Bowie Track of the Day - "Queen Bitch"

From today's Observer:

"David was like a comet, blazing brightly into the sky. That comet travelled too fast for us to see it and take it all in at once." - Carlos Alomar, long-time Bowie collaborator.

"He was intelligent, imaginative, brave, charismatic, cool, sexy and truly inspirational both visually and musically. He created such staggeringly brilliant work, yes, but so much of it and it was so good. There are great people who make great work but who else has left a mark like his? ... He was ours. Wonderfully eccentric in a way that only an Englishman could be." - Kate Bush.

"What was really impressive to me about David was that he had such a terrific sense of being an entertainer and also about the music business. He was a very shrewd, very sharp guy. That was consistent throughout his career: he had the ability to sell this oddity that he was, and make it clear to people who would normally be completely resistant to what he was doing. He reached millions and millions of people... On the stage he was elegant and such a strong presence: he was very graceful and versatile. His versatility was one of his major points: he was truly a renaissance artist and man." - Debbie Harry.

"We were so lucky, to be adolescent when Bowie burst on to the scene. We got him in real time, when we were forming, and the yearning for each new record from him was so thrilling. Then it arrived – who got it first? Who could afford it, had saved up? Congregating in bedrooms, devouring it, no talking. A side, B side, flip it over, needle to the start, again and again. Our Bowie rituals. For quite a long time... most of my waking hours were spent thinking about Bowie. I know David made himself seem alien and strange, but he was never aloof. He was easy to fall in love with. He was warm, you could walk around with him in your head all day and it comforted you." - Edwin Collins.

"We should remember Bowie as a great human emancipator on the Bolívar or Mandela scale. An emotional liberator of people. He was the patron saint of the outsider, the uninvited and the misfit. All those lonely teenagers in each generation, unsure of who, or what they could possibly be – or become. In other words all of us." - Julien Temple, film-maker.

And thus, a whole week of daily tributes to the godlike genius of David Bowie comes to an end here at Dolores Delargo Towers.

So far I've featured:

• Monday - Wild is the Wind
• Tuesday - Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
• Wednesday - Boys Keep Swinging
• Thursday - Life on Mars?
• Friday - Golden Years
• Saturday - Rock'n'Roll Suicide

However, there is one very special song that I really need to play before this sad week of unashamedly indulgent memory-lane-trawling finally comes to an end.

Yesterday I talked about discovering, in the early 80s, Mr Bowie's formative "Glam" years of a decade earlier. On Thursday I spoke of Hunky Dory as "seminal". And, on balance - even with strong competition from Station to Station - in my opinion it is his greatest album, across a five-decade career.

And, from that album, a song that has become part of my very fabric. A song for all us queens (and such are queens!). My anthem. It is, of course, Queen Bitch:

David Bowie - Queen Bitch

I'm up on the eleventh floor
And I'm watching the cruisers below
He's down on the street
And he's trying hard to pull sister Flo
Oh, my heart's in the basement
My weekend's at an all time low

'Cause she's hoping to score
So I can't see her letting him go
Walk out of her heart
Walk out of her mind.
Oh not her

She's so swishy in her satin and tat
In her frock coat and bipperty-bopperty hat
Oh God, I could do better than that.

She's an old time ambassador
Of sweet talking, night walking games
Oh, and she's known in the darkest clubs
For pushing ahead of the dames
If she says she can do it
Then she can do it, she don't make false claims

For she's a Queen, and such are queens
That your laughter is sucked in their brains
Now she's leading him on
And she'll lay him right down
Bet it could have been me
Yes, it could have been me.
Why didn't I say, Why didn't I say, No, no, no!

She's so swishy in her satin and tat
In her frock coat and bipperty-bopperty hat
Oh God, I could do better than that.

So I lay down a while
And I gaze at my hotel wall
Oh the cot is so cold
It don't feel like no bed at all
Yeah I lay down a while
And I look at my hotel wall

But he's down on the street
So I throw both his bags down the hall
And I'm phoning a cab
'Cause my stomach feels small
There's a taste in my mouth
And it's no taste at all
It could have been me
Oh yeah, it could have been me
Why didn't I say, Why didn't I say, No, no, no!

She's so swishy in her satin and tat
In her frock coat and bipperty-bopperty hat
Oh God, I could do better than that.

And, to this day, NOBODY could do better than that.

Gimme your hands cause you're wonderful

My ultimate icon David Bowie was born humble David Jones, in Brixton, on this day 65 years ago.

His chameleon-like career has been the stuff of legend. His influence, even five decades on from the start of his career with Space Oddity in the late 60s, is everywhere - from Bolan and Eno to Kate Bush and Gary Numan to Boy George and Marc Almond to Goldfrapp and even Madonna.

I feel the need to pay a little tribute to such a superior being.

Indeed Mr Bowie is the latest "exhibit" in the Dolores Delargo Towers - Museum of Camp.

Yes, I know I have written about my love for him before (back in 2008) but...

My adoration of Mr Bowie began many years after I had first liked one of his records (embarrassingly The Laughing Gnome in '73 - but then again, I was only 10). Of course it began when I was old enough to understand that the style and artistry of Mr Numan and of the emerging New Romantics in the late '70s and early '80s was not entirely their own idea. There was more music to explore, more to the early '70s than just Glam Rock, there was a wealth of Bowie album material to appreciate.


Hunky Dory, "Produced by Ken Scott (assisted by the actor)"

Mr B's third album (his first, self-titled and his second The Man Who Sold the World being relatively obscure) Hunky Dory was released on 17th December 1971. Long acknowledged as one of the greatest albums of the late 20th century, at the time of its release, despite critical acclaim (Melody Maker called it "the most inventive piece of song-writing to have appeared on record in a considerable time") and a fantastic single Changes (released 40 years ago yesterday), it was not a huge commercial success. To me, it is far and away his finest work:

David Bowie - Oh You Pretty Things

David Bowie - Changes

David Bowie - Queen Bitch

The album cover photograph was taken outside furriers "K. West" at 23 Heddon Street, London, W1

It wasn't until the release of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars on 6th June 1972 that "Bowie the Phenomenon" really began to take over the musical world. Many and varied are the legends that allegedly led David to transform himself into the monstrous stage persona of "Ziggy", but, quite simply, there had been nothing quite like this before! And as concept albums go, it is the very best (and indeed spawned my favourite of all Bowie songs, Rock'n'Roll Suicide). Stunning.

David Bowie - Suffragette City

David Bowie - Starman

David Bowie - Rock'n'Roll Suicide

Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth
You pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette
The wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, then you forget
Ohhh how how how, you're a rock 'n' roll suicide

You're too old to lose it, too young to choose it
And the clocks waits so patiently on your song
You walk past a cafe but you don't eat when you've lived too long
Oh, no, no, no, you're a rock 'n' roll suicide

Chev brakes are snarling as you stumble across the road
But the day breaks instead so you hurry home
Don't let the sun blast your shadow
Don't let the milk float ride your mind
You're so natural - religiously unkind

Oh no love! you're not alone
You're watching yourself but you're too unfair
You got your head all tangled up but if I could only
make you care
Oh no love! you're not alone
No matter what or who you've been
No matter when or where you've seen
All the knives seem to lacerate your brain
I've had my share, I'll help you with the pain
You're not alone

Just turn on with me and you're not alone
Let's turn on with me and you're not alone (wonderful)
Let's turn on and be not alone (wonderful)
Gimme your hands cause you're wonderful (wonderful)
Gimme your hands cause you're wonderful (wonderful)
Oh gimme your hands.

A lad insane?

Contrary to popular belief, it was in fact the photo used for the cover of Aladdin Sane, released on 13th April 1973, not Ziggy Stardust that people most associate with this era of Bowie's constantly-transforming image in the 70s. The album itself was (remarkably) Mr B's first Number 1, and - despite the man's near-breakdown and the "killing" of Ziggy - produced some massively-successful classics.

David Bowie - Jean Genie

David Bowie - The Prettiest Star

David Bowie - Cracked Actor

"A marriage of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell and Bowie's own glam-tinged vision of a post-apocalyptic world"

In the midst of Bowie's well-documented "breakdown" (and the release of his album of cover versions Pin-Ups) he managed to produce the last, and most apocalyptic of his "dark Glam" albums Diamond Dogs, released on 24th April 1974. From it came another all-time classic:

David Bowie - Rebel Rebel

Evidently (as always) with an eye on the zeitgeist, Bowie knew it was time for a change - and indeed it was from the ashes of the post-Glam world that he made a fateful trip to Philadelphia in 1974, home of the burgeoning "Soul" sound, and that, dear reader, is the subject of another blog...

David Bowie official website

Memories, like the corners of my mind

My MySpace friend DJDaddums set an interesting challenge this morning. Apparently there is a new Radio 2 show, presented by the gorgeous Dermot O'Leary, called Time Capsules coming to the airwaves, and it sounds like a trendier version of Desert Island Discs. Guests are invited to submit ten songs, in the following strict categories: “Family Favourite”, “Teenage Kicks”, “Tearjerker (aka “our song")”, “Ultimate Time Capsule Song”, “Funeral Song”, and FIVE free choices.

So, rising to the challenge, here's mine...

Family Favourite - Given that my closest family member is my sister, I would have to feature this classic number we used to dance to at the "Bowie/Roxy" nights at "Lasers" club in Newport way back in the early 1980s. The Cure still make a regular re-appearance at every house party, and Hils and I still dance to it - albeit a bit more wheezily these days...

The Cure - The Lovecats

Teenage Kicks - Ah, this one is a given. My obsession with Blondie as a young closet queen is well-documented, and this song above all others was a personal obsession of mine when I was a teenager...

Blondie - Picture This

Tearjerker - A much more difficult one, this - for many of the songs I would class as "tearjerkers" (Wild is the Wind, Somewhere (A Place For Us)) stem from times way before I met Madam Acarti. However, this song (on the sand) is indeed one of "ours":

Davis Gaines - Song in the Sand (La Cage Aux Folles)

Free choice #1 - Now we're really into indulgence... First up, one of the best Disco songs ever recorded. RIP, Sylvester:

Sylvester - You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)

Free choice #2 - From one of the most influential gay pop stars of the late 20th century Mr Tom Robinson, here's a most beautifully crafted song that has had a lasting influence on my life...

Tom Robinson - War Baby

Free choice #3 - Speaking of huge influences, here's my theme tune Queen Bitch by the greatest of all artists, ever, Mr David Bowie:

David Bowie - Queen Bitch

Free choice #4 - I really don't need any excuse at all to include this work of genius by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour on the list!

Youssou N'Dor and Neneh Cherry - Seven Seconds

Free choice #5 - Now here's a close-run contender for the "Family Favourite" entry, from one of my all-time favourite artists - an absolute classic. Just thinking of the first time I saw Marc singing Tainted Love on Top Of The Pops sends shivers down my spine...

Soft Cell - Tainted Love

Ultimate Time Capsule Song - Difficult, very difficult - there are so many of them! However, since You Spin Me Round was one of the very earliest records that sums up my coming out, and the "Tunnel" club in Cardiff in 1984,here's the top memory-jerker in my collection. I can actually smell the poppers as we speak...

Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Round

And, finally, the Funeral Song - Now I was toying with the idea of Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead!, or more seriously Pet Shop Boys' Being Boring. But in the end, there is only one winner in this category - it is, after all, a cabaret, old chum!

Liza Minnelli - Cabaret

Now it's over to you...