I sometimes forget that, before the early 1980s, when new wave and synth-pop bands picked up on some of the most annoying (to me, at least) stylistic elements of David Bowie—the icy sheen of both his Berlin albums as well as his Thin White Duke persona—that he had contemporaries in the 1970s who were more likely to ape the space-rockin’ alien sexgod output of Ziggy and his subsequent “tougher” works. An obvious example would be early Be-Bop Deluxe, a band I feel pretty cool about liking but have yet to be granted “Cool Points” for having done so. I’m calling these artists Fauxwies, like forgotten Fauxwie David Werner, who for some reason popped into my head the other day. He had a late-’70s minor hit song that I liked, possibly the one in the accompanying YouTube clip, and then I never heard of him again. Why? Beside his immediate disciples of Glam, there were others, weren’t there, like that Jobriath guy?
Why did the Teutonic Ice Prince side of Bowie dominate in influence through the 1980s? Why did I have to hold those bands against Bowie for the next 20 years? What was wrong with following the template set by Rockin’ Bowie, as the Fauxwies did?
You should feel cool about liking BeBop Deluxe – they were pretty great and Bill Nelson is a guitar god in his own right. I rather liked Bowie’s Ice King period – all his albums from Station to Station through Scary Monsters are daring, vital, and essential. Then he went commercial with Let’s Dance. A huge smasheroonie but it only has three good songs.
As for glam, it was pretty much dead by 1976 and the artists were either gone or changing. Glam was never all that big in the US anyway except for Alice Cooper and the New York Dolls – even Bowie wasn’t exactly a huge hitmaker in the ’70s outside of “Changes” and “Fame”. Music fans in the UK and Europe discarded glam for punk and new wave. Bowie became a technocrat along with Eno. Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry moved to middle-of-the-road lush pop. Marc Bolan died. Sweet became sour. Queen went mainstream. Roy Wood turned to sawdust. Lou Reed came close to burning out. Alice Cooper got drunk in Hollywood. The Dolls self-destructed. All the rest were relegated to rock-footnote-land.
David Werner’s song would have sounded fine in 1974. But it was released in 1979 and everybody yawned.
Gotta admit, I’d never heard of Werner. Checked out some songs on the youtube–some good stuff! I quite like “Cold Shivers” which could be an early Graham Parker tune. “Whizz Kid” is good, too, more in the Bowie mode. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak5EPbSCq-c&feature=related
This shows that I am open to hearing new music. Especially if it is 35 years old.
Interesting post and thoughts about synthpop and its lack of “rockin” Bowie influences. As much I hated some of their later stuff — the first two Duran Duran albums had some rockiness.
One of the artists of the period that I find interesting — and very icy Bowie influenced — is David Sylvian. Here he is with his band Japan — Life in Tokyo.
http://youtu.be/nsbrw9Y6_ng
His first solo album in 1984 (Brilliant Trees) took the icy Bowie influence to another level. I had a girlfriend at the time that was really into this album, so that may color my view, but I still put it on when I’m in the mood to chill. Here’s Nostalgia.
http://youtu.be/CBupS5PMMsc
Honestly, I don’t listen to much 80s synthpop anymore, but I used to, so it’s fun to reflect those days.
I really like David Werner’s Whizz Kid album. I can’t seem to find a really super great pressing, though. Dynaflex records can be tough to get really nice ones of, but usually when you do find one, they’re pretty great. Anyway, I bet you’re thinking of the song off that they used to play around here all the time, The Ballad of Trixie Silver, which is completely terrific and came out in 1974.
When I was in Jerry’s Records in Pittsburgh last summer I noticed he had a lot of later David Werner albums, in the local section. I had no idea he was from Pittsburgh! I bet he got beat up a lot.
May I suggest a little review of Simon Reynold’s “Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984.”? This book continues to be one of my favorites.
Reynolds posits that that icy sheen was in direct reaction to the bloated “wasteland” of the 1970’s and that people wanted to make music that reflected “minimal is maximal.” He also quotes Bowie as saying that Low was a response to “seeing the East Bloc, how Berlin survives in the midst of it, which was something that I can’t express in words. Rather it requires textures.” So synth music became the language of textures.
I would posit, with a little help from Reynolds, that another reason synth lasted so long into the 1980s is related to one of the NYTimes Crossword’s favorite three letter clues: Eno. Eno’s lasting import as a producer for the next wave of 80’s bands guaranteed that the texture approach would continue. As Bono is quoted as saying, “Some bands went to art school…we went to Brian Eno.”