David Bowie’s various personas were absolutely attention-grabbing, with his music he brought himself to stardom.
He was born as David “Davey” Jones, and when he started his music career, he turned into a man of many names:
Ziggy Stardust
An alien-looking persona of David Bowie in the early 70s’. But he never stayed with that persona and just managed to release two albums with it.
“I mean he was half out of sci-fi rock and half out of the Japanese theater,” Bowie said of Ziggy during a PBS interview in 2014. “The clothes were, at that time, simply outrageous. Nobody had seen anything like them before.”
“They are one shot, they are cartoons and the Ziggy thing was worth about one or two albums before I couldn’t really write anything else about him or the world that I sort of put together for him,” he said.
Halloween Jack
Ziggy’s spiked mullet is still there but dyed with a red color while he was donning an eye patch combined with platform heels, scarves, and a punk rock look that would inspire the genre. With this persona, he released an album, “Diamond Dogs” in 1974, and in the “Rebel Rebel” song he described Halloween Jack as “a real cool cat.”
Thin White Duke
In 1976, a man known as the Thin White Duke shockingly appeared without a warning, and it came with the release of Bowie’s 10th album, “Station to Station.” This persona was influenced by Bowie’s first major movie role as alien Thomas Jerome Newton in the cult sci-fi film “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” released in 1976 created by Nicolas Roeg.
Major Tom
Ziggy is definitely his best known alter ego, but Major Tom is also a notable one as his first persona because it was referenced in several of Bowie’s songs such as “Space Oddity” which was released in 1969, and in his 1980 song “Ashes to Ashes.” He described this persona as a junkie. “We know Major Tom’s a junkie, strung out in heaven’s high, hitting an all time low,” the lyrics state.
All his personality was not just for showmanship – but he showed us that there is great value in thinking about fellow human beings whatever their personality is, Bowie will surely be missed — gone too soon.