A fitting Tribute

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Ian posted this fitting tribute on Face Book...

https://youtu.be/KaOC9danxNo

[Olybirder]

Re: A fitting Tribute

Definitely a fitting tribute recorded in the ultimate setting.

Pop stars come and go (with increasing regularity as I get older) but I was stunned when they announced David Bowie's death on the radio this morning. They have been playing his recordings all day and the number and variety of them is extraordinary. 'Lazarus' from his recently released album 'Blackstar' has become one of my favourite tracks since I first heard it and watching the video in light of today's news is extremely powerful stuff.

RIP David Bowie.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-JqH1M4Ya8"]David Bowie - Lazarus - YouTube[/ame]

[Internaut]

Re: A fitting Tribute

The subject of many great portraits.

[Yorkie]

Re: A fitting Tribute

A great loss to the world of music.

[DerekW]

Re: A fitting Tribute

Interesting how the voices of Radio 4 were so affected today by Bowie's death, then you realise that they were of an impressionable age when Bowie was getting going ie teenagers in the 70's when music media was going full swing.

Whereas for my generation it was Richard Dimbleby as the voice of mementus events, his passing had this effect (but at a lesser volume)

[benvendetta]

Re: A fitting Tribute

The Master of Reinvention. I was a Bowie fan from 1971 and saw him in his Hunky Dory/Ziggy Stardust guise in 1972.
Can't believe he's gone. In a little over 6 months we have lost Chris Squire (Yes), Lemmy (Motorhead), and now perhaps the biggest name in popular culture of the past 60 years.
RIP David.

[Christoph]

Re: A fitting Tribute

At the risk of upsetting a few people on this forum, really , Buddy Holly, Elvis, Hendrix, Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, Nick Drake, Ian Dury, all inspirational in their own way, God forbid the day the master Bob Dylan should leave us, ps sorry I missed the wonderful mr Freddy Murcury off my list.

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: A fitting Tribute

At the risk of upsetting a few people on this forum, really , Buddy Holly, Elvis, Hendrix, Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, Nick Drake, Ian Dury, all inspirational in their own way, God forbid the day the master Bob Dylan should leave us, ps sorry I missed the wonderful mr Freddy Murcury off my list.

All of these musicians have been very influential in their own way, and I suspect their music will still be familiar in 100 years time.

Whether they have the everlasting influence of (say) JS Bach, Handel or Mozart is another matter, but of course these composers wrote and performed completely different genres of music.

[Christoph]

Re: A fitting Tribute

Sorry Freddie spelt your name wrong, have been to the pub, sincere apologies.

[Christoph]

Re: A fitting Tribute

Good point Nigel, but I can still sing along with Buddy, 57 years after he past on, but I do like Bach man turner overdrive, if I'm being facetious i apologise.

[Jim Ford]

Re: A fitting Tribute

All of these musicians have been very influential in their own way, and I suspect their music will still be familiar in 100 years time.

I very much doubt it!

Who can remember the pop sensations of the early 50s? Err - Johnny Ray, err, err? Popular music is ephemeral. Last years hits are stale this year.

Jim

[Crazy Dave]

Re: A fitting Tribute

Just around the corner from our house, lived two absolutely beautiful girls. Across their chests they wore the embroidered name of Johnny Ray, I'll never forget him for the pleasure he generated! Didn't he sing Hernando's Hideaway?

David

[Zuiko]

Re: A fitting Tribute

All of these musicians have been very influential in their own way, and I suspect their music will still be familiar in 100 years time.

Whether they have the everlasting influence of (say) JS Bach, Handel or Mozart is another matter, but of course these composers wrote and performed completely different genres of music.

That's an interesting question, but we will never know the answer! However, it occurs to me that there are relatively few classical composers still widely remembered today when you consider how long the genre has been established. There must be many classical composers from previous centuries who were popular at the time but long ago faded into obscurity.

I suspect it will be the same with the artists of today; Bowie remembered 100 years hence? Probably. Bieber? Probably not. Interestingly, in the case of my two favourite bands, I will say that Pink Floyd will almost certainly be remembered into the next century and beyond but Yes, probably not. That's no reflection upon the individual or collective musical skills of the latter, in fact Yes are probably superior to the Floyd in many ways, but Yes remained relatively obscure outside the progressive rock genre whereas Floyd gained more general and widespread recognition. As with Bowie, I heard about the sad death of Richard Wright either on the day or day after it happened. It shocked me to the core when I learned about the death of Chris Squire (extremely talented bass guitarist and founder member of Yes) about 6 months after it happened. How could one of my music heroes slip away like that without me even noticing? I guess the band have never gained the recognition they deserve outside of their discerning fan base and talent, innovation and creativity are not enough to ensure that your name, at least, will remain immortal.

Earlier in this post I wonder how many really talented classical composers have faded into undeserved obscurity over the centuries. Maybe not as many as I think, because they have the advantage of their music being performed by many orchestras etc, whereas today's bands tend to just play their own material. The exceptions are the burgeoning tribute bands that help perpetuate many of the older pop songs and bands like the Beatles, whose hits are regularly covered by other artists. I recently heard that "Yesterday" is the most covered pop song of all time, with literally thousands of performances.

Widely covered too is the work of the Bee Gees. You probably know far more pop standards composed by the Gibb brothers than you realise! Performers as diverse as Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, Backstreet Boys, Steps and Acker Bilk amongst many others have all enjoyed massive hits with Bee Gees compositions.

Advantages that modern musicians have over performers of all genres in the past are audio recordings, which have improved exponentially in quality since the early days of 78s and video, both of which are easily archived for future generations to enjoy.

So the question of whether classical or pop music has the greatest longevity remains unanswered, but we are fortunate to be amongst the first generations able to freely access and appreciate both genres. I am confident that this will continue well into the future and 100 years hence our descendants will be able to enjoy either Beethoven or Bowie, but maybe not Bieber!

[Phill D]

Re: A fitting Tribute

Sad about Bowie but until I read this thread I didn't know about Chris Squire either John - as a Yes fan myself it's not a happy day. One of my regrets is I never got to see them live. Had an opportunity once but for some reason I can't now remember ended up not going

[drmarkf]

Re: A fitting Tribute

I saw Yes a couple of times back in the 1970s, but certainly regret never seeing Bowie.

On the other hand, I did see Chris Hatfield at the Eventim Apollo in the Brian Cox/Robin Ince show just before Christmas!

Putting aside his modest musical skills, he's a genuine All-Canadian hero and excellent science advocate and educator.