Biff rose discography9/25/2023 With the final orchestral notes fading into the background, Rose returns with an audible heavy-heartedly resigned sigh before returning to the song’s opening theme and sentiments. “ I forgot to mention/ You’ll always be my friend/ Even though I know sometimes I’m hard to take,” he knowingly admits following the confession of his unspoken love backed by a gorgeous chorus of French horns.Īs it builds to a cacophonous symphonic explosion, Rose’s voice nearly splitting at the seams, the overwrought instrumentation causes the song to collapse on itself. This becomes most clear on the heartbreakingly lovely “I Forgot to Tell You.” Following a delicate, 6/8 opening piano figure, Rose’s pinched, nasally vocals cautiously deliver the charming lyric, “ I forgot to tell you/ Just how beautiful you really are/ But I’m feeling it just the same,” this fragile piano ballad contains some of Rose’s most emotionally vulnerable work. There’s an almost impressionistic fragility to these alternatingly half songs and fully realized ideas based in unguarded emotion. al.) Throughout, Rose’s filigreed New Orleans-style piano serves as the bedrock from which the songs spring forth. “Annie” and “Diane” are both sincere love songs full of longing and regret, the latter prominently featuring bassist Richard Davis ( Astral Weeks, Out to Lunch, et. Yet Biff Rose shows a level of sincerity beneath the smirk that threatens to betray his true emotions. From the opening moments of the stark, almost plaintive cry that is “All The Fondest Wishes,” Rose shows this to be a more stripped down, if not entirely self-serious, affair.Īs before, Rose’s somewhat irreverent wit and often comedic approach to songwriting peeks through here and there. Make no mistake, this is no backhanded compliment, rather a brief attempt at setting the appropriate levels of expectation for those only familiar with “Fill Your Heart” or, less so, “Buzz the Fuzz,” a song often covered live by Bowie around the time of Hunky Dory’s release. Released the year before Hunky Dory, Biff Rose’s self-titled release on the Buddah label stands in sharp contrast to the more fully realized work on Thorn and its follow-up, the equally impressive Children of Light. So much so that it could be argued that, without Thorn, we would not have the Hunky Dory we do. Rose’s spritely piano, sing-song melodies and, in particular, the arrangements were a clear influence on the inchoate Bowie. Rose’s Side, “Fill Your Heart” was a jaunty, melodically rich composition that, in addition to Bowie, was covered by Tiny Tim as the B-side to his own improbable hit in “Tip-Toe Through the Tulips.” A quick listen to Rose’s work on Thorn helps show there to be more of an influence on Hunky Dory than simply the presence of one song. Released three years prior on The Thorn in Mrs. This presupposition is what has long retroactively drawn listeners to odd, almost vaudevillian recordings of pianist and songwriter Biff Rose, whose song “Fill Your Heart” – co-written with Paul Williams – appeared on Bowie’s 1971 masterpiece Hunky Dory. That he would take on the work of another seems something of an anomaly an artist so influential performing a cover on an album of otherwise all original material must be worth further investigation. This isn’t to say he didn’t indulge in the occasional cover throughout his half-century of recording and performing, rather his primary focus lay in his artistic collaborations with others on his own material. Save his all-covers album Pin Ups, there is very little material written by others within the David Bowie canon.
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