Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

David Bowie

130 replies

paellaandpies · 03/08/2020 00:28

I’ve never really listened to him much, because my parents weren’t fans, and so he just wasn’t on my radar when growing up. But I was lucky enough to see him live at a festival once, and he was absolutely electric onstage, and I can see how loved he is. However, I have never got into any of his stuff, and I feel perhaps I am missing out... am I?

So, any Bowie fans, what would you recommend for someone just starting to listen to him? Anything in particular? Chronological or start with the famous hits?

Thank you!

OP posts:
AuntieMarys · 03/08/2020 10:17

bikerunski yes Absolute Bowie are superb. Many great evenings watching them

AuntieMarys · 03/08/2020 10:19

Piss off ponoka 😁

Andahelterskelterroundmylittle · 03/08/2020 10:54

Creep sex offender ... shudder

Branleuse · 03/08/2020 10:58

Hunkydory is the one.

I dont expect my favourite artists to be perfect. I generally expect most creative geniuses to be narcissistic egocentric bastards behind closed doors. Obviously there are limits,

Almostfifty · 03/08/2020 11:00

Hunky Dory is the one to start with. Absolutely superb album.

MoreJammyDodgersPlease · 03/08/2020 11:03

@Branleuse

Hunkydory is the one.

I dont expect my favourite artists to be perfect. I generally expect most creative geniuses to be narcissistic egocentric bastards behind closed doors. Obviously there are limits,

If you only ever listen to artists who've never done anything you disagree with, you'll probably have very little of interest left.
Branleuse · 03/08/2020 11:06

If they werent arseholes or bastards,they probably would never chase celebrity and fame

Original poster
paellaandpies · 03/08/2020 11:06

Thanks so much everyone, lots of posts to read through and get me started!

OP posts:
Brefugee · 03/08/2020 11:15

To all the rape accusers - I witnessed what went on back then - girls, mostly young teens - throwing themselves at bands. Literally hundreds of them hanging around at stage doors vying to be picked, especially with the likes of Bay City Rollers, The Glitterband etc, but pretty much any band would attract a following.

Pretty much this. There is nary a performer from back then who wasn't having some kind of relations with young fans - frankly back then if David Cassidy had expressed any interest in 13 year old me I'd have loved it (although i was pretty naive and didn't really have a good grasp of the actual mechanics of actual sex). There is a conversation to be had about what was going on then, but i also don't think it is all (although some is, of course) with Epstein and his sex parties.

I didn't ever really look under 16 at any time from about my 12th birthday when i suddenly developed boobs, and i never really wanted to apart from not wanting to pay full-fare on the bus. We are all a lot wiser now and that is good.

Also yy to pp saying that it is possible to separate the artist from the art in a lot of cases, and for me Bowie is one of them. This is the internet, though, so YMMV.

Original poster
paellaandpies · 03/08/2020 11:16

Ok, I have read the thread, and HunkyDory seems to be the winning starting point. To the ITunes Store!

OP posts:
HoppingPavlova · 03/08/2020 11:18

Same. Used to adore him, but once I found this out, I just can't separate the songs from how uneasy this makes me feel. Soon as I hear a song by him, I just make this association.

Fair enough but I’m guessing your listening choices are pretty limited. No Stones, Who, Zeppelin, Beatles, Fleetwood, Aerosmith, all hair bands, Eagles, Kiss, Doors, Hendrix - in fact pretty much every single band in the 70’s and 80’s. Bowie is no worse than anyone in any of these bands, they all happily welcomed the young teenage groupies that threw themselves at them.

I definitely would have happily shagged the vast majority of popular 70’s bands when I was a teenager. Alas never got the opportunity and now we are all old and wrinkly together.

ShesMadeATwatOfMePam · 03/08/2020 11:44

I'm not excusing it or anything, but it was very much a two-way thing and I would be pushed about who to label a predator.

That's exactly what you're doing. If a man can't sure that a girl is over the age of consent he shouldn't be fucking her. Those poor men in their 20s,30s,40s, bamboozled by these wily young temptresses who wore loads of make up (some of whom were barely 13). Or, young vulnerable girls seduced by the power of attraction that the media built up around these perverted men who get off on having sex with very young girls. Do you really think the girls knew what they were doing and were equal sexual partners in those encounters? Do you really think as 13 year olds they could actually consent to sex with very powerful men who were much older than them? Would you still think that if it was your 13 year old daughter?

speakout · 03/08/2020 11:50

*That's exactly what you're doing. If a man can't sure that a girl is over the age of consent he shouldn't be fucking her. Those poor men in their 20s,30s,40s, bamboozled by these wily young temptresses who wore loads of make up (some of whom were barely 13). Or, young vulnerable girls seduced by the power of attraction that the media built up around these perverted men who get off on having sex with very young girls. Do you really think the girls knew what they were doing and were equal sexual partners in those encounters? Do you really think as 13 year olds they could actually consent to sex with very powerful men who were much older than them? Would you still think that if it was your 13 year old daughter?

Totally agree.

We are talking about 13 year old children.

thesunwillout · 03/08/2020 11:57

Watch his Hammersmith gig.

Hingeandbracket · 03/08/2020 12:11

@FiveShelties

Ziggy - amazing. I remember seeing him in concert with the Spiders from Mars. Mick Ronson - wow 'could he play guitar'. Fantastic days - takes me back - still a teenage heart beats in this 60+ body.
Yep - such a shame he treated Ronson and the others so shabbily since they were major contributors to his success. Ronson was criminally underrated.
Hingeandbracket · 03/08/2020 12:12

I definitely would have happily shagged the vast majority of popular 70’s bands when I was a teenager.

Why?

Brefugee · 03/08/2020 12:19

Do you really think the girls knew what they were doing and were equal sexual partners in those encounters?

they absolutely weren't but without making excuses for anyone (because the 70s was a massive shitshow for the most part in this respect) the idea that a pop/rock star off his head and with what looked like a gasping for it sex partner would persist along the lines of "show me your birth certificate" is laughable. The girls went along with it for so many reasons (not least because some of them really did believe that they would turn out to be THE ONE who got David Bowie to commit to them) and at the time (because they didn't know any different and almost nobody was advocating for them back then) it just seemed like what girl fans did. I was too young for all the Osmond/Cassidy/bowie/Marc Bolan stuff (not to say that they were all banging under-age girls all the time - and i use that word because that's just what it was) but i remember falling madly, desperately and completely unrequitedly in Real Love with Jean-Jaques Burnel as a 14/15 year old and had i been so inclined and given the opportunity I'd have at least wanted to snog the face of him in the hopes that he would Pick Me Forever. It's hormones. And the girls (and some boys) were (ab)used on what looks like an industrial scale. It has ever been thus and given the grooming cases that keep popping up now, looks like it has never changed.

thesunwillout · 03/08/2020 12:23

Ronson was a legend.

Hingeandbracket · 03/08/2020 12:24

@thesunwillout

Ronson was a legend.
He was - shame Bowie didn't treat him better.
PinkSparklyPussyCat · 03/08/2020 12:52

Typical MN. OP asks for recommendations about music, queue the pile on about about disgusting Bowie was etc.

To answer the question, my favourite albums are Ziggy Stardust and Changes and Legacy is an excellent compilation

AuntieMarys · 03/08/2020 13:19

There's a great Mick Ronson documentary on Sky Arts

VinylDetective · 03/08/2020 13:32

@Hingeandbracket

I definitely would have happily shagged the vast majority of popular 70’s bands when I was a teenager.

Why?

Me too. They were incredibly good looking with great bodies and imbued with glamour.
Butterer · 03/08/2020 13:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LockdownLump · 03/08/2020 13:42

Sexual politics and relations are complicated and reducing them to black and white judgments is pointlessly reductive

Okay. Fair enough. People are talking about how it was different times in the 70s. Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac etc all fucking underage girls.

But it was the 90s when he was in his 40s and he allegedly shagged a 16 year old.

That just gives me the creeps. If it was 40 odd year old Bob, your dads mate from down the road, everyone would be horrified that he wanted to fuck a 16 year old.

speakout · 03/08/2020 14:26

Sexual politics and relations are complicated and reducing them to black and white judgments is pointlessly reductive

Some parts of those relationships are very simple.

Don't have sex with chidren.

Swipe left for the next trending thread