David Bowie -- Boys Keep Swinging

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(Ziggy terrified me, too)

On this week's Reminiscings of Youth, I remember music legend, the late David Bowie. When I first saw him, he absolutely terrified the heck out of me.

And where I first saw him was as the musical guest on an episode of "Saturday Night Live" hosted by thespian Martin Sheen. I don't remember much of Sheen's stint on the venerable NBC late-night comedy-variety show aside from one skit featuring him and a disgusting hair spray commercial, but the musical segment certainly made an impression on me. And even the musical segments usually never left anything in my memories aside from Billy Joel's performance of "Just The Way You Are" and that notorious Sinead O'Connor appearance.

But there was the tall, gaunt and angular Bowie in the weirdest Art Deco getup on stage with a couple of fellows that I didn't know at the time who turned out to be performance artist Joey Arias and the late singer Klaus Nomi. What I remember was just staring at the screen and feeling "What the heck?!". It was kinda like watching a handsome nightmare in a very underground cabaret.

I must have been able to sneak-watch all of the episode past my bedtime since I saw Bowie make that second or third performance on it, and it was that third performance where I saw him bizarrely act out as a real head on a puppet. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhkay! By the way, the above video has been reversed since the uploader must have really enjoyed the movie "Tenet", but you can still get the gist of what everyone saw that night. 

That last performance was for the April 1979 single "Boys Keep Swinging", a New Wave rock song which more than forty years later still resonates. I think back when the song and music video were first released, it probably had folks dropping their jaws and expanding their eyeballs like nothing else. But that was the showmanship magic of Bowie whether he was Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Insane or The Thin White Duke. I remember even in the years since when he went more chart-pleasing pop in the early 1980s, he still cut a compelling figure in the light suit and tousle of blond hair. In fact, there was one photo of him in the 1983 "Let's Dance" album which convinced me that he could have been a great Doctor from "Doctor Who" fame if he had wanted the role.

That opinion was further enhanced when I saw Bowie for the only time on the big screen as Nikola Tesla in "The Prestige". I was no longer terrified of him; I envied him. 

I was going to start the David Bowie file with "Ashes to Ashes" (which I will do next for him in the near future), but then I felt that on remembering that SNL performance, I had to begin with the song that first had me laser-focused on the truly weird and wonderful British icon.

In any case, what else was coming out in April 1979?

Godiego -- Beautiful Name

Tatsuro Yamashita -- Let's Kiss The Sun

Yutaka Mizutani -- California Connection （カリフォルニア・コネクション）

As I talk about this British icon here today, I am also sadly aware that another British icon passed away in the last few hours. I was never a monarchist and I knew that the day would come soon, but it still hit me with shock on the news that Queen Elizabeth II has now left this mortal coil. Up to now, she was the only British monarch that I'd known and now I have to get used to a new king. It feels really odd. Regardless, my condolences to the Royal Family, the citizens of the United Kingdom and all those who admired The Queen.