The one artist David Bowie said was keeping rock and roll alive: “So poignant”
Given his chameleonic tendencies and ability to flit between genres without it ever seeming like too much of a stretch, you wouldn’t necessarily think of David Bowie as having been someone hell-bent on keeping rock and roll alive.
The entire ‘keep rock alive’ ethos tends to be a perspective held by dinosaurs who haven’t ever felt the joy of discovering something outside of their comfort zone, and who are adamant that the innovations of bands from their generation are the greatest of all time, wilfully ignoring what they’ve gone on to influence in the subsequent years.
You only ever hear this argument from those who have also claimed that rock and roll is dead, and there hasn’t been any good new music since 1979. This is unequivocally false, and it only requires a small amount of independent research to discover that this is an unfounded claim that will only ever get laughed at by those you’re trying to make your case to.
As an artist, Bowie always ensured that he was the antithesis of this viewpoint, and spent large portions of his career looking for a new thing to explore creatively. It was rare that his different ventures ever felt as though they were cynically aiming to ride a cultural wave or latch onto the zeitgeist, but instead, he was trying to make these stylistic shifts his own and create something that would be considered innovative down the line, regardless of whether he was successful in his pursuit or not.
Shifting from his tacky Anthony Newley-esque pop to glam rock stardom in just a short few years at the start of his career, before venturing further into art rock, jazz, soul and electronic experimentation at various other points down the line, Bowie seldom ever seemed like he was struggling to find his place, and even less frequently seemed like he’d be playing into the rocktimist mindset of stoically fighting for the survival of a healthy and thriving genre.
To further illustrate this point, his 1997 album, Earthling, was an exploration of how to mix rock music with industrial elements and dance music, and while it came during a period where Bowie was largely considered to have been in the cultural wilderness, it ended up bringing a decent amount of attention back in his direction for its innovative take on pre-millennium culture.
However, the album featured a single called ‘Dead Man Walking’, which Bowie claimed was indirectly inspired by Neil Young and his valiant quest to keep rock music alive. While the song itself merges elements of rock with the nascent style of drum and bass, there are aspects of it that he argued came about as a result of Young and his own artistic bravery.
“It’s a reflection on getting older,” Bowie claimed. “I recently worked with Neil Young at a benefit. He played acoustically with two members of Crazy Horse, and they would slowly dance in a tight tribal circle. It was so moving, so poignant, they seemed to evoke and bring to life all that their youthful dreams and energies rested on. Rock ‘n’ roll lives on.”
It’s a roundabout way of showing appreciation for someone who is leading the charge in keeping a genre alive and relevant, but then again, the pair of them have always succeeded in their respective missions of keeping music in a healthy place by simply not resting on tradition and attempting to shake things up, instead of via an act of preservation.
