David Bowie Final Exam: Jeopardy Questions

Describe some of the unique musical and technical contributions Tony Visconti and Brian Eno each made to the "Berlin Trilogy" albums

Brian Eno: collaborator on all albums, sort of Bowie’s equal in creative artistic material

- Has some writing credits on Lodger, but not really a “producer”

- Detached, abstract, minimalist approach

- Encouraged more synthesizer sounds

- Encouraged ‘world beat’ influence

- V-2 rocket sound and other synthesizer additions and effects

- Use of oblique cards to encourage spontaneity 

Tony Visconti: producer on all albums

- Supervised all the mixing

- Introduced Eventide Harmonizer on the drums (Low)

- Multiple miking of vocals on heroes

Cite any two songs where Bowie confronts personal internal conflict, ranging from Schizophrenia to Bipolar

all the mad men (his half brother), beauty and the beast (specifically about good vs evil)

With the album Lodger, Bowie begins to explore world culture and politics. What songs follow this theme, and were there any precedents on previous Bowie albums?

- "Fantastic voyage" (Cold War and nuclear holocaust)

- "Move on" (Tribal rhythms, expressing movement)

- "African Night Flight" (Safari with his son joe)

- "Red Sails" (We're gonna sail to the hinterland)

- "Repetition" (Spousal abuse)

- "Red Money" (Personal responsibility in society")

The songs of this album refer to specific places and locations

Aladin Sane

Style of music/singing used in Young Americans

Soul/Gospel

The building in Beckenham where David and Angela reside after they are married

Haddon Hall

Probably the most commercial track from his debut album

Love you till Tuesday

The famous American film star whose caricature ended up on the cover

John Wayne

The two foundational musical elements of this early "folk" period, as in "Space Oddity"

12-string guitar and voice

At least two or more American black artists whom David admired as a kid

Chuck Berry, James Brown, Little Richard

The prominent storefront from the Ziggy Stardust cover

K. West (furriers)

The Lodger song that expresses Bowie's end for Wanderlust

"Move On"

His lead guitarist, who was a big fan of the British band Cream

Mick Ronson

The Berlin studio where Bowie, Visconti, and Eno created the album "Heroes"

Hansa By the Wall Studio 2

Someone he felt responsible for during his formative years

His half-brother Terry

"Yassaissin" intentionally combines these two musical genres

Middle Eastern and Reggae

A powerful new synthesizer was used on many of the songs

The Moog synthesizer

The German bands that included Bowie to experiment more with industrial electronics and synthesizer

Kraftwerk, Neu!, Tangerine Dream

The French studio where Bowie recorded Pin Ups and one of the Berlin albums

Chateau d'Herouville

The standard recording format at the end of this decade (60s)

8-track analog magnetic tape

She sings a previous cover of "Wild is the Wind" which inspires Bowei to record the song

Nina Simone

The biggest 1978 concerts were outdoors in these two countries

Australia and New Zealand (Adelaide Cricket Ground, and Auckland's Western Springs)

This 90s band is a famous cover of the title song

Nirvana

Tony Visconti's 4 year old son came up with a three-note motif for the song about this city

Warsawa

The location where the man who fell from the earth was filmed

New Mexico

Brian Eno thought these cards sparked creativity and spontaneity, but the band initially thought otherwise

Oblique Strategies cards

Bowie's first manager, who encouraged artistic diversity, such as mime

Kenneth Pitt

The 19th-century German philosopher who was a literary influence for "the Supermen"

Nietzsche

Describe and give examples of how David Bowie utilized and expanded new vocal techniques to deliver variations and create different emotions

Talking voice (Loud Reed Style)

- Song for Bob Dylan, Time, Candidate, Move On

Baritone (lower register)

- Sweet Thing, Big Brother, Win

Falsetto (high voice)

- TVC 15, Stay, Golden Years, Ashes to Ashes

Histrionic (screechy voice)

- Blackout, Its No Game pt.1

Was David Bowie really 'The Chameleon'? Cite some of the most overt musical detours he made during 1967 to 1980

1. Debut - theatrical songs with acoustic instrumentation

2. Space Oditty, Hunky Dory – singer/songwriter, folk/rock

3. Man Who Sold… to Station – heavy rock to glam

4. Young Americans - gospel and soul to funk

5. Berlin albums – experimental, electric music with a detached global view (Esp b sides with instrumentals)

The Bowie album with the fewest words

Low (bc of instrumentals)

The studio term for overdubbing the lead vocal in unison to make it more powerful

Double tracking

The term for the 1975 skinny and pale rock icon featured in Station to Station

The thin white duke

The song that starts with, "Hear this Robert Zimmerman / I wrote a song for you"

"Bob Dylan"

Bowie's most extensive tale about a youth's imprisonment

"The Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud"

David Mallet directs the groundbreaking video for this hit song

Ashes to Ashes

The three instrumental pieces that occupy much of side B, "Heroes"

Sense of Doubt", "Moss garden", "Nuekoln"

The device Carols Alomar uses on his guitar to help it "talk"

The wah-wah pedal

When he heard the song about him, he told Bowie he liked his shoes

Andy Warhol

We record on computer drives, but back in the early 70s they recorded on this

16 track

Japanese actress Michi Hirota is front and center on this song

"Its No Game pt. 1"

The New Wave musician who is the target of "teenage wildlife"

Gary Numan

"Someone to claim us, someone to follow" are lyrics from the chorus of this song

Big Brother

"Lady Stardust" is perhaps a tribute to this London community

LGBTQ+ (Freddi Burretti and friends)

Bowie said this title song represented movement through the different mystical stages of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life

"Station to Station"

The last song on Heroes described an intriguing land

The Secret Life of Arabia

Brian Eno's recurring "sound effect" on "Heroes", side B

The V-2 Schnider rocket sound

Only once did this celebrated English guitarist, who liked to smash guitars, appear on a Bowie record

Pete Townsend (The Who)

Bowie claims "Blackout" is about this, not about a time he passed out

NYC Power Outage

The central message behind "Beauty and the Beast"

Struggle between good vs evil in someone

This former Abbey Road (Beatles) engineer was a good choice for Hunky Dory production

Ken Scott

Probably Bowie's most spiritual message to himself on Station to Station

"Word on a Wing"

The one song that Hansa musician and engineer Eduard Meyer plays on

"Art Decade" - cello

The unique microphone setup Tony Visonti used for the hit song "Heroes."

3 mics: #1 close, #2 15 feet away, #3 50 feet away

A rare B-side for the single "Up the Hill Backwards" also featured in a Japanese Sake commercial

The instrumental Crystal Japanese (bonus 1933 song)