Ashes to Ashes

I used to wait and wait and wait for this to be played on Night Tracks, Ted Turner’s short-lived precursor to MTV.  Of course, I had grown up with Bowie on Top 40 radio but never really knew his music.  That is, until my neighbor Ann Beavers turned me on to him, along with B-52’s, Talking Heads and The Cars.  She had a couple of albums and we’d listen to them when our folks weren’t around.

Something about this video’s  eerie melody, synthy guitar chords, negative visual treatment and, of course, Bowie’s androgynous harlequin character struck a nerve with me.  It was his first video I recall going big time and I was hooked.

The nerve it struck, as with so many, was the self-realization that I, too, was different.   And profoundly so.   Years later, I would realize that being different was OK, maybe even better.

Thank you Ann for the introduction.  And thank you David Bowie for years and years of pleasure.  You left the world a better place than when you arrived.

Godspeed.