Bowie Summer Challenge - submit tracks by Sept 1

Wham bam, thank you ma'am/sir

A challenge for summer 2013: cover a track from The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars. Tracks are due by Sept 1st.

I want to be involved!

Memail dubold for track assignments.

I don't want to do the track I was assigned!

No problem, ask if anyone wants to trade. The point of assigning tracks is to attempt and cover the whole album.

What if I can't get it done by Sept 1?

There's no penalty for turning it in late, but there will be a wrapup post and compilation of all the tracks, so if you want to get in on that, submit by sept 1.

I finished the track, now what?

Please post the track to Music and post a link to the track in this thread.

posted by dubold (35 comments total)

September first?!? But you said I had Five Years!

See what I did there?

But seriously, I'm really excited to hear what everyone comes up with!
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 9:07 AM on June 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

♬ ♫ "We've got five fortnights, that's all we got.
♬ ♫ "Five fortnights, that's *all* we got.
♬ ♫ "Five fortnights, you're naked, you're beautiful..."

or something like that.
posted by Ardiril at 9:21 AM on June 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

there's a staaaaaaar man
setting your deadline
he'd like to make it sooner
but he thinks he'd blow your mind...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:48 PM on June 12, 2013 [2 favorites]

For those doing 5 Years, it's in 6/8 at 74.5 bpm, more or less. The snare in that song slips between 6/8 and 4/4 constantly, however the hat plays straight 6/8 throughout.
posted by Ardiril at 3:49 PM on June 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

For those doing 5 Years, it's in 6/8 at 74.5 bpm, more or less. The snare in that song slips between 6/8 and 4/4 constantly, however the hat plays straight 6/8 throughout.

So now, for your cover version, you know what NOT to do! :)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:04 PM on June 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'm going to do an oscillating 11 over 9 using a whole-tone scale.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 10:29 PM on June 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

In the immortal words of David Johanson, "Are you accusing me of melody?"
posted by Ardiril at 11:55 PM on June 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

Man, I never realized until now how much "It Ain't Easy" is really a Zeppelin song that snuck onto a Bowie album.
posted by COBRA! at 8:19 AM on June 15, 2013

I know exactly what I'm going to do and how I'm going to do it. I have until September to figure out when.
posted by davejay at 11:00 AM on June 17, 2013 [2 favorites]

Spent much of the day yesterday recording my cover of Suffragette City. It's pretty much done, I think. Will post a version soon.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:32 PM on June 25, 2013

By the way, dubold, in the past we've generally posted a list of which tunes are assigned to which Mefiers. Can you do that here, please?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:56 PM on June 25, 2013

Ziggy Stardust has been my favourite album since I was 13, so I feel like it's time to start recording some of my music, and bastardise a track I love.
posted by Ned G at 6:24 PM on July 3, 2013

Initial signups didn't have quite enough entrants to cover both records - we were one or two short. However, more people expressed interest after we'd already started, and as of 3rd July we're up to 26 entrants!


Here's a list of who's covering what:


Five Years
Ardiril
under_petticoat_rule

Soul Love
askmeaboutLOOM
frenetic
nicolin

Moonage Daydream
freya_lamb
ob1quixote

Starman
fleacircus
umbú

It Ain't Easy
COBRA!
cortex

Lady Stardust
davejay
Lutoslawski
The World Famous

Star
chococat
DaDaDaDave
dubold

Hang On to Yourself
dobie
InfidelZombie

Ziggy Stardust
bongo_x
hoops mccann

Suffragette City
cincinnatus c
flapjaxatmidnite

Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
greenish
Ned G
Slothomatic


Taz talked about the possibility of incorporating a visual element into this challenge, and made the fantastic suggestion of having cover art for the various songs. If that's something anyone's interested in, please memail me.
posted by dubold at 7:23 AM on July 4, 2013

Let me tell you, it ain't easy.
posted by cortex at 3:26 PM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

I CANNOT WAIT to hear EACH AND EVERY ONE of these.
posted by scody at 3:32 PM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

wham bam thank you maam
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:18 AM on July 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

I just came across this Challenge on Sunday night. (Must remember to swing by Music at the begining of the month!) I hope it's okay that I took a swing at Soul Love.
posted by ochenk at 10:06 AM on July 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

It's the best kind of not okay, that's a really nice cover.
posted by cortex at 12:04 PM on July 30, 2013

Holy shit, have I recorded a mess. Back to the drawing board.
posted by COBRA! at 6:05 PM on August 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

Man, there's nothing like that feeling where you sit down to listen to the accumulation of all your work thus far, and realize... this must never see the light of day.

My sympathies, COBRA!

To all you out there in challenge-land... keep plugging away!
posted by dubold at 5:15 AM on August 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

Star
posted by dubold at 4:53 PM on August 6, 2013 [2 favorites]

Ziggy Stardust
posted by aerosolkid at 10:00 AM on August 7, 2013 [3 favorites]

It Ain't Easy out there in the country.
posted by COBRA! at 7:06 PM on August 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Well… for better or worse I finally got "Moonage Daydream" down.
posted by ob1quixote at 2:05 PM on August 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Got my Soul Love cover in. Happy to move on with my life, pursue other interests and hobbies, see other songs, etc.
posted by frenetic at 11:28 AM on August 27, 2013

Here's another Starman cover. So glad I heard about this project (thx, frenetic!) and had time to submit something before 9/1. And thanks dubold for letting me sneak in under the wire!
posted by kaboomer at 7:13 PM on August 28, 2013

Here's my attempt at Starman...Kind of a sloppy dystopian mess. If Bowie ever heard this, I'm pretty sure he would vomit in his shoe.
posted by Slothomatic at 8:24 PM on August 29, 2013

I'm pretty sure he recorded a whole album of that at one point in the 80s.
posted by cortex at 11:47 PM on August 29, 2013

Twenty six Mefi musicians were assigned tracks to complete by September 1. There seems to be about nine submitted so far. Big day tomorrow, I wonder?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:21 AM on August 30, 2013

A deadline is a thing you set so that musicians will be motivated by shame for having missed it and so meet the arbitrary extended one set thereafter.
posted by cortex at 7:57 AM on August 30, 2013 [3 favorites]

Too late to post the link ? Soul Love.
posted by nicolin at 1:09 PM on September 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

Ooops...posted this track yesterday but forgot to link to it here. Still 9/1 on the West Coast! It's another version of Moonage Daydream. But with more guitars.
posted by kaboomer at 9:40 PM on September 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

omg omg omg I had no idea this was happening, this is like Christmas morning for me, thank you mefi!
posted by Lou Stuells at 3:06 PM on September 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

In!
posted by chococat at 10:40 PM on September 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is all SO good!
posted by surplus at 10:39 AM on February 18, 2014