Bowie was in the U.S. to promote his then-latest album, The Man Who Sold the World, and the press event took place at a Holiday Inn. Mendelssohn shot a roll of film of the fledgling rocker, and spent time chatting with him. His interview was published in Rolling Stone.
Peculiar to Mr. Bowie includes the Rolling Stone article, as well as Mendelssohn’s reflections on Bowie. The pics captured Bowie wearing two “man-dresses” designed by London-based tailor Mr Fish. One of the outfits was the same floral-print dress David is wearing on the cover of the U.K. version of The Man Who Sold the World.
The book also includes information about the origin and influence of the man-dress written by British-Irish pop-culture journalist Paul Gorman.
Fans who pre-order the book also will receive a free souvenir bottle of a perfume called Peculiar, while supplies last. According to a description of the perfume, it’s “a refined scent, reminiscent of old London, with a hint of lavender, suitable for all persuasions.” The fragrance was created with organic Canadian floral waters.
Mendelssohn’s interview with Bowie was published in an April 1971 issue of Rolling Stone. During the conversation, David talked about how he wanted to present himself while anticipating playing his first U.S. concerts.
“I refuse to be thought of as mediocre,” he insisted. “If I am mediocre, I’ll get out of the business. There’s enough fog around. That’s why the idea of performance-as-spectacle is so important to me.”
He also discussed his plan to incorporate mime into his performances.
“I’d like to bring mime into a traditional Western setting, to focus the attention of the audience with a very stylized, a very Japanese style of movement,” Bowie maintained.
He also shared his feelings about wanting his audiences to embrace the theatrical aspects of his performances.
“Should anyone think that these things are merely distractions or gimmicks intended to obscure the music’s shortcomings, he mustn’t come to my concerts,” Bowie declared. “He must come on my terms or not at all. My performances have got to be theatrical experiences for me as well as for the audience. I don’t want to climb out of my fantasies in order to go up onstage—I want to take them on stage with me.”
In addition, Bowie suggested that fans perhaps shouldn’t look too deeply into music for a serious message.
Bowie Music is set to air on BBC Radio 4 on November 14, and in it, Shenstone, a model, actor and artist who had a relationship with Bowie in the mid-1970s, claims that in fact the song contains a lot of specific details about “an extraordinary day” the two spent together in the German capital.
She says she told Bowie that morning about a dream she had in which she was swimming with dolphins, which she claims Bowie then referenced with the line, “I wish you could swim/Like dolphins can swim”.
Shenstone says they later crossed into East Berlin via Checkpoint Charlie. “We spent a couple of hours at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the guards were goose-stepping,” she said (via The Guardian). “We held hands very tightly and just took it all in, it was so extreme as an experience.
