I am not usually affected when famous people die. It is sad if it is someone whose work you admire, especially if they die when they are young (Kurt Cobain https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/1855 , John Lennon https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/617 or Bob Marley https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/1677 to name a few). I really hate the hysterical outpouring of grief for someone people have never known, typified by the death of Diana, a Sloane Ranger who was so rich and privileged due to marrying a Prince that her charity work was actually her job, yet she gets kudos for doing that as the Princess of Hearts.
I was surprised to be so devastated by the death of one particular musician. Not only was he one of the most important figures in music of the last 50 years, he was only 69 and still producing quality material. His last album, released just two days before his death, was his best for years and acclaimed as a classic.
David Bowie.
I would love to say that one of his classic tracks was the first I heard, but it wasn’t. It was The Laughing Gnome, a novelty track that he made in the sixties. It was often played on the weekend radio show Junior Choice. I also heard Space Oddity quite a bit (I assume as it was re-released in 1975).
That track was hard to square with the next track I remember – Sound and Vision from Bowie’s great album Low. Recorded in Berlin (which he made such an iconic place for other bands https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/2281 ) it had marked Bowie’s latest shift in style to electronic music. Our family believed the chorus of “Blue, blue, electric blue” was “Moo, moo, electric moo”. Nowhere to find written lyrics in those day.
In 1980 I was not au fait with the music press and just reacted to songs that I heard on the radio. Ashes to Ashes was released and it was even more surprising when I saw the video on TV. Not only did the song lyrics refer to the Major Tom character from Space Oddity but he was in the video. The video was very artistic and included future New Romantic icon Steve Strange from Visage.
(Strange on the left and Bowie as Pierrot)
Bowie was one of the inspirations of the New Romantic movement (along with Roxy Music https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/1694 ). The Scary Monsters album preceded the rise of the New Romantics (at least as a commercial force) and is ahead of the game with a far more guitar sound than the synth pop groups would have.
I was not as impressed with the follow up, Lets Dance. It was insanely popular and the title track was huge (and noticeably absent from my playlist below). Bowie collaborated with Nile Rodgers, the amazingly talented member of Chic to produce a very different sound, for him. But this was not him leading as he had done for over a decade. My favourite track was Chinagirl, which had been written for Iggy Pop ten years earlier.
(Chinagirl)
The rest of the decade saw declining returns, culminating in Bowie forming Tin Machine, as he had never been in a group before.
The nineties saw his record label start a process of remastering and reissuing his albums on a monthly basis, including extra tracks. Young Americans had the two tracks restored that had been bumped for the John Lennon collaborations (and they were far better than those tracks). It was a pleasure each month to get an accelerated trip through Bowie’s career. The characters of Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and The Thin White Duke, the plastic soul of Young Americans, then the Berlin trilogy of Low, Heroes and The Lodger. He was ahead of the game for so long.
(Ziggy Stardust)
In 1982 I had to babysit my younger siblings, so I was allowed to have a video rented and I asked for Bowie’s mid-70s science fiction vehicle – The Man Who Fell To Earth. I asked because it was Bowie, I did not realise that it was a pretty adult film (with graphic nudity) and there was a discussion of whether I should be allowed to watch it. I am glad I did – it is a powerful film, though depressing like much of the science fiction from before Star Wars (Silent Running and Rollerball are other examples).
(The Man Who Fell To Earth)
After Tin Machine Bowie climbed again. His albums got better and he produced important music right up until his death.
It is a shame that he was not at the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony to perform Heroes when the British team came out – that was an amazing night (and I am biased as my daughter Chantelle was part of the opening parade with one of the teams as a cauldron bearer). Maybe it was better for him to stay cool.
(Blackstar)
A titan of modern music, the world is a worse place without him.
I still think this is quite unlike anything else that I have ever heard and just beats out 1984 as my favourite Bowie track.
Ashes to Ashes
Playlist:
- Rubber Band
- Love You Till Tuesday
- Space Oddity
- Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud
- Memory of a Free Festival
- The Man Who Sold the World
- The Width of a Circle
- All the Mad Men
- Saviour Machine
- The Supermen
- Moonage Daydream
- Changes
- Oh You Pretty Things
- Life on Mars?
- The Bewlay Brothers
- Five Years
- Starman
- Lady Stardust
- Hang on to Yourself
- Ziggy Stardust
- Suffragette City
- Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide
- Aladdin Sane (1913–1938–197?)
- Panic in Detroit
- Cracked Actor
- Time
- The Prettiest Star
- The Jean Genie
- Diamond Dogs
- Rebel Rebel
- We Are the Dead
- 1984
- Big Brother
- Young Americans
- Station to Station
- Wild is the Wind
- Word on a Wing
- Speed of Life
- Sound and Vision
- Always Crashing in the Same Car
- Warszawa
- Beauty and the Beast
- Heroes
- V-2 Schneider
- The Secret Life of Arabia
- Yassassin
- Red Sails
- Up the Hill Backwards
- Scary Monsters (Super Creeps)
- Ashes to Ashes
- Scream Like a Baby
- Teenage Wildlife
- Because You’re Young
- Kingdom Come
- Modern Love
- China Girl
- Cat People (Putting Out Fires)
- Loving the Alien
- Blue Jean
- This is Not America
- Hello Spaceboy
- Lazarus
Five Miles Out 