‘You think we’re gay, don’t you?’
January 26, 2017 1:13 PM   Subscribe

‘Back to Hull,’ he said. ‘I’ve had enough. I can’t go on stage wearing clothes like that. I have friends who’ll see me. It’s all too much, I just wanna play guitar.’ -- The difficulties of being a northern lad when it's 1972 and you're part of the Spiders of Mars having to adjust to slightly more fashionable clothes than jeans and t-shirt.
posted by MartinWisse (19 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm going to miss Bowie forever.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:35 PM on January 26, 2017 [17 favorites]


Thanks for this. I have been deeply fascinated by Trevor Bolder's sideburns for quite some time, and it's nice to see them get some attention.
posted by the matching mole at 1:36 PM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]


Mick nodded towards one of them and said to me, ‘He’s got really nice legs, hasn’t he?’
‘No, the other one’s legs are better,’ I said.
As the engineers cringed we cracked up laughing. They just looked at us, faces bright red.


Really goes to show how true the line about homophobia being the fear straight men have of being treated the way they treat women is in many cases.
posted by tobascodagama at 3:06 PM on January 26, 2017 [18 favorites]


(The influence of A Clockwork Orange was also heard in the live show, because we used the electronic version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony from the film’s soundtrack to open every gig.)

Carlos became aware of her gender dysphoria at an early age, recalling: "I was about five or six... I remember being convinced I was a little girl, much preferring long hair and girls' clothes, and not knowing why my parents didn't see it clearly".

That's just a thought I had while reading.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 3:09 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


Very rock ’n’ roll.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:11 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


I miss Bowie.
We had a great Bowiemas Eve party.
posted by Capybara at 4:57 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


Drummer Mick ‘Woody’ Woodmansey is the last surviving member of the Ziggy Stardust lineup.

I didn't expect that line to hit me so hard.
posted by Lyn Never at 5:00 PM on January 26, 2017 [15 favorites]


I'm going to miss Bowie forever.

To help make up for missing him, I'm making sure my son (six years old) gets him. He has some Bowie on his mp3 player, and when we watch the Black Star video (which he asks for), he sings along and acts it out. He does the shaky dance, he does the Bowie-as-preacher, he creeps through the field like the claw, he does the scarecrows. He tells me his theories about about the woman with the tale and the jeweled astronaut on the moon and the headless skeleton floating into the sun.

I'll have to play him the Elvis Black Star song to help him work out his theology.
posted by pracowity at 5:15 PM on January 26, 2017 [11 favorites]


I would love to know what David was thinking when it was clear that he couldn't make a go of having Freddi Buretti be a front man (that Arnold Corns thing), so he'd just have to turn himself into a character and try it again. I'll say this much, young Bowie was someone who seems to have DESPERATELY wanted to be famous. As much as I love and appreciate all the music that came from that want, I can't say that I understand such a desire at all.

This story, though, is such a delight, seeing how they all just got into it because they had such a confident leader they ultimately believed in. There's a BBC6 interview about those days with Woody here, for anyone so inclined to listen.
posted by droplet at 5:30 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


So glad I got to see David Bowie Is when it came through Chicago. Got to see tons of the outfits and original handwritten lyrics and such in person.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:45 PM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


Oh thank god. This was really great!
Back to the real world, after reading the f-in news all day.

It's still amazing to think how all this was *1972*. It was SO over-the-top for that time. You couldn't have got 10 feet in middle-America in those threads. ha ha!
posted by Twang at 7:14 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


What would Middle America also have made of this lot? (Albeit released in 1973.) Brazil's greatest glam-rock band, Secos & Molhados, featuring counter tenor Ney Matogrosso, a Bowie for the Southern Hemisphere: Sangue Latino
posted by Mister Bijou at 1:22 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


One of my favourite things about glam rock is that every band had one member who looked like he'd been working on a building site that morning and was utterly mortified by the stage clothes his bandmates insisted everyone wore. He was usually a big beefy lad who'd been squeezed into his spandex with the help of a shoehorn and plenty of lard.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:24 AM on January 27, 2017 [12 favorites]


the woman with the tale tail [gah]
posted by pracowity at 1:40 AM on January 27, 2017


On one of the Five Years documentaries (I think the first one), there's a clip of an interview with older, cheeky-crappie Bowie, where he says the Spiders were a bit leery of the make-up and clothes until they found out the girls who followed the band were very into it. Then they became incredibly enthusiastic.
posted by Grangousier at 1:53 AM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


I miss Bowie, but I do not miss the 70s.
posted by kinnakeet at 3:22 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


I still can't believe David is gone. A hard one to wrap your head around.
posted by james33 at 3:58 AM on January 27, 2017


oh wow Trevor Bolder ended up in Uriah Heep

I must admit I didn't even recall his name, but I was meaning to check, having recently been admiring the bass parts on Ziggy Stardust.
posted by thelonius at 5:24 AM on January 27, 2017


(That should have been "cheeky chappie", not "cheeky-crappie". FFS, OS X, leave my spelling alone.)
posted by Grangousier at 9:28 AM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


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