Midweek Music

I still kick myself when I recall that I never got to see Bowie and Nine Inch Nails tour together after the concept album "Outside" was released - 15 years ago on my birthday. To me, it stands as a triumphant musical milestone for the Thin White Duke alongside such masterpieces as "Low", "Heroes", and "Lodger" - as it not only showed that Bowie could master the genres of industrial, electronica, and experimental - but because it reunited him aural magician Brian Eno.

In video form, the tracks from Outside gave cutting edge directors of the day a vehicle to push their creative vision. Most notably was Samuel Bayer who had created videos for Nirvana ( Smells Like Teen Spirit ), Blind Melon ( No Rain ), Corrosion Of Conformity ( Albatross ), and was likely picked for the track highlighted below because of his work on The Smashing Pumpkins video for "Bullet With Butterfly Wings".

'The Hearts Filthy Lesson'



But it was the pairing of Reznor and Bowie that gave the musical world something that had been lacking. The Nine Inch Nails remix of 'Hearts' has been - for me at least - a wonderful example of how Trent Reznor can tap into the energy of someone like Bowie and blend it with EDM sensibilities, the industrial flair of people like Front 242 or even Skinny Puppy, and create an audio film score for the visions in our head that we can't quite articulate with language alone.



The rich and storied history of David Bowie is one that none in the modern music catalog could ever begin to match. From being the man who created the track that typified the first human launch into space to the one that helped reshape modern music as we know it, David Bowie is one that should be honored, respected, and studied by anyone that plans of picking up any type of instrument.