Bowie – The History Of Punk

Where does one start when analysing the influence of the thin white one aka David Bowie?  Bowie’s impact on the whole spectrum of rock ‘n’ pop and then even soul and ambience throughout the seventies and into the early Eighties was nothing short of apocalyptic. 

Wayne County alleges in the book Please Kill Me that Bowie ripped of the whole glam/transvestite thang from him. If he did then good luck to him coz he had the genius to pull it off. Bowie rescued rock. Rock again became dangerous, sexy, confusing, rebellious and annoying to parents. And of course it sold !!! More than this Bowie was bisexual.

Ziggy Stardust was the one that broke the mould after David Jones had spent years warbling away hippily with an acoustic guitar and singing about laughing gnomes. It took gender fantasy into the boudoirs of teenagers and post teenagers alike with its combination of sassy spaced-out introspection and strange costumes leaving one nipple and leg exposed and the lunchpack on display.

Suddenly everyone wanted to ‘make love with their egos’ and make up sales rocketed. It also introduced the world to Hang On To Yourself and a bass line the Ramones would base a career on. The role of rock star had to be examined anew aided by the guitar of one Mick Ronson so beloved of later punk bands like Slaughter & The Dogs and Shanne from the Nipple Erectors who swore he had the sexiest handshake!

Aladdin Sane took the androgyny further with silver body paint and face flashes (Jordan would later adapt this look very strikingly) while Diamond Dogs proved you could chant blankly while the world expired. 

Ever the chameleon, Bowie then switched to smooth white soul for Young Americans and Station To Station before coming up trumps again in 1977 with the magnificent soaring Heroes and the motorik of Low. The latter would be a major influence on bands like Magazine and Joy Division.

As if that wasn’t enough he was involved with Iggy and The Stooges – Raw Power and Iggy Solo – The Idiot and Lust For Life and played keyboards on his live shows from the time and Lou Reed – Transformer.

Sadly duets with Queen and Mick Jagger and selling himself to Pepsi sold the dream off piece by piece while The Tin Machine and drum and bass forays attempted to repair the damage. But Bowie remained Bowie till the end and, despite being riddled with cancer, released the haunting Black Star before dying in January 2016.

Without doubt 75% of the challenging and unconventional in music comes from Mr Bowie – from the whole of glam rock thru to Mr Manson. A true musical and artistic genius!

Suggested listening
All of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars and any Greatest Hits package should do you.

Look out for John I’m Only Dancing, the epic Heroes and the superlative Velvet Underground cum buzzsaw guitar of  Queen Bitch as covered by Eater.

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