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Rating: A Passing Snapshot
or cover-girls for BowieWhat is "Pinups"?
Pinups, like the young ladies who proudly and boldly flaunted their soft nude bodies to Playboy readers each month. Pinups, like the young actresses who for little money winked from the glossy pages. Pinups, like the girls who waved the handkerchief to signal the start of a deadly motorcycle race. Pinups, like the actresses in Elvis films, or the starlets who flooded post-war tabloids.
"Pinups", according to David Bowie, are the '60s, which means the most underrated covers of his entire career. The album (1973) seems forcedly nestled into the journey of the English artist, furthermore appearing monotonous and weak when compared to the illustrious predecessors and the subsequent history of transformations. Listening closely and turning up the volume, I wonder if this record could be considered an ideal transition from the arrogant glam-rock of "Aladdin Sane" to the decadent soul of "Diamond Dogs" and then "Young Americans". Indeed, all the elements that made the musical aspect of the Ziggy Stardust character unique are present, but also previews of the turn to the "Philly sound." Compact and distorted guitars, falsetto vocals, and string dissonances are accompanied by saxophones played full throttle, raucous screams, and at times slightly funky rhythms. He sheds the drugged ghosts of his mod period by throwing the Pink Floyd of Syd Barrett, the Yardbirds, the Who, the Easybeats, and the Kinks—just to mention the most famous ones—into the meat grinder of his rough and roaring arrangements. The screeching pick that transitions from "Rosalyn" by the Pretty Things to "Here Comes The Night" joins a comic and intermittent scream, and the effect is sublime, much like the subsequent entrance of the horns. "See Emily Play" truly sounds grotesque, its tail remains psychedelic and absurd thanks to the free-jazz digressions of the great pianist Mike Garson. Tracks like "Everything's Alright" or "Friday On My Mind", halfway between boogie and paranoia, entertain and make one dance: is "Pinups" nothing more than a joke? Or is it the cornerstone of the glam evolution? Perhaps not, not all the tracks measure up: "I Can't Explain", "Don't Bring Me Down", "Shapes Of Things", and "Where Have All The Good Times Gone" feel like a caprice dismissed too quickly. . . but who are we to judge such a refined and roguish game at the same time? And then there's "Sorrow", unforgettable, languid, velvety, like Bowie's gaze as he approaches Amanda Lear in the crazed filming of the "1980 Floor Show" (1973 Midnight Special, The Marquee Club).
So what is "Pinups"? The hallucinated duet with Marianne Faithfull, a perfect and poisonous kitsch fruit unfortunately absent from the album? A farewell to the simplicity and innocence of the early '70s? A gaze that can no longer hold up to the camera and sinks into an abyss of illusions? The androgynous washed-out portrait of Bowie and Twiggy or Norma Jean Baker, who perhaps deserved the Oscar? What is "Pinups?"
from "See Emily Play" (Syd Barrett)
"Emily tries but misunderstands
She's often inclined to borrow somebody’s dreams
until tomorrow (. . . )
Immediately after dark Emily cries
Gazing through trees in sorrow, silent until tomorrow (. . . )
Wears a dress made of mist flowing down to the ground
Drifted on by a river forever and ever
Emily"
(from Velvet Goldmine)
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Rosalyn (02:20)
Hey Rosalyn, tell me where you've been
Hey Rosalyn, tell me where you've been
All the night and all the day
Hide and seek's the game you play
Treat me as sure as sin
Oh Rosalyn, yeah Rosalyn
Hey Rosalyn, you're the girl for me
Hey Rosalyn, you're the girl for me
When I'm holding you so tight
It's so hard to say goodnight
It's you that I love now can't you see?
Do you really love me, do you love me true
Do you really love me Rosalyn?
Yeah gotta know, yeah gotta know
Yeah gotta know Rosalyn
Yeah gotta know, yeah gotta know
Yeah gotta know Rosalyn
Rosalyn
Yeah Rosalyn, Rosalyn, Rosalyn, Rosalyn, ooh-yeah, ah
06 I Can't Explain (02:10)
New feeling inside
It's a hot certain kind
I feel hot and cold
Down my soul, baby
I can't explain
Going out of my mind
Dizzy in the head, and I'm feeling blue
Things you say well maybe they're true
I get funny dreams again and again
Knows what it means, but
Can't explain
I think it's love
Say it to you
When I feel blue
I can't explain, no, I can't explain
You know I can't explain
I'm going out of my mind
Well I'm a worried guy
But I can't explain
07 Friday On My Mind (02:56)
Monday morning feels so bad (Friday's gone)
Everybody seems to nag me
Coming Tuesday I feel better (te te te te te te ter)
Even my old man looks good (bah-oom)
Wednesday just don't go (bah-oom)
Thursday goes too slow (bah-oom)
I've got Friday on my mind
(See my baby soon) Gonna have fun in the city (feel like f***ing you)
(Do my baby) Be with my girl she's so pretty (all I want to do)
(I am crazy) She looks fine tonight (zoom zoom zoom
zoom) She is out of sight to me (so divine)
(Tonight) I spend my brain
(Tonight) I lose my head
(Tonight) I've got to get tonight
Monday I have Friday on my mind
Do the five day drag once more (Monday blues)
There was nothing else that bugs me
More than working for the rich man (poor man, beggar man, thief)
Hey I'll change that scene one day (bah-oom)
Today I might be mad (bah-oom)
Tomorrow I'll be glad (bah-oom)
'Cos I'll have Friday on my mind
(See my baby soon) Gonna have fun in the city (feel like f***ing you)
(Do my baby) Be with my girl, she's so pretty (all I want to do)
(I am crazy) She looks fine tonight (zoom zoom zoom
zoom) She is out of sight to me (so divine)
(Tonight) I spend my brain
(Tonight) I lose my head
(Tonight) I've got to get tonight
Monday I have Friday on my mind
(See my baby soon) Gonna have fun in the city (feel like f***ing you)
(Do my baby) Be with my girl, she's so pretty (all I want to do)
(oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh) Gonna have fun-a, gonna have fun in the city (zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom)
(oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh) Be with my girl-a, be with my girl she's so pretty
(zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom)
(See my baby soon) Gonna have fun-a,gonna have fun in the city(real life loving you)
(Do my baby) Be with my girl-a,be with my girl she's so pretty ey ey(all I want to do)(zoom zoom zoom zoom) Gonna have fun-a , gonna have fun in the city (zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom) (ooh ooh ooh oooh) (zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom)
08 Sorrow (02:53)
With your long blonde hair and your eyes of blue
The only thing I ever got from you was sorrow
Sorrow
You acted funny trying to spend my money
You're out there playing your high class games of sorrow
Sorrow
You never do what you know you oughta
Something tells me you're a Devil's daughter
Sorrow, sorrow
Ahhhh, ah, ahhhh
I tried to find her
'Cause I can't resist her (I tried to find her)
I never knew just how much I missed her
Sorrow
Sorrow
With your long blonde hair and your eyes of blue
The only thing I ever got from you was sorrow
Sorrow
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh
With your long blonde hair
I couldn't sleep last night
With your long blonde hair
11 Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere (03:05)
I can go anyway (way I choose)
I can live anyhow (win or lose)
I can go anywhere (for something new)
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose
I can do anything (right or wrong)
I can talk anyhow (and get along)
I don't care anyway (I never lose)
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose
Nothing gets in my way
Not even locked doors
Don't follow the lines that been laid before
I get along anyway I care
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere
I can go anyway (way I choose)
I can live anyhow (win or lose)
I can go anywhere (for something new)
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose
Anyway, anyway I choose
I wanna go
Do it myself, do it myself, do it myself, do it myself
Anyway, anyway I choose
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