tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6388160584739793679.post4479693768983634021..comments2024-03-25T22:10:23.864-07:00Comments on ReynoldsRetro: Kanye, "the Black Bowie"SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6388160584739793679.post-24685561359315500542022-12-08T10:51:39.801-08:002022-12-08T10:51:39.801-08:00It's interesting with Bowie the extent to whic...It's interesting with Bowie the extent to which he avoids any overt political statements or endorsements - the 'fascism' quotes are almost alone in his entire career. (I think there is also something he said in the late 60s that was slightly pro Enoch Powell, along the strong leaders lines rather than ideas about immigration - but I'd have to double-check).<br /><br />I feel like his attitude to politics is revealed in "Fashion" - he really does see it as being like fashion changes, "turn to the left, turn to the right". Politics as a realm of actually implementing change - or anti-change - is something he has no time for. The world of policy and administration has no interest, no romance for him (and it is very boring, grinding, pragmatic, compromise / negotiation based). Politics for Bowie is interesting only to the extent it's about image or grand heroic theatre. (Unlike say Eno late in life who is very interested in the practicalities of reform and achieving stuff.) <br /><br />But yes Kanye is a dangerous figure to a far greater degree because of the company he keeps and the viewpoints he is circulating and coating with whatever glamour may be said to still pertain to his name and likeness. He is a conduit for evil into the discoursesphere. SIMON REYNOLDShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6388160584739793679.post-76073728349978418322022-12-05T14:13:58.813-08:002022-12-05T14:13:58.813-08:00There's also Ye's political relationships....There's also Ye's political relationships.<br /><br />Bowie said like: "So the best thing that can happen is for an extreme right Government to come. It'll do something positive at least to the cause commotion in people and they'll either accept the dictatorship or get rid of it."<br /><br />But* he wasn't hanging out with the National Front and Enoch Powell. Whereas Ye has some very bad friends who are encouraging him to make all the wrong choices. Which means he is likely going to end up somewhere far, far worse.<br /><br />In terms of art, I think a comparison between Bowie and Ye is fair. Altho Bowie is far more protean than Ye. Bowie actively embraces the creative destruction of identity. Ye constantly fights being overwhelmed. I'd go out on a limb here and say that Rihanna is more Bowie that Ye.<br /><br />Also worth noting that both are very commercially savvy. Bowie with his "Bowie bonds" and Ye with his Adidas sponsorships (until now). But perhaps that is par for the course for artists these days.<br /><br />*I may stand to be corrected on this. And there's obviously Eric Clapton to consider here.Matt Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00642195824428451388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6388160584739793679.post-52258382885544115442022-12-04T13:31:34.091-08:002022-12-04T13:31:34.091-08:00Right - he was already documenting the incipient W...Right - he was already documenting the incipient Western swing to the right (much of Diamond Dogs and its outtakes - the second Candidate, Dodo - are some of the best art, period, about the emotionally seductive appeal of fascism and its prosaically brutal and ugly reality), and the issue was that during his breakdown, the line between third-person observer and first-person subject/actor disappeared - he shifted back and forth from an Isherwood type to what he was describing.Tylerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08388493931455539589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6388160584739793679.post-56550964383733554102022-12-04T12:18:17.696-08:002022-12-04T12:18:17.696-08:00That's a good point - there isn't that fee...That's a good point - there isn't that feeling with Bowie that his attraction to fascism is rooted in any kind of hatred. Certainly, not racial hatred. He does voice some "liberalism is weak, is decadent, time for a clean-up, a return to morals, end the permissive society":) but I wonder if that is rooted in some of the things he saw, and participated in, in Los Angeles. Stemming from self-disgust and shame. <br /><br />With Bowie it's badly understood Nietzsche combined with fame-induced grandiosity / paranoia combined with cocaine-induced grandiosity / paranoia. And the occult reading. And observing this analogy between stadium concerts and rallies, which quite a few people at that time made. <br /><br />The timing could not be worse, of course, in terms of what was happening in the UK - the private armies, whispers about the need for a military coup, National Front. <br />SIMON REYNOLDShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6388160584739793679.post-20007588133628240122022-12-03T17:27:20.870-08:002022-12-03T17:27:20.870-08:00A great review - I thought so at the time, and obv...A great review - I thought so at the time, and obviously it's become even more perceptive in the interim. <br /><br />I've seen a lot of Think White Duke comparisons, but while there are definite parallels (mostly in the amount of stimulants fueling them both), it only goes so far. As stupid and lunatic as Bowie's comments were in 1975-6, they always seemed rooted in a combination of perverse aesthetic appreciation (see also - Bryan Ferry, Lemmy) and the Spear Of Destiny-type pop-occultist conspiracy he was reading while in the throes of his cocaine psychosis - they were not, as far as I know, rooted in the Nazis' primary drive of anti-Semitism. <br /><br />This is where he and West part ways - while the current public self-outing as a fascist is probably creditable to a combination of manic psychosis and drugs, it also seems to be a deeply held prejudice finally breaking loose (it's interesting in hindsight that his mogul idols - Disney, Ford, Jobs - are not only uniformly gentile, but in the former two cases were either rumored to be or very publicly was anti-Semitic).Tylerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08388493931455539589noreply@blogger.com