Words by Farran Golding
David Bowie is often considered a musical chameleon, seamlessly adapting as tastes change without ever compromising himself; able to navigate into that which is relevant whilst remaining original all the while. To back this flexibility up, consider how many skateboarders have been accompanied by Bowie over the years; even if the skater isn’t to your personal tastes, the music usually is still appropriate. Some artists become synonymous with certain skateboarding entities, take Dinosaur Jr. and Alien Workshop or Gino Iannucci and Wu-Tang for example. Though it would be wrong to say Bowie hasn’t had a fairly productive relationship with the Crailtap camp and Arto Saari over the years, never has that made his music seem out of place when pinned to another style of cinematography or skateboarding. Bowie’s omnipresence within music became more notable than ever to me whilst composing the following few thousand words, I found a number of songs I’d heard at least once a day for three years at my previous job without ever realising they were by him. While as a Bowie fan this may sound stupid, please forgive me – the man has released twenty six studio albums after all (and it’s hard to get a proper grasp of what’s playing whilst hauling ass around a bar).
Earlier this year when watching Cliché’s Gypsy Life, I couldn’t help but feel a nod from Paul Hart to Arto. Skating to ‘All The Young Dudes’, pops a fakie heelflip down the Santa Monica triple set; flagging up memories of our favourite Fin’s handling of the spot in Sorry. In terms of graphics, it wouldn’t be outlandish to claim that Jason Lee’s dedication featuring Aladdin Sane during his time on Blind Skateboards is one of the most sought after decks by skateboard collectors. Spitfire Wheels added a tribute from the same album cover in their ‘Fifty Ways to Burn’. Baker and Lakai have also flirted with the iconic artwork while more recently Sean Cliver put his spin on it for Girl Skateboards. Though just what this is supposed to mean baffles me… Bowie is as prevalent in musical culture as he is in ours so with this mind, let’s take a trip down memory lane and re-visit some of the moments where Uncle Ziggy has collided with our four wheeled plank of joy over the years.
