Monday, Jan. 11th 2010

Happy Birthday, David Bowie

By LB

I don’t talk about too many “older” musicians here, but today I’d like to pay small tribute to the illustrious Thin White Duke, Mr. David Bowie, on his 63rd birthday. Born David Jones—he took his stage name from the famed Alamo hero and knife namesake Jim Bowie–in London on January 8, 1947, the chameleonic artist is quite simply one of my favorite musicians of all time. ALL TIME, PEOPLE. Only Pixies rank higher. He could be my desert island pick, easy. I’ve always had an affection for his music (who hasn’t loved at least ONE of his songs somewhere along the way?), but it wasn’t until about five or six years ago that I really began to dive into his discography. I started with a compilation, because, well, that’s an easy way to familiarize oneself with “the hits”. Plus, it fed the karaoke demon that lives inside me. Needless to say, I needed more.

I went straight to his space-age, glam-rock masterpiece, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and subsequently had my mind blown—just as the Starman had predicted. I quickly gobbled up the post-apocalyptic trash rock of Diamond Dogs and the space-jazz/ honkey-tonk fusion of Aladdin Sane (A Lad Insane—heh, I love that), and it was as epiphanous as anything I’ve ever experienced. This was a bonafide genius: a prolific, gender-bending, bombastic mastermind that completely opened my eyes. The preposterous, cosmic Stardust world he created was somewhere I wanted to live: the heavy (Mick Ronson-led) guitars, the rollicking pianos, the operatic plot lines, the extravagant costumes.

Sorry if this is becoming cloying, but I just can’t hide it. Just like Bowie himself couldn’t hide it. He wanted to be a spectacle, he wanted to challenge every notion of a traditional performer. He also didn’t hide his influences, who were as big and varied as his own output: the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, John Coltrane, Little Richard, Kraftwerk and countless others. He morphed and changed with the times. From his psych-folk beginnings—particularly Space Oddity and the supreme Hunky Dory—to his late 70s collaborations with Lou Reed (Transformer), Brian Eno (Low, most notably), Iggy Pop (Raw Power and The Idiot), and Bing-freaking-Crosby. And then came the 80s. With his slick hair and white suits, he penned quite possibly his most popular record in Let’s Dance, and wrote, with Queen, one of the decade’s most popular singles in “Under Pressure”. The man can even act, playing King of the Goblins in Jim Henson’s fantastical Labyrinth (where he famously showed off his junk), Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, and Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. Oh, and he married a supermodel.

So I guess what I’m saying is I love David Bowie. Immensely. I admire the artistic futurism he gifted to the world, and I cherish the unforgettable music he made (anything pre-1990, anyway). And with all due respect to Elvis Presley, who was also born on this 8th day of January, in my eyes David Bowie is the King.

Go check out David Bowie’s official youtube channel.