It was Jarvis Cocker who said; “Bowie made people feel that it was alright to be different and to try things out” soon after the very sad passing of David Bowie earlier this year. Jarvis, who was in some ways the king of the misfits, or, to quote his own words, the ‘mis-shapes’ back in the 90’s.
Much as Pulp spoke to the outsiders, those who knew them were different – queer even – without actually being particularly gay. Long before them, Bowie had already done it all. It didn’t actually ever matter if he was or wasn’t gay, it mattered that he wasn’t defined by the same boundaries and labels as most other pop stars of the day.
He allowed those who needed to, to dream, and for a lot of people, showed them the way it could be.
We thought David Bowie would live forever. Turns out we were all wrong. Life’s like that.
What better way to celebrate a queer hero, then to take a look at some of David Bowie’s queerest moments:
- In 1971 wearing a dress on the cover of The Man Who Sold The World album.
- The shocking (at the time) Melody Maker interview in 1972 where he announced that he was ‘gay, and always have been’.
- Infamous TOTP’s performance of ‘Starman’ where he put his arm around guitarist Mick Ronson later on in 1972.
- Cross-dressing (again) in 1979 when he does three drag looks in the ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ video, where the following very queer lyrics also come from: ‘When you’re a boy, You can wear a uniform, When you’re a boy, Other boys check you out’.
- ‘China Girl’ video being a statement on the 80’s AIDS epidemic.
- Camping it up in 1985 with Mick Jagger in the ‘Dancing In the Street’ video
