David Bowie
There are superstars and there are super-cosmic-stars
and David Bowie is the later. Who among you remember the release
of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars? I do. It was
weird and strange and I wasn't sure whether I could publicly
state I was a Bowie fan as David Bowie's sexuality was being
feverishly debated in the national press. I remember going
to one of my first teenage parties and Honky Dory was being
played and the atmosphere was dark and smokey and my head
was spinning with the newly tested taste of beer and the strange-smelling
smoke. I'm sure sex and drugs were happening somewhere in
the gloom, but I was far too naive to notice. I was deeply
attracted to David Bowie, not because I was homosexual - the
mere thought shocked me - but because the image he created
was so dangerously anarchic that I was like the proverbial
moth to the flame. The image itself was genius, but it is
David Bowie's songwriting where the true genius lies. The
total package that is David Bowie is an accomplishment of
creative genius still, in my opinion, unsurpassed. Not simply
for the sublime creativity, but also the outrageous bravery.
David Bowie is a true creative inspiration because he himself
is the art. Even the characters in his songs have achieved
legendary status! Major Tom for instance... And I still find
myself singing Starman loudly to myself in my car on those
occasions I'm caught in a traffic jam. I remember the pride
I felt when David sang with Bing Crosby on some Christmas
show: now, I thought, Mum and Dad will have to accept David
Bowie is a bonafida artist? Maybe that's why, unlike David,
I will never be a super-cosmic-star; I cared what my parents
thought, whilst David Bowie obviously didn't... Is that the
definitive between wanna be and is?
Tim Rees
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