This week the Prog team are paying tribute to David Bowie, who sadly died on Sunday…
EDITOR - JERRY EWING
DAVID BOWIE - STATION TO STATION
It’s quite possibly my favourite album, although in all honesty. that’s a tough one to call, and this is certainly one of the most progressive David Bowie tracks I’ve ever heard. And I felt there was a certain kinship between what he was doing back in 1976 and what we are now hearing on Blackstar. This is from the Low/‘Heroes’ or Stage tour of 1978, from Tokyo’s Budokan with a band that features Adrian Belew, Utopia’s Roger Powell and Hawkwind’s Simon House!
DEPUTY EDITOR - HANNAH MAY KILROY
DAVID BOWIE - MAGIC DANCE
My introduction to the Thin White Duke wasn’t through his flamboyant fashions or chart topping hits, but from watching him prance about in leggings alongside an army of puppets – as The Goblin King in the whimsical world of Labyrinth. While there’s plenty I could pluck from his back catalogue today and pen as favourites, it was Bowie’s role as the creepily captivating Goblin King and the delightful Magic Dance that set my younger self on a mission to discover all I could from the musical genius.
ART EDITOR - RUSSELL FAIRBROTHER
DAVID BOWIE - DRIVE IN SATURDAY
It’s early ’70’s, you have an older sibling or your best mate has, and in their album collection you find an album cover with a bloke wearing make up and/or wearing a dress. Welcome to my generation’s archetype discovery of David Bowie. Hunky Dory and Aladdin Sane were strange looking beasts and playing them the old Fidelity Music Master took you into even stranger worlds. Drive In Saturday has always been my favourite Bowie track so I’m quite please Mott The Hoople turned it down for their second single as Ian Hunter thought it too complex with a “hell of a chord rundown”. As a 12 year old, it’s title made me think of going to Saturday morning cinema at the Granada with the man playing his organ rising up through the floor, so imagine my surprise many years later when I learnt it’s a futuristic look back to a time when people used to watch porn films to learn how to ‘get it on’.
NEWS EDITOR - NATASHA SCHARF
DAVID BOWIE - ‘HEROES’
I was still mourning Lemmy’s passing when the sad news came through about David Bowie on Monday. And didn’t that announcement put an entirely different perspective on his Blackstar album? I’ve scarcely stopped listening to Bowie’s back catalogue all week so choosing just one Track Of The Week has been really tough. From Rick Wakeman’s elegant piano in Life On Mars to the full-on experimentalism of Warszawa and Station To Station, and the epic title track of Blackstar itself - there’s just so much choice. I’ve plumped for the inspirational ‘Heroes’, as recorded with Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, and later covered by a host of acts including King Crimson and Peter Gabriel. What a remarkable legacy Bowie has left us.
REVIEWS EDITOR - GRANT MOON
DAVID BOWIE - THE LAUGHING GNOME
Guess who didn’t bother sending their track in this week?
LIVES EDITOR - MALCOLM DOME
DAVID BOWIE - WIDTH OF A CIRCLE
Everything about this track is progressive. From the slightly distant vocal style, to the constantly shifting time changes and some breathtaking guitar moments from Mick Ronson, it shows Bowie’s talent for never restively keeping a song in motion.
