Klaus Nomi

Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie

On December 19, 1979, Bowie was featured on Saturday Night Live. Quite frankly, at this point, Bowie had been in a bit of a creative funk. He had done some shows and such, but his performances were becoming “normal”. I didn’t like it either. However, that changed on that evening. Bowie pulled out all the creative juices and put together one of my favorite performances he would ever do. The description of that show is summed up best by teenagewildlife.com:

If viewers were expecting a typical Saturday Night Live performance of Bowie and a band playing as if at a concert, they were in for a rude shock. Instead, Bowie gave an extremely unusual performance, accompanied by two “drag” performers, Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias. .

Three songs were performed, The Man Who Sold The World, with Bowie carried to the front of the stage by Nomi and Arias, while wearing a man’s evening dress and a large bow tie (emulating the poet Tristan Tzara).

Next was Boys Keep Swinging. For this Bowie emulated a puppet trick (with the help of television) he had seen in German fairs. A small puppet’s trunk and limbs were situated just beneath Bowie’s head, giving the appearance of a marionette with a huge human head. In a trick he sneaked past the censors, the puppet took a look down Bowie’s trousers right at the end of the song.

Finally, for TVC15, Bowie wore a uniform that gave the impression of a Chinese airline stewardesses outfit. In addition, stage designer Mark Ravitz created a pink poodle with a small tv monitor in its mouth, broadcasting the song as it was performed

Although Bowie was at his oddest, what sold the entire event was Arias and Nomi. They were two Kooks who looked serious. Their robotic movements and semi-simultaneous jerks and twitches were a riot. Bowie did not acknowledge who they were on the show ( he had no speaking parts ). So, people were just kind of left in the lurch.

Klaus Nomi would later gather a certain amount of fame not from that show, but for another reason, he was one of the first star casualties of AIDS. Nomi was truly one of the oddest characters to ever grace the music scene. Be sure to visit that link up there, it’s a riot!

Here’s the songs from that show. Check out the pup. Enjoy it while you can, I doubt SNL will appreciate me posting this.

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Permalink | October 15th, 2004

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    • 6 Squawks to “Klaus Nomi”

    1. Oscar Squawked:
      August 22nd, 2006 at 8:12 pm

      Whats that coming out of his pants at the end, while the channel logo is on screen? :S creepy
      Great page

    2. Moonage Squawked:
      August 22nd, 2006 at 9:39 pm

      Not sure, but apparently Bowie felt compelled to check it out as well :0

    3. Moonage Squawked:
      September 23rd, 2006 at 11:15 pm

      Updated the Klaus Nomi post to insert Youtube streaming videos of the show itself.

      This is much cooler than the streaming I was doing myself.

    4. Moonage Squawked:
      October 2nd, 2006 at 11:09 pm

      Updated the Nomi post again. Got a better video service I think.

    5. sirensealight Squawked:
      July 31st, 2008 at 8:39 pm

      Thank you for posting this!!! I remember seeing this on SNL in 1979 and being blown away! It is still THE best musical performance ever on SNL.

    6. Moonage Squawked:
      July 31st, 2008 at 10:17 pm

      Glad you enjoyed it!

    Squawk like a pink monkey bird!