Bowie told Musician, “I used to go and see him. I hated him as a solo artist, when he came on and did this Bob Dylan thing.” (Faroutmagzine)
Bowie continued: “It was awful, so cringe-making. He’d sit there with his guitar and be folky, have these slow philosophical raps in between the songs. As soon as the band came on, it was like a different performer and he was just marvellous.”
Bowie was won over, however, by Springsteen’s 1973 debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., which was received with critical praise, although it didn’t become a hit in the UK until 1985. The record contained the song ‘It’s Hard to Be A Saint in the City
The song became one of Bowie’s favourite Springsteen tracks, and he eventually released a cover of it in 1989. Although it appeared as a Station to Station outtake, Tony Visconti believes it was most likely recorded a few years earlier. In The Complete David Bowie, he said: “It would seem that this was part of the Diamond Dogs recording sessions, but worked on later. The added instruments, vocals and mixing sound like a couple of years later, because of the sonic fingerprints.”
Despite his love of the song, in 1979, Bowie admitted on BBC Radio One that the song “really scared the living ones out of me”.
He explained: “After I heard this track I never rode the subway again”.
With descriptions such as “But it’s too hot in these tunnels you can get hit up by the heat/ You get up to get out at your next stop/ But they push you back down in your seat/ Your heart starts beatin’ faster as you struggle to your feet,” it’s no wonder Bowie found himself affected by the song.
Forty years ago tens of thousands of fans gathered to watch David Bowie play three nights at a converted clay pit in the Buckinghamshire countryside. Fans who witnessed the gigs, from front and back of stage, spoke to the BBC about their memories.
They came in their thousands from all across the country - with extra train services and coaches laid on to deal with the demand.
More than 150,000 descended on the National Bowl in Milton Keynes that sweltering weekend in July 1983, on a tour that saw Bowie play his first live gigs in England in five years.
The three dates, from 1 to 3 July, had been added to the end of the European leg of his Serious Moonlight tour, due to massive demand for tickets following the success of the Let's Dance album and its hit singles, including the title track.
The nine-month tour had "snowballed", said official photographer Denis O'Regan, eventually featuring 99 dates in over 60 cities across the globe, including a series of massive open-air concerts. (read the full article on BBC.com
