Bowie makes the effort to don an eyepatch, but no one thinks to pack a guitar strap for this promo shoot? Was this guy’s priorities straight, or is this an awkward attempt at holstering?
More importantly, though, I’ve been meaning to ask if anyone else too often feels let down by David Bowie’s choruses? Clearly he’s got nearly 30 winning choruses to his credit, including this one, but I wonder how many more Bowie songs I’d like if he didn’t climb up to the dramatic heights he so often attempts to climb. I thought of this a couple of weeks ago, while listening to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. I was digging the verses on “Starman,” as I always do, then feeling like I was getting my chain yanked during the long, sweeping choruses, also as I always do. It sounds like an advertising jingle until that great guitar riff gets the song set up for the next verse.
“Soul Love” is another song from that album with a chorus that seems to try too hard. Station to Station, with one of my favorite Bowie songs, “TVC15,” is loaded with overblown choruses. Don’t get me wrong: I’m well aware that writing a great chorus one of the hardest things to do in songwriting, but there are times I wish Bowie would keep it simple. Following, however, is a cool performance I’d never seen before of a song of his that I think nails his goal of a grandiose, climbing chorus:
Actually, I’ve always thought “Rebel Rebel” was THE template for how to turn a great hook into a boring song by beating it to death and not adding anything to it. It’s not the chorus that’s the problem; it’s the unimaginative song construction and lack of anything to support or augment it.
I have my issues with Bowie, but I am a long time fan of ZIGGY STARDUST and LOW, both of which show a reasonable amount of variety as well as a sustained groove that comes from being locked in to the style he’s chosen at that moment in time.
Interesting. I have to say, I’ve always thought Rebel Rebel was just great and that if I were to be asked how much more cool it could be, my answer would be “None. None more cool.” So, I guess I have no issues with the chorus on it, nor on Starman.
That said, Life on Mars?, a brilliant song, has one of his greatest choruses, grandiose and truly magnificent. I prefer the album performance, though the live clip provided is pretty cool in its way, too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MsWyEvUVIQ&feature=related
Unrelated to all of this but undeniable, in this Rebel Without a Cause guise has Hunky Dory-and-beyond Bowie ever appeared on stage in any more casual an outfit? I don’t think he’s going as far as wearing jeans, but is this is idea of Casual Fridays?
I always thought Rebel Rebel was the template for a song with such a great riff it doesn’t need anything else. Those contrasting sections (“they put you down/they say I’m wrong”) are just things I want to end so they can get back to the riff. And the bass playing and the tone of the bass on that track are genius.
pudman13 and BigSteve are describing two sides of the same coin. A riff hook so big and meaty, that no chorus can rise above it … so it becomes the chorus, too. I think the problem as a writer is, if you come up with that strong a hook and use it for the verse lyric or melody, you can be stuck trying to find a better “upward” yet fitting change for the chorus, so you just go with it. To pudman this one was a boring choice, and to BigSteve it nicely keeps rocking the awesome riff. I think “Satisfaction” is another perfect example of this phenomenon.
Regarding the Bowie catalog, I stumbled across 1.Outside from 1995 in a used CD bin some years ago, which I’d not heard about before and is at least to me, obscure. There’s some neat stuff on there. Found this odd little Youtube clip that plays a few seconds from each track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxm2mhwEqW8
Mod, that sure is about as dressed-down Bowie as it gets. It sort of looks like some weak fashion transition limbo between the Thin White Duke and Let’s Dance suited looks. Ah, well how’s this for casual Bowie wear (he finally stands up at 4:00)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS4ZW6f89QI
My god, I almost fell out of my chair when Bowie stood up! Casual!
“Satisfaction” came to mind for me, too, and you guys know my stance on that song by now.
Owning the entirety of Bowie’s output, save for Buddha of Suburbia, I can concur that there is not one thing wasted in “Rebel, Rebel.” However, I don’t care for the original single version that starts out with “Hot tramp, I love you so!” then kicks into the classic riff, which then gets killed by a bunch of sung “ay-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi” shit. I prefer the 2003 remake over that version, but the album take is the classic, indestructible one.
As far as Outside goes, it was supposed to be part of a trilogy, but Bowie lost interest. Fine by me. There’s some interesting stuff on there, but I preferred his exercises in Jungle on the Earthling album, in particular the rocking “I’m Afraid of Americans,” co-written with Eno.
I enjoy Earthling, too. I’m actually quite fond of the guitar noises Reeves Gabrels makes on that record.
TB
I just want to make a completely random comment that the advertisement for the McDonald’s mocha drink beneath the banner images is leading to some very amusing juxtapositions where it looks like this goo is dripping from people’s faces, or from their crotch. Ok, back to the show…
The sidewhiskers on that bass player in the Starman video belong in the RTH Foyer of Facial Hair Fame.
I do like Earthling a lot, it’s a more consistent and musical outing than Outside, and still has a lot of cool stuff going on in the Eno/Gabrels dept. “I’m Afraid of Americans” is fantastic!
Forgive me if I don’t describe this well, but those two records seem amazingly fresh and cutting edge modern for a rocker almost 30 years into his catalog at the time. I mean, not to equate them, but can you imagine a new Sting record today rocking 1/10th as hard as any average Police song?
Agreed! Reaction to those: http://goo.gl/qTGzm
Are those things real? They remind me of those big, feathered roach clips from the ’70s.
How many occupations or roles in life can one be in and have such wild sideburns? Certainly, he couldn’t show up every morning as an accountant. I’m thinking 70’s rock guy, biker gang member and psychiatric hospital patient. That’s all I can think of.
Hmmm…..I *have* thought about classic Bowie’s chorus work, my own view is more sympathetic than yours, mod.
i guess i take an old fashioned view of pop songs in that i think they can be advertisements for a lifestyle. so Bowie’s “starman” chorus, which ends with the full stop to feature the line “let the children boogie,” seems really clever, hooky, catchy, and generally great to me, not over-trying at all. In fact, I always admired the effortlessness of it all. of course, that stuff takes great effort to write.
and i think my boy misterioso is right about ‘life on mars.’ if there *is* a god, he / she touched bowie’s forehead with his pinkie while he was writing *that* song, and the swell of the chorus is one of the things that sends that song into the stratosphere.
what about bowie choruses that fail, not for “trying too hard” or getting it too right, but for being pedestrian, or NOT rising above the verses? for example, while i LOVE the song Queen Bitch, the chorus (“bippity boppity…etc.”) doesn’t do much for me.
ps: that clip from ’80 of “Life on Mars” is completely incongruous. the song is from a different era than the band’s strength and bowie’s pinched / thin voice, used to such great effect on the original version is gone, gone, gone. they play it in a lower key. the guitarist can’t get the notes right in the middle part of the first break, though he ends it the right way.
one wonders why they chose this song at all. it wasn’t on the record they were supporting, and while it’s an interesting version, it’s a bit plodding. if i didn’t have the template of the original’s beauty in mind while listening to this, i would think it was an really good song that needs a bit of revising in order to be ready for prime time. and the chorus here definitely does NOT soar. his voice sounds thick and incapable of carrying the moment on the chorus.
regarding bowie’s fashion statement in that clip, he’s actually right in step with the times.