As is being widely pointed out all over the pop culture media front today, today is David Bowie's 65th birthday. It's also my mom's birthday (hi, Mom!) In any case, here's a decidedly less-celebrated clip from the man. This is "Heaven's in Here," the opening track of the first album by the strenuously maligned Tin Machine circa 1989. Like both "Under the God" and the title track, this video was filmed at the Ritz on East 11th Street (now Webster Hall), featuring Bowie looking beardy and getting blusey before a hand-picked crowd of unconvincing downtown scenesters (Harley of the Cro-Mags appears fleetingly in both of the other Tin Machine performances shot that day).
I actually saw Bowie in the flesh in that very same room, although not performing. While attending a Secret Machines gig in 2004, my friends and I spotted Bowie sitting up in the balcony, enthusiasitically checking out the then-promising, high-volume Texan trio. We spent a large swathe of the evening looking up at him annoyingly, until he finally turned to face us, gave us a thumbs-up and then pointed at the stage, as if to suggest that it was the band we should be paying attention to, not him. He was right, of course.
Getting back to Tin Machine, though -- as I mentioned back on this post, while it's inarguably true that guitarist Reeves Gabrels slavishly overplays everything and Bowie's hamming seems more forced and contrived that usual, I do kinda dig this whole record. The second Tin Machine record and the live album are dreadful. Avoid them at all costs (if you could even find them today), but the first one really isn't bad. I mean it.
Anyway, happy birthday, Dave! Incidentally, despite his celebrated penchant for androgyny, the person pictured at the top of this post is not David Bowie. Rather, it is Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine, gamely showing her support for the under-celebrated Tin Machine in an exceptionally rare and presumably now-quite-valuable t-shirt.
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