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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 18h

This demo of the song is a duet with Hutch and was used to try to get a recording contract. The song would never make the cut for inclusion on any album.

Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 18h

This song was originally released by the band Djinn in 1966. Tony Visconti had recommended the group to Bowie and he performed the song with the group Feathers, his trio with John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson & Hermione Farthingale.

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 18h

365 Days of Bowie: Day 281 - Life Is a Circus
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ7b...
On Oct 8th 1969 Bowie was performing in Coventry. He was opening for Humble Pie & their manager was upset that he was doing an acoustic set instead of a mine performance.

#DavidBowie #DavidBowieDaily #LifeIsACircus

Life Is A Circus (Home Demo)

YouTube video by David Bowie - Topic

www.youtube.com

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 1d

This song was only performed on 17 dates of the A Reality Tour, of which there were 112 shows. While the song is one of the more standard pop/rock tracks of Bowie’s later era the vocal harmonies of Bowie, Gail Ann Dorsey, & Catherine Russell are beyond exquisite.

Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 1d

Quite a tragic song about a protagonist who ponders crashing into the Hudson River due to being let down by her boyfriend. A sort of modern, if more depressing, take on the same theme of Life on Mars.

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 1d

365 Days of Bowie: Day 280 - She’ll Drive the Big Car
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bohj...
On October 7th 2003 Bowie’s A Reality Tour came to Denmark with this song on the setlist.

#DavidBowie #DavidBowieDaily #Reality #She’llDrivetheBigCar

She'll Drive The Big Car

YouTube video by David Bowie - Topic

www.youtube.com

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 2d

I haven't had a Spotify account for a few years now so it won't let me listen. :(

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 2d

Even in 2002 Bowie admitted to this being one of his favorite songs to perform and one of the few he could always go back to. During the Earthling era it was given major revamp to fit Bowie’s band of that era. 25-minute mark of this clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jquk...

www.youtube.com

Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 2d

The Top of the Pops performance: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEmG...

David Bowie's lost 1973 Top of the Pops performance of The Jean Genie

YouTube video by GrabMore

www.youtube.com

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 2d

The song started as a tour bus jam session based around a riff from Mick Ronson. The song was laid down in a single take despite a famous fuck up in the song where Trevor jumps in on the bass too early and Bowie said ‘let it in’ The mistake has been replicated on stage ever since.

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 2d

The first song written from the Aladdin Sane album. A song that channels Detroit and New York and is written about an Iggy Pop-like character. The idea of a white-trash, trailer-park who is actually an intellectual but would never let anyone know.

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 2d

365 Days of Bowie: Day 279 - The Jean Genie
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z62N...
On October 6th 1972 David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars were in Manhattan at RCA Studios recording this song.

#DavidBowie #DavidBowieDaily #TheJeanGenie #AladdinSane

David Bowie - The Jean Genie [4K Upgrade]

YouTube video by David Bowie

www.youtube.com

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 3d

This song was performed live and was used as a transition song during the 1978 Isolar II tour. It showed up during 2002’s Heathen Tour and its final performance was on September 22nd in a unified Berlin.

Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 3d

The entire B-side of the album Low was Bowie’s reaction to seeing the East bloc, how West Berlin survives in the midst of it all, which was something he couldn’t express in words. Rather it required textures.

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 3d

And you really do feel the melancholy in the song about West Berlin, a city that is slowly withering as it has been cut off from the art and culture of its past with seemingly no hope of retribution or reunification.

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 3d

Originally, I didn’t plan to use any instrumentals but hearing this song near the top of the list as I looped around again, I finally realized that the lyric-less tracks are equally important to Bowie’s legacy.

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 3d

Of Bowie’s instrumental pieces this one has become one that has stayed with me. When I was compiling the list of songs for this year long escapade, I quickly pulled out all the favorites and then listened to the rest over and over and over again to immerse myself into them and find new favorites.

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 3d

365 Days of Bowie: Day 278 - Art Decade
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gsP...

An instrumental piece today from the 1977 album Low.

#DavidBowie #DavidBowieDaily #ArtDecade

Art Decade (2017 Remaster)

YouTube video by David Bowie - Topic

www.youtube.com

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 4d

This is one of the albums I bought on release date. I remember working a 12-hour day doing a Y2K upgrade at a sewage plant in Milwaukee, the makers of Milorganite. Then I hit up Hot Topic to buy this CD. <-That might be the most 20th century sentence I’ve ever said.

Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 4d

The song was also in the video game Omikron: The Nomad Soul and a remix version of the song was used on the American Psycho soundtrack. The song also was used in the closing credits of the movie Memento.

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 4d

Reeves Gabrels put it well: Something In The Air. A breakup song. A lost relationship viewed in the rear view mirror. On the subject of Gabrels, Plati mentions how the man the press calls ‘Mr. Noisemeister’ guitar work is just superb in this song.

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 4d

He stated their relationship ending likely prevented a great mistake and he also stated he was drawing in some emotions from those around them who were not going through the greatest of times in their relationships.

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 4d

While many try to find autobiographical statements from Bowie in his music this song was not describing Bowie’s life at the moment as he was in a very happy relationship. Though in interviews he hinted at meeting a past lover years later and realizing just how little spark was actually there.

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 4d

365 Days of Bowie: Day 277 - Something in the Air
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCxZ...

On October 4th 1999 Bowie dropped the album Hours with this song as the second track.

#DavidBowie #DavidBowieDaily #SomethingintheAir #Hours

Something In The Air (2021 Remaster)

YouTube video by David Bowie - Topic

www.youtube.com

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Streak from Manly Battleships @manlystreak.bsky.social · 5d

It was Bowie seeing how capitalists come in and try to turn everything into a grift, how people turn hypocritical as fame and money rain down upon them. Yet he is also seeing that despite all this there is always a new generation coming out to take the places of those that betray themselves.

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