David Bowie Instagram – BOWIE’S BUSTER KEATON TRIBUTES “He’s Chameleon, Comedian, Corinthian and Caricature…” The first image here is another fine Steve Schapiro portrait from 1975. As you can see, David is pictured with Rudi Blesh‘s biography of Buster Keaton. Schapiro remembers how David was impressed with the photographer’s connection to Keaton: “From the moment Bowie arrived, we seemed to hit it off. Incredibly intelligent, calm, and filled with ideas, he talked a lot about Alistair Crowley whose esoteric writings he was heavily into at the time. When David heard that I had photographed Buster Keaton, one of his greatest heroes, we instantly became friends.” Bowie even used a full-page 1964 Schapiro shot of Keaton in New York inside the 1976 Isolar Tour programme. (2nd image) Bowie references Keaton in at least a couple of his videos. In the 1977 Stanley Dorfman-directed Be My Wife promo, he performs against a bleached-out background in this heartfelt plea for marital union and somehow manages to appear nonchalant and anguished at the same time. Apparently, Bowie’s make-up and mannerisms in the video were a nod to Buster himself. (3rd image) The Keaton look was reprised more obviously and to wonderful effect throughout the Miracle Goodnight video in 1993. (4th image) A couple more images may or may not have been as a result of David watching Keaton’s movies. Perhaps the links are a little tenuous, but here they are anyway. The 5th image is Sukita’s famous shot from 1973 wherein Bowie mirrors Keaton’s pose in the film The High Sign. (6th image) The 7th slide is the 1971 edition of the KEATON paperback that Bowie is holding in the first image and the still of Keaton as a sailor is from the film The Navigator. Finally, the last picture by @blamsnap is from the 2000 BowieNet Roseland concert when Bowie dressed nautically, Sailor being his chatroom nickname. KEATON is a book that David was clearly fond of, but it’s another that didn’t make it into BOWIE’S TOP 100 BOOKS – THE COMPLETE LIST: https://www.davidbowie.com/blog/2013/10/1/bowies-top-100-books-the-complete-list (Linktree in bio) #BowieBookLover #BowieSchapiro #BowieKeaton