"Be My Wife" - Dissected

Sunday morning, wine and cigarettes for breakfast.

"Be My Wife" from Bowie's first of the three "Berlin Trilogy" albums, "Low", is one of my favorite songs in the world.

Since he was living in West Berlin with Iggy at the time, I have no idea who this song is about, if anyone - perhaps Iggy.

The "promotional film" (pre "music video") is a gem.

A couple of things:

The white cyclorama with the long guitar cord is the nazz. With god-given ass...

I digress.

Bowie played all of the guitar on "Diamond Dogs" after parting ways with Mick Ronson (RIP). However, he is not known as a guitarist, per se.

The guitarist on this song is a strange genius named Ricky Gardiner. He also played on Iggy's "Lust For Life" and composed the music for Iggy's "The Passenger."

Note: Bowie DID NOT play guitar on "Be My Wife".

A frame by frame dissection, with commentary:

0:00 - 0:28 - Great lipstick, questionable clothing.
0:28 - 1:11 - One shot close-up of Bowie's face while he's playing the first guitar solo. We see him making the "jam face" but we don't see his fingers on the guitar. Hmmm...
1:11 - 1:15 - Abandons playing guitar altogether.
1:15 - 1:21 - In a long shot, you can't tell if he can play or not. Suspend disbelief.
1:21 - 1:38 - Abandons playing guitar altogether. Also does cool Bowie hand gestures. Really cool ones that you and I cannot get away with.
1:38 - 1:48 - Approximates guitar notes.
1:48 - 1:57 - Abandons playing guitar altogether. And what the fuck is up with that close-up of his hand doing nothing? Genius.
1:57 - 2:27 - Approximates guitar notes, but not really.
2:27 - 2:34 - Acceptable cut-away to close-up on face whilst making "jam face."
2:34 - 2:55 - Approximates guitar notes, but not really.
2:55 - 3:12 - Abandons playing guitar altogether. Does cool Bowie shit with his body. The last close-up of his face looking at the camera is priceless. And then Duran Duran and Japan were born, amongst countless others...

I ordered the Berlitz CD-ROM Learn German Thingy.

Ja mein Herr.