Timothy Monger makes good, delivers rural pop version of Bowie’s Moonage Daydream

Last winter, as part of our Michigan Musicians on Vacation series, I interviewed Great Lakes Myth Society founder Timothy Monger about a trip he’d taken to attend a wedding in Oregon. Well, at some point during the interview, our conversation turned to our shared love of early Bowie and I made the following proposal to Timothy. “If I could raise $25 right now,” I said, “could I commission you to record Moonage Daydream as rural pop?” (Rural pop, as you may recall, was a phrase he’d coined to describe his most recent work, which had been heavily influenced by the farm on which he was living.) Well, he accepted the challenge and we raised the modest sum in no time. And then the polar vortex hit, and I kind of forgot about it. To Timothy’s credit, though, he stayed true to his word. And, earlier this evening, I received the following rendition of Bowie’s Moonage Daydream. Or, to be more correct, I received the following rendition of Arnold Corns’ Moonage Daydream. (Arnold Corns, for those of you unfamiliar with the name, was Bowie’s band prior to the launch of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.)

And here’s a little from the accompanying letter, in which Timothy shares his thoughts on this “enjoyable task.”

…I didn’t really mean to take six months on this Bowie cover, but that just seems to be how I work. When I finally found time to record it, it was a fun project. As “Rural Pop” is an invented genre, I suppose it can be whatever it wants to be. To my ears, it just sounds like me having fun in the basement covering Bowie.

I used the alternate lyrics and the general arrangement of the pre-Ziggy Arnold Corns version. I started off trying to go more of a Neil Young Harvest route in tone, but it just turned into its own strange thing as I continued…

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Now, who should we commission to make art for us next?

This entry was posted in Ann Arbor, Art and Culture, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

8 Comments

  1. Posted May 12, 2014 at 11:14 pm | Permalink

    That’s a drop of seawater. If you find the image troubling, let me know, and I’ll change it. On short notice, it was the most appropriate thing I could come up with… It seems very outer space to me.

  2. Eel
    Posted May 13, 2014 at 7:13 am | Permalink

    Arnold Corns sounds like a character on Green Acres.

  3. Bob
    Posted May 13, 2014 at 9:18 am | Permalink

    I like it more than Bowie and Tim never really lets you down anyway. A rural version of Bowie is ironic considering Bowie himself claims to have absolutely no tolerance for country music of any kind. I can’t really take him seriously after a comment like that.

    You should commission Dan Mulholland just because he’s about the most underrated artist/musician around here.

  4. 734
    Posted May 13, 2014 at 10:55 am | Permalink

    Get John Branon to do some Johnny Cash. He’d do it for $25.

  5. idea man
    Posted May 13, 2014 at 3:41 pm | Permalink

    Everyone who does a Michigan Musicians on Vacation interview should be given $25 and told to cover a song from Ziggy Stardust.

  6. Edward
    Posted May 13, 2014 at 8:06 pm | Permalink

    Bowie will likely let you keep it up for a year.

    http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/25gbc3/bowies_last_day_we_had_permission_for_a_year_so/

  7. Kristin
    Posted May 14, 2014 at 7:25 am | Permalink

    That was a lovely way to start the day.

  8. tommy
    Posted May 14, 2014 at 7:41 pm | Permalink

    That is a damn fine version of a very cool song. Love the radiohead-esque / sonic youth ‘noise’ at the end. Wish I was tech savvy enough to figure out a way to download this recording.

One Trackback

  1. […] And, after all of that, Timothy Monger will drop by to talk about the new record he’s working on, Amber Lantern. I imagine he might bring a guitar. And, if we run out of things to say, we’ll listen to Loose Teeth songs and point out how they might have been improved. [Monger, as you might recall, was once nice enough to record a Bowie cover for us.] […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Connect

BUY LOCAL... or shop at Amazon through this link Banner Initiative Elkins banner