The most devastating guitar playing David Bowie ever head: “The greatest of the new blues”
Given how ambitious the single David Bowie burst onto the scene with was, it’s not surprising people continued to celebrate him as a writer and performer from that point on.
The Brixton singer assumed the role of a stranded and philosophical astronaut. His song, ‘Space Oddity’ saw him take off to space and suddenly contemplate the mundane nature of life once he realised how insignificant we all are. It was a bold move as a budding artist, but it captured the hearts of everyone who listened.
From that point on, Bowie was considered a master of concept, and sometimes people got so obsessed with his characters and style that they overlooked the crucial musical elements that made up his sound. Regardless of how bizarre his ideas were, you shouldn’t undervalue just how great his ear for music was. Bowie thoroughly understood what made a good guitar player, and only ever opted to work with the best.
For a large portion of his life, that was Mick Ronson, who played lead guitar for the Spiders from Mars and helped give rise to some of Bowie’s greatest songs. Granted, there was some pushback at the time, as Ronson wasn’t a big fan of how Bowie was asking him to dress, but he eventually changed his mind when he realised how popular such outfits were.
“They played the part perfectly,” said Bowie when discussing his backing band, “I actually sort of picked them for that. They were, at the time, the number one spacey punk rock band. They were absolutely archetypes. All of them. Everyone was absolutely right – right out of a cartoon book. They were great musicians.”
You can tell David Bowie has an ear for the blues when you listen to a lot of the music that Ronson and his band put together. These songs are made up of simple chord progressions, but they occupy a space in music that relies not only on what’s been played but the means by which it is being played. Ronson doesn’t just hit a chord; he feels his way through it, dancing around different strings and giving added character to every note he plays. He very much champions an offset of the blues, which artists like Billy Gibbons used to discuss all the time.
“Well, the blues may only be three chords, but the complexity is fascinating,” said Gibbons, “I’ve listened to those old blues records forever. And I can still learn something from these guys. These giants.”
David Bowie’s romanticised love for the blues meant he adored the musicians who came decades before him, but also loved the modern incarnation of the genre, which was rising up around him throughout the ‘70s. This led to him discovering his favourite guitarist, a man who wasn’t just technically proficient, but someone who could play great blues music as naturally as blood ran through his veins.
“Stevie Ray Vaughan who, for me, is just about the greatest of the new blues guitarists around,” said Bowie, “I saw him working in a jazz concert in Europe and he was like second on the bill or something. He just, this little kid from Austin, Texas, came out and just played some of the most devastating city rhythm and blues I’ve heard in years.”
