“So David Bowie, where did you go?/ David Bowie, I want to know…”
Despite the video above featuring the cover art the the “Oddities 2” cassette, this song was in fact on the first “Oddities” cassette from 1983 which had a 2nd life in recent years as a fine “Oddities” double LP on US label Chaos in Tejas.
So why would The Clean be asking “David Bowie, where did you go?” in 1983?
After his ubiquitous influence over the 1970s he had a string of 5 albums which were hugely influential on New Wave (and in New Zealand in particular) – “Station to Station” (1976), the “Berlin-triptych” of “Low” and “Heroes” (1977), then “Lodger” (1979), and finally “Scary Monsters” in 1980. After such a spectacular run of albums each year until 1980, this quiet period for new music (a few singles, but he was busy with various acting roles mainly) prior to the commercial pop of “Let’s Dance” in 1983 possibly did look like he had disappeared from music at least.
Pop Lib 