Let's Dance

The Husband during a Bowie Period circa 1983

Let's dance,

Put on your red shoes

& dance the blues

Let's dance,

To the song they're playin' on the radio

Let's sway,

While color lights up your face

Let's sway,

Sway through the crowd

In an empty space

If you say run, I'll run with you

& if you say hide, we'll hide

Because my love for you

Would break my heart in two

If you should fall

Into my arms

& tremble like a flower

Let's dance,

For fear your grace should fall

Let's dance,

For fear tonight is all

Let's sway,

You could look into my eyes

Let's sway under the moonlight, this serious moonlight

& if you say run,

I'll run with you

& if you say hide, we'll hide

Because my love for you

Would break my heart in two

If you should fall

Into my arms

& tremble like a flower

Let's dance,

Put on your red shoes

& dance the blues

Let's dance,

To the song we're playing

Let's sway

Let's sway,

Under the moonlight,

The serious moonlight

Let's dance

Let's

Let's sway

Let's

Let's dance Let's dance Let's dance

Let's dance

Bowie

1983

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.

Andy Warhol... Party Animal

Andy & Archie by Jack Mitchell

Andy Warhol had a passion for party animals animals, especially canines. He brought his dachshund- Archie along to his many events & travels. I have lived a life filled with regrets, including not trying to infiltrate the Factory crowd when I lived in Manhattan in the 1970s... but then again, it might have done me in.

Archie 1976

Great Dane 1976

Portrait of Maurice 1976

Blue Pussy 1954

Andy & Archie by Jamie Wyeth 1975

Because

Photo by Beaton

Born On This Day- January 8th... Music Icon David Bowie

“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.”



It is 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.

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

Born On This Day- December 8th... Music Icon David Bowie

It is funny, but I seem to really fully embrace artists when they are at their core fans’ & critic’s low ebb: Beatles- White Album, 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 was 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.

David Bowie was born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947 in Brixton, London, & went by Davie Jones until someone else with that name became famous & he told his manager that- “I am not going to be anyone’s Monkee. Bowie has contributed 5 decades of popular music & has frequently reinvented his music & image. He is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. He has been cited as an influence by many musicians & is known for his distinctive voice & the intellectual depth of his work.

How much fun would it be to have Elizabeth Taylor & David Bowie over for cocktails?

As a multi-instrumentalist, he is famous for playing the guitar, piano & saxophone; but also plays the harmonica, drums, cello, marimba, bass guitar, koto, & stylophone. He rose to fame with the heady 1969 folk rock single Space Oddity & moved on to become a glam rock icon with the album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars (1972). Subsequent albums have explored blue-eyed soul, electronica & new wave, often pre-dating these genres’ popularity or even the point at which they were defined as genres. Bowie is one of the most influential rock musicians from the 1970s to the present. He has sold an estimated 136 million albums in his career & has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Bowie has enjoyed success as a painter, web-designer, sculptor, Broadway- actor starring in The Elephant Man, & movie actor starring in many films including Labyrinth, Basquiat, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Hunger, The Prestige & Zoolander.

 

On September 11, 1977, David Bowie appeared alongside Bing Crosby for the filming of Crosby’s annual Christmas special, shortly before Crosby’s death. Their duet of Little Drummer Boy proved to be one of the most influential moments of music history as the 2 singers bridged the generations with a single song.

“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.”


Footnote: David Bowie’s son- Duncan Jones diected one of the best films of 2009- Moon.