Bowie: Aladdin Sane/The Man Who Sold the World

Simply put Aladdin Sane/The Man Who Sold the World (TMWSTW) are David Bowie's most debauch records of all time and I love 'em.  As a child I bought TMWSTW and was quite scared of it to start with.  Then the insaneness and blackness of the record really caught hold.  The obvious single was a great hit but there is some really dark heavy rock here: Width of a Circle, and She Shook Me Cold to name two.  So that was 1970.  I used to play this with my first real friend Mark.  he didn't really get it but he did like Space Oddity which was a little more safe as an album.  We did play Life on Mars b/w The Man Who Sold the World to death!

Move on to 1973, just three years, and Bowie comes out with Aladdin Sane.  A drug and illicit sex driven album of such greatness that I personally don't believe any artist, including Bowie, has even matched it.  Watch that Man, Aladdin Sane, Panic in Detroit, Drive in Saturday and of course The Jean Genie.  It's just a brilliant album.  Listen to Aladdin Sane - Mike Garson's mental piano solo is unbeatable.  When I first heard it I though: what the hells that?  But the way it goes way out of key and then back in is - well you listen!

As with TMWSTW, quite scary at first for a fourteen year old boy.  I remember my mum and dad taking me and my brother on our annual pilgrimage to London for pre-Christmas shopping and to take in yet another tediously dull musical.  We did a shop one dark afternoon (it was cold) and there was Bowie in full Aladdin Sane make-up on a full length poster in the HMV, Oxford Street window.  Dad I said, I have to have that album.  Dad said Bowie looked like a poof but I think he secretly quite liked it - not batting an eyelid he bought it for me.  Bowie was one of those artists you were allowed to fancy, even as a male.  I cant remember how much it cost BUT I do remember just wanting to go home right there and then to play it.  I stayed in HMV for over an hour listening to it.   When Drive in Saturday came on I almost cried - it was just something.

When we did eventually get home I rushed up to play it.  When the first track side two "Time" came on I threw the stereos volume to 11 and blasted out "He flexes like a whore, falls wanking to the floor".  So shocking, so androgynous and so Mick Jagger.  Over the years I still feel debauch and slightly scared every time I play this album and TMWSTW.  None of my friends were into Bowie in the 70's so it was a lone crusade for me which kept me a bit isolated from the rest of the world.  I don't think some of my friends knew what to make of me into Floyd, van Der Graaf Generator, Bowie and Iggy - Bowie was mine and I was really glad I didn't have to share him with anyone.......and I still don't!  As Bowie says on David Live - Love on ya!

Van Morrison - Avalon Sunset Vinyl

Rummaging through our local second hand vinyl store I came across 17 albums that I simply had to buy.  Average price 0.99 to 2.50 each.  The first one I have played is Avalon Sunset by Van Morrison.  I only ever had this on CD but the Vinyl just brings it alive.  Even the duet with Cliff Richard on Whenever God Shines His Light, stand out on this vinyl.

There's something about vinyl that CD's just can't replace.  The large sleeve, inner liner notes and the record itself - this one sporting the famous red Polydor label, record number 839 262-1.  I can;t believe it was 22 years ago (1989) that this album first came out.  This one and Enlightenment (which I also picked up for 2.50) are surely the last albums that Van put out that are worthy of great praise?

Standout tracks on this one are Have I Told You Lately I Love you, Coney Island, These are the Days and Contacting My Angel (IMHO).  A great album from a great man. JP 09-10-2011.

Dark Side of the Moon 2011 Vinyl edition

Speaks for itself really. Amazing 200gm vinyl _ beat that!

David Bowie & the Spiders from Mars - Ziggy Stardust

David Bowie & the Spiders from Mars - Ziggy Stardust. A superb album and not a bum track on it. Picked this up from eBay for £2 still sounds as good as when it came out. This is a German 80's black RCA label version from the original masters. I reckon it sounds better than my original UK Orange RCA label version.

Standout tracks are: Starman, Ziggy Stardust, Suffragette City and Rock n Roll Suicide.  Great musicianship from the Spiders and a great drum sound from the famous Trident Recording studios. I worked at Trident from 78 to 79 and listening to the track Lady Stardust this is the track that sounds so like the ambience in Studio 1 in the basement of Trident.

The Piano is the original famous Bechstein Grand as played by Elton John on his early albums and on Hey Jude by the Beatles. I used to have to polish the beast and have a tickle of its ivories every now and then. Rod Lumley (Joanna's cousin) was keyboard player for Brand X and he would play the Bechstein and chat to me for hours about his time playing live with Bowie at the famous Hammersmith Odeon gig.

The drum sound is what the studio is famous for. Simply amazing for 1972. You'd be hard pushed to better it today: 40 years later.

Pink Floyd - the Final Cut

Great album but sad as it's the the last Floyd Album with Waters, Rick had gone and David and Nick were about to take Floyd in a new direction (after some mediocre solo albums). This one has a Great album label with an image of Poppies on side 1 and a similar image side two but with a dead soldier with a knife in his back with a dog beside - was this a dig at Gilmour?

I love side two, a deep and anti-Thatcher, Anti-war masterpiece.  On the images inside there is one of a soldier holding a film canister with a knife in his back - apparently directed at Alan Parker with whom Waters fell out after the making of the Wall.

Home taping is killing music?

Who'd have thought it. I found this on an album inner sleeve. So funny as I do have some tapes left and they have all deteriorated so badly they are unusable.  And the government has recently said It's ok to copy a cd you have purchased to mp3 or other digital format. It's been a long time coming. I think Apple and their cloud probably had something to do with this change in law. 

Do you remember that you had to tape in real time and the whole process took ages. Then you had to cram long albums on more the one side of a C90 (90 minute tape 45 per side).  The plus side was that you could create a mix tape.

Wind & Wuthering

Wind & Wuthering my favourite post Gabriel Genesis album.

One for the Vine is probably the best post Gabriel song ever.   Amazing virtuoso and great lyrical content.

One man commanding many men to fight for a cause no one is sure about. Familiar?

Then this album has You Have Your Own Special Way.