{"id":7592,"date":"2016-01-26T01:01:41","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T08:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/?p=7592"},"modified":"2016-01-26T12:01:54","modified_gmt":"2016-01-26T19:01:54","slug":"david-bowie-louie-connection-part-3-footstompin-non-louie-of-the-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/?p=7592","title":{"rendered":"David Bowie + LOUIE connection part 3 \/ Footstompin’ – non-LOUIE of the Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bowie-alomar-photo-by-DavidPlastik-IconicPix\"
\n(David Bowie and Carlos Alomar – superb photo by David Plastik of IconicPix)<\/em><\/p>\n

For the past few weeks, I’ve been using this LOUIE blog as an excuse to explore some of the unlikely connections between David Bowie<\/strong> and LOUIE LOUIE.<\/p>\n

With the passing of David Bowie, I certainly learned a lot more about this multi-faceted artist.<\/p>\n

I didn’t realize that Bowie’s very first #1 single in the USA was his 1975 collaboration with John Lennon<\/strong> “Fame,” which I thought used a recycled James Brown<\/strong> riff.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, there was much more to the origin of this song than I realized. <\/p>\n

\"lennon-bowie-retouch\"<\/p>\n

David Bowie discussed how this song created in a Washington Post article dated June 9, 2002<\/a>: <\/p>\n

“Carlos Alomar<\/strong> said, ‘Oh, I know that old thing [Footstompin’].’ And he said, ‘Listen, I’ve got this great riff that we could use for it.’ It was something that he’d written for James Brown<\/strong>, though Brown never used it…
\n[In 1975] Lennon said, ‘You know, let’s do something.’ I said, ‘Yeah, what can we do?’ And I said, ‘Carlos, that riff you’ve got!’
\nWe used it for Fame but it came from our version of Footstompin’. Fame was built around a recycled riff.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The CBC Music Rear-View Mirror website<\/a> discussed the creation of this song, and the James Brown connection:<\/p>\n

In the mid ’70s, James Brown found himself at a crossroads. Musical tastes were changing and he wanted to stay relevant. So he took some inspiration, and arguably a little more, from the hottest musician on Earth at the time: David Bowie.<\/p>\n

In late 1974, David Bowie made an appearance on the extremely popular Dick Cavett Show<\/strong>. James Brown was watching and was struck by two things. First, he saw a familiar face, that of guitarist Carlos Alomar, who quit James Brown’s band five years before. Second, he heard an amazingly funky riff that Alomar was playing. “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s the clip of David Bowie performing “Footstompin'” with guitarist Carlos Alomar on the David Cavett Show.<\/p>\n