glass notes

2 thoughts on “The Original Remix”

  1. I was so pleased to see that video.
    After reading yesterday’s post, ‘More on Disney’; I had clicked on the link to the article in ‘The Telegraph’ and noticed, in a sidebar there, an article on Bowie’s new single ‘Where Are We Now’, and had to read that too!
    Listening to the one and a half minute clip from the video, I was reminded of Bowie’s ‘Heathen’ album; particularly the more melancholy odd numbered tracks, (if you play just the odd numbered tracks it makes for a nicely coherent mini-album!), which also have a deep vein of surrender and pity running beneath their surface.
    I had wanted to post my comments on Bowie’s return then, but thought they may have been a little off-topic for a story about ‘The Perfect American’, but thanks to the serendipity of this video’s appearance here, I can now! Of course, the relationship between Glass and Bowie goes back to the ‘Low’ Symphony, and perhaps would’ve justified the comment, but I also can’t help hearing an echo of Glass “reflected” back in some of Bowie’s songs too; the way the rhythmic emphasis shifts back and forth in the repeating phrases of ‘Where Are We Now’, for example, (and I can’t listen to ‘I Would Be Your Slave’, from ‘Heathen’, without thinking of ‘Akhnaten’s Hymn to the Aten’!).

Leave a Reply