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In a lengthy response having never heard it before, comedian Stewart Lee has declared that David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album 'makes him feel physically sick'.
The stand-up Comedy Vehicle legend was put to task by Ruth And Martin's Album Club, after he confessed that he'd never heard the record before or ever really been a David Bowie fan.
After listening to the record three times, he concluded: "I don’t like it to be honest. I’m told it’s supposed to be about an alien who becomes a pop star but I can’t make head or tail of the story."
He continued: "I don’t really like this whole album much. I have a quite visceral response to it. It makes me feel physically sick throughout and I’ve not enjoyed living with it. It’s not Bowie’s fault, but because of all that Jimmy Saville Top of the Pops footage that whole early 70s glam rock guitar sound now just makes me think of children being harmed. That’s what it reminds me of, and I can’t get past it, which is awful, but people get a similar thing with Wagner. Something becomes associated in your mind with something and you’re stuck with it, sadly. There’s not much you can do about it. It’s pavlovian."
Explaining his stance towards Bowie in general, Lee said: "People tell me if I’d encountered the Berlin trilogy as an impressionable younger man I’d have been sold on Bowie, but I just didn’t know he was this ‘figure’ and by the time I did it was too late to take him on board really, too late to get past the legend."
"People a generation older than me, best friends, who I trust and respect, spoke upon Bowie’s demise with heartfelt sincerity of how he got them through terrible times, his alien rock star persona speaking to all these confused seventies kids, but I think maybe I was an era too late to buy into it."
To soften the blow to the Ziggy LP in the most diplomatic way, Lee added: "It’s a significant, groundbreaking and well made record. It’s just not to my taste. Thousands of other things are. I am grateful for the opportunity to have been asked to think about it. It’s made me think that disliking something doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t any good, and vice versa."
Meanwhile, after some confusion as to whather or not it had been cancelled, the Stewart Lee curated ATP takes place from 15-17 April and features The Fall, Sleaford Mods, Roky Erickson, Sun Ra Arkestra, a comedy set from himself and more, while the Drive Like Jehu event takes place from 22-24 April and also features Rocket From The Crypt, Diamanda Galas, Omar Souleyman, Metz, Wire and loads more. For tickets and more information, visit here.
