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Bowie General > Images Vol. 32

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homebrewPosted at 2025-07-26 15:31:10(4 days ago) (Bowie General / Images Vol. 32)


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These articles appear just as they were posted in the Usenet group alt.fan.david-bowie by group member Jamie Soule aka AladINSAnE. I have made no attempt to alter the formatting, spelling, grammar or edit in any way.

IMAGES: Part 32

I have said it many times that it is really necessary to devote the time

required, no matter how much it is, to understand as much as you can
about Low, Heroes and Lodger. The reason I gave for this is that if you
do not have a good understanding of this work, then you are missing a
lot more about the true "essence" of David Bowie, as a person, as well
as an artist. than you could ever realize. This is true. Those albums,
and I include in there Station To Station, Young Americans, Hunky Dory
and a couple of others ARE ALL BOWIE. The rest of his work, save a few,
contain mere scattered pieces of the "true" Bowie, as they had "ulterior

motives" behind their making. They were not made just for the sake of
personal expression through sound, as was the soul motivation for these
albums.

I have come under fire for stating this more times than I can count, and

all of it coming from newer Bowie listeners, or those who believe that
my assertion is incorrect. They chalk up this statement I make as a
matter of "personal opinion," and not based on anything other than such.

Well, to those of you who believe this to be true I have this to say,
and that is you are wrong. Dead wrong. The issue I make of the
importance of understanding these albums to understand Bowie is NOT MY
OPINION. Now, before you scoff at that may I remind you that I do not
say things which I can't back up, and you should know that by now if you

are one who reads my articles. Let me say to ALL of those who have
dumped on me over the years for sticking to my statement that you are
about to get a rather rude awakening. Also, before I go on I want to
make one thing perfectly clear to a few of you out there who had the
"wisdom" to post your "brilliance" awhile back on the news group,
alt.fan.david-bowie. Now, as incomprehensible as this is to any real
Bowie listener, I saw actual postings on this group from "visitors" who
wanted to start a discussion as to whether Low was a "good" album. I
responded by letting them know that for even "thinking" to question the
relevance of Low that they had demonstrated to any real Bowie listener,
that they in fact were first class morons who did not understand the
first thing about Bowie, and never would based on that kind of question.

I came under fire of course for that. To those of you who attacked me
for that, well, you attacked me for no reason because I was not wrong at

all. I was right, and again, this I can prove. You were fools. I will
just say this to all of you, the importance of these albums is NOT MY
OPINION AT ALL, IT IS BOWIE'S. So, if you do not think that it is
important to spend the time to understand these albums, or think that
they can be "dismissed," then leave ME out of it, go flame Bowie.

I closed out the last segment of Images by mentioning a quote of
Bowie's. Many of you after reading it may come to the same conclusion
that I have, that this quote is one of the most sincerest, truthful,
revealing, as well as one of the greatest importance when it comes to
how he rates the work he produced during this period. As I described
earlier, the conversation was about Low, Heroes and Lodger, and the
person conducting the interview asked Bowie this question, "Were you
aware of their importance (of those albums when you were making them?"
Bowie replied by saying this, " Yes, yes, yes. For whatever reason, for
whatever confluence of circumstances, Tony, Brian and I created a
powerful, anguished, sometimes euphoric language of sounds. In some
ways, sadly, they really captured unlike anything else in that time, a
sense of yearning for a future that we all knew would never come to
pass. It is some of the best work that the three of us have ever done.
Nothing else sounded like those albums. Nothing else came close. If I
never made another album it really wouldn't matter now, my complete
being is within those three. They are my DNA."

Lodger was recorded by Christmas,  all that was left were the lyrics to
be written, and for Bowie and Visconti to do the final mixes  Lodger was

scheduled for a worldwide release in May of 1979.  Bowie would not be
spending the Christmas holidays at his home in Switzerland this year. He

chose to go to his "other" home instead, the one in the Caribbean. Most
are aware that Bowie had a permanent residence in Switzerland, however
he had a second home as well, and this one he kept rather private. Bowie

bought this home in either late 75 or early 76, I am not sure exactly
when, and it is located on the Caribbean island of Mustique. Mustique is

a very unique place, for several reasons that I will explain, and it is
easy to see why Bowie chose to buy a home here. The island  is located
in the Eastern Caribbean, eighteen miles south of St. Vincent, and forms

part of an area of islands called St. Vincent and The Grenadines.
Mustique is small, fourteen hundred acres, one and a half miles wide,
and three miles long. There are eighty five residences on the island,
well, villas are a much more appropriate description, and roughly fifty
of them are available for seasonal rentals. There is only one hotel, one

guest house, a general store, a church, a "designer" boutique, a cafe, a

bakery, and of course a bar as well. One thing you will not find
however, as you do on most "tourist" beaches, is an endless stream of
high pressure beach vendors selling everything from jewellery, to
T-shirts, sea shells, cruise missiles, sun glasses, assault rifles and
Scottish castles. You will also not find any traffic signals.

The ownership, and the way in which Mustique is governed is quite unique

in my opinion, and unlike anything I have seen before. I think it is
worth a mention because you may also find it interesting. First of all,
Mustique is PRIVATELY owned, by a corporation which is called simply,
The Mustique Company. The corporate address for the company is in St.
Vincent. In 1989 the Government of St. Vincent & The Grenadines  passed
into law The Mustique Company Limited Act. This basically gave the
company total control of the island, and left them to govern it anyway
that they see fit. This law was rather "convenient" you see, because as
it turns out one hundred percent of the shareholders of The Mustique
Company just happen to be the residents, property owners, as well as
those who own businesses on the island. Now, who usually regulates
taxes? Right, the government. Well, on Mustique the residents ARE THE
GOVERNMENT. So, guess what? That's right. No income tax, no corporate
tax, no capital gains tax, no gift tax and no "offshore" profit tax. It
gets better too. The disclosure laws to guarantee privacy are the best
in the world, so good as a matter of fact that their system has come
under fire from the governments of a multitude of countries, due to the
fact that their taxation departments are "stone walled" when it comes to

getting information about anyone who has set themselves up in Mustique.
The confidentiality laws in Mustique make Swiss banking privacy
protection look second rate amateur in comparison. There are NO LEGAL
DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS IN EXISTENCE in Mustique. What does this mean?
Well, total anonymity, in other words NOBODY can get ANY information on
what you own, or who owns what. You can own a company based in Mustique
and there is no requirement for the filing of by-laws, or for the
disclosure of who the directors are, the shareholders, your attorney, or

anyone else who is related to the company. In addition any information
on your trading activities, or your banking information will not be
passed on to any Revenue Authority anywhere in the world.  These laws
are, and I quote from a financial report, "the most restrictive
confidentiality laws on the planet." Understand though,  before you
consider opening your own business here, you must have a minimum of half

a million dollars US to incorporate.

Getting to and from the island is a little bit of a hassle as there are
no regular scheduled flights. This leaves you to fly in from Barbados
either on a charter flight, or bring your own plane. If you don't have
one I suggest that you either borrow a friends or come by boat. I mean
yacht. Oh, you can only fly in during the day also, another hassle. If
you are willing to put up with these inconveniences I can guarantee that

a visit to Mustique will afford you a unique opportunity to meet some
interesting people who frequent the place. If you are a Rolling Stones
fan then both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have homes there. Here is a

quote from Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, "  I was at a picnic on a beach
on the island of Mustique just after Christmas, and I suddenly saw
[drummer] Nick Mason on the other side, who I haven't spoken to in
fifteen years. And I thought, "Fuck, this is nonsense!" So I went up
behind him and massaged his neck. He turned around, and he nearly fell
on the floor when he saw who it was. He's invited me to dinner, and I
shall go, because we were very close friends all those years." Princess
Margaret used to hang out and party on Mustique, it was a favourite
haunt of hers. Sean Connery and Raquel Welch frequent the island too.
Tommy Hilfiger recently invited his friends to join him at his $40
million beach hut on Mustique to celebrate his 50th birthday.

If you have some vacation time coming and you happen to like the blues,
you may wish to make a note of this. There is a round about Bowie
connection to this as well. Every year, in January I believe, the island

of Mustique hosts a blues festival. Here, lets do this. There we go, I
just went and  looked it up so you'll know, and I wasn't too far off as
it turns out.  The 2002 festival was held from January 23rd to February
6th. I was truly quite surprised when I discovered who the principal
organizer of this event was because it was the last person I would ever
expect. This is where the "Bowie" connection comes in. Now, Bowie is not

involved with the festival in terms of organizing it, or appearing as a
performer, as far as I know. I am not aware if he even attends them.
There are two key people who are responsible for organizing the
festival. The Producer of Mustique's Annual Blues Festival is a
gentleman by the name of Basil Charles, who  is also the owner of
Basil's Bar, the only "watering hole" on the island. The other
individual is the actual founder of the event, which she started seven
years ago. She also serves as the Artistic Director. Her name is none
other than, Dana Gillespie.

If you are tinkering with the notion of grabbing the family and heading
off to Mustique for next year's blues festival then you can thank me for

saving you some work. Why? Well, I went and checked out the
accommodations that are available so you can find one in your price
range without having to look yourself. As I said, out of the eighty five

residences on the island, there are around fifty that are available for
seasonal rentals. They vary in size so therefore it should be extremely
easy to find one that will suit you budget, I know I found several
possibilities for myself without any difficulties. Since I do not know
how big your family is, or if you will be vacationing with friends, so I

decided to provide you with several alternatives. The prices of course
vary slightly from Villa to Villa, but these are  in the range that you
can expect. Hey, that sounds like a good title for an album doesn't it,
Villa To Villa? There are some places "in between" the ones I have
quoted as well. If it is just yourself and one other person you could
get by with a two bedroom place, and that will set you back to the tune
of $6,500.00. If it is you and another couple then $10,500.00 will get
you into a comfortable four bedroom place. You would be looking in the
neighbourhood of $16,000.00 should your require a six bedroom villa. If
you are planning to make it a "special" event and decide to bring along
a few close friends, then you will not encounter any problems finding an

adequate place to hold a few more bodies.. A nine bedroom villa can be
yours for $27,000.00. I am well aware that these prices could be
considered the "purchase" price of homes in some less developed
countries. I can assure you though that what I have quoted to you are
not to buy these places, but merely to rent them. These prices are not
for a year, and they are not for a month. What I quoted you is how much
each of these places cost o rent for ONE WEEK.  Yes, you are looking at
an average price of $6,500, to over $27,000.00 per week, should you
choose Mustique as your next holiday get away. On a positive note you
may wish to know that reservations are not necessary to attend the Blues

Festival. Now, even better is the fact that admission to the festival is

free to guests on the island. With all the money you will save on the
price of admission, you can easily afford to purchase the cd of the
event which is sold each year.  The proceeds from the sale of the cd's
are donated to help the school children of St Vincent.

David Bowie's residence was called Britannia Bay House. The house was
decorated in a Balinese theme. No doubt some of the furnishings were
purchased  from a local boutique called Forever, which specializes in
furnishings and other items which are made in Bali. If you ever make it
to Mustique one day and have thoughts about possibly running into Bowie
at Basil's Bar, then let me tell you that you are probably not going to
be very successful. I say this purely for the fact that Bowie sold his
home there in 1995.  The price he got for it was two million dollars. In

1978 Bowie spent Christmas and New Years on Mustique. On New Years Eve
he went over to Mick Jagger's, who was hosting a champagne party. After
the holidays Bowie left for London to begin work on the mixing of
Lodger. On February the 14th was the London premier of Bowie's latest
film, Just A Gigolo. As it turned out champagne would not be the order
of the day in this case, the reason being that there was little to
celebrate.

The invited guests were asked to dress in 1920's style, or formal black
tie to The Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square for the screening
of Just A Gigolo. Bowie was in attendance that evening with his date Viv

Lynn. Apparently Bowie did not feel that the "dress code" that the
guests were asked to adhere to applied to him. I say this because Bowie,

as well as his date, came to the film premier wearing Japanese Kimonos
and wooden clogs. Unfortunately their clothes did not divert the film
critic's attention away from the movie, they saw it all, or as much as
they could stomach of it anyway. Rarely does one hear of an actor
described as, "embalmed in dead talent," which were the exact words used

on Bowie by The Sunday Telegraph. The Morning Star reported that Bowie,
"exudes as much warmth as a fridge."  The Sunday Mirror concluded that
Bowie was "completely miscast," and going on to say that the film was,
"all show and no substance." The critics did not just have their sights
set on Bowie, the other actors did not escape notice, and neither did
director David Hemmings.  The review from the Financial Times stated
that Bowie, as well as the remainder of the cast, "fall like ninepins
before the ham handed staging and the choppy, frantic, try anything
editing." These reviews, if you can believe it, happen to be the kinder
ones written by those who did not like the film were the "kinder". One
review was rather surprising , this was the one which ran in the New
Musical Express. It is surprising because this magazine has always
openly supported Bowie's work, which is evident by the articles about
him. Most of what is written on Bowie over the years has been positive,
no matter what is written in the "other" publications. They have quite
often defended his work where others wouldn't. In the case of Just A
Gigolo however, New Musical Express was ruthless compared to their usual

treatment of Bowie.  This is an excerpt. "David's dramatic ambitions
obviously far outweigh his abilities. Bowie might look the perfect part
as a foppish Prussian gentleman turned gigolo traipsing through 1920's
Berlin, but he can't play it. An illusion is burnt to a crisp every time

he opens his mouth or tries to convey any depth or detail of character.
Bowie's efforts throughout are comically inept." Bowie did not like the
film either, calling it, "my 32 Elvis Presley films, all rolled into
one." That fact however did not matter, the bad reviews did not stop, he

was literally hit with them coming from every angle and that took its
toll on him. According to friends, although he "toughed it out" in front

of the media, inside he was devastated.

I agree that this movie from a serious standpoint is one big fucking
mess. It works however as a comedy, a "comedy of errors" that is. I
think that it is grossly unfair though to ruthlessly attack Bowie's
capabilities as an actor. I will be the first one to say that Bowie has
done more than his share of poor acting jobs, yet there have been some
awesome moments slipped in among them. I still believe The Man Who Fell
To Earth is overlooked, and a loss to those who do. Bowie is strikingly
brilliant in the role of Thomas Jerome Newton, even considering the fact

that he was fucked up on coke at the time, and it was his first real
acting job. It is my view that the bad films were almost all poorly
written, poorly directed and poorly acted by ALL OF THOSE INVOLVED, not
just Bowie. It is entirely wrong to put the failure of a film entirely
upon his shoulders, as if HE was the only one responsible for it. It is
for this reason I feel that the New Musical Express , as well as a few
others, were way out of line in their treatment of Bowie, especially to
single him out as they did. It was wrong and unfair.  Although I fail to

understand how, Just A Gigolo actually received a few good reviews. One
I read compared it to Cabaret, with Liza Minelli. Variety Magazine said
Bowie acted his role with, "engaging appeal." Film & Films magazine said

the film ," is an original and often deeply moving movie." Mostly
though, the movie was said to be "overkill." It was pulled, mercifully,
from theatres after only a few screenings, saving a lot of Bowie's
dignity in the process.

Do you know what? I really wish people would just stop for a moment and
quit living for today, without looking at the past. Our past is our
history, and without it there is no chance in Hell that you can
understand today. My entire point is that without history one has no
points of reference with which to make comparisons, and without
comparisons it is absolutely impossible to even begin to know if
something is good, bad or if what we are looking at is even relevant.
Without the past there is no measurement of the future. I get into this
a lot with those fans, who for some unforsaken reason, still fail to
even begin to grasp just how important some of Bowie's work actually
was. if you take Low, Heroes, Lodger and compare them to what you can
find on the shelves today of a record retailer it would be easy to
proclaim that they are "nothing special" in terms of originality. Guess
what? If you said this you would be correct for the most part. Why?
Well, even though they may be of superior quality, being Bowie albums,
they are not "original" by today's standards. I could show a person
HUNDREDS of albums in a store today which are very similar in musical
style to Low and side two of Heroes. "Ambient" music now warrants an
entire section in most major retailers. That is now. Now, about 1977. I
am asking you roughly how many titles do you think were available in the

"ambient" section of a record store? What is your guess on how many
bands were writing in this manner? The first answer is zero, and the
second is a few. There was NO AMBIENT, or NEW AGE SECTION in ANY STORE.
Why? Because this type of music, save for a few unknown artists, DID NOT

EVEN EXIST. What were people listening to instead in 77 and 78? The
answer is DISCO. So, now that we know history then tell me this. If
people were listening to disco in 77 and 78, and the approach to music
incorporated by Bowie during this period did NOT EXIST, then exactly how

relevant were these two albums when they first appeared? If disco was
the popular music of the time, then exactly how innovative were these
albums when they came out compared to what people were listening to?
Compared to what sold, do you feel that Bowie may have taken a bit of a
"risk" by making these albums?

Since these albums were "firsts," not by an artist, but firsts speaking
in relation to THE ENTIRE CONCEPT OF WHAT MUSIC IS, they were important.

Not just important, important enough to alter the entire course of music

history, these two albums changed music forever. Did it ever occur to
you that the reason we have "ambient" music a DIRECT RESULT of the work
done in the seventies by Bowie, Eno, Fripp and a few others. Where would

artists like Gary Numan and a dozen others be without Bowie? The answer
is non existent. These albums may be nothing important in your eyes if
you just look at today, forgetting history. In my opinion however, by
doing so you will never truly understand just how important this era
was, and the profound effect it had on the future development and
progression of music as a whole. For whatever value my opinion holds,
let me say that it is well worth taking the time to understand the
history of the period in relation to the work that Bowie released at the

time. This is imperative if one wants to understand why much of Bowie's
work is so important.  If you doubt me then I will prove my point.
There was another medium David Bowie explored in 1979 which stemmed from

the making of Lodger. A few other artists had "dabbled" in this medium
before, but record companies were extremely reluctant to invest their
money in this area. Once again, if compared to the way things are today,

what Bowie did wouldn't be singled out, because like ambient music, it
is now commonplace. It didn't used to be that way  however, and if you
study your history you will come to an amazing discovery, and that is
just how much of a contribution Bowie made in this new field. What Bowie

did was the same as what he did with much of his writing, he was a
pioneer, and in the years to come there would not be one band or record
company that would not follow in his footsteps. That my friends, is how
important this bit of history is. That should suffice I believe to
adequately illustrate my point. So, what also was it that Bowie did with

Lodger that made it so important? Guess.

AladInsaNE

More scribble to follow sometime in the future...................


""I don't begrudge any artist for finding an audience"
- David Bowie abt. 1987
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