Agent of change: the many transformations of David Bowie
In this story first published in SCMP's Style magazine in 2012, Abid Rahman looks at 40 years of Bowie's career following the release of his seminal 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
WHILE living in Berlin a few years ago, I found myself taking a David Bowie tour of the city. This wasn't an official tour; there were no guides or any semblance of organisation, and it took more than a week to complete, given all the drinking dens that 'needed' to be visited.
The tour was a personal journey gleaned from various Bowie-in-Berlin trivia I had acquired over the years. After a visit to Hansa Studio (where the seminal albums Low and Heroes were recorded), much of the time was spent carousing in the bars and cafes of Kreuzberg. Apparently Bowie enjoyed crossing Checkpoint Charlie into then-East Berlin to eat at the Ganymed restaurant. A particular favourite of the German Democratic Republic leadership and the Stasi, Ganymed still exists today, and retracing the steps was infinitely more exciting than the thoroughly average steak and chips I ordered.
The point behind the anecdote is that David Bowie is one of those artists that inspire nerdy devotion. Those who like the artist tend to love him, reading and researching as much as they can, in addition to being zealots about his music and followers of his inspired fashion sense.
Bowie is back in the news this year, which marks the 40th anniversary of his ground-breaking album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and speculation of previously unreleased music finally seeing the light of day following the end of a licensing agreement. Love him or loathe him, all the recent attention has put a renewed focus on Bowie's central importance to pop music: from his constant reinvention, prolific output and trendsetting cool, it is easy to forget that he redefined the 'pop star' and left an indelible influence on the worlds of music and fashion.
Born David Robert Jones in 1947 in South London, he was raised in a thoroughly middle-class family amongst the bombed-out buildings of post-war London. Like many of his classmates, the young Jones was obsessed with all things American, particularly music, being a devoted fan of the flamboyant (and fashion forward) Little Richard. Early gigs as Davy Jones proved unsuccessful, until he took up the name of the popular American bowie knife on his first self-titled album.