January 7th, 2004 was a chilly day. Bruce and I drove from his parents home downtown to sit is perhaps the worst seats in the house to see David Bowie. The stage was dressed with white trees and his full band. Around the halfway mark in the concert he stopped to gab and said that it was his birthday. We all cheered. He then corrected himself and yelled TOMORROW amid laughter and ongoing cheers.
Bruce and I may have been watching the top-right side of Bowie’s head for the majority of the show at no point did I not feel like one of the most important people in the world if for only two hours.
I was not too aware of the breadth of David Bowie’s career until much of it was in the past. 1996’s I’m Afraid of Americans was the first song that I obsessed over finally after getting over my fear of Bowie after being scared witless by Labyrinth.
I have been slowly working my way through Rebel Rebel by Chris O’Leary. He has been writing detailed information of each and every David Bowie song for years and this book is a collection of the first decade of Bowie’s career.
I am a different person because of David Bowie. For better or worse I am different.