Thin White Duke Turns 65

The Guardian ^ | Friday 6 January 2012 | Alexis Petridis

[Calusa]

It's a cliche when a rock star reaches 65 to mention the time when it didn't look like they'd make pensionable age, but with David Bowie who marks the milestone on Sunday, it's almost unavoidable. Look at a picture of him in the mid-70s, when he was ravaged by cocaine, living off a diet of red peppers and milk and so paranoid that he apparently kept his own ***** in a fridge lest persons unknown steal it: this is not a man destined to make old bones.

[Calusa]

It's a god-awful small affair

To the girl with the mousy hair

But her mummy is yelling, "No!"

And her daddy has told her to go

But her friend is nowhere to be seen

Now she walks through her sunken dream

To the seat with the clearest view

And she's hooked to the silver screen

But the film is a saddening bore

For she's lived it ten times or more

She could spit in the eyes of fools

As they ask her to focus on

Sailors fighting in the dance hall

Oh man! Look at those cavemen go

It's the freakiest show

Take a look at the lawman

Beating up the wrong guy

Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know

He's in the best selling show

Is there life on Mars?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxNr2jvo5Pw&feature=related

[Twotone]

I was never much into David Bowie, but he made a pretty cool villain in Labyrinth. And there are a few songs I like, like Space Oddity & Changes...

[Othniel]

The Man Who Brought the Mullet to America.....

[livius]

He’s been married to a Somali-American model, Iman, for many years and I suspect that this is what has kept him alive and sane.

[reaganaut]

David Bowie in tights. ‘Nuff said.

[tumblindice]

“he apparently kept his own ***** in a fridge”

dildo?

[moehoward]

I’m convinced he is indeed a man who feel to earth.

[Mr. K]

look at his catalaog!

Young Americans is a favorite of mine

[skeeter]

Is it possible to still be 'the nazz' at 65? Didn't think so.

But like the article says, Bowie is lucky to make old bones.

[FourPeas]

David Bowie is sane? Are you sure?

[livius]

It’s all relative.

[JRandomFreeper]

It’s all relative.

Ahem... yes... that is correct... I'll be lucky to make it to 65. Most cooks don't.

/johnny

[SamAdams76]

I remember when I was about 15 years old, I was hanging out with some friends in a basement and "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars" went on the turntable. This was sometime in the mid-70s and it made quite an impression on me. I had never heard anything so "far out" before.

I became an instant fan and quickly collected all of his records. However, since the early 1980s, everything he has put out has been crap.

[DC Packfan]

He is aladin sane!

[reagan_fanatic]

I think he hit rock bottom musically when he did that ear-gouging rendition of Dancing In The Streets with Mick ‘fishlips’ Jagger.

[equaviator]

One thing you can’t say about Bowie is that “they just don’t make ‘em like that any more” because he made what he made himself.

[livius]

Life in the kitchen can get pretty intense. Between the heat, the pressure and drinking champagne in the walk-in, you’re bound to lose a few years (been there, done that...and got out in time).

[FourPeas]

Well done.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

There is a trick long used in the arts that should be adopted by both the brilliant composer types and rock groups themselves.

As far as individuals go, they need to seek out the brilliant up and coming talent, giving them the support they need to create truly avaunt-guard material, and then make it better with professional shine and extra elements.

Because Carlos Santana isn’t much of a vocalist, he has long used subcontracted talent which strongly improves what both of them are doing.

This keeps him performing good new music with a shared bill, which is a lot better than retirement.

As far as groups go, they could set up a staggered rotation of members, so that every couple of years one would go, and be replaced with new blood. Eventually all the original members would be gone, and while the new members could still perform the old works, the royalties would go to the old members, encouraging the new members to start creating new material.

[cameraeye]

“.......encouraging the new members to start creating new material”. Couldn’t agree with you more. Having seen David Bowie’s tours in my past, he inspired me to not be afraid to change myself. Happy birthday David ♫

[Larry Lucido]

Happy birthday!

[Secret Agent Man]

That is probably the worst recording ever made. And gayest too.

[Amberdawn]

(We Can Be) “Hero’s” is mine.

[AppyPappy]

A freeper played in concert with him. I met him at the MFJ

[rabidralph]

Young Americans was my favorite in high school and I loved the songs he put out later on, like Blue Jean and Let’s Dance.

[yup2394871293]

Ground control to major tom....

[InvisibleChurch]

happy birthday to the man who sold the world .... way before obama did it

[DIRTYSECRET]

Saw him 3 times in concert. Money well spent.

[eclecticEel]

Don’t you wonder sometimes
About sound and vision

Blue, blue electric blue
That’s the color of of my room
Where I will live

Blue, blue

Pale Blinds drawn all day
Nothing to do, nothing to say

Blue, blue

And I will sit right down
Waiting for the gift of sound and vision

And I will sing
Waiting for the gift of sound and vision

Lifting into my solitude
Open my head
Don’t you wonder sometimes
About sound and vision

[DC Packfan]

Thanks, I know I’m insane, I just don’t tell anybody! OOPS.

Does the refrain from ‘Five Years’ go through anybody else’s head every time you hear some talking head spouting about the world’s going to end because of something we’re doing?

We’ve got five years, that’s all we’ve got,
We’ve got five years, my brain hurts alot!

[Dr. Sivana]

That is probably the worst recording ever made.

Not quite. Don't forget Jagger and Michael Jackson's "State of Shock".

And anything by Yoko Ono.

[Dr. Sivana]

From the article:
Bowie's music was never about nostalgia

The entire Pinups album was just that. There's also a nostalgic feel to parts of Hunky Dory.

For years I have used the "Young Americans" album as the dividing line between "old" and "new" music.

That album, Station to Station and Side Two of both Low and Heroes were not well received when released. Now they are considered classics. Station to Station is the most forgotten, even though it has a couple of his biggest hits.

[SuzyQue]

Urine.

[Dr. Sivana]

And, because this is Free Republic, we must note Bowie's presiction of OWS:

And in the death
As the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy thoroughfare
The shutters lifted in inches in temperance building High on Poacher's Hill
And red mutant eyes gaze down on Hunger City
No more big wheels

Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats
And ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes
Coveting the highest of the sterile skyscrapers
Like packs of dogs assaulting the glass fronts of Love-Me Avenue
Ripping and rewrapping mink and shiny silver fox, now legwarmers

(Fro "Future Legend")

"Cygnet Committee" seems to size up what a second Obama term might bring. (About Soros: "We had a friend, a talking man.. who talked of many powers he had. Not of the best of men, but ours. We used him, we let him use his powers. We let him fill our needs, now we are strong. But the road is coming to its end. Now the damned have no time to make amends.")

[Dr. Sivana]

We’ve got five years, my brain hurts alot!

Someone should count all of the Bowie lyrics with the word "brains" in it. Frightening:

I can get it started:

Day after day, they take some brain away. They turn my face around, to the far side of town. And tell me that it's real, then ask me how I feel." (All the Madmen, The Man Who Sold the World)

[Beowulf9]

http://youtu.be/VbpMpRq6DV4

Wild is the wind...gorgeous.

[DC Packfan]

Ziggy sucked up into his mind.

Does that count?

[38special]

Nothings going to save him in his golden years?

[Dr. Sivana]

No, we really want the bodily organ. Here’s another from “Time”:

“The sniper in the brain,
regurgitating drain
Incestuous and vain,
and many other last names”

(Rest of lyrics extremely indecent, along with 90% of the entre Aladdin Sane album)

[Free Vulcan]

I’m a Ramones fan.

[Domestic Church]

Just had to listen to Station to Station for the birthday celebration.

[leapfrog0202]

[DC Packfan]

Ok,

Fame, it’s not your brain, it’s just the flame
That burns your change to keep you insane
Fame

Also from Five Years,

My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare
I had to cram so many things to store everything in there

[Dr. Sivana]

Now you got it.

Now here’s one from Hunky Dory:

“Song for Bob Dylan”

Here she comes
Here she comes
Here she comes again

The same old painted lady
from the brow of the Super brain
She’ll scratch this world to pieces
As she comes on like a friend
But a couple of songs
From your old scrapbook
Could send her home again

[Dr. Sivana]

And another, from “Scary Monsters”

(It’s No Game, either Part 1 or Part 2)

Documentaries on refugees
Couples ‘gainst the target
You throw a rock against the road
And it breaks into pieces
Draw the blinds on yesterday, and it’s all so much scarier
Put a bullet in my brain, and it makes all the papers

[Calusa]

Me too. Iwanna b sedated

[Calusa]

I never got to see him live but my best friend in the day Ray whoi did said he was a cross between Neil Young and Alice Cooper.

[equaviator]

Sons of Soupy Sales!

[dfwgator]

This Is Not America with The Pat Metheny Group

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJRF8xGzvj4

Pat had never even heard of David Bowie before they collaborated on this for The Falcon and the Snowman soundtrack, but it worked!

[dfwgator]

He was also responsible for introducing the greatness of Stevie Ray Vaughan to the world.