Apologies for yet more YouTube stuff, but I'm watching this now, because pretty soon it will have all evaporated.
1) The astonishing and awful 'Synthesizer Medley' from the 1985 Grammy awards, with Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hanckock, Thomas Dolby (miming with a TR606), Howard Jones (bless him), and a ludicrous mountaing of synths. here (The full story is here, including Stevie Wonder's very mean practical joke on Herbie Hancock.)
2) Human League playing 'Being Boiled' on Granada TV in 1978 (none more analog) here
3) Iggy doing 'The Passenger' Live in 1978, complete with horse tail here.
4) Bowie's astonishing 'Soul Train' appearance in 1975 (can you believe this clip is 31 years old?) here
5) Sun Ra playing live, proving you don't need Max/MSP and experimental interfaces to make extreme wierd shit here
6) Kate Bush doing 'The Man with the Child in his Eyes' on SNL here
7) The full 18 minute video for Flowered Up's 'Weekender' - this should be in the British Museum... here
8) Prince at the Brits last week with Wendy & Lisa & Shiela E (Stick with it, the first song is tiresome) here
9) Trent Reznor plays Billy Idols' 'Eyes Without A Face' sometime in the early '80s here
10) Madonna's ludicrous appearance with Tim Westwood on 'Pimp My Ride' (check out the very theatrical cocaine sniff half way through, just before she starts writhing on the floor) here BONUS: Delia Derbyshire speaks here
Posted by Tom Whitwell.
Comments:
Thanks for the line, "Madonna's luxurious trim" which I am having tattooed immediately.
one of Devo's very first shows was as the opening act for Sun Ra - where they came out dressed as various characters like Booji Boy and proceeded to torture the audience with minimoog madness until they cleared the entire place, leaving nothing but space (is the place) for mr. ra
Which came first, Fame by Bowie, or Hot Hot Hot by James Brown? Listen to the latter if you can find it - it is exactly like Fame except for the lyrics and the vocal part.
I always presumed Bowie had ripped off JB, but I never got a chance to check the credits on each track properly...
I heard that the two tracks were recorded in neighbouring studios after Mr Brown had 'borrowed' some of Bowies backing band. Or was it the other way round?
Here's one take on the Fame/James Brown story: "[Carlos] Alomar based his guitar part for "Fame" on the song "Foot Stomping Pt. 1" by 60s R&B outfit The Flares. James Brown, who Alomar did some work with, would steal the riff (and pretty much all the instrumentation) for the song "Hot (I Need to Be Loved, Loved, Loved)." This blatant lifting led Alomar to state he wanted to sue the Godfather of Soul. Lennon added his own spin to "Fame" thanks in part to a series of jam sessions in which he played rhythm guitar and his own discussions with Bowie on the nature of celebrity. The apocryphal tales concerning the song's origin state that 1) Bowie wrote the lyrics in five minutes after Lennon said it was easy to write a good song quickly and 2) that the song was originally titled "Aim" until Lennon muttered something about fame. " From: http://www.treblezine.com/reviews/846.html
I'd love for somebody to post a few clips from the Art of Noise's live show back in the 80s. It was called something like "From Hammersmith Odeon and Back". I recall a "solo" with JJ on the Fairlight. It'd be interesting to see after all these years.
That synth medley was awesome - it shows just what a hero Stevie Wonder is, he's doing his utmost to save the devil's own showcase. And he might have pulled it off, were it not for those meddling medleys. After the first four minutes you're just beginning to desensitize to the shock of the assault against all taste and decency, then someone decided to break out the national anthems - it's all over jazzanova.
Apologies for yet more YouTube stuff, but I'm watching this now, because pretty soon it will have all evaporated.
: 8:47 am