Mystery Song - Lost Bowie?
Here's a musical challenge.
This has been bugging me for a while now.
I downloaded this song over four years ago. It was labeled "jobriath-bowie (unreleased album, 2000). I heard it, thought it was great, but also thought something wasn't quite right with the track label. I did some comparisons, and some research, and i'm pretty certain it's neither Jobriath or David Bowie, thought it does sound a bit like Bowie (and also a bit like lots of other folks, Scott Walker maybe).
It seems to've been produced in the last 6 or 8 years from the sampled sounds used, and i suppose it could've been produced out of someone's bedroom, though to me it sounds a bit too polished.
http://media.putfile.com/mystery-song-13
SO...does anyone out there have any idea what this mystery song might be?
know that every few months i've tried googling bits of lyrics from the song- so far all have come up with zero search returns. below are the lyrics as best as i can make out:
blacked out by the time you had arrived
drifting on a sea without a tide
and no one is persuaded there to drown
behind the veil of colourless clouds
its only life i tell you
maybe tomorrow
its only (h)ours to break through
you've stolen a shadow
you're robbing me to hold on for the ride
i've watched all the sweetness slowly die
and the scumbags still walk off with the prize
you scoff it off but you always wonder why
oh its just life
nobody knew - from glitter to sorrow
its always (h)ours to break through
you've stolen a shadow
catching all the roses as best you can
when every mothers joe says he's your man
and past all the glass towers your stroll
from the valley back to new york its all been sold
its only life,
i told you - the smiles (and the)* sorrow *(in with?)
its only (h)ours to break through
you've stolen a shadow
is there still time to tell you?
maybe tomorrow
its only (h)ours to break through
stolen a shadow
who is your pride?
no one knew
glitter and sorrow
its only hours to break through
its only hours to break on through
its always ours to break it through
...and that's it. please...help. or soon i will be driven insane.
UPDATE! Friday, July 20th, 2007: MYSTERY SOLVED! :
http://www.balconymusic.com/ (this song is from the newer album.)
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=75190783
Thanks to Paul for writing in :up:
update to the update December-01-07:
just in case anyone is planning on it- i ordered the albums from the Balcony site a few months ago but never received the albums.
posted by T @ 9:44 AM
10 Comments:
I'm in the same boat. Love this song and want to hear more, but no idea who it could be. Someone out there has to know!!!
i'm pretty sure it's scott walker - i downloaded the song a few days ago and i've been searching for its origin, too. when i got the song on limewire, it said "jobriath by nick cave, scott walker, david sylvian" so, i don't know if david sylvian and nick cave helped produce the song... or what. but, it's definitely scott walker singing. hope that helps.
downloaded sometime ago but didn't get to play it until the weekend and became quite obsessed. It downloaded as "nick cave, scott walker and Da" so might be sylvian. could have been an album of scott walker's produced by nick cave. but i have searched lyric websites for scott walker and have found nothing.
again the voice isn't quite scott walker but it not nick care or david sylvian
god... poor bastards, waiting around so long (I know the feeling). help has arrived - google BalconyMusic - the guy's on myspace too. if I remember right, he's a uk ex-pat living in L.A., into the world of androgyny.
used a great scam on Napster/AudioG to draw attention to his songs. that track is called "Jobriath" I think - absolutely fabulous!!!
Mai Zetterling = www.balconymusic.com
Was just doing some research as I just downloaded the same mystery song... Might I say, ther eis no way in hell that is Scott Walker (I've got everything he's done right through to obscurities) and that is definitely NOT him singing. Nor is it Nick Cave, who I am equally obsessed with... I know what Jobriath sounds like but I don't know what David Sylvian sounds like... So, it's a mystery to me too. But it's definitely NOT Scott, or indeed Nick (but that's obvious I think)...
This song is a record of a broken project of Scott Walker. He was a work with the production of David Sylvian (its sounds like that)..but don't finish the project. They only recorded "Jobriath".
I was in love with this song, and always wonder where it came from?
Thank you!!!!
The author is Stiv Lestar. He is inspired, as he says somewhere in the net, in Hall and Oates, Sakamoto, Zappa and others.
His creativity is impressive, far from the usual, close to detached mind experencies inspired in a glamour and aesthetics not much reached by other creators.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvwiJaB7qxo&list=FLF3KKYEqtsn6yJ7rF59ODqQ&index=2&feature=plpp_video
I don't know if you still read these comments, nearly 7 years later. I just wanted to say I too was trying to identify the song from an old P2P file I had collected. Googling the lyrics led me to your blog. Thank you!
Also, you can find other recordings by the same artist now by searching for 'Jobraith'. Here is a meta-search of torrents which works at the time of my posting.
http://metasearch.torrentproject.com/#!search=Jobriath
I downloaded this track from Napster in what must have been 1999 or 2000 - while searching for Nick Drake songs. This song was I think bundled along with another tune called Broken Earth. Turns out both are by this fellow Steve Lester (or Stiv LeStar!) - now available on iTunes under the band name Balcony for this song "Jobriath" and under the name Seacon for "broken earth". I've never rightly known who it was but always felt these were really great songs. On a whim I typed in the lyrics for Jobriath today and found your website. It has been several years since you posted the original question and you may not even monitor this page anymore but if you do, thanks for helping to solve the mystery!
-Nathan
Richmond VA
Post a Comment
<< Home