David Bowie, who died three years ago this week, was interviewed in the Observer Magazine shortly after he turned ‘a remarkable 40’ for the 12 April 1987 issue. ‘After all these years of playing a role,’ the piece proclaimed, ‘the latest Bowie to emerge might be the real one.’
Bowie was promoting his latest album, Never Let Me Down, ‘a harsh, intense batch of songs, driven by screeching guitars and full of lyrics about sex, drugs and images of nuclear meltdown’. Years later, Bowie felt it was his nadir: ‘It was such an awful album.’
Is Bowie burnt out at this advanced age for a pop star, wondered the interviewer. ‘If you’re a painter, you don’t say: ‘Oh, they’ve had enough of me now.’ Well, I think like that. I’m doing it for me, and I enjoy what I’m doing.’ He is asked, rather cheekily, if Prince has replaced him, but Bowie is magnanimous rather than defensive. ‘In terms of the more exhibitionist forms of theatricality and musicianship, yeah. Absolutely. He’s sort of the 80s version. I’ve moved on to a different area now, and I don’t think anybody else could handle the job better.’
Bowie spoke defiantly about the video for the single Day In Day Out being banned from American TV (it features homelessness and prostitution). ‘We’re not changing a thing. I don’t care if it’s never shown. The song has some tough things to say and I wanted the video to have the same weight.’
Referring to his Live Aid appearance in 1985, Bowie agreed that it was ‘a wonderful experience’, before changing tack. ‘Financially it doesn’t mean shit – whatever amount you raise it’s gonna be nothing. It’s only going to be a token gesture. But I’m a great believer that of all the art forms, rock is the living art form. It’s the living culture, it’s the one thing that can actually move and change society.’ Something he managed to do right the way through to his remarkable final album, Blackstar.
