Saturday, January 16, 2016

Monday, January 11, 2016

Memories of David Bowie

Hearing "Young Americans" in the back of the red van as my parents drove through the heartland of our country. Discovering the message of "Under Pressure" and playing the song for a 7th grade class presentation on "What is Horror?" with Matt. Watching the "Let's Dance" video in the basement of a friend's house. Listening to "China Girl" and discovering SRV. "Space Oddity" while cruising the Metroparks on Classic Rock Saturday Night (thanks MMS). Might as well include "Transformer" in this mix. Speeding down I480 screaming "wham bam thank you ma'am!" "Blue Jean" - a most underrated song. The summer paint crew at the height of the classic rock revival and hearing the best of Bowie on endless rotation (Cleveland has long ties with Bowie, you know). "The Last Temptation of Christ." "Sound and Vision." "Heroes." "Fame 90" (a killer remix, just listen to those drums). "China Girl" again, this time the version found on the VH1 Storytellers CD. "I'm Afraid of Americans" (hell yeah). "Zoolander." That he appeared in "Bandslam," a movie Sophie loves. That "Rebel Rebel" was on the film soundtrack, it somehow wound up as a song used by her alarm clock to wake her for school, and now she HATES the song. "Life on Mars" the brilliant British TV series and the use of that song in the show. "Cat People" in Tarantino's WWII masterpiece. "Moonage Daydream" in "Guardians of the Galaxy" and that Jacob listens to that song regularly. "Starman" in "The Martian" - it could have... SHOULD have been a cliche, but worked perfectly. That on the day he died, my friend and I were on a bike ride, discussing "Blackstar" and whether or not we liked it (for the record, neither of us got through the 2nd song). Listening to "Ziggy" on an endless loop as I rode the train to work the morning after David Bowie died.

RIP Mr. Bowie