All language subtitles for moonage.daydream.2022.1080p.web.h264-kdoc.ENG

Time.

One of the most
complex expressions.

Memory made manifest.

It's something that
straddles past and future

without ever quite
being present.

Or rather, it at first seems
indifferent to the present.

There's a tension of a most
unfathomable nature.

The word desires
to be understood.

To have meaning.

But you somehow feel
that it's not you yourself

that the word is addressing.

It washes over you,

holding a dialogue
with something arcane

that's maybe not mortal.

And you feel intrigued.

Captured even.

You're aware
of a deeper existence.

Maybe a temporary reassurance
that indeed

there is no beginning, no end.

And all at once,
the outward appearance

of meaning is transcended.

And you find yourself
struggling to comprehend

a deep and formidable mystery.

All is transient.

Does it matter?

Do I bother?

All those moments

will be lost in time

like tears...

Dust...

Cover me moon dust.

Cover me...

Ground to Major, bye bye, Tom.

Planet Earth, is control on?

I wanted to see him.

What are you so upset about?

I wanted to see him.

They said he was
coming round the back.

I've been waiting
for ages to see him.

Why are you so upset?

He's smashing.

I kissed him! I kissed his hand!

Rumors
and questions have arisen,

such as who is he, what is he,
where did he come from?

Is he a creature
of a foreign power?

Is he a creep? Is he dangerous?

Is he smart, dumb,
nice to his parents,

real, a put-on, crazy,
sane, man, woman, robot?

What is this?

Ladies and gentlemen,
David Bowie.

He's just
another fella, you know?

No, he's not. He's different.

Well, nobody like
him can produce the music.

Davie's the greatest,
and I'll say it again.

Dave's the greatest,

and I'll say it again,
Dave's the greatest.

And I seen him onstage,
and he was fantastic.

I'll follow that bloke anywhere
'cause he's the greatest.

And I'll say it again,
he's the greatest.

Listen, you don't have
to be bent to wear makeup.

It looks good,
so why not wear it?

Even if it's camp,
but he's sexy, isn't he?

Sort of thing, really.

If I can tart it all up enough,

maybe people will see that it
has a lot to do with just them.

What, with reflection?

Yeah, that it is really

a reflection
of what they're like.

Mr. Powell, Mr. Jenkins.

Businessmen in general...

Best watch it.

How are you?

I'm very well,
thank you. How are you?

INTERVIEWER I'm fine.

Good. How are you? How are you?

You, uh, have to get the gear on

in order to project yourself.

I mean, were you a nobody
who suddenly thought,

"Jesus, I must get into
the scene by some other way"?

I never asked
Jesus for a think, no.

It was always
on my own initiative.

And...

When I was 14, I became a Mod,

and it just carried
on from there.

I've always dressed
in what I considered clothes

that are exciting for me,

um, to prevent me
becoming humdrum

so that I would receive
reaction from people

which would
encourage me to write.

You will have
obviously as many men followers

as you have women followers.
Yes.

I mean,
you haven't been shy about

declaring a certain
air of bisexuality.

Not at all.
I know quite a few men.

Some people feel you're...

By saying you're bisexual.

By... by kind of flaunting
that in a way...

Who's flaunting it?

Why do
you think that bisexuality in,

say '72, '73 has become
a common... not a common,

but an accepted kind of deal.

Why do you think we
have moved into that

era of liberal behavior?

Once upon a time, your father,

my father, everybody's
father, I presume,

wanted a good job, with a good
income, or reasonable income.

Some chance of promotion
to secure their family life.

Um, where's the camera?

You're probably fine there,
and that's where it ended.

But now, people
want a role in society.

They want to feel that
they have a position.

They want to be an individual,

and I think there's
a lot of searching to find

the individual within oneself.

Right, and how about the shoes?

Are those men's shoes,
or women's shoes,

or bisexual shoes?

They're shoe shoes, silly.

There was a feeling
of excitement and titillation

about moving in areas

which were forbidden
to the rest of society.

From micro to macro,
from yin to yang,

from male to female,

there is no scissor cut.
No absolute.

I believe that there was
an unconscious move to create

a high priest form from
the line of the Greek gods

who could procreate themselves.

Somebody who
was at a super level

to we regular mortals, because
of his androgynous nature,

being somebody that incorporated

both feminine
and masculine attributes.

Know I am.

It was a pudding, you know?

It was a pudding of new ideas.

I think we took it
on our shoulders

that we were creating
the 21st century in 1971.

We wanted to just blast
everything in the past.

Question all the established
values, all the taboos.

Everything is rubbish
and all rubbish is wonderful.

I just didn't... to this.

I've never seen anything
like this before.

See, I'm just a space
cadet, he's the commander.

What universe is that?

Bowie universe.

Now nobody's scared
to walk around like that,

are they?
He's done it, ain't he.

He's broke through
a barrier, now, ain't he?

I guess I'm living
my fantasy, you know?

What's your fantasy?

Oh, Bowie.

I like people who are AC/DC.

You know what I mean?

Do the clothes,
you are trying to say,

are the clothes expressed
now your own personality?

Um, no, that I've
never been quite clear about.

I've never been sure
of my own personality.

That's very refreshing.

That's a very refreshing thing
to hear somebody say that.

Very. But can you fill us
in on the barest outlines?

I'm a collector.

Um, and I've always just
seemed to collect personalities,

um, ideas. I have
a hodge podge philosophy

which really is very minimal.
Um, what?

Do you believe in God?

Um, I believe in an energy form.

I'm not... I wouldn't put a

I wouldn't like to
put a name to it.

Do you
indulge in any form of worship?

Um, uh, life.

I love life very much indeed.

My strivings to have
some kind of spiritual base

were really, really
strong all my life,

and I think I tried
to amalgamate

my own bedrock of spirituality.

I mean, I was
a Buddhist on Tuesday,

and I was into
Nietzsche by Friday.

Some time
flirting with Buddhism,

and spending some
time in a Buddhist retreat.

I mean, I felt at
the time that I was, you know,

um, Buddha's answer to
everything he wanted man to be,

but I'm... the one thing that
hung over from that time

was the feeling
of impermanence and transience.

That was the one thing
that really struck home

about everything
that I was learning.

Nothing's gonna
stay around very long.

I mean, you know,
everything changes

different rates.

Some seem to me sort
of established for a bit,

but they're only moving at
a slower rate than other things

and they're all inevitably
sort of a change-over.

For me, there's always
been a thread of merely,

um, a search.

Generally, I think the subject
matters always come back

to this singular question
of nearly every artist,

which is what's my
relationship with the universe?

Whatever other form
it takes that's basic,

I think that's probably
the essential question

that all of us ask ourselves.

A lot of us probably
on that last few minutes.

What's Ziggy?

Ziggy, I wanted...
I wanted to define

the archetype
"Messiah Rock star."

That's all I wanted to do,

and I used the trappings
of Kabuki theater,

mime technique,
and fringe New York music.

Ziggy was for
me a very simplistic thing:

What it seemed to
be, an alien rock star,

but other people reread him

and contributed more
information about Ziggy

than I'd put into him.

You know, we've
set ourselves up as such.

We want it all.

You know, we want
all the adulation,

and people to read the lyrics,
and read and everything

just to play the game.

When I was really
young, one of the mysteries,

the great mystery of rock,
was that I hardly understood

a word of what they
were singing about.

Fats Domino, I still don't know

one word of one lyric
that he ever wrote.

I never understood
his pronunciation.

And that made it even more
mysterious, and wonderful,

and magic, you know?

That he was talking
about something

that I couldn't even
possibly start to understand,

and I wanted in.

I wanted to be in that place,

this alternate
universe, you know?

And that was so much
a part of the magic of music,

and the same with art.

I never really... I could
appreciate the Vermeer,

or Tintoretto, or Titian,
or something like that,

but because it was
symbolic and figurative,

it didn't... I was never that
impressed with virtuosity.

I was, you know, I understood
that their technique

and the way they applied
paint, and what they could do,

and how they could
embrace light and all that,

I understood and realized the,

and I bowed
in humbleness at their...

But it wasn't... I mean, that's
not what I wanted from it.

I wanted to use art.

I wanted to use art
in a different way in my life.

I wanted a sense that

all the nooks and crannies
that we don't understand

about the way that we live
through our day to day life,

and I wanted that
shown to me, you know?

Not in great clarity, but some
kind of physical manifestation

of these are the areas of life
that are causing you grief,

or euphoria, and you
don't really know why.

Why is it that you
wake up one day,

and an oak tree, hit by
the light in a certain way,

will produce these
extraordinary feelings of glee,

and absolute enjoyment,

exhilaration at
actually being alive.

Another day, you can wake up

and that same tree
will seem like some.

Caspar David Fried rich
symbolic death, you know?

And it will be dark and
negative and awful, you know?

And it's that sense of why
those things happen?

Why aren't things
the same every single day

and produce exactly
the same feeling?

And art always does that to me.

What are your hobbies?

Well, where
would you like to start?

Uh, I sculpt, paint,
and write films.

Um, I make video television.

Not programs,
but video television.

- Of what?
- Um, art things that I do.

Experimental video,
and cinematography.

With
the art now that you create,

the sculpturings...

Yeah, I have... you'll see.

Is what

I play with video, yes.
I flirt an awful lot.

I've asked again,
over the last few years,

I've been identifying
again with a force.

I don't know how I'm going to...

How it will end up for me,

but, um, I can't pinpoint it,

but I do have
a very strong belief in

in a force, and I don't
know how it works.

What I mean is, there is
something else other than us.

That's as near
as I can get to it,

and it may even just be
people on other planets

that I'm thinking about.

It may be God.

It may be...
I don't know what it is,

but there's a definite
force that I feel.

Almost
like there's something else,

that we're just a part of it.
Yeah. Yeah.

That's beyond us.
That's my feeling as well.

There's always been, um, for me

I guess for a lot of people...
A certain sense of you

that's other-worldly.
Um, and of course that's...

Like anything useful,

it's all got to do with fear.

I think he's
broken his arm, sir.

They wouldn't
bother with it, Captain.

Ziggy was a disguise?

He was
a character that I created.

I wanted to make films,

and I transposed most
of those ideas into music form.

How long is it gonna take

before you're all David Bowie?

David: Oh never, you know.

I'd run off
into something else, you know.

What's "Changes" all about?

Changes.

Someone putting
themselves through

as much experimentation
to, you know,

sort of treating oneself
as a bit of an experiment.

I put myself in predicaments

to see how I'll
cope with them a lot.

It's sort of trying
to strengthen myself.

I put myself in dangerous
situations, which I did.

Put myself in any situation
which I feel I can't cope with.

Dangerous
situations, such as what?

Can you explain that?

Yeah. Areas
where I have to be in,

sort of, social
contact with people,

which I'm not
very good at doing.

I put myself in

I don't quite
know what you mean now.

Well, I went to
Los Angeles and I lived there

for a couple of years, which is
a city I really detest.

Yeah. So, I went to

live there to see what
would happen to my writing.

Since you've been in America,

you seem to have picked up

on a lot of the idioms
and themes of American music,

and American culture.
How has that happened?

There's a fly
floating around in my milk.

There's a foreign body
in it, you see?

And it's getting a lot of milk.

That's kind of how I feel.

A foreign body, and I just...
I couldn't help but soak it up.

You know.

I hated it when
I first came here.

I couldn't see any of it.

Look, a wax museum.

Hey, a bleedin' wax museum
in the middle of a desert!

You'd think it would
melt, wouldn't you?

There's
a good, old circle thing,

and it really is, it's uh,

it's the decadence that
precedes the righteousness,

and the morality

of an extremely
right wing art form,

which, in its right wing-ness
is in fact very liberal

because the faster you
can get rid of the right wings,

and by accelerating it, then
you bring back.

You've got to go
through the dictatorship.

You've got to go
through the right wing...

Coveting the highest...

Exactly.

Man Ray is suddenly
getting very popular,

and it's... I mean, I... We...
I know, you know what's coming.

I mean, baby, what is coming.

Of course it is, yeah.

And we're going
to live through it.

We're gonna be lucky enough.

This ain't rock and roll!

This is genocide!

You know,
you haven't... your accent,

your voice, your method
of speech has not changed.

You've been away for two years.

Does that mean you've been
locked away somewhere?

Yes, I don't talk to anybody.

But do people talk to you?

I've heard it rumored, yes.

Some people thought...

There's a lady who said
"I don't know if he'd be

if I'd want to meet him.
He would make me very nervous.

I have a feeling
he's into black magic,

and that sort of thing."

And other people see you as
just a very skillful performer

who changes from time to time,

from one thing to another.

Yeah. Well, both of that is...

All of the above?

ROCK 'N' ROLL WITH ME

What kind
of childhood did you have?

Oh, incredibly ordinary.

Ordinary? Yeah.

In what way? Well, I mean,

it was regular.
I went to school, I ate.

In suburbia,
you're given the impression

that nothing culturally
belongs to you.

That you are sort
of in this wasteland,

and I think there's
a passion for most people

who have an iota of curiosity

about them to escape
and get out.

One of my siblings

meant so much to
me in my early years,

and his name was Terry,
and he was my half-brother,

my mother's son.

Hey, hey, good evening, Buffalo.

It's nice to be here.

He was living between
our family and another family,

and the periods
that I did see him,

it seemed to me that he had
more curiosity about the world

than anybody I'd met.

And the first real,
major event for me was

when he passed Jack Kerouac's
On The Road on to me,

which really changed my life.

And he would also introduce me
to people like John Coltrane,

which was way above my head,

but I wanted to read
what he read,

and I wanted to listen
to what he listened to,

as one does with
an older brother.

I think Terry
probably gave me a great...

The greatest serviceable
education

I could ever have had.

I mean, he just introduced
me to the outside things,

kinds of books,
and kinds of music

and attitudes that just weren't

the currency
in the area that I grew up.

And then he would go
away for long periods,

and one period he went
away and joined the RAF.

When he came back, he had very
evident signs of schizophrenia,

and he stayed in hospital
for the rest of his life.

I think it made me
worry about my own disposition,

and whether I just
had eccentric ideas,

or whether I was
heading somewhere else.

I understand
that you have a fear

because there was
mental illness in your family,

that you have a fear of
mental illness. Is that true?

Um, no, I developed
a system against it.

I think that probably became
part of the therapy of art,

and I was fortunate
enough to be able to

express any visions
that I had in my head.

Yeah. Very outwardly.

Gradually
learning to do without sleep.

It's a labyrinthine
existence that we live,

and so it makes sense
for me to put together

elements in a song which

wouldn't naturally
be good bedfellows.

I guess I'm trying to articulate

those mysterious
corners of the mind

where there exist
grains of truth

that we don't often touch on,

because we don't have
the words to capture them.

So, we'll write on three or
four different subject matters,

and then integrate them
together by cutting them up.

What I've used it for
more than anything else

is igniting anything that
might be in my imagination.

I've tried doing it
with diaries and things,

and I was finding out
amazing things about me

and what I'd done
and where I was going.

A lot of the things I had done,

it seemed that it would
predict things about the future

and tell me a lot
about the past.

I suppose it's a very
Western tarot. I don't know.

Obviously, one
is trying to always

reevaluate one's personality,

and understand why one works.

I think a lot of artists deal
with loneliness and solitude.

An artist does tend
to examine the world

through his relationship to it,

and so that produces

a very introverted looking
lot of work.

I don't feel lonely.
I apply that to my work.

I sense a feeling of loneliness
from my work when I look at it,

but I don't feel like
a solitary person myself,

but it seems
to show up in my work,

and it's like taking
a photograph

and then developing the negative

and seeing another
person standing behind you.

With your background,

why were you
intrigued by all this?

Um, it was... I mean,

it filled a vast expanse
of my imagination.

I was always pretty imaginative.

And the imagination
can dry up in

wherever you're
living in England, often.

I mean, if there's
nothing to keep it going.

It just supplied a need in me.

American became
a myth-land for me.

We're not stopped.
Is there anything behind us?

Let's go with him now live,

by satellite,

to beautiful downtown Burbank
in Los Angeles.

Is it true that you're gonna be

teaming up with...

Every avenue.

It's very calm, and it's a kind
of a superficial calmness

that they've developed to
underplay the fact that it's...

There's a lot of high
pressure here,

as it's a very big
entertainment industry area.

And you get this feeling
of unease with everybody.

It's a very big
entertainment area.

The first time that it really

came home to me
what a strange...

About the churches
designed by an architect

Arthur, would
you please slow down?

We're
bouncing backwards and forwards

on the satellite at the moment.

I mean, our sound
is bouncing around.

Yes, I can see it.

It'll be all right in a minute.

Are you there, David?

Are you there, David?

Bedroom in the sky.

Are you there, Mr. David Bowie?

I think that I felt often,

ever since I was a teenager,

um, so adrift, and so
not part of everyone I saw.

There's so many dark secrets

about my family in the cupboard

that it kind of made me feel

very much on the outside
of everything,

and because of that, I felt
there was no basis to my life,

like everybody else
seemed to have.

Which of course is ridiculous.

Probably, I would
do things to prove that

I had some emotional substance

when in fact I didn't.

Thematically, I've always
dealt with isolation

in everything I've written,
I think.

If you're
interested in isolation,

is it because you think that
a person in an isolated state

feel greater emotions
than they do

when they're surrounded
by people and things?

I think if he is in isolation,

instead of receiving
the whole world as his home,

he tends to create
a micro-world inside himself.

Um, and it's that peculiar
part of the human mind

that fascinates me
about the small universes

that can be created
inside the mind.

Some of them
fairly schizophrenic

and quite off the wall.

It feels now that
I don't come from anywhere,

but I was born in Brixton.

When were you born? What year?

1947. January the eighth.

Makes me a Capricorn
with an Aquarius ascendant

and a Leo descendant.

How much now is left of the lad

from Brixton, do you think?

Not very much, I would think.

I know, you know.

I never got... I never became
who I should have been.

I've spent an awful lot
of my life

actually looking
for myself, you know?

And understanding what it was
that I-why-what I existed for.

What was it that really
made me happy in life?

And who exactly, or was...

Who are the parts of myself
I was trying to hide from?

I think a lot of us
have huge senses of denial

about who we are and
where we exist in the world.

I really wanted to
sort of, you know,

be very emotionally involved
with people.

I didn't know how to do it.

You know,
my parents were like that,

and I guess you kind of,
as they say,

they pass on a lot of faults.

What do
your parents do for a living?

My father's dead,
and my mother has a small flat,

and I think she's got a day job.

Does she have trouble
explaining you to the neighbors

who say, "Are you
any relation to that"

I think she pretends
I'm not hers.

Nah, she's uh,
she doesn't talk much.

You know, she doesn't,
um, I don't think we really...

We were never
that close particularly.

We have an understanding.

Yeah.

Was it a happy marriage?

Not necessarily
terribly loving or anything,

in terms of
no real physical affection,

or even they
didn't really articulate

any love for each other.

There's an awful lot of
emotional/spiritual mutilation

goes on in my family.

Did you like any
of the traditional people

that you're supposed to like?

Like, did you like
Winnie the Pooh?

No. No.

Rupert Bear?

No. No I didn't. I didn't like...

Did you have a teddy bear?

No, I didn't. I don't think.

I can't remember having
anything like that at all.

No, I never liked, um,
children's things very much.

You know,
since you've been away,

or quite recently,
the newspapers

having been having a bit
of a bash at your mother?

And saying that she's
a bit tearful from time to time.

And that she's suffered
a certain amount of anguish,

and that she doesn't hear
from you an awful lot.

Is that eyewash or is it real?

There's some kind of traumatism

often goes on
in our childhoods I think.

I think, that are...

Makes us crave some kind
of strange affection, you know?

It's sort of an...

Often you'll find
that the person

who craves a lot of affection

actually isn't terribly good
at giving it.

Does that mean
you have to separate yourself

quite a lot from, say,
falling in love

and getting very involved
with a person?

Um, oh no, I think, no.

I think quite the reverse.

But, love, falling in love,

is different from then going on
to love that person.

Yes, it is. Yes.

And once you've
loved somebody a lot,

it means that you've got
to share your life with them.

- That's what I really...
- No, I don't think so.

I think you can love somebody
from afar.

But if you then decided
not to love them from afar,

you as an artist
would have to give up

quite a lot of your time
to them.

Yes, and I can't do that.

That's what I was wondering,

whether you did...
Whether you did that.

No, no, no, love can't
get quite in my way,

because I feel... I shelter
myself from it incredibly.

Interviewer: Do you feel removed
from the body and the feel

that you create on the planet?

Until I'm performing or writing

I mainly feel pretty much
of an empty vessel.

When you're
performing and writing,

you're fulfilled?

I don't particularly feel...

Well, an awful lot of changes

with my musical career

were challenges to myself.

I have to feel that I'm
stepping on new ground,

that the ice beneath my feet
is very thin.

Any second, I could crack it

and just plunge through
and drown.

I got to a point in Los Angeles

where I got very tired
with my method of writing,

and I wanted to invent
a new musical language.

I knew I had to get
to an environment

that was totally different
to Los Angeles.

So I thought
of the most arduous city

that I could think of,
and it was West Berlin.

They don't give an FA about
who you are in Berlin.

The trappings of rock and roll
don't mean anything to them.

So, I could walk around,
buy me own food,

and just lease
a small apartment,

which I did above
an automobile spare parts shop.

I didn't have
the necessary verbal equipment

to describe what I was seeing,

and that's where
I needed assistance.

So, I contacted Brian Eno,

who is definitely one
of the keenest brains

of modern music, and I said,

"Look, Brian, I need to know
some new processes,

"and new methods of writing.

Please help me,
otherwise I'm packing it in."

We started working on a series

of processes and methods of
writing in the studio in Berlin

to invent, a different kind
of linguistics to work with.

Most of the things
that I do these days,

I go in with very little
preparation.

There's no governor,
no controller.

Every track is written
with a different process,

from spontaneous singing,

I didn't know
what I was gonna sing,

or how I was gonna sing it,

and I just stood
in front of the mic,

right down
to fragmented, pre-thought,

analyzed and processed writings
of Burroughs' school.

It probably touches areas
of emotion

that aren't normally dwelt upon

because they're arrived
at other than

by the regular channels
of emotive thought.

Most of the things
that I do these days

are on the occasion
of the studio.

I go in with very little
preparation,

just throw ideas out,

and you might make
little experiments sort of say,

look here's 50 seconds.

Play 10 notes on that 50 seconds

and don't repeat
the same note twice.

Now, that sounds
like an awful easy thing to do.

Well, it is.

See, you must understand,

I mean, it sounds
incredibly indulgent,

and indeed it is
because what I'm trying to do

is mold the traditional
methods of rock and roll

with newer processes.

Trying to find
a new form of language.

Do you think you have influence

on their thinking, though?

No.

And that's what I'm trying
to do with the new music,

is find a new language
which doesn't... it isn't that...

Doesn't have that kind
of image influence.

Do you think people
will understand that language?

Yes.

Because I think people,
especially in the city context,

think in fragments.

The city person will see
a milk advert on the street,

and be thinking
"Milk, what's gonna...

"What are we gonna have
for dinner?

"Boy getting knocked down
by a bus,

crashed against a wall..."
that kind of thing.

So, he's thinking in terms of,

maybe 1,000 different images
at any given time.

And the language that Brian
and I are sort of producing

is a language that can relate
to that way of thinking.

We live within
this manifested idea

of what should be form,

and what we try and keep out
of our existence is chaos,

which is a very real part
of our lives,

and our refusal to accept chaos

as being integral
to our existence,

I think, has been one
of the greatest mistakes

as a civilization
that we've made.

My work as an artist

has always been
to do with transition.

The nature and study of change

in our particular era
is most important

because never in our history

has there been
such a rapid curve of change

since the industrial revolution.

I'm a fairly
good social observer,

and I think
that I encapsulate areas

every, maybe every year or so,

I tried to stamp
that down somewhere,

what that year is all about.

Rather than
what it was all about,

or what it's going to be.

It's very much trying to capture

the quintessence of that year.

I notice that the music now

is more... more daring,

more adventurous,
more fractured.

Is there a danger that
by following your instinct,

your aesthetic instincts,

if you like,
your artistic instinct,

that you will jeopardize that?

You know, the money
and the good life and all...

No shit, Sherlock.

Yes, I think I... Yes, I think
I rather sort of hit that one

in the head at the moment.

Um, and it's quite
a relief, really.

I feel a lot more,
um, free than what I do.

I just needed, it just needed
a positive decision

to only do what I want to do,

and not do things
for the sake of what

either David Bowie or whoever
I was playing last time,

Thin White Duke or something,
was expected to do.

I went naked in Berlin.

I really did try
and strip down my life

to what I believed
to be absolute basic essentials

so I could build up again

everything that I thought
that I'd lost, you know?

I guess I was...
What I was really doing

was doing that on an emotional
and spiritual level,

but you manifest it physically.

The surprising thing is,
is that we came up...

We thought we were
just going to be into a process

of discovery and experiment

and had some pretty wishy-washy
stuff come out of it,

but what did come out of it
was a pretty good statement

of some esoteric nature.

It was a bit hard
to put one's finger

on exactly
what the information was,

but it was vital,
and it was interesting,

and I think
that's successful music.

Today, David Bowie
is 33 years old.

He has recorded 17 rock albums,

produced a gallery full
of paintings,

acted in two feature films,

and is the only rock star

ever to act in a play
on Broadway.

Bowie never seems
to stand still.

When he no longer
feels challenged

by one art form,

he moves on to the next,
and the next, and the next.

It's as if David Bowie
learned to run

before he learned to walk.

You know, I've got
a grasshopper sort of mind,

and I can't resist
bringing things

to a conclusion like saying,
"Well that's a piece in itself,

and now I move
on to something else."

You described
yourself as a generalist.

Is that... Yeah.

That's a freedom...
Giving umbrella.

It gives me a chance

to do anything
I want successfully

or unsuccessfully,
without being tied down.

I want... I'm a generalist,

is really sort of my cliche way
describing myself.

David Bowie. Rank and file.

33 years old.

Generalist.

Unlike most rock stars

who stick
to a successful formula

when they get it,
Bowie, when he does,

deliberately changes direction,
and puts on yet another face.

I really sort of go
in just pure, barbaric impetus.

I do get fired up for something

and it's not all cerebral
at all, by any means.

A lot of it is pure instinct,

and knowing that
I've found something

that I haven't found before.

Sometimes
I think my head is so big

because it is so full of themes.

What are you gonna do now?

Are you going back home to bed?

Yes. Well, I don't know.

A bit in the mood to
probably do a little writing

or painting or something.

You're painting
in large canvases?

Or small canvases? Or drawings?

Yes. Quire large, acrylics.

I'm doing a lot
of sculptures as well.

A sort of polythene and
essential functional things.

Why are you creative, David?

I think it has something to do

with wanting to find the place
where I can kind of set sail

and know that I won't really
fall off the edge of the world

when I get
to the end of the sea.

I find it
an intoxicating parallel

to my perceived reality.

I'm not sure
that I'm manifesting ideas

when I do my work.

It's just
this inexhaustible supply

of extracurricular thoughts

that I have
that don't actually apply

to the survival of life,

and I'm not quite sure
what to do with them.

So rather than be pinned down,

my momentum
was to hit and run very fast.

Once I'd done something,

and said it,
drop it and move on.

I feel quite at home
in just about anywhere now,

on a temporary basis.

Where do you spend
most of your time?

Again, what is
"most of one's time"?

Over the last year,
it's been London,

New York, South Pacific,
Australia, Africa...

The nature of my life

is one of an old-fashioned
beatnik traveler,

and more than anything else,

I spend very little time
in musical circles.

I spend more time discovering
the social life

of rather obscure places.

This is your promised land
is it not?

Roof, food, care, protection.

Oh, right, Mr. Treves.

I'll bet you don't know
what to call this.

No, sir. I don't.

You call it... home.

Never had a home before.

You have one now.

Say it, John.

- Home.
- Home?

No, no. I mean really say it.

"I have a home.

"This is my..." Come on.

I have a home.

This is my home.

This is my home.

I have a home.

I have, for as long as I like.

That is what home is.

I had always thought

that by this stage I would be
settled down somewhere

with a house and grounds
and everything,

but I never got to doing that.

Never... I've never bought
a house,

and I still have
no intention to buy

because with me,

the way I live is very much
also part of the

what produces my work,

so I have to keep examining
my life

to make sure that I am
in constant change,

and not getting too bloated
with philosophic opulence.

Keep sort of throwing bits
and pieces away.

And by... to change countries
is one way of doing that.

I'm not quite sure
where to go now.

Um, the East beckons me.

I'm a bit scared
of moving over there, you know?

Japan?

Yes, because I fall
in love so much

with the lifestyle that
I'll get very Zen about it.

Please
give us your special message

to the audience of our program,
"Young Oh! Oh!"

Look at the camera, please.

Uh, don't waste any day.
Don't waste a minute.

Yes.

Mr. David Bowie.

Thank you again.

I hope that none of us
are kind of static

throughout our lives.

I mean, I guess one has
a formed personality

from quite an early age,

but it is tempered
and subject to change.

I mean,
we all to a certain extent

create our lives
and create our culture daily,

as we live that 24 hours.

We'll choose a tie,
or a haircut, or a chair,

not just
because it's functional,

but for most of us

because it actually
says something about us.

I still, you know,
am sort of getting somewhere

that I quite like,
but I'm still not.

We'll find out eventually,
won't we?

I might now be cut out
for all this, really,

at the end.

Why did you change so often?

I mean,
what was the need for it?

Was it just a gimmick?

Being a Capricorn.

I didn't want to expose myself
to the public,

so I developed a series
of characters.

So, behind that all the time
was a real David Bowie?

At times, yes.

I lost control
a couple of times.

So you're not...
This is really you.

This is not you just still
sort of playing the role of...

One wonders.

I think
that it's not at all mystifying

why you change your appearance
as often as you do,

to my view by the way,

because I think you've
used yourself as a canvas.

- Yes, very much so.
- Is that right?

Yes, very much so.

Um, I never wanted to appear
as myself onstage ever,

at any time, until recently.

Were you hiding yourself
from us by doing that?

Partly, but I was
enjoying it very much.

- And, you paint now?
- Yes.

But your paintings,
you're not willing

to let us see yet?

Uh, no.

I've been offered
two or three showings,

but I've turned

I've accepted two of them,
and then I broke my word

and said I wouldn't show them.

I haven't yet bucked up
the courage.

Why not? What do you fear?

Well, I know I'm a good writer.

I'm not sure
about putting my paintings.

They're very personal
to me, as well.

Um, they're all portraits,

and they're portraits
of people in isolation.

Most of the paintings
are Germans or Turks

who live in Berlin,

and they're either
from East Berlin,

and who are now living
in West Berlin,

and knowing their families

are on the other side
of the wall.

And so, I tried to capture
a lot of that isolation

and I put a lot of myself
into the paintings as well.

They're very much part of me.

Well, I think
the question is what...

You know, what you want to be
for yourself and your life.

I don't know whether
that's important anymore.

I mean, what I want
to do is just work well.

When I'm working well,
I like my writing.

At the moment, especially.

More than at any other time,
I think.

I mean, I was getting so bored
with what I was writing.

I just, I felt inadequate,
I thought my writing

was becoming monotonous.

I didn't take
the kinds of chances

I was taking at one time.

I thought if I'm going
to end up like,

um, a lot of other rock
and roll celebrities,

inasmuch
that I'm going to be trying

to retain the safe position,
you know?

And that's not what
I started out wanting to do.

But is it important to you
to have a mass audience?

Do you want a lot of people to...

No. No.

I want to work well.

I want to...
I just have to work well.

I think it's
an heroic act to take,

um... to be able
to obtain enthusiasm

and joy from the actual process
of living from day to day.

Yes, very much.

I try. And it is, it is

I think it takes practice to,

and concentration,
and exercise to enjoy it.

This is very easy to fall
into the trap of looking

for one's dreams and always
thinking of a future moment

when everything will be better.

And if the process
is not enjoyed,

the dreams will never come
to anything.

And by enjoying the process,

you are creating
a dream come true.

I think I have an abundantly
healthy curiosity about life.

About life around me,
specifically.

And how, how we put
ourselves together culturally,

and I think it's served me well
as an artist,

in as much as I'm really
inquiring continually

into how things are made
and why we make them,

and the significance
or meanings behind things.

I'd be really scared of feeling
that I'd got somewhere,

because for me,
art is about searching,

and if you come to a place

where you think
you've made a discovery,

I think that really is...

God, that would be
really demoralizing.

I think the search is the thing.

There's a gradual shift
when you reach mid 30s.

Uh, I think that
there's a period

where you have
to decide not to try

and grasp frantically
for the feelings of desperation

and anger that you have
when you're in your mid 20s.

And if you can relax into
the idea that being mid 30s

is quite a nice place to be

with an amount of experience
behind you,

I think the perspective changes.

You said once that there's

so many shells around you

that you don't know what
the p... looks like anymore.

Yeah,
well I've gone through that.

I'm pretty aware
of what I'm like.

Really? Yeah, yeah.

I feel pretty-pretty happy
about my own relationship

to the world, and...

We've got to be positive
about our days on this planet.

I never realized
you were such an optimist.

Well, I never was particularly.

You're more romantic

than people give you credit for.

I think I'm probably
a lot more emotional

than people would think
that I was.

I am emotionally very
responsive to life and people.

I just wanted to come in touch
with a common factor

because I feel a need
at the moment to

be part of a society again,

and having traveled
an awful lot,

feel more and more
part of everything.

And I wish
to express that feeling.

I don't want to seem
as though I'm detached and cold

because I'm not.

You seem very sure of yourself,

and very,
sort of content, and...

You seem at ease with yourself.

I'm at ease with myself, yeah.

You've always been so good

at being convincing, you know?

- Whatever it was at the time.
- Yeah. I see.

I mean, is it possible that this

is just another role?
I see what's going on.

I believe that there is a thread

of meaning running
through my life at the moment,

that I have no wish
at the moment to break,

and I feel it's leading

somewhere fulfilling
and positive.

And if I feel that way,
then I make every effort

to make that part
of my music now.

It's the ultimate swing
of the pendulum.

When things reach a point
to one extreme,

there will be
a natural gravitation

back to a point,

which is the antithesis
of that one.

So, you've got
a musical vocabulary,

which is high-tech, and icy.

There's gonna be sooner
or later a swing back to,

well, what is the other side
of that coin?

Ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. David Bowie.

I'd like to, um,
start off the 80s

in a positive,
optimistic fashion.

I'll be undertaking,
a world tour,

sometime around the middle
of the year,

and it'll take me through
to the autumn at least.

And he's back. David Bowie,

launching his
first new album in three years,

preparing for his first
British tour in five years,

and telling Newsnight's
Robin Denselow

about his new
and more emotional music style.

I'm trying to write
in a more obvious

and positive manner.

I've not gone quite
into a corner

with experimentation of sound.

I'm not quite so concerned
with cut-up exercise,

or using juxtaposition
of lyrics, or whatever.

I'd like to do
something positive.

Something that helps people,
to use a cliche.

This is probably
the simplest music

I've ever done.

What do you mean simple?

It makes very warm,

understandable
musical statements.

It has a warm response.

I hope that it's the most
emotionally uplifting music

I've made in a long time.

It's very positive.

Is that how you're feeling?

Relatively. Oh yeah.

I'm very positive.

British fans are overwhelming

the post office with more
than four times

as many ticket requests
as seats available.

This is the biggest demand ever.

We waited hours
and hours to get tickets.

Big Bowie fan?

Yeah, that's me.

He's totally evolved.

He knows what his fans want,

and that's what
he's delivering now.

I love David Bowie!

Fans have
been waiting a day and a half

in the stadium parking lot.

They open the gates at 5pm.

We want Bowie!

Ladies and gentlemen

David Bowie and his band!

What is it about David Bowie

that excites you so much?

- His style.
- Yeah?

I like his makeup.

You like his makeup?

I like his music.

Bowie!

Bowie!

Bowie!

Bowie! Bowie!

Do you think
they phenomenal success

of the tour marks
the rebirth of Bowie fever?

No, I don't think that.

But I think it's just
a Bowie acceptance now,

which is quite gratifying
after all these years.

Didn't think I'd ever
hear myself saying this,

but it's like the audience

and myself are just,
like, together.

It's trying to come back

to being a person again
in terms...

In the eyes of the audience,

and it certainly
has no pretensions

to be a serious,

heavy statement-filled show,
but I mean,

it's exactly
what I want it to be.

What do you most enjoy doing?

In life, at the moment?

Waking up and feeling
as though I've got a future.

I keep remembering
that there is a tomorrow,

when that never really occurred
to me before,

that there was a tomorrow.

Tomorrow was really,
"This is it.

"This is now, this is important.

"Everything else is crazy,
and static,

"and it means nothing,
or everything's impermanent,

therefore I will just live
for the second."

And one has to start taking
very positive stands on things.

When you feel comfortable
with yourself,

you can no longer write.

That seems to be
the writer's great problem.

As I get more comfortable,
I obviously have the feeling

that it's not so much that
is my writing as good,

or as potent as it used to be,
but do I need to write anymore?

His new album seems
to be, to me, a step sideways.

Why do you describe it

that... in that way?

Because I think he's not doing

anything particularly new,

and I suspect that
for the first time ever,

the fans are up there with him
and he's not ahead of the game.

He seems to me to have become
something rather old fashioned,

which is to say a superstar.

If you've gone mainstream,
there's only one way to do it,

and that's sell out
three days a year.

Really do it.

Yeah, yeah.

He's done it in one big deal,
hasn't he?

This is the last stop

on what's been a pretty
extensive tour for you.

Uh, yeah, I'm not
actually finishing in Auckland.

I'm going over now

to Singapore,
Hong Kong, and Bangkok.

I'm not quite so stricken
with the idea

of making a point.

I'm not quite sure
that any point

that I have to make
isn't being made quite as well

by other people.

Um, and that maybe the point,

my most important point,

is that I can entertain
very well,

and I think I'm no longer
finding it uncomfortable

to reach that conclusion.

That I now find
I'm very comfortable

being an actor, an entertainer,

without too much
all-encompassing stuff.

Pepsi continues to innovate,

by capturing what's new,

what's contemporary,
and what's hot.

The Glass Spider Tour
will be all of that.

You always have
that segment of people

who are with you from the start

and if you know Bowie,
you know he's sold out.

I don't begrudge any
artist for getting an audience.

I'm sorry, I never found
that poverty meant purity.

For a guy who doesn't like

to play it safe, though,
as the audience gets larger,

it must be harder
to take those chances.

Here I was,
making lots of money,

performing
to these huge audiences,

and I thought that's it,
you know?

I've come to the vacuum
of my life.

I'm a young man.

Do you understand?

I'm a young man.

Thank you very much.
Bye bye, we love you.

Even though
it was enormously successful,

there was no growth
going on at all.

They were very hard years
to get through

to find any sense of purpose.

I wasn't allowing myself

the service of being
who I really am as an artist.

I'd given myself
dreadful parameters

in confining myself to merely
what I presumed people wanted.

I never wanted to do this.

I never wanted to be out there
pleasing people.

I wanted to be really stubborn

and have people like
what I like.

Not give them what they like.

It's very, very easy
to become work-obsessed

for the reason of not having
to look at oneself.

I think over the last few years,

I'm understanding

a very important thing
in my life,

which is that I really
have to come back

to what my life is about.

That my life is not about
the work that I do.

My work is not me.

I am distinctly one entity
that needs looking at.

When I first looked,

I just didn't understand
that person,

because I'd never given myself
the time,

nor the incentive

to want to really
have a look at myself, deeply.

I think the first intrusion
into one's own inner conflicts

is not the most pleasant
of experiences.

But working through them

can really be
one of the greatest adventures

of one's life,

and it takes a certain amount
of bravado,

and need, and a realization

that you're missing out
on your own life.

You are probably
creating hazards

and disturbing experiences
for others around you.

And the house must be put right.

Do you have
any room in your life

for any kind of real
relationship like that?

More room than
I've ever had before.

You've said that being in love,

you thought was like a disease.

Yeah.

Horrible,
and it bred jealousy, and

I think I've... I think I've

I think I've grown to feel
a distaste for that statement.

Then I met Iman,

and it was smack,
right from the first night.

That was it. It was over.

It was incredible.

My life suddenly became
rose-tinged.

I really started thinking about

where I was gonna go with it,
and what I could do for her,

and how I could be

some kind
of valuable contribution

to a relationship.

It became a process
over the first year or so,

trying to balance my life
in terms of well,

how many of these
precious moments

am I willing to give away
at my age, 45?

Do I want to keep
on inundating myself

with one work project
after another, and sort of,

leave virtually no room
for a real, solid,

wonderful relationship
to start blooming?

Tour plans. Any tour plans?

Unfortunately not.
No, not this time.

As you know, I've only been
married seven months,

and I really want to spend
more time within the marriage.

I think the worst thing to do
is run away for a year.

I really do.

There's a certain
buoyancy that you can develop

as you get older

if you are capable of absorbing
that it's a finite life,

and a finite existence.

And it's a kind of a knowledge

that you cannot
possibly entertain

when you're young.

You cannot entertain
the real magnificence

and inevitability
of the short span of years

that we spend on the earth.

And I think
if you are really honest

with that reality,

you can have
a kind of a freedom,

artistically, spiritually,
and emotionally

that you don't have
when you're young.

The idea of holding
on to anything

that's manifested
seems farcical.

There is nothing to hold onto.

Youth, physical things, or

definitely possessions.

The 20th century concern

is how we put our new god
back together again.

I think that we're coming
into an era of chaos,

and chaos has meaning
in our lives,

and I think
that we have to re-adapt

our interpretation of religion
and spirituality

to suit our new millennium.

Chaos and fragmentation
is something

that I've always been
very comfortable with.

That obviously
is my through-line.

Because I've always felt

that there's no real central
one truth in life.

That the way we live
is trying to make sense

of the endless vortex
of fragments.

That essentially,
we try and pull

these weedy little truths

and absolutes

out of this kind
of mindless chaos,

which is the real universe.

There's something about
the 90s that I really like.

There's something in the air
that I recognize.

I think it's all the frag...

All the fragments
flying around in the chaos.

It feels really... I kind of...
I know this stuff.

I think, I think
it has something to do

with being able to reach
the end of any one day

and feel that you took from it

and gave back to it
as much as possible.

I hate to waste days.

I've just been feeling
a lot more comfortable

with life, and myself,
and my writing

and everything
as the years go by,

so it's... I just happen to be
in a great place.

I'm really lucky in that way.

'Cause I look
at some of my mates,

and some contemporaries,

and I know some of them feel,
I don't know, tired, or bitter,

or you know, a number of things

that traditionally
are supposed to go

with getting older, you know?

And I've just been
very fortunate

that it just
hasn't happened to me.

I just feel really...
I'm pretty keen on everything.

I've just landed on my feet.

I've done and do everything
I've always wanted to do,

you know?

That's been...

That's a great thing.

Oh, it's extraordinary.
It really is extraordinary.

I've an incredible life.

It's been amazing.

I would love to do it again.

I was determined,
ever since I was 16,

that I would have
the greatest adventure

that any one person
could ever have.

And I set my sails
in the general direction

of uncharted waters.

I put myself
through everything...

Absolutely everything,
that came along.

It was very important for me
to expand my horizons

and seeing just how...

Just how near to the line
I could get.

I've been so eclectic
all my life.

I've been admiring
of so many different people

and so many different things
that they've done,

I feel that I owe so many
for the way that I think

and do things.

I guess anybody
who's had the integrity

to kind of always work
outside of the system,

has always appealed to me.

Whenever I'm teetering
on sort of what I know

is what I do best,
and what I really feel for,

and there's an area
that I think that,

well, an audience
I know would like this,

I just remember back

to how much I hate the center
of the social strata,

how I hate being drawn
into the middle,

to the middle of the road
of anything,

to that which is most popular.

And if... The other thing
I would say is that

if you feel safe in the area
that you're working in,

you're not working
in the right area.

Always go a little further
into the water

than you feel
you're capable of being in.

Go a little bit
out of your depth,

and when you don't feel

that your feet
are quite touching the bottom,

you're just about
in the right place

to do something exciting.

Let me tell you one thing.

All people,
no matter who they are,

they all wish
they'd appreciated life more.

It's what you do in life
that's important,

not how much time you have,
or what you wish you'd done.

There is no beginning, no end.

And all at once,

the outward appearance
of meaning is transcended,

and you find yourself
struggling to comprehend a deep

and formidable mystery.

I'm dying.

You are dying.

Second by second,
all is transient.

Does it matter? Do I bother?

Yes I do.

Life is fantastic.

It never ends. It only changes.

Flesh to stone to flesh.

And round and round.

Best keep walking.

Well you know what?

This has been
an incredible pleasure,

and, uh,
you were really interesting.

I didn't know those things
you were telling me

about yourselves.
It's nice to have met you.

I'm glad we did finally
meet at last.