BOWIE

Heroes just for one day…

Ever since I was a young boy in search of myself, music has been a big part of what defines me. Many artists and bands were played, and I thought many of these songs would become the soundtracks of my life.

However, the vast majority of these have not followed me through life. The sound faded as the years went by. But there was one artist who managed to reinvent himself every decade when the tones of the previous era began to fade. Not only when it came to music, but also image. It wasn’t the fashion houses that created the 80s trend of baggy trousers, big shirts, suit jackets with shoulder pads and trench coats. Preferably with slightly high hair and a cool attitude. David Bowie in fact created that style. The fashion houses lagged. Every time Bowie changed his style, the world changed with him. Bowie was an artist who shaped me and my taste in music right from the start. Without me being fully aware of it, he somehow got under my skin.

I still buy and read everything I come across about Bowie. It is not like I am actively looking. It is conceivable that the market is flooded with Bowie material without me noticing, but I almost feel like the books and magazines find me. A few years ago, I came across a travelogue written by Geoff MacCormac signed by both Bowie and MacCormac. It deals with a journey the two had after a Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Zane tour in Japan in 1973. Bowie had a fear of flying and the journey home was by ship, car, and the Trans-Siberian railway from the city of Khabarovsk to Moscow. MacCormack had bought a Nikkormat camera in Japan and documented the trip thoroughly. It resulted in a fantastic book that oozes with personal anecdotes and experiences from young people on a journey. The book tells a lot about Bowie as a person and traveling companion.

Much has been said and written about Bowie and many funny anecdotes have been told over the years. Like when he moved to Berlin from Los Angeles in 1976 to overcome his drug addiction. Bowie was once interviewed about his drug problem but denied it was a problem: – Drugs are everywhere and I get them mostly for free. A few months later, an old friend moved into the apartment with Bowie. Iggy Pop came to Berlin because there was such an abundant supply of drugs there. The end of that story was that Iggy moved out into a shed in the backyard and took a job as a building caretaker.

Yesterday I was at the weekly market in my neighbourhood. It takes place every Saturday and anyone can set up their stall and sell anything. Some have specialised in crystal and china, some in clothing and some in LP records. I stopped at the LPs. Thomas is a well-known former rock musician who was clearly going to thin out his collection. We got talking over a 1967 first edition of The Mothers of Invention with Frank Zappa. Eventually the conversation turned to David Bowie. He had no Bowie records for sale.

It quickly became apparent that we both were Bowie fans and that we had the same experience around his last and 26th release; Blackstar which hit the store on his 69th birthday, Friday 8th January 2016. We had both bought it on release day and played it all weekend. On Monday morning the news came that Bowie had passed away while we were playing his last record. Neither of us had played it since.

We exchanged text quotes from Blackstar “Where the fuck did Monday go?”, “Look up here, I’m in heaven I’ve got scars that can’t be seen”, “Everybody knows me now”, “Ain’t that just like me?”

There were goosebumps and a couple of tears shed by two grown men in a marketplace while the sun was shining and the trade around us was going on as normal.

Who actually died? It wasn’t like Bowie was a close friend, so why did I go into a grieving process in 2016 that I’m still not completely out of? Bowie was a part of my youth, a part of my adulthood and was probably ingrained in a stronger way than I had realised. His voice cannot be copied or described. If God or the Devil had a voice, it would be his.

It was Thomas who broke the silence first; “After Bowie I realised I was cured. His death was so powerful that I don’t care who dies anymore.” “Listen up! You will all die!” he shouted out across the market. Everyone knew who he was so most laughed. But this was serious between us fans. The two of us had a moment there.

As I strolled away, the rock musician walked from his stall with his head down as he said “This is getting too strong. I’m going home now” to laughter from the other traders in the square.

When Geoff MacCormack pitched the idea of making a book about the journey from Japan through the Soviet Union to Bowie, he became very enthusiastic; “Oh Geoff! What a terrifically clever idea this is! I am all kinds of shades of green as I didn’t think of it first. Take the two of us and pretend we go to America, Japan and, wait for it, fuc..ing Russia of all places, me as a rock star and you as a cheerful backing singer and sidekick and then write a book about it! Brilliant!

There was a lot of pretending about Bowie, and that was part of the whole package. But he was very real to a couple of middle-aged men at a marketplace this Saturday in July.