I absolutely adore this Space Oddity video of Bowie's first TV performance that took place on a British awards show. This is a pretty difficult song to sing live and Bowie absolutely nails it.
It’s hard to imagine that most of the crop of what passes for musicians and pop stars today will still be relevant five decades from now. David Robert Jones was born in London on 8 January 1947 subsequently changing his name to David Bowie in 1966. Still performing five decades later, Bowie is perhaps one of the most influential figures ever in British pop music. He began performing music when he was 13 years old, learning the saxophone while he was at Bromley Technical High School where one of his tutors was Owen Frampton, the father of musician Peter Frampton.
Bowie demonstrated remarkable skill for perceiving musical trends at his peak in the '70s. After spending several years in the late '60s as a mod and as an all-around music-hall entertainer, Bowie reinvented himself as a hippie singer/songwriter. Prior to his breakthrough in 1972, he recorded a proto-metal record and a pop/rock album, eventually redefining glam rock with his ambiguously sexy Ziggy Stardust persona. Ziggy made Bowie an international star, yet he wasn't content to continue to churn out glitter rock. By the mid-'70s, he developed an effete, sophisticated version of Philly soul that he dubbed "plastic soul." Other trends followed in the ensuing decades, including avant-garde pop, minimalist electronic rock, dance pop and techno. These in turn, sparked a number of subgenres, including punk, new wave, goth rock, the new romantics, and electronica. Few rockers ever had such lasting impact.
I saw Bowie in 1990 at BC Place Stadium on his Sound and Vision Tour. His voice stunned me, he sounds so much better live than he does on record.
Bowie and Mercury. Magic.
Heroes.
Peaking at number 2 the week of Bowie's 26th birthday in 1973, The Jean Genie.
Let's Dance.
And finally, one I never knew before. This Is Not America.
Thank you for the music, David. And Happy Birthday.
Oh, and I hated that he had his crooked, uneven, teeth "fixed." I completely understood why he did but part of his charm, for me, was his uneven (British) knashers.
ReplyDeleteI liked his crooked teeth too Fay! This is such a fun post! Thanks for the great tunes; I'll listen to them as I do my psychiatric mental health homework this morning. It just...fits. :)
ReplyDeletePoignant to see David with Freddy Mercury. He's been gone twenty years last November IIRC.
ReplyDeleteWe had dinner last night with a couple in our building - fifty something folks, very nice - the woman had a brother who died of AIDS some time ago. Sad that she had to bury a sibling and her parents had to bury a child.
It really was something of an epidemic - treatment has advanced so far that this has receded from our consciousness to some extent.
That's true lewy, the "super drug cocktail" they came up with for AIDS seems to be working great from everything I've read. So much so that contracting AIDS no longer appears to be an automatic death sentence.
ReplyDeleteHowever I worry that because of that fact, people may revert to pre AIDS behaviour which could lead to a whole other set of problems (i.e. drug resistant strains etc.)
As much as I loved (and still do) Freddie, he basically killed himself by his reckless behaviour. But then he was a rock star.
RIP Freddie. Can't believe it's been twenty years.
Very deft, Fay. I've never entirely "got" Bowie, but have tremendous respect for his creativity and art- you've sketched a neat picture. IIRC, Iggy Pop was also a foundation of Bowie's.. unnnhhhh... "oeuvre"?
ReplyDeleteThanks Earl, Bowie helped write Iggy Pop's first two solo albums and they lived together for a while in Berlin. I'm sure there was a two way influence.
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