January 8, 1937– Shirley Bassey
January 8, 1947- David Bowie
Bowie and Bassey, Together At Last! A good idea, don’t you agree?
They have given me a lifetime of listening pleasure & they share a birthday today. Like your host, they are both Capricorns, certainly the brightest birth sign. Unlike me, this pair of Brits has had decades-long super-careers in show biz. Bassey feeds my fantasies about growing old gracefully, epitomized in beautiful songs like Charles Aznavour‘s Yesterday, When I Was Young. Bowie encourages me to stay a Young American, bored with my external characters, daring to seek ideas within my alternative egos. He is an artist-hero who tosses off his past roles: Spaceman, Bisexual, Rebel, like out-dated clothing.
Both are beyond normal criticism, defying purely musical assessment. Bassey over-sings, but thrillingly, & cannot perform except with total commitment. Bowie over-plays, but rivetingly, & demands attention by his extravagant idiosyncrasy, which is as professionally unrepentant as hers. She devours the listener; he incites the listener. Each powerfully proves the power of personality.
Funny, but I seem to really fully embrace artists when they are at their core fans’ & the critics’ low ebb: The Beatles with The White Album, The Rolling Stones and Some Girls, U2– Achtung Baby, REM– Automatic For The People. I have listened to & collected Bowie since 1969 with the release of Space Oddity, a song I still listen to. That is 45 years of living with Bowie in his many incarnations & personas. But, my favorite era for Bowie was not Ziggy Stardust, The Thin White Duke, Alladin Sane, or the Brian Eno lean years of Low. No, I love the Bowie of the Let’s Dance era of the mid-1980s. That album, along with the next year’s Tonight were the soundtrack of the very best time of my life: Modern Love, Let’s Dance, China Girl, songs that mixed his blue-eyed soul with an industrial edge & a big dash of pop sensibilities. I thought Bowie was in his best voice & his sexiest during this time. I saw some serious moonlight in the 1980s.
There is a list of British acts that seem to have eluded pure pop music popularity in the USA: Celia Black, Lulu, & Robbie Williams come to mind. But, why hasn’t Shirley Bassey caught on in this country after 60 years of recording great pop music & being the #1 Female Artist in Britain? Why isn’t she especially loved by American gay people? The Husband & I really dig her. We love the Bassey sound of the 1960s & we were zany for her cover of Pink‘s Get The Party Started in the party summer of 2007.
Bassey won an entirely new generation of fans when she guested on a 1997 song from British techno act, Propellerheads. The terrific tune, History Repeating, charted in both Europe & North America, & appeared on the soundtrack to the popular film There’s Something About Mary (1998). Yet, Bassey had already enjoyed a 5 decade career as a performer before that point, recording a string of hit singles in the 1960s & garnering a devoted cult following for her torchy, often slightly risqué songs, glamorous looks, & compelling stage presence. Sometimes called “Bassey The Belter” for her strong distinctive alto voice, Bassey had already delivered a string of hits by the time she went huge with an international #1 song when she recorded the title song to the James Bond flick Goldfinger (1964). She went on to record 3 Bond theme songs, more than any other artist.
Bassey was born in a rough neighborhood of Cardiff, Wales. Her mother had 10 children from as many fathers. When she was 2 years old, her own father was sent to prison for 5 years and was then deported back to Nigeria. Bassey never saw him again.
When she was 15 years old, Basssey began to sing in local pubs. A music agent signed her up at 17 years old, by which time Bassey had a daughter who lived with one of her sisters. Within a year she had a record contract and was appearing in clubs in London.
Her act was perfect for London in that era. It was sexy, but not salacious, luxurious, but never vulgar, and her recordings like Hey, Big Spender and Diamonds Are Forever reflected Britain’s taste for swingin’ style.
Yet, Bassey struggled with her personal relationships. Her first husband turned out to be gay and died of a drug overdose when he was 40 years old. Her second marriage, to a rich to hotel mogul, ended in a bitter divorce after 12 years. Her second daughter, rumored to have been fathered by actor Peter Finch, committed suicide. Tales of her tempestuous personality are legendary. Bassey claims that she can count her friends on her fingers.
“I’ve found happiness in my work, but not in my private life. I had to take from my private life to make my public life successful. I had to make a lot of sacrifices. I was happy in Cardiff. I had a great time. Every Thursday there was a factory club; darts, dancing. I was happy until success entered my life, and then it was all downhill. Success spoiled me. It took away my happiness. My success became a barrier with my family. They couldn’t relate to me, and I couldn’t relate to them.”
She has released 58 albums & 105 singles. Today, she lives alone, with homes in Monaco and London, still in superb voice and with plenty of misconceptions. She still gives concerts & at the end of 2014, Bassey released a really swell new album, Hello Like Before. It includes a 50th anniversary re-recording of Goldfinger and Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend.
Bowie has a brand new album, his 25th, which drops today, his birthday. Blackstar is jazz infused, lyrically enigmatic and thrillingly odd. His first try at composing songs for a stage musical, Lazarus, is based on the classic sci-fi novel The Man Who Fell To Earth by Walter Tevis. Bowie successfully played the lead role of a hollow-eyed alien in the film version in 1976, directed by Nicolas Roeg. Lazarus is currently playing Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop. Bowie is an accomplished stage & film actor, but Michael C.Hall plays the Bowie role in Lazarus, which is directed by hot gay experimental maverick Ivo van Hove.
“I’m an instant star. Just add water and stir.”
Bowie is a Style Icon and a Gay Icon. He does not give interviews. He doesn’t do much to promote his new releases. He does not do world tours playing the hit songs. In fact, he doesn’t do the things that rock stars are supposed to do, or explain himself in any way. Bowie lives with his gorgeous wife Iman in NYC & London.
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