It's been almost 20 years since YouTube was founded and we've really come to take for granted the fact that a mind-boggling amount of things are posted there. It's like trying to process the number of stars in the galaxy… our brains just can't fathom it.
Nevertheless, once in a while a clip floats up to me that I say: damn, I just have to share this.
Seems that in 1973, the late great David Bowie (in his prime and in his final appearance as Ziggy Stardust) and Marianne Faithfull (a minute past her prime and in the depths of her drug addiction) performed the Sonny & Cher classic "I Got You Babe" on The Midnight Special. And Bowie is wearing feathers and high heels. And Faithfull is wearing a nun get-up. And the back-up singers are wearing… I don't know — someone please explain what the back-up singers are wearing.
This clip manages to be awesome and bananas, wonderful and weird, sacred and profane. Funny and oddly moving. A window into a time when rock didn't feel pre-packaged and pre-digested.
Enjoy.
Previously: Frank Zappa to David Bowie: 'F••• you, Captain Tom'
