RNC: Watch the House Band Play David Bowie's Drug-Referencing 'Station to Station'

[yallerdawg]

I wondered what Philly PA's (Hall & Oates) GE Smith was doing there!

Source: Billboard, Gil Kaufman

Any number of odd things happened at the opening night of the Republican National Convention on Monday in Cleveland: presumptive GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's wife, Melania, gave a speech that a lot of people thought was almost identical to one that Michelle Obama gave at the DNC in 2008, Happy Days' Chachi, Scott Baio, was one of the first speakers of the night, following a member of the Duck Dynasty clan and just before former underwear model/soap star/Dancing with the Stars actor Antonio Sabato, Jr.

But those were not even the weirdest things. On a night when the theme was "Make America Safe Again" and speaker after speaker hammered the importance of the rule of law, the house band might have slipped a bit of a Schedule II mickey into the mix with a David Bowie cover. The group, led by former Saturday Night Live band leader G.E. Smith, performed a version of the title track from Bowie's 1976 album Station to Station.

In addition to lyrics that reference legendary British occultist Aleister Crowley (who has been labeled a misogynist and anti-Semite over the years), the song famously has an explicit reference to cocaine in the chorus that Smith and the band did not avoid. "It's not the side-effects of the cocaine/ I'm thinking that it must be love/ It's too late to be grateful," the house band's vocalist sang to the room full of GOP faithful.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7439214/rnc-watch-house-band-play-david-bowie-drug-referencing-station-to-station

[Cracklin Charlie]

1. Kick

So many great posts, so little time.

[TlalocW]

2. Two things

Oh, man, I hated G.E. Smith and his infernal mugging for the camera when SNL went to commercial break, and they would show the band.

The music has been kind of strange what with Queen's, "We Are the Champions," playing and then the cocaine song from the band. I'm kind of hoping that because porn plays in the GOP platform, I'm hoping, "Centerfold," by the J. Geils Band gets played sometime.

TlalocW

[HockeyMom]

3. Queen issued a statement

saying they did not authorize the use of their song for the Republican Convention. Ouch. MORE!

[maxsolomon]

4. A gig is a gig, apparently.

Doubt it's a deliberate troll. If they'd followed it with JJ Cale's "Cocaine", however...

[yallerdawg]

5. I don't know...

'Station to Station' is a very particular reference from a prolific songwriter.

I actually saw Bowie on that tour, and believe me - it was probably the most effed up concert I ever went to. Not me - Bowie!