Tags archives: David Bowie
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8 years ago
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The title of Barnaby (aka Barney) Clay’s new documentary, SHOT! The Psycho-spiritual Mantra of Rock, says it all, really. This rambling, entertaining portrait of legendary music photographer Mick Rock is full of its genial subject’s own musings on his life and art. It also encapsulates the excitement and excesses of the heady musical era that Rock (barely) lived through and documented. For anyone with a passing interest in the rock scenes of the late 1960s through '70s, this will be pretty fascinating stuff. For those, like myself, who remember wondering about the photographer whose impossibly appropriate name appeared on pictures of many groundbreaking artists, this will provide context, and then some. (For the record, the man’s given name is actually Michael David Rock.)
The film opens with present-day Rock (now in his late 60s) loading his camera at a live TV on the Radio show. He talks about his process, which—at its best—makes him feel like an assassin, “I’ve got my sights on you, gonna take you out.” Later he clarifies, “I’m not after your soul, I’m after your f-ing aura,” which might prompt an eye-roll, except that he really did capture the essence of performers (and friends) such as David Bowie, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Freddie Mercury and Debbie Harry, among others. For many awestruck kids, Rock's images were their introduction to these genre-defying musicians.
The film takes us through a more or less chronological account of Rock’s career, interspersed with[...]
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Enter Ziggy Stardust.
Bowie’s beloved persona began with the release of 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Stardust starred as the record’s fictional alien rock star who arrived on Earth just as it received the news that the world would end in five years. In the album’s opening track, which is aptly titled “Five Years”, Stardust laments about the planet’s fate while walking amongst it’s doomed species. He resembled them in shape, but is extreme in all other aspects. He had wild hair, outlandish outfits, and an overall zeal that made him an eccentric, especially compared to the cop, soldier, priest, mother and newscaster that populate the rest of the song.
In a 1974 interview with “Beat Godfather” William S. Burroughs, Bowie described the scene:
...It has been announced that the world will end because of lack of natural resources. [The album was released three years ago.] Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have lost all touch with reality and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything. Ziggy was in a rock & roll band and the kids no longer want rock & roll. There's no electricity to play it. Ziggy's adviser tells him to collect news and sing it, 'cause there is no news. So Ziggy does this and there is terrible news. "All the Young Dudes" is a song about this news. It is no hymn to the youth as people thought. It is completely the opposite[...]
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9 years ago
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David Bowie was a musician of almost immeasurable influence. His last name echoes amongst the likes of Fitzgerald, Lennon, Presley, Ramone, Nicks and Cobain as one of the people responsible for music today. For almost half a century, he graced genre after genre with his albums, exploring each with an obsessive eye. From folk rock to krautrock-laced funk to art rock and experimental, there seemed to be no undertaking that Bowie couldn’t master. He fathered sub-genres and inspired others to do the same.
He became known not only for his songs, which climbed the charts like English ivy, but also his oddities. His hair, his face paint, his outlandish outfits. During the era of Ziggy Stardust from his station in glam rock, he made being an outsider ‘in’. He challenged gender norms, racism, politics, and a whole manner of preconceived notions of how music was supposed to be. He was an idol, a style icon, a pop star, the star of your favorite childhood movie and in his final effort he was a blackstar.
Bowie’s final album Blackstar was released on January 8th, coinciding with his 69th birthday. The record is a short, emotional, and strange departure from the various forms of pop that Bowie is best known for, but fittingly so. Bowie was never going to be predictable. Two days after the album’s release, the seemingly immortal Bowie died after a long battle with cancer. Blackstar then took on its intended meaning. It was his swan song. With every subsequent listen it seemed increas[...]
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9 years ago
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David Bowie was an incredible genius that has been a massive influence on the fashion world from ready-to-wear to high couture, trailblazing trends for both men and women alike.
Since news of David Bowie's tragic death on Sunday, January 10 hit the internet the following Monday, a deluge of mournful tributes on sites like Twitter and Facebook have brought back to attention many of his gender-fluid, enigmatic looks throughout the music legend's career, which span six decades.
His constant sartorial evolutions have left indelible mark on fashion, as evident in the multitude of status updates, images, and video, paying homage to Bowie.
Bowie as Ziggy Stardust. Photo Credit: Ilpo Musto / Rex Features
From Jean-Paul Gaultier's 2013 "Rock Stars" collection to Haider Ackermann's latest Spring 2016 line, it's no doubt that Bowie's influence still impacts fashion these days.
On Monday, Gaultier told The Associated Press, "personally, he inspired me by his creativity, his extravagance, his sense of fashion that he was constantly reinventing, by his allure, his elegance and his androgyny."
Below: 1) Jean-Paul Gaultier spring 2013, 2) Haider Ackermann spring 2016, and 3) Dries Van Noten men’s fall 2011 collections.
Photo Credit Jacques Brinon/Associated Press, Valerio Mezzanotti/Nowfashion, Francois Guillot/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
To Karl Lagerfeld, Bowie was "a great artist, and a timeless icon...who will remain a reference."
And on Tue[...]
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