Smokey 1748 hr (Sunday 10th January 2016)

It was another day where I was out and about in Archie (the car) but returned home after dark without having fired a shutter. I'd been discussing David Bowie's career and ambitious new album, always looking forward, facing fresh challenges, unaware until the following morning that he was to die that same day.
Smokey jumped up onto the kitchen table after I got back, hoping that by positioning himself prominently in front of me I would be minded to put an extra meal into his food bowl. I held out for a little while.

L.
11.1.2016 (1638 hr)

Blip #1734 (#1984 including archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #000
Day #2114
Smokey #322
LOTD #968 (#1092 including archived blips)

Taken with Lumix DMC-LX100

Smokey series

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Davie Jones and the King-Bees - Liza Jane (recorded May 1964)
R.I.P. David Bowie (b. 8 January 1947, Brixton – d. 10 January 2016, Manhattan NY)
Last Saturday for my LOTD of the track Lazarus I wrote, "Have been playing Bowie's Nothing Has Changed retrospective today and looking forward to the forthcoming album Blackstar from which this is previewed." The idea that he would be dead one week later, two days after his 69th birthday, seemed inconceivable, but that track with its hints of goodbyes seems especially poignant now. Since I'd also posted Sue (or A Season Of Crime), his previous single from 2014 that October I decided to go back to his very first release, when he was still known by his real name and leading an R&B group.
The song was chosen by their manager Leslie Conn, who also worked at the song publishers DJM. Although Conn gave himself the songwriting credit the song was an old 19th century slave spiritual that had become adapted into a standard, usually called L'il Liza Jane, in many genres such as bluegrass, jazz and rock and roll.
Nina Simone, who was one of Bowie's big influences throughout his career, had recorded a version in 1960 though it's unlikely Bowie had heard it at the time. Huey 'Piano' Smith and the Clowns did a New Orleans rock and roll version in 1956 and in 1968 the Band revived it as Go Go Liza Jane. It was a fortuitous, prescient choice for a debut release but despite being well promoted it didn't sell.
Wikipedia reports that, "After Conn and Bowie parted in 1964, Conn moved to Majorca for a few years, and was one day on the phone with his mother who wanted to get rid of a few hundred copies of Liza Jane that were stored in her garage. They agreed to throw them away."

One year ago:
Calne Blue Plaques #10: Castle House