Andre Cramblit: David Bowie inspired a generation of Native youth

Bowie was more than the flashiest star in the cosmos of rock and roll. He had an undeniable ability to influence things such as music, fashion (turn to the left) and art. He was an actor, mime, writer, painter, singer, musician, fashionista and so much more. To say he was a renaissance man is a gross understatement. He inspired a generation of youth, yes even Native youth, to imagine, dream and live outside the box. His passing has me swimming in a pool of reminiscences.

I was hooked on Bowie at an early age. I remember trying to find anything I had to trade to a friend for his copy of ChangesOneBowie. I didn’t have anything he wanted but I managed a recorded cassette tape out of the deal.

Man I am really dating myself.

In the Middle American high school I attended for most of my teen years I was the only Native and I wanted to be the outsider. I wanted to emulate the Qudraphenic Mod and his gang from Pete Townshend and the Who, be Ziggy Stardust with my own Spiders from Mars and even a wee bit of the Droog and his banda from the Anthony Burgess novel “A Clockwork Orange” and the more well known version, Stanley Kubrick’s film of the same name featuring Malcolm McDowell as the ultra-violent antihero Alex. Maybe I have a Trickster complex?