Bowie & Bassey

They have given me a lifetime of listening love & they share a birthday today. Like your host, they are Capricorns, certainly the brightest & best birth sign. Unlike your host, the pair of Brits have had decades long super careers in show biz. Shirley Bassey feeds my fantasies as I get old, epitomized in beautiful songs like Charles Aznavour's Yesterday, When I Was Young. David Bowie encourages me to stay a young American, bored with my external characters, daring to seek ideas within my alterative egos. He is an artist-hero who kills off his past roles - Ziggy Stardust, spaceman, bisexualist, rebel  like out dated clothing.

Both, too, are beyond normal criticism, defying purely musical assessment. Bassey over-sings,but thrillingly, & cannot perform except with total commitment. Bowie over-plays, but rivetingly, & demands attention by his extravagant idiosyncrasy, which is as professionally unrepentant as hers. She devours the listener; he incites the listener. Each powerfully proves the power of personality.

“Interesting…. On announcing that I am bisexual, I don’t think it was a mistake in Europe, but it was a lot tougher in America. I had no problem with people knowing I was bisexual. But I had no inclination to hold any banners or be a representative of any group of people. I knew what I wanted to be, which was a songwriter & a performer, & I felt that bisexuality became my headline over here for so long. America is a very puritanical place, & I think it stood in the way of so much I wanted to do.”

Funny, but I seem to really fully embrace artists when they are at their core fans’ & critic’s low ebb: The Beatles- The White Album, The Rolling Stones- Some Girls, U2- Achtung Baby, REM- Automatic For The People. I have listened to & collected David Bowie since 1969 with the release of Space Oddity (a song I still listen to). That is 40+ years of living with David Bowie in his many incarnations & personas. But, my favorite era for David Bowie was not Ziggy Stardust, The Thin White Duke, Alladin Sane, or the Brian Eno lean years of Low. I love David Bowie of the Let’s Dance era of the mid-1980s. That album, along with Tonight were the soundtrack of the very best time of my life. Modern Love, Let’s Dance, China Girl… songs that mixed blue-eyed soul with an Industrial edge & pop sensibilities. I thought David was in his best voice & his sexiest during this time. I saw some serious moonlight in the 1980s.

He always bristled, although I can't imagine why, but in the day The Husband was often told, sometimes by strangers, that he strongly resembled David Bowie. I still think he does, although The Husband always dismisses this suggestion.

"Diamonds never leave you... men do!"

There is a list of British acts that have eluded pure popularity in the USA: Celia Black, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, & Robbie Williams come to mind. But why hasn’t Shirley Bassey caught on in this country after 50 years of recording great pop music & being the #1 Female Artist in Britain? Especially with American Gays? The Husband & I really dig her. We were zany for her cover of Pink's Get The Party Started in the party summer of 2007.

Shirley Bassey won an entirely new generation of fans when she guested on a 1997 song from British techno act, Propellerheads. History Repeating charted in both Europe & North America, & appeared on the soundtrack to the popular 1998 film There's Something About Mary. Yet Bassey had already enjoyed a long, 5 decade career as a performer before this point, recording a string of hit singles in the 1960s & garnering a devoted cult following for her torchy, often slightly risqué songs, glamorous looks, & compelling stage presence. Sometimes called "Bassey the Belter" for her strong alto voice, Bassey had previously enjoyed a huge international hit when she performed the title song to the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger. She went on to record 3 Bond themes songs, more than any other artist. Bassey posseses one of the most instantly recognizable voices in popular music.

Dame Shirley Bassey isn't just the biggest voice to come out of Wales, the 74 year old singer remains Britain's most successful female artist. No wonder Rufus Wainwright, Pet Shop Boys & K.T. Tunstall were queuing up to write songs for her.

Bowie turns 65 years old today. Bassey is a fabulous 75. What are your favorite Bowie & Bassey recordings? I go for Bassey's Yesterday, When I Was Young & Bowie's Ashes To Ashes.