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Cool Trent Reznor quote about Bowie Saw this over at Bowienet and had a good time reading it...since I haven't burdened the org with a DB thread in a while, I figured it was high time now... 
Trent Reznor had some very cool things to say about DB in an interview with Jonathan Zwickel over at www.newtimesbpb.com...
Who are your peers today? That's kind of an elitist question, but I'm impressed by Zack. I'm impressed by Maynard from Tool. There's a lot of new stuff out that's interesting and exciting from the DFA production team, LCD Soundsystem, their work with Rapture, etc. I like Arcade Fire a lot. When I look at people that I would like to feel have been a mentor or an inspiring kind of archetype of what I'd love to see my career eventually be mentioned as a footnote for in the same paragraph, it would be, like, Bowie. The courage that he's shown artistically, just to keep trying new things. I remember when I toured with him in 1995, he called up and said, "I want to do a tour, and I think the only band I want to go out with is Nine Inch Nails — would you be up for it?" And I just got done saying I'm not touring for a long time. Yup, yeah, OK, yes, what time do you want to start? Playing the message back for people from my machine, [in British accent] "Hi, Trent, it's David Bowie." It's really him, man! But when we met for that tour, he said, "I'm gonna only play stuff off this new album I did. It's very obscure and obtuse, and it's probably going to fail, but it's something I feel like I need to do, and the audience probably isn't going to like it, but it's right for right now." And I thought, you know, either that's really stupid or, fuck yeah, do what you feel is right. Anyway, that stuck with me, and after getting to know him and becoming friends with him, it's been an inspiration not only in his music and his career but also his life. I met him when I was about to bottom out, and it was somebody that had bottomed out, and I saw that there was hope on the other end. Life wasn't about sitting around AA meetings, smoking cigarettes, reliving the glory days. His life was a shitload better than it was. Between him, Brian Eno, people like that, who really seem to have always put art first and maintained over a long period of time, doing stuff that's interesting, you know, failing on occasion but never sitting back and recycling the same crap... I admire that. | |
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Let us not forget that making career decisions that are seemingly uncommercial is often in the interest of the long-term health of that career.
Bowie had been taking quite the critical lashing from Tonight on (hell, from Let's Dance on, in some quarters). Quite a bit of his cachet had always come from his reputation as a maverick and he realized, quite astutely, that it would be beneficial to his career to make less-"commercial" music for a while. Do I fault Bowie for this? No. He's a smart guy (Springsteen's made similar decisions). But Reznor's interpretation is simplistic. Incidentally, have you ever heard Bowie's covers of those early Springsteen songs? Probably my least-favourite era of Springsteen's songwriting, but was interesting to see pictures of them together in the studio. |
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Ace said: Incidentally, have you ever heard Bowie's covers of those early Springsteen songs? Probably my least-favourite era of Springsteen's songwriting, but was interesting to see pictures of them together in the studio. i've heard at least one of bowie's springsteen covers...'it's hard to be a saint in the city', i believe. right? it never really struck me one way or the other until recently, when i finally started opening my ears to bowie's 'young americans'-era stuff. i bet when the 'young americans' deluxxxe-o-rama reissue comes out next year, we'll see more of those covers surface. there's supposed to be a wealth of material that's never been heard. | |
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Anxiety said: Ace said: Incidentally, have you ever heard Bowie's covers of those early Springsteen songs? Probably my least-favourite era of Springsteen's songwriting, but was interesting to see pictures of them together in the studio. i've heard at least one of bowie's springsteen covers...'it's hard to be a saint in the city', i believe. right? it never really struck me one way or the other until recently, when i finally started opening my ears to bowie's 'young americans'-era stuff. i bet when the 'young americans' deluxxxe-o-rama reissue comes out next year, we'll see more of those covers surface. there's supposed to be a wealth of material that's never been heard. Yeah, he recorded "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" and "Growin' Up" (I think this was when he was making Pin-Ups?). These are from Springsteen's first record, when he was heavily into his pretentious, mid-'60s-Dylanesque wordplay thing (miles away from the music of his that I love). Is Bowie still a non-smoker? I figure if he can quit after all those years, there's hope for me.  |
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Ace said: I think this was when he was making Pin-Ups?
Scratch that. I just googled the release date on that album and it came out in '72. Those Springsteen songs weren't released until '73, so they could not have been recorded for Pin-ups. [Edited 10/28/05 7:45am] |
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Ace said: Is Bowie still a non-smoker? I figure if he can quit after all those years, there's hope for me. i think he FINALLY quit around the time of the reality tour a year or two ago. i remember reading an interview with him where he said he didn't want to smoke around his daughter, and that he was tired of having to go outside in the cold for a smoke. as for that other springsteen cover, i'm guessing he recorded it well after 'pin-ups', as his focus then was all about mid-60s brit bands. | |
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More Bowie trivia:
A friend of mine did a live radio interview with him in the late '90s. Apparently he had requested a fruit platter and some other stuff. She said that this was the first interview she'd ever done that had a rider.  |
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And:
Bowie and Jagger had originally wanted to do a transatlantic duet during Live Aid, but the satellite delay made it impossible (they, of course, did a video for "Dancin' in the Streets" instead). I was way into Bowie around the Let's Dance era. Have you ever heard the first Elastica album? There are a few cuts that are heavily influenced by Scary Monsters ("Car Song" certainly). |
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What would you say was Bowie's worst look? Me, I'd have to go with the ridiculously oversized pompadour/mullet he sported on the Glass Spider Tour:
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Ace said: What would you say was Bowie's worst look? Me, I'd have to go with the ridiculously oversized pompadour/mullet he sported on the Glass Spider Tour:
that was my hair in high school  | |
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Anxiety said: that was my hair in high school
Did you walk around holding a giant, glass spider above your head, as well?  |
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Ace said: Anxiety said: that was my hair in high school
Did you walk around holding a giant, glass spider above your head, as well? you don't want to know.  | |
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Anxiety said: that was my hair in high school
I'm still waiting on that picture! | |
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Anxiety said: Ace said: Is Bowie still a non-smoker? I figure if he can quit after all those years, there's hope for me. i think he FINALLY quit around the time of the reality tour a year or two ago. i remember reading an interview with him where he said he didn't want to smoke around his daughter, and that he was tired of having to go outside in the cold for a smoke. as for that other springsteen cover, i'm guessing he recorded it well after 'pin-ups', as his focus then was all about mid-60s brit bands. I believe it was recorded between the "Pin Ups" sessions and when he started formulating the "Diamond Dogs" idea. | |
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Ace said: And:
Bowie and Jagger had originally wanted to do a transatlantic duet during Live Aid, but the satellite delay made it impossible (they, of course, did a video for "Dancin' in the Streets" instead). I was way into Bowie around the Let's Dance era. Have you ever heard the first Elastica album? There are a few cuts that are heavily influenced by Scary Monsters ("Car Song" certainly). I love Love LOVE  the first Elastica album. | |
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GangstaFam said: Anxiety said: i think he FINALLY quit around the time of the reality tour a year or two ago. i remember reading an interview with him where he said he didn't want to smoke around his daughter, and that he was tired of having to go outside in the cold for a smoke. as for that other springsteen cover, i'm guessing he recorded it well after 'pin-ups', as his focus then was all about mid-60s brit bands. I believe it was recorded between the "Pin Ups" sessions and when he started formulating the "Diamond Dogs" idea. Since "Growing Up" is on the Diamond Dogs re-issue, that's a good guess! | |
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Thanks for posting. It gave me a little more respect for Trent just for also mentioning Brian Eno. Now maybe he can start to take some artistic change and we can see what he's made of.
Nothing needs to be said about The Duke, Trent figured it out and had an opportunity to live his dream. Just cool to know. | |
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Earlier this year Rolling Stone magazine ran another 'The Immortals' feature. You may remember around the same time last year when Lou Reed contributed to the list of the first fifty entrants with his appreciation of David Bowie.
This time 'round at number 94, were Nine Inch Nails with an appreciation by David Bowie. The version that appeared in Rolling Stone was edited down from Bowie's original submission. But, here for your reading pleasure is the full unedited version... #94 - Nine Inch Nails by David Bowie When the gods of nasty sounds tacked audition cards to the trees around town encouraging the brutes of industrial rock to brawl for the crown, a small lad with a tuba was probably not what they had in mind for a contender. His name was Michael Trent Reznor, and he also played sax and piano and learned early in life how to engineer a recording studio console. He produced a terrific debut album called 'Pretty Hate Machine'. Melodically oriented and, because of record company contractual problems, supported by what became a three year tour, it birthed the first real mainstream breakthrough for industrial rock selling over a million copies. Following Eno’s example, Trent Reznor unpacked his synth and threw away the manual. A decisive and important step in the creation of the new ‘New Music’ of the mid-nineties to be called ‘The Downward Spiral’. He encouraged the computer to misconstrue input, willing it to spew out bloated misshapen chards of sound that pierced and lacerated the listener. As a companion piece to Baudelaire’s To the Reader, the preface to Flowers of Evil, second to the Velvet Underground there has never been better soul lashing in rock. And Reznor understands imagery very well indeed. His clip for ‘Closer’ harnessed the creative engines of powerful image makers including Joel Peter Witkin and Man Ray and under the super-eye of Mark Romanek delivered possibly the decade’s most compelling visual counterpart to a song. I’ll suggest that the best and most satisfying way to hear ‘Spiral’ is in 5.1. It takes on altogether more wound inflicting screams of despair as the sound swoops over you from six speakers as you sit in your comfy chair. The separation of instruments is extraordinary. It seems to underpin the intent somehow, maximize the alienation. Truly horrifying at times yet overall a seismic experience of both grandeur and horror. I had a strange dream the other week. Lou Reed, myself and a friend known as Warren Peace, were having dinner in one of those old style Greenwich Village places where Pollock was supposed to have fought other painters. Our meal was served by one of the members of Einsturzende Neubauten. I slowly became aware of the house music and that it was infuriatingly familiar. Noticing my quizzical and upturned face, Blixa Bargeld (for our waiter was he) leaned in to me and whispered "The music is a birthday surprise for Lou. Trent Reznor remixed this version of Metal Machine Music as a present.". As he said this, strands, splodges and blots from a Jackson early fifties ‘drip’ painting materialized in front of out faces. While the music got louder in volume, the paint, no longer bound to the canvas, hurtled around us faster and faster till we ran nauseous from the café now chased by infernal screaming lavender, blue and black snakes. And that is it really. Trent's music, built as it is on the now not insubstantial history of industrial and mechanical sound experiments contains a beauty that attracts and repels in equal measure. Nietzsche’s ‘God Is Dead’ to a nightclubbing dance beat and always lifted at the most needy moment by a tantalizing melody. He’s a fine musician that boy. I cannot believe that ‘Spiral’ was released over ten years ago now. It is absolutely time for him to bring on his new work. And from what I know of him, it will indeed be singularly and uncompromisingly effective, putting to shame and disqualifying most of what passes as chart fodder. And no, no-one ever calls him Mickey. - David Bowie 2005 | |
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calldapplwondery83 said: GangstaFam said: I believe it was recorded between the "Pin Ups" sessions and when he started formulating the "Diamond Dogs" idea. Since "Growing Up" is on the Diamond Dogs re-issue, that's a good guess! Growing Up was on the rykodisc version of Pin-Ups, not diamond dogs WHAT IF THERE IS NO TOMORROW? THERE WASN'T ONE TODAY! | |
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And it's on the 30th Anniversary 2CD Edition of Diamond Dogs. | |
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calldapplwondery83 said: And it's on the 30th Anniversary 2CD Edition of Diamond Dogs.
That's probably because there is no 30th. anniversery edition for Pin Ups. and this is what's mentioned on the back of Pin Ups: 'Growing Up' - previously unreleased track from the Pin Up sessions WHAT IF THERE IS NO TOMORROW? THERE WASN'T ONE TODAY! | |
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