Tracing My Dad • Vol. 10 • Tony Visconti discusses Dennis Davis and David Bowie • Part 3 [ 77/78 ]
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2024
- Tracing My Dad • Vol. 10 • Tony Visconti discusses Dennis Davis and David Bowie • Part 3 [ 77/78 ]
The HD Projects presents, the third in a series of four interview videos, with world-famous music producer Tony Visconti, talking about drummer Dennis Davis.
The interview took place in New York City in 2018. Tony provided a lot of information and insight into the music he and David Bowie made, and the times they shared, with Dennis Davis.
Each video focuses on a specific phase of Tony’s work with Bowie and Dennis. This one focuses on David Bowie’s 1977 album, “Heroes”, and the subsequent tour in ’78.
Famously, the material for “Heroes” was recorded in Berlin, at Hansa Studios, “by the wall”. David Bowie, Tony Visconti, Brian Eno and the band continued, and expanded on the ideas they had discovered on the previous album Low, and produced another groundbreaking masterpiece. In this video, Tony shares interesting stories and details from those sessions, and beyond.
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A personal note from Hikaru Davis
I was 11 years old when I filmed this interview. I was so nervous.
But Mr. Visconti was a great interviewee. He made it so easy to talk about my Dad.
My favourite part of the interview was to know Tony’s best memory of my Dad. I usually get to hear about funny moments. All his friends tell me he was a funny man. When he was still alive, he was funny, but he was rather quiet and more shy at home.
That’s why I love to know more about my Dad when he was young. It makes me smile. Thank you for sharing my Dad’s memory with me.
I hope everyone enjoys this video, thanks for watching and supporting my project.
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A note from Nacho
Personally, the “Heroes” era is a very big deal for me. “Heroes” is one of my favorite Bowie albums. And I’ve long been fascinated by the legend of Bowie, anonymous in divided Berlin, recovering from his exhaustion and depression, to become again the confident artist.
Rory MacLean is one of the unsung heroes of the ’77 / ’78 Berlin Bowieverse. Rory was the assistant director of both Just a Gigolo (the ’78 movie that Bowie starred in) and of the Stage movie - the unreleased Bowie concert film, shot at Earls Court in ’78.
Rory is now a renowned author, and he dedicated one chapter of his excellent book, “Berlin: Imagine A City”, to beautifully and vividly depicting the Berlin Bowie. That chapter ends:
“In those few months in Berlin, Bowie made his journey from addiction to independence, from celebrity paranoia to radical, unmasked messenger who told us, all the fat-skinny people, all the nobody people, that we were beautiful, that we too could be ourselves.”
And what of Dennis Davis? In the words of Tony Visconti in this interview, “Whatever he did, he played extremely well. And he added something - and this is what I loved about his drumming - he added something that you never heard before. Because his mind was so vast, and mercurial”. And I think that there is ample evidence of that, on this video.
I was inspired by Tony’s Hansa Studios CCTV story. Suddenly in my mind, the recording sessions for “Heroes” became something vivid. So I wanted to create with this video, a little flavor of those sessions. As per, there was little material to work with. No footage for sure, and only the few archive photos of Hansa, and the shots from the recording session, when Robert Fripp came in to lay down his guitar parts.
However, I was delighted to discover in some of the Hansa shots, the CCTV camera in the studio, and the TV display screen in the control room. And so my video took off from there.
I hope you dig it!
TheNachoVideos
/ nachomarcho
vimeo.com/NachosProductions
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Dennis Davis passed away on April 6th, 2016.
Hikaru Davis is the youngest child of the late drummer. Hikaru interviews some of the great musicians and producers who have worked with his late father, as well as Dennis's friends and family. Dennis Davis played with David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Roy Ayers, George Benson and many others. Hikaru hopes to learn how and why his father was one of the greatest drummers, and hear inspiring stories of his father through this tribute project.
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Use of the music and footage contained in this video does not imply any copyright ownership, and no infringement of rights is intended.
#DavidBowie #Heroes #TheDAMTrio #TonyVisconti #DennisDavis #CarlosAlomar #GeorgeMurray #BrianEno #RobertFripp #Stage
Hello Hikaru. I met your father in a music store /drumshop on 48th street ,when I lived NYC back the 1980's. I was shopping for cymbals,and I recognized him while he was checking out some snare drums in the back corner of the store. I asked him if him if he wouldnt mind playing some of his funky rhythmns on the high hats I had picked out to purchase & he couldnt have been a nicer person if he tried. He played beats from Lodger & Station to station for me,answered my questions about the recording process with Bowie and Stevie Wonder,etc. He signed an autograph for me and gave me his phone number too,in case I wanted private lessons with him. I still have that autograph/phone # hanging in my little drum rehearsal room all these years later. Your father was an amazing drummer with his own unique style,and his creativity,especially the way he approached & constructed complex rhythms, but made them sound effortless, is extraordinary.
Seriously Nacho, I wish the whole Bowie archive was in your hands. It is incredible how you make it shine. Thank you so much. And Dennis Davis was an amazing drummer.
Thanks so much xx
Your dad wasthe best drummer I ever heard. You should be so proud of him
David bowie was not just a genius. He has a knack of getting the best musicians and producer.They all raised the bar, striving for perfection.
Very rare today from any current rabble.
Visconti,Eno,Belew,Davies,Alomar,Bowie... wow!
That bit of Heroes at the end is just devastating... made me appreciate the song all over again... what a song. what power. what imagination.
That Heroes sound/visual edit at the end.... oh my
This films are superb -- thanks very much for sharing them
Well done Tony , really great that you spend time with the young man . Great interview. I saw Dennis at Ronnie Scott’s years back with Roy Ayers and wished I had had the idea of talking to Dennis about Bowie.
Hikaru your Dad is an absolute Hero! I'm so very grateful to him for sharing his musical gifts with us - and I bet David was hugely grateful to have had him play with his band. David only ever picked the very best people to work with. Isn't that right Tony?! Love and light to you all ♥
These videos are absolutely the best thing on the Internet in 2019. Thank you. X
Steve Stroud thanks so much, Steve :)
I just found these now and hearing Station to Station live still gives me chills... like I was back in 1978 at the show.
Still the best thing in 2022.
@@steelcrazy409 Yep. This was a home run.
these footage are rare to find especially in good quality.
Thanks Hikaru and Nacho I love watching these videos !! So many great stories.
ramsmachine thanks a lot :)
Better than most D.B. docs! this is great!
What a beautiful video ! Thanks a lot. A french musician.
Incredible work. Great to see and hear this. Also, never seen the promo clips from "Blackout". Thought I'd seen everything.
JB thanks very much, so glad I could come up with something you haven’t seen before :)
This is wholesome.
Thank you so much Hikaru for sharing this with us. These 3 videos are so precious, and I hope they help you to feel connected to the love that everyone feels for your dad. Big thank you as well to Tony Visconti for being so generous (as always) with his time and the archives. So special.
What a band, oh my gosh!
Belew, Powell, Cross, Alomar, etc...
Thanks Hikaru for sharing this tresors with us
hey nacho, maybe IF you can, to compile ALL of your docu videos into one full feature documentary , that is plenty of work but i'm sure a major TV station would pick that up , i thank you & everyone involved in making this very enjoyable & informative on what it took to create such legendary music , RIP Dennis & David ( side note : i was good friends with dennis back in the 70's before his work with bowie & followed dennis during his musical history, so this was beautiful to watch a blessed drummer as dennis, a generous soul gone too soon )
Thanks a lot, Tony. I have made a couple of unauthorised Bowie documentaries that contain some of my music vids. In early stage discussions now about making official ones.
@@NachoVideo cool , beautiful to read, thanks for all the work you have done & look forward to your release, stay safe & healthy :)
@@tonyv47 you too buddy :)
Great vid. You can tell Visconti’s a good father
My favorite drummer of all time.
This is a great series of videos, and really well made, kudos you all! David's playing was the soundtrack for my own early years as a drummer and I still find new things in his playing decades later - and I'm learning a lot from these videos. Such a great and creative drummer! It's also great to hear Tony converse about all this history. Hiraku and Nacho, thanks so much for making these awesome videos, and for documenting David's artistic legacy.
Great video! Thank you.
It feels insanely good to hear more about this golden age, makes me realize and appreciate the quality of davis' drumming too, as well as the album
Thanks a lot !
Btw, aren't the songs too loud compared to Tony's voice ? I can't hear him well when there's some bg music and have to lower the volume and stuff
It's no big deal anyway, the editing is still gold ! Just wanted to let you know
That was fantastic. Thx so much
What a great ending!!!, Wow!!
Wonderful series of videos. Love Dennis' drumming - great to see it getting such an in depth study
Pretty cool thing for Davis' son. Nice job, Tony. (Kent)
Wow!, Brilliant, thank you.
Great video as always! Thank you for sharing your dad's wonderful legacy with us.
A lot of music fans know about John Bonham and a lot of Musicians know about Dennis Davis
Great video about a truly remarkable drummer, well done!
Thank you!!!!!!!
I truly Love these videos ☺ Your Dad would be very proud of U Hikaru. And yet another fantastic gem from your gd self Mr Nacho, thank you both so much ★★★
Scary Stardust as always, thanks very much XO
this needs to be on Sky arts or BBC4 its fascinating. probably a nightmare to get all the clearances I would imagine
Thanks for the great compliment, Anthony.
Wow!
great !
❤️❤️❤️
Myself like a lot of people believe that this was Bowie's finest band
The "Panic In Detroit" unedited drum solo from the '76 tour is epic
BOWIE IST UND BLEIBT FÜR MICH DER BESTE👍👍👍🎸🎷🎼. ES IST SEHR SCHADE DASS NUR WENIGE BERICHTE UND INTERVIEWS INS DEUTSCHE ÜBERSETZT WERDEN. ALLE FANS SIND NICHT DER ENGLISCHEN SPRACHE MÄCHTIG. ICH FINDE ES SEHR SCHADE, DENN ICH BIN EIN GROßER BOWIEFAN. 🌠✨⭐⚡🎵🎶🐬🦋🌸🥀
Hikaru, I hope you found what you were looking for.
I lOOOOOve Blackout! 😀
Dear Nanho, please also do a version with just the Heroes footage.
mangasky7 what do you mean, exactly?
A version of Heroes using these outtakes. I thought I'd seen all that Dorfman footage but there's clearly new stuff here.
mangasky7 ok! I’ve already been working on the very thing! It’ll be on my channel imminently :)
@@NachoVideo Great minds... Can't wait to see it.
@@mangasky7in the outtakes reel, there are two continuous single takes of the entire song. The first one isn't great, for various reasons. But the other one is so damn beautiful. That's the one I used parts of in this HD Projects video, and that's the one I'm making my new "Heroes" video with.
❤
where did you get the Blackout studio clip what happened to the rest of it surely there has to be enough for a Nacho edit???? had no idea it existed
In '77, when Bowie and Dorfman were shooting the "Heroes" promo, they also shot a very brief section of Blackout; "get me to a doctor's, I've been told.. etc". It was used in the one-minute "Heroes" TV Ad. I used that, and the rest is made up from outtakes of the "Heroes" shoot. I have tried making a Blackout promo, using the "Heroes" outtakes, to create a sort-of impressionistic effect, but over the duration of the entire song, it doesn't really work.
Thanks Nacho you already answered my next question which is there enough to make a nacho edit?! What a shame they did not do Blackout it seems to suit the B & W format , oh well something is better than nuthin thanks for bringing it to us
Anthony Day very welcome! This HD Projects video was really the perfect way to use the best bits of my abandoned Blackout project. Certain ideas won’t work over the rotation of a whole track. The next HD Projects will have another example, or two, of that.
"Dennis Davis".......? Did however hear about "Dennis the Menace" 👍🏻👦🏼
Why do all those famous stars always tend to speed up their songs in a live situation ?
Great video! Thank you.