Lindsay Kemp and The Jean Genie
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie, Vision
This is probably the most difficult person to write on I’ve ever dealt with on this blog. Very, very, very early in Bowie’s career, he made some unusual life choices. First of all, he teamed up with a rather odd character named Lindsay Kemp.
And, he dabbled in Buddhism. Now, the thing about Lindsay Kemp, especially in the late 60’s, was he was into pantomime. Bowie, was singing and looking very, very, normal. This made for a career that was basically going nowhere. However, once Bowie teamed up with Kemp, things started getting strange real quick.
First, he tried his hand at mime. That didn’t go anywhere on the charts. So, he added music to his mime:
That went a lot farther!
Now, you have to look kinda close, but one of the scary looking people is Lindsay Kemp ( I think ). Actually it’s Jack Birkett. See his excellent comment which leads to his Myspace page!
Now, you can read all you want about Kemp at Wiki or whatever. But, it was his very odd mix of Kabuki and dance IMO that gave us this:
Now, I picked this particular song for a reason. Lindsay Kemp was a huge fan of a fellow named Jean Genet. Now, Jean Genet was not your everyday run of the mill bum/author/poet/prostitute/political activist. He apparently was quite gay as well, being kicked out of the army for indecency. I think it’s quite obvious what song Jean Genet inspired:
A small Jean Genie snuck off to the city
Strung out on lasers and slash back blazers
Ate all your razors while pulling the waiters
Talking bout Monroe and walking on Snow White
New York’s a go-go and everything tastes right
Poor little GreenieCHORUS
The Jean Genie lives on his back ( prostitute )
The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks ( homosexual )
He’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls ( protests everything )
Jean Genie let yourself go! ( friendly sarcasm )Sits like a man but he smiles like a reptile
She loves him, she loves him but just for a short while
She’ll scratch in the sand, won’t let go his hand
He says he’s a beautician and sells you nutrition
And keeps all your dead hair for making up underwear
Poor little GreenieCHORUSHe’s so simple minded he can’t drive his module
He bites on the neon and sleeps in the capsule
Loves to be loved, loves to be loved
I know there has to be some song Bowie did that was based on Lindsay Kemp, but so far I can’t think of which it would be. But, it was Bowie meeting and teaming up with Kemp that led to Ziggy Stardust and Bowie’s most visual and writing creativity for a decade. In other words, although there may be no specific song acknowledging Kemp’s influence on Bowie, what Bowie became IS that tribute.
Jean Genet died about 20 years ago. Lindsay Kemp is about 70, alive, and pretty much retired. If you want to see some very odd, and visually and mentally challenging stuff, Google Lindsay Kemp ( and Jack Birkett, aka the incredible Orlando ). I really can’t do their stuff justice here.
Tags: david bowie, incredible-orlando, jack-birkett, jean-genet, john-im-only-dancing, lindsay-kemp, The World Of David Bowie, the-jean-genie, the-mask, Vision, width-of-a-circle
Related Posts
6 Squawks to “Lindsay Kemp and The Jean Genie”
-
JeniQ 
Squawked:
February 13th, 2007 at 6:23 amThanks, I enjoyed reading this. I remember reading about Kemp in biographies but your summation is nice and compact.
-
JeniQ Squawked:
March 31st, 2007 at 12:33 pmRelated:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMzdjrxwDsk
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aVzZeybiWQIn case you hadn’t seen them.
-
Andy Squawked:
June 8th, 2007 at 5:24 pmIt’s Lindsay Kemp, The Incredible Orlando (aka Jack Birkett) and Annie Stainer in the John, I’m Only Dancing video - all three performed in Bowie’s August 72 Rainbow concerts. In my opinion, Queen Bitch is the Bowie song most evocative of Lindsay’s fey campery. Jean Genie to me always suggests the reptilian danger of Iggy Pop, and the fact that he “loves chimney stacks” suggests Iggy’s industrial hometown.
-
Moonage Squawked:
June 8th, 2007 at 10:53 pmThanks for the most excellent insight. Sounds like you were there to know who they were so well.
I don’t know that much about Kemp outside of his time with Bowie. From what I have seen, I’ll go along with Queen Bitch. However, my take on Queen Bitch is it has a lot of detail that I didn’t really see in Kemp. Whereas Kemp was fey campery, Queen Bitch is QUITE detailed. Musically I see it, lyrically I don’t.
I always felt Panic In Detroit was Iggy for many reasons. Looking like Che Guevara, driving a diesel van, and quite frankly, the best adjective to describe Iggy at that time was sheer panic. The Jean Genie screaming and bawling is just too dead on Jean Genet, and quite frankly doesn’t fit Iggy at all. The entire Aladdin Sane album was set in an urban industrial setting, so the industrial connection could fit almost any song from that album. Paris, Detroit, London, they all have chimney stacks.
Excellent comment. Please drop by more often.
-
mer lemond Squawked:
August 19th, 2008 at 1:36 amI knew Lindsay and Jack/Orlando well - travelling with them around the Australian states where Lindsay et al gathered an interesting ‘following’ (’74?)… Bowie had departed well before and Lindsay, Jack & co. were ‘on a roll’, at the height of their career.
I personally feel that, Bowie & Kemp being the original individuals that they each were - each gleaned much, v. much from the mutual recognition that must have been there - and needed - for Bowie to ‘be catalyzed’ into his own career-mode. At the same time, I don’t feel that any song of Bowie’s was directly inspired by Lindsay.
Lindsay, nevertheless, played no small role in ‘discovering’ Bowie - and setting him on his way. He actually encouraged him (his words) to go his own way as a singer performer.
Shit - I miss these guys! -
Moonage Squawked:
August 19th, 2008 at 2:04 pmProbably a better way to put it was I think Bowie “borrowed” personalities and used them as basis for some of his songs. Some, obviously, were direct tributes to some of those people. Some were much more obscure. I don’t really think Bowie ever based a song on Lindsay. If he did, I can’t put my finger on it either. However, it was definitely Lindsay’s influence that introduced him to several people who he did “borrow” from, such as Jean Genet. And, his mime tutorage was overt in many of his most important, and creative, performances. To say the least, that period totally changed Bowie, and I think rock in general.
I made this post primarily because of my interest in Lindsay/Jack, and what they were doing at the time. There seems to be very little documentation on that art movement. If you have any videos/photos of that period, I’d LOVE to post them here. This blog is not just about Bowie, it’s about his influence and those that influenced him. However, the period that I think influenced Bowie the most I can’t find hardly anything on. It was a creative explosion that has been almost entirely forgotten. That’s a shame too. I miss those guys as well!
