Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

composing avant-garde pop singles. “Warm
Leatherette” by the Normal was the first and among
the finest. Even the classic guitar/bass/drums acts of
the new wave, like Northhampton’s Bauhaus, were
Bowie-informed. It must have been gratifying and
infuriating at once. Bowie was only thirty-two, but
already he was being treated like a great star from a
bygone era. Worse, many of these acts were vying
against him for chart success. Tubeway Army leader
Gary Numan’s 1979 solo album The Pleasure
Principle (powered by the chilly dance smash
“Cars”) outsold Bowie’s release from the same year,
Lodger. The Associates, a wry, romantic Scottish
New Wave band, didn’t even bother to write their
own Bowie-indebted hit that year but rather gained
serious rock-press attention with an accelerated but
faithful cover version of Bowie’s own ’79 single
“Boys Keep Swinging.”