I don't know how I missed mentioning David Bowie's 60th birthday in January, but I did. On a plane to LA recently I experienced my best-ever experience listening to "Hunky Dory" (1971). You know how that happens sometimes: You reconnect with something you haven't listened to in a while (no matter how familiar you are with it) and you rediscover it as if you were really hearing it for the first time? ("Changes" spoke directly to me like nothing else on the radio when it came out, and I was a confused pubescent 13.) Anyway, that's what a good close listen (iPod, passive noise-cancelling earphones, eyes closed, window seat on a plane) can do for you.
And, when I got home, I found this on YouTube, from a 1973 "Midnight Special." A belated happy 60th to The Artist Formerly Known as Ziggy -- and an early 61st birthday greeting to Lucy Jordan!
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The interesting thing about David Bowie is that, unlike many of his contemporaries, his early output is open to interpretation (and re-interpretation), and thus re-discovery. This multifaceted virtuosity of the man is what inspires his fans, I suppose (like Wes Anderson, whose "Steve Zissou" was an ambitious failure, but sported one of the most ingenious soundtracks of all time).
I have quite a few Bowie tunes on my Faux-Pod, and it's always a bliss to come across one during my daily jogs by the Bosphorus.
PS. On a slightly related note, Marianne Faithfull's cover of The Beatles's "I'm a Loser" is seven kinds of brilliant.
It's fun to discover. Like this little vid. I suddenly felt like it was midnight and it's not even the afternoon.
I always feel funny about a lot of the looks and sounds from the 70s and 80s...like they haven't happened yet. Something retro futuristic about it all. Maybe because I associate to Bladerunner and it's ilk.
And Ali...I really liked "Steve Zissou" and the Bowie reinterpretations.
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