“He took it all too far…” – Vince Taylor, big in France.
Like a leper messiah…
Erm, a little bit late on this one…sorry, but here goes anyway…
David Bowie has never made secret of the influence of legendary rock ‘n’ roller Vince Taylor on the creation of Ziggy Stardust. David has dropped Vince into the conversation on more than one occasion while discussing Ziggy. Here’s a great quote from 1990:
“The guy was unbelievable. He had this six-day party in some guy’s house, that just went on and on. Just the weirdest kind of creature….In his own mind he did become the Messiah…He used to hang out on Tottenham Court Road and I got to know him then. And he had these strange plans, showing where there was money buried, that he was going to get together; he was going to create this new Atlantis at one time…And he always stayed in my mind as an example of what can happen in rock n roll. I’m not sure if I held him up as an idol or as something not to become. Bit of both probably. There was something very tempting about him going completely off the edge. Especially at my age, then, it seemed very appealing: Oh, I’d love to end up like that, totally nuts. Ha ha! And so he re-emerged in this Ziggy Stardust character.”
So nip over to BBC1 now and fasten your safety belt while you wait for
Thanx to Rochelle for the pointer, and to whoever it was that mailed me about this a few days ago. Sorry lost the e-mail 🙁