So, Its 9/11
And like 2001, this year 9/11 falls on a Tuesday. It was a beautiful morning, and then NYC... my home since 1987, changed in an instant. While the weather continued to be beautiful all day and all week, everything else was ugly in contrast. I have no idea what the pundits have up their sleeve for the newspapers, news television and all that... and I don't want to hear it or read it. I lived through it - a mile away from the site of the Twin Towers. Trying to go to sleep that night, I could smell the stench of the burning building, burning plane and everything else and could think only: in a few years, people will be dying of some strange cancer because of this...
Earlier today, as I was looking to see what records were on the charts 30 years ago today, I was kind of freaked out to find that Yes was Number 10 on the Billboard album charts with their album, Going For the One which features a man standing before the Twin Towers of Century City (Los Angeles), another set of towers (in which I once worked too!) with a similar business park setting as the towers in NYC. Weird.
I also learned that on this date in 1996, the first time ever, a new single by a major recording artist was released exclusively on the Internet. David Bowie's "Telling Lies" was released on Bowie's Website (www.davidbowie.com), where it could be played and downloaded; the song did not appear anywhere on CD, record or cassette and was not to be heard on the radio.
Well...that Bowie, always ahead of the curve! On September 11, 1977 - deep in the punk rock heyday, Bowie recorded "Little Drummer Boy" as a duet with Bing Crosby for the elder superstar's Christmas special. Bing Crosby has a relation to punk rock: his grandson Dennis was a dear friend of the Lobotomy crew. Like I said... that David Bowie... practically no degrees of separation from anything!
Don't get me wrong --- I am not being facetious. Without David Bowie, two of my favorite punk rock progenitors were given a second lease on their musical career. So Viva David Bowie! He also introduced me to Roxy Music when he told Dick Cavett on television that he liked Bryan Ferry and his work with Roxy Music.
Iggy Pop was relaunched by Bowie in 1977
And Lou Reed's career was "transformed" by Bowie's presence as well...
Earlier today, as I was looking to see what records were on the charts 30 years ago today, I was kind of freaked out to find that Yes was Number 10 on the Billboard album charts with their album, Going For the One which features a man standing before the Twin Towers of Century City (Los Angeles), another set of towers (in which I once worked too!) with a similar business park setting as the towers in NYC. Weird.
I also learned that on this date in 1996, the first time ever, a new single by a major recording artist was released exclusively on the Internet. David Bowie's "Telling Lies" was released on Bowie's Website (www.davidbowie.com), where it could be played and downloaded; the song did not appear anywhere on CD, record or cassette and was not to be heard on the radio.
Well...that Bowie, always ahead of the curve! On September 11, 1977 - deep in the punk rock heyday, Bowie recorded "Little Drummer Boy" as a duet with Bing Crosby for the elder superstar's Christmas special. Bing Crosby has a relation to punk rock: his grandson Dennis was a dear friend of the Lobotomy crew. Like I said... that David Bowie... practically no degrees of separation from anything!
Don't get me wrong --- I am not being facetious. Without David Bowie, two of my favorite punk rock progenitors were given a second lease on their musical career. So Viva David Bowie! He also introduced me to Roxy Music when he told Dick Cavett on television that he liked Bryan Ferry and his work with Roxy Music.
Iggy Pop was relaunched by Bowie in 1977
And Lou Reed's career was "transformed" by Bowie's presence as well...
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