#south london jazz music

[blxk-badu]

Venna concert • London 2024 🖤

[leiselaute]

Released 2022 november 11

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

The Castells - Some Enchanted Evening 1963

"Some Enchanted Evening" is a show tune from the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. The song is a three-verse solo for the leading male character, Emile, in which he describes first seeing a stranger, knowing that he will see her again, and dreaming of her laughter. In the original Broadway production, "Some Enchanted Evening" was sung by former Metropolitan Opera star Ezio Pinza. Pinza won the Tony Award for Best Actor in 1950 for this role, and the song made him a favorite with audiences and listeners who normally did not attend or listen to opera. In the 2001 London revival of the show, Philip Quast won an Olivier Award for Best Actor for his role as Emile, and seven years later, international opera singer Paulo Szot won a Tony for his portrayal in the 2008 New York revival.

The Castells were a male vocal quartet from Santa Rosa, California, best remembered for their hits "Sacred" (number 20 on the Billboard chart in 1961) and "So This Is Love" (number 21 in 1962). Their sound blended light rock with elements of collegiate vocal harmony and jazz.

Their version of "Some Enchanted Evening" was used twice in the first episode of the Fallout tv series; at Lucy's wedding dance and during the raider massacre in Vault 33. It is also included on the official Amazon Music playlist "Music from Fallout" promoting the series.

"Some Enchanted Evening"received a total of 62,4% yes votes!

[vintage-london-images]

Following WW11 in the late 1940s, the fashion industry in Britain was in the doldrums. This was partly due to ongoing rationing, which made obtaining certain kinds of materials difficult to obtain.

In an attempt to kick-start the business, the men’s tailors of Jermyn Street and the West End of London devised a style based on the turn of the century, Edwardian clothing. They were hoping to sell to the young officer class who were being demobbed from the various services. Unfortunately for the tailors, the look didn’t catch on with their targeted customers and they were stuck with piles of unsold clothing. In order to get something back on their investment, they sold job lots to the menswear shops of East and South London at very cheap prices. These shops put them on display in their windows and the local working class youth took a liking.

So around 1951 a sweeping trend in fashion took over Londons teen boys. It was an adaptation of Edwardian romanticism which included tailored velvet blazers and button down shirts coupled with drainpipe jeans or trousers, skinny ties, and chunky leather shoes. Top off the outfit with a quiffed up hairdo, and you have the look of a classic Teddy Boy.

It was the newspaper The Daily Express that coined the term "Teddy Boy" in 1954 by shortening Edwardian or Edward to Teddy and the trend started to sweep the nation. These fashion-forward working-class teens had their roots firmly secured in music and dancing. Their style was closely identified with their youth and Teddy Boys built their culture around Jazz and skiffle music. However, when early rock-n-roll entered America's scene and crossed the Atlantic with the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, Elvis, and Buddy Holly, the Teds found their true sound. The trend finally fizzled out in the mid sixties but later posed a comeback and is still popular today.

Please check out other posts with hashtag #video on @vintage-london-images

[randomvarious]

1990s Trip Hop Playlist

Been six months since I added anything to this fly-as-fuck playlist, and this week I've got a bunch of heady, spaced-out, and super stoned treats for you all. For this update, I ended up drawing from three separate releases: Ninja Cuts: Flexistentialism, a terrific comp from 1996 that was put out by premier UK trip hop, hip hop, downtempo, and future jazz label Ninja Tune; French native Kid Loco's brilliant DJ-Kicks mix from 1999 that was put out by Germany's !K7 label; and a varied South African comp that was put out by national indie label Fresh Records in 1998 called ReRooted: Beatz From da Ground Up.

So let's highlight some sweet goodies from all of these then. First up, "Junkies Bad Trip" by London Funk Allstars, a quintessential piece of head-nodding mid-90s boom bap dope that sounds like it's waiting for your favorite New York rapper's favorite New York rapper to spit some crazy fire over it. When it comes to instrumental trip hop and hip hop-type shit, there's really nothing in my mind that tops something like this tune right here; a big sonic bluntski with two pretty iconic samples in it: one from Baby Huey's "Hard Times," which gives the song its frenzied, metallic, whistling stabs, and has been used in a whole bunch of other rap tunes too; and a funky guitar riff from James Brown's "Blind Men Can See It," which was also famously used in Das EFX's 1992 classic, "They Want EFX" as well. Currently at around 252K plays on Spotify.

Next, something really cool from that ReRooted comp by a band from Cape Town called Naked, who only ever put out one album, 1998's Bone Needs Flesh. Here they offer up a tune called "Wash Your Hands (Stone Cold remix)," which employs this really unique blend of chopped-up vocals, heavy breathing, and sharp, acidic bass stabs, as a couple different effects are applied to frontwoman Kaolin Thompson's voice. This one seems pretty damn obscure, as it's currently sitting at under 1,000 plays on Spotify. It's terrific, though.

And for some pure fuckin' THC-induced nuttery, there's "Attitude Adjuster" by Essex, England's own Tom Tyler. Appearing on Kid Loco's DJ-Kicks mix, this 1999 leftfield stunner's marked by a very imposing, dissonantly wobbly, and bleating horn sound, with a dubbed-out drumbeat beneath it, and all of it anchored by a super chill and steady synth pad to mellow and balance the whole thing out. A simply bananas piece of music that was made to satiate your crusty-eyed inner insomniac at 3:46 in the morning. Currently at a little over 4,000 Spotify plays.

9 Lazy 9 - "Turn Me Loose" Jazz Con Bazz - "Wayz of Life" Luke Vibert - "Get Your Head Down" Up, Bustle & Out - "Ninja's Principality" London Funk Allstars - "Junkies Bad Trip" DJ Vadim - "Theme From Conquest of the Irrational (Remix by The Prunes)" Pelding - "One" Naked - "Wash Your Hands (Stone Cold remix)" Boards of Canada - "Happy Cycling" Tom Tyler - "Attitude Adjuster" Kid Loco - "Flyin' on 747"

Now, something else I should mention is that the YouTube version of this playlist includes all of these songs too, but a bunch of the versions that are specifically from Kid Loco's DJ-KIcks mix are as they appear on the mix itself, which is a little different from how they sound unmixed on Spotify, except for the set's sweet and serene closer, "Flyin' on 747."

But in addition to that, this YouTube update also comes with some songs from that DJ-Kicks mix that aren't on Spotify at all too, like something from a London collective called Common Ground, whose 1998 song, "Dark Soul," has some piano-and-string bits that might remind you a little of something like the theme song from Succession—a show that came 20 years after this very song dropped—but this tune, like so many others in this update, is also very fucking stoned; it has this Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells-like opening, some plonking xylo, and some slow and incremental, scale-climbing vocals to mark its 'chorus' too. An absolute, unheralded banger as far as I'm concerned, and currently only nearing 1,900 plays on YouTube across a couple different uploads.

Emperors New Clothes - "Dark Light (Underdog Mix)" Grantby - "Grimble" Tongue - "Culture Consumers" Common Ground - "Dark Soul" Stereotyp - "Slo Jo"

And this playlist is also on YouTube Music.

So with this update we're now at 46 songs that clock in at 4 hours and 5 minutes on Spotify, but over on YouTube, we've got 76 songs that clock in at 7 hours and 2 minutes! So if you want more dank 90s trip hop than you know what to do with, then do yourself a favor and pick the YouTube one.

And if 7 hours and change or 4 hours and change sounds like way too overwhelming of an amount of trip hop for you to handle, I've got a bunch of this broken down by year too:

1994 Trip Hop: YouTube / YouTube Music 1996 Trip Hop: Spotify / YouTube / YouTube Music 1997 Trip Hop: YouTube / YouTube Music 1998 Trip Hop: YouTube / YouTube Music 1999 Trip Hop: YouTube / YouTube Music

More trip hop next week, but from a certain locality 😎.

Enjoy!

More to come, eventually. Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!

[my-chaos-radio]

Release: May 19, 1978

Lyrics:

You get a shiver in the dark

It's a raining in the park but meantime-

South of the river you stop and you hold everything

A band is blowing Dixie, double four time

You feel alright when you hear the music ring

Well now you step inside but you don't see too many faces

Coming in out of the rain they hear the jazz go down

Competition in other places

Uh but the horns they blowin' that sound

Way on down south

Way on down south

London town

You check out guitar George, he knows-all the chords

Mind, it's strictly rhythm he doesn't want to make it cry or sing

They said an old guitar is all, he can afford

When he gets up under the lights to play his thing

And Harry doesn't mind, if he doesn't, make the scene

He's got a daytime job, he's doing alright

He can play the Honky Tonk like anything

Savin' it up, for Friday night

With the Sultans

We're the Sultans of Swing

Then a crowd a young boys they're a foolin' around in the corner

Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles

They don't give a damn about any trumpet playin' band

It ain't what they call Rock and Roll

And the Sultans

Yeah, the Sultans, they play Creole

Creole

And then the man he steps right up to the microphone

And says at last just as the time bell rings

"Goodnight, now it's time to go home"

Then he makes it fast with one more thing

Songwriter: Mark Knopfler

"We are the Sultans

We are the Sultans of Swing"

SongFacts:

👉📖

[soulmusicsongs]

Ethiopian Grooves, part 2

Ethiopian Grooves in 10 tracks: Ethiopian Funk, Soul and Jazz. An unique fusion of ancient Ethiopian music with Afro-funk, jazz, soul, and Latin rhythms. Enjoy!

Atrakegne - Bizunesh Bekele (Atrakegne / Eneramed, 1977)

Belew Bedubaye - Menelik Wossenatchew (Belew Bedubaye / Tezeta, 1971)

Birtukane - Hailu Mergia And The Walias (Tche Belew, 1977)

Ebo Lala - Mulatu Astatke (New York - Addis - London - The Story Of Ethio Jazz 1965-1975, 2009)

Enken Yelelebish - Girma Beyene (Enken Yelelebish / Ene Negne By Manesh, 1969).

Hametegnaw - Seyoum Gebreyes (Hametegnaw / Yehagere Gegna, 1973)

Kenoru Lebitcha - Alemayehu Eshete (Tikur Gissila / Kenoru Lebitcha, 1972)

Musika Musika - Syoum Gebreyess (Mech Ene Terf Felghu / Musika Musika, 1973)

Tezeta - Menelik Wossenatchew (Belew Bedubaye / Tezeta, 1971)

Tizita - Getatchew Mekuria (Getatchew Mekuria And His Saxophone, 1972)

More Soul Music

Ethiopian Grooves

Soul from South Africa: 18 tracks

African Funk from the Seventies

Funk from Africa in 20 tracks

[writings-ofthe-heart]

OVERWATCH character playlist please maybe and characters of your choosing😊😊😊 or just artists you’d think they’d listen too

I adore this thank you suspicious anon i would never know:33

"What would they listen to?"

Characters included ; Lucio, Widowmaker, Mercy, Illari

Warnings ; None!

Side note ; Not much is known about Illari's personality so I will make her how I personally see her (I love her character) (I can't believe there's no yellow text)

Starting with, Lucio

♫ - I fully believe this man, although he's a dj, he'd be into jazz. Late nights at work, to soothe his heart he'd probably play a specific jazz playlist for that night. Expect some Billy Holiday (who doesn't love Billy Holiday) Chet Baker, Julie London type of people, just the classics of course!

♫ - Along with the jazz, he'd definitely incorporate it into some of his songs, like adding a smooth sax undertone, something only a few people can point out. Like an easter egg hunt LOL

♫ - Lucio is known for being a DJ right? But what type of music would he sing in the shower? Laufey. To them, Laufey is a classic as well since, y'know they're in the future and all. It goes along with his niche jazz taste but it's also a bit more vocal. Another artist I think he'd love to sing in the shower would probably be Bad Bunny, now c'mon this guy is literally from South America. How could he NOT know Bad Bunny? His favorite song would probably be one that features Cardi B. It never fails to make him feel like a baddie 💋

♫ - As a DJ, he must know electronix music right. As an electronic music lover myself, y'know I gotta Headcanon some artists for him. He'd love love LOVE Daft Punk, no doubt. Aphex Twin is someone he looks up to in terms of mixing but he likes some of their tracks nonetheless.

Widowmaker

♫ - Before her husband died and Moira crushed her soul, I like to believe she was a very guarded woman even before everything. In private though ? She was a romantic.

♫ - In front of her friends and peers, I really like to believe she listened to soft rock. Artists like Pink Floyd, Daryl Hall and the Oats. She always felt the appeal of English music. As for French though? I feel like she'd listen to aupinard, La Femme, etc.

♫ - With her husband, she liked to, no, she felt free with him and she could embrace being in touch with her emotions. This led to weekly dance nights, where in the silence of the moon, they just held each other close, swaying side to side. In the background, older french songs would play faintly. Such as, "La Femme," By Fred de Fred and Marion Benoist.

♫ - After Moira captured her and molded her into a monster? You wouldn't catch her reaching for headphones, the night her husband died she threw away the countless vinyls they collected together, she threw away the record player, her phone, everything.

♫ - She vowed never to listen to that song again. But.. as time passed and slowly, slowly she began to feel. A spark of something heavy in her chest, it was benign to her. She kept it secret but the hate in her chest, the love she forgot to grieve was adamant in making itself known. Widow hated it, hated it so much she demanded Moira to study her again. Which led to her spirit dying again. But a fragment remained, a stubborn piece of memory that wouldn't dislodge itself. Moira took note but she didn't care much for it, figuring it would be something unimportant.

♫ - Widow remembered her husband's voice, calmly singing to her while she had her head buried on his shoulder. They were dancing, it was dark and just barely.. she could hear the faint scratch of the record and the notes it played.

Mercy

♫ - We all know Angela is a very happy person, or that's what it seems. In her playlist, a lot of pop songs would be displayed. Like Katy Perry, Carly Rae Jepson, above all, Megan Trainor. I fully think that Mercy would love Megan Trainor!! Her favorite song would be "Dear Future Husband," (WINKS AT GENJI)

♫ - On the down low though... I think she'd listen to Nicki Minaj. Deadass, she'd listen to her, try and rap the lyrics then stumble all over it. Her favorite Alter Ego would probably be Roman Zovanski. She just thinks she's really funny.

♫ - In terms of German music, she'd definitely be singing loud and proud with Reinhardt.

♫ - As a teen, she would ONLY listen to Tokio Hotel. Sorry not sorry.

♫ - Junge by Haller. That's it, that's the music she'd listen to.

♫ - From being influenced by Genji, Angela would definitely start to get into city pop, artists like No Buses, Miharu Koshi and Meaningful Stone.

Last but not least, Illari

♫ - Ok. Do NOT even try me on this. She's a total Kali Uchis fan. IDC. Don't even try to argue with me. Her favorite song would definitely be Hasta Cuando

♫ - I feel like she wouldn't really like Bad Bunny because of how vulgar he is, (She's biased towards women) But would be ok with female artists being vulgar because they're "taking back the power" (she's a #girlkisser)

♫ - I think she prides herself in having an expansive music taste, meaning she'd listen to old metal, then Lamp (Japanese indie band) then Kali Uchis. In terms of Metal, I think she'd like Metallica the most. That or Guns n Roses.

♫ - I don't know if this is canon but in my heart, Kiri and her are literally best friends. With that being said, they exchange songs daily. Oftentimes, Illari is only sharing Kali Uchis songs and Kiri is like

"Bro, is Kali uchis the only thing you listen to??"

"No. I listen to metal, city pop, rap, rnb, jazz.." The list goes on for like 5 pages.

Kiri doesn't ask her again.

♫ - Illari is the type of person to have a 100 hour long playlist. That's all. Every playlist of hers is a MINIMUM of 100 hours.

That took longer then I thought, anyways, thanks for reading and anon thanks for asking :3 Reqs are still open! Taglist still open!

[seoul-bros]

Getting back to the music

This weekend I stepped out of the BTS bubble partly due to work pressures but also partly by choice. I have a long and varied past, fangirling over fictional characters, but discovering BTS has probably been my first experience of parasocial interactions with real people and to be honest it shocked me to find out how invested you can become in the life of someone you have never met, living more than 5000 miles away.

There has been a lot of shit going down lately both inside and outside the fandom and it's been taking all the fun out of being here. So I've been asking myself why did I start this blog, why am I still here and what are the things that I can and want to do with it?

First and foremost, I am here for the music. I commented before on BTS's role in my musical listening renaissance. Discovering them was part of that, yes, but with them I also discovered multiple generations of Korean and other global artists.

So this weekend I've been concentrating on the music.

Listening to FACE listening to D-Day and putting together playlists that showcase these two talented guys but also other Korean and Japanese artists with a reminder that musical success isn't all about the numbers.

It's about making that connection with your audience. It's about having one of your songs make it to their forever playlist. It's about having another song make them smile as they sit drinking their latte at the coffee shop after a long bike ride.

We are used to big numbers as ARMY but there are plenty of really talented artists on Spotify that could never dream of the sales or the streaming that is being achieved for members of BTS.

Our guys are doing fine. They are in the privileged position of being able to do what they love and now, in the solo era, being able to explore their own interests and demonstrate their individuality through the music they produce.

Through their musical collaborations and Instagram recommendations they also throw a light on other talented South Korean artists with their own trajectory and extensive musical back catalogue to be explored.

Balming Tiger, So Yoon, Woosung and The Rose and Silica Gel just to mention a few I've encountered over the last couple of years thanks to different members of BTS.

And the BTS influence doesn't stop at the South Korean border. Also this weekend, I have been listening to Samara Joy, the American jazz singer that V posted on Instagram. She has an incredible voice. Today I booked tickets to see her at the London Jazz Festival in November.

Finally, it's already the 24th April in South Korea and time to celebrate one year of the release of With You by Jimin and Ha Sung Woon. This was my number one Spotify tune of 2022 and still has pride of place on many of my playlists.

I'm looking forward to whatever BTS members have next for us while enjoying the smorgasbord of great music we already have at our fingertips.

Post Date: 23/04/2023

[justforbooks]

Renowned as a pioneering guitarist who pushed the boundaries of the instrument to places unknown to most of his contemporaries, Jeff Beck, who has died from bacterial meningitis aged 78, could more than hold his own with fellow luminaries such as Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton (all three of them played in the Yardbirds). Yet unlike them, Beck was something of a reluctant celebrity, unwilling to pursue the superstardom that his musical gifts could have brought him.

“When Led Zeppelin made it so big, I was jealous, absolutely jealous as hell,” Beck said in 1986. “But I’m glad I carried on as I was. I personally couldn’t have put up with that mass adulation.”

When Clapton and Page appeared at Live Aid in 1985, Beck preferred to stay at home and tinker with his beloved collection of classic hot rod cars. “I didn’t want to go, because I hate large crowds,” he claimed. The Melody Maker journalist Chris Welch wrote that “he can appear sullen, lazy and difficult. He has an expressive face that appears to give away his every mood and thought.”

Nonetheless, Beck was a central figure in several key developments in rock music’s history. As a member of the Yardbirds in 1965-66, he featured on some of their best-known hits, including Heart Full of Soul and Shapes of Things, while expanding the band’s musical palette hugely. His solo recording Beck’s Bolero was a firework display of contrasting guitar techniques and textures, and pointed to Beck’s future, in which he would move away from mere rock to embrace jazz fusion and even classical crossover. His 2010 album Emotion & Commotion included versions of Benjamin Britten’s Corpus Christi Carol and Puccini’s Nessun Dorma, interpreted through Beck’s uniquely sensitive touch. He would frequently pick strings with his thumb while modifying tone and pitch with the tremolo bar.

Beck’s gifts burned most intensely after he left the Yardbirds in November 1966 and formed the first incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group in early 1967, featuring Ronnie Wood on bass and the telltale rasping vocals of Rod Stewart. Beck’s previously recorded solo hit Hi Ho Silver Lining, which reached 14 on the UK chart in the spring of 67, gave the group a handy launch platform, although their debut album, Truth, was not released until the following year. When it was, it reached 15 on the US chart.

This was largely down to the group’s tour manager Peter Grant (later Led Zeppelin’s manager), who had taken the band to the US for some ecstatically received live performances and then persuaded Epic Records to sign them. Truth’s soulful mix of blues and hard rock was a trailblazer for a new wave of bands, not least Led Zeppelin themselves, whose own debut album appeared six months later.

Although Truth failed to chart in Britain, the Beck band’s second album, Beck-Ola, gave them another No 15 hit in the US and this time reached the UK Top 40, and they followed up with successful touring in the US, but internal friction was beginning to pull the unit apart. With impeccably poor timing, they broke up just before they were due to play at the Woodstock festival. Stewart launched his solo career, and formed the Faces with Wood. A rebuilt Jeff Beck Group released the albums Rough and Ready (1971) and Jeff Beck Group (1972), but the magic moment had passed.

Beck was born at his family’s home in Wallington (then in Surrey, but now in south London). His father, Arnold, was an accountant and his mother, Ethel, worked in a chocolate factory. Jeff attended Sutton Manor primary school and Sutton East county secondary modern.

He credited his mother with pushing him to study music, because she “used to force me to play piano about two hours a day. But that was good, because it made me realise I was musically sound.” He became fascinated by the electric guitar when he heard Les Paul’s version of How High the Moon. After experimenting with “stretching rubber bands over tobacco cans and making horrible noises”, he graduated to an old and battered acoustic guitar, and then built his own instrument using a cigar box and a picture frame.

Beck attended Wimbledon Art College, where he was mostly preoccupied with guitar-playing, inspired by albums by American bluesmen such as Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters. He bought himself an electric guitar and played briefly with Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages, and in 1963 formed the Nightshift, who recorded the single Stormy Monday. Later that year he joined an R&B band, the Tridents. He took a great leap forward in 1965 when he joined the Yardbirds, replacing Clapton. This was on the recommendation of Page, whom Beck had known since being introduced to him by his sister Annetta in his teens.

He was with the Yardbirds for less than two years, but during this period they recorded some of their best-known material, including the hit singles Heart Full of Soul (featuring Beck’s raga-like guitar), a UK No 2 and a Top 10 hit in the US, Evil Hearted You (UK No 3), Shapes of Things (UK No 3) and Over Under Sideways Down (UK No 10). Happenings Ten Years Time Ago (1966) only made it to 43 on the UK chart (and 30 in the US), but its complex mix of guitar parts by both Beck and Page have led to it being considered a milestone along the road to full-blown psychedelia. Page would go on to bend the boundaries of rock music with Led Zeppelin, while Beck was experimenting with different tunings and feedback effects.

In May 1966, Beck made his first solo recording, Beck’s Bolero. It featured Page, the Who’s drummer Keith Moon and the future Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones (indeed, the musicians on the track almost became Led Zeppelin), but was not released until it became the B side of Beck’s single Hi Ho Silver Lining the following year. Based on the rhythm of Ravel’s Bolero, it was a spectacular display of guitar tonalities, from ethereal slide guitar to hard-rock riffing, and suggested the extent of Beck’s ambitions.

After the Jeff Beck Band ended, he formed the “power trio” Beck, Bogert and Appice in 1973 (his bandmates being ex-members of Vanilla Fudge), but the project failed to match expectations and they split in 1974. In 1975 Beck re-emerged in a jazz-inflected guise with the all-instrumental album Blow by Blow, produced by George Martin. It became Beck’s most successful album, reaching No 4 on the US chart and selling a million copies. For Wired (1976), he teamed up with Narada Michael Walden and Jan Hammer, veterans of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Subsequent live shows were preserved on Jeff Beck With the Jan Hammer Group: Live (1977).

Beck released intermittent solo albums, including Flash (1985), Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop (1989) and Jeff (2003). Flash delivered a hit single, with a cover version of Curtis Mayfield’s People Get Ready, and the track Escape won Beck the first of his eight Grammy awards. He made guest appearances on Mick Jagger’s album Primitive Cool (1987) and Roger Waters’s Amused to Death (1992). In 2020, he released the single Isolation, a John Lennon song on which he collaborated with the actor Johnny Depp. In July last year, the pair released an album, 18, after Depp had joined Beck onstage for some UK and European concerts.

Beck was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 for his work with the Yardbirds, and in 2009 for his solo career.

He is survived by his second wife, Sandra Cash, whom he married in 2005.

🔔 Geoffrey Arnold (Jeff) Beck, composer and musician, born 24 June 1944; died 10 January 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[lemonlyman-dotcom]

A belated Nice Ask for you! 💜🍋

Since I know you like music and reading, do you like to listen to music while you read? If so, what does your ideal reading playlist look like (or would it differ depending on the type of book)?

Thank you my friend!! Yes, absolutely. I always have music playing while I’m reading. I typically listen to one of my radio shows, my favorite DJ has a nightly show that’s right during my prime reading hours (if I’m not out at a show listening to live music, which is …often) so typically indie dance, Brazilian funk, jazz, hip-hop, whatever!!

Cc’ing @carlos-in-glasses for this one though, because I have come to learn that the music sometimes does not jive with the tone of what I’m reading. I made the hilarious mistake of listening to Fatboy Slim (don’t @ me) whilst reading her 9/11 fic Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines and the comment I left her definitely includes me spiraling into the realization that British EDM was maybe not the appropriate choice for such a dark, heavy subject.

I now make sure to update her in my comments on what my soundtrack is for each of her stories/chapters and I try to anticipate the tone and choose appropriately. For her latest fic I’ve listened to a lot of Afrobeats, Brazilian funk and South African house for the lighter chapters and when I know it’s gonna be heavier, especially chapters that go deep into TK’s drug use, I’ll listen to London contemporary jazz, which is chill but also upbeat and vibrant and really sets the pace and tone of what I’m reading. I’ve even thrown on André 3000’s ambient flute album, an inspired choice for some of those heavier chapters I must say!

[breezingby]

Dire Straits ~ Sultans Of Swing (Alchemy Live)

(A fantastic video of Dire Straits!!!)

You get a shiver in the dark It's raining in the park but meantime South of the river you stop and you hold everything A band is blowing Dixie double four time You feel alright when you hear that music ring

Well, now you step inside but you don't see too many faces Coming in out of the rain to hear the jazz go down Competition in other places Oh, but the horns, they're blowing that sound Way on down south, way on down south London town

You check out guitar, George He knows all the chords Mind it's strictly rhythm He doesn't wanna make it cry or sing Left-handed old guitar is all he can afford When he gets up under the lights to play his thing

And Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene He's got a daytime job, he's doing alright He can play the honky tonk like anything Saving it up for Friday night With the Sultans, with the Sultans of Swing

And a crowd of young boys, they're fooling around in the corner Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles They don't give a damn about any trumpet-playing band It ain't what they call "Rock 'n' Roll" And the Sultans, yeah, the Sultans, they play Creole, Creole

~ ♫♪♫♪ ~

And then the man, he steps right up to the microphone And says at last just as the time bell rings "Goodnight, now it's time to go home." Then he makes it fast with one more thing, "We are the Sultans, we are the Sultans of Swing."

~ ♫♪♫♪ ~ ~ ~

(Oh do I Miss those Concert Dayzzz ! )

[astrognossienne]

scandalous icon: david bowie - an analysis

“I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human.” - David Bowie

Spoken like a person with such power-hungry and ambitious signs such as a Capricorn sun and Leo moon. He was the self-described “tasteful thief” who appropriated from and influenced glam rock, soul, disco, new wave, punk rock and haute couture, and whose edgy alter egos invited fans to explore their own dark places. He was a person of relentless movement. He was an innovative, visionary, restless artist. His theatrical flare, creativity, sexual ambiguity, and incredible music kept the public endlessly interested. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Rolling Stone ranked him among the greatest artists in history. As of 2022, he was the best-selling vinyl artist of the 21st century. With his sylphlike body, chalk-white skin, jagged teeth and eyes that appeared to be two different colors, Mr. Bowie combined sexual energy with fluid dance moves and a theatrical charisma that mesmerized male and female admirers alike. He was complex, an explorer of human impulses that could not be quantified. He was the infinitely changeable, fiercely forward-looking songwriter who taught generations of musicians about the power of reinvention. Throughout his career, he reinvented not just his sound but his persona over and over again; his best known persona was the flamboyant, androgynous, orange-haired glam rock alien alter ego Ziggy Stardust.

Beginning life as a dissident folk-rock spaceman, his ascent was measured rather than rapid, but once his album Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars got their claws into the British rock scene, he soared like a supernova, going on to sell over 150 million albums, receive countless accolades, and become a beacon of light for those embracing their sexuality (not least of all those in the LGBT community). He went on to embrace other personas after the demise of the band: a well-dressed, blue-eyed soul singer, a Nazi and fascist-influenced European (the Thin White Duke), a drug-loving art rocker (the Berlin trilogy), a new-wave hit-maker, a hard rocker, a techno enthusiast and a jazz impressionist. His ever-changing, outrageous personae served to mask the painful shyness and insecurity of his younger years. His flair for theatricality won him a legion of fans. His fickleness cost him relationships, friendships and professional partnerships, could be jarring. Members of the Spiders From Mars, his band during his glitter-rock Ziggy Stardust years, learned that they were being fired when he announced it onstage at the end of a 1973 tour. Through it all, David Bowie has definitely always been his own special creation. And it all began for him so long ago when he was just a kid in South London, where he began the journey that, by dint of his genius, his persistence, and his sheer hard work, would transform him into a global icon whose name, image, music, and artistry would endure forever.

David Bowie, according to astrotheme, was a Capricorn sun and Leo moon. He was born David Robert Jones in South London, Brixton, England. His father, Haywood Stenton Jones, belonged to a well-off family who were partners in the Public Benefit Boot Company; his mother, Margaret Mary "Peggy" Jones worked as a waitress at a cinema. The mother of three illegitimate children (including David) at a time when a girl could have been ostracized by society for having even one, Peggy was never afraid to dance to a different drummer. The only child his parents had together, David was born left-handed, which in 1950s England was considered a disgrace, an aberration that had to be corrected at all costs. His schoolmates yelled that he was “the devil,” simply because he wrote with his left hand. Worse still, “the teacher used to smack my hand to try and make me right-handed,” he said. He showed an interest in music from an early age and began playing the saxophone at age 13. He was greatly influenced by his half-brother Terry, who was nine years older and exposed the young Jones to the worlds of rock music and beat literature. Terry was diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized when David was a young man. David suffered another blow, this one quite literal, in a teenage brawl over a girl that caused his left pupil to be permanently dilated.

He attended a high school that would prepare him for a career as a commercial artist. After a few lessons on a plastic saxophone purchased on a payment plan, he began playing in local bands, finding that he liked singing and the female adulation that came with it. To avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees, he renamed himself after 19th-century American frontiersman Jim Bowie and the hunting knife associated with him. Fascinated by musical theater, David joined a mime troupe led by the dancer (and, briefly, his lover) Lindsay Kemp. By 20, he had spent time at a Buddhist monastery in Scotland and dabbled in theatrical troupes. Bowie met Angela Barnett in April 1969. They married within a year. Her impact on him was immediate, and her involvement in his career far-reaching. With 1969’s Space Oddity, whose dramatic title track told the story of ill-fated astronaut Major Tom, he had a hit. On the following year’s The Man Who Sold the World, he experimented with psychedelia, and in 1971, he fused pop-rock with art pretense and experimentalism with Hunky Dory, his first significant album. Angela and David had a son born during the recording of Hunky Dory, Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones.

After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with his flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of Bowie's single "Starman" and album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which won him widespread popularity. In 1975, Bowie's style shifted towards a sound he characterized as "plastic soul", initially alienating many of his UK fans but garnering him his first major US crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the album Young Americans. Extensive cocaine use made him jittery and paranoid, even as it enabled him to be creatively prolific. In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. Seeking calm and anonymity, Bowie spent much of the late 1970s in West Berlin, where he again changed direction with the electronic-inflected album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that came to be known as the "Berlin Trilogy". "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise. These experimentations with ambient sound presaged the synthesizer-heavy music of the 1980s.

After nine years of marriage, Angie and David Bowie separated, and they divorced on February 8, 1980 in Switzerland. In the divorce settlement, she received £500,000, paid in installments, and a 10-year gagging clause. Not wanting to fight over custody, she left their son with David. Returning to live in New York City, Bowie began expanding his range as an actor. He played the lead in a stage production of "The Elephant Man", for which he received critical praise. Bowie regularly released albums through the 1980s and 1990s, although none approached the success of his previous output. He fell in love with Somalian supermodel Iman Abdulmajid, whom he married in 1992 and with whom he had a daughter, Alexandria Zahra Jones, in 2000. After suffering a heart attack backstage during a tour in 2004, he stopped producing albums or touring for nearly a decade, devoting himself to family life. In 2013, Bowie returned from a decade-long recording hiatus with The Next Day. He remained musically active until his death from liver cancer at his home in New York City. He died two days after both his 69th birthday and the release of his final album, Blackstar (2016).

This is a special birthday analysis for David Bowie. Happy birthday, you Capricorn god.

Stats

birthdate: January 8, 1947

major planets:

Sun: Capricorn

Moon: Leo

Rising: Aquarius

Mercury: Capricorn

Venus: Sagittarius

Mars: Capricorn

Midheaven: Sagittarius

Jupiter: Scorpio

Saturn: Leo

Uranus: Gemini

Neptune: Libra

Pluto: Leo

Overall personality snapshot: Deeply serious yet poetically playful, he may have been torn between the self-imposed responsibilities of his career and social ambitions, and his desire to make a splash and have fun. Both proud and humble, at times he couldn’t decide whether he was the greatest or the most inadequate person he knew. When he got his industrious and playful elements working together, however, the world had better watch out, for in his own steady yet compelling way he could be the embodiment of purposeful ambition. No matter what his job was, he was a born professional. With expertly designed flair, he wanted to shine for himself and to achieve for the world. His reputation mattered a lot to him, and when he knows he has earned his praise he savours it like nobody else. He didn’t really mean to be a snob, but he had a way of nonchalantly lording it over people. This is because his belief in herself and in what he felt he must do was so intense. As a man born with this combination he found his way to the top of his chosen mountain. His was a pairing of sunny high-summer and serious mid-winter, an adventurous, gutsy mix of tough-willed, dedicated service carried out with zest and pizzazz.

He had the charisma of a star yet he worked dutifully behind the scenes, laying the foundations and preparing the party. Then on the day, he made the perfect host or hostess, carrying out his duties with total self-possession and real style. An air of authority and immense professionalism surrounded all his endeavours. He would do whatever was necessary, no matter how hard, to produce a polished performance and a superb result. With a strong social conscience, a real sense of noblesse oblige and a desire to make the world a better place, he was drawn to politics or fund-raising; good works and charities flourished on his enthusiasm and dedication. Whatever he did, he was likely to end up being put in charge, which was just as well, for subordinate positions were not really his scene. At times when the sun was shining he may have protested at having work piled upon him, yet let anyone deprive him of his load and he would feel not only hurt but somehow lost and guilty. Not all his work was totally altruistic. There could be something of the gold-digger in him, constantly alert for opportunities, yet he didn’t expect any free lunches, even if he did enjoy getting the best for the least. He was someone who, to quote her fellow Capricorn/Leo, Jack London, ‘will settle for good pay, good grub and hard work rather than poor pay, poor grub and easy work’. He had pride and confidence in his own achievements and, yes, he thought he could try harder, but in the end, he didn't do so badly, really, did he?

He was tall and slim with good bone structure and clear, open and refined features. His eyes were extraordinary, helping to give him an electric or magnetic aura. His distinguishing feature was his hair, which was always chicly styled, whether long or short. His thought processes were methodical and on the conservative side. He was ambitious and shrewd, serious, practical and prudent, although he could also be narrow-minded, lacking in humour and too concerned with material status. His mind was rational, cool and calculating, and his memory and logic were very good. The Sagittarian qualities that he brought to his career were those of vision, energy, enthusiasm and an ability to organize others. He needed recognition, room to maneuver and a fair degree of authority. He sought meaning and fulfillment in his life through career status and recognition. When dealing with colleagues, he could place strong demands on them. He had boundless enthusiasm and big ideas coupled with high expectations of succeeding. He was also self-sufficient and broad-minded. His genuine pioneering spirit, positive outlook and large-scale personal ambitions led him right to the top. When dealing with colleagues, he could place strong demands on them. He could be an intensely emotional person with extremely strong physical desires. He tended to see himself as a desirable person to the opposite sex. He needed to be loved, but he could also be extremely suspicious of other people and their motives. He acted very cautiously until he was sure of situations and how other people felt. His perseverance was strong, but he needed to learn moderation and not to over-rate his abilities or capacity for doing things. He was interested in foreign names and places, and by anything mysterious.He was a reliable and loyal person. His will and sense of honour were strong and he was a great organizer. On the downside, his self-assuredness could become dogmatism and imperiousness. Conservatism may have affected his creativity, artistic values and love affairs. This expressed itself as self-imposed restrictions or as selfishness. He often felt inadequate, which created an insidious form of oppression over all his forms of expression. He could also take herself so seriously, that people think that he was older than his years.

He was part of a generation that was strongly interested in humanitarian ideals, new avenues of communication and progress in mechanical skills. As a member of this generation, he was able to bring original ideas to both his career and spare-time interests. Crises in thought and ideology arose because he looked beyond tradition and old attitudes towards new original and inventive ways of looking at things, such as music and sexuality. His active mind tended to need constant stimulation and his tastes could be quite fickle and difficult to satisfy. He belonged to a time of peace-loving idealism when the family unit and the way relationships were managed underwent great changes. He could be too idealistic and a little unrealistic when it came to matters of love, sex and romance. As a member of this generation, he needed to be motivated to make the most of his potential, because the line of least resistance appeared very attractive, especially when it involved pleasure-seeking. He embodied the Libra Neptune generation in the sense that he was a huge part of a time when beauty reappeared in fashion. He was part of a generation which was highlighted by the clash between authoritarianism and individualism. As a member of the Leo Plutonian generation, he wanted freedom in his relationships and demanded the loyalty of his friends as a right. As a member of this generation, he wanted power over his own life and was prepared to challenge established structures. He didn’t feel comfortable being dictated to, unless he in some way agreed to it beforehand. He was a part of excesses of the sixties and seventies. He was part of a generation that brought about a revolution in forms of entertainment, recreational activities and leisure time, as well as attitudes towards children. David’s sexual adventures—some partly cocaine-fueled, all ignited by his unbridled appetites and his propensity to cast a wide net, coupled with his unlimited opportunities—typified his generation’s newfound ability to live out their wildness.

Love/sex life: He was the most impulsive lover of this type and the one most likely to forget practicality and follow his instincts. This spontaneity, when combined with his strong physical drives, made him a tremendously exciting, adventurous and unpredictable sex partner. It also got him into more than his share of trouble. But acting in haste and repenting in leisure was not a problem for him. Like all Mars in Capricorn lovers, he rather liked repenting. What was lacking in his sexual nature was subtlety. He pursued his desire with such directness and determination that he could appear inconsiderate and crude and he didn’t control his relationships as much as he bullied people into seeing things his way. The good new is that he was so affectionate and generous a lover that he was easily forgiven his sins. The bad news is that this quick forgiveness only made him more likely to commit the same offense again and again (more on this in my David Bowie sexuality post on my members-only website).

minor asteroids and points:

North Node: Gemini

Lilith: Capricorn

Vertex: Virgo

Fortune: Leo

East Point: Aquarius

His North Node in Gemini dictated that he needed to prevent his idealism from influencing his thoughts to such a high degree. He needed to consciously develop a more clear-minded and analytical approach involving his thought processes. His Lilith in Capricorn ensured that he was dangerously attracted to women who had a scrappy plucky attitude hot-wired into their psyche. He liked a woman who needed to be in control and to be mistress of her own destiny, because her life was in the control of not-so-well-meaning others as a child. Her Vertex in Virgo, 7th house dictated that he wanted a union which would take one to ultimate salvation or spiritual initiation, based on a shared ideal of dedication and service. There was a fantasy of joining with someone who had unique psychic and/or healing powers and the focus is on the practical work which will make everything all right. He was always in a partnership of one kind or another (if only in his head), desperately seeking one, or decided that it wasn’t worth the risk since his expectations would never be met. There was a sense that he wasn’t really complete unless he was intimately involved with someone. On some levels there was an irrational fear of ending up alone. The dark side was that he could get highly self-righteous about acceptable modes of behaviour in interacting with others and thereby alienate the very people he longed for. His parental role model was less than secure in his subconscious perceptions, though it may have seemed fine on an external level.

His Part of Fortune in Leo and Part of Spirit in Aquarius dictated that his destiny led him to a prominent position in life as a leader of some sort. Fame and prestige brought him success and material rewards. Success came to him when he stepped forward into the spotlight. His soul’s purpose asked him to embrace unique and unconventional life experiences. He felt spiritual connections and the spark of the divine when there was a humanitarian benefit to his efforts. East Point in Aquarius dictated that he was more likely to identify with his uniqueness, his individuality and his feelings for justice and fair play. He may have enjoyed shocking others occasionally with unconventional behaviour, designed to prove that all rules can be broken. He may have been very unique and inventive or simply eccentric and strange. He may have been rebellious in a number of areas. He was likely to identify with his mind; he may have been a great rationalizer—able to intellectualize everything.

elemental dominance:

fire

earth

He was dynamic and passionate, with strong leadership ability. He generated enormous warmth and vibrancy. He was exciting to be around, because he was genuinely enthusiastic and usually friendly. However, he could either be harnessed into helpful energy or flame up and cause destruction. Confident and opinionated, he was fond of declarative statements such as “I will do this” or “It’s this way.” When out of control—usually because he was bored, or hadn’t been acknowledged—he was bossy, demanding, and even tyrannical. But at his best, his confidence and vision inspired others to conquer new territory in the world, in society, and in themselves. He was a practical, reliable man and could provide structure and protection. He was oriented toward practical experience and thought in terms of doing rather than thinking, feeling, or imagining. Could be materialistic, unimaginative, and resistant to change. But at his best, he provided the practical resources, analysis, and leadership to make dreams come true.

modality dominance:

fixed

He liked the challenge of managing existing routines with ever more efficiency, rather than starting new enterprises or finding new ways of doing things. He likely had trouble delegating duties and had a very hard time seeing other points of view; he tried to implement the human need to create stability and order in the wake of change.          

house dominants:

7th

12th

10th

His attitude towards partnerships with other people was emphasized in hid life, whether on a personal or on a business level. It also revealed his marriage partner. It indicated how he dealt with other people and how his relationships with others affected him. Also had the propensity to attract enemies, and the effect that they had on his life was an issue. He had great interest in the unconscious, and indulged in a lot of hidden and secret affairs. His life was defined by seclusion and escapism. He had a certain mysticism and hidden sensitivity, as well as an intense need for privacy. His ambition in relation to the outside world, the identity he wished to achieve in regard to the community at large, and his career aspirations were all themes that were emphasized throughout his life. All matters outside the home, his public image and reputation were very important to his. His attitude to people in authority, and how he viewed the outside world, as well as the influence of his mother and his own attitude to her was highlighted.

planet dominants:

Venus

Moon

Sun

He was romantic, attractive and valued beauty, had an artistic instinct, and was sociable. He had an easy ability to create close personal relationships, for better or worse, and to form business partnerships. He was defined by his inner world; by his emotional reactions to situations, how emotions flowed through him, motivating and compelling him—or limiting him and holding him back. He held great capacity to become a part of the whole rather than attempting to master the parts. He wanted to become whatever it is that he sought. He had vitality and creativity, as well as a strong ego and was authoritarian and powerful. He likely had strong leadership qualities, he definitely knew who he was, and he had tremendous will. He met challenges and believed in expanding his life.

sign dominants:

Leo

Capricorn

Sagittarius

He loved being the center of attention and often surrounded herself with admirers. He had an innate dramatic sense, and life was definitely his stage. His flamboyance and personal magnetism extended to every facet of her life. He wanted to succeed and make an impact in every situation. As a Leo dominant, he was, at his best, optimistic, honorable, loyal, and ambitious. He was a serious-minded person who often seemed aloof and tightly in control of his emotions and his personal domain. Even as a youngster, there was a mature air about him, as if he was born with a profound core that few outsiders ever see. He was easily impressed by outward signs of success, but was interested less in money than in the power that money represents. He was a true worker—industrious, efficient, and disciplined. His innate common sense gave his the ability to plan ahead and to work out practical ways of approaching goals. More often than not, he succeeded at whatever he set out to do. He possessed a quiet dignity that was unmistakable. He sought the truth, expressed it as he saw it—and didn’t care if anyone else agreed with him. He saw the large picture of any issue and couldn’t be bothered with the mundane details. He was always outspoken and likely couldn’t understand why other people weren’t as candid. After all, what was there to hide?

Read more about him under the cut.

David Bowie was one of the most influential and prolific writers and performers of popular music, but he was much more than that; he was also an accomplished actor, a mime and an intellectual, as well as an art lover whose appreciation and knowledge of it had led to him amassing one of the biggest collections of 20th century art.

Born David Jones, he changed his name to Bowie in the 1960s, to avoid confusion with the then well-known Davy Jones (lead singer of The Monkees). The 1960s were not a happy period for Bowie, who remained a struggling artist, awaiting his breakthrough. He dabbled in many different styles of music (without commercial success), and other art forms such as acting, mime, painting, and play-writing. He finally achieved his commercial breakthrough in 1969 with the song "Space Oddity", which was released at the time of the moon landing. Despite the fact that the literal meaning of the lyrics relates to an astronaut who is lost in space, this song was used by the BBC in their coverage of the moon landing, and this helped it become such a success. The album, which followed "Space Oddity", and the two, which followed (one of which included the song "The Man Who Sold The World", covered by Lulu and Nirvana) failed to produce another hit single, and Bowie's career appeared to be in decline.

However, he made the first of many successful "comebacks" in 1972 with "Ziggy Stardust", a concept album about a space-age rock star. This album was followed by others in a similar vein, rock albums built around a central character and concerned with futuristic themes of Armageddon, gender dysfunction/confusion, as well as more contemporary themes such as the destructiveness of success and fame, and the dangers inherent in star worship. In the mid-1970s, Bowie was a heavy cocaine abuser and sometime heroin user.

In 1975, he changed tack. Musically, he released "Young Americans", a soul (or plastic soul as he later referred to it) album. This produced his first number one hit in the US, "Fame". He also appeared in his first major film, The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). With a permanently-dilated pupil and skeletal frame, he certainly looked the part of an alien. The following year, he released "Station to Station," containing some of the material he had written for the soundtrack to this film (which was not used). As his drug problem heightened, his behavior became more erratic. Reports of his insanity started to appear, and he continued to waste away physically. He fled back to Europe, finally settling in Berlin, where he changed musical direction again and recorded three of the most influential albums of all time, an electronic trilogy with Brian Eno "Low, Heroes and Lodger". Towards the end of the 1970s, he finally kicked his drug habit, and recorded the album many of his fans consider his best, the Japanese-influenced "Scary Monsters". Around this time, he appeared in the title role of the Broadway drama The Elephant Man, and to considerable acclaim.

The next few years saw something of a drop-off in his musical output as his acting career flourished, culminating in his acclaimed performance in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983). In 1983, he released "Let's Dance," an album which proved an unexpected massive commercial success, and produced his second #1 hit single in the United States. According to producer Nile Rodgers, the album was made in just 17 days and was "the easiest album" he'd ever made in his life. The tour which followed, "Serious Moonlight", was his most successful ever. Faced with this success on a massive scale, Bowie apparently attempted to "repeat the formula" in the next two albums, with less success (and to critical scorn). Finally, in the late 1980s, he turned his back on commercial success and his solo career, forming the hard rock band, Tin Machine, who had a deliberate limited appeal. By now, his acting career was in decline. After the comparative failure of Labyrinth (1986), the movie industry appears to have decided that Bowie was not a sufficient name to be a lead actor in a major movie, and since that date, most of his roles have been cameos or glorified cameos. Tin Machine toured extensively and released two albums, with little critical or commercial success.

In 1992, Bowie again changed direction and re-launched his solo career with "Black Tie White Noise", a wedding album inspired by his recent marriage to Iman. He released three albums to considerable critical acclaim and reasonable commercial success. In 1995, he renewed his working relationship with Brian Eno to record "Outside." After an initial hostile reaction from the critics, this album has now taken its place with his classic albums. In 2003, Bowie released an album entitled 'Reality.' The Reality Tour began in November 2003 and, after great commercial success, was extended into July 2004. In June 2004, Bowie suffered a heart attack and the tour did not finish its scheduled run.

After recovering, Bowie gave what turned out to be his final live performance in a three-song set with Alicia Keys at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York in November 2006. He also returned to acting. He played Tesla in The Prestige (2006) and had a small cameo in the comedy Extras: David Bowie (2006) for fan Ricky Gervais. In 2007, he did a cartoon voice in SpongeBob SquarePants (1999) playing Lord Royal Highness. He had a brief cameo in the movie ''Bandslam'' released in 2009; after a ten year hiatus from recording, he released a new album called 'The Next Day', featuring a homage cover to his earlier work ''Heroes''. The music video of ''Stars are Out Tonight'' premiered on 25 February 2013. It consists of other songs like ''Where Are We Now?", "Valentine's Day", "Love is Lost", "The Next Day", etc.

In 2014, Bowie won British Male Solo Artist at the 2014 Brit Awards, 30 years since last winning it, and became the oldest ever Brit winner. Bowie wrote and recorded the opening title song to the television miniseries The Last Panthers (2015), which aired in November 2015. The theme used for The Last Panthers (2015) was also the title track for his January 2016 release, ''Blackstar" (released on 8 January 2016, Bowie's 69th birthday) was met with critical acclaim. Following Bowie's death two days later, on 10 January 2016, producer Tony Visconti revealed Bowie had planned the album to be his swan song, and a "parting gift" for his fans before his death. An EP, No Plan, was released on 8 January 2017, which would have been Bowie's 70th birthday. The day following his death, online viewing of Bowie's music skyrocketed, breaking the record for Vevo's most viewed artist in a single day.

On 15 January, "Blackstar" debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart; nineteen of his albums were in the UK Top 100 Albums Chart, and thirteen singles were in the UK Top 100 Singles Chart. The song also debuted at #1 on album charts around the world, including Australia, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand and the US Billboard 200. At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, Bowie won all five nominated awards: Best Rock Performance; Best Alternative Music Album; Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical; Best Recording Package; and Best Rock Song. The wins marked Bowie's first ever in musical categories. David Bowie influenced the course of popular music several times and had an effect on several generations of musicians. (x)

[randomvarious]

1995 London Playlist (YouTube)

Alright, so I now have London playlists for the years of 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999, so it's only right that I complete this whole sequence and give you all something for 1995 too 😊. And just like the rest of these city-year playlists that I've been making, this one is also by no means a comprehensive or authoritative look at what this particular year was like for the most musically diverse metropolis in the world; but what it is instead is a totally unique and scattershot mix of a bunch of obscure and underground London-made gems from 1995 that I've come across over the years from collecting various artist comps and DJ mixes. And no city on this planet is more eclectic than London itself, thanks in large part to both its independent and mainstream open-arms embrace of electronic music writ large.

So that's what this playlist is mostly comprised of. We have a few breakbeat tunes from the likes of Tim 'Love' Lee—who founded the Tummy Touch label, which put out the terrific Groove Armada's first two albums in the late 90s—Asian underground group Loop Guru, whose "Diwana," aka "Olwana," is a fantastic piece of psychedelic Eastern spiritualism, and "The Man With Three Heads," by Fluid, aka Dominic Glynn, who is way more known for being a bigtime film and TV composer, and whose music from that realm you're guaranteed to have heard before. Then there's a couple awesome acid jazz cuts from D*Note and Incognito, with Incognito's offering, "Jacob's Ladder," being remixed by probably the greatest New York house duo of all time, Masters at Work; a nice and rare house remix by Dimitri From Paris of Bjork's "Isobel" (Bjork was living in London when she recorded that song); a piece of drum n bass by the prolific T Power and his frequent partner Shy FX; and a very difficult-to-categorize song by System 7 called "Civilization," which was mixed by Detroit techno legend Carl Craig and is probably best described as goa trance meeting electro-flavored Detroit techno 😮.

And speaking of things that can't be categorized—check out this segue, folks—to close things out, we also have a boom bap jazz-rap tune from fleeting South London duo 499, whose "Don't Categorise Me" sounds like something that could've been produced by the legendary Pete Rock himself 😌. Oh, and right before that is something light and goofy from two-tone ska lifer King Hammond, who's been in two of the genre's most famous bands, The Selecter and Bad Manners.

This playlist is ordered as chronologically as possible:

Tim 'Love' Lee - "One Word" D*Note - "The Garden Of Earthly Delights (Ballistic Barrio Boom)" Bjork - "Isobel (Dim's Enchanted Forest)" Loop Guru - "Olwana" Incognito - "Jacob's Ladder (Masters At Work Yorican Mix)" T Power - "Amber (Shy FX extended version)" System 7 - "Civilization (Carl Craig Mix)" Fluid - "The Man With Three Heads" King Hammond - "Skaville UK" 499 - "Don't Categorise Me"

And this playlist is also on YouTube Music.

So with the launch of this playlist, we start with ten songs that clock in at nearly an hour. A nice blend of a bunch of different genres and styles, and you're definitely not gonna find another look back at this city and specific year that's quite like this one!

Next week we'll be going back to a decade-genre playlist that I don't think I've updated in a *very* long time 👀.

Enjoy!

More to come, eventually. Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!

[cantsayidont]

October–November 2017 and March–April 2019. TIMEWASTERS, created by costar Daniel Lawrence Taylor, is an extremely silly sci-fi comedy about a modern-day South London jazz quartet — bitter music nerd Nick (Taylor, second from left), vacuous ladies' man Jason (Kadiff Kirwan, second from right), pathologically cheerful Horace (Samson Kayo, right), and Nick's mercenary younger sister Lauren (Adelayo Adedayo, left) — who encounter a mysterious homeless man with a time machine in a filthy elevator car. This sends the quartet first to 1926 and then (in the second season) to 1958, where they stumble through assorted misadventures, grapple with the many flavors of English racism, and make their living playing jazz covers of pop songs that haven't been written yet (while calling themselves the Wu-Tang Clan!).

Often quite funny, if not always in the best of taste, TIMEWASTERS has a fun premise and a winning cast, but it's awfully scattershot, and the lack of direction means each season starts to drag in the middle even with only six episodes per series. Nick remains kind of a wet blanket throughout, even for a straight man, and although Kirwan, Kayo, and Adedayo are all wonderful comedic actors, it takes a frustratingly long time for Horace and Lauren to come into focus as characters; Jason, who's more clearly defined from the outset, eventually becomes a tad one-note, preoccupied with his multi-generational relationship with a posh white woman named Victoria (played by Liz Kingsman in the first season and Anna Chancellor in the second), who unapologetically fetishizes him. Overall, the show is entertaining fluff, but it would have benefited from tighter plotting and a greater sense of direction.

Before posting this, I had a brief glance in the "#timewasters" tag out of morbid curiosity and was dismayed, though not really surprised, to see that almost everything in that tag was about Victoria's idiot twin brother Ralph, who appears only in the first two episodes and then runs off to join the French Foreign Legion. People of color regularly remark that online fandom would fuck a fence post as long as it was white, but fixating on such an extremely minor white character in a show with four Black leads seems particularly egregious — and ironic, given how much of the comedy of TIMEWASTERS is about the idiocy of white supremacy and racism.

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday musician Michael ‘Mike’ Scott born 14th December 1958 in Edinburgh.

Scott was born and raised in Edinburgh. His father, Allan Scott, left the family when Mike was ten years old, but the two were reunited in 2007.

Scott was interested in music from an early age. At age 12, after the family had moved to Ayr, he began a serious interest in learning guitar. In 1968 he mentions listening to Hank Williams as a “life-changing” experience. The next year, Scott was playing in school bands and formed the band Karma, they were inspired by David Bowie, The Beatles and Bob Dylan.

Playing in a few bands by the time 1981 came he had started the idea of The Waterboys, he admits that he “is” The Waterboys, the lineup has changed through the years but he say that “ there’s no difference between Mike Scott and the Waterboys; they both mean the same thing. They mean myself and whoever are my current travelling musical companions.”

It’s not all about having hits with The Waterboys, Mike is a natural songwriter, as The Waterboys and Mike Scott he has released 15 albums, 4 of the singles reached the top 40.

In mid-1980s, when The Waterboys supported U2 at Wembley Arena in London, Mike Scott’s band seemed all set for the same global status as Bono and Co.

The following year, when their third album, This Is The Sea, and classic single, The Whole Of The Moon, catapulted the band’s “big music” into the Top 10 such success seemed virtually assured. But it was never what he wanted. Under pressure from his record company to produce more stadium-pleasing Waterboys tracks, he retreated to Ireland… and made a folk record. Mike has lived in the Fair city of Dublin for over 12 years and holds a dual nationality, he said in an interview last year   “ ….people have often told me I’m an honouree Irishman, but I feel Scottish. But I’m very proud to live in Ireland. And my children are Irish. So, now I’ve very deep roots here.”

Mike continues to write and tour with the Waterboys, I remember always arguing with a friend that disagreed with me that the Waterboys were (are) a Scottish group, it’s true some of the members of the group have come from Ireland and England as well as the US but Mike Scott, as I said to him and would still say to him IS The Waterboys, The Whole of the Moon is a top class song and the lyric…

“Unicorns and cannonballs, palaces and piers Trumpets, towers and tenements Wide oceans full of tears Flags, rags ferryboats Scimitars and scarves”

……could only be written by a Scotsman. The song was initially released to a limited success in 1985, it resurfaced again in 1991 and won an Ivor Novello Award as “Best Song Musically and Lyrically” that year and reached number 3. Celtic Women sing a version at their concerts, Jennifer Warnes has also covered it as well as the late great Prince at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club during his 2014 Hit & Run tour. U2 used the song as a “walk out tune” during the Joshua Tree tour.

The Waterboys released their 16th studio album last May, I’ve listened to a few of the tracks, Blackberry Girl for me is the stand out tune, Once were Brothers is a decent track too, it’s a cover of Robbie Robertson song.

The Waterboys  are set for dates next year in Portugal, Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries and Germany, before heading home with gigs at Glasgow Royal  Concert Hall on October 2nd, Edinburgh Usher Hall on the 3rd and back to Glasgow Barrowlands on the 6th, they then head south for a number of dates in England 

The song I have chosen this year was  originally from The Waterboys Too Close to Heaven album, a collection of outtakes, alternative versions, and unreleased tracks from The Waterboys' Fisherman's Blues period, released in September 2001. This version is sung in a Scottish accent, it is, in my opinion fucking brilliant. The line  You feel like you want to have your sporran refilled, just gets me.If I was to describe it, I would say it is like The Proclaimers on Acid. 

The mountain is steep The ditches are deep The task in hand Is making us weep But here's a promise (I intend to keep / That I mean to keep) Seed it in your mind And say it each night Before you sleep: We will climb higher in time (och!) You've got a head full of trouble And a ship to build (You think you won't make it But you know you will You feel you need your Cup refilled Fill it out of mine We'll drop the defenses Pool our skill / Your heart you're hiding It's making you ill You feel like you want to have your Sporran refilled Well, fill it out of mine Let the soulful water Overspill) And we will climb higher in time

I've been to the bottom I've been on the train I've slept in the gutter With my head in a drain I've been brutally proud I've been mortally shamed But this is not a crime I'm just learning, my friends That it's all in the game And we will climb higher in time (Och!) Climb higher in time Climb higher in time