David Bowie Gives You More Reasons To Love Gary Oldman

I’ve been debating with myself for several days now whether or not I wanted to make this post and show my ignorance of a Bowie obscurity that any fansite owner worth their salt should know. But then I remembered I have no shame and decided let everyone know what a terrible Bowie fan I am so that anyone who has not heard the aforementioned obscurity might do so.

So, here is the chain of events leading to my happy discovery of what is now in my Top Ten list of Bowie obscurities: The Webmaster and I finally got to see The Dark Knight last Friday in IMAX. Needless to say, we both loved the movie. We were discussing it on the car-ride home when I mused that I found it interesting that the majority of the main actors in such a quintissentially American story were not American. I mentioned Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, and started to mention Gary Oldman. But at that moment, my vast wealth of useless knowledge failed me! I couldn’t remember if Gary Oldman is British or not. I was fairly sure that he is since the cast of Harry Potter is all British, but his New York accent as Commissioner Gordon was so convincing that I questioned my memory. The Webmaster suggested that I look on IMDb and see what the bio section said. So I whipped out my iPhone (’cause we were still in the car, you know) and pulled up Oldman’s page. Of course, the bio section confirmed my initial thought that he is indeed British but, much to my surprise, I also read that he had done a duet with David Bowie on You’ve Been Around on Reeves Gabrels’ album “The Sacred Squall of Now”. I looked over at the Webmaster and said, “No way! That has to be a mistake.” Having never heard the album (I dislike Gabrels enough that not even Bowie’s presence got me to listen to his album), I assumed that the version of You’ve Been Around on that album was the same as the version on Black Tie White Noise and commented, “How come I never noticed him in the liner notes for Black Tie White Noise” to which the Webmaster replied, “No it’s different on Reeves’ album.” So of course, the first chance I got I listened to “The Sacred Squall Of Now”. As you might guess from the very fact that I am writing this post, I abso-friggin-lutely loved the song! Oldman sings the lead vocal on the second verse – and he’s great. I can’t believe I missed out on that song for all 10 years that I’ve been a Bowie fan just because I dislike Gabrels. That will teach me not to let my feelings about a musician get in the way of me checking out a Bowie obscurity. Anyway, I still have not gotten over my astonishment not only of discovering that Oldman, whose talents beyond acting I had never even thought to ponder, has a fabulous singing voice but that Bowie led me to this discovery and that the conversation the Webmaster and I had about The Dark Knight led me to come across an obscure Bowie song. Kind of like how Bowie led the Webmaster to meet me online, only not nearly as life-changing…it’s odd how some things happen.

Anyway, if you’re a bad bad Bowie fan like I apparently am and you haven’t heard the song then you really ought to. You too will be pleasantly surprised. If you’re not able to buy the song by itself from Amazon or somewhere like that then go ahead and buy the whole album. While it is one of two bright spots in an otherwise boring album (“Thirteen” is also a good song), trust me when I say that You’ve Been Around is worth the $10 or $12 the album costs. Go and buy it tonight.