entertainment scene

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33933, 28 August 1975, Page 5

entertainment scene

Bowie—symbol for 70s

•By

BRIAN TIMMS

For some people. David Bowie has become as much a symbol of the seventies as Presley was of the fifties or the Beatles or Dylan of the sixties. There is no way that Bowie could have failed. He looks beautiful, sings with grace, power and precision, and writes superb and imaginative songs. He is almost unmatchable in any of these essential respects, but there are two other aspects of Bowie which have contributed more to his super-stardom. The first is his sensitive, powerful intellect, and the second is his unerring knowledge of exactly what step to take next. Only once has he faltered, in “Diamond Dogs,” the only album of new work Bowie has produced which is less than successful, artistically at least. Almost any examination of Bowie's albums must be superficial. There is no way of doing any of them justice in a restricted space, so I’ll content myself with brief glimpses only, with inevitable inaccuracy. David Bowie first appeared on the music scene about 1966 with a minor hit entitled “Love You Till Tuesday.’’ it was a time of one-shot stars: Bowie surfaced and vanished almost without a ripple, until "Space Oddity” in 1968 put his name more to the fore. The resultant album did not sell, and the next two were made in almost complete obscurity. Insight "Space Oddity” is the least integrated record Bowie has done — hardly surprising in a first effort. What is surprising is the depth and sophistication of it. Comparing, for example, the Beatle’s first album with their later work, one is amazed at their progress — with Bowie the power and insight are all there, first time out. .“Space Oddity” is a strange haunting album chronicling mainly the death of the flower-power movement, and the emergence of ugliness and evil from vehind the Peace-and-Love facade. Musically, “Space Oddity” is mixed, soaring strings to harsh electrics to gentle acoustics. Bowie’s obsessive interest in madness and deviance first'appears on this album and expands into full flower on his second outing, “The Man Who Sold The World.” This record is wholy electric, and Mick Ronson appears as a sideman for the first time. “Man Who Sold the World” is too harsh for casual listening, and the searing psychotic lyrics are matched by equally searing music. Full of ideas and fascinating images, the album has fewquiet spots, but is notable for the odd touches of science - fiction, another Bowie theme which resurfaces here and there. It scarcely sold at all, at the time, in fact an early Bowie interview said that it had sold five copies, and he’d bought them all.

By the third disc, “Hunky Dory” some interest was being shown by the public. America is another Bowie fascination, appearing both to attract and repel him. “Hunky Dory” has many glimpses of America, also of the future, and. possibly most important, several glimpses into Bowie’s own past. “Hunky Dory” dealt less with madness than the earlier discs, but saw the start of a new theme which grew into Bowie’s main obsession for several records. Musically it’s a mixed bag, with a wide range, of arrangements and styles, and none of the fevered drive of “Man Who Sold The World." David also takes time to acknowledge a few influencing heroes — not surprisingly, they include Dylan, Warhol and Lou Reed. The keen intellect and musical talent that are Bowie's are most apparent at this time; later the flash of super-stardom concealed them somewhat. With the fourth album. “ The Rise and . Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.” came fame and fortune. Suddenly the name of David Bowie was on the lips of rock lovers everywhere — first as a teenybop idol, then almost immediately as a producer of first-rate music. Bowie helped launch the great resurgence of: her o-worship, helped: launch glitter-rock. and' rapidly established himself as a materly live performer, —exciting, sexy, flashy — . and without a hint of musical comprimise. Confidence But the album itself — “Ziggy Stardust” — will; go down as one of the major rock records of all time. Perhaps the first impression is of the total self-confidence of Bowie and his musicians, by now welded into a powerhouse of sympathetic energy. I

The intelligence, the obsessions, the sensitivity are all still there, but no longer accessible only to the intellectuals. Bowie had discovered the kids, and without partonising them had produced music that they too, could understand Side one must be one of ■ the main tours de force in rock — it’s majesty, power, and electric bite still impress and convince in 1975. Side two traces the rise and fall of an archetype rock star but BoWie saved himself from Ziggy’s fate. After "Ziggy" came “Aladdin Sane" which is considerably more eclectic and even more savage than “Man Who Sold the World". All electric, and with compressed, maniac lyrics, “Aladdin Sane" proved too much for most of the critics, but in retrospect seems a logical step. It’s full of American and science-fiction imagery, continuing Bowie’s fascination with the collapse of Western society which runs through “Hunke Dory" and “Ziggy". Images of deviance, sex, drugs, violence. and general anarchy abound, the music is aggressive in the extreme and very difficult to listen to unless one is in the right mood. Normally I strongly disapprove of “revival” records but it’s difficult to fault Bowie’s next release.) “Pinups”. A series of 19605: songs, mostly originating: from British bands, such as) Pink Floyd, Them, and Who. “Pinups” is done) with such verve and flair that, although clearly just: a holiday for Bowie, it’s a, most enjoyable disc. But it’s outside the main stream of his creative output. II ooden guitar Next we come to the most appalling vision of i all, and also the most I badly flawed — “Diamond Dogs.” Bowie made two serious errors on this disc.) The first was to part with; Mick Ronson, and then; play his own lead guitar. He is certainly more than adequate, but compared to) Ronson’ fluidity, Bowies lead is wooden and unimaginative. The second error was to have become convinced of his own genius, symbolised by calling himself only “Bowie” on the credits of this disc. Only a) superstar of the very highest order can get away with this sort of thing — Harlow, Sinatra -— and I know of no-one else who) would dare try to give; themselves this status.

“Diamond Dogs’ is a terrifying, distorted feverish vision of New York) City after atomic war, and is the culmination of) Bowie’s different themes in one apocalyptic whole. It works, fairly well, but i lacks the musical and instrumental brilliance of the earlier albums, and is alspi marred by the inclusion of; “Rebel Rebel", a pleasant enough Top 40 song but in) no way relevant to the holocaustic concept of the album. “Diamond Dogs" represents the lowest point] of David Bowie’s creative) output, and even then is head and shoulders above most of the rock albums of 1974. The double live album “David Live”, although almost entirely rehashes of old material, or other peoples material, gave few; clues of things to come. The image was different, but the music, not being new pointed nowhere. “David Live” is not a good album, and coming as it does during a long break in Bowie’s creative work, look dangerously like a pot-boil£r. Latest album But now there’s a new album, and it’s totally dif-! ferent. Not only has the! image change, but so has the music. Bowie has absorbed the Philadelphia; black soul sound and made it entirely his own. The album is totally American, and totally brilliant. I must cofess that I hesi- i fated for along time beforeattempting to review "The Young Americans ”, because it gives me the uneasy feeling of being beyond my power to grasp What can 1 say that will) convey some impressions! of it? I’he music is moving, disturbing, without a trace of overt violence. The; lyrics are cryptic, almost to the point of being meaningless, yet meaning lurks beneath the surface, elud-; mg the mind yet appealing! to the emotions. .Moods! range from sobbing desper-1

atton. as in the title track to passionate love cl as cination") to cynicisir (“Fame". "Somebody U| There Likes Me"l to tende reminescence < "Can Yot Hear Me”). For the first tune since Space Odditv " Bowie ha written love songs, ant what superb songs the) are His singing style ha? completely changed to< and Bowies voice cries wails. cufses. pleads breaths gently or shouts ranging from surprising bass to equally surprising falsetto In every song hi brings life, emotion and in tensity to the lyrics Backings are equally good, especially the amaz

mg vocal cnsemb e used on most of the tracks — apparently all biack »>u Bowie beauti/uily a» <1 th< restrained bui always interesting and original m strumentals. All m all. it's difficult to describe the intense soaring brilliance of The Young Americans “ It takes i while to get used to u but it’s so very much worth the effort fd sat that s . tar it's one of the best two or three records of 1975 Bowie has certainl' changed his style, but his unequalled talent is still in full flight, and undoubted!' capable of producing evei Helfer things in the Inline