Ziggy Stardust has gone to heaven.
David Bowie, the remarkably innovative, original and creative artist, rocker and performer died Sunday.
It was just two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his album “Blackstar.”
Bowie, who battled cancer, was perpetually hip and constantly cool. I loved his music, which tackled themes of gender, race, space, society, love – and everything in between.
And, as they used to say on American Bandstand, I give it a 99 because it had a beat and you could dance to it.
I mean how else explain a song like “Young Americans,” that came out in 1975. This was Bowie meets Motown and Stax Records. The man called the “White Duke” flashed blue-eyed soul with a Black sound like Marvin Gaye meeting Earth, Wind and Fire. I still get off on the horn section riff in “Young Americans.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXjTnPHAlmk
Bowie was a master of melding musical styles, but seemed to get the biggest kick out of R&B, which is the heart of rock and roll. Two more of my Bowie favorites in that style: “Modern Love;” the funk-flavored “Fame” and the techno soul of “Let’s Dance.”
Any discussion of Bowie starts with his breakthrough 1969 album, “Space Oddity” which included the spooky, hypnotic lyrics, “Ground Control to Major Tom.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXSGocWifAg
Three years later Bowie had a hit single, “Changes,” and became the man who shook the music world with the release of “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.”
Bowie and his band looked like creatures from space, wearing glittery outfits to go with theatrical and sometimes outrageous stage performances. Glam rock was born. Bowie said he was bisexual, although he later admitted to being a “closet heterosexual” and had a long, happy 24-year marriage to supermodel Iman.
Bowie’s music crossed all barriers.
“Suffragette City” and “Diamond Dogs” had a hard rock, punk flavor. “Golden Years” and “China Girl” had a mystical quality. “The Man Who Sold the World” is nearly indescribable. One of the most moving performances of that song came when the late Kurt Cobain of Nirvana sang it on MTV’s “Unplugged” show in 1993.
Bowie teamed with John Lennon to write “Fame” in 1975. One of my favorite Bowie moments came when he lip-synced “Fame” on “Soul Train.” Check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFImjufN_2I
A decade later, in 1985, Bowie turned up with Mick Jagger for their version of the old Motown hit, “Dancing in the Street.” He also collaborated with Queen for “Under Pressure.”
Bowie electrified the world when he sang “Heroes” during Live AID in 1985. Bowie looked incandescent on stage, wearing a perfectly tailored cream-colored suit accented by his shock of wavy blonde hair. He dedicated the song, “to my son and to all the children of the world.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otWRmZykZR0
“Heroes” exemplified everything about David Bowie’s music. It was cool and rocked, but it also had a deep sense of humanity that is the universal thread of the art and music David Bowie created.
Tony Violanti covers entertainment for Villages-News.com