‘Gee, my life’s a funny thing / Am I still too young?’
typed for your pleasure on 11 January 2016, at 9.03 pm
Admittedly, the first Bowie album I ever owned, bought in the mid-Eighties, was ‘Changesonebowie’ on vinyl, and as that’s a compilation release, it doesn’t officially count. There was a reference to that exact same thing in an episode of The Venture bros, which isn’t surprising, as creators Doc Hammer and Christopher McCulloch are Bowie fans, like any sensible person would be. But apart from the varied range of music he created over five decades — including the dodgy pop phase he was in between 1983 and the mid-Nineties — and the unique sartorial sense that was equally his hallmark, I think the greatest takeaway that I got from Bowie is that his non-stop inventiveness made it okay to be unusual and left of centre, and if for some reason the world doesn’t catch up with you, then you can still stand apart and be your own person.
Clichéd as it is to say, but there will never be anyone like David Bowie. Everyone else will always be in his shadow
In such an early song
I heard a rumour from Ground control
Oh no, don’t say it’s true’
Random similar posts, for more timewasting:
18 May 1980 on May 18th, 2007
'This is not your sawtooth wave' on November 7th, 2005
March 11th, 2016 at 4.01 pm
‘Major Tom’ by Colonel Hadfield (a version of Bowie’s Space Oddity performed aboard the space station):
March 11th, 2016 at 4.03 pm
Well, I guess a couple of repetitions is better than it not working at all. Or maybe not…
March 13th, 2016 at 7.07 pm
Aloha Davecat,
Last night the Castro Theatre gave tribute to Bowie, with flamboyant local performers and a screening of “The Man Who Fell to Earth” – probably the most complete & explicit version ever. I’m glad I went, but honestly the event should’ve been world-class & wasn’t. Too many wild talented people were wiped out by AIDS 20-30 yrs. ago, and SF’s culture has never recovered. Mortality’s a bitch.
March 14th, 2016 at 8.51 pm
Everhard –
Fixed it for youse! Even though it’s a video worth multiple viewings…
I’d seen mention of this video when it first came out, but never got around to watching it. Now I’m kicking myself as to why I didn’t do so. It’s funny how Bowie consumed quite a bit of classic science fiction when he was younger, and it always stayed with him, and when his popularity spread, it tapped into the psyches of so many like-minded people, either sparking an interest in science (fiction), or letting them know they had someone who wanted to watch the skies with them. Thanks for linking that, sir.
And I owe you a long overdue Email! Ha ha! The more things change, etc etc
Dr Goldfoot –
Despite the tribute show and screening being a bit less than expected, that’s still an amazing thing to have attended. But you’re right; AIDS was and is a plague. In light of so many creative individuals felled by it, my first thought goes to Bowie collaborator Klaus Nomi, who shared Bowie’s extraterrestrial influences, filtered through a Weimar-era opera singer:
Mortality’s definitely a bitch, but legacies ensure that the creators don’t completely fade from memory.