Let us recall, that Roxy Music had a massive hit with 'Jealous Guy' following the death of John Lennon.



The song became a number 1 hit as Lennon's own sales went through the roof - something the music world is experiencing again now for the recently deceased Michael Jackson (according to reports, his sales have increased 80 fold in the last few days).

Another Lennon tribute was the song 'All Those Years Ago' by George Harrison. This song was also a massive hit (reaching US #2) and perhaps considering who it featured and that it was an original song, it was deemed more appropriate than Roxy's blatant cover.



Over the course of many years, other original songs created as Lennon tributes have appeared - some of them I can immediately think of include Neil Young (Peace and Love), Queen (Life is Real - Song for Lennon) and The Cranberries (I Just Shot John Lennon).

So now we come to the Bowie song 'Wood Jackson', a song seemingly written with no market place in mind and a song that may or may not be about Michael Jackson. Different to 'Jealous Guy', this is Bowie's original words and music and here we have his own feelings as they appeared some 7 years ago. It is also considered to be one of Bowie's most gorgeous songs of the last two decades and as we know too well, it was criminally relegated to bside obscurity.



The somber, organ intro seems even more fitting following the death of Jackson. Of course, it may not be about him at all but some lyrics fit very well including the title that evokes the changed physical appearance of Jackson, the references to critics and haters and a chorus that may reference the children he was fond of but ultimately caused his demise. All this with a subtlety and lack of finger pointing that only Bowie can really muster. Finally, Bowie says "Jackson took the beating every day .... given out .... passed away .... another way".

A video for the song could simply be a montage of Michael Jackson images. At the same time, it would also be fantastic to see some images of the current Bowie, stepping out from behind the curtain of a self imposed retirement folowing his own heart attack 5 years ago.

'Wood Jackson' has the capacity to be one of the most brilliant comebacks and tributes ever released. So go ahead Bowie/EMI/Columbia/ISO ... finally give this song the proper release it deserves!



Well, 100% Brit (and apparently proud of it) is being a bit over the top when he says 8 hours [of Outside outtakes]. I'd love to know the truth concerning what 100% Git really has ~ Reeves Gabrels, 2003

> Over the course of many years, other original songs created as Lennon tributes have appeared - some of them I can immediately think of include Neil Young (Peace and Love), Queen (Life is Real - Song for Lennon) and The Cranberries (I Just Shot John Lennon).

Live Forever by oasis.

This is the front cover of the single.



It's a picture of 251 Menlove Avenue in Liverpool, where John lived with Aunt Mimi.

Great song ... never realised the Lennon connection. Cheers!



Well, 100% Brit (and apparently proud of it) is being a bit over the top when he says 8 hours [of Outside outtakes]. I'd love to know the truth concerning what 100% Git really has ~ Reeves Gabrels, 2003

"Just wants to play' could be MJ's epitaph.

Wood Jackson is a fantastic song

But surely Wood Jackson would need to be renamed plastic Jackson wouldn't it?

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REALITY bites
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Michael 'Wood' Jackson is a parallel to a famous fictional character made of wood.

Jackson under went physical re-sculpturing like few have ever seen. In reverse to the wooden puppet that dreamed of becoming a boy, Jackson was the boy that dreamed of becoming something else.

In later years, the greatest mover of our generation had become in so many ways, stiff, ungainly and awkward.







Well, 100% Brit (and apparently proud of it) is being a bit over the top when he says 8 hours [of Outside outtakes]. I'd love to know the truth concerning what 100% Git really has ~ Reeves Gabrels, 2003

> In later years we saw the greatest mover of our generation become in many ways, stiff, ungainly and awkward.

And as he told more and more lies his nose got longer. Oh, no, wait...shorter...thinner...whiter....

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Adam, was I the first person to mention that it could have been about MJ, or did it come up before? I know there are a lot of amateur musicologists / lyric analysers over at TW.

The earliest surviving mention at TW is this one from 2004. Unfortunately, the really early threads were removed (to free up server space) so it is now hard to say exactly who may have mentioned it first.




Well, 100% Brit (and apparently proud of it) is being a bit over the top when he says 8 hours [of Outside outtakes]. I'd love to know the truth concerning what 100% Git really has ~ Reeves Gabrels, 2003

Cheers for that


Yeah, you're right all the old posts are gone. I used to post on TW in the 90's. Think I discovered the site about '96 at college. I did this album cover artwork post in interpretation which has been long gone, but I did get some nice replies at the time.


I remember at college the IT guy went through the browser history and thought Teenage Wildlife was a porn site.

Yeah I worked at a government department a few years ago and the firewall wouldn't let me access TW for the same reason.

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Which makes me wonder if any perverts turn up at TW, expecting pics of teenagers.



Also I did remember at college when the tutor wasn't looking we did go to a site called beavershots.com or something similar and were gutted when it was a website with pics of furry animal beavers.

Took ages to load back then, too.

> Which makes me wonder if any perverts turn up at TW, expecting pics of teenagers.

There are some extremely sick bastards there, it has to be said. Many of them show up here from time to time, using hilarious alters and posting some most amusing banter. Oh how we laugh.

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You mean To-Dizzy?

TW is so competitive, incredibly so.

> You mean To-Dizzy?

Oh yeah, painocraft and the rest. Their problem is that they think they're smart, but they're not. Certainly not smart enough to disguise their respective "styles". The same sad jokes, the same lame obsessions. They even discuss their "infiltration" openly at TW. If their brains were dynamite they couldn't blow their backward baseball caps off.

TWats.

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Many years ago a poster came here and said, "Hi I'm a new David Bowie fan, what is your favourite David Bowie Song? "

Someone here decided to be friendly & replied, trying to open up the conversation a bit, to make it a bit more interesting.


Then a few hours later that poster was laughing with his fellow TWers that BWW was so lame that we should answer such a newbie question.

Yes. Pure evil most of them. Hopefully karma will come to visit each and every one of their black souls and deliver just deserts. And while it's at it, there's a certain cretin.....

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If the song is actually about MJ, I think there is a very small chance it could be released on a MJ tribute CD with other artists possibly, but if it's not about MJ, Bowie would not exploit someone's death for fame.

It is imperative that you all Shut it!

Am I taking this too seriously - I remember reading that the song is about a local musician who recorded his music with his toy piano on C-cassettes and traded them for comics at the local store. Not about Michael Jackson at all.

Oh wait...

I find your post offensive to the memory of a fine etertainer.

For the record the song is about a wood carver who makes models of Michael and sells them to small children ... oh wait

First thing, "Wood Jackson" never struck me as being a song about Michael. It seems (very clearly, I might add) to be a tribute to Daniel Johnston, whom Bowie adores and had booked for the Meltdown Festival in 2002. And for good reason, for some of us in the States, Daniel is an American treasure. He walks the same outsider artist ground as the wonderful Wesley Willis and a few others.

Second, if it really is about Michael, since when did the "King of Pop" (and I use that term loosely) make "twenty tapes in a day to give away?" Michael would take half a decade just to squeeze out fifteen songs. And NEVER for free. No way, this song is not about Michael freakin' Jackson.

Third, it's just not that good of a song. It's a haunted, New Orleans dirge with only the slightest hint of a chorus. It's spooky, mysterious and beautiful, don't get me wrong, but "one of the most gorgeous songs of the past two decades?" No, not by a long shot. It's not even the most gorgeous b-side from the Heathen era. That belongs to "Safe." Even "When The Boys Come Marching Home" is a better song.

Tell me why this song ranks so high for you. I'd honestly like to know.

It's a very good song, sublime, wistful, dreamy. One of his best songs of the last 20 years.

Safe is pants.

As is 'Boys Come Marching Home. You do have odd opinions.

I may have odd opinions, but I do defend them well.

"Safe" has all the elements we associate with a classic Bowie ballad. It's an aching, romantic melody with a grandiose chorus a'la "'Heroes'" or "Absolute Begginers." It makes slight lyrical nods to past Bowie themes, child-like whimsy ("Kooks," "Everyone Says 'Hi'"), subtle reflections on God (pick any Bowie song you like) and music passages that suggest Eastern culture ("Moss Garden," "Silly Boy Blue," "Seven Years In Tibet," etc.) It's production is flawless with a sweeping string section and an impassioned vocal.

Musical pedigree aside, the song carries a lot of weight in the overall Bowie cannon for being the track that reunited Visconti and Bowie after a 20-year gap.

How can all this possibly be "pants?"

Meanwhile, "Wood Jackson" has many Bowie qualities as well, in particular it's reflections on outsider status, something many songs in David's cannon deal with, and while it has it's own aura, it certainly it doesn't have the musical lift, drama and significance that "Safe" has.

But can you whistle it?

Songs are often, though admittedly not always, B-sides because they weren't good enough for the album.

Wood Jackson is definitely one of them.  It's a dirge and the lyrics are just irritating.  I get what it's about (i.e. not Michael Jackson) but it doesn't matter what the song is about if the song is a turkey.

Safe is also definitely a turkey and I wouldn't be surprised if the sequence in the movie was cut because of the song and not the other way around.  You can't make out his vocals and the chorus is just tuneless.  I'm amazed he worked with Visconti again on the back of this.

When the Boys come Marching Home is also awful.  No One Calls meandres all over the place without doing anything interesting. Girls is also a turkey in the same vein as Safe.  It's just overworked in the hope that it'll sound anthemic but it doesn't.  Julie, Lucy Can't Dance, We Shall Go To Town - all terrible B-sides.

This, for me sums up the last decade and a half for Bowie.  His strike rate just got poorer and poorer.  John I'm only Dancing and All the Young Dudes weren't even on an album! Yet later albums are filled with track skippers like Pallas Athena, The Motel, The Dreamers etc.

Some good points there. What b-sides in the past 20 years do you think are album-worthy?

Some fair points I guess, but I disagree re Julie.



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"But can you whistle it?"

Yes. Can you whistle "Wood Jackson?"

"...just wants to play..." whistled over and over doesn't make for a very convincing melody as you're walking down the street. The chorus on "Safe" on the other hand, with it's nice bending notes on the word "sky..." sound quite lovely while whistled.

'Safe' always sounded like Bowie getting a bit overworked....before reaching a disappointing punchline which is - rather than singing any lyrics - Bowie offers "well, well, well, well, well, well". It's alright but for me not among the better songs of that period.


'Wood Jackson' as I said, I love and from reading various message boards over a long period, I'm guessing it could be the most consistently popular Bowie outtake or bside of the last 30 years.


As for some others mentioned above, 'Julie' and 'Lucy Can't Dance' would be in my top 3 songs of their respected albums ... had of they made those albums.






Well, 100% Brit (and apparently proud of it) is being a bit over the top when he says 8 hours [of Outside outtakes]. I'd love to know the truth concerning what 100% Git really has ~ Reeves Gabrels, 2003

1. wood jackson is a very good if not great bowie song.it has feck all to do with micheal jackson.
2. safe is totally pants.
3. the motel is the HIGHLIGHT of outside not a track skipper.

as you were.

Well, Bowie often writes in an abstract and impressionistic manner. The subject matters of his songs are not always concrete clear and specific. Sometimes the boundaries are blurred and songs have diffuse interpretations none of which necessarily need to negate the other.


I would say that Wood Jackson was NOT about MJ, but many of the lyrics could be interpreted as such.


Jackson took the beating everyday - off his Dad

Jackson made 20 tapes in a day - performance tapes to give away to record companies

just wants to play - Jacko did just want to play, to catch up with the childhood he missed out on. So he built a theme park in his garden and spent his time with children

But the names it hurt poor jackson - The continual news reports of weirdness got to Jacko and he released 'Leave Me Alone'

He was really sane - don't believe what the papers want you to think. Jacko was eccentric, but not Wacko

Jackson stole twenty souls in a day, to take away, a take away, he takes away. And no complaints - Jackson let 20 kids stay over a day and there were no complaints at the time from the kids or the parents.

Heaven knows he's really torn it now - Jacko ruined everything by spending nights with kids and leaving himself open to allegations of molestation

Shame! - Totally.





Candle In The Wind, we all knew was about Marilyn Monroe, but that didn't stop it being re-released as a tribute song to Princess Diana and selling millions


I don't think that would work for Wood Jackson, but I reckon it would get played on the radio if it gained enough momentum online.

Except Wood Jackson is actually about, er, Wood Jackson. He was a science fiction writer in the 1930s. The clue's in the name, folks.

Thanks. Annie. I agree it's not about Michael Jackson. I was just illustrating that it could be interpreted as such.

During a 2004 interview, Bowie was asked what he thought about people's fascination & investigations in to the meanings behind his lyrics, and he replied that some of the interpretations are a lot more interesting than what he put in to them.

That's like saying Andy Warhol is actually about Robbie Williams. Or Slip Away is about the Muppet Show. It's just not the case. Besides, the lyrics totally fit the bizarre life of Wood. Bowie's a fan of Wood, and it could be claimed that Wood's most famous offering, The Batmen From Mars, lent their name to the Spiders.

Nah. It's got bugger all to do with Michael Jackson! lol