HOLY CRAP

Over the years, I fluctuated back and forth from being a real fan to that of being indifferent, several times over the span of his career. Often very impressed, but sometimes bored with his music as well.

But there's no doubt that he always kept me listening.

R.I.P. to The Thin White Duke, to Ziggy, to The Starman.

You've now gone off to discover those other worlds that you so often sang about.

RIP David. "...... jamming good with Weird and Gilly ...... "

"Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?"

Iggy Pop must be devestated.

It sounds like I'm in the same boat with you Donny. One thing you could count on with Bowie - he wasn't going to do stagnant, predictable pop. So with that wide range of style stretching songs, they weren't all going to connect with everybody. The songs I like, I like a lot. The songs that don't do anything for me, are probably somebody else's favorite song. The result of being a visionary I suppose. Between music and artwork, he was always creating and still in good voice. Too young to go, that's for sure.

Only thing I can reckon, on a good note is that Clear Channel and every rock station I listened to today from Mobile, AL to Baton Rouge, LA and back has been playing 3-4 song blocks of Bowies' work today. Kinda refreshing really not to hear the singles book ended with SRV and Queen or whatever selections were chosen.

Didn't he attempt to use the stage name John Paul Jones only to be upended by the forgotten bass player of LedZeppelin? Not to worry, surely they will set an all time high of platter spins...not to shabby for an old guy :ROFLMAO:

Brien Holcombe, post: 435232, member: 48996 wrote: Didn't he attempt to use the stage name John Paul Jones only to be upended by the forgotten bass player of LedZeppelin?

I know he was born David Jones, and changed his name to David Bowie when starting out in the 60s' so as not to be confused with Davey Jones from the Monkees.

Bowie was the first to re-invent his persona and his musical style many times over his long career. Others, like Madonna have copied his formula to less success.
I believe this always kept him ahead of the curve so to speak. Re-inventing his style before he had to, or before he became irrelevant.
You cannot pigeon-hole his personal style or musical style, thats for sure. 120 million albums up until now sold, thats no small achievement by anyones standards.

You can bet that like many performers once they pass (ie Elvis, Michael Jackson for example) his music sales are now selling again and going to go through the roof, and his new album Blackstar, only released last week, is already predicted to hit number one within a week.
Will we see a resergence of albums like Scary Monsters back in the charts?...I hope so, so those who didn't experience his music first-hand can discover him.

One clip that is making the news at present is where he is quoted as saying "I am a collector...I collect personalities" (it was an interview in America, circa 1980, probably Dick Clark...???).
An interesting side-note was that schizophrenia ran in his family, could this account for his forever changing rock-persona?

Who knows, but one thing is for sure, an entertainer like David Bowie only comes along once in a generation, his career spanned 54 years, many have come and gone while he endured the changing lanscape of musical entertainment and continued to stay relevant right up until his death.

They were some Golden Years...

That was it...those dang Monkees!!!!

And....he sold the financial speculative bonds on his musical library!!!
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/david-bowie-bonds-banking/423627/

Brien Holcombe, post: 435235, member: 48996 wrote: And....he sold the financial speculative bonds on his musical library!!!
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/david-bowie-bonds-banking/423627/

Thats an interesting read Brian, I hadn't picked up on that before...

His views on music and copyright appear to be going that way...still ahead of the curve up until the end.

Glad it worked. I just made that "financial speculative bonds" thing up. He sold the rights to his music is all I could get out of it o_O which seemed like a risky/genius thing to do.

When I first heared the news, this was the first song that popped into my head

Brien Holcombe, post: 435237, member: 48996 wrote: lad it worked. I just made that "financial speculative bonds" thing up. He sold the rights to his music is all I could get out of it o_O which seemed like a risky/genius thing to do.

The way it reads he basically sold the royalties for a 10 year period form 1997 to 2007, keeping control over the intellectual property.

The first thing I asked myself is if the royalties are worth billions of dollars a year, why would you sell the rights to them for 10 years for only 55 million?
"While Bowie bonds were notable at the time for their money-making potential (“Billions of dollars of royalties a year are collected from songs like ‘Heroes’ and ‘Fame,’” Pullman told Bloomberg News in 2013) and the curious celebrity behind them..."

- Unless he was comfortable in the fact he had made enough money out of his carreer to sustain him for his lifetime.
I bet that those investors are looking back now thinking "What would those rights be worth in the current environment?...." :confused:

Doooh !!!o_O

-Edit : The Bloomberg article raises the point of receiving payment upfront as opposed to seeing royalties trickling in over years and years...that makes sense

His last video ( or one of his last videos), "Blackstar", was wayyy out there... but that was Bowie, love him or not, he was always pushing the envelope...

Who else could get away with a 10minute music video?

Blackstar and Lazarus I find a little disturbing...I find them a little hard to watch and very macabre.

Its like Bowie was was turning his death, much like his life, into an artform.

Forever the artist, even death played a backseat to his art.

The stroke of a true genius.