Dedicated to Janine and the great David Bowie!
Janine- David Bowie Man Of Words/Man Of Music
Rebel Rebel- Joan Jett and The Blackhearts Flashback
Ziggy Stardust- Bauhaus Ziggy Stardust
The Last Shadow Puppets- In The Heat Of The Morning In The Heat Of The Morning
The Jean Genie- Enuff Z'nuff 10
Moonage Daydream- Milky Edwards and The Chamberlings Starman
Boys Keep Swinging- A Camp Covers EP
Rock 'N Roll Suicide- OK Go and Bonerama Rock 'N Roll Suicide
^China Girl- David Bowie China Girl
Suffragette City- Steve Jones Fire and Gasoline
Queen Bitch- Eater The Album
*Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)- Superchunk Cup Of Sand
*Ashes To Ashes- Warpaint We Were So Turned On: A Tribute To David Bowie
*Teenage Wildlife- Ash Little Infinity EP
Let's Dance- The Futureheads Q Covered: The 80's
Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family- The Wedding Present The Hit Parade
Changes- The Muffs A Salute To The Thin White Duke - The Music Of David Bowie
**The Man Who Sold The World- The Wally Brothers The Man Who Sold The World
**John I'm Only Dancing- The Polecats John, I'm Only Dancing
**Life On Mars- Barbra Streisand ButterFly
Under Pressure- My Chemical Romance and The Used Under Pressure
Candidate- Dramarama Cinema Verite
Blue Jean- Electric Six A Salute To The Thin White Duke - The Music Of David Bowie
>Liza Jane- Davie Jones With The King Bees Liza Jane
Black Country Rock- Big Drill Car No Worse For The Wear
Heroes- Blondie Heroes
Space Oddity- The Langley School Innocence and Despair
^Power Pop Prototype: #10 Billboard Hot 100 6/4/83
*SacroSet 1: Scary Monsters Covers
**SacroSet 2: Unlikely Bowie Covers
>Power Pop Prototype: 1964
My earliest memory of David Bowie goes back to the 70's. As a child I was a television addict, marking each day of the week by the TV shows I planned to watch. While violent shows like Starsky and Hutch, Baretta and S.W.A.T. were my preferred fare, I also watched variety shows with my parents like Sonny and Cher, Donnie and Marie and The Carpenters. It was on one of these shows, or another like it (in the 70's it seemed like everyone had their own variety show) that I saw David Bowie perform "Space Oddity." He
was the only person on stage, standing with his legs spread, hands on his hips staring expressionless into the camera. Bowie was practically in grayscale, wearing baggy gray clothes with white face make up and his short hair slicked back. He had an acoustic guitar strapped to his back but only played it during the acoustic guitar break- which is halfway into the song! The rest of the time he just stood there motionless doing what I later learned was called lip-syncing. I had never seen anything like this on television- it has taken on a mythic role in my rock and roll upbringing, especially because I can't find any reference to this performance on the Internet and that pretty much never happens.
A second formative Bowie experience came a year or so later. I was sitting beside my sister Sarah in the spacious backseat of the family's Mercury Montego MX Villager- the ultimate suburban luxury station wagon.
My dad was driving with my mom riding shotgun when "Suffragette City" came on the radio. The song struck me as as dripping with attitude and swagger but the the thing that stood out most was the "AHHHH WAM BAM THANK YOU MA'AM!" My dad laughed as my mom quickly changed the station but David Bowie had once again entered my consciousness. I still didn't go looking for Bowie records though because the songs of his I heard on the radio were all over the place. For every rock and roll "Suffragette City" and "Rebel Rebel" there was a what I considered a borderline disco "Golden Years" or "Fame." Plus, as interesting as I found Bowie's Ziggy Stardust persona it struck my as completely incongruous that he was usually playing an acoustic guitar. What kind of Spaceman plays an ACOUSTIC GUITAR??? I was a hard rock fan in the mid-70's and thus wary of acoustic guitars- in my mind, this is what a rock and roll spaceman was supposed to look like:
While the "Space Oddity" TV performance should have prepared me for future Bowie curve balls, I was completely thrown by his Saturday Night Live appearance on December 15, 1979. First there were his otherwordly background singers, Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias, respectively clad in skin tight black and red dresses. Always on the look out for edgy performers, Bowie saw opera singer Nomi and performance artist Arias in New York clubs and asked them to back him up on SNL. Their first song is a cool new wave update of "The Man Who Sold The World" starting with Nomi and Arias carrying Bowie downstage in this very heavy looking tuxedo structure thing. Nomi and Arias are striking poses throughout the song which ends with an operatic coda highlighting everyone's vocal talents with Bowie being picked up and carried upstage for one final pose.
The Man Who Sold The World |
TVC 15 |
Bowie and Puppet |
Boys Keep Swinging |
HA! How awesome is that!!! I watched the show and completely missed this the first time but there is no denying it's there. Bowie's puppet penis! Not Ready For Prime Time indeed! Thank you the Internet!
When I got to college at Emerson in Boston there was an RA at Charlesgate, the dorm across the street from mine. She was a huge Bowie fan rocking a colorful array of leotard tops and a Ziggy Stardust haircut. The "Old Wave/New Wave Then There's Bowie" ad at the top of this post was on her dorm room door. She was interested in the punk and new wave we were listening to but would always bring things back to Bowie. It was this woman's influence (unfortunately I can't remember her name) that made me go out and buy Changesonebowie. My favorite song on that was "Diamond Dogs" so a few weeks later I bought Diamond Dogs and was blown away.
"Dressed like a priest you was/Todd Browning's freak you was" |
That Christmas my parents gave me Lodger and then I bought Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). At this point my personal Bowie train was completely derailed by the MTV-ready pop of 1983's Let's Dance. In retrospect, it seems like this was just another Bowie persona; following Ziggy Stardust and The Thin White Duke there was... "International Pop Star."
Blackstar |
Buttonface |
Bowie and Lexi |
Watching "Lazurus" I thought I recognized the suit Bowie is wearing:
Lazurus Video 2015 |
1976 |
It showed up again in an ad in the 70's and a CD reissue in the 90's.
70's Magazine Ad |
Station To Station reissue 1991 |
While I was researching this post I came across a bunch of other Bowie stuff I'd like to share with you:
Bowie's First Recording in 1964 and tonight's Power Pop Prototype |
An ad I remember from Circus Magazine |
Lou Reed and Bowie getting close, blocking a third person... |
...who happens to be Mick Jagger! |
I love this photo of Bowie and Iggy! |
Ziggy and The Spiders From Mars |
"Lost" 70's tribute of Motown versions of Bowie songs that ended up being a 2012 Internet hoax, but is still awesome! |
Coolest mug shot ever! |
Finally, who would've though the guy in the MIDDLE of the photo above would be the last man standing. Bowie and Lou, R.I.P. Long live Iggy!
Download link for the ALL KINDSA GIRLS tribute to David Bowie is below, click to stream or to download right click and "Save Link As"
ALL KINDSA GIRLS #144 BOWIE TRIBUTE
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