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Birthday Bash: David Bowie celebrated his 50th birthday so spectacularly
Most pop stars avoid this: highlighting their middle years with, of all things, a public celebration. Who wants to show that youthfulness is fleeting? David Bowie saw things differently on January 9, 1997, when he celebrated his 50th birthday – which was the day before, perhaps he wanted to celebrate in a small circle first – with a concert in New York’s Madison Square Garden. The “Birthday Bash”.
For David Bowie The number 50 probably wasn’t that big of a deal. After all, his image was never intended to embody a young age, but rather to reflect the era that prevailed in music. The soul of “Young Americans” (1975), the industrial futurism of “Low” (1977), the vitamin pop of “Let’s Dance” (1983). His fictional character Ziggy Stardust (1972-1973) even seemed ageless.
Court jester and budgie Bowie
Of course, you can also judge David Bowie’s appearance, which for him was always an exaggerated expression of his emotions. The photos and videos of his “Birthday Bash” show that he never looked braver than he did in 1997, nor did he look braver afterward. In the midst of his “Birthday Bash” guests, he sometimes looked like his own court jester in his electro look, sometimes like a budgie. Was that the visually nervous equivalent of his drum ‘n’ bass phase, which he ushered in with the “Earthling” album (1997)? In any case, some of the song material on it was outstanding.
Bowie released “Earthling,” his boldest album since “Let’s Dance,” and club music was the music of the moment for him. When choosing his birthday guests, however, he chose rock musicians, some of whom he had been raving about for ten years.
Included: the best bands of the eighties
He described Sonic Youth and Pixies as “the best bands of the eighties,” and both Sonic Youth and ex-Pixies singer Frank Black accepted his birthday invitation. With additional guests Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), “Hunky Dory” fanatic Robert Smith (The Cure) and ex-Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters, Bowie brought together the leading alternative rock musicians of the eighties and nineties in one fell swoop. And Bowie in turn allowed Bowie to confidently interpret his newer club pieces.
Surprisingly, Bowie’s older story was neglected that evening. His old companion Lou Reed, whom he caught more than once in the 1970s, played guitar on four songs. Reed, however, not only didn’t have to play any new Bowie pieces, but also sang his own songs, like “Waiting For The Man”. The Bowie piece “Queen Bitch”, performed together by both of them that evening, was originally intended as a Velvet Underground homage in 1971.
Two were missing. Mick Jagger and Iggy Pop, along with Reed Bowie’s most important friends of the same age. They weren’t there that evening.
Setlist Bowie Birthday Bash:
- Little Wonder
- The Heart’s Filthy Lesson
- Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (with Frank Black)
- Fashion (with Frank Black)
- Telling Lies
- Hello Spaceboy (with Foo Fighters)
- Seven Years in Tibet (with Dave Grohl)
- The Man Who Sold the World
- The Last Thing You Should Do (with Robert Smith)
- Quicksand (with Robert Smith)
- Battle for Britain (The Letter)
- The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)
- I’m Afraid of Americans (with Sonic Youth)
- Looking for Satellites
- Under pressure
- Heroes
- Queen Bitch (with Lou Reed)
- Waiting for the Man (The Velvet Underground cover) (with Lou Reed)
- Dirty Blvd. (Lou Reed cover) (with Lou Reed)
- White Light/White Heat (with Lou Reed)
- Moonage Daydream
- All the Young Dudes (with Billy Corgan)
- The Jean Genie (with Billy Corgan)
- Space Oddity
- I Can’t Read
Videos:
The best songwriters of all time (39): David Bowie
When most people first heard of David Bowie, he was stepping into Major Tom’s shoes. The godforsaken astronaut, helplessly drifting through space without any contact with civilization.
The existential, in this case truly cosmic, alienation – documented early on on albums like “Hunky Dory” (1971) and “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars” (1972) – was to become Bowie’s calling card. And making him one of the most exciting songwriters of the seventies. With “Heroes” David Bowie, just 30 years old, found his perfection. As a chronicler of European political shifts. That was in 1977.
Bowie found his first musical home in glam rock and its dazzling subculture. While the lyrics were based on William Burroughs’ cut-up technique. “You write one or two paragraphs in which you comment on every conceivable topic. Something similar to a shopping list. You then cut the text into individual parts of four or five words and remix the snippets,” he once described the process.
Classic songs like “Life On Mars”, “Changes” and “Heroes” document his incomparable talent
“The combinations of content that you get in this way can trigger amazing trains of thought.” But Bowie wasn’t just a cerebral tinkerer. But he also looked for new challenges when writing songs together with musicians who were kindred spirits. Above all, Brian Eno, Mick Ronson and Iggy Pop.
Either way. Classic songs like “Life On Mars”, “Changes” and “Heroes” document his incomparable talent for merging art and pop into a new, transcending unity.
