David Bowie: A brilliant brand to the very end

Ziggy Stardust cover outtake by Brian Ward

It's not easy to wake up to the death of your icon, but that day is here. David Bowie's own family have confirmed that he died of cancer. And the media are playing his greatest hits as fans and colleagues air their grief.

I'll admit, I cried a little. But thinking about the past few days, I see a death that was as carefully designed as the life Bowie lived. Mod, Ziggy, Thin White Duke, he was always deliberate in the way he presented himself. Even when he was living on nothing but cocaine, chilli peppers, and milk in the mid-70s, he was thoroughly self-aware as he manipulated the media world around him.

There are no details of David Bowie's death, only that he had had cancer for 18 months. I'm not sure we'll ever get anything more. This is a man so good at getting people close to him to keep his secrets that after a decade of silence he was able to surprise the world with a comeback album in 2013.

Instead, Bowie wrote his own requiem.

In "Blackstar," the advance video release for his eponymous new (and last) album, we are shown a dead astronaut, a solitary candle, and a singer with his eyes covered. He was telling us something, and it wasn't happy. Reviewers saw an artist exploring his own mortality. They just didn't know how closely it was looking back at him.

The second release from the album was even more brutally obvious: Bowie in a sick bed, eyes still covered.

Bowie's official website also released the lyrics in full. Knowing what you know now, doesn't it make your spine tingle?

Look up here, I’m in heaven I’ve got scars that can’t be seen I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen Everybody knows me now   Look up here, man, I’m in danger I’ve got nothing left to lose I’m so high it makes my brain whirl Dropped my cell phone down below   Ain’t that just like me   By the time I got to New York I was living like a king Then I used up all my money I was looking for your ass   This way or no way You know, I’ll be free Just like that bluebird Now ain’t that just like me   Oh I’ll be free Just like that bluebird Oh I’ll be free Ain’t that just like me

 In 1973, David Bowie "killed" his most famous persona, Ziggy Stardust, with a surprise announcement at the end of a massively successful tour.

What followed was a decade of rapid change. Bowie killed off new and exciting Bowies as fast as he could give birth to them.

I won't get into the lackluster years that followed, but the artist eventually got himself sorted out and started a second act in the '90s that explored new ground.

But then in 2004, on tour, a blocked artery in his heart almost killed David Bowie for real. He survived, but put his career on ice. The man of mystery became even more mysterious as he took a back seat to be an elder statesman for new acts like Arcade Fire.

The comeback album, in 2013, was good. But critics saw it as a remix of Bowie's past genius rather than evidence of a new one. He immediately started doing much more experimental jazz work, pointing the way to the album that came out on Friday. It was his 69th birthday, and the music world hailed Blackstar as a masterpiece.

What would have happened if David Bowie's death had preceded the release? It wouldn't have given us the extremely emotional theatre that a weekend of rave reviews and a Monday morning obituary. Now everyone is revisiting the album to decode the artist's messages about his own end.

I have no doubt that there will be theories about the seemingly perfect timing of this passing. The thoughts swim around my mind, too: Was it assisted suicide? Did he really only die yesterday?

Even the RIP message by lifetime collaborator Tony Visconti is cryptic: "He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way. His death was no different from his life - a work of Art."

It doesn't matter how it really went down. He is gone. We now live in a world without David Bowie. But as a result of his dedication to art, we also live in a world full of David Bowie.

Thank you, David. I can't imagine my world any other way.

Theatrical ad banned from London Underground over bare man bum

My Night With Reg is a 1994 play about gay men in London during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. This poster, for the current revival revived at the Donmar Warehouse (and now the Apollo Theatre) was rejected by Transport for London for "male nudity," according to Pink News.

The poster, with a nude man holding the best rock album ever recorded, is a direct adaptation of the first edition cover of its book version.

In the past, Transport for London has been the subject of ridicule for its prudish advertising standards, once banning a poster for an exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts for showing a 16th century female nude by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Bowie shills for fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion in epically pretentious Louis Vuitton ad

Nobody sells out like David Bowie sells out. The man appeared in his first ad before his career even took off. At the height of his art rocker cred in the '70s, he was writing music for TV ads. And then, of course, came the '80s. And finally, this.

As an elder statesman of Baby Boomer cool, Bowie is back on the shill train. This time, it's with a harpsichord remix of one of his new songs in an incredibly decadent ad for  Louis Vuitton:



Directed by Romain Gavras, and featuring model Arizona Muse, it's basically an ad for purses. Very expensive purses.

This version of "I'd Rather Be High" is one of the bonus tracks on a new, expanded release of Bowie's comeback album.

Can this 1974 "Raped by Mick Jagger" ad be real?

It has to be a hoax. I truly hope so, anyway.

I just saw this posted in the Facebook group "1960's and 1970's Advertisements". From there I tracked it back to a post from last June in Anorak. The oldest post I found was on Flickr from 2008.

Does anyone have provenance on this? Claimed to be from a 1974 "rock magazine," it parodies a long-running campaign for Maidenform begun by the William Weintrob Advertising Agency in New York:

Via Blogspot

So, if you combine 1970s political incorrectness, the bad-boy image of the rock press, a cheap shot at consumerism, and a wink at the contemporary rumours about a Bowie-Jagger affair, would you end up with such an ad?

If you have any information about this, please comment below.

1972 Bowie review is a good reminder for all music critics

Via That Eric Alper

Every once in a while, I find it good to remind myself that every new movement in popular music provokes curmudgeonly dismissal. Jazz, country, early rock 'n' roll, funk, electronica, rap, dance... no matter how good an artist is, there's never a shortage of people who simply don't get it.

This news clipping from Memphis in 1972 is one of those reminders:

Via Guerrilla Monster Films

"David Bowie probably could be a talented musician. But his show is not selling music. He has substituted noise for music, freaky stage gimmicks for talent, and covers it all up with volume."

The live album recorded in California slightly later on that tour, long a favourite bootleg for Bowie fans, had its first "official" release in 2008. It has 4.5/5 stars on Allmusic. (Not to mention that the studio album he was touring ranks on almost everyone's all-time "top" lists.)

How many of today's musicians have been described in similar terms? And how will history judge them?

David Bowie gets his new video banned by YouTube

Apparently, getting people to censor your work for offending religious sensibilities isn't just a young man's (or woman's) game. At the ripe old age of 66, David Bowie has managed another PR coup by having the latest video release from The Next Day get pulled by YouTube for an apparent violation of its Terms of Service.

Fortunately, Bowie's main video hub is on Vevo:



Sky News reports that the video, directed by Floria Sigismondi and featuring Gary Oldman and Marion Cotillard, was yanked yesterday—the very day it was released.

Sky's description is as good as any:

It depicts Cotillard - the French actress who won an Oscar for her role in La Vie En Rose - as a dancing girl who bleeds from stigmata marks on her palms, while Bowie plays a Jesus-like figure in robes fronting his band in a seedy basement bar. 

Oldman plays a priest who dances with Cotillard. As she sinks to the floor bleeding from her hands, Oldman turns to Bowie - dressed in what appear to be sackcloth robes - shouting: "You see this? This is your doing - you call yourself a prophet?" 

Cotillard's wounds spray blood all over a topless, veiled woman before she rises again dressed in black with tears on her cheeks and bathed in light.
The video also includes a monk being flogged.

However, it has returned to YouTube with an age restriction and Vevo branding.

So far, the video "ban" has been covered by Sky, Yahoo!, The Independent, CBC, The Atlantic, etc., etc.

Most coverage assumes that the religious imagery is the cause of the ban. But I hope not. Showing priests, nuns, bishops and saints as grotesque parodies or sinners is an artistic tradition going back to the middle ages. And Bowie has been a "Leper Messiah" since 1972. You can't say there's not art to this.

YouTube apparently hasn't commented on the issue, but I'll bet it was one of two things:

1) They got so many user complaints that the video was "abuse" that they automatically took it down until it could be reviewed, and/or
2) It was the mostly-exposed breasts being sprayed with stigmata blood (which might explain the age restriction)

(They have since commented. Via Pitchfork:  Billboard reports that a YouTube spokesperson told them, "With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it's brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it.") 

Nonetheless, this is just the latest in what has been one of the most impressive publicity campaigns for a comeback album that I have ever seen. First, David Bowie managed to record the entire album entirely in secret, releasing the first single as a video on the stroke of midnight on his 66th birthday. This generated massive interest for the album, which was not due to come out for two months. He then pre-released his second video single, a song of a very different genre, which seemingly paid homage to an internet meme that he and Tilda Swinton are the same person. The album cover caused gasps in the design world for being just a re-hash of the "Heroes" cover with a white square over the face. And the artist has avoided giving interviews, instead leaving the press access to his band, his producer, and even his wife's Twitter feed.

As a result, his official Facebook page says The Next Day is David Bowie's most popular album since Let's Dance.

And David Bowie is the most interesting and relavant he has been since the Seventies.


Bonus: Flavorwire attempts to deconstruct all the religious imagery

Iggy Pop makes fun of his label problems to promote new Stooges album

There's a good reason there will unlikely ever be a definitive Iggy Pop box set. And that's because, in the course of an almost 45-year, defiant and rude recording career, he has been bounced from every major label — as well as several indies.



The Stooges were originally signed to Electra. After two albums, they were dropped. They reformed, with help from David Bowie, to sign to Columbia. That lasted one album. (But what an album!) They broke up again, and a few years later David Bowie swooped back in and got Iggy a deal with RCA. Two albums later, and Bowie-free, he signed to Arista. Which dropped him after three platters and left him with no other option than to sign with indie Animal Records.

Bowie came back into Iggy's life, and he signed with A&M. That lasted two albums. Then he was on Virgin for an amazing run of seven, until he got bumped down to their subsidiary, Astrawerx. Then he went to Thousand Mile Inc. for an odd collection of French crooning covers.

All of that to say that the man has seen his share of rock star decadence and decay. (And those are just the mainstream releases.) Now, as he turns 63, Iggy is about to release his long-awaited follow-up to Raw Power with the modern-day Iggy & The Stooges. On something called Fat Possum Records.

Bowie sells Sony the best jingle it will ever have

For years, David Bowie has been making good use of his 1977 techno hit, "Sound and Vision" to promote his own retrospective products. But finally, a consumer technology company has realized it's probably the best jingle they could ever have:



The classic song is remixed into a haunting nostalgia by by Sonjay Prabhakar, as retro visuals show us how iconic Sony products have been part of people's lives for generations. (No idea why the '70s roller girl has a late-80s Walkman, but anyway...) It's all to position their new Xperia Z smartphone as "the best of Sony in a smartphone".

And no, I can't blame Bowie for selling out. He was "selling out" before I was even born.

Tip via Adrants

The David Bowie/Tilda Swinton meme comes alive in new video

The tildastardust Tumblr jokingly floated a theory that David Bowie and Tilda Swinton are the same person.

Via tildastardust

Now, David Bowie has released a new video in which he and Ms. Swinton star as aging lovers — and Iselin Steiro — looking like a younger Tilda — also appears as a "Thin White Duke" era Bowie. It's all so very confusing. Look for cameos by models Andrej Pejić and Saskia De Brauw as well. Just as in Bowies golden age of the early '70s, this is all about bending traditional gender portrayals.



Coincidence? Who knows... it's Bowie's world. We just live in it.

Pic and credits via Bowie's Facebook Page

Happy Birthday, David Bowie, you glorious weirdo

Via DavidBowie.com

David Bowie is 66 years old today. And, after almost a decade of reclusive retirement, he's throwing a surprise party for his fans.

Why am I writing about this on my advertising blog? Bowie has always been a keen self-marketer, and this is no exception. He played the gay angle masterfully to get publicity at a key point in his career, then continued to push music, fashion, media and technology throughout the 70s and early 80s. Then he had a slump, but re-emerged as a more mature and mellow musician comfortable with his past. And he kept doing neat things. I'm a huge fan.

He was an early music video pioneer, because he understood the importance of image in selling late-century pop. He would go on to blow people's minds with an image that threatened to overcome the artist. Many years later,  in 1996, according to his own site he was the first major act to officially release a song via internet download, "Telling Lies". (The new single is available on iTunes.) In 2004, he was on a roll, with a great new album, Reality, and a huge world tour. But then he suddenly succumbed to serious cardiovascular disease, requiring emergency heart surgery. The tour ended, and Bowie went into retirement. He started working on his back catalogue.

If there's one thing David Bowie excels at, it's getting people talking about him while remaining an unpredictable enigma. In 1973, he broke up his best band, the Spiders from Mars, on stage with zero notice (even to its members). The next year, he changed musical styles mid-tour, becoming a disco dude. Then it was on to German-style techno. Until his deliberate commercial sell-out with Let's Dance (and a couple of flaccid follow-ups) nobody knew what to expect next.

Now, he has suddenly emerged from several years of retirement with a brand new album and a song/video teaser. (Watch it here)

I just finished reading Neil Young's autobiography, and in it he laments how artists have no privacy to develop their ideas without them being leaked to and analyzed on social media. Bowie, who has never been a social presence outside his owned digital channels, somehow managed to record an entire album in absolute secrecy, shoot a video, and simply announce it to the world on his 66th birthday. It's a guarantee that he will dominate mainstream and social media for the day.

I have to admit, the first song is kind of a downer. And Bowie is finally starting to show his age. But the video is as weird-ass as you could hope for. And even the album cover — a minimalist recycle of the "Heroes" art from 1977 — is surprising. It almost looks like a joke.

The cover was designed by London graphic design studio Barnbrook. In his blog, Jonathan Barnbrook addresses its weirdness:

...we know it is only an album cover with a white square on it but often in design it can be a long journey to get at something quite simple which works and that simplicity can work on many levels – often the most simple ideas can be the most radical. We understand that many would have preferred a nice new picture of Bowie but we believed that would be far less interesting and not acknowledge many of the things we have tried to discuss by doing this design. Finally we would like to give David Bowie great credit, he simply did what he always does which is to go with a radical idea and that takes courage and intelligence. That is why we love his music and love working for him.

Although I'm not surprised Bowie has no plans to tour, I'm disappointed. The last time we saw him live, in 2004, my son was in the early stages of forming in his mom's womb. Now he's a fan, too. But this is David Bowie's show. We're just along for the ride.

Rock and pop groupies tell all in anonymous forum

The insatiable David Bowie is a rock star who groupies continue to lust after and rave about, and we hear that he's into orgies and videotaping his encounters. David isn't too picky when it comes to race or gender, but he does have a taste for "the beautiful people." If you look like Camilla Parker-Bowles, you'll probably be out of luck in getting David to show an interest in you. As David's wife Iman can tell you, David is also fascinated with black women, so all you gorgeous ebony ladies who want to experience Bowie might have a great chance with him. Bowie also likes his regular sex partners to have a certain amount of intelligence. If you're an airhead who doesn't know the difference between Rambo and Rimbaud, you'll quickly be out of favor with Bowie.

When I was a teenager, books like Pamela Des Barres' poorly-written tell all I'm With The Band and Rock and Roll Babylon were infamous for spilling rockstars' sexual secrets.

But thanks to our internet age, the groupies have organized and are broadcasting many musicians' private moments to the world under a cloak of anonymity on the forum, groupiedirt.com

Rammstein lead vocalist Till Lindemann has gotten mixed reviews for his sexual technique. He's been described as both a good lover and a lousy lover whose penis is hung like a peanut. If you want to get together with Till, don't expect him to treat you like an equal. He's reportedly very sexist who sees women as being good for only one thing.

As usual, this gives the people in question no possible way to defend themselves, as rumour and speculation abound.

The members Insane Clown Posse are rude, crude, and treat their groupies like dirt, according to women who've been with them. The clowns are so desperate for attention that they'll take practically any groupie, no matter what she looks like. Violent J has a big penis but he doesn't have much stamina (one woman said he lasts about five minutes), and he's secretly self-conscious about being overweight. And if you start to lose interest in him, he will start treating you with abusive and hateful behavior. 

Is any of this true? Nobody knows. But like the ridiculous backstage riders on The Smoking Gun, it makes great guilty pleasure reading.

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich is "unforgiven" for being a sexual disappointment. One groupie who had him said his technique is "wham bam thank you maam" and Lars sometimes has trouble getting up his uncircumcised penis. We also hear that Lars talks too much and his fondness for alcohol and cocaine "doesn't make for a lot of fun...paranoid and a limp dick!" We also hear Lars likes lesbian sex, but then again, most men do. Meanwhile, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has earned high praise for his lovemaking abilities, with one lady describing him as "fantastic" with a "gorgeous dick." Kirk is an admitted bisexual swinger who's been known to frequent sex clubs with his wife. Bass guitarist Jason Newsted is also a great lover, according to one lady who says that he was able to satisfy to her needs.  

The site focusses on classic rock and newer pop, with very few hip hop, R&B or soul references (Ice T gets honourable mention for his love of "white pussy").

I guess their groupies are more discreet than those of the boy bands?

This boy band believes in having a lot of girlfriends. AJ loves to give the ladies backdoor action. Kevin is a less than faithful husband. Cutie pie, Nick Carter, has a weakness for model types. 

And not even the "girl groups" are spared...

They might have looked sweet in their videos, but these girls are not innocent. Back in their heyday, they made an after concert video with a drunk roadie. While the roadie masturbates, the girls are giggling in the background. Later in the video, Kathy Valentine shoves a vibrator up the roadie's ass when he is passed out on a hotel room bed.

Of all the ones I've read so far, this is my favourite:

Former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones is no stranger to groupies. He's said to be crudely average and people say that he likes picking up sleazy hookers. Lead singer Johnny Rotten despises groupies. Actually, he despises most people. Groupies who want to avoid cruel rejection are advised to steer clear of Johnny, who is reportedly very devoted to his longtime wife. 

Iggy Pop, by the way, is conspicuously absent.

You can spend hours there. Check it out.

Tip via Buzzfeed

Ziggy Street

It's certainly one of my favourite album covers.  Shot by photographer Brian Ward in January 1972 photographer Brian Ward outside a fur distribution company called "K. West" at 23 Heddon Street, London. According to The Ziggy Stardust Companion, the entire shoot was done in black and white, then colourized in those saturated tones. (You can see some outtakes here.)

"To be played at maximum volume."

The side street has apparently changed quite a bit in 40 years. But just this week, the Crown Estate mounted a "Blue Plaque" at the site to commemorate its historical significance.

Unveiled by the dude from Spandau Ballet. Remember them?

Now that David Bowie is seemingly retired, I hope this kind of thing doesn't make him feel too old.

But then again, he's the one who said we only had five years...

Thanks to Mark B for the tip.

F'd Ad Fridays: House O' Bowies

This odd little ad was originally shot for Vittel mineral water, for European and Japanese markets, in the early 2000s. In it, David Bowie is forced to live with all of his classic alter-egos.



It was later repurposed as an ad for Bowie's last (**sob**) to date album, Reality.

In some ways, I wonder if this is what it's like to live inside his head.

PS: Come back, David! In any guise you choose. We miss you.

Some rock stars age better than others

The headline on this Dutch record fair campaign says "Discover just how great your old heroes still sound".

But I'm not so sure about that...

Dead since 1997

Dead since 1977

Half dead (and it was the good half, too)

Dead since 2009

Apparently retired

On tour

I get the concept. But the whole point of listening to those records is that they are frozen moments in time. On vinyl (or CD or MP3) Elvis is still The King. Bowie's whatever he was that year. The Beatles are both fab and gear. And they couple who do still play live are actually old, with thickened cocal cords and mellowed stage presence.

No, this campaign misses why records are so special. They are time machines. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Via AOTW

David Bowie on the 10-Pound Note

Only in Brixton, though.

The September 2011 issue of The Brixton Pound, a monetary equivalent meant to promote local spending in Brixton, South London, includes portraits of Bowie, basketball player Luol Deng, British historian and educator Len Garrison and WWII spy Violette Szabo.

An interesting group, to be sure. Bowie graces the tenner in his iconic Aladdin Sane makeup. I have a US Dollar at home with a picture of Bowie as the Thin White Duke on it somewhere, but it is not legal tender.

I wonder which incarnation would go on the Loonie? The laughing gnome?

Tip Via Flavorwire