DAVID BOWIE IS THE SUBJECT OF TH THIS IS BOOK
DAVID BOWIE IS THE THE SUBJECT �
Firs publihed by V&A Publihing, ���� Vicoria and Albert Mueum South Kenington London � � www.vandapublihing.om Disributed in North Ameria by Harry N. Abram In ., New York © The Board of Trusee of the Vicoria and Albert Mueum, ���� The moral right of the author() ha been aerted. Hardbak edition ��� � ����� ��� � Paperbak edition ��� � ����� ��� � Library of Congre Control Number ���������� �� � � � � � � � � � ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� A atalogue reord for for thi book iavailable from the Britih Library. All right reerved. Nopart of thi publiation may may be reprodued, sored in a retrieval ysem, or tranmitted in any form or by any mean elecroni, mehanial, photoopying, reording or otherwie, without written permiion of the publiher. Every effort ha been made to eek permiion to reprodue thoe image whoe opyright doe not reide with the V&A, and we are grateful to the individual and insitution who have aised in thi tak. Any omiion are entirely unintentional, and the detail hould be addreed to V&A Publihing. Graphially your: Jonathan Abbott & Jonathan Bar nbrook [] Copy-editor: Alexandra Stetter Index: Hilary Bird New photography by Rihard Davi and Eileen Travell V&A Photography byV&A Photographi Studio Colour reproducion, DL Imang Ltd., London Printed in Italy by Graphiom .r.l. Speial thank to JPMorgan Chae & Co. | Tehnolo for Soial Good for the ue of amera equipment : Promotional photograph of David Bowie for Diamond Do , ���� (printed ����) • Terry O’Neill • V&A: E.���–����
DAVID BOWIE IS CONTENT
DAVID BOWIE IS WHAT FOLLOWS
CURATORS’ PREFACE
Foreword [��]
� [��]
THEATRE OF GENDER
OH! YOU PRETTY THINGS
David Bowie at the Climax o the Sexual Revolution [��]
[��]
BOWIE | MUSIC
FOR ‘WE ARE THE GOON SQUAD’
Luky old un i in my ky … [���]
DAVID BOWIE THEN … DAVID BOWIE NOW …
, � [���]
ASTRONAUT OF INNER SPACES
Sundride Park, Soho, London … Mar [��] PUTTING OUT FIRE WITH GASOLINE
Deinin David Bowie [���]
CHANGES
Bowie, tyle and the power o the LP over, ����–���� [���]
Bowie’ lie tory [���]
DAVID BOWIE IS PHOTOGRAPHIC
DAVID BOWIE IS MAPPING NEW TERRITORIES
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[���]
DAVID BOWIE IS REFERENCED
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Note [���]
PICTURE CREDITS
[���] [���]
[���]
DAVID BOWIE IS INDEXED
Index [���]
DAVID BOWIE IS AN ABSOLUTE BEGINNER → [�] • David Bowie, ���� •
Photograph by Doug MKenzie
DAVID BOWIE IS A JOY FOREVER → [�] • David Bowie from the
Hunky Dory album eion, ���� • Photograph by Brian Ward
DAVID BOWIE IS MOVING LIKE A TIGER ON VASELINE →[�] • David Bowie a Zig Stardus, ���� •
Photograph by Maayohi Sukita
I OPENED DOORS THAT WOULD HAVE BLOCKED THEIR WAY
I BRAVED THEIR CAUSE TO GUIDE, FOR LITTLE PAY
DAVID BOWIE IS WHAT FOLLOWS
David Bowie ha le an indelible samp on the look, the syle, the ound and the attitude of hi time. It i an extraordinary ahievement and I am delighted that the V&A i sang the exhibition, David Bowie I . One of the key role of the mueum i to elebrate great deign. Bowie i not only one of the great muiian and performer of the las half entury, but i alo among the great deign viionarie. An insigator not jus of memorable individual piee – an album leeve, a osume, a hairsyle – but of a partiular zeitgeis that i uniquely hi and yet reonate with enormou number of people around the globe. I felt thi impac peronally, a teenager growing up in Germany, proud that David Bowie had ome to live in my ountry, in Berlin, where he pent two of hi mos producive year, and where he reated “Heroe”, the entrepiee of a triptyh of groundbreakingalbum.Thibookattempttohart thewiderignifiane ofBowie’ impac on our ultural life. Frusratingly, of oure, no book an fully apture what for many people remain the eene of David Bowie – hi mui. Fortunately the exhibition i able to fill that gap – delighting not jus the eye, but alo the ear. Exhibition uh a David Bowie I ould not be saged without the involvement of ponor, and it ve me partiular pleaure to thank Sennheier GmbH and Gui for their upport. It wa lear from the benning that mui wa going to be fundamental to the exhibition, b ut the ue of ound in mueum i relatively new, and we have muh to learn about how to ue it to it bes effec. Sennheier know more than mos that the enormou rie in the ound quality of onumer good ha inreaed the publi’ expecation. Their aim ha been to help the V&A to preent the mui with the ame disincion a the phyial artefac, and rereate the oundexperieneofareal performane.Theirfinanialandtehnial upport ha been muh appreiated. David Bowie i a syle ion, and one of the mos insantly reognizable men on the planet. One of hi greates impac on our ultural life ha been a a proponent of individualim – that we hould be what we want to be, look how we want to look, and lead, not follow, without depending alway on the view of other. A Brian Eno, Bowie’ ollaborator, one reponded to an over-enthuiasi riti exhorting him to ‘do the ame thing again’, ‘If I’d followed your advie in the firs plae, I’d never have got anywhere.’ For over �� year the Houe of Gui ha proteced and nurtured it founding tradition and value, while evolving into a ontemporary global buine. They have travelled a disincive path in an indusry that ha undergone extraordinary upheaval. Gui undersand, better than mos, that Chane, rebel, ‘Fame’, ‘Time’, pretty thing, “Heroe”, the ‘Speed of Life’, ‘Faination’ and ‘Who an I be now?’ are all part and parel of Fahion. A well athanking ourponor I mus alo offer my profound gratitude to The David Bowie Arhive. Without their extraordinary generoity none of thi would have been poible.
Direcor , Vicoria and Albert Mueum
CURATORS’ PREFACE
TravellingreentlythroughLondon,wesoppedat thejuncionofGroveEndRoadand Abbey Road.Althoughitwaearlyevening,therewere sillaboutthirty people,moslytouris,milling around taking photo of eah other on that zebra roing. Mos of them would not have been born on � Augus ���� when, a David Bowie’ firs hit ‘Spae Oddity’ rept toward the hart, Iain Mamillan took hi ioni photograph of the Beatle. In a ingle image he anhored not only the group and their sudio, but alo reated a landmark and a metaphor for the ultural journey that the Beatle opened up for people around the world. For Bowie there i no ingle equivalent loation. The plaque unveiled in ���� on Heddon Street ommemorating the birth of Zig Stardus only applie to part of hi areer, and it ame forty year aer the event. Beide, entral London ha hanged a lot over the las halfentury. The apital’ booming satu a a world ity reflec and prolaim the profound hange that have ourred ine Bowie’ Soho day. David Bowie i one of the mos important artis of the las fiy year. He i ited a an inpiration by numerou ontemporary artis and deigner and reognized a one of the mos innovative of performer. He ha been at the forefront of a revolution in freedom of individual expreion and old more than ��� million album. It i sraightforward to make the ae for him a the mos ignifiant muiian of hi generation, but the impac of hi mui, viual syle and publi preene ha pread further. Hi influene in the wide arena of performane, fahion, art, deign and id entity politi ontinue to hape ontemporary ulture in the broades ene. A vigorou forward-looking pirit wa fosered in the deade pos���� byartis, uh a Bowie, who hannelled the avant-garde into the populis mainsream without ompromiing it ubverive, liber ating power. Bowie form a link that onnec Andy Warhol, Bertolt Breht, William Blake, Charlie Chaplin, Antonin Artaud, Salvador Dalí, Marlene Dietrih, Philip Gla, Nietzhe, Hollywood glamour, graphi deign, platform hoe, film, mui, KurtWeill,Berlin,NewYork,London,AlexanderMQueen,the ����LondonOlympi,Jim Henon, the moon landing, Kanai Yamamoto, Kate Mo and Marhall MLuhan. Hundred of thouand of word in many language have been written about Bowie, from the arefully onidered to the intuitive repone, and even bitter fesering rage. There are already everal biographie publihed, and book ontinue to be produed that analye hi areer in ever-greater foreni detail. No previou book, however, ha illuminated and drawn in full on The David Bowie Arhive. That exeptional ollecion, asutely amaed over many year and panning the entirety of Bowie’ areer, ha et the oure for thi book and the Vicoria and Albert Mueum exhibition. Both eek to link Bowie’ art and mui, through artefac from osume to film, into the wider ultural narrative repreented by the Mueum’ own ollecion. Bowie’ mui atalogue together with hi arhive ve u wonderful material for a gallery exhibition, but only partly explain hi ioni role and growing satu. The remaining part of the picure lie in the hange in the world ar ound u and with u, hi audiene.
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When I firs diovered David Bowie, a a young rl in Rome, I wa elecrified by hi voie and enigmati sage perona. From Zig Stardus to the Thin White Duke, hi fearlely inventive pirit ha sayed with me, and sill prove a onsant oure of inpiration in my own work at Gui. Thi i why I am o proud that Gui i ponoring David Bowie I . The exhibition i ignifiant for many reaon, firs among whih i the hane for an unpreedented look into the peronal arhive of one of the mos influential performer of the pas entury, and eondly, for the preervation of ioni ultural artefac, a aue to whih Gui i srongly ommitted. Bowie need no introducion or explanation: hi reativity and idioynrati authentiity have helped hape everything from ontemporary art, mui and fahion to popular ulture and oial onvention. Hi ontribution to the modern world will be felt for deade to ome. I hope that thi book park your imanation and simulate you to ontinue hi legay by hallenng yourelf to reate omething that i truly your own.
A you an imane, mui i at the very heart of the David Bowie I exhibition, whih idediated toone ofthe greatesmui andsyle ionof our time. And a mui and ound are the heartbeat of Sennheier, we are naturally delighted to be providing the audio equipment for thi genuinely unforgettable experiene. The Vicoria and Albert Mueum ha very muh deigned thi exhibition a an audio experiene. Therefore, you will have the Sennheier audio guide and ound ysem that hould hopefully fully immere you in the many ound of David Bowie. They will alo enable you to diover all of the faet of an artis who ha ontinually reinvented both himelf and hi mui. Our ound enneer have ued their oniderable expertie to ais in the audio deign of the exhibition a they are well aware that perfec mui reproducion i needed to truly reah the audiene. We inerely hope that you will en joy the exhibition a muh a we have enjoyed working with the Vicoria and Albert Mueum on helping put together thi extraordinary event.
Creative Direcor, Gui
Preident , Global Sale, Sennheier
←[�] • David Bowie aged �� month, ���� • ↑[�] • David Bowie aged �, ���� •
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↑[�] • David Bowie aged ��, ���� • Photograph by Robin Bean • →[�] • Life mak in rein, ���� •
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THE LAST OF ENGLAND LEAVING THE HOMELAND
ASTRONAUT OF INNER SPACES: SUNDRIDGE PARK, SOHO, LONDON … MARS
THE LONDON OF SUBURBIA
Acually, theuburb are armore iniser plae than mosity dweller imane. Their very blandne ore the imanation into new area. I mean, one’ ot to et up in the mornin thinkin o a deviant ac, merely to make ertain o one’ reedom. It needn’t be muh; kikin the do will do.
Livin in lie by the railway line Puhin the hair rom my eye Elvi i Enlih and limb the hill Can’t tell the bullhit rom the lie Sreamin alon in outh London Viiou but ready to learn Sometime I ear that the whole world i queer Sometime but alway in vain
You ee thee uburb prin up. They repreent the optimum o what people want. There’ a ertain ort o lo leadin toward thee immaulate uburb. And they’re terriin, beaue they are the death o the oul. Thi i the prion thi planet i bein turned into.
, ‘Buddha of Suburbia’, �����
On �� Marh ����, David Jone ‘Bowie’, then aged �� (pl.�), . . � le London, roed the Channel by ferry and, although he did not know it at the time, ab andoned England a hi home. Sine Suburbia, a disincive form of Englih houing development, then, hi say in Britain have been fragmented and Bowie ha ha beome a world phenomenon. Between ���� and ����, beome a globalized itizen – urrently reident in Manhattan. nearly four million new houe were built in the UK. � Around Thi hapter explore how Bowie began hi global journey by every town, a tide of red roof wept aro the field and, waltravelling through the ulture, texture and sreet of pos- lowing up village, eventually et into a rid framework of World War II London. Thi pyhogeography wa fundamental low-rie Modernis oial ambition ubverted by peulative to the evolution of hi areer. free enterprie (pl.��). Ov er ���,��� of thee houe, home Before ����, Bowie had pent only a few week abroad. � for over two million people eaping inner-ity grime, were on Prior to Youn Amerian in ����, hi areer had been founded on the edge of London, doubling the apital’ area and reating a powerful peronal reacion agains England and peifially a tight oret of uburbia. � Among thee drowned ettlement the value of uburban London – a ity that during hi life- wa Sundridge Park –a lumpof Vicorian villa planted around time ha tranformed itelf from the bombed-out, oon-to-be an eighteenth-entury ountry-houe esate, nine mile from ex-imperial apital of ���� to it urrent satu a one of the the entre of London.� Somewhat apart, next to the branh-line three great world finanial entre (pl �� and ��). � Bowie’ railway sation, sand a hort terrae of ‘two-up, two-down’ areer ha paralleled that tranformation in term of globaliza- Vicorian railway worker’ houe. Here at � Plaisow Grove, tion, satu and reognition. Neither ue wa inevitable. baking on to a pub, David Jone grew up from ���� to ����. Both, in the fae of intene ompetition, have ued unfettered Thi sreet wa urrounded by avenue of larger inter-war emiambition, deep experiene, hrewd marketing and ome luk to detahed houe – with proper garden, garage and indoor eure their urrent poition. The Batman-loving Unle Arthur, bathroom.� Apart from being the phyial manifesation of the Major Tom, Zig Stardus, Aladdin Sane and the other were expanding middle lae, thi new uburban Britain impoed a oneived with a Britih enibility, but during a period when rid ode of oial, moral and dre onformity. � Thi urvived Amerian influene on Britain remained profound. WorldWar IIand, arguably, reahed it apogeein thelate ����, when, thank to a booming eonomy, the onumer ulture of Ameria finally began to infiltrate the houehold of repecableAaiaAvenue.�� Over a quarter of the ���,��� boy born in ����, the peak of the pos-World War II baby boom, grew up in thee identikit uburbia, and many in the ���� and ’�� ame to rail agains their pereived blandne. Thee were the ‘preiou’ babie that would inherit the brave new world for whih their parent’ generation had uffered, but they were oen to how little gratitude. However, few rejeced it a vehemently a Bowie, and only a handf ul broke through to beome performane sar.�� What happened there? What did he ee there? What did he think to generate uh a powerful reacion? How did home, family mytholo, eduation and Bowie’ eventual eape hape hi ar eer? Bowie’ home life did not math the ideal of the onventional, ontented ‘two-hild uburban
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nulearfamilygatheredtogetheraroundtheteleviion’beloved Meanwhile the young David’ interes in entertainment of ���� advertier. Hi parent had four hildren between inreaed. In ����, hi father wa appointed head of publi them but aer ����, Bowie never lived with hi older half-ib- relation at Barnardo’ and began to ue leading entertainer ling, exept for hort period. Mosly, he wa effecively an only of the day to promote the harity’ work. �� A a reult, Bowie hild, and he ha ommented on the sree underlying thi met howbiz sar, uh a Tommy Steele in ����. Hi interes ituation:�� ‘I think there’ an awful lot of emotional, piritual in mui alo grew – hi ouin Krisina reall that Bowie had a mutilation goe on in my family.’�� Although he had friend, he tin guitar at an early age and, unuually, a ��rpm reord player.�� grew up relying on hi own ompany in hi bakroom bedroom. At Chrisma ����,John Jonemade a ignifiantinvesment by ‘He didn’t acually go out very muh, but preferred to say buying hi on a Britih white aryli Graon axophone, and at home,’ hi hildhood friend George Underwood remember. hortly aerward an Amerian bra Conn ax.�� ‘I wanted ‘I’d oen invite him to a party and he would ay, “No, I’m going to be a white Little Rihard at eight or at leas hi ax player,’ to say in, I’ve got ome work to do.” No doubt that’ why he Bowie remember (pl.�).�� ‘I wanted to be a muiian beaue beame o ueful.’ �� it eemed rebelliou, it eemed ubverive.’�� Alone in hi bedr oom, Bowie ould let hi imana tion Bowie did not, a i oen erroneouly sated, go to art run free, oaking up idea and image from book, magazine ollege, a Pete Townhend, Brian Eno and many other key and reord: ‘I felt oen, ever ine I wa a teenager, o adri muiian did in the early ����, but hi eondary hool and o not part of everyone ele … o many dark eret about had a srong art fou. Aer paing hi ��-plu exam in ����, my family in the upboard … they made me feel on the outide Bowie hoe the brand-new Bromley Tehnial High Shool for of everything.’�� Boy in preferene to Bromley Grammar Shool. �� In hi third He realled later: year hi form maser and art teaher wa Owen Frampton, who developed a progreive, reative yllabu. �� Bowie’ firs band, I wanted to be a fantasi artis, ee the olour, hear the Kon-rad (inluding hi hool friend George Underwood), the mui, and they jus wanted me turned down. I had made their firs publi performane at a PTA fête on �� June ����. to grow up feeling demoralized and thinking, ‘They are Earlier that year, Bowie had been hit in the fae by Underwood – not going to beat me’. I had to retreat into my room; a blow that required a ouple of month’ onvaleene and o you get in the room and you arry that ruddy room reulted in hi disincive non-mathing eye. Thu at ��, Bowie �� around with you for the res of your life. had an unuual, and unexpeced, opportunity to pracie hi new axophone – but alo to pend time analying hi per onal Mos familie have their own mytholo, a mix of fac and irumsane, thought and ambition. sorytelling that letimize their preent reality. Throughout A Bowie beame old enough tobenpreadinghi reative Bowie’ hildhood hi father, Haywood Stenton ‘John’ Jone, wing, hi half-brother Terry, older by a deade, returned from had seady employment with Dr Barnardo’ Children Home. �� National Servie in the RAF in ����. Although Terry did not live However, thi quiet and hardworking man had an exoti pas. with David, they pent time together, with Terry introduing In ����, a a ��-year-old jazz enthuiat new to London, he him to Beat writing uh a Jak Keroua’ reently publihed had inherited the ubsantial um of £�,���. �� He deided On the Road (����), jazz and sorie, at leas, of viit to the liit to beome an entertainment impreario by invesing all thi and illiit pleaure of Soho lubland. �� money in promoting the areer of hi newly met and newly wed wife, Hilda Sullivan – a inger known a‘Chérie – The Viennee Nightingale’, who had jus fled from the growing politial turmoil in Ausria. �� Thereultwaa finanialandemotionaldiaser.JohnJone los hi whole inheritane in a matter of month on a variety of venture. The las wa the B oop-A-Doop, a piano bar loated in the Swi Club ( Shweizerbund) at �� Charlotte Street in bohemian north Soho. �� A Bowie grew up, the family memory of a European-syle nightlub in pre-war Soho and a quandered inheritane mus have offered powerful ymbol of the exiting and entiing – but alo dangerou – opportunitie that lay beyond the onfine of a mall terraed houe on the edge of London.
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• Little Rihard, ���� • Thi publiity photograph ha been in David Bowie’ poeion ine the ���� • ↖ [�]
↑ [�] • David Bowie at a
pre onferene at the Amsel Hotel, Amserdam, February ���� • Photograph by Gijbert Hanekroot • Getty Image • Cylis on a bombed sreet in London, Ocober ���� • Orinally publihed in Picure Pos (no.����) in ‘London’ Bombed Home: A Defeat On The Home Front’ • Photograph by Haywood Magee / Getty Image ← [��]
• Suburban prawl in outh London following the war • Getty Image ← [��]
← [��] • The �i’
Coffee Bar, Old Compton Street, London, ���� • S&G Barratt / EMPICS Arhive ← [��] • David Bowie
performing with the Buzz at the Marquee Club, London, April ���� • Mihael Oh Arhive / Getty Image
REMAKING SOHO AND THE MODERNIST VISION
Briht liht, Soho, Wardour Street You hope you make riend with the uy that you meet
, ‘The London Boy’, ���� Down on my knee in uburbia Down on myel in every way With reat expecation I hane all my lothe Musn’t rumble at ilver and old Sreamin above entral London Never born, o I’ll never et old
, ‘Buddha of Suburbia’, ������ ����: Dr Who arrive, John Profumo leave, Martin Luther King dream and the UK i barred from the EU. In the ummer of that year, a revolution wa underway in the UK’ popular mui. Between January ���� and April ����, Cliff Rihard and/or the Shadow were at number one for a total of �� week. But a Bowielehool inJuly,theLiverpool/Epsein/GeorgeMartin dynami began to take over, with ‘I Like It’ by Gerry and the Paemaker at the top of the hart, �� and the group in the sudio to reord their third number one hit, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. At the ame time, the Beatle were reording ‘She Love You’, oon to be their eond number one, and the Rolling Stone were jus benning to tour. At ��, Bowie might have diappeared into a erie of deadend job and hort-lived outh London band. Fortunately, hi art teaher had found him work a a pase-up artis at Nevin D. Hirs, an advertiing ageny in New Bond Street in London’ Mayfair – and Bowie beame a ommuter, travelling by train to Charing Cro sation. Although ommentator are oen diparang about thi job, it provided Bowie with a regular eape route, out of uburbia and into a reative milieu that wa being tranformed a London sarted to ‘wing’.�� Twelve month in advertiing alo introdued him to urr ent theorie on maximizing the effecivene of ma marketing. In the aermath of the brainwahing hyseria of the Korean War, major reearh wa undertaken into method for manipulating publi opinion. �� Bowie would have had the opportunity to pik up a wealth of idea about how to influene audiene, in partiular; a the ad man in Hithok’ North by Northwes (����)explain,‘intheworldof advertiingthere’nouh thing a a lie. There i only expedient exaggeration.’ Combined with hi father’ experiene in PR, Bowie developed a preoiou marketing talent. �� And beyond the ageny’ wall the job gave him the opportunity to explore more of the Wes End, from Dobell’ Reord�� and the eond-hand bookhop of C haring CroRoadtotheurvivingrag-tradebuineearoundBerwik and Carnaby Street.��
However, the Soho that Bowie began to frequent eemed to be under a death entene. Nearly half of entral Soho and Piadilly Ciru were lated for demolition a modernis arhitec, in an unholy alliane with property developer and politiian of both the le and the right, promied to reate a Brave New London.�� Harry Hyam’ towering and un-let Centre Point (pl.��), ompleted in ����, wa to be only the firs of over a dozen imilar offie blok intended to tranform the area. �� Speulator bought up many of the Wes End’ nineteenth-entury theatre for demolition a they offered the large footprint neeary for building kyraper. In ����, mot people would have probably agreed that uh redevelopment were a good thing – the phyial tranformation of entral London to math the newly minted welfare sate.�� Modernim offered a progreive viion of orderly and paiou sreet with lean and effiient flat, ompared to the mell, dirt and immigrant of inner-ity lum. �� Jus to the north, the ilhouette of the new Pos Offie Tower (pl.��), built between ���� and ����, reated a powerful and ompelling ion of the ‘white heat of tehnolo’ promoted by the new Labour government.�� Harold Wilon offered a viion of a new-look tehnorati Britain, a United Kingdom for forward-looking people who wanted to forget about the fading empire. Depite the tightening nooe of demolition, traditional bohemian Soho hung on, jus, and four new venue launhed new ultural trajecorie. On �� April ����, the �i’ Coffee Bar wa opened at �� Old Compton Street (pl.��). It beame an insant Mea for muiian and the birthplae of Britih rok’n’roll, attracing performer uh a Tommy Steele, Cliff Rihard and the Mos Brother. �� Two year later, in ����, the London Hippodrome on Charing Cro Road, the flaghip of the Mo Empire’ mui-hall hain, wa gutted and onverted into the Talk of the Town, with the aim of providing a La Vegasyle how and abaret venue.�� That ame year, Paul Raymond opened hi Revuebar, the firs Britih srip lub – a development that heralded the rapid growth of ex-related buine e in Soho. �� Alo in ����, the Marquee Club wa founded at ��� Oxford Street. A few year later, the lub moved to �� Wardour Street. On opening night, Friday �� Marh ����, Sonny Boy Williamon, the Yardbird and Rod Stewart were on the bi ll. Eight month later Bowie would be playing there, and hosing hi Sunday afternoon eion, the Bowie Showboat (pl.��), two year later.�� The move of the Marquee Club refleced the exploivegrowthofbuineebaedaroundpop mui.In���� Beatlemania went global, and the huge ue of the ‘Britih Invaion’ of Ameria eured London’ poition a one of the key mui itie of the world. On the bak of thi breakthrough, fahion, advertiing and photography tranformed the apital into‘SwinngLondon’–auethatoinidedwitha deiive hi toward a youth ulture of rebellion agains authority, →[��] • David Bowie on a rooop in front of the newly built
Centre Point, September ���� • Photograph by Mark Hayward
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exitement,exualliberationand permiivelelation.�� Thi hanngoiallimatewaymbolizedbythe BBC’reationof Radio �, launhed on �� September ����, and the Government’ reducion of the voting age from �� to �� in ����. Although aount of the period tend to fou on the fahion of the King’ Road and Car naby Street, Soho and the urrounding Theatreland retained their role a the vibrant hub of the entertainment world. It wa like a village with network of peronal onnecion, and for a few year Soho beame Bowie’ eond home. It offered a world of opportunity for anyone with the drive to husle hard. In a few minute Bowie ould walk wa sill een a a hort-lived areer trajecory, with the luky from the Gioonda Café to the Marquee Club, paing by Saint or ambitiou few utting through into mainsream entertainMartin Shool of Art, the Asoria dane hall, Le Couin folk ment in the form of TV light entertainment how, Wes End lub and Ronnie Sott’. Cloe by were other mui venue, like pantomime or film work. �� the �i’, Flamingo Club, Le Diothèque, ��� Club, Tile and But outide the mall group of loely linked entertainment theSene.Manyofthe newmuivenue,uhaBrian Epsein’ dynasie, the firs wave of pop-group manager, uh a Andrew Saville Theatre (����), the UFO Club (����) and the Elecri Loog Oldham and Brian Epsein, were sruggling to rak open Garden/Middle Earth (����), opened on the border of Soho thi loeted world and reate new buine model. �� and Covent Garden. Battling hi way into thi tight-knit buine, Bowie’ driving Bowie plunged into the mod mui ene, whih haped ambition took him a long way. �� In ����, Ken Pitt, an experihim ‘by insilling an idea of experimentalim, of a true mod- ened howbiz operator, beame hi manager (a poition he held ernim’.�� By May ����, he had hi firs reord deal with Dea. until ����), and provided a areful guiding hand. Bowie tried Hi firs ingle, ‘Liza Jane’ (ee pl.��), �� wa releaed on � June a wide range of approahe: writing ong for himelf, writing ����, the following day he appeared on BBC�’ primetime Juke ong for other, or trying to break into film and hildren’ Box Jury�� and a few week later he gave up hi advertiing job to televiion. In an interview with Radio London at the Marquee onentrate on a mui areer full time. At the age of only ��, in ����, he poke about developing a muial with Tony Hath, major ue eemed jus around the orner. adding that he’d ‘like to get into abaret, obviouly’. �� And yet, a it happened, that leap proved eluive. For the By late ����, Pitt had eured Bowie a ontrat with next five year Bowie graed hi way around the hiing London Dea’ presiou and progreive new Deram label. �� The mui ene. The Gioonda Café at � Denmark Street, in variety of Bowie’ work wa een a uitable for thi new audio London’ ‘Tin Pan Alley’, beame hi unoffiial hang-out, with approah, and thi i refleced in the final hoie of trak on hour paed over up of tea. �� It wa only five year later, in hi firs LP, David Bowie, releaed on � June ����, the ame day a St. Pepper’ Lonely Heart Club Band on Parlophone (EMI). Both ����, that he ahieved hi breakthrough ue with ‘Spae Oddity’. By then London, youth ulture and Britih oiety had over (pl �� and ��) feature military jaket, but eah reord’ hied radially. impac wa very different.�� Although it reeived ome poitive Bowie might have had a preoiou introducion to Soho’ review, Bowie’ album wa not a ommerial ue, and he muiland, but London’ entertainment indusry in the early wa dropped by Deram. Then, almos immediately aerward, ���� wa an altogether more impenetrable obsale for the Bowie’ London year were to take a harp turn toward a new ‘let’ get a band together and ut a reord’ ambition of a typi- aesheti. al uburban teenager. The London Palladium, phyially and Ironially, if Bowie had beome a ommerially ueful ommerially, sill dominated popular entertainment: ‘Sunday inger-ongwriter at thi point, he might sill have had a lengthy Night at the London Palladium’ wa the anhor variety how of muial areer, but muh le overall ultural impac. Looking Independent Televiion (ITV), from the launh of ommerial bak, Bowie noted: ‘In a way, if anything had happened for me televiion in Britain in ���� until ����.�� The Beatle appeared in the mid-��, I might well have been ut off f rom an awful lot on �� Ocober ���� to an esimated audiene of �� million. The ofinfluene.’ BBC sruggled to math the new ommerial network’ fou on the ma market, but reponded with ‘The Blak and White Minsrel Show ’, whih ran from ���� to ����.�� ↑[��] • David Bowie, ���� • Deram The mui buine wa a mall world of interonneced ↑[��] • St. Pepper’ Lonely Heart Club Band, ���� • The Beatle • Parlophone manager,invesor,publiher,promoterand publiisworking around the four main reording ompanie – Parlophone →[��] • The Pos Offie Tower, Maple Street, London, ���� • Fox Photo / Getty Image (EMI), Dea, Phillip and Pye (ATV from ����). Pop mui
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NEW DESTINATIONS: TRIPPING INTO INNER SPACE
I there wa union, it wa in reflecin the hizophreni world o Vietnam, Oxam, Twig, the invaion o Czeholovakia, the Beatle, LBJ, Che, the Spae Rae, and trendy fiure like Gaarin, MLuhan, Bukminser Fuller, plu Jame Bondery, aid, GNP, Swinin London, TW �, and the theori e o Durkheim, Marue, and Lain, with, i you like, Timothy Leary, Wilon-and-Brown, and Marx.
�� The ‘fas-forward’ London in whih Bowie sarted hi areer in ���� lased only a few hort year. At �.�� a.m. on �� May ����, Ivy Hodge, a ��-year-old ake deorator, sruk a math to light her ga oven in Flat �� on the eighteenth floor of Ronan Point (pl.��), a high-rie blok in eas London, ompleted earlier that year.The exploion andpartial ollape ofthe tower ymbolized, in the UK at leas, the end of the Modernis dream of ‘village in the ky’. �� While ounil,partiularly on the le, ontinued omprehenive houing learane heme for a few more year, the growing oial problem aoiated with new esate eventually brought the proe to a halt, and it wa finally finihed off by the Thatherite attak on the entire priniple of ounil houing. �� Thi wa part of a broader reacion agains the tenet of modernis oial planning, and the growing hi toward an appreiation of the pas – alongide resoration and renewal insead of demolition. On a peronal level, thi development paralleled a wing toward a fou on the elf and the individual, rather than grandioe and theoretial sratee for the ma – a hi that wa to beome fundamental to Bowie’ interes.
↑[��] • Cartoon referening the ollape of the Ronan Point
tower, �� November ���� • Ralph Steadman • Publihed in Private Eye magazine
New direcion for artisi exploration were benning to be defined, notably by J. G. Ballard, writing in Shepperton, far out in London’ wesern uburbia. Bored by traditional iene ficion and influened by the Surrealis, he wanted to explore the ambiguity of private fantay that might be obure, meaningle or nightmarih:
Bowie wa alo to be srongly influened by Andy Warhol and hi reation of the Facory in New York in the ����. In Augus ����, Warhol made Outer and Inner Spae , poibly the firs example of video art.�� Compriing two film projeced alongide eah other, to evoke the inner and outer elve of hi sar, Edie Sedgwik, the piee i a forerunner of Chelea Girl (����, pl.��). In May ����, Lie magazine had publihed ‘Long Thi zone I think of a ‘inner pae’, the internal land Voyage in Inner Spae’, an artile about Whilden P. Breen, Jr., ape of tomorrow that i a tranmuted image of the who wain themiddle of five month’ onfinementin awindowpas, and one of the mos fruitful area for the imanale, oundproof iolation hamber, a NASA experiment to tive writer. It i partiularly rih in viual ymbol, and diover the pyholoal effec of prolonged iolation. On I feel that thi type of peulative fantay play a role �� May ����, Preident Kennedy had announed the miion to very imilar tothat of Surrealimin thegraphiart. The land a man on the moon by the end of the deade. painter de Chirio, Dalí and Max Erns, among other, The artisi invesigation of imanation were intertwined are in a ene the ionographer of inner pae, all … with an inrea ing int eret in ‘elf diover y’ and mytial onerned with the diovery of image in whih the religion, partiularly from the Eat. Thee were paralleled internal and external reality meet and fue. �� by an upurge in interes in ‘mysi Albion’, aoiated with Stonehenge, ley line and the myth of Glasonbury.�� The pas, In sorie written between ���� and ����, whih eventually the disant, the futurisi and the mysi beame a vas wareformed The Atroity Exhibition (����), Ballard explored idea of houeof‘oldsok’,readytobe pillagedtoreatenewidentitie, fragmentation – in haracer, narrative, language and meaning – whether through buying antique, wearing osume or ethni imilar to thoe promoted by the writer William S. Burrough lothe – or sopping inner-ity redevelopment. �� Pyhedeli andother.�� Burrough’impacatthitimewa oniderable,a exploration of the elf were linked to the rie of drug ue to importantmoverintheounter-ulturetookup hiinteres. �� provide new form of pereption, a promoted in Timothy Hi friend Brion Gyin, who wa involved with the Surrealis, Leary’ The Pyhedeli Experiene: A Manual Baed on the Tibetan had developed hi ‘ut-up’ tehnique in ���� in Pari, and firs Book o the Dead (����).�� Within a ouple of year, uh idea publihed the reulting text a ‘Firs Cut-Up’ in ����. �� A were enteringthe mainsream– for example, Dirk Bogarde’LSD few year later, the artis and acivis Jeff Nuttall launhed My trip in the ���� film Sebasian , et in the Britih eret ervie. Own Ma, a magazine he produed from ���� to ����, whih Bowie, along with many of hi ontemporarie, beame publihed Burrough’ ut-up. �� During thi time, Burrough intereted in Buddhim. In ����, when interet in Eatern aloexperimentedwithAnthonyBalh infilm-making,reating relion wa at it height, he thought of beoming a monk a ��-minute hort, The Cut-Up, releaed in ����.�� and, in September of that year, sayed briefly in Sotland at the The ame idea were being explored by other. Aording Buddhis retreat at Ekdalemuir, then at the sart of it developto Burrough, Alexander Trohi, the Sottih Beat writer, ment.�� International Time magazine wa an important onduit alled himelf ‘the Comonaut of Inner Spae’ at the famou for dieminating idea to a wider audiene, who may never Edinburgh Writer’ Conferene in Augus ����.�� Burrough have bothered to read orinal work. Iue �� (�� April ����) later ommented: ontained a pyhedeli entre pread ontaining ut-up text by Brion Gyin (pl.��). In my writing I am acing a a map-maker, an explorer London wa onvuling – but David Bowie, who wa phyiof pyhi area, a omonaut of inner pae, and I ally loe to the epientre of all of thi acivity in the Wes End, ee no point in exploring area that have already been wa, untilJune ����, sill ometime ommuting the ninemile thoroughly urveyed. �� home to say at Sundridge Park. Artis i nreaingly wanted to explore th ee new mindape. In September ����, Bowie appeared in hi firs film, The Imae , whih wa deribed a ‘a sudy of the illuionary reality world within the hizophreni mind of the artis at hi point of reativity’.��
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↑ [��] • ‘Minute to Go’ ut up text by Brion Gyin
• International
Time, Iue ��, �� April ���� ← [��] •
Soundtrak forHair!, ���� • Reording by the orinal London as • Polydor Reord →[��] • Poser for Andy Warhol’ film
Chelea Girl, Ocober ���� • Deigned by Alan Aldridge • Drury Lane Art Laboratory
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Kemp, for hi part, wa equally taken with Bowie:
TAKING THE STAGE
In ����, aged ��, Bowie diovered The Stage. I felt a bit like the Virn Mary, onfronted by thi viion Not the tatty sage, feeble PA ysem and ba i lighting of the arhangel Gabriel, glowing, hining, inredi bly of the ballroom and lub he had toured in previou year. beautiful and immediately inpiring. Rather, the vas ‘philoophial’ sage of theatre thinker uh a Stanilavki, Artaud and Brook, where there i no benning Kemp’ total ommitment to hi art introdued Bowie to an or end, and the limit are olely thoe of the devier – sage that ed world of make-up, amp and exual ambiguity, but perhap ould beome any type of pae. more important wa the experiene of living a a omplete perThe London alternative performane ene took off in formane.�� Bowie sarted training and working with Kemp (‘I the mid ����. There were new idea, new performer, new taught David to free hi body,’ Kemp aid later), �� and in ���� ompanie and new venue. �� In ���� the Amerian-born Jim he pent everal week firs rehearing and then performing at Hayne et up the London Travere Theatre Company with venue in London and elewhere (pl ��and ��).�� et deigner Ralph Koltai, among other, at the new Jeanetta Bowie learnt not only to ac, but alo gained fundamental CohraneTheatre.�� In ����, the playwright Arnold Weker had experiene in the power of otume, lighting and et. He launhed Centre �� at the Roundhoue, turning a nineteenth- undersood inreaingly how to work the bond with the audientury railway hed into a performing art venue. �� Alongide ene through haracerization, voie and phyial expreion. new theatre were ‘happening’, inluding the famou On �� and �� September ���� he aced in the hort film The Imae, InternationalPoetryInarnationheldat theRoyalAlbertHallon and reeived hi Equity ard on �� Ocober (pl.��).�� In ����–�, �� June ����. Bowie auditioned twie for the muial Hair (pl.��) and wa an There wa alo an inreaing interes in roing art-form extra in the film The Virn Soldier .�� Ken Pitt, hi manager at the boundarie, and uing different type of pae to math thee time, alo enouraged him to ee mainsream theatre. �� newmanifesation,oeninvolving multimediainsallation.In Bowie’ immerion in performane deepened when he met, ���� Hayne took over an empty warehoue at ��� Drury Lane and fell in love with, Hermione ‘Farthingale’ Denni, a laiand esablihed the famou, if hort-lived, Drury Lane Art Lab, ally trained ballet daner, in April ���� . Not only wa he a where Bowie performed.�� The Lab inluded a theatre, inema, upportive partner and muial ollaborator with whom he gallery and resaurant, alongide mui, an information bank ould diu every apec of performing, he wa alo involved and asroloal reading. ‘The Art Lab’, Hayne wrote, ‘wa in ome of the major film of the time, playing an Edwardian many thing to many people: a viion frusrated by an indifferent, horu rl in the muial film Oh! What a Lovely War –afainating fearful and eure oiety; an experiment with uh intanble mix of sang, ong and syle deigned to evoke World War I. �� a people, idea, feeling and ommuniation.’ �� By early ����, hi undersanding of sagera had been Thefollowingyear,theInsituteofContemporaryArt(ICA) tranformed. Ironially, it wa jus at thi point that, having moved into it new home on The Mall. �� Aro the ountry, been dropped by Hermione, a addened Bowie retreated to loal Art Lab were sarted, many eventually morphing into the uburb, esablihing hi own Art Lab in Bekenham in the permanent art entre. pring of ����.�� One again he might have faded into uburban Moving elegantly and enigmatially through thi upheaval oburity, but the eventual hart ue of ‘Spae Oddity’ at wa thedisincive figure ofLinday Kemp, mime artis, daner, the end of the year finally launhed Bowie toward sardom. acor and total performer extraordinaire – at leas by hi own definition (pl.��). Kemp wa uing Bowie’ mui in hi how, and the two met in early Augut ���� and immediately fell for eah other. �� ‘Linday Kemp wa a living pierrot,’ Bowie ubequently aid. ‘He lived and talked Pierrot. He wa tra and everything in hi life wa theatrial. And o the sage thing for him wa jus an extenion of himelf.’ �� And later, he aid of Kemp: Linday wa a trip and a half … He lived on hi emotion, he wa a wonderful influene. Hi day-to-day life wa themostheatrialthing I’devereen,ever.Everything I thought Bohemia probably wa, he wa living. ↑[��] • David Bowie’ entry in asing direcory
Spotliht, ���� • Kevin Cann Collecion ↗[��] • Linday Kemp in Soho, .����
•
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↑[��] → [��] • David Bowie a a mime, � May ���� •
Photograph by Kenneth Pitt, London • Kevin Cann Collecion
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Following the ue of ‘Spae Oddity’ in November ����, Bowie had sardom within hi reah. Hi omplete immerion in the ra of performane in ����–� had omplemented the In ����, the onept of ientifi progre wa the dominant undersanding of audiene manipulation he had already develpracial belief ysem for mos people in the Wes. The pae oped through hi advertiing experiene. Over the next �� rae, a a ymboli demontration of tehnorati ritual, month, Bowie aquired a new manager, a new mui publiher, exerted a maive pull on the publi’ imanation throughout a new produer, a new et of muiian, new friend, new deignthe deade.�� er, new experiene,�� a wife, a on and a new home��– and a On Chrisma Eve ����, David Bowie’ areer oure ut new ioni identity, aptured on film in September ���� (whih aro that of world hisory. Apollo � beame the firs manned would eventually feature on the over of The Man Who Sold the flight to orbit the moon and return – a journey aptured in the World (April ����).��� Thi over image for hi third LP, then sill ‘Earthrie’ photograph, taken by NASA asronaut Bill Ander, titled Metrobolis , i ruial, ine it wa oneived entirely by whih ha been alled ‘ the mot influenti al envir onmental Bowie and provide a ‘freeze-frame’ of hi idea during a period photograph ever taken’ (pl.��). �� Viewed aro the barren of heci development and reativity.��� In the time before the moonape, Earth i a mall blue phere utterly alone in the vas mui video of the ����, album over were ritial in omblakne of pae. The anwer to mankind’ problem were muniating identity. not ‘out there’ – they exised, if they did at all, within the human The defining haracerisi of the photographer Keith rae anhored on that tiny pek. Mamillan’ work for album at thi time were ‘their rejecion of Thirteen day later, on � January ����, The Time publihed Modernim, iene, elebrity and profeionalim – there are a peial Apollo � inert that inluded the ‘Earthrie’ image. �� no gloy portrait or paehip; no white pae or fine typogra Within a week, by �� January, Bowie had roed intoa new py- phy … [insead] they all forth a grimne that i r adially at odd hoape and reated ‘Spae Oddity’: with mui buineglo and “rokis”elf aggrandizement’.��� However, for The Man Who Sold the World Bowie would For here twis thi approah to ahieve hi own end. The over how a relaxed Bowie srethed out on a haie-lonue in a Mr Fih Am I ittin in a tin an Far above the world ‘man-dre’ and long brown leather boot, in a retro-Raphaelite Planet Earth i blue etting(pl.��).��� In hi hand, Bowie hold the King of Diamond And there’ nothin I an do.�� (pl.��).��� Bowie, now the omplete performer, hold entre sage. He look out oolly and lightly quesioningly at In doing o, a Bowie turned ��, he turned off the entury’ Mamillan’ amera and through to hi audiene. The hot, timeline, and et off on hi own. �� In a few word Bowie rejec takeninHaddonHall,Bekenham,projeca Univeralisviion. the triumph of tehnolo, whether wesern or ommunis, and Firsly, Bowie i alone; there i no ompany of upportpeak insead of a new hallenge for humanity. If the individual ing acor.��� He will be the ue – but beyond that there i demand the hoie to determine hi own f uture, what then i no obviou sory. He i et among attered fragment whoe the relationhip between that individual and oiety? �� individual meaning i unlear. Together, thi antique detritu Bowie’ sage wa now inner pae and, over the next fi ve evoke no peifi date, but ollecively it rejec the twentieth year, he delved deeply into the world of fear, envy, madne, entury uburban dream. However, there i no permanene, elf-loathing and iolation. It i oen uggesed that Bowie’ no onluion – the image i learly a onsruced et, outide interes in alienation and dysopia sem from the depreing reality. Seondly, and mos remarked on, gender i ubverted – politial and eonomi sate of Britain in the early ����. �� through hair, lothing, gesure and poe. Interesingly, in ����, Spae Oddity’, however, wa written when the heady day of there i no quesioning of ethniity or age. Finally, there i no ���� were only jus benning to fade. exluivity; Bowie will ve up hi plae if you want to take it, for he i already moving on. GENESIS: THE APOLLO 8 MISSION AND SELLING THE EARTH
→[��] • Earthrie • Photograph taken by asronaut Bill Ander
during the Apollo � lunar miion, �� Deember ���� •
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In April ����, when The Man Who Sold the World wa finally releaed in the UK, the mui tide had uddenly turned Bowie’ way withthe rie ofglam rok.��� From being an outider Bowie now moved entre sage, eventually leaving even Mar Bolan behind, and rode the glitter wave until he jumped neatly aide a it ener diipated. In January ����, Bowie went to Ameria on a promotional tour, where he had the opportunity to try out hi peronal ‘man-dre’ haracer in itie a divere a Detroit, Houson and Lo Angele. ��� He wa not diappointed by the reacion, Thoe four deade of hanng oial attitude and riing whih ra nged fr om appre iation to onf uion an d outrig ht aggreion – and he knew now that there were no limit to what peronal wealth haped a growing ‘Me’ ulture, where people and how he ould perform. ��� Bowie landed bak in London on inreaingly put the elf before oial duty. The upport frame�� February, brinng with him a group of new ong that he work of inrea ing ta te int erventio n, orga nized religion, resered on � April with C hryali, hi new publiher – among two-party politi, ma trade union and monarhy began to them ‘Zig Stardus’. Nine day later The Man Who Sold the be eroded and ubverted. Bowie ame to prominene a thee World wa releaed in Britain, but Bowie knew by then that hi hange gathered pae, and he ha urv ived long enough to ee viion lay far beyond. There might be nothing on Mar, but the full effec. The onequene, even by the late ����, were ambiguou there were world of endle poibilitie inide hi head, whih he ould explore by brinng an alien meiah down to and oen unexpeced. The satement ‘every human being i equallyimportant’ and ‘freedom to live your life your way’ ame earth – an alien apable of infiltrating any pae. London wa where Zig wa launhed and where he wa retired – but the not from Bowie, nor even from pop mui, but from Margaret ity’ exhaused ‘three-day week’ exisene in ����–� plaed Thather’ peeh to the ���� Conervative Party onferene too great a onsraint on Bowie’ ambition. He wanted a pae and The Sun newpaper’ editorial on elecion day, � May ����, with fewer boundarie and o he le for the world (pl. ��); whih advied it reader to with to the Conervative and depite London’ own ditintive reinvention over the lat helped weep Thather to vicory. By the ‘Thatherite Spring’ �� year, there ha been nothing to bring him bak for a ignifi- of the ����, anti-elitim had been mobilized to promote the ant engagement. market a the moral authority for publi er vie. However, by For the four deade prior to the mid ���� and the sart then Bowie wa far away. of the PC/dital/internet age, pop mui and pop ulture pro vided a ommuniation ysem for young people whoe only mean of haring their like and dilike beyond their loality were the Royal Mail and a houehold hard-wir ed phone – or maybe a publi telephone box. Pop mui may have been ontrolled by a few orporation, been limited in it world-view, and the oure of enormou amount of rubbih, but it wa the ritial ommuniation ysem of the era. Nobody with the aeand ubjecopportunitieof theYouTube/Faebookage wouldwant to gobak therenow; not whenommuniating with anybody about anything i een a a right.
↑[��] • The Man Who Sold the World, April ���� • Merury (UK) →[��] • The Man Who Sold the World (revere), April ���� •
Merury (UK)
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Wes there are major fore for whih Zig i no oy hisori haracer, but a living threat.��� And herelie adilemma.Bowie reated Zig,but provided no guide for how to ahieve uh indivi dual liberation – exept through hi own peronal route of elf-belief, iron will and omplete ontrol. There i no ripture, reed or ervie. The philoophy of Zig i utterly peronal – be yourelf, whatever that i.��� It worked for Bowie, but it i not an appealing meage formanytoday,wholookforgreaterertaintie,the reaurane of dogma and the educive pleaure of being part of a ma. Worldwide,a ounter-reformationi underway,with omenow arguing that uh libertarian view are : ���
AND WHERE IS MAJOR TOM OFF TO NOW?
Neil and Edna Denny were military olk … Deent people who had ueully deended their ountry aains Nazi invaion, endured ood rationin throuhout the war and or nearly ten year aerward, and elt pride in the oronation o a lamorou youn queen. They loved, nurtured and h eltered their hildren. But they were utterly unprepared or the bomb ulture o pop.
, Elecri Eden: Unearthin Britain’ Viionary Mui, ����
The wordle over of Fairport Convention’ album Unhalfrikin – esern (����, pl.��) peak volume about the gap between the genera – duated tion that expanded during the ���� – the band are inide a – ndusrialized walled garden, eparated from inger Sandy Denny’ parent by – ih a fene. A the generation parted at the end of the ����, wa – emorati there sill time for tea together? ��� It i a truim that Britain wa at it mos integrated and WillZig, likeKing Arthur, now remainleeping forever or oialis during World War II. The threat of Nazi onques, will he/he return to ave mysi Albion from it enemie? Or alongide rationing, onription for men and national ervie will the‘Heroe’ befound onother ide by then? I MajorTom for women, reated the opportunity for a modernis agenda to sill driing? Or ha he refoued and reonneced with other organize for total war. In ����, it offered a beguiling future to to overthrow the London of global apitalim? the new ma oiety a it reward. In the ����, omething had David Jone grew up in ���� London dreaming of being to fill the lo of Empire and a tehnorati future offered a pro- a ueful entertainer. A David Bowie he tried, tried very greive viion for the le, and a hope of alvang ome ontrol hard, and beame a world-famou performer. In the proe, for the right. In the end, however, growing peronal affluene he helped esablih a key part of Wesern twenty-firs entury and the entiing individual delight of onumer apitalim out- liberal belief: that anybody hould be allowed to be what they flanked modernim’ failure to provide a onvining alternative. want to be. Self before d uty, with duty a hoie. He did not On �� Marh ���� a plaque(pl.��) wa unveiled to Zig invent the idea, but he d id promote it to a huge audiene. The Stardus in Heddon Street, London, where photographer Brian marketing worked and the London of today, ethnially divere, Ward aughtan image ofthe illuive viitor in ����. Forty year ulturally open and relatively tolerant, i an on-going tesament on, the reli of Soho’ rag-trade pas have diappeared. The to thi belief. In the remaining year of thi entury, there are leaned-up, pedesrianized sreet provide upmarket resau- plenty of group for whom uh a ulture i anathema. It will be rant erviing the onfident onuming rowd that now flow interesing to ee how thi journey, whih sarted in Brixton, along the global mart of Regent Street. If Zig walked pas London SW�, ontinue to unfold. today, there would be reognition, welome and a poitive repone–probablypeopleaying,‘IexpecedZigwouldlook When the tone o the mui hane, th e wall o the ity hake. more different’. Now, in the affluent Wes, Zig i everywhere , The Republi and nowhere, a figure who ha paed into general ownerhip. But worldwide the sory ontinue, and beyond the ‘liberated’
• Unhalfrikin, ���� • Fairport Convention • Iland ←[��]
←[��] • The Rie and Fall o Zig
Stardus and the Spider rom Mar, ���� • RCA Vicor • Zig Stardus plaque on Heddon Street, London, ���� →[��]
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DAVID BOWIE IS LOOKING FOR INFORMATION →[��] • David Bowie baksage, ���� •
Photograph by Maayohi Sukita
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• Quilted two-piee uit, ���� • Deigned by Freddie Burretti for the Zig Stardus tour • ←↑[��]
→[��] • David Bowie performing ‘Star Man’ with the
Spider from Mar on ‘Top of the Pop’, reorded � July ���� • Photograph by Harry Goodwin • Harry Goodwin Arhive
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↑→[��] • Quilted jumpuit, ���� • Deigned by
David Bowie and Freddie Burretti for the Zig Stardus album over and ubequent tour •
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DAVID BOWIE IS BLOWING OUR MINDS →[��] • David Bowie, ���� •
Photograph by Maayohi Sukita
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↑→[��] • Aymmetri knitted bodyuit, ���� • Deigned by Kanai Yamamoto for the Aladdin Sane tour •
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↑→[��] • Cloak deorated with
kanji haracer, ���� • Deigned by Kanai Yamamoto for the Aladdin Sane tour • The writing tranlate a ‘one who pit out word in a fiery manner’ and phonetially read ‘David Bowie’ •
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↑→[��] • Metalli bodyuit, ���� • Deigned by Kanai Yamamoto for the Aladdin Sane tour •
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↑→[��] • ‘Tokyo Pop’ vinyl bodyuit, ���� • Deigned by
Kanai Yamamoto for the Aladdin Sane tour •
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DAVID BOWIE IS JUMPING FROM UNIVERSE TO UNIVERSE →[��] • David Bowie, ���� •
Photograph by Maayohi Sukita
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→[��] • Station to Station
THEATRE OF GENDER: DAVID BOWIE AT THE CLIMAX OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION
promotional posard, ���� •
David Bowie burs on to the international ene at a pivotal point in modern exual hisory. The heady utopian dream of the ����, whih aw free love a an agent of radial politial hange, were evaporating. Generational olidarity wa proving illuory, while experimentation with pyhedeli drug had expanded identity but ometime at a os of diorientation and paranoia. By the early ����, hint of deadene and apoalype were trailing into popular ulture. Bowie’ propheti attunement to thi major hi wa resered in hi breakthrough ong, ‘Spae Oddity’ (����), whoe wisful asronaut Major Tom eede from Earth itelf. Reorded everal month before the Woodsok Mui Fesival, ‘Spae Oddity’, with it haunting iolation and aexual purity and paivity, foreas the end of the arnival of the Dionyian ����. In their rebelliou liberalim, nature worhip and elebration of ex and emotion, the ���� an be een a a Romanti revival. Folk and rok mui, emerng from both blak and white working-la tradition, were the vernaularanalogueto WilliamWordworthandSamuelTaylor Coleridge’ epohal Lyrial Ballad (����), whih ued rural popular form agains an oified literary esablihment. But event, mirrored and magnified by ma media, had uh foreandveloityinthe ’��thatRomantiimoonflipped over into it deadent late phae. Bowie wa the herald and artoonih predator like interplanetary pider or hybrid leading ymbol of that rapid tranformation – a if Oar dog-men, nature appear in Bowie mainly a the blank void Wilde had appeared le than a deade aer Wordworth. of outer pae. Like Wilde, who free-laned a a fahion Bowie ha in fac deribed himelf a an artis ‘who trie to journalis, Bowie i a dandy for whom osume i an art form. apture the rate of hange’ – the theme of one of hi igna- But hi lineage deend not direc from Beau Brummell ture ong, ‘Change’. � but refraced through the Englih dandyim imported by Bowie aumed the perona of a Romanti preuror, Frenh deadent uh a the poet Charle Baudelaire, who Lord Byron, in the video for ‘Blue Jean’ (����), exerpted portrayed the dandy a an arbiter of disincion, elegane from a ��-minute narrative, ‘Jazzin’ for Blue Jean’, direced and old apartne – exacly like the Thin White Duke perby Julien Temple. Like Bowie, Byron wa a harimati, ona of Bowie’ ����–� tour (pl.��). Barbey d’Aurevilly, biexual exile of enormou and at that time unpreedented Baudelaire’ friend and ally, alled dandie ‘the Androne andalou fame. Now redued to a footlooe, effeminate of Hisory’. Mui wa not the only or even the primary mode nightlub entertainer, Sreaming Lord Byron, he i mounting hi over-the-top at at the Bophoru Room (‘only through whih Bowie firs onveyed hi viion to the world: London appearane’, blare a poser), attended by enthui- he wa an ionolas who wa alo an image-maker. Bowie’ asi but depthle dating ouple. Hi fany Aladdin outfit ommand of the viual wa diplayed in hi aute insinc of turban, Turkih trouer and gold lipper with turned-up for the sill amera, honed by hi attentivene to lai toe reall the ���� portrait of Byron in the opulent rimon Hollywood publiity photograph, ontemporary fahion and gold Albanian dre of a Greek patriot. Bowie’ ingen- magazine and European art film. Hi flair for horeogioulyhadowed trompe-l’-œil make-up alo evoke two other raphy and body language had been developed by hi sudy of hi exually ambiguou anteedent, the daner Valav of pantomime and sagera with the innovative Linday Nijinky in Ballet Rue producion of Sheherazade and Kemp troupe in London in the late ����. Bowie’ earlies L’aprè-midi d’un aune , and Rudolph Valentino, ilent-film ambition wa to be a painter, and he ha ontinued to paint sar of The Sheik, who wa exoriated by the pre for hi fae throughout hi life – epeially, he ha aid, when he i havpowder,maara,‘floppypant’andplatinumlavebraelet. ing trouble writing ong. � The multimedia approahe But Bowie i loer in pirit to the late Romanti Wilde, that were gaining aendane over the fine art during the a provoative man of the theatre and a lover of mak. Like ���� alo helped foser hi deire to f ue mui with viual Wilde,who atirizedWordworth’ult ofnature, Bowie ha on sage. While working at an advertiing ageny when he alway been urban in enibility: the ity i hi wilderne wa ��, he learned sory-boarding tehnique that he later and hi sage. Artifie i hi wathword; indeed, exept for employed for hi video.
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A he wa earhing for a voie and plae in the mui indusry,Bowie’lookseadilyhanged.Beatifially inng ‘Let Me Sleep Beide You’ for a ���� promotional film, he Finohio), a Philadelphia drag queen. � Harlow had gained appeared in sandard mod dre of open-neked floral hirt paing attention a the sar of The Queen, a ���� doumenand hip-hugger and projeced the harmle, wiggly harm tary hroniling a New York drag beauty pageant the prior of the bahful boy next door. By hi third album the follow- year where thepanel ofjudge (Andy Warhol, EdieSedgwik ing year, however, he had embarked on a hallenng new and journalis George Plimpton) awarded her the rown. oure, putting hi ommerial aeptane at rik through The film, whih Bowie aw and whih reated a pre sir at unettling ro-dreing enario. The over of The the Canne Film Fesival, howed the furiou baklah by Man Who Sold the World (pl.���) how him porting heavy, diappointed fellow ontesant: Harlow’ o, feminine winome, houlder-length lok and wearing a luxuriouly look wa a marked departure from drag queen’ traditional patterned pink-and-blue velvet maxi-dre over tight knee- ‘hard glamour’, modelled on Hollywood sar like Marlene high boot normally aoiated with sylih young women. Dietrih. Harlow, who beame a tranexual in ����, wa (Thi‘man-dre’wadeignedbyMihaelFih,whoalodid later linked to a rumoured andal involving Grae Kelly’ Mik Jagger’ hort white dre for the Rolling Stone’ free brother Jak, who dropped out of the P hiladelphia mayoral Hyde Park onert in ����.) Bowie’ languidly educive, rae beaue of it. erpentine relining posure i equally heeky – a parody of Canova’ nude satue of Pauline Borghee (Napoleon’ iser) a Venu. Thi over wa o exually radial at the time that it wa vetoed by hi reord ompany for disribution in The over art for Bowie’ fih album, The Rie and Fall o the United State. A artoon by Mihael J. Weller howing Zig Stardus and the Spider rom Mar (����, pl.���), enaced the mental hopital to whih Bowie’ half-brother Terry a brik gender reveral from the prior two album: a now had been ommitted wa hasily ubsituted insead. It wa hort-haired, Nordially blonde Bowie i posed i n maho replaed in ���� by a mediore blak-and-white hot of a mode, leg up on a rubbih bin on a London night sreet, blurry Bowie kiking up hi heel on sage. hi guitar lung like a rifle at hi ide while he warily an In the loe-up portrait on hi next album over for the disane like a oldier on patrol. But the garih olour Hunky Dory (����, pl.���), Bowie adopted a dreamy expre- (uperimpoed aerward) of hi turquoie jumpuit and ion of entimental, heavenward yearning drawn from the purple wresler’ boot, inpired by the army boot of the lexion of tudio-era Hollywood for women tar. Alo marauding ‘droog’ of Stanley Kubrik’ film of A Clokwork sartlingly feminine i hi gesure of frank elf-touhing, Orane (����), betray another ubtext. That exual ontrary a he mooth hi long blonde hair bak with both hand. i revealed by the enational photograph on the bak of The picure leverly ombine two image from Edward the album: Bowie pieringly meeting the viewer’ eye Steihen’ great ���� photo erie of Greta Garbo draped from within a lighted telephone box, where he loiter with in blak (republihed by Lie magazine in ����). The Hunky the graeful hand and hip-hot sane of a woman but the Dory over wa sunning at releae not only for it daring bare hes and bulng roth of a male husler (realling gender play but for it evoation of Hollywood glamour, Renaiane odpiee a well a the overized joksrap of whih wanot yettaken eriouly innaent filmsudie. It A Clokwork Orane). Bowie’ eentri posure here wa hi unnatural, metalli-yellow tinting of Bowie’ hair had a Pop firs publi ue of drag queen mannerim, whih have been art edge but alo realled airbruhing onvention of ���� highly sylized ine the Vicorian era and probably long fan magazine, while it o fou repliated the flattering before. The exhibitionisi brazenne of the enario – a aura of agele mysery produed in Hollywood by applying rentboywaitingata telephone–markedlydepartedfromthe Vaeline tothe amera len. relaxed domesi tranvesim of the over of The Man Who On the bak of Hunky Dory (pl.��), a long-haired Bowie Sold the World , where Bowie ould be misaken for a rumpled ombrely sand in blouy, flowing, high-waised trouer eighteenth-entury lord at hi gloy leiure, like Thoma tailored in what wa then a highly unuual retro ���� ut Gainborough’Blue Boy. There wa alo a dionnec in the (preedingHalson’ontemporaryvariationonit). Thepi- gay perona of the telephone box: in that period, male huturereembleaanonial���� photoofKatharineHepburn tler (‘rough trade’) would normally affec a sereotypial fierelysandingwithhoulder-lengthhairandin imilartan mauline look, uh a that of a ailor, labourer, motorylak before a fireplae on the New York sage et of The lis or owboy. Bowie reated omething entirely new in Philadelphia Story (a year before it wa filmed). Although thi taunting yet fey sreet tough, baed on hi own obervaBowieitedPre-Raphaelitepreedent,theobliqueinward- tionoftherent boywholingeredaroundLondon’hotpot ne and intriguingly half-onealing Veronia Lake hair and who paralleled the hunky male husler whom Andy were partlyinfluened, awa hiberet photoon thebak of Warhol filmed gambolling with the gamine Edie Sedgwik The Man Who Sold the World , by Rahel Harlow (born Rihard in hi grainy early hort film in New York.
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Annotated bak over image for Hunky Dory album, ���� • Deigned by David Bowie • Photograph by Brian Ward •
→ [��] • David Bowie
reeded in the rainbow riot of hi Portobello Road retro wear.Mar Bolan,with whom Bowieo-invented glam rok, had beome known for an arh ombination of lavih boa and hiny top hat that almos ertainly ame from Helmut Berger’ drag routine a Dietrih in The Damned, Luhino Vionti’ ���� film aboutthe Third Reih’ war onWeimar Zig Stardus, Bowie’ mos famou invented hara- exe. Zig’ houlder himmie or bout of hand-on-hip ter, did not appear on the over of the album that bear hi wih frankly ignalled Weimar leaze and nosale de la boue , name but wa theatrially developed on the unuually long whih were mos notoriouly aptured by MikRok’la world tour (from January ���� to July ����). Zig beame i photo of Bowie fallen to hi knee and avidly mouthing o potent an entity that he virtually annihilated hi reator Mik Ronon’ vamping guitar. Gay fellatio wa hoking and pun Bowie, by hi own admiion, into a frale py- enough at the time, yet even more notable in that pervere holoal sate, exaerbated by oaine, that wa near ritual wa that a major male sar wa unahamedly exhibit‘hizophrenia’. � Zig’ flamboyant make-up, rooser omb ing himelf in a exually ubordinate role. The Zig album of piky, razor-ut red hair and futurisi osume deigned abound with overtly gay referene, f rom the title ong’ by Kanai Yamamoto turned him into an alien rok ‘meiah’ boas about ‘God-ven a’ to the provoative ‘Put your ray (Bowie’ term), leader of a band of pae invader ome to gun to my head’ and ‘The hurh of man love i uh a holy redeem errant earthling. � Bowie aid Zig wa modelled plae to be’ (‘Moonage Daydream’). But beyond hi bemirhed deadene, Zig Stardus on Vine Taylor, a Britih-born pop inger who had lived in the US and ahieved eond-tier prominene in England alo had a dazzling viionary beauty, above all when Bowie and Frane until he began to uffer drug-related reliou wa wearing hi hort-kirted white ilk kimono and high halluination on sage. However, there wa little exual bukin, whih made him reemble an Amazonian huntre ambiguity in Taylor’ elf-preentation, whih urviving like Belphoebe in Edmund Spener’ Faerie Queene (pl.��). TV lip how to have been a sraight rokabilly knok-off Withhi ilverlipsikand forehead asralphere, heevoked of Gene Vinent, a hyperacive, blak-leather-lad peer of the radiant allegorial figure of ourtly maque. At key moment in the Zig gender mirage, Bowie would plant hi the hip-wivelling Elvi Preley. Bowie puhed Zig’ gender into another dimenion feet wide and how off hi rippling, muled thigh, a blazon of pae-time, where exual peronae of both Eas and Wes of hi underlying mauline athletiim (pl.��). Indeed, in met and melded. Then very intrigued by Aian ulture, Zig Stardus’ upernormal militant ener and huffled he made Zig a srange amalgam of amurai warrior and mak, we may have ome loer than we ever will again to kabuki onnaata – the male acor who played female role glimpinghowShakepeare’virtuooboyacor performed in traditional Japanee theatre. (On tour in Japan in April the role of Roalind, Cleopatra and Lady Mabeth. With ����, Bowie reeived insrucion in kabuki make-up from hi haughty arhiteconi heekbone and implaable will, Tamaaburo Bando, Japan’ foremos living onnaata .) But Zig at time reembled the young Katharine Hepburn, Bowie’ ynially uggesive sage manner (mos overt in another exually heterodox peronality who hopped off ‘Time’, with it iniser honky-tonk piano) wa drawn from her hair and alled herelf ‘Jimmy’ in hildhood and who German abaret. The Broadway muial Cabaret had had a made a pecaular Broadway entrane in ���� a an Amazon ueful London run, with Judi Denh a Sally Bowle, in warrior leaping down a flight of sep with a dead sag over ����; a revival of Bertolt Breht and Kurt Weill’ Threepenny her houlder. Zig at hi mos lahing and relentle alo Opera , sarring Hermione Baddeley and Vanea Redgrave, realled Mary Woronov’ brilliant improviation a Hanoi opened in the Wes End in early ����. Bob Foe’ movie of Hannah in Warhol’ epi Chelea Girl (����), a flight of Cabaret wa releaed the ame year: Joel Gray would win one feroity o breathtaking that ome viewer misook her of the film’ eight Aademy Award for hi ininuating, repel- for a rampang drag queen. Woronov played a dominatrix lently flirtatiou performane a an epiene maser of er- doing a whip dane with the poet Gerard Malanga in a multiemonie. Bowie’ very title, The Rie and Fall o Zig Stardus , media how, the ‘Exploding Plasi Inevitable’, saged by the alluded to Breht and Weill’ The Rie and Fall o the City o Velvet Underground, a group whih had a heavy influene Mahaonny , a atire of Ameria from whih ame ‘Alabama on Bowie. Indeed, Bowie prefaed the enore to hi final Song’, later performed by Bowie on hi ���� world tour. performane a Zig, a an be een in D. A. Pennebaker’ Zig flahe with Weimar deadene, from the inom- onertdoumentary,withaheartfelttributeto theVelvet’ nia blakened hollow of hi eye to hi impudent feather Lou Reed, who wa then reording in a London tudio. boa, a femme aeory that one belonged to Linday Bowie elewhere alled Reed ‘the mos important writer Kemp and that deended from Marlene Dietrih’ early in modern rok’ and lauded ‘the sreet-gut level’ of hi film role a a abaret inger. The love god Jimi Hendrix work.� The title of Bowie’ ong, ‘Velvet Goldmine’ (later had oen affeced a pink boa, olarized to a pyhedeli borrowed by Todd Hayne for a ���� movie), learly riff orange on the over of hi ���� debut album, but it generally on Reed’ band.
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and Mik Ronon on sage during the Zig Stardus tour, Deember ���� / January ���� • Bowie i wearing a pair of platform hoe deorated with palm tree by Pelian Footwear, New York • Photograph by Mik Rok
↑[��] • Cover photograph for Aladdin Sane, ���� • Photograph by Brian Du →[��] • David Bowie on sage during the Aladdin Sane tour, ���� •
Photograph by Mik Rok
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↑→[��] • White ilk uit, ���� • Deigned by Kanai Yamamoto for the Aladdin Sane tour •
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→ [��] • David Bowie
By the time we aw him on the front of an album, Aladdin Sane (����), Ziggy Stardut wa already in elipe. The over photograph by Brian Duffy with it red-and-blue lightning bolt roing Bowie’ fae ha beome one of the mos emblemati and influential art image of the pas half entury, reprodued or parodied in advertiing, media and entertainment worldwide (pl.��). It ontain all of Romantiim, foued on the artis a mutilated vicim of hi own febrile imanation. Like Herman Melville’ Captain Ahab, whoe body wa arred by lightning in hi ques for the white whale, Bowie a Zig i a v oyager who ha defied ordinary human limit and paid the prie. Aladdin ane in the realm of art i a lad inane everywhere ele. A jolt of artisi inpiration ha sunned him into trane or atatonia. He i blind to the outer world and it ‘oial ontac’ – Bowie’ reurrent term for an area of experiene that had proved troubleome for Major Tom a well a himelf. � Pierre La Rohe’ ingeniou zigzag make-up look at firs glane like a bloody wound – an axe blow through the kull of a Viking warrior laid out on hi bier. Zig appear to be in hibernationorupendedanimation,likethedoomedasronaut in their mummiform hamber in Stanley Kubrik’ ����: A Spae Odyey (����), whih had inpired Bowie’ ‘Spae Oddity’. The bakground blankne i enroahing like a freezing ryogeni wave upon the figure. It’ a linial a an autopy, with a glob of extraced fleh lodged on the ollarbone. Thi teardrop of phalliform jelly reemble the unidentifiable bit of protoplam and b iomorphi onglomerationthat sudtheexualizedlandapeof Salvador Dalí. Alo Surrealis are the inflamed reae of Zig’ armpit, whih look like freh ural ar a well a raw female genitalia. Like Prometheu, a rebel hero to the Romanti, he ha los hi liver for sealing the fire of the god. Like the olitary pae traveller in ����, he may be regreing to the embryoni sage to ve birth to himelf. With hi mooth, lithe , hairle body, Aladdi n Sane’ rouged androgyne ha evolved pat gender, a blatantly dramatized by the full-length picure in the inide gatefold, where Zig’ long leg and leek, exle toro are turning ilver roboti. Hi proudly arisorati sane with it sreamlined wais grip i another quotation from Katharine Hepburn’ unique publiity poe for The Philadelphia Story, ombined with a alute to Veruhka von Lehndorff, the great upermodel (een in Mihelangelo Antonioni’ Blow-Up ) who had poed nude in pecaular body paint in a ���� photo hoot in Kenya with Peter Beard and Salvador Dalí. In a ���� interview on Amerian TV, Bowie ompared hi friend Ig Pop’ method of working to hi own: Ig’ idea, aid Bowie, bloking off pae with both hand, ame from the viera and roth, while hi own idea ame from the hes and head: ‘I’m a yborg’, he delared. � The buslikeoverof Aladdin Sane how the artis in reative proe, having jettioned the mundane appetite of belly and genital. Thi dreaming head i liing off into a hamanisi zone of viion purged of people and matter itelf.
on sage in Sotland during the Aladdin Sane tour, ���� • Photograph by Mik Rok
For the over of hi next album, Pin Up (����, pl.���), a vigorou ollecion of over verion of hard-rok lai, Bowie ued a photograph of himelf with Twig taken in Pari by Jusin de Villeneuve for Voue. The two look los and sriken, like Adam and Eve aer the Fall (pl.��). Who are thee waif? They appear to be wearing mak – acually leverly drawn on with make-up. The sriking olour ontras on Twig (he wa tanned from a Bermuda holiday) park a frion of unertainty about both rae and gender: it might very well be a blak man in a female mak leaning hi head o onfidingly on the tenely alert Bowie. A a pop idol now bruied by fame, Bowie had arrived in the purgatorial territory of Twig’ delining sar – he who a a oltih rlboy had been a upreme ymbol of the ���� youthquake. Bowie returned to Weimar enibility for the over of DiamondDo (����, pl.���), a lurid painting by Guy Peellaert ina GermanExpreionissyleomplementingthealbum’ dysopian narrative. The opening howl, reitation about ‘rotting orpe’ and graphi besiality – Bowie and two rouhing, ghoulih women are depiced in half-dog form – wa the loes he ever ame to the Grand Guignol horrormovie gambit of Alie Cooper, whoe ���� European tour hadbeenattendedbybothBowieand EltonJohn.Theetting of the Diamond Do over i a idehow (‘The Stranges Living Curioitie’) drawn from Tod Browning’ disurbing ���� film, Freak, whih i gloed in the title ong. Bowie’ anine loin (preumably alluding to Ig Pop’ breakthrough ong, ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’) may have been glaringly male – the genitalia were oon air bruhed away to head off riing ontrovery – but the res of him i a bith. He wear a large loop earring, a luhly enhaned ilhouette of red lipsik and a lavihly teaed bouffant variation of hi Zig hairut. Depite hi inewy arm, the effec i enuouly female – an alluring prone poe propped up on elbow that wa ommonly ued for publiity hot of boomy sudio-era sar like Lana Turner and even the mature Gloria Swanon. Peellaert worked from two kethe dr awn by Bowie of hi variation on an Eptian phinx. Preedent for the picure an be found in Symbolis painting of emme atale,peifially FernandKhnopff’ Sphinx (����), where a relining leopard with a woman’ fae mugly aree a rlih Oedipu. The ong on Diamond Do portray a deadent worldof fasex inity doorway (‘Sweet Thing’) andtrampy boy in torn dree and mudged make-up (‘Rebel Rebel’). ��
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Youn Amerian (����, pl.���) wa the las album over that Bowie ued a a gender anva. One again he meet the viewer’ eye but no longer with the hard edge of urban prositution een on Diamond Do. It i another Hollywood glamour portrait, hi hort but flowing hair oly baklit to form a halo. The sartlingly feminine ilver bangle braelet, jarringly juxtapoed with a ubtly Art Deo man’ plaid hirt, gleam like a sarburs. The impreion of wavering gender i aentuated by hi direet pink lipsik and lonh maniured fingernail. (Ruet nail polih, miing from the US album, wa resored to the picure for the ���� remasered CD releae.) A ghosly piral of igarette moke, airbruhed in, i another vintage Hollywood touh. Thi wisful, loitered figure might be a kept boy or a neurasheni aeshete, like the artis Aubrey Beardley or the poet Lord Alfred Dougla, who brought down Oar Wilde. A imilar penive brand of guarded andronou male beauty wa aptured by Peter O’Toole in hi multifaeted portrayal of the ultivated, tormented Laurene of Arabia in David Lean’ ���� film. What mus be oberved ab out Bowie’ gender fantaia i how rarely he ever did sraight drag. The ignifiant exeption wa a video direced by David Mallet for ‘Boy Keep Swinng’, a ong on Loder (����), the final album in Bowie and Brian Eno’ ‘Berlin Trilo’. The ong wa not releaed in the US beaue of reord ompany fear about the video’ unpalatable tranvesim. It ben with Bowie a a Cliff Rihard-syle early ���� rok’n’roll inger lad in a generi dark uit and rolliking away with sandard kineti move at a sanding mirophone. Attention then hi to hi trio of hilariouly bored female bak-up inger, eah one played by Bowie in drag. There i a blowy, blaé, gumraking Elizabeth Taylor in a tendrilou hignon wig and a big rinoline kirt topped with a violet inh belt – Taylor’ ignature olour. Bowie had met John Lennon five year earlier at a party at Elizabeth Taylor’ Lo Angele houe. Photo of the zaig Taylor bear-hugng the alarmingly frail Bowie – he wa wearing hi fedora – made it eem a if he ould ruh him like an egghell. Next in the video i an iy Valkyrie in a velte metalligold heath dre with fetihisially deformed leeve – boxy Joan Crawford houlder pad prouting lateral wing like hark fin (pl.��). Her full, dark hair reemble that of the enigmati Lauren Baall in To Have and Have Not a well a the sormy Bette Davi in All About E ve. The dre itelf reall the linng metalli moth osume worn by Katharine Hepburn (playing an aviatrix modelled on Amelia
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Earhart) in Chrisopher Stron and alo the pecaular, kintight ‘nude dre’ of beaded ilk oufflé deigned in ���� by Jean Loui for Marlene Dietrih’ abaret onert. (For the eond half of thoe how, whih toured the world, Dietrih hanged into the top hat and tail of her ���� film, Moroo .) There i alo a uggesion of the fahion model Jerry Hall’ diruptive, ahaying entrane in a blak-lahed gold tiger gown in Bryan Ferry’ ���� v ideo for ‘Let’ Stik Together’. At the end of the equene, Bowie break role by aggreively whipping off hi wig and mearing hi lipsik with the bak of hi hand, saring down the viewer with a frightening neer of rage – a reveral of the uual hilarity and applaue-inviting bonhomie aompanying the gender revelation at the end of drag ac. Thi golden androne i truly Bowie’ ‘Queen Bith’ (the tenth ong on Hunky Dory). The third drag imperonation i of Dietrih herelf, with whom Bowiehad reentlysarred in Jus a Giolo (����), direced by David Hemming. Bizarrely, they never met: Bowie’dialoguewithDietrih wapliedtogetherin posproducion. In ‘Boy Keep Swinng’, he got hi revenge: the aged Dietrih, dreed in an undersated knit Chanel uit, walk haltingly with a ane down the fahion atwalk, from whih old women are normally banned. Pauing at the edge, he feebly yet ontemptuouly blow a ki at the viewer with her igarette, the fading upersar sill hungry for dominane. In thi video, Bowie penetrated to the old mauline oul and monsrou lus for power of the great female tar, whih drag queen had alway ened and turned into rambunciou omedy. The video for ‘Boy Keep Swinng’ had amp wit but habby producion value. That all hanged the following year with‘Aheto Ahe’, fromthe Sary Monser (and Super Creep) album. Direced by Bowie and David Mallet (working from Bowie’ own soryboard), it wa at the time the mos expenive mui video ever made. Thi mini-movie, with itdreamlike ollage, profoundlyinfluened the diretion of mui video, whih exploded with the pread of able TV and the introducion of a round-the-lok mui hannel, MTV, in ����. Bowie alled the ong ‘Ahe to Ahe’‘an odeto hildhood’, butit videobeame aportrait of the iolated, uffering artis, with motif and tehnique drawn from the entire hisory of European art film – from Carl Dreyer’ The Paion o Joan o Ar and Lui Buñuel and Salvador Dalí’ Un Chien Andalou to Jean Coceu’ Orphée and Ingmar Bergman’ The Seventh Seal . The ong’ elfreferential nature wa ignalled by the return of Bowie’ debut haracer, Major Tom, now a notoriou ‘junkie’ in a rii of addicion. In ‘Ahe to Ahe’ (a phrae from the Anglian funeral ervie), Bowie aume the role of Pierrot, a figure of eventeenth-enturyommedia dell’arte who beame prominent in Frenh pantomime. Many painter, uh a Watteau, aw themelve in the melanholy Pierrot, with hi tenderne and na ï veté and hi humbling enfored sraddling of the line between art and entertainment. Bowie’ Pierrot, wearing a tued white lown osume and dune ap, ha a gangly
during the filming of the ‘Boy Keep Swinng’ video, ���� • Direced by David Mallet •
awkwardne and a timid, pre-exual innoene. In other ene, however, an elegantly handome Major Tom it aged in a padded ell and an exploding kithen or, haggard and sony, hang moribund in a watery grotto that i half wreked paehip and half nightmare womb. Bowie ha rarely poken publily of hi mother and, in the ����, urtly rebuffed prominent Britih and Amerian better than your ong!’ In ‘Ahe to Ahe’, the limited TV interviewer when they preumptuouly prodded him peronal mother i only an insrument of or proxy for larger about it.� The finale of ‘Ahe to Ahe’ addree the mat- proee of fate. The mammoth bulldozer, for example, ter in dramati ymbolim, like the depreed film direcor whih menaingly follow Pierrot and hi troupe of female Guido’ dream enounter with hi parent in a emetery in pries i a modernization of ‘Time’ winged hariot hurryFederio Fellini’ �½. Hecored by a mall, gesiulating ing near’ (from Andrew Marvell’ ‘To Hi Coy Misre’) – a older woman, whom Bowie aid (when introduing thi fais fore puhing all of humanity into a ma grave. Theubterraneandisurbane inBowie’œuvre around video for a ���� MTVretropecive) reembled hi mother, Pierrot sroll with abahed attentivene and dutiful re- the iue of women and their ungovernable power an be ignation along the edge of an infernal underground ea. �� deteced in ‘Suffragette City’ (from The Rie and Fall o Zig A moment before, he sand flinhing and paralyed from Stardus ), with it heady refrain, ‘Don’t lean on me, man, the amera flah of a merile paparazzo: the hooting of a beaue you an’t afford the tiket bak from Suffragette picure(thevideo’thirdphotoportrait)beomeareal bul- City!’ Gender relation were hanng fas aer the rebirth let hot. I Pierrot now dead and hi mother ome to relaim of feminim in the late ����. Thi line how men unprehi body – like Mary for a pietà ? Bowie’ ending evoke that pared for the hi and running around in irle like anti of The Tramp, where another hildlike, genderle lown, quirrel. It ay in effec, ‘Don’t ak me for advie, beaue Charlie Chaplin in a fake mousahe, ramble away down a I ure an’t help!’ It implie that asration, metaphorial dirt road. There are alo sriking viual parallel to a mordant or otherwie, i the toll exaced by women whoe ques for momentinFellini’ La Dole Vita where a fiere matriarh of equality may ometime oneal a drive for dominane. the old Italian nobility materialize at dawn with a pries and The ong’ other blazing refrain, ‘Wham, bam, thank you, imperiouly ummon her arouing adult hildren to Ma. ma’am!’ – a ommon old Amerian athphrae probably Theotherdeadentpartygoersandsupefieda theywath about prositution – tauntingly ugges that lovele hittheir reently priapi but now owed playfellow fall in line and-run ex i one foolproof way to avoid wampy entrapment by women. and obediently troop away. Few if any ong in Bowie’ great period ontain a In the finale of ‘Ahe to Ahe’, Bowie wa quesioning hi identity a an artis and a man. Depite hi wandering, he fully developed portrait of a woman, poitive or negative, evidently sill felt the subborn tug of hi orin, a regulated omparable to Bob Dylan’ ympatheti ‘Sad-Eyed Lady uburban onformity from whih he had eaped to a vivid of the Lowland’ or the toweringly furiou ‘Like a Rolling univere of omniexual fantay that had bewithed an entire Stone’. Bowie’ exhilarating ‘China Girl’ (����), with it generation. In the video, hi mother i both peripheral and wonderfully expanive video direted by Davi d Mallet, entral, a voie he an’t get out of hi head. The poignant ubsitute politial for pyholoal iue and wa in any refrain, ehoing a traditional Britih hildren’ ong, identi- ae o-written by Ig Pop about an Aian woman he wa fie the mother with preing pracial reality: ‘My mother ourting in Switzerland. Bowie’ mos onentrated mediaid to get thing done/ You’d better not me with Major tation on exual identity and gender relation i ontained Tom’. Tom i Bowie the daydreamer who pae out. Hi in the saggered finale of Aladdin Sa ne – a mathed et of mother i like the poet Wallae Steven’ ontrary Mr Alfred ong, one inpired by an Amerian man and the other by Uruguay, who boas, ‘I have w iped away moonlight like mud.’ an Amerian woman. They are pointedly introdued by a The video’ bleak, olarized olour ugges that, at thi over verion of the Rolling Stone’ ‘Let’ Spend the Night moment, the mother i winning. Pierrot ink lowly in the Together’, whih in thi ontext poit not jut exual ea, while the landape eem to be loing it ficive ener, interoure but dialogue and detente – whih may prove like the anaemi, fading haracer in Jaque Rivette’ ���� impoible between the entrenhed poition of the new film, Celine and Julie Go Boatin . Bowie’ athingly elf- gender war. The firs ong, ‘The Jean Genie’, i an anthem to boy ritial dual perpecive would oon take omi form in ‘Jazzin’ for Blue Jean’, where Sreaming Lord Byron’ exe power partly inpired by Ig Pop, one of Bowie’ loes and vanity are atirized by Bowie himelf playing a dual role friend in the ���� and hi flatmate during hi low-profile a a maladroit nerd who hout at Byron, ‘You onniving, exile in Berlin aer the burn-out of Zig Stardus. Bowie randy, bogu Oriental old queen! Your reord leeve are aid that in thi ong he wanted ‘to loate Zig a a kind of Hollywood sreet rat’ – in other word, one of the homele, rootle kid who floked to the Sunet Strip in the late ���� and ’��, a olourful ene rife with drug and prositution that wa alo a matrix of new mui and syle. �� ��
(A male ‘trik’ from Sunet and Vine fore a loeted sar to hi knee earlier on the album in ‘Craked Acor’.) The jean genie i a ‘reptile’, a ‘rattlenake’, a rappy prite and male husler lithering outide the ysem who, like Peter Pan, retain hi freedom by never growing up. If there i a referene to Jean Genet in hi name ( a Bowie later admitted wa poible), then he i Genet’ ideal of the thief and outas, repreenting the aoiation of homoexuality with heroi Romanti riminality that Genet got from André Gide and that Gide got from Wilde. �� Denim (preeding the deigner jean trend of the late ’��) sill had an outlaw onnotation, a hown in Warhol’ naphot of the roth of a jean-lad male husler for the zippered over of the Rolling Stone’ ���� album, Stiky Finer. Bowie’ jean genie i a vagabond and derelit who avour qualor and filth a a defiane of female order and ontrol and who even aert the right to lah, maim and violate hi own mother-madefleh. (‘Ateall yourrazor’ i a plendid Beat-syle line vividly referening the sage-diving Ig’ notoriou elf-utting on broken gla.) The genie’ deliriou mani motion i aught by the buzz and fuzz of the aggreive guitar, whih evoke the unleahed boy ener of the rave-up Yardbird in their over of Bo Diddley’ braggart ‘I’m a Man’ and Howlin’ Wolf’ ‘Smokesak Lightning’, whih picure ex and it betrayal a a onsantly hurtling train. (The genie ‘love himney sak’ – belhing, parking phallitotemawellao entrypointforhomeburglary.) Bowie, who daringly talk rather than ing thi ong, an be hearddoingthe legendaryblueman’eerie ‘whoo-hoo’(the train’ reeding iren) a a horu. But woman get the las word on Aladdin Sane . ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ wa reportedly inpired by Claudia Lennear, an Afrian-Amerian oul inger who had been one of Ike and Tina Turner’ bak-up Ikette. (Depite widepread laim, it remain unlear whether it wa Lennear or another Amerian, Marha Hunt, mother ofMik Jagger’firs hild, who wa the model for the Rolling Stone’ ‘Brown Sugar’.) ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ beome a great arhetypal exual viion that tranend it orin – muh a Pery Byhe Shelley’ ‘Epipyhidion’ le Emilia Viviani behind. From the firs entrane of Bowie’ voie, apprehenively a apella and disorted by ehoe, we know we are in perilou territory. The title allude to Aretha Franklin’ ���� album, Lady Soul, but that phrae i now plit by a death’ head. �� ‘Grinning’ almos ertainly ome from ‘Pirate Jenny’ in The Threepenny Opera , a ong premiered by Lotte Lenya in Berlin in ���� and volanially performed at New York’ Carnee Hall in ���� by Nina Simone, who fued it with blak radial politi. (Bowie deeply admired Simone and met her in Lo Angele in ����; he reorded ‘Wild i the Wind’, from her ���� album of that name, a the finale of Station to Station.)��
Jenny i a hotel hambermaid who harbour eret thought of la revenge and pitile maare: ‘I’m kind of grinning while I’mrubbing. And you ay, “What’he gotto grin?”’ Her hilling refrain foreas the arrival of a blak fr eighter with a kull on it masheada well a the privileged hoie now handed to her: ‘Kill them now or later?’ Bowie’hambermaidimorehatelaineorool adventure than brooding, vengeful ervant, but ‘the lothe are srewn’ here too – a mey trail of exual hase. ‘Don’t be afraid of the room’, he onfidently ing, but thi i whisling in the dark (hown by hi r ie to vulnerable faletto), for he rule the womb-tomb of the female body. Aer the brik freh air of the peripateti genie, we are in a dark enory zone of intoxiating hormonal ent – ologne and ‘muky oil’ from Afrian ivet. With her full breas and impenetrable pyhe, Lady Grinning Soul repreent abolute exual differene, not the misy, blurred ground of gender experiment that Bowie normally travere. It i a if he ha ome fae to fae with Homer’ Cire or Calypo, in whoe realm men hrink to wine or lave. But he i alo a erie of other educive emme atale – Carmen (uggesed by the Spanih guitar), Gusav Klimt’ Judith (whoe uper iliou lolling head i mimiked by Bowie in hi ���� video of ‘Life on Mar?’), and Alban Berg’ heartle Lulu. The female priniple i hown a myseriou, eluive, ungrapable. ‘She will be your living end’, roon Bowie in the hypnoti, ahingly elea refrain: pleaure and pain, love and death (a inWagner’ Liebesod ) are intertwined. Any man’ vicory in ex with a woman i tranient and illuory. The genei of ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ may have been in the lyri of a Jaque Brel ong, ‘My Death’, a flawed tranlationofwhihBowiehadbeen inngontheZigStardus tour: ‘Angel or devil, I don’t are … My death wait there between your thigh.’ Bowie turned it into a sark enounter with elemental realitie,a deentto theunderworld. ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ ha hauntingly immerive atmopheri and an iniive power that sandard poetry written in Englih wa loing in the ����. Indeed, in it hair-raiing andour yet ardoni b anter, the ong bear omparion to Sylvia Plath’ avage Oedipal nurery rhyme, ‘Daddy’ (written in England in ����). ‘She ome, he goe’: Bowie’ resle, piratial traveller who trifle with men and ha a way with ard ound like a apriiou, fortune-telling Mue, flooding the artis with idea and then leaving him high and dry. Art-rok, a genre that howed enormou promie but failed to develop and deliver over time, produed only two enduring maserpiee: the Door’ ���� Freudian-Junan pyhodrama, ‘The End’, and Bowie’ ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ (whih end with virtually the ame word a begin the Door ong). Cruially ontributing to the late Romanti lyriim of ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ i Mike Garon’ amazing pianowork,a umptuoulyfloridimproviationthatexpoe the ri, fracure, illuion and turmoil of exual deire.
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Benning in an ominou mood of deadent Vienna and Berlin, Garon reate a ompelling emotional world of anxiety and entranement, tinged with pani and depair. With fi tful of vi rtuoo run and tr ill, he invo ke the mos flamboyant Romanti mui-making from Lizt and Rahmaninoff to Liberae and Ferrante and Teiher – a syle oen ued in lai movie uh a the ���� Britih film, Danerou Moonliht , where Rihard Addinell’ ‘Waraw Conerto’ i played amids the rubble of the Nazi invaion of Poland. Nina Simone ued the ame rapid, rippling piano syle to aompany herelf on the ���� album verion of ‘Wild i the Wind’. Bowie ha reportedly never performed ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ live – a tesament perhap to it exruiatingly enitive material. Aer the infeciou gaiety of ‘The Jean Genie’, thi harrowing ojourn into the female boudoir, whih i both burrow and palae, yield a Wildean revelation: men are imple, women omplex. Bowie’ theatre of gender reemble the ma-lantern how or phantamagoria that preeded the development of motion-picure projecion. The multipliity of hi gender image wa partly inpired by the rapid hange in modern art, whih had begun with neolaiim weeping away rooo in the late eighteenth entury and whih reahed a feverpithbefore,duringandaer WorldWarI.Bowie tolda TV interviewer in ����, ‘I wa alway totally bedazzled by all theartformof thetwentiethentury,andmyinterpretation ome out my way of thee art form from Expreionim to Dadaim’. ‘Even if the definition in’t undersood’, he tried to ‘break it down’ to onvey hi own ‘feeling’ to the audiene.’ �� One of Bowie’ leading ahievement i hi linkage of gender to the resle perpetual motion mahine of modern ulture. ‘I have no syle loyalty’, he ha delared. �� Hi ignature syle i ynretim – a fuion or ‘yntheiing’ (hi word) ofmanysyle that iharacerisi of latephae uh a the hybrid, polyglot Hellenisi era, when relion too eeped into one another. �� Bowie ha in fac ued the word ‘hybrid’ to deribe hi approah.�� Hi sylisi eleciim in performane genre – ombining mui hall, vaudeville, pantomime, movie, muial omedy, abaret, theatre of ruelty, modern dane, Frenh hanon and Amerian blue, folk, rok and oul – reated ountle new angle of pereption and sartling juxtapoition. A uperb example of the wayBowie bring art and gender into ingle fou wa hi adaptation of the mannequin syle, a prototypial twentieth-entury motif. A women were liberated inthe JazzAge, fahion pedup, promulgated by new media like high-budget movie and gloy magazine with vasly improvedtehnique of photographi printing. Mannequin a living model a well a department-sore dummie beame vivid ultural preene, a hown by the frequeny of elaborate fahion how equene in presige
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David Bowie of manipulated film sill from The Man Who Fell to Earth, ����–� • Film sill by David Jame •
Hollywood film like The Women (����). The way that the elf-onioumannequinsylehadbeeninsantlyaborbed by the new woman an be een in Man Ray’ ���� photograph of heire Nany Cunard with her arm robotially saked with big Afrianbanglebraelet and inAugusSander’���� photograph of a lender eretary with boyihly ropped hair at a Wes German radio sation in Cologne. Thee two womenwith theirpenetrating eye andseely emanipation apture the interexual look of avant-garde modernim and eerily antiipate the lai androny of David Bowie himelf. The mannequin theme i overt when Bowie all hi diamond dog, on the title ong of that album, ‘mannequin with kill appeal’. In the ame lyri, the hillingly faele ‘little huy’ of hi alter ego Halloween Jak wear ‘a Dalí brooh’, realling the jellied teardrop fixed to the ollarbone of Aladdin Sane. Mannequin beame automaton-like agent of what Bowie elewhere alled a ‘ritualizing of the body’ in art that interesed him. �� The Surrealis, who emerged from Dada, eized on the fahion mannequin a a ymbol of modern peronality – aertive and hard-ontoured yet empty and paralyed. They were partly following the preedent of the Metaphyial painter,GiorodeChirio,who howedgenderletailor’ dummiemaroonedintwilitdeertedplaza.(Bowie expliitly voied hi admiration for de Chirio and later repliated hi work, a well that of the Surrealis René Magritte, in the halluinatoryetforthe���� videoof‘Lovingthe Alien’.)�� Mannequin were major player in the ���� International Surrealis Exhibition in Pari, where the entry ourtyard wa dominated by Dalí’ insallation, ‘Rainy Taxi’, with it nude mannequin eated amids ��� live nail on a bed of lettue. Inide the building wa an avenue of mannequin sationed like sreetwalker and fesooned with ymboli regalia and outright junk. In ����, the Dadais Marel Duhamp, who had poed in drag a hi alter ego Rroe Sélavy for Man Ray twodeadebefore,inerteda headle,book-readingmannequin in a kimpy negligee into the window of New York’ Gotham Book Mart to advertie the lates releae by André Breton, the father of Surrealim. In the age of absracion, the plaser mannequin, o eaily hipped and eedy, wa the derelic heir of anonial life-ize Wesern ulpture in marble or bronze. The mannequin wa o artifiial that it eventuallybeamegender-neutral.Itpecralaurawawell aptured in ‘The Aer Hour’ (����) from the firs eaon of ‘The Twilight Zone’, a TV erie launhed by Ameria’ greates native Surrealis, Rod Serling: here department tore mannequin are traked a they roam, freeze and frighteningly ome alive again.
→ [��] • David Bowie on sage
during The ���� Floor Show, ���� • Photograph by Mik Rok
Bowie’sunningvariation ontheSurrealis mannequin wa that he beame it: never before had a major male artis o ompletely ubmerged himelf in a female objet de ulte. Bowie’ geniu for uing the amera a other ue a paintbruh or hiel – not from behind the amera but before it – wa dramatized in ‘The ���� Floor Show’, hi las appearane a Zig Stardus. Thi abaret-srucured programme wa re orded over t hree night in O tober ���� at the Marquee Club in London and wa broadas on Amerian TV the following month. (It wa never aired in Britain, and the film footage i evidently los.) In one routine, Bowie wore a ee-t hrough blak fi hnet body u it (deigned by him and Freddie Burretti) adorned with two gold-painted mannequin’ hand attahed to hi hes (pl �� and ��). A third hand affixed to the roth had been uttled aer a battle royal with the NBC film rew, who alo inised that Bowie over up hi blak joksrap with gold emi-legng. The two upped hand formed a bizarre braiere that made it eem a if Bowie had prouted breas. Yet ven women’ werve away from nail laquer ine the mid-����, the hand’ blak varnihed nail (a nihilis olour not yet in the female arenal) alo uggesed a man in drag: it wa a if Bowie were being exually pawed and lawed from behind by a rang queen in heat. Or wa he plit in gender and arobatially embraing himelf? – a trik (imitated by Bowie on tour) oen employed in burleque by sripper turning their bak to the audiene (pl.��). Furthermore, it eemed a if hi body were being played like a piano – not unlike the way Man Ray turned the body of Kiki de Montparnae into a enuou violin. The eye wa titillated and onfounded by an optial illuion: whih of the multiple hand, inluding that on Bowie’ glitter-heathed right arm, were the real one? Bowie’ mannequin maque wa a tremendou tour de ore , Dadais in impule and Surrealis in oneption and exeution. It fulfilled Baudelaire’ dicum in The Painter o Modern Lie that fahion hould be ‘a ublime deformation of nature’. In that one event, een only by Amerian, Bowie inerted himelf permanently into the tory of modern art. He insantly revived and renewed the Warhol legay, whih had been flagng ine Warhol wa hot and nearly killed in ����, leaving him phyially depleted and unable to advane beyond hi et formula. The Bowie broadas on NBC’ late-night variety how, ‘The Midnight Speial’, wa elecriing in itdirec addre to Amerian whohad been following the exual radialim of Warhol and hi irle ine hi pioneering hort film of the ���� – notably ‘Harlot’ (����), Warhol’ firs ound film, sarring Mario Montez a a harimati blond drag diva photographed with low, ritualisi olemnity.
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Bowie aid that Ameria had alway been ‘a myth land’ for him.�� The ‘idol’ of hi youth had been Little Rihard, the gender-bending, high-wattage rok’n’roller whom he had een in peron at the Brixton Odeon. �� Andy Warhol and hi oterie repreented the next sage in Bowie’ Anglo Amerian artisi journey.Hi ontacwith Warhol figure are well doumented. In Augus ����, Bowie aw the London producion of Pork, a elf-atirizing fare by the Warhol oterie of Andy’ obeion with goipy telephone all. (The sage wa adorned with two nude, fethingly longhaired boy.) A lew of Pork peronnel wa immediately hired by Bowie, inluding Cherry Vanilla, Tony Zanetta and Leee Blak Childer. Bowie and Warhol met jus one the following month in New York, an awkward and mutually diffident enounter from whih urvive a v ideo of the long-haired Bowie in a raffih blak hat doing a srangely elf-diembowelling mime. In hi ong, ‘Andy Warhol’ on Hunky Dory (releaed Deember ����), Bowie hailed Warhol’ pervere, voyeurisi theatriality by enviioning him a an art gallery and ‘ilver reen’, a ‘inema’ of the mind that he longed to emulate. However, the refrain ‘Andy Warhol look a ream’ upet and offended Warhol. Bowie would later ue the dead Warhol’ own wig and eyeglae to play him in Julian Shnabel’ ���� film, Baquiat (pl.���). In ����, Bowie o-produed Lou Reed’ only hit ong, ‘Walk on the Wild Side’, with it litany of drag queen and husler from the Warhol Facory. Bowie gave one of them, Joe Dalleandro, a ameo role in hi ���� video, ‘Never Let Me Down’, direced by Jean-Baptise Mondino. In it brah humour and dreamlike fantay, Pop art, a i widely aepted, wa the heir of Dada and Surrealim. But by embraing ommerial popular ulture, Pop ended the oppoitional avant-garde tradition that had been born with Romantiim.The momentumof new artsyle immediately lowed aer Pop and oon sopped altogether. No one tyle ha dominated any period ine. Thu Bowie, with hi protean multipliity of syle, mus be aknowledged a having taken the next important sep in the fine art aer Warhol. He remain Warhol’ true ueor. It i indiputable that Bowie, through hi prolifi work in the ����, wa one of the prinipal reator of performane art, whih would flood the ultural ene in the ���� and ’��. Another eminal figure in that movement, Eleanor Antin, who emerged from Amerian radial theatre and oneptual art after Fluxu, boldly delared Bowie ‘one of my favorite artis’ in ����, when he wa sill being dimied by many riti a a flahy fad. She expliitly paralleled hi reation of volatile, autonomou rodreing haracer to her own (uh a a bearded ballerina oramelanholyvagrantkingmodelledon CharleI).‘Something i in the air’, Antin aid. ‘Maybe it’ in the sar’. ��
←↑[��] • Cobweb bodyuit, ���� • Deigned by Nataha Korniloff for The ���� Floor Show •
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→ [��] • David Bowie
What Bowie and Antin were eparately formulating wa a theory of gender a repreentation or performane, anteBowie’ hoking prolamation of hi gayne to Melody edent for whih an be found in Shakepeare’ play, Maker in ���� wa unpreedented for a major sar at the where theatre beome a maser metaphor for life. Role- height of hi fame. It wa a bold and even rekle areer playing a onsitutive of identity had been a bai premie gamble. But the overall pattern of Bowie’ life ha been of oial pyholo ine the ���� and had been mos biexual, omething paradoxially far more diffiult for fully analyed in the Canadian-Amerian oiolos Erving many gay acivis to aept, then and now. Hi open marGoffman’ highly influential ���� book, The Preentation riage to the equally biexual Ane Barnett (another of hi o Sel in Everyday Lie , whih applied theatre metaphor of Amerian alliane ) went further toward b ohemianim acing, osume, prop, ript, etting and sage to oial than did the ommunal ’�� hippie ménage typified by the behaviour. (Goffman’ theory of the performative elf wa Mama & the Papa in Charlotte Amalie and Laurel Canyon. a primary oure for Mihel Fouault, to whom thee idea Hi loquaiou wife, with her brazen verve, enouraged are oen inorrecly attributed.) Gender role were in flux hi androny and helped osume it, notably apropo hi from the mid-���� well into the ’�� due to a onvergene ‘man-dree’. of diident enere fr om the reawakened women’ moveYet depite hi pioneering sand, Bowie wa on a trament in the US and from a pop ulture revolution that had jecory diverng from that of both feminim and the gay sarted even earlier in England. The uniex ruade of the liberation movement, whih prang up aer the ���� ri ot ���� wa born in mod London and pread to the world – at New York’ Stonewall Inn. Although blak and Latino drag ropped hairut, pinsriped trouer and ailor’ pea oat queen had been entral in that firs reisane to a routine forurhinrl;rimonatin,purplevelvetand flounyTom polie raid, the drag queen oon beame perona non grata Jone hirt for peaok boy. to gay men who wanted to disane themelve from the But tranexual imperonation of the kind undertaken age-old imputation of effeminay. Similarly, the women’ by David Bowie and Eleanor Antin wa omething new movement wa hosile to drag queen for their uppoed and different – or rather omething a old a Teireia, the ‘mokery’ of women. The flaming lipsik and rouge of glam haman and prophet who roed into forbidden exual rokfloutedfeminis’maflightfrom make-up:ometi terrain. Drag wa a familiar quantity in Britih mui hall, were amongthe aoutrement offemale oppreionflung with i t ramb untioul y outpo ken ‘pan tomime da me’, into a ‘Freedom Trah Can’ on the boardwalk at the famou whoe root were in the ridly onformis Vicorian era feminisprotesattheMiAmeriapageantin AtlantiCity and who begot the immenely popular entertainer Danny in ����. Bowie’ orientation toward fahion, glamour and La Rue. From the ���� on in Britain, Germany and the US, Hollywood went ompletely agains the feminis grain in gay nightlub featured drag queen doing ampy parodie the ����, when identity politi made a highly ideoloal of glamorou Hollywood sar or lip-yning to rouing ult landfall in aademe. Although ‘lipsik lebian’ emerged lai ong. (By Bowie’ formative year, the international in San Franio in the late ����, the ult of beauty would drag anthem wa Shirley Baey’ inendiary ‘Goldfinger’, not be resored to feminim until Madonna led the way in perhap the mos terriing manifesation of ruthle sar ���� with her ‘Vogue’ video glamorizing high fahion and power ever reorded.) Bowie never had a triumphalis view Hollywood love goddee. of exual liberation or gender game. He told an Amerian JusaBowiewadebutingZig Stardus,furthermore, magazine in ���� (in repone to a quesion about the ong gay men were heading in a maho direcion – firs with San ‘Boy Keep Swinng’), ‘I do not feel that there i anything Franio’ Casro Street ‘hippie lone’ look of beard, remotely gloriou about being either male or female.’ �� On T-hirtandtighthip-huggerjeanand laterwithNewYork’ the ontrary, he had alway ysematially experimented ‘Chrisopher Street lone’ uniform of thik mousahe, with diorientingupenion ofgender,a in hiode tothe flannellumberjakhirt,rivetedfarmjeanand workboot. ‘Homo Superior’, ‘Oh! You Pretty Thing’ (on Hunky Dory), The gay sereotype were already fixed by the ���� debut of where exually ambiguou boy and rl have hied into the Village People, a omedi novelty band that won urpriing mainsream aeptane. The ion-maker of that period an indeterminate ‘thing’ sate, like work of art. wa Tomof Finland, whoe ebullient beefake drawing of gantially endowed, blak-leather-lad oras haped the adomaohisi urban underground doumented by Robert Mapplethorpe’ photograph. Bowie’ firs oneion to thi trend wa the over of “Heroe” (����, pl.���), wherehe wear ao, hilyontinental blak leather jaket, offet by the angular hand gesure of an avant-garde daner. The poe ombine Nijinky’ sylized imitation of Greek vae-painting with the sigmata ene in Un Chien Andalou .
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on sage in Sotland during the Aladdin Sane tour, ���� • Photograph by Mik Rok
→ [��] • David Bowie
in Chiago during the Zig Stardus tour, ���� • Photograph by Mik Rok
Aer hi half doze n year of uneven ue on the London mui ene, Bowie’ artisi perona uddenly oaleed in the early ���� at the limax of the exual revolution. The idealim of the ’��, soked by peaeable, ommunal,ddy-makingmarijuana,had driedand salled. The Aeolian lyre, a harp hanng in the wind, wa a ardiNow dawned the ynial diilluion of the ’��, ymbol- nal metaphor for the Romanti poet, paively played upon ized by nervou, ego-inflating, jealouly ereted oaine. by the fore of nature. During hi upreme deade of the Spontaneouromantirompintheunnyorogmeadow ����, David Bowie too wa an Aeolian lyre, with the totality at Woodsok would yield to predatory salking and anony- of the fine and popular art of the time playing through him. mou pikup in murky, mobbed, deafening dio lub Even when Bowie at hi mos alienated ing in a dionant, or barriaded elite venue like Studio ��. Bowie’ arhly jagged, plintered or wandering way (partly drawing from knowingandeducivelymanipulativeZigStardus prang hi early hisory a a axophone player), there i alway a high into being at the inviible tranition into thi exiting but emotional harge to hi work. Here i hi alient disincion from the posmodernis artis and theoris of the ���� mehanially hedonisi exual landape. Although himelf a hyperacive athlete of the new lib- with their ironi ‘appropriation’ and derivative pasihe. ertinim, Bowe never viewed ex a alvation. In hi lai Bowie’ emotional expreivene, heard at it height in work, identity i a erie of gesure or poe. Sex i repre- ong like ‘Look Bak in Anger’ (whoe artis’ garret video ented a a theatrial entry into another dimenion, parallel adapt Wilde’ The Picure o Dorian Gray ), would help trigger to but not oexisent with oial reality. Like Wilde, Bowie thefoppihNewRomantimovementinBritihmui ofthe made ex a medium for a harpening of elf-onioune late ���� and ’�� that produed Duran Duran, Boy George ratherthanit Dionyianobliteration.Themegalomaniaand of Culture Club and eventually Depehe Mode. deluionalim of Zig Stardus marked the sart of the long Bowie’ empathi virtuoity i on magnifient diplay andonfuedperiodof genderrelationthatwesillinhabit. in the gopel-infleced ‘Faination’, whih he wrote with The fall of the old taboo ha not enhaned erotiim but Luther Vandro in Philadelphia for Youn Amerian. It i a perhapdonethe oppoite.Womenhavegainedwidepread ong o paionate, powerful and grand that it an be underareer satu, and homophobia ha reeded, but divore ha sood a Bowie’ artisi manifeso, addreed to no one but oared, and the exe sill ollide in bitter publi rerimina- himelf. ‘I’ve got to ue her’: if he i a drug, then it i merely tion. The evident progre in exual freedom and tolerane a oin of paage to hi inner realm. The ong deribe hi in the eular Wes – ven that it i hemmed in by populou violent eizure by and enamoured faination with hi own onervative ulture that onider it deadent – might be apiring, gender-onflating mind. He i hi own Mue. ‘Can jus a evaneent a it wa during the Roman Empire. a heartbeat / Live in the fever/ Rang inide of me?’ I there Bowie’ darker intimation about the exual and ultural room for peronal love or even life itelf for the artis driven revolution were ignalled in hi bakground v oal for Mott by unontrollable flahe of inpiration? Bowie’ memerthe Hoople’ ‘All the Young Dude’ (����), whih he wrote izing theatre of osume, mui and dane i animated by for the group when they eemed to be dibanding. The ong, merurial yet profound emotion – the univeral language with itpunkyandronoumifit(‘he dreelike aqueen that tranend gender. but he an kik like a mule’), wa widely interpreted a a elebration of the glam rok inurgeny, but Bowie warned that it wa ‘no hymn to the youth’ but ‘ompletely the oppoite’, a prelude to ‘the end of the Earth’.�� That sorm loud were alreadygatheringoverthedefiantnewdandiean beened in the ong’ dirge-like foreboding, nowhere learer than in the unforgettable refrain, ‘All the young dude arry the new’: the moothly harmonizing Bowie break ‘new’ into two yllable, a rupture that ound like a ob (boo-hoo). It wa oraular preiene: the apoalype ame a deade later a the plague of AIDS, whih deimated an entire generation of ed young writer, artis, muiian and fahion sylis.
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↑→[��] • ‘Angel of Death’ red vinyl osume, ���� • Deigned by Freddie Burretti for The ���� Floor Show • ↓[��] • David Bowie and Marianne Faithfull
on sage during The ���� Floor Show, ���� • Photograph by Mik Rok
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OH! YOU
PRETTY THINGS
[] The weapon of the Wild Boy i a bowie knife, an ��-inh bowie knife, did you know that? [] An ��-inh bowie knife … you don’t do thing by halve, do you? No, I didn’t know that wa their weapon. The name Bowie jus appealed to me when I wa younger. I wa into a kind of heavy philoophy thing when I wa �� year old, and I wanted a truim about utting through the lie and all that. [] Well, it ut both way, you know, doubleedged on the end. [] I didn’t ee it utting both way till now. A. CraigCopeta, ‘BeatGodfather Meet Glitter Mainman’ (Rollin Stone , �� February ����)
←[��] • David Bowie with William
S. Burrough, February ���� • Photograph by Terry O’Neill with olour by David Bowie •
On �� February ����, Rollin Stone publihed a remarkable enounter between David Bowie and William S. Burrough (pl.��). Entitled ‘Beat Godfather Meet Glitter Mainman’, the event had been hosed in November ���� by the Amerian journalis A. Craig Copeta, who hoped to ‘develop a new inter view syle’. A publihed it took the form of a Q & A between the writer and the muiian that, in r etropec, wa an inpired piee of poitioning for both partie. David Bowie wa then at the zenith of hi pop sar yle. Five day before the over date, B owie’ lates ingle, ‘Rebel Rebel’, entered the Britih hart, where it would peak at number five. It’ a powerful roker – built around an irreisibleriff– thatiaimeddireclyat hiaudiene:‘You’vegotyour mother in a whirl aue he’/ Not ure if you’re a boy or a rl/ Hey babe, your hair’ alright/ Hey babe let’ say out tonight/ You like me and I like it all/ We like daning and we look divine’. With it teen add re, deep and rogyny and danehall imperative, ‘Rebel Rebel’ wa very muh in a line with previou Bowie hit like ‘John, I’m Only Daning’ and ‘The Jean Genie’. But although nobody knew it at the time, it would be the las in that equene. For Bowie wan’t a traditional pop sar, happy to be known for one ound or one idea and then be quikly diarded by a fikle publi. That wa the Zig Stardus soryline and he wa determined to avoid the fate of hi ficional alter eo. Late ���� aw Bowie at a partiular roroad. Stardom had ome hard and fas, aer a long apprentiehip. ���� had been hi breakthrough year, with three hit ingle and an extraordinarily ueful album – The Rie and Fall o Zig Stardus and the Spider rom Mar . Hi ue pulled into the hart previou album like Hunky Dory, Spae Oddity and The Man Who Sold the World a new fan delved into hi pas. He beame a kind of impreario, produing hit reord for Lou Reed (‘Walk on the Wild Side’) and Mott the Hoople (‘All the Young Dude’) and promoting the mos feral rok group then in exisene, Ig and the Stooge. Zigmania – a it wa oined – had begun, but thi wa omething more than sardom. David Bowie had beome a phenomenon, the kind of performer that ome along jus one in a generation, and pull the whole ulture along in hiorher wake.Hionlyontemporaryompetitor–Mar Bolan and Rod Stewart – did not have quite hi allure or hi utting edge: during thi period, Bowie wa moving faser and further than the media whih wa trying to ontain him. ���� aw no let up: with the Spider from Mar, Bowie touredAmeriaandJapan,travellingbak bytrainthrough Ruia and Wes Germany. A new album, Aladdin Sane, beame Bowie’ firs number one. It oinided with the peak of fan mania during the group’ ��-date UK tour (pl.��) through the pring and early ummer – and, thank to Pierre La Rohe’ red and blue ‘lighting flah’ make-up, erved up the ingle mos identifiable image of Bowie for fan and the general publi alike.
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Zig wa on the point of aturation. The peed at whih thi wa happening an be judged Theenounterwentwell:a Copetawrote,‘therewaimmediate fromanarhetypallow-endteen produc. Aladdin liking and repec between the two’. Both partie were equally aware Sane wa releaed in Apr il ����. Two month later, of what they had to offer eah other. For Burrough, who had been New Englih Library publihed the novel Glam by Rihard Allen – the ixth book in the Skinhead publihing ground-breaking book for twenty year without muh appreiable finanial return, it wa the aoiation with fame and erie, the ���� equivalent of penny dreadful. the mui indusry, a well a the poible benefit: a wider reader With atag line thatread ‘Johnny Holland fight to hip, poible film hook-up and more money. say idol of a million fan’, the over how a young Burrough had already had a bruh with pop: he met Paul man with a poorly exeuted red and blue flah right down hi fae. MCartney everal time in late ���� and early ���� – having et up a tape sudio with Ian Sommerville in MCar tney’ Montagu In June ����, Bowie deided to kill off Zig. It Square flat – and had been rewarded with a ameo portrait on the wa an i npired pi ee of t iming: the look, ulture over of St. Pepper’ Lonely Heart Club Band . He wa an underand attitude that he had fosered were in danger of ground pre saple and a ounter-ultural influene, not the being totally aimilated and upereded. Glam rok leas in the oinage of group name like the Inec Trus and it wa alled, a ombination of hard rok flah, oen then urrent hot favourite Steely Dan. aburdilverosumeand anattempted,andronou Bowie’ need were le obviou, but nonethele urgent. glamour. By the middle of ����, the purity and power of Bowie’ initial breakthrough had beome dulled by Searhing for an exit from onventional pop sardom, he needed another way of working and a different kind of imitation and repetition – the full supidity of fahion/ publi perona. Literary ahet offered the hane of a trendevaneene:here today,gonetomorrow.Diluted deeper,widerandmore permanentulturalrelevane,while element of hi breakthrough syle were all over the pop Burrough in partiular had an impeable avant-garde hart: Sweet, Mud, Alvin Stardus . Bowie idesepped the iue with Pin Up, an exerie reputation and an image that wa at one forbidding and forbidden, remote and ulturally potent. in reative notalgia in whih he overed hard-edged, Mos of all, Burrough had a tehnique that would experimental mod ingle: ‘Roalyn’ by the Pretty Thing, enable Bowie to retool hi entire method of writing lyr‘I Wih You Would’ and ‘Shape of Thing’ by the Yardbird i and making mui (pl.��). During the early ����, (whoe lead guitaris Jeff Bek had guesed at the final Zig how), ‘I Can’t Explain’ and ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere’ by Burrough and hi olleague, the painter and writer Brion Gyin, had developed the ut-up a a method of the Who. Thee reord were, a he wrote in the leeve note, viual and verbal reaembly that wa equally applia‘among my favourite from the “��–��” period of London’. ble to painting, montaged artwork, alligraphy, tape That wa the period when Bowie wa not a leader but a manipulation and the word. It offered, in fac, a whole follower: a young man, sill in hi teen, trying to make hi way in the mui indusry and sruggling to find an orinal new way of eeing. The ut-up had originated when Gyin lied voie. The mid ���� had haped him, by insilling an idea of through a pile of newpaper with hi Stanley knife experimentalim, of a true modernim. By returning to the oure, Bowie hoped to buy time and gather sr ength. By late while utting mount fo r hi latet piture . He rehuffled the hredded newprint and wa fai����, he wa not jus a pop sar but a ulture leader, the fou nated by the way the hopped picure and word for everal miro-generation of fan, ranng from teen to reated a new narrative. When Burrough aw the twenty-omething urban ophisiate. And he wa looking to reult a few day later, he realized that thi wa not puh them, and himelf, forward into unharted territory. So the November meeting with William Burrough wa well jus a new working tool – one that wa reminient of ome Dada experiment – but a different way timed. In ����, the author wa well known, but not the ult he of proeing and interpreting time. would later beome. He wa near the end of hi time in London, A Bu rrough oberve d in hi e ay ‘The where he had lived ine ����, and hi burs of early ��� � reaCut-Up Method of Brion Gyin’, tivity – brought on by the diovery of the ut-up tehnique – had lowed down omewhat. However in ���� he publihed The Wild ut-up are for everyone. Anybody Boy: A Book o the Dead , a nightmarih viion of a future (dated ����) an make ut-up. It i experimental overrun by ‘adoleent guerilla armie of peialized humanoid’. in the ene of being omethin to do . Bowie later sated that he got ‘the hape and the look of what Right here right now … Cutting and Zig and the Spider were going to beome’ from The Wild Boy and Stanley Kubrik’ ���� film verion of Anthony Burge’ novel rearranng a page of written word introdue a new dimenion into A Clokwork Orane (����): ‘They were both powerful piee of work, writing enabling the writer to turn epeially the marauding boy gang of Burrough’ Wild Boy with their image in inemati variation. bowie knive. I got sraight on to that. I read everything into everything. Image hi ene under the iEverything had to be infinitely ymboli.’ or mell image to ound ight to ound ound to kinesheti. ���
↑[��] • David Bowie and Mik Ronon on sage during
the Zig Stardus tour, ���� • Photograph by Mik Rok
What attraced many young people in the ���� and ’�� to the ut-up wa the way in whih it enabled the uer to proe and reprogramme the inreaing volume of heer data – the proliferation of media, newprint and the like during thoe year – and the way in whih it delivered a proe syle that enoded thi aeleration of time. The ut-up narrative wa fas, aymmetrial, hopped in lo and, like a Piao painting, it wa a jump ut in the fabri of time: it made the future preent. Bowie had long been fainated by iene ficion: the entral premie of ‘Five Year’ – the firs trak on Zig Stardus – wa that, in hi own word, ‘You ee,’ he admitted to ‘the world will end beaue of lak of natural reoure’. Indeed, the bulk of the interview with Burrough hinged on thi mutual interes – ranng Burrough a their onveration began to ome to a loe, ‘trying to from diuion about the peed of life, the media-ponored ‘ealating rate of hange’, fracured attention pan, infraound, blak noie, tart the rok buine up a bit i getting nearer to what the kid themelve are Andy Warholand Wilhelm Reih’ Orgone Aumulator. like, beaue what I find, if you want to Thi wa enough to projec him forward. Having read Burrough’ ut-up novel Nova Expre to prepare for the i nterview, Bowie applied talk in the term of rok, a lot depend on enationalim and the kid are a lot more the tehnique to the word and ound of hi next album, the darkly dysopian Diamond Do – a fuion of Burrough and George Orwell. enational than the sar themelve. The The ut-up, a he admitted later, perfecly uited hi own fragmented rok buine i uually a pale hadow of what th e kid’ live are u ually like. T he onioune, and it alo enabled him to ut through the tangle of expecation and image that threatened to low him down. It ped admiration ome from the other ide.’ David Bowie aw hi audiene raw and everything up. loe-up in ���� and ���� (pl.��). He knew The meeting with Burrough wa a momentou a Craig Copeta hoped it would be. A well a enhaning the author’ fame their srength, their weaknee, and he relihed their diverity. He knew he and they were and redibility, it helped to et Bowie’ trajecory for the next few year –a erie ofdazzling phyialand artisi hange thatwould a kind of mutation, and that empowered him to puh himelf and hi fan a far and fas a he and not low until the early ����. Bowie beame the pop sar a harthey would go. He felt and hoped that they would binger of the future, at the ame a he injeced many of Burrough’ idea and tehnique into the mainsream of popular ulture. follow him, and they did, paing through their own rite of paage: glam roker, oul boy, punk and Within five year of Zig,the punk were enacing The Wild Boy on the sreet of London, Manheser, Liverpool and other eventually, in ����, the New Romanti. Thoe year paralleled the rapid development in itie in Britain – a if to promote and preview an inevitable olubultural theory that, in the hand of Phil Cohen, lape of oiety. Many aount of punk aentuate it oial realim, but it alo had a very srong iene ficion element, Dik Hebdige and other, ought to define and explain the extraordinary proliferation of youth type in Britain. projecing into a oneivable nightmare future. The mui developed further the hopped aeleration that Bowie had The proe had begun way bak in the ���� with the previewed on Diamond Do and it ontinued the dysopian Edwardian, the Ted, who had mixed a srong ene of syle with a penhant for violene and mayhem that made preoupation of that album. Few ould have foreeen in ���� a youth ulture that them front page new. The onnecion wa made: Youth + Strange Clothe = Trouble. took many of it ue from a figure like Burrough, but Bowie aw it and helped to bring it about. A a harimati The key doument wa Stanley Cohen’ Folk Devil and Moral Pani (����), whih offered a oioloal and rimisar, he ould pull a whole ecion of hi audiene into the noloal analyi of the infamou mod/roker riot of E aser future – and he ould do it oniouly. Aer all, he had been in the audiene himelf, a a real-time teenager, and ����. In hi introducion, Cohen noted that one of the ‘mos reurrent type’ of ma-media moral pani wa aoiated with he undersood the dynami of publi performane with a the violent and delinquent behaviour of youth type marked out larity that very few sar have had before or ine. by their dre and attitude: ‘the Teddy Boy, the Mod and Roker, the Hell’ Angel, the Skinhead and the Hippie’. David Bowie had enountered almos all of thee group in the mid to late ���� and, in ome ae, tried to live out their tenet in hi own life. Hi relationhip to youth ubulture i omplex and fainating,aithadowhidevelopmentaanartis andama-media performer. He ben a a follower, trying thing out before he ben to find hi individual voie; he then beome an outider, a he attempt to develop that voie; when he find it, he beome a leader – reating youth ulture in hiown image. ← [��] • David Bowie and Mik Ronon on sage in Japan during the Zig Stardus tour, ���� • Photograph by Maayohi Sukita
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In June ����, Davie Jone and the King Bee releaed their one and only ingle, ‘Liza Jane’. Taken from the Slim Harpo ong – ‘I’m A King Bee’ – overed to great effec by the Rolling Stone on their firs album, the group’ name attempted to lot right into the firs wave of Britih Pop R&B then making the hart. The A-ide wa areaonable R&B faimile, writtenby manager Lelie Conn, while the flip, ‘Louie Louie Go Home’ wa a Paul Revere and the Raider ong later overed by the Who. David Jone – a he wa then – wa ��. He had already been involved with mui for two year, joining the Kon-rad – a Shadow-type insrumental group – bak in June ����. Thi wa a tranformative period in Britih pop ulture and the few picure of Jone tell the sory: within �� month he ha hanged from a plasi roker hairdo, all quiffed up (pl.��), to a Beatle fringe and, for the promo of ‘Liza Jane’, a beatnik mod – ru with a tab ollar, jus like Mik Jagger (pl.��). A a late t een, Jone wa pe rfetly plaed to tr ak t he hange, week by week, month by month. Livi ng at home with hi parent in Bromley, uburban outh-eas London, meant that he wa loe enough to viit the ity entre, but far enough away to get ome perpecive. For a time, he worked in an advertiing ageny: the lai mod lou later explored in the film of the Who’nosal examinationof thehigh ixtie, Quadrophrenia . During ���� and ����, David Jone bouned between a variety of muial genre, a number of different group and an almos bewildering parade of hair and lothe syle. Aer the failure of ‘Liza Jane’, there were the Manih Boy: for thi inarnation, Jone aumed the long, sraight, hag hairsyle of the then-ontroverial and popular Pretty Thing – and attraced ome media attention of hi own with hi ficitiou Soiety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men. Their only ingle, produed by Shel Talmy (the Kink, the Who) waa quantum leap from ‘LizaJane’: ‘IPity The Fool’ wa a runhy over of a Bobby Bland ong, with an aured voal and a fiery guitar olo from eion guitaris Jimmy Page. The flip, ‘Take My Tip’, i the inger’ firs-ever reorded ompoition, an engang jazz huffle in the vein of Geore Fame – then London’ hard-ore mod favourite with a number one under hi belt (‘Yeh Yeh’) and a reideny in Soho’ Flamingo Club. Aer the Manih Boy, there wa theLower Third, whom Jone met at the Gioonda offee bar in Denmark Street, Soho – London’ Tin Pan Alley. With Talmy, they reorded one Who/Kink ound-alike ��, ‘You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving’ – replete with two wild, atonal guitar break in the vein of ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere’. In the ummer, Jone ut off hi long hair and aumed the bouffant, Frenh mod syle; in September, he adopted the sage name of Bowie. Bowie alo appeared in a fahion hoot with Jan De Souza that September. Taken by Fiona Adam and printed in Fabulou magazine, the photo how the young-looking inger radling a violin while dreed in the lates mod gear – wide whale ord, a polo-syle hirt and a hort fringe ut. Thi wa the period when Bowie beame, in hi own word, a ‘trendy mod’, and the mani London youth ulture began to upply him with idea for hi own ong – material that would go deeper than anything hitherto.
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In ����, Bowie releaed four ingle that, to varying degree, explored hi relationhip to the peer ubulture of the day. ‘Can’t Help Thinking About Me’ wa promoted by a Cyru Andrew photo that preent Bowie a the young mod around town, half a boy and half a man, with a perfec hairut and a lim, highly patterned, almos Op-art tie, and the ong apture that onf ued mixture of adoleent hyne, the deire to fit in and the need to sand out. The eond ingle with Bowie’ new group, the Buzz, ‘I Dig Everything’ wa another jazzy huffle, enlivened by a Hammond organ and Latin peruion. It’ a ong about the poibilitie and drawbak of independent, teen London life: ‘Got a baksreet room in the bad part of town and I dig everything’. The lyri take in oded drug ue (‘a onnecion named Paul’), uperfiial friendhip and a deep, deep loneline: ‘I’ve made good friend with the time-hek rl on the end of the phone’. Releaed at the end of the year, ‘The London Boy’ i Bowie’ firs maserpiee: an unflinhing diecion of Soho’ mod ubulture ung in a quiet, preie tone and enhaned by a ympatheti bra arrangement. The firs two vere reviit the territory of ‘I Dig Everything’ but the third lay it all out: ‘Oh, the firs time that you tried a pill/ You feel a little queay, deidedly ill/ You’re gonna be ik, but you musn’t loe faith/ To let yourelf down would be a big digrae with the London boy, with the London boy’. The ong alo extend the examination of the individual/ peer relationhip that Bowie had begun on ‘Can’t Help Thinking About Me’: ‘You’re eventeen, but you think you’ve grown/ In the month you’ve been away from your parent’ home’. In the final minute, Bowie open up hi voal hord anddeliverthepay-off:‘Nowyou wihyou’dneverleyour home/ You’ve got what you wanted but you’re on your own/ With the London boy’. ‘The London Boy’ wa powerful and heartfelt: it alo marked the moment when Bowie – aer three or o year of aiduouly following the trend, of trying to fit in – made the break with hi peer ulture and began to go hi own way. An avid lub-goer, he had een the Pink Floyd, fronted by the harimati and andronou Syd Barrett, but deided not to join them and a whole ecion of the mod ult in the next youth ulture blowing in from the Wes Coas. In ����, Bowie releaed hi firs, elf-titled album. It’ almos defiant in the way that it ontain almos no trae of ontemporary pop mode. Depite Bowie’ deep interes in Buddhim, he had no ympathy with the hippie pakage: the reord wa a srange mixture of exaggerated, okney voal – inpired both by Anthony Newley and Syd Barrett – intriate arrangement and ong that ontantly hifted tone and mood, from horror to fare, from Edwardiana to fairy tale and bak again.
→ [��] • Publiity
photograph for The Kon-rad, ���� • Photograph by Roy Ainworth •
One ong in partiular, ‘Join The Gang’, takled the day’ pyhedeli ulture: ‘Let me introdue you to the gang/ Johnny play the itar, he’ an exisentialis/ One he had a name, now he play our game/ You won’t feelo goodnow thatyou’ve joinedthe gang’. The jauntypiano melody inlude nippet of itar, a nath of ‘Keep on Running’ and hearty rapberrie during the insrumental break: ‘Thi i what to do The onvoluted lyri i ouhed a a dialogue between the voie of the rowd and their leader, the Thinker, ‘growing older now that you’re here/ Sit around doing nothing all together very fas’. and o bitter’, oon to be deerted like Zig Stardus would be ‘It’ a big illuion but at leas you’re in’, Bowie ang, but a a teentwo and a half year hene: ‘I gave them life, I gave them all. They ager he had oen felt like an outider looking in. He would remain o drained my very oul … dry’. In Bowie’ voie, ounter-ulture for the next few year: ‘I wa never a flower hild’, he told Cameron Crowe in early ����. ‘I wa alway a ort of throwbak to the Beat logan like ‘Kik Out the Jam’ and ‘Love I All We Need’ rang a hollow a he felt they did in the dog day of ����. At the time, period in my early thinking. So when the hippie ame along with however, there eemed to be little alternative. all their funny tie-dye and thing, it all eemed naive and wrong. It In early ����, Bowie took what were in retropec two ruial didn’t have a bakbone.’ sep. He hired guitaris Mik Ronon, whoe alpel-harp tone Hifirshart breakthroughturnedthatalienationintoatimely parable. Coinidental with the firs moon landing, ‘Spae Oddity’ would add that rok’n’roll element that fuelled hi rie to upersardom. With Ronon, produer Tony Vionti and drummer John preented pae travel not a a breakthrough for mankind but Cambridge, he formed hi firs elecri group ine ����: when merely an expenive journey to omplete iolation. A an expreion of Bowie’ tendeny toward dysopia, it wa alo a r eative they played the Roundhoue in Camden in Marh, Bowie wore ilver lothe and performed a verion of ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’ extrapolation from hi sate of mind: if you feel out of yn with the world, then imaning that you’re a pae boy or a pae rl i by the Velvet Underground. Thee were early ign of the glitter and the glam – androny a a workable fantay. the sylisi ounterpoint to hippie earthine and earnesne. For It wan’t quite that imple. Bowie did partake of the pervading idealim when he helped to found the Bekenham Art Lab, a loal in attendane at the Roundhoue wa Bowie’ ontemporary, friend and rival Mar Bolan, a very early mod who had gone through a imilar outh London experiment in audiene partiipation and engagement that ran from pring ���� until the end of the year. A well tour through the ixtie mui indusry a a olo artis and with the band John’ Children. Bolan ontributed a guitar part to Bowie’ a other muiian like Mar B olan and Tuker Zimmerman, the Marh����ingle,‘ThePrettiesStar’,butthe atmopherewatene. BuddhismonkChimeYoungdungRinpoheand LionelBart,the ompoer of Oliver!, were invited to ve talk and performane. Bowie’ ue had brought jealouy, but the table would oon be turned. In ����, Bolan limmed down hi band name from In Augus ���� the Art Lab organized a free fesival in a Tyrannoauru Rex to T.Rex and went fully elecri: in Ocober, ‘Ride Bekenham park: the next month, “Spae Oddity” re-entered a White Swan’ went into the hart – the firs of eight top ten hit (and the Top ��, where it would eventually peak at number five. four number one) within two year. Bolan beame a huge teen ion – Bowie had beome a pop sar, and the brief illuion of unity and inluivene that had usained the Art Lab oon hattered. ‘In not jus a pop sar but a ma-media enation, under the brand name of T.Rexsay – a well a the leader of a new pop generation. thoe day I ued to be very oial and idealisi,’ he told Andrew Bowie’ feeling about hi ontemporary were ambivalent: hene Lyett in ����. ‘But the people didn’t ome along to take part in any of the acivitie. They ame along to be entertained. the parody of Bolan’ trademark high warble on ‘Blak Country Rok’. However ���� and early ���� aw him srangely paralyed, unable to And that beame even wore when “Spae Oddity” beame ueful. Then they ame along to ee David Bowie the sar. rie to the hallenge of the new generation gap. The Man Who Sold the World wa an intropecive album that explored highly peronal theme – There were ome good thing we did though: the highlight wa madne, the gnosi tradition, the nature of leader and follower – in a beautiful free fesival that we put on in Bekenham with no name group at all and �,��� people ame along to it. It wa omedepth.Itqualitiewouldrevealthemelve,butitwa notyetpop. In January ����, David Bowie turned ��. Time began to aelera te: wonderful. But I realize they wanted a dicator. They didn’t want a ommunallife. They wantedto be organized’. the doldrum dipered. During that year, he releaed two album in the UK and reorded the bulk of another. He viited the US twie, igning Bowie’ next album, alo alled David Bowie, ontained a major deal with RCA Reord and meeting uh touhsone a Andy two view of the Art Lab. ‘Memory of a Free Fesival’ wa wide-eyed and gentle: ‘Oh to tase jus one drop of all the Warhol,Ig Stooge,Moondogand theVelvet Underground without Lou Reed. He reorded and wrote ingle for other artis, and he began to esay that wept that aernoon’. The ong ended with a viualize himelf into beoming omething more than a pop sar. ‘Hey Jude’-type fade on the lyri ‘the un mahine i going In June, Peter Noone – formerly teen sar Herman, lead inger of down, we’re going to have a party’. In ontras, the nineHerman’ Hermit – had a top twenty hit with ‘Oh! You Pretty Thing’, a minute ‘Cygnet Committee’ unfold with all the fore of a blas from the id, a Bowie le hi group and their dream ong that refleced Bowie’ faination with the impending apoalype at the ame time a it addreed the new generation: ‘Oh you pretty thing/ of ollecive acion behind. Don’t you know you’re driving your mama and papa inane’. At the ame time, the parent were warned: ‘Look at your hildren/ See their fae in golden ray/ Don’t kid yourelf they belong to you/ They’re the sart ← [��] • Sheet mui for ‘Liza Jane’, ���� • Davie Jone with the King-Bee • Dik Jame Mui of a oming rae’. Limited •
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Bowie reorded the ong for hi new album, Hunky Dory , whih –releaed rightat theend ofthe year– laidthe foundation foundation for hi impending breakthrough. It’ a world away from the dene, Bowie poke to the weirdo, the outider, and thoe teen and posoen onfued ound of The Man Who Sold the World: a ollecion teen up for a bit of exitement. In May ����, Bowie refleced on how he of mainly light and parely arranged ong that ounded pontaneou, while paying homage to exising heroe – Andy Warhol, had ‘reated a omewhat srange audiene – but it’ alo full of little Noddy Holder, and little Ig Pop. I know we ued to attrac a lot of “queen” at Bob Dylan, the Velvet Underground – in a way that aid, ‘I’ve one sage but then other facion of people rept in. Now you an’t tell. aimilated the leon: I’m next!’ They’re all there for ome r eaon. And we get young people. Thoe lovely ‘Queen Bith’ wa the key: a hard roker with lyri and a young people. And they have tobe onidered very eriouly’. enario that plugged direcly into the gay ubulture. Mik Ronon’ guitar provided the edge of insability and exitement On �� May ����, Bowie and the Spider from Mar played at Earl Court, a avernou Deo venue in wes London, and Cream ent along a that would mark thi period of Bowie’ mui and a mall note writer andphotographer to to reordthe event.Julie Welh deribed the on the revere leeve gave the ontext: ‘(Some V.U, White Light audiene a ‘mall urrying group of people, mos the reult of posReturnedWithThank)’.(Formore,inludinga orhingverion war opulation’. She noted ‘ablue ea ofdenim, the beautiful young, of ‘White Light, White Heat’, lisen to the BBC Radio eion from late ���� and early ���� on the Bowie at the Beeb album.) the omi young, rl in their ballet hoe, here and there the butterfly element (men like Bowie) in gold hain and hattered dr ee’. ���� wa the year that Andy Warhol and hi world beame Mik Gold’ photo tell another sory. There are the teen with a feature within Britih pop ulture. The firt three Velvet Underground album were reiued, to more alaim and ale their bipperty-bopperty hat, but there are alo well-dreed and foppih young men in jaket, bow tie and white glove; a perfecly than they had had the firs time around. In Augus Warhol’ Pork – a lie of hi world, edited down into a play from ��� hour of hi dreed roker with prayed-on, sudded jean, a leevele T-hirt, a sudded wrisband and long quiffed hair reahing hi houlder telephone onveration – opened at the Roundhoue to tabloid (pl.��). Hi partner i dreed up in thirtie/fortie finery, with a outrage. Several of the as would beome integral to Bowie in hi pop-sar phae. long patterned dre, bangle, a igarillo and a flower behind her ear. Another ouple eay the Frenh exisentialis look, with In late ���� Bowie wa buy working the media, arefully poitioning himelf in ontras to the pop ulture of the day. ‘I feel belted white oat and an intene air (pl.��). Thi i not jus an audiene, but a ulture. The early ���� we’re all in a fuking dead indusry that that really relate to nothing were a retrotime, whenfahion from thetwentie, thirtie and anymore,’ he told Cream magazine. ‘The mos important peron in Europe and England today i Mar Bolan, not beaue of what fortie were eaily available in harity hop and market sall and were plundered for ontemporary look. Bowie’ onsant he ay but beaue he i the firs peron who ha lathed onto the reinvention – the idea that the world i a onsantly revolving ener of the young one again. He ha got hi dicatorhip fixed sage – and hi powerful aura (Welh again: ‘he wa utilizing hi up. He’ kind of neuter and he ha that sar quality. That i very mos plendid , hi ene of largene and glory’) empowimportant. Mar Bolan i the new angry young man. Mar Bolan ha that angry young life. You an quote me on that. I alo like Ig ered hi audiene to attempt the ame on the sreet of itie around the UK, in a living ut-up (pl.��). Stooge and the Flaming Groovie. Rok hould tart itelf up a bit Aer the demie of the Spider, Bowie Bowie los ome ome of the more, you know. People are ared of prositution. There hould be ome real unabahed prositution in thi buine.’ loene that he had had with hi audiene. Foreign tour, elaborate onept and the deleteriou effec of uperHow to ut through the half-baked produc of a dead indutry? In January ����, Bowie wa interviewed by Mihael Watt of sardom meant that he would no longer ee the white of their eye and hear the beating of their heart in quite the the Melody Maker , who wrote: ame way. In thi, ‘Rebel Rebel’ read like the ending of David’ preent image i to ome on like a wihy queen, the phae that had begun with ‘Oh! You Pretty Thing’. Bowie’ interview with William Burrough ame at a gorgeouly effeminate boy. He’ a amp a a row of tent, with hi limp hand and trolling voabulary. ‘I’m the end of hi intimate pop sar phae. It projeced him into a new et of engagement that aw him beome gay,’ he ay, ‘and alway have been, even when I wa more diengaged, more absraced – indeed more alien: David Jone.’ But there’ a ly jollity about how he ay it, a eret mile at the orner of hi mouth. a trajecory enhrined on film by Niola Roeg in The Man Who Fell to Earth . Thi wa deliberate: Bowie had beome a leader but, a he had written in ‘Cygnet The addition of an eletri hard-rok ound and a New Committee’ and ‘Zig Stardus’, the leader alway York attitude – gay onfrontation, lie-of-life lyri and a mos get deerted by hi follower. The trik wa to withun-Englih diretne – to Bowie’ Bowie’ exiting preoupation (alienation, iene ficion, the nature of rowd) puhed him draw before they deerted you. further and faser than he ould have imaned. A hi sar roe, Mar Bolan’ began to falter, but Bowie’ wa a more omplex pakage – one that appealed not jus to the teeny-bopper, but a muh wider ubultural onsitueny.
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David Bowie fan outide Earl Court during the Aladdin Sane tour, �� May ����• ���� • Photograph by Mik Gold
Bowie’ inreaingly remote perona and ever moreradialimage/oundhangedidn’t prevent the publi from buying hi reord: although hi ingle ale dropped from the ����–� peak, hi album would all make the top five until the end of the deade. Muially, hi hardore fan would follow him wherever he direced: into iene fitiondysopia,ontemporaryAmerianoul mui, iy motorik and the ambient insrumental of Low and “Heroe”. Hi ubultural influene would ontinue to be srong: in the Soul Boy of ���� and ����, with their Jerome Newton hairdo and plasi andal, and the bizarre, artoon-like punk that began to emerge from London’ outer uburb in ����. The mos viible of thee were ven a group name, the Bromley Contingent, and they howed the depth of Bowie’ influene in their dre and demeanour. In the mid-����, Siouxie Sioux lived in Bromley: like Bowie had, he made trip up to town, in her ae to the Biba building in Kenington High Street. I wa beotted with Art Deo, Art Nouveau. That wa my ea pe from humdr um. I thin k Bowie and Roxy [Mui] had a big part in that. Whoever lathed on to them then were that way inlined. The whole thing, not jus the mui. It aroued omething that wa dormant, that wa auing frusration. Her friend Steve Severin alo lived in Bromley: Something had to happen. Mainly earhing for people with hared interet. I think it wa all parked by Bowie. A lot of the people at the onert didn’t look a if they ould undersand what he wa about. Following Bowie loely led you to all ort of other thing, to Burrough and Lou Reed and Ig Pop. There wa a whole world behind it, rather than jus omeone ele with a band. In ����, the two friend formed one of the firs punk band, Siouxie and the Banhee. They were only among the mos obviou example of jus how deep Bowie’ influene had been on thi generation, jus old enough to be bowled over by hi ���� breakthrough. They were attraced, a were many other, by the idea that Bowie wa an artis and that pop ulture wa a plae to be experimental and onfrontational, a plae where outider ould gain viibility and take their revenge. David Bowie turned �� in January ����. Jus a hi hildren flooded the media with angry noie and blank poe – in an eho of Diamond Do and the Stooge’ Raw Power – he wa into hi next phae with Low , an album of two fae: one ide of hort, lipped ong with ut-up mui and ut-up lyri, and another of longer, atmopheri yntheizer insrumental. Hi eond album of the year, “Heroe”, flehed out thi dihotomy to even greater effec.
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In doing o, Bowie helped to et the elecroni syle that took over one punk wa exhaused: the wave of yntheizer group, like the Human League, that beame very ueful in the early ����. One again, he eemed to be upernaturally in touh with future trend – jus like the Beatle had been in the ����. But he wa nolongerinvolved intimatelywith youth youth ubulture, ubulture, nor did hi ontinued relevane depend on thi loene. Bowie takled thi direcly in a trak from the ���� album Sary Monser (and Super Creep) .‘TeenageWildlife’typifie‘one of the new wave boy/ Same old thing in brand new drag/ Come weeping into view, oh ho ho ho ho ho/ A ugly a a teenage millionaire/ Pretending it’ a whizz kid world’. Even in hi thirtie, Bowie ontinued to leave to hi individualim, hi outider satu: ‘But they move in number and they’ve got me in a orner/ I feel like a group of one, no-no/ They an’t do thi to me/ I’m not ome piee of teenage wildlife’. The hit ingle from the album wa ‘Ahe to Ahe’, a number one reord that lyrially appeared to loe the yle that had begun with ‘Spae Oddity’, �� year before. Shot by David Mallett, the groundbreaking video featured Bowie in Pierrot osume walking along a beah with the mos florid example of the lates youth ubulture that he had inpired: the New Romanti, who fued everal period of Bowie – Aladdin Sane , Station to Station, and Low – all at one. In the ame year, Bowie filmed a live appearane for the Wes Germanfilm Chrisiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnho Zoo ,thelightly ficionalized sory of a teenage drug addic in Berlin. Bowie wa preented at the entre of German youth ulture, while the ity of Berlin wa re-enviioned by the ue of a oundtrak that inluded the ambient insrumental from Low and “Heroe”. It wa the mospopular German film of ����. Bowie didn’t releae a new reord for another ouple of year,while he he freedhimelffrom hiontracualobligationto RCA Reord and former manager Tony Defrie. He returned in April ���� withthe number one one ingle andalbum Let’ Dane – a srong mixture of blue-rok guitar and ontemporary dane mui promoted by the frehly ubiquitou medium of the pop promo. In the video for the reord’ ingle, Bowie wa tanned, healthy, eemingly at peae with hi demon. Let’ Dane ha been retropecively aeed in term of it extraordinary ue, but at the time there wa no guarantee that it would work. It may well mark the ‘normalization’ of David Bowie, but there i another ide to the sory. One forgotten highlight of the album i a brief, melodi love ong, ‘Without You’, You’, ung tenderly and without irony. Like the album a a whole it ontain no youth ulture referene, and indeed it reveal Bowie to be freed from thee onsraint, freed to be what he i: anindividual and an adult.
��]] • Cut-up lyri by David → [��
Bowie for ‘Blakout’ from “Heroe” “Heroe”,, ���� •
YOU’RE TOO TOO OLD O LD TO TO LOSE LOS E IT
TOOYOUNG TO TO CHOOSE C HOOSE IT
↑[��] • David Bowie in Tokyo, ���� | Photograph by Maayohi Sukita
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PUTTING OUT FIRE WITH GASOLINE: DESIGNING DAVID BOWIE
David Bowie ha reated not only ome of the mos interesIt wa like two different world, Frank’ mui wa oming and influential mui of the twentieth entury, but alo pletely reated by him and the idea wa for you to play produed ground-breaking and ioni deign for osume, it onisently and orrecly. The idea wa not to add album over, sage et and video. Hi abilitie a an artis and omething to it. The idea wa to play it right, or ing it deigner, along with hi preferene for direcing all apec of right. With Bowie, the idea wa entir ely different. He hi image and exeptional areer, make him a unique ubjec; gave me full rein to be hi guitaris and to add a lot of olour and ound.� and hi omplex and omplete orhesration and involvement with the material ulture of being a ‘pop tar’ pr eent r ih opportunitie for ritial interpretation. Bowie i adept at brinng out the bes in hi ollaborator ByembraingMarhallMLuhan’notionthat‘the medium within hihoen framework, before hedeide whatmake the i the meage’ throughout hi long areer, Bowie acively par- final ut. In hi book about Bowie, Nihola Pegg highlight thi tiipated in produing and o-produing hi mui, a well a ompoition method: playing a part in the deign of hi album over, oneptualizing hi mui video and deigning hi tour – even the merhandie [Bowie] ha ysematially urrounded himelf with to go with them. One of hi great aet a an artis ha been hi olleague who exert onflicing gravitational pull on ability to esablih and develop relationhip with talented olhiownsronglyvaudevillianinsinc.FigurelikeIg laborator – a talent that eem linked to hi ability to predic Pop,PeteTownhendandTinMahine’SaleBr other and develop popular trend. have popped up over the year to injec into Bowie’ A ateenager,Bowiehoe tosudy artat Bromley Tehnial work the kindof authenti rok’n’rollsreet redhe ha High Shool (from September ���� to July ����, leaving with an oen raved, while the like of Eno, Fripp and Gabrel A-level in artand O-levelin Englihand EnneeringDrawing), have empowered hi avant-garde ambition. Bowie i where he wa taught by Owen Frampton, Peter Fra mpton’ bleed with the rare ability to yntheize what he want � father. In July ���� he le hool a week before the end of term from two neearily onfrontational approahe; it i hi partiular triumph that he i neither Lou Reed nor to take up a poition a a trainee ommerial artis at the New � Bond Street offie of Nevin D. Hirs Advertiing. In Mihael John Cale, but a bit of both. � Apted’ doumentary filmInpiration (����), Bowie reall that the job appeared promiing to a teenager with a harp interes To appropriate Bowie’ lyri for the ong ‘Fame’ – ‘what you in syle and image: ‘Being very muh a hild and produc of the need you have to borr ow’. Thi atypial kill extend to Bowie’ early ixtie, it eemed to me to be terribly exiting and maybe viual art ollaboration, and ha been key in the development kind of glamorou to be a ommerial artis … At the time I of hi reative work. thought that’ Madion Avenue, you know, that’ advertiing. Bowie’ unique undertanding of hi audiene and hi That’ the plae to be.’ � antiipation of future trend in a variety of media disinguih The reality wa more diappointing. ‘It wa diabolial,’ him from the artis who are either unoniou of, or unonBowie aid of the job in a ���� interview. ‘I never realized being erned by, their audiene’ pereption of their work. A he ing an artis meant bukling under o muh.’ � Although he found in ‘Ahe to Ahe’, Bowie ‘never did anything out of the blue’. it reatively frusrating to be a ommerial artis, he put many He i not only aware of what he intend, but alo oniou of of the kill that he learned at the firm to ue in promoting and what i being reeived; almos ertainly hi early sruggle to developing hi budding muial areer. One of Bowie’ firs find ue in the ���� played a role in honing hi abilitie bandmate, David Hadfield, who played alongide him in the to undersand hi publi. In ���� he explained that he wanted Kon-rad, aid: ‘ [He] had thouand of [idea], a new one every hi mui to be ‘three-dimenional … a ong ha to take on day – that we hould hange the pelling of our name, or our haracer, hape, body and influene people to the extent that image, or our lothe, or all the ong in our repertoire. He they ue it for their own devie. It mus affec them not jus a alo ame up with lot of blak-and-white kethe of potential a ong, but a a lifesyle.’ � Deribing hi ong a oen being advertiing ampaign for the band’. � ‘very illusrative and picureque’, Bowie ontinued the theme In addition to hi invesment in all artisi apec of hi in the BBC doumentary ‘Craked Acor’, firs hown in January prodution, Bowie hooe ollaborator with great are, ����: ‘I felt [my material] wa more three-dimenional. I wanted ouring them peronally and oen unonventionally. Having to ve it dimenion.’ � Although muial experimentation and fully reearhed thoe with talent that he wihe to work with, expreion i the bedrok of hi areer, ound i only one dimenhe ve them reative ope to work at what he hoe them to ion of Bowie’ omplete reative viion – a the title of hi ���� do. Adrian Belew, poahed from Frank Zappa to join Bowie’ ong (and ���� world tour) ‘Sound and Viion’ ugges. band in ����, reall:
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Indeed, Bowie eem to have a rare intuition when it ome to undersanding – and leading – hi fan. He ha onisently exhibited an unanny ability to antiipate the next pop/ultural movement, be it glam rok, elecroni mui, mui video or internet disribution. Interviewed for the New York Time in ����, he aurately antiipated the impac the internet would have on the mui indusry in the next deade:
THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS
The Rie and Fall o Zig Stardus and the Spider rom Mar wa releaed on � June ���� (pl.��). Widely regarded a Bowie’ breakthrough album, it tell the sory of the otherworldly Zig Stardus and hi rie to fame. Zig i the human manifesation of an alien being who unexpecedly alight upon a doomed earth ome time in the not o disant future. He attempt to deliver a meage of hope to the human peie headed for extincion, and i inevitably desroyed by hi own ue and exeive lifesyle. It wa thi narrative-driven, theatrial and viually intriguing album that would erve to et Bowie apart from the other muiian of hi day. What i more, the haracer of Zig – a perona he adopted both on and off sage – won more notoriety than any other Bowie devied throughout hi areer. So srong wa hi image that people – and even Bowie himelf – ame to onflate Zig’ identity with Bowie’ own (pl.���). The Zig ‘look’ entred around an unforgettable hairut. While at the turn of the deade Bowie’ hair had been longand blond, by ���� it underwent a dramati tranformation, rendering him virtually unreognizable. Thi wa not a unique move, a Bill Janowitz noted in hi book about the Rolling Stone: ‘The Englih mui pre in partiular (the weeklie, anyway) ha alway interpreted new hairsyle a indiation of exiting new muial form.’�� InJanuary����, Bowie’wifeat thetime,Ane, introdued him to Suzi Fuey, who worked a a hairdreer at the Evelyn Page alon in Bekenham. He aked her to reate a new ut to hi deign, whih wa baed on a sriking elecion of photograph from variou magazine, inluding hot of a young female model with vivid, ropped red hair, taken by photographer Alex Chatelain for Voue Pari (pl.��), and the lates deign by Japanee deigner Kanai Yamamoto, a hown in Britih Voue and Harper & Queen.�� Not only wa the ut itelf unuual, reminient of the kabuki wig in the Yamamoto feature (pl.��), Bowie oon aer alo deided to dye hi hair red, in keeping with the Chatelain photograph. Firs, Fuey ued a ombination of Shwarzkopf hair dye (in the hade Georgette ���/Cherry Red) and peroxide to reate a red-orange olour. She then applied opiou amount of etting lotion ‘to syle it into a mullet’. �� Unlike any other een on London’ sreet, thi hairsyle erved the important funcion of rendering Bowie insantly reognizable (pl.��).
Mui itelf i going to beome like running water or elecriity … You’d better be prepared for doing a lot of touring beaue that’ really the only unique ituation that’ going to be le. It’ terribly exiting. But on the other hand it doen’t matter if you think it’ exiting or not; it’ what’ going to happen. �� Thi hrewdne might ugges omething at odd with traditional notion of the artis (though not in the posmodern period, the value of whih it eem to enhrine perfecly), but oupled with Bowie’ onsant ques for new inpiration and idea, hi attention to deign detail, hi openne to taking reative rik and hi refual to ettle for a winning formula or take an eay option, thi preiene ha earned him hi satu a one of the mos influential ultural figure of the late twentieth entury. Jonathan Barnbrook, the graphi deigner Bowie hoe to ollaborate with on the over deign of Heathen and Reality in the early ����, affirm that ‘David Bowie undersand the power of the viual’. �� Thi eay will explore how Bowie hoe to ‘deign’ hi areer by utilizing the kill he learned and honed duringhihildhoodand earlyareer.Whetherdeigningalbum art, sang a onert tour or making a video, Bowie’ dynami approah to the viual material aoiated with hi mui ha reulted in an exeptional portfolio; invetigating how he direced it reation hed light on hi wider work.
↖ [��] • Chrisine Walton for Voue Pari, Augus ���� • Photograph by Alex Chatelain ↑ [��] ← [��] • Harper & Queen,
London, July ���� • Deign by Kanai Yamamoto. Hair and makeup by Sahiko Shibayama
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← [��] • Cover artwork eparation for The Rie and Fall o Zig Stardus and the Spider rom Mar , ���� •
Deigned by Terry Pasor and David Bowie • Photograph by Brian Ward • ↑ [��] • Cover artwork for
The Rie and Fall o Zig Stardus and the Spider rom Mar, June ���� • Deigned by Terry Pasor and David Bowie • Photograph by Brian Ward •
Cosume were, of oure, employed to imilar effec. But while Bowie’ hairsyle remained largely the ame fr om ���� to ����, hi sage osume hanged dramatially, beoming inreaingly avant-garde a hi popularity grew. Hi early sage wear wa not heavily sylized – rather, hi outfit were obbled together from whatever wa around. When ue permitted him to wear peially deigned piee, he turned to hi friend, deigner and tailor Freddie Burretti and osumier Nataha Korniloff. Together, Bowie and Burretti developed Bowie’ viion for onert howaing the album’ material, reating osume that drew inpiration from Stanley Kubrik’ ����: A Spa e Ody ey (����) and A Clo kwork Orane (����, in the UK). Both film were well knownin the early ���� and Bowie appreiated their theme a well a the osume deign, whih he later deribed a being ‘fab … ���� with it Courrège-like leiure uit and Clokwork’ droog, dreed to kill’. �� Zig’ earliessageosumeweretwo-pieeuitdeignedby Bowie, the pattern ut and made up by Burretti and a neighbour, Sue Fros; the tour wardrobe wa later augmented by one-piee jumpuit, oneived and made by Buretti in variou olour and material (pl �� and ��). By ����, aer the releae of Aladdin Sane , Bowie wa in a poition to ommiion orinal piee fr om Kanai Yamamoto himelf (pl ��–�� and ��). Deribing thee flamboyant otume, he later aid: ‘ [They were] everything that I wanted them to be and more … heavily inpired by kabuki and amurai, they were outrageou, provoative, and unbelievably hot to wear under the light’. �� By the time Zig and the Spider finally retired in July ����, Bowie’ wardrobe had expanded oniderably. Hi ometi kit, too, wa overflowing. It i aid that toward the end of hi Zig period, Bowie needed to allow at leas two hour before eah performane to apply hi sage make-up (pl.��). Although broadly elf-taught, he had learned theatrial make-up tehnique from mime artis and horeographer Linday Kemp, a loe friend and mentor of Bowie’ in the late ����. In January ����, make-up artis Pierre La Rohe applied the ioni ‘lightning flah’ make-up for Bowie’ Aladdin Sane over hoot (pl.��). The ue of thi look led to La Rohe joining Bowie for the ubequent tour a hi peronal make-up artis. In April ����, Bowie alo reeived insrucion in kabukityle makeup tehnique from one of the tar of Japanee kabuki theatre, Tamaaburo, while viiting Japan. �� A Jonathan Barnbrook note of Bowie: ‘He i alway very acively looking for people he want to work with – the right voie, the right tone that mathe hi work. [People who] expre the ame point of view to hi or have a pirit that he require in hi work.’��
Bowie wa Zig’ orinator, but he depended on many hair, osume and make-up ollaborator to help him ar ry hi look, and there an be no quesion that Bowie’ fame and popularity during thi period lay a muh in hi image a in hi mui. While the appearane of Zig and hi Spider may have evolved a they beame inreaingly ueful, it wa the album over that firmly esablihed Bowie’ other-worldly alien redential. ‘Good reord over deign onnec with the mui, onnec the lisener to the mui and then enhane the undersanding of that mui,’ Barnbrook ay. ‘And it’ beyond lo, acually. It’ about the pirit of the age, the pirit of the mui and ome unoniou undersanding of what’ going on there.’�� The photograph for the Zig Stardus over were taken on a old, wet night in January ���� by Brian Ward, who had a sudio onLondon’HeddonStreet–theiteof thehoot.Boththefront and bak over photograph (whih feature Bowie alone) were hot uing Kodak Royal-X Pan blak-and-white film and later olourized by Terry Pasor of Main Artery, the deign sudio et up by a hildhood friend of Bowie’, George Underwood. Underwood, inidentally, wa the one who aidentally damaged the pupil of Bowie’ le eye in a fight at hool, leaving it permanently dilated. Ward took �� photograph in all. �� The album over how Bowie on a London baksreet, looking a if he had jus been beamed down from another planet. While olourized blue on the over, the uit wa acually the green-and-ream outfit Bowie wore on the BBC� programme ‘The Old Grey Whisle Tes’ in early February ����, and while hi hair look yellow (due to the light of a sreet lamp), ontac heet from the hoot how that it wa medium-fair. Although Bowie had not yet morphed fully into a ‘pae amurai’, the album’ leeve et the mood for all hi ubequent performane – ‘a good reord over expree the pyholo of the mui’. The wet, sormy weather lent the band an element of mysery, and Bowie’ lone appearane under the prominent ‘K.Wes’ign,whihouldberead a‘Ques’,alludetohialien ‘miion’, onjuring an otherworldly feeling that i reinfored by the olourization. The landape and aesheti of the over image loely reemble the opening ene of Mihael Powell’ groundbreaking and ontroverial film Peepin Tom (����), and may owe omething to thi ult lai. Equal prominene i ven, in viual term, to the name David Bowie and Zig Stardus – helping to ement the idea that David Bowie wa ZigStardus.Bowiehadnot yetundergonethetranformation into hi fully-fledged performane perona, but in mid-January ����, the eed for thi metamorphoi were already own. ‘The eventie began … when thi photograph wa taken, and Zig Stardus preented himelf in a very d ifferent guie to anything we’d een in the ixtie,’ ay muiian Gary Kemp. ‘And it did affec a generation.’ ��
↖ [��] • Make-up hart for David Bowie on the
Diamond Dog tour, ���� • ↑ [��] • Signed lithographi print of David
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Bowie by Mik Rok, ���� •
→ [��] and •
DIAMOND DOGS TOUR
Releaedin����, Diamond Do marked the end of David Bowie’ glam-rok period and heralded a new phae in hi areer. If hi ���� ingle ‘Spae Oddity’ had aptured the ene of uneae and wonder provoked by the firs moon landing, the new album and ubequent onert tour, informed by Bowie’ reading of George Orwell’ ���� , refleced a publi mood of dread and foreboding. While the ���� had been fuelled by optimim, the ���� were tainted with miving and diilluionment. Bowie produed an album and onert that imultaneouly mirrored and fuelled the feeling of a generation. Rather than rebuff predicion of environmental diaser, oial hao and global annihilation, Bowie generated poignant narrative that not only onfirmed hi audiene’ wors upiion but alo lent form to their palpable fear. �� In ����, Bowie’ then manager, Tony Defrie, wa puhing him to apitalize on the ue of Zig Stardus by writing a rok muial around the haracer, but Bowie had moved on. He wa hannelling hi long-sanding interes in muial, dating from the early ����, into the projec of adapting George Orwell’ ���� for the sage. In late ����, however, Orwell’ widow, Sonia Brownell, refued Bowie the right to ue ���� a the bai for a rok how. The planned album and orreponding tour were reoneptualized: having been denied the right to refahion Orwell’ Oeania, Bowie replaed it with hi own deaying and rumbling Hunger City, baed on the dysopian worker’ underworld in Metropoli (����) and inhabited by ravang tribe of proto-punk ‘peoploid’. Bowie ettled in New York in ���� to further develop the album that would beome Diamond Do . A Peter Doggett ha oberved, it brought together many of the theme that had preoupied Bowie ine ����, ‘in the ervie of a dark sudy of ultural diintegration’. �� Bowie’ enduring interes in the propheti power of iene ficion ame to a head, and a number of novel and film, inluding Harlan Ellion’ A Boy and hi Do and William S. Burrough’ The Wild Boy: A Book o the Dead , publihed in ���� and ���� repecively, a well a the ���� film The Omea Man (peifially Charlton Heson’ performane a Robert Neville), ould be ited a key influene during thi period. Bowie’ peronal experiene alo haped the eventual form of the tour to a large degree. Aer hi ���� tour of Japan, he made hi way bak home to England over land and ea, in order toavoidflying.Thi extendedjourneytookhimthroughSiberia, Ruia,PolandandEasGermany,andprofferedinightinto the live of thoe living under totalitarian reme.
Further peronal enounter alo influened the hape of theprojec,partiularlyameetingwith Burrough.InanenounterarrangedbyCraigCopeta,a writerfor Rollin Stone magazine, the muiian and the legendary Beat author exhanged view on iene ficion, exuality and the reative proe.�� Burrough wa wellknown for hihabit offragmentingand rearranngnarrative: a ollage tehnique termed ‘ut-up’ by the painter Brion Gyin, the method wa traeable a an artisi approah to the Dadais of the early twentieth entury and the later Surrealis movement.�� Bowie sarted to apply the tehnique to ongwriting with the aim of ubverting lyrial and muial expecation by uing a familiar ysem and disorting it into an alarming new hape. Fragmentation and ‘ut-up’ lyri would be employed to great effec in the reation of the �� trak on Diamond Do, whih aremuiallyhighly evoative, butoen lyrially opaque. A with theZig Stardus album, the acual narrative underlying Bowie’ new producion remained undersated. Deliberate narrative void would, however, enable lisener to onsruc their own interpretation of both album and rok how.�� Fragmentation alo heavily influened the deign of the Diamond Do projet, nowhere more evident than on the album’ leeve. The work of Belan painter Guy Peellaert, the over image portray Bowie a a bizarre mix of man and beas. Mik Jagger, with whom Bowie wa engaged in a playful rivalry at the time, had introdued Bowie to Peellaert’ work in ���� and intimated that the Rolling Stone intended to engage him to make the art for one of their upoming album. Captivated by the artis’ work and it groteque Surrealis overtone (and preumably exited by the propec of pre-empting Jagger), BowieommiionedPeellaerttopaintthe DiamondDo leeve. In January ���� he gave Peellaert the brief to reate a entral phinx-like image, ombining a dog and Bowie himelf. To pro vide Peellaert with image to ue a referene material for the painting,Bowiealoarrangeda photoeionwithTerryO’Neill later that month (pl �� and ��). While workin g on the painting ( pl.��), Peelleart developed a further ‘iru idehow’ element, and the tagline ‘The Stranges Living Curioitie’ wa added to the artwork. �� Both the phrae and the image evoked Tod Browning’ highly ontroverial ���� film Freak, in whih acor with real phyial deformitieplayiruperformerwhoexacrevenge forhaving been on the reeiving end of ac of ruelty and dirimination. The Diamond Do over wa intended to entie and provoke it viewer to lisen to a ‘arnival-eque freak how’ of Bowie’ own reation.�� Thematially, the album’ over art alo r efer bak to the ficional world of Burrough’ novel, populated by ‘deenitized mental and phyial ripple … drug addic, riminal, and exual “deviant”’.�� Mui writer David Bukley ha uggesed that with Diamond Do, Bowie ueeded in inorporating ‘low-life’ deadent ulture into the mainsream popular aesheti. A Siouxie Sioux one remarked, Bowie i an unuual pop sar in that he ome with a reading lis.
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Preparatory photography for Diamond Do, ���� • Photograph by Terry O’Neill • Guy Peellaert referred to thee image while painting the artwork for the album over • →[��] •
Promotional photograph for Diamond Do, ���� • Photograph by Terry O’Neill •
↑[��] • Cover artwork for
Diamond Do, ���� • Painting by Guy Peellaert •
↑[��] • Stage et model for the Diamond
Dog tour, ���� • Deigned by Jule Fiher and Mark Ravitz • ↑[��] • Poser for the Frenh releae
Terry O’Neill, whoe photo eion with Bowie provided the brief for Peellaert to work from, had ome to prominene in the ���� with the new generation of photographer – inluding David Bailey – who rejeced the sati formality of the poed photograph of the ���� and went insead for pontaneity and unuual etting.�� The Diamond Do photo hoot, whih took plae on �� January ����, wa no exeption. The famou image depit a eated Bowie, relaxed and dahing in a Spanih Cordoba hat, high-heeled boot, a book at hi feet and looking the ‘real ool at’. �� He eem entirely unperturbed by the enormou, rearing dog to hi right. It ha been laimed that the hot wa an aidental sroke of good fortune – the dog reared up on it hind leg uddenly – but in fac it wa arefully saged for d ramati effec. Contac heet how that the dog wa leaping toward a piee of meat dangled from above (pl.��). A O’Neill ay: ‘The harder you work, the more picure you take, the more deiive moment you apture.’�� Certainly deiive, the photograph wa ued to promote the Diamond Do tour, and it i now in the V&A’ Photography Collecion. It did not feature on the orinal album leeve, but wa ued for ubequent RYKO/EMI releae. The album and, later, the tour, were aggreively publiized in the United State. Defrie adopted a two-pronged approah to the promotion of Bowie in Ameria: the firs sage involved the widepread irulation of the album’ enational over art and the reation of a tremendou amount of memorabilia; the eond wa to be the tour itelf. It wa one of the mos theatrial rok how ever saged, and alo reputedly the mos expenive. The total os for the et ame to roughly $���,���. �� Bowie oneived the deign (pl.��) of an angular ityape inpired by the German Expreionis inema of the ilent age: partiularly Fritz Lang’ Metropoli (����, pl.��) and Robert Wiene’ The Cabinet o Dr Caliari (����). The how wa deigned by Amerian lighting deigner Jule Fiher �� and et deigner Mark Ravitz, with tehnial upportfrom sageenneer Chri Langhart and direcion from Bowie and Lo-Angele-baed horeographer Toni Bail. It featured everal enormou prop, inluding sreet lamp,adrawbridgeanda diamond-suddedhand,whihopened torevealBowieperhedonit. Bowiewatranported,upported by a herry piker, over the audiene while itting on an offie hair and inng ‘Spae Oddity’ into a telephone. ��
The horeography, the et lis and – eventually – the et (pl �� and ��) evolved during the oure of the tour. The band wa largely obured behind flat for the firs two how, with the eight muiian acing like an orhesra. Daner were on sage for many of the ong – during ‘Diamond Dog’ they were attahed to leahe – although Bowie remained the foal point of the performane. No film of the how wa made, although a rough ut of the July performane at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia doe exis. Coneived a a narrative-driven muial or rok opera, the how materialized with only a looe soryline, but there i ample evidene that Bowie worked on a never-realized film verion for ome oniderable time (pl.��). He produed hand-drawn soryboard for it variou ene, page of film note, built et model and drew haracer kethe of the sory (pl ��–�). Set in Hunger City, the narrative revolve around Halloween Jak who, aording to the film note, wa to inhabit a deerted kyraper and travel with a gang of youth around the ity on roller kate, looting fur and diamond, ubising on a diet of ‘mealaine’. �� Bowie drew inpiration from aount of Vicorian London a told to him by hi father, who worked for Dr Barnardo’ Home from ���� until hi death in ����. Barnardo’ patron, Lord Shaebury, i aid to have found hundred of hildren living on the sreet and roof of London during an inpecion of the ity’ lum in the nineteenth entury. �� The Diamond Dog tour proved tremendouly ueful, but there were diffiultie semming from Bowie’ worening oaine habit, a gruelling hedule overing enormou disane and ontracual dipute with Defrie’ management organization,MainMan.Theelaborateethadto betranported in three ��-foot trailer, and took �� men at eah venue a whole day to erec. �� Following a road aident on the journey from Atlanta, Geora to Tampa, Florida, muh of the et ended up in a wamp. A sripped-bak how had to be put on in Tampa, but the et wa up and running again by � July and ued until �� September ����. In Ocober, a new et wa introdued that wa deigned to reflec the new, more oul-influened ong Bowie had been writing on tour, whih antiipated the Youn Amerian album in syle. Thi et wa ued until Deember ����. Diffiultieaide,thiremainoneof themospecaulartour ever to have been saged, and undoubtedly paved the way for the elaborate rok onert that followed, with the Rolling Stone ommiioning Jule Fiher for their Tour of the Ameria the followingyear.�� Rok how were never the ame again.
of Metropoli, ���� • Direced by Fritz Lang • Deigned by Bori Bilinky ↗[��] • Pale blue uit, ���� •
Deigned by Freddie Burretti for the Diamond Dog tour • →[��] [��] • Set deign
note by Mark Ravitz for the Diamond Dog tour, ���� •
���
• Part of a soryboard by David Bowie for an unrealized film et in Hunger City, ���� • ↑[��]
→[��] • Preparatory drawing by David Bowie
for an unrealized film film et in Hunger City, ���� •
↑→ [��–�] • Preparatory drawing by David Bowie for
an unrealized film et in Hunger City, ���� •
ASHES TO ASHES
The ong ‘Ahe to Ahe’ from the album Sary Monser (and Super Creep), releaed in September of ����, wa the ingle Bowie ued, in hi word, to ‘purge’ himelf of the ����. For Bowie, that deade wa marked by the rie and fall of legendary performane alter ego, exe in Ameria (a period during whih he ompoed the album Youn Amerian and Station to Station ), a well a a deperately needed reuperative eape to Berlin,whihreultedinthetriptyhofalbum Low, “Heroe” and Loder . In ���� Bowie releaed the final panel of the triptyh – the album Loder – and wa eager to onolidate hi muial experimentation into a new ound for a new deade. Hi next projec marked the benning of hi ���� reative work that, jusain the����,wapepperedwithinnovativeollaboration, experimentation and reativity. Co-produed by the familiar duo of Bowie and Tony Vionti – who had previouly worked together on the album Youn Amerian, Low , “Heroe”, Stae and Loder – the album Sary Monser (and Super Creep) wa made jus a the influene of viual media truly ame to the forefront of pop ulture. �� Temporarilyputtingaide theimproviatorymethodofreording he had developed while working with Brian Eno in Berlin (although at time sill uing the ‘ut-up’ tehnique of writing inherited from Brion Gyin and William Burrough), Bowie arefully developed and raed the mui and lyri of the album and made a onerted effort to tranlate the ong into new, viually expreive media. A David Bukley ha noted, ‘In the ����, imply being a pop sar wa no longer enough. Supersar now were expeced to olonize film and vi deo.’�� The birth of MTV on � Augus ���� heralded a new era of the mui video, with the ue of a ong being inextriably linked to the appeal of the aompanying video. The viual aesheti of a pop sar’ ‘look’ beame paramount for a ma audiene, and the reult of thi heightened fou on the viual, at time, trumped the quality of the mui produed. For the viually adept Bowie, it wa an opportunity that played further to hi srength. ‘Ahe to Ahe’ wa the firs ingle from the album, and the pioneering mui video wa o-direced by Bowie and David Mallet. Bowie had met Mallet in April ���� while performing ‘BoyKeepSwinng’on‘TheKennyEverett VideoShow’,whih MalletproduedforThame Televiion.Impreed,Bowiehired Mallet to reate video for ‘Boy Keep Swinng’, ‘DJ’ and a pared-down, yet highly sylized, performane of ‘Spae Oddity’ the ame year. The ue of ‘Ahe to Ahe’ in ���� emented their reative partnerhip, whih ontinued into the ����. �� ‘Ahe to Ahe’, like the ‘Spae Oddity’ video, inorporated a non-linear narrative with three interonnecing haracer, and feature imilar inematography: intene loe-up of Bowie’ fae ombined with tark lighting, pyrotehni and ene fade.However,thati wheretheimilaritieend.NiholaPegg deribe the video a an ‘outsanding promo [that] redefined rok video and jump-sarted the New Romanti movement’. ��
The video for the ingle (pl.��) wa hot in May ���� on loation at Beahy Head and Hasing, on the Eas Suex oas. At a os of £��,��� it wa, at that time, the mos expenive mui video ever made. In it, Bowie play three disinc role: the firs i a Pierrot figure, the eond an asronaut and the third an inmate of a padded ell. Bowie soryboarded the promo himelf, drawing it hot–by-hot and working on the edit alongide Mallet (pl �� and ��). While the re i no parti ular na rrative to the video, t he interonneted ene are introdued through a erie of inongruou image preented by Bowie, who hold a video posard that diplay the firs hot of the following ene, a he emphaize the word ‘Oh no, don’t ay it’ true’. Bowie at firs i a ympatheti sok Pierrot haracer of pantomime (wearing a reproducion of a Linday Kemp outfit deigned by Nataha Korniloff, pl �� and ���–�), and we follow him into a Martianlandape,walkingalonganabandonedbeahpas pile of burning refue, and promenading with peudo-eleiasial ompanion, purued by a bulldozer that eem to be puhing him toward the water. Thi srange etting wa ahieved by inorporating the then new Paintbox tehnique to olarize the ene, turning the ky blak and the ground pink to reate a omewhat apoalypti or alienlandape.Bowie’liberaldirecionwithregardtothelook he wihed to ahieve made an impac on Jonathan Barnbrook, who reall eeing thevideo a a teenager: Film wa a malleable a anything ele. You ould proe film a you ould proe an intrument. You ould ut up a piee of typography … And that kind of freedom meant that the reative oure an go into anything, whether it’ deign, video or mui, o it wa quite liberating eeing thi video for the firs time. �� ‘I think [Bowie’] influene on early mui video wa probably the greates influene of all,’ Mallet aid in the ���� doumentary David Bowie: Sound and Viion . ‘He wan’t frightened to do omething that wa urreal. He wan’t frightened to go bak to Frenh ilent, Surrealis movie. He wan’t frightened to do anything.’ �� The Pierrot’ entourage onis of three reliou figure in heavy make-up and a young woman dreed a a daner, all erving a a horu ready to interjec in any ven ene, repeating a lyri in union: ‘I’m happy/ Hope you’re happy too’ or ‘My mother aid/ To get thing done/ You’d better not me/ With Major Tom’. The horu omprie reruit that Bowie enlised on a viit to the Blitz nightlub in London – a haven for New Romanti muiian, inluding Steve Strange of Viage, a well a Marilyn and George O’Dowd (better known a Boy George), who were, to their regret, paed over for the video.��
���
↑[��] • Still from the ‘Ahe to Ahe’ video, ���� • Direced by David Mallet
↑[��] • Orinal soryboard by David Bowie for the
‘Ahe to Ahe’ video, ���� • ← [��] • Songbook for Sary Monser (and Super Creep), ���� •
↓ [��] • Pierrot (or ‘Blue Clown’) osume, ���� • Deigned
by Nataha Korniloff for the ‘Ahe to Ahe’ video and Sary Monser (and Super Creep) album over • → [��] • Orinal soryboard by David Bowie for the
‘Ahe to Ahe’ video, ���� •
A theharacer in the paddedell, Bowie i alone, without theatrial make-up and dreed in hi imples osume of the video: a white dre hirtand blaktrouer with sudded eam, tuked into green mid-alf boot. In hi ell he it on a hair, inng direcly to the amera, with baking voal ehoing over the main lyri. Hi gaze i glaily fixed, yet he eem ubdued, broken and ontrolled. Next he i een itting on the floor in the orner of hi ell, depondently inng a he gently move hi knee lowly bak and forth: ‘time and again I tell myelf/ I’ll say lean tonight/ But the little green wheel are following me/ Oh no, not again’. Whether the deire to say away from drug refer to Bowie himelf or the infamou Major Tom, the inmate referenerepeatedlape,eerilyehoedby hilowmovementthat ve a ene of ‘ti me and again’ and the pinning ‘green wheel’ that follow him. Thi mos obviouly Bowie-like haracer i las een iolated in hi orner, dramatially lit with a potlight a he repeat the nurery rhyme-like refrain: ‘My mother aid/ To get thing done/ You’d better not me/ With Major Tom’. Whereathe final eneof theinmatenarrativehowBowie trapped within the aylum, in the final ene of the Pierrot sory ar we ee him releaing what appear to be a dove on the beah, before being led away along the water by an older woman, who i talking sernly to him – or poibly imploring him. The feeling of being mentally los and phyially trapped i onveyed srongly.(Itiinteresingtonote theviualrefereneto Bowie’ keth for the bakover of Spae Oddity, where a Pierrot and an old woman are hown walking away together in the bottom le orner, made �� year earlier, pl ��–�). The final Bowie haracer in ‘Ahe to Ahe’ i a low-teh, kithen-ink asronaut redolent of Major Tom. He rahe on a Martian beah and i then een hooked up to a life-upport mahine, amid exploion, in an environment that reemble a late ����/early ���� hair alon within a domesi kithen. Removed from thi etting by an exploion, Major Tom fall to an underground lair, fasened to a wall by tube entering hi body and urrounded by ome form of living, non-human growth (Ridley Sott’ Alien wa releaed the previou year, in ����). There he hang, defeated and depleted. He i attahed to hi organi urrounding, lifele, with only enough ener to look up at a amera that an offer no aisane or reprieve. Major Tom remain in hi prion and, a the video ome to an end, the amera zoom in one las time on the los asronaut a he hang in quiet deperation. The meage i lear: Bowie i ondemning the intrepid paeman who ha failed to bring a promieofhope,andthe video,inPegg’word,oneagainfuel ‘the notion that “Ahe to Ahe” i a omprehenive exorim of hi [Bowie’] pas’. ��
A progreion toward inanity, ora equential mental deterioration, wa a well-explored theme throughout the ����. �� For Bowie, the los idealim i manifesed in the failure of Major Tom and hi pae exploration, or promie of modernity and omi hope. In repriing ‘Spae Oddity’, the ong that arguably brought Bowie hi firs big ue, ‘Ahe to Ahe’ ritially re-examine Major Tom and hi sory of pae adventure gone awry. Reflecing on the album in it entirety in ����, Bowie aid: Sary Monter for me ha alway been ome kind of purge. It wa me eradiating the feeling within myelf that I wa unomfortable with … You have to aommodate your pas within your perona. You have to undersand why you went through them. That’ the major thing. You annot jus ignore them or put them out of your mind or pretend they didn’t happen or jus ay, ‘Oh I wa different then’. ��
Though Bowie had found loure for Zig Stardus with the haracer’ infamou ‘death’ on � July ���� at the Hammermith Odeon, Major Tom had not previouly been dealt with. While Bowie had identified the futility inherent in pae travel in ���� with ‘Spae Oddity’, thi ame diilluionmentdid not beome publi opinion until the late ����. In returning to the haracer of Major Tom in ‘Ahe to Ahe’, Bowie found a mean of repriing and later departing from hi eventie legay, and the outer/ inner ‘pae’ meaning it repreented for him.�� ‘There wa a ertain degree of optimim making [ Sary Monser ] beaue I’d worked through ome of my problem,’ Bowie aid in ����. ‘I felt very poitive about the future, and I think I jus got down to writing a really omprehenive and well-raed album.’�� The album i oen aid, even by Bowie himelf, to be a turning point in hi areer, providing a athari to the ����. It releae oinided with hi divore from Ane beoming abolute in ����, a well a hi gaining usody of hi hild, Dunan Zowie Haywood Jone. In an interview in ����, Bowie gave hi own perpecive on ‘Ahe to Ahe’, peering forward into the new deade while imultaneouly looking bak at hi previou work: ‘It’ a nurery rhyme. It’ very muh a ���� nurery rhyme. I think ���� nurery rhyme will have a lot to do with the ����/���� nurery rhyme, whih are all rather horrid and had little boy with their ear being ut off and suff like that’.�� Thi tie in direcly to hi early work, enapulated on hi debut olo album David Bowie (����). That album howae a nurery-rhyme-laden erie of ong that br ing out the darker ide of tale for hildren. With the video for ‘Ahe to Ahe’ there i a imilar perverion of hild-like innoene, a we ee the tale of the heroi Major Tom ome to a dark, disurbing end a he hang expreionle in hi organi ubterranean pri on.
���
In ‘Ahe to Ahe’, Bowie reated a video that heralded the New Romanti movement – whih had itelf been inpired by him. By referening the opy, he popularized a ult that entred on hi own heritage, relaunhing hi own pas at the ame time a putting it behind him. A Bukley note, ‘“Ahe to Ahe” sand a a Bowie landmark [not imply] beaue it wa tehnially brilliant, but alo beaue it enapulated ���� perfecly.’ In a pre interview aer hi ���� performane on the Duth televiion programme ‘TopPop’, Bowie aid:
One of the ures tes [of the uperiority or inferiority of a poet] i the way in whih a poet borrow. Immature poet imitate; mature poet seal; bad poet defae what theytake,andgood poetmakeitinto omethingbetter, or at leas omething different. The good poet weld hi the into a whole of feeling whih i unique, utterly different than that from whih it i torn; the bad poet throw it into omething whih ha no oheion. A good poet will uually borrow from author remote in time, or alien in language, or divere in interes. ��
I’m a fairly good oial oberver and I think I enapulate area maybe every year or o. I try and samp that downomewhere.Whatthatyeariallaboutrather than what it wa all about or what it i going to be. It’ very muh trying to apture the quinteene of that year. ��
With thee attribute Bowie ha beome arguably the mos ulturally ignifiant and viually interesing pop muiian of the twentieth entury. Jonathan Barnbrook um up hi unique appeal: ‘It’ about the pirit of the age, the pirit of the mui and ome unoniou undersanding of what’ going on.’
In the doumentary film Inpiration (����), Bowie reveal not only hi keenne to partiipate in the viual element of all apec of mui producion, but alo hi ue of the viual art a a reative aid in hi ongwriting: If I’ve found myelf in ome kind of ul-de-a in the mui, I’d break down a problem by acually painting it. I try and viualize what the problem wa … I try and viualize thoe texture and paint them and then find out what wa wrong, and then when I’ve olved that problemI’dtakeitbakintothe sudio.I’veneverreally ompartmentalized thing. Everything for me i jus thi flux of doing suff. Some of it’ mui and ome of it’ viual, and the two have alway been very entwined.�� At a time when the apotheoi of fame and influene i to be a pop sar, and being a pop sar require a ombination of the muial and the viual while embodying the pirit of the age, Bowie’ muial and viual talent, whih he onider a part of a ontinuum, have allowed him to not only embrae viual media a an organi produc of hi own unique viual approah to ongwriting, but alo to beome a forerunner in prodution and diemination – a ort of appropriating prophet. Hi exeptional breadth of interes alongide hi aeptane of the mantra ‘the medium i the meage’ have opened him to inpiration by other – but a we have een, he take inpiration from an exeptional breadth of ubjec and reate from them omething entirely new. In the word of T. S. Eliot:
���
↑[��] • Artwork for the bak over of
Spae Oddity, ���� • Illusration by George Underwood • →[��] • Still from the ‘Ahe to Ahe’ video, ���� •
Direced by David Mallet →[��] • Sketh by David Bowie for the bak over
of Spae Oddity, ���� •
���
���
↑←[��] • Double-breased uit and turquoie boot, ���� •
Suit deigned by Freddie Burretti •
���
DAVID BOWIE IS DRESSED FROM HEAD TO TOE → [��] • David Bowie photographed for the Pin Up album artwork and promotional material, ���� • Photograph by Mik Rok
���
←↑[��] • Pale blue uit, ���� • Deigned by Freddie Burretti for the Diamond Dog tour • ↓[���] • David Bowie on sage during the Diamond Dog tour • Photograph by Ken Regan •
���
↑→[���] • Blak uit and dre hirt, ����
• Deigned by Ola Hudon for the Station to Station tour •
���
DAVID BOWIE IS INTENT ON PULLING EVERYTHING INTO THE PRESENT,WHERE LIFE IS ALWAYS BEGINNING →[���] • David Bowie on sage during the
Stage tour, ���� • Photograph by Maayohi Sukita
���
↑→[���] • Nautial osume, ���� • Deigned by
Nataha Korniloff for the Stage tour •
���
DAVID BOWIE IS GAZING A GAZELY STARE →[���] David Bowie, ���� •
Photograph by Brue Weber
���
I, I WILL BE KING
AND YOU,YOU WILL BE QUEEN
← [���] • Supro © Dual
BOWIE|: MUS BOWIE|: MUSIC IC LUCKY OLD OLD SUN IS IN MY SKY…
Tone elecri guitar ued on the Reality tour, ���� • Manufacured by Valo, Ltd, .����–�� •
It i mui’ good fortune that David Bowie fell into thi art form a hi firs medium of hoie a a young man. We an now ee, ven the resle gallimaufry of other interes and kill revealed ine, that thi wa by no mean a ertainty. What’ more, hi emi-formal muial training, uh a it wa, bore all the hallmark of an amateur’ enthuiasi but direcionle exploration into the field, likely to throw up a brief entanglement with the heady, haoti iru arena of pop, followed by an equally wi deline, talent depletion and burnout. Other pop wannabe populating the lower and middle order of the hart in April ����, the month that aw the releae of hi novelty ingle, ‘The Laughing Gnome’, had diappeared into Z-lis oburity by the end of that deade: Bowie’ invaion of the world wa sill nearly five year in the future and would las well into the twenty-firs entury. That Bowie’ areer did not follow the o-trodden path taken by rok and pop artis with a touh of panahe and flair, arresing look, masery of bai guitar tehnique and a knak of being at the happening party with ae to happening drug tell u that hi muial insinc were of a different order altogether and that hi apaity for muial growth wa exeptional. Hi muiality reaced like a hemial with the mind of the young, firs erupting in the early ���� and reigniting time and time again in the ubequent �� year. He may have onoced new performane peronae, new osume, new publi poe, new way of onnecing with audiene, but eentially a a ompoer he ha developed like any other, diovering freh poibilitie and ollaboration a hi peronality ha developed and matured, being open to and olliding with different ultural simuli a time ha paed.Thiwa Beethoven’path,a itwaMahler’,MCartney’and Gerhwin’. . Of oure, Bowie ha been a fahion ion of oniderable sature and hi publi performane a an acor and muiian have reverberated aro Wesern ulture, yet allof theeolourful manifesation manifesation ofhi imanationwe oweto thefac ofhi asonihingoutputaaompoer-produer. ompoer-produer.Putsarkly,evenif weweretosrip away theflamboyantperonalitie peronalitieofZig StardusandtheThinWhiteDuke,of sarmen, paemen, earth-bound falling men and video-art marionette, Bowie’ influene a the produer of Ig Pop’The Idiot, a o-produer of Lou Reed’ Tranormer , a ongwriter of ‘Life on Mar?’, ‘All the Young Dude’, ‘Rebel Rebel’ and ‘Ahe to Ahe’, or or a a o-reator with Brian Eno and Tony Vionti Vionti of the reolutely intimate, ro-genre experiment of Low are reaon on their own for him to be onidered one of the mos ignifiant muiian of the twentieth entury. While lover of laial mui have Leonard Bernsein onducing a multinational orhesra and hoir in Beethoven’ ninth ymphony firmly imprinted on their memorie a the muial embodiment of the fall of the Berlin Wall in November ����, to an even greater body of million jus one ong by Davi d Bowie and Brian Eno, written in the hadow of that wall �� year earlier, aptured the eene of the moment. Even though, unlike the Beethoven, ‘Heroe’ wa (rather urpriingly) not performed live there at that time nor broadas via atellite to the world, it satu a the ong of the Wall, a witne to the pain it aued and it eventual vanquihing by ordinary people, ha as it pell over the hisorial reality of event ever ine ( pl.���). Add to the mall lis above Bowie’ bewilderingly feund atalogue of other ong and sudio reording, the ale of hi reativity behindloeddoor,ait were,isaggering.Sohimuial iinitelfomewhat miraulou and it deerve further rutiny: why ha David Bowie’ mui a mui made uh a profound impac on other artis in all field, a well a on the publi at large, over o extended a period?
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The firs onideration i Bowie’ knak of apturing and reproeing the muial trend of the moment. Broadly peaking, ompoer of a ll period in hitory an be divided into three group: genuine innovator, ‘eond-wave’ ‘eond-wave’ aborber who yntheize pioneer development and adept, polihed weeper who ati the publi’ delayed appetite for what wa new five or ten year previouly. It i a ommonmioneptionthatthe ‘famou’,landmarkompoerlikeBah,Mozart, Beethoven, Brahm, Wagner or Gerhwin were utting-edge innovator of the firs group, wherea in fac all of the above fall into the eond ategory, a doe Bowie. Very few few of the true pioneer of muial hange omedown to u, deade or enturie later, a the leading name of their age. Mozart onidered J. S. Bah’ on Carl Philip Emmanuel the modern vanguard of hi youth and never thought of himelf a a hallenger of older tradition (far from it, Mozart wa an avid admirer of Bah and Handel, definitely yeserday’ almos-forgotten men during hi lifetime).JoephHaydn,oenredited withtheinventionof theorhesralymphony, would havebeen urpried tohave beenawarded uh an epithet,knowing thatif it belonged to anyone, uh a laim belonged to Mannheim-baed Czeh ompoer Johann Stamitz (or Stami). The young Beethoven’ apparently novel dramati piano syle, alarming and titillating to audiene in said early nineteenth-entury Vienna, wa gleaned i n part from hi inider’ f amiliarity with anoth er Czeh ompoer, London-baed Jan Duek, unknown to all but the ultra-muiallyinformed of the day. Wagner would be nowhere without the viionary advane in muial syle and tehnique made by the man who would eventually beome hi father-in-law, Franz Lizt. What allthee ‘eond-wave’ ‘eond-wave’ ompoer havein ommoni a highly highly developed developed ene of what ele i in the ether, what syle are emerng and where to find uh ingenuity. They are then able to blend new, exploratory idea with their own welldeveloped kill, pakang the enuing mix for the general audiene in uh a way a to intrigue and delight without leaving them utterly bewildered. Thee are rare , ometime – perhap alway – intuitive rather than sudied, whih i why the number of ompoer whoe work reult in a univeral hange in sylisi direcion remain mall. Bowie’ name i among them. Nor i the leight of hand involved – digesing and tranforming the experimental, the ontemporary, the not-yet-modih into omething peronal and freh – in any way eretive. Bowie Bowie himelf hanever been oy oy about theproe. Why hould an artis a hones and ourageou a he ha been have been anything other than open aboutit?Allmuialinventionibuilton theourematerialofotherand theworld of pop/rok and lately hip-hop i mosly beguilingly free from the deathly taint that ha hung around the notion of ‘borrowing’ in newly ompoed laial mui ine the death of Bah and Handel in the mid-eighteenth entury. Some apec of thi taboo (whih thee two ompoer would not have reognized, ausomed a they were toregular andwidepread borrowing borrowing fromtheir ownand other’ other’ work)were arried into twentieth-entury popular mui. Fear of the auation of plaarim inhibited many a budding writer long before the internet made ‘opy and pase’ an idler’ harter. Fear of nothing, on the other hand, ha been a hallmark of Bowie’ areer, and hi devouring and rehaping of the ultural department sore of the late twentieth entury i one of it mos simulating feature. It alo explain hi ability to renew hi muial output over a ��-year sreth.
↑ [���] • EMS Synthi AKS yntheizer
purhaed in ���� by Brian Eno and ued for the reording of “Heroe” “Heroe”,, ���� •
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With hi firs reording in the ����, Bowie wa mining the whimial whimial eam of Englih mui hall novelty ong (in ‘Unle Arthur’, ‘The Little Bombardier’ and ‘Ching-A-Ling’, a well a in ‘The Laughing Gnome’, the ong that aue the ubequent hardore Bowie faithful to wine, pl.���), though, to be fair, o were many other in the winng London of the Beatle, the Kink, Herman’ Hermit and (the name ay it all) the New Vaudeville Band. By November ���� and the releae of hi album Spae Oddity, a new et of influene wa evident: pyhedeli hippie folk-rok, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, the Beatle’ St. Pepper and Maal Mysery Tour and the fledgling glam-rok syle oon to be the alling ard of hi friend Mar Bolan. For the next four deade, imilar amalgam of ometime inongruouly ombined ingredient would be sirred into Bowie melting pot aer melting pot, eah sew, however deliiou, abandoned aer eah extended reording projec and aompanying tour(), to the hagrin of wave of newly onverted fan. Bowie ha made a habit of thwarting any likelihood of hi ound ettling into any hoen groove. It i quite poible to love one Bowie album and hate another, imply beaue very few of them (there are more than �� in total) are alike. Early Bowie (prior to ‘Spae Oddity’), while trawling the atti of okney mui hall, had a weirdne to it that et it apart from muh of the whimy kirting the hart in the mid-����. ‘The London Boy’ (releaed in Deember ����) i an unettling example. Apart from an opening nod to the ound of bra band, pracially obligatory on Englih pop ong aer the Beatle’ landmark Revolver had introdued them into ‘Yellow Submarine’ (the ingle of whih insalled itelf at number one for the ummer of ����), and a imilarly dijointed, bray playout, the ore of ‘The London Boy’ i altogether more iniser, with an R&B-syle Hammond organ, ba and drum mixed sarkly to the front, making no oneion to the eay-going athine of pop whatoever. Bowie’ lyri, part-autobiographial, part-propheti, trae a teenage wannabe’ initiation to Soho’ lub, drug and elebrity ene of the time (and, a it ha turned out, any time ine): ‘Oh, the firs time that you tried a pill/ You feel a little queay, deidedly ill/ You’re You’re gonna be ik, but you musn’t loe fae/ To let yourelf down would be a big digrae/ With the Londonboy’. ThoughthelyriauedBowie’reordompanieonboth ideofthe Atlanti enough anxiety to attempt to bury the ong, in fac it i the ong’ muial omponent that i mos unexpeced – aer all, Paul MCartney’ admitting that hi Motown-inpired ‘Got to Get You Into My Life’ on Revolver wa a tribute to marijuana didn’t sop it being enormouly popular. Bowie’ diorientated, meandering melody with it uneven phrae length, driing lislely aro an aompaniment that eem obliviou to it, defie oy aeibility. Unlike MCartney, a oial ommentator who sood impartially aide from hi ficitiou haracer, from Mr NowhereMan and the metiulou barber of Penny Lane to the melanholi Eleanor Rigby and Lovely Rita, meter-maid, Bowie beame hi haracer, and depite ‘The London Boy’ being written in the third peron, he appear to have taken hi vitim’ voie for hi own voal performane. Thi impule ha reourred ountle time in hi work.
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↑ [���] • Orinal lead heet (drum) for ‘The Laughing
Gnome’, arranged by Dek Fearnley and David Bowie, ���� • → [���] • Orinal lead heet (guitar) for ‘Spae
Oddity’ by David Bowie, ���� • Handwritten by Paul Bukmaser •
← [���] • Orinal lead heet (elecri guitar)
for ‘Spae Oddity’ by David Bowie, ���� • Handwritten by Paul Bukmaser • ↑ [���] • Orinal lead heet (violin) for ‘Spae
Oddity’ by David Bowie, ���� • Handwritten by Paul Bukmaser •
The unpredicable harmonie of ‘The London Boy’, underlining the ene of alienation in the voie, are out of plae in late ���� pop, defiantly o, but they are wholly appropriate tothe moodof theong. Shiinguneaily fromhord tohord, the Hammond B�’ vibrato further undermining the sability of the tuning, the overall muial effec of the aompaniment of thi ong feel more at home next to Blur’ Parklie of ����, partiularly the trak ‘London Love’ , than it doe nesled up to the other hit of late ���� – the Beah Boy’ ‘Good Vibration’, Donovan’ ‘Mellow Yellow’ and Frank Sinatra’ ‘That’ Life’ . Bowie’ meed-up runaway wa alo haracerized by hi unompromiingly outh London aent, a ound that i heard aro Bowie’ output until he began touring the United State in earnes and the reedier, more omopolitan voie of Aladdin Sane took over in the mid ����. ‘Spae Oddity’ (July ����) wa Bowie’ breakthrough from quirky alo-ran to front runner, helped in no mall part to it apturing the Zeiteis with impeable timing. Stanley Kubrik’ ����: A Spae Odyey had been releaed the previou ummer and the ingle sarted reeiving heavy radio play a Apollo �� made it hisori manned landing on the moon. But typially for Bowie, thi wa no ingalong elebration of tehnoloal endeavour, nor wa ‘Spae Oddity’ a feas of metaphor like Bart Howard’ ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ , the arefree anthem to the ���� high life a epitomized in Sinatra’ wing over of ����. No, Bowie plaed hi asronaut in iolated jeopardy and, in ontras to the yniim of ‘The London Boy’ or the lownihly ironi, rum-ti-tum ‘Love You till Tueday’, the ingle that immediately preeded ‘Spae Oddity’, reponded to the man-on-the-moon moment with a hymn to humanity, the doomed asronaut’ las word being ‘Tell my wife I love her very muh’. Muially rih, with one of Bowie’ bet-ever narrative melodie, ‘Spae Oddity’ mixe the open-sringed warmth and rhythmi preiion of srummed aousi guitar – very ���� – with a peudo-orhesra provided by Rik Wakeman on a sring mellotron, the saple ound wah of the Moody Blue – alo very ���� (pl ���–��). Again, Bowie’ voal identifie equally with the Ground Control and Major Tom haracer, but insead of delivering both with tongue firmly in heek, a he might have done two or three year earlier, he inves them with a inerity that make the ong far more than a omi-book novelty ingle, of whih there were a great number in the ����. It wa a if Bowie had found in the ong a new r eipe that ombined hi natural theatriality with a muially broadened palette, bringing together, if you like, the imanative obervation and ymphoni ambition of MCartney with the grainy, urbane realim of Lennon. Bowie rarely returned to the luh, benevolent, film-ore-syle oundape of ‘Spae Oddity’ in hi later areer, with the disinguihed exeption of the maserial ‘Life on Mar?’ Even when he reviited the haracer of Major Tom in the ���� hit ‘Ahe to Ahe’ , the weeping, wide-reen panorama of ‘Spae Odd ity’ wa replaed with a disorted, quivering piano, jerkily ynopated internal rhythm and baking voal that obured and urrounded the lead voie like a loaking fog. Muially, it wa a if the firs enounter with Major Tom had the infinity of pae a it bakdrop, while the eond took plae in the lausrophobi metal box where he met hi nemei.
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Bowie wa working hard enough in the three year between the UK hit ‘Spae Oddity’ and ‘Starman’, but the general publi would have been forven for forgetting about hi exisene. Hi re-emergene in pecaular fahion with the eond of thee pae-travel ballad on ‘Top of the Pop’ on � July ���� realibrated where he sood in the publi eye and hi own image of himelf. Yet the pot-pourri of oure for‘Starman’wereharacerisiallynumerouandvaried.Hi unaumingopening hordal dionane, on the insrument whoe light, jangling, hordal preene on a trak wa v irtually ompulory in the ����, the ��-sring guitar, betrayed the unravelling of muial urprie about to take plae. Mar Bolan’ period of wizard, withe and fairie (a exemplified in ong like ‘Ride a White Swan’, ‘By the Light of a Maal Moon’ and ‘Comi Daner’) wa ving way to hi harder, more elecri, T-Rex glam-rok syle in ong like ‘Hot Love’ and thoe with frequent all to ‘booe’, and element of both phae are found in ‘Starman’ (partiularly in it exhortation to ‘let all the hildren booe’, a refrain that alo referene John Lee Hooker’ ‘Booe Chillen’). The mos obviou debt, though, wa a melodi one, to Harold Arlen, ompoer of ‘Over the Rainbow’ from The Wizard o Oz , the ���� muial film sarring Judy Garland. By happy aident or deign – and I srongly upec the former – the identifiation of Bowie’ new extra-terresrial loner, omplete with tehniolor jumpuit, almos vertial rimon-orange hair, eyeliner and maara, and laiviouly biexual body language direced at hi fellow (male) guitaris, with Dorothy and all he repreent to the gay ommunity wa a sroke of tongue-in-heek, up your geniu that royally relaunhed Bowie. It alo announed to the world the metaphorial entre-sage-entrane of Zig Stardus (pl.���), a moment worthy of Marilyn in Diamond Are a Girl’ Bes Friend or Streiand in Hello, Dolly!, in front of �� million open-mouthed Briton. It wa a moment of theatr e, for ure, but aced out in an arena, pop, of uh ontemporary power and reonane that it had the urgeny and impac of a new report. What wa orinal wa the gesure, the ulture hok, the artifie, even if the individual muial omponent had been heard before in their eparate guie. It i important to sre that Bowie’ flirtation with the muial idioynraie of other around him have never been imple imitation or lazy reproducion in the hope of ommerial popularity-urfing. For one thing, acively eeking popularity ha never been hi prinipal driving fore, not ine ‘Starman’, at any rate. Hi interes in other people’ mui, from whatever oure or genre, i firs and foremos a peronal paion uh a he might have developed if viual art had been hi hoen path insead of mui. Hi muial eduation, rather than being onentrated into hi hildhood and sudent day, a it i with many profeional muiian, ha been virtually uninterrupted ine boyhood. Hidiovery of theatalogue of German Amerian ompoer Kurt Weill(����–��), for example, wa made not apart of a univerity yllabu (a wa mine) but a an intrigued, elf-motivated adult.
• Orinal lyri for ‘Zig Stardus’ by David Bowie, ���� • ← [���]
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Weill-like hord and melodi orner eep into Bowie’ syle and – mos notieably – into hi voal delivery throughout hi areer. In hi ���� world tour, he programmed Kurt Weill’ ‘Alabama Song’ (from the muial play-turned-opera Weill wrote with Bertolt Breht, The Rie and Fall o the City o Mahaonny , firs performed in ����), whih he ubequently reorded and releaed a a ingle in February ����. The way the lyri of thi ong i onsruced, with it erie of dijointed, theatrial delamation and exlamation in the vere followed by a horu that paint a eemingly unrelated picure, hare many imilaritie with a lai Bowie lyri hape. While the res of the muial play/opera of Mahaonny i in Breht and Weill’native German, thee wordwere written in Englih for Breht byEliabeth Hauptmann (who had previouly ontributed ignifiantly to the text of another Breht-Weill mui theatre work, The Threepenny Opera , whih i et in London’ Soho, while Mahaon ny i et in a fitional dytopian wateland repreenting Ameria). Hauptmann’vere nap: Oh, how me the way To the next whikey bar Oh, don’t ak why Oh, don’t ak why (repeated) For i we don’t find The next whikey bar I tell you we mus die I tell you we mus die I tell you, I tell you I tell you we mus die
Themui,hithertosaato andunfriendly,abruptlyhangegear,broadening and warming into a weepingly memorable tune for the horu: Oh, moon o Alabama We now mus ay oodbye We’ve los our ood old mama And mus have whikey, oh, you know why
Compare thi with Bowie’ lyrial arhitecure for ‘Ahe to Ahe’ (pl.���) from hi album of the ame year, ����, Sary Monser (and Super Creep). The vere throwoutunanweredquesion,randommemorieanddionnecedutterane: Do you remember a uy that’ been In uh an early on? I heard a rumour rom Ground Control Oh no, don’t ay it’ true They ot a meae rom the Acion Man ‘I’m happy, hope you’re happy too I’ve loved all I’ve needed love Sordid detail ollowin.’ The hriekin o nothin i killin Jus picure o Jap rl in ynthei And I ain’t ot no money and and I ain’t ot no hair But I’m hopin to kik but the planet i lowin alow → [���] • Orinal lyri for ‘Ahe to
Ahe’ by David Bowie, ���� •
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Then, a we lip into the refrain, the tune fill and implifie, replaing the haiku-like parade of haphazard thought with an image of Bowie’ earlier alter ego, the los, onfued asronaut Major Tom, abandoned in pae: Ahe to ahe, unk to unky, We know Major Tom’ a junkie Strun out in heaven’ hih Hittin an all-time low
Undoubtedly highly effecive live on sage, dominated a it wa by Bowie’ uperlative, haracerized inng, the reording of ‘Alabama Song’ featured an attempt, ingeniou in oneption, to dirupt the expeced drum beat of the Weill aompaniment (whih ha the feel of a tiny, ragged sreet band) by overdubbing the deliberately non-rhythmi drum pattern aer all the other part had been reorded. The reult i haoti (not in a good way), ounding a if a paer-by ha been let looe with a heap toy drum mahine omewhere within earhot of a real band of muiian. No one aid experimentation alway worked. On the EP (extended-play ingle) releaed in February ���� of five ong f rom Bowie’ performane in the TV dramatization of Breht’ play-with-ong Baal, he overed a ong f rom Weill’ Berlin Requiem of ���� (the text of whih were alo written byBreht). Hi rendition of ‘The DrownedGirl’, a well afour otherong with mui by Breht himelf (arranged beautifully on thi oaion by ompoer Domini Muldowney, a Weill expert) reveal both how uited Bowie’ voie wa to the ardoni, gritty delivery uually aoiated with Breht-Weill sage work and alo how Weill’ ed Sinpiel syle had urreptitiouly rept into Bowie’ own ompoitional armoury by the ����, ine the five-ong Baal EP doe not it awkwardly outide the res of hi reorded output, but eem to fit neatly within it. The EP wa reorded at the Hana Studio in Berlin – the ‘sudio by the Wall’ – where Bowie had made part of Low and all of “ Heroe”, and whih wa within walking disane of the abaret lub and low-rent theatre that had inpired Weill and Breht’ mui theatre ollaboration in ���� and ’�� Weimar Germany. Intentionally or uboniouly, Bowie’ haunting ‘I Can’t Read’ (firs releaed in September ����, with a revied verion prepared for Ang Lee’ ���� film The Ie Storm), with it melanholi fatalim and it angular harmonie upporting a emi-dionant tune, look on the page remarkably like the kind of ong Weill would have been proud to have written had he lived beyond hi meagre �� year. Bowie’ unorthodox relationhip with the mui that ha inpired him – not to imitate but to ue a a launhing pad for hi own reation – an be een at work in hi interplay with the ignature riff-oriented rok and r oll or, more aurately, the Chiago-derived urban rhythm and blue of the Rolling Stone. The Stone’ firs threeBritihhit wereChukBerry’‘ComeOn’,Lennon-MCartney’‘IWannaBe Your Man’ and Buddy Holly’ ‘Not Fade Away’ , but by late ���� their international satu wa onfirmed with a worldwide hit ompoed by Keith Rihar d and Mik Jagger themelve, ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satifacion’. Whatever morgabord of tase had gone into their formative year, from ���� on the Stone had a disincive ound of their own, one that a killed guitaris ould pasihe without muh diffiulty.
• Orinal lyri for ‘Rebel Rebel’ by David Bowie, ���� • → [���]
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• ‘Oblique Strate’ ard reated by Brian Eno and Peter Shmidt • Publihed in ���� • ← [���]
↑ [���] • Note written by David Bowie and
Brian Eno prior to reeiving the Q Inpiration Award, ���� •
So Bowie’ inluion of a ong penned by Jagger and Rihard in ����, ‘Let’ Spend the Night Together’, on hi ���� album Aladdin Sane might have been a sraightforward over tribute: aer all, the Stone were the bigges band in the world that year, partiularly ueful in Ameria. Aladdin Sane , depite it title name-heking a Chinee haracer from a Middle Easern ompendium of sorie popular in Englih Chrisma pantomime, wa primarily Bowie’ repone to hi impreion of the grimy, unsable underbelly of Amerian ulture, a he had experiened – or imaned – it fr om the window of hi tour bu. Elewhere on the album, Mik Ronon’ in-your-fae elecri guitar i unahamedly Stone-like, Bowie’ voal mannerim owe more than a little to Jagger’ wagger and the opening trak, ‘Wath That Man’, eem like a re-run of the ���� Jagger-Rihard oon-to-be sandard,‘BrownSugar’ . The bizarre, brittle, at time avant-jazz, at time high amp overarhing atmophere of Aladdin Sane , though, nodding in the direcion of the prog-rok band King Crimon a well a ���� Ameriana, i largely inhopitable territory for the unambiguou R&B of the Rolling Stone, and Bowie’ treatment of ‘Let’ Spend the Night Together’ i a unexpeced a it i thri lling. Bowie peed the ong up and add in ome fabulouly demented, diordant, high-ener piano from Mike Garon and ome equally razed rating yntheizer and Hendrix-like lead-guitar figure, taking the ong, whih had ourted ontrovery enough when firs releaed by the Rolling Stone in ���� thank to it ‘uggesive’ lyri, to a new level of exual abandon. In Bowie’ verion, the night in quesion promie to be not merely wild but illegally o. Drug and under-age ex may well have been meat and drink to touring rok group of the ����, no le o for Bowie and hi entourage by all aount, but the mani ener with whih they are elebrated in thi reor ding i unuual. Mos of the exee deribed in the rebelliou, pyhedeli mui of the ���� and ’�� now eem tame, even rather quaint, but Bowie’ radial makeover of ‘Let’ Spend the Night Together’ remain unompromiing, brutal and elecrially harged in the twenty-firs entury, in a manner that i not diimilar to the ontinuing hallenge of Stanley Kubrik’ A Clokwork Orane , whih andalized audiene aro the free world in the year before the reording of Aladdin Sane . Aladdin Sane wa not Bowie’ final bruh with a Rolling Stone ound. One of hi mos enduringly popular ong, ‘Rebel Rebel’ ( pl.���) , firs worked on in the sudio in London over Chrisma ����, bear the unmisakable imprint of a Keith Rihard-type riff (though rumour that Rihard himelf played on the eion are groundle: on the reord the player of the famou riff wa Alan Parker). Again, depite the sated aim of mimiking a Stone intro, what Bowie and hi muiian reate i typially deoupled from it ven sarting point, veering off into a glamrok anthem to tranexualim/tranvesim (it i worth noting that ‘Rebel Rebel’ wa releaed in ����, two year before Come Bak to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean opened in Columbu, Ohio, eight year before it film adaptation and four year before the releae of the Frenh-Italian film verion of La Cae aux Folle ). The ong’ now ioni phrae, ‘not ure if you’re a boy or a rl ’, derive from the ubiquitou sreet hout of ���� navvie in London: ‘Are you a boy or a rl?’ It i a meaure of Bowie’ highly idioynrati performane in the ong that in the nearly �� year ine the releae of ‘Rebel Rebel’ it han’t ourred to mos lisener that it wa orinally prompted by another band’ syle. In both ‘Let’ Spend the Night Together’ and ‘Rebel Rebel’ the proe Bowie engage in i a form of disortion of the template provided by another band, rather than a homage. Thi i a ruial disincion, ine it i the proe he adopt time and time again, olliding, for example, with Philadelphia oul in Youn Amerian (����), with Nile Rodger’ New York dane ene in Sary Monser (����) and with Trent Reznor’ indusrial metal oundape and early drum’n’ba groove in �. Outide (����). He doe it mos drasially in hi three ‘Berlin’ album, whih deerve and reeive diuion of their own below.
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The urge to experiment ha extended well beyond the multitude of muial and non-muial influene that have fed into eah Bowie reording projec (for the intelligently unomplaent Heathen, made in hi fiy-fih year, Bowie ited Rihard Strau’ ‘Four Las Song’ of ���� a muial preparation and Nietzhe’ ���� philoophial trac Die Fröhlihe Wienha, not to mention defaed medieval and Renaiane Chrisian ar t a non-muial element: not a ombination of influene likely to be found in any other popular artis of the early twenty-firs entury, I upec). Long-term, on-off working relationhip with a mall group of key muial partner notwithsanding – Tony Vionti, Brian Eno, Carlo Alomar, Mike Garon, Gail Ann Dorey, Reeve Gabrel, Mark Plati and Mik Ronon hief among them – Bowie ha ought out a divere range of muiian in hi areer, oen (one imane deliberately) plaing himelf or the muiian in quesion out of their omfort zone, hallenng him or her to avoid the expeced, the eay reliane on mule memory or deeply ingrained training. Sometime muiian were aked to exhange insrument in eion, to pro voke the potential noveltie ariing from a benner’ inexperiene or tehnial innoene. Brian Eno introdued Bowie to game played by laial avant-garde ompoer in the ����, whereby hane – the throwing of a die, the dealing of numbered ard and o on – would determine how or what player might play, a tehnique known formally a ‘aleatory’ ompoition. Eno’ favourite method of enourang unpredicable muial behaviour wa the ue of a et of ard he had devied with artis Peter Shmidt alled ‘Oblique Stratee’, whih involved muiian piking up ard (pl.���) with insrucion on them, uh a ‘What would your loes friend do?’ The ommand on the ard ould alo be more peifi to mui: ‘You are a digruntled ex-member of a South Afri an rok band. Play the note you were not allowed to play.’ Pretentiou though ome of thee theorie of muiian-manipulation may now appear, on the whole the player themelve, perhap dulled by year of eion where they did indeed rely on familiar trik, eemed open to them. For all the artifiiality of the proe, the aural reult, in album uh a �. Outide and Low, are ertainly orinal and unpredicable. Whether they would have been anyway, ven Bowie’ srange sate of mind for the latter and the unuual irumsane of the reording eion – in a onverted Frenh hâteau, in a sudio adjaent to the Berlin Wall during the Cold War and, in the ae of �. Outide, up a mountain in the Alp – we will n ever know. Low (����) did not et the muial world on fire at the time of it releae and many Bowie admirer found the with of direcion from Station to Station (����) too drasi for omfort, but with the benefit of a longer period of reflecion it ha rightly been judged one of the eminal muial reording of the late twentieth entury. Low i traditionally grouped with “Heroe” (pl.���) and Loder into a trilo of ‘Berlin’ album, though of the three only “Heroe” wa reorded in it entirety at the Hana Studio. The triptyh i disinguihed not o muh by the Berlin sudio premie a by the reative hemisry of Bowie, Eno and produer Tony Vionti working ina milieuof elecroni-aousiexperimentation, ina loed, reatively lausrophobi, oen ineapably tene atmophere. Depite the fac that Bowie wa ubmitting himelf to the painful proe of trying to hake off hi addicion to oaine at the time and that a dark mood would oen deend on proeeding, thee unpropitiou ondition neverthele bred a urpriing degree of artisi freedom and the reative outome uefully defied the ommerial imperative of the reord indusry – no mean feat in itelf for an aet a valuable a Bowie.
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Underpinning thi preure-ooker working environment wa the inpiration of German yntheizer-baed group Krawerk, Neu! and Tangerine Dream. Thee o-alled Krautrok band, a well a Eno and other in the vanguard of elecronia, were able todevelop and thrive in the late ���� thankto advane in yntheizer tehnolo, led by Moog and ARP. Bowie met the member of Krawerk – Ralf Hütter, Florian Shneider, Wolfgang Flür and Karl Barto – at their purpoe-built, sate-of-the-art Kling-Klang sudio in Düeldorf, Wes Germany, in ����, not long aer the releae of the group’ groundbreaking album Radio-Acivity . One ritial differene between Krawerk’ approah and Bowie’ wa the emphai plaed by the German on finding elecroni mean for all department of the ound: proeing voal in keyboard-operated vooder, uurping aousi drum with mahine and o on. By ontras, to the newly yntheized, ‘ambient’ wahe of ound made available by mahine tehnolo, Bowie and Eno added human player on guitar, drum,ba,aousipianoand ello,withBowieprovidingemotionallytautvoal on ome trak, alongide oaional male and female baking voal. Put bluntly, Low redefined what a pop album might be. While underground and nihe-market artis and tehniian had been playing with the onept of long, lowly hiing river of yntheized and modulating wave form for ome time before Bowie, Eno and Vionti joined the party, Bowie’ engagement with the movement enured it tranition to the mainsream, where it reaced with a huge number of muiian and lisener aro the globe. In it way it wa a muh a redrawing of the muial map a the Beatle’ Revolver had been ten year earlier. What’ more, Bowie’ entanglement with German elecronia releaed it from the limitation it had plaed upon itelf. Low, unlike the mehanisi rambling of Krawerk’ Autobahn (����) and Radio-Acivity (����), or Neu!’ Neu � (����), wa filled with human emotion, even if it wa invariably onfined to melanholia or ennui. Low’ geneilayin Bowie’too-late-for-inluionoundtrakideaforNiola Roeg’ darkly futurisi ���� film The Man Who Fell to Earth, in whih Bowie played the leading role of the humanoid alien Thoma Jerome Newton. Muh of the peimisi tone of the album reflec the film’ theme of iolation and the onequene of greed. The mos sartling feature of the reord’ overall muial impreion for lisener at the time (I an sill reall vividly the hok at my firs playing of it, a a Bowie-idolizing mui sudent) wa not it blak mood, ommon enough in rok, but it apparent rhythmi, harmoni and melodi inacivity. It wa like frozen mui. What mainsream mui lover were mosly unaware of in the mid-���� wa that thi bare, muial sai wa in fac part of a growing, oon-to-be all-onquering movement aro modern ulture. The term ‘mimimalim’ wa oined by Englih ompoer Mihael Nyman in ���� to refer to a trend in laial mui that began in the ���� on the fringe of muial acivity with experimental ompoer Terry Riley, La Monte Young and John Cage, before gradually oupying the entr e ground with ompoer Steve Reih, Philip Gla and John Adam in the ���� and ’��. In eene thi trend wa a reacion to the franti omplexity and theoretial overload of o muh modernis mui in the firs half of the twentieth entury, though minimalim’ apparent ‘impliity’ i deeptive. The undiputed maser of the genre i Amerian ompoer Steve Reih, who in sudying the drumming and mallet-baed mui of Afria and Indoneia ame to the realization that what eemed to be endle, hypnoti repetition in thi mui wa in fac ontinuouly, ubtly hanng. He ought to adapt thi theory of inremental tranformation to Wesern mui in a erie of landmark work, whih alo extended it ope to inlude voie ampling and the derivation of rhythmi pattern from looped tape of peeh. David Bowie i the onduit through whih thi relatively private, art-mui idea made the leap aro genre into modern pop: Low wa the projec in whih he brought about thi rofertilization. Brian Eno wa hi pilot into the new territory.
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Eno’ ���� album Direet Mui, an obeively favourite vinyl reord of Bowie’ at the time, had taken many of the ame preept Steve Reih wa exploring – the looping of muial phrae bak on to themelve, the repetition of unit of melody or harmony o that their timbre gradually morph into new ound, almos impereptibly (the album’ title trak i over half an hour long, the length of a Haydn ymphony). Direet Mui i reerved, gentle and unobtruive (thi i no ritiim, itiintentionallyo), invesigatingthepoibilitieofFrenhompoerErikSatie’ theorie on muique d’ameublement. Satie’ ‘furniture mui’ wa meant to form part of the bakground of a room or ene or moment, rather than be it primary fou. He introdued the onept with five hort piee in ����, whoe ubtitle arried variou deriptor uh a ‘tobe played in a vesibule’ or‘for adrawing room’. Eno applied thi lo to what ha ine been termed hi ‘ambient’ mui. It i no fault of Eno’, whoe idea were freh and earhing, that hi ambient mui wa to beome the template for myriad lisle wallpaper-like oundtrak to dentis’ urgerie. Eno’ urge to withdraw ego from mui, to allow hane and aident to play a viable part in the reative proe, wa, in the ontext of the mid-����, ourageou, radial and renewing. The ubdued, almos pasoral alm of Direet Mui, though, sand in sark ontras to the menaing, uppreed ener of Low and even more o to the muular, indusrial intenity of “Heroe”. What Bowie and hi rok player brought to the ‘ambient’ etho wa a raw forefulne. The ombination of rih yntheti texture (totally new aural enation for the majority of lisener), Bowie’ languorouly emotive voal – a if alway teetering on the preipie of ome unpeified alamity – and the grinding, oen diorientatingly low rok pule of the three-album et wa thoroughly dynami. It proved liberating to muiian the world over. Within month, if not week, of the releae of Low , the landape in whih other ompoer sood hied in it direcion. For myelf, I borrowed a supendouly unattainable ARP ���� yntheizer from a kindly produer and immediately put it to work a ompanying the sage anti of my fellow sudent, the then barely known omi Rowan Atkinon. And oon, with the revolutionary Yamaha CS-�� polyphoni ynth in my Kilburn bedit, I wa reating endle aette of Low-inpired ong and meandering insrumental expoition. My experiene wa multiplied a thouandfold among young muiian. A whole pop movement, the oalled New Romanti, wa to be pawned from Bowie’ ubequent ���� ong and video, ‘Ahe toAhe’(a razeI onfe Imihievoulylampoonedin ‘Nie Video, Shame About the Song’, a ong I wrote for ‘Not the Nine O’Clok New’, the firs line of whih read, ‘Let’ pend our honeymoon in Eas Berlin’), but the muial impac of Low and it equel “Heroe” wa far deeper and longer lasing,srething out beyond pop into the ulture at large, embraing film mui, performane art, dane and laial onert work. A wehave een, theAmerian ompoer John Cage, Terry Riley,Steve Reih and Philip Gla were a ignifi ant influene on the minimalis syle of the Berlin album. In the wake of Low , “Heroe” and Loder , the flow of influene revered on itelfandGlaompoedtwoymphoniebaedon ourematerialfromtwoof the et – the Low ymphony in ����, followed in ���� by Heroe , whih wa alo adapted into a ontemporary dane work horeographed by Twyla Tharp. The interacion of thee two world, ontemporary laial and pop, in the to and fro of Bowie, Eno and Gla, repreent a milesone in the onvergene of muial genre that ha been the sory of reent muial hisory. It mus alo be immenely gratiing to Bowie, a man whoe artisi appetite ha been unuually eleci ine hi teen, to witne the gloriouly fruitful interplay of art form that i the reality of modern reativity: not many who dream of thee rapprohement an alo laim hey reponibility for their oming into being. David Bowie, ompoer, i one uh atalys.
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• Characer note for Zig Stardus by David Bowie, ���� • → [���]
↓ [���–���]
[���] • Orinal lyri for ‘Oh! You Pretty Thing’ by
David Bowie, ���� • [���] • Orinal lyri for ‘Lady Stardus’ by David Bowie, ���� • [���] • Orinal lyri for ‘Faination’ by David Bowie,
���� • [���] • Orinal lyri for ‘Fahion’ by David Bowie, ���� • [���] •Orinal lyri for ‘Battle for Britain (The
Letter)’ by David Bowie, ���� (igned ����) • [���] • Orinal lyri for “Heroe” by David Bowie, ���� •
↑[���] • Print aer a elf-portrait by David Bowie, ���� •
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↑[���] • David Bowie during the
“Heroe” a lbum eion, ���� • Photograph by Maayohi Sukita
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DAVID BOWIE IS FOREVER AND EVER ↑ [���] • “Heroe” album over mok-up, ���� •
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FOR ‘WE ARE THE GOON SQUAD’: BOWIE, STYLE AND THE POWER OF THE LP COVER, 1967–1983
David Bowie’ peial plae in an ionography of extremis Britih syle wa potted quikly by Peter York, one of the harpet of Britain’ pop-ulture pundit. In hi influential eay ‘Them’, publihed in the Ocober ���� iue of Harper & Queen, he iolate Bryan Ferry, the Roeg/Bowie film The Man Who Fell to Earth and Andrew Logan’ Mi World ompetition a quinteential example of ‘Themne’, and deribe ubriber to the ‘Them’ ult:
hoenandpurhaedwithdevoutintention,and their over opened up deorative poibilitie that turned teenage bedroom into holy hrine. For thoe (and I ounted myelf among them) whoe provinial loation kept them disant from, and ubervient to, the pule of metropolitan fahionability, from ‘Them’, an LP over propped agains a kirting board ould sand in for all ort of imaned and hoped-for affiliation.� Bowie’ were alway among the mos effecive, yet diorientating, producion in thi regard, perhap beaue he had uh a direc reative influene on their format. In fouing on their onsrucion and ontent, thi eay explore how key over, from ����’ David Bowie onward, disilled both the eluive fahion moment and the harater of the artit in extraordinary way.
[They are] example of a new breed, the reator of the dominant high-syle of the eventie. Thee new aeshete have in ommon a viual enibility o demanding that they are prepared to arifie almos anything for the look … Them are the word made fleh. Them put the idea into their living; they wear their room, eat their art. �
LONDON
Suh intenity pervade Bowie’ metamorphi areer and repone to it. A a high pries of ‘Themne’, hi mui, lyri, publi utterane, body and wardrobe ontinue to be rutinized for preient meaning, for lue about the las or the next big thing. If the dominant quality of ‘Them’ syle ould be deribed a the apturing of the ‘oon’ rather than the ‘now’, then Bowie’ o-option of it, partiularly during the ����,operatedlikeaompa,pointing magnetially toward it future (or ometime onfuingly to it pas) material manifesation. Sueive framing of hi ompelling form eemed to ombine the qualitie of nosala and futurim in tandem, enuring that hi image reided not in the preent, but tantalizingly elewhere. A aptured on the over of an LP, Bowie’ syle retained a talimani power with wide-reahing influene. Certainly my own experiene, growing up far from London in the ����, wa, like that of many other enitive, iolated boy of my generation and aer, ineffably marked by Bowie’ pecral preene – glowing through the televiion reen, emblazoned aro a reord leeve. In the dital age we perhap forget how important album over were in the promotion of sar, a vehile for artisi ollaboration and a ignifier of alleaneandapirationamongfan.Theirvividviual appeal and hapti immediay offered a tanble onnecion between performer and lisener: album were
Gerald Fearnley’ June ���� head-and-houlder hot for Bowie’ eponymou debut et the bar in offering a formatthatwabotheeminglygeneriand yetlightly unettling of the satu quo (pl.���). Photographed in Fearnley’ baement sudio in Bryanson Street, near Marble Arh, the young artit arrie all the trapping of ‘Swinng London’, then in it Indian ummer, on hi narrow houlder. The modih (a in ‘mod’ and mode) Robert Jame page-boy hairut and the quai-military oat (deigned by Bowie himelf) ugges the laddih dandyim of Carnaby Street (glinting gold button refleting burnihed blond hair), while the Diney-like, Wet-Coat graphi and wisful gaze betray a ene of other-worldline that almos undermine Bowie’ emerng notoriety a a reognizable ‘fae’, harp and sreetwie. Suh willful ontrarianim plaed him in the ame milieu a the more whimial and experimental of hi mui ontemporarie, inluding hi elfin friend Mar Bolan andRayDavie oftheKink.YetaPeter Doggettnote in hi aount of Bowie’ areer in the ����, true fame remained eluive. Following the releae of the album Bowie wa fored to take up part-time work in a Wes End reprographi tore and eemed to diappear for two year. � In ome way then the viual of David Bowie perfecly apture the univeral lonng of the sar-sruk uburban hop-boy: hungry for ue, ‘in fahion’ though not yet ‘of’ it.
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By the ummer of ����, however, following the releae of ‘Spae Oddity’ (pl.���), Bowie had both eaped from hi rut and esablihed a more onvining and uggesive reative grounding. In July ���� he had met the merurial avant-garde mime artis and daner Linday Kemp, who would beome a mentor and regular ollaborator throughout the following deade, and from there on life had hanged. The Keith MMillan image hoen for the over of the firs UK verion of Bowie’ nextLP, The Man Who Sold the World (pl.���), already how Kemp’ intersitial exuality wielding i t influ ene. Here Bowie reli ne aro a day-bed draped in himmering blue ilk, porting a Mr Fih ‘man-dre’ of ream velvet with a Beardleyeque print of indigo fruit and flower, whih srain open aro hi pale het, aentuate the urve of hi hip and flare out to the alve, where blak leather boot emerge and ro. Long, lightly urled hair fall to hi houlder while he raie a bejewelled arm to adjus the brim of a fedora. In hi other hand he elegantly hold a ingle playing ard a bove the pak of ard that ha been srewn aro the floor of a sudio whoe red urtain and exoti aeorie mimi the fitting of a Vicorian opium den, a bordel lo or one of the many bohemian quat that peppered Notting Hill, Kenington and Camden Town in the period. By ���� Bowie i the ultimate odalique, replendent in hi provoation. In ome way hi ha meleoni perona wa again imply oaking up the influene already urrounding him. Mr Fih and hi generation of tailor on Savile Row and Jermyn Street had been elling kaan and tightly ut uniex uit t o wayward arisorat, fahion photographer, interior deigner and pop sar ine ����. Mik Jagger had long ine laid laim to that turf, but Bowie i flirting more determinedly with the dangerou territory of exual ambiguity. In hi urvey of the wide r mui indusry’ relationhip with homoexuality, John Gill note the preiene of Bowie’ interview with Jeremy, the UK’ firs mainsream gay magazine, in ����. ‘Though an unremarkable and wholly anodyne piee’, the inter view wain the nervouontext of thetime ‘a radial ac, and ould only have sarted puhing button with a gay audiene sarved of ontemporary queer ulture’. � If talking to Jeremy wa one thing, Bowie’ infamou interview with Mihael Watt of Melody Maker in January ���� wa quite another, and exploive in it
uggesion. Many of the ignifier already diplayed aro the firs UK over of The Man Who Sold the World arerepriedinthepiee,ballasto Bowie’mihievou aertion, halfway through the interview: ‘I’m gay … and alway have been.’ Watt open with an albumreferening tongue-in-heek omplaint that ‘even though he wan’t wearing ilken gown right out of Liberty’, and hi long blond hair no longer fell wavily pas hi houlder, David Bowie wa looking yummy’. He goe on to make the following aertion: David’ preent image i to ome on like a wihy queen, a gorgeouly effeminate boy. He’ a amp a a row of tent, with hi limp hand and trolling voabulary … He know that in thee time it’ permiible to ac like a male tart, and that to hok and outrage, whih pop ha alway sriven to do … i a ball-breaking proe … The expreion of hi exual ambivalene esablihe a fainating game … In a period of onflicing exual identity he hrewdly exploit the onfuion urrounding the male and female role. ‘Why aren’t you wearingyourrl’dretoday?’I aidto him … ‘Oh dear,’ he replied, ‘you mus undersand that it’ not a woman’. It’ a man’ dre.’� Though at the time the interview went relatively unremarked, in later year it meage aued the predicable flurrie of manufacured ontrovery that Bowie ontinued to manipulate and enourage. But a Gill aution, ‘you didn’t need to be Roland Barthe to deode the publi perona that David Bowie wa projecing. Although maybe you did: Barthe might have piked up on the ubtext of arti fie and performane that everyone ele eemed to overlook at the time.’ � Indeed ubequent alternative over for The Man Who Sold the World (pl ���–��) indiate a muh more fluid approah to intentionality, meaning and audiene, revealing Bowie’ willingne to tes and exploit poibilitie at thi formative sage of hi areer. They inluded a US verion that featured a artoon by Mike Weller of aderanged owboy, seton hot to piee, blanket-wrapped Winheser hotgun under hi arm, paing the outh London mental aylum in whih Bowie’ brother wa reeiving treatment and emitting a peeh-bubble, the word of whih (‘Roll up your
[���] David Bowie • ����
[���] David Bowie (re-releaed a Spae Oddity in ����) • ����
[���] The Man Who Sold the World (orinal US releae), ����
[���] The Man Who Sold the World (orinal UK releae) • ����
[���] The Man Who Sold the World (orinal German releae)• ����
[���] The Man Who Sold the World (worldwide re-releae)• ����
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leeve and how u your arm’) Merury Reord had exied. Thi riff on madne wa perhap loer to the theme of the reord within, but it power to hok paled beide that of a preening Bowie in a man-dre. The eond UK verion of The Man Who Sold the World , releaed in ���� with a monohrome image by photographer Brian Ward of a guitar-wielding Bowie kiking hi leg in the air, ould not have been more different to the effete Pre-Raphaelite ennui of it predeeor, or to the intervening retr o-amp glamour ditilled into the over for Hunky Dory in ���� (pl.���), where Ward’ tinted portrait tranform the sar into a latter-day Greta Garbo. In many way, while r efereni ng the grittier queer mahimo of New York ontemporarie uh a Lou Reed (a loe friend, whoe album Tranormer Bowie produed in ����), the eond verion of The Man Who Sold the World alo ehoed the exploive and imultaneou debut of Bowie’mosuefulperona,Zig Stardus.Here wa alook infued with a srange,uperhuman, exual energy, aptured by Watt’ deription of Bowie’ wardrobe in the ���� Melody Maker interview:
menae and the antiipation of pervere ex and violene among the rain-oaked, litter-srewn baksreet of depreed early ���� London. A fan reall having intene feeling about Bowie at thi time, a deribed in a volume of pop-sar fantaie ollated by Fred and Judy Vermorel in ����:
He’d lipped into an elegant-patterned type of ombat uit, very tight around the leg, with the h irt u nbuttone d to reveal a ful l expane of white toro. The trouer were turned up at the alve to allow a better glimpe of a huge pair of red plasi boot with at leasthree-inh rubber ole; and the hair wa Vidal Saooned into uh impeable hape that one held one’ breath in ae the light breeze from the open window dared ruffle it. I wih you ould have been there to varda [ee] him; he wa o uper. �
The next two album over exploited the propagandis potential of the poser format in their sark preentation of Ziggy’ piky, painted, naked nariim, all overlaid with the heen of a peuliarly ���� verion of elegane (a look that Bowie would later haracerize a ‘a ro between Nijinky and Woolworth’ in a � ��� Daily Expre interview �). Releaed in April ����, Aladdin Sane (pl.���) featured a over hot by fahion photographer Brian Du that wa o innovative in it ue of even-olour printing that the album leeve ould only be printed in Zurih. The effec wa hyper-real: Zig’ trademark opper hairandFlahGordon lightningboltmake-up(applied by Bowie’ new peronal sage make-up artis, P ierre La Rohe of the Houe of Arden, who would go on to be in harge of make-up for the Zig Stardus/ Aladdin Sane tour of ���� and later worked on the Roky Horror Picure Show ) earing agains the pure white bakground. Thesrong fahion refereneontinued in Pin Up (pl.���), releaed ix month later. The over wa photographed by Jusin de Villeneuve and feature hi protégée Twig, who lean her polihed frame into Zig’ nek, the blank expreion of both a frale a hina Pierrot doll. Thee are
Bowie wa ma and he wa upreme. He had the qualitie of a type of ruler. He wa iene ficion peronified. To me he repreented the mos bizarre thing whih were evil and not of thi world and ompletely beyond the imanation. I really believed he wa an alien of ome kind. I didn’t think he wa normal, human … I would look at him in hi poser and try to undertand the exuality in hi reord. I’d analye them to death. I’d think that mean thi and thi mean that … I think he hould be made aware of how he’ influened people’ dre, their manner, their behaviour … It’ a terrible thing he did really. He’ got a lot to anwer for. �
Zig’heart-soppingimagebesrodefouralbum over. Releaed in June ����, The Rie and Fall o Zig Stardus and the Spider rom Mar wa the firs (pl.���). Brian Ward aptured the alien sar outide hi sudio in London’ Heddon Street, lad in a Bowie-deigned osume, ut and ewn by Freddie Burretti, who would goontodeign ubequentZigoutfit.Theosume wa inpired by the get-up of the Droog in Stanley Kubrik’notorioufilmofthe AnthonyBurgenovel A Clok work Orane , releaed in the UK earlier that year. The olouri zed ph otograph exude mytery,
[���] Hunky Dory • ����
[���] The Rie and Fall o Zig Stardus and the Spider rom Mar • ����
[���] Aladdin Sane • ����
[���] Pin Up • ����
[���] Diamond Do • ����
[���] Youn Amerian • ����
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image of uh attenuated artifiiality that they hime perfecly with the enibility of a ontemporary international fahion world that through the work of Yve Saint Laurent, Halson, Oie Clark and Walter Albini valorized a vague eliionof ampArt Deo revivalim, a enual attention to urfae and the glittery brilliane of Futurim. ��
Bowie’inreaingrelianeonoaine,jus athehi toward a older, harder-edged reative impule wa tranforming ultural producion in the world of art, theatre, fahion, film and mui. Hugo Wilken put it uincly: There’ a part of hi drug addicion that fall into lihé. Aer all, Bowie wa hardly the only rok sar in mid-eventie LA burning himelf out on oaine. Eah era ha it drug, whih tranlate it myth – in the mid ixtie LSD reflecedanaïveoptimimaboutthe poibility of hange; and in the mid eventie, oaine ehoed the grandioe nihilim of pos-Manon LA. And Bowie fell into that trap. ��
NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES
The prettine of Pin Up did not urvive for long, and Zig wa famouly abandoned by hi progenitor, like Frankensein’ haple monser, at a dramati onert at the Hammermith Odeon in July ����. Hi final appearane, a a mutant anine/human in a painting by Guy Peellaert (a Belan artis purloined from the sable of Mik Jagger) on the over of the May ���� album Diamond Do (pl.���), antiipated the oming hi to darkne in Bowie’ repertoire. The fahion photographer Terry O’Neill had previouly produed a sriking monohrome portrait of a louhe Bowie in peudo-gauho dre, a huge and angry narling hound leaping up next to him (pl.���). Peellaert’ verion wa no le disurbing, with it phinx-like sar prawled aro the gatefold a if i n an AmerianGothi freak how, the prominent genital painted out to pai onervative US more. A a reflecion of the dysopian viion revealed by the LP’ mui and the deteriorating sate of Bowie’ mental equilibrium the over worked perfecly. And though Bowie later diavowed that punk held any way over him, it viual ode and nihilisi nasine did eem to herald the oming of the end of glam aesheti for omething far more disurbing. Diamond Do oinided with Bowie’ elfenfored exile, firs to New York and Lo Angele and then, from ����, to Lake Geneva and Berlin. The over of hi ���� releae Youn Amerian (pl.���) briefly repried the nosal hazine of Hunky Dory in it ue of a baklit and heavily airbruhed portrait by Stephen Jaob (an image that owe a debt to the over of Toni Bail’ ���� album Aer Dark – Bail wa the horeographer for the Diamond Dog onert tour). With hi hekedhirt,glintingbangleand inuoulymouldering igarette, Bowie ome aro like a young and andronou Katharine Hepburn. But the o-fou effec were not to las. The move to Ameria marked
The over of the four album produed between ���� and ���� betray both the viiitude of Bowie’ peronal inner tumult and thi lurh toward the paranoid, intropetive, pot-indutrial, dehumanized haracer of late Cold-War pop ulture. Their harh viual blea kne wa irreisible to a ge neration of NME-reading ad young men (and they generally were youngmen) whoeimanative parameter were kethed out by the novel of J. G. Ballard, the mui of Krawerk and the film of Niola Roeg. Station to Station (pl.���), releaed in January ����, ued a photograph taken by Steve Shapiro on the et of Roeg’ film The Man Who Fell to Earth on the over. Bowie, who sarred a the alien Thoma Jerome Newton, i walking through the doorwayof hi paehip (repreented in the film by an anehoi reording hamber). Writing about the wa y the image wa ue d on the album, Wilken note:
[���] Station to Station • ����
[���] Low • ����
[���] “Heroe” • ����
[���] Loder • ����
[���] Sary Monser (and Super Creep)• ����
[���] Let’ Dane • ����
On the original releae it wa ropped and blak and white, giving it an autere, Expreionit flavour redolent of the European Modernim of the ���� and the photography of Man Ray. The sark, red an erif typography – the album title and artis are run together – add to the retro-Modernit feel. Bowie himelf hover omewhere between Ameria and Europe, hi hair in a Jame Dean quiff, hi tiele white hirt everely buttoned to the nek. ��
198
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like Shiele’ portrait of Friederike Maria Beer, disorted like the ame artis’ laerating elf-portrait. It wa a if the turmoil of the previou reord had been foued on to the artwork of Loder, leaving the mui itelf unettlingly free of emotion.’ ��
BERLIN
By the releae of Low (pl.���) and “ Heroe”(pl.���)the followingyear,thetranitiontoEurope waomplete, muially in term of Low and aeshetially in o far a the viual referene of the “Heroe” over went. The over of Low fell bak one more on the imagery of The Man Who Fell to Earth , featuring a manipulated sill from the film, one ‘already ued for a paperba k reiue of the orinal Walter Tevi novel, and deigned by Bowie’ old hool friend George Underwood … The dominant olour i an autumnal orange. Bowie’ hair i exacly the ame hade a the wirling, Turnereque bakground, underlining the olipisi notion of plae reflecing peron, objec and ubjec melding intoone.’ �� With it Neo-Expreionis photographi portrait by Maayohi Sukita, “Heroe” of Ocober ���� i more learly revealing of Bowie’ obeion with German ulture of the firs half of the twentieth entury, whih appeared to enompa everything from the abaret ene of the ���� evoked in ChrisopherIherwood’ Goodbye to Berlin through the rie of Faim (the trapping of whih Bowie eemed to flirt with) to the bleak pyho-patholo of the divided ity. In ommon with the over hoen for Ig Pop’ The Idiot (produed by Bowie during thi period), the “Heroe ” over eemingly make referene to the angular, attenuated gesure of thoe painting by member of Die Brüke that fainated Bowie a he ought refuge in Berlin’ art gallerie, and quote direclyfromaenein LuiBuñuelandSalvadorDalí’ Surrealis maserpiee Un Chien Andalou (����), in whih ant pour out of the sigmata in the entre of the artis’ palm. While unpopular with the mui riti, �� ��’ Loder (pl.���), the final album of the ‘Berlin triptyh’, marked a waterhed in term of the deign onept, a Peter Doggett reord:
DeliberatelyhotinlowreolutionwithaPolaroid SX-�� amera, a blak-uited Bowie, in full vicim make-up with an apparently broken noe, tarred, maohisially,in a‘rimeene’enario. Strikingly reminient of Weegee’ hokingly violent Lower Eat Side oial doumentary photograph of the ����, the image would alo prove eerily loe in pirit to New York artis Robert Longo’ sark Men in the Citie drawing of ���� (Longo would himelf go on to direc New Order’ ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ video in ����uingimilarmotif).�� Inidethe gatefoldleeve, a ollage of found image arranged by artis Derek Bohier inluded a picure of Che Guevara’ orpe, Mantegna’ Lamentation over the Dead Chris and sudio hot of Bowie being prepared for hi death ene. NEW YORK
If Loder marked a bereavement, then the firs album of the following deade indiated, in the word of it author, a ‘purng’. �� Releaed in September ����, Sary Monter (and Super Creep) wahed away the disurbing memorie of Lo Angele and Berlin with the help of fahion illusrator Edward B ell’ deliate drawing of a touled Bowie in Pi errot osume, uperimpoed agains ethereal photograph by Brian Du (pl.���). Thi over image returned it protagonis bak to hi hape-hiing of the early ����, but alo eemed to reveal the mehani that lay behind hi former inarnation a imple ac of performane. By hooing Bell, Bowie eemed to be ignalling an undersanding of the uperfiialitie and ontingeny of fahion and it importane in hi own work – an arena he had explored in the reent ingle ‘Boy Keep Swinng’, with it attendant ‘drag’ video, and in the mildlyynialtrak‘Fahion’on Sary Monser. On the album’ over, Bowie eem aught in the ac of robing or dirobing a he adjus the frill on hi houlder, and the graphi faility with whih Bell indiate sage make-up and rawl the title in expreive alligraphy
It rather alarming over art, photographed by Brian Duffy, outtripped any of the mui for boldne … Loder repreented a deliberate tep into a world in whih Egon Shiele beame the art direcor for a futuriti horror movie, direted perhap by David Cronenberg. Bowie’ body wa depiced aro the gatefold leeve, prone
200
around the edge of the LP ugges nothing more than a pread in Voue or an advert for lipsik. It i all too theatrial to be true.
York finihed the eay with a posript, written at ome point in the preent: Louie’ loed oon aer. Jus ouldn’t handle the punk invaion. Steve Strange went off to do the Moor Murderer. Caroline went to DJ at Billy’, another little gay boîte on Meard Street … Steve Strange wa on the door, and a lot of the freak went … Mos of Billy’ people were into Bowie … In November ����, a Tueday, they got up a Bowie night. Frankie did her ac, whih wa taking on ome eondary Bowie haracer … developin them in mime. Out of that, of oure, ame Neon Night at the Blitz, the aent of Steve Strange, Studio �� and the whole new old world. ��
LONDON
Peter York inluded a hort piee entitled ‘Bowie Night’ in Style War, a ollecion of hi eay launhed in ���� – the ame year a Sary Monser. He deribe the aftermath of a party in fahion deigner Thea Porter’ Greek Street hop that mus have taken plae a few year previouly, around ����, jus a punk hit London and at around the ame time that Harper & Queen ran hi feature on ‘Them’: In the orner i the bies Bowie aualty I’ve ever een, and I’ve een a few … She’ done up ompletely a late ’�� Bowie, i.e. the nger Joe Brown rop … a wap sriped leotard, all in one job … and the little ballet hoe and the one handelier earring, whih i acually a il ver leaf hanng from a red sar.But the main thing i, he’ otthe ull tiltmime ae on, red irle on the heek, red lip and red around the eye on a white bae – the full lown job. Her teeth, like David’, are a bit … weaelih. ��
In their moment of fame, Steve Strange and the habitué of the Blitz lub unurpriingly took tarring role in the video for ‘Ahe to Ahe’, the lead ingle on Sary Monter . Thi marked a paradigm hift in Britih pop mui, where the promotional film and the world ofthe viualperhap beganto takeprominene, eliping the importane of the album over and even, arguably, the mui. Meanwhile, in ���� I sill reided in a teenage bedroom in provinial England. For me the video for ‘Ahe to Ahe’ repreented a pervere world of impoible glamour that I feared but deperately needed to join; and the old Bowie LP, propped agains the kirting board like trophie, would oon sart to take eond plae to a mournful inger from ManheseralledMorriey,withhivaguelydangerou and arouing album over featuring grainy hot fromWarhol’ Fleh, and rough boy in ves with Jean Coceau-inpired tattoo on their houlder. By the autumn of ���� I had le home and ar rived in London. Bowie’ hugely ueful (in ommerial term) album Let’ Dane, with it gloy over art by Greg Gorman and Derek Bohier (pl.���), had upplied the oundtrak to the previou valedicory ummer, but our old Bowie reord had been paked away, never to be diplayed in that way again.
York goe on to deribe how the ompany move on to the lebian bar Louie’ next door, a venue where ‘the evolved Bowie freak, and the orinal punk’ feel at home, but where tenion are emerng: ‘Down Louie’ that night are Malolm MLaren – with Sid and Nany – and Steve Strange, who had a different name then and i done up like a miniature Vivienne Weswoodwith blak andy flo pike and a amouflagebondageuit.’Frankie,theBowieaualty,introdue York to her lebian punk friend Caroline and the evening end meily in a quat in Kenington Garden Square, in a pae that eem to teleope the previou ten year of ubultural hisory: ‘I meet her pal, whih i to ay a ro-ut of i-fi, alternative rok ‘n’ roll, art hippie life, right ar o from ����/�.’�� York ould almos ee the oneit of Sary Monser oming: ‘We ee the morning in, lisening to Diamond Do.Through the window you an ee the twinkling i-fi red on the Pos Offie Tower. We talk about apoalypti nonene and Bowie and the end of everything.’
201
[���] �. Outide • ���� [���] Toniht• ����
[���] Earthlin • ����
[���] Never Let Me Down • ����
[���] ‘Hour ...’ • ���� [���] Tin Mahine • ����
[���] Tin Mahine II • ����
[���] Blak Tie White Noie • ����
[���] The Buddha o Suburbia• ����
���
[���] Heathen • ����
[���] Reality • ����
���
DAVID BOWIE IS A HUMAN BEING →[���] •David Bowie at the time of hi performane
in The Elephant Man, ���� • Photograph by Anton Corbijn
���
↑→[���] • Jumpuit with a graphi pattern inpired by
Le Corbuier, ���� • Deigned by Willie Brown and worn for Dik Clark’ ‘Salute to the Seventie’ •
���
↑→[���] • Skirt uit, ���� • Deigned by Brook Van Horn osume houe, New York, for a performane on ‘Saturday Night Live’ •
���
↑→[���] • Puppet and poodle prop, ���� • The televiion in the
poodle’ mouth reened the performane on ‘Saturday Night Live’ a it happened • Deigned by Mark Ravitz • →[���] • Cosume inpired by Sonia Delaunay’ deign Gaz (����), ���� • Deigned by Mark Ravitz for Trisan Tzara’ play Le Cœur à Gaz (����), and David Bowie •
• David Bowie performing ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ with Klau Nomi and Joey Aria on ‘Saturday Night Live’, ���� • Photograph by Edie Bakin •
→[���] ���–��
���
↑→[���] • Jumpuit with vintage trenhoat, ���� • Deigned by Willie Brown and worn for the ‘DJ’ video •
���
• Pierrot (or ‘Blue Clown’) osume, ���� • Deigned by Nataha Korniloff for the ‘Ahe to Ahe’ video and Sary Monser (and Super Creep) album over •
←↑[���]
���
DAVID BOWIE IS TURNING US ALL INTO VOYEURS →[���] • David Bowie during the filming of the ‘Ahe to Ahe’ video, ���� • Photograph by Brian Du
���
←↑[���] • Military-syle uit, ���� • Deigned by
Peter Hall for the Seriou Moonlight tour •
���
←→[���] •
Lime-green uit, ���� • Deigned by Peter Hall for the Seriou Moonlight tour •
���
↑→[���] • Red uit, ���� • Deigned by Diana Moeley for the Gla Spider tour •
���
←↑[���] • Blak ilk uit, ���� • Deigned by Gioro Armani for the Sound + Viion tour •
���
DAVID BOWIE IS AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT IN TIME A GIVEN MOMENT IN TIME →[���] • David Bowie, ���� •
Photograph by Lord Snowdon
���
ONE MORE WEEKEND OF LIGHTS AND EVENING FACES
FAST FOOD LIVING NOSTALGIA
‘Chane i Bowie’ life sory. All he ever doe i hange. That’ why there’ never an identifiable direcion. He’ everything all at one. Every ong i a different ide of Bowie and the world he ee.’ (New Muial Expre, ‘Album: Bowie at hi brilliant bes’, �� January ����)
CHANGES BOWIE’S LIFE STORY
On �� September ����, the Finanial Time reported on the lates inarnation of the David Bowie fahion phenomenon, urrentlyweepingthenation.Ina pieeentitled‘Men’wear h h hange’, Mark C. O’Flaherty noted that ‘fahion ha had a four-deade love affair with Bowie that’ only getting sronger. Indeed, Bowie may be the mos referened muiian infahionhisory’.� Deigner uh a Phoebe Philo at Celine, Lua Oendrijver at Lanvin and Drie Van Noten had all inluded referene to Bowie in their Autumn/Winter ���� ollecion. Voue Pari produed a Bowie-inpired over in Deember ����, and the following month German Voue publihed a fahion hoot sarring Daphne Guinne, syled in a tributetoBowie’areer.The previoueaon,London-baed deigner Rihard Nioll had hown a ollecion inpired by Bowie’ manifesation a the Thin White Duke, with Bowie’ Station to Station album playing throughout the preentation. On the ubjec of Bowie, Nioll aid: ‘I’ve alway loved the deadene and fearlene of hi syle and mui.’� In the apriiou world of fahion, it’ extraordinary that Bowie ha ontinued to be a oure of inpiration for o many year. But iti peifially theharacer that Bowiereated in the deade from the early ���� to the early ����, and the image in whih they are reorded, that have beome uh important point of referene: he ha built an unparalleled bank of different look and haracer that have been aptured not only through mui but alo in photograph, doumentarieandfeaturefilm.Bowie’ollaborationwith highly regarded photographer and film-maker have been key to hi syle legay, with Mik Rok, Maayohi Sukita, Brian Du, Terry O’Neill, D. A. Pennebaker and Niola Roeg all ontributing to the viual arhive available to today’ deigner. It i interesing to note that a Bowie’ publi appearane and muial output have beome more intermittent, the appetite for hi image and influene ha oared. Cultural hisorian Janie Miller ha written about the ymbioti relationhip between the world of fahion and rok mui, uggesing that the fahion world i drawn to the mui indusry beaue of rok’ authentiity, it ‘underground redential and, in partiular, the notion of rok a omething powerful and dangerou’. � She note that ‘truthfulne and authentiity in mui performane have a pervaivene that, in turn, add value when plaed in aoiation with fahion’.� The fahion indusry alo relie on the vieral quality and impac of mui for the eaonal how preentation: aording to journalis Tim Blank, ‘the role of mui in a how i to ampli – or lari – the deigner’ viion’.� And year aer year, Bowie’ mui i played at fahionhow –it i rare not to hear ‘Fahion’, hi ironi homage to the indusry, at ome point over a eaon.
���
Emmanuelle Alt, editor-in-hief of Voue Pari ine ����, ha alway aknowledged the importane of rok mui to her work a a fahion sylis. She wa reponible for syling and propagating the inredibly popular rok-inpired olletion deigned by Chritophe Dearnin at Balmain from ���� to ���� (Autumn/ Winter ���� featured garment with rysal-embroidered lightning bolt, à la Aladdin Sane ). Her tenure a editor of Voue ha een an emphai on image inpired by rok mui, inluding a mui-themed iue that featured Kate Mo on the over in a Zig Stardus poe (pl.���). � Photographed by Mert Ala and Maru Piggott, Mo i hown wearing a piked red wig and a metalli Balmain jumpuit open to the navel. She i lit from the ide, holding up her wris to reveal a tiny hip’ anhor tattoo. The ompoition and lighting reall Mik Rok’ ���� promotional film for ‘John, I’m Only Daning’, whih featured Bowie with piked red hair, jaket open to the navel and a tiny hip’ anhor on hi le heek. (Bowie later laimed thi tattoo wa inpired by Samantha from the ���� televiion erie Bewithed , who oen wore little hape painted on her fae.) �
Bowie ha alway ued artifie a part of hi ac. In a ���� interview, aked if he regretted that muh of hi publiity wa about hi image, hi repone wa a frank aknowledgement of how the sar ysem and publiity worked: People mus write about me a they feel. I like to think my mos important ontribution i the mui but I’ve got no right to inis that other feel the ame way. If omeone think of me a an important fahion trendetter, good luk. Jus a long a they write about me. � Thi attitude wa reognized by hi fan, a Simon Frith noted in ����: ‘To appreiate Bowie wa not jus to like hi mui or hi how or hi look, but alo to enjoy the way he et himelf up a a ommerial image. How he wa pakaged wa a muh an apec of hi art a what the pakage ontained.’ � Bowie’ sage peronae may have been artfully onsruced, but the paion and ener he put into thee haracer, hi performane and hi mui were ompletely authenti: When I go out onto a sage I try to make the performane a good and a interesing a poible, and I don’t jus mean by inng my ong and moving off. I think if you’re really going to entertain an audiene then you have to look the part too. I feel very omfortable in the lothe I wear and they’re part of me, and part of my ac.�� Bowie ha never laimed to be an inventor of fahion – rather, he ha alway delared hi magpie tendenie for piking up diparate element and melding them together to preent omething that uniquely hannel the Zeiteis . He ha drawn from high fahion and hannelled it to the sreet via hi fan, but he ha alo hannelled element of sreet and ubultural fahion into the mainsream. Hi early ���� ollaboration with Kanai Yamamoto brought the work of the Japanee deigner to a worldwide audiene, while hi ���� video for ‘Ahe to Ahe’ did the ame for the underground London syle of the Blitz Kid. Bowie onisently aknowledge the deigner whoe lothe he ha worn and thoe he ha ollaborated with, from Freddie Burretti and Kanai Yamamoto to Thierry Mugler and Alexander MQueen, reognizing their ontribution to ome of hi mos important look.
↑ [���] • Kate Mo on the over of
Voue Pari, Deember ���� • Photographed by Mert Ala and Maru Piggott • Condé Nas
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From hi earlies teenage year, Bowie eem to have been an avid onumer of fahionable syle: a photograph how him a a neatly oiffed ��-year-old in a three-button jaket, tapered trouer and a pair of harply pointed winkle-piker. He had already begun to experiment with dying hi hair and modiing hi hool trouer. �� A omeone who undersood firs-hand the thrill and exitement of onuming fahion, Bowie wa able to omprehend and appeal to the paion of hi fan bae. Fearlely experimenting with hange in tyle and look in hi early areer, Bowie morphed from a harp-uited mod to a hag-haired hippie, taking in fringed uede boot, leather jerkin and numerou hairsyle along the way. Diplaying an attitude perfecly in tune with the onsant renewal and hi that srucure the fahion world, he rapidly aimilated and projeced the look of the moment, then moved wily on. In ����, Bowie aid: I’ve never had any direcion. I’m very faddy; I alway have been ever ine I wa �� or ��. It jus keep my interes. I find if I do one type of thing too long, I’m a little bored. It i out of neeity really to keep my funcion alive.�� Bowie’ image really began to sand out a hi projeced androny developed. The over of the ���� album The Man Who Sold the World how him in a dre (ee pl.���), one of a range of menwear piee by the flamboyant London deigner Mr Fih, whoe lothe were labelled with the legend ‘Peuliar to Mr Fih’. Mihael Fih had opened hi hop in ���� at the height of London’ ‘Dandy Revolution’, upplying a more exluive and radial verion of the heap dipoable fahion of the Carnaby Street boutique to a young and moneyed elite who dabbled in the hippie aetheti – ‘ee-through voile, broade and pangle, and minikirt for men, blinding ilk, flower-printed hat’.�� Bowie wa not the firs figure in the publi eye to wear a Mr Fih dre: in ���� Mik Jagger had hoen to wear a hort white man-dre by the dei gner to the infamou Brian Jone memorial onert in London’ Hyde Park. Ehoing the pleated tuni or ousanélla of traditional Greek menwear, Jagger’ outfit at leas had ome, if vague, menwear redential. Bowie’ dre, however, wa a flowing ilk velvet garment deorated with a floral pri nt. An ankle-length kirt with inverted pleat fell from a tightly fitted bodie fasened with two deorative frogged loure, expoing the hes. While Fih’ lothing wa not heap, Bowie wa fortunate to find two of hi dree on ale for £��. The other dre, in a lubbed blue raw ilk, had a more modes zipper fasening down the entr e front, but wa ut with the ame tight bodie and pleated kirt. A headhot of Bowie in thi garment appeared on the bak over of the album.
Writing about Bowie in Melody Maker at the time, Mihael Watt noted t hat ‘the expreion of hi exual ambi valene esablihe a fainating game: i he or in’t he? In a period of onflicing exual identity he hrewdly exploit the onfuion urrounding the male and female role.’ ‘The important fac i that I don’t have to drag up,’ Bowie ay in the artile, ‘I want to go on like thi long aer the fahion ha finihed.’ �� Bowie’ Amerian reord label, Merury, felt the dre image wa too provoative for their audiene and hoe to releae The Man WhoSoldthe World witha differentover(eepl.���).Akedabout the dre in ����, while he wa on the Amerian leg of the Zig Stardus tour, Bowie aid: ‘It wa a velvet handprint by Mihael Fih. I like lothe deign; I’m intereted in hi lothe … That wa a dre deigned for a man: there were a lot of thoe thing going around in London three year ago.’�� The ontras between the ���� ommitment to wearing dree ‘long aer’ the fahion moment wa over, and the knowing aeptane a ouple of year later that the moment had paed – and the syle partially dimied – i intriguing. Bowie would later ay of the ontroverial image: It wa a parody of Gabriel Roetti. Slightly akew, obviouly. So when they told me that a drag-queen ult wa forming behind me, I aid, ‘Fine, don’t try to explain it; nobody i going to bother to try to undersand it. I’ll play along, abolutely anything to break me through.’ �� Bowie alo wore the Mr Fih dre to promote the ingle releaed by hi experimental band the Arnold Corn Projec. He andfrontmanFreddieBurretti, a.k.a.‘RudiValentino’,appeared on the over of the May/June ���� iue of Curiou magazine in imilarly syled dree: Burretti, eated, i wearing a deep purple atin verion, while Bowie i sanding by hi ide in the floral-print velvet, luthing Burretti’ arm, with hi long hair blowing aro hi fae. Bowie had met Freddie Burrett, a young tailor and fahion sudent who went by the name Burretti, in the Sombrero, a gay bar in London’ Kenington. Trevor Bolder, who playedba with Bowiein the early ����, remember that Burretti ‘wa rly and kinny, but alway wore uit’. �� Burretti and Bowie began to ollaborate on both muial and fahion projec,butwhiletheArnoldCorn Projecquiklyfadedaway, the artorial relationhip between the two men grew to beome a key omponent of Bowie’ syle in the following year, with Burretti deigning the early look for Zig Stardus a well a the ignature uit that Bowie wore off-sage. ���
In ����, St. Pepper’ Lonely Heart Club Band had introdued ma audiene to the onept album, with the Beatle donning their bright atin band uniform for the leeve. When Bowie extended the idea in January ���� by brinng hi own onept of Zig Stardus and the Spider from Mar to life, he depended on the album’ mui to introdue Zig’ sory to the fan, but the viual image wa key to marking out thi new identity (pl.���). Bowie later aknowledged the influene of Stanley Kubrik’ film A Clokwork Orane , releaed in ����: ‘The initial lothe I deigned for the Spider from Mar were very muh baed on the Clokwork Orange jumpuit.Ihadthemmadeout ofveryflowerymaterial, very feminine material, veryolourful.’�� Deribing the outfit he and the other member of Bowie’ baking band were ven to wear, Trevor Bolder aid: We were uppoed to look like Droog out of A C lokw ork Orane . He took u to ee the movie, and our otume were kind of the ame: boot, boileruit, but more olourful. But then we went on to thee blak and ilvery, parklyuit,andMik [Ronon,leadguitaris] had hi pant tuked into hi ok, with little bow on. That wa a bit weird. �� Bolder alo realled the influen e of Bowie’ wife Angela at thi ti me: a driving fore beh ind the new look, he urged the band – and Bowie – to go further with their outrageou identit ie. She wa onsantly on the lookout for new lothing and syle for her huband and, a they wore the ame ize, they oen har ed garment. Image of David and Ane Bowie from thi period have been endlely referened and re-reated by the fahion world, with sylis and deigner finding inpiration in hot of the Bowie at home in their flat at Haddon Hall, a Vicorian Gothi villa in uburban outh-eas London, with syled hair and glam-rok fahion, oen aompanied by their young on. A fahion image go, thee photograph epitomize the bohemian rok-sar world of the ����. In a ���� Amerian Voue hoot by Stephen Meiel, model Hannelore Knut and Diana Mezaro were dreed a David and Ane Bowie repecively, in a riot of nakekin and multioloured glam-rok-inpired uit. The Marh ���� edition of i-D magazine – the ‘Exhibitionis’ iue – featured a sory by photographer Benjamin A. Hueby (pl.���) baed on the Bowie: syled by Jaob Kjeldgaard, a flame-haired Jame Jeannette Main in the haracer of David lounge deadently with peroxide-blonde model Britt Maren in the role of Ane. While David and Ane Bowie’ relationhip had ome to an end by the mid-���� (they divored in ����), the srength of the ouple’ image from thi period remain an inpiration that perfecly enapulate the early eventie for the fahion world.
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← [���] • Quilted jumpuit,
���� • Deigned by David Bowie and Freddie Burretti for the Zig Stardus album over and ubequent tour • → [���] •
Photograph for the ‘Exhibitionis’ iue, i-D maazine, Marh ���� • Photograph by Benjamin A. Hueby, syling by Jaob Kjeldgaard
Bowie deigned the uit he wore on the over of The Rie and Fall o Zig Stardus, Freddie Burretti ut the pattern for the blouonsyle jaket and trouer, and the lothe were ewn by Burr etti and SueFros(theBowie’neighbouratHaddonHall). Bowiehadfound the material for the uit at a sall run by Taki Andriou in a sreet market the year before: a quilted fabri printed with a geometri dark-green pattern on a white ground (whih wa later tinted turquoie by the album’ graphi deigner), with a green-dot print on the ame white ground for the lining. �� It i interesing to reflec on the low-key producion of what beame one of the twentiethentury’mosreferenedgarment,aderibed byBowiehimelf: The very firs erie of outfit for Zig and ompany were made by Freddie and anyone ele in Haddon Hall who ould reaonably handle a needle. Thi would uually be our babyitter Sue who lived downsair … Although full of good intention no-one ele would las more than about �� minute before the pure hard gra of threading and sithing wore down all enthuiam for the job. �� Freddie Burretti alo worked loely with hi friend Daniella Parmar, who oured muh of the fabri for the Zig osume at Indian market in outh London. Burretti and Fros made a number of idential uit, three of whih urvived the rigour of touring, whih took it tollon many ofBowie’ sageosume.Rok journalis Lenny Kaye attended a Zig Stardus onert at Friar Aylebury in Bukinghamhire in ����: At the end of the how he took off hi ati n bloue and threw it into the audiene. And I, a fan/writer, grabbed the leeve. The next day when I interviewed him, I tied it around my upper arm. At one point he aid, ‘What’ that on your arm?’ and I aid, ‘Oh, it’ jus a rag I piked up omewhere.’ I sill have it. ��
Bowie’ lothing wa now taking on the form of reliquary for fervent fan, but thee were not Beatle-haing teenager. Through Zig, Bowie appealed direcly to a new young audiene, addreing them in hi ong and inpiring them to mimi hi syle, but to do o individually. Hi influene pread way beyond the realm of the uburban Britih teenager deribed artfully by Mihael Watt in Melody Maker in July ����: [He wa] luthing hi opy of the new David Bowie album, The Rie and Fall o Zig Stardus, whih he hoped David would autograph aer the how. He wa wearing hi red arf, flung nonhalantly over hi houlder, and hi red platform boot. Hi hair wa long down the bak but ropped fairly hort on top o that it suk up when he bruhed hi finger through it. He hated that it wa dark brown. He’d promied himelf that when he eventually plit to London he’d have it done bright blond. �� For Amerian guitaris Reeve Gabrel, who ha worked with Bowie on many oaion, inluding a a member of Tin Mahine in the late ���� and early ����, ‘it wa a great period – ���� to ���� – beaue you ould go to hool with a green sreak in your hair and ay, “Fuk you, I look like David Bowie.”’ �� In the early ���� the world of inter national high fahion wa a r arefied pla e. Reader of the more exluive fahion title, uh a Harper & Queen and Voue, ould ee a arefully edited elecion of garment for that eaon, but they were only able to ae fahion that had been hown to buyer ix month previouly, and thee would gradually filter down to the high sreet ome ix month later. Newpaper report from international fahion how were illusrated with the oaional line drawing, while televiion programme might report on youth trend and the work of loal deigner. New ollecion from Pari and Italy, let alone Japan, ould have little or no immediate impac on the general publi – they were not available. In July ���� Harper & Queen eagerly reported a fahion moment – the ‘firs London how of the brilliant young Japanee deigner Kanai Yamamoto’. Under fahion editor Jennifer Hoking (the magazine’ mashead alo lised Anna Wintour, then a young aisant), the magazine devoted the over and a ix-page editorial to the lothe of the firs Japanee deigner to how in London. Photographed by Hirohi, the image featured model Marie Helvin, eyebrow haved and wearing bright pink make-up, in fantasially ulptural multi-oloured garment: ant padded oat, dramatially urved trouer, floor-length irular kirt and PVC platform boot (pl.��). The aompanying text prolaimed: ‘It’ a whole new onept of dreing, and it’ for thi reaon that we believe Kanai Yamamoto will have a maive impac on the world of fahion.’�� The final part of thi satement proved to be propheti, but – the poitive reeption of London’ fahion rowd notwithsanding – it i unlikely that the writer ould have enviioned that the audiene who would be inpired by Yamamoto’ lothe would find them via an alien from outer pae: Zig Stardus.
The onduit for thi fahion breakthrough, David Bowie, wa at that time living in the London uburb of Bekenham, where a opy of the July ���� edition of Harper would find it way. The PVC boot by Kanai Yamamoto aught Bowie’ eye but, at £��, they were out of hi prie range, o he had them opied by outh London bootmaker Stan ‘Duty’ Miller. �� When he did eventually purhae hi firs piee of Yamamoto lothing from the exluive sokis of the deigner’ olletion in London, the Boson ��� boutique on the Fulham Road, Bowie hoe a leather leotard with �� red popper down the front. It wa deorated with hand-drawn winged rabbit and hand-painted blak wirl along the edge (pl ��� and ���). One again, a with the Mr Fih dree a few year previouly, he aquired the garment at a redued prie: ‘I did get my hand on my firs Kanai Yamamoto osume quite heaply a nobody wanted to buy it, let alone wear it. It wa the impoibly illy “bunny” osume’.�� Bowie and Yamamoto met on Valentine’ Day ����, when the deigner flew to New York to preent the muiian with five peially reated garment (Yamamoto had been informed of Bowie’ admiration for hi work by sylis Yuuko Takahahi). Yamamoto deigned a further nine tour osume for Bowie, and preented them to him in April of that year when the tour arrived in Japan.�� At the time, Yamamoto aid: ‘He ha an unuual fae … He’ neither man nor woman … whih uited me a a deigner beaue mos of mylothe are for either ex.’��
→ [���] • David Bowie on sage at the
Hammermith Odeon, ���� • Photograph by Debi Do • Getty Image ���
↑→[���] • ‘Woodland Creature’ leather leotard, ���� •
Deigned by Kanai Yamamoto and worn for the Zig Stardus and Aladdin Sane tour •
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‘There were element of kabuki theatre thrown in,’ Bowie later aid of the Zig look. ‘It wa a real hodgepodge, there wa no kind of direc through-line with Zig at all. It jus kind of evolved. I ver y muh had the idea of Japanee ulture a the alien ulture beaue I ouldn’t oneive a Martian ulture.’�� Key to Zig’ ‘alien look’ wa hi ignature piked, bright-red hair. Hairdreer Suzi Fuey (later the wife of Mik Ronon) put the finaloloured touh to the Zig hairsyle in February ����, having ut it into hape the previou month. The syle ehoed that of a female model in an Alex Chatelain photograph, whih appeared in Voue Pari in ���� (pl.��), but in ���� Bowie et the reord sraight: Daniella Parmar’ dye-job onvined me of the importane of a yntheti hair olour for Zig. Thi turned into reality when I pied the Kanai Yamamoto model on a fahion magazine over. It wa a lightly ‘rlie’ magazine like Honey, definitely not Voue. In ����, I dupliated not only the olour from thi over but the ut a well. A omplete li. I’ve read in different aount that the Zig ut ame from a number of different oure,orwadeignedbya loalhairdreer in Bromley or Bekenham. Abolute toh! �� Style journalit Dylan Jone oberved that ‘lothe, though vital to the ue of Zig, were nothing ompared to the influene of the hairut … [it] epitomized the androny of glam rok and, opied by both boy and rl … beame the hit of ����.’�� Make-up wa alo a key part of the image. Bowie had learned the importane of the effec it reated while working with mime Linda y Kemp: ‘ From make-up to osume, hi idea of an elevated reality suk and hi ommitment to breaking down the parameter between on-sage and off-sage life remained firmly in my oul.’ �� Bowie applied hi own make-up, but later worked with make-up artis Pierre La Rohe on tour and, while in Japan, he reeived make-up leon from
↗ [���] • Chloë Sevigny in Miu Miu • Autumn/Winter ���� • Photograph by Mert Ala & Maru Piggott, syling by Katie Grand
• Blak and white jaket by Givenhy • Spring/Summer ���� • ↗ [���] ,
↘ [���] , • David Bowie during
the Zig Stardus tour, ���� • Jaket deigned by Freddie Burretti • Getty Image
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Tomaaburo, a sar of kabuki theatre. A ���� artile in Mui Sene offered tip: ‘David tell u that mosly all of hi make-up ome from a little hop in Rome, Italy, that import fantasi oloured powder and ream from India … Bai eential alo inlude a white rie powder from Tokyo’ Woolworth’ equivalent – Indian kohl uually in blak – for hi eye’. �� However, while make-up wa key, it wan’t alway sraightforward. Bowie reall hi firs appearane at Radio City Mui Hall in New York: ‘I’d had ome make-up done by Pierre La Rohe … and he did ome brilliant thing, but he ued glitter on me for the firs time, and it ran i n my eye. I did the whole how almos blind.’ �� Off-sage, Bowie ontinued to wear harply tailored uit by Freddie Burretti, one of whih an be een in a ���� promotional film for ‘Life on Mar?’, direced by Mik Rok (pl ���–�). In the opening ene the amera pan down pas Bowie’ thath of piked orange hair, fouing on the metalli blue orb painted around hi eye before revealing a hiny light-blue uit deigned by Burretti. With it tight, srea mlined fit – long jaket with wide lapel and wide-legged trouer with large turn-up – the uit wa of the moment. In fac, thi wa a fahionable ilhouette for women’ trouer uit from Yve Saint Laurent and Barbara Hulaniki’ Biba sore in London. However, Bowie’ otherworldly appearane, the hair, make-up and the hoie of metalli blue fabri ombined to reate an unmisakable‘Bowie’look.TheAutumn/Winter����Gui ollecion, deigned by Frida Giannini, featured long, narrow, harply tailored uit paired with platform hoe to eho the ilhouette of the ‘Life on Mar?’ outfit. Giannini told journalis Suzy Menke where he found her inpiration: ‘My mos important image are from David Bowie and that per iod, beaue he wa an ion in term of influene and edge.’��
While the light-blue uit followed the fahionable line of the time, Burretti wa experimental with hi ut and pattern, uing different eam arrangement, urved lapel without nothe and an integrated waisband to ve the uit a unique finih. Seam running diagonally from eah houlder toward the entre reate an unuual V-haped inert on both the bak and front of the jaket. The srong, harp, lightly exaggerated houlder line wa a ignature of Burretti’ tailoring that remained a onsant throughout the different ut he reated forBowie.(Theuitwere aninpirationforthe Autumn/Winter ���� Miu Miu ampaign, photographed by Mert and Maru, and syled by Katie Grand, pl.���. Draped languidly in a hair with orange hair, turquoie eyehadow and a hyper-patterned uit with high-ollared hirt and tie, Sevigny realled Mik Rok’ image of Bowie in Buretti uit, pl.���.) Bowie wore an almos idential verion of the blue uit at the ‘retirement party’ thrown at the Café Royal on � July ���� to elebrate the demie of Zig Stardus (the only differene wa a waisoat made from a purple and green atin hound ’-tooth fabri, to math the hirt B owie wore with the uit). Bowie had announed the end of Zig and the Spider at a onert at the Hammermith Odeon on � July, and a sar-sudded ‘wake’ wa held in entral London the next day. Bowie deribed the event in a letter to fan, publihed ten day later in Mirabelle magazine: Oh, what a night it turned out to be! Mik Jagger, Lou Reed, Jeff Bek, Lulu, Spike Milligan, Dana Gillepie, Ryan O’Neal, Elliott Gould, Ringo Starr and Barbra Streiand ... all there at my las onert party at the luxuriou Café Royal – everyone looking o lovely in their parkling evening lothe and olourful make-up ... me in my ie-blue irideent Freddy [ i] uit.��
Theartilewaghos-writtenbyBowie’Amerianpubliis Cherry Vanilla. Kevin Cann report that in � ��� Bowie aid, ‘I remember nothing of thi par ty, abolutely nothing. ’�� The Burretti uit wa repried in ���� for a mui-themed edition of Britih Voue, whih featured photograph of Kate Mo by Nik Knight. Knight ha oen referened Bowie in hi work, with image that eem to apture and hannel the ener, lighting and glamour of a rok performane. He ha alo ollaborated direcly with Bowie: in ���� he hot the over photograph for the Blak Tie White Noie album. Mo appeared on the over of thi peial iue of Voue in the guie of Bowie’ Aladdin Sane album leeve, interpreted a a blak-and-white head hot with an overlaid graphi of a lightning bolt. In a referene to the bak over of Bowie’ album, an outline verion of the ame image of Mo appeared inide the magazine. In her editor’ letter, Alexandra Shulman aid that Bowie’ ‘eventie performane of Zig Stardus at Earl Court wa one of life’ eminal moment’. �� Knight alo hot Mo for an editorial sory in the ame iue. The lothe for thi hoot were upplied by Bowie’ arhive, and Mo i pitured in original piee by Kanai Yamamoto and Freddie Burretti. Wearing the ie-blue Burretti uit (pl.���), he move aro the sarkly lit sudio pae, reminient of the etting of Mik Rok’ orinal video of ����, a twisinher hip,elbowdrawnupandbak athoughperforming on sage. The uit i sill harp. Another ga rment fr om thi p eriod high light Bur retti’ sylih, yet lightly whimial, approah to tailoring – a jaket made from blak-and-white horizontally sriped fabri with a metalli ilver thread, ut o that the sripe follow the hape of the wide lapel (pl.���). Worn by Bowie on a journey from London to Aberdeen in May ����, it wa aptured by Mik Rok inaerie ofintriguingphotograph.Theeimagelaterinpired deigner Riardo Tii at Givenhy to open hi Spring/Summer ����howwitha blak-and-whitesripedblazerwithidentially sriped lapel (pl.���). In January ����, the piee wa photographed by Stephen Meiel for Amerian Voue: the Givenhy jaket wa worn by model Saha Pivovarova in a sory entitled ‘Rok the Houe’, whih featured young rok muiian. ���
↑→[���] • Ie-blue uit, ���� • Deigned by Freddie Burretti for the ‘Life on Mar?’ video •
���
← [���] • Still from the ‘Life on Mar?’ video, ����
• Photograph by Mik Rok
↑ [���] • Kate Mo wearing the ‘Life on Mar?’ uit in a photo hoot for Britih
Voue,
���� • Photograph by Nik Knight • Courtey of Trunk Arhive © Nik Knight
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Bowie’ ue of uit wa ummed up by Mar C. O’Flaherty in hi piee for the Finanial Time: ‘Bowie demonsrated that the uit ould be outrageou and expreive a muh a it wa mart or a lightly dandy uniform.’�� At theAutumn/Winter ����Celine how,a booklet ofpicorialreferene le on eat for member of the audiene inluded a picure of a musard yellow Burretti uit. The ���� Terry O’Neill photograph how Bowie in thi uit, wearing a hirt with yellow-and-white horizontal sripe, with a igarette in hi mouth and a pair of tailor’ hear dangling from hi finger (pl ���–�). Fahion hisorian Cally Blakman noted that ‘although he i obviouly poing, he in’t in osume. And it’ a great outfit … He’ very beautiful, very ambivalent o appeal to both gender, very elegant and ha alwayhownonideredtasein everythinghedoe,depiteappearane to the ontrary, a ome might ee it.’�� In ����, Bowie aid: I’m turned on by people who have tase, epeially my kind of tase. One of my great love i lothe. I’m really mad about them. I go through o many different phae, at the moment I’m into hort-jaketed double-breased uit, but next week I might be into omething ompletely different. With all my hange of moodFreddieiextremelypatient.Hejuslisentomyidea and ha thi ort of telepathy. Beaue whatever I think of in my mind he produe for real. I uppoe I’ve ome to admire Freddie a a peron through hi work, beaue people’ peronalitie really ome through when they are working, a muh a any other time. Freddie ome aro a a r eally tolerant and talented guy. I jus hope he’ll ontinue to deign inredible lothe for me. �� London-baed hat deigner Craig Wes remember the Bowie Mania that aompanied the muiian’ ‘plasi oul’ phae, around the time of Youn Amerian in the mid ���� (pl.���). Advertiement in the bak of the NME promied the Bowie look: reader ould end off for hort jaket ‘a een’ on the David Live LP releaed in ����, a well a eight- and ��-pleat trouer, all upplied by Chrisopher Robin of Carnaby Street. Wes ordered the ��-pleat verion, pried at £��.��. He and hi friend wouldaunter around with longbleahed fringe andthe requiite pleated trouer, the whole look finihed with a opy of Kafka peeking out from an overoat poket.�� Noting a new ‘trend for elegane’ in the Autumn/ Winter ���� menwear how, journalis Godfrey Deeny ingled out the ollecion of Drie Van Noten, ‘whoe hoie of inpira tion wa David Bowie – though not pae-age Major Tom, more David Live Bowie, in outized pant and double-breased jaket’ – a world away from the yntheti reation advertied in the bak of the NME. ��
↑ [���] • Nautial osume, ���� • Deigned by Nataha
Korniloff for the Stage tour • → [���] • David Bowie at the time of the
Diamond Dog tour, ���� • Photograph by Terry O’Neill
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251
↑→[���] • Musard-yellow uit, ���� •
Deigned by Freddie Burretti •
���
• David Bowie at the time of the Diamond Dog tour, ���� • Photograph by Terry O’Neill
←↑[���]
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In ���� Bowie began working with direcor Niola Roeg on thefilm The Man Who Fell to Earth , baed on a novel by Walter Tevi. Bowie sarred a Thoma Jerome Newton, an alien who land on earth on a ques to bring water bak to hi drought-sriken planet. The osume for the film (pl.���) were deigned by Ola Hudon, who had previouly worked loely with performer uh a John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Diana Ro. The image Hudon reated for Newton owed muh to Bowie himelf: the white-blonde hair of the har acer in the orina l book wa hanged to Bowie’ orange; the trilby he wear i imilar to one that Bowie wore to the ���� Grammy Award everal month before filming ommened (pl.���). Bowie wa o taken with Hudon’ tailored piee that he wore them, along with white hirt upplied by reently esablihed deigner Paul Smith, on hi ���� Iolar tour, appearing a hi lates inarnation, the Thin White Duke. Thi new haracer owed muh to Berlin abaret of the Weimar era (with a touh of Marlene Dietrih), and the tour featured an almos bare sage with dramati white lighting (pl.��). A reviewer noted that ‘Bowie appeared in a imple outfit onising of a white hirt with Frenh uff, and mathing blak ves and pant … Hi hair wa the ame everely liked-bak red with frontal highlight that he ported in The Man Who Fellto Earth’.�� In ���� the New York Time reported on a video preentation of Stefano Pilati’ menwear for Yve Saint Laurent, whih inluded ‘hiny David-Bowie-in- The-Man-WhoFell-to-Earth blouon … and ’��-inpired uit with uffed wide-legged trouer’ – making it one ofmany ollecion that havereferenedthiperiod inBowie’syleevolution.InAugus ����, elebrated acre Tilda Swinton appeared on the over of W magazine in the guie of Bowie’ Thin White Duke, a hot by Tim Walker and syled by Jaob Kjeldgaard (pl.���). The magazine ontained an editorial featuring Swinton in variou look inpired by Roeg’ film. Aked to name her syle ion, Swinton replied: ‘David Bowie – whom I’ve been orbiting ever ine I aw The Man Who Fell to Earth in ����.’�� She went on to ay that he and Bowie ‘hare the ame planetary DNA’.��
← [���] • David Bowie wearing a uit
deigned by Ola Hudon at the ��th Annual Grammy Award, ���� • Photograph by Ron Galella ↗[���] • Tilda Swinton on the over of W magazine, Augus ���� • Photograph by Tim Walker, syling by Jaob Kjeldgaard • Condé Nas
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While Britain wawitneing the birthof the punk movement in the mid to late ����, Bowie wa touring the world and living in Berlin. But Tim Blank note that while Bowie wa notphyiallypreent,hi mui andimage had apreene within thatmovement: ‘The dysopian viion Bowie onveyed in hi mui, acing and syle in ���� wa a huge influene on the punk ene that wa oaleing in London – Bowie wa one old-waver who wa ool to the new.’ �� Bowie later aid of the early punk era: I didn’t get the full brunt of all that, beaue it wa jus when I wa ettling in Berlin, o it ame from a different direcion there and it didn’t have the full wrath and anger of what happened in England. For me it’ all jus footage and I an’t feel the ame thing. I really regret miing out on that. I’d love to have een the dialogue on televiion … and the feel of the lub at that time. �� A the����turned into the’��,anotherLondonene – entred around the Blitz lub in Soho – paid a more direc debt to Bowie’ influene. Defined by outrageou osume and dramati make-up for both exe, proponent of the syle were hrisened Blitz Kid and later New Romanti by the pre. Steve Strange, the lub’ hos, wa only too happy to be aked to round up ome fri end to appear in Bowie’ video for ‘Ahe to Ahe’. In one of the mos expenive mui video of the time, the lub kid wore long gothi robe by Judith Frankland and dark impoing headwear deigned by the newly esablihed milliner Stephen Jone. Jone later realled how everyone wa in awe of Bowie’ appearane at the Blitz, but alo felt it wa a little weird that omeone o old would ome to the lub (Bowie wa �� at the time). �� Bowie’ own osume wa a Pierrot uit by Nataha Korniloff (ee pl.���) , a loe friend from hi day with Linday Kemp, and with whom he had ollaborated everal time for hi sage osume.
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After ‘Ahe to Ahe’, Bowie’ tage wear be ame le obviouly outlandih. The outfit I ue on sage now are far more funcional … I think the major differene, of oure, i that I wa deigning for haracer, whih I’ve kind of sopped. I wrapped that up in the early ���� and I didn’t do haracer aer that. Thoe firs year, the Thin White Duke and all thoe guy, I really wa dreing in haracer. �� Bowie did, however, toy with more dramati look for the Outide and Earthling tour of ����–�, repriing a piked rop of bright-orange hair. He had beome interesed in the work of anirreverent young Londondeigner alled Alexander MQueen, and began to ollaborate with him in ���� on sage wear forthe Outide tour (MQueenalo dreed Bowie’bais Gail Ann Dorey). MQueen wa a Bowie fan, and had baed hi Spring/Summer ���� ollecion, whih inluded garment that appeared to have been lahed open and a hirt sained with bloody handprint, on the film The Huner (����), whih sarred Bowie and Catherine Deneuve. In a onveration between the two men publihed in Dazed & Conued magazine, Bowie invited MQueen to ome to the ���� VH� Fahion Award in New York: ‘Co you know I’m wearing the Union Jak on that. B eaue million of people deerve to ee it’. MQueen’ omebak wa ‘You’ve got to ay “Thi i by MQueen!”’�� The Union Jak in quesion wa a frok oat MQueen had made at Bowie’ requet from a Britih flag. Bowie had acually aked for a disreed garment baed on the ���� jaket worn by the Who’ Pete Townend, but in the syle of MQueen’ ignature frok oat. The deigner obliged with a beautifully onsruced oat, whih he had then artfully burnt and aged (pl.���). Bowie opened eah how of the Earthling tour in the MQueen oat, sanding with hi bak to the audiene, and wore it on the over of the Earthlin album, in a imilar poe. The oat wa inluded in the Anglomania exhibition at the Metropolitan Mueum in New York in ���� – ‘ruined yet preiely tailored, the oat i a pasihe of patriotim’, �� a perfecly onidered ymbol for the ubverive ollaboration between Bowie and MQueen.
• Union Jak oat, ���� • Deigned by Alexander MQueen and David Bowie for the Earthlin album over and tour • →[���]
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Diuing hi approah to fahion i n ����, Bowie inadvertently highlighted how hi influene on fahion had ome full irle. Explaining that he wa urrently wearinglothe by onepartiular deigner, he aid: ‘I jus rely on Hedi Slimane … I’ve alway been extremely luky that there’ alway been ome deigner or other who want to ve me lothe. For the las little while Hedi Slimane ha wardrobed me.’�� Slimane, who i urrently head deigner at the houe of Saint Laurent Pari, reeived global alaim for the lim, tailored menwear he reated for Chrisian Dior Homme in the early ����. Bowie wa entome earlydeign bySlimane: ‘Thesuff waapparently influened by the film The Man Who Fell to Earth , and it wa all that very lim-line blak, and it’ very muh beome hi ignature look.’ �� Slimane aknowledge the debt: ‘I wa … born with a David Bowie album in my hand … He wa Adam and Ane Bowie wa Eve.’�� The unparalleled impac that Bowie in hi variou inarnation ha had on everal generation of adoleent i direcly reponible for hi peritent importane to the fahion world. A Tim Blank ha pointed out, Bowie ‘elevated enibilitie to a degree aute enough that thoe o hanged were able to exert imilar influene when they beame editor, deigner, muiian and artis in their later live’.�� It i abundantly lear that throughout hi ollaboration with deigner, Bowie ha alway retained a laer-harp view of the image he wihe to projec. He ha alway been in ontrol, and while he appropriate and appreiate the work of fahion deigner, he onider fahion a tool to enhane hi overall per formane: ‘I’m far more interesed in the theatrial impliation of lothe than I am in everyday fahion.’ �� It i preiely hi theatrial, oen andronou interpretation of lothing, alongide hi mui, that have kept the fahion world intrigued for o long. A deigner Drie Van Noten a y: ‘Bowie ha proven to be timele and relevant in a moment when many muiian fade into oblivion … hi playing with andronywa opowerful. Ithink thatwhat waavant-garde bakin the ���� i onisent with today’ pyhe.’ �� Aeah newgenerationrediover eah inarnation and haracer, the fahion world repeatedly find in Bowie and hi peronae the point where syle, metamorphoi, performane and preentation onverge.
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DAVID BOWIE IS STARING AT YOU SO WHAT DO YOU DO? →[���] • David Bowie at the time of the
Reality album eion, ���� • Photograph by Frank W. Okenfel �
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• Gold broade jaket, ���� • Deigned by Alexander MQueen for the Earthling tour •
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DAVID BOWIE IS SHOWING YOU HE’S REAL →[���] • Gold broade jaket, ���� • Deigned by Alexander MQueen for the Earthling tour •
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EXTRA PAGES
↑→[���] • Disreed frok oat, ���� • Deigned by David Bowie for The Fiieth Birthday Conert •
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↑→[���] • Brogue and ���� uit • Photographed for
the Heathen album over •
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←↑[���] • Blue ilk uit, ���� • Deigned by Hedi Slimane for Dior for the Heathen tour •
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↑→[���] • Disreed tailoat and enemble, ���� • Deigned by Deth Killer of Buhwik for the Reality tour •
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←↑ [���] • Disreed frok oat and trouer, ���� • Deigned by Alexander MQueen for the Outide tour •
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DAVID BOWIE IS RESEMBLING HIMSELF → [���] • David Bowie, ���� •
Photograph by Maayohi Sukita
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BUT WHO ARE WE
SO SMALL IN TIMES SUCH AS THESE
A diuio n with —eduationalis writer Sir—Chrisoph er Fraylin, —roundtable Geoffrey Marh Chrisopher and Frayling Philip Hoare writer Philip Hoare and film-riti and broadaser Mark Kermode, haired by Geoffrey Marh, Direcor o Theatre & Perormane Collecion at the V&A.
DAVID BOWIE THEN … DAVID BOWIE NOW …
— Mark Kermode
[] Chrisopher, you were born on Chrisma Day ����, two week before David Bowie, and in outh London a well, o your life ha traked Bowie’ over five deade. Could you ve an overview of how you ee hi relationhip with thi ountryha evolved over thoe year?
[] Well, there’ outh London, whih wan’t hip, whih wa out of town, whih eemed very iolated and a very long way from the metropoli – that element of taking the train in and going to lub, and interesing inema, beaue that’ where the acion wa. There’ Ameria, the whole diovery of Amerian ulture in the early ����, when the ‘grown-up’ were aying that Ameria wa Tasee-Freez, and [that it wa] mothering Englih ulture – Leavi, Orwell, and T. S. Eliot and Bridehead Reviited. Suddenly one way out wa Ameria: Amerian pop mui,Amerian film andAmerian lothe. I thinkit’ interesing that Bowie’ name referene the Bowie knife, and Rihard Widmark’ haracer ‘Jim Bowie’ in John Wayne’ film The Alamo. I remember all that very well, but in partiular the ene of iolation, of living out in the sik – and that the way ‘in’ wa Ameria. And parent hated that – all the talk about how the Amerian ame in to the War far too late – and how Hollywood laimed that they won it for u. I sarted getting involved in art hool a bit later but, of oure, Bowie didn’t go to one; he went to Bromley Tehnial High Shool, where he wa fas-traked to take the art A-level at ��. Peter Frampton’ father Owen wa hi art teaher, and he mus have been talking about what wa in the ether. I didn’t dre up a a youngser – muh too onventional – but one of the way out wa to hallenge the sereotype of gender, a well a la. One of the thing that Bowie did at that time wa hange the debate from la to gender; we were going on about la – Marx, demonsration and all that – but he wa talking about omething ele.
[] Philip, you were born �� year later, o you were a teenager at hool when Bowie wa making many of hi key reord. How do you remember it?
[] Like Chrisopher ay, Bowie wa thi reature of the uburb – but in a way he tranended mortal experiene. And growing up in uburban Southampton, from a lower middle-la family, for me eeing Bowie fellate Mik Ronon on sage wa onomitant with Nijinky wanking in L’aprè-midi d’un aune . Bowie’ ability to travel through time and bring together all kind of ubverion reembled Wilde’. He ommoditized deadene for the uburb, and Aladdin Sane i Dorian Gray– a i ZigStardus. My firs introducion to Bowie wa in my bedroom on a very bad aette reording of Zig Stardus that I taped from omeone ele, and playing it illiitly in my box bedroom in Southampton, and hoping my parent wouldn’t hear. And then looking at photograph of David Bowie that were akin to pornography … he repreented an extraordinary ene of enablement. It’ with me sill. It define me. I wa at a monasery hool run by De La Mennai Br other in Southampton, and I would arrive with a fur-ollar oat and a trilby hat – in tribute to Bowie. That ene of being ‘other’, in a plae like Southampton that had no ene of onnecion to any omopolitanim, although it’ a port – he reated a pattern that one ould follow, whih wa, a Chrisopher ay, not about la, but about gender. But it wa beyond that, beaue he wa beyond homoexuality. He howed that the way one looked ould be a satement of identity at a time of inredible greyne and brownne – everything wa brown in the early ����, a you remember. To go out wearing a woman’ jaket and high-heeled hoe, with a pair of pink-atin Oxford bag that my mother had made from a pair of urtain, and then falling down the sair of the number three bu in the middle of Southampton: you ould believe you were David Bowie.
[] And did you diu it with a group at hool?
[] My bes friend and I were only friend with people who liked David Bowie. You ouldn’t really talk to anyone ele. Being in a monasery hool gave a partiular piquany to it all. I remember opening up the firs Roxy Mui album in a laroom and a monk seaming in, hitting the over from our hand, aying, ‘I don’t look at picure of rl, I look at picure of men.’ And the irony wa that we were looking at the gatefold inide, whih of oure wa picure of men – it wa Bryan Ferry and Eno. So that whole era – I an’t ay letimized, beaue that’ the wrong word – i what Bowie gave me ae to. It wa an entire other univere.
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[] And Mark, it lightly lightly Frayling — Geoffrey Marhyou ame —toChrisopher later. What wa your take when Bowie roed your horizon?
[] I wa born in ����, o —I firs — Philip Hoare Markbeame Kermodeaware of Bowie in the early ����, almos entirely through inema.It’interesingyouaidthat Southamptonwan’tatallomopolitan,whihitwan’t, but it did have a maive number of inema. Ken Ruell remember growing up there and not being able to throw a sone without hitting a inema. I firs beame aware of Bowie beaue at an early age I went to ee ����: A Spae Odyey, and o Spae Odyey and ‘Spae Oddity’ beame onneced in my mind. I remember what would have been the re-releae over of Man o Word/Man o Mui [the album orinally releaed in the UK in ���� a David Bowie] a Spae Oddity with that picure of David Bowie with the pikey-up hair, whih wa in the reord sore around that time. There wa that, The Man Who Sold the World, Zig Stardus and Aladdin Sane – and that wa bak in day when reord hop would diplay album over in the window, o you’d get all thoe thoe album diplayed together. I alled him ‘Boughie’ bak then. And there’ an interesing diuion to be had about how you pronounehi namein relation to howyou thinkof him.On ‘FutureLegend’ on Diamond Do you very learly hear a voie aying ‘Boughie, Boughie’, and in the early ���� he wa, a far a I wa onerned, David B oughie, beoming Bowie later on. More like the Bowie knife. I know there’ a whole ubulture that refer to him a ‘Bow-ee’. But to me, he wa Boughie, and wa onneced with iene-ficion film, and he wa initially ary. He looked like hi dre ene ame from A Clokwork Orane , there wa learly a whole thing about the mixture of bovver boot and gender-neutral lothing, whih wa in itelf srange. You look at the early picure of Malolm MDowell from A Clokwork Orane with that very, very oiffed hair, but part thug, part effete, and non-peifi gender. So my firs memory wa, ‘Wow, that’ really ary.’ ary.’ I promied Chrisopher I wouldn’t ay thi, but around the ame time The Exoris wa having the ame ame effec on me, me, whih wa: ‘It’ really ary, ary, o I’m interesed in it.’ it.’ There i a onnecion, whih i that anything that wa worrying your parent, whih wa reating andal, wa inevitably very alluring. So I remember being interesed beaue Bowie’ image wa likeiene ficion, it wa like omething omething that looked looked ary,and alo your your parent didn’t like it. You look at a film, not o long ago, like Velvet Goldmine, whih Bowie in’t involved with in any way – but there’ that fantasi ene where the teenager i pointing at the televiion and aying, ‘That’ me, that i, that’ me.’ That srange ene of reognition. And then, not o long aer that, only only a few year year later, you get The Man Who Fell to Earth , whih ofoure ihi definingrole, notjus ininema butaro allthee ultural ultural referene. Obviouly it’ baed on a very repecable book by Walter Tevi, and it’ a film that’ grown in sature over the year – but that’ what he wa. He himelf one aid in an interview: ‘I wa the man, no, I wa the androne for the time.’ That wa it. The ene wa that he wa genuinely a pae alien who had omehow ended up on earth, and ended up making reording of bizarre extra-terresrialpoetry. poetry.That’whyNiRoegasing himinthat filmwaobrilliant.He didn’t have to ac it. You jus thought that it wa exacly what he eemed to have been. So he wa a paeman, living on earth, being a bit ary and therefore interesing, working in reord and film, both of whih we had been told were lightly debaed, lightly rebelliou art form that you probably houldn’t onentrate on too muh. Conequently, you end up ompletely obeing about them – and him.
[] I remember the great debate aboutBowie among earnes ultural sudieprofeor – another invention of the late ���� – wa whether the alien image, the A Clokwork Orane image and later the Iherwood Berlin image of the early ���� were acually an eape from the ‘real suff’ – you know, that we hould be on the sreet protesing; we hould be doing the thing that people did in the ����. But he kept sepping out of that ommitment – a ll ort of ommitment, acually: the ommitment to gender, exuality, peronality – to anything. He wa uh a fluid peronality that a lot of the heavy mob in ultural sudie never really forgave him; they thought he wa opping out. I’d argue that acually he wa doing omething even more radial by redefining gender role and all thee other thing we’ve touhed on. He wa moving the debate on from the rude Marxim of the ���� into the politi of identity. But at the time riti wanted their rok’n’roll rok’n’roll to be authenti , they wanted Springseen, a ort of blue-ollar guy who wear hi heart on hi leeve, and it’ all about him and hi life. And Bowie wa ompletely different, he wa sanding aide from all that and reating all thee role and being very detahed, like a Pop artis manipulating all thee ign. A inng Warhol. They didn’t like that, having to ak, ‘Where i he, in all thi?’
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[] It’ beaue eriou. He’ aFrayling He’ very typial artis in that he — doen’t take it eriouly. He’ He’ — Geoffrey Marh he’ not— Chrisopher —Englih Philip Hoare Mark Kermode almos amateur in the way he approahe thing – what annoyed thoe muo i the fac that he’ not Springseen, and he’ not Jimmy Page … he’ alway playing, alway playing with you. And he’ alway piking out thing and sealing suff. He’ a vampire, a reature of the night. People talk about thi ene of vampirim, a tranexual vampire. The Man Who Fell to Earth i uh a key point in the Bowie univere beaue it exis ui eneri – it’ ompletely of it own. It ould be a iene-ficion film made by Powell and Preburger. You have the way he he look look init, inpired inpired bythat great great enein ‘Craked ‘Craked Acor’,the Alan Alan Yentob Yentob ‘Arena’ Arena’ doumentary doumentary,, when Bowie Bowie ibeing drivenin alimouine throughthe deert,and he’ making making ajokewhen heee awax mueum, aying ‘You’d ‘You’d think it would melt, wouldn’t you?’ The man i tranfixed by oaine. You an almos feel it boring through hi brain. And he’ keletal thin. He ha been redued to the eene of Bowie-dom. And the tranlation of that to The Man Who Fell to Earth i almos nothing; there’ jus a thin membrane between the two. The way he look in the film jus take on that sep of alway being beyond. Noel Coward aid that when David Lean aked him how he’d managed to urvive through o many period that it eemed enturie, Coward’ retort wa: ‘Alway pop out of another hole.’ Bowie alway eem to onfound expecation, and I think he really doe that intenely in The Man Who Fell to Earth .
[] I waurpried that theV&A’Posmodernim exhibition didn’t inlude that lip of The Man Who Fell to Earth of the alien it ting there with a hundred tele viion tele viion hannel all going at one, and thi hannel-hopper hannel-hopper jus vauuming in all thi material. It’ uh a key image of that ‘ulture of quotation’ moment. It would have ditilled muh of the exhibition: breadth rather than depth;movinghorizontallythroughinformation; life in inverted omma; no more grand narrative.
[] The interesing thing about that image from The Man Who Fell to Earth i not only that it depic how people wath televiion now – and it’ a ommon image – but alo that it eem to be the disillation of Bowie’ entire image. It’ ignifiant to point out that the over image of both Station to Station and Low are taken from the film (pl ��� and ���). For Station to Station, you wonder why he’ putting hi head through a bunh of blak one, and then you realize it’ him putting hi head into the pae abin from The Man Who Fell to Earth . The Low over wa pretty loe to a publiity image for The Man Who Fellto Earth and on the eond ide of Low we find the ong ‘Subterranean’ that he had written for The Man Who Fell to Earth that ended up not being ued in the film – aording to Ni Roeg, beaue omeone siffed him on the money. Being lightly ompletis, a while ago I took The Man Who Fell to Earth and put ome of the Low mui on to it. It work brilliantly! Clearly that’ what it’ the oundtrak to. Theinteresingthingwiththefilm ithatit’hardto imaneanybodyelegetting away with that role, beaue there are a lot of thing about that film that in anybody ele’ hand would have jus appeared lunky and ridiulou. There i no urer way of making a fool of yourelf than to be aked to ac like you’re extraterresrial and not human. Acor onisently drop the ball doing that beaue it’ o hard to do. The geniu of asing Bowie wa that he didn’t appear to be acing at all. In fac, the one moment in the film when it doen’t ring true i when they sik him in the pae-lizard make-up. Then he jus look like a bloke in pae-lizard make-up.
[] Ni Roeg aid that he aw the ‘Craked Acor’ doumentary on TV, and when he met Bowie it wa a if omeone omeone wa walking walking toward the part. He jus had to be, really. I think that Bowie’ bes film performane are when he jus ha to be. When he’ Warhol in Baquiat , when he’ Tela in The Presie or when he’ Mr Newton, I think he’ asonihingly harimati and eni gmati. But he’ not an acorly acor … he jus i. Casing Bowie wa quite a rik, when you think about it. He’d made a few reord and in the pop world wa very ueful, but in film term – Hollywood – ‘Who’ he?’
[] How do you feel about an exhibition about Bowie at the V&A? Do you think it i part of the myth-making that i going on? I it appropriate? It’ the UK’ National Mueum of Art, Deign and Performane; learly fahion and popular ulture are thing that audiene are interesed in. In the ����, Bowie would probably have thought the V&A wa a very grey and dusy plae.
[] I think Bowie wa the Ballet Rue for my generation. When I aw the V&A’ Ballet Rue exhibition and aw the bakloth for Le Train bleu, it wa unbelievable. It uddenly threw you bak to the asonihing multimedia effec that the Ballet Rue had at that point. I think it i the ame thing for Bowie. Having een Joeph Beuy and Br yan Ferry lecure at the V&A, I don’t think, in true Bowie tradition, that there i a barrier there.
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���]] • Publiity poser for ↖ [���
The Man Who Fell to Earth, Earth , ���� • Direced by Niola Roeg • ���]] • Sript for The Man Who Fell to Earth, Earth, ���� • ↑ [���
Direced by Niola Roeg • Roeg • ���]] • ‘World Enterprie’ lothing logo from ← [���
The Man Who Fell to Earth, Earth , ���� • ���]] • Blak uit for ‘Thoma Jerome Newton’ → [���
played by David Bowie, in The Man Who Fell to Earth, Earth, ���� • Deigned by Ola Hudon •
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[] I thinkMarh there are very pop sarFrayling who, if you —heard had an exhibition — Geoffrey —few Chrisopher Philipthey Hoare — Mark Kermode[] at the V&A, you wouldn’t laugh. But in the ae of Bowie, to neer would be ridiulou. It i alway really diffiult when you talk about anybody who firs made their mark in pop mui; to then talk about them doing anything outide that field automatially invite deriion. Nobody want to ee pop sar ac in film beaue they’re rubbih. No one want to ee a pop sar’ reen print beaue they’re rubbih. Nobody want to ee a pop sar’ volume of poetry beaue it’ rubbih. We all ‘know’ that. But the fac of the matter i, when you onider Bowie’ work in pop mui you inevitably sart thinking about all the other area – you think about the mui, you think about the vi deo, you think about the fahion, you think about the politial or non-politial satement, you you think about the film … you go from gender identity in the ���� and ���� through to the aer-effec of �/��. Clearly it would be aburd to think anything but that it i ompletely jusified. My only thought when I heard about the exhibition wa, ‘How big i the room?’ Literally, where are you going to put it all? You take any five- or ten-year period within hi areer and there i more than en ough to fill one exhibition. What I hope the exhibition won’t do i to fou jus on ����–��, and do that to the exluion of everything ele. I would hy away from the idea that that i the only ignifiant period, beaue I think hi ultural ignifiane i, if anything, more now than it wa then – beaue he ha paed into the ether. I an’t think of many people I obeed over in the ���� whoe name would be insantly reognizable to the a verage teenager now. But if you ak a ��-year-old ‘Do ‘Do you know whoDavid Bowie i?’, they’ll ay ye … and acually the hane are that they aw him in Bandlam .
[] The high-low thing i embodied in A Clo kwork Orane. It inpired o muh of Bowie’ early sage work,and ombine ombine the the bovver bovver boywith the the peron who lisen to Beethoven . There wa, from the earlies breakout of Bowie’ pop areer, the idea that you didn’t have to be either an aeshete or omebody that worked in a facory.
At the opening of the V&A’ V&A’ Kylie Minogue exhibition in ����, thi diminutive rl sood there by the mirophone and aid: ‘Look, there’ me, Kylie Minogue, I’m here tonight, and there’ the other Kylie Minogue, who belong to the hisory of ulture, and the hisory of art and deign. And thi exhibition in’t about me, the little rl from Ausralia, it’ about ulture, and the hisory of deign.’ I thought that wa a wonderful thing to ay and explained why that exhibition wa happening. In ����, �� per ent all reorded mui wa laial mui, now le than ten per ent of reorded mui i laial. You an’t ay the V&A i jus there for the ten per ent; it’ there for the �� per ent a well, and acually it’ the oundtrak to our live now, and you have to aept that. Another point i the high-low iue. Bowie radially tood for breaking down the ditintion between, on the one hand, Dada, Duhamp, Baudelaire, Oar Wilde, you name it – and on the otherhand,TinPan Alley.Bowiebrokedownthoe disincion, and I think that that’ part of the new role of the V&A. It ued to embody thoe disintion, and it now ha to learn how to break them down, and get into the bloodsream of ulture. To interpret viual ulture aro the pecrum.
[] I’m not ure that that the—mui inand of itelf — Geoffrey Marh Chrisopher Frayling will be what urvive with Bowie, but the the mui in relation to everything ele. The video are o important a extra information being overlaid over the lyri of the ong. Wherea for the Beatle, I think that ome of the ong will long outlive them, I’m not o ure that will happen muially with Bowie. But when you put the video with the ong, then there’ omething extraordinary going on: the verbal andthe viual,the fahion fahion element, element, the onsrucion of elebrity … All thee thing are happening viually. A long a we an find a way of onerving v ideo, in �� year I upet that will be what goe into the arhive – the mixture of the two. Then there will be the legay, the rok family tree, and who he influene. I would ay that Mihael Jakon i a good example of omeone who ompletely hange hi image and ac a part of the bakwah from Bowie.
[] Let’ fas-forward to ����. A few month ago a ommemorative plaque to Zig Stardus wa unveiled in Heddon Street for the fortieth anniverary [of the releae of The Rie and Fall o Zig Stardus and the Spider rom Mar ]; it’ one of only three plaque in London to imanary haracer. It sruk me that if Zig Stardus walked down Regent Street today nobody would blink an eyelid – but if he walked through a lot of other apital itie, Zig might have a lot of problem. How do you ee hi overall impac looking bak over �� year?
[] Where do you sart? Like you, I went down to Heddon Street to ee the plaque, whih i deeply diappointing, I think. In ���� on the ame sreet where the plaque wa ereced wa the Cave of the Golden Calf, whih wa probably one of the mos deadent lub ever devied in Britain. Viitor were greeted by a golden alf arved by Eri Gill that wa oved in gold, a phalli ymbol, and it wa worhipped by people to the oundtrak of ‘nigger mui’, whih wa what jazz wa alled then. There were men walking around with nail varnih on … So that ene of what Bowie mean now i infleced by what he would have meant a hundred year ago. When you ee that image of Zig Stardus, he might have been teleported there by Diaghilev or Warhol, Warhol, a muh a from a entury in future. And he live on in that way beaue of the srength of the image he reated, and the srength of the myth that he reated, and the srength of the narrative of hi ong, whih are univere in their own right in a way … They’re timele, beaue he wa trying to deal with the future. Nothing date o muh a the future from the pas, but Bowie eem to have eaped that. I las aw him at Glasonbury in � ���, when he jus rendered everything ele around him – and everything that had gone before – to be almos an opening ac for what he wa. Speifially Speifially,, when you look at the progre of mui,heha beeninfluentialthroughout.Punkwouldn’thavehappenedwithouthim. TheBromleyContingent were in the audiene when I firs aw David Bowie, on the Station to Station tour in ����. I aw Siouxie Sioux and Steve Severin walking out. They were Bowie’ hildren. A generation later at the Taboo lub, Leigh Bowery wa a bloated Bowie from the the Antipode. There’ thi trangeni influene being paed from generation to generation through the people who worhip Bowie, from Joy Diviion to Lady Gaga. Tilda Swinton hannel him, brilliantly, in fahion hoot. And my ��-year-old nephew know all the lyri to ‘Zig Stardus’. �� �
[] So what other people people and idea do you ee when you think of Bowie, hi image and hi relationhip to ulture?
you on the mui iue. If, aer all thee year, you an sill — Philip[] HoareI lightly diagree — Markwith Kermode lisen to ‘Cygnet Committee’ and think ‘Blimey!’ … I had that album [����’ David Bowie] when I wa about ten or ��, and I sill lisen to it and am amazed at how muh i going on. ‘Memory of a Free Fesival’ i the ame. The thing about hi muial influene i that it’ acually harder to think of omething that he han’t influened. On the radio the other day, omeone wa doing a retro thing and playing a trak by Suede – and for the firs bit you think, ‘Oh, it’ Bowie. Oh, no, orry. It’ not, it’ Suede doin Bowie.’ One of the funnies moment in any David Bowie film i that moment in The Huner when he walk into a lub and Bauhau are in a age playing ‘Bela Lugoi’ Dead’. It mus be an intentional gag: Bowie not looking at Pete Murphy, Murphy, who ha got to where he i by doing a David Bowie impreion, yet doen’t notie Bowie walking pas him. There’ a reent film I mentioned earlier alled Bandlam, aimed at ��- or ��-yearold, a sory about young wannabe rok muiian. It end with David Bowie piking them up on the internet and rinng them up and aying, ‘I’ve een your video and I’d like to produe you.’ I aw that film with my daughter, who admittedly grew up in a houe with all the Bowie album around her, but of oure he know who David Bowie i – and the maker of that fi lm mus have undersood that hi role a an i on even to teenager i big enough that the gag will work. At the end, they’ll think, ‘Oh yeah, I knowhim.’ A far athe onnecion between themui andthe video ionerned, I abolutely agree that the video are really important – we all remember where we were when weaw ‘Ahe Ahe toAhe’,or whenomeone aid,‘Wow, he’ madea littlefeature film alled “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean”, it’ like a pop video but it goe on for age.’ That drew omparion with John Landi doing Mihael Jakon’ Thriller – people aid, ‘They’ve pent how muh money making it?’ There wa that roover. But I think that the mui sand up on it own, beaue it’ unanny how many pop movement have ome, like punk, that wiped out all the old dinoaur – but of oure not Bowie. Then along ome tehno, and all the New Romanti band, who all look like they’re trying to be David Bowie with tea loth over their houlder. He had worked with German elecroni band long before everybody had a Krawerk album. He played the ion in Chrisiane F. age before anybody thought, ‘Oh acually, that’ where the future i.’ And then the dio thing happen … the drum ound that he develop on Low i the drum ound that you then hear for the next ten year inevery dane reord. It’eaier topik outthe muithat han’tbeen defined by him – even if the people who made it would hudder at the thought that acually what they’re they’re doing doing ireylingBowie. And And thattie inwith the the ideaof beinga magpie, magpie, a thief, of sealing thing. Of oure he did; the geniu of what he did wa exacly that. He ha got an extraordinary ene of hisory … who wouldn’t have, when the firs reord you make are mod reord and you go on televiion and omplain about being haed down the sreet beaue you’ve got long hair, and the next thing i that you’re doingAnthony Newley? ey? Bythe timehe arrived atwhat wethink ofa theearly ‘proper’ hit – ‘Spae Oddity’ – he’ got a whole areer in muial theatre behind him.
[] There are lot of other tradition alongide what we’ve been talking about. Can I qu ote Oar Wilde? ‘I wa a man who sood in ymboli relationhip to the art and ulture of my age. There wa nothing I aid or did that didn’t make people wonder.’’ I think that’ wonder. that’ pot on.
�� �
[] On the ‘dre leeve’ leeve’ of The Man Who Sold the World he’ hannelling Wilde, v ia the Aetheti movement, only bringing it forward into the twenty-firs entury.
• Poser for the UK releae of Merry Chrisma Mr Lawrene, ���� • Direced by Naa Ohima • ↖ [���]
↑ [���] • Poser for the Japanee releae of Merry Chrisma Mr Lawrene, ���� • Direced by Naa Ohima • ←[���] • Poser from Baquiat, ���� • Direced by Julian Shnabel • The
orinal poser, featuring Andy Warhol and Jean-Mihel Baquiat, promoted their joint exhibition in ���� • Thi replia made for the film how David Bowie and Jeffrey Wright in haracer • ↑ [���] • David Bowie a Andy Warhol on the et of
Baquiat, ���� •
→ [���] • David Bowie a Andy Warhol on the et of
Photograph by Eri Liebowitz •
���
Baquiat, ���� •
[]Geoffrey Let’ Marh rewind to the moment of hi formation hool, — — Chrisopher Frayling a —a performer: Philip Hoarehe’ jus le — Mark Kermode[] He alway thought of himelf a Marlene in ����/��, then aer that, ����–�� … The thing that were in the ether that Dietrih – and on the over of Hunky Dory , I think he disilled: you’ve got Mytholoe by Roland Barthe, o there i the he i being Dietrih, he doe look like her. language of ign and manipulating ign, and n othing i natural or ven, it’ all manufacured and in omeone’ interes. Then you’ve got Warhol aying the amethingaboutelebrity,andthat’abolutelyhittingEnglandin about����. [] He’ a romanti figure in the tradition Then there’ George Bataille writing about trangreion and taboo, and that of Byron or Keat or Shelley. It’ a hame one of the way you define yourelf i in finding oiety’ taboo and exploitthat he ha to hange … When he went ing them. There’ ome Nietzhe, ‘Start your rebirth tomorrow and do what to Ameria he beame omething that he ought not to have beome, ommodthou wilt’, arguing that remaking yourelf i the way to refreh your life. All of thee theoretial ontribtution are in the ether, and omehow he pik up on itized, the ame time a he igned to EMI. them. And on the Oar Wilde-Aubrey Beardley revival. He’ not at art hool, There’ thi ten-year miraulou period where he’ thi lod etone, a li ghtning unlikeLennon,andEri Burden,andPeteTownhendandFreddie Merury,he’ acually at the tehnial ollege down the r oad, but omehow he pik up on all onducor for all thi amazing suff that’ thi. I think hi ignifiane long-term i the disillation of that moment when going on, and he introdue u to Jean viual language were benning to be undersood, and our art wa beoming Genet, and Burrough, and Man Ray. Jus onerned with referring expliitly to ign – New York wa taking over from that ene of omething whih i beyond hi ontrol, almos. Pari. He embodie the ymboli relationhip to the art and ulture of the age in a very viual and aural way. That’ extraordinary. People will alo look bak on hi beauty a we do at great Hollywood sar. Still of Bowie will be like latterday Hollywood sudio portrait.
[] I would be very areful about imaning that there wa a golden age that sopped. I think that we need to be areful, beaue thi onveration i about what David Bowie i now, and there i a ene that he tranended pop in the ���� and ����, but in fac he’ been acive ine then. What happen aer Sary Monser , Let’ Dane and Modern Love, when he wa maive, i that he move into other area, whether that’ art, or film, or the internet, or sage producion. I aw The Elephant Man on sage not with Bowie [in ����], but with David Shofield, and I thought it wa brilliant. But for Bowie, the idea that he would lay himelf bare, when he’ got everything to loe, i interesing. On the Internet Movie Databae (IMDb) there’ a note of what he’ ‘known for’. Two of the film lised in that etion are Se�en and Inlouriou Baserd. Now, for Se�en it’ beaue of ‘The Heart Filthy Leon’, and Inlouriou Baserd beaue of ‘Putting Out Fire’, whih of oure i the theme from Cat People. There i a whole body of work that i more ignifiant to a generation who think that Bowie sarted with Let’ Dane, who remember buying ‘Modern Love’ and think that everything before that i the preamble to the point at whih he beame daneable and mainsream. It wa really interesing for me, who ha alway onidered The Man Who Fell to Earth a the mos definitive thing he’ done, that the IMDb ay that the mos important thing i the theme to Se�en . I think that the Bowie movie legay i better than many people think it i, beaue people remember the ene in Merry Chrisma Mr Lawrene , whih I don’t like a a fi lm, where he pretend to have, and everyone ay, ‘Oh yeah, he sudied with Linday Kemp’, and that’ pompou, pretentiou and boring. Alo ther e’ the tragedy of Jus a Giolo, whih i a diasrou film and he houldn’t have had anything to dowith it. Whatpeople forget i that he’really good in The Presie, where he ha a pretty good go at [the Serbian-Amerian] Tela’ ompliated aent. You wath it and think, ‘Sorry, what aent i that?’ but apparently it would have been exacly that.
[] Nikola Tela i uh an interesing haracer. There’ a famou photo of him in a metal age with all thi elecriity being huked at him – it’ now known to be a fake, but it wa very influential. Had a huge influene on the reation equene in Jame Whale’ Frankentein. It’ perfet that Bowie play Tela.
[] He’ great in that. He ha a brilliant ameo in Into the Niht in whih he’ ued by John Landi to play a really hard killer. It’ only a brief role, but he’ really good in it. He’ great in The Huner , whih a a film i baially MTV on the big reen. I’m not a fan of the film, but he doe a vampire – and you mentioned the vampire in onnecion with the mui – and he’ perfecly as. The problem i that people remember like thi: The Man Who Fell to Earth – great. Jus a Giolo – terrible. Followed by Merry Chrisma Mr Lawrene , whih acually nobody liked (other than for the ore) but you went to ee beaue it wa Ohima. And then they forget that the ignifiant role are in other movie, whether i t’ providing mui for Se�en or being in The Presie, whih i the mos underrated Nolan movie. It’ terrifi. Or it’ appearing in Chrisiane F., whih at the time wa uh a ontroverial film that the enor beat themelve up about it for age. I remember going to ee it and being asonihed beaue I’d never een a film that dealt with drug addicion in u h a vieral way. The idea of putting Bowie right in the middle of that wa very bold. ���
[] It’ hi verion of Sinatra and [] — And notHoare forgetting Baquiat , where he at lat play — Geoffrey Marh — Chrisopher Frayling Philip — Mark Kermode The Man with the Golden Arm. Warholand acually woreWarhol’ wig,and hilothe, and arried hi handbag. That mus have been a great avatar moment for him. Like Warhol himelf uing a double in a wig for media interview.
[] Bowie wa Warhol’ Frankensein’ reature. Without Warhol Bowie ouldn’t have exised. He wa the produc of that new attitude to ommodifiation and to art, where Bowie, a muiian, ould be an artis – a fine artis. That’ where the notion of him being in film, film that aren’t ompletely under hi ontrol, whih aren’t an extenion of hi unreal peronality, almos don’t work for me. I repec what you ay about thoe film, Mark, but they don’t interes me beaue they’re not acually about David Bowie, they’re about another haracer. The Man Who Fell to Earth work beaue he’ playing David Bowie. That part wa written for him before he arrived. There’ thi ene of thing going on around him a thi reature fall to the earth; it’ the ame a Jay Gatby sanding on the end of hi Long Iland dok. Thi peron who i ompletely ahead of hi era, and i leading the era, and i an avatar that i untouhable. He ymbolize omething that i unattainable for u all. I wa talking to a friend about David Bowie the other day, and he aid: ‘What doe he do now? Do you think he ha any friend?’ I don’t think that David Bowie ha ever had ‘friend’. How ould you be ‘fri end’ with David Bowie?
[] Au ontraire – Blake printed hi own book o that he’d have omplete ontrol over them. I think ommerialim defeated him in hi age.
[] There i thi idea that Bowie, like ome other artis uh a Blake and maybe Derek Jarman, ha thi habit of ranng aro different art form and a a reult there’ an element of diomfort in ritial irle …
[] The neares ultural figure to him i William Blake.
[] ...exept that William Blake wa utterly inapable of ommerializing himelf in any poible way, and that Blake believed in hi mytholo o deeply that he ouldn’t produe anything that anyone wanted in hi own lifetime.
[] But hewan’t aommodifiation man, at all.
[] Bowie Bond in the mid ���� were a very New York phenomenon. There wa an eonomis who rekoned that David Bowie aued the entire banking rah, beaue he gave everyone the idea of produing bond out of thin air agains the royaltie of the future that might or might not happen, whih reated a trend for inventing finanial ervie living on nothing. ‘If you want a ingle aue of the banking rii,’ the eonomis aid, ‘look no further.’ Wow! Even in ����/�� he wa asing the audiene in the role of young onumer rather than angry teenager. At that time the role of the hero in the movie, in rok mui, hange from being a ruader – omething you believe in, omething you root for, whih i very Blake – to omething that’ a syle satement. The fou hange into a projecion of omeone’ dream rather than a model to emulate; that’ abolutely Bowie, I think. You don’t want to be him beaue of what he believe in or beaue of what he’ fighting for. You want to be himbeaue you like hi syle – and thatturn the audiene into onumer, and that’ not Blake, at all. More like Henry Fueli if you want to go bak to that period; Fueli, who old lot of picure and really played the game. In univeritie in the ����, there wa the Marxim and oiolo, the idea of ‘u agains the world, we don’t like ommodifiation’. I think Bowie really piked up on the idea that there’ no hame in ommodiing yourelf. Acually, itdoen’t ruin the art – in omeway it enhane it.
���
[] But I don’t think David Bowie i, really – even the Bowie Bond, when they ome later on.
[] That’ only beaue he’ being intereted in Warhol. It’ an artisi satement, not a ommerial one. Hi ommerial suff, aer he igned to EMI – you feel a though he’ doing it to pay tax bill. When he’ really doing omething, he never think about the money. Pop wa jus a onvenient platform for what he wanted to do. There’ a great irony that he’ Zig Stardus, thi peron who i killed by hi fan. He’ inviting that. He bring it upon himelf and then he feed off it. He i reated by that ener.
[] We keep talking about Bowie, and acually we’re talking about the ‘myth of Bowie’. I’m not ure even he know who he i anymore – rather like ome acor. It’ an odd omparion, but for Woody Allen or Clint Easwood, beaue they’ve played the ame part o oen, we onfue them with the peron they are playing. Bowie ha played lot of part, but we alway talk about him a if they exis. I don’t know what lie behind thoe part. All I know about i the myth, beaue that i what we are preented with.
— Geoffrey Marh
— Chrisopher Frayling
— Philip Hoare
— Mark Kermode
— Geoffrey Marh
— Chrisopher Frayling
— Philip Hoare
— Mark Kermode
↖ [���] • Signed photograph from John Hurt,
���� • • Cariature of David Bowie in Chiago, ���� • ↑ [���]
← [���] • Playbill for the Booth Theatre,
New York producion of The Elephant Man, ���� • ↑ [���] • Invitation to David Bowie’ Broadway
debut, ���� • →[���] • Promotional poser for
The Elephant Man, ���� • Direced by Jak Hofi •
���
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a very theoretial, pot-truturalit, Baudrillard -type poition. [] Moving on to the twenty-firs entury: — Geoffrey Marh — Chrisopher Fraylingalthough — Philip Hoare [] That’ — Mark Kermode Bowie wan’t in New York on �/��, he wa loe by. People died. There were atroitie. They happened. It’ NOT a movie, where Some argue that �/�� wa planned a the ultimate we’re allin the oiety of the pecale, and it’all pecale,and it alleven out at ome level. In the end Bowie’ an entertainer, and he’ in a par tiular piee of media theatre to maximize it international new impac. Do you think that it acually world, and inide that world hi innovation that we’ve been talking about have been fantasi. But outide that world, there’ all thi hisory going out-Bowied Bowie? That it’ one of the few thing that ha not overlaid Bowie, but gone further? on. I an’t bear Derrida and Baudrillard aying that war i acually a petale, or that Vietnam didn’t really happen in the aepted ene beaue we all wathed it on televiion. I don’t buy that all. People di ed. It’ not the ame a the entertainment buine, unle you’re talking about the televiion overage.
[] Frank Kermode talk about howwe live through dionfirmed apoalype, and that they’re a trope of modern ulture, but that they’re a trope of medieval ulture a well. Bowie’ landape i pos-apoalypti, from ‘We’ve got five year, suk on my eye’, it run all the way through hi work. He inhabit The Waseland – whih i why Joy Diviion an inhabi t the ame waseland in indusrial Manheser in the ���� and early ����. What Bowie repreent ulturally i that the apoalype ha already happened, that �/�� ha already happened. A oon a I aw the photograph of the ruined twin tower, I opened the gatefold of Diamond Do , and it’ the ame image.
[] Bowie opened the Conert for New York at MadionSquareGarden,ixweekaer�/��,with [Simon and Garfunkel’] ‘Ameria’ followed by ‘Heroe’. A a Londoner, I thought it wa extraordinary to ee an Englihman, omeone from the uburb,beinga lightningrodforNew York’grief. Wa there omething about him, a a migrant to Ameria, that a llowed him to hold an Amerian audiene that night?
[] It wa a very srange moment. I wa there a week later, putting on an exhibition in Grand Central Station about the bes of Britih deign. We were going to anel it beaue we thought it wa appalling tase to enourage people to be onumer at thi dreadful time, but omeone ame up with a new logan, ‘UK in NY: Shoulder to Shoulder’. So we put that on the front of the exhibition and uddenly it eemed very e motional, very riht . The Guard Band wa playing Gilbert and Sullivan on the Rokefeller Center garden – in arlet uniform – all thee greates hit of Britih deign were in Grand Central Station and Bowie doing the onert – it wa a very odd moment. People were wearing badge with Union Jak and the Star and Stripe next to eah other, aying, ‘You’re our only friend in the world. You’re the only people we an trus.’ Blair and Buh. Bowie and Paul Simon.
[] If I an add jus two thing: I feel very unomfortable about �/�� ever being talked about a anything other than a hideou terroris atroity. You get into very dangerou territory when you sart omparing it with pecale or exhibition for obviou reaon. However, more ignifiant for me in thi i that I don’t think of Bowie a living in Ameria at all. I’ve been onvined for year, whether fac or not, that he live in Switzerland – beaue it eem more appropriate that he hould live in Switzerland. He alway eem to me to be omeone who hould live outide of time and plae, and Switzerland – my grandmother’ from Switzerland – eem to be the perfec plae. A plae where you live ina hermetially ealedworld that in’t part of thenormal world, neutralin war and with a banking ysem that’ iolated from everyone ele. It eem to have arrived from outer pae. You made a very good point before about whether you an imane him ever having ‘friend’. I wa thinking, ‘What – you mean earth friend?’ In my head he live in Switzerland. Alo, he wa doin g BowieNet very early on, and Bowie Ar t [bowieart.om i Bowie’ on-line gallery], and all thoe thing eem to exis without national boundarie. For me, although I think of him abolutely a Britih, and I think that the Bromley thing i very important, he doe eem to exis in the world without being of a peifi ountry. Whih i why if you lisen to Aladdin Sane it make ene, beaue it’ about travelling through area but not being onneced with them. It’ why in the ‘Craked Acor’ doumentary the key ene i him in the limouine looking through a gla window, being in the world but not of it. It’ why when people ay ‘He live in New York’, you think, ‘Doe he?’ – beaue that doen’t make any ene.
[] We have over �� book here about Bowie and there mus be at leas double that publihed, with more on the way, apart from all the ountle magazine artile. Why doe he ontinue to fainate writer?
[] It i partly beaue he ac a a lightning rod for all thee theoretial onern at the moment – riti love deonsrucing thing, and running down theoretial rabbit hole. Partly it’ the mysery, the enigma: who i Bowie behind all thi? I he the Inviible Man? That’ intriguing for a biographer. Partly I think it’ beaue there are o many unreleaed video, take and reord, and there are thee myth of all the material out there – and people think, ‘Why won’t he releae it?’ Biographer love to talk about all thi intrigue: where are all the verion of the reord? Who helped to reord it? Where i the maser tape? ���
[] You haven’t to Frayling — Geoffrey Marh been tempted — Chrisopher write omething, Phillip?
i a Bowie biography from the early ����, written I uppoe around — Philip Hoare [] There — Mark Kermode the time Aladdin Sane wa out. It relied very heavily on the idea that one Bowie’ father died, thing fundamentally hanged for him. It wa one of thoe little paperbak that were popular at the time. That wa �� year ago. [] No, I wouldn’t. Or only if he ak me! Bowie ha One of the problem i, a the plethora of book about him demonsrate, never written a book; he doen’t need to write: all that the hange have been o dramati. Think about the ten year between of thoe ong-sorie are extraordinary narrative. ���� and ����, think of all the phae he goe through. Think ab out the ten Alo, I don’t want Bowie to interpret hime lf. I year thatOai were together andall thehange thatthey ingularlydidn’t don’t want him to write hi autobiography. It’ go through. already there. It’ in the album, it’ in the video Any one period of Bowie’ life would more than oupy a biographer. and it’ in the film. The temptation i alway to imane that all the interesing work wa done in the ����, but I would ontes that. I think there are other period that are equally interesing. Cruially, the thing I remember about that book I mentioned wa reading it a a teenager – beaue obviouly a a teenager [] Well, themyth i. The traditional roleof the biographer i to peel that aide, and to try to and find you think, ‘I want to find out what’ behind Bowie’ – and you get to the bit thi intelligene, but you an’t do that with Bowie; where itay, ‘It’ to dowith the deathof hifather,then everything hange’. there’ an empty room. Like in thoe i-fi film But I got there and thought: ‘That i utter rubbih, or, if it’ not utter rub where the hero finally break into the entre of bih, I don’t want to know it. I don’t are. What I are about i the ficional inventedhar acer.’ intelligene – and there’ no one there.
[] Part of the game with Warhol wa inventing your CV; a part of the elebrity thing i to invent. An early pre releae about Bowie aid he went to Bromley Art Shool, beaue they felt he ought to have done. It ben there, and people have lathed on to ertain biographial moment – for example, hi sepbrother’mentalhealthproblem,thefatherdying,guiltaboutthe family.Doethihelptodefine Bowie? They lath on to the two or three thing they think they know about hi biography, beaue of all the mokereen. One of the danger of the elebrity approah to autobiography i that people will believe thing that are barefaed lie, but that i part of the joke, in a way. In Bowie’ ae people have made muh too muh of tiny little biographial nippet, beaue they are deperate to know more, and it’ all they have. It would be more interesing to write a ficional autobiography. In o far a there are biographial nippet, they all ome out of promotional interview, while he i promoting hi work. The famou ���� ‘I am gay’ satement wa from a promotional interview. In fac he made ome really quite preient omment about internet ulture a lot later, talking about how people tend to kim and go ideway – horizontal thinking rather than depth thinking – long before that beame a fahionable thing to ay. Again, that wa aid in a promotional interview for a reord.
[] Everything he aid wa a lie anyway. Hi satement about hi exuality were fantasially ambiguou. To be ambiguou about omething that i already ambiguou – my God! How an you do that?
[] There wa that famouinterview in Melody Maker in January ���� where he aid: ‘I am gay, and I alway have been gay, even when I wa David Jone I wa gay.’ And that’ quite omething … at leas the firs time omebody ay it.
[] I know, but he alway retrac thoe satement. He ha retraced that by hi exisene ine, beaue, a far a I know, he ha not had a relationhip with a man ine …
[] But it wa brave beaue no one had publily outed a Britih pop muiian, ever. Beaue it wa oppoed …
[] Of oure it wa oppoed! All therole model for gay people before Bowie were o extraordinarily … patronizing, I uppoe i the word. Beaue it allow people to put you in a box, and then along ome thi peron that open the box, and ay, ‘You an do any of it’.
���
— Geoffrey Marh
— Chrisopher Frayling
— Philip Hoare
— Mark Kermode
— Geoffrey Marh
— Chrisopher Frayling
— Philip Hoare
— Mark Kermode
←[���] • Storyboard for Labyrinth, ���� •
Direced by Jim Henon • ↑ [���] • Letter from Jim Henon to
David Bowie, ���� • → [���] • Promotional poser for
Labyrinth, ���� • Direced by Jim Henon •
���
���
[] I thinkMarh it i interesing alo aknowledge Jone’ — Geoffrey — to Chrisopher Frayling Dunan — Philip Hoareareer at thi —point, Markagain Kermode a we are talking about Bowie now. Dunan Jone, who turn out to be a brilliant direcor, and who kept hi tinder dry for a very long time and worked, a far a anyone an tell, deliberately not in the hadow of ‘my famou father’. The firs film he make i Moon , whih i a very ���� iene-ficion movie, and in interview he talk about him and hi dad making little movie together. And of oure thi i around the time that Bowie wa doing all the thing we are talking about, and Bowie wa obviouly influened by ����, Silent Runnin , Solari , all thoe great movie from the ���� and early ����. Dunan Jone’ areer i fermented in that.It’interesingthatoneof thethingthathowthe ongoinginflueneofBowie, now, i that he learly raied a kid who grew up being very ine-literate, and having a very, very wily take on how and when to talk to the media. I wa lisening to Hunky Dory and there i a ong on there, ‘Kook’, about a kid who then grew up to make a film that I really like, and you don’t immediately onnec thoe two thing. I think there i omething very impreive about the fac that Bowie’ influene on hi on ha not only inulated a love of inema and a love of iene ficion and all of that, but alo learly he ha learnt that the media i omething that you deal with ver y arefully, and at arm’ length.
[] A we began our diuion about London, I would like to bring the diuion full irle. London ha reinvented itelf in las �� year, and the ���� Olympi brought the fou of the world on the apital. Bowie ould live anywhere in the world, but he hooe to live in New York; learly whatever tranformation ha taken plae in London, in parallel to hi areer, i not uffiient to bring him bak here.
[] In upreme irony, he wa acually aked about thi reently: ‘Why don’t you move bak to London?’ He aid that ‘ the trouble i the elebrity ulture, they hound you; the paparazzi are everywhere’. That i a upreme irony in hi life, but he i right, no one would leave him alone. With all thee diuion about bugng and haking, Bowie would be everywhere. Maybe in New York it in’t like that. And piritually he wa alway loer to Warhol’ Facorythan to Bromley.
[] He alway aid that he liked that about New York, the anonymity, the idea you ould walk around in New York and nobody bothered you.
[] I think that hi London i a ficional, fantasial London. He wa, tran-hronoloally, the pirit of all the ubverive London that have ever exised – and may ever exis. That’ what that image of Zig Stardus i about. He i thi fairy prite, almos holographially projeced on to London. So hi exisene in London i alway here and not here at the ame time.
[] I an’t think of a ingle quetion to whih I’d reeive a atifacory anwer or, indeed, one I’d want to hear. I mean, wh ere do you sart, when faed with omeone who i reponible for your alternative eduation, for opening up the world to you? It would be like Blake talking bak to the angel on Pekham Rye.
— Geoffrey Marh
— Chrisopher Frayling
— Philip Hoare
— Mark Kermode
[] Finally, to end, if Bowie had been with u today, what would you like tohave aked him?
[] ‘What irritate you mos about riti writing aboutyou?’
[] I’d want to ak him, ‘What now?’, beaue, in a way, everything that’ happened up until now ha been o pored over and o peronalized that it doen’t matter what he think anymore. It doen’t matter what he meant when he wrote ‘Heroe’, andit doen’t matterwhat hethought when hedid theover photographyfor The Man Who Sold the World . It doen’t matter beaue thoe thing are in the publi domain. I think we own the Bowie bak atalogue more than he doe. But I think that a omebody who ha done o muh over that relatively hort period – and ha reinvented themelve o many time and been o ignifiant not jus in the world of mui but alo the world of inema and popular ulture, and who eem sill to be acive, on the internet – the quetion i, ‘What now?’ The reaon i, in my mind he i sill a paeman who – when he i on Earth –live in a limouine looking at the world from behind a heet of gla. And he probably doen’t age, and he probably, like Dr Who, ha two heart. And in the end he will go bak to whihever planet it i he’ ome from. And a he i sill here, he han’t finihed. So then, what now? I think it ome bak to The Man Who Fell to Earth quinteentially umming up what he i. I aw him at the end of Bandlam and I thought how young he looked, but of oure he look young, he’ a paeman moving on a different time ontinuum.
���
So that would be the quesion: ‘What now?’
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DAVID BOWIE IS FAMOUS AND THINKING ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE →[���] • David Bowie and Iman at the Metropolitan Mueum of Art Cosume Insitute Annual Gala, ���� • Photograph by Stephen Lovekin
���
DAVID BOWIE IS PHOTOGRAPHIC
It wa sriking, when elecing my �� all-time bes Bowie Ha any rok sar ollaborated with a wider range of important reativephotographer,overa longerperiod,thanDavidBowie? image, how oen one reverted to Sukita. Perhap it took a The trajetory of hi image, and it projetion aro four Japanee eye to do jusie to the high-glo veneer and ironi deade, trak the hisory of photography during the period. nihilim of the unfolding Bowie œuvre . Nobody reorded the Brian Ward, Brue Weber, Brian Du, Maayohi Sukita, Lord Zig and Aladdin Sane era better than Sukita (the ���� porSnowdon, Frank Okenfel, Anton Corbijn: all played a role in trait with red guitar and in Yamamoto osume and, perhap ampliing, refining and ometime even defining the Bowie mos of all, the ���� hand-on-thigh pout-hot agains red bakimage, a urely a Holbein’ portrait of Henry VIII or Van Dyke’ ground, are all lai) but hi syle evolved in yn with the of Charle I did for their repecive patron enturie earlier. artis to produe the defining image of the “Heroe” period and From the very benning, Bowie had an unerring insinc for beyond. I have frequently pondered on the ���� Tokyo ubway who to entrus with hi album over and ollateral publiity; hot, with David Bowie srap-hanng on a late-night tube train; over time, he ought out the mos interesing, modih and oen one ene he wan’t a frequent publi tranport-uer at thi hallenng photographer to interpret eah new phae of hi point in hi areer. But it ha a peuliar ma. I admire Brue Weber’ ���� portrait with Bowie’ fae in journey a an artis. Ofoure,ithelped thatheigood lookingandphotogeni. hadow, beaue it ome from a ompletely different plae In the entire arhive of Bowie portrait and sage hot, running aeshetially,harderand Amerian,withno lingeringZigim. to ten of thouand of image, almos none are unflattering. A Only the igarette urvive Bowie’ late-���� syle tranformaearly a the mid-����, when hi areer had arely begun, the tion. And I like the bravery – the impertinene – of oburing photographthaturvivehowhimpoiedandool.I havealway hi fae. It would be diallowed a a paport hot, but you know loved Doug MKenzie’ ���� ‘mod look’ hot of a ��-year-old who it i immediately by the body language. I have eleced two srongly sylized portrait by ontr asBowie,whihomehow,init broodingexisentialim,preage the whole later period of hi life in Berlin; it ould have been ing photographer, the Duth-born Corbijn and very Britih taken in the Unter den Linden. It already ha the hallmark Bowie Snowdon, whih neverthele bear ome artisi reemblane: look to it, saring into the amera len through narrowed eye, Corbijn’ Elephant Man hoot of ����, with diagonal ha of omewhat intene, omewhat eptial, a little bit vulnerable, light aro Bowie’ fae, and the almos Beatoneque ���� pora little bit amp. You ee the ame look in Frank Okenfel’ trait by Lord Snowdon, in whih Bowie poe in a white tuxedo itting for the Reality album over �� year later, and the ame and look dionertingly like David Bekham. Both itting are metiulouly sage-managed and artifiial, but expre imporfloppy fringe, ome to that. Although Bowie’ satu a muial geniu would be intac tant apec of Bowie’ peronality and allure. Similarly, the ���� if he’d never been photographed at all, if he’d been a ugly a Brian Du ‘Ahe to Ahe’ image demand inluion, ine it in and a lifelong relue, we diehard Bowie fan were far from enapulate a deiive tranition point in the Bowie aesheti; indifferent to the photographi image. Brian Ward’ over with halfa nodbak tothe late���� mime-la dayof Linday hoot in the Heddon Street telephone box for the Zig album Kemp, but foretelling the impending era of Tin Mahine. My final hoie i neither a sudio portrait nor even a perremain an ioni image of the age; I work in the Soho area and never to thi day mi an opportunity for a quik Heddon Street formane acion picure, but a red arpet pap hot by Stephen detour, on my way bak from meeting. But it wa Ward’ earlier Lovekin taken of David Bowie and hi wife Iman arriving at a portrait for the Hunky Dory album eion that touhed me firs: New York fundraier. I inlude it beaue, unlike every other the andronou Pre-Raphaelite, fuzzy and o-fou, whih rok sar in the world with the exeption of Bryan Ferry, Bowie sill look great and ool and trim and enviably young, �� year alway make me think of Virnia Woolf’ Orlando. If I had to hooe my favourite Bowie image of all time, it aer the firs photograph in thi portfolio wa taken. There i would be Maayohi Sukita’ ���� ‘Baksage by Door’ hot, omething gratiing and optimisi in thi fac, in knowing that taken at the height of the Zig Stardus period. I love every- one’ heroe don’t have to grow old. thing about it: poed but not over-poed, grun but glamorou, eedy but hi, the three blok of baksage typography (‘To Stage’withthearrowand thetwo‘Exit’)atiinglyjuxtapoed with the houlder of hi jaket. And, obviouly, one ovetthe Nihola Coleride CBE i Preident o Condé Nas International, and a Trusee o the Vicoria and Albert Mueum. trouer too.
DAVID BOWIE IS MAPPING NEW TERRITORIES
Depite redevelopment, muh of the entral London David Bowie knew in the ���� and early ���� till urvive. On leaving hool in ����, aged ��, Bowie sarted at an advertiing ageny in New Bond Street but le aer a year to beome a full-time muiian and ongwriter. Travelling in by train from hi Sundridge Park home, Bowie would arrive at Charing Cro sation (�). Oen he would head up Charing Cro Road, lined with eond-handbookhopand home toDobell’Reord Shop (�), whih wa ruial for rare or imported reord before the advent of mail order. The Saville Theatre (�), owned by the Beatle, wa a key live mui venue – and Bowie aw Jimi Hendrix perform there. Further, beyond Saint Martin Shool of Art (�), i Denmark Street (�), then the entre of the UK’ mui buine with publiher, agent, sudio, husler and pre uh a NME and Melody Maker . Apiring muiian, inluding Bowie, would hang out at afé uh a the Gioonda waiting for lead. Aro Charing Cro Road, i Soho proper, home to the film indusry, run-down flat houing protitute and bohemian uh a artise Linday Kemp (�), lub like Tile (�) and publiher Eex Mui (�). The utting-edge Trident Studio (�) wa a ritial venue, where Bowiereorded five earlyalbum inludingSpae Oddity. Around the orner wa Wardour Street (nameheked in ‘The London Boy’), with the famou Marquee Club (��), where Bowie oen played. Pub and afé, uh a the �i’ (��) where muiian and journalis goiped, a well a mod lub the Flamingo (later the Wag Club, ��) and Sene (��), were alo nearby.PasthelothehopofCarnabyStreet(��)waHeddon Street (��), where in ���� the photograph for the Zig Stardus over wa taken. Zig’ ‘death’ wa elebrated at a party at the Café Royal (��) aer a onert at the Hammermith Odeon on � July ����.
�. London Charing Cro Station �. Dobell’ Reord Shop �. The Saville Theatre �. Saint Martin Shool of Art �. Denmark Street �. Linday Kemp’flat at Bateman’ Building �. Tile nightlub �. Eex Mui publiher �. Trident Studio ��. The Marquee Club ��. The �i’offee bar ��. The Flamingo / The Wag Cub ��. The Sene nightlub ��. Ca rnaby Street ��. Heddon Street ��. Café Royal ��. Elecri Garden nightlub ��. Drury Lane Art Lab ��. The UFO nightlub ��. The Boop-A-Doop nightlub
DAVID BOWIE IS REFERENCED
��
��
The eond ofthe group’ firs three ingle,all of
Sammy Lee, sarring Anthony Newley, releaed in ����.
whih made number one, a featnot repeated until
Aording to George Tremlett inDavid Bowie: Livin on
�
phenomenon and how it haped their mui. From
the infamou �� Club in Gerrard Street, had jus died,
SUNDRIDGE PARK, SOHO, LONDON … MARS
the mid ����, inner-ity gentrifiation inreaingly
violene, vie, protecion raket, orruption and the
offered a lifesyle alternative to uburbia and by the
polie were never far away, ee Judith R. Walkowitz,
���� predicion began to be made of uburbia
the Brink (London, ����), Ken Pitt, Bowie’ manager, had worked on the film an d kept out-take of Newley,
ecion of film turned up howing Bowie and th e Manih
working a a ommerial illusrator from ����. For
whih he later howed toBowie.
Boy walking into the afé in ����. Both Melody Maker
�
Rank’ hort film Look at Lie – Eatin Hih (����)
and the New Muial Expre had their offie in Denmark
ompany in the mid ���� in New Bond Street, ee
preent the tower’ newly opened revolving resaurant,
Street. There wa alo the Tin Pan Alley Studio (TPA)
Jeremy Sott’ aount of Jame Garrett and Partner in
managed by Billy Butlin, a the plae for the mod ern
from ����, mosly ued for demo, and from the early
ueful buineman to eat. Bowie dined there in
����, Regent Sound Studio wa a t number four, one
Marh ����, aer eeing Cliff Rihard in Cinderella
of the firs independent sudio in L ondon. The Rolling
Niht Out: Lie in Comopolitan London (New Haven,
idea on the media and the gobal village began to
at the London Palladium. One wonder if he looked
Stone reorded their firs album there early in ����.
beoming ‘lumurbia’.
����), p. ���–��, whih explore the role of uh lub
pread. Bowie diued MLuhan in an interview with
down below at the ite of hi father’ failed nightlub,
Mui publiher Dik Jame (����–��), who igned
Terene ‘Terry’ GuyAdair Burn (����–��) wa Bowie’
in developing jazz. Following a ourt ae in ����, many
Patrik Salvo in the May ���� iue of Ciru. By thi
a ouple of sreet away. The resaurant feature in
the Beatle and founded Northern Song with Brian
typial of hi home area. S t Matthew’ Drive, Bromley,
half-brother and lived with him until he wa ix. He wa
‘bottle party’ lub opened in ����–�. Bowie reall
time MLuhan’ influene, maive in the ����, wa
the trendy py thriller Sebasian, releaed in ����.
Epsein, worked around the orner in Charing Cro
a ul-de-a of bungalow, wa hoen beaue it ould
the on of David’ mother, Margar et Mary ‘Peg’ Burn
sorie of wresler ongregating at hi father’ lub,
benning to deline.
The direcor, David Greene, alo peifially ued
Road. A fainating Pathé Film urvive of the sreet in
be eaily hut off for filming. Mosly hortviit toGermany and Holland toreord
(����–����). In ���� Bowie aid: ‘My father trie o hard but hi upbrinng wa o different that we an’t
following the relaunh of the port in ���� and prior to it ban in the late ����. The London Shweizerbund wa
See for example Bowie’flair for publiity inreating the ficitiou International League for the Preervation
the new omplex of offie blok along London Wall, previouly inluded in Antonioni’ Blow-Up (����),
���� and the Kink immortalized it in ���� in ‘Denmark Street’: ‘Down the way from the Tottenham Court Road/
TV appearane, but alo a ten-day trip to mui
ommuniate. He and all hi friend were in the army
founded in the late nineteenth entury in what wa then
of Animal Filament, then renamed the Soiety for
to ommuniate a new-look London to Amerian
Jus round the orner from old Soho/ There’ a plae
fesival in Malta and Italy in the ummer of ����, and
during the war – an experiene I an’t imane – and he
one of the main German area of London. It urvived
the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men,
audiene. Wilon gave hi famou peeh at the ����
where the publiher go/ Ifyou don’t know whihway to
until aer World War II and the b uilding i sill a lub,
whih garnered overage by Cliff Mihelmore onthe
although urrently boarded up. During the following deade, a a reult ofmajor
topial magazine how Toniht, broadas on the newly launhed BBC� on �� November ����.
The road hown inthe videoof ‘TheBuddha of ��
Who Sold the World,in early ����. When Bowie wa bornin January ����,London
take naturally to iron diipline.’See S. More, ‘The ��
Resle Generation: �’, The Time, �� Deember ����. See interviewwith Bowiein the TVprogramme ‘David
��
��
��
Labour Party Conferene. In Ocober ���� he beame
go/ Jus open your ear and follow your noe/ ’Co the
Prime Miniser. Rank’ hort film Look at Lie – Coffee Bar (����) how
sreet i hakin from the tappin g of toe/ You an hear that mui play anytime on any day/ Every rhythm, every
Bowie: Sound and Viion’, produed a part of the
hange in hildare method, Dr Barnardo’ Home
Dobell’ Reordwa loated at �� Charing Cro Road.
the venue’ baement. The hort inpired the feature
way/ You gotto a publiher and play himyour ong/ He
were granted their independene at midnight on
‘Biography’ doumentary erie by the A&E network in
began loing it famou hildren’ home and the
Doug Dobell sarted elling reord in ���� aer he wa
film Beat Girl (����), sarring Adam Faith, whih wa
ay “I hate your mui and your hair i too long/ But I’ ll
�� Augus ����.
the United State, November ����.
organization hanged it name to Dr Barnardo’ in ����.
demobbed. Shop uh a hi were ruial in the ����
promoted with the line ‘Hop-Head UK S hool Girl
Interview with Thoma Frik, The Pari Review, .����
��
��
and ’�� for upplying rare reord and import. The
Get in Trouble’. The mui for the film wa ompoed by
Hi father piked out rare reord from among
hop loed in ����.
John Barry and beame the firs Britih film oundtrak
(ATV), ontrolled by Lew Grade (����–����). An
See interviewwith Bowiein the TVprogramme ‘David
donation to Dr Barnardo’.
Berwik Street delinedaer ���� due to lothe
to be releaed a an LP. In a neat ummary of hiing
indiation of ATV’ power in the ���� i that the
Thee houe sill form�� per ent of the UK’urrent houing sok.
Bowie: Sound and Viion’, produed a part of the
The Graon waa UK brand developed inthe late
rationing and bomb damage. John Stephen opened Hi
generational onflic, the wayward daughter i a sudent
�
Frozen inthe mid-twentiethentury by the reation
‘Biography’ doumentary erie by the A&E network in
����. At £��, it wa a ignifiant invesment, about
Clothe, the firs boutique in Carnaby Street, in ����.
at Saint Martin Shool of Art, while her arhitec
of the Green Belt by the Green Belt (London and
the United State, November ����.
a tenth of the prie of a new ar uh a a Cortina.
The City Of Wesminser Plan, publihed in ����,
father i deigning a Le Corbuier-inpired high-rie
��
Kevin Cann, Any Day Now:David Bowie, The London Year:
Although half the prie of a bra ax,it wa ued by
propoed the omprehenive learane of ��� are
����–���� (London, ����), p.��. Date quoted in thi
many profeional, notably Charlie Parker, John
in entral London, inluding the whole of Greek,
eay are largely drawn from hi book, whih provide
Dankworth and Ornette Coleman. John gave areful,
Frith, Dean and Old Compton Street – ee Judith
an exhausive analyi of thi period.
��
��
��
ompany bought the Beatle’ atalogue with the purhae of Northern Song in ����. ��
Ville Radieue for a Britih ex-olony. See alo Andrew ��
The how wa produed byAoiated Televiion
The three LP of‘The Blak and White Minsrel Show ’all made number one between ���� and ����, the
Ing, Rokin’ At The �i’ Coffee Bar (Brighton, ����).
firs for nine week. Robert Luff’ sage verion at the
On �� May����, Bowiereeived a Novello Award atthe
Vicoria Palae Theatre, whih ran from ����to ����
autiou but onisent upport for hi on’ ambition
R. Walkowitz, Niht Out: Lie in Comopolitan London
Hippodrome for ‘Spae Oddity’. The BBC broadas the
John Jone (����–��) wa orphaned at ayoung age
in the entertainment world, inluding maintaining hi
(New Haven, ����), p.���–��. In ����, Lord Holford’
eremony on Radio �, but it wa hown on televiion in
golf oure and tenni ourt: more ‘Mi Joan Hunter
and doe not eem to have had a partiularly happy
finanial reord.
heme for redeveloping Piadilly Ciru propoed
the US and on the ontinent, and the footage urvive.
��
See, for example, the areer ofCilla Blak inthe ����.
Dunn’ than ‘Inner City Blue’.
hildhood in Yorkhire. Prior to the maive expan ion
See interview with Bowiein the TV programme ‘David
the omplete demolition of the easern ide and the
Paul Raymond (����–����) had sarted in how
��
Oldham (b. ����)wa manager and produer of the
David ‘B owie -to-be’ Jone waborn on�January����at
in oial ervie in the late ����, uh employment by
Bowie: Sound and Viion’, produed a part of the
onsrucion of three towering offie blok. At thi
buine aer World War II, touring nude r evue. By
Rolling Stone aged ��. Epsein (����–��) beame
�� Stanfield Road in Brixton, outhLondon.When he
a harity wa muh more unuual than it would be today.
‘Biography’ doumentary erie by the A&E network in
period, the Government alo ommiioned Sir Lelie
September ����, hi how Burleque, featuring the Sex
manager of the Beatle ag ed ��. See alo Joe Boyd, White
£�,��� would havebought ix new emi–detahed
the United State, November ����.
Martin, arhitec of the R oyal Fesival Hall, to plan the
Appeal Girl, wa at the Chelea Palae, King’ Road,
Biyle: Makin Mui in the ���� (London, ����) for a
one of London’ fine Edwardian inner-ity mui hall
wa ix, thefamilymoved loeto Bromleyin Kent, then
�
��
The exising Sundridge Park Houewa deigned by old off for houing in the ����, the ore remain a a
�
��
��
Country Planning Ac, ����. John Nah in ����. Although muh of the ground were
ign you up beaue I’d hate to b e wrong.”’
Bowie had tolow itdown with hihand to play ��.
����–���� (London, ����), p.��.
�
Home Countie) Ac, ����, enhaned by the Town and
��
Kevin Cann, Any Day Now:David Bowie, The London Year:
��
��
wa sill, jus, an imperialapital. India and Pakisan
and �� Ocober ����, in Re/Searh (����), no. �/�.
�
Now the Giaonda[i] Dining Room.In ���� ahort
Fas and Louhe (London, ����), pp. ���–��.
three week in the USA promoting hi third LP, The Man �
��
��
Thi i alo theperiod when MarhallMLuhan’
Suburbia’ (����) i not where Bowie lived, or indeed
�
the lo of mos early reordin g of ‘Top of the Pop’ .
Frankie Goe to Hollywood in the early ����. Andy Warholhad, ofoure, sarted in advertiing, an amuing aount of working in a film ommerial
ASTRONAUT OF INNER SPACES:
ommon pracie in the ���� that alo aount for
��
��
��
jus outidethe offiial boundaryof London.The Jone
uburban houe in London – whih in the mid-����
��
Ibid.
omplete redevelopment of Whitehall. Hi heme,
familymoved twiebeforeettlingat Plaisow Grove. Thefirs two houe weremoremodern and larger.At
old for £��� upward. It i triky to tranlate thi um into modern value, but uing average wage (£� per
��
Now Raven Wood Shool, ometime onfued with the eparate Ravenbourne Art College. Twenty year
whih would have le theBanqueting Houe on a traffi iland, wa finally abandoned in ����.
Plaisow Grove, theJonee werein aVicorian terrae
week in ����; £��� in ����), it would beequivalent to
‘�-up, �-down’.
£���,���–���,���. It i diffiult to enviage how
Ethnially, almos��� perent white.It iesimated
John ould have los o muh o qu ikly unle he wa
that in ����, �� per ent of Britih familie lived in a houe built in the las �� year, the highes proportion
the vicim of fraud or extortion. Hilda Sullivan (����–����)wa ofIrih-Italian
��
earlier, Sir George Martin had attended the Grammar ��
��
��
��
��
then liding downward toward demolition. The newMarquee Club aloinluded a mallreording
wa, with �,��� performane, the longes-running muial in the UK until Cat.
good aount of the development of the mui buine ��
at thi time. It i oen forgotten how muh performing Bowie
The arhitec ofCentre Pointwa Rihard Seifert,
sudio made famou by the ue of the Moody Blue’
Shool, now Ravenbourne Shool.
who alo deigned the ylindrial Spae Houe,off
‘Go Now’ (����). Reording work in Soho expanded in
Owen Frampton wa the father of muiian Peter
Kingway, at thi time. The ��-sorey Kemp Houe
����, when the Sheffield Brother opened their sate
��
wa doing. In ����–�, he averaged over �� appearane See Radio London interview at the Marquee Club,����.
Frampton (b. ����) of Humb le Pie fame, who alo attended the hool and later played with Bowie.
tower blok in Berwik Street, ompleted in ����, ve a good idea of what the whole of Soho might
of the art eight-trak Trident Studio, aro the road at �� St Anne’ Court. Thi b eome one of London’
��
Bowie’ ingle ‘Rubber Band’/‘London Boy’ wa the eventh ingle releaed by Deram. The label wa
a year.
in the las hundred year.
parentage. Her mother, an arobat, wa killed in a
The two were loebut Bowieha admitted mytholo-
have beome. Thee flat replaed the heart of the
key sudio, and Bowie reorded five album there,
esablihed in ���� to exploit Dea’ new Derami
In ����, only�� perent of middle-la houehold
iru aident when he wa five. She wa brought up
zing Terry’ influene. It i not lear what mui
pre-war lothing disric, whih had been flattened
benning with Spae Oddity in ����.
Stereo Sound (DSS) audio ysem, whih wa made
had an elecri fridge – ee M. Young and P. Willmott,
in Frane by her grandmother and wa a talented pianis
venue they viited together,prior to Bowie going to
The Symmetrial Family: A Study o Work and Leiure in t he
and inger. In Marh ����, a Hitler ame to power in
the new R&B lub in wes London in ���� with hi
London Reon (����), Table �. For omparion, �� per
Germany, the Ausrian Chanellor Dollfu beame
ent had a wahing mahine and �� per ent a televiion. The omparative figure for working-la houehold were �, �� and ��per ent repecively. Alate a ����,
On ��September ����, theatre enorhip wa
redundant by the introducion of eight-trak reording
See, forexample, theLondon County Counil’ huge
abolihed in the UK. The following evening t he
in ����. Among Deram’ firs uee wa the Moody
friend George Underwood. The main hi of lub
Alton Esate at Roehampton (����/�), inpired by the
Amerian rok muial Hair opened at the Shaebury
Blue’ onept album Day o Future Pas, inluding
dicator. Nine month later, John married Hilda, on
from jazz to R&B took plae in ����–�, ymbolized by
planning ideal of Le Corbuier, whih even appeared
Theatre. Other ‘permiive’ lelation inluded the
‘Night in White Satin’. Other early igning inluded
�� Deember ����. They divored in Augus ����. Named aer Helen Cane,the famou Amerian inger,
the hange of the former Cy Laurie Jazz Club/Ma’ Rehearal Room (from ���� to ���� Ronnie Sott’
on a Britih samp in ����. By ���� Françoi Truffaut’ film Fahrenheit ��� wa already uing thee building a
Abortion Ac of ����, whih ameinto effec in April ����, and the Sexual Offene Ac of ����, whih
Cat Steven, the Move and Amen Corner. From ���� to ����, Deram wa releaing a ing le a week.
�� per ent of middle-la reident in outer London
known a the ‘Boop-Boop-a-Doop Girl’ and the orinal
Club �� – uppoedly the loation of the firs reorded
bakdrop for a future dysopian sate where book are
sill wanted to move further out and, prior to inner-ity
oure of the artoon haracer Betty Boop, reated
arres in the UK for annabi poeion) in Ham
banned. In ����, work sarted on the vas Aylebury
only applied to England and Wale.
hart. Clinton Heylin’ The Ac You’ve Known For All
‘gentrifiation’, only �� per ent wihed to m ove into
in ���� and ubequently the aue of a long-running
Yard/�� Great Windmill Street, to The ene, one of the
Esate in Southwark, deign ed for ��,��� people.
��
See JonSavage,‘Oh! You Pretty Thing’,pp.��ff.
Thee Year (Edinburgh, ����) provide exhausive
inner London. It i oen noted how many leading muiian ofthe
ourt ae. The ong ‘Don’t Take My Boop- Oop-ADoop Away’ firs appeared in the film Muial Jusie
key mod venue over the next few year. The novel The Buddha o Suburbia (����) wa written by
During Bowie’ daily ommute into entral London, he would have paed through an entire wathe ofinner
��
Reorded at Dea’ mainsudio inBroadhurs Garden, Wes Hampsead, now the rehearal r oom of
����, from band like the Who, the Kink, the Rolling
(����). I am indebted to Kevin Cann for the loation
Hanif Kureihi (b. ����), who attended Bowie’ hool
outh London being re-planned with ounil esate.
Stone et., had uburban upbrinng, but little
of thi venture. Soho nightlub at thi time were no
a deade later – in itelf, an indiator of the hange to
reearh ha been done to analye the detail of thi
plae for the unwary. Although Kate Merrik, who ran
outh-eas London in the ����.
��
���
��
by a landmine. ��
��
For a goodindiation of theeedy appearane of Soho at thi time, ee the sreet ene in The Small World o
��
partially deriminalized homoexual acivity. The latter
Englih National Opera – but not muh hanged. ��
��
detail on the album and it time, inluding the impac of the over deigned by Peter Blake. ��
Brian Aldi, My Country ’ti not onlythee – A Story o the
��
The eventprompted a famou artoon in Private Eye
The howregularly had an audiene of �� million.It wa Bowie’TV debut, but the BBC wiped thetape, a
���
St. Pepperpent �� week at the top of the UK album
World aer the Vietnam War (����).
(�� November ����,no. ���, p.�), the atirial magazine
ontext of the threat of a nulear srike. In ���� he alo
information of the many ompanie that sarted at thi
Bowie’doumented mui performane dropped off
youngLynne Tillman,i inluded in JamieWadhawan’
landingon the moon on �� July. Itwa alo played over
founded in Soho in ����, targeting the builder, Taylor
founded The People Show theatre group, a key part of the
time, ee the Unfinihed Hisorie webite
during late ���� and ’��, b ut George Tremlett believe
Cain’Film(����).
thePA ysematthe huge, freeRolling Stone onert
alternative theatre movement.
(www.unfinihedhisorie.om). For the parallel
he wa undertaking engagement without telling hi
Stanley Kubrik’ film����: A Spae Odyey, releaed in
inHydeParkon� July.Theongpeakedatnumberfiveat
The work wa reated from hopped-up filmorinally
sory in New York, ee Stephen J. Bottom, Playin
manager, ee George Tremlett, David Bowie: Livin on
the UK on �� May ���� ( in the middle of the Pari riot),
thesart ofNovember, aliteral aeof per ardua adasra.
hot in ����–� for a planned doumentary entitled
Underround: A Critial Hisory o the ����
the Brink (London, ����), p.��. Hi firs theatre work
had a ignifiant impac – not leas on Bowie, who aw
Bowiewa notunique in thi approah.J. G.Ballard
Off-Off- Broadway Movement (Mihigan, ����).
with Kemp, Pierrot in Turquoie, opened on �� Deember
it at the inema everal time. At th e end of Kubrik’
had rejeced paetravel in the����; ee Memorieo
Hayne had previouly helped esablih the UK’
���� at the New Theatre, Oxford, before moving to the
ambiguou film, ‘the Star Child turn to onider the
theSpaeAe(Wionin, ����),whihollec sorie
firs paperbak bookhop and the Travere Theatre
Merury Theatre, Ladbroke Road, in L ondon. However,
Whole Earth floating in front of it,both glowing a bright
inEdinburgh.
Bowie wa sill interesed in mui, Mar Bolan realling
blue-white. The two appear a newborn verion of Man
in ����. Thi i diued in GaryWesfahl, ‘TheMan
No new theatrehad been built inthe WesEnd ine
the hour pent diuing the ontemporary ene.
and Earth, fae-to-fae, ready to be born into a future of
Who Didn’tNeed to Walk on theMoon: J. G. Ballard
Bowie’memberhip number wa �����.He
unthinkable poibilitie’ – ee Robert Jaob, ‘Whole
and “TheVanihed AgeofSpae”’, InternetReviewo
Woodrow, who ued. ��
The omplementary hi wathe growing loveaffair
��
with Vicorian arhitecure, ymbolized by the ‘aving’ of St Panra sation from demolition in ����. The film Smahin Time(����), written by George Melly a a of the sation at the time. In ����, Equity launhed
alo Fred Kaplan in ����: The Year Everythin Chaned
a ampaign to ave London’ Vicorian Theatreland,
(New York, ����), pp.��–��, who eem to ugges
ignited by the threatened demolition of �� theatre,
that Burrough ued the phrae in ����. The onferene
the ���� and the firs wa the New London, opened
inluding the Lyeum and the Colieum. By the late
wa organized by Jim Hayne and Sonia Orwell,
in ����, baed on the Total Theatre deigned by Walter
ubequently appeared in Spotliht, the asing
Earth or No Earth: The Orin of the Whole Earth Ion
���� a maive heritage boom wa taking plae aro
among other, peronalitie who later were to feature
Gropiu. Performane, therefore, largely sill meant
direcory, where he wa ategorized in ���� a ‘Juvenile
in the Ahe of Hirohima and Nagaaki’, The Aia-Paifi
the UK – ee Robert Hewion , The Heritae Indusry:
ignifiantly in Bowie’ areer.
itting in a typial Vicorian theatre with a proenium
and Juvenile-Characer Men’.
��
Quoted in Eri Mottram, William Burrouh: The Alebra
arh deign. The trusee of the new National Theatre,
Theinitial impacof Hair, withit on-sagenudity,ha
Journal(�� Marh ����), vol. �, iue ��, no. �. The film Barbarella (����) i another reminder that pae wa
See Domini Sandbrook, Seaon in the Sun: The Battle or Britain ����–����, (London, ����).
o Need(London, ����), pt �, h. �.
faded overtheyear. However,itwa ignifiantat the timenotjus beaueofit sory, butbeaueitwa a
viewed in many wayat the time, from the deadlyeriou to the high amp and omi.
��
Kevin Cann, Any Day Now:David Bowie, The London Year:
sill in the planning sage during the ����, did not onider a ‘sudio’ pae appropriate, although the
Bowie firs travelledto the USAfrom �� January to �� February ���� to promote The Man Who Sold the World.
����–���� (London, ����), p.���.
future Cotteloe Theatre wa lipped into the deign a
producoftheNew York fringe.It direcordeibed
Thi jus preeded NamJune Paik’video-art
a sorage area. The Inner London Eduation Authority
ita an opportunityto reate‘atheatre formwhoe
(New Haven, ����). The �� Deember ���� broadas
J. G.Ballard, ‘Time, Memory and Inner Spae’, The Woman Journalis Maazine, ����. The term inner pae in ����, ee John Baxter, The Inner Man: The Lie o
�� �� ��
��
��
��
��
datingbak to ‘TheCageofSand’,orinallypubli hed
SieneFicion (July����). NASA reformed it srate a Miion toPlanetEarth in the����.
See Robert Poole, Earthrie: How Man Firs Saw the Earth
Beaue of work permit iue, he did not perform on thi trip. Bowie firs mentioned the idea of Zig
J. G. Ballard (London, ����), p.���. Ballard et out hi
experiment.Bothweremadepoiblebythe
built the firs fringe venue, the Cokpit, at Paddington
demeanour,language, lothing, daning,and even it
wa the mos wathed TVprogramme in hisory up to
view in ‘Whih Way to Inner Spae?’, New World(May ����), No.���. Asronaut o Inner-Spae: An International
introducion ofthefirs onumervideo equipment, notablytheSonyPortapak , whihlahed theos of
in ����–��. Thi wa deigned a a theatre in the round. At leas one on � Deember ����,a Feather,
nameaurately refleca oial epohin fullexploion’– formoredetail, eeSottMiller, Sex, Dru, Rok&
that time. The three asronaut reited Genei, vere �–��, onluding their meage with ‘and from the rew
although Bowie may have reheared and played there
Roll, andMuial (Boson,����),pp.��–��.JuleFiher,
of Apollo �, we loe with good night, g ood luk, a
on other oaion.
thehow’ deigner, ubequentlydeigned Bowie’
merry Chrisma – and God ble all of you, all of you on
See ‘final letter’ dated �� Ocober ����,announing
Diamond Dog tourin ����.In ���� KennethTynan
the good earth.’ Lie magazine eleced the image a one
��� TheManWho SoldtheWorld wa releaed intheUS in
launhed hi nuderevueOh! Calutta!
��
Collecion o Avant-Garde Acivity – �� Maniesoe,
makingfilm and provided insant viewing. Warhol ued a
Artile, Letter, �� poem & � Filmript wa publihed
Norelo mahine–fora detailed diuionofthi piee
in San Franio in ����. It inluded ontribution
and it broaderimportanein portraitureand identity,
by William S. Burrough, Allen Ginberg, Marhall
eeCallieAngell,‘Doubling theSreen: AndyWarhol’
the loure of the Art Lab. See alo Jim Hayne , Thank
MLuhan and other.
Outerand InnerSpae’, MillenniumFilmJournal (Spring
or Comin (London, ����). The Art Lab howed work
See John Baxter, The Inner Man: The Lie o J.G.Ballard
����), No. ��. In November����, Ken Pitt, Bowie’
by many artis/writer, inluding Yoko Ono, Steven
(London, ����), pp.���–�. Burrough wrote the
manager, viited Warhol attheFacoryand broughtbak
Berkoff and Roelef Louw. It alo provided a home for
prefae to The Atroity Exhibition. Part of the book –
ates preingofLou Reid’ VelvetUnderroundandNio ,
the London Film-Maker’ Co-Op and wa the firs plae
‘The Aaination Weapon’ – wa produed a a
whihhe gaveto afainated Bowie.
in London to how Warhol’ Chelea Girl in Ocober
andBrianDuintheummerof����ontheWesPier,
the evolution of the information age. However, it
multimedia performane at the ICA, produed by
��
��
�� ��
Stardus while in Lo Angele. ��
And a new level ofinome: George Tremlett esimate that in Ocober ����, Bowie earned more than in the whole of ����. See David Bowie: Livin on the Brink (London, ����), p.���.
of it ��� mos important photograph of the twentieth
November���� and on �� April ����in the UK. The
Inluding Cabaret, with Judi Denh sarring a Sally
entury. A imilar image appeared in autumn ���� on
hisoryoftheoveri ompli atedbyenorhip–ee
Bowle, on � April ����.
the firs iue of the Whole Earth Catalo, reated by
Kevin Cann, Any DayNow: DavidBowie,The London
Bowie auditionedforthefilmbutwaunuefu l.Oh!
the radial writer and eolos Stewart Brand. Thi
Year����–����, pp.���–��. Theeventual UKoverwa
WhataLovelyWar wafilmedby RihardAttenborough
i ited by Steve Job a one of th e key milesone in
photographed in September���� at Bowie’new marital homeatHaddon Hall, Bekenham.
See Children o Albion: Poetry o the Underround in Britain,
����. Thi wa advertied by the famou Alan Aldridge
Brighton,andnearby.OneonlyneedtolookatBowie’
eem doubtful that Bowie would have een t hi US
Stewart MKenzie, on ��–�� Augus ����. John Cage
an antholo publihed by Penguin in ����, with it
poser, ommiioned at Warhol’ reques, of the nude
performaneof‘RubberBand’inthepromotionalfilm
publiation by early ����. Brand had led a ampaign
age a Bowie and well esablihed, with a sring of
had explored hane in ompoing aer reeiving a
srong nod to William Blake, whoe ‘Glad Da y’ i on the
��-year-old acre Clare Shensone, photographed by
LoveMeTill Tueday,reordedinFebruary����,toeethe
to get NASA to releae image of Earth taken from
ueful album over for artis uh a Blak
tranlation of the I-Chin in ���� – ee alo hi mui/
over. For the overall ontext of thi interes ee Rob
Don Silversein. It wa deigned at Ink Studio. A New
onnecion.Fiveyearlater,Du tookthe photograph
unmanned paera, a he felt it would help develop
Sabbath and Rod Stewart for the progreive Vertigo
art ompoition Che Piee, reated for the Imagery of
Young,Elecri Eden: Unearthin Britain’ Viionary Mui
Art Lab wa esablihed in Robert Street, Camden,
ofAladdin Sane.Farthingaleubequently appearedin
a new environmental enitivity.
Reord and other. He went on, from ����, to be a
Che exhibition organized by the Surrealis in New
(London, ����), pp. ���–���. The firs Glasonbury
in Ocober ���� and in April ���� it wa the loation
anotherfourfilm, inludingMGM’ TheGreatWaltz
York in ����. From ���� onward, Cage worked with
Fesival, elebrating Midummer, wa held in ����.
for the infamou exhibition Jim Ballard: Crahed
(����),oneofthelasfilmreleaedinCinerama.She
sill printed in blak and white at the time. There i
hi partner Mere Cunningham on uh idea in dane.
Bowie appeared at the eond – and muh larger –
Car, orinally planned for the ICA in ����. Bowie
aloappear,inaloud,inthetople-handornerofthe
a photograph of thi inert at www.photo-tranport.
Terming it the ‘moai approah’, Marhall MLuhan
fesival in ����.
never performed at the ICA. The Art Lab movement
bakoverof DavidBowie (releaedNovember����),
o.uk/moon/moon
Surrealim’, Eye: The International Review o Graphi
Bowie had been urged by hi manager Ken Pitt to
Dein (Summer ����), no.�� (eyemagazine.om;
ued a imilar tehnique in writing about the media –
��
in eparated eay – a early a The Mehanial Bride: Folklore o Indusrial Man, publihed in ����. He baed the title on the work of Marel Duhamp. Hi book
��
��
a book of poem by Alexander Trohi (����–��). See
wa firs ued by W. H.Auden in ���� and J. B. Priesley
��
See Burrough’ introducion to Man at Leiure (����),
��
atire on winng London, how the filthy ondition
Britain in a Climate o Deline (London, ����). ��
Guerrilla Condition. ��
��
��
The firsbattle about aving entire area, rather than
refleced the maive lo of ity-entre ommerial
individual building, were benning to gear up in
theatre (partiularly ex-mui hall) and inema
Covent Garden and Tolmer Square in Euson. In January ����,John Lennon hadaquired a opyof
��
It wainluded a an inert ine The Time wa
Thi ArtLab, ‘Growth’,took plaeon Sundayevening
ompoe a new ong for a promotional film planned
during the late ���� and ’�� a televiion killed off the las remnant of live var iety.
atthe ThreeTun, ���HighStreet, Bekenham, from �May ���� until� Marh����,when thevenuehanged
for German TV and elewhere. The popularity of uh promotional film wa driven by the uee of the
pioneer of mui video, working with Kate Buh, and eventually beame a ueful TV produer. ��� See John Bek and Matthew Corn ford, ‘Home Countie
aeed �� April ����). ��� Bowie wa photographed intwo different MrFih ‘man-dree’ – orinally for the inide of a gatefold
The Medium i the Meae: An Inventoryo Effec(����)
Leary’ book from the India bookhop, opened by
The opening of the ICA on TheMall wa followed by
into afolk lub. ‘Growth’ organized theBekenham
Beatle and the Moody Blue. In Deember ����,
album leeve. The etting i ub-Chrisopher Gibb –
attempt to onvey hi thei through the acual deign.
Barry Mile, John Dunbar and Peter Aher the previou
the Hayward Gallery, whih opened in July ���� a part
FreeFesival on �� Augus���� –theS aturdaybefore
the Rolling Stone made Rok and Roll Ciru, alo
ee hi deign for Perormane, filmed in ���� but
William S.Borrough (����–��) lived in London from
November, and ubequently wrote ‘Tomorrow Never
of the major expanion of the Southbank art omplex.
theWoodsok Fesival in theUSA. In an interview
planned for TV (but unreleaed until ����). Bowie’
releaed in ummer ����. Bowie knew of Mr Fih’
Know’. LSD wa, of oure, legal in the USA and UK
Performane alo moved into mainsream art. In ����,
withChri Welhin Melody Maker, publihed in
until Autumn ����.
while at Saint Martin Shool of Art, Rihard Long
September����,heextol thetalentavailable
promotional film wa not releaed at the time, but wa eventually iued a Love Me Till Tueday in ����. ‘Spae
hop, opened in ���� at �� Clifford Street, jus off Savile Row, a hi hool friend Geoff MaCorma k
There waalo oniderable interes in Sientolo.
reated ‘A Line Made by Walking’, whih disilled hi
in uburban Bekenhamand deribe DruryLane,
Oddity’ wa reorded at Morgan Studio, Willeden,
worked for him. The hop oen featured in film
earlier experiment with land art into a ingle line –
then aboutto loe, a ‘tripe’ and on anotheroaion
on � February ���� and filmed four day later at
about ‘Swinng London’ and an be een in the film
Clarene Studio, Greenwih.
for ‘Sell Me a Coat’ in Bowie’ promo film Love You
A key,but oen overlooked,facor in thereation
Till Tueday, reorded early in ����, but only releaed
���� to ����. Hi took part in a joint interview with Bowie on �� November ����, jus before hi return to Ameria. Publihed in Rollin Stone magazine on
��
�� February ����, ‘Beat Godfather Meet Glitter
Burrough took up Sientolo in ����/� but
Mainman’ i one of the key text reording the
ubequently rejeced it. See ‘I, William Burrough ,
development of Bowie’ idea prior to hi leaving the
Challenge You, L. Ron Hubbard’, Mayair (January
UK. Burrough’ Naked Lunh (����) wa leared of obenity harge in Maahuett in ����, the las
��
��
whihinludethe ong‘Letterto Hermione’. ��
��
��� Photographer Keith ‘Keef’Mamillan wa theame
reorded by a blak-and-white photograph.
a ‘pretentiou’.Itmay jus bethat themain organizer
Kemp opened hi how Clown Hour, uing Bowie’
atDruryLane,who wereagood deadeolder,
����), vol.�, �.
album a the interval mui, at the Little Theatre,
experiened and sronglyopinionated, ignored the
of ‘Spae Oddity’ wa that in January ���� nobody,
��
��
in ����.
Peter Brook, The Empty Spae (London, ����). The
Garrik Yard, on � Augus ����. At the time he wa
interes and idea ofthe��-year-old Bowie.Ironially,
inluding Bowie, knew that Apollo �� would land on the
��
uh trial in the US. Brion Gyin (����–��) joined the Surrealis aer
ontrovery over Edward Bond’ Saved, produed at the Royal Court Theatre in London in November ����,
livingabovea sriplub inBateman’Building,Bateman Street, a run-down alleyway in the middle of Soho.
JimHayne wa aolleague ofSonia Orwell, George Orwell’ literaryexeutor,and lived in thebaement
moon in July. Obviouly, thi wa NAS A’ objecive, but the Apollo miion �, � and �� were to tes manned
arriving in Pari in ����, but wa expelled from the
wa key in the abolitionof theatre enorhip by the
��
Follo wingquote fromKevinCann, Any DayNow: David
ofherhouewhen hemoved to London.In ����, he
apule. If anything had gone wrong, a had happened
group in ����.
Theatre Ac, ����. In ����, Thelma Holt founded the
Bowie, TheLondon Year: ����–���� (London, ����), p.���.
turned down Bowie’ reques to makeamuial of
with Apollo �, � and ��, the programme would have
��
Jeff Nuttall(����–����) waone of the founder
Open Spae Theatre in Tottenham Court Road and
��
A fewweek later on�� September ����,Gilbert and
Orwell’ ����, a projecthathangedintoDiamond
been reheduled, although NASA wa deperate to
��� Bowie ha appeared on all ofhi sudio-album over,
of International Time (IT), the magazine of the UK ounter-ulture, whih wa launhed on �� Ocober
Léonie Sott-Matthew moved Pentameter, founded in Augus ����, to the Three Horehoe, it urrent
George met for the firs time at Saint Martin Shool of Art – ‘it wa loveat firs ight’. However, it took them
Do. Foranotherview oftheArt Lab, eealo Stuart
meet Kennedy’ ���� deadline to ahieve a landing by the end of the deade.
apart from Tin Mahine II. ��� The orin of glam are ompliated and lieoutide thi
���� at the Roundhoue, London, at a g featuring
home in Hampsead, in ����, leaving Dan Crawford
ome time to develop their total living ulpture.
memory�� April ���� –Alex Trohi’ StateofRevolt
Ironially, theong ameto prominenea areult of
eay. However, the sart i onventionally linked to the
Pink Floyd. Hi book Bomb Culture (����) i important
the honour of opening London’ firs pub theatre
Kevin Cann, Any Day Now:David Bowie, The London Year:
atthe Art Lab in London’fora flavourof event there.
thereleaeofanew reordin g,madeon ��June����
ue of Mar Bolan’ ‘Hot Love’ in Marh ���� and
for it examination of ontemporary ulture in the
at the King’ Head, Ilington, in ����. For detailed
����–���� (London, ����), p.���.
Somefootageof thi haotievening, organized bya
atTrident Studio, Soho,to oinidewith Apollo ��
hi appearane on ‘Top of the Pop’ .
���
��
Home,‘Walk on Gilded Splinter: In Memorandumto ��
���
��� The image on the bak over ifrom a et uing the eond man-dre, and he hold the King of Diamond. Thi ard i alled ‘Caear’ by Frenh playing-ard manufacurer, who name eah of the ourt ard. The King of Spade i ‘David’.
��� The image waonidered by Merury tooprovoative
interview for NBC’ ‘The Today Show’, April �� ��: ‘I
�
Jonathan Barnbrook interviewedby VicoriaBroake,
Aretha Franklin an be heard innga mah hitfrom
air. It really jus painted the whole room for me.’
furrier K. Wes; ix of him leaning agains the building,
Lady Soul, ‘(You make me feel like a) Natural Woman’,
(�� November ����.)
holding a guitar; �� in the alley; two outide a telephone
��
David Bowie: Soundand Viion, ����. Produed and
Art Talk: Converation with�� Women Artis, ed. Cindy
box and �� loe-up.
Craig Copeta, ‘Beat Godfather Meet Glitter
in the limouine roing the deert in the ���� BBC
�
��
��
Mainman’, Rollin Stone magazine, �� February ����.
doumentary ‘Craked Acor’, where Bowie drink milk
Nemer (New York, ����; revied edition ����), p.���.
��
GaryKempinterviewedbyVicoriaBroake,April����.
Converation between Bowie and William S. Burrough
from a large arton and i quesioned by Alan Yentob.
��
‘Wath That Man’, BUST magazine, Fall ����.
��
For anextended analyi ofthi period ofBowie’
All the element foroffending middle-la uburban
the prior November at Bowie’ London home.
(Aired �� January ����.) It wa thi equene whih
��
Craig Copeta, ‘Beat Godfather Meet Glitter
enibilitie were there – ee George Tremlett, David
Bowie reveal he had taken the name of Amerian
Bowie: Livin on the Brink (London, ����), pp.���–�.
frontierman Jim Bowie, inventor of the maive Bowie
Bowie alo aw the ‘hok-rok’ Amerian Alie Cooper
knife, beaue ‘I wanted a truim about utting through
perform at the reently opened Rainbow Theatre, Finbury Park, on � November. In ����, Brian Ward photographed Bowie in a full Eptian outfit, a look
��
Mainman’, Rollin Stone magazine, �� February ����. Bowie tell William S. Burrough that ‘All the Young
��
Ibid., p.��.
��
Ibid, p.��.
Dude’ refer to the ‘terrible new’ olleced by Zig
��
Elizabeth Thomon and DavidGutman (ed),The Bowie
��
See Clinton Heylin, All the Madmen: Barrett, Bowie,
��
Nik Stevenon, David Bowie: Fame, Sound and Viion (Cambridge: Polity Pre, ����), p.��.
��
Bowie in interview, Muiian magazine, July ����
For adetailed diuion ofthe album’development
��
J. G. Ballarddiue what hemean by inner pae
aid, ‘During the mid-����, I got to know Nina
Stardus, who i torn to piee on sage by the ‘blak
Simone, whom I’ve got inredible repec for a an
hole’ of the ‘infinite’. Thi new, Bowie ay, appear
artis and a ompoer and a inger.’ Even though he had
in ‘Five Year’, hi firs ong on the Zig Stardus album:
alo ued by the oultis Aleiser Crowley (����–� ���),
important the Beatle were’ at the time, ‘ the artis’
not written thi ong, her ‘tremendou’ performane
‘New had jus ome over, we had five year le to r y
who wa popular with rok muiian at thetime. Thi wa before the hugely ueful Tutankhamen
were talking insead about the Velvet Underground: ‘Tomorrow’ ulture i alway dicated by the art is …
of it had ‘affeced’ him greatly: ‘I reorded it a an hommae to Nina.’ (‘David Bowie Weekend’ on MTV,
in … Five year, that’ all we’ve got.’
exhibition at the Britih Mueum in ����.
The artis make ulture, n ot the riti.’
� and � April ����.) ‘Dinah!’, CBS talk how reorded in Lo Angele,
I wanted to do, omebody tota lly in hi own world …
�� February ����. Dinah Shore’ other gues were
DESIGNING DAVID BOWIE
He wa a hero to me but an antihero – he didn’t have any oial ontac [lauh].’ (Interview in ���� with
Nany Walker and Henry Winkler. Earlier Bowie ay about hi ontinual openne to and influene by other
Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum for ‘Countdown’, an Ausralian
pop mui in undermining Communim.
televiion programme.) In a ���� interview with
John Walh,‘Me, Zig andthe paion ofpure fandom’,
Mavi Niholon, Bowie realled putting himelf in
performer and syle, ‘I’m uually aturated.’
The Independent, �� Marh ����: ‘it make no ene, but
‘dangerou ituation’, peifially ‘area where I ha ve
��
Ibid.
it mean everything’.
to be in oial ontac with people, whih I’m not very
��
‘Parkinon’, BBC� hat how, reorded �� November
See Jonathan Haidt, The Rihteou Mind: Why Good People
good at doing .’ (‘Aernoon Plu’, Thame Televiion,
����. Mihael Parkinon ak, ‘What wa Zig about?’
Bowie ha only one O-level, whih i not the ae.
reorded �� February ����.)
Bowie replie, ‘It wa about puhing together all the piee and all the thing that fainated me ulturally –
at on the ouh between Bowie and Dinah Shore,
everything from kabuki theatre to Jaque Brel to Little
THEATRE OF GENDER: DAVID BOWIE
the motherly blonde hos. Bowie’ pelvi thrus
AT THE CLIMAX OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION
puncuating hi analyi of Ig’ method drew a faux naïf repone of ‘I wonder what he mean by that! Gee
�
hybrid of everything I liked.’
photograph. It i likely that (a with the pronuniation of Bowie), the name and pelling d id hange. See Peter
Ocober ����.
a pisol randomly into a rowd (from the Seond Surrealis Manifeso of ����). Bowie all it ‘a p otent
find I don’t need to paint. But if I’m not doing very well,
direced at homemaker.
an image’ a Duhamp’ urinal in preenting the body
�
��
����), pp.��� and ���–��. Sary MonserInterview (RCADJL�–����), ����
��
Mihelangelo Antonioni’ ���� filmBlow-Up apture
��
Interview, baksage footageaer performing
Definitive Story (London, ����), p.���.
Quoted in David Bukley,Strane Faination: David
‘Heroe’ on ‘TopPop’, �� Ocober ����, Avro TV,
new generation of photographer. ��
The book atBowie’feet ia novel byWalter Ro, The
The Netherland. ��
Immortal (����). The main protagonis, Johnny Preson, i aid to be baed on Jame Dean. An alternative dus
Inpiration, ����. Direced by Mihael Apted for Argo Film and Clear Blue Sky Producion.
��
Eliot, T.S., “Philip Mainger,” The Sared Wood, New York: Bartleby.om, ����.
��
Dylan Jone, Hairult: fiy year o syle and ut (London,
��
Nihola Pegg, The Complete Bowie(London, ����),
AND THE POWER OF THE LP COVER, 1967–1983
p.���.
��
Jule Fiher’ previou work inluded thefirs Amerian
��
For further analyi of the Diamond Doget ee
����), p.��.
Doggett, The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie and the ���� (London, ����), p.��. �
(US). Bowie talking about the ‘Ahe to Ahe’ video.
the glamour and elebrate the innovatory pirit of thi
Sometime knowna theKonrad, theband appear a
He ite a a ‘emi-nihilisi equation’ Andr é Breton’ definition of the ultimate Surrealis ac a hooting
��
jaket (not the one hown in the Diamond Do portrait)
trying to pinpoint a tradition of ritualizing of the body.’
televiion, then very sric on daytime programme
Quoted in Nihola Pegg, The Complete Bowie (London,
wa deigned by Andy Warhol.
gues, Roemary Clooney, a veteran big-band inger, Bowie had managed to break the ode of Amerian
��
of the Avant-Garde?’, Phonoraph Reord magazine,
whiz!’ (produing audiene laughter) from the other like Shore. Depite hi gentlemanly Britih manner,
Nik Stevenon, David Bowie: Fame, Sound and Viion (Cambridge: Polity Pre, ����), p.���. David Bukley,Strane Faination: David Bowie: The
Film, Clear Blue Sky Producion.
January ����.
non_ficion/non-ficion.html
��
Quoted inRihard Cromelin, ‘David Bowie: Darling
‘TopPop’,televiion programme, The Netherland, Interview withJool Holland on‘The Tube’, Channel
Inner Spae’. The full artile i at www.jgballard.a/
�
‘Kon-rad’ on their drum kit, a een in Roy Ainworth’
�, Marh ����. Bowie: ‘If I’m writing and reording, I
in the eay ‘Time, Memory, and Inn er Spae’ – ee pp. ��–� of thi book, Geoffrey Marh, ‘Asronaut of
Henry Edward andTony Zanetta,Stardus: The Lie and
Inpiration, ����. Direced by Mihael Apted, Argo
�
the Dark Side o Enlih Rok (London, ����).
ee David Bukley, Strane Faination: David Bowie: The Definitive Story (London, ����), pp.���–��.
�
Interview at Stadthalle, Vienna, ���� . Bowie ay, ‘I wa
Drake, Pink Floyd, the Kink, the Who and the Journey to
Time o David Bowie (London, ����), p.���.
Kevin Cann, David Bowie, Any Day Now: The London Year: ����–����(London, ����), p.��.
Rihard to drag ac. Everything about it wa ort of a ��
��
The A-levelwa taken early, at��. Bowie’ hoolwa foued on art ubjec. It i ometime reported that
‘Dinah!’, CBStalk how, ��April ����.Ig Pop
�
Interview with Alan Yentob, reorded ��May ���� in Cologne for the BBC� doumentary erie ‘Arena’.
pp.��–�.
Companion (Cambridge, MA, ����), pp ���–��.
PUTTING OUT FIRE WITH GASOLINE:
Britain’ViionaryMui (London, ����), p.���. (New York, ����), whih argue for the role of Wesern
David Bowie and the ���� (London, ����).
��
diued in detail in Rob Young, ElecriEden: Unearthin
��
Producion. ��th Century Fox Film Corporation. Nihola Pegg, The Complete Bowie(London, ����),
alien sar of The Man Who Fell to Earth (����).
Bowie aid that ‘however many riti were aying how
��
and Karl D. Ring. Van Ne Film, In. For Foxsar ��
onvined direcor Niola Roeg to as Bowie a the
Canadian televiion programme ‘The New Mui’,
Bowie aboutMajor Tom:‘He wamy ownideal of what
areer, ee Peter Doggett, The Man Who Sold the World:
Introduing hi verion of ‘Wild i the Wind’, Bowie
the lie.’ In a ���� interview with Avi Lewi for the
�
Marh ����. direced by Rik Hull. Reearher: Mai-Ly Nguyen
of the Warhol-driven ‘play’ Pork at the Roundhoue in Augus ����, whih aued a andal in the UK media.
and I an’t write, and there’ a kind of blok or a blank
�
Nihola Pegg,TheCompleteBowie (London,����),p.��.
��
doingballet.’
�
�
��
lamppos; four under a ign marking the premie of
with me, kind oflike Diaghilev did whenhe wa
are Divided by Politi and Relion (London, ����).
�
(taken from different angle); nine under a tall
heard anything that lived in uh bright olour in the
album’ November ���� US releae.
��� See Larry Shweikart, � Event that made Ameria Ameria
�
‘I fell in love with the Little Rihard band. I had never
leeve wa revied, without him knowing, for the
��� Thebakground and ionographyof thi photographi
���
Charle Shaar Murray, ‘DavidBowie: Gay Guerrilla & Private Movie’, New Muial Expre, �� February ����.
wanted the bes ofthe ontemporary field working
��� A onfidene, srengthened ifneeded, by theimpac
���
��
for the Amerian publi a nd Bowie’ onept for the
FOR ‘WE ARE THEGOON SQUAD’: BOWIE, STYLE
tour of Tommy and the Broadway producion of Jeu
�
Chris Supersar.
�
Bowie: The Definitive Story (London, ����), p.���.
Nihola Pegg, The Complete Bowie (London, ����),
Peter York,Style War (London, ����), pp.���–�. For thi reaon I dediate thi eayto myfriend Mark, who among my hildhood friend got to Bowie firs.
�
Peter Doggett, The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie
‘The Dik Cavett Show’, ABC, reorded in New York on
a ‘a ritualisi way of artiulating twentieth-entury
�
N i ho la Pe gg ,TheCompleteBowie (London,����),p.��.
p.��� and David Bukley, Strane Faination: David
there, then I revert to painting, and it open up like a
� Deember ����; aired � Deember ����. Cavett aked
experiene’. (In the firs Surrealis Ma nifeso of ����,
�
CraigCopeta,‘BeatGodfatherMeetGlitterMainman’,
Bowie: The Definitive Story (London, ����), pp.���–���.
�
John Gill, Queer Noie (London, ����), p.���.
waterhed of idea and aoiation and thing.’In an interview reorded on �� May ���� in Cologne,
Bowie about hi mother: ‘Doe he have any trouble explaining you to the neighbor ?’ Bowie replied, ‘I
Breton ompared ‘the modern mannequin’ to ‘romanti ruin’ in exempliing the ‘marvellou’, a entral
Rollin Stone magazine (�� February ����). Reprinted in
See pl.��. Detailedsoryboard illusrated and annotated by Bowie feature ‘mealaine’ a food, a
�
Elizabeth Thomon and David Gutman (ed),The Bowie
Hanif Kureihi and Jon Savage (ed.), The Faber Book o Pop (London, ����), pp.���–�.
Germany, for the BBC� doumentary erie ‘Arena’,
think he pretend I’m not her [lauh] … We were
Surrealis priniple.) Bowie mention a an anteedent
Companion (Cambridge, MA, ����), p.���.
well a rollerkating youth, filmnote, et model and
�
Bowie told Alan Yentob that when he return ed to
never that loe partiularly. We have an undersanding.’
the Romanti writer Thoma DeQuiney’ ���� eay,
haracer kethe.
�
Kureihi and Savage, p.���.
Europe aer living in Lo Angele, painting helped him
In a remote-amera interview from London, Ruell
‘On Murder Conidered a One of the Fine Art’. In
firs hown on BBC � a p art of the erie ‘Omnibu’,
For furtherdiuion ofBowie’London influene,
�
Kureihi and Savage, pp.���–��.
‘get bak into mui’. He deribed hi painting syle a
Harty ondeendingly probed Bowie (in Burbank,
the ame interview, he ay that he liked Expreionim
�� January ����.
ee Geoffrey Marh, ‘Asronaut of Inner S pae’,
�
Hugo Wilken, Low (New York, ����), p.��.
pp.��–��.
��
Chrisopher Breward, ‘Camp andthe International
�
‘Craked Acor’,����. Direced byAlan Yentob, ��
Quoted in Jon Parele,‘David Bowie:�� s Century
‘a form of Expreionisi Realim’.
California) about hi mother; Bowie oldly r eplied,
ine he wa ‘a kid’ and that he had epeially admired
Bowie aidhe had ‘a Pre-Raphaelitekind of look’ on
‘That’ really my own buine.’ (‘The Ruell Harty
Gusav Klimt, Egon Shiele and the Blaue Reiter group.
Hunky Dory. Interview with Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum for
Show’, BBC, reorded �� November ����.) Cavett
‘Countdown’, a weekly Ausralian mui televiion
aked Bowie what he wa reading: ‘What would we
erioulyaffeced bymy dream … I found thedream
programme, taped in Ocober ���� in a Japanee
find on your offee table in your apartment?’ Bowie
satemagneti. It jus aptured everythingforme.’ When
resaurant in New York during Bowie’ run inThe
reponded, ‘At the moment, mainly picure. I bought
heaw thefilm ofDalíand Buñuel and thepainting of
Elephant Man on Broadway.
Diane Arbu’ book of photograph, a photographer I
deChirio, heth ought, ‘Ye,that’ exaclyhow I wantto
��
Information upplied by theThe DavidBowie Arhive.
‘I wao losin Zig, it wa all ahizophrenia.’ ‘Craked Acor’, BBC doumentary filmed in ����
like very muh.’ Bowie onthe making of the‘Ahe toAhe’ video:
write. How doyou work likethat?’ (‘DayIn, DayOut’, MTVpeial during Bowie’Gla Spidertour.)
��
Henry Edward andTony Zanetta,Stardus: The Lie and Time o David Bowie (London, ����), pp.���–��.
��
‘Craked Acor’, BBC doumentary filmed in���� and
��
David Bowie and Mik Rok, Moonae Daydream: The Lie
��
��
and firs aired on �� January ����.
‘We went down to the beah, and I took a woman there
Bowie about Zig Stardus: ‘Iwanted todefine the
who looked like mymother. That’ the urrealisi part
arhetype ‘meiah/rok sar’ – that ’ all I wanted to do.’
of making movie.’ (‘David Bowie Weekend’ on MTV,
Interviewed by muiian Flo and Eddie of the Turtle and Mother of Invention for ‘�� Minute Live’, CBC, �� November ����. In the ���� Yentob interview for BBC�, Bowie aid about hi sage haracer, ‘They’re all meiah figure.’ Bowie about Yamamoto in an
��
��
��
In a���� interview, Bowieaid, I wa alway very
��
��
Entrepreneur’, New York Time, � June ����. ��
� � Bill Janovitz, The Rollin Stone’ Exile on Main St, �� ⁄
Fieen roadie,upplemented by a ��-man rew
Stefano Tonhi (ed.), Walter Albini and hi Time
Bowie (London, ����), p.���. ��
(London, ����), p.�.
In the lightof Bowie’ appropriation of Guy Peellaert
(Venie, ����), pp.��–��. ��
from the Stone, thi ounter-exhange eem to neatly
and Time o Zig Stardus (London, ����), p.��.
Oddity, The Man Who Sold th e Worldand David Live.
�� ��
David Bukley,Strane Faination: David Bowie:
��
Doggett, p.���.
The Definitive Story (London, ����), p.���.
��
Glenn Adamon and JanePavitt (ed.),Posmodernim:
Mallet went on to ollaborate withBowie oneveral
Wilken, p.��. Wilken, p.���.
In an Ausralian televiion interview, Bowieaid of
��
Ibid., p.���.
� and � April ����.) The acre wa Wyn Ma, wife of omedian Jimmy Ma, who played Warwik on th e BBC
Little Rihard, ‘He wa my idol’ (�� November ����). Elewhere Bowie aid, ‘I wanted to be a white Little
�� ��
Ibid., p.���. Jonathan Barnbrook interviewed by Vicoria Broake,
other mui video inluding ‘Let’ Dane’ and the enored ‘China Girl’ in ����, and ‘Hallo Spaeboy’ in
�� ��
Doggett, p.���. York, p.���.
itom ‘Are You Being Served?’
Rihard at eight – or at leas hi ax player.’ (‘David
Marh ����.
����, in addition to the doumentary film of Bowie’
��
York, p.���.
David Bowie and Mik Rok, Moonae Daydream: The Lie
Bowie: Sound and Viion’, A&E network’ ‘Biography’
��
Ibid.
performane, Gla Spider (����) and David Bowie:
��
York, p.���.
and Time o Zig Stardus (New York, ����), p.���.
erie, � Ocober ����.) Bowie told ABC’ ‘��/��’,
��
Nine of Bowiepoing in front of�� Heddon Street
Blak Tie White Noie(����).
���
��
Wilken, p.��. Seealo GlennAdamon and Vicoria Kelley (ed.), Surae Tenion: Surae, Finih and the Meanin o Objec(Manheser, ����).
omplete the reative irle. Vionti previouly olo-produed the album Spae
Gill, p.���.
Language of ���� Fahion’ in Maria Luia Fria and
reruited at eah venue. Nihola Pegg, The Complete
Marh ����. Interview at www.vam.a.uk/hannel/ ��
firs aired on �� January ����. ��
��
Jonathan Barnbrook interviewed by Vicoria Broake,
and the ���� (London, ����), p.��.
���
Style & Subverion ����–���� (London, ����), p.��.
CHANGES: BOWIE’S LIFE STORY
��
�� �
Mark C. O’Flaherty, ‘Men’ wear h-h-hange’, Finanial Time [online], �� September ����,
��
Ibid.
��
Dean Mayo Davie, ‘The Sound of Style:Hedi
Ibid, p.�.
��
Dean Mayo Davie, ‘TheSound of Style: TimBlank’,
��
��
July ����, p.��.
Slimane’, Anothermagazine [online], �� May ����,
David Bowie and MikRok, Moonae Daydream: The
www.anothermag.om/urrent/view/���/
Ibid., p.��.
Bowie Book’, FantasiMan magazine [online], �� Ocober ����, www.fantasiman.om/#/
��
Ibid., p.���.
��
David Iztkoff, ‘TheFahion Rok Q&A’,Luky ��
��
magazine, Ocober ����. David Bowie and MikRok, Moonae Daydream: The
David Iztkoff, ‘The Fahion Rok Q&A’, Luky magazine, Ocober ����.
Lie and Time o Zig Stardus (London, ����), p.��
��
Mark C.O’Flaherty, ‘Men’ wear h-h-hange’,
��
Dylan Jone, Hairult: fiy year o syle and ut ,
Finanial Time [online], �� September ����, http://
(London, ����), p.��.
www..om/m//�/���d�b�-e���-��e�-bd��-
�� ��
Ibid., p.��. ‘David Bowie’ Make-up Do’ and Don’t’’, Mui
�����feabd�.html#axzz�tGAgnALV, aeed �� February ����.
fame by brinng an andronou look to the era of the upermodel, with an edge of the ‘Englih rebel’ and her own sanding a omething of an ion, he i the perfec veel to hann el Bowie. While he i known for her own syle – and for the variou relationhip he ha had with rok provide a blank anva from whih to projec the
reommendation/tim-blank-reommend-the-
Sene, November ����. ��
muiian – her role a a model ha alway been to
Charle Shaar Murray, ‘The Byroni Man’, The Fae, Ocober ����.
��
Suzy Menke, ‘Gui doe David Bowie glam rok’,
reation of deigner/sylis and photographer,
New York Time [online], �� February ����,
he doe thi o dely that her perona doe not
www.nytime.om/����/��/��/syle/
infringe in anyway on the Bowie mysique but imply
��iht-rmilan��.htm, aeed �� February ����
ad a hint of ontemporary glamour. In Ocober
��
Mirabelle, �� July ����.
����, Q magazine publihed ‘Clah of the Titan’,
��
Kevin Cann, Any Day Now:David Bowie, The London
an interview with David Bowie by Kate Mo
Year����–���� (London, ����), p.���.
aompanied by photograph by Ellen von Unwerth.
��
Alexandra Shulman, Voue, May ����.
David Bowie and Mik Rok, Moonae Daydream: The
��
Mark C. O’Flaherty, ‘Men’ wear h-h-hange’,
Lie and Time o Zig Stardus (London, ����), p.��.
Finanial Time [online], �� September ����,
‘�� quesionto David Bowie about hi image’,
www..om/m//�/���d�b�-e���-��e�-bd��-
Mirabelle magazine, January ����. Simon Frith,‘Only Daning:David BowieFlirt with
�����feabd�.html, aeed �� February ���� ��
the Iue’ in Angela MRobbie (ed.), Zoot Suit and Seond-Hand Dree (London, ����).
Cally Blakman, email exhange with the author, �� April ����.
��
‘People Who Turn Me On’, Fan magazine,
Mirabelle magazine, September ����.
��
Correpondene withthe author,����.
��
Kevin Cann, Any Day Now:David Bowie The London Year����–���� (London, ����), p.��.
��
��
‘Teen-Age Page’, Nahua Teleraph, � November
��
Nik Cohn, Ball the Wall: Nik Cohn in the Ae o Rok
Paul Raven, ‘Popping thequesion: David Bowie’,
Ocober ����
�����feab��a.html, aeed � Marh ���� ��
(London, ����), p.���. Mihael Watt, ‘OhYou Pretty Thing’, Melody Maker,
��
Ben Edmond, ‘Ol OrangeHair iBak’, RAM, Marh ����.
��
�� January ����. ��
Godfrey Deeny,‘The Pari men’ wear how’, Finanial Time [online], �� January ����, www..om/m//�/f�b���a-�a��-��e�-���a-
����, p.��.
��
Tim Blank, ‘TimBlank Reommend:The
Kevin Cann, Any Day Now:David Bowie The London Year����–���� (London, ����), p.���
Tim_Blank, aeed �� April ����
embodiment of Bowie-syle. A model who hot to
��
Hedi_Slimane, aeed � April ����. ��
anothermag.om/urrent/view/����/ In reentyear, thefahion worldha anointed Bowie’ fellow South Londoner Kate Mo a the
Diane Solway,W magazine [online], Augus ����, www.wmagazine.om/fahion/����/��/tilda-
‘Teen-Age Page’, Nahua Teleraph, � November
winton-over-sory-fahion, aeed � April ����
����, p.��.
��
Ibid.
Cameron Crowe, ‘Candid Converation: An
��
Tim Blank, ‘Tim Blank Reommend: The Bowie
outrageou onveration with the acor, rok
Look Reviited’, Fantasi Man [online], �� Ocober
inger and exual with-hitter’, Playboy magazine,
����, www.fantasiman.om/#/reommendation/
��
September ����. Garry Mulholland, ‘Stardus Memorie’, Unut
tim-blank-reommend-the-bowie-look-reviited/ aeed �� February ����.
��
David Iztkoff, ‘The Fahion Rok Q&A’, Luky
magazine, April ����, p.��.
��
Charle Shaar Murray, ‘Sermon From theSavoy’,
magazine, Ocober ����.
��
Correpondene withthe author,����.
��
Garry Mulholland, ‘Stardus Memorie’, Unut magazine, April ����, p.��.
��
David Iztkoff, ‘The Fahion Rok Q&A’,Luky magazine, Ocober ����.
��
David Bowieand MikRok, MoonaeDaydream: The
��
‘Fahion: turn tothe le. Fahion: turn to the
LieandTimeo ZigStardus (London, ����), p.��.
right’, Dazed & Conued magazine, iue no.��,
��
Ibid.
November ����.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
magazine, Ocober ����.
Lie and Time o Zig Stardus (London, ����), p.��.
AnOther Maazine [online], �� June ����, www.
�
Haven, ����), p.��.
July ����.
�
�
Tradition and Tranreion in Britih Fahion (New
Mihael Watt, ‘Waiting for the Man’, Melody Maker,
Janie Miller, Fahion and Mui (Oxford, ����), p.�.
�
David Iztkoff, ‘The Fahion Rok Q&A’, Luky
‘The Kanai Yamamoto Show!!!’, Harper & Queen,
�
�
��
��
Rihard Nioll,email exhange withOriole Cullen,
�
Ian Buruma, ‘Tell AMan by hiClothe’, Anlomania:
��
�
�� April ����.
��
Adrian Deevoy,‘Boy Keep Swinng’, Q Maazine, June ����.
www..om/m//�/���d�b�-e���-��e�-bd�������feabd�.html, aeed �� February ����
Garry Mulholland, ‘Stardus Memorie’, Unut magazine, April ����, p.��.
bowie-book/, aeed �� April ����.
It i the ae with pop ulture ubjec generally and pop mui in partiular that the world i full of genuine expert: from individual uh a Davi d Bukley, Kevin Cann and Nihola Pegg, whoe book we have onulted on a daily bai , to the non-publihed Bowie fan, who not only know a huge amount, but alo have a paion for their ubjec that i unparalleled in more traditional V&A exhibition ubjec. We have reeived aisane of every kind: intellecual, pracial and peronal. We would like to thank the many friend and new ontac, within and outide the V&A, for their ontinuou interes and offer of inight and material whih ha meant that we have ompleted the projec with our faination growing. The broader art, deign and performane ommunity ha alo been remarkably generou in upporting our effort. Profound thank go to Dr Kathryn Johnon, the projec’ aisant urator, whoe ontribution ha helped u every sep of the way; and Sandy Hirhkowitz of The David Bowie Arhive, who ha been with u from the outet, alerting u to the bes material and acing a one-woman onduit to the delight sored in the arhive. Their ontribution have been both extenive and ruial. Thank to Bill Zyblat for making it poible. Equally deep thank go to the res of the ore projec team: our wonderfully inventive exhibition deigner ��Producion working withReal Studio, graphiand lighting peialis; Eleanor Townend and the Exhibition department; external advior Jonathan Barnbrook, Kevin Cann, Howard Goodall, Paul Morley and Jon Savage; os onultant; our editor Tom Windro and the team at V&A Enterprie, Davina Cheung, Clare Davi, Mark Easment and Viky Haveron. We are grateful to Alexandra Stetter, our opy-editor, and Jonathan Abbott. We would alo like to thank all the ontributor to thi book, who added their own divere perpecive and broadened the ope of literature on Bowie. Their artile not only informed our own undersanding of the ubjec but alo influened the ontent of the exhibition. Thank alo go to the photographer who have allowed u to how their work. Countle external people have ontributed: Oliver Bradbury, Brian Cro, Chri Du, Jame Hyman (The Jame Hyman Pop Culture Magazine Arhive), Dr Elizabeth Kehoe, Gary Kemp, Geoff MCormak, Ewan O’Neill, Helene Thian, Frani Whately, Kanai Yamamoto. At the V&A other have alo ontributed hugely to the pr ojec. Spae doe not permit u to mention everyone, but we would partiularly like to thank: Rihard Davi, Alan Derbyhire, Liz Edmund, Lara Fleker, Tom Grovenor, Adair Harper, Diana MAndrew, Rihard Mulholland, Gea Werner and Anna Wu. We benefited greatly from the aisane of intern throughout the projec. We would like to reognize them all here, and thank them for their time and ener: Jamine Alan, Edie Campbell, Lauren Fried, Claudia Go, Holly Harri, Ben Jefferon, Sara Nuzzi, Amanda Pajak, Evie Prihard, Louie Rytter, Dzmitry Sulau. The V&A Reearh and Theatre & Performane Department have been simulating environment in whih to develop uh a projec, and we are grateful to our olleague for their advie and upport. On behalf of everyone at the V&A we would like to thank Mark Jone, former Direcor of the Mueum, Ian Blathford, former Deputy Direcor, and Damien Whitmore, Direcor of Publi Affair, who had theonfidene in the idea andu to ommit the Mueum tothe projec.
New Muial Expre, �� Sept ����.
���
���
PICTURE CREDITS © , Pari and , London ����: pl.�� Roy Ainworth / Courtey of The David Bowie Arhive / Image © Vicoria and Albert Mueum: pl.�� S&G Barratt / Arhive: pl.�� Courtey of Edie Bakin / Art Col lecion Management / The David Bowie Arhive: pl. ��� Courtey of The David Bowie Arhive: pl ��, �� Courtey of The David Bowie Arhive / Image © Vicoria and Albert Mueum: pl �–�, ��, ��, ��, ��–��, ��, ��, ��, ��, ��, ��–�, ��, ��–�, ��–�, ��–�, ��–�, ��, ���, ���, ���–���, ���, ���, ���–�, ���–�, ���–�, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���–��, ���–�, ���–�, ���, ���–�, ��� Alex Chatelain ©Voue Pari: pl.�� Chelea Girl. Copyright © ���� Alan Aldridge: pl.�� Anton Corbijn: pl.��� Brian Du © Du Arhive: pl ��, ���, ��� Courtey of Mui / The David Bowie Arhive: pl ��, ���–�, ��� Gavin Evan / Horton-Stephen LLP: pl.��� Ron Galella / WireImage / Getty Image: pl.��� Getty Image: pl ��–��, ��, ���, ���, ��� Mik Gold: pl ��, �� Mik Gold / Redfern / Getty Image: pl.�� © Harry Goodwin: pl.�� ���� Gijbert Hanekroot / Getty Image: pl.� Courtey of Harper’ Bazaar: pl ��–� : pl.�� Benjam Hueby: pl.��� Nik Knight / Trunk Arhive: pl.��� Eri Liebowitz / Courtey of The David Bowie Arhive / Image © Vicoria and Albert Mueum: pl.��� Doug MKenzie / Courtey of The David Bowie Arhive: pl.� Mert & Maru © Voue Pari: pl.��� Mert & Maru / Courtey of Prada S.p.A: pl.��� Courtey of Miramax / The David Bowie Arhive / Image © Vicoria and Albert Mueum: pl.��� © ����: pl.�� Terry O’Neill: pl ���, ��� Terry O’Neill / Courtey of The David Bowie Arhive: pl ��, �� Terry O’Neill / Courtey of The David Bowie Arhive / Image © Vicoria and Albert Mueum: pl.�� Mihael Oh Arhive / Getty Image: pl.�� Frank W Okenfel �: pl.��� © The Esate of Guy Peellaert, all right reerved / Courtey of The David Bowie Arhive / Image © Vicoria and Albert Mueum: pl.�� Kenneth Pitt: pl ��, �� Ken Regan / Camera � / The David Bowie Arhive: pl.��� Rex Feature: pl.�� © Mik Rok ����, ����, ����: pl ��, ��, ��, ��, ��–�, ��, ��, ��, ��� © Mik Rok ���, ����, ���� / The David Bowie Arhive / Image © Vicoria and Albert Mueum: pl.�� Corinne Shwab / Courtey of The David Bowie Arhive: pl.�� , . Photograph by Snowdon, Camera Pre London: pl.��� Courtey of Sony Mui Entertainment: pl ��, �� Courtey of Sony Mui Entertainment / The David Bowie Arhive: pl ��, ���–��, ���–��, ���–� Courtey of Sony Picure / The David Bowie Arhive / Image © Vicoria and Albert Mueum: pl ���, ��� © Film Ltd / Courtey of The David B owie Arhive / Image © Vicoria and Albert Mueum: pl ��, ��� Ralph Steadman i a resered trademark. Copyright Ralph Steadman ����. All right reerved worldwide: pl.�� Maayohi Sukita / The David Bowie Arhive: pl �, ��, ��, ��, � �, ��, ���, ���, ��� George Underwood / The David Bowie Arhive / Image © Vicoria and Albert Mueum: pl.�� Courtey of Univeral Mui Group / The David Bowie Arhive: pl ��, ��, ��, ���, ���, ���–�, ��� Courtey of Univeral Studio Liening / The David Bowie Arhive / Image © Vicoria and Albert Mueum: pl ���–� Image © Vicoria and Albert Mueum: pl ��, ��, �� Courtey of Vicor Entertainment / The David Bowie Arhive: pl.��� W / Condé Nas Arhive / © Condé Nas: pl.��� Brian Ward / Courtey of The David Bowie Arhive: pl �, �� Brue Weber: pl.��� © / Condé Nas / Corbi: ���
���
DAVID BOWIE IS INDEXED Adam, Fiona ��� Adam, John ��� Addinel, Rihard �� ‘Alabama Song’ ��, ���, ��� Aladdin Sane ��, ���, ���, ���, ��� , ���, ��� album over ��,���, ���, ��� osume ��–�� , ��, ��–�, ���, ���–� make-up ��, ��, �� ong ��–�, ���,��� tour �� , ��, ��, ��, ��� Ala, Mert ���, ���, ��� Albini, Walter ��� Aldi, Brian �� Aldridge, Alan �� ‘All the Young Dude’ ��, ��, ��� Allen, Rihard ��� Allen, Woody ��� Alomar, Carlo ��� Alt, Emmanuelle ��� Ander, Bill �� Andrew, Cyru ��� ‘Andy Warhol’ �� ‘Angel of Death’ osume ��–� Antin, Eleanor ��–�� Antonioni, Mihelangelo �� ‘Anyway,Anyhow,Anywhere’ ��� Apollo miion ��, �� , ��� Apted, Mihael ��� Aria, Joey ���–�� Arlen, Harold ��� Armani, Gioro ���–� Arnold Corn Projec ��� Art Deo ��, ��� Artaud, Antonin ��, �� Art Lab ��, ��� ‘Ahe to Ahe’ ���, ���, ���, ��� album over ��� osume ���–�� , ���, ���–� lyri ���–�, ��� video ��–�,���, ���–��, ���–�, ��� , ���, ���, ��� Atkinon, Rowan ��� ATV �� Baal ��� Baall, Lauren �� Baddeley, Hermione �� Bailey, David ��� Balh, Anthony �� Ballard, J.G. ��, ��, ��� Ballet Rue ��, ��� Balmain ��� Bando, Tamaaburo �� Bandlam ���, ���, ��� Barnado’ ��, ��� Barnbrook, Jonathan ���, ���, ���, ��� Barnett, Ane ee Bowie, Ane Barrett, Syd ��� Bart, Lionel ��� Barthe, Roland ���, ��� Bail, Toni ���, ��� Baquiat ��, ���, ���–�, ��� Baey, Shirley �� Bataille, George ��� ‘Battle for Britain (The Letter)’ ��� Baudelaire, Charle ��, ��, ��� BBC ��, ���, ��� Beah Boy ��� Beard, Peter �� Beardley, Aubrey ��, ��� TheBeatl e��,��,��, ��,���,���, ���,���,��� Bek, Jeff ��� Bekenham �� Bekenham Art Lab ��, ���
Beethoven, Ludwig van ��� Belew, Andrew ��� Bell, Edward ���–� Berg, Alban �� Berger, Helmut �� Bergman, Ingmar �� Berlin ��, ���, ���, ���–�, ���, ���, ���, ��� ‘Berlin trilo’ ��, ���, ��� Berlin Wall ���, ��� Berry, Chuk ��� The Blak and White Minsrel Show �� ‘Blak Country Rok’ ��� Blak Tie White Noie ���, ��� Blakman, Cally ��� ‘Blakout’ ��� Blake, William ��, ��� Bland, Bobby ��� Blank, Tim ���, ���, ��� Blitz lub, Soho ���, ���, ��� Blitz Kid ���, ��� ‘Blue Jean’ �� Blur ��� Bogarde, Dirk �� Bolan, Mar ��, ��, ��, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� Bolder, Trevor ���, ��� Boop-A-Doop (piano bar) �� Boro, Tomaa ��� Bohier, Derek ���, ��� Bowery, Leigh ��� Bowie, Ane (Ane Barnett, DB’ wife) ��, ���, ���, ���, ��� Bowie, David album over ��, ��–��, ���, ���–��, ���–��� lothe ��,���, ���–�� diover The Stage �� early life ��–� firs reord deal �� gender iue ��–��,��–�� hairut ���, ��� influene ofLinday Kemp ��, ��, ��� interes inBuddhim ��,��� make-up ��,��, ��� mannequinsyle ��–� marriage toAne ��,��� meeting with William Burrough ��, ���–�, ��� mui ���–�� elf-portrait ��� exuality ��–�, ��� video ��–�, ���–�� Warhol’influene ��, �� and women �� work foradvertiing ageny ��,��, ��� and youthubulture ���–��,��� ee alo individual on and album Bowie at the Beeb ��� Bowie Showboat �� Boy George ��, ��� ‘Boy Keep Swinng’ ��, ��, ��, ���, ��� Breht, Bertolt ��, ��, ���, ��� Breen, Whilden P., Jr. �� Brel, Jaque �� Breton, André �� Bromley Contingent ���, ��� Bromley Tehnial High Shool ��, ���, ��� Brook, Peter �� Brown, Willie ���–�, ���–�� Browning, Tod ��, ��� Die Brüke ��� Brummell, Beau �� Bukley, David ���, ���, ��� ‘Buddha of Suburbia’ ��, ��, ��� Buddhim ��, ���
Buñuel, Lui ��, ��� Burden, Eri ��� Burge, Anthony ���, ��� Burretti, Freddie ��–�, ��–�, ��, ��–�, ���, ���, ���–� , ���–�, ���, ���, ���, ���,���–��, ���–� , ���–� Burrough, William ��, ��, ��, ���–�, ���, ���, ���, ��� The Buzz ��, ��� Byron, Lord ��, ��, ��� Cabaret �� The Cabinet o Dr Caliari ��� Café Royal, London ��� Cage, John ���, ��� Cale, John ��� Cambridge, John ��� Cann, Kevin ��� Canova, Antonio �� ‘Can’t Help Thinking About Me’ ��� Celine ���, ��� Centre �� �� Centre Point, London ��, �� ‘Change’ �� Chaplin, Charlie ��, �� Chatelain, Alex ���, ��� , ��� Chelea Girl ��, ��, �� Un Chien Andalou ��, ��, ��� Childer, Leee Blak �� ‘China Girl’ �� Chirio, Gioro de ��, �� Chrisiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnho Zoo ���, ���,��� Chryali �� Clark, Oie ��� A Clokwork Orane ��, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� Coceau, Jean �� Cohen, Phil ��� Cohen, Stanley ��� Coleridge, Samuel Taylor �� Conn, Lelie ��� Cooper, Alie �� Copeta, A. Craig ��, ���, ���, ��� Corbijn, Anton ��� , ���
‘Craked Acor’ �� ‘Craked Acor’ doumentary ���, ���, ��� Crawford, Joan �� Cronenberg, David ��� Crowe, Cameron ��� Culture Club �� Cunard, Nany �� Curio magazine ��� ut-up ��, ���–�, ���, ��� ‘Cygnet Committee’ ���, ���, ��� Dada ��, ��, ���, ���, ��� Dalí, Salvador ��, ��, ��, ��, ��, ��� Dalleandro, Joe �� d’Aurevilly, Barbey �� David Bowie ��, ��, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� David Bowie: Sound and Viion ��� DavidLive ��� Davie, Ray ��� Davi, Bette �� Dazed & Conued magazine ��� De Souza, Jan ��� Dearnin, Chrisophe ��� Dea �� Deeny, Godfrey ��� Defrie, Tony ���, ���, ��� Delaunay,Sonia ���
���
Denh, Judy �� Deneuve, Catherine ��� Denni, Hermione ‘Farthingale’ �� Denny, Sandy �� Depehe Mode �� Deram label �� Deth Killer ���–� Detroit �� Diamond Do ��, ���, ���, ���, ��� album over ��,���–��, ���, ���–�, ���, ��� ut-up ��� lyri �� make-up ��� promotional photo �, ���–� ong �� tour ���, ���–�, ���, ���–� Diddley, Bo �� Dietrih, Marlene ��, ��, ��, ��, ���, ��� Dior, Chrisian ���, ���–� ‘DJ’ video ���–�� Dobell’ Reord �� Doggett, Peter ���, ���, ��� Donovan ��� The Door �� Dorey, Gail Ann ���, ��� Dougla, Lord Alfred �� drag queen ��, ��, �� Dreyer, Carl �� ‘The Drowned Girl’ ��� Drury Lane Art Lab �� Duhamp, Marel ��, ��� Du, Brian ��, ��, ���, ���, ��� , ���, ��� Duran Duran �� Dylan, Bob ��, ���, ��� Earthlin ��� , ���, ���–��, ���–�, ��� ‘Earthrie’ ��, �� Easwood, Clint ��� Elecri Garden/Middle Earth �� The Elephant Man ��� , ���, ���–�, ��� Eliot, T. S. ��� Ellion, Harlan ��� EMI ��, ��� Eno, Brian ��, ��, ���, ���, ���, ��� , ���, ��� , ���, ���–��, ��� Epsein, Brian ��, �� Equity �� Erns, Max �� Ekdalemuir �� Fabulou magazine ��� The Facory ��, ��, ��� Fairpoint Convention ��, �� Faithfull,Marianne ��–� ‘Fame’ ��� Fame, Geore ��� ‘Faination’ ��, ��� ‘Fahion’ ��� , ���, ��� Fearnley, Gerald ��� Fellini, Federio �� Ferry, Bryan ��, ���, ���, ���, ��� FiiethBirthdayConert ���–� Finanial Time ���, ��� Fih, Mihael (Mr Fih) ��, ��, ���, ��� Fiher,Jule ��� , ��� ‘Five Year’ ��� Fluxu �� Folk Devil and Moral Pani ��� Foe, Bob �� Fouault, Mihel �� Frampton, Owen ��, ���, ��� Frankland, Judith ��� Franklin, Aretha ��
Frayling, Sir Chrisopher ���–��� Freak ��, ��� Fripp ��� Frith, Simon ��� Fros, Sue ���, ��� Fueli, Henry ��� Fuey, Suzi ���, ��� ‘Future Legend’ ��� Futurim ���
Human League ��� The Huner ���, ���, ��� ‘Hunger City’ ���, ���–� Hunky Dory �� , ��, ��, ��, ��, ��, ��, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� Hunt, Marha �� Hurt, John ��� Hueby, Benjamin A ���, ��� Hyam, Harry ��
Gabrel, Reeve ���, ���, ��� Gainborough, Thoma �� Garbo, Greta ��, ��� Garon, Mike ��–�, ���, ��� Genet, Jean ��, ��� German Expreionim ��, ��, ���, ��� Germany ���, ���–�, ��� Gerry and the Paemaker �� Giannini, Frida ��� Gide, André �� Gill, John ��� Gioonda Café, London ��, ��� Givenhy ���, ��� glam rok ��, ��, ��, ���, ���, ��� Gla, Philip ��, ���, ��� Gla Spider tour ���–� Glasonbury �� Goffman, Erving �� Gold, Mik ���, ��� Gorman, Greg ��� Grammyaward ��� , ��� Gray, Joel �� Gui ��� Guevara, Che ��� Guinne, Daphne ��� Gyin, Brion ��, ��, ���–�, ���, ���
‘I Can’t Explain’ ��� ‘I Can’t Read’ ��� i-D magazine ���, ��� ‘I Dig Everything’ ��� ‘I Pity the Fool’ ��� ‘I Wih YouWould’ �� � The Ie Storm ��� The Idiot ���, ��� Ig Pop ��, ��–�, ��, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� The Imae ��, �� Iman ��� , ��� Independent Televiion (ITV) �� Inlouriou Baserd ��� inner pae ��, �� Inpiration ���, ��� Insitute of Contemporary Art (ICI) �� International Poetry Inarnation �� International Time ��, �� Into the Niht ��� Iherwood, Chrisopher ���, ��� Iolar tour ���
Haddon Hall, Bekenham ��, ��� Hadfield, David ��� Hair ��, �� Hall, Jerry �� Hall, Peter ���–� Halloween Jak ��, ��� Halson ��, ��� Hammermith Odeon ���, ���, ��� Hana Studio, Berlin ��� ‘happening’ �� Harlow, Rahel �� Harper & Queen ���, ��� , ���, ���, ��� Hath, Tony �� Hauptmann, Eliabeth ��� Hayne, Jim �� Hayne, Todd �� Hayward, Mark �� Heathen ���, ���, ��� , ���–� Hebdige, Dik ��� Helvin, Marie ��� Hemming, David �� Hendrix, Jimi ��, ��� Henon, Jim ��, ���–� Hepburn, Katharine ��, ��, ��, ��, ��� Herman’ Hermit ��� “Heroe” ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� album over ��,���, ��� , ���, ��� and theBerlin Wall ��� Chrisiane F. oundtrak ��� lyri ��� , ��� yntheizer ��� Heson, Charlton ��� Hirohi ��� Hithok, Alfred �� Hoare, Philip ���–��� Hoking, Jennifer ��� Holly, Buddy ��� Hollywood ��, ��, ��, ��, ��� ‘Homo Superior’ �� Hooker, John Lee ��� ‘Hour...’ ��� Houson �� Howlin’ Wolf �� Hudon, Ola ���–� , ��� , ���, ��� Hulaniki, Barbara ���
Korniloff,Nataha ��–�, ���, ���, ��� , ���–� , ���–�� , ��� , ��� Krawerk ���, ���, ��� Kubrik, Stanley ��, ��, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� La Rohe, Pierre ��, ��, ���, ���, ��� La Rue, Danny �� Labyrinth ���–� Lady Gaga ��� ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ ��–� ‘Lady Stardus’ ��� Lake, Veronia �� Landi, John ��� Lang, Fritz ���, ��� Langhart, Chri ��� Lanvin ��� ‘The Laughing Gnome’ ���, ���, ��� Le Corbuier ���–� Lean, David �� Leary, Timothy �� Lee, Ang ��� Lennear, Claudia �� Lennon, John ��, ���, ���, ���, ��� Lenya, Lotte �� ‘Let Me Sleep Beide You’ �� Let’ Dane ���, ���, ���, ��� ‘Let’ Spend the Night Together’ ��, ��� Lie magazine �� ‘Life on Mar’ ��, ���, ���, ���, ���–� lifemak �� Little Rihard ��, ��, �� ‘Liza Jane’ ��, ���, ��� Loder ��, ���, ���, ���, ��� , ��� Logan, Andrew ��� London ��, ��� alternative performane ene �� Soho ��–�,�� uburbia ��,��, ��� ‘Swinng London’ ��–�,��� ‘The London Boy’ ��, ���, ���–� London Hippodrome �� London Palladium �� London Travere Theatre Company �� Longo, Robert ��� ‘Look Bak in Anger’ �� Lo Angele ��, ��� ‘Louie Louie Go Home’ ��� Loui, Jean �� ‘Love You till Tueday’ ��� Lovekin, David ��� , ��� ‘Loving the Alien’ �� Low ���, ���, ���, ���, ���–�, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� Lower Third ��� Lyett, Andrew ���
Jakon, Mihael ��� Jaob, Stephen ��� Jagger, Mik ��, ��, ���, ���, ���–�, ���, ���,���,��� Jame, Robert ��� Janowitz, Bill ��� Japan ��, ���, ��� Jarman, Derek ��� ‘Jazzin’ for Blue Jean’ ��, ��, ��� ‘The Jean Genie’ ��–�, ��, �� Jeanetta Cohrane Theatre, London �� Jeremy ��� John, Elton �� ‘John, I’m Only Daning’ ��, ��� ‘Join the Gang’ ��� Jone, Brian ��� Jone, Dunan (DB’ on) ���, ��� Jone, Dylan ��� Jone, Haywood Stenton ‘John’ (DB’ father) ��, ���, ��� Jone, Hilda (DB’ mother) �� Jone, Stephen ��� Jone, Terry (DB’ brother) ��, �� Joy Diviion ���, ��� Juke Box Jury �� Jus a Giolo ��, ���
MCartney, Paul ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� MDowell, Malolm ��� MKenzie, Doug �, ��� MLaren, Malolm ��� MLuhan, Marhall ��, ��� Mamillan, Iain �� Mamillan, Keith ��, ��� MQueen, Alexander ��, ���, ���, ���–��, ���–�, ���, ���–� Madonna �� Magritte, René �� Main, Jame Jeannette ��� Main Artery ��� MainMan ��� Major Tom ��, ��, ��, ��, ��–�, ���, ���, ��� Malanga, Gerard �� Mallet, David ��, ��, ���, ���, ���, ��� Mama & the Papa �� The Man Who Fell to Earth ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� osume ���, ���, ��� and Low ���, ���, ��� photo-ollage �� The Man Who Sold the World ��, ��, ���, ���, ���, ���
Kaye, Lenny ��� Keat, John ��� Kelly, Jak �� Kemp, Gary ��� Kemp, Linday ��, ��, ��, ��, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� Kennedy, John F. �� Kermode, Frank ��� Kermode, Mark ���–��� Keroua, Jak �� Khnopff, Fernand �� King, Martin Luther �� The King-Bee ���, ��� King Crimon ��� The Kink ���, ��� Kjeldgaard, Jaob ���, ���, ��� Klimt, Gusav �� Knight, Nik ���, ��� Knut, Hannelore ��� Koltai, Ralph �� the Konrad ��, ���, ��� , ��� Korean War ��
���
album over ��, ��, ��, ��, ���–�, ��� , ���,��� on SaturdayNightLive ���–�� Manih Boy ��� Mantegna, Andrea ��� Mapplethorpe, Robert �� Maren, Britt ��� Marilyn ��� Marquee Club, London ��, ��, ��, �� Marh, Geoffrey ���–��� Martin, George �� Marvell, Andrew �� Meiel, Stephen ���, ��� MelodyMaker ��,���,���,���, ���,���,��� Melville, Herman �� ‘Memory of a Free Fesival’ ��� Menke, Suzy ��� Merury, Freddie ��� Merury Reord ���, ��� Merry Chrisma Mr Lawrene ���, ��� Mezaro, Diana ��� Metrobolis �� Metropoli ���, ���, ��� Miller, Janie ��� Miller, Stan ‘Dusy’ ��� minimalim ���–�� Minogue, Kylie ��� Mr Fih ��, ���, ���, ��� Miu Miu ���, ��� Modern Love ��� Modernim ��, ��, ��, �� Mondino, Jean-Baptise �� Monroe, Marilyn ��� Montez, Mario �� Montparnae, Kiki de �� Moody Blue ��� ‘Moonage Daydream’ �� Moondog ��� Morriey ��� Moeley,Diana ���–� Mo, Kate ��, ���, ���, ���, ��� Mo Empire �� The Mos Brother �� Mott the Hoople ��, �� Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeu ��� Mugler, Thierry ��� Muldowney, Domini ��� My Own Ma ��
Orwell, George ���, ��� Ohima,Naa ���, ��� Oendrijver, Lua ��� O’Toole, Peter �� Outer and Inner Spae �� Outide ���, ���, ��� , ���, ���–�
NASA ��, �� NBC �� Neu! ��� Never Let Me Down ��, ��� Nevin D. Hirs Advertiing ��, ��� New Muial Expre (NME) ���, ���, ��� New Order ��� New Romanti ��, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���,��� New York ��, ��, ���, ���, ��� New York Time ���, ��� Newley, Anthony ��� Nioll, Rihard ��� Nietzhe, Friedrih Wilhelm ��, ���, ��� Nijinky, Valav ��, ��, ���, ��� �/�� terroris attak ��� ‘The ���� Floor Show’ ��, ��–�, ��–� Nomi,Klau ���–�� Noone, Peter ��� North by Northwes �� Nuttall, Jeff �� Nyman, Mihael ���
Radio London �� Ravitz, Mark ���, ���, ���–�� Ray, Man ��, ��, ���, ��� Raymond, Paul �� RCA Reord ���, ��� Reality ���, ��� , ��� , ��� , ���–� , ��� ‘Rebel, Rebel’ ��, ���, ���, ��� , ��� Redgrave, Vanea �� Reed, Lou ��, ��, ��, ���, ���, ���, ��� Reih, Steve ���–�� Reih, Wilhelm ��� Revere, Paul ��� Revuebar, London �� Reznor, Trent ��� Rihard, Cliff ��, �� Rihard, Keith ���–� Riley, Terry ���, ��� Rinpohe, Chime Youngdung ��� The Rie and Fall o the City o Mahaonny ��, ��� The Rie and Fall o Zig Stardus and the Spider rom Mar ��, ��–�, ��, ��, ���, ���–�, ���, ���, ���, ���–�� Rivette, Jaque �� Robin, Chrisopher ��� Rok, Mik ��, �� , ��, ��, ��, �� , ���, ��� , ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� Rodger, Nile ��� Roeg, Niola ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� Rollin Stone magazine ��, ��� Rolling Stone ��, ��, ��, ��, ���, ���, ���, ���–� Romantiim ��, ��, ��–�, ��, �� Ronan Point ��, ��
‘Oblique Strate’ ard ���, ��� Okenfel,Frank ��� , ��� O’Flaherty, Mark C. ���, ��� Oh! What a Lovely War �� ‘Oh! You Pretty Thing’ ��, ���–�, ��� Oldham, Andrew Loog �� Olympi Game, London (����) ��, ��� The Omea Man ��� O’Neill,Terry �, ��, ���, ���–�, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���–�
Page, Jimmy ��� Parker, Alan ��� Parlophone �� Parmar, Daniella ���, ��� Pasor,Terry ���, ��� Peellaert, Guy ��, ���–��, ���–�, ��� Peepin Tom ��� Pegg, Nihola ���, ���, ��� Pennebaker, D. A. ��, ��� The Philadelphia Story ��, �� Phillip �� Philo, Phoebe ��� Piao, Pablo ��� Pierrot ��–�, ���–��, ���, ���–�� Piggott, Maru ���, ���, ��� Pilati, Stefano ��� Pin Up ��, ���, ��� , ���, ���, ��� Pink Floyd ��� Pitt,Kenneth ��, ��, ��, ��–� Pivovarova, Saha ��� Plath, Sylvia �� Plati, Mark ��� Plato �� Plimpton, George �� poodle prop ��� Pop art ��, �� Pork ��, ��� Pos Offie Tower ��, �� , ��� Powell, Mihael ��� Pre-Raphaelite �� Preley, Elvi �� The Presie ���, ��� ‘The Pretties Star’ ��� Pretty Thing ���, ��� Profumo, John �� punk ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� puppet ��� Pye �� Quadrophenia ��� ‘Queen Bith’ ��, ���
Sukita,Maayohi �� , ��, ��, ��, ���–�� , ��� , ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� Sullivan, Hilda �� The Sun �� Sundridge Park, London ��, �� Sunet Strip ��–� Surrealim ��, ��, ��–�, ���, ��� Swanon, Gloria �� ‘Swinng London’ ��–�, ��� Swinton, Tilda ���, ���, ��� Switzerland ��� Symbolim �� yntheizer ���, ���, ���
Ronon, Mik ��, �� , ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� ‘Roalyn’ ��� Ro, Diana ��� Roetti, Dante Gabriel ��� The Roundhoue, London ��, ���, ��� Roxy Mui ��� Royal Albert Hall, London �� Saint Laurent, Yve ���, ���, ���, ��� Sale Brother ��� San Franio �� Sander, Augus �� Satie, Erik ��� Saturday Niht Live ��� , ���, ���–�� Saville Theatre �� Sary Monser (and Super Creep) ��, ���, ���–��, ��� , ���, ���, ���, ���–�, ���–�� , ��� Shapiro, Steve ��� Shiele, Egon ��� Shmidt,Peter ���, ��� Shnabel, Julian �� Sott, Ridley ��� Sott, Ronnie �� Sebasian �� Sedgwik, Edie ��, �� St. Pepper’ Lonely Heart Club Band ��, ��, ���, ���, ��� Seriou Moonlight tour ���–� Serling, Rod �� Se�en ��� Severin, Steve ���, ��� Sevigny,Chloë ���, ��� The Shadow �� Shakepeare, William ��, �� ‘Shape of Thing’ ��� Shelley, Pery Byhe ��, ��� Shulman, Alexandra ��� Simon, Paul ���, ��� Simone, Nina ��, �� Sinatra, Frank ���, ��� Siouxie Sioux ���, ���, ��� Slim Harpo ��� Slimane, Hedi ���, ���–� Smith, Paul ��� Snowdon, Lord ���, ��� Soiety for the Prevention of Cruelty to LongHaired Men ��� Soho ��, ��–�, �� Sommerville, Ian ��� Soul Boy ��� ‘Sound and Viion’ ��� Sound + Viion tour ���–� ‘Spae Oddity’ ��, ��, ���, ���, ���, ���–��, ���, ���, ��� Diamond Do tour ��� influene ��,���, ��� lyri �� ore ���–� ue ��,��, ��� Spae Oddity (album) ��, ���, ���–� , ��� Spener, Edmund �� Spotliht �� Stae ���, ���–� , ��� Stanilavki, Konsantin �� ‘Starman’ ��� Starr, Ringo ��� Station to Station ��, ��, ���, ���, ���–� , ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� Steadman,Ralph �� Steele, Tommy ��, �� Steihen, Edward �� Steven, Wallae �� Stewart, Rod ��, �� Stonehenge �� Strange, Steve ���, ���, ��� Strau, Rihard ��� Streiand, Barbara ��� uburbia ��–�, �� Suede ��� ‘Suffragette City’ ��
Takahahi,Yuuko��� ‘Take My Tip’ ��� Talk of the Town �� Talmy, Shel ��� Tamaaburo ��� Tangerine Dream ��� Taylor, Elizabeth �� Taylor, Vine �� ‘Teenage Wildlife’ ��� Temple, Julien �� Tevi, Walter ���, ���, ��� Thather, Margaret ��, �� Tharp, Twyla ��� ‘Themne’ ��� Thin White Duke ��, ���, ���, ��� The Threepenny Opera ��, ��, ��� ‘Time’ �� The Time �� Tin Mahine ���, ���, ��� Tin Mahine II ��� Tii, Riardo ��� Tokyo ���–�� , ��� ‘TokyoPop’vinylbodyuit ��–�, �� Tom of Finland �� Toniht ��� ‘Top of the Pop’ ��–� , ��� Townhend, Pete ��, ���, ���, ��� Tranormer ���, ��� Trohi, Alexander �� Turner, Ike and Tina �� Turner, Lana �� The ��’ Coffee Bar, London ��, ��, �� Twig ��, ���, ��� ����: A Spae Odyey ��, ���, ���, ���, ��� Tzara,Trisan ���–�� UFO Club �� Underwood, George ��, ���, ��� , ��� Valentino, Rudolph �� Van Horn, Brook ���–� Van Noten, Drie ���, ���, ��� Vandro, Luther �� Vanilla, Cherry ��, ��� ‘Velvet Goldmine’ �� Velvet Underground ��, ���, ��� Vermorel, Fred and Judy ��� Veruhka �� Village People �� Villeneuve, Jusin de ��, ��� Vinent, Gene �� The Virn Soldier �� Viage ��� Vionti, Luhino �� Vionti, Tony ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� Voue ��, ���, ��� , ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���,���, ��� W magazine ���, ��� Wagner, Rihard ��, ��� Wakeman, Rik ��� ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ �� Walker, Tim ���, ��� Ward, Brian �� , ��, ��, ���, ���, ��� Warhol, Andy ��, ��, ���, ���,���, ��� Baquiat ��, ���, ���–�, ��� Chelea Girl ��, ��, �� The Facory ��, ��, ���
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Fleh ��� influene onBowie ���, ��� Outer and Inner Spae �� Pork ��� exual radialim �� Stiky Finer over �� ‘Wath That Man’ ��� Watteau, Antoine �� Watt, Mihael ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� Weber, Brue ��� , ��� Weegee ��� Weill, Kurt ��, ��, ���–�, ��� Welh, Julie ��� Weller, Mike ��, ���–� Weker, Arnold �� Wes, Craig ��� Weswood, Vivienne ��� Whale, Jame ��� The Who ���, ��� Wiene, Robert ��� Wilken, Hugo ��� ‘Wild i the Wind’ ��, �� Wilde, Oar ��, ��, ��, ��, ���,���, ��� Williamon, SonnyBoy �� Wilon, Harold �� Wintour, Anna ��� ‘Without You’ ��� The Wizard o Oz ��� Woodsok MuiFesival ��, �� Wordworth, William �� World War II �� Woronov, Mary ��
Yamamoto, Kanai ��, ��–��, ��, ��–� , ���, ��� , ���, ���, ���, ���–� , ���, ���, ��� Yardbird ��, ��, ��� York, Peter ���, ��� Young, La Monte ��� Young, Rob �� Youn Amerian ��, ��, ��, ���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� ‘You’ve Got A Habit of Leaving’ ��� Zanetta, Tony �� Zappa, Frank ��� Zig Stardus ��, ��, ��–�, ��, ��–���, ���, ���, ���, ���, ��� album over ���,��� haracer note ��� osume �� , ��–�, ��–�, ��, ���, ���–��, ���, ���–� , ��� ‘death’ of ���,���, ���,��� hairut ��,���, ��� lyri ��� make-up ��,���, ��� ‘The ���� FloorShow’ ��, ��–�, ��–� peronal philoophy �� plaque ��, ��, ��� The Rie and Fall o Zig Stardus and the Spider rom Mar ��, ��–�, ��, ��, ���, ���–�, ���, ���, ���, ���–�� ong �� ‘Starman’ ��� tour ��–� , ��, �� , �� , ���, ��� Zimmerman, Tuker ���
