Over half way into 1980 and we've had new wave, new music....then we had David Bowie with Ashes to Ashes....
Smash Hits described it as "a strange choice for a single", understandably perhaps on first listening.
But just as there's no-one else like David Bowie there's nothing else quite like Ashes to Ashes. No you can't dance to it, you can't whistle it and you can't really seriously sing along to it, but that's where the beauty lies in this monumental single. It's originality, it's uniqueness...and it's David Bowie-ness
After the heady 70s, the Berlin trilogy and all the rest of it, Bowie was effectively reinventing himself, celebrating the funeral of Major Tom (a guy that's been in such an early song) and his recent past (I've never good things, I've never done bad things..), and his desire to get away from his past (want an axe to break the ice, wanna come down right now), with the famous closing hook-line "My mamma said..." effectively cutting all ties with the Major Tom character.
This is Bowie learning from the past (as a person and as a musician) and clearing it away with his big Scary Monster bulldozer, opening up the road for ...new sounds, new styles, new shapes.... It's no coincidence that Steve Strange and Darla Jane Gilroy are among the mysterious black-clad cohorts in the video..
And yes, the video. Almost as complex as the song itself, costing a fortune and using all the latest techniques and again showing the way for the new decade, with the costumes, the make-up, loud new colour combinations.
Goodbye seventies. With Ashes to Ashes the 80s may now officially begin.
Ashes to Ashes chart stats
Scarey Monsters on Unmann Wittering
Listen: David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes
(and sing-along if you can)
thanks to Brian Damage for Smash Hits pages
Ashes to Ashes was first released on 08.08.80 - this post will be published on 08.08.2010 at 08:00.
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