B is for Bowie

B is a difficult letter to find an artist for, not because of lack of choice but because there is too much.

The B-52s, Bananarama, Billy Bragg, the Beach Boys and Bjork all come to mind and then on a higher tier entirely there's Blondie, Blur and the Beatles - surely the most innovative and creative group in the history of forever.

But I chose Bowie because he's a bit out there and is surely the coolest singing artist alive. I didn't fully appreciate him growing up, although the eerie other world nature of Ashes to Ashes had a big impact on my early teens.

Through his outlandish costumes and numerous changes Bowie helped set the scene for punk and the New Romantic era and all of the movements that made it so exciting to grow up in the eighties.

 While Bowie emphasizes British coolness he has a curious transatlantic quality. While Americans often see Brits as cooler and more innovative, it was the other way round growing up in Britain.

Bowie, formerly David Jones, whose voice was considered "adequate" in the school choir, famously heard "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard and declared he had "heard God."

One interesting line stands out from his Wikipedia entry.

"When Bowie left the technical school the following year, he informed his parents of his intention to become a pop star. His mother promptly arranged his employment as an electrician's mate."

Fortunately Bowie sought electricity elsewhere and became Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke, generally forgetting who he really was, taking too many drugs and losing the plot while still producing amazing material. At his most androgynous best Bowie was compared to Lauren Bacall, although his Ziggy character reminded me more of my aunt Joan on acid; or at least how she would have looked on acid.

Then Bowie reinvented himself again in the eighties as a slick character with blond hair and a white suit.

Bowie faded out somewhat after that but when I saw him on stage in the 1990s I was amazed by his energy to think here was a guy who was born in the 1940s, throwing himself around the stage.

Bowie's biography suggests he was a pain in the backside, as well as a perfectionist, a sure sign of real genius.

Curious Fact about David Bowie - David Bowie appears to have different colored eyes. This is a result of serious damage to one eye sustained in a fight with his best friend George Underwood over a girl in 1962. They remained friends and Underwood was tasked to do the art on Bowie's early albums.