jungle Rat]

Bowie changed with the music. That's how he lasted.

[Bklyn]

Good posts on Bowie (and having an incredible looking wife...today...at 60, to boot). He reminds me of Neil Young, Prince and Miles Davis, to an extent.

[10ac]

Superstar David Bowie dies aged 69 following courageous cancer battle

Why is it when someone dies of cancer it was always a courageous battle?

[Saint]

I saw a good documentary on Bowie a few months ago, he basically completely changed his whole sound and image every few years for about 20 years. Very talented musician. I didn't care as much for some of his later iterations even though I never disliked them, but the Ziggy Stardust period was by far my favorite...

Even though you were 9.

I actually liked that album when it was new because my sister had it. That was the first realization that the world had some weird, cool people in it. I still count "Five Years" as my fave Bowie song.

[Saint]

I just never caught on to him. I liked some of his songs but I guess growing up in the 70s-80s to me he was sorta weird.

Ironically, you're much more of a weirdo than Bowie ever was.

[Jungle Rat]

Fair

[hedge]

Stu sent this in an email with the subject line reading "Nobody cries when fatty dies." Good stuff..

[youtube]jv6mEv_rDdE[/youtube]

[Saint]

I would have posted it here but I don't know how.

[Bklyn]

That was actually funny. I wasn't expecting it to be. Never watched the show. Gervais is kinda "meh" to me.

[AlabamAlum]

Gervais is funny in small doses. "Extras" was a poor man's "Curb Your Enthusiasm".

[Saint]

Yep. And he's not as likable as Larry David.

[hedge]

Now Glenn Frye is dead. No big loss, I can't stand the Eagles (and everything they stand for), but he did inspire one of Will Ferrell's greatest skits, The H is O: