The intertwined back-story of Life On Mars (Bowie) and My Way (Sinatra) | The Daily Doug (BTS Ep 33) 

So this is beautiful piano nowadays. It could have been a study or practice for students of the 19th century. Hey-good is good no matter when.

Rick tells a great story about this. When the recording was done he went to his local pub with a pretty smug look on his face. His mates asked him what the look was for. He replied "because I just played on one of the best songs I've ever heard". If you ever get a chance to see Rick play live, do it. He's as talented a story teller as he is a musician.

Actually I'd go further than that, I think Ronson co-wrote it.

There’s an awesome doc about Ronson on RU-vid that really details just how much Bowie owes to him.

Actually the original song is called 'For You' by Jacques Revaux, written in 'yaourt' as French musicians say - yoghurt. This means a lyric that sounds like English but written by someone who doesn't speak English, for a non-English-speaking audience. Still quite a popular method today with professional bands playing for working-class audiences, who some say prefer it to actual English lyrics. Like Bowie's version, it was rejected and Revaux sold the song to Claude François (known as Cloclo), who got his lyricist Gilles Thibaut to write new lyrics as Revaux played the song by Cloclo's swimming pool. Everybody was happy with it, so they recorded it, and at the studio as they were filling in the form to register it with SACEM, the French performing rights organization, the producer said to Revaux, oh, by the way, Claude wants 50% of the rights for the music. So Revaux signed away millions of dollars. It has made more money than any other song on SACEM's books.

Doesn't it modulate a great deal in his playing? Brad Mehldau also did a beautiful version as one of the encores of his "Playing the Beatles' songs on Piano" show in Paris (the entire show is around on Youtibe and is a must-hear!)

F clearly sounds to me as the pitch wanted for the song and the actual speed of recording I'm sure. The slowed down version used here feels not right with Bowie's voice (as if slurred) and hints one or two "pitch-corrected" digital sort-of gaps in the notes from lowering digital speed. Maybe a vinyl playback/mastering issue; curious to know other takes on this. I ever heard it as low in any LP/CD versions

I understand that in the analog recording in of 60's-70's there were times/situations where pitch became a concern whether it was in the engineering or the producers wanting more strength out of the vocal mix (going either sharp/flat). What is confusing to me is having sheet music that is in the wrong key of the music being played and with the score that is incorrect. I understand Doug wanting it to be easy for him, but for some of us not experts in reading music/theory it is a confusing exercise. I really do love the song and David Bowie in general is an absolute genius :)

PS I only saw Bowie once in the 80s. A great show I watched from the 8th row!

That is amazing- I was thinking about the classic "Hulk" music and "hearing" a melody in the same key- but as you mentioned (barrowing?) from both scores. Music can be a derivative art form, just like everything else creative in the world- thank you for the comment and bit of history :)

History is full of "What if" scenarios- but one thing for sure, we all benefited from Bowie's version which to me is the best one- it is the best commentary on being humble, observing the world through an empathic/compassionate lens and not interjecting the "Self" being the most important character in the world. Bowie was a such a great artist in everything he did musically, he redefined what pop music was in the 70's putting his unique art in the center of it!

I used to think it was Gilbert Bécaud who had first sung it in France (and written the lyrics) but found out some years ago that ir was Claude Francois, a huge star in France at the time and through the seventies. There was a very good French tv biopic about him around five years ago.

I remember Rick Wakeman saying that Bowie would move musically in unexpected ways. Life on Mars has moments where you expect a certain resolve and Bowie doesn’t go there at all. Absolutely more challenging to listen to, much more interesting.

@@bethrappeport9381 Since I "got" the lyrics, it's even more goosebumps. In fact they never go away with that song. Pure poetry.

I have an Abbey Road songbook that is just bizarre. I felt as if the transcriber (more like translator) did the book from memory! That, or he made it as the least likely chords guitarists would ever use that also befuddle keyboard players.

Yeah they truncated the American version just as it was starting to get good near the end.

@@tranquilitybase6417 Agree. Ruined it with a nice tidy ‘it was all a dream(simulation)’ ending.

That’s Rick Wakeman on piano btw

The American version had the "surprise" ending all queued (cued?) up from the beginning, so they could 'resolve' the series whenever they wanted to. That is, when they didn't see the ratings they wanted.

From interviews I've seen with Ken Scott there were only 2 takes of the song, the 2nd overwrote the first but was played a touch faster. The "odd" bit at the end was from the 1st take. The voice you hear is Mick Ronson about to go into full meltdown mode when a phone in a room adjacent to the studio rang. Ken says the swearing was spectacular as the 1st take was perfect. It's possible they preferred the pace of the 1st take and simply slowed the tape speed a little to match it when they did the final mixdown, or it could have been done a the mastering stage.

Doug did The Wall recently and can be found on his Patreon. Here is a link to a master list of all Doug's reactions. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UEvcDKlhqywcJsJobsUgrNi61NP3-c1KFHhgKoKubtg/edit#gid=0

@textontelegramviaofficialf5425 i really want you to Enjoy this vidéo . I am 61 tests Olds ans for me There nothing like it

@textontelegramviaofficialf5425 and i saw every prog band multiples Times

​@textontelegramviaofficialf5425 Ok as you can see, I've written a lot so I'm writing this kind of fast so grammar/spelling might not be great. I've also cut it up into two separate posts Part I if you like experimental and somewhat avant-garde checkout Providence from King Crimson For Fusion Mahavishu Orchestra pretty much created the genre. It's hard to say what is their best material. Their 1st album is probably the most aggressive. Dawn has a very nice violin and Guitar solo. "The Dance of Maya" is pretty interesting. Their album "Between Nothingness & Eternity" is a live album which is incredible. Check out the song "Sister Andrea". The best orchestrated Mahavishnu Orchestra is probably "Visions of the Emerald beyond," Check out "Eternity's Breath" - Part 1 and Part 2. Then there is Jean luc Ponty who I'm sure you know about. He was originally classical trained then switched to Jazz. He started with Frank Zappa and then played with Mahavishnu Orchestra and was the violinist on "Visions of the Emerald Beyond", which I just mentioned above. Probably his best album is Enigmatic Ocean. For Enigmatic Ocean I would check out "Enigmatic Ocean - Part-IV" and "The Struggle of the Turtle to the Sea - Part I-III". His album Cosmic Mesenger is also very good. I would also check out "Imaginary Voyage partis I-IV". If you like layered music with a counterpoint, check out "Far from the Beaten Paths". For interesting, beautiful instrumentals check out Ponty's "Intuition" and The Gift of Time" Then there is Brand x whose original drummer was Phil Collins but Brand x is usually almost entirely instrumental. Collins is actually a good drummer. I would checkout some tunes like "So to F" and "Nuclear Burn" Then there is the trio called OHM which is Chris Poland's band who was the guitarist for MegaDeath but starting in the 1990s he switched direction to instrumental fusion. I've been listening to this band a lot. They are very good. Its hard to narrow it down. You can search for any of the following on youtube Chris Poland / OHM @ The Schecter Guitar Party NAMM 2013 (Full Set) Chris Poland's OHM at the baked potato 3/3/15 Ohm (Chris Poland) - Live at KPFK 90.7 - 2003 Ohm- Ohm full album Ohm - Amino Acid Flashback [Full Album] Chris Poland-Chasing The Sun (full album) Then there is this Japanese Fusion band called Fragile. Pretty much everything they do is great., Their drummer died November of last year. They haven't put out anything i think since 2011. Check out "Fragile Live modest & proud japanese jazz fusion" but again pretty much anything they do is really good and hardly anyone outside of Japan knows about them. Then there is another Fusion group called Cab. I think their best album is a live album they put out in 2002. Search for "CAB ‎- Live! (2002)" which is on the Terminal Passage channel. The best two tunes on this album are Temperamental and Night Splash IMO.

@@thewestfaceofdhaulagiri6697 That was not Doug that responded to you. It was a scam. However, Doug has done several full album listens and a behind the score of King Crimson. They would be blocked on YT, but they can be found on Doug's Patreon. You can also check the daily Doug directory for a list of all of Doug's reactions and links to them all. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UEvcDKlhqywcJsJobsUgrNi61NP3-c1KFHhgKoKubtg/edit#gid=0