Meant to do a longer blog post tonight, and knew what it was going to be about. Got tied up elsewhere, though, so I need to put it off. Later in the week, pinky swear.
I do want to point out a couple of good five year deathiversary essays on Bowie, here and here. The second is especially interesting because it really delves into the Orwellian roots of his 1974 album Diamond Dogs. DD is a humid stab at dystopian storytelling, and critics back then were somewhat leery of it. But, well, you can't please everyone, and you don't have to.
2 comments:
While we continued to enjoy a number of his songs over the years the fact is we didn't actually buy any of Bowie's albums after the first ones - Space Oddity, Hunky Dory, and the delightful Ziggy Stardust.
There's no doubt he was a great musical genius and a very charming man from everything I've read about him. It's interesting to know that although he felt all his songs were essentially about isolation, abandonment, fear and anxiety he was able to bring so much delight and joy to so many.
The albums you mention are thrilling because he was discovering himself at the same time everyone else was starting to notice him. He'd been doing it for quite a few years already--at first under his birthname of Jones--but it was in the early 70s that he really found what his strengths were.
There's an element of isolation, abandonment, fear, and anxiety in most memorable songs, it seems. Music that's just happy and nothing else doesn't have much resonance.
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