Mashitup baby

From the Beeb

David Bowie has asked bedroom DJs to create a new track for an internet competition by bootlegging his songs.

The British music star has given fans the right to create a new song by using computer music software to blend or "mash up" two existing tracks.

The winning song will be released as an MP3 and its creator will win a car.

"I'm very comfortable with the idea and have been the subject of quite a few pretty good mash-ups myself," Bowie told The Times newspaper.

good, much better reaction by Bowie than the backward thinking, squash-it-all types at the RIAA, or even the schmoes at Apple Records who are suing Apple Computers for having the temerity to sell music via the web. Every creative act is based on prior creative acts, and that's just the way it is. Trying to permanently hold onto every copyright is akin to terrorism. Err, something like that.

and from Bowie's web site:

Visconti and I had an unintentionally Luddite fantasy in the seventies revolving around a plan to write songs in the style of several different artists, The Doors or Mark Bolan etc., and then record some backing tracks in the style of, say Hendrix or the Stones and then I would record the vocal tracks imitating Cliff, Lennon or the Supremes even (with slightly speeded up tape). Shame we never got on with it but you know how those rainy Tuesday afternoon brainstorms go. Nowhere, generally.

Now playing in iTunes: For The Wars, from the album Walking With Thee by Clinic (released 2002)