The passing of the days is captured in art

From the equally soon-to-be-gone Our Valued Customers:

David Bowie: Tribute oddity

From the YouTube channel of Simon Price, a fairground organ in Utrecht plays Space Oddity:

The David Bowie I knew, and what it says about me

There's been no end of great (and also rotten) pieces written about David Bowie, but none perhaps as strange as former NME editor Steve Sutherland's bit which appears in the Stratford Herald. Oddly - I suspect as a quirk of a local paper's publishing system - the online version appears under his wife's byline.

It turns out Steve attempted to save Bowie from Tin Machine by sending him a shoegaze mixtape:

Now, knowing his reputation as a magpie, scarfing up other people’s ideas, sprinkling some fairy dust on them and then successfully representing them as his own, I figured Dave might benefit from an earful of some new stuff, so duly made him a cassette.

The tracklisting went something like Lush, Moose, Chapterhouse, Adorable , Slowdive, The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Telescopes, Ride — a veritable who’s who of shoegazers making a name for themselves at the time and a line-up I felt sure would top-up Dave’s creative juices.

Just goes to show how wrong you can be! A few weeks after I sent him said tape, I received a very nicely wrapped package which contained a small broken-up jigsaw of Michelangelo’s David. When the pieces were all put in place, there was a message handwritten on the back in, if I recall correctly, green ink, the gist of which went something like, “Thanks for the lovely tape. Not really my cup of tea. Try this instead.” The “this” was a cassette tape of Different Trains, an interminable modern classical piece by avant-garde composer Steve Reich performed by the dreaded Kronos Quartet. Shudder.

It turns out that Steve - by this point having moved from the Melody Maker to the NME - had a bit more luck with the next generation of British indie stars:

My last encounter with Mr Bowie was not long after I took over editing NME. All the staff hated me for reasons we needn’t go into here but I figured — rightly as it turned out — that if I could deliver a journalistic coup, they might come around.

So what I did was arrange for David Bowie to meet Brett Anderson from Suede, who were then the hottest band in Britain. I sat in on and taped their conversation with Brett, being a big fan, asking tons of questions and Bowie, being Bowie, offering up sage avuncular advice about not doing too many drugs like he once did etc.

Again, a fun day made easy by Bowie’s polite and gracious ease in company, and his genuine interest in what Brett had to say.

Brett and Bowie, coming together to save an NME editor. There's surely a Hollywood movie in that?

Goodbye, Spaceboy

That's been a hell of a day. You could hear Shaun Keaveny on 6Music trying to keep it as light as possible, but also trying to keep it together. The Today programme was noticeably less interested in the other stories it had to cover; the Archbishop of Canterbury's appearance to talk about the death pangs of the Anglican Communion was cut down.

Twitter - for a while, at least - was united in positive memories. (Tumblr, being Tumblr, less so).

And it's not that Tumblr didn't have a point, it's just that its timing was off - there's time to sift through the Nazi stuff, and the China Girl video, and Tin Machine and the period when he perhaps became detached from a sense of humour. But let's have a moment to fill out the pro column first, shall we?

Here's a quick round-up of some of the coverage from today that you might have missed:

OpenLearn remembering the Banc, the Bonds and the ISP

The Western Daily Press on Bowie at Glastonbury

Vox on Bowie's part in ending the Cold War

The Local (German news in English) takes a photo tour of Bowie's Berlin

The Evening Argus on Bowie's live album recorded in Falmer

Liverpool Echo on alteregos in pop, and 1977 gig photos

The New York Times on Bowie's impact on fashion

Atlas Obscura remembers The Laughing Gnome

Billboard catches up with Peter Schilling, who had a US hit with a "sequel" to Space Oddity

Bustle collects the best Bowie lyrics

Legendobit: David Bowie

The radio alarm clicked on this morning to the words "it's been announced in the last few minutes that David Bowie has died."

So the new album turns out to have been like a bush doing one last fruiting; a coda, not a rebirth.

Fuck.

Bookmarks: David Bowie

A brief and entertaining guide to David Bowie's adventures in gender transgression:

Alienation and gender fluidity also play out in Bowie’s music videos. A particularly enduring gestural act is performed in the music video for Boys Keep Swinging (1979), directed by David Mallet.

In the midst of his drag of Hollywood starlets, Bowie aggressively pulls his wig off and throws it off stage, then with the back of his hand, defiantly smears his lipstick across his face. Reappearing moments later as another drag persona, he repeats those gestures, as if to reinforce the gender subversion.

Embed and Letterman: David Bowie

Here's a poorly-dressed Bowie from the start of the century, pushing the Heathen album and talking about the internet:



Enough talking. Let's hear him do some music:


[Part of Embed and Letterman]

Paloma Faith: Pop stars are dead

Pop stars? THERE ARE NO POP STARS, screams Paloma Faith:

Paloma Faith thinks David Bowie is the last great pop star.

The 'Can't Rely On You' singer reckons pop is dead because of social media and fans know too much about their idols.

She told the Daily Star newspaper: "There's no mystery or excitement about being a pop star any more.

"People know everything now, there's no stone unturned with social media."

It's not often that I feel the need to defend Madonna, but... surely Madonna? Maybe even GaGa? Or Perry? Can you really say they're not proper pop stars?

Meanwhile, a 1980s teenager writes: "yeah, we weren't motivated to know every last scrap of information about our heroes. We'd never buy magazines about them; and certainly when Look-In tried to provide information files on the stars, we'd insist our local newsagents redacting the data points in case we found out what sort of things our pop stars liked to eat or watch."

Faith hasn't quite finished:

She said: "It was brilliant that David Bowie won a BRIT Award and totally deserved, he's an incredible artist and the last of a generation."

She may have said something else, but everyone ran off to read the Kate Bush gig announcement at this point and her words were left hanging in the air.

Brits 2014: The morning after

A couple of thoughts as the 2014 circus passes into history.

First: If Kate Moss mumbling something about Scotland is the most outrageous thing to happen, congratulations: your awards ceremony is officially moribund.

There is an interesting point, though: if Scotland does break from the UK, would it have an influence on the Brits?

Not really. None of last night's winners are Scottish. None of the performers were Scottish. I don't think any of the award presenters were Scottish.

Bowie might have been better off sending the message 'Scotland, join us' rather than 'stay with us'.

For the record, here's the full list of winners:
British Male Solo Artist - David Bowie

British Female Solo Artist - Ellie Goulding

British Group - Arctic Monkeys

British Breakthrough Act - Bastille

British Single - "Waiting All Night" by Rudimental ft. Ella Eyre

British Album Of The Year - AM by Arctic Monkeys

Best Video – One Direction

International Male Solo Artist - Bruno Mars

International Female Solo Artist - Lorde

International Group - Daft Punk

Global Success - One Direction

Critics' Choice - Sam Smith

British Producer Of The Year - Flood & Alan Moulder

Today just tried to draw the Arctic Monkeys on the Scotland issue, and got rewarded with one of those sub-Lennon "witicisms" rather than an answer. Their desire to not say anything upsetting confirms they've passed a certain point in their career - the Muse Horizon - where they just turn up with album after album that sounds a bit like the last one; the record business assumes they're some sort of edgy, alternative act; and everyone does very nicely out of this drifting along. Apart from the fans.

Finally:

#Brits2014 host James Corden interrupted a speech from Prince to take a selfie #r4today pic.twitter.com/TqxOCADL2H

— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) February 20, 2014

You can see Prince thinking "aaaand this is why I don't do this sort of thing."

Mercury 2013: Apparently a level playing field for Bowie & Bugg

So, the shortlist for the Mercurys was released yesterday, and it's in no way undermined by having found space for both James Blake and Jake Bugg on it.

Obviously, Bowie, who managed to combine a re-entry into music, releasing an album and pulling off a coup de theatre should just be given the prize now - for if the remit of the Mercury is intended to promote the idea of an album as an event, releasing the only album that created a stir beyond the music press surely did that?

Of course, it might not have been as good as the Savages album, but that's not really the point.

Here's the list in full:

Arctic Monkeys - AM
David Bowie - The Next Day
Disclosure - Settle
Foals - Holy Fire
Jake Bugg - Jake Bugg
James Blake - Overgrown
Jon Hopkins - Immunity
Laura Marling - Once I Was An Eagle (pictured)
Laura Mvula - Sing to the Moon
Rudimental - Home
Savages - Silence Yourself
Villagers - Awayland

Has anyone gone to ask One Direction fans if they have any problem with the shortlist?

Face '83: Nile Rodgers

Another full-album, this time from Nile Rodgers. This was the first outing he made under his own name, and you can see why the Face wanted to be impressed by Adventures In The Land Of The Good Groove.

Here's the title track:



Hmmm. Smash Hits gave it ten out of ten, and David Bowie was enthusiastic. But it was called Adventures In The Land Of The Good Groove.

In order to weigh up this one, let's call an expert witness. Niles himself talks about the record in his autobiography, and... well, he doesn't endorse the Smash Hits ten stars:

"I knew it was a flop right away. I'd been so afraid of being labelled a disco musician that I was too tentative about the album's direction. And the songs weren't hooky enough. Over all, I wasn't clear philosophically or sure what I was trying to say."

If it's not good enough for Niles, it's not good enough for us.

The Face 15; History 10

[Part of The Face's best recordings of 1983]

Face '83: Fonzi Thornton

We hit here a slightly fallow patch - given that it's virtually impossible for find Ruby Turner's Every Soul, or June Pointer's Don't Mess With Bill, online (there's a shit remix of one of the latter), let's give The Face the benefit of the doubt, and assume the originals were so glorious they ascended to heaven. 7-5.

Then there's David Bowie's Let's Dance. Not the greatest piece of Bowie's work - though, clearly, not the worst by quite a distance. Erring on the side of generosity, let's applaud The Face for supporting Bowie when a lot of popular opinion had written him off, shall we? 8-5.

Which brings us to Fonzi Thornton. A man whose Wikipedia entry kicks off with a great list of the people for whom he has provided backing vocals, while pushing the times he was at the front of the stage to the bottom of the page.

Mind you, all that work helping out others paid off when he came to make The Leader (the whole album is the Face's choice); he pulled in a bunch of favours and wound up with Luther Vandross, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, Jocelyn Brown and Kashif fleeting across the surface of the record.

It's possible that the starry cast blinded The Face to the shortcomings of the record. Thornton has gone on to appear on more than 120 further albums; only on one other occasion did he get top billing.

The Face 8; History 6.



[Part of The Face's best recordings of 1983]

First night: David Bowie - Five Years

On Saturday, BBC Two did what feels like the sixteenth or seventeenth Bowie night. You can still watch the cornerstone documentary, Five Years, on iPlayer, unless you're reading this in the future, or overseas, or on a print-out.

But what did people think?

Tim Footman at Cultural Snow liked it:

Although the basic narrative will be familiar to many, some of the freshly unearthed archive footage is a real shock to the senses, looping as it does in and out of the stuff that gets trotted out for every 70s nostalgia fest (Starman on TOTP, bits of Cracked Actor and so on). Moreover, the fresh interviews prove that there’s nothing inherently wrong with that much-derided format, the talking heads doc, provided the heads are judiciously chosen and given sensible questions to answer. Indeed, so rich were the pickings from people who worked with Bowie in some of his most productive periods (with Visconti *and* Eno *and* Fripp you’re spoiling us) that – completely irrationally and unfairly – I felt cheated by the very few omissions; why, for example, did we hear the recollections of guitarist Carlos Alomar and drummer Dennis Davis but not bassist George Murray? Were Angie Bowie or Iggy Pop washing their hair?

Actually, given Angie Bowie's track-record as an unreliable witness - claiming, variously, to have invented Bowie, bisexuality and possibly the concept of music - keeping her out the way was probably a wise move.

In The Guardian, Sam Woolaston concedes the programme was "better than most music documentaries", which he puts down to the subject, rather than the approach. But not before he has some fun at the programme's expense:

No, don't stop, more! Of Queen Bitch, Suffragette City, Fame, Golden Years, Young Americans, Ashes to Ashes, even Let's Dance. They're all rudely interrupted though. By Rick Wakeman, saying: "I got a call from Dave, he called me directly." A direct call, eh Rick?

Ha ha. Yes, that does sound stupid, except... it was worth noting, surely? Wakeman wasn't opening his eyes wide at the concept of a person-to-person call, more at the idea that Bowie spoke to him, rather than the more traditional 'have-your-people-call-his-people' route; that Bowie knew who we wanted, and went directly to him. Worth mentioning, surely?

Which Sam actually, sort-of acknowledges:

And Rick Wakeman's unpicking of Life on Mars is fascinating, because it's Life on Mars and it's Rick Wakeman (plus I'd show off a bit if Dave had phoned me, directly or otherwise).

Well, sort of.

For Michael Deacon in The Telegraph, it all comes down to class:

There was a bonus pleasure in being reminded that not only did Bowie have an incongruous speaking voice, but so did his early Seventies bandmates. Wafting around on stage: gold-bloused glamourpusses. Open their mouths: bricklayers from Hull.

The Scotsman's Aidan Smith spotted a brighter star than Bowie in amongst the contributors:

Five Years’ funniest contributor? Actually, that was Robert Fripp. If you know me as a prog-rock fan, you probably think it tediously predictable that I’d nominate someone from King Crimson, but, really, Fripp was hilarious. Did he think he was on Jackanory? Slightly alarmingly, did he think Jackanory was a forum for rude anecdotes (too rude to repeat here)?

Incidentally, after saving his readers from a fit of the vapours by repeating Fripp's anecdotes, Smith then details the upsetting plot of a crime programme where a kid was traumatised by seeing his mother, a sex-worker, murdered.

It makes you think, doesn't it, Helen Nianias over in Fabulous magazine's Tellyboxing column. What was it that made Bowie such a legend?:

Is he a the biggest genius of our time, or just a shrewd businessman? It’s a tricky line to tread. However, the opening shot of Bowie himself is breathtaking. But not because of what he’s wearing or saying or doing. As he descends a flight of hotel steps...

Yes?

...you see just how strikingly tall and thin he really was in his ’70s heyday.

David Bowie. He was tall.

Maybe someone should be pitching a show in which people measure pop stars and plot them on some sort of a graph?

Spiderobit: Trevor Bolder

Trevor Bolder, bassist with the Spiders From Mars and Uriah Heep, has died.

Bolder came from a musical family - his father a trumpeter; one aunt an opera singer another a music teacher. From the age of seven, he was in brass bands and, but for the intervention of the Beatles and the 1960s, would have carried his instrument into the Royal Marines Band.

Although it was The Beatles that inspired his brother and him to form a band, it was The Stones who really shaped his sound and style, acting as a gateway to blues. In a rare interview in 2003 Bolder explained how this shaped his style:

I started out from listening to a lot of the old blues players from ’30s and ’40s, listening to a lot of Sonny Boy Williamson, a lot of early blues stuff, copying it. We didn’t have a lot of blues albums in England when we were fourteen and learnt to play, but we liked it [the blues] so much that it was all we ever played. In Hull, we would go out just on Saturday with what money we had from mid-day working or whatever, and we used to buy every blues album we could find. We found all these great songs by all those people.

Bolder's first professional band was in the none-more-70s Mick Ronson outfit Ronno - he joined the band when it was still called The Rats, after their then-bassist refused to play a gig for fear of being electrocuted.

It was Ronson who would introduce Bolder to Bowie - at this point, Mick had already had one spell with Dave; when he was summoned back from Hull to London to help Bowie on a Peel Session, Bolder went with him. After that, things were Hunky Dory.

So Bolder became one of the Spiders From Mars; he stayed with Bowie until 1973 when - in his own words - Bowie just phased him out of his backing team. There would be a Spiders From Mars album without Ziggy which had some success in America, but without Bowie, and with Mick Woodmansey increasingly mired in the religion-style Scientology group, the band fell apart.

Bolder returned to Hull, and was about to form his own band when he was invited to join Uriah Heep. As their third bassist, you might have expected a tenure similar to that of a Spinal Tap drummer, but he remained with the group, more or less unbrokenly, until ill health forced him to step down last year. (There was a two year-long exile in Wishbone Ash.) He also came to write for the group.

In that 2003 interview, Trevor explained why he remained in the Heep:

The music and the friendship, the big thing. We’re all very good friends, we’ve gone through a lot of hard times together and a lot of great times, and we’re still here. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t friends with them, I wouldn’t play with them. I mean, I played with WISHBONE ASH for two years, and I never really fit in with them socially that well. I got on really well with Laurie [Wisefield] and I get on well with Andy Powell now, but I never felt like a member of that band.

Trevor Bolder died May 21st, from cancer. He was 62.

Gordon in the morning: Watching David Bowie with Noel Gallagher

Gordon has been reading the NME, and in particular Noel Gallagher talking about the David Bowie comeback:

[T]he HIGH FLYING BIRDS frontman is confused by the video to the legend’s track Where Are We Now?

Confused, you say?

“We’re still talking about that song. The video’s mad – like his f***ing cat directed it.”

That's not actually "confused", is it? It's just Noel saying that it's a bit out there, surely?

However, you can forgive Gordon struggling to make sense of anything Noel says. let's look at that lifted quote in full:

He told NME mag: “It’s great to hear his voice singing something new. The more you hear Where Are We Now? the better it gets.

“We’re still talking about that song. The video’s mad – like his f***ing cat directed it.”

But Noel added: “What it proved to me is that reunions are f***ing s****."

So, it's great to hear Bowie doing new stuff; and the new stuff gets better the more you play t; and it's an exciting talking point. So, er, that proves that reunions are shitty.

Sorry, what?

(Also: can you have a reunion if it's just you?)

NME Awards 2013: Shortlist

Hey, those cutting-edge types on the cusp of the future down at the NME have announced the shortlist for their 2013 awards. Strap yourselves into your most-firmly secured seats, straightsville, because here's the alternative to the Brits. Which crazy, left-field act is doing best, NME?

The Rolling Stones lead this years' nods with nominations in four categories ('Best Live Band,' 'Best Book', 'Music Moment of The Year', 'Best Music Film')

Really?

Oh.

It's interesting that three of these categories are faffy, non-core categories (best music film? Is that even a popular enough category to warrant giving a prize?). The nomination for best live band, though, is one in the eye for everyone who thought that giving it to Muse every fucking year was the most conservative award thinking ever.

To be fair, Tame Imapala and Haim have also both got four nominations - but it's notable that even although they scored the same number as The Rolling Stones, editorially, the NME decided the Rolling Stones were "leading".

Also surprising is that David Bowie's Where Are We Now is shortlisted in the best music video category. It only came out two weeks ago. Given that many of the categories were open for voting back before Christmas, how does that work, exactly? What exactly is the rule on qualifying period here?

It's not clear if NME is impressed, or allowing its embarrassment to leak out here, either, when they talk about how well MIA has done:

M.I.A. is also up for four awards - ('Best Track', 'Best Music Video', 'Best Dancefloor Anthem', 'Best Twitter' despite only releasing one single since the last NME Awards.

Here's the full shortlist:
Best British Band supported by SONOS
Arctic Monkeys
Kasabian
The Vaccines
Biffy Clyro
The Maccabees
The Cribs

Best Album
'Channel Orange' Frank Ocean
'Jake Bugg' Jake Bugg
'Given To The Wild' The Maccabees
'An Awesome Wave' Alt-J
'Come Of Age' The Vaccines
'Lonerism' Tame Impala

Best International Band supported by Rekorderlig Cider
The Killers
Tame Impala
The Black Keys
Odd Future
Crystal Castles
Foo Fighters

Best Track supported by Blackstar Amps
'R U Mine?' Arctic Monkeys
'Don’t Save Me' Haim
'Bad Girls' MIA
'Inhaler' Foals
'Best Of Friends' Palma Violets
'Elephant' Tame Impala

Best TV Show
Breaking Bad
Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy
Fresh Meat
Sherlock
The Thick Of It
Doctor Who

Best Music Film
Searching For Sugar Man
LCD Soundsystem: 'Shut Up And Play The Hits'
Hit So Hard : The Life & Near Death Story of Patty Schemel
Marley
The Rolling Stones: 'Crossfire Hurricane'
Led Zeppelin: 'Celebration Day'

Best Re-Issue
'Generation Terrorists' Manic Street Preachers
'21' Blur
'The Fat Of The Land' Prodigy
'Turn On The Bright Lights' Interpol
'Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness' Smashing Pumpkins
'Collected' Ian Brown

Best Solo Artist
Jake Bugg
Noel Gallagher
Florence Welch
Miles Kane
Grimes
Paul Weller

Best New Band supported by Spotify
Alt-J
Peace
Palma Violets
Django Django
Alabama Shakes
Haim

Best Music Video
'Oblivion' Grimes
'Bad Girls' MIA
'Where Are We Now?' David Bowie
'R U Mine?' Arctic Monkeys
'Don't Save Me' Haim
'Feels Like We Only Go Backwards' Tame Impala

Best Festival supported by Farah Vintage
Reading & Leeds Festivals
T In The Park
Bestival
Primavera
Latitude
Isle Of Wight

Best Live Band
The Maccabees
The Cribs
Blur
Biffy Clyro
Foals
The Rolling Stones

Best Dancefloor Anthem
'What You Came For' Mosca feating Katy B
'Sweet Nothing' Calvin Harris featuring Florence Welch
'Gangnam Style' Psy
'Bad Girls' MIA
'In Paris' Kanye West/Jay-Z
'Losing You' Solange

Best Twitter
Muse (@muse)
Fred Macpherson, Spector (@fredmacpherson)
Theo Hutchcraft, Hurts (@theohurts)
Alana Haim, Haim (@babyhaim)
Wiley (@EskiDance)
MIA (@MIAuniverse)

Best Book
David Byrne: How Music Works
Neil Young: Waging Heavy Peace
Mike Skinner: The Story Of The Streets
Tim Burgess: Telling Stories
The Rolling Stones: 50
Peter Hook: Unknown Pleasures : Inside Joy Division

Music Moment Of The Year
David Bowie returns
The Stone Roses play Heaton Park
Olympics opening ceremony
The Rolling Stones play London's O2 Arena
Green Day's secret set at Reading Festival
Pussy Riot's punk prayer

Hero Of The Year
David Bowie
Bradley Wiggins
Pussy Riot
Barack Obama
Frank Ocean
Dave Grohl

Villain Of The Year
David Cameron
Harry Styles
Skrillex
Psy
Fred Macpherson
Azealia Banks

Best Small Festival
Swn
The Great Escape
Field Day
Festival No.6
End Of The Road
Constellations

Worst Band
One Direction
Muse
Mumford & Sons
Alt-J
Justin Bieber
Ed Sheeran

Best Fan Community
Muse
Hurts
30 Seconds To Mars
Manic Street Preachers
The Killers
Enter Shikari

Best Film
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Ted
iLL Manors
The Dark Knight Rises
Skyfall
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

What comeback excited people?

So within a twenty-four hour period, David Bowie, Suede and Jimi Hendrix all came back from the dead with new singles.

Which comebacks excited people? Google Trends, can you help us?



Sorry, Brett. Sorry, the Estate Of The Late Mr Hendrix.

Bookmarks: Why buying records is as a good as a pension

Stumbling And Mumbling sees every penny invested in David Bowie records as a penny wisely spent:

It lies in the concept of consumption capital (pdf), described by Gary Becker and George Stigler.

When we bought and listened to Bowie records in the 70s and 80s we accumulated a stock of consumption capital. And the utility we derive from this is so great that a new addition to it naturally has low marginal utility.

In other words, what we think of as consumption is, in many cases, a form of saving - something that gives us utility in future years.Just as saving builds financial capital which we can draw on in future, so spending builds up a stock of satisfaction which we can draw upon in the future.

Does anyone really think the money they spent on Hunky Dory would have been better invested in the stock market? (If you do, leave now; you're not the sort of reader I want.)

First night... erm, morning: Where Are We Now?

So, yes: that new Bowie single.

Absolutely astonishing piece of work to get it released with hardly anybody knowing it was going to happen; and extraordinary for almost the entire world* to listen to a song for the first time, more-or-less simultaneously, and more-or-less without coming to it with a set of recommendations or disrecommendations ringing in their ears.

* - I'm using "the entire world" in the sense of "people who care about Western musicians of a certain age who were up at that time in the morning", of course.

It's possible to both admire the way the song has been put together - craftsmanlike, as you'd expect - and not really warm to it. But you don't care what I think, so let's take a quick look at some of the instant reaction.

The Guardian is surprised:

The glam-rock singer shot to fame in the late 60s with Space Oddity but has been largely silent in recent years, not performing live since 2006 and rarely appearing in public since then.

So surprised, they describe Bowie as "the glam-rock singer".

There's a difference of opinion between Ben Perreau and Jon Mundy:

@perreau well i’ll give it a better chance once i’ve dispatched the children. Seemed a bit dirgey (is that a word?)

— Jon Mundy (@jonmundy) January 8, 2013

@jonmundy Depends in what you like, Bowie doesn't really do the bright poppy stuff so much so I prefer his rootsier sounds.

— Ben Perreau (@perreau) January 8, 2013

Ah, you say "dirgey", I say "rootsy".

Still, a new single and a birthday. Joy to the world, eh?

I just listened to #Bowie. Feel a bit depressed now :(

— karenstrunks (@karenstrunks) January 8, 2013

But people who like it, like it very much indeed:

"I'm David Bowie. Here's a wistful ballad. Eat me, young people." #hero

— Adam Wilson (@theleanover) January 8, 2013

Ah lovely Bowie. AllRobery Wyatty and I did show ya the coolest mugshot ever...spooky huh?

— suzanne moore (@suzanne_moore) January 8, 2013

Only David Bowie could make a song about using public transport in Germany sound so wracked and lovely.

— Caitlin Moran (@caitlinmoran) January 8, 2013

Perhaps the oddest report this morning comes from The Next Web:

Returning after 10 years away, David Bowie embraces digital with iTunes-exclusive single

Josh Ong, David Bowie won a lifetime achievement award from the Webbys in 2007, nearly a decade after he launched BowieNet. I think it's fairly safe to say he'd already embraced digital.

David Bowie's morning surprise

Jesus, you can see why Bowie wanted to keep his new single, released this morning, a surprise. In fact, it's so weak, he'd probably have wanted people to not know about it after it became available.

Still, kudos to Bowie - who but he would surprise the world by releasing a single which appears to be a badly-broken part of Ray Davies' solo output?