Zero Squared: andy warhol chris o'leary cultural criticism david bowie rebel rebel
by douglaslain
7 comments
Zero Squared #12: Rebel Rebel
Chris O’Leary is the guest this week and we discuss his book Rebel Rebel which is coming from Zero Books in two days. With the tag line: “Every single song. Everything you want to know, everything you didn’t know” the book catalogs all of Bowie’s songs from 1964 through 1976.
The Cultural Critic Mark Dery (author of All the Young Dudes:Why Glam Rock Matters) sent me a blurb for O’Leary and I’ll read it now:
Marooned in ’70s suburbia, I and countless weirdos like me awaited every new Bowie record as a deep-space ping from a world where weird ruled—proof that there really was life on Mars, if not in tract-home sprawl. To date, what passes for thoughtful inquiry into the polymorphous, polyvalent phenomenon that is David Bowie has consisted almost entirely of potted biographies and coffee-table photo albums. At last, the Homo Superior gets the exegesis he deserves: Rebel Rebel is the Lipstick Traces of Bowie studies, and Chris O’Leary its unchallenged dean.
I should also point out that you can win a copy of O’Leary’s book by entering the fictional Bowie lyric contest at DavidBowieNews.com, and I’ll put a link to that in the show notes.
In this episode you’ll hear a clip from Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station, a clip of a cover of Kim Wilde’s The Kids in America done by Nirvana, David Bowie with Bing Crosby from Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas, an Andy Warhol/David Bowie interview juxtaposition and Bowie’s Warszawa played on a Minimoog by the youtube star orchestron.
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Doug,
The thing about Talking Heads not having a lasting impact for younger people is not accurate: they are uber-respected as a classic group with at least a couple essential albums by twenty and thirtysomething “music snobs”, younger rock critics, etc. See: Pitchfork, etc.
…in fact I’d argue that they’re worshipped way more than *Elvis* at this point, at least among record collector types
This is a great BBC documentary about Bowie that will help put a lot of visuals to what you guys are talking about. Worth watching for the seeing all the various incarnations Bowie tried out before he became “Ziggy Stardust” Great podcast, Doug.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRiTngOAQps
Anthony Newley clocks in at around the 4:30 mark.
The first ten years of his career (pre Ziggy) are something straight out of “Spinal Tap”
lovely thanks, passed it along to 3AM mag and Critchley.