“I feel very uncomfortable”: the iconic David Bowie song he grew to hate performing
Where did David Bowie even start when putting together a set list for his live shows?
By the end of the 20th century, Bowie had put his hand to pretty much every genre that had been popular… From glam-rock to art-rock, from disco all the way to industrial electronics, he had constantly evolved, slipping from the clutches of expectation before the public ever had a chance to get to know him.
But even someone as masterful in the art of storytelling would have found the setlist construction an intimidating task. It’s no easy feat to segue ‘Space Oddity’ into ‘I’m Afraid Of Americans’ in a live performance and keep the show flowing, let alone performing it himself, for the varying styles demand something wildly different each time.
But there are certain songs that die-hard Bowie fans all expected from his shows, no matter the cost. ‘Heroes’, ‘Let’s Dance’ and ‘Starman’ would stand out as the obvious choices, for they could inspire sing-alongs and dance breakouts, no matter the venue and no matter the era. But then there was ‘Rebel Rebel’, a bona fide rock track that showcased the simple but undying greatness of Bowie as a musician.
But the track’s youthful zeal made it a source of discomfort for Bowie, as he reached the later stages of his career and grappled with the changing times of his musicianship in his setlist. In the 1990s, amidst his electronica era, Bowie was asked about the state of his live show and assured fans that no matter the enthusiasm for the track, ‘Rebel Rebel’ simply wouldn’t make the cut for how irrelevant it had become to his life in middle age.
He explained, “Only infrequently have I written things for a particular generation, things like ‘Rebel Rebel’. Those kinds of songs are odd for me to sing now. I haven’t done ‘Rebel Rebel’ since the ‘Glass Spider’ thing. It felt odd then, and it feels odder now, placed in with a lot of other songs that I have no problem with, like ‘TVC15’, Station To Station.”
Adding, “Those things fit like a glove, I feel like I could do those forever. But the ones that are generationally message-oriented, like ‘Rebel Rebel’, I feel very uncomfortable with, and I find I’m throwing them away a bit. I hope it won’t show.”
It’s an age-old problem for legacy artists. At what point does an original song of their own start to feel like karaoke? Because once they have reached that stage, well, if anything, they’re doing the fans and the song a painful disservice.
Regardless, that was Bowie’s outlook in the ‘90s. Come 2000, when it was time for him to put together a headline show for Glastonbury, one that would give him a chance to look back on his nearly 50-year career, it was only right that ‘Rebel Rebel’ made the cut. As thousands of fans danced in the mud, any generational shortcomings Bowie felt towards the track evaporated, and he reminded everyone that through that song, he was one of the greatest rock stars to have ever lived.
