The Ear Is A Hungry Ghost | 7 - we all love aladdin stardust

EVERYBODY LOVES ALADDIN STARDUST

I see a David Bowie tribute band (featuring Tigers On Vaseline).

‘Starman’, early memories of Bowie (also featuring Christie, T Rex); Bowie versus my Christian upbringing; Bowie as myth, hero, artist, artiste and alien; Bowie books, compilation albums and postage stamps.

I see a David Bowie tribute band (featuring Tigers On Vaseline); Bowie as folk music; the Age of Bowie.

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…with his exotic hair, his coy yet knowing smirk and his camp pointy finger…

… Bowie’s gay provocation...

… the most overlooked aspect of this television milestone…

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…opening up the gatefold sleeve and being confronted by the shocking Bowie-creature within…

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…in the right place at the right time with the right people…

In retrospect, that is. At the time these two were just a pair of interesting freaks that he had befriended, adopted, or latched onto – two among many. Which was in itself a special kind of genius.

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…my Bowie is Seventies Bowie…

Sinister self-portrait in a Bowie mask originally purchased from a stationery shop in Amsterdam.

Laughing woman with giant papier-mache Bowie puppet at Belladrum festival. When I asked her if between Bowie’s thighs was the place she’d always wanted to be, she laughed even more.

Bowie clock bought for me by my son as a last-minute (and perfect) birthday present from a street vendor in Melbourne a couple of years ago. The LP is in fact The Lonely Bull by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

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…We never made it to the V&A, so we went to Bologna instead…

…a money-box full of £2 coins…

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…This image that defines Bowie…

"Ziggyology: A Brief History Of Ziggy Stardust" by Simon Goddard (2015).

On this cover you can see cultural evolution in action. By the twin processes of mutation and selection, Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, Bowie's two most powerful creations (apart from himself of course), combine to generate a new hybrid meme, Aladdin Stardust.

“Shock and Awe: Glam Rock And Its Legacy, From The Seventies To The Twenty-First Century” by Simon Reynolds (2017).

The lightning bolt has left the face of Bowie/Aladdin/Ziggy and taken on its own separate existence, reproducing continually, colonising real and imaginary faces wherever you look.

“Glam” by Richard Allen (1973). Johnny Holland fights to stay idol of a million fans.

Richard Allen was in fact James Moffatt, who wrote over 290 novels in numerous genres using more than 40 pseudonyms.

Included among the 18 New English Library books were “Skinhead”, “Suedehead”, “Punk Rock” and “Mod Rule”.

Literary stars as rock stars: the cover of a Waterstone's notebook.

Nine faces are featured: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Marcel Proust, Agatha Christie, Maya Angelou, Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Emily Dickinson, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf.

"Go Your Crohn Way: A Gutsy Guide To Living With Crohn's Disease" by Kathleen Nicholls (2016).

Early on, Nicholls describes her embarrassment and disgust having to live with symptoms that she is unable to make sense of. She goes on to state: 'I didn't have the first clue what in the name of David Bowie was happening to me'.

On this cover, Aladdin Sane replaces or takes on the identity of Bowie as a signifier of mental illness/insanity.

The other faces are those of Nick Drake, Syd Barrett, Ray Davies and Pete Townshend

'All The Madmen' is a song on the Bowie album "The Man Who Sold The World".

Bart Simpson badge as worn by a Bowie fan who is also owner of Union Vinyl record shop, Inverness.

Harry Potter has a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. This is the result of an attack by Lord Voldemort when Harry was a baby.

In the years that followed, Harry's scar would hurt whenever Voldemort was close, or if he was in danger from the Dark Lord.

Cigarette lighter by Brandalised, one of a number of lightning bolt products featuring the Queen as 'Lizzie Stardust'.

As opposed to Lizzie Sane.

Earrings bought from the V&A Bowie exhibition website for my wife as a Christmas present.

Jewelled skull in the window of a jeweller's shop in Amsterdam, March 2015.

This was about eight years after Damien Hirst managed to sell a diamond-encrusted platinum skull at auction for £50m.

Hopefully this skull is encrusted with fake jewels, in keeping with the authentically artificial spirit of Bowie.

Over-priced ready meal with unaccountable Bowie theme.

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...improvised on the evening of a 1972 photo shoot for the "Aladdin Sane" album cover…

It was Brian Duffy who photographed the image that has since become the Mona Lisa of pop.

The lightning bolt arose from two sources: the manufacturer’s badge on a National rice cooker that was present at the time; and Elvis’s personal TCB (Taking Care of Business) logo.

Bowie was fascinated by Elvis, and they shared a birthday (January 8) as well as a record label (RCA).

Bowie apparently said he wrote ‘Golden Years’ with Elvis in mind but was too shy to approach him, and Elvis was said to have liked the idea of Bowie producing an album for him after hearing the song.

In 1960 Elvis recorded a peculiar song called ‘Black Star’. It was about death; about looking over your shoulder, seeing your black star and knowing your time had come.

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...He never wore it again, though on the back of the "David Live" album there’s a photo in which he's holding in front of his face a white mask bearing the lightning bolt, taken on the ‘Diamond Dogs’ tour in 1974....

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…All of which, and more besides, was why my wife and I went to see Tigers On Vaseline that Saturday night…

I never took any photos that night. After we saw Tigers On Vaseline, the band’s singer moved onward and upward to the Sensational David Bowie Tribute Band, in the process graduating from pubs to theatres. We saw them in 2016, they were great, and I took some photos.

The posters for the SDBTB event featured an open-eyed Bowie rather than a shut-eyed Bowie. This open-eyed version of the Mona Lisa of pop, taken at the original photo session, was not widely seen until it was used to promote the V&A exhibition.

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…the Beatles never got a set of stamps…

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…that was when he died…

Graffiti and a framed picture, illustrating the enhanced iconic status of Aladdin Stardust following a further death – that of his creator and avatar.

His status (Bowie’s/Ziggy’s/Aladdin’s) was always iconic in the cultural sense, and has now also moved towards the religious.