David Bowie – Absolute Beginners
#quotefromthe80s
As long as you're still smiling
There's nothing more I need
I absolutely love you
But we're absolute beginners
#AbsoluteBeginners #DavidBowie #PatsyKensit
Surely the 80s left a very important legacy in terms of music and cinema. There have been immortal albums and songs, and also films that have entered the history of cinema. Curiously, however, the relationship between music and films has not always been fabulous. In particular, some films that promised a lot thanks to the presence of outstanding soundtracks, often turned out to be flops at the box office, for various reasons. Not always a fault of actors or singers, often there were distribution problems, or simply the story was a bit weak, and therefore a great soundtrack simply was not enough to prevent the film from being overwhelmed by criticism.
Perhaps the most illustrious victim was Madonna, who always had a troubled relationship with the cinema, and it all began with the high expectations for Desperately Seeking Susan, and then with Shanghai Surprise, two films of not excellent level. The most memorable scene of Prince’s film career is perhaps the touching interpretation of Purple Rain in the film of the same name, which is not enough, however, to save a film announced as unmissable, and which I have been waiting to see since 1984 (and it was not the only one in the career of the genius of Minneapolis, among other things), but which remained in theaters for a very short time.
On March 3, 1986, a song written and composed for the soundtrack of a film was released about six weeks later. The film, directed by Julien Temple and set in 1958, was a glimpse into the life of London youth in the period between the generation that was now leaving behind the effects of war, and the one that would soon celebrate, for example, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. In musical terms, we are perhaps at the transition between jazz and rock.
The film describes this period through the story of Colin, a young photographer who falls in love with an aspiring fashion designer, with the unlikely name of Crepe Suzette. In reality, she thinks more about her career than about him, but the description of the events on the background of Colin’s story are certainly also a testimony of the time.
Of course, with such a plot and setting, the film deserved to have an important soundtrack, also because among the actors there were important names: the role of Crepe Suzette was played by the beautiful Patsy Kensit, the star of Eighth Wonder who had become very famous the previous year with Stay With Me. Then Sade also had a role, but for the soundtrack other big names were called, such as Style Council, and above all as the main interpreter of the song that took its title from the film, Absolute Beginners, that is the great David Bowie (who actually had a role in the film too).
When the producers organized the recording of the soundtrack, the musicians did not know who would be the main performer, who was referred to simply as “Mister X”. I imagine the astonishment when they found him in the room and had to start recording! Something similar had happened three years earlier, when Bowie shot the video for Let’s Dance in Australia in a crowded bar with natives. The difference was that the natives didn’t even know Bowie when they faced him.
For some time a legend spread that the female voice we hear in the song was the voice of Kate Bush, and indeed it’s very similar, but the situation was very different. Shortly before recording Bowie asked the producers to have a beautiful female voice, but not a professional voice, a sort of real “absolute beginner”. The group that had to play with Bowie for the recordings was led by producer and guitarist Kevin Armstrong, a longtime collaborator of Bowie, who tried to propose a solution: I could ask my sister, she is 22, she sings well, has had some experience. To which Bowie seems to have simply commented: “That’s fine, bring her here!”. And in short, it is a fact that the female voice is that of Janet Armstrong, Kevin’s sister.
The song, however, is very long: about eight minutes reduced to five and a half in the single version. The video is also quite long.
The film Absolute Beginners was a disaster: not only did it earn a fraction of its total cost, but it even appears to have had a major impact in the bankruptcy of the production company, Goldcrest Films. In reality, over the decades the film was also re-evaluated, and in a certain sense today it is also considered a cult-movie, one of a kind also for the presence of many particular artists.
For the White Duke’s career, it was one of many episodes, one of the many musical and cinematographic interpretations (Bowie had appeared in minor roles or cameos in many films), maybe not particularly important but also not something to forget. For the 1980s, it was another sign left in the evolutionary path of this great and brilliant character who unfortunately passed away in 2016.
David Bowie on Wikipedia
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