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Is it just me or do your facebook posts (by other people) show an increasing desperation to find the most obscure clip?
One of my earliest memories was playing Ziggy Stardust on my sister's dancette and being shocked by the lines in "Time" "...He flexes like a whore, falls wanking to the floor"
Not exactly the tribute I wanted to post though. So I didn't.
It's fucking ridiculous. Records you could have bought for a tenner the other week are now going for £60-70. Presumably until someone realises that it's simply a way to make sure their stock never goes anywhere.
Not that I'm bitter that all the one's I've got that are worth anything are scratched. And all the ones that aren't are still worth two quid. Nope, not me...
It's all a bit over the top. I really really liked his music and while not happy about his death at all, I didn't know the man -he's not a family member or close friend, so I can't get too upset about it-mildly saddened that is all. People who haven't heard anything beyond the hits getting all emotional as well. Or pretending to.
If it's now the thing to emote over the death of people who don't affect us personally, who's going to organise the funerals or provide a shoulder to cry on?
The thing about Bowie is, although I've got lots of his records, I never much liked him as a person. I didn't hate him or anything, but I just remember all those documentaries from the 70s where he was off his tits all the time and he just seemed barely there at all. There wasn't much to like and what there was was talking bollocks and giving fascist salutes and stuff.
The other period I think of is the nineties, when he was trying too hard and just being a bit embarrassing, releasing drum n bass records and stuff. The best thing he ever did for his career was shut up and bugger off for ten years. Though 'Heathen' is one of my favourites, so it's not like his later years were all wasted, but he definitely benefited from the mystique of not opening his mouth every five minutes for some more rubbish to drop out of it.
So I didn't feel all that sad when I heard. But I shed a few tears when I listened to 'Ashes to Ashes'. That's what I'll miss. He was a great artist but I could do without everyone getting all Diana about it.
I bloody hope the vicar says "Ashes to ashes. Funk to funky" at the funeral.
Now at day 3 people are posting really obscure old interviews and duets. You just know they have been trawling the Interwebs for the past 72 hours trying to be cooler than thou.
I do like the picture of him all dressed up in a suit and grinning like a Cheshire cat on his 69th. He must have known he was about to die. Top marks for that!
Here's mine: The Krankies perform Starman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIy12hhhCm0
Well I remember when he was interviewed by a totally baffled Cliff Michelmore on the Tonight programme. One of those things that sticks in the memory, a bit like the Beatles' first UK TV appearance. Both were signs of the yoof culture that was to come.
Although in retrospect, culture may be giving it more than due gravitas.
Although, in retrospect again, compared with today's yoof culture, it was pretty good.
Slightly off topic but it did make me laugh when on the BBC news at ten on Monday, they showed a couple of video clips from the Blackstar album where, in one, Bowie was juddering robotically to the music as he climbed back into a wardrobe. The clips were followed by Heinz Wolff impersonator Will Gompertz eulogising him; an innovator, a man before his time, constantly challenging social norms and even up until his death still pushing the boundaries.
All I saw was an old bloke who used to wear make-up looking like he had Parkinsons walking backwards into a f****g wardrobe.
And then you hear some fella on the street saying how Bowie saved his life! Really? Did he pull you from you a burning wreck? Did he then resuscitate you as collapsed in a heap in front of him?
FFS!
If you were a young queer growing up in a small market town in the early 70's then he was massively important.
Changed lives, changed attitudes, made it OK to be different.
He shifted boundaries, challenged prejudice.
That man-hug on Top of the Pops also changed the relationship men had with men.
You can't walk down the road nowadays without seeing ever increasingly elaborate man-hugs.
FFS...even construction workers start the day with a man-hug.
Bowie started that.
And the Ziggy Stardust tour was EVERY bit as good (and groundbreaking) as legend says it was.
I was never a huge fan of his music (enjoyed some of it) but I was always impressed by his imagination, inventiveness and creativity.
He didn't seem to spend his time pontificating, telling everyone how the world should be organised, or claiming that he had some great 'message' for society. He just got on with demonstrating all the weird and wonderful ways he could organise his world. He didn't seem particularly pompous, self-important or up himself, unlkike some pop 'icons'. He seemed to be having fun.
In the few interviews I ever saw, he seemd surprisingly normal, articulate, relaxed and at ease with himself. I don't remember him ever being agressive, hostile or even particularly rude about anyone.
And he had the massive advantage of - as far as I know - never letting himself (or his careeer) be fucked Yoko Ono.
No reason to say circa Mid-Seventies if the date's in the photo, is there?
He didn't seem to spend his time pontificating, telling everyone how the world should be organised, or claiming that he had some great 'message' for society.
If you were a young queer growing up in a small market town in the early 70's then he was massively important.
Changed lives, changed attitudes, made it OK to be different.
He shifted boundaries, challenged prejudice.
It's as easy to forget how much he came out of nowhere back then as it is to forget the collective groan that went up by the mid-nineties whenever he said he was going to release another album. Not having seen all that early stuff first hand is probably part of why I don't feel so sentimental towards him.
Parents disapproved of him, it was not OK to be different in their opinion. Which was a good enough reason for me to buy some of his early records in my (pre-teen but already slightly rebellious) eyes. I soon moved on to punk rock though, to give them something to really complain about.
Admiration more than any great affection or adulation for him in my case, although like many, I have a small selection of his music which I've been playing since the news of his passing. So is my local Morrisons it would appear, I did laugh when they played Andy Warhol as I nipped in for a sub-£5 Aussie Shiraz* last night.
*(Not really, that's just in case beau-jolly is reading this)
All this adoration for a pop/rock star-it's just ridiculous and I say that as somebody who absolutely loves his music.
People claiming to be shocked by his death as well? That is something I just do not get at all and is proof that they knew nothing about the man at all - bloke who smoked heavily for decades who dabbled in drugs and went through a well-documented period of neglecting his health dies early (not a moral judgement, just a matter of fact)- well that's a surprise to absolutely nobody at all.
Either they know nothing about the guy at all and really are just bandwagonning or they are a bit deluded about him and see him as a mythical figure who can't die.
And that is just it, they are not mourning the man at all-just a childish image they have of him based upon (usually false) memories of how much he affected them-again, everybody is guilty of this delusion to some extent but it is a delusion all the same. 'Bowie got me through this' while forgetting other more solid, earthly things like boring old support from mum and dad etc.
I agree with Golgo. People perpetually sounding off with ignorant, bigotted opinions should be hanged. And flogged. It's fortunate that the tedious ranting of such people is only heard by the other sad twats on here and that they don't have the platform of pop celebrity to enable them to bore the arse off everyone in the world.
I've a good mind to write an outraged letter to the Bagwyllydiart Bugle about it.
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