>> [Music] >> David Bowie: If it's wearing a pink hat
and a red nose, and it plays a guitar upside down, I will
go and look at it. You know I love to see people being dangerous. >> [Music] >> David Bowie: There was a real feeling of
inadequacy in that era. I never really felt like a rock singer or
a rock star or whatever. I always felt a little bit out of my element
which is a ridiculously high falutin way of looking at it. Now, from my standpoint, when I look back, I realize that from '72 through to about
'76, I was the ultimate rock star. I couldn't have been more rock star. >> Joe Smith: You had a zillion records and... >> David Bowie: But the lifestyle and everything. Anything that was going out there that had
anything to do with being a rock and roll singer, then I
was hey let's go for this, let's see what it is like. >> [Music: David Bowie "Ziggy Stardust"] >> Joe Smith: I read a quote, somebody called you
a surreal cartoon character brought to life >> David Bowie: It was, sort of. Ziggy was. I mean he was half out of sci-fi rock and
half out of the Japanese theater. The clothes were, at that time, simply outrageous.
And simply... Nobody had seen anything like them before. >> Joe Smith: Was there a point where people did not take your music seriously because you were... >> David Bowie: I think I moved out of Ziggy
fast enough so as not to be caught by that one. Because
most rock characters that one can create only have a short lifespan.
They are one shots, they are cartoony. And the Ziggy thing was worth about one or
two albums before I couldn't really write anything else
around him or the world that I wanted to sort of put
together for him. >> [Music: David Bowie "Ziggy Stardust"] David Bowie: I am a moderately good singer. I'm not a great singer. But I can interpret the song, which I don't think is quite the same thing as singing it. So I was never unaware of my strength as an interpretive performer but writing a song, for me... it never rang true. I had no problem writing something for Iggy Pop, or working with Lou Reed,
or writing for Mott the Hoople. I can get into their mood and what they want to do, but I find it extremely hard to write for me So I found it quite easy to write for the artists I would create because I did find it much easier having created a Ziggy to then write for him. Even though it was me doing it. I was able to sort of distance myself from the whole... yeah, well it can become very complicated. Joe Smith: There is a psychological name for that. David Bowie: Yes. It is. F***ing with the
fabric of time there. It did bring a whole sackful of its own inherent
problems with it. >> [Music: David Bowie "Moonage Daydream"] >> Joe Smith: Do you have an affection for some of these characters that you have created as you look back? >> David Bowie: I think the only time I get sort of nostalgic about any of that stuff at all is if I see the old videos or I see a bit of the Ziggy Stardust concerts or whatever. No, other than that I do not think I am cold about them but I think it's work done. >> Joe Smith: I think that is an actor's attitude, too. >> David Bowie: I think you have to. Otherwise you start... You get into a danger of getting into the rut and maybe try to perpetuate something that has gone before. A lot of people that I know are bugged with the idea that they have got to have an audience, or
they have got to be liked. I think the more that you fall into that trap
it makes your own life harder to come to terms with because an audience appreciation is only going to be periodic at the best of times.
You will fall in and out of favor continually. I do not think it should be something one
should be looking for. You should turn around at the end of the day
and say I really like that piece of work, or that piece of work sucked.
Not, was that popular or wasn't it popular? >> [Music: David Bowie "Lady Stardust"] >> Joe Smith: Is it hard being David Bowie? >> David Bowie: Not really, not now, no. I don't have the outsider's problem.
For me, the world that I inhabit in reality is probably very different world
than the one people expect that I would be. It is quite sedate. It's far removed from a lot of what they would feel to be the limousine trappings of a rock existence, or whatever >> [Music] >> David Bowie: I went to one of the first
art-oriented high schools in England. I had a very excellent teacher, Peter Frampton's
father, who really kind of is quite an inspiration. I went into the visual side of an advertising agency and I was doing pasteup jobs and small designs for raincoats and things like that.
Awful, absolutely awful. >> Joe Smith: Maybe you should have kept it.... >> David Bowie: Well, if all this goes down the tubes. >> Joe Smith: You can always ... >> David Bowie: Get on Madison Avenue with
the best of them. I think those days are over.
