“I heard the news today, Oh boy” was paraphrased by David ‘Jones’ Bowie from the Beatles classic, I heard the news yesterday afternoon, I like most of the world couldn’t believe it. The Thin White Duke was dead. What a man what an entertainer, in these days of fleeting fame and questionable talent this man stood on the shoulders of men.
David Bowie born in Brixton London, a curious fellow who some saw as a bit off. He started and was in many bands in his youth and then went onto his own brand of music. His unswerving belief in his brand/style saw him release his first self-titled album in 1967 which didn’t go too well and then again another self-titled album in 1968, it did not do too well either however in 1969 just days before the Apollo 11 moon mission he released ‘A Space Oddity’ this time it was a hit. Ziggy Stardust was born I suspect as a marketing gimmick but also as he has stated to provide him with an alter ego as he struggled with fame. The rest as they say is history.
Yesterday after I heard the news I found myself thinking about his music and where it fit in my life. I don’t know about you but I can remember certain times in my life by what was playing on the radio or concerts or vinyl or cassette tapes at the time.
I can clearly remember the first time I heard Ziggy Stardust and ‘A Space Oddity’, it was 1976 I was in the Royal Hotel in Gympie, a couple of mates and myself drinking beer, playing pool, pumping 20cent pieces into the duke box, reaching around the back to find the master volume control and turning it up and hoping like hell the manager wouldn’t come in and turn it down. I hadn’t heard this type of music before and one of the guys said listen to this. Well, when the world had just experienced men walking on the moon some years beforehand and me being an absolute space nut I heard ground control calling to Major Tom, this was just it for me.
His psychedelic rock and electronic funk changed the musical scene as we know it. His albums were works of true genius, I later bought a couple of cassettes of Heroes Young Americans and Scary Monsters. For me though he really hit his stride with Lets Dance, I remember with this album another mate who was a part time DJ with his own sound system (really big speakers) used to play the hell out of this.
Again knowing exactly where I was when listening to Lets Dance title track, we had a house party and unlike today if you wanted to invite people to your place for a party, you actually asked them. On this occasion I lived in a 5 bedroom house with 4 mates and for many weeks we had been telling people about our party and if they wanted to come they were most welcome. The night of the party arrives and so too did throngs of young not too sober partygoers. A conservative estimate was approximately 500 people. We lived at the end of a cul-de-sac, our neighbours weren’t that close and we had a train line outside the front door that picked up cattle from the cattle yards further down the road.
Mr Bowie was going hard and the neighbours didn’t seem to mind, the only problem was that, that night of all nights a cattle collection was on, unfortunately someone had parked up on the tracks as our road was only an unsealed lane so to speak. I remember someone coming and saying to me hey Macca there is a train out front and the driver wants you to move a car. The driver was cool about it and was quite surprised at the extent of the party, we invited him back after he secured his load, he laughed and went on his way, he did however return about 1 hour later and stopped in for a beer. Not many other parties can boast having a train stop out the front. About 12ish the thin white duke was telling us all about a China Girl the police arrived and told us to turn down the music, they did this twice more and then said there was not going to be another time. Party poopers police said that the music could be heard down at the police station about 3 miles away.
Another memory was the time I saw Bowie live, 30 October 1987, here along with 13500 other devotees, he played about 2/3rds of his old stuff and some of his new Never Let me Down album. All I can say is he put on a great show and it was thoroughly enjoyed, the sound was great and the entertainment was a spectacle, the glass spider was an animated 60 x 60 foot beast. Bowie thought of the whole set as a metaphor of life, describing the stage as having “a feeling of a ship, which is the voyage, with the rigging and the climbing and the ropes. And the bottom circular area is like the Circus of Lights, so it really is from birth, and the voyaging through life.”. Profound given the subject of this missive.
I heard the news today Oh boy David ‘Jones’ Bowie your music changed a generation gave voice to many other odd entertainers and you will be sadly missed.
