It’s hard to believe, but the then-controversial, Iggy-tweaked version of Raw Power that set the original David Bowie mix to 11 was released over thirteen years ago. These days, that’s a long time for anything to go un-reissued, so Legacy‘s come out with an expanded edition that pairs a remastered version of the Bowie mix with a ‘73 live set from Atlanta (but not, as Pitchfork notes, the more logical choice: a remastered version of the Iggy mix).
However you slice it—or mix it—Raw Power still packs a wallop. I’ll always prefer the primitive thump of Funhouse, but, as the below short attests (featuring, among others, Henry Rollins, James Williamson and Chrissie Hynde), there’s no denying Raw Power was more the shape of things to come.
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Forget about Twilight or that lame True Blood series, this is how vampire should be done! The insanely brilliant opening moments—featuring Bauhaus performing Bela Lugosi’s Dead—from Tony Scott’s 1983 film, The Hunger has lost none of its power over the years. The film stars Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon and if you haven’t seen it, it’s a sexy, smart delight. The unlucky goth chick who is the recipient of Bowie’s vampiric intentions in this scene was played by none other than Dangerous Minds pal, singer/actress Ann Magnuson.
This is one of the great opening scenes of any movie ever made if you ask me. I actually saw this in a theater all by myself—or so I thought—and the effect was electrifying. I was 17 at the time and I’d just gotten massively baked in the parking lot. I walked in, sat down to THIS and just when things calmed down a bit onscreen, I was scared witless by an extremely elderly woman, who had been sleeping two rows in front of me, suddenly darting up and staring straight at me and wagging her finger in my face!
The “otherness” Bowie exerts as an onscreen presence, in my eyes, always seems matched by the obvious thoughtfulness he injects into his roles. And now, thanks to YouTube, we can turn to the accompanying, mostly silent, clip to see where it all started.
David Bowie plays the mysterious apparition who is haunting the artist and his unusual good looks and other-worldly appearance are used to great effect here. Bowie was just 20-years-old when he made his acting debut, but he had studied with the avant-garde performance artist and actor Lindsay Kemp who included elements of Mime and Butoh into his teaching. Bowie obviously made use of the skills he developed studying under Kemp for his role in The Image and his wordless performance as an unrelenting spectre is undoubtedly the most memorable element of this short film.
The Image was shot in just three days, but its official debut was held off for 2 years. And due to its relatively violent content, it was one of the first British features to receive an X rating.
Could the artistry of David Bowie be tied somehow to the appearance of his teeth? That appears to be the subtext of the following video. Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie? As “Surgeon To The Stars” Alex Kardis points out, “his teeth don’t look particularly great.” By the time he got around, though, to recording Let’s Dance, Bowie’s choppers look brighter and tighter.
I find it interesting that Rolling Stone’s Alan Light feels that after Bowie cranked out not only Ziggy Stardust, but Hunky Dory, Low, Station to Station, etc., the one thing “holding him back” was a self-consciousness about his teeth. Hmm, by that logic…did cosmetic surgery beget Tin Machine?!
