“He wasn’t very good”: The inspirational artist David Bowie thought sounded dreadful
David Bowie never bothered putting any sort of parameters around what he considered great music. His entire motivation was to make the kind of songs that no one had ever thought of, and that meant not being picky when it came to making something new, whether that was working in avant-garde elements into his sound or using the studio as an instrument when working with Brian Eno. It also meant that the past was more usually a fertile space for inspiration only, and when ‘The Starman’ was first coming up, he had no problem calling this rock and roller absolutely terrible.
Then again, Bowie’s trek to becoming one of the biggest names in rock wasn’t exactly smooth by comparison. In an era dominated by zany characters looking to subvert expectations during the ‘Summer of Love’, hearing him adopt some vaudeville crooner persona felt like the exact opposite of the kind of rock and roll that most people expected out of the same person who would one day don makeup and invent new personas.
That said, what Bowie was doing was all that out of the ordinary. Part of the journey for any artist is to adopt that which came before them, but pulling from the sounds of easy listening and the kind of background music was the exact opposite of Bowie’s strengths. He was meant to be like Elvis Presley if he went to outer space, but even Presley imitators were a dime a dozen.
In that strange limbo period between Presley’s takeover and the start of Beatlemania, rock and roll became insanely dumb. There were still a few decent songs in the background, but most artists wanted to make a quick buck off teenagers by making some of the most pillowy rock music imaginable. Many may cite artists like Pat Boone as everything wrong with that genre, but Vince Taylor was a close second for Bowie.
Compared to Presley’s insane swagger, Taylor seemed to have the vocal mannerisms but none of the proper execution. There are pieces of his catalogue that come off as distinctly Presley-esque, but anyone who had heard tracks like ‘Hound Dog’ or ‘Jailhouse Rock’ knew that they were getting the dollar store version of what ‘The King’ was used to putting out on his own.
Bowie didn’t exactly mince his words about Taylor’s lack of ability, either, saying, “He had come over from America because he wasn’t making it there and did a series of British TV shows as one of the variations of Elvis. Of all the Elvis imitators, he was the most authentic because he was American. He wasn’t very good, though. He was very charismatic, but his music was dreadful.”
However, Taylor would have an impact on Bowie. His work would infiltrate the singer’s greatest album Ziggy Stardust, as the decreasing validity of Taylor would cross paths with Bowie as he began his rise. Bowie recalled his early encounters with Taylor, stating: “One day, on Tottenham Court road he took out a map of the world and put it on the pavement. All these people were walking past us, and he was showing me where the aliens were keeping their arms and encampments.” Bowie also saw Vince perform later on and would comment on it. “He came out on stage in white robes and said he was Jesus Christ. It was the end of Vince – his career and everything else.”
If Taylor had taught anything to Bowie, though, it was that people needed more than smoke and mirrors during a show. What Bowie did had to be more musical, and looking through projects like Hunky Dory, he seemed to take every lesson that he learned when making his space-rock projects and turned them into sophisticated songs that could still work if none of the pancake makeup were applied.
Although the image did mean quite a lot to Bowie’s overall sound, Vince Taylor is the ultimate example of what not to do with a great frontman. Charisma can take someone a long way, but they shouldn’t be surprised when everything falls apart if they don’t have the songs to back them up.
