ELFMAN
11th January 2016, 12:03 PM
I started a thread when Lemmy of Motörhead passed away recently, but now David Bowie's gone too! Lemmy was a true Rock n' Roll icon, but arguably Bowie was something even greater to an even wider 'audience'.
He has influenced every decade since the sixties, Music, Fashion, the Arts, you name it. He was always ahead of the game, and his latest (now last) album "Blackstar" has apparently moved the goalposts again - innovative to the very end, and its songs will now obviously take on a poignancy that only Bowie and those closest to him would have been aware of. I won't attempt to mention individual songs from his career, as their sheer diversity would defeat me, but I bet everyone reading this, no matter which genres of music they're into, can name at least a few Bowie tracks they love.
A moment in time tatooed on my brain... I remember seeing a huge poster of Bowie in the early seventies in a hip (well...) kids clothing 'boutique' (that's showing my age, but also that my dear Mum obviously thought I had potential, bless her) in the basement of what was C&A at a corner of Sauchiehall Street and Cambridge Street (I think) in Glasgow. He had the dayglo orange hair, the full "Ziggy" make up and was wearing a knitted jump suit! I just stood and stared. He genuinely looked like nothing on Earth, and when I heard "Starman" and "Space Oddity", I was convinced he was an alien! Not an alien as I later realised, just a genius.
This morning was of the few occasions when I literally stopped in my tracks. I was shocked when I heard that Lemmy had died, but this was almost a "John Lennon" moment, and I never thought I'd say that. What a legacy he's left, a truly unique artist, a risk taker and a worldwide (and probably beyond) cultural icon.
"There's a Starman waiting in the sky,
he'd like to come and meet us,
but he thinks he'd blow our minds..."
Job Done David.
Ground Control Over and Out.
Now where did I put my knitted jump suit...?
He has influenced every decade since the sixties, Music, Fashion, the Arts, you name it. He was always ahead of the game, and his latest (now last) album "Blackstar" has apparently moved the goalposts again - innovative to the very end, and its songs will now obviously take on a poignancy that only Bowie and those closest to him would have been aware of. I won't attempt to mention individual songs from his career, as their sheer diversity would defeat me, but I bet everyone reading this, no matter which genres of music they're into, can name at least a few Bowie tracks they love.
A moment in time tatooed on my brain... I remember seeing a huge poster of Bowie in the early seventies in a hip (well...) kids clothing 'boutique' (that's showing my age, but also that my dear Mum obviously thought I had potential, bless her) in the basement of what was C&A at a corner of Sauchiehall Street and Cambridge Street (I think) in Glasgow. He had the dayglo orange hair, the full "Ziggy" make up and was wearing a knitted jump suit! I just stood and stared. He genuinely looked like nothing on Earth, and when I heard "Starman" and "Space Oddity", I was convinced he was an alien! Not an alien as I later realised, just a genius.
This morning was of the few occasions when I literally stopped in my tracks. I was shocked when I heard that Lemmy had died, but this was almost a "John Lennon" moment, and I never thought I'd say that. What a legacy he's left, a truly unique artist, a risk taker and a worldwide (and probably beyond) cultural icon.
"There's a Starman waiting in the sky,
he'd like to come and meet us,
but he thinks he'd blow our minds..."
Job Done David.
Ground Control Over and Out.
Now where did I put my knitted jump suit...?