Last night, there wasn't much on TV and I found myself watching a repeat of the very interesting BBC documentary David Bowie: Finding Fame, about his struggles in the late 60's which finally paid off in fame in the early 1970's.
He certainly had a rough ride, in terms of false starts and projects that went no where. You have to admire his dedication to finding a way to break through.
However, I will still, for the life of me, never understand the appeal of the garish looks of the Ziggy Stardust performance character to Bowie, the audience of the time, or any audience since. As the show makes clear though, he rose to fame on it, but quickly recognized its limitations, and perhaps in a calculated sense, quit the character at its peak. The aesthetics of 1970's glamour rock will always remain a historical puzzle, I reckon.
There was a producer on the show who I have seen on Youtube explaining how certain later Bowie songs were created. The one about Heroes was particularly interesting, and showed the surprisingly circuitous and multi-contribution way modern pop music is sometimes created:
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