Bertolt Brecht's BAAL (TV) [1982] David Bowie

http://bayimg.com/kAEnBaADi Baal (TV 1982) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0288436/ Baal was the first full-length play written by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. It concerns a wastrel youth who becomes involved in several sexual affairs and at least one murder. It was written in 1918, when Brecht was a 20-year-old student at Munich University, in response to the expressionist drama The Loner (Der Einsame) by the soon-to-become-Nazi dramatist Hanns Johst. The play is written in a form of heightened prose and includes four songs and an introductory choral hymn ("Hymn of Baal the Great"), set to melodies composed by Brecht himself. In 1982, musician/actor David Bowie played the title role for a BBC television production of Baal. John Willett provided the English translation and screenplay. Bowie's recordings of the play's five songs were released as an EP, David Bowie in Bertolt Brecht's BAAL. Directed by Alan Clarke, Bowie is at his most unatractive in this experimental production. David Bowie ... Baal Robert Austin ... Mech Jonathan Kent ... Eckart Russell Wootton ... Piller Julian Wadham ... Johannes Juliet Hammond ... Emilie (as Juliet Hammond-Hill) The story charts the decline of a drunken and dissolute poet, Baal. Baal is an anti-hero who rejects the conventions and trappings of bourgeois society. This situation draws on the German Sturm und Drang tradition, which celebrates the cult of the genius living outside the conventions of society that would later destroy him. "The outcast, the disillusioned tough becomes the hero; he may be criminal, he may be semi-human," argues John Willett, "but in plays like Baal he can be romanticized into an inverted idealist, blindly striking out at the society in which he lives." Baal roams the countryside, womanizing and brawling. He seduces Johanna, who subsequently drowns herself. He spurns his pregnant mistress Sophie and abandons her. He murders his friend Ekart, becoming a fugitive from the police. Defiantly aloof from the consequences of his actions, Baal is nonetheless brought low by his debauchery, dying alone in a forest hut, hunted and deserted, and leaving in his wake the corpses of deflowered maidens and murdered friends. David Bowie in Bertolt Brecht’s Baal is an EP by David Bowie, comprising recordings of songs written for Bertolt Brecht’s play Baal. In August 1981, Bowie had begun rehearsals to appear in the BBC version of Baal. The lyrics to the songs were all translated by Ralph Manheim and John Willett. Dominic Muldowney provided all new musical settings, except for "The Drowned Girl", which was a setting by Kurt Weill done originally for Das Berliner Requiem. In September 1981, Bowie and Tony Visconti returned to the Hansa studios in Berlin to re-record the five songs Baal performed in the play. “Baal’s Hymn” is a combination of the vignettes spread throughout the play, and establishes Baal’s amoral character. “Remembering Marie A” concerns Baal’s reminiscences of a past conquest, where he can remember a cloud drifting overhead, but not the face of the girl he was with. “Ballad of the Adventurers” is Baal’s aggressive lament to the death of his mother. “The Drowned Girl” relates the suicide of one of Baal’s conquests – a video clip for this song was shot by David Mallet at the same time as the one for “Wild is the Wind”. “The Dirty Song” is a short number, with Baal humiliating his lover Sophie. His performance as Baal was transmitted on February 2, 1982, and RCA issued the EP to coincide with this. Both the play and EP were well received, with the latter reaching #29 in the UK chart, commendable considering the unconventional tracks. As well as the 7" edition (which came packaged in a double gatefold sleeve containing extensive notes pertaining to the musical content and a short biography of Bertolt Brecht) the EP was released as a 12" which gained it some play in clubs as well as radio airplay. It would mark Bowie’s final new release for RCA Records. Bowie's next release was issued by EMI. "The Drowned Girl" was featured on the 2005 triple CD set "The Platinum Collection" and then the 2007 re-release of its third CD under the title "The Best of 1980/1987". "The Drowned Girl" and Baal's Hymn are both included on "Sound & Vision" (4 CD Collection). The EP was re-released as a digital download in 2007.

udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80
udp://open.demonii.com:1337
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969

summer1967love (2012-01-27)

sounds cool as fuck, son! I have always loved Bowie's sexual identity and his freedoms of expression. thanks for this object od art I have never heard of. love....