Bowie and Klaus Nomi?
Dreitzes
EXTREMELY memorable appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1979 and I'm curious
what people can tell me about him. Bowie performed three songs with Nomi and a
red-haired man as, well, I don't know what, guest performance artists, I
suppose. First Bowie appeared in a weird one-piece body casing shaped like an
art deco-ized tuxedo, which enclosed him except for his head. Nomi and the
other guy CARRIED Bowie and this get-up to the microphone for a spooky version
of "The Man Who Sold the World." I don't remember who was in the band except
for G. E. Smith (this being some years before his regular gig with SNL). When
the song ended they carried Bowie away from the microphone. Nomi appears on an
album cover wearing this same tuxedo thing, so obviously it's something of his.
Bowie performed "TVC 15" dressed in a skirt-suit uniform like an airline
stewardess while Nomi and the other guy did some sort of mime thing involving
them beckoning to this toy poodle with a miniature TV in its mouth. (I'm NOT
making this up!)
The highlight was an indescribable bit -- though I'll try -- where Bowie
performed "Boy Keep Swinging" with his body "blanked out" electronically and
replaced with the body of a marionette that was presumably being manipulated
off-stage. With his marionette "body" dancing and swinging around, Bowie mugged
his way through the song and even blew a marionette kiss to the audience at the
end. Truly delightful and utterly unlike anything's ever done on SNL.
My questions are, how much of this did he get from Nomi, does anyone know how
this one-shot collaboration came about, and is Nomi's music any good?
Dave Reitzes
(np: Miles Davis -- Tribute to Jack Johnson)
(BTW, if you're looking for something a little different but not TOO different,
this Miles Davis album I'm listening to is worth looking into. Miles wanted to
record an album with Jimi Hendrix but Hendrix died before the project came to
fruition. This album suggests something along the lines of the album they might
have made, with John McLaughlin laying down weird electric blues riffs under
Miles' trumpet, Steve Grossman's very un-Kenny-G-like soprano sax, and some
weird funky synth soloing by Herbie Hancock. A great record, and fairly
accessible to ears bred on rock music. Pardon my digression.)
Rev. Carroll D. Kraston
>
>My questions are, how much of this did he get from Nomi, does anyone know how
>this one-shot collaboration came about, and is Nomi's music any good?
>
Nomi was pretty good, and a very interesting musical artist....it's
too bad he left us before I even heard about him.
Robert Wheeler
>art deco-ized tuxedo, which enclosed him except for his head. Nomi and the
>other guy CARRIED Bowie and this get-up to the microphone for a spooky
version
>of "The Man Who Sold the World." I don't remember who was in the band
except
>for G. E. Smith (this being some years before his regular gig with SNL).
When
>the song ended they carried Bowie away from the microphone.
Yeah, I've saw this on Top of The Pops 2 a while ago, but they didn't make
it clear where it came from. I thought it was a bit too much for Top of The
Pops.
Rob,
tor...@my-dejanews.com
profiled as an "operatic" singer who sang in an invented language! I have one
LP (dating myself) where he sings a Purcell composition, from "Dido and
Aeneas (sp?)(I think?) And at the other end of the spectrum, probably his
most successful release was a great version of Lou Christie's "Lightning
Strikes". There's a "Best of" CD available that you may want to check out.
As for influencing Bowie, it's possible, but Bowie just absorbs everything
and refashions it to suit himself. So who really knows? But he keeps great
company :-) RON In article <36c927e6...@news.pacifier.com>,
revca...@hotmail.com wrote:
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http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
Ian Shuttleworth
tor...@my-dejanews.com () wrote:
> probably his most successful release was a great version
> of Lou Christie's "Lightning Strikes".
I still think of "Total Eclipse" as Nomi's trademark -
that's the track he has on the "URGH! - A Music War"
compilation where I first knowingly heard him; his second
album "A Simple Man" also has a kind of sequel track to it,
called "After The Fall".
His choice of covers was certainly eclectic - from Purcell
and Saint-Saens to "Falling In Love Again" and "Ding Dong
(The Witch Is Dead)"!
He was also, sadly, the first rock person, whose work I
knew, to be claimed by the big disease with the little name.
Ian S.
Bushlander
http://bornova.ege.edu.tr/~lyurga/nomi/nomi2.html.
I remember reading an interview once in which
Bowie credited the origins of that tuxedo to a
performance artist who was part of the original
Dada movement but whose name I can't remember.
Dreitzes wrote:
>
> Anyone out there familiar with Klaus Nomi? He helped Bowie out with an
> EXTREMELY memorable appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1979 and I'm curious
> what people can tell me about him. Bowie performed three songs with Nomi and a
> red-haired man as, well, I don't know what, guest performance artists, I
> suppose. First Bowie appeared in a weird one-piece body casing shaped like an
> art deco-ized tuxedo, which enclosed him except for his head. Nomi and the
> other guy CARRIED Bowie and this get-up to the microphone for a spooky version
> of "The Man Who Sold the World." I don't remember who was in the band except
> for G. E. Smith (this being some years before his regular gig with SNL). When
> the song ended they carried Bowie away from the microphone. Nomi appears on an
> album cover wearing this same tuxedo thing, so obviously it's something of his.
>
> Bowie performed "TVC 15" dressed in a skirt-suit uniform like an airline
> stewardess while Nomi and the other guy did some sort of mime thing involving
> them beckoning to this toy poodle with a miniature TV in its mouth. (I'm NOT
> making this up!)
>
> The highlight was an indescribable bit -- though I'll try -- where Bowie
> performed "Boy Keep Swinging" with his body "blanked out" electronically and
> replaced with the body of a marionette that was presumably being manipulated
> off-stage. With his marionette "body" dancing and swinging around, Bowie mugged
> his way through the song and even blew a marionette kiss to the audience at the
> end. Truly delightful and utterly unlike anything's ever done on SNL.
>
> My questions are, how much of this did he get from Nomi, does anyone know how
> this one-shot collaboration came about, and is Nomi's music any good?
>
Bushlander
http://bornova.ege.edu.tr/~lyurga/nomi/nomi2.html.
I remember reading an interview once in which
Bowie credited the origins of that tuxedo to a
performance artist who was part of the original
Dada movement but whose name I can't remember. The
article was accompanied by a b&w photo of a man on
stage wearing a very similar costume.
Dreitzes wrote:
> The highlight was an indescribable bit -- though I'll try -- where Bowie
> performed "Boy Keep Swinging" with his body "blanked out" electronically and
> replaced with the body of a marionette that was presumably being manipulated
> off-stage. With his marionette "body" dancing and swinging around, Bowie mugged
> his way through the song and even blew a marionette kiss to the audience at the
> end. Truly delightful and utterly unlike anything's ever done on SNL.
I've seen this episode, but only the first two
songs. Sounds like they cut the best part for
syndication.
Dreitzes
>From: Bushlander <bushl...@usa.net>
>Date: 2/18/99 1:33 AM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <36CBB82C...@usa.net>
"Boys" is the highlight, hands down. BTW, I couldn't reach that Web site. I'll
try again later and see if it's up.
DR
nom...@my-dejanews.com
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palladium/1306/nomi.htm
And Nomi's new CD single (Dec 98):
http://www.heliocd.com
Looking forward to Andrew Horn's 1999 Nomi documentary film!
N99
Christopher Barton
who is a pretty well known drag queen in NYC.
Don't deprive yourself of the fun you deserve:
Visit Anxiety's Toxic Snowglobe at
http://members.tripod.com/~anxietyny/index.html
Ian Shuttleworth
Because of his exaggeratedly crisp, "classical" diction when
singing, I find I always expect the lines he sings to rhyme
fully and completely - which, of course, isn't always the
case. For instance, in his version of "The Twist", when he
sings, "You should see my little sis"... well, you expect a
rhyme with "twist", so you hear...
Er, anyway...
Ian S.
Dreitzes
>Date: 2/18/99 10:51 AM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <7ahcuc$fmr$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>
Thanks, I'll check it out. That's what I like about this funky Web thang . . .
convenience! (Or the nearest AOL equivalent.)
DR