David Bowie FAQ

Traditionally, the sharpest arrow one could possibly fire at a performer was to accuse him or her of being a fake. What a fine neutralizing strategy, then, to put one’s hands up and admit to being a fake—an actor—right from the very beginning.

Such word painting abounds on the Ziggy Stardust album. Bowie admitted to borrowing a trick from the song “Somewhere over the Rainbow” from the movie The Wizard of Oz (1939), where a leap of a full octave occurs between the two syllables of “some-where,” thus drawing the listener’s attention skyward to “over the rainbow.” Bowie uses this trick with equally great effect in “Starman.”

David Bowie was an actor first and foremost, and any of his accomplishments came second to that. He “played” at being a musician and took the role of superstar as another of his “parts,” but always he was an actor. The only thing he didn’t “act” was himself.