„Della musica leggera italiana mi piace tutto quello che ha fatto Lucio Battisti.“
citato in Leo Turrini, Battisti: la vita, le canzoni, il mistero, retrocopertina
Frasi di David Bowie
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David Bowie
Data di nascita: 8. Gennaio 1947
Data di morte: 10. Gennaio 2016
Altri nomi: Bowie
David Bowie , pseudonimo di David Robert Jones è stato un cantautore, polistrumentista, attore, produttore discografico e pittore inglese.
La passione per la musica portò Bowie ad imparare a suonare il sassofono quando era ancora giovanissimo. Dopo aver partecipato alla formazione di varie band, raggiunse il successo da solista nei primi anni settanta, attraversando cinque decenni di musica rock e conquistandosi la fama di inventore del glam rock. La sua natura poliedrica e camaleontica lo portò a reinventare nel tempo il proprio stile e la propria immagine, creando numerosi alter ego come Ziggy Stardust, Halloween Jack, The Thin White Duke e Nathan Adler.
Significative le collaborazioni con Tony Visconti e Brian Eno, altro reduce con i Roxy Music dal glam rock dei primi settanta, con i quali instaurò una proficua e profonda amicizia che durò svariati anni.
Pur non essendo le sue attività principali, Bowie si dedicò anche alla pittura e al cinema. Tra i vari film in cui recitò, vi sono L'uomo che cadde sulla Terra, Furyo, Absolute Beginners, Labyrinth, Basquiat e The Prestige.
Nel 2008 fu inserito al 23º posto nella lista dei 100 migliori cantanti secondo Rolling Stone, che ha individuato tra i suoi migliori brani Life on Mars?, Space Oddity, Fame e "Heroes". Nel 2007 fu indicato dalla rivista Forbes come il quarto cantante più ricco al mondo.
Frasi David Bowie
„Sento che stiamo solamente annunciando qualcosa di più oscuro di noi stessi.“
[...] I feel that we're only heralding something even darker than ourselves.
„Il mio cantante preferito è di gran lunga Lucio Battisti.“
citato in Gianfranco Salvatore, L'arcobaleno. Storia vera di Lucio Battisti, p. 179
„Il rock è sempre stato la musica del diavolo.“
Rock has always been the devil's music.
„As long as there's me
As long as there's you“
"Where Are We Now?" (2013)
Song lyrics, The Next Day (2013)
Contesto: Where are we now?
Where are we now?
The moment you know
You know, you know
As long as there's sun
As long as there's sun
As long as there's rain
As long as there's rain
As long as there's fire
As long as there's fire
As long as there's me
As long as there's you
„Ya wouldn't believe what I've been thru.“
Song lyrics, Cat People (Putting Out Fire) (1982)
Contesto: Still this pulsing night
A plague I call a heartbeat
Just be still with me
Ya wouldn't believe what I've been thru.
„Turn and face the strange changes.“
Song lyrics, Hunky Dory (1971)
Origine: Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
Turn and face the strange.
„It's odd but even when I was a kid, I would write about "old and other times" as though I had a lot of years behind me.“
Livewire interview (2002)
Contesto: It's odd but even when I was a kid, I would write about "old and other times" as though I had a lot of years behind me. Now I do, so there is a difference in the weight of memory. When you're young, you're still "becoming", now at my age I am more concerned with "being". And not too long from now I'll be driven by "surviving", I'm sure. I kind of miss that "becoming" stage, as most times you really don't know what's around the corner. Now, of course, I've kind of knocked on the door and heard a muffled answer. Nevertheless, I still don't know what the voice is saying, or even what language it's in.
„The words just jolly it along. It's always been my way of expressing what for me is inexpressible by any other means.“
Livewire interview (2002)
Contesto: I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I'm not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does. There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say. The words just jolly it along. It's always been my way of expressing what for me is inexpressible by any other means.
What is very enlightening for me right now is that I sense that I'm arriving at a place of peace with my writing that I've never experienced before. I think I'm going to be writing some of the most worthwhile things that I've ever written in the coming years. I'm very confident and trusting in my abilities right now. But I've got to think of myself as the luckiest guy. Robert Johnson only had one album's worth of work as his legacy. That's all that life allowed him.
„Music has given me over 40 years of extraordinary experiences. I can't say that life's pains or more tragic episodes have been diminished because of it. But it's allowed me so many moments of companionship when I've been lonely and a sublime means of communication when I wanted to touch people. It's been both my doorway of perception and the house that I live in.“
Commencement Address for the Berklee College of Music, at Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts (8 May 1999) https://www.berklee.edu/commencement/past
Contesto: Music has given me over 40 years of extraordinary experiences. I can't say that life's pains or more tragic episodes have been diminished because of it. But it's allowed me so many moments of companionship when I've been lonely and a sublime means of communication when I wanted to touch people. It's been both my doorway of perception and the house that I live in.
I only hope that it embraces you with the same lusty life force that it graciously offered me.
„Nevertheless, I still don't know what the voice is saying, or even what language it's in.“
Livewire interview (2002)
Contesto: It's odd but even when I was a kid, I would write about "old and other times" as though I had a lot of years behind me. Now I do, so there is a difference in the weight of memory. When you're young, you're still "becoming", now at my age I am more concerned with "being". And not too long from now I'll be driven by "surviving", I'm sure. I kind of miss that "becoming" stage, as most times you really don't know what's around the corner. Now, of course, I've kind of knocked on the door and heard a muffled answer. Nevertheless, I still don't know what the voice is saying, or even what language it's in.
„It's an odd feeling, like something else is guiding you, although forcing your hand is more like it.“
Livewire interview (2002)
Contesto: Strangely, some songs you really don't want to write. I didn't like writing "Heathen". There was something so ominous and final about it. It was early in the morning, the sun was rising and through the windows I could see two deer grazing down below in the field. In the distance a car was driving slowly past the reservoir and these words were just streaming out and there were tears running down my face. But I couldn't stop, they just flew out. It's an odd feeling, like something else is guiding you, although forcing your hand is more like it.
„Still don't know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild.“
Changes
Song lyrics, Hunky Dory (1971)
Contesto: Still don't know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild.
A million dead-end streets and
Every time I thought I'd got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet.
So I turned myself to face me
But I've never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I'm much too fast to take that test.
„I've come to the realisation that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing half the time“
"Sermon From the Savoy", New Musical Express (29 September 1984)
Contesto: I'm terribly intuitive—I always thought I was intellectual about what I do, but I've come to the realisation that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing half the time, that the majority of the stuff that I do is totally intuitive, totally about where I am physically and mentally at any moment in time and I have a far harder time than anybody else explaining it and analysing it. That's the territory of the artist anyway: to be quite at sea with what he does, and working towards not being intuive about it and being far more methodical and academic about it.
