Of all the major rock artists whose careers I have followed closely, David Bowie is the one I find it most challenging to write about.
Most likely it is because Bowie, given his capacity to adopt new personas, was so hard to define.
Indeed the only certainty, particularly in the first dozen years of his career, was that another reinvention would surely follow the latest, this being the theme of a recently re-shown BBC4 documentary ‘DAVID BOWIE – FIVE YEARS‘ – a 90 minute overview of five key years in his career starting in 1971 and concluding in 1983.
At the start of each career phase would appear a quote given by Bowie at the time, of which the most encompassing would appear to be, ‘The moment you know you’re on safe ground, you’re dead‘, which opened the 76/77 ‘Low’ era, safe ground being somewhere Bowie was never prepared to tread – although his comment to open the 71/72 Ziggy Stardust period is also pretty defining:
‘I guess I’m the first person to use rock not for the purposes of rock music. In that sense I’m not in rock and roll – I collect personalities.’
The first personality to bring him widespread attention was Ziggy Stardust, his creation for the concept album ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars‘, whose principal character is an androgynous, sexually ambiguous rock star landed on earth from outer space.
An enthralling album, it made for a stunningly theatrical live show that prompted Bowie to say at the time: ‘I feel like an actor when I’m on stage rather than a rock artist.’
Taking the lead role in this bewildering production, he wore feminine clothes and was heavily made-up – but the music performed by the Spiders from Mars band, including the brilliant Mick Ronson on guitar, had an edgy, often proto-punk feel.
If Bowie had been unmasked as an alien few at the time would have been surprised, his influence as an emerging cultural phenomenon even spreading to the small town where I grew up – a friend subsequently expelled from school for turning up as the Bowie who adorns the follow-up ‘Aladdin Sane‘ album (1973) complete with identical haircut and facial make-up. This was secondary school I hasten to add.
Bowie brought the Ziggy period to an end in July 1973 – with chapter two of the documentary then focusing on the 74/75 era, a time when he went headlong into disco/soul music on the ‘Young Americans‘ album.
Picking up on the soul tracks he was hearing in clubs, especially in North America, this was a strange yet fascinating turn and provided him with two major hit singles (‘Young Americans‘, ‘Fame‘) and showed once again Bowie followed his muse no matter what.
At this point in the documentary one observer makes the point: ‘Nobody – not The Beatles, Dylan or the Rolling Stones had ever dared recreate themselves in such a way.’
The trouble in making such pronouncements is there is always some smart-arse with a blog site who will contradict you – and this one would counter by saying, in the case of The Beatles, look at their development from ‘Love Me Do‘ to ‘A Day in the Life‘, which in just five years is an enormous musical progression.
But beyond dispute is that by now nobody was working at the same level of artistic creativity as Bowie with music merely one strand of his imagination – although the second ‘soul album’, ‘Station to Station‘ (1976) is another superb set, bringing into view once more of the finger-clicking, hip-swaying, Thin White Duke.
By 76/77 and ‘Low‘ Bowie had hit some stormy weather – health troubles, a disintegrating marriage and succession of business hassles that prompted a split with his manager. But from the gloom he emerged onto another divergent path with a curious yet fascinating set, shaped by the electronic explorations of producer Brian Eno and pioneering work by German bands such as Kraftwork.
The title of the ‘Low‘ album is a reference to how Bowie was feeling at the time, but personal difficulties failed to prevent another huge exercise in risk-taking on a record that is half instrumental and contains lyrical passages that almost confound interpretation. Just over thirty years later it remains a compelling piece – even if it still brings an occasional scratch of the head while listening.
Into 79/80 and with the ‘Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps‘) album, Bowie predates New Romantic fashion trends and impending techno-pop episodes that would emerge en-masse within the next eighteen months – the accompanying video for the hit single, ‘Ashes to Ashes‘, paving the way for how the format would be utilised in the years to come.
The closing era of the documentary is 82/83 which brought ‘Let’s Dance‘ the most commercially successful album of his career.
Less nihilistic and more Nile Rodgers, who brought production techniques from the huge success he had enjoyed with dance floor favourites Chic, to a record that spawned three huge hits ( ‘Let’s Dance‘, ‘China Girl‘ and ‘Modern Love‘).
Now more fondly remembered than the mixed reviews it received on release, some of the messianic Bowie-following I knew liked the songs but not the production – while others thought some lightweight material was camouflaged by the disco/funk gymnastics of the rhythms.
At the time Bowie said he was, ‘taking away some of the confusion about my identity and trying to write in a more obvious and positive manner than I have for a long time‘.
But being obvious had always been an anathema to Bowie who had spent the previous dozen years doing anything other than the expected, ignoring any notion of conformity.
Yet through all of his movements, from one mercurial guise to another, has come an incredible range of music that stands comparison with the very best produced by any artist in the second half of the 20th Century.
Writing now as the second anniversary of his death has just passed, it has to be concluded that in the period covered by the BBC documentary nobody expanded the possibilities of creative expression like Bowie did.
It seems unlikely anyone ever will again.
This article was first published on 15/2/2018.
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NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE’ – an acclaimed thriller now available in paperback and as an Amazon Kindle book.