David Bowie Covers of the Week: Three Former Guests Cover Bowie!
An unusual number of solid Bowie covers were posted over the past seven days, making it particularly difficult for me to choose one to highlight. So, I’m taking the easy way out and featuring three, which happen to be by former guests on my YouTube show, in alphabetical order: Marc Lowe, John Cameron Mitchell and Julian Shah-Tayler.
I should say that several other very good Bowie covers were posted over the past week by artists I have not previously featured on my blog or show, but it was too much for me to pass on the opportunity to feature artists who have come on my show to talk about Bowie and have now given us the opportunity to hear them play Bowie!
Marc and Julian are repeat guests on my show. Marc Lowe is an educator and musician who lives in Japan. He is a prolific artist who composes, performs and records original music as well as Bowie-related music ranging from covers to songs and albums inspired by Bowie. We have especially discussed Bowie’s 1. Outside, which has influenced much of his own music. The video links an adaptation of the song, “Outside” into a critique, in part, of Elon Musk and his Neuralink. The link is partially inspired by a line from one of the segues on 1. Outside in which the character of Baby Grace mentions a “brain patch” (although the exact word she says is a little unclear).
John Cameron Mitchell also makes social commentary out of Bowie’s music, in this case with “I’m Afraid of Americans.” John is a two-time Tony winner and very prominent actor, musician and playwright, perhaps best known for his creation, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. John recently came off his acclaimed run in the Broadway production of Oh, Mary! He’s been performing Bowie quite a bit recently and is preparing to appear for a couple of Bowie shows in Australia titled for the song he performs here.
Julian Shah-Tayler is based in California and is also known as the Singularity. He also is a prolific musician, recording his original music as well as Bowie covers. He’s been my guest on three occasions to discuss three song-by-song Bowie cover projects: Forget That I’m Fifty, an Aladdin Sane tribute he produced, and his own full-album covers of Diamond Dogs and Station to Station.
Anyway, it was a delight to come across these three videos, which served as a reminder of what an honor it has been to have guests like Marc, John and Julian on my show. So what I’m going to do is include the three videos below, and then follow them by videos of three appearances by these guests on my show. I’ll stick to alphabetical order. Marc and Julian have appeared on my show more than once, so if you want to hear more from them, check out the Interview Index or just visit my YouTube channel:
And here are some of our interviews: