SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - David Bowie has died

Bowie came to a rock club where I worked; it was about 1974 or '75. It was during his Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane period. IIRC, he came down twice, the second time with his then wife, Angie. They didn't stay long, just more of a "hello/goodbye" sort of appearance. The club had three owners, one who was the money man and seldom came down to the club, one who the club was named after and had a lot of music business connections, but had little to do with the actual operation of the club; the third was a man named Tom who was totally involved in all phases of the club and was the guy from whom I directly took orders. Tom was the final arbiter of all that happened in the club or about it. Tom was from Louisiana and had a very laid back style and spoke with a bit of a lazy drawl, both of which belied a very sharp mind and a very high degree of physical strength, which was quite useful for ejecting miscreants form the club. When Bowie visited the first time, he embraced Tom as an old friend, which, given the disparity between the imposing former resident of Oil City, LA and the rather androgynous English rock star, was a bit surprising. After the club closed, we asked Tom about his friendship with Bowie. Tom old us of how he had worked for various record companies in Hollywood. One of the companies was RCA, who had signed Bowie for distribution in the US. Tom had heard of Bowie, but had only seen headshots of him. Tom was assigned the task of meeting Bowie at LAX and guiding him on his first trip to Los Angeles. Tom was used to working with a varied lot of artists, including the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent. Imagine his surprise when Bowie exited the plane dressed pretty much as he was on this album cover:

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I remember Tom describing what it was like to take Bowie to the various radio stations and record stores wearing, as Tom put it, "a [expletive] dress". Tom was not really at all hostile to Bowie's choice of style; working for so long in the record industry with such a wide variety of artists and styles made him pretty much open to anything. His main concern was how to make Bowie's talents more obvious to the music industry people than his appearance. It was a tough row to hoe. Tom found himself defending Bowie to some rather hostile reactions. When Bowie's trip to LA ended and as Tom escorted Bowie to the airport, Bowie turned to Tom and apologized if he had made Tom's job harder than usual. Tom replied he had no problems with Bowie or what he did or looked like and, if the others in the industry did, well, it was their problem, not Bowie's or Tom's. Bowie very much appreciated Tom's attitude; Tom had further contact with Bowie afterwards and they were good friends...

I was not a really big fan of Bowie and I pretty much lost interest after he went into his Jean Genie/Thin White Duke period. Any interest I had in Bowie's work after that was due mainly to the very high quality guitarists he attracted for his recordings (it is a failing of those who play a particular instrument to focus on those who play the same instrument). However, there is no doubt whatsoever Bowie was one of the most influential artists of the last 50 years and will remain so. I think it is fair to say if there was no Bowie, there would have never been a "New Wave" in the eighties and his influence on singers is indeed wide. Without him, performers like Brian Ferry and Morrissey might never have had the acceptance they received (I once outraged a Morrissey fan by describing Morrissey as Bowie off his depression meds). In a world of various "Idols" and auto-tuning, of prefab boy bands and hip hop tedium, the loss of Bowie is indeed great; it is sad we may never see his like again...

RIP, David Bowie, thank you for all the great music and all the great influence you have had on entertainment world...

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