David Bowie was quintessentially British. But also American |
Amid the countless reactions to the 9/11 terror attack, one came from a source that some might have found unexpected. David Bowie, charming in interviews, and leaning toward the abstract and allusive in his lyrics, was not given to weighing in on news events. But Bowie, who by then had been living in Manhattan for about a decade, wrote the next day on his website, “Life here will continue,” and lauded his fellow New Yorkers as “a resilient and fast thinking people. In this way they really do resemble my own Londoners. They came together quickly in massive community support and silent determination.”
Saturday marked the 10th anniversary of Bowie’s death from liver cancer at age 69. He is often thought of as the quintessential modern Englishman abroad - yes, a rock star, but also simply a well-dressed figure of immutable Britishness. But this underestimates the influence that America had on both his life and work. He first visited the United States in January 1971, not to perform - he did not have the visa that would allow him publicly to play songs off his recently released “The Man Who Sold the World” album - but to give interviews and to emulate one of his great heroes, Oscar Wilde, as a European exotic coming to the New World to show the curious what, exactly, he was capable of.
Bowie liked America, and it liked him back. Before long, he began recording albums in the United States, starting in 1973 with “Aladdin Sane.” The album was heavily influenced by his impressions........