David Bowie turns 65 today

Nearly 50 years after he started his career, an aura of mystery still hovers around the man who, as the title of one of his songs reads, sold the world: David Bowie. A true musical chameleon, who's adapted all these years to fashion and trends by continuously reinventing himself, Bowie is undoubtedly one of rock's most enduring icons. There are so many legends attached to his sexual life (Is he bisexual? Was he really found in bed with Mick Jagger?), his enigmatic left eye (apparently he had an accident in his youth during a fight over a girl with his best friend), his self-destructive addiction to cocaine, and, above all, his complete immersion within the characters he created for his music (most famously Ziggy Stardust)

Today he turns 65, and his public persona is still as appealing as ever. I mean, to me he’s got such a mesmerizing personality when I hear him talk. He oozes charisma and with the years he’s become so classy, so incredibly elegant, in every sense of the word. The first stuff by the “White Duke” I recall listening to, as a teenager back in the late seventies, is Space Oddity, which still today remains one of my favourite Bowie songs. 

One of the things that immediately attracted me of Oddity, being a secondary school student at the time who would devour lots of music in English, was that I could understand pretty much of the lyrics. I loved the story, poor astronaut Major Tom finally lost in space. It seems Bowie found the inspiration after watching Kubrick’s famous sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey (it all sounds like a play on words, thought the song’s title is never mentioned in the lyrics). This is the original 1969 video:

If you are familiar with the song, I’m sure you think it sounds rather different from the usual version, which I embed here with its lyrics:

I was never really fond of the aesthetics of glam rock and David Bowie epitomized the looks of a glamorous rock star. When I saw him in the guise of the extremely extravagant, androgynous Ziggy Stardust (his alter ego and stage persona for both the namesake album and concert movie) I thought he was a freak, yuk! But I loved his elaborate music, if not the whole album, some of the songs, especially Starman and Suffragette City, as well as, of course, the one that gives the album its title. And he looked to me a pretty remarkable vocalist, a modern crooner, so to speak, endowed with a classy voice.

Now that I think of it, I don’t have any CDs or vinyl albums by David Bowie, except for a couple of Greatest Hits. I admit I sort of like the singles better than his complete records. I can instantly remember dozens of fantastic songs which I’ve heard so many times: Aladdin Sane, Jean Genie, Heroes, Ashes to Ashes, Loving the Alien, Rebel Rebel, Young American, Life on Mars, … the list would be too long. 

But if there is one that I really enjoy listening to that is Changes, suitably a word that summarizes David Bowie's whole career. This is again a clip of the song with the lyrics so that you can sing along. I love the way the great Rick Wakeman (who soon after became Yes keyboardist) plays the piano. As a curiosity, David does the saxo parts himself, which is hardly surprising since he had received lessons as a young kid.

Well, I don't want to extend this entry much further, even if some of you might like Bowie a lot (Marisol?) But I cannot help embedding a couple of TV interviews, with a 30-year gap between them, to show Bowie’s transformation as a person / artist:

From a shy glam rock star in the making ... 

... to a confident, happily married, successful music legend with an illustrious career behind (he’s sold an estimated 150 million records, no less!)

Let me just end up saying that, oddly enough, another music genius was born on the same day, mind you, 46 years later: David … Antigüedad, yes, my own son (ha ha, isn’t it coincidence!).

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY the pair of you!