David Bowie dies of cancer at 69

Obituaries for folks in the entertainment world that have come to the end of the road.

David Bowie dies of cancer at 69

Postby radiofan » Mon Jan 11, 2016 12:43 am

David Bowie dies of cancer at 69

Singer David Bowie has died at the age of 69 following a battle with cancer.

His son director Duncan Jones confirmed the news and a statement was released on his official social media accounts.

"David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer," it said.

"While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family's privacy during their time of grief."

The singer only released his latest album Blackstar on his birthday on Friday.

There had been rumours about Bowie's health for years.

His last live performance was at a New York charity concert in 2006.

Sixty-six facts about David Bowie

Blackstar, which includes just seven songs, has been well received by critics.

Bowie's breakthrough came with 1972's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.

His hits include Let's Dance, Space Oddity, Heroes, Under Pressure, Rebel, Rebel, Life on Mars and Suffragette City.

He was also well known for creating his flamboyant alter ego Ziggy Stardust.

Space Oddity

He also carved out an acting career including his role as an alien seeking help for his dying planet in Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth in 1976.

He did a three-month stint as The Elephant Man on Broadway in the 1980s.

Bowie also starred in Marlene Dietrich's last film, Just a Gigolo (1978), and played Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

Bowie was born David Jones in London on 8 January in 1947 but Bowie changed his name in 1966 after The Monkees' Davy Jones achieved stardom.

He was in several bands before he signed with Mercury Records, which released his album Man of Words, Man of Music in 1969, which included Space Oddity, his first UK number one.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35278872
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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Re: David Bowie dies of cancer at 69

Postby Tom Jeffries » Mon Jan 11, 2016 7:35 pm

Not one comment?

Bowie. I mean, this gent was a GIANT.

The memories - the first show to open BC Place, in 1983 - I loved playing him on the tube.

RIP. Condolences to his Wife, Son and Daughter.

This one will take a while to process and I won't listen to his music for awhile.

He will be sorely missed.
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Re: David Bowie dies of cancer at 69

Postby jon » Mon Jan 11, 2016 9:13 pm

Bowie: The Man Who Sold Royalties and Brought Music to Bonds
Alastair Marsh
BloombergBusiness
January 11, 2016 — 6:28 AM MST
Updated on January 11, 2016 — 11:55 AM MST
  • Performer was first to securitize future earnings from songs
  • `Space Oddity' musician died Sunday from cancer at age 69
The man behind “The Man Who Sold the World” was the first recording artist to go to Wall Street to tap the future earnings of his music, paving the way for a thriving market for esoteric securities backed by everything from racehorse stud rights to commercial washing machines.

David Bowie, who died from cancer at age 69 on Sunday, sold $55 million of bonds in 1997 that were tied to future royalties from hits including “Ziggy Stardust,” “Space Oddity” and “Changes.” Following his example were singers James Brown and Rod Stewart and the heavy-metal band Iron Maiden. Securities backed by royalties allow artists to raise money without selling the rights to their work or waiting years for payments to trickle in.

“Bowie’s bonds were as groundbreaking as his music,” said Rob Ford, a London-based money manager at TwentyFour Asset Management, which oversees 5.3 billion pounds ($7.7 billion). “Not only were they followed by a number of other artists, but they set the template for deals backed by a whole range of assets.”

The so-called Bowie bonds were sold privately to Prudential Insurance Co. of America. The securities were initially rated A3 rating by Moody’s Investors Service, the seventh-highest investment-grade rank. In the 2000s, Internet piracy led to a drop in sales and Moody’s cut the rating in 2004 to Baa3, one level above junk. The decline in worldwide recorded-music revenues slowed in 2014 as more people subscribed to streaming online services.

Paid Off

The Bowie bonds were paid off after 10 years and the ratings withdrawn, said Moody’s spokesman Thomas Lemmon. The New York-based company has also rated a music royalty transaction from the songwriting duo Ashford and Simpson, as well as a bond secured by a portfolio of Miramax films, including “Good Will Hunting” and “Bridget Jones’ Diary,” Lemmon said.

John Chartier, a spokesman for Prudential in Newark, New Jersey, declined to comment on the performance of the notes.

“David was extremely savvy and got things instantly,” David Pullman, the Los Angeles banker who arranged the Bowie bonds securitization, said in a phone interview Monday. “He heard what we were discussing and said why are we not doing this already?”

Underwriters in the U.S. led by Guggenheim Partners have helped expand the market for unusual securitization financing, which can provide issuers a lower cost of funds and achieve higher credit ratings than issuance of comparable company debt.
Comic Bonds

The market for securitizing intellectual property, which Bowie started, now includes film rights, pharmaceutical patents, restaurant franchises and the “Peanuts” comic strip.

It hasn’t always gone smoothly. Brown, “The Godfather of Soul” whose life and career was featured in the 2014 film “Get On Up,” sued to get out of his securitization arrangement in 2006, a year before his death.

Sales of esoteric securitizations made up 21 percent of all U.S. asset-backed issuance last year, and the sector grew faster than more traditional issuance, according to Barclays Plc data. Esoteric deal volume in the U.S. rose 16 percent to about $40 billion through November from a year earlier, Barclays analysts said in a November year-ahead outlook, forecasting at least $45 billion in sales in 2016.

While sales of esoteric deals have increased, they remain a small part of the wider asset-backed securities market. And bonds like Bowie’s remain limited by the number of artists able to reach the London-born singer-songwriter’s degree of success.

Bowie “changed the way people think about art and commerce," Pullman said.
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Re: David Bowie dies of cancer at 69

Postby jon » Wed Jan 13, 2016 4:46 pm

radiofan wrote:The singer only released his latest album Blackstar on his birthday on Friday.

Pat St. John floated an interesting theory on his Sirius/XM show today: that the album was named after Elvis Presley's 1961 hit (and a personal favourite of mine) "Flaming Star". Then he played part of an early Take before the song was renamed, and was known as "Black Star". Note the (final) lyrics:
when a man, sees his flaming star
He knows his time, his time has come
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Re: David Bowie dies of cancer at 69

Postby jon » Sat Jan 16, 2016 2:15 pm

Bowie's Banker Offers Marketplace Oddity: One-Hit-Wonder Bonds
Alastair Marsh
BloombergBusiness
January 15, 2016 — 8:03 AM MST
Updated on January 15, 2016 — 9:12 AM MST

For every David Bowie, there are dozens of Right Said Freds.

And for David Pullman, the Los Angeles banker who made his name putting together bonds tied to future royalties from Bowie’s plethora of hits, one-hit wonders such as the British group responsible for the 1991 classic “I’m Too Sexy” can generate cash flow just like megastars. Pullman said he’s acquired the rights to thousands of songs from jazz, rhythm-and-blues and pop artists with as few as one big-selling song, and packaged them into bonds just like the ones he put together for Bowie.

“Ninety-nine-point-nine-nine percent of artists won’t be successful like Bowie,” Pullman said in a phone interview. “The average songwriter and artist that has hits or has maybe co-written a song with a big artist doesn’t earn enough to justify doing a bond like we did for Bowie.”

However, Pullman said, the future royalties from these songs do justify being wrapped together with similar recordings and sold to investors. The songs are typically older Top 40 Billboard hits with a history of earning royalties, he said, declining to identify the specific tracks he’s bundled into bonds.

His firm’s holdings have become so voluminous that Pullman said he’s lost count of how many songs it owns. Right Said Fred’s track, which topped charts in six countries including the U.S., may not be among the recordings in its portfolio, he said. In an e-mail, Right Said Fred said its five No. 1 recordings in more than 35 countries disqualify them from one-hit-wonder bonds because they’ve had more than one hit.

Financial Engineering

Bowie, who died Jan. 10 at age 69, was the rarest of artists. Not only did he boast 61 U.K. Top-40 singles and repeatedly reinvent himself, he was among a select group of musicians to own the master recordings for his songs. That made him a perfect candidate for Pullman’s 1997 experiment in financial engineering.

Pullman packaged the future royalties of Bowie’s catalog and sold them in a private offering to Prudential Insurance Co. of America for $55 million. Bowie retained the rights to his music, received a lump of cash and investors got a 10-year cash cow.

“David Bowie was so innovative that his catalog had diversity in it, which is different from even large catalogs that have a sound and represent just one period of time,” said Pullman, who said he was grateful to the star for the opportunity.

Pullman found inspiration for his next deal in the records decorating the walls and ceiling of New York’s Motown Cafe. He packaged royalties from songs written by Edward Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland, including “Stop! In the Name of Love,” recorded by The Supremes. Similar transactions followed for James Brown, the Isley Brothers and Ashford & Simpson, who wrote many hits, including Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

“Others no longer thought David and I were crazy,” Pullman said.

Publishing Rights

There are two forms of rights for every song: the publishing rights, held by the original songwriters, and the recording rights, held by the producers and artists, said Matt Pincus, chief executive officer of Songs Music Publishing, which represents Lorde and The Weeknd. Sometimes those are the same people, other times not.

Creating securities tied to future royalties sounds better in theory than it works in practice, Pincus said. While music royalties are stable sources of cash flow, the music business is getting smaller.

Global sales of recorded music have declined steadily since 1999, when they peaked at $39.7 billion, according to data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

First, piracy cut into album sales, then Apple’s iTunes enabled people to buy individual songs instead of full albums. Now streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora give listeners access to an entire catalog either for free or a monthly fee. Artists recoup micropennies for each stream.

“There’s just a lot less money going into the system,” Pincus said.

Sorting out the rights to recordings can also be a pain in the neck for artists, said Fred Fairbrass, the Fred in Right Said Fred.

“Most rights are complicated either by design, incompetence or mismanagement,” Fairbrass said in an e-mail. “Apart from the master-recording rights and publishing rights that we own, gaining access and/or control of the remaining rights can be a full-time job.”

Music Notes

Pullman’s bonds, whether backed by one-hit-wonders or megastars, typically take from six months to a year to put together and range from $25 million to $55 million in size, Pullman said. Some deals are rated and all involve fees to lawyers, auditors and investment bankers, meaning single-artist deals don’t make sense for artists with small song catalogs.

The notes have similar features to asset-backed securities and, like the Bowie bonds, have an average life of 10 years, Pullman said.

The notes can offer higher yields than other, similarly-rated securities. The bonds are typically priced off the yields of U.S. Treasury bonds, Pullman said. In 1997, when Bowie’s bonds were sold with a 7.9 percent coupon, 10-year yields averaged 6.4 percent. In 2015 the average yield was 2.1 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The bonds also allow investors to bet on assets whose performance is not directly linked to financial markets.

“What we created in the asset-backed world was diversification,” Pullman said.
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Re: David Bowie dies of cancer at 69

Postby Jack Bennest » Sat Jan 16, 2016 5:14 pm

Bowie the Giant

hmmmm

I cannot say I know one song or can hum a tune of David Bowie

Cannot believe CBC National had his death as a the lead item - slow news day perhaps

As they say art is subjective...maybe music is art.

If Paul McCartney died I can see that as a true loss to the world.

Hey its just me. :occasion5:
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Re: David Bowie dies of cancer at 69

Postby Heard It On The X » Sat Jan 16, 2016 6:54 pm

Yes Jack, it is just you.
Given Bowie's reach and influence over the last four decades of popular music, his death more than warrants being the lead item on the CBC or any other national newscast that day.
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Re: David Bowie dies of cancer at 69

Postby CubbyCam » Sat Jan 16, 2016 7:06 pm

Sorry Jack... Gotta agree with "Heard it..." But to quote another tribute... "Bowie made millions feel like they were his only fan..." That's sort of the way I felt. Just immersed myself in Bowie music this afternoon... after not being able to listen since the news of his death. I'll do the same tomorrow. But I don't criticize you for having missed out on it.

He wasn't for everybody. :carrot:
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Re: David Bowie dies of cancer at 69

Postby jon » Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:43 am

David Bowie's 'Blackstar' Album Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart
1/17/2016 by Keith Caulfield
Billboard

“Blackstar” is Bowie’s first No. 1 album.

David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, giving the late music legend his first No. 1 album.

Bowie died on Jan. 10 of cancer, two days after the release of the album.

Blackstar was issued through ISO/Columbia Records and earned 181,000 equivalent album units in the U.S., during the week ending Jan. 14, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 174,000 were in pure album sales -- Bowie’s biggest sales week for an album since Nielsen began electronically tracking point-of-sale music purchases in 1991. (His previous sales high in that span of time came when his last album, 2013’s The Next Day, bowed with 85,000 sold in its first week.)

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new Jan. 30, 2016-dated chart (where Bowie debuts at No. 1) will be posted in full to Billboard’s websites on Wednesday, Jan. 20. (Charts will be refreshed one day later than usual this week, due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Jan. 18.)

Clearly, music fans were moved by the news of Bowie’s death, as not only did Blackstar perform strongly, but he has nine further albums that either re-enter or debut on the Billboard 200 chart. Among them are two further titles in the top 40: the greatest hits collection Best of Bowie (No. 4) and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (No. 21).

Bowie’s history on the Billboard 200 dates back nearly 44 years, when Hunky Dory bowed on the chart dated April 15, 1972.

Blackstar and Best of Bowie bring the artist’s total of top 10-charting albums to nine. He previously hit the region with The Next Day (peaking at No. 2 in 2013), Let’s Dance (No. 4, 1983), ChangesOneBowie (No. 10, 1976), Station to Station (No. 3, 1976), Young Americans (No. 9, 1975), David Live (No. 8, 1974) and Diamond Dogs (No. 5, 1974).

Best of Bowie, released in 2002, returns to the chart at No. 4 (a new peak) with 94,000 units (up from only a few thousand in the week previous). It sold 51,000 in pure album sales, gaining by 6,698 percent. (It originally peaked at No. 70 in 2002.)

Naturally, a significant portion (48 percent) of Best of Bowie’s total units during the latest week were driven by track and streaming equivalent album units of its popular tracks. Among the tunes on the album: 11 of his 13 top 40-charting singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Those include his six top 10 hits: “Fame” (No. 1 in 1975), “Golden Years” (No. 10, 1976), “Let’s Dance” (No. 1, 1983), “China Girl” (No. 10, 1983), “Modern Love” (No. 14, 1983), “Blue Jean” (No. 8, 1984), “This Is Not America” (with Pat Metheny, No. 32 in 1985) and “Dancing in the Street” (with Mick Jagger, No. 7 in 1987).

With Blackstar and Best of Bowie at Nos. 1 and 4, respectively, Bowie is one of the handful of acts to manage the feat of having two albums in the top four of the chart at the same time. Previous to Bowie, the last act to do so was Adele on the chart dated March 3, 2012. That week, in the wake of her performance and six wins at the Grammy Awards (Feb. 12), 21 held at No. 1 while her previous album 19 rose 9-4.

Blackstar is additionally the first posthumous No. 1 album since Michael Jackson’s This Is It soundtrack arrived atop the list dated Nov. 14, 2009. Jackson died earlier that year.

As for the rest of the new top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, Adele’s 25 slips to No. 2 (143,000 units; down 26 percent) after seven consecutive weeks at No. 1. Justin Bieber’s Purpose also moves down a rung, to No. 3, with 104,000 units (down 17 percent).

Twenty One Pilots’ Blurryface falls 3-5 (43,000; down 17 percent), The Weeknd’s Beauty Behind the Madness dips 4-6 (39,000; down 14 percent) and Chris Stapleton’s Traveller holds steady at No. 7 (33,000; down 20 percent). Bryson Tiller’s Trapsoul hits a new peak, climbing 9-8 with nearly 33,000 units (down only 8 percent).

G-Eazy’s When It’s Dark Out returns to the top 10 for the first time since its debut frame, as it rises 13-9 in its sixth week (29,000; down 2 percent). Fetty Wap’s self-titled album descends 8-10 with 29,000 units (down 20 percent).
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