“Did you see his eyes? Did you see his crazy eyes?”
You will have heard about the sad passing of Scottish guitarist Ricky Gardiner, who died on 13th May aged 73, following a protracted battle with Parkinson’s. Our thoughts are with his wife Virginia and his family and friends.
While not the best-known of Bowie’s contributors, recognition of his superb work with David is worth highlighting to those unfamiliar with it. We have seen mention that the first thing Ricky worked on with Bowie was Iggy Pop’s The Idiot. This isn’t so, Phil Palmer was the lead guitarist on The Idiot.
However, Ricky is credited for his work on Bowie’s Low, Iggy’s Lust For Life and his performances as part of Iggy Pop’s 1977 The Idiot tour band, which also included 3/4 of Tin Machine...you do the math.
Here’s a playlist that features the tracks Mr Gardiner contributed his wonderfully melodic and unique playing to.
This includes 6 of the 7 tracks from side 1 of Low. All 9 tracks on Lust For Life, including two co-writing credits with Iggy: the instantly recognisable riff he penned for The Passenger and his only shared credit with Bowie, Neighborhood Threat.
The album of Iggy’s 1977 shows, TV Eye Live 1977, features four of the tracks Ricky played on during The Idiot tour. These same tracks also included DB’s keyboards and backing vocals.
Finally, in October 1977, Gardiner was selected by Tony Visconti to play guitar for the pre-recorded backing of Bowie’s "Heroes" for Top of the Pops. The recording was made at Visconti’s Good Earth Studios. Ricky attempted to emulate Fripp’s guitar part by using feedback to attain the distinctive sound: “I was asked to reproduce Robert Fripp’s line, but I did not realise at the time that he [Fripp] had used an EBow. I did my best using feedback alone. As we went through the song, my amplifier started dying. As the song finished, so did the amp.”.
Search YouTube for that version of "Heroes" along with footage of The Idiot band performing Funtime and Sister Midnight on The Dinah! Show in 1977.
#BowieIggy #BowieGardiner #BowieLow #LustForLife45 #TVEyeLive77