The Man Who Sold The World
Jun 3, 2012 15:03:36 GMT
Post by Halloweenjack84 on Jun 3, 2012 15:03:36 GMT
Faffed about the net this afters and ended up on Tony Visconti’s site which I haven’t visited for a while which made for a pleasant read on a Sunday afternoon.
www.tonyvisconti.com/artists/bowie.shtml
Was interesting to reread Tony Visconti’s veiled thoughts about this album and other Bowie albums that he was involved with.
Have always rightly or wrongly thought The Man Who Sold The World to be the black sheep of the Bowie catalogue.
Maybe because this was the one album were Bowie didn’t give 100% and whilst he faffed about with Angie,Tony Visconti & Mick Ronson did so much of the “work” in his absence.
Jack
Q: I just have a few questions about the album The Man Who Sold the World.
I read a quote of yours in which you said that the album's music was essentially the creation of you and Mick Ronson.
However, Bowie gets the credit for the songwriting.
Basically, I would just like to know what role Bowie played in the chord structures of the album.
Were the basic compositions his or was it a communal effort?
I can tell from listening that he is probably absent from most of the extended jamming (the essential chemistry is clearly between your bass and Ronson's guitar), but I am assuming that the acoustic parts are his.
I guess I just want to know what Bowie's contribution was.
Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
I am a fervent Bowie fan and a musician myself, so issues like this are important to me.
A: Questions like these always get me in trouble, but I will try to answer as diplomatically as possible.
Bowie is the final author of all those songs.
But the band, myself and Bowie lived together during that album and worked a lot closer than just a singer and a session band. Some songs were Bowie's loose chord structures that Ronson and I would whip together into final backing tracks.
In the old days that was called "arranging".
Nowadays that's called co-writing.
For instance,all the guitar and bass parts were written by Ronson and myself, so I was amused to hear TMWSTW by Nirvana playing our exact parts and also seeing my bass part published in Guitar Player magazine with David Bowie given the credit.
"Black Country Rock" was a jam which Bowie jumped into and wrote a song about.
Carlos Alomar has told me that all he wrote in Fame was the guitar riff and he got credit as a writer.
It was never my intention to say that David Bowie has lied.
The definition of what "writing" is has changed over the years in the music business.
However,when asked what went on during TMWSTW sessions I am compelled to tell the truth.
In no way do I want to steal the light from Bowie's creativity.
He is an unmistaken genius in the rock genre, a truly unique artist.
The song I found hardest to 'get',as my very first album/music ever the album Ziggy Stardust kinda taught me to go forward and this track sounded like the Black Sabbath type of bands my mates liked from their big brothers music collections when I eventually bought it months after.
She Shook Me Cold
Black Country Rock
All The Madmen
www.tonyvisconti.com/artists/bowie.shtml
Was interesting to reread Tony Visconti’s veiled thoughts about this album and other Bowie albums that he was involved with.
Have always rightly or wrongly thought The Man Who Sold The World to be the black sheep of the Bowie catalogue.
Maybe because this was the one album were Bowie didn’t give 100% and whilst he faffed about with Angie,Tony Visconti & Mick Ronson did so much of the “work” in his absence.
Jack Q: I just have a few questions about the album The Man Who Sold the World.
I read a quote of yours in which you said that the album's music was essentially the creation of you and Mick Ronson.
However, Bowie gets the credit for the songwriting.
Basically, I would just like to know what role Bowie played in the chord structures of the album.
Were the basic compositions his or was it a communal effort?
I can tell from listening that he is probably absent from most of the extended jamming (the essential chemistry is clearly between your bass and Ronson's guitar), but I am assuming that the acoustic parts are his.
I guess I just want to know what Bowie's contribution was.
Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
I am a fervent Bowie fan and a musician myself, so issues like this are important to me.
A: Questions like these always get me in trouble, but I will try to answer as diplomatically as possible.
Bowie is the final author of all those songs.
But the band, myself and Bowie lived together during that album and worked a lot closer than just a singer and a session band. Some songs were Bowie's loose chord structures that Ronson and I would whip together into final backing tracks.
In the old days that was called "arranging".
Nowadays that's called co-writing.
For instance,all the guitar and bass parts were written by Ronson and myself, so I was amused to hear TMWSTW by Nirvana playing our exact parts and also seeing my bass part published in Guitar Player magazine with David Bowie given the credit.
"Black Country Rock" was a jam which Bowie jumped into and wrote a song about.
Carlos Alomar has told me that all he wrote in Fame was the guitar riff and he got credit as a writer.
It was never my intention to say that David Bowie has lied.
The definition of what "writing" is has changed over the years in the music business.
However,when asked what went on during TMWSTW sessions I am compelled to tell the truth.
In no way do I want to steal the light from Bowie's creativity.
He is an unmistaken genius in the rock genre, a truly unique artist.
The song I found hardest to 'get',as my very first album/music ever the album Ziggy Stardust kinda taught me to go forward and this track sounded like the Black Sabbath type of bands my mates liked from their big brothers music collections when I eventually bought it months after.
She Shook Me Cold
Black Country Rock
All The Madmen
