i swear i got tears in my eyes listening and seing this...Bowie was such a pure Talent and, as most of the Englush Acts, he had that Style in doing songs ....Unique
Looks like a statement on the settlement of aboriginal lands and the struggle of being second class in your own country. The red shoes represent the western life. Also China Girl is a great song from the same album.
Isn't it also meant as a rejection of consumerism? i always thought that would be rather ironic (if true) seeing as how this was arguably Bowie's most commercially successful song.
It’s about sacrifice. Pause the video at 2:30 and look at the paintings on the wall. Left is a one eye monster and on the right is a painting of a woman being sawn in half by someone wearing red shoes. Then watch the red shoe club with the podesta. There is even a less dance David Bowie video with all this played out and explained very well. I love this song and grew up with David Bowie but the evidence can’t be ignored.
Bowie is an absolute master. Bowie was making a statement about the struggle of the aboriginal people and how the red shoes represented western civilization. Very powerful narrative. He was a cool dude.
Yes it's about how white Western Civilization has taken the natural natives the Aboriginal people and convince them to sell some of their history and cultural identities and works of art desperately cheap for money to live in the modern Western Civilization that only benefits white Western and keep them underpaid and working cheap because they are looked upon as being second class because of their color and being native. And the young girl and her people are struggling to try to fit into all the glamor by taking jobs that underpays them as a struggle to try to catch up to the ideal lifestyle that Western Civilization says that you supposed to look like and dress like in order for them to survive they see they are still selling their cultural identity cheap that's why you see the girl go back in her mind to step in and mingling up the shoes on the ground because they see exactly now what is happened to them and the ideas that keeps them at the bottom of the heap pretty much the way Black America in America has been done and native America in America United States.🙆🏾♀️
🙆🏾♀️ oh by the way my great grandmother was an aborigine who came to the states when she was about 12 years old with her parents from Australia and she married a black American man when she was 16 in the early 1900s
The story was the David wanted something people could dance to but wanted to combine blues-rock. That was a great album Bowie, Niles Rogers, and Stevie Ray Vaughn.. even Giorgio Moroder. Great combination.
There's so much David Bowie material out there, it's like another Madonna series if you do it. And I wouldn't mind one bit. "Ashes for Ashes" is my favourite song, but there are so many others.
I love Bowie! Madonna loves David, her first concert go as a teenager was a Bowie one - she worked with Nile Rogers on the Like a Virgin album after hearing this album. You should review China Girl, the beat is instantly memorable.
Produced by Nile Rogers, pure genius. Check out We are family, He's the greatest dancer, I'm coming out, Upside down. Sooo many great songs he has produced over the years.
Without question one of my top 5 songs EVER. I could be anywhere in the world and hear this and know things were going to be awesome. Nile Rogers production is dripping from this entire album, and really introduced Bowie to the MTV generation. Just SUPERB!!! Thank you so much for reacting to this!!
Great choice as a starting point for Bowie who decided to do a “pop” record, but, on his terms which elevates this “pop” song to another level and I think you definitely got that based on your reaction. I suggest you check out “Sound and Vision” which is an amazing song.
A bit of trivia. Madonna is a huge fan of Bowie - it was this album that drew M to work with Nile Rogers on Like A Virgin. Also, the String version of this song is amazing. It’s on iTunes.
Love Bowie.... Modern love is super upbeat.... love also Young Americans, Heroes (there is a beautiful version from Depeche Mode), Thursday’s child, This is not America...
David Bowie asked Nile Rodgers to come and play on his song. David Bowie came into Nile Rodgers’ room in the studio and showed him this arrangement he came up with. David played it on a 12 string guitar and it sounded like a folk song to Nile. Nile asked David if he could write a song using this arrangement. Nile added some things to it, and it became Let’s Dance. Nile talks about it in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NlDCPCwVNUw.html Steve Ray Vaughan also played guitar on this album.
You'll get a bunch of singles in these requests and songs about space, but I've gotta request a song I feel is very profound. David Bowie - We Are the Dead.
Also- the video is a huge commentary on the systemic racism that exists in Australia towards the indigenous people of that country. I think the red shoes represent working towards the kind of success the boy and girl imagine having in the “Other Australia”. Bowie was WAY ahead of his time. Notice she puts on the red shoes and they see an atomic blast? “ Western Culture will end your world.”
Bowie was an active supporter of human rights at the time. The red shoes represent the lure of the city/western life. But instead of the promise of prosperity the girl and boy find that they are treated as second class and return to the land hence stomping on the shoes. It was experimental at the time was shot in Australian outback.
Good musical review but I think you're right: you got lost in the music and didn't quite "get" the video and its message the first time around. If that happens, I think the best thing to do is to do a cut of the video and come back after re-watching it. Although you kind of caught up a bit at the end, it was clearly by researching it and not your own thoughts. The key part of this - that it's about the experience of the *Aboriginal people* of Australia and how they are treated in a country that's been their home for tens of thousands of years before white people arrived there, needed to be stated more. I think it should be obvious seeing that they are Aboriginal people and there's a clear interface with "white" Australia.
Red shoe club. Pause the video at around 2:30 and look at the paintings on the wall. Woman being sawn in half by a red shoe wearer. And a one eye monster on the other painting. Red shoe club.
The funk riff was written by Nile Rodgers who had a much funkier riff to offer Bowie originally. Nile Rodgers was a little intimidated by Bowie so he slowed the riff down to what it stands here.
Turn up in an Australian outback pub to Film this. Is about the systematic racism against our First Nations ppl. He loved here for years. Locations included Syd, beaches & Blue Mountains
the red shoes has further connotations as well..further back..."the red shoes" movie...much like "black swan" movie...watch thse movies and you will understand ....
..Since you liked the Bowie/Tina Turner duet (Tonight 1985) you should check out another love song, that he sings with the bassist In his band 1995-2004, Gail Ann Dorsey. The had amazing chemistry as well. Absolute Beginners: m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZG0_B-FUcYQ.html#searching
Great choice! Loved it. Would love to see your reaction to Tina Turner and David Bowie doing Let's Dance: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sDX3dH0twFo.html
Bowie was a genius an absolute legend, you could pick his songs out of a hat to react to and you would be guaranteed a good video and even better song. Tons to choose from but one of his most underrated songs was absolute beginners. A great video as well. Great reaction Dereck.
Bowie in the Australian Outback, what a contrast, just like his entire career. He was a groundbreaking artist. Check out Lazarus, his last video when he knew he was dying. Deep!
He loved it out here in Australia; he gave a whole heap of money to the dance school that the kids in this video were from, and he had a house at Elizabeth Bay in Sydney for a while.
Yesss Lets Dance is one great David Bowie songs, My faves are Changes, Life on Mars, Space Oddity, Starman, Young Americans, Heroes and Rebel Rebel tho... I hope you would react to them ^^
It is highly political but seems to go completely over your head? Paradise lost and treated like dirt in their own land, now highly commercialised, militarised and defiled. Australia not the only land that has happened to....
Of course they were acting. They just used unknown people to star in the video. The guy wouldn’t be pulling the machine he uses at work and the lady wouldn’t be scrubbing the road if they weren’t. Just saying. 😁
That was a great show! Only concert I saw that was better was Prince. Bowie and Prince are two of my all time favorites. Losing them both in the same year gutted me.
Let’s Dance as well as Bowie himself, were of it’s own paradigm. You had a challenge in categorizing this song, because there’s nothing to compare it to. His genius made him legend. Good job!
