I gotta get this one. Bowie has always been one of my favorite artists. I hope the hype isn't for naught

And I'm with you, Goat, Bowie is one of the greats.

"The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" is definitely in my top ten all time favorite albums. They guy's great.

A very good friend of mine in HS, Scott, was an only child. He had a brilliant mind. His parents used to worry about him since we (a "gang" of 5 or 6) used to drive around getting stoned. They didn't approve, of course, but they would rather we did it under a controlled situation, so they turned a blind eye to us going into his bedroom and getting high. None of our other parents would have dreamed of permitting that in their homes. We listened to a lot of Mott the Hoople, Edgar Winter, Traffic, King Crimson, Climax Blues Band, and David Bowie. To this day, whenever I hear any of these bands -- especially David Bowie -- I think of those nights we used to shove towels under the door thinking that Scott's parents' didn't know what was going on in his bedroom.

Scott commited suicide a few year ago after a long battle with AIDS. I'm still in contact with his parents after 40 years. They're cool folks.

Goat, that was a sad story. RIP your old friend.

Well, yes and no. Those of us who knew Scott knew that he would refuse to fade slowly away in a hospital bed. As I said, he had a brilliant mind. He held on as long as he could and when he recognized that nothing more could be done to maintain the quickly deteriorating quality of his life, he took control instead of letting the disease be in control. I'd like to think I'd have the balls to do the same if in the same situation.

... Boz Scaggs.

I went to school K-12 with his little brother Jimmy. The Scaggs lived about a block from me for several years. Boz (Bill is his real name, after his dad) was about 10 years older, so I can't say I knew him, but I saw him a lot when I was over at the Scagg's house visiting his brother.

Helen Scaggs (his mother) and my mom were friends as well.

Hunkey Dorey was the first Bowie album I owned even though the first song I remember by him was Space Oddity, which was released earlier. I think he, more than anyone (maybe excepting zappa) got me to appreciate music as an art form other than just something to hum along with on the radio.

I just saw the album cover for the new album. It is the same as the cover for his "Heroes" from the '70s, but with a big square in the middle. Did anyone else catch that?

... but his jazz gets too free-form for me ...

I agree on that. The first zappa album I owned was with the MoI. It was Overnight Sensation. Every one of those songs is well structured. Same with Sheik Yerbouti (mostly), Zoot Allures, and of course his magnum opus, Joe's Garage to name a few. Watermelon in Easter Hay from JG is a work of art and one of my all time favorite rock instrumentals.

Think this is true?

I never heard that, but after hearing songs like TVC15, I can see some truth in it.