David Bowie put together a list of his favorite songs that he wrote for Sunday’s Daily Mail. Instead of picking his greatest hits The Thin White Duke dug deep through his catalog for some choice cuts including The Bewlay Brothers, Win and Teenage Wildlife. We’re just glad that Life On Mars made Bowie’s list.

Let’s see what else is happening on the first day of this shortened week…

• The Police bade an emotional farewell to their UK fans at Hyde Park
• Mike Gordon talks to Billboard about a possible Phish reunion
• Stevie Wonder shocks and awes during a performance in Chicago
• David Letterman holds Esperanza Spalding in extremely high regard
• Jimmy Herring will release Lifeboat, his first solo album, on 10/21
• Our friends at Rock Revival list Bands Named After Other Artist’s Songs

Why don’t we finish off with a look at one of the hilariously awesome Bonnaroo Ink Blot Test videos from Relix’s new Relix HD channel on Vimeo:

The voting is still taking place (Actually, come to think of it, polls are still open for all of them) and turnout remains to be on the rise with Volume 5 of Cover Wars. Early on in the week it looked like Scarecrow Collection was going to pull it off, but Mr. Blotto is running away with it and Hidden Track can now project that Mr. Blotto will carry the 50 Ways edition of Cover Wars. Talks of a ‘Dream Ticket’ with both Mr. Blotto and SCC are being dismissed by both candidates.

Let us move onwards and upwards into this week’s edition where we’ll examine covers of David Bowie’s Space Oddity. You know this song, it’s called ‘Ground Control to Major Tom’, you can find it playing at happening college party sing-along’s with The Who’s ‘Teenage Wasteland’ and ‘Dirty Woman’ by Pink Floyd. This is a song that appears to be inspired both by the Apollo 11 moon landing and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bowie first recorded this song in 1969. Did you know that Rick Wakeman of Yes plays Mellotron/Keyboards on the original? I didn’t. I guess you learn something new everyday.

Assembly of Dust: Reid Genauer’s group used the tune as the countdown to ring in the year 2007. This is a good call when the song’s already got a countdown from 10 in it. Well played.

Read on for the full report on nine other versions of Space Oddity…

If you live in NYC, you probably take the site of the Empire State Building for granted. If you live in San Diego, you probably take a sunny 72-degree day for granted. And if you are a rock fan, you probably take David Bowie for granted.

Bowie, who put out his first album, David Bowie, in 1967 has been a fixture on the rock landscape ever since and has crossed genre lines so many times, charting it would look like an airline route map in the back of those terrible in-flight magazines.

Whatever your pleasure, Bowie has something for you. You want straight up rock and roll? There’s 1974’s Diamond Dogs and 1980’s Scary Monsters. If it’s a red wine night at home, there is 1971’s Hunky Dory, with more piano-driven tracks, including the powerful “Quicksand” and “Life on Mars,” a song that has surfaced everywhere from Phish shows to Wes Anderson movies.

Read on for more Thin White Duke lovin’, and a few clips from his illustrious career…

Ever since those four lads from Liverpool landed at Idlewild Airport, British bands have been a major part of rock history. Honoring the Brits, this week’s Grousing The Aisles honors three of the best acts to emerge from Britain in the ’70s.

We start with the David Bowie tribute from Jam Cruise, which features members of moe., Phish and the Greyboy Allstars among others musically rimming The Thin White Duke. Next, we take a look at Elton John’s legendary Christmas Eve concert from 1974, and, finally, we let you know about an amazing compilation featuring The Police playing blistering versions of all the tunes from their reunion tour.

Oh! You Pretty Things: Jam Cruise Tribute to David Bowie DAUD [FLAC, MP3]

Photo by David Steinberg

The best music to come from Jam Cruise over the past few years has stemmed from the all-star tribute jams that have emerged. On Jam Cruise IV, certain members of Umphrey’s McGee formed the Brain Damaged Eggmen with a few members of the Disco Biscuits to pay tribute to The Beatles and Pink Floyd. Then members of the West Coast bands on board Jam Cruise V combined forces to form the Sounds of San Francisco to honor the bands from that city. This year, a group of musicians channeled David Bowie under the moniker Oh! You Pretty Things. The first tapes from their gig have emerged, and they sound pretty damn good.

Oh! You Pretty Things combined the talents of Al Schnier, Jon Fishman, Jans Ingber, Ron Johnson, Robert Walter, Jeff Austin and a few other special guests who made cameos. During their public rehearsal the band decided to play a short, tight set at the actual gig instead of a solid long set, and the band delivered, dropping fantastic versions of 16 Bowie classics. Some of the songs are played straight, while others such as Let’s Dance are jammed out a bit. Hopefully a soundboard of this classic performance surfaces soon, as the quality of the recording isn’t as good as the quality of the performance — the strong winds which hindered the taper. Read on for much more GTA…

So much has happened since Jack Bauer shaved his playoff beard and spoke his first word in two years…and in that time all of these videos came to my attention.

Reunion rumors and innuendo – hints and allegations, notwithstanding – have captured the short attention of many music blogs, magazines and websites of late. Will The Police set aside their hatred of each other to reunite? Does Van Halen play with Hagar the Horrible or Davey L. Roth at its Hall of Fame induction?

But the one band that’s reuniting for sure often gets lost in the shuffle of this chatter, so I’d like to take this opportunity to bring out yer dead. Here’s a little Genesis from 1972 with a sickening performance of The Musical Box:

• As the title of this post implies, we now move from Genesis to Exodus: Take in a little Marley-style movement of jah people.
• Since we missed celebrating the man’s birthday last week, here’s a trio of David Bowie videos this afternoon: a recent Heroes, an old-school Ziggy Stardust, and an incredibly funny clip from Extras with Ricky Gervais.
• Anyone else think Derek Trucks looks like Simba from The Lion King? I don’t know, that’s just what I see when he plays. But shit, man, he can really really really play. Three “really”s. Really. Check out this clip of the Derek Trucks Band playing a ripping version of Joyful Noise.
• You don’t see much Soulive ’round the blog world…let’s rectify that situation, shall we? Here’s a sweet So Live from Soulive.
• And last but certainly not least, Scotty B found us a recently uploaded clip of Phish at Big Cypress — here’s the Midnight > Sunrise set in just six short minutes (and here’s the quick 90-second version as well).

Sen. Barack Obama says the people are hungry. Yes, they’re hungry for ’Tubes. 

After a couple of short weeks, we’re back to the grind with a full week of action. Don’t think of it as more work, think of it as more Hidden Track. To start you off on the right foot, here’s a handful of links to keep you occupied:

• Cold Turkey’s Benji Eisen and Mike Greenhaus offer us a look at the recently completed Jam Cruise
• Jimmy Vivino of the Max Weinberg 7 leads a tribute to Bill Graham and the Fillmore East days at BB King’s tonight
• For those who miss the smell of vinyl, check out this great gallery of classic rock album covers
• Elvis Costello channels Jerry in this moving version of Loser
• Download Axl Rose and Bruce Springsteen singing Come Together
• Glide Magazine has debuted a comic strip called the Concerted Comic
• A legendary house in Denver is up for sale
• The Times Daily presents an interview with Randy Poe, author of the upcoming Skydog: The Duane Allman Story
• Turns out that Velvet Underground acetate wasn’t as valuable as first thought
• A rare occurance: An unsigned band headlines The Garden
• Here’s another rare occurrence: A Michigan pastor will discuss spiritual themes in the music of the Grateful Dead
• Hipster darlings TV on the Radio will begin a seven-week tour in March
• On David Bowie’s 60th birthday, check out 60 things about Bowie (via Here Comes The Flood)
• An Aquarium Drunkard has released the 20th episode of its acclaimed podcast series
• Check out this glowing review of the new DVD release Van Morrison Live at Montreux 1980/1974 — gotta love Van the Man
• Arcade Fire confirms the tracklisting and release date of their upcoming release Neon Bible
• Ickmusic presents a Prince show from 1988 for download
• Remembering a strange encounter with Frank Zappa
• The Wanee Festival announces its Allmans-centric lineup

Did you see any good shows this weekend? Any interesting news that we missed? Don’t be shy, share with the rest of the class…

Welcome to the first 2007 edition of Grousing The Aisles. We’re still waiting for someone to recognize from where the title of this department was taken. The winner may or may not receive a set of steak knives.

GTA this week checks out a few shows from this weekend’s NYE festivities and takes a look back at a classic Dead show and a must-hear Rick Danko project. Also added to the weekly mix are a few early ’70s gems from The Doors and David Bowie. Let’s jump right into the fray and see what’s what, shall we?

Rick Danko, Jonas Fjeld, Eric Anderson 12/04/94 SBD (FLAC)

Regular HT readers may have noticed at this point that both Ace Cowboy and I are totally geigh for The Band, and more specifically Rick Danko. Guilty as charged your honor, as no singer or musician can convey emotions in their voice like Ricky D. In 1991, Danko recorded an album with Jonas Fjeld and Eric Anderson — cleverly titled Danko/Fjeld/Anderson — on which all three musicians’ styles converge to form a new style all its own (the trio then followed up their debut with Ridin’ On The Blinds). This show features plenty of songs from both albums, as well as some traditional songs and a couple of incredible Band tunes. Highlights include Stagefright, Ragtop, and It Makes No Difference. Read on for more downloads…