Fantastic Voyage: A David Bowie Podcast

Bowie's back with his first solo album in over half a decade. Join us as we discuss yet another one of his leaps of faith into another artistic direction in Black Tie White Noise, the bedrock of his Nineties output.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

The Wedding

You've Been Around

I Feel Free

Black Tie White Noise

Jump They Say

Nite Flights

We wrap up our sixth season with a top ten Tin Machine tracks list.

We lump together the "Tin Machine Tour" ('89) and the "It's My Life Tour" ('91-'92) in this episode.

Recommended viewing/listening:
Video: Live at the Docks - Hamburg 1991 (1992)
Album: Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby (1992)
Album: Live at La Cigale Paris, 25th June, 1989 (2019)

Some heavy songs on this side, and a couple of notorious ones too. Let's put out a hot take alert for this episode, tune in to find out why!

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

You Can't Talk

Stateside

Shopping for Girls

A Big Hurt

Sorry

Goodbye Mr. Ed

It took getting through a tour, a solo world tour, filming a movie, and a record label change, but Tin Machine II was finally released in the fall of 1991. Here's our discussion on side a of TM's sophomore offering.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Baby Universal

One Shot

You Belong in Rock n Roll

If There Is Something

Amlapura

Betty Wrong

Shag-O-Rama, Houdini and Company, The Robbery, The Linguini Incident. Four titles, one podcast episode discussing Bowie's brief stint as a comedic actor.

Friend of the pod Justin Waterman joins us to talk Bowie's "greatest hits tour.' His first hand account provides critical info into what wasn't captured on video!

We spent a beautiful summer evening on Jesse's deck talking Tin Machine, here's the second half of that conversation, along with takes from our listeners.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Amazing

Working Class Hero

Bus Stop

Pretty Thing

Video Crime

Run

Sacrifice Yourself

Baby Can Dance

We kick off our next season outdoors, the perfect place to be when listening to and discussing Tin Machine's debut album. Reeves Gabrels has entered the picture, and with help from the Super Sales bros, Kevin Armstrong, and Tim Palmer, Bowie takes a turn in yet another exciting direction.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Heaven's in Here

Tin Machine

Prisoner of Love

Crack City

I Can't Read

Under the God

It took us nine months to get through nine years of Bowie's 80s ventures and we wrap it all up with a 14-track best-of-the-decade playlist, curated on the air for your listening pleasure! Plus some additional discussion on non-album tracks from the decade.

Bowie embarks on his grandest tour, featuring multiple 60 ft tall spiders, an artsy dance troupe, and a refreshed setlist that would feature less hits and focus on a "rock stars vs. reality" theme. Justin is back to share his front row experience from the Winnipeg show.

We cut right to the chase with side b, diving deep into one of the least popular sides of Bowie wax.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Glass Spider

Shining Star (Makin' My Love)

New York's in Love

'87 and Cry

Too Dizzy

Bang Bang

Often placed at or near the bottom of Bowie album rankings, Jess & John explore side a of Bowie's final solo effort of the 80s. Is the hate deserved? Or is this underdog album under appreciated?

NOTE: Apologies for the audio glitch that creeps in every once in a while!

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Day-In Day-Out

Time Will Crawl

Beat of Your Drum

Never Let Me Down

Zeroes

We return to the cinema for Bowie's role in Jim Henson's cult classic Labyrinth. Featuring a 14-year old Jennifer Connelly, as well as contributions from George Lucas and Terry Jones (Monty Python), this film was destined for cult status from several angles. Join us as we dive into the film and soundtrack.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Magic Dance

Chilly Down

As the World Falls Down

Within You

Underground

We’re back! After three months off we return to celebrate our 50th episode with a halfway point round up featuring the introduction of our new “Tumble and Twirl” awards and listeners Q&A. Plus: Did Jesse just name his daughter after a Bowie album??? Give in to the click bait to find out!!!

We talk about a lot of stuff in this episode... not limited to side b of Tonight!

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Neighborhood Threat

Blue Jean

Tumble and Twirl

I Keep Forgettin

Dancing with the Big Boys

Bowie in Canada!

Coming off his biggest commercial year, Bowie quickly gets back to the studio for more (insert descriptive adjective here) music. Featuring Iggy Pop, Tina Turner, Hugh Padgham and Carlos Alomar. They even do a Beach Boys song! What could go wrong?

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Loving the Alien

Don't Look Down

God Only Knows

Tonight

Bowie takes his best selling album on tour. His biggest to date, the Serious Moonlight Tour spans 96 shows across 15 countries. Our cousin Justin joins us once again for a first hand account of what was his first concert experience, as Bowie made his first stop in Winnipeg, MB in September of 1983.

Recommended viewing/listening:

Serious Moonlight (Live '83) - Live LP (2018)

Ricochet - Documentary (1984)

Bowie Live in Sydney (1983)

We head back to the cinema for Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, where we see Bowie taken prisoner during WWII. Ryuichi Sakamoto pulls double duty starring alongside Bowie and brilliantly scoring the film. 1983... What a year for "The Actor!"

SPOILER ALERT: Main plot points discussed in detail!

Fans of Bowie and horror, unite! We welcome The Evolution of Horror Podcast host Mike Muncer to the show and we chat about Tony Scott’s 1983 film The Hunger, starring David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon.

SPOILER WARNING: We discuss the plot in detail!

You can find Mike's podcast The Evolution of Horror on all the usual platforms and on Twitter @evolutionpod

Mere minutes after seeing Brett Morgen's film Moonage Daydream in IMAX, we sit down and give our instant reactions.

SPOILER WARNING: We discuss the entire film in detail.

Four songs: one is a lot of fun, another could have been great, and two should have been left as is. Tune in to find out which is which!

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Ricochet

Criminal World

Cat People (Putting Out Fire)

Shake It

Bowie teams up with Nile Rodgers to create his biggest selling album. Side A is loaded with hits and a sneaky album favourite from one of us.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Modern Love

China Girl

Let's Dance

Without You

It's 1982 and Bowie returns to the stage in the BBC version of Bertolt Brecht's play Baal. The five songs performed in the play are also released as an EP in what would become Bowie's final RCAS record.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Baal's Hymn

Remembering Marie A.

Ballad of the Adventurers

The Drowned Girl

The Dirty Song

Outro performed by "Podcast Cousin" Justin Waterman

What will Bowie do now? Conquer Broadway? The Elephant Man, starring Bowie as Joseph "John" Merrick, begins a four month residency at the Booth Theatre on Broadway in September of 1980 following some shorter runs in Denver and Chicago.

Bowie is all grown up on side b. Also featured: a cameo by Pete Townsend of Who fame, and a Tom Verlaine cover that almost featured a Tom Verlaine cameo... tune in to find out what happened!

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Teenage Wildlife

Scream Like a Baby

Kingdom Come

Because You're Young

It's No Game (No. 2)

Welcome to the 1980s! We head outdoors on a beautiful summer night to cover Bowie's first album of a new decade that also feels like the last album of one of his many eras.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

It's No Game (No. 1)

Up the Hill Backwards

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

Ashes to Ashes

Fashion

This was tough. We picked 15 songs. There are 31 songs in this trilogy. We wanted to pick them all.

How many other albums' side B kicks off with three music videos in a row? And then a different song lands very near the top of one of our all-time lists. Bowie closes out the '70s with a bang.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

DJ

Look Back in Anger

Boys Keep Swinging

Repetition

Red Money

We welcome artist/musician and podcast cousin Justin Waterman back to the show to discuss Bowie's 1979 LP Lodger. Is one of these songs an all-time favourite for one of us? Tune in to find out!

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Fantastic Voyage

African Night Flight

Move On

Yassassin (Turkish for: Long Live)

Red Sails

We head back to the movies for Just a Gigolo (1978), Bowie's second feature film.

We watched this

Bowie's 1978 world tour, The Isolar II Tour or the Stage Tour, stretches the globe and produces plenty of audio and video materials for us to cover including the live album Stage, 2018 Record Store Day release Welcome to the Blackout, and his performance on the German TV show Musikladen.

Favourite live album alert! But which one of us? And which release? Tune in to find out!

Continued "Heroes" discussion.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

V-2 Schneider

Sense of Doubt

Moss Garden

Neuköln

The Secret Life of Arabia

Bowie debuts a new language on the "instrumental" side of Low.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Warszawa

Art Decade

Weeping Wall

Subterraneans 

Fantastic Voyage kicks off a new era with Low, the first album of the so-called "Berlin Trilogy."  Join us as we talk about the adventures of Bowie (and Iggy Pop), who connects with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti in Europe.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Speed of Life

Breaking Glass

What in the World

Sound and Vision

Always Crashing in the Same Car

Be My Wife

A New Career in a New Town

Despite still touring and starring in a feature film, Bowie manages to find time to write and record three classic albums in a two-year window. Join us as we do things differently this time and take you behind the scenes as we create our Best of the Mid-70s playlist from scratch, featuring singing from Jesse's daughter!

The voyage follows Bowie from North America to Europe on his 1976 Isolar Tour aka The Thin White Duke Tour, The Station to Station Tour and The White Light Tour. We discuss the live album Live Nassau Coliseum '76 as well as his infamous drug bust in Rochester, NY with Iggy Pop and his unconventional show opener - a showing of the 1929 film Un Chien Andalou.

SPOILER WARNING

Join Jesse and John at the movies as they chat about Nicolas Roeg's 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth. Starring David Bowie, of course!

We flip the record over and continue our Station to Station discussion.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

TVC15

Stay

Wild is the Wind

With one eye on Europe and the new sounds coming from Germany, Bowie sticks it out for one more album in America before his narrow escape across the Atlantic.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Station to Station

Golden Years

Word on a Wing

Continued Young Americans discussion. Side B contains Bowie's first #1 single, this most famous collaborator and a Beatles cover!

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Across the Universe

Can You Hear Me

Fame

We've arrived in 1975 where Bowie dives deeper into soul, R&B and funk. Multiple songs from side a crack the voyagers' personal top 25s, and one lands in top ten - tune in to find out which one, as well as the usual blabber about how Bowie's genius creates yet another winning formula.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Young Americans

Win

Fascination

Right

Fantastic Voyage kicks off 2022 with the Diamond Dogs Tour of 1974 with special focus on Bowie's first official live album David Live and the documentary film Cracked Actor.

Jesse and John, joined by their cousin, artist/musician and Bowie aficionado Justin Waterman, continue their Diamond Dogs discussion on the more Orwellian side of the album.

You can find some of Justin's work by visiting his Twitter page @WatermanArt

Link to the mentioned Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCzhLWj1IBY

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Rock 'n' Roll With Me

We Are the Dead

1984

Big Brother

Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family

Jesse and John are joined by their cousin, artist/musician and Bowie aficionado Justin Waterman as they take a jaunt through Bowie's "Hunger City" on the first side of the 1974 album Diamond Dogs.

You can find some of Justin's work by visiting his Twitter page @WatermanArt

This episode is dedicated to the great photographer Mick Rock, who's passing was announced moments after the recordings of the Diamond Dogs episodes.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Future Legend

Diamond Dogs

Sweet Thing

Candidate

Sweet Thing (Reprise)

Rebel Rebel

A NOTE ON THE EPISODE: While discussing themes in Hubert Selby Jr.’s novel “Last Exit to Brooklyn” we are not aiming to group transgender people together with some other negative themes from the novel in a negative way. The context is describing similar themes found in the novel and on the album.

Jesse & John reveal their 20-track playlist that they feel captures the "Spiders" era of Bowie's career. They also manage to mention both The Legendary Stardust Cowboy and Buddy Holly without acknowledging their shared hometown of Lubbock Texas!

October 19th is as good a day as any to release another Pinups episode, don't you think?

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Friday on My Mind

Sorrow

Don‘t Bring Me Down

Shapes of Things

Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere

Where Have All the Good Times Gone

Join Jesse and John as they make their "original" vs "Bowie" Pinups picks. The listeners cast their votes as well.

SONGS IN THIS EPISODE:

Rosalyn

Here Comes the Night

I Wish You Would

See Emily Play

Everything’s Alright

I Can’t Explain