Dispatches from the Lazy Lounge, vol. 10
Posted by emperorbananaketchup on November 2, 2009
On a recent trip to Fully Booked Serendra over at Bonifacio High Street, I managed to grab hold of the following:
click here to boy from amazon.com
Stevie Wonder, Innervisions
Highlights on this CD – emblematic of his five-album “classic period” during the early-to-mid-1970s – are the supremely orgasmic “Golden Lady”, along with “Higher Ground” and “Don’t You Worry About A Thing”. The last track is notable for his open incorporation of Latin rhythmic influences. That said arc of his career was notable not only for his brave foray into Latin and African rhythms but also for his growing political stance; closing track “He Misstra Know-It-All”, along with “You Haven’t Done Nothin’” both echo his negative sentiments against the Nixon administration.
Now if I can only get my hands on the remaster of Songs in the Key of Life…undoubtedly for “Another Star” as well as “As” (remade by Mary J. Blige with George Michael…hmm, ever wonder what was on the latter’s mind when he chose to cover that track – an extra “s” on the title, perhaps)
click here to download from Amazon.com
David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
The definitive concept album from Bowie at his glam-rock phase, this details “…the story of “Ziggy Stardust,” the human manifestation of an alien being who is attempting to present humanity with a message of hope in the last five years of its existence. Ziggy Stardust is the definitive rock star: sexually promiscuous, wild in drug intake and with a message, ultimately, of peace and love; but he is destroyed both by his own excesses of drugs and sex, and by the fans he inspired.” (as per Wikipedia)
David states that part of his moniker was inspired by Norman Carl Odam aka The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, a Lubbock, TX-based rock ‘n’ roll performer cited as one of the founding fathers of the “psychobilly” country sub-genre.
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy with “Paralyzed”
In a Rolling Stone interview with writer William S. Burroughs (a meeting of like minds, natch), Bowie outlined the full plot of the Ziggy Stardust story:
“The time is five years to go before the end of the earth. It has been announced that the world will end because of lack of natural resources. Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have lost all touch with reality and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything. Ziggy was in a rock-and-roll band and the kids no longer want rock-and-roll. There’s no electricity to play it. Ziggy’s adviser tells him to collect news and sing it, ’cause there is no news. So Ziggy does this and there is terrible news. ‘All the young dudes’ is a song about this news. It’s no hymn to the youth as people thought. It is completely the opposite. [...]
The end comes when the infinites arrive. They really are a black hole, but I’ve made them people because it would be very hard to explain a black hole on stage. [...]
Ziggy is advised in a dream by the infinites to write the coming of a Starman, so he writes ‘Starman’, which is the first news of hope that the people have heard. So they latch onto it immediately…The starmen that he is talking about are called the infinites, and they are black-hole jumpers. Ziggy has been talking about this amazing spaceman who will be coming down to save the earth. They arrive somewhere in Greenwich Village. They don’t have a care in the world and are of no possible use to us. They just happened to stumble into our universe by black hole jumping. Their whole life is travelling from universe to universe. In the stage show, one of them resembles Brando, another one is a Black New Yorker. I even have one called Queenie, the Infinite Fox…Now Ziggy starts to believe in all this himself and thinks himself a prophet of the future starmen. He takes himself up to the incredible spiritual heights and is kept alive by his disciples. When the infinites arrive, they take bits of Ziggy to make them real because in their original state they are anti-matter and cannot exist in our world. And they tear him to pieces on stage during the song ‘Rock ‘n’ roll suicide’. As soon as Ziggy dies on stage the infinites take his elements and make themselves visible.”
click to buy ECD from Amazon.com
David Bowie, Diamond Dogs
This concept album looks into George Orwell’s hymn to authoritarianism Nineteen Eighty-Four for inspiration…he even originally wanted to adapt the work as a stage musical but the estate of Orwell denied him the rights.
Musically, this follows the same glammy vein as Ziggy Stardust; however, his growing fascination with American funk rhythms (that would come in full flower by the time “Young Americans” would come out) is evident on tracks such as “1984″ with its Shaft-esque wah-wah guitar breakdowns.
Footage of “1984″ from the 1980 Floor Show outtakes
“Five Years” live on The Dinah Shore Show
