sure he's greedy, but this is by no stretch of the imagination a greatest hits tour

anyone wanna throw up a sound and vision setlist?



show bush the door in 2004: please contribute to http://www.moveon.org
current approval rating: 51%

i agree with NoControl this is a hits tour. If David were the musician/performer like he was on the 95 to 2002 tours he would not make any money off this new north America tour. Most of these small cities that he is playing in the people going will only want to hear hits from 70s and 80s. As David said many times before the only way to make money is give people what they want. People want hits so he gives it to them. I think its great that David is playing so many cites close to me, but i would be just as happy if he did one adventurous concert like back to back albums or all of low as an encore or something crazy like that, instead of a set filled with a lot of over played songs.

"You'll have to take me just the way that you find me."

Sound and Vision setlists.

Ideally, I would like to see as much variation as possible between shows, especially considering the similarities between some of the setlists which were performed in the same place on consecutive nights.

I just want to ask eraserhead his opinion of whether he considers Skull Ring or Reality to be the biggest sell-out. Being in the fortunate position of having heard neither, I couldn't possibly comment.

Fifteen jugglers, Fifteen jugglers
Five believers, Five believers
All dressed like men

In reply to:

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And just because it takes a certain amount of copies to for a song/album to make it into the charts, doesn't mean it's not a hit. Your theory couldn't be more off.

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What are you on about? Even if we accept your definition of a hit (made the charts anywhere in the world), then your original statement still isn't true. Bowie's had about 60 chart hits in the UK. Add in songs that never charted in the UK but charted elsewhere, some of which you are counting as hits (Waiting So Long, New Killer Star, Changes) to support your crazy theory that this is Sound And Vision 2, and Bowie's hit count gets up towards a hundred. Now as soon as you can post a list of the 100 "hits" Bowie has played on this tour, then and only then will you have proven your original statement that Bowie has played practically all his hits on this tour.

This isn't Sound And Vision 2. Yes, there are more hits than on, say, Outside or Earthling tours, and yes the North American setlists are a bit more hit heavy than the European setlists were. But that still doesn't make this Sound And Vision 2 where everything played was a hit and there was no new material. It's somewhere between the two extremes of "little or no hits" and "all hits".

Slan duit,

Dara

Living means accepting the loss of one joy after another Vladimir Nabokov

And I take it that it's not boring if he plays The Voyeur of Utter Destruction and Baby Universal while the people who paid to (gasp) have a good time sit on their hands?

Bowie is playing his hits because that's what people, believe it or not, want to hear. When they hear what they want to hear, they enjoy themselves. David Bowie is an entertainer, therefore that is his goal. Besides, what's gonna sound cooler:

ME: "I heard David Bowie play Joe The Lion!"
OTHER PERSON: "Uh?"

OR...

ME: "I heard David Bowie play Ziggy Stardust!"
OTHER PERSON: "HOLY FUCK!"

typical reality setlist w/ legit hits indicated by ***:

NewKillerStar
Cactus
Hallo Spaceboy
Under Pressure***
Ashes To Ashes***
I'm Afraid Of Americans
Heroes***
Ziggy Stardust***
Sunday
China Girl***
Fame***
Rebel Rebel***
Suffragette City***
Reality
TMWSTW
Changes***
Hang On To Yourself
Afraid
The Loneliest Guy
Five Years
The Motel

9 hits, 12 non-hits

random sound and vision tour date:

Space Oddity***
Changes***
TVC 15
Rebel Rebel***
Ashes To Ashes***
Fashion***
Life On Mars***
Blue Jean***
Let's Dance***
Pretty Pink Rose
Stay
Sound And Vision***
Ziggy Stardust***
China Girl***
Station To Station
Young Americans***
Suffragette City***
Fame***
"Heroes"***
Panic In Detroit
The Jean Genie***

16 hits, 5 non-hits

random earthling setlist:

Always Crashing In The Same Car
The Supermen
Waiting For The Man
I Can't Read
I'm Afraid Of Americans
Look Back In Anger
Seven Years In Tibet
Panic In Detroit
Battle For Britain (The Letter)
The Man Who Sold The World
Looking For Satellites
The Hearts Filthy Lesson
Under Pressure***
Hallo Spaceboy
Scary Monsters
Little Wonder
Fame***
Stay
White Light White Heat
O Superman
All The Young Dudes***

3 hits, 18 non-hits

so the reality tour is somewhere inbetween sound and vision and the glory days of earthling

show bush the door in 2004: please contribute to http://www.moveon.org
current approval rating: 51%

I'm glad to see yourself and CAwesome understand.

...don't tell god your plans...

In reply to:

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A valiant attempt to come up with a definition of "hit", poorsoul, but still problematic. If an "A"-side got hardly any airplay in some countries, counting the "B"-side as a "hit" is stretching it.

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How about if we just ignore the word "hit" and just concentrate on the fact that the majority of the songs being played are fairly high-profile and/or well-known in that they've either been released on highly successful singles or, even if they didn't chart particularly well, a lot of people would still recognise them.

I Forgot To Change It Before

In reply to:

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Would you really deprive them hearing the odd hit because it's boring to the hardcore fan who would be going to multiple concerts.

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When those "odd hits" comprise more than half the setlist, then, yes. I'm not sure if I want to be more critical of the Phil Collins crowd who create the demand for Bowie playing the same old songs every single time ("wow, he's playing that China Girl song") like they haven't heard them hundreds of times before or the man himself for pandering to said shallow masses.

In reply to:

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Up until the midnineties Bowies' set list was pretty static, with just maybe the odd song being dropped or added, nothing like the set lists on this tour which are different in content and length depending on how he feels basically.

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Apart from factoring in the varying lengths, the setlists are still very much the same both within the tour and when compared with others. Just check out the link to the Sound And Vision Tour page and you'll see what I mean.

I Forgot To Change It Before

In reply to:

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And I take it that it's not boring if he plays The Voyeur of Utter Destruction and Baby Universal while the people who paid to (gasp) have a good time sit on their hands?

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No, because at least then he'd be doing something different. I'm not saying he should play such songs for the entire set (though that would be quite a treat for the true fans) but there's really no reason why he can't expand his selection beyond what he's releases as singles or songs that get played all the time.

In reply to:

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"I heard David Bowie play Joe The Lion!"

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"I haven't heard of that song before, what's it like?"

In reply to:

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"I heard David Bowie play Ziggy Stardust!"

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"Again? Doesn't he always play that?"

I Forgot To Change It Before