That Pat Robertson video in the last post was just too ghastly. Right now, the sun is shining and I just finished my very last lecture of the semester, so here’s something to celebrate with: two of the coolest people in the world, David Bowie and Annie Lennox. It’ll cheer you right up!
Right now, I think I need to take a walk in the sunshine.
And singing one of the best songs ever, at that.
Nice. Very nice.
Why the hell is it that cool songs like this never adhere unbidden, in my head. It’s always got to be the macarena or something else to make me want to reach for a knitting needle and swizzle stick my brains?
“the sun is shining and I just finished my very last lecture of the semester”
I’m glad for you. I still have another month of classes to teach, since I am but a lowly high school biology teacher.
Damn. The goosebumps fouled up my punctuation. Got the “?” and “.” transposed.
Oddly enough, I skipped Pat Robertson completely
and went right to Lennox and Bowie. Now that I’ve
picked myself up off the floor, let me just say that
those two really make me believe in gods! Wow.
At the risk of revealing my whipersnapperhood, who tf is annie lennox?
To further the shame I thought ‘Vanilla Ice’ instead of ‘Underpressure’ for an instant.
With a coolest guitarist, IMHO.
By the way, did you hear about Francis Collins’ new discovery ?
Annie Lennox is a woman !!!
This just in from Mass Equality:
Free Knight: Sometimes it’s better to just hit Wikipedia. (Either that or just decide that if it really mattered you would already know.)
Oh. My. God.
Kids today.
*sigh*
Love Annie Lennox, but is the name “Eurythmics” just for fun/maybe tongue in cheek, or because she and/or Dave Stewart were genuinely into woo-merchant extrodinaire, Rudolf Steiner? Hm, maybe the internet knows…
Primo Lennox: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl1UvbGkQAs
Aw, and Brian May! Yay! Free Knight, he was the guitarist for a band called Queen. They had a hit you might know called “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
/sorry..
The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert is seriously one of the best things ever.
You! Off my lawn! Now!
**pulls pants to armpits**
Thank you.
whitebird:
You mean Brian Harold May Ph.D. CBE, degreed astrophysicist? Having seen Queen in concert a couple times back in the day, I think the fact that May is an honest-to-FSM scientist is the coolest.thing.evarrrrr!!
Good thing she’s wearing that makeup so the folks 300 yards away can see it real good.
I hate stadium concerts, don’t understand the point.
Saw Bowie in ’87 at Veterans Stadium and was in the 20th row, and I ended up watching the whole thing from the gargantuan TV stage left, and thought the whole time…why did I pay for this…would have looked and sounded better if got it on VHS and watched it at home.
Saw Pink Floyd in ’90 or ’91 at the Vet, and couldn’t stand the crowd in my 4th row seats, so I found a little empty patch in the outfield where nobody was bothering me and I wasn’t bothering anybody. Cops told me to sit down. So I left. Last time I ever went to the Vet except to see the Phillies.
Maybe I just hate people. Cranky old man.
Oh Annie Lennox, the wee lassie from Aberdeen, I’d forgotten what a stunning voice that woman has; and of course Bowie excellent as always but it’s Annie for me every time.
At 1:04, is that Ben Kingsley on bass?
Rock on, Ghandi!
Thanks much – needed that. Lennox and Stewart made some great music.
OT – So …what did PZ do about the car issue?? He did not want for advice.
Mega-impressive performance, especially by Lennox. She takes on an iconic Bowie song, does amazing background vocal effects with her voice, and puts in some powerful leads without stepping on or crowding out Bowie himself. Singing with another person is not as easy as she makes it look.
Annie’s ok so long as I don’t have to look at her. What a trainwreck.
PhD in astrophysics. And at Imperial – not bad at all!
Cheers for the video. It was just what I needed today. Gotta love Annie Lennox. She’s amazing!
For Minnesota Bowie fans – May 22 brings the always awesome and all Bowie tribute show – Rock For Pussy. Proceeds go to Minnesota Valley Humane Society.
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on.
Free Knight – you should be ashamed… ;-)
But seriously – please tell me that you did not believe that Vanilla Lice came up with that “song” he did? He ripped off this one, originally done by Queen and Bowie.
To find out how good Annie Lennox is, go to YouTube and look for her videos, as well as Eurythmics videos. You will not be wasting your time.
But outside of your Vanilla Lice foible, don’t be ashamed. My older siblings are still harassing me for not knowing some of the singers from the 50’s.
And my link is messed up – once again – Rock For Pussy
I’m nowhere near MN, but I desperately want the t-shirt from this event!
Thanks for that! Annie Lennox does well filling in for Freddie Mercury. But damn I miss Freddie!
Thanks, PZ. I’m a long-time reader, and this managed to drag me out of lurker-dom.
Bohemian Rhapsody with Elton John and Axl Rose:
The well spring of my shame now is that, if not for Wayne’s World I don’t know if I’d have ever heard of this song.
*Hangs head, and shambles away.*
I guess Dr. Brian May cant’t qualify as “cool” since he’s on of those astronomers?
Best day brightener ever. Goose bumps and foggy eyes.
Wait a second. Those guys stole Vanilla Ice’s music!
SplendidMonkey:
Is that a remix of “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend?”
Thank you for the awesome clip, except for the fact that Lennox and Bowie are clearly also of Belial. You won’t be damning my soul today, thank you very much, you weirdly philosophically incongruous atheist/Satan worshiper.
… one of those …
Ms Lennox looks way more together in the performance than she did in the rehearsals. She kept giggling and blushing and looking flustered and sneaking glances at Bowie. It made me wonder if they’d been doing the nasty or if she just wanted to.
Gail Ann Dorsey (Bowie’s bassist for the last while) did Freddy Mercury’s part every time I saw Bowie on his last few tours, and also does a fantastic job.
Sigh. Who knows if he’ll record or tour again. I haven’t heard anything, but I’ve been out of the loop recently.
Absolutely superb! I have the Freddie Mercury Memorial Concert (or whatever it was called) on a VCR tape somewhere. Must find tape (must find VCR as well, actually). One thing I remember thinking is how few of the guest artists (except these two and maybe George Michael of all people) were able to match Freddie’s voice. What a great loss he was. It’s sad to think that if he had lived a few more years (until the highly effective antiretroviral drugs became available) he might still be with us now.
“As I can see it, I am the only alternative for the premier in Britain. I believe Britain could benefit from a fascist leader. After all, fascism is really nationalism”.
I’m closer to the Golden Dawn
Immersed in Crowley’s uniform
Of imagery
I’m living in a silent film
Portraying Himmler’s sacred realm
Of dream reality
I’m the twisted name on Garbo’s eyes
Living proof of Churchill’s lies
I’m destiny
I’m not a prophet or a stone age man
Just a mortal with the potential of a superman
“And, yes, I believe very strongly in fascism. The only way we can speed up the sort of liberalism that’s hanging foul in the air at the moment is to speed up the progress of a right-wing, totally dictatorial tyranny and get it over as fast as possible. People have always responded with greater efficiency under a regimental leadership. A liberal wastes time saying, ‘Well, now, what ideas have you got?’ Show them what to do, for God’s sake. If you don’t, nothing will get done. I can’t stand people just hanging about. … Rock stars are fascists, too. Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars. … Look at some of his films and see how he moved. I think he was quite as good as Jagger. It’s astounding. And, boy, when he hit that stage, he worked an audience. Good God! He was no politician. He was a media artist himself. He used politics and theatrics and created this thing that governed and controlled the show for those 12 years. The world will never see his like. He staged a country.”
Look at your children
See their faces in golden rays
Don’t kid yourself they belong to you
They’re the start of a coming race
Let me make it plain
You gotta make way for the homo superior
“There will be a political figure in the not too distant future who’ll sweep this part of the world like early rock ‘n’ roll did. You probably hope I’m not right. But I am. My predictions are very accurate. Always.”
Coolest people? That dad dance Bowie’s doing at 2.00 is a lot of things, but cool is not one of them.
Mike, the one thing Bowie’s never been able to do is Dance. He was doing a dad dance when he was 20.
I have no idea why I capitalized “dance,” for the record. Gosh.
Another instance of them doing the same song, but without the makeup
Piltdown: Well, to be fair, those statements came during the mid 70’s when he was coked out of his skull. He was already distancing himself from both the drugs and his previous statements by the early 80s.
*swoons* Two of the coolest people indeed.
Thanks for the video, PZ.
Jeff, that’s the one I’m talking about.
She gets quite…flustered and grinny a couple of times. (although that could be just because he’s eyeing her at the time. I’d be flustered too.)
Strange, isn’t it. Reached No 1 in UK but only 29 in US. We’ve been enjoying it for 28 years. Glad you are enjoying it now!
#32
No, Dr Brian May really IS cool – he’s an astrophysicist, not an astronomer.
I like better the original by Vanilla Ice. Is that Brian May, the astrophysicist? He sucks at playing the guitar, talk about keeping your day job!
Ah, the memories. Somewhat scary that I recognised the song and the event from the youtube still before I had even read the rext. *sigh* Had the whole thing on VHS and watched it ’till the tape was so worn that the audio track became unbearable. I discovered Queen during winter 90-91, and absolutely fell in love with their music. Then, in November Freddie died. :(
You were supposed to be immortal.
That’s all they wanted,
Not much to ask for…
The only band whose fan I ever would have even considered calling myself, and the lead singer shuffles off his mortal coil in less than a year… *sigh* indeed.
Fantastic choice, PZ. I never really got into Annie too much, but Bowie has always been a favorite. One of the greatest concerts I’ve been to was on his Sound + Vision tour. No astrophysicist on guitar then, but Zappa/King Crimson alumnus Adrian Belew ain’t too shabby.
Miss ya, Freddie.
LOL! No, no, no. But if it looks like Kingsley, it’s gotta be the Ace of Bass and Chapman Stick, Mr. Tony Levin! Levin played on albums as diverse as Lennon’s Double Fantasy and King Crimson’s Discipline. He was a full-fledged member of Crimson during that era (Fripp, Belew, Levin, Bruford). Awesome player, awesome pate.
Great video, thanks for posting that one, PZ. Saw Bowie live a few years ago, great show, and someone mentioned Gail Ann Dorsey, who is outstanding, not only as a bassist, but also covering the vocal parts Lennox does in the vid.
Incidentally, the bass player in the video is none other than John Deacon, original bassist for Queen. The band on stage is the remaining living members: Deacon on bass, the outstanding Brian May on guitar, and Roger Taylor on drums.
No kings,
Robert
Deacon on bass? Not Levin? Dang! I’ll have to actually watch the video now. Oh wait, that’s GOOD news. Never mind.
I don’t think he’s visible in this song, but watch other parts of the Freddie Mercury Tribute, and you’ll catch heavy metal pioneer and Black Sabbath co-founder Tony Iommi on rhythm guitar. Apparently he and Brian May are longtime friends.
And I agree most of the vocalists couldn’t touch Mercury. Most weren’t even close. James Hetfield’s “Stone Cold Crazy” was an energetic rendition, and Seal’s “Who Wants to Live Forever” was a decent interpretation, if nowhere close to Freddie’s Mercury’s range.
that’s a great video. but it gives me gender identity issues.
also, i realize that marilyn manson ripped off a lot of glam rock from the 70’s, including bowie, but… annie lennox? i had no idea.
We all knew Freddie was gay, but somehow it didn’t matter even to the local Aussie blokes. I guess normal was fairly broad, with Monty Python (British, but beloved) and Auntie Jack as a backdrop, with Skyhooks and ACDC playing in our town halls. Split Enz was under-appreciated though, and seen to be a bit weird.
Had to go poking around YouTube for “Walking on Broken Glass” – check out this version , especially if you are a BlackAdder fan
Just got home from work (where I can’t watch YouTube) and this was just what I needed. Bowie is unique greatness. But Annie – Wow. The way she moves, sings and brings it to life. Awesome.
I’ve seen Bowie live in three venues. First on his Diamond Dogs tour in ’74 at Universal Ampitheater when it was still outdoors, very close to the front, enough for his egg pod on the end of a Chapman crane from which he sang Major Tom to be directly overhead–the show was choreographed by Tony Basil. We were surprised he was less androgynous and in his “thin white duke” phase. In ’89 my friend and I heard at 8:00 am that Bowie was playing his second date with Tin Machine in a surprise show at the Roxy and ran up the street to get tickets for that night’s second show, $10 bucks, which we could have scalped for 4 figures. Jack Nicholson there in the tiny house, a week before Burton’s Batman opened. By the time I saw him with Tin Machine again, at Shoreline in Mountain View in ’95, sadly, most of the crowd was there to see Trent Reznor, (whom the spouse and I were happy to see too!) who opened the show and came out for some vocal collaboration with Bowie. The Lad’s come a long way since The Laughing Gnome.
Posted by: echidna @ 58 “We all knew Freddie was gay, but somehow it didn’t matter even to the local Aussie blokes. I guess normal was fairly broad, with Monty Python (British, but beloved) and Auntie Jack as a backdrop, with Skyhooks and ACDC playing in our town halls. Split Enz was under-appreciated though, and seen to be a bit weird.”
It took me a while to figure/find out about Freddie’s gayness, and an embarrassing longer time to link it to the band’s name. I was sooo naive. It didn’t bother me though. I agree the Enz were a bit weird, but their music was great. You have to give them some leeway, they are New Zealanders after all.
despite actually having less talent, i’d rather watch pat.
at least pat is funny, annie and david merely make me puke. jeez, why not “kiss”, as long as we’re going for costumes and choreography rather than any sort of music act.
My goodness, doesn’t Bowie look young and smooth. He doesn’t look that smooth now. His lifestyle is showing.
Fantastic!
What a buzz to find yet another common denominator between myself, PZ and the other Pharyngulites! Interestingly I get my love of Queen from my Mum who also was instrumental in protecting my mind from religiocrap with her frequent, loud and bitter outbursts about the nuns that ran the school she went to.
…and I see Katkinkate has already got in with the compulsory dig at Kiwis…:)
His lifestyle is showing.
I’m afraid it’s more that that’s what not being twenty-mumble any more looks like. And it hasn’t done his voice any harm either.
Annie Lennox is…Thanks
Bowie at his worst.
Lol, I was kidding about the Vanilla Ice bit, but genuinely didn’t have a clue who Annie Lennox was, so I wiki’d her. Had heard of Eurythmics, they’re just before my time so I didn’t know members etc.
Just thought I’d try to get a headshake from my older atheist bethren :D
Seeing that makeup on Annie makes me want to watch Blade Runner.
bønez_brigade: you are truly evil for posting that link… I had erased that from my memory and you had to go and drag it back up.
I hope I look that good at 62.
It was already a wonderful performance, but when Annie tried to eat Bowie my heart almost stopped.
I see your “Under Pressure” and raise you this
}:)
That was pretty damn epic. Much, much more enjoyable than ol’ Pat…
I’m with you SC. I thought of Pris first thing. Love the dress and the bow.
You know, the sad thing is, David Bowie recites The Lord’s Prayer somewhere at this concert too. It’s a little lame, especially considering the concert is a tribute to late Freddie Mercury, a PARSI.
Bowie’s done this sort of seesaw thing with religion/occult/politics/everything for ages.
As referenced above, he was obsessed with Crowley for awhile, and Nazis.
Word on a Wing is all God God God and Station to Station references the Kabbalah. Later, he seems to have gone off religion, if we look at songs like “Loving the Alien.”
Etc. The Lord’s Prayer thing…either he was being theatrical, or he was really feeling emotional and, at the time, that was the way he chose to express it.
I’ve always been of the opinion that he’s the sort of person who believes something absolutely and whole-heartedly with utter conviction for about five minutes, and then something else strikes him and he believes THAT with the very same level of certainty, again for about five minutes. You just have to look at his musical career, and imagine that a personality that could go from Diamond Dogs to Young Americans to Station to Station might be predisposed towards similar experimentation and exploration of different ideas in his personal life as well.
That said, he’s also not the most reliable person when it comes to saying what he thinks or believes, or talking about his life. He’s told at least three different stories about how he ended up with a wonky eye, for one thing (although the most commonly referenced story is the childhood fistfight).
So I wouldn’t take his comments in the 70s about fascism or nazism too seriously, either.
Freddie Mercury and Queen? Total puke city. These wretched creeps put out the first “ironic” use of Nazi imagery in their concerts, wrote that horribly stupid “We Are the Champions” (No time for losers? The total opposite of rocknroll politics and ideology) and lastly, they played Sun City in South Africa, supporting the Apart-hate goverment there. Although, that did result in Miami Steve Van Zant doing “I Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City” to raise money for Nelson Mandela’s movement (Mandela credited Van Zant with raising the consciousness of America and adding strength to the boycott of the time).
Freddie Mercury was a total coward, as well, not admitting his AIDS until his deathbed – how many did he infect while in his denial?
I’ve got a ticket for the E Street band next Monday and I’ll be cheering real music by decent people who do good works, not overblown assholes who think decadent materialism is what rocknroll is about.
Bowie is in great shape for his age. His “lifestyle”, believe it or not, has been a very healthy one (clean and sober, anyway) for the past two or three decades.
Illegal string bet (scroll down to definition).
;^)
Watchman, are you sure it’s been that long?
I’m pretty sure he only quit smoking about ten years ago (if it stuck, anyway). He’s been off the HEAVY drugs for a couple of decades at least, though. That much is true.
But even so, that sort of thing does take its toll, even if you quit.
The problem with Springsteen and the E Street Band is, they and their music bore the living fuck out of me. I’m sure they’re nice enough guys, though Bruce’s ex-wife might disagree.
Decadent materialism really is part of what rock and roll is about, and has been since at least Little Richard. it’s one of the flavors, there are others if that doesn’t suit you. And you don’t have to listen to Wagner’s music either,
if his personal odiousness still bothers you.
A bracing wind of fresh cool and clean air to clear out the stench of that Roberston fart.
Just what the doc ordered. Those two magnificent cadavers on stage EXUDE humanity and life. An excellent antidote to Roberston.
And a kick-ass performance to boot. (“Where did she get that DRESS???”) “Exquisite” indeed.
Thanks PZ! You be the man.
Yes, the sunshine. It is warm and bright and it is good. Soak it up!
Bone Oboe #2, you are a fellow sufferer of the dreaded “Ear Worm” affliction.
Unfortunately, there is no known remedy…except to blast it away with something you like.
Just be happy you haven’t been exposed to “It’s a Small World After All”.
Disney should pay everybody in the world $100 as a compensatory apology.
(And I will apologize for having resurrected, in my mentioning, that indescribably horrible ditty, which makes the swine flu look like a case of zits. Who knows how many people lost their lives under the sway of that terrible worm?).
@83
Your opinion of the E Streeters is of no concern to me, I don’t know you, you don’t know me, so who should care?
I would say Little Richard is more flamboyant than decadent.
Queen were still a bunch of pompous gasbags whose only benefit to society was making English kids so pissed that we got The Clash, the Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks, the Mekons, Joy Division and The Cure.
Rocknroll is about liberation and the personal celebration of being alive. A bunch of egotists preening on a giant stage to slavering worshipers is a travesty of this ideal. Great bands engage their audience and bring them along for the ride, poseurs dance about, take the money and run.
hey, KI, you can take your own pompous punk rock elitism and shove it up your arse. I was never a huge Queen fan, but I was around when they were the new thing, enjoyed their early albums, and have not doubted over the years that their fans felt liberated, celebratory, and brought along for the ride when they were at a Queen concert — pretty much the case for any fans and any band. Which only goes to show that one fan’s celebration is another’s slavering worship (something you never see at Cure concerts, oh no….).
Didn’t the UK vote Queen the best band of all time or somesuch some years ago? And I believe I recall no less an eminence than fame-tortured grunge rocker Kurt Cobain citing Freddy Mercury with admiration…in his suicide note, no less.
Sometimes you just gotta acknowledge talent, is all, even if it’s not your cup of tea.
Doesn’t Annie Lennox look like she could fit right in the stage show for a 70’s Bowie concert.
Love his green suit.
I saw Bowie in the 90’s with Nine Inch Nails opening. I also saw Tin Machine in the day and was one of the few who liked Bowie’s thrash band, with the Sales Brothers (Soopy’s kids and also Iggy Pop alums) as the rhythm section. NIN played their set and they really sounded like very hard, very fast rockabilly live. Then Bowie came out to do a few songs with him. Then they were joined by Reeves Gabriels (sp?) on guitar. Bit by bit over the next, oh, seven songs, NIN was replaced by Bowie’s band with Trent Reznor singing backing vocals for Bowie. Cool idea. Kicked out the Jams.
No, I’m not sure.
By the way, did anyone notice the comment on the YouTube page that read something like this?
LOL
Steve: Queen II was pretty cool back in the day. That was the only one of theirs I ever bought. I didn’t get into their more popular stuff quite as much, though they certainly did rise to the top. Their level of musicianship is pretty high, and hey – Brian May is an astrophysicist!
Re: Springsteen. While I’ve always been an admirer, I’ve never been a BIG fan, and only own two or three of his records. Some of his best work is simply glorious, though, and gets me where it counts, being full of humanity and passion to a level few artists can touch. The new album has a few keepers. I might not have liked it when I was 22, though. Songs like “Kingdom of Days” and “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise” couldn’t possibly have meant to me then what they mean to me now. I still like the old stuff, too, so… go figure. Timeless.
YMMV.
#74 Scrabcake said:
I see your “Under Pressure” and raise you this
}:)
Put me out of my misery : What is this? (It’s not available in the UK.)
I think I’ve heard the name before, but this has never been my kind of music – this is prolly the first time I see her.
Bowie at least I know of (Marry Christmas, mr Lawrence).