Musical Roots, part 2

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:07:49 +0000

Then I heard David Bowie. A friend of mine was telling me about hearing the song “Space Oddity,” and soon we each had a copy of ChangesOne. It was interesting listening to this music, and there was something very attractive in it for me and also something different, that I had not heard before. I was compelled to buy another of his records, and I decided to try his most recent release: Scary Monsters. It was 1981; I was 14, and wanting to find something I could absorb myself in that sounded fresh. I found it in Scary Monsters. I was so happy on hearing this album I shed tears while dancing around in ecstasy. I couldn’t believe how the music wrapped around me, feeling so new and comfortable at once. I started collecting all his previous releases back to The Man Who Sold the World. I was so fascinated by his creativity. There was something in his process and execution that stirred an artist inside of me. I still think he has the most incredible output of a musician over that decade (‘70 – ‘80), over those albums. I responded well to all that work, but I have to say, the stuff that really got me, that really stuck and went in deep, is the work done between ‘76 and ‘80, when he had the rhythm band of Carlos Alomar on guitar, George Murray on bass, and Dennis Davis on drums backing him up. Those guys laid down a solid groove for Bowie (and whoever the lead guitarist happened to be, and anyone else who might have appeared on the track) that was moving and tight and bouncy.

Another thing that listening to David Bowie did for me was get me ready for the coming new wave British explosion, which started for me in 1982 when one afternoon I picked up my first two 12” singles: “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell and “Let’s Go to Bed” by The Cure. What followed over the next few years was a musical inundation by a range of these new bands, including: Soft Cell, The Cure, OMD, Visage, Japan, New Order, Depeche Mode, The Thompson Twins, Blancmange, Thomas Dolby, Bauhaus, Cabaret Voltaire, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam and the Ants, Public Image Ltd., Shriekback, Tones on Tail, etc. I started to go to dances, and got into spinning records a bit myself. And that’s the stuff, the early 80’s synthpop and post-punk stuff, that made the indelible impression on me. That was the music I was obsessed with when I learned to drive, experimented with intoxicants, started having sex, graduated from high school…

And it was a period that was for me ushered in by David Bowie. And even though I wasn’t so fond of his new look and popularity after his move to EMI and the release of Let’s Dance, I feel that I learned a lot from him creatively, and through him I also became acquainted with other groups that would be important for me, like Iggy Pop (and the Stooges), Brian Eno (and Robert Fripp), and The Velvet Underground… Something of the spirit of David Bowie struck a deep chord in me that still resonates today.

DirtyBloodMachine » synthpop

Musical Roots, part 2