I have JUST discovered the awesomeness of David Bowie's musical genius.
YOU GUYS. DAVID BOWIE IS A FABULOUS ROCK STAR, GUYS. Did you know that? I KNOW IT NOW, TOO.
Also, this is a very lovely planet you guys have here. Earth, you call it? Not the prettiest-sounding name, but ok. I'm really enjoying the variety of cultures you humans have here. So much to see and experience!
Okay, then. DAVID BOWIE. I knew who David Bowie was from a fairly young age. Of course I did. I don't remember when I learned of him for the first time, probably one of those cultural osmosis things, but I know my idea of him was fairly well cemented by Labyrinth, which I saw for the first time in middle school. So for me, David Bowie was basically Jareth. Tight pants and mostly unpalatable (to me, at the time) tunes from the late 80's and early 90's. I knew the song "Starman" and that he'd been some kind of glam rocker in the 70's, then played an alien in "The Man Who Fell To Earth" and then released more music in the early 2000's and had kind of ridiculous 90's boy band hair, and did that hilarious cameo in "Zoolander." So yeah, I knew of David Bowie, and if anyone had asked, I would have said sure, I was a Bowie fan. I liked Labyrinth, and that song of his they used in "A Knight's Tale." So of course I was a Bowie fan.
It turns out, however (and this should be painfully obvious to ANYBODY), that I had NO IDEA what David Bowie was all about. So, a coworker who found out that I loved sci-fi stuff, was appalled to find out that I'd never actually heard all of "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars," so he burned me a copy of it. This happened at least six months ago. Two months ago, I got a car with a CD player in it, and last month, I finally popped in the Ziggy Stardust CD and listened to it. I probably wouldn't have if it hadn't been Bowie's 65th birthday in January and a friend of mine posted a 1972 performance video of Bowie performing "Space Oddity." I did a little google-fu and found her the original 1969 music video of "Space Oddity," and it has changed my life. I wasn't crazy about "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" at first, but over the past two weeks, it has wormed its way into my mind in that borderline dangerously obsessive way that such things occasionally do. I developed a craving for more things Bowie. I started at his Wikipedia page (don't judge), and that's when I discovered that he had an absolutely incredible career between the Ziggy I'd just met, and the "Zoolander" cameo I knew from just a couple years ago. I started looking up songs and performances and interviews and suddenly I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS GUY'S MUSICAL GENIUS, GUYS. He is everything I've always wanted in a musical artist but never thought could possibly exist in one person's career.
I want to share my newfound Bowie appreciation with you all, but it's 2 AM here, and I simply cannot do it in a single post, so consider this the first of probably several Bowie Appreciation Posts to follow. For now, let me simply direct you to the video that started it all, both for David Bowie's incredible career and my new obsession over his incredible career, 1969's Space Oddity:
Also, this is a very lovely planet you guys have here. Earth, you call it? Not the prettiest-sounding name, but ok. I'm really enjoying the variety of cultures you humans have here. So much to see and experience!
Okay, then. DAVID BOWIE. I knew who David Bowie was from a fairly young age. Of course I did. I don't remember when I learned of him for the first time, probably one of those cultural osmosis things, but I know my idea of him was fairly well cemented by Labyrinth, which I saw for the first time in middle school. So for me, David Bowie was basically Jareth. Tight pants and mostly unpalatable (to me, at the time) tunes from the late 80's and early 90's. I knew the song "Starman" and that he'd been some kind of glam rocker in the 70's, then played an alien in "The Man Who Fell To Earth" and then released more music in the early 2000's and had kind of ridiculous 90's boy band hair, and did that hilarious cameo in "Zoolander." So yeah, I knew of David Bowie, and if anyone had asked, I would have said sure, I was a Bowie fan. I liked Labyrinth, and that song of his they used in "A Knight's Tale." So of course I was a Bowie fan.
It turns out, however (and this should be painfully obvious to ANYBODY), that I had NO IDEA what David Bowie was all about. So, a coworker who found out that I loved sci-fi stuff, was appalled to find out that I'd never actually heard all of "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars," so he burned me a copy of it. This happened at least six months ago. Two months ago, I got a car with a CD player in it, and last month, I finally popped in the Ziggy Stardust CD and listened to it. I probably wouldn't have if it hadn't been Bowie's 65th birthday in January and a friend of mine posted a 1972 performance video of Bowie performing "Space Oddity." I did a little google-fu and found her the original 1969 music video of "Space Oddity," and it has changed my life. I wasn't crazy about "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" at first, but over the past two weeks, it has wormed its way into my mind in that borderline dangerously obsessive way that such things occasionally do. I developed a craving for more things Bowie. I started at his Wikipedia page (don't judge), and that's when I discovered that he had an absolutely incredible career between the Ziggy I'd just met, and the "Zoolander" cameo I knew from just a couple years ago. I started looking up songs and performances and interviews and suddenly I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS GUY'S MUSICAL GENIUS, GUYS. He is everything I've always wanted in a musical artist but never thought could possibly exist in one person's career.
I want to share my newfound Bowie appreciation with you all, but it's 2 AM here, and I simply cannot do it in a single post, so consider this the first of probably several Bowie Appreciation Posts to follow. For now, let me simply direct you to the video that started it all, both for David Bowie's incredible career and my new obsession over his incredible career, 1969's Space Oddity:
Click to view