David Bowie’s Darkest Character: The Thin White Duke (Full Documentary) | Amplified 

One of the reasons he even came to Berlin (with Iggy) was to get away from Thin White Duke. That's what makes this title so very wrong.

Marko galetin I agree wholeheartedly 100% The Thin White Duke was fuelled by a cocaine and milk diet while riding station to station. In so deep singing about the occult and thinking out loud about nazis. Berlin trilogy is the journey out of that hell.

@@johndingman879 "thinking out loud about nazis" Can you give me an example please John.

​@@outsidethepyramid I'll beat him to it: "Christ, everything is a media manipulation. I’d love to enter politics. I will one day. I’d adore to be Prime Minister. And, yes, I believe very strongly in fascism. The only way we can speed up the sort of liberalism that’s hanging foul in the air at the moment is to speed up the progress of a right-wing, totally dictatorial tyranny and get it over as fast as possible. People have always responded with greater efficiency under a regimental leadership. A liberal wastes time saying, “Well, now, what ideas have you got?” Show them what to do, for God’s sake. If you don’t, nothing will get done. I can’t stand people just hanging about. Television is the most successful fascist, needless to say. Rock stars are fascists, too. Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars." - Bowie, D., Playboy, Sept. 1976 Then of course there's the classic "“As I see it, I am the only alternative for the premier in England. I believe Britain could benefit from a fascist leader. After all, fascism is really nationalism." which Buckley attributes to him saying after a gig in Stockholm, but I've not found the paper 'cause I don't speak Swedish. He did get detained on the Russian-Polish border 'cause he was reading books about Speer and Goebbels, which were apparently research for a film about propaganda tactics he was allegedly working on but never came to light. On the other hand, the alleged nazi salute is obviously just him waving normally and someone getting a shot at the...*coughs*...right time. Apparently the fascination started w/ him chatting to his black bandmates about Arthurian and Nazi themes, which resulted in him becoming fascinated by the idea of Hess coming to England to trade the Book of Kells for the Holy Grail which is a total other foil hat rabbit hole you might've seen a History Channel documentary on with all it's own theatrical trappings and lack of research. tl;dr - Remember that Quicksand off Hunky Dory started with I'm closer to the Golden Dawn Immersed in Crowley's uniform Of imagery I'm living in a silent film Portraying Himmler's sacred realm Of dream reality and that the lyrics to Breaking Glass off Low can be seen as him walking away from all that.

@@KnjazNazrath Who is Buckley? idk just all sounds like a load of fictional hogwash.

seeing him in the fifth row center at madison square i felt sorry for those more than 50 feet away, sometimes he'd look at u and wink or smile--he was incredible live being 10 feet away from him

I felt that same way when I found out Robin Williams had died.

.......quantum entanglement can be mysterious.

A *lot* of people felt it...

Excellent .... I hope my YT Bowie songs makes him smile from far far away.

He left all we need behind. Its our job to understand his work and continue to keep that ethos alive. DB. Trust me

Good for you man! Enjoy the ride! It is the most magnificent back catalogue......so varied and full of surprises at every turn. The world is yours......

Same.

Help me out here because I honestly don’t get the guy as a musician. His reputation as a critically acclaimed genius doesn’t really align with his catalogue of original work. Am I just analyzing him as a musician and that’s where I’m going wrong? Personally I don’t really give a shit about his spaceman persona I just think of him as a guy with an average at best voice who at the pinnacle of his career realeased album after album of cover songs (done poorly I might add) without even realizing he hadn’t written an original song in years. Is that what I’m supposed to be warming up to? The fact that he did shit loads of drugs in Berlin for a time, that fact that he’s androgynous? Like what is it I’m missing because as I stated purely as a musician his work doesn’t come anywhere close to his legacy. Personally I think he just checks allot of boxes

@@rheinhardtgrafvonthiesenha8185 I can see why you would think that. I'm a big Bowie fan but there's a shitload of his songs I really don't like. I think the most important thing you must remember with Bowie is that he was a true original. A lot of things he did, he did for the first time. He opened a lot of doors for subsequent musicians. I personally like his work upto 1990. After that I stopped following what he did but his 1970's and 80's work was the soundtrack to my youth. The ambient works on the B-side of Low and Heroes, to me, sound like what it felt like to live in the 70's. This monotonous, grey, bleak music. It totally fits the time it was made in. That's the main reason I love that work. I guess it is what it is and it's different things to different people. That's the beauty of music :)

@@EdEditz Ok man. Your message is very well put. I have Ziggy Stardust and Heroes that’s it. I like let’s dance for the SRV parts. I can tell you’re much more knowledgeable about him that I am but I’m not completely ignorant to his body of work. I think he did open up allot of doors but I’m not sure they were musical doors. I just don’t see the talent as a musician. As an “artist” yes. But he’s not blessed with a great voice, I disagree that he was original. The package that was David Bowie was absolutely original but his musicianship was basic. I won’t say it was bad because that in the eye of the beholder much like lyrics, or as you were describing the time, place and age when it all first hit you. My overall point was that the image of David Bowie while perhaps fitting the man as an artist does not fit either his talent or his actual output. That’s of course an opinion, but it’s an opinion aside from whether or not I like him. I do like him. I’m not a huge fan but as I said I have albums. I just don’t believe his talent warrants his reputation. But you make a great point and everything you say is 100% to you and same here with me. We just had an intelligent respectful exchange in the comments section of RU-vid. That I’m and of itself is amazing!

Beautifully said!💕

Wow! Gives me hope in this post David Bowie World!

Thankfully? Ps starman an is about a cocaine dealer

Side 2 of low is very experimental very different but so is David Bowie

Excellent .... I hope my YT Bowie songs makes him smile from far far away.

I was 11 in 1977 when I bought Low. I was at T G & Y and it was the only one in the bin. Honestly, I loved it from first listen. I found so much emotion in it. It was full price $4.99. The next year I won tickets calling a radio station and he was the first concert I saw. I had 3rd row and the smallest fan there at 12. To me, it was on a par with seeing Elvis.

To me Low was his best, much better than Heroes. But I get how it would seem different at the time.

@@waynenorthspacebuoy3529 Stop spamming every comment. No one cares.

i like your Bowie profile pic

Me too it's in my top four Bowie records. I listen to it from start to finish it's just brilliant.

Personally, even after years as a fan, "Lodger" is my favorite Bowie album, but the expat travelogue aspect resonates, and I first discovered Bowie as a kid with "Fantastic Voyage" as the b-side of "Little Drummer Boy" (imagine that)... Greetings from Kobe, Japan. Yes, I lived for years in Kyoto 'sleeping on the matted ground...'

@@michaelmoraga2926 I couldn't agree more & it really hit me hard when he died I still can't believe he's gone. I've been to Japan in the 1980's & visited Kyoto that Kinkaku-ji golden temple is breathtakingly beautiful. Although being honest I slept on a bed in the hotel. I loved Japan, all the best from Liverpool England.

thought i was the only one to over-love it.. thx i'm not. the single not even ranked in us charts.. this a mark of excellence usually.

Ha! No shame there. The 'matted ground' can get quite cold in Japan... These days, I sleep on a proper mattress. 2016 was a rough year. Like many, I lost my two musical heroes: The Thin White Duke and The Purple Yoda... Gutted. Indeed, there's a Bowie-shaped hole in the world. ✌

i think what the documentary voice mean is this: Bowie in the seventies was a step ahead to imagine and impose forms. He elaborated on and instantly made worldwide popular the glam rock scene, then quit and made up this cold character and sound on which Joy Division would build up and after these a whole generation establish the cold wave era (1980/84), whose artists claimed a Bowie/VU thread. After his 'suicidal' Let's Dance move he lost it. For close to ten years he would be considered old used material, creating very weak records. When he got back on track, which did happen gradually from Tin Machine to 1.Outside, he had strength and motivation back but never was he one step ahead any longer. He borrowed stuff -- chiefly from Nine Inch Nails for 1.Outside / Earthling-- instead of defining new threads through detecting and stealing underground ideas (which is what 'great artists' do, according to Picasso, instead of copying, what '2nd class artists' do). He may have influenced others to engage his route, but in no way he shaped the times as did in the 70s. Nine Inch Nails was here and already very well heard by masses of active musicians by the mid-nineties. This simple fact is true and gives righteousness to the documentary's statement.

@@archaic9525 Borrowed mainly from nin fot Outside and Eartling. That is laughably simplistic and wrong. Maybe a couple of songs were directly influenced by nin. Bowie always drew inspiration from a plethora if sources.

@@ivankaramasov Agreed. He was listening to and interested in avant garde "machine music" since the seventies, if not earlier.

The only musician who I can think of with that much influence right now is Kanye

What about Olivia Rodrigo or Billie Eilish just kidding lol

@@LibrarianValkyrie worse or better are subjective terms and it wouldn't take a great deal of investigation to uncover the work of David Bowie because he was a global super star. I will say this, music from the 60's - 90's was sexier by miles, a lot of people are drawn to their rock Gods like Bowie, Jim Morrison et al - top of the charts now? Adele, need anything more be said

@@LibrarianValkyrie my point about Adele was really about her music which is basically comprises cruise-ship, soupy lachrymose ballads, so mediocre and unambitious, like being in the 1950's, oh yeah and she is on the plump side too

@@rabbitss11 she is plumper!

Aunt 49 our paths are similar .I was already into Enos solo stuff and was blown away by Low.For me it would be my favourite Bowie album with "Heroes" being my favourite song.For me Low and Heroes could be a double album in fact only the tracks on Low are the better ones.Kraftwerk,Tangerine Dream,Nous,all those guys I got into through Low and Heroes.Never been beaten.

Fully

I'm a New Zealander - never saw that concert, unfortunately. A friend of mine did and said he opened with Station to Station.

You're not losing your mind. The title is very misleading. It should be called the berlin trilogy.

@@dana_brooke_27 Exactly!

@@Stefanie3 🎶😉🎶

@@dana_brooke_27 💙🎶🤗

Not to mention, "Golden Years" was released at the peak of Bowie's Thin White Duke character, which, I agree, was truly his darkest period. Living in LA was killing him. He'd stopped eating, literally surviving solely on milk and inhuman amounts of cocaine, which induced psychosis and severe paranoia. He'd begun practicing dark occult and Kabbalistic rituals, convinced that a witch was dispatching spirits to kill him. Darker still, during the tour for Golden Years', Bowie had become obsessed with the imagery of Nazism, purchasing one of Hitler's black Mercedes-Benz 770s, which he would step out of giving Nazi salutes to his screaming fans! Not sure how Elvis would have jived with all of that Nazi occultism in the studio!

@@OhGodThe Not sure about the Nazi/Dictator aspect, but ELVIS was a huge black magic-practitioner and full-time Warlock! Asfaras the occult....They'd have gotten along just fine !

@@OhGodThe It wasn't a nazi salute. The photographer said he caught him mid wave and Gary numan has said it was a normal wave to the fans

@@OhGodThe I’m pretty sure Bowie never owned a Hitler Mercedes!

@@mister3566 "Rock stars are fascists. Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars... Look at some of his films and see how he moved. I think he was quite as good as Jagger. It’s astounding. And boy, when he hit that stage, he worked an audience. Good God! He was no politician. He was a media artist. He used politics and theatrics and created this thing that governed and controlled the show for 12 years. The world will never see his like again." --David Bowie, Interview with Playboy on his "Station To Station" album.

President Joe once had a dream.......

In cinema 16 September, looks good

I've seen it, but unfortunately I left before Bowie's message to his fans at the end. Also, unfortunately I didn't see it IMAX.

I keep thinking about Bowie's line in TMWFTE: "If I stay here, I shall die"

For me the real trilogy is his collab with Iggy Pop; The Idiot, plus Low and “Heroes” with StationtoStation and Lodger as bookends. StationtoStation ties of the first half of the 70’s and gives a clue as to what was to come and Lodger ties off the Berlin period and cleanses the palate in preparation for his next step.

@@retropian I can see that. I just feel like Station to Station was the definitive start of the Thin White Duke period, a departure from his previous work, particularly on the opening track. It’s an introduction to the character, signaling “the return of the Thin White Duke.” Sonically similar to the next two albums. Lodger is much different to my ears, departure is even one of its themes, the start of a new era, much like Station to Station before it.

Andy you raise an interesting perspective which fits in certain ways.I love Lodger but it's more a bridge between Heroes and Scary Monster whearas the glacial sonics of Station to Station do indeed sit well with those of many of the Low-Heroes tracks. An interesting perspective and one that fits.Lodger certainly doesn't fit with Low and Heroes although it is as brilliant in its own way.Cheers my friend.

Agreed.

Good points, however, Station to Station is literally about his yearning to go back to Europe. "The European cannon is near." DB still lived in LA when he made it. Station to Station is more connected to Young Americans or even Diamond Dogs and the Cracked Actor movie than the Berlin Trilogy. If you watch the Deutschland movie Christine F. Lodger fits in to place more with Europe.

Excellent .... I hope my YT Bowie songs makes him smile from far far away.

loodger or station to station we be knowing this.

"Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence" is a masterpiece! I can't believe he would leave the cinema half way through! The imagery. The colours. The story. The soundtrack. It's bloody beautiful. He obviously had bad taste in fashion as well as bad opinions in films.

I'm afraid of Americans

5:15 The Angels Have Gone off of Heathen Ashes to Ashes China Girl This is too hard!!

Excellent .... I hope my YT Bowie songs makes him smile from far far away.

what favourite there are so many. how about moon dog bombs the moon/

"the sun machine is coming down" (memory of a free festival)

Maybe due to copyright issues?

I agree. It is the only Madonna album I ever bought and like, but it is not anywhere near as innovative

@@ivankaramasov total album is William orbit without a co - title credit only as producer, take him out & what do you have? Ray of Mcdonna, no Light!

@@MrDLOC11 I find Madonna hugely overrated. She may be a marketing genius, but that's it

With a notable 12 year exception when the most anti-art and anti-intellectual people you could imagine took over and obliterated art, free-thinking and millions of people. So, there's that.

TOO TRUE.... I hope my YT Bowie songs makes him smile from far far away.

RIGHT IT IS SUCH A GOOD ALBUM

Excellent .... I hope my YT Bowie songs makes him smile from far far away ... Luv USA.

The Station to Station tour was my first concert. I saw him in Uniondale New York. I was lucky to find it on youtube. It was excellent! I love David.. I was 15.

Excellent .... I hope my YT Bowie songs makes him smile from far far away.

At least this one features original music. Still weird to see all of these commentators I've never seen or heard of (with the exception of Michael Rother and Dieter Moebius).

Agreed mate, see my comments above. Bunch of wankers.

Even businesses themselves are political. It never ends!

​@@chrisdavie8163 Business, in nature, are not political 😂 Please tell me the politics of selling bread.

PS I first saw the Diamond Dogs Tour when I was 15...

Interesting punctuation choice.

I don't want to see that at all. Ever.

@@lanceash Gamers i am afraid will have their ways..

Aladin Sane beats them all.

@@BIZARBIES the diamond dog has a good bite attack

What a stupid idea!