Style: Pop Rock, Acoustic, Chanson. Great song. David Bowie ‎– Amsterdam Label: No Limit (3) ‎– NL 98004 Format: CDr, Album, Unofficial Release Country: Japan Released: Genre: ... Not On Label (David Bowie) DB10697: 1997: Sell This Version: Reviews Add Review [r3298490] Release. Renard Livres Echanges, near Les Halles, Paris, Confusing easy with significant | Sing Better English, Matthew-Walker: David Bowie, Theatre of Music, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars: 1972. Bowie also attended the stage show Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, which, having debuted at the Village Gate in Greenwich Village, had come to London in the summer of 1968. Metrobolist (AKA The Man Who Sold The World) 50th anniversary edition #LazarusNL #LazarusMusical Amsterdam: My Death (Live) Credits (4) Gas Associates Design. Year: 2015. Both comments and pings are currently closed. Please enable Cookies and reload the page. Amsterdam [Bowie at the Beeb] Lyrics: In the port of Amsterdam, there's a sailor who sings / Of the dreams that he brings from the wide open sea / In the port of Amsterdam… Lazarus tickets. Edit Release the sails only fish heads and tails and he'll show you his teeth, but tora too soon that can hold of the sails the can swallow the moon. Released: 1974. Like “Waiting for the Man,” the other song Bowie obsessively covered in this period, “Amsterdam” offers street life as stage material, but where Lou Reed’s lyric is the narrow perceptions of its junkie narrator, Brel’s “Amsterdam” is sprawling, a Bruegelian vision: a port filled with drunken, paunchy sailors who chew fish heads with their rotten teeth, piss in the street, fight, sing in broken voices and use the port prostitutes “for a few dirty coins.” The sense of life as a canvas, the vulgar proletarians as actors in their own dramas, appealed to Bowie, whose ’60s lyrics had tended to be obscure or bloodless—he sensed a method, via Brel, to connect with reality more directly, to use stagecraft to build more resonant songs. English singer David Bowie in Amsterdam, 1987. I agree with IDidThelggy – Brel’s original is my favourite now, though I lived for a long time only knowing Bowie’s and felt perfectly satisfied with it. He was a leading figure in the music industry and is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the 1970s. Label: Parlophone ‎– DBISH 2015, Parlophone ‎– 0825646068913. The BBC recording is my preferred Bowie version ( Brel’s is number one choice). Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single. He was a leading figure in the music industry and is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the 1970s. Lyrics to 'Amsterdam' by David Bowie. "http":"https";t.getElementById(r)||(n=t.createElement(e),n.id=r,n.src=i+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js",s.parentNode.insertBefore(n,s))}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); [CDATA[ Bowie even originally intended to end side 1 of Ziggy Stardust with his studio version of “Amsterdam,” with Side 2’s closing song, “Rock and Roll Suicide,” being a thematic twin of sorts, Bowie’s own rock & roll Brel song. Open wide Bring me more fish by my side and he wants to be, but he's too full to try so it stands up loves. The play had no libretto, just a series of performances of Brel compositions, with Mort Shuman (who also performed in the play) and Eric Blau translating Brel’s lyrics (freely and racily). The legacy of David Bowie lives on, as today the world celebrates what would have been the music legend’s 73rd birthday. David Bowie ‎– Sorrow / Amsterdam. Brian Ward (5) Photography By. Brel refused to meet Bowie when he visited Paris, saying he did not wish to meet a "pédé" ("faggot"), but the latter nevertheless still a… After Robert Guillaume first sang “Amsterdam” at the Village Gate in January 1968, he recalled in his memoir there was a “disconcertingly long hush—followed by a roar so damn loud I jumped.”. I enjoyed your Breughel reference especially. Brel never recorded “Amsterdam,” despite it being one of his best-known songs: its only official release is on a 1964 live LP of Brel at the Olympia, in Paris. Amsterdam (Jacques Brel). Noticed it had nothing an I couldn’t stand for that. Follow @genius Very interesting, but you are being too hard on Bowie – in awe he might be, but he does try to experiment with it, does he not? Scott Walker recorded several of these translated Brel songs in the late 1960s. And the wonderful people behind this 17th-century church in Amsterdam decided to pay tribute to Bowie’s legacy, in their own unique way.