The outpouring of appreciation for David Bowie since his passing was announced early on Monday morning has been overwhelming, as fans try to reflect on the many moments of wonder that comprised his sixty nine years on this earth. Here on Noisey, we've looked at his influence on rap music, pop music, and the seventies in general. Plus, life long fan and writer, Martin James, meditated on how Bowie taught him everything he needed to know about acceptance, identity and art.
But one thing there hasn't been much on, is who influenced Bowie. Who did he look to for inspiration and guidance? It's something Bowie himself decided to make one of the main topics of a speech that re-surfaced last night, which he made in 1999 to the graduating music students at the American college of Berklee, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Bowie was one of the first rock stars to receive an honorary doctorate at Berklee, which was still then considered a jazz school. And the speech is as gloriously weird as it is packed with sentiment and anecdotes, including a great one about Shirley Bassey and a working men's club toilet. But foremost among these is his heartfelt comments about his friend and peer John Lennon, of whom he talks with the reverence you’d normally only hold for family or your iPhone. “He defined for me how one could twist and turn the fabric of pop and imbue with elements of other art forms," he explained, "often producing something extremely beautiful, very powerful and imbued with strangeness.” Continuing: “Uninvited, John would wax lyrical about any topic under the sun. I immediately felt empathy with that. Whenever the two of us got together it was like Beavis and Butthead on [US current affairs debate program] Crossfire.”
Watch the whole thing below:
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