incredibly, although familiar with this song for many years, i never appreciated it's quality and beauty until 45 minutes ago when i stumbled upon it on my iriver. the musical arrangements and vocal combination are amazing, absolutely gorgeous. what album is this from? i only have it from the best of and don't have the booklet handy.

kinaldo said:

a soundtrack

lilgish said:

He starred in it as well. It remains unseen by me, but the movie was considered quite a turkey at the time it was released; it formed part of Bowie's ugly losing streak in the mid-eighties.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090585/

damosuzuki said:

I like some of those songs, Bang Bang I think everything Bowie does is cool. even when he's corny and OTT , sorta like Prince with Diamonds and Pearls, though I think Prince lost the sense of humour that made him impervious to being uncool. stuff like NPS and remaking Cheryl Crow were just lame.
[Edited 4/16/06 19:19pm]

lilgish said:

If nothing else, glass spider and mickey rourke's rap on shining star will always make me laugh.

I actually saw Bowie on that tour - bad hair, bad stage (in the shape of a giant spider...yeesh), bad has-been special guest on guitar (peter frampton - yeesh to that as well, not to be overly nasty or anything) and scarcely any material from station to station, eno-era or Ziggy. Not his finest hour, in other words!

That said, I was at the peak of my Bowie fandom at the time, and refused to believe that the show was anything other than completely brilliant.

damosuzuki said:

The Video is really entertaining

Another fine song from that otherwise catastropichical era is "This Is Not America" from the Movie "The Falcon and the Snowman" performed together with Pat Metheny. "Absolute Beginners" and "This Is Not America" can be both found from the older (90s) CD reissues of the "Tonight"-album as well. Funny thing, they are a million miles ahead of what's on the actual album.

I don't think Bowie especially "lost it" in the 80s, he just became bored of actually making music so the albums came out so horrid in the end. "Absolute Beginners" is one indication that his talent never left.

Novabreaker said:

And also "When the wind blows" from the movie with the same name, one of his best eighties songs.

noepie said:

"where the wind blows" is criminally underrated, even among bowie fans, i think.

and i don't think "absolute beginners" was such a horrible movie. it was kinda like a cross between 'quadrophenia' and 'xanadu', only without the sense of gravity of the first or the loopy camp value of the latter. it drags. but you get to see sade sing in a movie, and bowie's scene is a lot of fun as well (he doesn't star in it, but he performs a song...not the title track).

the whole 'absolute beginners' soundtrack is a lot of fun, in my opinion.

A BRILLIANT song!!!