https://youtube/watch?v=JFDj3shXvco Happy Birthday, David Bowie. It seems fitting that on a day when the world is reminding itself of the importance of free speech and artistic freedom of expression, Bowie, nee David Jones, is celebrating his 68th year In his unflinching determination to be artistically true to himself, his reinvention of image and sound, time after time confounded some until the eureka moment...that this was the true gift: each album and image unfolded like an origami figure. From this same template a zillion arrangements poured forth. Listening to his catalog, he touches on all genres and even invents a few along the way. His 1975 album, Young Americans yielded the track Fame, a collaboration with his friend John Lennon, who had a rather intimate acquaintance with the topic. It sounds like nothing else... and still sounds more modern and cool than anything that is on the radio. His flawless taste in sensing then setting the zeitgeist of any particular time was profound. At his most camp and drugged up, during the reign of Ziggy Stardust, he really doesnt seem ridiculous, as the costume, in retrospect, might call for, just interesting. And very thin. He is always my number one choice of dinner party guest, as in, If you could invite anyone to dinner... I have never met him, never even came close. Thats ok. (although the dinner invitation stands forever!) My favorite Bowie moment was in 1997, in London. He had just turned 50, which seemed impossible. He was to play the fabled Hammersmith Odeon, site of The Spiders from Mars farewell show and documentary, back in 73. The show was immediately sold out. Tickets were impossible to get .It was hopeless. Then... out of the blue, through a well connected friend in the Cure/Depeche Mode camp, an extra ticket had surfaced: Would I care to go? I had to break the news to Aaron, who was simply a gentleman about it. When, later that evening, David came out in his Alexander McQueen Union Jack coat and launched into Moonage Daydream, maybe my favorite song of all time, I admit to screaming insanely, grinning like a madman and swearing to never forget for a moment the power of music and art and how it can make you feel. And on this day, in the aftermath of yesterday, that is a good thing to be reminded of.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 04:57:09 +0000
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