[Ephejvll]

Sorry for the day early post - cannot do this for a day or two and its after midnight where I am so technically I got the right day!

The song:


The lyrics:
Vultures in my garden
Figures that I know them
And it is what it is

You were good once
Now you're filled with bitterness
And it is what it is

I cannot forget that he can't forget
or that some friends just change like the seasons
Take me back to the fact that you're still blaming,
but I am not the reason you are not David Bowie

Now you want to steal the thoughts
that I have been deep in thought
and it is what it is

How 'bout your soulmate pact with the Devil
and needs a date with the surgeon
and it is what it is

I cannot forget that he can't forget
or that some friends just change like the seasons
Take me back to the fact that you're still blaming,
but I am not the reason you are not David Bowie

You forgot to value
what all of us have done for you
and it is what it is

You swore you were concious
not a champagne spiritualist
and it is what it is

I cannot forget that he can't forget
or that some friends just change like the seasons
Take me back to the fact that you're still blaming,
but I am not the reason you are not David Bowie

I cannot believe I am doing this song, its not even in my top 10 and some songs people haven't picked yet (Heart of Gold, Crucify, Toast, Sister Janet,, Riot Poof) I was so tempted to do.

But I just cannot let this oddity slide.

One of the problems with the Beekeeper was the potential of some songs being completely ruined by baby voice, insincerity and/or cheesy production.

Its no surprise that the era's best songs were also her most sincere and came from inside - Toast, Beekeeper, Garlands and Not David Bowie.

I have no muscial vocabulary but I call this song a "baroque diss-song". The song is bold and angry. It has a driving tribal sounding beat with so much reverb/echo and just builds and builds.

And it is clearly about Steve Caton. Bells for Her was about a friendship ending but is sad and ethereal. This is angry and raw - no baby voice in sight.

Steve Caton was the perfect compliment to Tori, he provided my favourite non piano moment from Tori on Doughnut Song. And even when "Mac Aladdin" took over - Steve Caton still inspired the best songs.

P.S. Body and Soul is the poor man's Not David Bowie.

[XarokLasa]

You beat me to it! I was just about to say that Body & Soul reminds me a lot of Not David Bowie.

[trilochana.nejman]

I really like this song and it makes me sad that the two best TBK era songs that we've heard didn't even make the album.

[lizadax]

I fucking love this song! I hardly ever listen to it, but whenever it comes on on shuffle, I have to listen to it at least 5 times in a row. I agree this is obviously about Caton. I hope someday we'll hear a song for Mac Aladdin.

[vulikox]

I fucking love this song! I hardly ever listen to it, but whenever it comes on on shuffle, I have to listen to it at least 5 times in a row. I agree this is obviously about Caton. I hope someday we'll hear a song for Mac Aladdin.

YESSS!

[Reafnartefs]

I fucking love this song! I hardly ever listen to it, but whenever it comes on on shuffle, I have to listen to it at least 5 times in a row. I agree this is obviously about Caton. I hope someday we'll hear a song for Mac Aladdin.

There's one: it's called For Mark, and it's actually lovely



NDB is one of the highlights from A Piano!

[yurawerj]

It's really interesting how the woman who wrote such a bunch of terrible songs for the very same album (Ireland, Hoochie woman, Jamaica Inn, Witness, Card and guitars, the list goes on) wrote this song at the same time.
The anger was there, the emotion was there, the rush, the urge for expressing something in the most powerful and direct way. And she focused that in Not David Bowie. Thank god she didn't include it on TBK, because it would be lost between all that boring elevator music.

[Rellshare]

NDB is my second favourite on A Piano (behind Take Me With You) and is one of those songs that when it comes on my ipod, I cannot click past it. I love the way she sings "I cannot forget that he can't forget", its very simple and direct but says so much IMO. I recall reading somewhere that it wasn't about Steve Caton but about music execs but I could be mistaken about that. Maybe I'm thinking of another song?

It was interesting to see people tie it to Body & Soul, because I often associate NDB with Do It Again, sound-wise at least. Listening to one often makes me want to listen to the other, so they are in my mind song-sisters.

I am not surprised it wasn't on TBK because it really doesn't fit the sound or narrative or concept that she was going for, but I'm glad she had the sense to put it on A Piano.

[wiweimeli]

Thank god she didn't include it on TBK, because it would be lost between all that boring elevator music.

I think if you whittled TBK down to 10 or 12 tracks, you could find a place for Not David Bowie and Garlands. It would be a rather eclectic album without much flow, but I think it would be a much stronger record.

[XarokLasa]

Do we know why she was so mad at Steve Caton or why we suspect that this song is about him? Someone inform me

[panholio]

Wasn't he promising girls shit, like copies of demos, for blow jobs or something? There was a review of her show in Q magazine around Venus, the last tour she did with him, where she said something that I always suspected was about him, plus, there was that phonecall with the creepy, distorted 'Scream' voice on it. Not sure if anyone could dig that up. She probably let it fly somewhat until Tash was born. Also, the fact that she 'plays the guitar' with no guitar in the song, it's pretty much saying 'I don't need a guitarist at all, so fuck you.' And to be fair, her 'guitar' is light years better than Mark's. Plus, didn't Caton ALSO claim that she would have been nothing without his guitar parts? And claim that he was as much a part of the music, when it came to writing, as she was, because he wrote all the guitar? I think that was said in the creepy phonecall as well. No wonder she stopped hiring. Anyway, great song. Also, I highly doubt that she would have ever admitted that it was about Caton, but I'm pretty sure it was. He was really ungracious when they parted ways if I remember rightly.

Found it:

“There is no weak link on my ship, or they don’t stay on it,” she later maintains with just a glint of steel.

Indeed, as far as working for her in any capacity goes, there is but one rule: no underage girls.

“I’ll know about it if they’re underage. I would chew their balls off”.

You’d find out about it?

“No. I’d know. You can smell it. Smell it on them; you know, young girl.”

Maybe those squids have got something after all. Also, an interview with Caton from the same month:

VGM: When and why did you decide to pursue a career as a professional musician?

Steve Caton: I began to pursue music seriously around the age of 18. I went to see David Bowie in concert and the experience literally changed my life. I knew the moment the show was over that I wanted to be a performer in a band. Soon thereafter, I began practicing several hours a day on a guitar that had been laying around the house in some closet for years. I had been a hardcore surfer for six years, but pretty much hung up the board and wetsuit after seeing Bowie perform. Obviously some shit went down around that time. Also, didn't she talk a lot about an altercation she had while she was pregnant? And an angry song she wrote about it (that people later assumed to be Ruby?).

[welihiedginly]

There's one: it's called For Mark, and it's actually lovely

whoa, what is going on around 2:10?

[GinaGomesz]

^ That sounds so Pele era. Beautiful little song.

[affewheillMapew]

YESSS!

NO, never. We've heard thousands of them.
Unless you mean Not-David-Bowie style song

[vulikox]

NO, never. We've heard thousands of them.
Unless you mean Not-David-Bowie style song

That is what I had in mind!

[LkEHaduy]

Wasn't he promising girls shit, like copies of demos, for blow jobs or something? There was a review of her show in Q magazine around Venus, the last tour she did with him, where she said something that I always suspected was about him, plus, there was that phonecall with the creepy, distorted 'Scream' voice on it. Not sure if anyone could dig that up. She probably let it fly somewhat until Tash was born. Also, the fact that she 'plays the guitar' with no guitar in the song, it's pretty much saying 'I don't need a guitarist at all, so fuck you.' And to be fair, her 'guitar' is light years better than Mark's. Plus, didn't Caton ALSO claim that she would have been nothing without his guitar parts? And claim that he was as much a part of the music, when it came to writing, as she was, because he wrote all the guitar? I think that was said in the creepy phonecall as well. No wonder she stopped hiring. Anyway, great song. Also, I highly doubt that she would have ever admitted that it was about Caton, but I'm pretty sure it was. He was really ungracious when they parted ways if I remember rightly.

Found it:



Also, an interview with Caton from the same month:



Obviously some shit went down around that time. Also, didn't she talk a lot about an altercation she had while she was pregnant? And an angry song she wrote about it (that people later assumed to be Ruby?).

Wow I never knew that! I always assumed it was about Trent.

[juliannamed]

I think the song is definitely about Caton, for the exact reasons listed above pretty much. I love how vitriolic this song is. Tori doesn't have very many straight forward tracks like this.

[HitAttetlyTek]

What is the thing about this phone call? It seems to trigger a memory but I can't remember if I heard it or just heard of it.

[c-cialis]

I also remember that there was something, but I can't remember what was talked about in that phone-call..The phone-call was very low-quality and quite creepy...I don't know where to find that one again

[Ruiceara]

Didn't he take credit for writing "little earthquakes"? And said she ripped him off?