This is a remake of my 2016 David Bowie Right video. It is an edit and sync of BBC footage from a 1974 L.A. rehearsal session, recut to Right from Bowie’s Young Americans album.
The Right video holds a special place in my heart. Made in the immediate wake of Bowie’s death, a decade ago, it came about by chance as an editing experiment, and quickly became my first YouTube hit video.
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In the footage, we see Bowie and his singers in September '74, rehearsing Right, in Los Angeles. In the footage is:
David Bowie Luther Vandross Robin Clark Ava Cherry Anthony Hinton Mike Garson (Keyboards) Charlie Brown (Saxophone)
The colour portions of the video are from Cracked Actor, the 1975 BBC documentary, directed by Alan Yentob. The majority of the footage - the black and white material - is from Cracked Actor outtakes, featured in Francis Whateley’s 2013 BBC documentary, David Bowie: Five Years.
Corresponding with Francis Whateley recently, he told me:
The researcher, Miriam Walsh found the outtake. Why it was kept, I have no clue.
As you probably know, the rest of the Cracked Actor rushes were apparently stolen from the BBC. I have looked at the paperwork and it clearly says that the rushes were sent to an edit in a no longer existent BBC building in White City.
But after that, the trail goes cold. I have asked for the library to check and check and check again but nothing comes up.
However I do believe someone has them somewhere, as the very bad quality footage of Bowie snorting is part of them. In fact that footage was originally intended as a closing sequence for Alan’s film.
I do believe one-day it will turn up.
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Doing it Right - a convoluted little history of The Right Promo, and of dodging the dreaded copyright algorithms
Just after the news broke of Bowie's death, I found myself once again watching Francis Whateley’s great documentary, David Bowie: Five Years. Suddenly, the footage of Bowie and his singers rehearsing in ’74 jumped out of the screen at me. Despite the original sound being mostly obscured by the interview voices, I realised the footage offered the possibility of making a video for my favorite track from Young Americans. I set to work, and after a long editing session, a rough cut had been produced of the “Right” video. I could hardly believe my eyes - it worked!
By February the 13th, I felt the Right video was finished, and I uploaded it to my fledgling YouTube channel. YouTube’s algorithm detected the BBC copyright of the footage and the video was blocked. However, after filing a standard YouTube fair-use claim, by February 16th the video was released and became viewable.
I waited with some trepidation to see what / if there would be any reaction. Almost immediately, views and enthusiastic comments cascaded in. To my astonishment both Carlos Alomar and Mike Garson wanted to feature it on their sites! In March, a kind soul wrote to say that they’d seen my video on the big screen at The Odeon, Leicester Square, as part of Adam Buxton's Bowie Bug video tour. “It was the best video of the night… a full cinema applauded your work”, that nice person wrote. In April, I was in the UK and was invited to one of the Bowie Bug video live shows. It was a thrilling moment when Adam Buxton introduced my video and he and I had a brief exchange, he on stage, me kinda shouting back from my seat, too shy to join him on that stage.
The Right video spent three happy years on my YouTube channel, amassing over 700,000 views and 10,000 likes and comments.
But then in 2019, it was again blocked on YouTube.
Thereafter, I received many requests to repost the video elsewhere. I remade Right and posted it on other platforms.
Now, after another round of tinkering, here’s another version of the Right promo, enhanced with some of the latest AI tools.
Thanks for watching, hope you dig it!
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Credits
Video Source: David Bowie: Five Years | 2013 | Directed by Francis Whateley | © BBC Cracked Actor | 1975 | Directed by Alan Yentob | © BBC
Music Source: David Bowie | Right | Original Recorded in 1974 | Released 7 March 1975 on the album Young Americans
Musicians: Lead vocals | David Bowie Rhythm guitar | Carlos Alomar Bass guitar | Willie Weeks Drums | Andy Newmark Clavinet | Mike Garson Alto sax | David Sanborn Conga | Larry Washington Backing vocals | Luther Vandross | Robin Clark | Ava Cherry | Geoff MacCormack | Anthony Hinton | Diane Sumler
Production & Mixing | Tony Visconti | Harry Maslin
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Always more videos to follow, so please keep your electric eye on me babe! I don't claim to own the rights of any copyright material. My YouTube channel is completely demonetized. I'm just a fan making videos for other fans. Please Share, Like, Comment, Subscribe NachosVideos.com Facebook.com/TheNachoVideos YouTube.com/NachoVideo DailyMotion.com/NachosVideos OK.ru/nachovideo Instagram.com/NachoVideo Twitter.com/NachosVideos Patreon.com/nachosvideos TheNachoVideos@gmail.com I edit, therefore I am