Wow!! The ever youthful rocker David Bowie turns 65 today!
Bowie is one of the most influential musicians of our time. In his nearly 50 years as a musician, Bowie has recorded 23 albums that have sold in excess of 250 million copies. Some of his most well known include “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,” “Hunky Dory” and “Aladdin Sane.” (exerpt from Rolling Stone)
As well as his musical accolades which are too many to mention, Bowie has done a host of acting, including playing Andy Warhol in Basquiat to Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ. My favorite Bowie movie remains Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence in which he plays a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp, followed by cult classic, The Hunger where he plays an aging vampire.
I remember the first time I ever heard of Bowie was pilfering the vinyl records at a home I was babysitting at – I believe it was Pinups with Bowie and a girl on the cover, spikey red hair before anyone had spikey hair, and his eyes two different colors is what attracted me to pulling it out of the heap of records… I remember not being overly impressed with what I was hearing, but I wanted to know more about this man with one green and one blue eye, who bucked the trends.
Fast forward a few years and Lets Dance came out, Much Music had videos and I was mesmerized by the Thin White Duke who was now sporting blond hair, light color pants and suspenders, white shirt and nappy brown dress shoes – I even remember finding pants and shoes like his at The Bay and wearing them with a white shirt to a family wedding.. My brother thought I looked very Bowie-esq. So much so that he wanted Bowies long bang short sides blond ‘do’ and had me cut and bleach his hair to match! (we were a pair eh?)
Over the years I’ve come to favorite ‘Low‘ out of all Bowie’s work. I havent kept up with his new stuff (not sure why), and I’ve learned that Lets Dance was Bowie’s least favorite time period, due to the fact he felt he was pushed into selling out his art for mainstream. He’s since gone back to being his own person (thankfully), married a beautiful woman Iman, and seems to be having a wonderfully happy life. He was and is an innovator, ahead of his time, inventive, and inspirational. And I love his voice. Happy Birthday David Bowie
Blue Jean – a very odd but unique vid. Loved it then, still love it.