Lets go back to when David was first making it on the London rock scene around the mid sixties. It was at the La Gionconda Club, where David and his band the Lower Third played nightly gigs. It was here they came in contact with a performer called Vince Taylor. Vince, originally born in England but at an early age had moved to New Jersey USA. Dressed in black leather, Vince performed mainly Elvis covers and his obsession with Elvis, stemmed back to him seeing the king perform back in the mid fifties.In an interview with the BBC back in 1996 Bowie talked about the man who inspired Ziggy Stardust referring to him as not playing with a full deck and how he used to carry maps of Europe around with him pointing out sites where UFO's were going to land. He was preoccupied with Jesus and Aliens. David told the interviewer. Vince was the inspiration for Ziggy Stardust.
Vince Taylor Too Much
David Bowie Starman
In 1968 Also Sprach Zarathustra, Richard Strauss's composition was included in the musical score for Space Odyssey 2001 and probably had a big impact on both Bowie and Elvis . It was inspired by the Friedric Nietzsche's philosopical novel of the same name and first recorded by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1935. Ground control to Major Tom ! Space Oddity was written, by Bowie ,after seeing this movie, and of course Elvis stage entrance was always accompanied by the Strauss composition . After the Space Oddity album came The Man Who Sold the World and then Hunky Dory which included the song Andy Warhol . David sent the song to Andy in New York and then traveled over to meet him. I wanted to connect Warhol here because I find it curious that one of his most famous pieces of art is the Eight Elvis's which a couple years backed fetched over 100 million dollars at auction. This was a still taken from Flaming Star overlaid eight times.
The movie Flaming Star had a working title of Black Star and portrayed Elvis as Pacer Burton son of a Kiowa mother and Texan father. The movie originally had four songs but two were cut after Elvis had protested about them. The original title song Black Star was not released until the early 1980s. This is the song that David told one of his work colleagues that had a connection to his final song released in his lifetime. David Bowies, Black Star was released on his 69th birthday January 8th 2016, three days prior to his death on January 10th. I cant help but think Black Star leads back to Ziggy, then to Vince, and finally to the Golden Years of the mid fifties and even maybe further back to the birth of these two rock icons on the 8th of January.
Elvis Black Star
Interesting Trivia
Morning White Dove was Cherokee Indian and Elvis great great great grandmother born 1800 died 1835.
Cane and a High Starch Collar was the only other song in Flaming Star
A black star is a gravitational object composed of matter.
The movie prior to Flaming Star was GI Blues and following it was Blue Hawaii both hugely successful.
Vince Taylor was known as the Black Leather Rebel because he always performed in black leather ! If he was performing in black leather early sixties. I was curious if Elvis had ever performed in black leather in the fifties.
Colonel Tom Parker Elvis"s manager diedi at the age of 88 and his first job on USA soil was working with the Chautauqua.
Colonel Tom Parker Elvis"s manager diedi at the age of 88 and his first job on USA soil was working with the Chautauqua.
Golden Years
Bowies Black Star
