Power Martin J.Dillane AileenDevereux Eoin - David Bowie

1 Popular Music Fandom
Identities, Roles and Practices
Edited by Mark Duffett

2 Britshness, Popular Music, and National Identity
The Making of Modern Britain
Irene Morra

3 Lady Gaga and Popular Music
Performing Gender, Fashion, and Culture
Edited by Martin Iddon and Melanie L. Marshall

4 Sites of Popular Music Heritage
Memories, Histories, Places
Edited by Sara Cohen, Robert Knifton, Marion Leonard, and Les Roberts

5 Queerness in Heavy Metal Music
Metal Bent
Amber R. Clifford-Napoleone

6 David Bowie
Critical Perspectives
Edited by Eoin Devereux, Aileen Dillane, and Martin J. Power

First published 2015
by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

David Bowie : critical perspectives / edited by Eoin Devereux, Aileen Dillane, and Martin J. Power. 1st edition.
pages cm. (Routledge studies in popular music ; 6)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Bowie, DavidCriticism and interpretation. 2. Rock musicHistory and criticism. I. Devereux, Eoin, editor. II. Dillane, Aileen, editor. III. Power, Martin J., editor.
ML420.B754D44 2015
782.42166092dc23 2014042220

ISBN: 978-0-415-74572-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-79775-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra

GAVIN FRIDAY

KATHRYN JOHNSON

RICHARD FITCH

AILEEN DILLANE, EOIN DEVEREUX AND MARTIN J. POWER

BETHANY USHER AND STEPHANIE FREMAUX

TANJA STARK

ANA LEORNE

HELENE MARIE THIAN

SHELTON WALDREP

MEHDI DERFOUFI

TIFFANY NAIMAN

IAN CHAPMAN

DAVID BUCKLEY

JULIE LOBALZO WRIGHT

DENE OCTOBER

BARISH ALI AND HEIDI WALLACE

NICK STEVENSON

VANESSA GARCIA

Eoin Devereux: For my sons Joe and Gavin Devereux and to my wife Liz Devereux for meeting me in The Stella and lending me her David Bowie albums all those years ago.

Aileen Dillane: The Gilbert boys, Lochlann, Senan and Rossa, and especially Hayden, for his unwavering support, and Maureen, Seamus, Deirdre, Fionnuala and Noreen for their advice and inspirational example.

Martin J. Power: For Marian, Fiona and Stephen who keep me sane. To my niece Searlait for fighting the good fight and helping me see what is really important. Thanks to everyone who has had an input into making me who I am. Finally, thanks to John Boland and Stephen Ryan for making me get off the couch all of those years ago to go and see Bowie in Dublin. An evening well spent!

For their help and support the editors would like to thank:

Paul Boland, Sheena Doyle, Paul McCutcheon, Anne McCarthy, Amanda Haynes, Carmen Kuhling, Pete Rowan, Paul McLoone, Helen Kelly Holmes, Mary Shire, Eamonn Cregan, James Carr, David Collopy, Joe Gervin, Sam Keating, Adrienne Magliocco, Total Blam Blam, Nancy Chen, Gavin Friday, Rebel, Rebel, and Mick, Valerie and Neil Dolan at Dolans Warehouse.

At the University of Limerick we would like to acknowledge the support received from the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the Department of Sociology, UL40, the Research Office, Corporate Affairs and Campus Life Services.

Grateful thanks to those who gave their permission to reproduce original images in this collection.

Gavin Friday

That werent no DJ, that was hazy cosmic jive

The epiphany, for me, was in July 1972 when Bowie appeared on BBCs Top of the Pops, an orange-haired androgyne in smoky-grey eyeshadow, a space oddity fallen to earth in a quilted two-piece suit and green-laced boots, strumming on a blue guitar and singing Starman, an arm draped sweetly over Mick Ronsons shoulder. And there was me, alone, in a nondescript sitting-room in Dublin II, beguiled by it all. Here was a vision both instant and weirdly complete: the look, the sound, the stance, the sheer strangeness of it all, the teasing sexuality, the wild exotica. It was a future shock, and the future was now. My mind was blown. I hadnt a clue what was going on but I knew and instinctively understood everything as Bowie beckoned to me (a finger pointing camera-ward at me as he sang I had to phone someone, so I picked on you), bidding me jump ship and join him and the Spiders from Mars. From that July night onwards, nothing would ever be the same again.

I was a shy twelve-year-old from Dublins tough and tender northside, a kid who hated football but loved T Rex and Oscar Wilde, a lost boy full of pubescent angst and teenage rage. But then Bowie appearedhe appeareda beautiful stranger from the strangest of lands, and everything changed. This was more than a new religion; he was the Saviour Machine, a transfiguration, and the disciple in me began seeking out everything and anything Bowie-related.

I ransacked the record racks and tore through the back catalogue, pored over posters and cover art. I devoured every word, be it written, sung or mimed. This was so much more than your average teenage fan club, and me a casual member. I had enrolled at the University of Bowie, its most dedicated pupil.

And for the next ten years, longer even, it was windfall after windfall, starfall after starfallmusic, art, literature: from Brecht to Die Brcke, Reed to Reich, Weill to Warhol, the Jean Genie to Jean Genetall via the Bowie-sphere and its glorious satellites.

I am forever in debt to where Bowies music has brought me, to all he has introduced me to. He has been my exemplar, my portal, perennial and peerless, someone through whom I can look and listen to the world.

He was, and remains, a transformer, a diviner, a masterand me, like the contributors to this volume, a grateful witness.

Thank You, Mr. Bowie.
Gavin Friday | Dublin, January 2015

Martin J. Power, Eoin Devereux and Aileen Dillane

During the early hours of 8 January 2013 (the eve of David Bowies 66th Birthday), word began to circulate in cyberspace concerning a new David Bowie single as well as the promise of a new album. David Bowie fans awoke to a new song called Where Are We Now? which was accompanied by a haunting, almost Beckett-like, video focused on his Berlin years and directed by Tony Oursler. The release of the single and The Next Day album, just two months later, ended years of groundless speculation and rumour concerning Bowies career and overall well-being. In old and new media settings Bowie was retired, Bowie was ill, Bowie was a recluse who spent his days painting. Bowie was leaving New York.