David Bowie. Ever heard of him?

As we were working on this special David Bowie edition of CREEM magazine, we wrote up a list of things we needed to deliver here, one of which was:

• Touch on the importance of Bowie to rock ’n’ roll.

About a week later I read our notes again and laughed my ass off. Do we really need to touch on the importance of Bowie to rock ’n’ roll? Who doesn’t know who David Bowie is? I don’t even know where to begin—how would one explain David Bowie to, say, the members of an isolated jungle tribe?

David Bowie (ne David Jones) was an English folk singer who metamorphosed into a messianic, androgynous rock star from outer space named Ziggy Stardust who, in turn, transformed into Aladdin Sane, a man with a lightning bolt across his face. He wrote many hit songs under multiple personalities throughout his lifetime as well as performing in films such as Labyrinth where he ruled over a maze of puppets as Jareth, the Goblin King. Bowie was known to store his fingernails, hair clippings, and urine in his refrigerator to protect himself from witches.

I mean, close enough, right?

Bowie was a recurring subject in the early pages of CREEM magazine. Perhaps one of his more unusual appearances was the “Stars Cars” photo from 1976 (see page 17). It’s Bowie behind the wheel of a dusty Mercedes sedan. What’s weird about it is how normal and boring it is: Ziggy Stardust drives? Did Mr. Stardust have to go to the DMV and take a driving test? And his car is just a regular old Mercedes? I thought he teleported everywhere, or drove a Luke Skywalker landspeeder or something.

Or maybe he was trying to be a normal, inconspicuous human hiding from the weewee witches?

Also amusing that CREEM, which launched in 1969 (about the same time Bowie’s career got going), not only did not like Bowie’s music, but made the grossly erroneous prediction in 1973 that he would never amount to anything (see page 12).

“Bowie and his people can’t laugh at themselves or at anything else because they’ve got too much paranoid ego invested in this thing to lighten up, so they end up being rigid, tyrannical and humorless. All of which doom the Bowie empire (for that is what they see it as) to ultimate failure, and most especially artistic failure.”

—Nick Kent from “David Bowie: Best Dressed Mainman at the Twilight Zone Ball” (CREEM, Aug. 1, 1973)

Haha, we’re so dumb. And it won’t be the last time we’ll be wrong because we’re doing it again and relaunching this stupid magazine—first issue out now—CREEM has risen. (Subscribe at creem.com.)

All of CREEM's original Bowie articles and photos (as well as thousands of other rock legends) are available in their entirety in the Archives at creem. com. A small sampling of which are reprinted here in this special CREEMemorative edition produced in collaboration with NEON Films and their release of the latest David Bowie documentary, Moonage Daydream, by acclaimed director Brett Morgen, who is a far more qualified person than we to “illuminate the life and genius of David Bowie, one of the most prolific and influential artists of our time.” (An exclusive interview with Brett Morgen by OG CREEM staff writer Jaan Uhelszki appears on page 4.)

Moonage Daydream, the creative, musical, and spiritual journey of David Bowie, lands globally in theaters and IMAX starting Sept. 16. To learn more and purchase tickets, visit moonagedaydream.film.

—Dave Carnie