Tenement Funster - Bowie connection

I hear they were pretty heavily influenced by him in that one Hot Space song.

Roger always tells the story of him and Freddie going to see Bowie in Aylesbury in '71, and him and Brian at imperial college in '72 and apparently pestered Mick Ronson about his guitar tone.

[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]

Just gave Aladdin Sane (from 1973) a spin, to much delight as always. But something stood out to me this time - the last minute of Lady Grinning Soul is almost certainly a place where Queen found inspiration for the instrumental section of Tenement Funster on their next album.

Bowie's influence is all over the rock music of the era, and here's a pretty clear spot where Queen liked what he was doing and made it theirs.

You guys can (thin white) duke it out, but I'm pretty sure I'm right on this one.
[/QUOTE]

You are most probably right. Good one.

Cheers,

Ogre-

Good enough place to put this: 'Machines' from The Works sounds nearly exactly like 'Machines' by Sailor (of 'Glass Of Champagne' fame)

Bowie and Queen hung out together way before "Under Pressure" most people aren`t aware of that ( not QZoners ). Unsure about the pre ANATO era, but since around then Bowie was allowed to hear Queen tracks before the release. It´s "confirmed" that he listened to their "Jazz" Album before it was finished.

They asked him to produce them when they were both at Trident in '73.

[QUOTE] [b]dysan wrote:[/b]

They asked him to produce them when they were both at Trident in '73.[/QUOTE]

That myth's been debunked decades ago.

How so?

'In a recent internet interview, Bowie was asked if he had been influenced by Queen, to which he replied, "I doubt it, since Freddie asked me to produce his first album." "[b]Certainly not![/b]" Taylor exclaims. "But David was producing Lou at the time. We were taking the down-time. Literally, they'd be coming up the stairs and we'd be going down the stairs. David probably remembers it slightly differently, but I doubt he was being 100 per cent serious. Knowing David, very little he says is!"'[url=http://www.brianmay.com/queen/mojoaug99/mojoaug99b.html] [/url]

[url=http://www.brianmay.com/queen/mojoaug99/mojoaug99b.html]Source[/url]

With respect, that's hardly a debunking Sebastian.

He said 'certainly not' and made it clear Bowie was not serious when making that remark. What else do you want? Should they resurrect David to take him to court and make a sworn statement?

No, it's one word against another Sebastian. I'm sure it suited them to put that tale around when they were unknown, but then when Bowie (in 1999) was a bit of a joke, to distance themselves from him.

If they were unknown, why on earth would Bowie remember them asking him to produce an album?

Moreover, it wasn't them who spread that myth, it's people who've quote-mined that story and conveniently ignored the part where Roger clearly states that wasn't true.

There've been loads of docos, interviews, etc., and not once has that been brought up by primary sources. You can see that myth accepted at face value in the odd website, some articles and perhaps even a book but, conspicuously, not on any book by anyone who was there or who had any direct contact with anyone who was there (for instance, an early book features either Barry Mitchell or Tim Staffell recalling how Fred used to conspire to accidentally-on-purpose bump into John Anthony, because he wanted him to produce them).

It's far from being 'one word against another,' it's a 21st century story which was based on a third party claim about a third party claim, versus what someone said directly. You'd wonder why, in all those interviews, books, articles, etc., people such as Freddie, Roger, Brian, John, John Anthony, Roy Baker, Mike Stone, Barry Mitchell, etc., failed to mention the band asking Bowie if there was any shred of truth to it.

All, and I do mean all (and if you prove me wrong I'll happy stand corrected, but until then, I'm waiting...) sources stating Queen or Freddie asked David to produce their first album (sometimes the story's mutated to claim it was the second) fail to have any support from a witness testimony, they only rely on each other as sources. And some of them are quite reputable, but they've failed to do what any good researcher should do: verify if the story is true or if they want it to be true because it makes for good press or because it pleases those who are fans of both acts (of which there are many) as they'd love to find more connexion than the already existing ones. And there are indeed plenty of Queen/Bowie connexions, but that's not one of them.

That's but a baseless myth which has been debunked decades ago.

^^ rattled

There's an old filmed interview ,with Bob Harris I think, where Freddie claims to have "everything in the can" before Bowie , but could not get the music out due to lack of recording contract.