Rock music legend David Bowie would have turned 73 today, January 8. It’s also been nearly four years to the day that we lost the pop culture icon, so his birthday and the anniversary of his passing are always inextricably linked for his legion of fans around the world. But it’s always the perfect reminder for us all to celebrate the incredible legacy that he left behind.
In the four years since his death, there have been many tributes made in honor of the Thin White Duke from his loyal and devoted fanbase. We’ve seen everything from graphic novels to museum exhibits, to even a series of Japanese wood block prints. But today, we’d like to share one fan’s beautiful musical tribute to the man who gave the world so many timeless songs.
About a year and a half ago, singer Kat Robichaud, along with her San Francisco-based Misfit Cabaret team, created this music video for their “Song For David Bowie.” The tribute video was partially shot at Ocean Beach, up in the Norther California Bay Area. The title is actual a reference to Bowie’s own “Song for Bob Dylan,” which he recorded back in the day for his 1971 album Hunky Dory.
One of the cool touches this video has is that it features drag king Nikki Boudreau, whose transformations into ’70s glam rock era Bowie are quite uncanny. There are moments where she looks so much like a young Bowie that it’s downright eerie. Robichaud actually first performed the song a mere few weeks after David Bowie died in 2016, and you can check out the video for that performance down below:
David Bowie’s nearly fifty year career was vast and varied. After breaking through to the mainstream with “Space Oddity,” which got a brand new music video last year, his next big catapult to stardom was tied into the glam rock movement of the early ’70s. But it didn’t take him very long to downplay the Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane eras. He would eventually go for something more streamlined and (slightly) less theatrical for subsequent albums. The later years of his career, both in music and in the movies, had a very different persona attached to them.
But regardless of how Bowie himself felt about that earlier time in his musical career, it was a huge influence on many, many artists who followed in his footsteps. You can make an argument that the entire ’80s new wave movement was essentially spawned by David Bowie’s initial years as a performer. These days, it seems that whenever someone pays any kind of tribute to David Bowie, it is those earliest glam rock days that they tend to invoke. I suppose one never really gets past their first impression, and for much of the world their first impression of David Bowie is the man in the bright red wig with the lightning bolt painted over his eye. Even when he received his very own Barbie doll recently, it was in Ziggy Stardust mode! Some iconography is just timeless it seems.
Featured Image: Kat Robichaud