April 15, 2025 • 35 mins
This episode of Noise Junkies focuses on David Bowie, and how a small record label in Salem, MA played a pivotal role in the musical education of HP. He discusses the confluence of factors that led to the music of Bowie getting re-introduced to the public in the late-80's, as well as some personal favorites from those albums and beyond.
JUNKIES
Father Malone: FatherMalone.com
HP: hpmusicplace.bandcamp.com
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2o7It98Ck9sBZ5xNxb2Ugn?si=002da257e4054933
JUNKIES
Father Malone: FatherMalone.com
HP: hpmusicplace.bandcamp.com
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2o7It98Ck9sBZ5xNxb2Ugn?si=002da257e4054933
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
If you're listening to this podcast, there's a good chance
you're as obsessed with music.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
As I am.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
But what was your.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
First musical infatuation? What was the first artist that made
you cross that line between passive music consumer to I
must know everything about this artist, I must hear everything
they've done. I can trace my primary musical preoccupation to
high school sophomore year. To be exactly sure, I owned
and loved plenty of music up to that point, but
(00:49):
one artist in particular became a singular obsession for me.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
It was a.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Perfect storm of right place, right time, and I'd like
to share it with you in this episode Tonight, let
me introduce you again to David Bowie. Hello, listeners to
(01:14):
another episode of Noise Junkies. I'm hp this episode, I'll
be delving into my own formative history with the music
of the one and only David Bowie. This is not
the first time Bowie has come up on the Noise
Junkies podcast. Way back during the first iteration of this podcast,
Noise Junkies Mark one, Episode eight centered around David Bowie,
(01:37):
but I felt that time was right to dive back
into this topic, putting a different spin on it with
a deeper dive into my personal history with his music.
This will not be a chronological history of Bowie or
his career. Those roads have been well traveled and many
other presenters have covered it better than I ever could.
I'll be discussing some of my own personal signposts with
(01:59):
Booe's catalog, highlighting a few lesser known songs that have
become some of my favorites over the years. I can't
recall a time when I wasn't aware of Bowie in
one way or another. The nineteen eighty three album Let's
Dance was a monster hit and was omnipresent on the
radio and MTV. And who could forget Bowie's turn as
(02:23):
the goblin King Jareth in the nineteen eighty six cult
classic Labyrinth. It's not as if I didn't enjoy all
of that, but I hadn't yet reached that point where
my pastimes became passions like many others. I'm sure it
wasn't until high school that my musical passions helped to
define my identity. It was that wonderful, confusing time when
(02:46):
we're all figuring out who we are, and there was
something almost tribal in self identifying as a fan of
this or that artist. It's a special time when everything
means so much, and an artist's identity helps to define
hours in a way. Right when I was smack in
the middle of this period, nineteen eighty nine to be exact,
(03:07):
a tiny record label called Reikodisc, incidentally headquartered in Salem,
mass just one town away from where I grew up,
accomplished the seemingly impossible and acquiring the rights to David
Bowie's pre nineteen eighty three back catalog. By nineteen eighty nine,
CDs were quickly becoming the standard in physical music media,
(03:28):
yet Bowie's early catalog was not yet available in this format.
Some of those albums had been briefly issued on CD
in nineteen eighty five, but they were quickly pulled due
to being remastered without Bowie's consent. Reikodisc, founded in nineteen
eighty three by entrepreneur Don Rose, was the world's first
CD only label. Their name was derived from the Japanese
(03:53):
word reiko, which means sound from a flash of light.
They started making waves in the industy when they managed
to snag Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix's back catalog rights
and After two years of negotiation, the North American rights
to Bowie's pre nineteen eighty three albums were given to Reichodisc.
(04:15):
For abudding young music completists like me, this was a
great time to be a CD collector. Music labels were
starting to put more thought and care in how artists'
back catalog was treated. You started to see more and
more remastering of legacy music owing to the increased fidelity
of compact discs, as well as the advent of bonus tracks.
(04:39):
For someone like me given to rapidly collecting whatever I
was passionate about, this just fed that compulsion. Never mind
the fact that in many cases unreleased material was unreleased
for a reason. The notion of finding a diamond in
the rough was so exciting to me. Raychodisc took this
approach with Bowie's albums and ran with it. The first
(05:02):
official Bowie release on Raikodisc was the box set Sound
and Vision, released in nineteen eighty nine. I vividly recall
picking up both this and Dala Soul's debut album Three
Feet High in Rising at Sam Goodie at my local mall.
One day. Anyone remembers Sam Goodie Goodie got It.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Good good Goody.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Good got It, good To got It, Damn good I
got it, Damn good I got it, Damn Goodie, Sam
Goody got It.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We've got It.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Summer Savings at Sam Goodie, pick Up Theater of Paine
from Motley Cruse, Invasion of Your Privacy New from Rat
and Shaken and Stirred by Robert Plants, on sale now
only six ninety nine each store White Summer Savings at
Sam Goody.
Speaker 6 (05:44):
Goody, Goodie, Sam Goodye got It, Good Goode, Sam Goody
got It, Sam Goodie got It, Sam Goodie Got It.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
By now, CDs were becoming a big deal for music connoisseurs.
The template for the retrospective box set repeat with greatest
hits and bonus tracks was already established by Bob Dylan's
Biograph box as well as Eric Clapton's Crossroads box set.
Although Sound and Vision was originally conceived as a career
(06:13):
retrospective in this vein, the final product leaned heavily on
alternate versions, demos and the like. So not only was
this a nice advanced look at the newly remastered music,
but it also offered much for Bowie obsessives to pour Over.
As I had no real conception of Bowie's music prior
(06:33):
to Lets Dance, the non album tracks held as much
weight to me as the rest. Take this cover of
Bruce Springsteen's It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City,
recorded during the Diamond Dogs sessions. Bowie takes Springsteen's pseudo
dilanesque cameo of tough guy tropes and makes it his own. Sure,
Springsteen's leather jacket might have been somewhat ill fitting on Bowie,
(06:57):
but the song does manage a certain cinematic feel, and
it's coked up energy pushes things along nicely.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
The first and.
Speaker 7 (07:12):
Luck Bather and the Diamond far loop of a Coora.
I was born blue Wather, My bursts like a supernova,
A good walk like around the door, ride.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Into the sun.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Bird is like as.
Speaker 7 (07:37):
With my black jack and jacket and my slick sweet
Smer's God's just.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Like a hobby.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
And when I struck down the street I could hear
its heartbeat.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
The sisters fell back and said come back.
Speaker 8 (07:52):
The cripple on the corner cried out the head Niggers
go a bity.
Speaker 9 (07:57):
Now got to the boy downtown there so top good
that's so part of it same.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
I'm gonna sit in.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Elsewhere was the song Round and Round, a cover of
the Chuck Berry tune Around and Round recorded during the
Ziggy Startist sessions. It's a really fun track, but it's
easy to see why it was left off of that
album in favor of the song Starman. Starman helped further
the Ziggy Startist story along, whereas Round and Round is
(08:32):
a stomping rock number featuring the razor sharp guitar work
of Mick Ronson the band sounds like they're having a
blast on this one.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
When John was rocking.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Going round and Round.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
Yeah, we stop rocking till the moment a.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Sound jazz.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Dance start a move.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
Now my Hand.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
From January nineteen ninety through August nineteen ninety two, Reraichodisc
released all fourteen of Bowie's pre nineteen eighty three albums.
They were released in chronological order, usually one or two
at a time, every couple of months or so. I
would eagerly await each new release and run out to
the store when it came out, and pretty much every
(09:46):
release would feature a few bonus tracks covering that album's
time period. Take for example, the oddball version of moon
Age Daydream credited to Arnold Korn's that appeared on The
Man Who Sold the World. Arnold Korn's was a kind
of proto Ziggy Startist band featuring future Spiders from Mars,
(10:06):
Mick Ronson on guitar, Mick Woody Woodmanse on drums, and
Trevor Boulder on bass. Most curiously, it also featured Freddie Baretti,
a nineteen year old designer who would go on to
create a number of Bowie's striking Ziggy Startist costumes. Bretti
was credited as the singer, but that was a fabrication.
(10:27):
It's actually Bowie on vocals anyway. This would be side
project had two songs on this reissue, moon Age day
Dream and hang On to Yourself. Both would feature on
the forthcoming Ziggy Startist album, but here they are presented
in radically different versions.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
Make Me, Make Me, Make Me? Do you really cares?
Make the jump it Speak, give God, Drink Hot mis
(11:23):
job rave job Let's house, space face clost to mid.
Speaker 9 (11:36):
Freak out in the mood Age says.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Up Hi a Moment.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Diamond Dogs featured a few demos recorded during the album's
original conception. You see Bowie's original intention was to adapt
George Orwell's novel nineteen eighty four as a concept album,
but Orwell's widow refused to allow the use of the novel,
so Bowie had to scramble to salvage what he could
(12:32):
from the songs he had already written. Listening to Diamond Dogs,
you can definitely see the seams of what was originally
nineteen eighty four and what came after. I've no idea
where or how candidate would have fit into the original narrative,
or if it was really even inspired by nineteen eighty four,
But I loved the slinky groove, which in some ways
(12:53):
presages the pivot to soul music Bowie would take with
the Young Americans album.
Speaker 8 (13:34):
Inside Every Teenage Girl, there's a mountains a mountain, inside
every young fairy fence. There's a mountain, a mountain inside
every mother's eyes. Dummy tea grows bad inside every cancdate Wade,
(14:01):
It's a grateful dad.
Speaker 9 (14:03):
And make it up there when I'm on my own,
to relieve myself, make it up thing when I gazelle
on stage, to believe in myselfs to believe, to make
it a thing, to Glance and Window Fans, and the
(14:27):
Please and Myself and the Please I'm.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Ten the Mollme.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
The Lodger reissue included a nineteen eighty eight re recording
of the track look Back in Anger. The nineteen seventy
nine original was a favorite of mine, especially memorable for
its creepy as hell music video. The video was directed
by David Mallett, a hugely prominent music video director from
that time period. In addition to directing several for Bowie,
(15:11):
he directed videos for the likes of Blondie, Peter Gabriel,
Billy Idol, def Leppard, and of course, Haircut one hundred.
This was a point in which music videos were moving
away from straight performance clips into more creative, film like narratives.
The video for look Back and Anger was inspired by
the picture of Dorian Gray. Bowie plays an artist in
(15:34):
his studio who is painted an angelic self portrait. As
he runs his hand over the painting, his face begins
to scar and distort, leaving half of his face looking
scarred and awful. Another fun fact, I was six years
old when I saw this video.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
You know well, he said, you must speak of one name, Joe.
Speaker 7 (16:17):
He concentrate his couple of things, closed his eyes and
both his fits.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
This time we should be going in wait, driven by
the knights till you go.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
Back to night eyes till you come.
Speaker 9 (17:35):
Don't want ses to hear him, So he speaks for
a magazine and jolly brother, siway very soon He's c TVs.
Speaker 6 (17:52):
Tventy Ride the night do you go.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
The nineteen eighty eight remake of look Back in Anger
was recorded as part of a collaborative performance with the
Qebe Quad dance troupe La La La Human Steps. It
featured lead guitar by Reeves Gabrels, who would soon join
Bowie for his Tin Machine side project. This version of
the song is more menacing, with Gabrell's lead guitar quoting
(18:21):
Carlos Alamar's original solo but giving it more bite.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You know what he said, speak of what a joy.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Because them shook his crumpled wings, closed its eyes and moved.
Speaker 9 (19:35):
Two steps, which I the super go over way.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
Lay say so I've been lazy.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Side lay sven father night you.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
Say side by.
Speaker 9 (20:02):
Sou soun.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
Sing the.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Tune cold.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Whiting sound.
Speaker 7 (21:05):
Seemed again So we needs the magazine going up the
sleeperwood very safe set.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Nights.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I adored all of the Reko disc reissues. They sounded great,
had lots of wonderful bonus tracks, and thanks to the
staggered release schedule, I was able to consume the music
without binging too fast and aiding in my Bowie musical education.
I must give a shout out to my brother in arms,
my partner in podcasting, most importantly, my best friend, Father Malone.
(22:04):
I'll never forget. Just after I started gobbling up these
albums one after the other, Father Malone drove up to
my house bearing a gift. It was the book David
Bowie an Illustrated Record by Roy Carr and Charles Sharr Murray.
Father Malone drove all the way to my place just
to gift me this book that he knew I would cherish,
(22:25):
and I did, and I still do. It's still there
in my bookcase all these years later. To all you listeners,
if you have a friend like Father Malone, well consider
yourself a lucky motherfucker. Indeed, the book covered all of
Bowie's solo albums as of its year of publication nineteen
eighty one, basically starting with Space Oddity and ending with
(22:48):
Scary Monsters and super Creeps exactly the period of these
Reichodisc reissues, so it was perfect for me. It was
the same dimensions as a record album, with gorgeous color
photo of each album cover and plenty of other great
pictures throughout. Each album had a dedicated section in the
book with personnel and song info, even the author's review
(23:10):
of each record. I poured over this book, gleaning every
bit of information that I could on my newfound musical obsession. Remember, folks,
this was pre Internet, so it wasn't like I could
just pull up the AllMusic Guide or discogs to learn
about the albums and stories behind them. This was the
resource for me, So thanks again, brother. In nineteen ninety eight,
(23:34):
Island Records co founder Chris Blackwell bought Reiko disc for
a reported thirty five million dollars. A year later, the
office in Salem, mass was closed, with much of the
staff laid off. The label would relocate to New York,
and by two thousand and nine, the Reigo Corporation would
cease to exist, having been acquired and sold several times
(23:56):
over the ensuing years. The global publishing rights to Bowie's
music would eventually be sold to Warner Chapel Music in
twenty twenty two for a reported two hundred and fifty
million dollars. His albums have been reissued several times since
those Reicho Disc releases, but for me, they never had
the same charm, the same spark, the same care and
(24:19):
attention that Rechodisc so clearly gave to them. I want
to finish up by talking about a Bowie song that
came after the Reicho disc reissue campaign and one that
I discovered long after my first brush with boie Mania.
Following Bowie's death in twenty sixteen, I dove back into
his music, as many people do following an artist's death,
(24:41):
catching up with some songs that I had missed the
first time through. The song that made the biggest impact
on me was everyone Says Hi, off of two thousand
and two's Heathen. I wasn't the biggest fan of Bowie's
early two thousand's output. His shift to a more electronic
sound didn't really resonate with me at the time, and
(25:01):
I was content to stick with the parts of his
catalog i'd grown up with. I first heard everyone Says
Hi way back in two thousand and three when playing
the PS two video game Amplitude. Amplitude was a rhythm
game produced by the game studio Harmonics, who would later
go on to make the immensely popular Guitar Hero and
(25:22):
rock band games. Remember those little plastic instruments, How omnipresent
they were back then? I know I had them well.
Amplitude was one of the seeds that led to that fad.
Everyone Says Hi was a song that appeared on the
Amplitude soundtrack, but in a more house music style remix.
(26:00):
I played this shit out of Amplitude, but didn't really
(26:33):
take much note of this song, probably because I was
too busy focusing on the gameplay to really listen closely
to it. Cut to thirteen years later, and there I
am finally listening to the original version. Bowie's death hit
me pretty hard, at least as much as the death
of a famous person that I've never met could affect me.
(26:54):
I found myself listening more intently to everyone Says Hi,
really listening to the lyrics, and it hit me like
the proverbial ton of bricks. Everyone Says Hi may be
one of the saddest songs in Bowie's catalog. On the surface,
the song's narrator is reaching out to someone, a loved
one who has taken a long trip to some place
(27:15):
far away. The narrator misses them terribly and worries that
this traveler won't be happy in their new environment. Bowie
entreats them to come back home if they're unhappy, and
the refrain of everyone says hi keeps repeating throughout, conveying
the notion that there are other people back home who
share their concern. Seems simple enough, right, But Bowie himself
(27:38):
has gone on record as saying the song is about
the death of his father, Heywood Stenton Jones in nineteen
sixty nine. In The Complete David Bowie by Nicholas Pegg,
Bowie is quoted as saying, when my father died in
nineteen sixty nine, I couldn't actually believe that he was
not going to come back again. I kind of thought
that he just put his raincoat and his cap on
(28:01):
and that he'd be back in a few weeks or something,
and I felt like that for years. It really took
a long time for me to be able to take
in the fact that I wouldn't see him again. So
this one was just a little simplistic reference to that
about how it always feels like somebody has gone on
a holiday of some kind. I think that sentiment is
immediately relatable for anyone who has lost the cherished loved one.
(28:25):
The sudden shock of loss is so unthinkable you almost
fool yourself into believing they'll walk into the room at
any moment like nothing had happened. I lost my own
father in two thousand and seven, which connected me to
the lyrics in a way that I wasn't prepared for.
The song made plain how I felt in the wake
of my father's passing, and it was almost like I'd
(28:46):
started mourning him all over again. It's a simple lyric,
nothing grand or difficult to parse, an ordinary theme of
loss and missing someone you love dearly. It's all couched
in a bouncy, electronic tinged tune that doesn't quite betray
the song's true sentiment, but it's not a sad, depressing
track either. Bowie manages to inject some bits of humor
(29:09):
into the song, like the duop style backing vocals during
the middle eight, and the lyrics manage some darkly funny
touches as well, particularly the inclusion of the big fat
dog that Boie sings about in the song's closing fade out. Still,
even now, years removed from my rediscovery of the track,
I can't listen to it without thinking of my father
(29:32):
and getting emotional all over again.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Said it's a a bit trip. They said, you moved away.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Happened?
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Oh so quiet? They say, should at a picture.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Something I could keep.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
By your little frame, something cheap.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
For you.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Everyone says, hi, set you sailed the picture, set your
sailed away.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Didn't know the right thing to say. I'd love to
get a setter, like to know. One's what.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Hope the weather's good and it's not too hot.
Speaker 9 (31:20):
Or you.
Speaker 10 (31:23):
And everyone says hide. Everyone says hide. Everyone who says,
don't stay in a sad place where they don't care
how you are.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
Everyone who says hi, if.
Speaker 8 (31:55):
The money is housing, you can always come home.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
We can do the old things.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
We can do all the bad things.
Speaker 6 (32:14):
If the food gets you, liar, you can't always come home.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
We could do all of the birthplace.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
We could do it.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
We could do it.
Speaker 6 (32:32):
He could do it.
Speaker 10 (32:34):
Don't stay of that place where they don't care how
you are.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Everyone says hi. Everyone says high.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Everyone says high, says and the girl next door, h
guy upstairs.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
He says, sir, that's it for this episode of Noise Junkies.
(33:33):
Thank you for indulging me once again. When I'm not
listening to music, you can find me elsewhere on the
weirding Way Network. I co host The Night Mister Walter
is a taxi podcast alongside midnight viewings Father Malone, and
I'm an occasional guest on The Culture Cast with Chris
Dashu and I have a band campsite hpmusicplace dot bandcamp
(33:53):
dot com. I've just released a new album called Wired
and Waiting. Please check it out. As always, please feel
free to write us, rate us.
Speaker 8 (34:02):
Review us.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
We'd love to hear from you in any manner you choose.
Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you again next time.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Make pasta
If you're listening to this podcast, there's a good chance
you're as obsessed with music.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
As I am.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
But what was your.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
First musical infatuation? What was the first artist that made
you cross that line between passive music consumer to I
must know everything about this artist, I must hear everything
they've done. I can trace my primary musical preoccupation to
high school sophomore year. To be exactly sure, I owned
and loved plenty of music up to that point, but
(00:49):
one artist in particular became a singular obsession for me.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
It was a.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Perfect storm of right place, right time, and I'd like
to share it with you in this episode Tonight, let
me introduce you again to David Bowie. Hello, listeners to
(01:14):
another episode of Noise Junkies. I'm hp this episode, I'll
be delving into my own formative history with the music
of the one and only David Bowie. This is not
the first time Bowie has come up on the Noise
Junkies podcast. Way back during the first iteration of this podcast,
Noise Junkies Mark one, Episode eight centered around David Bowie,
(01:37):
but I felt that time was right to dive back
into this topic, putting a different spin on it with
a deeper dive into my personal history with his music.
This will not be a chronological history of Bowie or
his career. Those roads have been well traveled and many
other presenters have covered it better than I ever could.
I'll be discussing some of my own personal signposts with
(01:59):
Booe's catalog, highlighting a few lesser known songs that have
become some of my favorites over the years. I can't
recall a time when I wasn't aware of Bowie in
one way or another. The nineteen eighty three album Let's
Dance was a monster hit and was omnipresent on the
radio and MTV. And who could forget Bowie's turn as
(02:23):
the goblin King Jareth in the nineteen eighty six cult
classic Labyrinth. It's not as if I didn't enjoy all
of that, but I hadn't yet reached that point where
my pastimes became passions like many others. I'm sure it
wasn't until high school that my musical passions helped to
define my identity. It was that wonderful, confusing time when
(02:46):
we're all figuring out who we are, and there was
something almost tribal in self identifying as a fan of
this or that artist. It's a special time when everything
means so much, and an artist's identity helps to define
hours in a way. Right when I was smack in
the middle of this period, nineteen eighty nine to be exact,
(03:07):
a tiny record label called Reikodisc, incidentally headquartered in Salem,
mass just one town away from where I grew up,
accomplished the seemingly impossible and acquiring the rights to David
Bowie's pre nineteen eighty three back catalog. By nineteen eighty nine,
CDs were quickly becoming the standard in physical music media,
(03:28):
yet Bowie's early catalog was not yet available in this format.
Some of those albums had been briefly issued on CD
in nineteen eighty five, but they were quickly pulled due
to being remastered without Bowie's consent. Reikodisc, founded in nineteen
eighty three by entrepreneur Don Rose, was the world's first
CD only label. Their name was derived from the Japanese
(03:53):
word reiko, which means sound from a flash of light.
They started making waves in the industy when they managed
to snag Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix's back catalog rights
and After two years of negotiation, the North American rights
to Bowie's pre nineteen eighty three albums were given to Reichodisc.
(04:15):
For abudding young music completists like me, this was a
great time to be a CD collector. Music labels were
starting to put more thought and care in how artists'
back catalog was treated. You started to see more and
more remastering of legacy music owing to the increased fidelity
of compact discs, as well as the advent of bonus tracks.
(04:39):
For someone like me given to rapidly collecting whatever I
was passionate about, this just fed that compulsion. Never mind
the fact that in many cases unreleased material was unreleased
for a reason. The notion of finding a diamond in
the rough was so exciting to me. Raychodisc took this
approach with Bowie's albums and ran with it. The first
(05:02):
official Bowie release on Raikodisc was the box set Sound
and Vision, released in nineteen eighty nine. I vividly recall
picking up both this and Dala Soul's debut album Three
Feet High in Rising at Sam Goodie at my local mall.
One day. Anyone remembers Sam Goodie Goodie got It.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Good good Goody.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Good got It, good To got It, Damn good I
got it, Damn good I got it, Damn Goodie, Sam
Goody got It.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We've got It.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Summer Savings at Sam Goodie, pick Up Theater of Paine
from Motley Cruse, Invasion of Your Privacy New from Rat
and Shaken and Stirred by Robert Plants, on sale now
only six ninety nine each store White Summer Savings at
Sam Goody.
Speaker 6 (05:44):
Goody, Goodie, Sam Goodye got It, Good Goode, Sam Goody
got It, Sam Goodie got It, Sam Goodie Got It.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
By now, CDs were becoming a big deal for music connoisseurs.
The template for the retrospective box set repeat with greatest
hits and bonus tracks was already established by Bob Dylan's
Biograph box as well as Eric Clapton's Crossroads box set.
Although Sound and Vision was originally conceived as a career
(06:13):
retrospective in this vein, the final product leaned heavily on
alternate versions, demos and the like. So not only was
this a nice advanced look at the newly remastered music,
but it also offered much for Bowie obsessives to pour Over.
As I had no real conception of Bowie's music prior
(06:33):
to Lets Dance, the non album tracks held as much
weight to me as the rest. Take this cover of
Bruce Springsteen's It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City,
recorded during the Diamond Dogs sessions. Bowie takes Springsteen's pseudo
dilanesque cameo of tough guy tropes and makes it his own. Sure,
Springsteen's leather jacket might have been somewhat ill fitting on Bowie,
(06:57):
but the song does manage a certain cinematic feel, and
it's coked up energy pushes things along nicely.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
The first and.
Speaker 7 (07:12):
Luck Bather and the Diamond far loop of a Coora.
I was born blue Wather, My bursts like a supernova,
A good walk like around the door, ride.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Into the sun.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Bird is like as.
Speaker 7 (07:37):
With my black jack and jacket and my slick sweet
Smer's God's just.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Like a hobby.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
And when I struck down the street I could hear
its heartbeat.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
The sisters fell back and said come back.
Speaker 8 (07:52):
The cripple on the corner cried out the head Niggers
go a bity.
Speaker 9 (07:57):
Now got to the boy downtown there so top good
that's so part of it same.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
I'm gonna sit in.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Elsewhere was the song Round and Round, a cover of
the Chuck Berry tune Around and Round recorded during the
Ziggy Startist sessions. It's a really fun track, but it's
easy to see why it was left off of that
album in favor of the song Starman. Starman helped further
the Ziggy Startist story along, whereas Round and Round is
(08:32):
a stomping rock number featuring the razor sharp guitar work
of Mick Ronson the band sounds like they're having a
blast on this one.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
When John was rocking.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Going round and Round.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
Yeah, we stop rocking till the moment a.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Sound jazz.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Dance start a move.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
Now my Hand.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
From January nineteen ninety through August nineteen ninety two, Reraichodisc
released all fourteen of Bowie's pre nineteen eighty three albums.
They were released in chronological order, usually one or two
at a time, every couple of months or so. I
would eagerly await each new release and run out to
the store when it came out, and pretty much every
(09:46):
release would feature a few bonus tracks covering that album's
time period. Take for example, the oddball version of moon
Age Daydream credited to Arnold Korn's that appeared on The
Man Who Sold the World. Arnold Korn's was a kind
of proto Ziggy Startist band featuring future Spiders from Mars,
(10:06):
Mick Ronson on guitar, Mick Woody Woodmanse on drums, and
Trevor Boulder on bass. Most curiously, it also featured Freddie Baretti,
a nineteen year old designer who would go on to
create a number of Bowie's striking Ziggy Startist costumes. Bretti
was credited as the singer, but that was a fabrication.
(10:27):
It's actually Bowie on vocals anyway. This would be side
project had two songs on this reissue, moon Age day
Dream and hang On to Yourself. Both would feature on
the forthcoming Ziggy Startist album, but here they are presented
in radically different versions.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
Make Me, Make Me, Make Me? Do you really cares?
Make the jump it Speak, give God, Drink Hot mis
(11:23):
job rave job Let's house, space face clost to mid.
Speaker 9 (11:36):
Freak out in the mood Age says.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Up Hi a Moment.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Diamond Dogs featured a few demos recorded during the album's
original conception. You see Bowie's original intention was to adapt
George Orwell's novel nineteen eighty four as a concept album,
but Orwell's widow refused to allow the use of the novel,
so Bowie had to scramble to salvage what he could
(12:32):
from the songs he had already written. Listening to Diamond Dogs,
you can definitely see the seams of what was originally
nineteen eighty four and what came after. I've no idea
where or how candidate would have fit into the original narrative,
or if it was really even inspired by nineteen eighty four,
But I loved the slinky groove, which in some ways
(12:53):
presages the pivot to soul music Bowie would take with
the Young Americans album.
Speaker 8 (13:34):
Inside Every Teenage Girl, there's a mountains a mountain, inside
every young fairy fence. There's a mountain, a mountain inside
every mother's eyes. Dummy tea grows bad inside every cancdate Wade,
(14:01):
It's a grateful dad.
Speaker 9 (14:03):
And make it up there when I'm on my own,
to relieve myself, make it up thing when I gazelle
on stage, to believe in myselfs to believe, to make
it a thing, to Glance and Window Fans, and the
(14:27):
Please and Myself and the Please I'm.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Ten the Mollme.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
The Lodger reissue included a nineteen eighty eight re recording
of the track look Back in Anger. The nineteen seventy
nine original was a favorite of mine, especially memorable for
its creepy as hell music video. The video was directed
by David Mallett, a hugely prominent music video director from
that time period. In addition to directing several for Bowie,
(15:11):
he directed videos for the likes of Blondie, Peter Gabriel,
Billy Idol, def Leppard, and of course, Haircut one hundred.
This was a point in which music videos were moving
away from straight performance clips into more creative, film like narratives.
The video for look Back and Anger was inspired by
the picture of Dorian Gray. Bowie plays an artist in
(15:34):
his studio who is painted an angelic self portrait. As
he runs his hand over the painting, his face begins
to scar and distort, leaving half of his face looking
scarred and awful. Another fun fact, I was six years
old when I saw this video.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
You know well, he said, you must speak of one name, Joe.
Speaker 7 (16:17):
He concentrate his couple of things, closed his eyes and
both his fits.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
This time we should be going in wait, driven by
the knights till you go.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
Back to night eyes till you come.
Speaker 9 (17:35):
Don't want ses to hear him, So he speaks for
a magazine and jolly brother, siway very soon He's c TVs.
Speaker 6 (17:52):
Tventy Ride the night do you go.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
The nineteen eighty eight remake of look Back in Anger
was recorded as part of a collaborative performance with the
Qebe Quad dance troupe La La La Human Steps. It
featured lead guitar by Reeves Gabrels, who would soon join
Bowie for his Tin Machine side project. This version of
the song is more menacing, with Gabrell's lead guitar quoting
(18:21):
Carlos Alamar's original solo but giving it more bite.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You know what he said, speak of what a joy.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Because them shook his crumpled wings, closed its eyes and moved.
Speaker 9 (19:35):
Two steps, which I the super go over way.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
Lay say so I've been lazy.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Side lay sven father night you.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
Say side by.
Speaker 9 (20:02):
Sou soun.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
Sing the.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Tune cold.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Whiting sound.
Speaker 7 (21:05):
Seemed again So we needs the magazine going up the
sleeperwood very safe set.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Nights.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I adored all of the Reko disc reissues. They sounded great,
had lots of wonderful bonus tracks, and thanks to the
staggered release schedule, I was able to consume the music
without binging too fast and aiding in my Bowie musical education.
I must give a shout out to my brother in arms,
my partner in podcasting, most importantly, my best friend, Father Malone.
(22:04):
I'll never forget. Just after I started gobbling up these
albums one after the other, Father Malone drove up to
my house bearing a gift. It was the book David
Bowie an Illustrated Record by Roy Carr and Charles Sharr Murray.
Father Malone drove all the way to my place just
to gift me this book that he knew I would cherish,
(22:25):
and I did, and I still do. It's still there
in my bookcase all these years later. To all you listeners,
if you have a friend like Father Malone, well consider
yourself a lucky motherfucker. Indeed, the book covered all of
Bowie's solo albums as of its year of publication nineteen
eighty one, basically starting with Space Oddity and ending with
(22:48):
Scary Monsters and super Creeps exactly the period of these
Reichodisc reissues, so it was perfect for me. It was
the same dimensions as a record album, with gorgeous color
photo of each album cover and plenty of other great
pictures throughout. Each album had a dedicated section in the
book with personnel and song info, even the author's review
(23:10):
of each record. I poured over this book, gleaning every
bit of information that I could on my newfound musical obsession. Remember, folks,
this was pre Internet, so it wasn't like I could
just pull up the AllMusic Guide or discogs to learn
about the albums and stories behind them. This was the
resource for me, So thanks again, brother. In nineteen ninety eight,
(23:34):
Island Records co founder Chris Blackwell bought Reiko disc for
a reported thirty five million dollars. A year later, the
office in Salem, mass was closed, with much of the
staff laid off. The label would relocate to New York,
and by two thousand and nine, the Reigo Corporation would
cease to exist, having been acquired and sold several times
(23:56):
over the ensuing years. The global publishing rights to Bowie's
music would eventually be sold to Warner Chapel Music in
twenty twenty two for a reported two hundred and fifty
million dollars. His albums have been reissued several times since
those Reicho Disc releases, but for me, they never had
the same charm, the same spark, the same care and
(24:19):
attention that Rechodisc so clearly gave to them. I want
to finish up by talking about a Bowie song that
came after the Reicho disc reissue campaign and one that
I discovered long after my first brush with boie Mania.
Following Bowie's death in twenty sixteen, I dove back into
his music, as many people do following an artist's death,
(24:41):
catching up with some songs that I had missed the
first time through. The song that made the biggest impact
on me was everyone Says Hi, off of two thousand
and two's Heathen. I wasn't the biggest fan of Bowie's
early two thousand's output. His shift to a more electronic
sound didn't really resonate with me at the time, and
(25:01):
I was content to stick with the parts of his
catalog i'd grown up with. I first heard everyone Says
Hi way back in two thousand and three when playing
the PS two video game Amplitude. Amplitude was a rhythm
game produced by the game studio Harmonics, who would later
go on to make the immensely popular Guitar Hero and
(25:22):
rock band games. Remember those little plastic instruments, How omnipresent
they were back then? I know I had them well.
Amplitude was one of the seeds that led to that fad.
Everyone Says Hi was a song that appeared on the
Amplitude soundtrack, but in a more house music style remix.
(26:00):
I played this shit out of Amplitude, but didn't really
(26:33):
take much note of this song, probably because I was
too busy focusing on the gameplay to really listen closely
to it. Cut to thirteen years later, and there I
am finally listening to the original version. Bowie's death hit
me pretty hard, at least as much as the death
of a famous person that I've never met could affect me.
(26:54):
I found myself listening more intently to everyone Says Hi,
really listening to the lyrics, and it hit me like
the proverbial ton of bricks. Everyone Says Hi may be
one of the saddest songs in Bowie's catalog. On the surface,
the song's narrator is reaching out to someone, a loved
one who has taken a long trip to some place
(27:15):
far away. The narrator misses them terribly and worries that
this traveler won't be happy in their new environment. Bowie
entreats them to come back home if they're unhappy, and
the refrain of everyone says hi keeps repeating throughout, conveying
the notion that there are other people back home who
share their concern. Seems simple enough, right, But Bowie himself
(27:38):
has gone on record as saying the song is about
the death of his father, Heywood Stenton Jones in nineteen
sixty nine. In The Complete David Bowie by Nicholas Pegg,
Bowie is quoted as saying, when my father died in
nineteen sixty nine, I couldn't actually believe that he was
not going to come back again. I kind of thought
that he just put his raincoat and his cap on
(28:01):
and that he'd be back in a few weeks or something,
and I felt like that for years. It really took
a long time for me to be able to take
in the fact that I wouldn't see him again. So
this one was just a little simplistic reference to that
about how it always feels like somebody has gone on
a holiday of some kind. I think that sentiment is
immediately relatable for anyone who has lost the cherished loved one.
(28:25):
The sudden shock of loss is so unthinkable you almost
fool yourself into believing they'll walk into the room at
any moment like nothing had happened. I lost my own
father in two thousand and seven, which connected me to
the lyrics in a way that I wasn't prepared for.
The song made plain how I felt in the wake
of my father's passing, and it was almost like I'd
(28:46):
started mourning him all over again. It's a simple lyric,
nothing grand or difficult to parse, an ordinary theme of
loss and missing someone you love dearly. It's all couched
in a bouncy, electronic tinged tune that doesn't quite betray
the song's true sentiment, but it's not a sad, depressing
track either. Bowie manages to inject some bits of humor
(29:09):
into the song, like the duop style backing vocals during
the middle eight, and the lyrics manage some darkly funny
touches as well, particularly the inclusion of the big fat
dog that Boie sings about in the song's closing fade out. Still,
even now, years removed from my rediscovery of the track,
I can't listen to it without thinking of my father
(29:32):
and getting emotional all over again.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Said it's a a bit trip. They said, you moved away.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Happened?
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Oh so quiet? They say, should at a picture.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Something I could keep.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
By your little frame, something cheap.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
For you.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Everyone says, hi, set you sailed the picture, set your
sailed away.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Didn't know the right thing to say. I'd love to
get a setter, like to know. One's what.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Hope the weather's good and it's not too hot.
Speaker 9 (31:20):
Or you.
Speaker 10 (31:23):
And everyone says hide. Everyone says hide. Everyone who says,
don't stay in a sad place where they don't care
how you are.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
Everyone who says hi, if.
Speaker 8 (31:55):
The money is housing, you can always come home.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
We can do the old things.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
We can do all the bad things.
Speaker 6 (32:14):
If the food gets you, liar, you can't always come home.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
We could do all of the birthplace.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
We could do it.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
We could do it.
Speaker 6 (32:32):
He could do it.
Speaker 10 (32:34):
Don't stay of that place where they don't care how
you are.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Everyone says hi. Everyone says high.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Everyone says high, says and the girl next door, h
guy upstairs.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
He says, sir, that's it for this episode of Noise Junkies.
(33:33):
Thank you for indulging me once again. When I'm not
listening to music, you can find me elsewhere on the
weirding Way Network. I co host The Night Mister Walter
is a taxi podcast alongside midnight viewings Father Malone, and
I'm an occasional guest on The Culture Cast with Chris
Dashu and I have a band campsite hpmusicplace dot bandcamp
(33:53):
dot com. I've just released a new album called Wired
and Waiting. Please check it out. As always, please feel
free to write us, rate us.
Speaker 8 (34:02):
Review us.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
We'd love to hear from you in any manner you choose.
Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you again next time.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Make pasta
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