David Bowie Webdream

Screwtube and old old memories.

Posted by Moonage | Filed under Vision

I just love the advent of (anything but) ~~Youtube~~ and the like. When I was about 11 or 12 years old or so, I got into watching an old show called The Midnight Special. Now, ya gotta understand, this was WAY before MTV or VH1 existed. Music videos were still in their infancy and used primarily to promote songs. They weren’t intended to be stand-alone products. As such, they were usually just clips of the performers singing their song. Also, 1973 was a period of transition socially as the flower-power children were giving way to newer trends. As such, just about everyone performing wore jeans and tie-dye t-shirts. Needless to say, it was usually boring. As such, you watched the live rock shows hoping to catch some great new tunes. Imagine my shock and amazement when sandwiched in between some Byrds performances, I saw THIS:

It was a clip of Time from David’s 1980 Floor Show. Eventually I’d get to see the entire show as a rerun, and from that point on rock was never the same for me. I went probably 20 years without getting to see that special performance as neither Bowie nor Midnight Special saw fit to package it or make it available to the general public. With the demise of Midnight Special, I figured that show was lost forever. Now, most all of it’s back, and viewable. The internet has become what I thought it could be, a special place that preserves all history by people who just care about stuff. This is so cool!