Episodes
Tuesday Sep 15, 2020
Tuesday Sep 15, 2020
1977, ho hum, nothing much happening here at Bowie vs. Dylan podcast, just a random year of the comings and goings of David Bowie and/or Bob Dylan. Let's see, what might be the rub? Probably an album or two apiece from the two of them of varying quality and breadth, some number of singles from Bowie and maybe one from Dylan (if we're lucky, that is), a tour or something, certainly the ridiculous exercise of assigning points to their subjective pursuits coming out in the wash to basically a tie. I mean, that's been the story, more or less, since this podcast's inception 61 episodes ago, what could possibly be the big difference this time around?
(Puts on this very episode, vigorously checks notes while half-listening, becomes increasingly horrified)
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...there's no other way to say it, it's a bloodbath. Although looking at the year (1977), I bet you can't tell which artist comes out on top! You'll have to listen yourself to find out who! Oh boy, who could it be?!?!?!?
(Slowly starts laughing, changing uncomfortably over a matter of 30 seconds into maniacal guffawing, passes out, drools a little but clearly needs the time of relative rest and peace, on this edition of Bowie vs. Dylan.)
Wednesday Jun 17, 2020
Iggy Pop's The Bowie Years - Unboxing Is Back and Better Than Ever
Wednesday Jun 17, 2020
Wednesday Jun 17, 2020
Iggy Pop just released a new box set! And they called it The Bowie Years in a transparent cash grab attempt to get hard core Bowie fans like Charlie to plunk down some hard earned bread on a big ol' set that only features, but is not exclusively dedicated to, Bowie. But hey, it worked! And Charlie even made an unboxing video about the thing. Click through to view.
Read the rest of this entry »
Monday Jun 15, 2020
Monday Jun 15, 2020
Dye your horsehair red, dolled-up dogies, and join us for an olden yet futuristic romp with David Bowie and Bob Dylan through the year 1973! Meet your cast of characters:
David Bowie: I'm one of the biggest stars in the universe. Or STARdusts, IF you know what I mean!
Bob Dylan: Heeeey, me too! Except substitute the space metaphors for old west ones. Literally everyone on earth knows who I am in 1973, whether I like it or not, which I definitely don't.
Sam Peckinpah: I don't know who you are. Who is this kid? I mean, who is this Billy the Kid?
Kris Kristofferson: Sammy...what? It's my good friend Bobby! Ever since I swept up his commemorative one millionth cigarette butt in 1966, I've found him to be the most magnetic acting presence anyone's ever done laid eyes on!
Sam Peckinpah: That's patently untrue. But...as a young, hungry, up-and-coming musician, I guess he might have a future?
ColumBS Records Executives: Well, he did, Sam, he really did, he used to, we guess, until he disappointed us deeply by continuing to sell millions of records but not releasing super-classics every 5 months. I know! Let's release his worst album to convince him to stay on with us now that we kicked him to the curb but then he unexpectedly had a gigantic hit.
David Bowie's Outrageous Red Mullet: This is my time, baby!
Bob Dylan's Slightly Subdued Fro: This is my time to get shoved under a period-specific Stetson cowboy hat! Check me out again starting in the year 2000 and continuing until the end of time.
David Bowie's Fans: AAAAAAAAAGHGGHHGHGHGHHGHGH WE LOVE YOU ZIGGY WE BOUGHT ALL YOUR RECORDS!!!!
Bob Dylan's Family: AAAAAAAAGHGHGHGHHHHHGGHGHH, Mexico is hell for us.
The Spiders From Mars: Wait, what did David just say? Did we just get canned on stage in front of thousands of fans who definitely love us just as much if not more than David Bowie? He couldn't have just-
David Bowie: You're fired! Sorry, not sorry, mates, on this 1973 edition of Bowie vs. Dylan.
Wednesday Jan 01, 2020
Wednesday Jan 01, 2020
Happy New Year!
We here at Bowie vs. Dylan would like to celebrate the arrival of 2020 with a completely relevant and forward-thinking conversation about the distant past, in this case 45 years past, related to the comings and goings of David Bowie and Bob Dylan in the year 1975. This makes perfect sense to we here, and we here hope that it makes sense to you, too, dear listeners, because if you expected a year-end/year-beginning wrap-up/dress-down, you'll be sorely mistaken. We here know that you there expect the latest-developing and hardest-hitting news from the respective camps of our latest musicians, and we know you expect it NOW. But you there will just have to wait 2 weeks, until the 15th of January, 2020, just as the good Lord intended when He proclaimed that the format for our podcast would be thus, on the 10th Day I think it was (?), and so take it up with Him and slog it out with the 1975 podcast instead.
It's actually quite the battle on this edition of Bowie vs. Dylan.
Tuesday Oct 01, 2019
Tuesday Oct 01, 2019
Bowie plays it cool and wavy in Berlin (but not really Berlin) while Dylan gets hot under the collar for Jesus in the year of Dylan's lord 1979. There's obviously a lot to unpack in this episode of Bowie vs. Dylan, but the question on everyone's lips in this: Why DOES Jake has a slight but pronounced issue with Brian Eno?
Well, not to ruin the surprise, such as it is, but it's really just a feeling with no concrete evidence whatsoever beyond a solid and uncompromising body of work. I mean, Jake really should like him just fine, and I guess he does, but he doesn't totally, he told me so, in a confidence that I am now gratuitously breaking. And spoiler alert, Eno is Chaz's #2 all-time musician overall?! What? Now Jake has told me he's upset again, after cooling off considerably since they recorded the podcast, and he tells me to tell Chaz that he's not speaking to him until they both take a few weeks to think it over and make sense of this mess.
How does that make you feel, Chaz, of this edition of Bowie vs. Dylan?
Thursday Aug 01, 2019
Thursday Aug 01, 2019
We here at Bowie vs. Dylan want you to stop us if you've heard this one before: Two well-meaning podcasters record a perfectly okay episode involving the comings and goings of David Bowie and Bob Dylan in the year 1972. They drink a beer with one hand, pat themselves on the back with the other, and call it a day.
Except: the digital file stored on the voice memos portion of a state-of-the-art iPod 4 becomes somehow corrupted and refuses to transfer to one of the well-meaning podcaster's computer hard drive. This podcaster furiously attempts to uncorrupt the ostensibly but allegedly corrupt file, which nonetheless proves itself literally corrupt and thereby unretrievable. The first podcaster hides the corruption from the second podcaster, who is prone to tantrums and various hissy fits, by attempting unethical bribes and outright witchcraft to avoid what becomes unavoidable, which is that the two podcasters must surmount all odds and just, you know, record it again.
It's a tale as old as time. Have you heard that one? You haven't. You haven't heard the first podcast. No one has, and no one ever will, until that fine day when the super-deluxe edition of Bowie vs. Dylan arrives in the year 2069. You'll have to settle for the second one for now, and hope that it provides you, dear listener, with the information that you crave about Bowie and Dylan in 1972, on this revised edition of Bowie vs. Dylan.
Wednesday May 01, 2019
Wednesday May 01, 2019
Charlie and Jake beckon you to join them in their 1970-era drug and sex-fueled arts commune that's really just a dilapidated house with some stairs that you can sleep on/under. Why, you ask? Well, we want you to express yourself, of course, through mimery and "joke" albums that debut at #4 on the Billboard charts. We want you to try your novelty singles in Italian, and to put out a "real" album 4 months later only to see it debut at #7. We'd really think it was neat if you released some HEAVY music, man, but also to sing of the simple pleasures the country life can bring after you move back to NYC to be accosted by jackasses with megaphones. All of this is encouraged in our awful condemnable house!
But really, it's all about us making a space spiritually and physically fit for you to bring a child into the world in it. Seriously, have a baby and try and raise it through infancy in the house. It'll be a good idea! He or she can sleep under Stair #8, it's surprisingly roomy.
I hate to do this to you now that you've agreed to stay on as a valued member of our lovely little clan, but it's just, you know, I have to ask...does the baby have some rent money to contribute? Disgusting arts communes don't run themselves, you know, on this edition of Bowie vs. Dylan.
Friday Feb 01, 2019
Friday Feb 01, 2019
Jake seems to sound the same while discussing Bob Dylan in the year of all years 1974, but Charlie sounds...different somehow, while discussing David Bowie. It's not the content necessarily, it's still a buzzsaw of singles, classic 70's records, and questionable (NSFW?) album art. And it's not his tone, which continues to be cheeky, sarcastic, vaguely mean, and unnecessarily triumphant. It's more, I don't know, his timbre? Less scratchy? Clearer somehow? More personable? Still whiny and nasally, sure, but you can hear the words better. I think. But I'm not sure why! Maybe you, dear listeners, can figure it out, as you fire up the old podcast listening machine, share an in-person brotherly or sisterly hug with the ones you love, hoover up some cocaine and/or infidelity with CBS executives, and try not to cringe during the "members" portion (you'll know it when you hear it) on this very special shuckster/guru-filled episode of Bowie vs. Dylan!
Saturday Nov 03, 2018
So Bloody! So Tracky!
Saturday Nov 03, 2018
Saturday Nov 03, 2018
Jake sweeps you off your feet with an in depth look at the brand new Dylan Bootleg Series box set, More Blood, More Tracks, featuring outtakes from the iconic 1975 album, Blood on the Tracks. Watch, gentle viewer, as he unboxes your heart.
Read the rest of this entry »Monday Oct 01, 2018
EP14: 1978 - Stage vs. Street Legal or Peter and The Clara of 1978
Monday Oct 01, 2018
Monday Oct 01, 2018
Chaz and Jake embark on an alimony tour while discussing the norm-core Bowie and the vaguely Elvis-esque Dylan in 1978, brought on by their acrimonious divorce over irreconcilable differences caused by their perception of how long the podcast is running. While they certainly agree that Mick Ronson is a saint who deserves a Mick Renaissance, and that Bowie's ambient live show opener sounds like a good idea, they absolutely cannot reconcile with the scoring of the Nadir-O-Rater, or what media mediums should get points or not, or who or when someone should get "JUDAS!!!" shouted at them for no reason, and let's be honest, Jake's job performance suffers a little as a result. These situations have a tendency to nibble at your edges, even when you don't intend them to, you know? Especially when this is your first time hearing his voice since the split, even though the split occurred during this very podcast. It's one part live concert performance, one part social commentary, and 9 parts semi-fictional dramatic vignettes on this edition of Bowie vs. Dylan.
And when you're done disco dancing, dry clean your schmaltzy white leisure suit and check out an extra 70's Spotify playlist at bit.ly/BvD-EP14!
Thursday Sep 20, 2018
More Blood, More Tracks!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?
Thursday Sep 20, 2018
Thursday Sep 20, 2018
I'm Jake and I love Dylan-
And we here at Bowie vs. Dylan (Dylan side of operations) FINALLY have something to celebrate, besides the pride and joy of semi-accurately detailing any given year's work of Bob Dylan's career, which as of yet has not included 1975, otherwise known as "the only year of the 70's we here at Bowie vs. Dylan expect Dylan to win, but it might be close says Chaz but Jake knows, he knows". That of course is the year that Dylan released his second-most impactful comeback album of all (behind Time Out of Mind), and the BvD award-winner for Greatest Comeback Album (Dylan Division, juuust ahead of Time Out of Mind), Blood on the Tracks. The album that subverted and sublimated the 70's singer-songwriter pastiche, that probably made Dylan's career for life and all the upcoming ages as long as Rolling Stone magazine still circulates. And the one that really invented the concept of deluxe boxsets in the first place, although Dylan himself wouldn't actually invent that for a number of years. Because the legend was born immediately and bootlegged not long after: Dylan had recorded a mostly different version of BOTT (so close to BUTT), pressed it and sent it to Columbia (who would have happily released anything at all by Dylan at that point, up to and including an album named Butt on the Tracks, or Blood Under the Tracks [BUTT]), but soon enough had his friends listen to it, and they apparently didn't care for it, and so Dylan growled "Just kidding!" and went and re-recorded all but 5 of the tracks, we have to assume the bloodiest ones.
And so as fantastic as BOTT was and is, there is another version of it kicking around, which brings us to the present.
Read the rest of this entry »Friday Jul 06, 2018
Welcome to the Blackout: What's the Point?
Friday Jul 06, 2018
Friday Jul 06, 2018
I'm Charlie and I like Bowie.
Last week, Welcome to the Blackout (Live London '78), a previously unreleased archival Bowie live album, came out on CD and digital (vinyl was for Record Store Day) to the delight of Bowie experts, collectors, die-hards, completists, and hard-core acolytes. But what about the more casual fan? Is there any reason to buy a 1978 live album when another one already exists? Especially when said live album has been around since, well, 1978?