David Bowie - Hours at 20

Fun fact I was reminded about just this week: David Bowie was fifty-two when he released his 21st studio album, ...hours, twenty years ago today. I'm just a year shy of that mark, which means yet another shade was added to my enjoyment of this album.

The Music of 1999

The last year of the Twentieth Century was a particularly great one for me in regards to music. Some of my favorite veteran acts released new music: Sting's Brand New Day is only a week older than Hours. Tom Jones presented Reload to the world. Santana's Supernatural was everywhere as was Moby's Play. I discovered new-to-me artists like Bruce Cockburn. Chicago released a live album with some new songs. And I was still spinning 1998's Psycho Circus by KISS and Painted by Memory by Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach.

But the album that I looked forward to the most was the new one by David Bowie. I was (and still am) a huge fan of Bowie's music in the 1990s. After the experimentation of 1995's Outside and 1997's Earthling, it was exciting to ponder what kind of music we'd get on the new album. Little did we know we'd get an introspective album many critics compared to 1971's Hunky Dory.

The Album

Hours landed square in the middle of a life and cultural turning point for me. I was newly married and rediscovering my hometown of Houston after moving back home after graduate school. I was finally (!) out of school for the first time since I started in kindergarten. I had my first job. I was a grown up who finally (!) didn't have homework to do. I had time to soak in life and listen to music.

And I listened to Hours for...hours. Hey. It was right there. I have no conscious memory of where I bought the album, but I know it was twenty years ago today. I have always be a day-released purchaser of albums by favorite musicians. Back then, it was likely Best Buy, and it was likely on my lunch hour. However, I got the CD, I spun it as soon as I could, which was in my Ford F-150's player.

Again, I have no memory of how I felt or what I thought when those first notes of "Thursday's Child" washed over me, but it has remained a favorite song ever since. Not Top 25, but certainly Top 50. (That's an interesting exercise. I might have to compile my Top 50 favorite Bowie songs.)

Thursday's Child is the song a middle-aged man speaks about his life. It's a crooner's song, full of croonery music. Holly Palmer is fantastic as the lead background singer, but Bowie's third rendition of "Seeing my past to let it go" is heartbreakingly nuanced.

Something in the Air has a decent back beat over which Bowie can sing through a device that distorts his voice. This is a tune I've always enjoyed mainly for the fraying edges of Bowie's voice. He still had it at the time, but there are moments in this song where you realize he is a middle-aged man with a lifetime's worth of singing. It takes a toll after awhile and in this song, that age pays off well.

Survive is likely the song that echoes the vibe of Hunky Dory. It's an acoustic guitar-drive tune layered over with orchestral strings interspersed with tasteful electric guitars by Reeves Gabrels and saxphones. This song made it into the 1999 tour setlist. Again, a younger man probably doesn't write this song.

I'm Dreaming My Life is highlighted by the tempo changes, speeding and slowing the beat. While I like the tune, it is one that doesn't make it onto my MP3 CD compilations. The latter half of the song, with its plodding section punctuated by "ooohs" is...just okay.

Seven is yet another 1999 outtake of Hunky Dory. Even more than Survive, Seven's acoustic jangling guitar chugs along quite nicely. This one builds and builds, adding in different instruments along the way, until it reaches its wonderful ending. A highlight of the album.

What's Really Happening would have opened side 2 of the album if it was pressed in vinyl back in 1999. The guitar of Gabrels is more upfront here, and I get the impression its more his song than Bowie's.

The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell reminded folks in 1999 that Bowie remained a rock star quite capable of punching out a crunchy rock song. Think Hallo Spaceboy for another example. Always enjoyed this one, especially the tambourine during the chorus. The guitars are great, and really added to that Fin de siècle vibe that permeated most of 1999.

New Angels of Promise chugs out of the speakers using various of-the-era electronics before quickly morphing into a more straightforward pop tune. Lots of studio trickery on this one, mostly with Bowie backing himself, a practice I don't normally like, but don't mind too much here.

Brilliant Disguise is a short instrumental piece with a distictive Asian influence. In mood and vibe, it would have worked well on side two of "Heroes", but here just serves as a nice little piece.

The Dreamers rounds out the ten tracks of Hours. It showcases Bowie's crooner singing, but often it's distorted by oddball sound effects. But when the song hits the chorus, it is beautiful. And Bowie's sustained notes are gorgeous.

The Remixes

There were so many remixes of the various songs on this album that in 2004, there was a double CD boxed set with the second disc only containing the remixes. Some were marked improvements on the originals and my preferred versions: Thursday's Child (Rock Mix), Something in the Air (American Psycho Remix), and Seven (Marius De Vries Mix). There are something like four versions of The Pretty Things are Going to Hell, but I still prefer the original, just like the original version of Survive.

In the twenty years since the album's debut, certain songs float to the top, giving me continual listens. I ended up making my own version of Hours with those mixes I mentioned filling in for the actual album versions. But these five songs are my favorites from this album and among my favorites of the entire 1993-2004 era. I have an MP3 CD player in my car and I am able to cram up to 130 songs on each. Not only do I have a dedicated "Bowie 1993-2004" disc, but I have a "Bowie Retrospective" in which I select songs from his entire catalog, up to and including Blackstar. These five songs make the cut every time, although I use the version of Survive from the 2000 Bowie at the Beeb concert.

Hours Live

Ironically, just this year, at a record store here in Houston, I discovered a CD copy of the 1999 "Small Club Broadcast" show. Bowie only toured in Europe in 1999 so I never got to hear any of these tunes live. Which makes this discovery such a joy. All the Hours songs (Thursday's Child, Something in the Air, Survive, Seven, and The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell) sound great live, especially with Mike Garson playing piano. Huh. Isn't that something, those list of songs Bowie himself performed.

By the way, of all the live albums Bowie released officially, the 2000 concert is my favorite. He and the band sound so good, and some of the songs on this track list (Ashes to Ashes, Absolute Beginners, Survive, Always Crashing in the Same Car) are my preferred versions.

The Verdict

It's been a great twenty years with this album. I have so many memories in which these songs are intertwined. It was an awesome time for music in 1999 and while Hours my not be the best Bowie album from the 1990s, it holds a special place. It was the perfect album for those last three months of the Twentieth Century, especially when combined with Sting's Brand New Day and the other fantastic albums of 1999. It was of its time. It was by an artist whose age nearly matches mine now assessing his own career and music and doing something different. I also enjoy it along with Heathen and Reality, the last great trilogy of albums Bowie produced.

If you haven't spun Hours in a long time, give it a listen today to commemorate the album's anniversary.

Sting - Brand New Day at 20

Twenty years ago today, Sting released Brand New Day and I was enamored with his sixth studio album. It was the first of a pair of new records by two of my favorite rock stars (come back next week for my take on David Bowie's ...hours). I was newly married, newly employed, and the end of the millennium was mere weeks away. It was a fabulous time, and this album landed right in the middle of everything.

And it hit me exactly at the right place musically and lyrically.

I've enjoyed Sting's music since Synchronicity, but if push comes to shove, I easily prefer his solo work over his Police music. I like his explorations of other styles of music and lyrics, and we got a microcosm on this one album of nine songs plus and intro to a tenth.

I fell hard for this album, but I hadn't spun it in a little while, so it was nice to get back to it. For me, it still holds up pretty well, with some all-time favorite songs from the entire Sting discography.

Tracklist

A Thousand Years - A downbeat opener (an odd choice to kick off the concert), nevertheless, this meditative song is one I ended up enjoying quite a bit over the years.

Desert Rose - On any given day, this is my favorite all-time Sting song. Loved it from the day I heard it twenty years ago. When Cheb Mami starts singing, with that distinctive Middle Eastern scale and chords playing in the background, I was hooked. The exotic lyrics mixed with the somewhat mysterious instruments bring to mind multitude of desert visions in my mind. The instrumental break, with the sitar high in the mix, is the musical equivalent of a camera mounted on a helicopter as it flies low over the desert sands. By the last chorus when Sting and Mami sing their lines, intertwined, is hypnotic. Fantastic song.

Big Lie Small World - From the Middle East to Brazil. It's one of the best things about Sting: his willingness to explore the world's music and incorporate it into his music. This bright bossa nova song is sung in Sting's trademarked English teacher way. Lots of word play, and the first instance of trumpeter Chris Botti, unknown to me at the time. Botti's trumpet almost gives this song a noir vibe. This song, like 1996's I Hung My Head and others, is a short story in four minutes.

After the Rain Has Fallen - An immediate style change. Instantly brighter than the dark of Big Lie Small World. Here Sting tells the story of a knight trying to save the princess, complete with hand claps. The chorus is one great gob of smiles, a joyous thrill. Sting's bass is wonderful buoyant here, jousting up and down the fret board. When he starts talking about "take me here and take me there," the song builds back up to another ebullient chorus. Love this song.

Perfect Love...Gone Wrong - A jazzy little number that seems like the direct descendant of Moon Over Bourbon Street. The second dog song in Sting's career, more intricate wordplay enlivens a song that might have been pedestrian. Perfect Love benefits from a wonderful rap in French for which there is no translation in the liner notes. Why? Because dogs can't really understand people and vice versa. Botti's trumpet flits in and out of the tune, like little musical gnats. Pianist Jason Rebello gets a short solo in a funky interlude.

Tomorrow You'll See - Brandford Marsalis, famous Sting collaborator from 1985 onward, shows up on clarinet here. The story of a prostitute is sung in Sting's intricate talk/sing way leading up to the more melodic chorus and more clarinet. The bass in this tune is somewhat different, more like from a bar rather than the traditional bass sound on every other tune. The Hammond organ brings a street-level vibe.

End of the Game - I've had the full version of this song for nearly twenty years now, so I've included it in my playlist as the full song. Not even sure why Sting didn't just include it in the regular album. But when I think of this album as a whole, this is the one song I always forget about. Perhaps Sting was on to something.

Fill Her Up - Talk about the oddball song on the album. Love the story of a gas station attendant just absconding with a few bucks to impress his girl. Definitely a full-throated gospel song, and it's not bad, but does it really fit on this record? Feels more like a Ten Sumner's Tales tune, or Nothing Like the Sun.

Ghost Story - Another meditative song, largely as a result of the plucked guitar that opens the song, this tune swells like an orchestra playing a symphony as the song progresses.

Brand New Day - The opening guitar strings hint at another Middle Eastern tune, but the major chord progression segues into the 3/4 time signature of the main song. Another tune chock full of joy, not the least of which being Stevie Wonder's harmonica playing. I've always loved how Sting delivered some of his sung lyrics in a rhythm counter to the main beat. And I really dig how he ends the song with his numerous metaphors. A fun way to end the album.

Bonus Tracks:

Windmills of Your Mind - Sting the Jazz Man shines in this bonus track available in 1999 on the Japanese version of the album. One of the aspects of Sting's voice I find interesting is his lack of vibrato. It's just pure, clean notes. Here that kind of "Broadway-type" singing comes across wonderfully. It almost makes you wish he'd do an entire album of jazz standards.

Other Mixes:

There were a ton of various mixes of many of the tunes on this album in 1999, into 2000, and all the way into 2001. Some are fun and good. Others a shrug. You've got the Desert Rose (Chillout Mix). After The Rain Has Fallen (Extended House Mix). Perfect Love Gone Wrong (Dub Remix).

One highlight was the Bill Laswell remix of "A Thousand Years." The original six-minute meditative song was extended to twelve. Additional orchestration and Middle Eastern drums were mixed in, but one thing really stands out on this song: Botti's trumpet. Playing with a somberness Miles Davis might actually admire, Botti's horn swirls in and out of the first half of the song, reminiscent of the live version on the Brand New Day tour. The latter half of the song is the basic beat with Botti basically playing a solo.

The Brand New Day Era

The tour to support the 1999 album lasted nearly two years. My wife and I saw him here in Houston in August 2000 and we very much enjoyed seeing this band live. First time to see Botti live, and I started listening to his music. Even saw Botti live with his own band. As Sting toured, he would show up on the late night talk shows. I watched and recorded every one of them. As much as I enjoyed the full band version of Brand New Day (on Letterman), I really dig the acoustic version he did on the Conan O'Brien show. Here he is singing "After the Rain Has Fallen" on the Tonight Show.

All This Time...

The entire Brand New Day era ended on the evening of 11 September 2001, when Sting and his band were set to perform the second of two shows at his Italian villa. We know what happened that day. Tempted though he was to cancel that evening's performance, his band convinced him to use music as a way to start the healing. You can see it happen, in real time, if you watch the DVD of All This Time, which came out in November 2001.

The Verdict

Brand New Day is one of two Sting albums to which I constantly return. The other is Mercury Falling. Of the nine tracks on this record, five would rank high in an all-time list. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire Brand New Day era. It was a great time to be a Sting fan.

Has it really been twenty years?

What are your memories of this album and era?

Def Leppard's "Disintegrate"

I've known about Def Leppard since 1983. Even seen then twice, once in Dallas as the headliner and again in 2014 when the co-headlined with KISS. But in terms of buying albums, I left off with Hysteria.

That changed this year when I stumbled onto Euphoria, the band's seventh studio album that turns twenty this summer. It's a really well-done album, but, surprisingly, one song stands out.

The tenth track of the 13-track album is "Disintegrate." It's an instrumental and, based on what I've read, it stands and the first instrumental song by the band since 1981's "High and Dry."

Anyway, as I was listening to the record top to bottom, "Disintegrate" made me stop and listen to the song again. Immediately. Then I finished the record. I've heard the entire album a few times now, but this song is my favorite.

It's got a great combination of a big pop-metal melody with a big of late 90s industrial-type undertones. As modern as it sounds, the tune still sounds very much like Def Leppard. 

Guitarist Phil Collen wrote the tune, and it clocks in under three minutes. He could have gone on for twice that time. 

If there's a favorite song of March 2019, it's Def Leppard's "Disintegrate."

And here's a video where Collen performs the song for the first time.

I'd be remiss if I also didn't congratulate Def Leppard for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this weekend. Here's is Queen's Brian May's speech.

The Music of 1999 - Brand New Day by Sting

Sting’s 1999 CD, “Brand New Day,” was released ten years ago last Monday (28 September). Coming three years after “Mercury Falling,” Brand New Day (BND) was the return of Happy Sting. For many, the 1996 Mercury Falling was a somber collection. Yes, it had its downer songs—what Sting CD doesn’t?—but his Motown influences certainly made the CD unique among Sting’s oeuvre. You cannot miss the lightness with BND. If you’re like me, most of Sting’s music reminds me of seasons and weather. If Mercury Falling was a “winter” CD, BND was all summer. Musically and lyrically, Sting was in a sunny, warm, and often inviting place.

Coming mere weeks before the millennial calendar change, Sting channeled the anniversary with his first track, “A Thousand Years.” Not one to shy away from grandiose themes, Sting’s meditative singing is almost a devotion to love and longing. Evoking lovers who exist in some sort of transcendental plane not our own, Sting sings of love lost, regained, and cherished. If the album BND is a summer day, “A Thousand Years” is the darkness before the dawn.

If BND is known for one thing, it’s “Desert Rose” (introduced to the world via the Jaguar commercial). The compelling, fast-paced song is intoxicating in its rhythms, beats, and feel. Cheb Mami, an Algerian vocalist, sings the Arabic lyrics that act as counterpoint to Sting’s English lyrics. Interestingly, when Sting asked Mami if he’d like to sing with him, he sent Mami the instrumental track. Both men listened and wrote essentially the same song. How’s that for synchronicity? This is a happy, fun song, even if the lyrics speak to the lost. More than one critic, in 1999 and beyond, have noted the over synthesized nature of BND. It’s certainly here in “Desert Rose,” but the layers merely add to the overall effect of what is, in my opinion, the best song on the album. I’d rank it in the top two or three of all time. Here's the video from his live concert.

If there is a secret weapon on BND, it’s trumpeter Chris Botti. For Sting, jazz has always been a major influence on his music (remember Branford Marsalis and Kenny Kirkland in the 80s?) and one of his jazz heroes is Miles Davis. With Botti, playing with a Harmon mute, dancing in and out of the shadows of songs, Sting is essentially playing with Davis’s heir. Botti first shows himself in “Big Lie, Small World,” a nice little Brazilian song. Botti’s trumpet flits in and around the melody, sometimes complimenting a lyric, other times doing his own thing. He closes out the song with a solo that, in 1999, had me scrambling for the liner notes to figure out just who this guy was. On tour, Botti played on almost every tune, bringing nuances to the songs that I don't think Sting knew existed. Brilliant trumpeter who knows that silences and rests are just as important as thousands of notes. I have followed his career ever since.

The remainder of the album has the types of songs you’d expect from Sting’s experiemental mind. “After the Rain Has Fallen,” (video) with its call for a life of adventure and romance, is a story song not unlike “The Pirate’s Bride,” a European-only cut from the previous album. With tongue firmly in cheek, Sting sings from a dog’s POV (for the second time; bonus points if you know the first time*) in “Perfect Love Gone Wrong.” Botti’s all over this song. In a fun treat, when the POV shifts to the dog’s owner, the music not only shifts from its jazzy jaunt to deep funk but the lyrics are rapped (by a female vocalist). Yeah, really, but it works. “Tomorrow We’ll See” has Sting singing about a prostitute, bringing out his clever use of vocabulary, rhythm, and rhyming. Sting returns to his country & western vein (that he tried out on Mercury Falling’s “I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying”) with “Fill Her Up” (Video) It’s a fun, up-tempo tune with steel guitar, fiddle, cat calls and a gorgeous backing choir. If you could say any song is jarring, it’s this one. Not to say it’s bad; it’s just a little off-putting when you’re in music and rhythms that are decidedly European in origin to be jettisoned to Memphis, Tennessee. The message, however, is all Sting: pure optimistic joy at the power of love.

Effervescent, joyous, jubilant, infectious, “Brand New Day” is one those quintessential Sting songs (the video). You can’t help but smile as the song just bops along while Sting tries to get all the words out of his mouth in time and on beat. Stevie Wonder contributes harmonica on the album, something Sting mimics during the tour. As the song fades away, the theme from “A Thousand Years” returns, bookending a fantastic CD. With its exhortations of turning the clock to zero to start a brand new day, it’s no wonder Sting sang this song at midnight of 1 January 2000 in New York’s Times Square.

There isn’t a Sting album I don’t’ like (yeah, even “The Soul Cages). The first album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles, is a milestone in my musical evolution as I was introduced to jazz in a big way. "Nothing Like the Sun" and "Ten Sumner’s Tales" are classic examples of nearly perfect pop records that speak to love and world issues. Brand New Day can sit right besides those albums. While it’s not as perfect as those first three, it’s a very good piece of music by one of the more erudite and searching songwriters of our times.

Extras:

The Brand New Day Era was capped with a concert he performed at his home on 11 September 2001. If you remember, he was to simulcast the concert on the 11th via the internet, with many of the BND songs reworked and reinterpreted. In preparation of this event, Sting had a documentary crew film him and his band. The resulting DVD, “All This Time,” showed the rehearsals and gathering of friends, family, and fans at Sting’s Italian home. We know what they didn’t: the attacks were coming. It’s fascinating to watch artists deal with the violence in their own way. In the concert that night, Sting chose to play a reimagined “Fragile” as a tribute to the victims. Here’s the video. What follows, on the DVD, is proof of the things Sting sings about: the power of music and love to deal with unimaginable grief. As the concert progresses, song by song (truncated though it was by the exclusion of certain stables like “Desert Rose” and “Englishman in New York”) you see and hear this band of musicians and audience members find joy despite sorrow and power through music. As much as the song “Fragile” was dedicated to the victims of the attacks, the rest of the concert was as well. For the reworked songs, the DVD (and CD) is worth the price. For the joy you will get by the concert’s end, that’s priceless.

Extras, part 2:

In 1999, many songs found themselves remixed for discotheques all over the world. Usually, this entailed putting backbeats to the song, no matter the original rhythm. Some of the Brand New Day tracks have that. “A Thousand Years” is different. Bill Laswell takes the nearly six-minute song and *doubles* it’s running time. The opening is orchestral, introducing the theme with Middle Eastern effects subtly playing in the background. Back beats do start and Sting’s wispy voice seemed even more ethereal here. But it’s Chris Botti’s trumpet that get all the glory. The vocals end with over four minutes left, leaving Botti time to play with the melody. One could argue that this version of the song should have made the album.

*1987’s “Conversation with a dog,” available on the “We’ll Be Together” single.

The Music of 1999 - Introduction

Ten years ago, I finally grew up.

While that may be a harsh thing to say about a thirty-two-year-old person, it was true. After many years in college and graduate school, I managed to claw my way out of school and into a real life. I had met a new lady in 1998 and we were still dating. In late December 1998, I moved back to my hometown. I looked for and found a job. I courted that lady and we married in August 1999. As the fall of 1999 crept onward, the millennial rush started. Remember Y2K? Remember all the End of the World books and movies? Remember all the Best of lists? As a historian, the ending of 1999 brought a confluence of eras. You could have the Person of the Year (can't really remember), the Person of the Decade (Bill Clinton is my vote, for better or worse), the Person of the Century (Gavrilo Princip; think about it: who else affected the 20th Century more?), and the Person of the Millennium (Johannes Gutenberg). It was an exciting time.

On my car stereo back then, I was being introduced to new music by artists I had never heard of and older artists I knew and liked were creating some of their best music. For me, 1999 was a very special year and the music is an integral part of it.

So, I'm sharing some of my favorite albums and songs from a decade (!) ago. It'll be an on-going series for the next several Mondays, at least through November. Maybe you liked some of these albums, too. Maybe you hated them. I'd like to hear from you.

First up (a bit later today): Sting's Brand New Day.