DAVID: Time.
One of the most
complex expressions.
Memory made manifest.
It's something that
straddles past and future
without ever quite
being present.
Or rather, it at first seems
indifferent to the present.
There's a tension of a most
unfathomable nature.
The word desires
to be understood.
To have meaning.
But you somehow feel
that it's not you yourself
that the word is addressing.
It washes over you,
holding a dialogue
with something arcane
that's maybe not mortal.
And you feel intrigued.
Captured even.
You're aware
of a deeper existence.
Maybe a temporary reassurance
that indeed
there is no beginning, no end.
And all at once,
the outward appearance
of meaning is transcended.
And you find yourself
struggling to comprehend
a deep and formidable mystery.
All is transient.
Does it matter?
Do I bother?
[INCHWORM SONG]
Inchworm, Inchworm
Measuring the marigolds
You and your...
DAVID: All those moments
will be lost in time
like tears...
Dust...
Cover me moon dust.
Cover me...
[HALLO SPACEBOY SONG]
Space boy, you're sleepy now
Your silhouette
is so stationary
You're released,
but your custody calls
And I want to be free
Don't you want to be free
Do you like girls or boys?
It's confusing these days
But Moondust will cover you
Cover you
So bye bye love
Yeah bye bye love
Hallo, Space boy
This chaos is k*lling me
Hallo, Space boy
NEIL: Ground to Major,
bye bye, Tom.
DAVID:
This chaos is k*lling me
NEIL: Dead the circuit,
countdown's wrong
DAVID:
This chaos is k*lling me
NEIL: Planet Earth,
is control on?
DAVID: So sleepy now
NEIL: Do you wanna be free?
BOTH:
Don't you wanna be free?
Do you like girls or boys?
It's confusing these days
DAVID:
But moon dust will cover you
Cover you
So bye bye love
Yeah, bye bye love
Hallo Space boy
Space boy, Space boy...
WOMAN: I wanted to see him.
MAN:
What are you so upset about?
GIRL: I wanted to see him.
They said he was
coming round the back.
I've been waiting
for ages to see him.
MAN: Why are you so upset?
GIRL: He's smashing.
GIRL 2: I kissed him!
I kissed his hand!
[HALLO SPACEBOY SONG]
DAVID: Hallo Space boy
Hallo, hallo.
d*ck CAVETT: Rumors
and questions have arisen,
such as who is he, what is he,
where did he come from?
Is he a creature
of a foreign power?
Is he a creep? Is he dangerous?
Is he smart, dumb,
nice to his parents,
real, a put-on, crazy,
sane, man, woman, robot?
What is this?
Ladies and gentlemen,
David Bowie.
[WILD EYED BOY
FROM FREECLOUD SONG]
Solemn faced
The village settles down
Undetected by the stars
Hangman plays the mandolin
before he goes to sleep
And the last thing
on his mind
Is the Wild Eyed Boy
imprisoned
'Neath the covered
wooden shaft
Folds the rope into its bag
Blows his pipe of smolders
Blankets smoke into the room
And the day
will end for some
As the night begins for one
Staring through the message
in his eyes
Lies a solitary son
From the mountain
called Free cloud
Where the eagle dare not fly
And the patience in his sigh
Gives no indication
For the townsmen to decide
So the village
dreadful yawns
Pronouncing gross diversion
As the label for the dog
Oh, "It's the madness
in his eyes"
As he breaks
the night to cry
It's really me
Really you and really me
It's so hard
for us to really be
Really you and really me
You'll lose me,
though I'm always
Really free
Yeah...
[ALL THE YOUNG DUDES SONG]
Jimmy rapped all night
about his su1c1de
How he'd kick it in the head
when he was 25
All that speed jive
Don't want to stay alive
when you're 25
Lucy's stealing clothes
from unlocked cars
Freddy's got spots
from ripping off the stars
from his face, honey
A funky little boat race
The television man is crazy
Saying we're juvenile
delinquent wrecks
But, man, I need a TV
when I've got T. Rex
Hey, brother, you guessed
I'm a dude
All the young dudes
Carry the news
Boogaloo dudes
Carry the news
All the young dudes
Carry the news
Boogaloo dudes Yeah
Carry the news
[OH! YOU PRETTY THINGS SONG]
Wake up you sleepy head
Put on some clothes,
shake up your bed
Put another log
on the fire for me
I've made some
breakfast and coffee
I look out my window
what do I see
A crack in the sky
and a hand...
Reaching down...
To me...
All the nightmares
came today
And it looks as though
they're here to stay...
[LIFE ON MARS? SONG]
It's a God-awful
small affair
To the girl with
the mousy hair
But her mummy
is yelling, "No"
And her daddy
has told her to go
But her friend is
nowhere to be seen...
MAN: He's just
another fella, you know?
WOMAN: No, he's not.
He's different.
MAN: Well, nobody like
him can produce the music.
MAN 2:
WOMAN:
MAN: Davie's the greatest,
and I'll say it again.
Dave's the greatest,
and I'll say it again,
Dave's the greatest.
And I seen him onstage,
and he was fantastic.
I'll follow that bloke anywhere
'cause he's the greatest.
And I'll say it again,
he's the greatest.
MAN 2: Listen, you don't have
to be bent to wear makeup.
It looks good,
so why not wear it?
WOMAN: Even if it's camp,
but he's sexy, isn't he?
Sort of thing, really.
DAVID: If I can
tart it all up enough,
maybe people will see that it
has a lot to do with just them.
INTERVIEWER:
What, with reflection?
DAVID: Yeah, that it is really
a reflection
of what they're like.
HOST: Mr. Powell, Mr. Jenkins.
[indistinct]
Businessmen in general...
Best watch it.
INTERVIEWER: How are you?
DAVID: I'm very well,
thank you. How are you?
INTERVIEWER I'm fine.
DAVID: Good. How are you?
How are you?
INTERVIEWER: You, uh,
have to get the gear on
in order to project yourself.
I mean, were you a nobody
who suddenly thought,
"Jesus, I must get into
the scene by some other way"?
DAVID: I never asked
Jesus for a think, no.
It was always
on my own initiative.
And...
When I was 14, I became a Mod,
and it just carried
on from there.
I've always dressed
in what I considered clothes
that are exciting for me,
um, to prevent me
becoming humdrum
so that I would receive
reaction from people
which would
encourage me to write.
INTERVIEWER: You will have
obviously as many men followers
- as you have women followers.
- DAVID: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: I mean,
you haven't been shy about
declaring a certain
air of bisexuality.
DAVID: Not at all.
I know quite a few men.
WOMAN: Some people feel you're...
By saying you're bisexual.
By... by kind of flaunting
that in a way...
DAVID: Who's flaunting it?
INTERVIEWER: Why do
you think that bisexuality in,
say '72, '73 has become
a common... not a common,
but an accepted kind of deal.
Why do you think we
have moved into that
era of liberal behavior?
DAVID: Once upon
a time, your father,
my father, everybody's
father, I presume,
wanted a good job, with a good
income, or reasonable income.
Some chance of promotion
to secure their family life.
Um, where's the camera?
You're probably fine there,
and that's where it ended.
But now, people
want a role in society.
They want to feel that
they have a position.
They want to be an individual,
and I think there's
a lot of searching to find
the individual within oneself.
INTERVIEWER: Right,
and how about the shoes?
Are those men's shoes,
or women's shoes,
or bisexual shoes?
DAVID: They're
shoe shoes, silly.
DAVID: There was a feeling
of excitement and titillation
about moving in areas
which were forbidden
to the rest of society.
From micro to macro,
from yin to yang,
from male to female,
there is no scissor cut.
No absolute.
I believe that there was
an unconscious move to create
a high priest form from
the line of the Greek gods
who could procreate themselves.
Somebody who
was at a super level
to we regular mortals, because
of his androgynous nature,
being somebody that incorporated
both feminine
and masculine attributes.
[MOONAGE DAYDREAM SONG]
I'm an alligator
I'm a mama-papa
comin' for you
I'm the space invader
I'll be a rock 'n' rollin'
bitch for you
Keep your mouth shut
You're squawking
like a pink monkey bird
And I'm bustin' up my
brains for the words
Know I am.
Keep your 'lectric eye
on me, babe
Put your ray g*n to my head
Press your space
face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moon age
daydream, oh yeah!
Don't fake it baby
Lay the real thing on me
You know,
the church of man, love
Is such a holy place to be
Don't fake it, baby
Make me know you really care
Make me jump into the air
If you dare
Keep your 'lectric eye
on me, babe
Put your ray g*n to my head
Press your space
face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moon age
daydream, oh yeah!
DAVID: It was
a pudding, you know?
It was a pudding of new ideas.
I think we took it
on our shoulders
that we were creating
the 21st century in 1971.
We wanted to just blast
everything in the past.
Question all the established
values, all the taboos.
Everything is rubbish
and all rubbish is wonderful.
[MOONAGE DAYDREAM SONG
CONTINUES]
Keep your 'lectric eye
on me, babe
Put your ray g*n to my head
Press your space
face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moon age
daydream, oh yeah!
Freak out
Far out
In a...
WOMAN: I just didn't... to this.
I've never seen anything
like this before.
WOMAN 2: See, I'm just a space
cadet, he's the commander.
MAN: What universe is that?
MAN 2: Bowie universe.
WOMAN: Now nobody's scared
to walk around like that,
are they?
He's done it, ain't he.
He's broke through
a barrier, now, ain't he?
WOMAN 2: I guess I'm living
my fantasy, you know?
MAN: What's your fantasy?
WOMAN 2: Oh, Bowie.
MAN: I like people
who are AC/DC.
You know what I mean?
INTERVIEWER: Do the clothes,
you are trying to say,
are the clothes expressed
now your own personality?
DAVID: Um, no, that I've
never been quite clear about.
I've never been sure
of my own personality.
INTERVIEWER:
That's very refreshing.
That's a very refreshing thing
to hear somebody say that.
Very. But can you fill us
in on the barest outlines?
DAVID: I'm a collector.
Um, and I've always just
seemed to collect personalities,
um, ideas. I have
a hodge podge philosophy
which really is very minimal.
Um, [indistinct] what?
INTERVIEWER: [indistinct]
Do you believe in God?
DAVID: Um, I believe
in an energy form.
I'm not... I wouldn't put a
I wouldn't like to
put a name to it.
INTERVIEWER: Do you
indulge in any form of worship?
DAVID: Um, uh, life.
I love life very much indeed.
DAVID: My strivings to have
some kind of spiritual base
were really, really
strong all my life,
and I think I tried
to amalgamate
my own bedrock of spirituality.
I mean, I was
a Buddhist on Tuesday,
and I was into
Nietzsche by Friday.
INTERVIEWER: Some time
flirting with Buddhism,
and spending some
time in a Buddhist retreat.
DAVID: I mean, I felt at
the time that I was, you know,
um, Buddha's answer to
everything he wanted man to be,
but I'm... the one thing that
hung over from that time
was the feeling
of impermanence and transience.
That was the one thing
that really struck home
about everything
that I was learning.
Nothing's gonna
stay around very long.
I mean, you know,
everything changes
different rates.
Some seem to me sort
of established for a bit,
but they're only moving at
a slower rate than other things
and they're all inevitably
sort of a change-over.
For me, there's always
been a thread of merely,
um, a search.
Generally, I think the subject
matters always come back
to this singular question
of nearly every artist,
which is what's my
relationship with the universe?
Whatever other form
it takes that's basic,
I think that's probably
the essential question
that all of us ask ourselves.
A lot of us probably
on that last few minutes.
INTERVIEWER: What's Ziggy?
DAVID: Ziggy, I wanted...
I wanted to define
the archetype
"Messiah Rock star."
That's all I wanted to do,
and I used the trappings
of Kabuki theater,
mime technique,
and fringe New York music.
[LOVE ME DO SONG]
Love, love me do
You know I love you
I'll always be true
So please
AUDIENCE: Love me do
DAVID: Loves to be loved
DAVID: Ziggy was for
me a very simplistic thing:
What it seemed to
be, an alien rock star,
but other people reread him
and contributed more
information about Ziggy
than I'd put into him.
DAVID:
DAVID: You know, we've
set ourselves up as such.
We want it all.
You know, we want
all the adulation,
and people to read the lyrics,
and read and everything
just to play the game.
DAVID:
DAVID: When I was really
young, one of the mysteries,
the great mystery of rock,
was that I hardly understood
a word of what they
were singing about.
Fats Domino, I still don't know
one word of one lyric
that he ever wrote.
I never understood
his pronunciation.
And that made it even more
mysterious, and wonderful,
and magic, you know?
That he was talking
about something
that I couldn't even
possibly start to understand,
and I wanted in.
I wanted to be in that place,
this alternate
universe, you know?
And that was so much
a part of the magic of music,
and the same with art.
I never really... I could
appreciate the Vermeer,
or Tintoretto, or Titian,
or something like that,
but because it was
symbolic and figurative,
it didn't... I was never that
impressed with virtuosity.
I was, you know, I understood
that their technique
and the way they applied
paint, and what they could do,
and how they could
embrace light and all that,
I understood and realized the,
and I bowed
in humbleness at their...
But it wasn't... I mean, that's
not what I wanted from it.
I wanted to use art.
I wanted to use art
in a different way in my life.
I wanted a sense that
all the nooks and crannies
that we don't understand
about the way that we live
through our day to day life,
and I wanted that
shown to me, you know?
Not in great clarity, but some
kind of physical manifestation
of these are the areas of life
that are causing you grief,
or euphoria, and you
don't really know why.
Why is it that you
wake up one day,
and an oak tree, hit by
the light in a certain way,
will produce these
extraordinary feelings of glee,
and absolute enjoyment,
exhilaration at
actually being alive.
Another day, you can wake up
and that same tree
will seem like some.
Caspar David Fried rich
symbolic death, you know?
And it will be dark and
negative and awful, you know?
And it's that sense of why
those things happen?
Why aren't things
the same every single day
and produce exactly
the same feeling?
And art always does that to me.
INTERVIEWER:
What are your hobbies?
DAVID: Well, where
would you like to start?
Uh, I sculpt, paint,
and write films.
Um, I make video television.
Not programs,
but video television.
- INTERVIEWER: Of what?
- Um, art things that I do.
Experimental video,
and cinematography.
INTERVIEWER: With
the art now that you create,
the sculpturings...
DAVID: Yeah, I have...
you'll see.
INTERVIEWER:
Is what [indistinct]
DAVID: I play with video, yes.
I flirt an awful lot.
I've asked again,
over the last few years,
I've been identifying
again with a force.
I don't know how I'm going to...
How it will end up for me,
but, um, I can't pinpoint it,
but I do have
a very strong belief in
in a force, and I don't
know how it works.
What I mean is, there is
something else other than us.
That's as near
as I can get to it,
and it may even just be
people on other planets
that I'm thinking about.
It may be God.
It may be...
I don't know what it is,
but there's a definite
force that I feel.
INTERVIEWER: Almost
like there's something else,
- that we're just a part of it.
- DAVID: Yeah. Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: That's beyond us.
That's my feeling as well.
There's always been, um, for me
I guess for a lot of people...
A certain sense of you
that's other-worldly.
Um, and of course that's...
[WARSZAWA SONG]
Sula vie
Dilejo
Sula vie milejo
Mmm-omm...
DAVID: Like anything useful,
it's all got to do with fear.
I think he's
broken his arm, sir.
They wouldn't
bother with it, Captain.
[QUICKSAND SONG]
I'm closer to
the Golden Dawn
Immersed in
Crowley's uniform
Of imagery...
INTERVIEWER:
Ziggy was a disguise?
DAVID: He was
a character that I created.
I wanted to make films...
I'm living in
a silent film...
And I transposed most
of those ideas into music form.
INTERVIEWER: How
long is it gonna take
before you're all David Bowie?
David: Oh never, you know.
I'd run off
into something else, you know.
I'm frightened
by the total goal
Drawing to the ragged hole
INTERVIEWER: What's
"Changes" all about?
DAVID: Changes.
Someone putting
themselves through
as much experimentation
to, you know,
sort of treating oneself
as a bit of an experiment.
I put myself in predicaments
to see how I'll
cope with them a lot.
It's sort of trying
to strengthen myself.
I'm the twisted name
in Goebbel's eyes
Living proof
of Churchill's lies
I'm destiny
I'm torn between
the light and dark
Where others
see their targets
In divine symmetry
I put myself in dangerous
situations, which I did.
Put myself in any situation
which I feel I can't cope with.
INTERVIEWER: Dangerous
situations, such as what?
Can you explain that?
DAVID: Yeah. Areas
where I have to be in,
sort of, social
contact with people,
which I'm not
very good at doing.
I put myself in.
INTERVIEWER: I don't quite
know what you mean now.
DAVID: Well, I went to
Los Angeles and I lived there
for a couple of years, which is
a city I really detest.
- INTERVIEWER: Yeah.
- DAVID: So, I went to
live there to see what
would happen to my writing.
[NATURAL WOMAN SONG]
Aretha Franklin: When my soul
was in the lost and found...
INTERVIEWER: Since
you've been in America,
you seem to have picked up
on a lot of the idioms
and themes of American music,
and American culture.
How has that happened?
DAVID: There's a fly
floating around in my milk.
There's a foreign body
in it, you see?
And it's getting a lot of milk.
That's kind of how I feel.
A foreign body, and I just...
I couldn't help but soak it up.
You know.
I hated it when
I first came here.
I couldn't see any of it.
Look, a wax museum.
Hey, a bleedin' wax museum
in the middle of a desert!
You'd think it would
melt, wouldn't you?
DAVID: There's
a good, old circle thing,
and it really is, it's uh,
it's the decadence that
precedes the righteousness,
and the morality
of an extremely
right wing art form,
which, in its right wing-ness
is in fact very liberal
because the faster you
can get rid of the right wings,
and by accelerating it, then
you bring back [indistinct].
You've got to go
through the dictatorship.
You've got to go
through the right wing...
DAVID: Coveting the highest...
DAVID: Exactly.
Man Ray is suddenly
getting very popular,
and it's... I mean, I... We...
I know, you know what's coming.
I mean, baby, what
is coming. [indistinct]
Of course it is, yeah.
And we're going
to live through it.
We're gonna be lucky
enough [indistinct].
DAVID: This ain't rock and roll!
This is genocide!
[CRACKED ACTOR SONG]
I've come on a few years
from my Hollywood Highs
The best of the last
The cleanest star'
they ever had
I'm stiff on my legend
The films that I made
Forget that I'm fifty
'Cause you just got paid
Crack, baby, crack
Show me you're real
Smack, baby, smack,
is that all that you feel
Suck, baby, suck
Give me your head
Before you start professing
That you're
knocking me dead...
INTERVIEWER: You know,
you haven't... your accent,
your voice, your method
of speech has not changed.
You've been away for two years.
Does that mean you've been
locked away somewhere?
DAVID: Yes, I don't
talk to anybody.
INTERVIEWER:
But do people talk to you?
DAVID: I've heard
it rumored, yes.
[CRACKED ACTOR SONG]
But since he pinned you,
baby
You're a porcupine
You sold me illusions
for a sack full of checks
You've made a bad connection
'cause I just want your sex
Crack, baby, crack
Show me you're real
Smack, baby, smack,
is that all that you feel
Suck, baby, suck
Give me your head
Before you start professing
That you're knocking me dead
Oh...
Oh stay
Don't you dare
Oh yeah...
Don't you dare
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah...
d*ck: Some people thought...
There's a lady who said
"I don't know if he'd be
if I'd want to meet him.
He would make me very nervous.
I have a feeling
he's into black magic,
and that sort of thing."
And other people see you as
just a very skillful performer
who changes from time to time,
from one thing to another.
DAVID: Yeah.
Well, both of that is...
d*ck: All of the above?
ROCK 'N' ROLL WITH ME (SONG)
You always were
the one that knew
They sold us
for the likes of you
I never wanted anything
But new surroundings
A room to rent
while the lizards
lay lying in the heat
INTERVIEWER: What kind
of childhood did you have?
DAVID: Oh, incredibly ordinary.
- INTERVIEWER: Ordinary?
- DAVID: Yeah.
- INTERVIEWER: In what way?
- DAVID: Well, I mean,
it was regular.
I went to school, I ate.
DAVID: In suburbia,
you're given the impression
that nothing culturally
belongs to you.
That you are sort
of in this wasteland,
and I think there's
a passion for most people
who have an iota of curiosity
about them to escape
and get out.
When you rock 'n' roll
with me
No one else I'd rather be
Nobody here can do it for me
I'm in tears again
When you rock 'n' roll
with me
DAVID: One of my siblings
meant so much to
me in my early years,
and his name was Terry,
and he was my half-brother,
my mother's son.
DAVID: Hey, hey, good evening,
Buffalo.
It's nice to be here.
DAVID: He was living between
our family and another family,
and the periods
that I did see him,
it seemed to me that he had
more curiosity about the world
than anybody I'd met.
And the first real,
major event for me was
when he passed Jack Kerouac's
On The Road on to me,
which really changed my life.
And he would also introduce me
to people like John Coltrane,
which was way above my head,
but I wanted to read
what he read,
and I wanted to listen
to what he listened to,
as one does with
an older brother.
When you rock 'n' roll
with me
No one else I'd rather be
Nobody here
can do it for me...
DAVID: I think Terry
probably gave me a great...
The greatest serviceable
education
I could ever have had.
I mean, he just introduced
me to the outside things,
kinds of books,
and kinds of music
and attitudes that just weren't
the currency
in the area that I grew up.
And then he would go
away for long periods,
and one period he went
away and joined the RAF.
When he came back, he had very
evident signs of schizophrenia,
and he stayed in hospital
for the rest of his life.
[ROCK 'N' ROLL WITH ME SONG]
When you rock 'n' roll
with me
No one else I'd rather be
Nobody here
can do it for me...
DAVID: I think it made me
worry about my own disposition,
and whether I just
had eccentric ideas,
or whether I was
heading somewhere else.
When you rock 'n' roll,
rock 'n' roll with me
No one else I'd rather,
I'd rather be
Nobody down here
can do it for me
I'm in tears
I'm in tears
When you rock 'n' roll
with me...
Oh yeah
Rock 'n' roll with me
Oh-hoo yeah.
INTERVIEWER: I understand
that you have a fear
because there was
mental illness in your family,
that you have a fear of
mental illness. Is that true?
DAVID: Um, no, I developed
a system against it.
I think that probably became
part of the therapy of art,
and I was fortunate
enough to be able to
express any visions
that I had in my head.
- INTERVIEWER: Yeah.
- DAVID: Very outwardly.
DAVID: Gradually
learning to do without sleep.
DAVID: It's a labyrinthine
existence that we live,
and so it makes sense
for me to put together
elements in a song which
wouldn't naturally
be good bedfellows.
I guess I'm trying to articulate
those mysterious
corners of the mind
where there exist
grains of truth
that we don't often touch on,
because we don't have
the words to capture them.
So, we'll write on three or
four different subject matters,
and then integrate them
together by cutting them up.
What I've used it for
more than anything else
is igniting anything that
might be in my imagination.
I've tried doing it
with diaries and things,
and I was finding out
amazing things about me
and what I'd done
and where I was going.
A lot of the things I had done,
it seemed that it would
predict things about the future
and tell me a lot
about the past.
I suppose it's a very
Western tarot. I don't know.
Obviously, one
is trying to always
reevaluate one's personality,
and understand why one works.
I think a lot of artists deal
with loneliness and solitude.
An artist does tend
to examine the world
through his relationship to it,
and so that produces
a very introverted looking
lot of work.
I don't feel lonely.
I apply that to my work.
I sense a feeling of loneliness
from my work when I look at it,
but I don't feel like
a solitary person myself,
but it seems
to show up in my work,
and it's like taking
a photograph
and then developing the negative
and seeing another
person standing behind you.
Who will love Aladdin Sane
Battle cries and champagne
just in time for sunrise
Who will love Aladdin Sane
Motor sensational
Paris or maybe hell
I'm waiting
Clutches of sad remains
Waits for Aladdin Sane
You'll make it
Who will love Aladdin Sane
Millions weep a fountain,
just in case of sunrise...
INTERVIEWER:
With your background,
why were you
intrigued by all this?
DAVID: Um, it was... I mean,
it filled a vast expanse
of my imagination.
I was always pretty imaginative.
And the imagination
can dry up in
wherever you're
living in England, often.
I mean, if there's
nothing to keep it going.
It just supplied a need in me.
American became
a myth-land for me.
DAVID: We're not stopped.
Is there anything behind us?
INTERVIEWER: Let's
go with him now live,
by satellite,
to beautiful downtown Burbank
in Los Angeles.
AUDIENCE MEMBER:
Is it true that you're gonna be
teaming up with...
Every avenue.
It's very calm, and it's a kind
of a superficial calmness
that they've developed to
underplay the fact that it's...
There's a lot of high
pressure here,
as it's a very big
entertainment industry area.
And you get this feeling
of unease with everybody.
It's a very big
entertainment area.
DAVID: The first time
that it really
came home to me
what a strange...
About the churches
designed by an architect.
DAVID: Arthur, would
you please slow down?
INTERVIEWER: We're
bouncing backwards and forwards
on the satellite at the moment.
I mean, our sound
is bouncing around.
Yes, I can see it.
It'll be all right in a minute.
INTERVIEWER:
Are you there, David?
Are you there, David?
Bedroom in the sky.
INTERVIEWER:
Are you there, Mr. David Bowie?
DAVID: I think
that I felt often,
ever since I was a teenager,
um, so adrift, and so
not part of everyone I saw.
There's so many dark secrets
about my family in the cupboard
that it kind of made me feel
very much on the outside
of everything,
and because of that, I felt
there was no basis to my life,
like everybody else
seemed to have.
Which of course is ridiculous.
Probably, I would
do things to prove that
I had some emotional substance
when in fact I didn't.
DAVID: Thematically, I've always
dealt with isolation
in everything I've written,
I think.
INTERVIEWER: If you're
interested in isolation,
is it because you think that
a person in an isolated state
feel greater emotions
than they do
when they're surrounded
by people and things?
DAVID:
I think if he is in isolation,
instead of receiving
the whole world as his home,
he tends to create
a micro-world inside himself.
Um, and it's that peculiar
part of the human mind
that fascinates me
about the small universes
that can be created
inside the mind.
Some of them
fairly schizophrenic
and quite off the wall.
It feels now that
I don't come from anywhere,
but I was born in Brixton.
INTERVIEWER:
When were you born? What year?
DAVID: 1947. January the eighth.
Makes me a Capricorn
with an Aquarius ascendant
and a Leo descendant.
INTERVIEWER: How much now
is left of the lad
from Brixton, do you think?
DAVID: Not very much,
I would think.
I know, you know.
I never got... I never became
who I should have been.
I've spent an awful lot
of my life
actually looking
for myself, you know?
And understanding what it was
that I-why-what I existed for.
What was it that really
made me happy in life?
And who exactly, or was...
Who are the parts of myself
I was trying to hide from?
I think a lot of us
have huge senses of denial
about who we are and
where we exist in the world.
I really wanted to
sort of, you know,
be very emotionally involved
with people.
I didn't know how to do it.
You know,
my parents were like that,
and I guess you kind of,
as they say,
they pass on a lot of faults.
d*ck: What do
your parents do for a living?
My father's dead,
and my mother has a small flat,
and I think she's got a day job.
d*ck: Does she have trouble
explaining you to the neighbors
who say, "Are you
any relation to that".
DAVID: I think she pretends
I'm not hers.
Nah, she's uh,
she doesn't talk much.
You know, she doesn't,
um, I don't think we really...
We were never
that close particularly.
We have an understanding.
d*ck: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER:
Was it a happy marriage?
Not necessarily
terribly loving or anything,
in terms of
no real physical affection,
or even they
didn't really articulate
any love for each other.
There's an awful lot of
emotional/spiritual mutilation
goes on in my family.
INTERVIEWER: Did you like any
of the traditional people
that you're supposed to like?
Like, did you like
Winnie the Pooh?
DAVID: No. No.
INTERVIEWER: Rupert Bear?
DAVID: No.
No I didn't. I didn't like...
INTERVIEWER:
Did you have a teddy bear?
DAVID: No, I didn't.
I don't think.
I can't remember having
anything like that at all.
No, I never liked, um,
children's things very much.
INTERVIEWER: You know,
since you've been away,
or quite recently,
the newspapers
having been having a bit
of a bash at your mother?
And saying that she's
a bit tearful from time to time.
And that she's suffered
a certain amount of anguish,
and that she doesn't hear
from you an awful lot.
Is that eyewash or is it real?
DAVID: There's some kind
of traumatism
often goes on
in our childhoods I think.
I think, that are...
Makes us crave some kind
of strange affection, you know?
It's sort of an...
Often you'll find
that the person
who craves a lot of affection
actually isn't terribly good
at giving it.
INTERVIEWER: Does that mean
you have to separate yourself
quite a lot from, say,
falling in love
and getting very involved
with a person?
Um, oh no, I think, no.
I think quite the reverse.
INTERVIEWER: But, love,
falling in love,
is different from then going on
to love that person.
Yes, it is. Yes.
And once you've
loved somebody a lot,
it means that you've got
to share your life with them.
- That's what I really...
- DAVID: No, I don't think so.
I think you can love somebody
from afar.
But if you then decided
not to love them from afar,
you as an artist
would have to give up
quite a lot of your time
to them.
Yes, and I can't do that.
INTERVIEWER:
That's what I was wondering,
whether you did...
Whether you did that.
DAVID: No, no, no, love can't
get quite in my way,
because I feel... I shelter
myself from it incredibly.
Interviewer: Do you feel removed
from the body and the feel
that you create on the planet?
DAVID:
Until I'm performing or writing
I mainly feel pretty much
of an empty vessel.
INTERVIEWER: When you're
performing and writing,
you're fulfilled?
DAVID:
I don't particularly feel...
Ground Control to Major Tom
Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills
and put your helmet on
Ground Control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown,
engines on
Check ignition
And may God's love
be with you
This is Ground Control
to Major Tom
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know
Whose shirts you wear
Now it's time
to leave the capsule
If you dare
This is Major Tom
to Ground Control
I'm stepping
through the door
And I'm floating
in a most peculiar way
And the stars look
very different today
For here
Am I sitting in my tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do
DAVID:
Well, an awful lot of changes
with my musical career
were challenges to myself.
I have to feel that I'm
stepping on new ground,
that the ice beneath my feet
is very thin.
Any second, I could crack it
and just plunge through
and drown.
I got to a point in Los Angeles
where I got very tired
with my method of writing,
and I wanted to invent
a new musical language.
I knew I had to get
to an environment
that was totally different
to Los Angeles.
So I thought
of the most arduous city
that I could think of,
and it was West Berlin.
They don't give an FA about
who you are in Berlin.
The trappings of rock and roll
don't mean anything to them.
So, I could walk around,
buy me own food,
and just lease
a small apartment,
which I did above
an automobile spare parts shop.
I didn't have
the necessary verbal equipment
to describe what I was seeing,
and that's where
I needed assistance.
So, I contacted Brian Eno,
who is definitely one
of the keenest brains
of modern music, and I said,
"Look, Brian, I need to know
some new processes,
"and new methods of writing.
Please help me,
otherwise I'm packing it in."
We started working on a series
of processes and methods of
writing in the studio in Berlin
to invent, a different kind
of linguistics to work with.
Most of the things
that I do these days,
I go in with very little
preparation.
There's no governor,
no controller.
Every track is written
with a different process,
from spontaneous singing,
I didn't know
what I was gonna sing,
or how I was gonna sing it,
and I just stood
in front of the mic,
right down
to fragmented, pre-thought,
analyzed and processed writings
of Burroughs' school.
It probably touches areas
of emotion
that aren't normally dwelt upon
because they're arrived
at other than
by the regular channels
of emotive thought.
[SOUND AND VISION SONG]
Blue, blue, electric blue
That's the color
of my living room
Where I will live
Blue, blue
Pale blinds drawn all day
Nothing to read
and nothing to say
Blue, blue Pale blinds
I will dream of other lands
Waiting for the gift
of sound and vision
DAVID: Most of the things
that I do these days
are on the occasion
of the studio.
I go in with very little
preparation,
just throw ideas out,
and you might make
little experiments sort of say,
look here's 50 seconds.
Play 10 notes on that 50 seconds
and don't repeat
the same note twice.
Now, that sounds
like an awful easy thing to do.
Well, it is.
See, you must understand,
I mean, it sounds
incredibly indulgent,
and indeed it is
because what I'm trying to do
is mold the traditional
methods of rock and roll
with newer processes.
Trying to find
a new form of language.
INTERVIEWER: Do you think
you have influence
on their thinking, though?
DAVID: No.
And that's what I'm trying
to do with the new music,
is find a new language
which doesn't... it isn't that...
Doesn't have that kind
of image influence.
INTERVIEWER: Do you think people
will understand that language?
DAVID: Yes.
Because I think people,
especially in the city context,
think in fragments.
The city person will see
a milk advert on the street,
and be thinking
"Milk, what's gonna...
"What are we gonna have
for dinner?
"Boy getting knocked down
by a bus,
crashed against a wall..."
that kind of thing.
So, he's thinking in terms of,
maybe 1,000 different images
at any given time.
And the language that Brian
and I are sort of producing
is a language that can relate
to that way of thinking.
DAVID: We live within
this manifested idea
of what should be form,
and what we try and keep out
of our existence is chaos,
which is a very real part
of our lives,
and our refusal to accept chaos
as being integral
to our existence,
I think, has been one
of the greatest mistakes
as a civilization
that we've made.
DAVID: My work as an artist
has always been
to do with transition.
The nature and study of change
in our particular era
is most important
because never in our history
has there been
such a rapid curve of change
since the industrial revolution.
I'm a fairly
good social observer,
and I think
that I encapsulate areas
every, maybe every year or so,
I tried to stamp
that down somewhere,
what that year is all about.
Rather than
what it was all about,
or what it's going to be.
It's very much trying to capture
the quintessence of that year.
INTERVIEWER:
I notice that the music now
is more... more daring,
more adventurous,
more fractured.
Is there a danger that
by following your instinct,
your aesthetic instincts,
if you like,
your artistic instinct,
that you will jeopardize that?
You know, the money
and the good life and all...
No shit, Sherlock.
Yes, I think I... Yes, I think
I rather sort of hit that one
in the head at the moment.
Um, and it's quite
a relief, really.
I feel a lot more,
um, free than what I do.
I just needed, it just needed
a positive decision
to only do what I want to do,
and not do things
for the sake of what
either David Bowie or whoever
I was playing last time,
Thin White Duke or something,
was expected to do.
DAVID: I went naked in Berlin.
I really did try
and strip down my life
to what I believed
to be absolute basic essentials
so I could build up again
everything that I thought
that I'd lost, you know?
I guess I was...
What I was really doing
was doing that on an emotional
and spiritual level,
but you manifest it physically.
The surprising thing is,
is that we came up...
We thought we were
just going to be into a process
of discovery and experiment
and had some pretty wishy-washy
stuff come out of it,
but what did come out of it
was a pretty good statement
of some esoteric nature.
It was a bit hard
to put one's finger
on exactly
what the information was,
but it was vital,
and it was interesting,
and I think
that's successful music.
[HEROES SONG]
I, I will be king
And you,
you will be my queen
Though nothing
can keep us together
We can beat them,
forever and ever
We could be heroes
just for one day
You, you can be me
And I,
I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers,
and that is the fact
Yes we're lovers,
and that is that
Though nothing
will keep us together
We can beat them
forever and ever
And we can be heroes
just for one day
I, well I wish I could swim
Like dolphins,
like dolphins can swim
Though nothing,
can drive them away
We can beat them
forever and ever
Oh, we can be heroes
just for one day
What you say?
I, I can remember
BAND: I remember
DAVID: Standing by the wall
BAND: By the wall
DAVID: And the g*ns
shot above our heads
BAND:Over our heads
DAVID: And we kissed
as though nothing could fall
BAND: Nothing could fall
DAVID: And nothing
and no one will help us
Maybe we're lying
Then you better not stay
We can be safer
just for one day
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
We can be heroes
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Just for one day
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Just for one day.
REPORTER: Today, David Bowie
is 33 years old.
He has recorded 17 rock albums,
produced a gallery full
of paintings,
acted in two feature films,
and is the only rock star
ever to act in a play
on Broadway.
Bowie never seems
to stand still.
When he no longer
feels challenged
by one art form,
he moves on to the next,
and the next, and the next.
It's as if David Bowie
learned to run
before he learned to walk.
[DJ SONG]
I'm home
Lost my job...
DAVID: You know, I've got
a grasshopper sort of mind,
and I can't resist
bringing things
to a conclusion like saying,
"Well that's a piece in itself,
and now I move
on to something else."
INTERVIEWER: You described
yourself as a generalist.
- Is that...
- DAVID: Yeah.
That's a freedom...
Giving umbrella.
It gives me a chance
to do anything
I want successfully
or unsuccessfully,
without being tied down.
I want... I'm a generalist,
is really sort of my cliche way
describing myself.
DAVID: David Bowie.
Rank and file.
33 years old.
Generalist.
ANNOUNCER:
Unlike most rock stars
who stick
to a successful formula
when they get it,
Bowie, when he does,
deliberately changes direction,
and puts on yet another face.
Believing me
DAVID: I really sort of go
in just pure, barbaric impetus.
I do get fired up for something
and it's not all cerebral
at all, by any means.
A lot of it is pure instinct,
and knowing that
I've found something
that I haven't found before.
(slurring speech) Sometimes
I think my head is so big
because it is so full of themes.
I am a D.J.,
I am what I play
Can't turn around no
Can't turn around,
no, oh, ooh
I am a D.J. I am what I say
Can't turn around no,
can't turn around, no, oh no
I am a D.J.,
I am what I play
I've got believers
Believing me, oh...
INTERVIEWER:
What are you gonna do now?
Are you going back home to bed?
DAVID: Yes. Well, I don't know.
A bit in the mood to
probably do a little writing
or painting or something.
INTERVIEWER: You're painting
in large canvases?
Or small canvases? Or drawings?
DAVID:
Yes. Quire large, acrylics.
I'm doing a lot
of sculptures as well.
A sort of polythene and
essential functional things.
INTERVIEWER:
Why are you creative, David?
DAVID: I think
it has something to do
with wanting to find the place
where I can kind of set sail
and know that I won't really
fall off the edge of the world
when I get
to the end of the sea.
I find it
an intoxicating parallel
to my perceived reality.
I'm not sure
that I'm manifesting ideas
when I do my work.
It's just
this inexhaustible supply
of extracurricular thoughts
that I have
that don't actually apply
to the survival of life,
and I'm not quite sure
what to do with them.
He used to be my boss
and now he is a puppet dancer
I am the D.J.,
and I've got believers
I got believers
I got believers
I got believers,
believing me...
DAVID: So rather than
be pinned down,
my momentum
was to hit and run very fast.
Once I'd done something,
and said it,
drop it and move on.
[ASHES TO ASHES SONG]
DAVID: I feel quite at home
in just about anywhere now,
on a temporary basis.
INTERVIEWER: Where do you spend
most of your time?
DAVID: Again, what is
"most of one's time"?
Over the last year,
it's been London,
New York, South Pacific,
Australia, Africa...
The nature of my life
is one of an old-fashioned
beatnik traveler,
and more than anything else,
I spend very little time
in musical circles.
I spend more time discovering
the social life
of rather obscure places.
"" I'm happy,
hope you're happy too
I've loved
all I've needed, love
"aSordid details following"
The shrieking of nothing
is k*lling, just
Pictures of Jap girls
in synthesis and I
Ain't got no money
and I ain't got no hair
But I'm hoping to kick,
but the planet it's glowing
Ashes to ash, funk to funky
We know Major Tom's a junkie
Strung out in heaven's high
Hitting an all-time low...
MAN: This is your promised land
is it not?
Roof, food, care, protection.
DAVID: Oh, right, Mr. Treves.
MAN: I'll bet you don't know
what to call this.
DAVID: No, sir. I don't.
MAN: You call it... home.
Never had a home before.
MAN: You have one now.
Say it, John.
- Home.
- Home?
MAN: No, no.
I mean really say it.
"I have a home.
"This is my..." Come on.
DAVID: I have a home.
This is my home.
This is my home.
I have a home.
I have, for as long as I like.
MAN: That is what home is.
DAVID: I had always thought
that by this stage I would be
settled down somewhere
with a house and grounds
and everything,
but I never got to doing that.
Never... I've never bought
a house,
and I still have
no intention to buy
because with me,
the way I live is very much
also part of the
what produces my work,
so I have to keep examining
my life
to make sure that I am
in constant change,
and not getting too bloated
with philosophic opulence.
Keep sort of throwing bits
and pieces away.
And by... to change countries
is one way of doing that.
I'm not quite sure
where to go now.
Um, the East beckons me.
I'm a bit scared
of moving over there, you know?
INTERVIEWER: Japan?
DAVID: Yes, because I fall
in love so much
with the lifestyle that
I'll get very Zen about it.
[ALL THE YOUNG DUDES SONG
BEING VOCALIZED]
JAPANESE INTERVIEWER: Please
give us your special message
to the audience of our program,
"Young Oh! Oh!"
Look at the camera, please.
DAVID: Uh, don't waste any day.
Don't waste a minute.
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
[indistinct] Mr. David Bowie.
Thank you again.
[SPEAKS JAPANESE BRIEFLY]
DAVID: I hope that none of us
are kind of static
throughout our lives.
I mean, I guess one has
a formed personality
from quite an early age,
but it is tempered
and subject to change.
I mean,
we all to a certain extent
create our lives
and create our culture daily,
as we live that 24 hours.
We'll choose a tie,
or a haircut, or a chair,
not just
because it's functional,
but for most of us
because it actually
says something about us.
I still, you know,
am sort of getting somewhere
that I quite like,
but I'm still not.
We'll find out eventually,
won't we?
I might now be cut out
for all this, really,
at the end.
INTERVIEWER:
Why did you change so often?
I mean,
what was the need for it?
Was it just a gimmick?
DAVID: Being a Capricorn.
I didn't want to expose myself
to the public,
so I developed a series
of characters.
So, behind that all the time
was a real David Bowie?
At times, yes.
I lost control
a couple of times.
So you're not...
This is really you.
This is not you just still
sort of playing the role of...
One wonders.
I think
that it's not at all mystifying
why you change your appearance
as often as you do,
to my view by the way,
because I think you've
used yourself as a canvas.
- Yes, very much so.
- Is that right?
DAVID: Yes, very much so.
Um, I never wanted to appear
as myself onstage ever,
at any time, until recently.
Were you hiding yourself
from us by doing that?
DAVID: Partly, but I was
enjoying it very much.
- And, you paint now?
- Yes.
But your paintings,
you're not willing
to let us see yet?
DAVID: Uh, no.
I've been offered
two or three showings,
but I've turned
I've accepted two of them,
and then I broke my word
and said I wouldn't show them.
I haven't yet bucked up
the courage.
INTERVIEWER: Why not?
What do you fear?
DAVID:
Well, I know I'm a good writer.
I'm not sure
about putting my paintings.
They're very personal
to me, as well.
Um, they're all portraits,
and they're portraits
of people in isolation.
Most of the paintings
are Germans or Turks
who live in Berlin,
and they're either
from East Berlin,
and who are now living
in West Berlin,
and knowing their families
are on the other side
of the wall.
And so, I tried to capture
a lot of that isolation
and I put a lot of myself
into the paintings as well.
They're very much part of me.
d*ck: Well, I think
the question is what...
You know, what you want to be
for yourself and your life.
DAVID: I don't know whether
that's important anymore.
I mean, what I want
to do is just work well.
When I'm working well,
I like my writing.
At the moment, especially.
More than at any other time,
I think.
I mean, I was getting so bored
with what I was writing.
I just, I felt inadequate,
I thought my writing
was becoming monotonous.
I didn't take
the kinds of chances
I was taking at one time.
I thought if I'm going
to end up like,
um, a lot of other rock
and roll celebrities,
inasmuch
that I'm going to be trying
to retain the safe position,
you know?
And that's not what
I started out wanting to do.
d*ck: But is it important to you
to have a mass audience?
Do you want a lot of people to...
DAVID: No. No.
I want to work well.
I want to...
I just have to work well.
I think it's
an heroic act to take,
um... to be able
to obtain enthusiasm
and joy from the actual process
of living from day to day.
INTERVIEWER: [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
DAVID: Yes, very much.
I try. And it is, it is
I think it takes practice to,
and concentration,
and exercise to enjoy it.
This is very easy to fall
into the trap of looking
for one's dreams and always
thinking of a future moment
when everything will be better.
And if the process
is not enjoyed,
the dreams will never come
to anything.
And by enjoying the process,
you are creating
a dream come true.
I think I have an abundantly
healthy curiosity about life.
About life around me,
specifically.
And how, how we put
ourselves together culturally,
and I think it's served me well
as an artist,
in as much as I'm really
inquiring continually
into how things are made
and why we make them,
and the significance
or meanings behind things.
I'd be really scared of feeling
that I'd got somewhere,
because for me,
art is about searching,
and if you come to a place
where you think
you've made a discovery,
I think that really is...
God, that would be
really demoralizing.
I think the search is the thing.
And you want to believe
And we want to believe
And we want to live
Oh, we want to live
We want to live
We want to live
We want to live
We want to live
We want to live
I want to live
I want to live
I want to live
I want to live
I want to live
I want to live
Live
Live
Live
[SINGING NOT AUDIBLE]
Ain't that just like me.
DAVID: There's a gradual shift
when you reach mid 30s.
Uh, I think that
there's a period
where you have
to decide not to try
and grasp frantically
for the feelings of desperation
and anger that you have
when you're in your mid 20s.
And if you can relax into
the idea that being mid 30s
is quite a nice place to be
with an amount of experience
behind you,
I think the perspective changes.
INTERVIEWER:
You said once that there's
so many shells around you
that you don't know what
the p... looks like anymore.
DAVID: Yeah,
well I've gone through that.
I'm pretty aware
of what I'm like.
- INTERVIEWER: Really?
- DAVID: Yeah, yeah.
I feel pretty-pretty happy
about my own relationship
to the world, and...
We've got to be positive
about our days on this planet.
INTERVIEWER: I never realized
you were such an optimist.
DAVID: Well,
I never was particularly.
INTERVIEWER:
You're more romantic
than people give you credit for.
DAVID: I think I'm probably
a lot more emotional
than people would think
that I was.
I am emotionally very
responsive to life and people.
I just wanted to come in touch
with a common factor
because I feel a need
at the moment to
be part of a society again,
and having traveled
an awful lot,
feel more and more
part of everything.
And I wish
to express that feeling.
I don't want to seem
as though I'm detached and cold
because I'm not.
INTERVIEWER: You seem very sure
of yourself,
and very,
sort of content, and...
You seem at ease with yourself.
DAVID: I'm at ease
with myself, yeah.
INTERVIEWER:
You've always been so good
at being convincing, you know?
- Whatever it was at the time.
- DAVID: Yeah. I see.
INTERVIEWER: I mean,
is it possible that this
- is just another role?
- DAVID: I see what's going on.
I believe that there is a thread
of meaning running
through my life at the moment,
that I have no wish
at the moment to break,
and I feel it's leading
somewhere fulfilling
and positive.
And if I feel that way,
then I make every effort
to make that part
of my music now.
It's the ultimate swing
of the pendulum.
When things reach a point
to one extreme,
there will be
a natural gravitation
back to a point,
which is the antithesis
of that one.
So, you've got
a musical vocabulary,
which is high-tech, and icy.
There's gonna be sooner
or later a swing back to,
well, what is the other side
of that coin?
MAN: Ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. David Bowie.
[MODERN LOVE SONG]
DAVID: I'd like to, um,
start off the 80s
in a positive,
optimistic fashion.
I'll be undertaking,
a world tour,
sometime around the middle
of the year,
and it'll take me through
to the autumn at least.
And he's back. David Bowie,
launching his
first new album in three years,
preparing for his first
British tour in five years,
and telling Newsnight's
Robin Denselow
about his new
and more emotional music style.
DAVID: I'm trying to write
in a more obvious
and positive manner.
I've not gone quite
into a corner
with experimentation of sound.
I'm not quite so concerned
with cut-up exercise,
or using juxtaposition
of lyrics, or whatever.
I'd like to do
something positive.
Something that helps people,
to use a cliche.
DAVID: This is probably
the simplest music
I've ever done.
INTERVIEWER:
What do you mean simple?
DAVID: It makes very warm,
understandable
musical statements.
It has a warm response.
I hope that it's the most
emotionally uplifting music
I've made in a long time.
It's very positive.
INTERVIEWER:
Is that how you're feeling?
DAVID: Relatively. Oh yeah.
I'm very positive.
Never gonna fall for
Modern love
Walks beside me
Modern love
Walks on by
Modern love
Gets me to the church
on time
REPORTER: British fans
are overwhelming
the post office with more
than four times
as many ticket requests
as seats available.
This is the biggest demand ever.
BOY: We waited hours
and hours to get tickets.
INTERVIEWER: Big Bowie fan?
MAN: Yeah, that's me.
WOMAN: He's totally evolved.
He knows what his fans want,
and that's what
he's delivering now.
I love David Bowie!
REPORTER: Fans have
been waiting a day and a half
in the stadium parking lot.
They open the gates at 5pm.
We want Bowie!
Modern love
Modern love
Modern love
EMCEE: Ladies and gentlemen.
David Bowie and his band!
[LET'S DANCE SONG]
MAN: What is it
about David Bowie
that excites you so much?
- His style.
- Yeah?
I like his makeup.
MAN: You like his makeup?
WOMAN: I like his music.
BAND: Let's dance
DAVID: Put on your red shoes
and dance the blues
BAND: Let's dance
DAVID: To the song
they're playin' on the radio
BAND: Let's sway
DAVID: While color
lights up your face
BAND: Let's sway
DAVID: Sway through the crowd
to an empty space
If you say run
I'll run with you
And 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
Trembling like a flower
BAND: Let's dance
DAVID: Put on your red shoes
and dance the blues
BAND: Let's dance
DAVID: Under the moonlight
This serious moonlight
BAND: Let's sway
Let's sway
Let's dance
Let's dance
Let's dance
Let's dance
DAVID: Let's dance,
let's dance
Let's dance, Let's dance.
AUDIENCE: Bowie!
Bowie!
Bowie!
Bowie! Bowie!
INTERVIEWER: Do you think
they phenomenal success
of the tour marks
the rebirth of Bowie fever?
DAVID: No, I don't think that.
But I think it's just
a Bowie acceptance now,
which is quite gratifying
after all these years.
Didn't think I'd ever
hear myself saying this,
but it's like the audience
and myself are just,
like, together.
It's trying to come back
to being a person again
in terms...
In the eyes of the audience,
and it certainly
has no pretensions
to be a serious,
heavy statement-filled show,
but I mean,
it's exactly
what I want it to be.
INTERVIEWER:
What do you most enjoy doing?
DAVID: In life, at the moment?
Waking up and feeling
as though I've got a future.
I keep remembering
that there is a tomorrow,
when that never really occurred
to me before,
that there was a tomorrow.
Tomorrow was really,
"This is it.
"This is now, this is important.
"Everything else is crazy,
and static,
"and it means nothing,
or everything's impermanent,
therefore I will just live
for the second."
And one has to start taking
very positive stands on things.
When you feel comfortable
with yourself,
you can no longer write.
That seems to be
the writer's great problem.
As I get more comfortable,
I obviously have the feeling
that it's not so much that
is my writing as good,
or as potent as it used to be,
but do I need to write anymore?
MAN: His new album seems
to be, to me, a step sideways.
INTERVIEWER:
Why do you describe it
that... in that way?
MAN: Because I think
he's not doing
anything particularly new,
and I suspect that
for the first time ever,
the fans are up there with him
and he's not ahead of the game.
He seems to me to have become
something rather old fashioned,
which is to say a superstar.
If you've gone mainstream,
there's only one way to do it,
and that's sell out
three days a year.
MAN 2: Really do it.
MAN: Yeah, yeah.
He's done it in one big deal,
hasn't he?
INTERVIEWER:
This is the last stop
on what's been a pretty
extensive tour for you.
DAVID: Uh, yeah, I'm not
actually finishing in Auckland.
I'm going over now
to Singapore,
Hong Kong, and Bangkok.
I've nothing much to offer
There's nothing much to take
I'm an absolute beginner
But I'm absolutely sane
I'm not quite so stricken
with the idea
of making a point.
I'm not quite sure
that any point
that I have to make
isn't being made quite as well
by other people.
Um, and that maybe the point,
my most important point,
is that I can entertain
very well,
and I think I'm no longer
finding it uncomfortable
to reach that conclusion.
That I now find
I'm very comfortable
being an actor, an entertainer,
without too much
all-encompassing stuff.
Time takes a cigarette
Puts it in your mouth
You pull on your finger
Then another finger
then your cigarette
The wall-to-wall is calling
It lingers,
but still you forget
Ohhh
You're a rock and roll
su1c1de
You're too young to lose it
But you're too old
to lose it
And the clocks waits
so patiently on your song
Well, you walk past a cafe
But you can't eat
when you've lived too long...
MAN: Pepsi continues
to innovate,
by capturing what's new,
what's contemporary,
and what's hot.
The Glass Spider Tour
will be all of that.
Now the Chev brakes
are snarling
As you stumble
across the road
INTERVIEWER: You always have
that segment of people
who are with you from the start
and if you know Bowie,
you know he's sold out.
DAVID: I don't begrudge any
artist for getting an audience.
I'm sorry, I never found
that poverty meant purity.
INTERVIEWER:
For a guy who doesn't like
to play it safe, though,
as the audience gets larger,
it must be harder
to take those chances.
Oh no, love,
you're not alone
You're watching yourself
but you're too unfair
You got your head
all tangled up
But if I could only
make you care
Here I was,
making lots of money,
performing
to these huge audiences,
and I thought that's it,
you know?
I've come to the vacuum
of my life.
No matter when
or where you've seen
All the knives
seem to lacerate your brain
I've had my share now
I'll help you with the pain
You're not alone
Just turn on with me
and you're not alone
Just turn on with me
and you're not alone
Gimme your hands
cause you're wonderful
I said
Gimme your hands
cause you're wonderful
Gimme your hands
cause you're wonderful
Cause you...
Gimmie your hands
Cause you're wonderful
Gimme your hands
'cause you're wonderful
Gimme your hands
'Cause you're wonderful
'Cause you're wonderful
'Cause you're wonderful
'Cause you're wonderful
I'm a young man.
Do you understand?
I'm a young man.
'Cause you're wonderful.
Thank you very much.
Bye bye, we love you.
DAVID: Even though
it was enormously successful,
there was no growth
going on at all.
They were very hard years
to get through
to find any sense of purpose.
I wasn't allowing myself
the service of being
who I really am as an artist.
I'd given myself
dreadful parameters
in confining myself to merely
what I presumed people wanted.
I never wanted to do this.
I never wanted to be out there
pleasing people.
I wanted to be really stubborn
and have people like
what I like.
Not give them what they like.
It's very, very easy
to become work-obsessed
for the reason of not having
to look at oneself.
I think over the last few years,
I'm understanding
a very important thing
in my life,
which is that I really
have to come back
to what my life is about.
That my life is not about
the work that I do.
My work is not me.
I am distinctly one entity
that needs looking at.
When I first looked,
I just didn't understand
that person,
because I'd never given myself
the time,
nor the incentive
to want to really
have a look at myself, deeply.
I think the first intrusion
into one's own inner conflicts
is not the most pleasant
of experiences.
But working through them
can really be
one of the greatest adventures
of one's life,
and it takes a certain amount
of bravado,
and need, and a realization
that you're missing out
on your own life.
You are probably
creating hazards
and disturbing experiences
for others around you.
And the house must be put right.
INTERVIEWER: Do you have
any room in your life
for any kind of real
relationship like that?
DAVID: More room than
I've ever had before.
INTERVIEWER: You've said
that being in love,
you thought was like a disease.
DAVID: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: Horrible,
and it bred jealousy, and.
DAVID: I think I've...
I think I've
I think I've grown to feel
a distaste for that statement.
Then I met Iman,
and it was smack,
right from the first night.
That was it. It was over.
It was incredible.
My life suddenly became
rose-tinged.
[WORD ON A WING SONG]
In this age
of grand illusion
You walked into my life
Out of my dreams
I don't need another change
Still you forced your way
Into my scheme of things
You say we're growing
Growing heart and soul...
I really started thinking about
where I was gonna go with it,
and what I could do for her,
and how I could be
some kind
of valuable contribution
to a relationship.
Sweet name
you're born once again for me
Sweet name you're born
once again for me...
It became a process
over the first year or so,
trying to balance my life
in terms of well,
how many of these
precious moments
am I willing to give away
at my age, 45?
Do I want to keep
on inundating myself
with one work project
after another, and sort of,
leave virtually no room
for a real, solid,
wonderful relationship
to start blooming?
Lord, I kneel and offer you
My word on a wing
INTERVIEWER: Tour plans.
Any tour plans?
Unfortunately not.
No, not this time.
As you know, I've only been
married seven months,
and I really want to spend
more time within the marriage.
I think the worst thing to do
is run away for a year.
I really do.
Lord
Lord
My prayer flies
like a word on a wing
My prayer flies
like a word on a wing
Does my prayer fit in
with your scheme of things?
DAVID: There's a certain
buoyancy that you can develop
as you get older
if you are capable of absorbing
that it's a finite life,
and a finite existence.
And it's a kind of a knowledge
that you cannot
possibly entertain
when you're young.
You cannot entertain
the real magnificence
and inevitability
of the short span of years
that we spend on the earth.
And I think
if you are really honest
with that reality,
you can have
a kind of a freedom,
artistically, spiritually,
and emotionally
that you don't have
when you're young.
Ooh, ready to shape
the scheme of things
The idea of holding
on to anything
that's manifested
seems farcical.
There is nothing to hold onto.
Youth, physical things, or
definitely possessions.
The 20th century concern
is how we put our new god
back together again.
I think that we're coming
into an era of chaos,
and chaos has meaning
in our lives,
and I think
that we have to re-adapt
our interpretation of religion
and spirituality
to suit our new millennium.
Chaos and fragmentation
is something
that I've always been
very comfortable with.
That obviously
is my through-line.
Because I've always felt
that there's no real central
one truth in life.
That the way we live
is trying to make sense
of the endless vortex
of fragments.
That essentially,
we try and pull
these weedy little truths
and absolutes
out of this kind
of mindless chaos,
which is the real universe.
There's something about
the 90s that I really like.
There's something in the air
that I recognize.
I think it's all the frag...
All the fragments
flying around in the chaos.
It feels really... I kind of...
I know this stuff.
[HALLO SPACEBOY SONG]
Space boy
You're sleepy now
Your silhouette
Is so stationary
You're released
but your custody calls
And I want to be free
Don't you want to be free
Do you like girls or boys
Yeah, it's confusing
these days
But Moondust will cover you
Cover you
This chaos is k*lling me
So bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
This chaos is k*lling me
Sweet sweet dove
Bye bye Space boy
Bye bye love
Moondust will cover you
Moondust will cover you
Moondust will cover you
Moondust will cover you
Moondust will cover you
All is well
20th century dies
Toll the bell
Pay the private eye
All is well
20th century dies
[MAN SPEAKS FRENCH]
DAVID: I think, I think
it has something to do
with being able to reach
the end of any one day
and feel that you took from it
and gave back to it
as much as possible.
I hate to waste days.
I've just been feeling
a lot more comfortable
with life, and myself,
and my writing
and everything
as the years go by,
so it's... I just happen to be
in a great place.
I'm really lucky in that way.
'Cause I look
at some of my mates,
and some contemporaries,
and I know some of them feel,
I don't know, tired, or bitter,
or you know, a number of things
that traditionally
are supposed to go
with getting older, you know?
And I've just been
very fortunate
that it just
hasn't happened to me.
I just feel really...
I'm pretty keen on everything.
I've just landed on my feet.
I've done and do everything
I've always wanted to do,
you know?
That's been...
INTERVIEWER:
That's a great thing.
DAVID: Oh, it's extraordinary.
It really is extraordinary.
I've an incredible life.
It's been amazing.
I would love to do it again.
I was determined,
ever since I was 16,
that I would have
the greatest adventure
that any one person
could ever have.
And I set my sails
in the general direction
of uncharted waters.
I put myself
through everything...
Absolutely everything,
that came along.
It was very important for me
to expand my horizons
and seeing just how...
Just how near to the line
I could get.
I've been so eclectic
all my life.
I've been admiring
of so many different people
and so many different things
that they've done,
I feel that I owe so many
for the way that I think
and do things.
I guess anybody
who's had the integrity
to kind of always work
outside of the system,
has always appealed to me.
Whenever I'm teetering
on sort of what I know
is what I do best,
and what I really feel for,
and there's an area
that I think that,
well, an audience
I know would like this,
I just remember back
to how much I hate the center
of the social strata,
how I hate being drawn
into the middle,
to the middle of the road
of anything,
to that which is most popular.
And if... The other thing
I would say is that
if you feel safe in the area
that you're working in,
you're not working
in the right area.
Always go a little further
into the water
than you feel
you're capable of being in.
Go a little bit
out of your depth,
and when you don't feel
that your feet
are quite touching the bottom,
you're just about
in the right place
to do something exciting.
Let me tell you one thing.
All people,
no matter who they are,
they all wish
they'd appreciated life more.
It's what you do in life
that's important,
not how much time you have,
or what you wish you'd done.
[BLACKSTAR SONG]
Something happened
on the day he died
Spirit rose a meter
then stepped aside
Somebody else took his place
and bravely cried
I'm a black star
Oooooo...
There is no beginning, no end.
And all at once,
the outward appearance
of meaning is transcended,
and you find yourself
struggling to comprehend a deep
and formidable mystery.
I'm dying.
You are dying.
Second by second,
all is transient.
Does it matter? Do I bother?
Yes I do.
Life is fantastic.
It never ends. It only changes.
Flesh to stone to flesh.
And round and round.
Best keep walking.
[MEMORY OF A FREE FESTIVAL SONG]
The Sun Machine
is coming down
And we're gonna have a party
Uh-huh huh
The Sun Machine
is coming down
And we're gonna have a party
Uh-huh huh
The Sun Machine
is coming down
And we're gonna have a party
Uh-huh huh
The Sun Machine
is coming down
And we're gonna have a party
Uh-huh huh
The Sun Machine
is coming down
Whoa ho uh-ha
The Sun Machine
is coming down
Whoa ho uh-ha
The Sun Machine
is coming down
Whoa ho uh-ha
The Sun Machine
is coming down
Whoa ho uh-ha
Na-na-na
The Sun Machine
is coming down
The Sun Machine
is coming down
The Sun Machine
is coming down
And we're gonna have a party
The Sun Machine
is coming down
And we're gonna have a party
The Sun Machine
is coming down
And we're gonna have a party
The Sun Machine
is coming down
And we're gonna have a party
The Sun Machine
is coming down
And we're gonna have a party
The Sun Machine
is coming down
And we're gonna have a party
The Sun Machine
is coming down
And we're gonna have a party
The Sun Machine
is coming down
And we're gonna have a party
The Sun Machine
is coming down
And we're gonna
have a party...
[STARMAN SONG]
Hey, now now
Goodbye love
Didn't know what time it was,
the lights were low-ow-ow
I leaned back
on my radio-o-o
Some cat was layin' down
some rock 'n' roll
"Lotta soul" he said
Then the loud sound
did seem to fade-ade-ade
Came back like a slow voice
on a wave of phase-ase-ase
That weren't no DJ,
that was hazy cosmic jive
There's a star man
waiting in the sky
He'd like
to come and meet us
But he thinks
he'd blow our minds
There's a star man
waiting in the sky
He's told us not to blow it
'Cause he knows
it's all worthwhile
He told me
Let the children lose it
Let the children use it
Let all the children boogie
I had to phone someone
so I picked on you-ou-ou
Hey, that's far out,
so you heard him too-oo-oo
Switch on the TV, we may
pick him up on channel two
Look out your window,
I can see his light-ight-ight
If we can sparkle
he may land tonight-ight-ight
Don't tell your poppa
Or he'll get us
locked up in fright
There's a star man
waiting in the sky
He'd like
to come and meet us
But he thinks
he'd blow our minds
There's a star man
waiting in the sky
He's told us not to blow it
'Cause he knows it's all
worthwhile, he told me
Let the children lose it
Let the children use it
Let all the children boogie
Star man waiting in the sky
He'd like to come
and meet us
But he thinks
he'd blow our minds
There's a star man
waiting in the sky
He's told us not to blow it
'Cause he knows
it's all worthwhile
He told me
Let the children lose it
Let the children use it
Let all the children boogie
La, la, la, la-la
La, la, la La, la, la, la-la
La, la, la La, la, la, la-la
La, la, la La, la, la, la-la
La, la, la La, la, la, la-la
La, la, la La, la, la, la-la
La, la, la La, la, la, la-la
La, la, la La, la, la, la-la
La, la, la La, la, la, la-la
La, la, la La, la, la, la-la
La, la, la La, la, la, la-la
La, la, la
La, la, la, la-la.
[CHANGES SONG]
Oh yeah
Mmmm
Still don't know
what I was waitin' for
And my time was running wild
A million
dead-end streets and
Every time I thought
I'd got it made
It seemed the taste
was not so sweet
So I turned myself
to face me
But I've never caught
a glimpse
How the others
must see the faker
I'm much too fast
to take that test
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Don't want to be
a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
There's gonna have to be
a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
I said that
time may change me
But I can't trace time.
DAVID: Well you know what?
This has been
an incredible pleasure,
and, uh,
you were really interesting.
I didn't know those things
you were telling me
about yourselves.
It's nice to have met you.
I'm glad we did finally
meet at last.
And all I can say is,
Goodbye
Goodbye We'll meet again
Some time
Somewhere fa-ta-ta
ta-ta-ta-ta
Ta-da.
Moonage Daydream (2022)
Moderator: Maskath3