“I don’t understand”: The artist David Bowie thought squandered his potential
Without, of course, ever having known David Bowie in real life, it’s difficult to guess what his true personality would have been without the shine of the spotlight. Naturally, you’d imagine he wouldn’t be quite as exuberant as Ziggy Stardust, but equally, you kind of get the sense that his blazing persona spread across every part of his life, both public and private, and whether he intended it or not, his sheer presence probably often felt quite intimidating.
That’s not to say that Bowie was in any way intentionally bullish, but it was the utter intensity of the man in both a spectral and searingly present way that made his godly status in the music scene something that made many artists instantly bow down to, as if it was the automatic twitch of a muscle. While this could no doubt be mesmerising if the rocker recognised your talents, there’s no denying that it was probably terrifying if you fell into Bowie’s distaste.
This was the exact unfortunate fate befallen on one Frank Zappa, whom Bowie seemed to have a distinctly conflicted view on, despite the rest of the world fawning at his feet. It wasn’t that he necessarily disapproved of Zappa’s music, but it was the man himself that Bowie found a tougher nut to crack, ultimately so much so that he didn’t see the point in putting the effort into figuring him out.
In a 1972 interview, Bowie mused over the puzzle that was Zappa when asked if any of the prog rocker’s records particularly resonated with him. He liked “We’re Only in it for the Money,” the 1968 album by Zappa-fronted band The Mothers of Invention, “because I mean I saw huge potential in that area for Zappa, but I don’t understand Zappa and I’m not that intrigued by him to try to unwrap his problems or try to find out why.”
It may sound harsh, but in many ways, the erratic events that Zappa endured throughout the course of the 1970s were enough to set anyone’s head spinning, let alone someone like Bowie who was already grappling with the dizzying state of the world and the scale of his still relatively newfound fame. In the end, it was probably a wise decision on his part to steer clear of that rollercoaster, but in doing so, his inimitable presence could have had the potential to blight Zappa’s career by simply asserting that he was squandering his potential.
The erratic course of Zappa’s career during this period, flitting between tense relations with The Mothers of Invention, his own solo work, and a series of other smaller bands, made him an enigma in the eyes of the world that clearly, even in music circles, made him nigh on impossible to ever truly figure out. It’s telling that even a figure like Bowie found this difficult – proving that for all the expansive experimental horizons that prog rock offered, the opportunities of the genre still took some convincing.
Ultimately, there was no major harm done to Zappa’s life and legacy by Bowie not understanding his brand – but that doesn’t mean that his presence could be any less intimidating if you came under his wrath. It just proves, however, that although artists with such seismic careers have a somewhat untouchable aura, if they don’t quite get your vibe, they’ll never be afraid to say it.
