David Bowie

[Ziggy74]

I have been a fan since the 90's. Bowie was in a lull, and all his albums were $3 on cassette (those were plastic, rectangular cartridges housing magnetic tape ). This was also when I'd begun exploring my bi side. I was around 21, a songwriter myself, I wore purple pants, pretty earrings in both ears, one white and one black converse...lol...I had an older brother, though, who disowned me on suspicion of gayness, and I never wore an earring again, even though they weren't (for me) a statement about sexuality. I just thought the whole left/right code was fucking stupid, and still do. Ziggy was a kind of solace, though, to my brother's vicious verbal attack. Now I'm 38, and still exploring ; ) Bowie came out with an amazing album last March, called "The Next Day". There's not an off track on it, it's a solid work. I am in love with his bassist, Gail Ann Dorsey. What are your favorite Bowie phases, and how does his music relate to your bisexuality, if at all?

[ErosUrge]

Wow! I am so pleased with you starting this.

David Bowie for me was instrumental in realizing that there actually was a word to describe my sexuality. In the early 70s, I didn't know what to call it...I just knew I liked having sex with both sexes very much. It wasn't ever something I had thought about doing or wondered about doing...I'd already been active sexually that way.

I was only 17 when I first read about him. I often read music mags in the late 60s and early 70s....reading reviews of different rock stars or songwriters and their albums and live performances. I don't recall now who I was reading a review about, but they kept comparing the person's writing to David Bowie. And I kept wondering, 'who is David Bowie?' At that time Ziggy Stardust had just been released in America and I saw it displayed at a supermarket. I picked it up, looked it over carefully, and put it back down. I was pretty much a hippie wanna be at the time, so Bowie's look was a bit of a departure for me. I had stuggled to get my hair long all my teen life and when I saw how he looked, I wasn't quite ready for such a radical change. Eventually, I bought the album because I couldn't stop wondering about him and when I got it home and listened to it, I wasn't impressed at all. My room mate said he liked it so I gave the album to him.

In the spring of 1973, Space Oddity was released as a single in the U.S. though it had already been released and a hit for him in the UK in 1969. When I heard the song, it was magic to my ears. I loved the song so much, I raced out to get the album and was blown away when I heard all the songs on the album. To this day and in my opinion, it remains one of his master works both musically and especially lyrically. Being so impressed with the entire album, I was hungry to get more by him and purchased his entire catalog over the following weeks. Hunky Dory also amazed me musically and lyrically. And once again, I think lyrically the songs are some of the best written by anyone ever. And yes, I even grew to appreciate Ziggy Stardust at last.

By the time Aladdin Sane was released in spring 1973, I was completely enamoured by all things Bowie...he was some kind of superhuman to me and to many others my age. I lived and breathed David Bowie and kept up with every litte nuance of his existence as did a lot of youth at that time I later learned....he was more than just a trendsetter though he was that too. Many of us wondered if he perhaps was an alien entity in a human body just visiting....yes, it actually went that far with many people. During that period I was reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein...I highly recommend that book to anyone but particularly to bisexual people...anyhow, there was talk at that time about the story being done as a movie with Bowie playing the main character who happens to be from Mars which made perfect sense. But to much disappointment for many Bowie fans, it didn't happen. Then just 3 years later, the film the Man Who Fell To Earth was released and there's Bowie playing the main character and a visitor from another planet at that.....

When he publicly announced that he was bisexual along with his wife Angie, I was so elated. After hearing for so long that you were either queer or straight, it was the first time I'd ever heard anyone say "bisexual"...It was exciting to know that a person so popular was publicly stating that he was interested in both sexes as it was exactly how I'd been living those early years of my sexual life; sometimes more with guys, other times exclusively with girls...zigzagging between the two. It was empowering to know that at least now there was a name to give it; to define it. Though as most of us know bisexuality had/has always been with us and that there were/are other public figures who throughout history were/are bi. Bowie at that time (1972-73) was a major voice for pop culture and youth of those years. He was bold, courageous, and outspoken which so many admired and loved him for....this wasn't necessarily anything new as that is often what happened with certain individuals in pop culture.

As the years would pass, we would all learn that though we loved him and what he represented for us, he was also human and suffered many weaknesses like all the rest of us. But there is no doubt that he has been a major inspiration on many different levels for many different people. He's had many works of total brilliance but at the same time, he's also had some recordings that for me were a total disappointment after having so many great recordings in his early years. For me, his recordings in the 90's were a vast improvement compared to some of his recordings in the mid-80s.

I very much like "The Next Day" and I understand your attraction to Gail Ann Dorsey....

There's so much more to say, but I have to stop.

[Long Duck Dong]

Bowie, at the time of Hunky Dory's release in 1971, summed up the song as "A sensitive young girl's reaction to the media". In 1997 he added "I think she finds herself disappointed with reality ... that although she's living in the doldrums of reality, she's being told that there's a far greater life somewhere, and she's bitterly disappointed that she doesn't have access to it"

He was talking about the song, life on mars..... and it very much reflected my own opinion of the world around me and how i fitted into it..... something that is still true of me today.....

david bowie, for me, is unconventional, hes a part of humanity but at the same time, was not a part of it, he was unique, different.. not so much walking his own path but living in his own reality and world that was as true to him as our own realities can be true for us.... and growing up, my understanding of me was fine, it was valid and real for me, it was the * people on earth that were scared that they would find life on mars *....

for me, if I wanted to go and have a insane orgy tomorrow, thats my reality, I live on mars and if it means that the earth laws are broken, shit happens, I am done with the labels of earth, cos on mars we rewrite them whenever we fuckin please lol and if I was living a celibate lifestyle, it would not mean that I am suddenly not celibate, it means that I had a lunch break......

how that played out into my bisexual / pansexual nature, was simply that it was ok to be from mars, david bowie asked the question and we replied, we are from mars and venus and pluto and we are on earth for a holiday and to change the world into something like a LSD dream from the 70s and turn everybody into hippies... if we wanted to kiss the guy and girl next door, it was ok, it did not have to be sexual, it could be a panaromic explosion of * I felt like it, it was a spur of the moment thing, you are somebody I wanted to kiss at the time, I care about / like / love you so I kissed you, WTF does kissing you, feel like ? etc *

david empowered me to be who I was as a person and a non person.... and yeah parts of that bled off into my gothic, rebel, AC/DC hell raiser, twisted sister: we're not going to take it, motley crue: smoking in the boys room, etc etc.....but he will always be the person that put into a song, the truth of my reality...... is there life on mars ? yes there is.... come and party with us........

[Hypersexual11]

I'm envious, as usual, of you guys. I remember the mid 70's and seeing Bowie and knowing what he represented. In my circle though, in Butte Montana, the worlds center of homophobia, just being a fan would be asking to get the crap beat out of you and drug behind a huge pick up truck. That attitude was probably the reason for my absolute love of any angry music. The first time I heard Judas Priest, I thought omg, this is me. Party, fuck and fight. Odd how I never outgrew it. Now over 50, I get moved the most by death metal. hmm Bummer, I missed out on something beautiful.

Off subject but along the lines, I was a big fan of Elton John from his early days. Guy is a genius. The day he came out as gay I was at a friend's house with a few guys. They all looked at me with rage in their eyes and said "aren't you a fan of this cock gobbling faggot?" "hell no, not any more" was my statement to keep my health. Gotta love kids!

[Ziggy74]

Wow, cool stuff Eros and others - I too didn't immediately click with Ziggy, as much as his quite folksy first album. To this day I don't think most people know Bowie even had what could be called a folk phase. But with all his albums, I have found they endgender (if i can say that of Bowie) themselves on repeat listens, like paintings.
Also, as a musician myself, his music is a blast to play, none moreso than the Ziggy material. Not all songs, even great ones, are so much fun. Bowie has a weird sense of harmony that no one else can really cop. They say the Beatles were innovative with chords; and they were, but Bowie's are another step out there.

Then, there is the vocal consideration. I was a voice major in the 90's also, and you were allowed to sing either opera or leider. Broadway was considered bad technique. Pop and rock was right out. Rock ruins your voice, they'd say. They were mostly right. But I actually found better instruction singing Bowie than struggling to give a shit about Schubert. I first attained what they call "mixed voice", which is a major turning point, doing "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud". All of a sudden, there was this huge, ringing mid-high note. I had another breakthrough, quite late, but at 37 was able to take it a lot higher, again on Bowie material, that being "Life on Mars" with its high Bb.

I'm amazed at how well he sounds on the new album. There's no "auto-tune" bullshit there.

As for the 80's, there's a ton of gems there also...Loving the Alien, Look Back in Anger, Jump they Say.

[elian]

I like all the typical songs, I was surprised and pleased that there are a few different styles of music spanning the different years. I do hear strains of folk, disco, R&B, rock, a little industrial depending on the song.

Apparently now he claims that being bisexual was just a phase..

[fredtyg]

Ziggy played guitar...

[Mike2922]

I agree very cool thread...Who remembers the movie Christiane F…came out in late 80/81 (senioryear in HS for me BTW). My girlfriend atthe time and I were simply blown away by it...it’s been such a long time I don’tremember If Bowie actually appeared in the film or just his music…I remember myGF going out and buying all his albums. Shestarted dressing like the Christiane character in the movie (well she wasn't a character...she was a real person)(..and not just her I should say we started…I was so wiped I wouldhave done anything for her). We never tried“H” lol but we did experiment sexually as a result of seeing that film. Wefucked for the first time just a few days after seeing it when her mom was out…triedour first fmf with a friend of her mother’s (…that was before they were calledMILFs…at that time they were called either horny divorcees or divorcees whowere hot to trot lol). Then a few fmfs with girls she met. We had our firstmfm (were she was the focus), then mmf (were the other guy was clearlygay), then mfmf etc, etc, etc…yea her mom was gone a lot. I wonder were that GF is these days? I should look her up ;)

[scapegoat1987]

I remember Bowie from my teenage years, when he was going through his "Let's Dance" and "China Girl" phase. I loved his stuff back then, but truly fell in love with Bowie in 1992, when left alone in my brother's college dorm room for the entire day with nothing to do. I discovered ChangesBowie in his stack of cds, and I've been a fan of his older stuff ever since. I used to have a poster of the ChangesBowie album cover over my bed. I still get tingles down the back of my spine every time I listen to that album, which is quite often. David Bowie is one of my heroes.

[DiamondDog]

I like all the typical songs, I was surprised and pleased that there are a few different styles of music spanning the different years. I do hear strains of folk, disco, R&B, rock, a little industrial depending on the song.

Apparently now he claims that being bisexual was just a phase..

There was an interview he gave in the early 00's where someone asked him about being bisexual and he said how yes he is bisexual but how at least in the United States that by coming out as bisexual in the late 60s and early 70s people focused more on his sexuality than his music.

[tenni]

I just saw the David Bowie exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario a few hours ago. It originated in London England. The exhibition is brilliant!!!! Its use of media arts, photos, etc. was extremely well done to show you the genius of Bowie over the decades. You wear a head set as you go through the exhibition rooms. The minute that you are in range with the specific exhibit the head set audio switches. There was even a section where if you walked on a certain part of the rug the music would change. I think that Bowie was involved in creating this. His drawings for certain performances are there along with the costumes and video footage etc. Yes, it shows the androgenous approach and so much more. I don't know where the exhibition is going next but if you get a chance do go and see it. It gives viewers a glimpse at the evolution of his various characters and how it related to what he was experiencing that influenced these characters. His bisexuality is not played up. It is just his gender bending in his work explained the change in British music and the global music.

There is a video of him speaking as an eighteen year old. His hair is long and he is speaking to a TV reporter about how he has joined an organization that fights cases where long haired men were being persecuted for dressing that way. He said something about how they would fight for the people if they lost their job etc. It shows his androgenous approach very early. He was Davie Jones at that point in his life. It mentions that in the 70's he had his album covers censored in the US at least four times by blurring genitals etc.

He crossed over several art forms and this is clear in the exhibition. NO, Elian. You are wrong about his sexuality in a way. The exhibition never said bisexual but sexuality is all through the exhibition not as much as we think about it...more about creativity. He was even a mime artist at one point and his theatrical performance art is all through his decades. I think of it more as creativity than any stereotypical sexuality. He was key to the glam rock aspect of British music. In one song (Boys) he sings in suit and tie but also is shown wearing women's clothes. He eventually pulls off the wigs and smears his lipstick across his face as he sings. (as multi characters) I think of it more about stereotyping sexuality. I had never seen the video before. I'm not sure it was was an 80's video. It mentions his early influence on music videos and the creative aspect used.

Somewhere along his life he seems to have had his teeth fixed. Early on his teeth were visibly crooked.

[NMCowboys]

I found this David Bowie video. He was very thin then since he was anorexic, and addicted to, and using a lot of cocaine and heroin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa6bI_95G9I