“!ecnaD s’teL”
Original Art © Jonathan Pérez
On nearly every episode on Back to the Double R we present a “Twist”, our short discussion often unrelated to the main topics and themes covered. Sometimes we will go truly left of field but for our discussion of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me The Missing Pieces, I wanted to cover David Bowie and his genius, given the prominence of his character Phillip Jeffries in The Missing Pieces. The only parameters set was we each pick 5 David Bowie songs to make a playlist of 20 (or so, as you will see). I said a cheat could be involved (I chose four songs for one slot, Colin went with a Broadway adaptation), and if there was overlap, oh well. We each found songs that have Lynchian qualities or way it ties back into themes from Twin Peaks. As curated by the Back to the Double R Crew, we present our David Bowie Playlist! Enjoy listening.
–Jonathan Perez
Back to the Double R’s “!ecnaD s’teL” Set List:
"Five Years"
"Soul Love"
"Moonage Daydream"
"Starman"
"Glass Spider"
"Blackstar"
"I'm Afraid of Americans"
"Panic in Detroit"
"Cat People (Putting Out Fire)"
"Queen Bitch"
"The Man Who Sold the World"
"Oh! You Pretty Things"
"All the Madmen"
"Always Crashing in the Same Car"
"Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)"
"Fashion"
"Lazarus" (as performed by Michael C. Hall and the Original New York Cast of Lazarus)
"I'm Deranged"
"I'm Afraid of Americans (Nine Inch Nails version)"
"Ziggy Stardust"
"Space Oddity"
"I Can't Give Everything Away"
DAMON chooses: “Five Years” (1972) off The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
Damon DiCicco: I’ve always been attracted to end of the world stories, and “Five Years” to me perfectly captures a feeling of plaintive desperation attached to the impending doom of the song’s narrative. The melody tugs at the heart strings like a good ballad should, but as the song winds up, the vocals degrade into a wild sort of howl, the scream of the damned. I’m this era of looming climate catastrophe, it hits harder than ever. There are a lot of great Bowie songs, but I think this is my favorite.
JONATHAN chooses: “Five Years”/”Soul Love”/”Moonage Daydream”/”Starman” (1972) off The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
Jonathan Pérez: This set of four songs that opens The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, while not a medley, are so inextricably linked in this listener’s ears that I can’t really hear “Five Years” without having “Soul Love” drop immediately after. These four tracks, to me, are The Gospels According to David Bowie. In Ziggy, Bowie adopts the persona of a space alien who arrives on Earth. “Five Years” is the thesis statement, with the alien arriving on Earth only to tell the planet of an impending doom. Like Damon explained, this is rock and roll on the literal precipice of an apocalypse, but I don’t find this song morose. Instead, it almost plays as a challenge: If you knew Earth only had five years of life left, how would you choose to spend it?
“Soul Love” is the love song, in my mind the finest one Bowie ever performed. It isn’t necessarily about romantic love (though Bowie includes a pair of young lovers here). The song opens at a gravesite where a mother weeps for her son killed in a battle but then evolves into a celebration of discovery of self, a love so strong, it reaches up and elevates one out of loneliness. Given the central theme of loneliness felt by the characters of Twin Peaks it fits right in. I do particularly love the baritone saxophone solo from Bowie, who keeps things lovely and gentle.
The lush melodies of “Soul Love” give way to the thunderous guitar lick that opens “Moonage Daydream”, which may just be the hardest rocking song Bowie wrote. This song is all about announcing yourself with authority, with Bowie trumpeting, “I’m an alligator/I’m a momma-poppa coming for you/I’m a space invader/I’ll be a rock and rollin’ bitch for you.” That’s basically all of Bowie’s personae wrapped up in four lines. The songs build to an absolutely killer guitar solo from Mick Ronson, obeying the command that closes the song “Freak out. Far out.” I also really like the play between the hard rocking elements of this song and the subdued strings and pan flute. Like the best of Lynch’s work, Bowie takes contrasting elements and makes them work.
Closing out this quartet of tunes is “Starman”, which is my favorite David Bowie song. I almost resisted putting this song on this list because of its ubiquity. I remember seeing Ridley Scott’s The Martian and cheering when he used “Starman” as a needle drop. Bernie Sanders used it in his campaigns for the U.S. Presidency. Princess Anne rocks out to “Starman” in The Crown. And there again the song shows up today, in the trailer for Disney/Pixar’s Lightyear. If this makes me a basic Bowie bitch, I guess I am guilty as charged, but the song is just that damn good.
But perhaps there is a reason why “Starman” is one of Bowie’s most memorable tunes. As I mentioned on our “Missing Pieces” podcast, the chorus of “Starman” shares a melody with Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” (and hey, we are going to talk about Judy after all). You’re probably right now singing in your head “There’s a star-MAN waiting in the sky” and comparing it to “SomeWHERE over the rainbow” and it was an intentional move on Bowie’s part, even making a portmanteau of the two songs when he performed them at the Rainbow Theater in 1972 “There’s a starman/over the rainbow”. The song is literally designed to echo greatness.
For me if “Five Years” is a thesis statement, “Soul Love” is a love song, “Moonage Daydream” a rocker about embracing multiple identities, then “Starman” is pure exultation. The chorus ends “Let the children boogie” and then Bowie chants “la la la” to end the songs over electric guitar and strings. I remember when Bowie passed, I must have listened to “Starman” a dozen times, back-to-back, and feeling such a moment of joy and catharsis each time those “la la la’s” kicked in. I imagined it as a chorus of angels welcoming Bowie into the next phase of his life eternal. If there is an afterlife, I hope “Starman” welcomes me.
JENNIFER chooses: “Glass Spider” (1987) off Never Let Me Down
Jennifer Waits: Just a few years before Twin Peaks launched, David Bowie set out on the Glass Spider Tour in 1987, which I gleefully attended at Spartan Stadium in San Jose (see the setlist here: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/david-bowie/1987/spartan-stadium-san-jose-ca-43d12f7f.html ). My dedication was real, as I camped out for tickets ahead of time to ensure my spot in the audience. At the concert, I marveled at the grand scale of the show and the in-person charisma of David Bowie - even from my seat far away in the stands. My post-show glow was disturbed when a local music critic panned the performance; but I channeled my emotions into an irate letter to the editor, which was subsequently published in the San Jose Mercury (more about this here: https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/01/remembering-david-bowie/). Decades later, I feel even more vindicated, as perspectives on that tour have changed. Although it was much maligned in 1987, the Glass Spider Tour is now heralded as being ahead of its time for its adventurous, theatrical production. It’s an interesting parallel with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, a piece of creative work that was lambasted upon its release but has more fans today.
JP: Jennifer thank you for turning me on to “Glass Spider”. I had never heard this before, and while I think the material on Never Let Me Down is not Bowie’s strongest, “Glass Spider” just comes out of nowhere in the middle of that album and reminds you Bowie is always trying new things. Excellent pick.
COLIN chooses: “Blackstar” (2016) off Blackstar
Colin Lingle: Such an incredible story about Bowie’s final album. It seems like music that has come from the future and been dropped in our laps for us to marvel and not yet fully understand. I realize that’s pretentious, but given the entire context of the Blackstar release, and the ominous rhythm patterns and jagged-yet-soft harmonies, it just feels deeply alien, in a wonderful way. I feel like he is telling a story we can only partly understand, and I feel the same way about the later stages of Lynch’s work as well.
COLIN chooses: “I’m Afraid of Americans” (1997) off Earthling
CL: This is another song I picked because it had cross-media story. I actually encountered it not on the album, but as the soundtrack to a fantastic and tragically short-lived contemporary spy drama called “Berlin Station.” It was a great show, and Bowie’s twitchy, paranoid atmosphere in this tune fit the manic, duplicitous, treacherous world of spycraft very well. Another example of how you can encounter Bowie in all kinds of creative venues. You’re just looking for some smart TV to watch, and lo and behold, up pops the Thin White Duke to lure you down another rabbit hole.
JONATHAN chooses: “Panic in Detroit” (1973) off Aladdin Sane
JP: David Bowie wrote great apocalyptic rock songs. Damon made the case for “Five Years” as part of this tradition, and for me it was between “Panic in Detroit” and “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” for my Bowie apocalyptic rocker. (Thankfully, Colin has “Cat People” covered, see below.) Inspired by his friend Iggy Pop’s descriptions of the 1967 Detroit riots, “Panic in Detroit” opens with a crunchy, moody Mick Ronson riff and name checks the Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara. The song makes nods to Motown with a girl group providing backing vocals and congas laying down a beat. Except here the doo-wop girls sound like sirens and the congas drums of war. Bowie has never been more menacing.
COLIN chooses: “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” (1983) off Let’s Dance
CL: This was on heavy rotation for me the summer after the movie came out. I’m not sure precisely why my dad ended up with it–he advised the college radio station and had fantastic taste in music, so Bowie was always in the atmosphere in my childhood home. He might have picked up the vinyl after hearing at the station, or maybe after we saw the film. In any case, I approached it with caution: A movie tie-in? It couldn’t actually be good, could it? It was, and is, and may even have more staying power than the film itself. Like a lot of Bowie’s work, I fell entranced by the music and the (for me) inscrutable poetry of the lyrics, then later came to appreciate the themes. It was a song that led me to think about songs: why they sound “good” or “bad” to us individually, how they function in a wider commercial context, and how they sweep us away in stories. “I can stare for a thousand years.” I mean, come on, that’s just cool.
JP: I love this song. Dope version with a slowed down tempo used in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds (2009) (and I think the 1982 Cat People film)
JONATHAN chooses: “Queen Bitch” (1971) off Hunky Dory
JP: This isn’t really a secret, but David Bowie was gay. On Hunky Dory Bowie pays tribute to three icons: Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan and fellow LGBTQIA+ icon Lou Reed from the Velvet Underground. “Queen Bitch” lionized Reed. Lines like “She’s so swishy in her satin and tat/In her frock coat and bippity-boppity hat” give hints to the sexuality of both singer and subject. Mostly though I think this song is very, very fun. It comes deep into Hunky Dory, acting as a bridge between Bowie the folk rocker and Bowie the glam rocker. Similarly, Lynch’s work frequently bridges both past and future.
DAMON chooses: “The Man Who Sold the World” (1970) off The Man Who Sold the World
DD: This is another song I find very haunting and eerie. The lead guitar riff sticks in your head for days, while lyrics conjure in my mind images of whispered conversations in gothic castles and a man who is maybe something a little more, or a little less, than human.
JP: Damon, as many kids like us who grew up in the grunge era did, I always associate this song with Nirvana’s performance of it on MTV Unplugged. It’s perhaps an extra deep connection for kids who grew up in the Midwest. Bowie was always the creepy dude from Labyrinth (1986) as a kid, and I am sure I was familiar with some of his biggest hits via radio osmosis. Kurt Cobain is so reverent toward Bowie and almost afraid to play the song, but delivers a performance I am sure Bowie was proud of. Many years later I heard the Bowie version and understood just why Cobain was so terrified to cover a note-perfect rock song but yet felt the need to sing his own version. It’s a song you fall in love with. I also think Bowie, on the cover of the album of the same name, is wearing a dress with long sleeves and long skirt goes a long way to understanding Cobain’s attraction to the singer.
COLIN chooses: “Oh! You Pretty Things” (1971) off Hunky Dory
CL: This early hit of Bowie’s is exemplary (I think) of how one song of his can be many things at once. It has a jaunty, folksy piano lick, a big, swelling chorus that out-Beatles the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper soundscapes, and a wild and sinewy vocal, all wrapped around two of Bowie’s favorite themes: alien invasion and teenage rebellion. That he puts them side-by-side here (and elsewhere) is part of his genius. Who didn’t feel at least a little alienated while growing up and into whoever you have become? Who can’t feel that still? It’s a reminder that there is a bigger world than the suffocating one we struggle against, and it is going to accept us and celebrate us, the more we become who we truly are. At least, that’s what it seems to mean, in my mind. You may have a wholly different sense of what it’s about! Which is, of course, a classic trait of Twin Peaks, as well.
JP: Colin, “Oh! You Pretty Things” is definitely a favorite of mine (certainly in my Bowie Top 25), and I always consider this song from the parents of the pretty things, who know all too well that a youth spent in rebellion often ends up in the rote obedience of adulthood. Like, “Oh, you pretty things, don’t you know we have been-there and done-that?” However, that would also connect back to Twin Peaks, which has more than its share of grown-ups who have little time for rebellion.
JENNIFER chooses: “All the Madmen” (1970) off The Man Who Sold the World
JW: Four of my picks on this list, including this one, were on the setlist for the Glass Spider tour show that I saw in 1987. I was struck by the thematic connections with Twin Peaks for many of them, including “All the Madmen,” which was released as a single in 1970. It brings to mind so many characters on Twin Peaks who are perhaps mad or perhaps under the control of an evil force.
DAMON chooses: “Always Crashing in the Same Car” (1977) off Low
DD: I think Low is perhaps Bowie’s most innovative album, and that’s really saying something. It has a bleakness to it that’s almost goth, and it’s easy to just get lost in the layers. I could have picked any song from this record really, but I’ve always found the title of this one evocative.
JENNIFER chooses: “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” (1980) off Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
JW: Another song that was played at the 1987 Glass Spider tour that I attended. It is pretty amazing all the references to horror on that setlist and “Scary Monsters” is perfect when considering Twin Peaks as we have SO many scary monsters and super creeps to rave on about amid all the characters on Twin Peaks.
JENNIFER chooses: “Fashion” (1980) off Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
JW: Both David Bowie and Twin Peaks SCREAM fashion. My best friend and I used to marvel that Bowie was one of the only people who we thought could pull off a yellow suit. Pure style. She and I gazed upon the man from the stands at Spartan Stadium when Bowie played “Fashion” on the Glass Spider tour in 1987.
JP: “Fashion” is one of my favorites. Project Runway is a big-time reality show guilty pleasure of mine, and I always secretly hum “Fashion” to myself as the theme song that show should have if only they didn’t cheap out on the music budget.
COLIN chooses: “Lazarus” (2016) performed by Michael C. Hall & the Original New York Cast of Lazarus
CL: Keeping with my theme of Bowie work outside the strict confines of the music business, I found this track from Blackstar to be especially powerful and it features prominently in the theater production of the same name that starred Michal C. Hall in a retelling of the “Man Who Fell to Earth” tale. Johan Renck directed both the theater piece and the videos for “Lazarus” and “Blackstar,” so he’s clearly someone who was important to this inimitable climax of an inimitable career that Bowie orchestrated. His influence spilled over the banks of commercial music and became dreams that find us everywhere, and linger in our minds, rising up spontaneously to remind us of the other worlds we inhabit, and those we’re going to. A fine pairing with Lynch himself, in this.
DAMON chooses: “I’m Deranged” (1995) off Outside (and the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack from Lost Highway (1997))
DD: This spooky collaboration with Brian Eno is basically the theme to Lynch’s Lost Highway. I was a Lynch fan before I was a Bowie fan and hearing this song in the film was one of the first times I took note of David Bowie as being something more than just a pop singer.
JP: I had never heard this before either. The mid 90’s Bowie (aside from “I’m Afraid of Americans”) is a big blind spot in my Bowie fandom and I am inspired to check more of his material from that era out.
JONATHAN chooses: “I’m Afraid of Americans (Nine Inch Nails version)” (1997) off Earthling
JP: Aside from maybe the ubiquitous classics from the 70’s or “Let’s Dance” era which had permeated pop culture even before I was born, this was the first Bowie song I remember hearing on the radio when it debuted. Seattle’s alternative rock station is KNDD 107.7 “The End” and they played the shit out of “I’m Afraid of Americans”. I was a HUGE Nine Inch Nails fan in the mid 90’s so if Trent Reznor said Bowie was cool I certainly listened. NIN supported Bowie on his Outside tour, where perhaps they may have discussed on David Lynch. Both Bowie and NIN were featured on the Lost Highway soundtrack, and NIN would go on to make a very memorable appearance in Twin Peaks: The Return (which I credit as reviving my dormant love for the band). Recent history proves that David Bowie had every right to be afraid of Americans, and perhaps it was David Bowie’s death that sent the world into a dark and alternate timeline. I kid, obviously but I do wish Bowie would have been healthy enough to give us a performance on the Road House stage.
DAMON chooses: “Ziggy Stardust” (1972) off The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
DD: The title track to David Bowie’s most perfect album, this song always makes me feel good. The guitar work is a joy to listen to, simple yet compelling like a good punk song. Bauhaus did a great cover of it and performing it as part of a Bauhaus tribute set several years back really cemented this one in my brain as a classic.
JENNIFER chooses: “Space Oddity” (1969) off David Bowie
JW: How could I not include Space Oddity on this list? The outer space theme has connections with Twin Peaks and our increasing realization that something is happening “up there.” And now that we’ve made it through “Fire Walk with Me” and “Missing Pieces,” it raises even more questions about the plight of yet another Bowie character perhaps hurtling through time and space. Major Tom = Philip Jeffries? Something to ponder.
JP: I also like this selection for another Twin Peaks connection. “Space Oddity” was initially regarded as just a novelty song, capitalizing on the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing. The show also makes use of the novelty song “Mairzy Doats”, sung menacingly by Ray Wise as Leland Palmer.
JONATHAN chooses: “I Can’t Give Everything Away” (2016) off Blackstar
JP: I am continuously astonished by David Bowie’s final album Blackstar. Long story short, David Bowie, keenly aware of his own mortality as he succumbed to terminal cancer, makes one last album, which is all about death and rebirth and making your peace before you die. The album drops and two days later Bowie passes. Like he planned that shit. Self-fulfilling prophecy in the best way. I am reminded of similar self-prophecy in Twin Peaks, with the whole “I’ll you again in 25 years” and the feeling I can never shake that David Lynch and Mark Frost may have actually planned this shit out this way. “I Can’t Give Everything Away” is the final track on Blackstar, so in many ways, this song is the Last Will and Testament of David Bowie. Backed by a jazz quintet and a harmonica reminiscent of the one played on “A Career In a New Town” from 1977’s Low, this song moved me to tears upon hearing it, with Bowie singing “Seeing more and feeling less/Saying no but meaning yes/This is all I ever meant/That’s the message that I sent/I can’t give everything away.” So Bowie, knowing he is going to die, leaves us with this song as the last track of his last album? Genius. Like he always planned it this way. I was lucky enough to see this song performed live by Nine Inch Nails (along with “I’m Afraid of Americans”) on June 16th, 2018 in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Bowie, for one night, lived again.
