Erstellt am: 7. 1. 2015 - 13:28 Uhr
Today's Webtip: ancient Bowie
35 years ago I was a fat midwestern kid with feathered hair, multiple pairs of cowboy boots and at least one suede-denim leisure suit. I played with Star Wars figures, collected stamps (space stamps, mind you) and tried to draw my own comics.
I also listened to a lot of music. I had already been through an Elvis and Kiss phase, still enjoyed my complete Beatles collection, fantasized about the end of my torment with Pink Floyd and was in the middle of building up a collection of David Bowie albums.
35 years ago 11 year olds didn't go to rock concerts. Actually, if my parents had done even basic research on the music I was buying I probably would have been grounded, had my albums burned and probably shipped off to my Grandpas farm to have some sense worked into me. Although I had managed to score a very illicit copy of The Man Who Fell to Earth, I had never seen Bowie perform. I honestly didn't think I ever would.
And then it happened. One weekend 35 years ago I stayed up later than I was supposed to and watched a TV show I could have been grounded for. Saturday Night Live.
It represented everything my parents hated in the world. And it was about to blow my little mind.
That performance made me an obsessive fan. I started hunting down everything I could find, a process that brought me to Klaus Nomi, The Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol, de Sade, Kafka, Genet, Sartre, William Burroughs...
Thanks Dave.