Last Post Before India!

Hey,

Tomorrow, I shall catch a plane for Delhi. I'm nervous, excited, yet rather underwhelmed. I'm all packed up and ready to go, and I seriously hope that a year and a half's worth of waiting (and paying) will pay off over the next two weeks!

Today I thought I'd have a David Bowie appreciation rave, because if I'm not going to do anything for a while I might as well do something fun! I'm not quite sure what form this will take, but I hope this post will sort-of-evolve as it goes along!

OK, so... erm, maybe I shall explain why I like David Bowie so much? I suppose most people have a band or artist that is particularly dear to them, for many reasons. It's not very often that anyone asks why that band or artist has such appeal. We tend to judge each other so much on music taste, as we judge on so many other things.

I think I'll focus on three areas of particular wonderfulness about Bowie!

Firstly, his diversity. When I first became a fan, I already had a big mix of genres within my limited Bowie listening material. There were the songs from Labyrinth, which were always a magical part of my childhood, a few glam-rock tunes such as Starman and Cracked Actor, 80s pop such as Let's Dance, and of course classic, genre-free tracks like Life on Mars and Space Oddity. Today, when I own copies of pretty much everything David Bowie has recorded, I can see that the phrase "I'm not in the mood for Bowie" is a stupid one, because of the vast versatility and different "moods" of his music. In my Bowie collection there is heavy rock, folk, glam-rock, soul, funk, industrial, pop-rock, pop, soft rock, experimental, instrumental, electronic and art-rock.

Secondly, his personality. OK, I don't know the guy, but his stage and album persona is incredibly endearing and as diverse as his music. There are his famous alter-egos, most famously Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke. There is his gender-bending, androgynous fashion style, seen most clearly in the early 70s with his outrageous make-up and glittery costumes. There are the complex elements to his personality, at once witty and tragic. There is the slightly frightening laugh, the beguiling smile, the beautiful painful nuances in his voice. Bowie comments with wonderful irony and wit about stereotypes (Boys Keep Swinging being an example) and seems to have a lot of respect for women (which I like, obviously!). The sexual ambiguity and androgyny appeal to me very much, especially in times of confusion and loneliness. "And Lady Stardust sang his song of darkness and dismay..."

Thirdly, the structure of the albums. His concept albums are probably my favourites, specifically the dystopian albums Diamond Dogs, based on Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. The balance between passion and dull sadness is carried of brilliantly, and there are some excellent tunes too! I have listened to Rebel Rebel over and over and over again and I'm still not sick of it! I still remember the first time I heard Five Years and how I fell in love with the Ziggy Stardust concept at once:

"Pushing thru the market square, so many mothers sighing

News had just come over, we had five years left to cry in

News guy wept and told us, earth was really dying

Cried so much his face was wet, then I knew he was not lying"

The general structure of Bowie's work is fantastic, even in his non-conceptual albums. The way the songs are placed in order for maximum effect is really remarkable, the way he draws you in and finishes in style. The length is always perfect: not too long that you are pleased you can stop listening and get some tea, not too short that your thirst for more outweighs the enjoyment of the album. The themes Bowie deals with on his albums (apart from the end of the world!) are sometimes heavy, sometimes light, and there seems to be the right balance. Even dark albums such as Station to Station, produced while Bowie was at a very low point in his life and struggling with cocaine addiction, feature a balance between light-hearted songs (the love song Golden Years and the nonsensical TVC-15) and cries for help (the title track and Word On A Wing). Throughout his long recording career, David Bowie has sung about love, domestic violence, homosexuality, desperation, suicide, religion, 9/11, youth, age, happiness, loneliness, contentment, drugs, politics, America, aliens, rock'n'roll, creativity and a bit more love.

Oh, and if I can add a cheeky fourth: Bowie is beautiful! Quite a few people are in disagreement with me here, yet it is widely agreed that Bowie's appearance is not quite of this world. The mismatched eyes, the sharp cheekbones, the skinny frame... Whether Bowie is from another planet or not, he is more than welcome on the walls of my bedroom!

Think of me as I go to my Indian fate!

J xxxx