January 12th, 2016.

David Bowie.

The death of David Bowie is not an important news story nor an event for great sadness, he lived a fairly long and certainly good life. But for some reason it has the feeling of a landmark event in the West.

David Bowie was a singer and an actor of sublime talent but he was merely an entertainer. Still an entertainer of rare quality who left an immense cultural mark on the West and whose death in many ways exposes just how empty are the remaining cultural icons of the Western dark elite.

Aleister Crowley and the David Bowie Connection

David Bowie was at least in part, an agent of the dark elite, there were Crowley issues, minor Nazi issues and allegations of sex with underage groupies* and a rape claim that cannot be substantiated.

His appeal within the openly evil fashion industry was especially unnerving but musicians are there to entertain, it is a delusion of the modern West that troubadours are supposed to be moral leaders.and his work stands up today and will continue to entertain people for many decades.

And look at what they have left, they have almost nothing. The cupboard is so bare. Jagger? Madonna? Dylan? Elton John?

If we take Madonna an artist with a similar career trajectory, Madonna has only maybe half a dozen great songs, (and that is being generous) the work doesn’t stand up. Elton John is and has always been a tacky lightweight and a follower, Dylan and the Stones became musically irrelevant decades ago.

They have lost an agent of irreplaceable quality, a real gem and it does beg the question as to what happened to Western culture?

That is to say why does the pop culture (many honorable exceptions aside) suck by and large these days and why did the pop culture go downhill?

One striking thing is the lack of personality in the work of major pop artists today. Rihanna’s work is generally well executed and some of the songs are memorable but there is a total lack of sonic variety and personality, her records get the best factory production every time but it always sounds and feels the same. There is something missing there, she has ability and she is given good songs often but there is a complete soullessness about it somehow.

There have been and always will be great new musicians but the difference is that at certain times in the past, artists of intellect and quality like Bowie were promoted, today they are mostly the most pliant and obedient kids off the talent shows. Someone from that background will never be more than a competent clone, it is why they are chosen.

There is a big gap between David Bowie and the Bay City Rollers and since the 1970s it has been all Bay City rollers all the time on the pop charts. Good new bands have been obscure.

Someone made a conscious decision to take the culture in an aggressively lowest common denominator direction, or was it organic?

I first became aware of David Bowie in the early 1980s, around the time of Let’s Dance, my older cousin Andrew was a big fan and when I visited his house in perhaps 1982 I can remember seeing David Bowie posters on the wall.

Around the end of 1984 I became a fan after I managed to record Space Oddity off the radio, it was truly like nothing else I had ever heard and I have remained a fan ever since.

The song is still sounds striking and fresh although it is well short of Bowie’s best. Young Americans stands out as an absolute classic to me as does Golden Years. Pop music does not get any better.

The key period was between 1969 and 1983 with the absolute peak being between 71 and 77 or so and throughout this time David Bowie produced dozens of classic songs.

Ziggy Stardust, Suffragette City, Jean Genie, Rebel Rebel, Young Americans, Golden Years, Rock n Roll Suicide, Life on Mars, Heroes, Sound and Vision, Ashes to Ashes, Lets Dance, Changes, Andy Warhol , Sorrow, Starman and many many others.

He was extremely stylish, carried off the androgyny schtick brilliantly where many of his followers were hopelessly gauche and awful- and he even appeared to have a sense of humor.

He also helped Iggy Pop produce his two Berlin albums, the semi classic the Idiot and the absolute classic Lust for Life along with producing the only Lou Reed album that was successful, Transformer featuring Walk on the Wild side among others.and also the final Stooges album Raw Power.

It is a sign of a high quality individual in whatever area that they bring out the best in others. Bowie had a great career as a producer as well as an artist and these are a couple of my favourite examples.

Lou Reed – Walk On The Wild Side

Iggy Pop – Dum Dum Boys

He was practically the only person alive who deserved to be called a rock star, who didn’t make the term seem a joke. Unlike the Rolling Stones he did not flog his legacy to death on endless overpriced nostalgia tours. Bowie was still appearing on great records well into the noughties, lending vocals to the TV on the Radio classic Province.

TV on the Radio-Province

Bowie even made some great movies, the Man Who fell to Earth is an absolute classic, a work of genius, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence is also a fine movie. Many of his movies were forgettable but the acting was a bonus, secondary and the indifferent movies did not matter.

“THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH” – TALKING HEADS – “ONCE IN A LIFETIME”

David Bowie – Space Oddity

Iggy pop-Lust for life

David Bowie – Heroes

*The Lori Maddox story.
http://www.debriefdaily.com/lifestyle/lori-maddox-i-lost-my-virginity-to-david-bowie/
“While Lori’s mother worked nights, she and Sable, who was dating Iggy Pop, would sneak out to clubs on the Sunset Strip in search of musicians, she told Thrillist.com – and that’s where she met David Bowie.

“What I remember most about the E Club was Bowie. I met him when he was doing the Spiders from Mars tour. He wanted to take me to his hotel room. I was still a virgin and terrified.
“He had hair the color of carrots, no eyebrows, and the whitest skin imaginable. I grabbed on to [DJ and club co-owner] Rodney Bingenheimer and said I was with him. So we all just hung out and talked. I had probably kissed boys by that point, but I wasn’t ready for David Bowie.”
Five months later, Lori changed her tune. Next time Bowie was in town, they went for dinner and while they were seated at their corner table in a private room, John Lennon and Yoko Ono stopped to say hello. It was another world.”
““We got to the Beverly Hilton and all went up to Bowie’s enormous suite. I found myself more and more fascinated by him.

“He was beautiful and clever and poised. I was incredibly turned on. Bowie excused himself and left us [Lori and Sable] in this big living room with white shag carpeting and floor-to-ceiling windows. Stuey brought out champagne and hash. We were getting stoned when, all of a sudden, the bedroom door opens and there is Bowie in this fucking beautiful red and orange and yellow kimono,” Lori told Thrillist.com.
“Looking back, Lori said she wouldn’t change a thing.

“That time of my life was so much fun. It was a period in which everything seemed possible,” Lori said. “There was no AIDS and the potential consequences seemed to be light. Nobody was afraid of winding up on YouTube or TMZ.”
“Now people are terrified. You can’t even walk out your door without being photographed. It has become a different world.”

“He focused his famously two-colored eyes on me and said, “Lori, darling, can you come with me?” Sable looked like she wanted to murder me. He walked me through his bedroom and into the bathroom, where he dropped his kimono. He got into the tub, already filled with water, and asked me to wash him. Of course I did.
“Then he escorted me into the bedroom, gently took off my clothes, and de-virginized me.”
“Two hours later, Lori went to check on Sable who was high as a kite, and repeatedly saying, “I want to f*ck David.” To which Bowie said, “Well darling, bring her in.”
“That night I lost my virginity and had my first threesome. He was totally bisexual. I saw David many times after that, for the next 10 years, and it was always great,” Lori told Thrillist.com.