David Bowie has taken many extraordinary paths in his life and career almost non of which were the beaten ones. Though some, where he laid down early footprints, were later well traveled by those who followed in his. His influence on popular music over the last 50 years has been tremendous and was both immediate and protracted.
Elton John enlisted Bowie’s “Space Oddity” producer, Gus Dudgeon, and co-penned with Bernie Taupin “Rocket Man” before Bowie was even famous. You can literally sing the lyrics of “Rocket Man” to the chords and melody of “Space Oddity“. After Ziggy Stardust arrived on the planet Elton wasted no time in his transformation from hippy denim to oversized decorous sunglasses and wearing turkey and duck costumes on stage. It was random, over the top and utterly tasteless but it worked for him.
Boy George, over a decade later, was more faithful in his attire to the iconic “Ziggy”, though a flower child like rendition of the character. Unlike Bowie, neither George or Elton were blessed with rock star looks and, ironically, used the device of character dress and make-up to not only garner attention but to make themselves more attractive to the audience (or, at least, to mask their unattractiveness), while Bowie’s intention was consistently to tell a story of alienation. All three, however, were clearly more comfortable performing under the guise of playing a character onstage than presenting their unvarnished selves.
The 1980s brought an explosion in the use of electronic instruments which Bowie experimented with and pioneered in the late 70s on his Berlin trilogy albums. And Bowie, himself, participated in and benefitted from the this era of music that his influence and work had done so much to bring about. His collaboration with Queen at the start of the decade produced the time tested “Under Pressure” and his 1983 album “Let’s Dance” was his best selling album up to that time.
Bringing in the 90s with the hardcore band Tin Machine he continued exploring different and new forms of music and was firmly established as the avant-garde guru of music as art, working and performing with notable new comers such as Nine Inch Nails.
With the dawn of the new millennium came two new albums, “Heathen” and “Reality“, both excellent efforts and, true to form, on the cutting edge, musically. But then, regrettably for the world, a lifetime of being a workaholic, chain smoker and drug abuser caught up with Bowie and he virtually disappeared from the music scene for almost a decade.
With his mystique fueled by his absence, his re-emergence in 2013 with the release of the album “The Next Day” found him elevated to the status of Rock God; known and followed across the globe by teenagers, college students, gen Xers and baby boomers, alike. And his “Blackstar” album, released on his birthday in January, 2016, two days before his death, rocketed his fame and regard into parts unknown in this universe for a musical artist!