Like everyone else we’re reeling in shock over the passing of David Bowie this morning. There seemed to be so much stuff going on with him right now. He turned sixty-nine on Friday. His twenty fifth album, Blackstar, was released on the same day and was already looking set to knock Adele’s 25, from the Number One spot after its seven week reign. The title track had been used as the opening for new TV show The Last Panthers.
We’re going to be totally up front and say that we were never massive fans of his music, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t love what Bowie stood for, what he achieved and how he went about it. He gave us so much energy, imagery, such rebellion and such diversity in music. Who else can say they were supported on TV by people as eclectic as Luther Vandross and Klaus Nomi?!
We could go on talking about how much he did to change gender and sexuality perception, not just in music but in western society, but really you’d be better off spending the day reading his wikipedia page and going from there. We’re just going to mention five of our favourite Bowie moments…
Jareth – The Goblin King
Let’s get this one out the way. It may be sniffed at by purists but it would take a very cold heart not to love Bowie’s role as The Goblin King in Labyrinth. It was definitely our first experience of Bowie and til we watched Jaws at far too young an age a few years later, he was definitely the scariest thing to appear on our TV screen.
Performing with Klaus Nomi on Saturday Night Live
A few years after we came out, we went with a friend to see Nomi Song, the incredible film about the life and times of Klaus Nomi. It’s interesting how, as we looked further into Queer culture, up cropped Bowie time and time again. Here he was performing on mainstream TV with this intergalactic space punk opera singer backing him, while wearing one of Nomi’s trademark suits. The whole piece was just amazing. Lots has been said about Madonna, about how she uses artists for her own gain. Whether that’s true or not, you rarely hear that of Bowie. Maybe it goes back to the whole ‘Men are artists, women are pop stars’ thing, or maybe Bowie was just a nicer person. Regardless this amazing song gave us this unforgettable performance as well as another one twenty four years later when Nirvana recorded it for their Unplugged session.
The Hunger
In all honesty could you get a more diverse and dreamy acting lineup than David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon?! And playing vampires no less? Ungh perfection. The trailer says ‘the cruel elegance of David Bowie.’ One of the many reasons to see this film.
Young Americans
You know how we said we weren’t huge fans of his music? Well this is one of those exceptions. This album is just incredible. Featuring hits like the title track, ‘Fame’, ‘Across The Universe’ and our favourite ‘Right’, it was his R&B record, one we discovered only recently after Elly Jackson said it had influenced the latest La Roux album. Then more recently we watched 20 Feet From Stardom and up cropped this performance of Bowie on TV with the legend that is Luther Vandross. Just so good.
‘Let’s Dance’
We were going to mention that without Bowie, the Pretty Woman soundtrack would not be as great as it is, that Samantha Mumba would not have THAT incredible single to her name and of course there would be no Vanilla Ice. All important factors but perhaps not what he should be remembered him for. Instead for our last Bowie moment we are going to leave you with the song of the Eighties – ‘Let’s Dance.’
