Lord! Shocking. Unbelievable. Icon. Legend. Image. Androgyny. Chameleon. Mega-influence. Glam-rock. Punk-rock. Electronica. Trendsetter. Game-changer. Rebel. Genius. Rockstar. Ziggy Stardust. Starman. Aladdin Sane. Mick Ronson. Moonage Daydream. The Man Who Sold The World. The Man Who Fell To Earth…
Random words, yes. But how does one react to a Monday morning shock that David Robert Jones, a.k.a. David Bowie, is no more? Just two days after he celebrated his 69th birthday. And two days after he released his 25th studio album ‘Blackstar’.
It was a bolt from the blue. The world suddenly heard that he had been battling cancer for 18 months. Only a handful of close family members and friends may have known. Most fans were clueless. They could have started praying much earlier, and probably saved him.
They were helpless. On Facebook, Twitter, the Internet, radio and television, the news spread like wildfire. An entire generation — teenagers in the 1970s — had grown up on him. Idolised him. Raved about him. Secretly admired him.Secretly? Was that the right word? Well, nobody spoke of Bowie in the same breath as Sinatra or Elvis, Lennon or McCartney, Dylan or Morrison. Or from the later generation, Michael Jackson or Madonna. But then, that’s the true charm of David Bowie.
Innovator. Missed that word in the opening paragraph, but it sort of sums up all the other words used. At one point, he dreamt of being another Mick Jagger. Adept at vocals, guitar, saxophone and keyboard, he was still struggling around the London scene when he met dancer Lindsay Kemp in 1967. He was just 20.
That interaction was a turning point, as Bowie began to understand the meaning of image. They had an affair too, as is confirmed in Peter and Leni Gillman’s biography Alias: David Bowie . To quote the book: “That encounter was the start of a relationship that was to have a decisive effect on David’s career. Kemp became both David’s tutor and lover, helping him to shed his inhibition and discover new possibilities of theatricality and display.”
Though Bowie and Kemp eventually parted ways, he picked up a lot from those days. From his tutor, he learnt avant garde theatre, mime and live comedy, things that were useful for him forever. With that base of music and theatre, he moved on.
For Bowie, 1969 was an important year. On the personal front, he met Angela Barnett, who he married the following year. (They divorced in 1980, and he later married Somali-American model, Iman, in 1992.) Musically, his second record, originally self-titled but later named ‘Space Oddity’, began to make waves in the late 1960s. Though the lyrics were largely connected with the drug culture prevalent at the time, the album’s psychedelic folk-rock sound was just a predecessor to things to come.
A succession of great albums followed. The Man Who Sold The World in 1970, Hunky Dory in 1971, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars in 1972, Aladdin Sane in 1973 and Diamond Dogs in 1974, Heroes and Low in 1977. Till 1973, guitarist Mick Ronson accompanied him, but somehow remained underrated among the masses. Moonage Daydream was their anthem together.
Each album had a different subject. The Man Who Sold The World talked of schizophrenia and paranoia, besides introducing Bowie’s androgynous image through its theme and LP artwork. In Hunky Dory , he paid tribute to artist Andy Warhol, singer Bob Dylan and band Velvet Underground . Ziggy Stardust led to a new image, comprising a striking costume and hair dyed red. Aladdin Sane was based on his tours around the US, and Diamond Dogs was inspired by George Orwell’s 1984 and the writing of William Burroughs, with a dash of soul and funk thrown in. The first half of the 1970s is perhaps Bowie’s most talked-about phase. Ziggy Stardust became an iconic character, the name being a composite of musician Iggy Pop and American performer Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Later, his love for theatre and image helped him get more immersed in acting, with films like The Man Who Fell To Earth , Just A Gigolo and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence .
Musically, Bowie has been acknowledged as one of the pioneers of glam-rock, along with Marc Bolan a.k.a. T Rex. The musicians often wore outlandish costumes and make-up — a trend which Bolan and Bowie started, and was followed by Gary Glitter, New York Dolls, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper and KISS. Bowie moved on, dabbling in later genres like punk-rock, funk, new wave, 80s pop, electronica, dance and neo-classical music. He had some great collaborations too, the most notable being the song Under Pressure with Queen, and commercial hits like Let’s Dance . Through his contribution, Bowie has been respected both within the music community and among general audiences. When Madonna first saw him in concert in 1973, she declared: “He blew my mind”. Much later, Noel Gallagher of the band Oasis said: “He’s written some of the greatest songs of rock ‘n’ roll.”
Truly, an era is over. What’s sad is that Bowie’s death was totally unexpected. He had turned 69 and released his latest album just two days ago. But then, that was what he was. Nobody really knew what he was up to, till he actually came up with something. Surprise package. Maverick. Trendsetter. Game-changer. Innovator… The words continue to flow.
(The author is a freelance writer)
