Trend-setter, impresario, phenomenon: David Bowie has shaped entire subcultures. Jon Savage traces the star's talent for reinvention and his catalytic encounter with William Burroughs
William Burroughs: The weapon of the Wild Boys is a bowie knife, an 18in bowie knife, did you know that?
David Bowie: An 18in bowie knife … you don't do things by halves do you? No, I didn't know that was their weapon. The name Bowie just appealed to me when I was younger. I was into a kind of heavy philosophy thing when I was 16 years old, and I wanted a truism about cutting through the lies and all that.
On 28 February 1974, Rolling Stone magazine published a remarkable encounter between David Bowie and William Burroughs. Entitled "Beat Godfather Meets Glitter Mainman", the event had been hosted in November 1973 by the American journalist A Craig Copetas. As published it took the form of a Q...
William Burroughs: The weapon of the Wild Boys is a bowie knife, an 18in bowie knife, did you know that?
David Bowie: An 18in bowie knife … you don't do things by halves do you? No, I didn't know that was their weapon. The name Bowie just appealed to me when I was younger. I was into a kind of heavy philosophy thing when I was 16 years old, and I wanted a truism about cutting through the lies and all that.
On 28 February 1974, Rolling Stone magazine published a remarkable encounter between David Bowie and William Burroughs. Entitled "Beat Godfather Meets Glitter Mainman", the event had been hosted in November 1973 by the American journalist A Craig Copetas. As published it took the form of a Q...
- 3/9/2013
- by Jon Savage
- The Guardian - Film News
Writer and actor Richard O'Brien and composer Richard Hartley remember how three weeks at the Royal Court turned into a gender-bending 20th Century Fox extravaganza
Richard O'Brien, writer and actor
I'd been in Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair, and was starting to think I wouldn't mind seeing a musical that appealed to me, an eternal adolescent. I loved B-movies, rock'n'roll and glam, so thought I'd do a parody – or homage – to all those things.
Then Jim Sharman, the director of Jesus Christ Superstar, asked me to audition for a play at London's Royal Court. There I met Richard Hartley, who was writing its incidental music. One night, Jim brought Richard round to my place, and I sang them some of my songs, including Science Fiction/Double Feature and Hot Patootie. Jim thought they'd make a great show and called me afterwards saying: "They've asked me to do another play at...
Richard O'Brien, writer and actor
I'd been in Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair, and was starting to think I wouldn't mind seeing a musical that appealed to me, an eternal adolescent. I loved B-movies, rock'n'roll and glam, so thought I'd do a parody – or homage – to all those things.
Then Jim Sharman, the director of Jesus Christ Superstar, asked me to audition for a play at London's Royal Court. There I met Richard Hartley, who was writing its incidental music. One night, Jim brought Richard round to my place, and I sang them some of my songs, including Science Fiction/Double Feature and Hot Patootie. Jim thought they'd make a great show and called me afterwards saying: "They've asked me to do another play at...
- 3/5/2013
- by Kate Abbott
- The Guardian - Film News
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