Entertainment For Lively Minds
Tin Machine - discuss
Posted by PT on 11 January 2010 - 9:55pm.
Following recent celebrations of the Dame and a related blog entry stating that 'Working Class Hero' by Tin Machine was the best cover of a Lennon song, I decided to listen without prejudice:
http://open.spotify.com/album/0juQn8RD24F8sPnSWMZdls
I was always led to understand Tin Machine was unlistenable, however I'm quite enjoying it - am I wrong?
- More from PT.
- Login or register to post comments
-
You are right
Their debut album is one of the best things Bowie has ever done.
While I wouldn't go
as far as to say it's one of the best thing he's done, I really like the first album, the second one isn't great although I like the cover of Roxy's If There Is Something. And at the time, as a follow up to the truly awful Never Let Me Down, I thought it was fantastic, I remember hearing the first single, Under The God, and thinking that he was back on the ball at last.
Post-Scary Monsters and pre-Heathen...
... it's by far his best album. In fact, it may well be his best since Scary Monsters, full stop. Am falling in love with Heathen and Reality at the moment, after neither (bar the songs Sunday and New Killer Star) did too much for me at the time. Often went back and listened to Tin Machine, though, for an uncompromising dose of "f*ck you" mindset Bowie.
Loved it at the time, and love it still. Bus Stop, Amazing and Prisoner Of Love - three absolute gems, up there with his more famous classics. I think the album was much maligned by a press ready to stick the boot in even further post-Glass Spider.
Funnily enough, I think that if you can wade through the 80s production, even Never Let Me Down has some terrific moments. But Tin Machine's the one.
Tin Machine 2 is a bit tidier, a bit glossier, but equally great. Baby Universal is, I think, the third song in his quadrilogy (cheers, Alien-dvd makers) of "spaced out" sci-fi singles.
It goes space Oddity / Ashes To Ashes / Baby Universal / Hallo Spaceboy. Great stuff.
If anyone's got the five songs Tin Machine performed on Mark Goodier as a Radio 1 session, drop me a line - been looking for a copy for ages!
The second album.
I used to frequent a pub that had the second Tin Machine album on their jukebox, and it was one that came on on autoplay when it hadn't taken any cash for a while.
Other equally awful albums included Emotional Rescue, Bob Dylan's Unplugged, Prescence, The Waterboys' Room To Roam and some horrible mid 1980's Jethro Tull rubbish.
Room To Roam
is not awful. Far from it. A Man Is In Love, Something That Is Gone, and How Long Will I Love You are some of Mike Scott's best songs.
Bus Stop
From the first album is fantastic.
You've gotta hand it to the 1st Tin Machine album
It's a damn sight better than Never Let Me Down and Outside. Also, I've always thought Baby Universal was a great song.
I like Tin Machine - I'd
I like Tin Machine - I'd been advised to avoid it, but it's pretty decent. Not quite decent enough for me to bother tracking down 'Tin Machine II' and 'Oy Vey Baby' (the only Bowie albums I don't own).
But, but, but...
If they're the only ones you haven't got, then you must have Tonight?
Which means you have an album far worse than either Tin Machine studio release...
Tin Machine II is definitely worth tracking down.
Oy Vey Baby is, granted, non-essential.
Although
the cover of "If There Is Something" on Oy Vey Baby (awful title) is fecking awesome
Massive, I love you
Thought I was the only one
goodbye Mr Ed, I can't read, heaven in here.
Tin Machine did a cracking cover of 'Go Now'
for the NME 'Ruby Trax' compilation. I would posit that it's better than the original.
Can't find it on Spotify or Youtube though so you'll have to trust me on it :-)
Another fan
of T'Machine.
Some great songs on both albums...and gave me my closest view ever of Bowie at Newcastle Mayfair in 1991 - such a thrill!
Tin Machine: OY VEY BABY
I Bloomin' love Tin Machine, and have recently won the laserdisc of OY VEY BABY on Ebay!
This is Tin Machine live at the Docks in Hamburg 24-10-91.
It was shown on tv at the time but only in edited form. I watched the laserdisc last night and was knocked out by the whole thing! This deserves an official release!
Points of interest are a version of 'I've Been Waiting For You', which eventually ended up on Heathen.
Go Now, an old Moody blues song previously mentioned. Lead Vocals by Tony Sales.
And lots of songs not included on the OY VEY BABY album.
Complete tracklisting is:
Tin Machine backstage footage / Bus Stop / Sacrifice Yourself / Goodbye Mr. Ed / I Can't Read / Baby Universal / You Can't Talk / Go Now / Under The God / Betty Wrong / Stateside / I've Been Waiting For You / You Belong In Rock'n'Roll / One Shot / If There Is Something / Heaven's In Here / Amlapura / Crack City/ Tin Machine backstage footage. (88min)
I can run off dvd copies if anyone is interested!
gav
oy vey baby tin machine
Hi Gav machine
saw Tin Machine at Manchester international 2 in 1991
awesome show as is the oy vey baby show from Hamburg docks
I have had this show on vhs for years but alas no longer
have a vcr player I agree this show deserves an oficial
release but that dosent seem to be forthcomming I would
love a dvd of this show as it is exellent and have not seen it in years
please let me know how to get in touch with you for more info
cheers Gav
mickyt
0
I was working in a branch of Our Price...
when the first Tin Machine album came out. It was played a lot in the shop and I remember it as an ungodly racket. But I haven't heard it since so I might think of it differently nowadays. Unlikely, though...
I like the phrase "ungodly racket"
As an athiest and rock fan I can only assume that you really liked it?
God...
no!
Shouldn't that be
Under The Godly racket??
I always liked...
...Amlapura, off the second album. I'm listening to it now. nb, if you're Reading this more than five minutes after I post it, I'm not listening to it now.
I'll lay a little wager
that anyone who likes Tin Machine or any other Bowie stuff after Scary Monsters is 40 or under, give or take a year or two either side
36
How much do I owe you?
47
How much do you owe me?
Are you wrong? yep
Are you wrong? yep. Its hard to know where to start, in trying to list the problems with Tin Machine. Unmemorable songs delivered by by-the-numbers musicians, under soulless production. Some of the most sterile, effects box "rock" guitar you will ever hear. Drums dry as a click track.
Bowie has always been at the mercy of his collaborators. But Lord knows what happened here. His main asset, the recognition of talent in others - clearly deserted him on this 'project'.
are you right? probably
But you are missing acouple of things, you can turn it up loud and jump around your living room to it. I dont believe TM is wrongly maligned or a lost piece of art. I just find it fun, when I'm in the mood!
As Visconti said in his Word interview, D loses it when he tries to be commercial. What I love about TM is he just did what he wanted for a bit. Of course he wanted to shift units but TM after Never Let Me Down and Tonight woke him up again.
Dire 1980s productions
Is it possible for an album to be regarded in any way if, as one poster says, you have to 'wade through the 1980s production'?
The 1980s production 'IS' the record, isn't it?
I hated the era at the time and I have absolutely no compulsion to 'wade through' any of those production values ever again.
I've two questions: Exactly why was production so abysmal and, can a 20-year-old in 2010 recognise the difference between 1965 and 1985 productions?
I remember hearing (for a very short time 'cos I was listened virtually exclusively to 60s stuff thank the Lord) things like 'Empire Burlesque' and thinking......if you have made something with the clarity of 'Another Side Of....', 'Blonde On Blonde' and 'John Wesley Harding' wouldn't you be able to hear how horrible this sounds and want to record it in the way you used to?
Still absolutely baffles me and I suspect it always will.
"Exactly why was (80's) production so abysmal?"
Several related things:
1. More tracks. A band can usually productively fill 4 or 8 tracks. Start separately miking the drums and each backing vocalist and you can fill 16. Beyond that, you're looking at the wide open expanse of unused faders at the outside edges of the board and thinking "Now what can I put on those tracks?".
2. Automated desks. A mix used to be a one-off 'live' event - one chance to get it right or start again. With the advent of the SSL automated board, a mix could be repeated, replayed, tweaked and added to ad infinitum. Add this to most musicians' inability to say when the track is finished, and most producers love of new gadgets and you have an incremental mix process where 'stuff' gets larded on top of the previous 'stuff'
3. New and exciting outboard gear (often digital). After years of a small range of limiters, compressors, tape/plate/chamber echo, there was an explosion in 'toys' to produce and/or modify the sound in new, exciting, and ultimately annoying ways. The move to digital meant that more outboard kit could be added to a track without the degredation of signal that happens with analogue. Give a band/producer the capability to add more, and they usually will.
After 10 years of this increasing spiral, people started realising it was a bit of a technology-driven dead-end and we had the retreat to simpler studios, often using analogue or analogue-modelling gear. At the same time, producers were learning to control the gear and not let the gear control them...
interesting
That's a very informative and interesting post Stimpy.
The insatiable desire to polish something until you drain all the life out of it is often the mark of deep insecurity. This applies to other creative fields also, I've eventually found.
Regardless of technological changes - producers are musicians ultimately. And like all musicians, some have better taste than others. The understanding that more is not always better, is a hard one to grasp for some.