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Post by Doc on Aug 31, 2006 18:37:01 GMT -5
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Post by fourthousandholes on Aug 31, 2006 19:24:32 GMT -5
THAT is probably the "Freddy" in "All the Young Dudes". I found the "FAQ" page pretty interesting: www.5years.com/faq.htm"Bowie has also stated that there was two main influences behind the Ziggy Stardust character - one was a meeting with a "fake" Lou Reed in the early 1970s and the other was the eccentric rocker "Vince Taylor" "There were maybe two incidents which created the Ziggy Stardust thing for me - or put it firmly in my mind that it was an interesting way to go. One was the fact that I went to see the Velvet Underground when I first got to the States in 1970. At the end of the show I went back and sat down and we talked for about half an hour. Then I told my friend a few days later that I got the chance to speak with Lou and you know it was wonderful and we talked ... He said "No... no...Lou left the band last year. You were talking to Doug Yule - his replacement - who is almost his spitting image." I said "You're kidding me!- but he sat there and talked as though he was Lou and he was talking about how he wrote "Waiting For The Man" and all these things!" And it was at that point that I realised that, at the time, it didn't matter to me if this was the real one or a fake one. So that was one half of the puzzle that could be the Ziggy Stardust type figure - is he real or is he artificial? And the other one was a guy called Vince Taylor..." - David Bowie (2000) Q. Who was Ziggy Stardust based on? A = Vince Taylor Vince Taylor Bowie says that he based the character of Ziggy Stardust on the eccentric rocker "Vince Taylor" (real name Brian Holden and also known as the "French Presley") who moved to France and worked as an Elvis impersonator. Born in 1939 in Middlesex, Taylor's family migrated to the US when he was seven years old. By the mid-1950s, his family had moved to California, where Taylor's sister married Joe Barbera, of the famous Hanna-Barbera cartoon partnership. It was in Los Angeles that Taylor - clearly influenced by Elvis Presley - began to hone his act in various LA nightclubs. In 1957 Taylor returned to London as a leather rocker and made such an impact that within a few months he was signed by EMI. At gigs, he would show all the signs of typical rock'n'roll magnetism, the screams from the women in the audience drowning out his weak voice, his only superficial flaw. Trips to Europe proved somewhat more chaotic, as his performances - with Taylor dressed in black leathers, wearing make-up, throwing himself about on stage as if in an epileptic fit - induced riots. Months of this exacting routine, however, began to take its toll as Taylor started to fall prey to the lure of drugs. Come 1964, Taylor was on the edge, his diet of drugs, wine and an increasing God complex leading to his eventual downfall. From the mid-1960s, he drifted from club to club in London, claiming to anyone who would listen that he was the Son of God, his food intake consisting solely of eggs. His best known work is his 1959 single "Brand New Cadillac" which was covered by the Clash on "London Calling" (1977). The Clash's Joe Strummer recalled: "Vince Taylor was the beginning of British rock'n'roll. Before him there was nothing. He was a miracle." Bowie first encountered Taylor at the Giaconda cafe on Tottenham Court Road in 1966."
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Post by Doc on Aug 31, 2006 20:41:12 GMT -5
A QUOTE: After bringing in Doug Yule to replace Cale, Reed recorded two more albums with the Velvets in a markedly different stylistic vein: The Velvet Underground (1969) and Loaded (1970) -- although a considerable amount of material not contained on these albums was also generated during this period (most of which would eventually surface in the mid-80s on the collections VU and Another View). The personal and professional dynamics of the group remained unstable, however, and in August of 1970 Reed made the decision to quit just prior to the release of Loaded. The next year was spent away from the music industry, living in his parents' house on Long Island and working for his father's accounting firm; in 1971 a contract with RCA finally initiated the launch of his solo career, and an eponymous album followed in 1972. Primarily featuring Velvets-era material, the release accordingly received the same lack of interest that had plagued his previous band. In the hopes of avoiding the dismal response given to his first solo effort, Reed enlisted the help of long-standing Velvets fans David Bowie and Mick Ronson to create his second offering, Transformer (1972). Given a thorough glam makeover by the pair, the album featured one of his most commercially successful songs (Walk On The Wild Side) and at last provided a bit of forward momentum to his floundering career. Regardless of his new-found popularity, the subject matter of Reed's songs remained as uncompromising as ever -- a fact that was abundantly evident on the Bob Ezrin-produced follow-up release Berlin (1973), a concept album that explored the disintegrating lives of two drug addicts. This oscillation between commercial success and commercial suicide continued throughout the rest of his 70s output: the live collection Rock N Roll Animal (1974) reviving the enthusiasm generated by Transformer, followed by the blatantly mainstream Sally Can't Dance (1974) and the extreme, formless feedback assault of Metal Machine Music (1975). Upbeat pop was then shamelessly indulged on Rock And Roll Heart (1976), only to be discarded in favor of the the raw punk of Street Hassle (1978). END QUOTE. from: www.nndb.com/people/391/000024319/Bowie says he got into the states in 1970. Reed did the final split in August of 70, so if Bowie saw a pre-August concert, he may actually have SEEN Lou Reed. The friend that Bowie may have spoken to may not have known the exact dates, and presumed 1970 to be an all Doug Yule year....... Meaning, possibly, that Bowie may have in fact met Lou Reed after all, and began to think otherwise over a confusion of dates. However, this does not negate the truth of the idea that Bowie had no reason to disbelieve his friend. So he was, one way or the other, impressed with the concept of the successful impostor that fed the origin of his "Ziggy" personna. Future concert goers may well have believed that they were seeing Reed when it was Yule. Now, Lou and David worked together in 1972---we might presume that Bowie never sought occasion to clear up the matter, as after all, he didn't really care one way or the other! Which gives rise to the idea that maybe someone should grab a new Proboards address and create "60IF, Schmixty-IF. Big Deal--They're Dead. Bor-ing!" But we care. *yawn* What's for supper?
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