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?