Analysis: The late singer and artist’s Irish roots run deep in his life, work and influence
David Bowie first appeared in Ireland in December 1969, aged just 22, as a guest on an RTE show. Like now! series. Bowie, with shoulder-length curly hair and a very fashionable afghan coat, is seen rocking her latest single ‘Space Oddity”captivated audiences with its dramatic story of a communications breakdown between ground controllers and Major Tom.
Bowie’s Irish debut is immortalized in a number of black and white still images that can be found in the RTE archives. It was to be the beginning of a very long creative and personal relationship with Ireland. The iconic singer continued to perform and rehearse in Dublin many times over the next 40 years, playing at least four secret gigs, including a support slot as Tin Machine at the city’s Bagot Inn, to impress fans. It even surprised me.
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Bowie’s Irish roots run deep. Born David Jones in 1947, Bowie’s mother’s maiden name was Peggy Barnes. Like many others in post-famine Ireland, Peggy Barnes’ paternal grandparents were Irish immigrants who settled in Manchester in the 19th century. Bowie’s great-grandmother, Mary Eileen Heaton, was born in County Tipperary in 1852.
In his final months before his death, Bowie collaborated with the famous Irish playwright Enda Walsh. lazarus musical. With this, Bowie revisits the alien world of the film’s central character, Thomas Newton. The man who fell to earth. The completion of this song, despite Bowie’s terminal illness, was a testament to Bowie’s tenacity and ability to work until the end of his life. It also demonstrated his wide interest in the works of Irish writers and artists.
In 2013, when asked to compile a list of his 100 favorite books of all time, Bowie included Spike Milligan’s masterpiece comics. pakoon. Samuel Beckett’s father’s famous last words – “What a morning!” are included in the lyrics of Bowie’s 1997 song “Samuel Beckett”.law’. In the same year, Bowie revealed on BBC Radio that U2’s Bono had gifted him two biographies of Beckett, and that Bowie, once Ziggy Stardust, said that the similarities between Beckett’s trademark hairstyle and his current cut at the time mentioned the point.
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From the RTÉ archives, Dave Fanning interviews David Bowie for Visual Eyes in 1987
The versatile Bowie was also a painter and an avid art collector. His extensive personal collection included works by Irish painters Colin Middleton, Louis le Brocquy, and Jack B. Yeats. Bowie purchased Yeats’ painting “Sleep Sound” in 1993. Painted two years before the artist’s death, its title refers to a line from a 1933 poem by his brother William. Lullaby, “May your sleep be peaceful, my love.” This painting of two tramps sleeping on a hillside is sometimes mistakenly said to have influenced Beckett’s work. . Waiting for GodotIt was first performed in French as Servant Godot, Two years before Yeats completed the painting.
It should come as no surprise that Bowie liked Yeats’s work. Like Bowie, he used multiple identities as an artist and worked across numerous creative genres. Yeats’s paintings dealt with themes such as migration. Mental illness; alienation. Loneliness and political and social change are themes not far from Bowie’s lifelong interests as a songwriter and artist.
Bowie performed in Dublin at least 18 times during his long career. His goodwill towards the enthusiasm of his Irish fans influenced his decision to record a concert performed at Point’s Theater in November 2003 and prepare it for his subsequent DVD release. Not surprisingly, Bowie spoke in Irish at the first of his two concerts, surprising Irish fans.at the end of “Rebel, rebel” He mischievously announced, “tiocfaidh ár lá,” then thanked the ecstatic audience with “go raibh maith agaibh,” before attempting to say “conas a ta shibh?” I didn’t know it at the time, but this would be the last time Bowie would perform in Ireland. By June of the following year, his days as a headline performer were cut short by illness.
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From RTÉ Gold, Dave Fanning looks back on the late David Bowie’s career
For the next few years, Bowie quietly worked at his own pace, far from the curiosity of social media. The artist surprised us all in January 2013 with an emotional new song: ‘Where are we now? ‘. The song heralded a whole new phase of Bowie’s creativity, culminating with the release of his 2016 album Blackstar.
As a writer interested in popular music and culture, I am often asked why academic researchers are interested in figures like Bowie. My usual answer is that there is no distinction between so-called “high culture” and “low culture” and that a complex and highly talented figure like Bowie is a legitimate field of study. As a songwriter, author, and essayist. A performer, recording artist, music producer, actor, film producer, and painter, Bowie was deeply involved in Buddhism, Commedia dell’Arte, German Expressionism, Surrealism, Dadaism, Kabuki, philosophy, occultism, communication theory, and mime. It had a wide range of influences. Eastern culture and Jungian psychology.
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Eoin Devereux on David Bowie as a subject of academic research from The Ray D’Arcy Show on RTÉ Radio 1
Bowie’s many strengths include the ability to extrapolate and synthesize complex ideas from a variety of sources, but when they appeared in his art he did not reveal much about their actual origins. His ability to obfuscate, hide in plain sight – tinker with paint – was very effective, but a close critical reading of his work reveals his influence, creative practice, And it is possible to trace at least some of the important recurring thematic concerns.
Irish influences are a key part of Bowie’s overall jigsaw, and his interest in Jack B. Yeats and Beckett is particularly evident. The clown figure unites all three of his characters. Yeats painted many clowns. Beckett put clowns at the center of many of his stage plays, and Bowie played clowns at several key junctures in his career (see )from ashes to ashes1980 video). For Bowie, Beckett, and Yeats, clowns serve as avatars for outsider artists and the human condition more generally.
The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ.