David Bowie Dies At Age 69 (bbc.co.uk)

echo-e writes: Renowned singer David Bowie has died after an 18-month battle with cancer. His latest album, Blackstar, was only just released on Friday — his birthday. His last live show was in 2006. Bowie rose to fame in the 1970s, and he is known for hits such as Under Pressure, Let's Dance, and Space Oddity. He also appeared in handful of films, such as Labyrinth in 1986. Bowie was also notable for being one of the few musicians to immediately see the value and staying power of MP3s and the digital distribution of music. If anything, he was overly optimistic about it. In 2002, he said, "I don't even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I don't think it's going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it's not going to happen. I'm fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing."

Comments

Awful...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll miss him and his excellent music.

Re:Awful...

[Black LED]

I've been a David Bowie fan for my entire life. I own almost every album he's ever made and his music has been so present in my life that listening to his songs can instantly transport my mind to specific moments in time.

I'm really going to miss him. Time to play my Bowie albums, watch Labyrinth and play through Omikron again.

Re:Awful...

[Jack Griffin]

You know you can still listen to his music even now that he's dead?

Re:Awful...

[doccus]

I think I'll do the same. But for me it's his really early show material "I dig everything" and "Sell me a coat" etc.. It very much evokes 1966 Carnaby street and the like to me...

Tribute

[The Evil Atheist]

Send his ashes to Mars.

Re:Tribute

[seven of five]

Don't know about that... they'll probably just fall to Earth...

Re:Tribute

[rgbatduke]

I'm sure his capsule knows the way to go.

Re:Tribute

[plopez]

ashes to ashes

Re:Tribute

[plopez]

Will it find life there?

Re:Tribute

[The-Ixian]

funk to funky

Re:Tribute

[Tablizer]

[ashes] probably just fall to Earth...

Poor Scotty, never could find enough power.

Re:Tribute

[TechyImmigrant]

Don't know about that... they'll probably just fall to Earth...

I thought that was Colombo.

Re:Tribute

[retrorogue]

With Matt Damon. One way trip.

Re:Tribute

[LynnwoodRooster]

Why would we torture the ashes of David Bowie with such a sentence?

I had one of his CD+Gs

[50000BTU_barbecue]

I think that's what it was, this was a good 20 years ago. It wasn't really a CD+G, it was a CD+LD, you could see the analog part of the CD that would play in a LaserDisc. The disc got stolen, who knows what it's worth today.

Oh well, RIP imaginative dude.

Re:I had one of his CD+Gs

[TWX]

Based on the number of people with working Laserdisc players that still have actual interest, probably not much.

That said, as someone with a working Laserdisc player and actual interest, if it turns out you just misplaced it and if you find it, I'll give you $5.00 for it...

Re:I had one of his CD+Gs

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Now that he's dead, that special CD is probably worth 10 if not 100 times more.

Re:I had one of his CD+Gs

[onepoint]

did a quick goggle search, looks like the basic laser disk is about 20 to 50 each on ebay

Re:I had one of his CD+Gs

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

See, it's already worth ten times what TWX was willing to pay!

Re:I had one of his CD+Gs

[operagost]

Not too many people have working Edison cylinder players but I assure you, many of the cylinders are quite valuable.

Merry

[vikingpower]

Christmas Mr. Lawrence....

Shit

[NotDrWho]

Now we'll never get to find out what happened to his character in Twin Peaks.

Possibly Lung

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems they're being rather tight lipped about what type of cancer it was, but rumors prior to his death (and prior to the public admission he even had cancer) claim it was lung cancer.

Re:Possibly Lung

[Anonymous Coward]

If that's true, then he knew what the risks were when he was smoking. It's a horrible way to go but it's simply paying the piper for things you did earlier in life. It happens to the best of us.

Re:Possibly Lung

[PopeRatzo]

It seems they're being rather tight lipped about what type of cancer it was

News stories are saying liver cancer.

Re:Possibly Lung

[Anonymous Coward]

If that's true, then he knew what the risks were when he was smoking. It's a horrible way to go but it's simply paying the piper for things you did earlier in life. It happens to the best of us.

Keith Richards is laughing at you right now.

Re:Possibly Lung

[plopez]

If so it could be hepatitis related.

Re:Possibly Lung

[spire3661]

Shove this self-righteous crap up your ass.

Re:Possibly Lung

[thegarbz]

I wonder. If he's been fighting with lung cancer for 18 months I doubt it would have been possible to to sound and sing the way he did on his *very* recent works.

Re:Possibly Lung

[PopeRatzo]

If so it could be hepatitis related.

I suppose, but it could be other things too.

Re:Possibly Lung

[KGIII]

No, that's Led Zeppelin. No trip to Mars or floating in a tin can but a stairway to heaven so I guess you're close.

RIP Mr. Bowie. I've an ex-lady friend who is surely in morning.

Re:Possibly Lung

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean to say he's laughing at everything...

Re:Possibly Lung

[TechyImmigrant]

RIP Mr. Bowie. I've an ex-lady friend who is surely in morning.

She's in morning every day.

Re:Possibly Lung

[operagost]

Keith Richards abused so many substances that he hit on a magical concoction that has preserved him like a mummy. Unfortunately, it has also left him looking like one.

Re:Possibly Lung

[Hognoxious]

I always thought he was indestructible, along with Lemmy out of Mötörhead and Ozzy.

Shows how much I know. Still, I wouldn't be surprised of one of them outlives me and I'm *cough* at least a decade younger.

Re:Possibly Lung

[TechyImmigrant]

Grammar? That's spelling!

1,$s/morning/mourning/g

You're welcome.

Re:Possibly Lung

[jewens]

You should get that cough checked out.

Re:Possibly Lung

[Ginger Unicorn]

The factual correctness of the statement doesn't stop it being self-righteous.

True artist

[Aethedor]

Whether you like his music or not, there is no denying that David Bowie was a true artist, a real entertainer. There was nothing fake about him. Nowadays, we don't see real artists like him very often.

Re:True artist

[rgbatduke]

And he would have made a great Elrond...

Re:True artist

[TWX]

Whether you like his music or not, there is no denying that David Bowie was a true artist, a real entertainer. There was nothing fake about him. Nowadays, we don't see real artists like him very often.

I suspect that you're seeing history through rose-tinted glasses. There were plenty of pop-acts in every era that Bowie overlapped with, we simply don't remember many of them. People don't remember acts like Elastica or Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen that charted and were popular for a short time. Hell, look at Weird Al's parodies throughout the years, there are some artists he parodied whose specific work is unknown now that were popular enough at the time to justify parody, like Tiffany and George Harrison's solo work.

Bowie was special, but he isn't unique. As far as musicians that have gone through several iterations of their personas, Kylie Minogue comes to mind, and when it comes to production and stagecraft along with actually crafting musically-clever songs, I like Spacehog and Muse. Absoutely modern techniques like Autotune are frustratingly common even with singers that can actually sing, but there are still acts worth following in popular music even if their albums are not immune to some of those tools.

Re:True artist

[Aethedor]

Sure, there are many like him. But the majority of modern musicians don't make their own music. Those are the Justin Bieber-like music industry puppets who can easily be replaced by any other clown.

Re:True artist

[TWX]

I still think that's incorrect. The majority of modern acts that record labels push are, to an extent, puppets of the record labels, but mostly because, like how Hollywood wants every movie to be a blockbuster, these are the acts that they're convinced will knock it out of the park. Why would a label spend a moderate amount of money to get a simple equal return, when they can spend a bit more and get an order of magnitude more?

These acts getting arrested for doing stupid things also helps with their sales, so long as the things they do to get arrested are that which we all point and laugh at rather than being truly revolted by. Young, dumb singers whose teen angst bullshit is highly public are great targets. Nearly all of us had our share of it, but we lacked the financial means to get into real trouble or to be so highly visible while doing it. These singers and musicians that the record labels are using have that means and thus when they do the same kinds of dumb shit that we all did, they get busted but also increase their profiles.

Re:True artist

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspect that you're seeing history through rose-tinted glasses.

Your post demonstrates that you are ass chapped about something, and looking at Bowie through big black cataract glasses. Bowie didn't use auto-tune, and was not a fly by night band as you are attempting to compare him to. Bowie put out 25 albums over a near 50 year career (last one 2 days before he died). He spanned numerous genres with great success (funk, punk, rock). He even played a decent bad guy in both Dune and Ghostbusters.

I like some obscure stuff too, but I don't attempt to belittle the greats to prop up the obscure.

Re:True artist

[mwvdlee]

Long story short; we don't see many musicians of his caliber today and we didn't see many back then either.

Re:True artist

[Gr8Apes]

My personal thoughts are that very soon what Bowie said will come to pass. Namely, that the distributors will have less and less meaning in the world, because online distribution trumps them, and anyone can pop something up. Soon, new avenues of popular choice will become mainstream, and hopefully we'll get back to services that play music for their customers, and not for the distributors. (Yes, payola is still an ongoing problem)

Re:True artist

[stabiesoft]

So true, probably why when someone can actually sing (without autotune) and write like Adele, they break sales records when they come out with an album. As I understand it, her entire tour is already sold out. I saw (way to late to buy a ticket) she was coming here this November.
Artists in the 70's and 80's were more likely to write their own stuff, but not always. Todays artists almost never write their own stuff, most can't sing in key, but they must be "pretty" enough for videos. Give me back the old days.

Re:True artist

[Ol Olsoc]

Whether you like his music or not, there is no denying that David Bowie was a true artist, a real entertainer. There was nothing fake about him. Nowadays, we don't see real artists like him very often.

I suspect that you're seeing history through rose-tinted glasses. There were plenty of pop-acts in every era that Bowie overlapped with, we simply don't remember many of them.

Which is why we remember Bowie.

I wonder if anyone 30 years from now will remember Beyonce. We are officially in a worse period of music than disco.

Re:True artist

[plopez]

Kieth Richards as Gollum. :)

Re:True artist

[Anonymous Coward]

He even played a decent bad guy in both Dune and Ghostbusters.

Err... not quite. That was Sting in Dune (as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen). not Bowie. And it was Slavitza Jovan in Ghostbusters (as Gozer).

Bowie was in Labyrinth (as Jareth the Goblin King).

(And I remember Elastica well, I saw them play in Oxford when they briefly reformed in 2000, and whilst I like them a lot, they are nowhere near the same league as Bowie)

Re:True artist

[plopez]

T Rex immediately comes to mind as does Steelyeye Span, Funkadelic, and Fairport Convention.

Re:True artist

[TWX]

Could be. Linda Ronstadt was hugely popular in the late seventies but is virtually forgotten today. The Manhattan Transfer won multiple Grammys and used to sell-out auditoriums like rock groups but is down to 2,000 seat auditoriums.

Bowie had staying power because he continually reinvented himself and managed to keep up with what the public wanted in addition to giving them something new to consider. He was willing to vary his look- Bowie in the Ziggy Stardust era versus The Man Who Fell To Earth era vs Labyrinth are basically completely different acts.

Re:True artist

[TWX]

We thought that about e-books too, but those are still under the control of the publishers for the most part and are still ridiculously expensive.

Both generally require a fairly large amount of editing. Books may go through editors and even advance-copies to get reader feedback before a final text is set. Music, depending on how it's produced, could require a fairly extensive studio with multitrack recording and mixing and a sound engineer that knows how to get the mix right, sometimes despite the musician's feelings on the matter. And for both, that's well before accounting for promotion.

If you or I have talent in either arena, we could write the best book or make the best music, but we probably won't achieve sales even if we didn't have to compete with existing structures. As much as I dislike it, marketing is much more important, and most people that create content aren't necessarily good at promoting themselves or that content.

Re:True artist

[plopez]

He made a great Goblin King.

Re:True artist

[TWX]

I'm wondering if that AC was actually trying to make a joke. To get two things wrong about the acting roles as the only two things cited would almost require intent.

Re:True artist

[Jhon]

David Bowie and Bing Crosby. I don't think anybody will ever beat Crosby's records (though I think "we are the world" took the number one spot for a while -- and it took every pop artist of the time to knock Crosby down a notch) but that duet between Crosby and Bowie was awesome and demonstrates the longevity of his career.

I'm not a fan of all Bowie's work -- certainly not most of it. But there's enough of his catalog that I believe we'll see/hear his music long after the majority of "pop stars" today are gone (I'm looking at you Beyonce).

Re:True artist

[thegarbz]

I wonder if anyone 30 years from now will remember Beyonce.

Who?

Re:True artist

[onepoint]

Now I can laugh, and clear my head of the sadness. Dune was "Sting" from the Police and Gozer was some Yugoslavian artist-actor i think

Re:True artist

[chispito]

We are officially in a worse period of music than disco.

You're listening to the wrong music. Who cares about Beyonce?

Re:True artist

[Tablizer]

Bowie actually improved "Space Oddity" over time. He kept tinkering with it after the initial 1969 release, like a true musical nerd, and improved it to give us the 70's version that most are now familiar with.

Re:True artist

[Bob_Who]

..... We are officially in a worse period of music than disco.

Bowie played official disco, periodically, and unofficially, period.

Re:True artist

[PvtVoid]

And he would have made a great Elrond...

I always wanted to seem him play The Joker. He would have killed it.

Re:True artist

[Chris Mattern]

There were plenty of pop-acts in every era that Bowie overlapped with, we simply don't remember many of them.

That's the point. We don't remember them. We do remember him. There's a reason for that.

Re:True artist

[KGIII]

It's probably unimaginable to many but, a few years back, I managed to get to see Meatloaf. It wasn't that many years ago. I want to say four years ago? It might have been five. Strangely enough - it was an excellent show. I saw Bowie twice back in the 70s. He was excellent, but more on that in a minute. Now, the kicker is, I saw Garth Brooks a couple of times and I don't even really like most goat-roping music. I also saw a whole bunch of Dead shows over the years - some good, some not so good. Not too many years ago, more recent than Meatloaf, I got to spend some time with the band and see Three Dog Night in concert. Yup, Three Dog Night - still together, tiny venue, special passes, even ate with 'em. I've seen Dylan at least a couple dozen times now, I've even met his son. For someone a little more obscure, there's Susan Tedeshi and, I might be biased, The Roy Hudson Band. Let's include Ian Anderson (alone or as Jethro Tull) in the group.

What do they all have in common? Well - every last one of them threw every ounce of energy and themselves into their show. They gave you everything they had (some exceptions for the Dead) with every show. There were others, like The Steve Miller Band and The Eagles, who gave you a polished show. Pink Floyd and even Metallica gave wonderfully polished shows. AC/DC and Ozzy are polished shows. But they don't have the same energy, they are not the same. The first group is a group of artists who put everything they have onto the stage. They hold little, if anything, back. If you've ever been on stage and played, well, you understand the actual effort that that can take. Actually, add Elton John and Billy Idol to the first list. I can't leave them out. I'm sure I'm missing more.

This is probably going to run a little long but I have a point, really. It's just not easy to say, at least not for me.

There's a certain something, I don't have a word for it, that I think an in-tune audience can appreciate and the artist feeds off of it. Certain artists, fewer than we might hope, have that capacity and they give you their all - and you give them your undivided attention and enjoy the moment. It's not easily put to words, at least not by me, but it's there and all the more palpable if you've been fortunate enough to be on both sides. (I'm not very good but I've played and sung in front of some reasonably large groups of people, sometimes even for money. The largest would be about 12,500 at a very overcrowded Hemp Fest, it was fun.) I don't know how to describe it but it's not just a connection, it's a willingness to push that to the limits, to push yourself to the limits (I presume - I'm not that good), and to really make everything work as best as one can.

It's not even about raw musical talent. A fairly well-to-do friend hired a rather famous guitar soloist to play at his party one year. The music was absolutely flawless. It was mind-blowing. He ripped scales I'd never even realized could go together. He's rather famous for a reason. He's as fluid as water and as technically pure as possible. The acoustics were perfect, the ambiance was perfect, the music was phenomenal. Yet, he sat on a bar stool. There were no vocals (he doesn't have vocals and generally only does private shows like this) and no movement, no anything... It was so perfect and yet so dead.

That's the opposite of Bowie... I'd not even say that Bowie was, on the scale of things, all that musically talented compared to many others. Yet, he was fantastic. He was, well, not just able but willing to put himself and everything he had into making art. I'm told that some shows from The Doors were similar to that but I never saw them. But Bowie? I only saw him twice and yet I still remember the sentiment and appreciation. Fucked if I remember what was played, I was blitzed! But, I digress...

I guess I'd have liked to see him later in his career but I just never got to it. I don't actually regret that, oddly. I'm happy for the two times that I did get to see him. I'm happy for the short time I had in

Re:True artist

[Gr8Apes]

That may all be true, but my point was more about breaking the cabal that currently decides almost all music that sees airplay. That is the current area that still needs to be broken for musical creativity to return. We had a few short golden eras where technology or socio-demographics caused that control to slip for a while. I haven't seen a comparable slip with the move to digital distribution, yet.

Re:True artist

[Dragonslicer]

I wonder if anyone 30 years from now will remember Beyonce.

I definitely will. I thought she was good in Goldmember.

Re:True artist

[Anonymous Coward]

>Bowie played official disco

No, Bowie played what he called "plastic soul".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_soul

It was NOT repeat NOT disco.

Re:True artist

[Altus]

Yeah but Bowie and his bad ass time tested contemporaries were well represented in the top 100 lists. That's a huge difference. Sure there was crap there too. There always is. But it used to be that the timeless stuff was there too. I suspect there is some on the top 100 now but it's not as prevalent meaning people need to dig deeper to find it and not everyone is interested in hunting down awesome music. Some don't even know how.

Re:True artist

[MightyMartian]

Kylie Minogue is hardly the cultural phenomenon that Bowie was.

Re:True artist

[doom]

Bowie was special, but he isn't unique.

Dude: you're the musical analog of a Very Serious political pundit. What exactly do you think you're saying? Bowie wasn't really exceptional he was merely memorable. Or something.

Re:True artist

[john.r.strohm]

Ditto.

A couple of years ago, on a trans-Pacific hop, I watched a documentary of a few years of his creative life.

I was amazed. I'd known he was good, but I did not ever, until then, realize how brilliant he really was.

Re:True artist

[ChunderDownunder]

Dustin Hoffman was excellent in Star Wars.

Re:True artist

[Threni]

Didn't he use to be David Bowie?

Re:True artist

[TWX]

I don't think we'll see it change until the model for the ownership of broadcasting changes.

There have been portable mass-market personal media technologies for music since the 8-track (even earlier if you consider the vehicle-based record players from cars from the 1950s) but radio is still a very common way to listen to music and is a very common way to learn about new music. Radio's most modern weakness is that consolidation has made it a lot easier for very few people to decide what new music we get exposed-to through the easiest medium in which to do it. With only a few companies owning so many stations and only a few companies controlling the majority of significant aspects of music production, distribution, and most importantly, publicity, it's difficult for those that wish to avoid these models to 'make it' if they're new upstarts. Sure, Moby was able to record a successful album at home, but in no small part due to his name recognition and his previous financial successes he could afford to have a quality home studio that he could use whenever he felt like.

Let's face it- there are times when we want to choose what we want to listen to and times when the music is nice to have playing but we don't want to take the time to design a playlist. In those latter circumstances we are dependent on someone else's choice, and their 'fee' for the privilege is getting to pick that which makes them money.

Re:True artist

[TWX]

I wish that Adele would stop trying to sing out of her natural range. On, "Rolling in the Deep," she nails it, but on "Someone Like You" her high notes just feel forced and uncomfortable, and that's on the best take of a studio version. They're not quite nails-on-chalkboard but they do make me wince just a little. She seems best as a Mezzo-Soprano or an Alto.

Re:True artist

[Gr8Apes]

I don't think we'll see it change until the model for the ownership of broadcasting changes.

I agree.

Let's face it- there are times when we want to choose what we want to listen to and times when the music is nice to have playing but we don't want to take the time to design a playlist. In those latter circumstances we are dependent on someone else's choice, and their 'fee' for the privilege is getting to pick that which makes them money.

If I can make a playlist, I own the music. I already have what I need. I am looking for new music and artists. Current broadcasting is failing these artists in every way possible. Other alternatives are little better.

Re:True artist

[TWX]

There's a certain something, I don't have a word for it, that I think an in-tune audience can appreciate and the artist feeds off of it. Certain artists, fewer than we might hope, have that capacity and they give you their all - and you give them your undivided attention and enjoy the moment. It's not easily put to words, at least not by me, but it's there and all the more palpable if you've been fortunate enough to be on both sides. (I'm not very good but I've played and sung in front of some reasonably large groups of people, sometimes even for money. The largest would be about 12,500 at a very overcrowded Hemp Fest, it was fun.) I don't know how to describe it but it's not just a connection, it's a willingness to push that to the limits, to push yourself to the limits (I presume - I'm not that good), and to really make everything work as best as one can.

I was in a major professional choir for a time, I know what you mean. That connection with the audience is the difference between them feeling you're playing to them and them feeling that they're a part of it emotionally. It really is an emotional connection too, and it seems to work irrespective of the genre or key or chord or instrument. The time I felt it strongest as a performer was at a concert featuring songs of the Civil War, closing with, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." There was something in that moment that if I could bottle and sell it I'd be rich. As a member of the audience I almost got there when Bobby Hatfield sang, "Unchained Melody," but Bill Medley came back out on stage right as the tune ended and cracked a joke that just broke the moment. The joke was funny, but I'd have rather had the moment than the joke.

I wish I'd gotten to see Queen with Freddy Mercury live; I'm a little too young. Even his recorded performances exude that feeling though, for what it's worth.

Re:True artist

[slashdot_commentator]

Bowie's best work was before the disco era. Bowie's work at the time of the Disco era I'd peg at Diamond Dogs (which was really more about capturing the Philly Soul scene. Yes, the man was ahead of his time.) For whatever reason, his synchronicity with Disco was quite late, with China Girl.

Re:True artist

[mjwx]

Whether you like his music or not, there is no denying that David Bowie was a true artist, a real entertainer. There was nothing fake about him. Nowadays, we don't see real artists like him very often.

I suspect that you're seeing history through rose-tinted glasses. There were plenty of pop-acts in every era that Bowie overlapped with, we simply don't remember many of them.

Which is why we remember Bowie.

I wonder if anyone 30 years from now will remember Beyonce. We are officially in a worse period of music than disco.

Beyonce will probably end up going the way of Celine Dion... Permanent Vegas show playing hits from the past for aging fans who cant let go of their youth. However that is a special case.

However bands like One Direction will end up going the way of the likes of Westlife or the Backstreet Boys (as anyone under 28 who they were) without Marc Whalberg's short lived acting career.

Who remembers Bardot (the band, not Bridget), Lifehouse, LeAnn Rimes, Mandy Moore, Sonique or even Atomic Kitten? These were all in the top 100 in 2001. Hell, I lived then and I had to look up the charts. Even someone like Ronan Keating will be pretty unknown to someone under 25.

Bowie stood out not just because he was the best of his time, but because he continued to be good beyond his time. Much like Frank Sinatra or Deep Purple and much like these bands, his music gets covered a lot (OK, not quite as much as Deep Purple, but that's because of the first song every guitarist learns).

Also he's a relic of a better age. It took 9 people to write "Single Ladies" for Beyonce, David Bowie wrote most of his music himself.

Re:True artist

[KGIII]

I dunno. I don't have a word for it but if you understand then you understand. Hell, I've got words for most things, some things that aren't even real, but this one is lacking words. It's good to see that others experience it and it truly is magical. I don't know if you'd be rich if you could bottle it up and sell it - it might not be worth much if it could be captured. It's fleeting, intangible, and probably a little different for everyone.

If you have a good sound system and want to try something, I can share a little of it - it's one of the few recordings that still has that magic. Find a copy of "Hurt so Bad" by Susan Tedeschi. Go ahead and pirate it, she won't mind. Really, she won't mind a bit. Find something in fairly good quality and give the entire song a listen. It's in there - a little.

Anyone else is, of course, more than welcome to participate. I might be biased but I've known her since she was a coffee shop singer. I'll tell her and if she complains then I'll pay for everyone's download. In cash. To her directly. There's a Blues Fest in Rockland, Maine. It's in a giant, outdoor, area that's probably about a half mile from one end to the other. It's at the public wharf. I've seen her put the microphone away and fill that whole area with sound. I don't suggest the song and her because I'm a fan. I recommend that because it's that good. Seriously, go pirate it. I'll personally pay for every person who downloads it from here and I'll get her to take the money and if she doesn't I'll slip it to her husband.

So, pirate with glee Slashdot. (Like you weren't gonna anyhow.) Wrack up a big ol' bill for me. (No, multiple downloads don't count.) I'll personally ensure she gets more than she'd have asked for and more than she'd have gotten from the label. She's a special one and I usually keep the special ones secret so that people don't end up ruining a good thing. That one song, that one person, seems to have just a little magic in it - you'll know when it hits. With me? It's in the spine. Let it play until the end, you'll know when it's the right spot. I'll let you figure it out on your own but it might not be the right spot for everyone. If you were in a choir, well, you might appreciate this.

I don't really have words but, perhaps, that might explain it. If you download, lemme know. Lemme know what you think. I'll relay that information too. I'll even tell her the "troll" responses if applicable. She'll get a kick out of it. Again, try for optimal sound and don't be afraid of the volume button. Keep the distractions away. Use headphones if you must. However, you can't have her. She's mine! I'm not too worried, she's turned down the major labels and contracts enough times already. So, you probably won't ruin her. I'll share with you, just this once.

Re:True artist

[Darinbob]

Exactly. He wasn't just a pop musician or a rock musician or whatever. He was always reinventing what he did and putting a lot of work into it. Even if you don't like his work you can tell that he wasn't just churning out another album in order to wait for checks to come in, he took his job making music seriously. And he didn't just do music, he did lots of performance in his concerts, he was an actor, he produced for other musicians, etc. His look too; he had Ziggy Stardust with an androgynous look, to a long haired hippy look, to a very serious and professional look.

I remember him doing a great Christmas duet with Bing Crosby.

Re:True artist

[Darinbob]

Reminds me of this exchange I heard once. I actually transcribed it to get it right.
The radio show's topic was about the death of Nelson Mandela:

Host: let's go to in San Francisco

Caller: Um ya, I had a question..
Caller: I also just want to comment on what an amazing ...
Caller: not only peacemaker he was but also actor as well in
Caller: Shawshank Redemption and Bruce Almighty
Caller: but to achieve greatness in both realms is amazing,
Caller: but also how can kids relate presently ...

Host: I think you're thinking of the actor who played Mandela
Host: in the 2010 movie, not Mandela himself, but go ahead ...

Caller: Um well .. how can kids relate to .. him present..ly ..
Caller: uh never mind

Re:True artist

[Darinbob]

Linda Ronstadt is hosting a Mariachi event every year. She still sounds amazing too.

Bowie I don't think did "what the public wanted". If he only did what the public wanted he wouldn't have changed styles so much.

Re:True artist

[Darinbob]

Disco was.. alright. I wasn't in to any current music at the time myself. In my view the people most disgusted with disco were those really into a harder rock style which I liked even less.

I liked punk, but I didn't like it because I wanted a rebellion against disco or existing music. That's far too parochial, liking only one type of music and feeling compelled to bash any style that's different to prove your loyalty. On my iPod I've got some pop, rock, disco, ska, reggae, new wave, classical, baroque, and scores from video gams.

The problem with disco is that too many groups got labeled as disco unfairly. Ie, anything danceable with a snappy beat in the late 70s was called disco.

Re:True artist

[Darinbob]

Kanye, is that you?

Re:True artist

[Ol Olsoc]

I wonder if anyone 30 years from now will remember Beyonce.

Who?

Excellent!

Re:True artist

[Jack Griffin]

Whether you like his music or not, there is no denying that David Bowie was a true artist, a real entertainer. There was nothing fake about him.

Well apart from his whole Ziggy Stardust persona that was complete fiction, but yeah I get what you mean. One of the greatest ever.

Re:True artist

[Jack Griffin]

I wonder if anyone 30 years from now will remember Beyonce. We are officially in a worse period of music than disco.

Great music is still out there, it's just that the accountants and lawyers now run the charts. So instead of being force fed quality acts, you now have put some effort in to find them.

Re:True artist

[quantaman]

Whether you like his music or not, there is no denying that David Bowie was a true artist, a real entertainer. There was nothing fake about him. Nowadays, we don't see real artists like him very often.

I suspect that you're seeing history through rose-tinted glasses. There were plenty of pop-acts in every era that Bowie overlapped with, we simply don't remember many of them. People don't remember acts like Elastica or Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen that charted and were popular for a short time. Hell, look at Weird Al's parodies throughout the years, there are some artists he parodied whose specific work is unknown now that were popular enough at the time to justify parody, like Tiffany and George Harrison's solo work.

Don't confuse style with talent.

The challenge with pop music is you need to grab people the first time they're exposed to it, so you need some very accessible elements on the surface for first time listeners to enjoy.

The problem is those elements get old very quickly, and if there's nothing else the listener gets bored and moves on, that's why pop acts rise and crash so quickly.

Bowie has held up as a pop act, that means not only does he include a great surface hook but he's able to add a subtext that allows the song to hold up long term and evolve his image so he stays relevant. This requires an exceptional amount of talent, those artists don't come along often.

Re:True artist

[omfgnosis]

Disco was pretty much predicated on being at least okay.

Re:True artist

[goose-incarnated]

Ditto.

A couple of years ago, on a trans-Pacific hop, I watched a documentary of a few years of his creative life.

I was amazed. I'd known he was good, but I did not ever, until then, realize how brilliant he really was.

He was really, really good. In Under Pressure you get a good sense of this as he is paired up with *another* very talented individual and still sounds bloody awesome.

Funny observation from Under Pressure:
Bowie: "It's the terror of knowing What this world is about Watching some good friends Screaming, "Let me out!""

Mercury: "Deh deh dit deh deh dit deh dehdit deh deh"

;-)

Major Tom will be giving the eulogy

[jfdavis668]

and the spiders from Mars will be the pallbearers.

Re:Major Tom will be giving the eulogy

[Anonymous Coward]

but we know major tom's a junkie

Re: Major Tom will be giving the eulogy

[Hognoxious]

Hey Einstein, get this - there aren't actually any spiders on Mars either.

Re:Major Tom will be giving the eulogy

[Translation Error]

I don't know about Major Tom, but they could get The Spiders from Mars back together to do it, I suppose.

Re: Major Tom will be giving the eulogy

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Then how do you explain this martian skin cream against spider bites?

Re: Major Tom will be giving the eulogy

[TWX]

When they come visit they don't like the effects of spider bites either. QED.

Re:Major Tom will be giving the eulogy

[plopez]

And maybe even the Diamond Dogs.

Re: Major Tom will be giving the eulogy

[rossdee]

How about Chris Hadfield then?

Watch the new videos

[Anonymous Coward]

He just released an album, its good, but bleak.
He must have recorded knowing his death was imminent. You'd think why he didn't say he had cancer, but if you watch the videos he did say.

Blackstar, is full of lonely candles and a Dead Major Tom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw

Love is lost,
http://prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com/post/137078250186/prostheticknowledge-love-is-lost-hello-steve

But for me, the best track he's never remembered for is "Andy Warhol"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4sANPkk3ys

Goodbye David.

Re:Watch the new videos

[plopez]

I likes "Kooks".

Re:Watch the new videos

[thegarbz]

He must have recorded knowing his death was imminent.

The video for Lazarus was released on Friday. David Bowie in a hospital bed. First lines of the song "Look up, I'm in heaven"

He will be missed. Even his death was a creative form of art.

Re:Watch the new videos

[Big Hairy Ian]

Queen Bitch!

news

[Spaham]

Thanks for posting this info here, or I would never have heard about it !

Re:Holy shit this is the first I've heard of this!

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Because he was a rebel that supported the fall of music labels, the media ignored his death.

That, or the real Goblin King is involved and we're not supposed to know about it.

Why you need record labels

[110010001000]

One word: Marketing. And promotion. Wait, you need three words: Marketing and promotion. And publicity. OK four words: marketing, promotion, and publicity. Oh, and connections to the industry.

Re:Why you need record labels

[TWX]

This is sounding increasingly like a Monty Python sketch...

Let me sit down in this comfy chair and pray continue...

Re:Why you need record labels

[110010001000]

The parrot sketch? .....too soon?

Re:Why you need record labels

[shaitand]

If only there were some other way that technology enabled marketing and promotion based on merit. Some sort of digital social interconnection of almost every individual. In such a world the dinosaur marketing and media companies might even be desperately trying to exploit such interconnected social meshes or social networks and poison them with content that actually lacks merits just to keep up.

Nah, never happen.

Re:Why you need record labels

[110010001000]

Right. That is why the top grossing musicians of 2015 were One Direction. They made it on merit because they are so awesome that everyone talked about them on Twitter.

Re:Why you need record labels

[TWX]

No, The Spanish Inquisition.

I guess really nobody expects The Spanish Inquisition...

Re:Why you need record labels

[PPH]

exploit such interconnected social meshes or social networks and poison them

Zuckerberg plz go.

Re:Why you need record labels

[110010001000]

I know. I was just kidding about the parrot sketch, but that can apply too in this situation...

Re:Why you need record labels

[omfgnosis]

Bowie always made better music than NiN

I won't disagree, but that's a pretty weird juxtaposition given their collaboration, mutual inspiration, and the incredible music that came out of both from that era.

Re:Why you need record labels

[shaitand]

I'm sorry but I fail to see how that counters my contention that there is no need for an entity that does marketing and promotion for artists who aren't awesome enough that they are talked about on social media. If you are good, people talk about that. More people come to see you next time. Rinse and Repeat.

Technology has brought us to the point that while you can certainly spend more, you can easily set up a room for recording and subsequently record and mix unlimited albums for under $5k.

The world just has no need for the legacy recording industry anymore.

Re:Why you need record labels

[shaitand]

Are you saying that because Zuckerberg would object to the ways in which marketing companies avoid buying Facebook ad time trying to get things to propagate on social media or what?

For better or worse social media is here and not going anywhere. The genie is out of the bottle. One of the consequences is that "word of mouth" can reach millions of people in a single day. There is just no need for the RIAA and associated studios anymore. Technology has brought us to the point where they aren't needed for recording and aren't needed for marketing. We just don't need them anymore.

No mention of banker Bowie

[clovis]

So far the articles I saw made no mention of his adventure as a banker and alternative currencies.
Bowie was a more interesting person than your typical rock star.

Re:No mention of banker Bowie

[Anonymous Coward]

I did hear someone on the radio mention "Bowie bonds" and how this pretty much preempted modern derivatives, which I thought was weird. I shall be looking into this further.

Re:No mention of banker Bowie

[swb]

Didn't Bowie strike an unusual deal a few years ago where he sold all his past AND future music rights?

Re:No mention of banker Bowie

[timestride]

I heard the same story on the Marketplace Morning Report on NPR. Here is a link to it: http://www.marketplace.org/201...

Re:No mention of banker Bowie

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep..."Bowie Bonds". More than just a few years too....1997.

And, as if that hadn't already worked out well enough for him, the bonds matured in 2007...and he then got all the mechanical royalties/other income back from his catalog.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_bond

Re:No mention of banker Bowie

[MightyMartian]

As I recall, he actually sold futures on music he hadn't released yet. The guy was innovative in multiple fields, and presaged a lot of the ways music is made and distributed a decade before everyone else. He was a real innovator.

Re:No mention of banker Bowie

[doom]

I was thinking about the time he started selling shares in the value of his back catalog... I was wondering how that one worked out.

But yeah, we could here all day talking about David Bowie oddities, and probably will be.

Re:No mention of banker Bowie

[jdavidb]

+6. Thank you for that cool information that I was not aware of.

Re:No mention of banker Bowie

[clovis]

Didn't Bowie strike an unusual deal a few years ago where he sold all his past AND future music rights?

That and he also had, sorta, his own boutique bank for a while "BowieBanc" with a branded mastercard. Didn't do well though.
Back in the 1990's he had his own ISP, bowienet which I don't really understand.

RIP

[koan]

I'm fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing.

Indeed... if only it were true David, going to miss this guy, grew up with his music and strangeness

Re: RIP

[bill_mcgonigle]

He was right - it did happen, at least among the younger generations. The old people still have the guns, but they too will have their obituaries.

Re: RIP

[shaitand]

Sort of. The Napster generation is coming into power now and they show no signs of intending to fix anything. Instead they are using their enhanced savy to make enforcement of law more successful.

That's a scary and terrible thought especially with our courts giving themselves the power to set aside jury verdicts and lying to jurors about their right and duty to judge whether a law is just on a case-by-case basis and instead telling them they are only allowed to judge the facts of a case.

Re: RIP

[tnk1]

Refusing to acknowledge jury nullification is not a new thing. In some senses, that's understandable given that we have a precedent based system where no one in the legal business likes it when the jury ignores the precedents and the letter of the law.

Re: RIP

[shaitand]

"Refusing to acknowledge jury nullification is not a new thing. In some senses, that's understandable given that we have a precedent based system where no one in the legal business likes it when the jury ignores the precedents and the letter of the law."

The letter of the law is that the people never granted any branch of government including the judicial the authority the override their final say in all matters of law one case at a time via direct representatives in the form of jurors. Everyone else making "laws" only has the authority to do due to the higher law of the Constitution, the people simply reserved their authority to overturn those lesser authorities.

Re: RIP

[KGIII]

Hmm... Seeing as the subject is Bowie and that's music - I think it pertinent to quote another dead musician...

The old get old
And the young get stronger
May take a week and it may take longer
They got the guns but we got the numbers
Gonna win, yeah, we're takin' over

That was sometime around 1968 as I recall? Or, more accurately, nearly 50 years ago. Yup, any minute now and you're the first person to have that original idea. You might be on to something!

(Sorry for the sarcasm but, well, I'm cynical today.)

Hell of a guy

[SMoynihan]

The guy was razor sharp, and at times almost prescient.

From around 6 minutes in this interview, he talks re. the music industry's rot, and predicts much of the internet's climb over the last decade and a half. All to Paxman's skepticism...

We have an emptier world today

Re:Hell of a guy

[DavidHumus]

Not to mention his shrewdness in securitizing revenues from his songs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... . He got $55 million up front at the cost of ten years' revenue from his music. The revenues fell short but, based on what he was saying about the music business, he may have anticipated this.

Re:Hell of a guy

[thinkwaitfast]

We have an emptier world today

Very sad. He is one of my defining memory of the 80's. I was never that into him, but a few of the girls that I liked were

On happier note, Iman is now available. (Too soon?)

Re:Hell of a guy

[tnk1]

Given that he could have probably invested his up front money soundly and made more money than the music business would have given him in "revenue", I think he made a wise decision.

Re:Hell of a guy

[jomama717]

That's a great interview, thanks for the link. I love the exchange just after 11:00:

Interviewer: [the internet] is just a tool though isn't it?
Bowie: No it's not, no. No, it's an alien life form.

Re:Hell of a guy

[MightyMartian]

I'm almost certain Bowie understood very well what digital recording was going to mean, particularly as it related to future publishing and recording royalties. He guaranteed himself a pretty significant payoff, knowing full well that they would likely exceed royalties. It also must have helped his bottom line when his heart problems forced him into retirement in 2003.

Of course, a lot of what Bowie learned came from the school of hard knocks. He, like a lot of recording artists, did some spectacularly bad business deals, particularly with his management, in the 1970s, and he went all out in the early and mid-80s to make music and do major tours that he knew would make him cash to recover financially.

Ziggy Stardust

[zoober]

Still one of my favorite albums. I was just listening to it last night, it always hits me how well the theme of the album works.. are there any album themes anymore?

Re:Ziggy Stardust

[TWX]

Muse has picked up that mantle lately. The Art of Noise (The Seduction of Claude DeBussy), Spacehog (the Chinese Album), Styx (Kilroy Was Here) and many, many others have released concept albums that are best listened-to whole.

Re:Ziggy Stardust

[N1AK]

Yes. Drones by Muse is a recent major example. The Streets concept album A grand don't come for free is brilliant (though not typically my style of music).

Re:Ziggy Stardust

[RevRagnarok]

Green Day's American Idiot. Three major Marilyn Manson albums together tell a story, from Wikipedia:

After the release of "Holy Wood", Manson said that the overarching story within the trilogy is presented in reverse chronological order; Mechanical Animals, therefore, acts as the bridge connecting the two narratives and remains constant whether the trilogy is viewed in reverse or not.[5]

Re:Ziggy Stardust

[The-Ixian]

Ayreon!

Arjen Luccasen is a genius.

Re:Ziggy Stardust

[Daetrin]

There's Rush's latest (and possibly last? =/) album, "Clockwork Angels." And i'd suggest giving Poe's "Haunted" a try. Supposedly even better if you've read her brother's book, "House of Leaves". (I haven't read it yet, so i can't attest one way or the other.)

Looks like wikipedia has a list of concept albums, though i've gotta say at least some of the items on there seem a little dubious.

Re:Ziggy Stardust

[onkelonkel]

An old one, but it rocks hard - Operation Mindcrime by Queensryche.

Re:Ziggy Stardust

[Altus]

Neil young, greendale. A nice story telling album that has a tour with actors acting out the songs. It was a great show.

Re:Who gives a shit

[jfdavis668]

Give us a break. We just happen to like his music.

Re:Holy shit this is the first I've heard of this!

[jabuzz]

Not really it has been all over the news in the UK. Just fire up the BBC news website if you want to see what I mean.

RIP Thin White Duke

[markpg]

Just spent the weekend listening to the new album and trying to figure out the meaning behind the Blackstar video. It suddenly all makes sense.

He will be missed, but it's nice to know he left at the top of his game.

Re:Holy shit this is the first I've heard of this!

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

There's only 27 mentions of "David Bowie" on their main page. Is that normal for the BBC?

Hoax

[Jimpqfly]

This is a hoax. Bowie will never die.

Re:Holy shit this is the first I've heard of this!

[Jahta]

I had no idea David Bowie died until I read it here on Slashdot! How come the mainstream media didn't report on this at all in the last 16 hours since it was formally announced?

I don't know where in the world you are. But in my part of the world the media have been talking about little else since early this morning.

Ground Control To Major Tomb

[shortscruffydave]

That is all

Re:Ground Control To Major Tomb

[Cow Jones]

RIP David. He was an inspiration to me for many years.
I just told my wife I loved him very much (she knows).

RIP Mr. Bowie

[oh_my_080980980]

A true genius. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

he died, a crontroversial figure.

[nimbius]

Bowies eccentricities aside, Ive never understood why his kidnapping charge wasnt investigated? Sure, he certainly as a monarch reserved diplomatic immunity but his 13 hour standoff over the child was completely uncalled for.
Now that hes gone, what of his estate? I certrainly hope someone does something with the bog of eternal stench he was so enamoured with...and that horrible room full of staircases? certainly someones complained of trip hazards and safety violations...Rest in peace Goblin King.

Re:he died, a crontroversial figure.

[unapersson]

Take it up with hogwart, he's in charge now.

Re:he died, a crontroversial figure.

[slgrimes]

Hog-GLE. Geesh.

Re:Most of the ppl on /.

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

People with real music playback software only have to type "David Bowie" in the search field.

Re:Who gives a shit

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Nerds play D&D. Labyrinth was fantasy, much like a D&D game. So I guess it kinda explains why this is tech news.

Re:Who gives a shit

[Anonymous Coward]

"News for nerds", jackass. Bowie was music for 70's music nerds.

Re:Most of the ppl on /.

[TWX]

Or, I donno, we can break-out the vinyl that we've had for the past couple of decades and hear ol' Ziggy Stardust in its original glory...

Netflix time

[Deadstick]

I saw The Man Who Fell to Earth on first release, when local censors had shredded it into incomprehensibility. Gotta give it another shot...

Coolness on fleek

[PopeRatzo]

The dude played fucking Nikola Tesla in the movies. Because of course he did. That's how cool he was.

Re:Who gives a shit

[clovis]

How is this tech news?

How is it that you don't know what are the topics at the top of the slashdot web page? It says:
Topics: Devices Build Entertainment Technology Open Source Science YRO

This article is about Davis Bowie, so it concerns
1) entertainment; music
2) technology; digital distribution of music
3) YRO; copyright issues

RIP and He should have been right

[shaitand]

"In 2002, he said, "I don't even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I don't think it's going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it's not going to happen. I'm fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing.""

It's sad that natural technical evolution was so successfully thwarted via the mass purchase of lawmakers.

Re:RIP and He should have been right

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, it's sad that people who create their own art can't be assured exclusivity in order to put bread on their table.
 
It's easy to say something like this when you're Bowie. The man was never going to worry about where his next meal was coming from. But there are tons of artists out there who have to work a non-artist job to make ends meet. All the while those without any skin in the game are trying to justify why they shouldn't have to put in to help support someone who has put in their own time, money and effort to produce a piece.
 
If you're using someone's art then you should pay for the right to use it. If you don't like that idea stick with the creative commons/public domain or create your own art and give it away. Otherwise you're just being selfish about a person's right to exist on the merits of their own creativity.
 
Copyright isn't a black and white issue and unless you make your way on copyrighted works then your opinion matters little.

Re:RIP and He should have been right

[spire3661]

"Copyright isn't a black and white issue and unless you make your way on copyrighted works then your opinion matters little."

BULL FUCKING SHIT. Copyright is a SOCIAL BARGAIN. Copyright is a bargain between the public and the artist. Every single citizen has skin in this game. For the last 100 years the artists (and their proxies) have been steadily altering the bargain in their favor. We The People grant copyright, its not an inherent right. WE could stop granting it tomorrow if we so choose (would require an amendment, but it could be done). Art would still be made even without copyright. We are in an Information Age, the old ideas of copyright make no sense when everything is trivially copy-able. Copyright holds us back more than it pushes us forwards now.

Re:RIP and He should have been right

[MightyMartian]

Technology frequently runs roughshod over business models. I'm sure all those fletchers who were forced to find other work shook their fists at those dirty bastards with the gunpowder.

Intellectual property laws work well where the medium in question can guarantee scarcity. Analog recording quality is directly based upon how close to the original master your copy is, and thus owning first generation masters essentially guarantees you a monopoly on a good sounding recording. Digital recording means every copy retains absolute fidelity, and thus the scarcity disappears. You can use DRM and the courts to try to retain that scarcity, but ultimately it's just building mouse traps to try to catch ever-smarter mice.

Re:RIP and He should have been right

[slashdot_commentator]

would require an amendment, but it could be done

The CotUS does not include protections for intellectual property. Congress just has to pass a law dismantling legal recognition of copyright.

Re:Holy shit this is the first I've heard of this!

[dave420]

That's actually quite Low...

Re:Holy shit this is the first I've heard of this!

[Ol Olsoc]

I had no idea David Bowie died until I read it here on Slashdot! How come the mainstream media didn't report on this at all in the last 16 hours since it was formally announced?

Because Benghazi!

Re:Holy shit this is the first I've heard of this!

[dwillden]

Are you kidding, It was the first thing on the news when I got in my car to go to work at 2 am (mst) this morning. It's been on every news site I've looked at today?

remotely linked but a good series

[plopez]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt04...

Don't waste your time with the American series.

Re:remotely linked but a good series

[Toshito]

One of my all time favorite TV series.

The sequel, Ashes to Ashes, was quite good also. (Fire up the Quattro!)

Re:Holy shit this is the first I've heard of this!

[Rob Riggs]

It's all Hunky Dory if you ask me...

Bowie's in space, now

[The Evil Atheist]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

An early master of music videos as well

[plopez]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Played as Nikola Tesla

[necro81]

Gosh. On /. I would have figured that some people would have chimed in that he played Nikola Tesla in the film "The Prestige." Bonus: his lab assistant was played by Andy Serkis, in one of his few live-action roles.

Sad to see him go

[The-Ixian]

I will never forget the first time I heard Ziggy Stardust (to be played at maximum volume).

It was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor and I thought of Ma and I wanted to get back there. Your face, your race, the way that you talk. I kiss you, you're beautiful, I want you to walk.

RIP David. I love you.

Re:Holy shit this is the first I've heard of this!

[AchilleTalon]

Pretty silly argument. The media will be always be where there is a buck to make. That he didn't support labels or whatever shit you believe doesn't change anything to the fact making the front page with Bowie this morning is selling everywhere on this planet. It is all over the news in Canada as well.

So sad

[ZiggyStardust1984]

We were just about to come back for a new tour, like Axl and Slash. So sad...

An interesting movies based on him

[plopez]

Based on Bowie and the entire Glam rock scene of the early 70's .

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt01...

Re:If a truly competent singer,

[macs4all]

such as Cassandra Wilson, were to die, would Slashdot have a feature article about it?

Are you even BEGINNING to insinuate that Bowie wasn't a competent singer?

Re:Who gives a shit

[thegarbz]

Who gives a shit

Lots of people evidently.

Re:Excellent

[sudon't]

I won't miss him and his awful music.

Both Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust are true masterpieces. If you grew up listening to his post-seventies work, you can be forgiven your opinion.

Re:Who gives a shit

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously...he had a lot to say about the future state of the music industry in the internets early days. His death mentioned on Slashdot is definitely not a random celebrity death sighting.

Turne

[supertrooper]

I like his music, but as a human being I liked him even more. He turned down British knighthood by saying "I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that, I seriously don't know what it's for. It's not what I spent my life working for."

Conspiracy theory in 3... 2... 1...

[Locke2005]

Very suspicious that his death coincides with his birthday and the release of Darkstar... does anyone else suspect that this might be a huge publicity stunt? Certainly sales of his albums are going to go through the roof, just as they did when Michael Jackson died. On the other hand, Darkstar is actually dark enough that it is believable that the person creating it did so knowing he was going to die of cancer. No question Bowie was a great songwriter, performer, and actor.

Re:Conspiracy theory in 3... 2... 1...

[kerrbear]

Is it possible he was in agony over his illness and he waited on the release of his last album before doing physician assisted suicide?

Nerds appreciate fantasy

[Etherwalk]

Nerds play D&D. Labyrinth was fantasy, much like a D&D game. So I guess it kinda explains why this is tech news.

Not just D&D--a huge number of Nerds enjoy fantasy. And Labyrinth was not quite old-school fairy-tale, but it was definitely fantasy. If slashdot were here when Tolkien died, it would have been news. David Bowie isn't Tolkien, but he's definitely relevant to fantasy culture.

Re:Nerds appreciate fantasy

[Alien1024]

There's also the videogame Omikron: The Nomad Soul. Bowie plays a support character, and some tracks from the album "Hours" are included here. An interesting cyberpunk action/adventure game.

Re:Holy shit this is the first I've heard of this!

[rochrist]

What media are you looking at that you think his death was ignored?? Fox News?

Re:Most of the ppl on /.

[KGIII]

I seem to recall there was an 8 track released that had quadraphonic stereo on it - true distinct four channels, best listened to in an old car that supports it. I recommend a Dodge Dart, from 1972, but I'm biased. I am nearly certain it was quadraphonic - and I'm nearly certain that I own it, somewhere, along with a copy of "A Child's Garden of Grass." Oh, and I have a 1972 Dart. I am not so sure that I actually listened to it.

Alas, I am in Florida and the Dart (and 8 track) are in Maine. The 8 track is actually factory and still works. Err... The "collection" of 8 tracks actually came, unknowingly, with the car - in a rather good sized plastic container in the trunk. I haven't listened to them all (and never will) but there was a large number of goat-roping artists on there. I did listen to some Cash, Rogers, and Charlie Daniels before putting the collection away so I'd not lose 'em. I think there was some Neil Diamond in there as well as an Eagles album. There were about 100 of 'em, all told. One of which was Bowie.

Oh, it's got some Zeppelin in there too. Two albums, I think? I'm not really sure, I only played with the collection for a couple of days before I put it away so that they'd not be ruined. I figure if I ever get rid of the car then I'll put 'em back in the trunk. I'll probably tell the new owner about 'em first.

I think his spaceship knows which way to go

[better_resurrection]

I think his spaceship knows which way to go

Re:Holy shit this is the first I've heard of this!

[Hognoxious]

I would call you Captain Obvious, but I think Colonel is more appropriate.

There's clearly an entire battalion of blithering idiots who aren't very good at spotting sarcasm.

Re:Sigh, why is this on slashdot?

[MightyMartian]

Considering Bowie's contributions to digital music distribution, and he being one of the first people to recognize just what the Internet was going to mean to the music industry, I'd say that alone justifies a Slashdot article. The guy wasn't just a very good artist, he was also an extraordinarily canny businessman who foresaw how the business he was a part of was going to be shaken to the core even when "high speed Internet" meant a 14.4k modem.

A Child's Garden of Grass

[OutOnARock]

Profound Revelations

You may think you have profound revelations
only to find out later they are none to profound.

Such as:
Survival of the species is everybody's business
No matter how much you may dislike pickles, it is after all, the only think you can do with cucumbers.

Re:A Child's Garden of Grass

[KGIII]

Holy shit!?! Seriously? You know the album? I found it on YouTube once and it had a half dozen views. (Listens, really.) I think the rest of them, since then, have been from me turning people on to it.

Now, I didn't upload the album on YouTube. I have it on LP and on 8 track and, somewhere, I have a copy that I dubbed to cassette. But, you're the very first person that I've ever met, online, that already knew what I was referencing. Obviously, someone else does - 'cause they uploaded it. I intentionally slip it into posts just to see if anyone mentions it - I literally look for reasons to mention it.

I'll be damned... You, sir or ma'am, are my hero for the day! If you've never listened to it on a real quadraphonic stereo system then you absolutely should consider it. Hell, if you get to Maine (after I get back this spring) you can come over and listen to it in my Dart! I'll even bring the weed!

You take a trip to the left and take a trip to the right, when you get done tripping gonna trip all night...

Oh, man... I've probably dropped the title into two dozen different threads over the Slashdot years - not one nibble. I've even *linked* to the YouTube, nary a nibble.

Here, again, for those who are unfamiliar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Hah, I had listened to a bit of it back during the holidays with my son. It started me off at the meditation segment.

Alright, I have to ask... How the hell do you even know about this album? I seriously didn't think it was rare or anything - all my friends knew about it back in the day. Today? Crickets... I've tossed it out there and you're the absolute first to know what I speak of. Man, listening to that stoned, in quadraphonic stereo, was absolutely mind blowing back in the day. I think there was even a four channel LP version but I'm not positive. There probably was - that might even be where my dub is from with proper channel separation? I suspect one of my kids has absconded with the cassette.

You are my hero!

Help!!! I'm lost in the refrigerator!

Oh my... Heh... The missus didn't listen with my son and I. I shall restart it from the beginning... Hmm... I should wait until we're back in Maine and can safely smoke again. Florida really frowns on weed so I don't have any. It just smells enough and the penalty is too high. So, I go without weed. Err, Florida has *other* options. I've, umm, I might have skied more since I got to Florida than I ever do in Maine. *chuckles* Don't laugh - I actually had several Slashdotters over for NYE festivities (we made things go boom) and they may (or may not have - I'll let them decide to tell their story or not) gone skiing with me. A big ol' pile of powder and you face plant your way to the bottom. That might explain the verbosity of my posts. Or not...

Oh yes, hah... Back to the question - I was hanging out with an older hippie chick, stoned obviously, when she turned me on to the album. She was a friend's mother and I was nearing the age where I graduated from high school. She caught us getting stoned and we thought we were in so much trouble. She made us share with her and she played the album for us. I think I have the timing right? I might be conflating it with something else. I seem to recall that the album was fairly new at the time, or at least not that old, so I'm thinking it was around 1973.

And if your friends are stoned too, they won't know what you're talking about either.

Oh man... I could go on but this is already long enough. ;-) If you get the chance to listen to it in quadraphonic stereo (some record players had four discrete channels and some just had two left and two right channels) then then do so. It's actually best (in my opinion) in a car with a good sound system that is properly balanced. Oh man... Heh, I've got like 1,000 stories about this album and the times we had on it but I'll spare you the boring details. I hope you've got your own special set of stories

Re:A Child's Garden of Grass

[Bob_Who]

Amen, Brother!

  This is a great recording that is seared onto my brain from the late 70's and early 80's and I still don't know who made the darned thing. I heard it the same day I first listened to Dire Straits, "The Sultan of Swing" and Leo Kotke's "If Shrimps Could Whistle" back in 1979 or so...give or take a year.

It was an interesting album cover back in the days of vinyl records for $2.97 at the Record Cove. The first thing I went looking for on "the internet" was this baby and it finally surfaced about ten years ago but would vanish again. "A Child's Garden of Grass: A Pre-Legalization Comedy" was not only prophetic, its an early example of audio (video) "mashups" now created on you tube. Truly creative multimedia like this is funny, on the radio or the tube. For those of us in a Ford over looking a pacific sunset on "top of the world" it was the perfect way to spend time with friends. Especially if you are in high school, or just high, or have sophomoric humor, or are just a little bit too stoned to go home to the parental units. Having departed an era of "Refer Madness" and "War on Drugs" military-industrial complex propaganda, its good to see some classic media that expresses the fond experience many Americans enjoyed with pot and our culture. We can be a culture of tolerance, if stoners, (or good natured folk with great stereos and the munchies) are a little goofy on grass. Thanks for the reminder of common culture, nearly forgotten under a pile of new media, friend. This was a masterpiece in its day, in my view. We're older, but we're not dead yet!

Re:A Child's Garden of Grass

[KGIII]

There's a book - I've never read it but I do *technically* own a copy. I believe the recording artists are Firesign Theater. Except I don't think it was their name at the time. What I am given to understand is that their success made them officially form the Fireside troop.

And, no problem for sharing - any time. If you have the will you can scrape the music/sans video, and have a "backup copy." If you're ever in Maine, I will be happy to play it in the house or in the Dart. Oddly, I recommend the Dart, 45 MPH, and at least a quarter. (We can get away with that near my house. We could take a a truck and never even see pavement.

Seriously, that's an open invitation. I've had other Slashdotters come visit, meet my family, and over NYE I spent more than a *really* nice non-luxury car would cost just doing two fireworks shows. (A bit over 30k.) it was awesome.

Disco

[doom]

Look, I am a lifelong classical music snob, and like a lot of jazz as well (especially the more modern jazz pianists and the new Japanese jazzists)... but I think also that disco was at least OK.

But how old are you? Disco was being pushed down our throats by major media (seriously, no news broadcast was completely without a "how To Do The Hustle" fluff piece), it had a culture based on expensive clothes far out of the reach of any teenager, not to mention the heavy cocaine use. The big disco venue was Studio 54, which was famous for being Exclusive, if you weren't a Big Star good luck getting in the door. And no one liked the music, the record companies lost their shirts pushing disco records. This entire business sucked, the suckiness of the music was just a small part of it.

Disco is why punk was necessary.

Re:Disco

[slashdot_commentator]

Punk didn't kill Disco. In fact, it didn't "flourish" until well after the Disco era. What replaced Disco commercially was "New Wave" & Rap.

Re: Who gives a shit

[bestweasel]

Bowie did as much to encourage space travel as Carl Sagan.
RIP Starman

Re:Excellent

[greenfruitsalad]

i remember seeing him the first time - crossdressed, full makeup, vomit inducing dancing and singing. avoided his music and videos like a plague since then.

btw, what exactly is this doing on slashdot? anybody knows what lady gaga has been up to lately?

Re:Excellent

[Pseudonym]

I won't miss him and his awful music.

Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family is, like, two minutes out of decades of work.

Sound and Vision

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Sound and Vision, We Could Be Heroes...lots of great stuff from him over the years.

RIP, David.

Re:Excellent

[Pseudonym]

Well, he is arguably the nerdiest pop singer/artist that could ever be.

I'd argue that point. Compared to the likes Weird Al, They Might Be Giants, OK Go, Frank Zappa, Talking Heads, Beck, Thomas Dolby, Weezer, GWAR, The Mountain Goats, Ben Folds, Elvis Costello... Bowie probably isn't even in the top 20 nerdiest pop artists. I didn't even bother with indie acts like Jonathan Coulton, niche acts like The Aquabats, or nerds who were only incidentally pop artists like Brian Cox.

My vote for the nerdiest pop superstar would be Brian May. He built his own guitar and helped build his own amplifier, he has a PhD in astrophysics, and wrote a song about the effect of space travel at relativistic speeds.

Art lives

[maeda]

Goodby David

Re:News coverage

[slashdot_commentator]

A lot of rich Arabs running around the Western music scene in the 1970's. Doesn't surprise me a bit. But I'm guessing you think Arab princes sit in unairconditioned tents all day or riding camels?

I have nothing clever to say about this.

[Narcocide]

:(

Re:Holy shit this is the first I've heard of this!

[omfgnosis]

Get Real.

Re:Excellent

[dave420]

Aaah I get it now - you really have no idea. Thanks.