January 10, 2021 will mark the fifth anniversary of David Bowie's death. The musician was able to transform himself into art.
He inspired millions of people as well as countless artists around the globe. He slipped into roles from Ziggy Stardust to Nikola Tesla to Pontius Pilate. Already in the 1970s he did away with gender roles (which have not yet been completely overcome). And he took the harrowing cancer diagnosis as an opportunity to transform his own death into art. British musician David Bowie died on January 10, 2016. Or, who likes the phrase better: Exactly five years ago the Starman left earth.
A slap in the face of the role stereotypes
When asked about his childhood, David Bowie had reported a hypothermic mood. In the Jones house (the artist's real surname) they didn't fight each other, but neither did they hug each other. Speaking of which: To provide proof of being unique, it would of course not have needed the punch that Bowie received from his friend George Underwood at the age of 14. Nevertheless, he contributed to the optical otherness of the musician. As a direct result, from 1962 onwards, he suffered from mydriasis in his left eye – a rigid, dilated pupil that made his affected eye appear darker than the other.
For him, being different was the most normal thing in the world. And that's exactly what he conveyed through his art. "I see myself as a collector. I collect personalities," he once said in a TV interview with a feminine voice, thick make-up, huge crystal earring, bright red mullet and an even more colorful outfit – his fictional character Ziggy Stardust. Where others have been ennobled to the "King" or "Queen of Pop", Bowie was given the title "Chameleon of Pop". What he didn't like: chameleons, according to Bowie, adapt to their surroundings. "I'm doing the exact opposite."
What he also collected, albeit rather involuntarily, were stage names. The first time David Jones was forced to change his name, when the band The Monkees and member David "Davy" Jones became successful in the 1960s. So he renamed himself Tom Jones – a few weeks before he stormed the charts with "It's Not Unusual". After the third pseudonym called David Cassidy, the name that would go down in music history was found a little later: David Bowie.
The role model of the misunderstood
Bowie flirted again and again with his sexuality, primarily as a talk guest on conservative TV shows with even more conservative presenters. In 1971 he rose to become an icon of glam rock and was photographed in a dress on the cover of his album "The Man Who Sold The World". Exactly 50 years later, some people still regard it as breaking a taboo when Harry Styles does the same thing on the cover of Vogue. In another interview a few years ago, Bowie stated that "most of my characters are being cast out. And that's the one thing all humans fear: 'Do I belong here? Who are my friends? Does anyone like me? Am I on myself alone? '"All of them are worries that urge compliance.
So it is hardly surprising that the stars named him as the greatest inspiration, who themselves counteract supposed normality in a variety of ways: Marilyn Manson, Lady Gaga, Madonna, or even, apart from the music industry, Ricky Gervais and Conan O'Brien. Like her, Bowie never bothered to scandalize his art or make decisions that were consistent with his beliefs. About to knock down a title of the British royal family twice (2000 and 2003).
His greatest successes
David Bowie's first big hit was the song "Space Oddity", albeit after its re-release in 1972. It's literally about loneliness in the cosmos: The song tells the story of the astronaut Major Tom, who exactly ten years later was once again "completely detached" from the earth by Peter Schilling, and how he drifts through space alone. As his alter ego Ziggy Stardust, Bowie finally made his breakthrough with songs like "Starman". Together with John Lennon, he recorded his first number 1 hit in the USA in 1975: "Fame".
From 1976 to 1978 Bowie lived in the west of the "world capital of heroin", as he retrospectively referred to the Berlin of that time. It was there that his Berlin trilogy was created, consisting of the albums "Low", "Heroes" and "Lodger". The second record immediately offered the hymn of a divided nation with its title song "Heroes" (also sung by him in German): Bowie sings about two lovers on the Berlin Wall, kissing while the border guards open fire above them. "And the shame was on the other side".
Even though David Bowie was able to add hits like "Let's Dance" in the 80s, there is a general consensus: he was never again as good as he was in the wild 70s.
Alien and well-stocked goblin king
As an actor, Bowie also attracted weird and / or outsider roles. It is significant that he said of his first major role as an alien in "The Man Who Fell From Heaven" that he actually only played himself. When he appeared as the goblin king in Jim Henson's "Journey into the Labyrinth", however, it was less his acting that caught the eye than his much too tall "Major Tom" in his trousers that were definitely too tight. Yes, the "Bowie Bulge" even made it to the meme.
Bowie even played the leading role in Marlene Dietrich's last film "Beautiful Gigolo, poor Gigolo" (1978), ten years later he condemned the son of God to death on the cross as Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ". And almost 20 years later, in Christopher Nolan's "Prestige", he slipped into the role of the misunderstood genius Nikola Tesla. His own life story will be released in November this year under the title "Stardust". David Bowie is played by Johnny Flynn.
Two weddings – one out of love
No, David Bowie and Mary Angela Barnett did not get married in 1970 out of love. Marriage to her is like living with a welding torch, said the musician. In an interview she described the connection as a marriage of convenience: "We got married so that I could get a work permit." But they must have found something in each other – on May 30, 1971, their son Duncan was born, for whom Bowie was granted sole custody after the divorce in 1980.
In 1992 the musician married the Somali-American model Iman Abdulmajid – with her it was love. The widow affirmed this just a few days ago in the February issue of "Harper's Bazaar" and assured that she would never marry again. The musician was her "true love". "My daughter once asked me if I would ever get married again and I said 'never'," said Iman. "David is in our hearts and minds every day." In 2000, their daughter Alexandria Zahra Jones was born.
The staging of his own death
On January 10, 2016, David Bowie died of complications from liver cancer. He had been diagnosed with the disease around 18 months earlier. Like so many other things, he also addressed the knowledge of his imminent death – he turned it into art, orchestrated his own death. On his 69th birthday on January 8, 2016, two days before his death, the 26th studio album "Blackstar" was released.
The day before, the dark music video for his song "Lazarus", which was retrospectively understood as a farewell, had been released. Lazarus who was raised from the dead by Jesus. "I never strived for success. I strived for something that was artistically valuable," Bowie once said. And he succeeded. Before, after … and with his death.