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Alligator and bisexuality

"So far, he has failed in everything he has undertaken since the start of his career", tells AFP Jérôme Soligny, author of "David Bowie Rainbowman", a reference work published in two volumes (Gallimard), subject reprints and international translations.

"Space Oddity" (on the album of the same name, 1969) is only a short-lived hit, later passed down to posterity, just like "Changes" on the album "Hunky Dory" (1971).

And now the Englishman released in 1972 a record with the extended title "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" with the scent of a singular universe ("The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders of March").

The track "Moonage Daydream" is a cryptic business card of his double "Ziggy Stardust": "I am an alligator (...) I am the space invader".

David Bowie's "Starman" costume on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in March 2013 LEON NEAL AFP/Archives

To confuse the issue a little more, Bowie suggests his bisexuality by letting go in the musical press that he is "gay", while he lives with a wife and child.

The singer "frequents night places associated with gay culture, without being fundamentally gay himself, he likes the imagery", specifies Soligny.

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Marketing, Deep America

Jackpot.

The media are interested in him, without managing to identify him, maintaining his mysterious aura.

On TV, the interviewer is bundled up in a gray suit, seems to him hair dyed red, outfit with sequins.

One is in black and white, the other in color.

Bowie becomes a symbol of modernity, of the next world.

The artist imposes himself in the media as a star when he is not yet.

The first concerts stamped "Ziggy" in the suburbs of London only brought together 150 people, including a third of guests.

David Bowie in concert at the Palais Omnisport de Paris Bercy in February 1996 BERTRAND GUAY AFP/Archives

"It's a kind of marketing before its time, it's its most beautiful creature, which allowed it to hatch, to be something other than a well-kept secret of a rock intelligentsia which is interested in him for a year and a half", analyzes Soligny.

Bowie opens the doors of a tour in the USA.

"He succeeds in imposing an effeminate character where Marc Bolan (leader of T.Rex) failed, that is to say, to go and play in deep America, even if sometimes furious people will wait for him at the door of the lodges", further notes Soligny.

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Iggy Pop, "A Clockwork Orange"

As this specialist says, Bowie is "a sponge" and his "Ziggy Stardust" brings together several influences.

"Ziggy" is first and foremost Iggy Pop.

Bowie is fascinated by the singer of the Stooges, seen in particular on a photo where the American literally walks on the public in concert.

The two musicians will become close.

Iggy Pop, singer of the Stooges, in concert at the Printemps de Bourges in April 2010 ALAIN JOCARD AFP/Archives

"Stardust" ("Stardust") comes from the stage name of an American country singer, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, obsessed with the cosmos.

There is also Vince Taylor, an English rocker with a chaotic career, best known in France.

"Bowie rubs shoulders with him at one point, Taylor has the impression that he will be able to save rock, takes himself for a messiah", details Soligny.

What to feed the character of "Ziggy".

On the cover, Bowie poses like a thug in a street with boots reminiscent of those worn by the gang of bad boys in the film "A Clockwork Orange" by Stanley Kubrick.

“He always dreamed of being in a gang, but it never happened, he was super well brought up,” according to Soligny.

With all these fuels, the machine is launched.

Then there will be "Aladdin Sane", another double for the eponymous album of 1973, and its famous flash on the face.

But "Ziggy Stardust" makes an impression (reissue on vinyl this Friday).

Brian Molko, leader of Placebo, refers to it.

And "Moonage Daydream" became the title of a documentary on Bowie directed by the American Brett Morgen and presented at the last Cannes festival.

© 2022 AFP