A proliferation of birthdays this week, but early congratulations go to the magnificent rock god David Bowie, 61 years old tomorrow!
How can I put into words the impact this man has had on my life? When I first ventured out to clubs as a teenager, it was to the ephemeral "Bowie/Roxy" nights that I was strangely drawn - and there I discovered the sheer genius of such songs such as Fashion, Ashes to Ashes, The Jean Genie, TVC15, Young Americans and of course David's early classics from his Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane years.
I adored everything about Bowie - his look, his voice, his uber-cool attitude - and for a time my adulation and attempts to emulate him, with "Loon Pants" and hennaed hair, got to the stage where I too was nicknamed "The Thin White Duke" (those were the days!). Nowadays of course, I answer to "Queen Bitch"...
To this day, I never tire of listening to his records - in my opinion Hunky Dory still stands out as one of the best albums ever recorded, and Scary Monsters & Super Creeps, Station to Station and Heroes must all rank near the top of that list... And seeing David Bowie live in concert at Milton Keynes Bowl in 1983 remains one of those earth-shattering events that is forever etched in my psyche.
Over the years his capacity for re-invention has become legendary, and is a secret of success rarely emulated, other than by the sharpest of superstars such as Madonna. From his early days as a Mod, through the hippy generation, to Glam (as Ziggy), funk (the first white man on American TV show Soul Train), and eventually the synthesiser/New Romantic years, he always kept his finger on the pulse of music and as such kept his place at the top.
His career may have gone off the boil a little in the past few years, and he has been taking it a bit easier since his heart scare in 2004, but my god do I still love David!
David Bowie on Wikipedia
And furthermore...
The Bewlay Brothers
And so the story goes they wore the clothes
They said the things to make it seem improbable
The whale of a lie like they hope it was
And the Goodmen Tomorrow
Had their feet in the wallow
And their heads of Brawn were nicer shorn
And how they bought their positions with saccharin and trust
And the world was asleep to our latent fuss
Sighing, the swirl through the streets
Like the crust of the sun
The Bewlay Brothers
In our Wings that Bark
Flashing teeth of Brass
Standing tall in the dark
Oh, And we were Gone
Hanging out with your Dwarf Men
We were so turned on
By your lack of conclusions
I was Stone and he was Wax
So he could scream, and still relax, unbelievable
And we frightened the small children away
And our talk was old and dust would flow
Thru our veins and Lo! it was midnight
Back o' the kitchen door
Like the grim face on the Cathedral floor
And the solid book we wrote
Cannot be found today
And it was Stalking time for the Moonboys
The Bewlay Brothers
With our backs on the arch
In the Devil-may-be-here
But He can't sing about that
Oh, And we were Gone
Real Cool Traders
We were so Turned On
You thought we were Fakers
Now the dress is hung, the ticket pawned
The Factor Max that proved the fact
Is melted down
And woven on the edging of my pillow
Now my Brother lays upon the Rocks
He could be dead, He could be not
He could be You
He's Chameleon, Comedian, Corinthian and Caricature
"Shooting-up Pie-in-the-Sky"
The Bewlay Brothers
In the feeble and the Bad
The Bewlay Brothers
In the Blessed and Cold
In the Crutch-hungry Dark
Was where we flayed our Mark
Oh, and we were Gone
Kings of Oblivion
We were so Turned On
In the Mind-Warp Pavilion
Lay me place and bake me Pie
I'm starving for me Gravy
Leave my shoes, and door unlocked
I might just slip away
Just for the day
