David Bowie Sound+Vision Tour Interview May 1990 – SQ-10
20 May 1990
Mono
Radio -> Cassette Tape -> Audacity -> FLAC (editing/fading) -> You
Hearing Pictures: David Bowie’s Sound+Vision on Timothy White’s Rockstars
By Westwood One Radio Network
Part 1: Introduction and some thoughts from Bowie (2:14)
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– Hearing Pictures: David Bowie’s S+V on Timothy White’s Rockstars
– Bowie: “There’s something about the English, they don’t seem to want to be … normal”
– Bowie: What he was reading around 13-14 and how it changed his ideas about what you could do with rock n’ roll
– Song: “Sound and Vision”
Part 2: Interview (4:34)
– Discussion of Adrian Belew & his band, and how they’ll work with Erdal Kizilcay on the tour
– Does Bowie think he’s a rock n’ roll person? (“The polite word’s ‘eclectic’ I guess”)
– How Bowie thinks music was segmenting at the end of the ’80s and into the ’90s
– The writing of the song “Fame”
– Song: “Fame ’90”
Part 3: Interview (0:43)
– End of “Fame ’90”, cut to
– Discussing “Sweet Head”
– Song (world radio premiere): “Sweet Head”
Part 4: Interview (2:32)
– How a lot of the “Ziggy Stardust” album was recorded prior to “Hunky Dory” (“I think I did about half of the ‘Ziggy’ album before [Hunky Dory]”)
– How the Ziggy character came out of the late ’60s (“It would be such great fun to kind of fabricate something”)
– Song: “Suffragette CIty”
Part 5: Interview (1:59)
– Bowie reminisces on the day he died his hair for Ziggy (“I went through a number of colors, but we did end up on red.”)
– Discussing Kansai Yamamoto’s influence on Ziggy & his outfits (“I still have every single on of those things – they’re museum pieces”)
– Walking around Tottenham Court Road as Ziggy
– Song: “Starman”
Part 6: Interview (2:16)
– End of “Starman”, cut to
– Writing for “Aladdin Sane” during the “Ziggy” tour
– Recording on the tour: “The Jean Genie”
– Why “Panic in Detroit” was performed on tour with Bowie wearing boxing gloves
– Song: “Panic in Detroit”
Part 7: Interview (3:00)
– Leaving The Konrads in 1973
– How much was Bowie’s allowance as a kid?
– Talking about Bowie’s father and mother
– Writing “Can’t Help Thinking About Me”
– Song: “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” (original version)
Part 8: Interview (2:02)
– Going to Peter Frampton’s father’s art school as a kid
– Bowie’s saxophone influences
– Song: “Rebel Rebel”
Part 9: Interview (1:28)
– Moving to Berlin in 1976, fighting with cocaine and depression
– How Bowie progressed from “Low”, “Heroes”, “Lodger” and finally “Scary Monsters”
– Song: “Ashes to Ashes”
Part 10: Interview (3:27)
– The Philly Years (“That was the most social record I’d made in a long time”)
– Talking about somet of the alternate album titles considered for “Young Americans”
– Meeting Bruce Springsteen and playing “How to Be a Saint in the City” for him
– Song: “How to Be a Saint in the City”
– Song: “Young Americans”
Part 11: Interview (1:00)
– Talking about the Ryko rereleases
– Song: “John, I’m Only Dancing”
Part 12: Interview (1:54)
– A discussion on the genesis of “Changes” – Jim Morrison and Syd Barrett
– Discussing the feeling of the early ’70’s
– Song: “Changes”
Part 13: End of Interview (1:20)
– Thank you’s
– End of show credits
Part 14: KISW Lowdown (21 May 1990) (1:29)
– A sampling of contemporary reviews of the S+V Tour prior to the Seattle show
– Information about the songs being played
– Information about the band
– About the stage (how long it takes to set up / tear down)
Description:
Way back in 1990, I had the good sense to pop a blank tape into my tape recorder when an hour-long interview show came on the air. This tape has travelled with me over the years, across many different homes, until I recently discovered it again in an old shoe box. It’s a good quality, first generation recording, and a quick search would indicate that it hasn’t been posted before.
I clipped out the ads and the songs. The songs now fade in and out after a few seconds because they talk over the intro/outro of songs on several occasions.
This interview gives some good insights into some of Bowie’s works, although I wish he spent more time talking about “Sweet Head”. There’s some interesting info that I haven’t heard anywhere else since.
Included as a bonus is a recording of a local radio station providing some information about the then-upcoming Sound+Vision Tour show held in Seattle later that night. It too has some information that I haven’t heard anywhere else.
I cut the interview up into chunks, separated into different parts whenever a song was played. This results in 13 segments to the interview, plus the 14th bonus piece.
