When I heard David Bowie had died, I remembered my Bowie moment. Picture a young Californian girl dancing to “Rebel, Rebel” in a Princeton eating club. Those clubs were far more likely to play Southern rock and Motown like “Hey-ey Baby, Will You Be My Girl?” than glam anything-at-all. Someone had switched it up that night; we were maybe in togas?
“Rebel, Rebel” played above us, perfect and dissonant.
I know many of those who have been moved by Mr. Bowie were real rebels, the overtly odd ones, and he made them feel it was OK to be weird. Not I. That night I had a lot of Shetland sweaters yet to wear, a lot of fitting in yet to attempt. Took me a long time to find my inner Bowie, and maybe I’ll always be looking, but I thank him for his guidance.
And hey, Fair Isle sweaters eventually found their inner Bowie. Also here. Maybe Shetlands’ time will come as well. R.I.P, David. All our Bowie moments thank you very much.
21 Responses
Such a loss, so many wonderful songs, a true original.
I loved “Rebel Rebel”, and was a bit confused when I first realized it was not a Rolling Stones song. Mr. Bowie wrote that, I’ve since learned, to pee Sir Mick off!
Picture 32 years old woman (ha!), dancing in the rain more than 3 hours in concert at the stadium 35 years ago!
I loved every second!
And he is gone as a gentleman!
dottoressa
@dottoressa, Well,I was good in math :-)…. 25 years before,I’m 57!
Dottoressa
I had more than a Bowie moment…I’ve had a Bowie life. He helped me to accept myself as a queer disabled woman. He didn’t try to fit into society’s expectations of how he should dress or act – he forged a new path and DEFINED style for a generation. He helped make the world safer for us “misfits” to be ourselves and love how we look and dress! RIP Mr. Bowie.
I like to remember him by part of his lyrics to his song “Heroes” :
We could steal time, just for one day
We can be heroes, forever and ever
What’d you say?
I had a crush on a cute guy in college who played Bowie songs on his guitar and tried his best to sing like David….sad imitation, but, I thought the guy was cute so what can I say? We dated a couple of times, but I realized that I only
liked him for his guitar and Bowie impersonation, and that was the end.
“Starman” is a favorite of mine.
Growing up in a grey Northern industrial town in England David Bowie shone a colourful and creative light into my little dull corner of Lancashire. Inspired more than a little by DB, weird haircuts and outlandish dressing followed and so did art school. A working life in the creative industries that I love is owed in part to that first sight of Starman and his blue acoustic guitar and Kansai Yamamoto clothes. I am so grateful for Bowie’s inspiration and my world will be a little dimmer without him.
His music, his art, his style – he was a huge influence on many parts of my life- My first moment was when I heard Ziggy Stardust and listened to every song on the album in one sitting.
I was fortunate to see him in concert twice and the exhibition at V&A in London.
The world is a little duller place.
If you say run, I’ll runnn with youuuuu, if you say hide, we’ll hide…
I wrote this on Annie Green’s “NoHatNoGloves” blog yesterday, and I hope she doesn’t mind me cut-and-pasting it, but your post calls out a similar response, and I haven’t the energy this morning to try saying it again in different words. Hope you don’t mind either: “I’ve been feeling a bit odd, a bit left out, with all the DB reminiscing. I had my first child in ’76, and three more in step-stair 3-year intervals after that. Somehow, although I know the obvious songs, his music didn’t play much of a role in my life, although in retrospect I an see that it carved out all kinds of important cultural and social space. Feeling a bit melancholy about it all, to be honest, wondering about that young mom. . . . (awfully narcissistic way to respond to someone else’s death, I know!)”
In my early 20’s, fresh from the farm, I reluctantly agreed to accompany a friend to a concert at Seattle’s Paramount Theater in the early 80’s.
Who was this fabulous freaky guy whose music had me dancing out of my mind all night? I’d never danced with such abandon and left the concert a grown-up. Wish I would have/could have thanked him somehow, but his death was as much a surprise as that night.
I feel like such an old lady. It was my kids who introduced me to Bowie. I adored him. My son made me a tape for my Sony Walkman. The first song was Dance With Me. That was the beginning! RIP
I was a Mowtown, Shetland sweater girl too, but I confess their was a tiny bit of rebel in me. A girl who looked much sunnier than she really was. My guilty pleasure revel music was more Led Zepplin than David Bowie, but I appreciate his contribution to the non status quo. Certain of us needed that back then..
My very first album was Let’s Dance. How I loved it! I was 13 years old and it was an introduction to my teen years. I remember sitting on the floor in the living room just clutching the album cover. I though DB was fantastic, I had such a crush on him. I have differently coloured eyes (one blue-green, the other green-half brown) which I was teased for endlessly and DB made me feel like it was a special thing. It was cool to be different.
Good heavens. Typo. “There” was. Lol.
Bowie’s nonconformity helped me & my fellow science club & band misfits feel validated & encouraged to find our own unique ways. His musical style, with influences from rockabilly, jazz, blues, etc. helped widen my appreciation for different musical genres. When my husband & I were dating, we saw Bowie in 1983 at the Tacoma Dome featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan, speaking of classic icons who have passed on…
I feel more like Karin – the Bowie of ‘Aladdin Sane’ & later the sensational ‘Diamond Dogs’set the soundtrack for my early 20s in Bristol as a fag hag and radical feminist (mostly dressed in 1930s vintage) – he was ours ! The 2nd time my life opened out and everything seemed possible was when I turned 30 – this was the era of ‘Ashes to Ashes’ – and this time I decided to give up even trying to be respectable and went in for Art .
I remember the first time I heard Changes, and the way it echoed through my brain. I was such a quiet, nicely-dressed, Texas/Southern (I grew up in Texas by my mom was more Mississippian than Texan) girl, who liked soft rock and was not outwardly daring. But I already knew that I didn’t necessary see the world the way either the way my parents or my peers did, and Bowie’s music helped me to open a door, even if very slowly at first. That song still touches something primal.
“Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange”
I never really had a particular song or moment, but being born at the start of the ’70s, Bowie’s music was just an all-pervasive part of my youth. I would turn on the radio from a fairly young age, so what I listened to was not dependant on my parents, though there were some influences.
I’m not sure we can even determine fully the influence that he had on music, art, performance, and the way we viewed other people that were different to ourselves in some way. I’m sad that he was still quite young, but grateful for all that he did that improved our world (and ourselves).
I did go to a Bowie concert in Earls Court in the 70s it was superb, of course. But as poor students, our seats were light years away from the stage and he was a little dot in the distance. So my more memorable Bowie moment was meeting up with an school friend in a bar just off Oxford Street for a couple of drinks. There was a video juke box (very exciting at the time) and for 50p a shot we watched/listened to China Girl all afternoon, maybe 20 times … how reckless! I love(d) him ….
I thought you were going to reference this Bowie fairisle jumper moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXEoqb0_mrg for my generation, along with Labyrinth, iconic.
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