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| By Redeytraveler via Wikimedia Commons |
It's hard to believe that it's been ten years since music icon David Bowie left this mortal coil. Perhaps it's a mere guess from me, but I think fans and people who are just discovering Bowie are probably going through his discography and perhaps even his filmography right now to view his creations.
As I mentioned in my first ROY article on Bowie, "Ashes to Ashes" was the first time I'd seen him in a music video, following my first ever sighting and listening to him on the Martin Sheen-hosted "Saturday Night Live" episode. Bowie Boy, did he make an impression! Music videos were just at the beginning of their lifetime as a pop culture force and this one for "Ashes to Ashes" was kinda like one of my dreams if I had a little too much spicy food the night before.
I will leave the interpretation of the song to better people at Genius and Wikipedia, but suffice it to say, it was something that left me somewhat shaken considering that I'd seen it on some video show late at night and it was something that I'd never seen before with all of those special effects and Bowie taking on multiple characters. I also read that "Ashes to Ashes" has been lauded for its distinct structure and I could attest to that with the melodic shifts in direction knocking me around for an absolute loop. Art pop and art rock were the right labels for this one, along with New Wave. At the time, I was ready to use avant-garde.
"Ashes to Ashes" was released on August 1st 1980. It did OK in Canada by scoring a No. 35 ranking on RPM and in the United States, it actually hit No. 21 on the Billboard Disco chart, but it reached No. 1 in the UK and France. Let's see what was up at the top of the Oricon charts a few days later on August 4th.
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