Bowie on Blarney Street!

Music lover and library member Deb Murphy reminisces on growing up as a David Bowie fan on Blarney Street in Cork city:

Thanks to my three brothers, who were huge David Bowie fans, I can honestly say I can’t remember a day in my childhood when Bowie wasn’t being discussed or being blasted out on our old record player. That’s the great thing about being the youngest in the family: all the cool music gets ingrained in you before you can even speak! I remember, clear as if it were yesterday, back in the mid-70s, asking Denis why he liked Bowie so much (because it seemed every birthday/Christmas all he wanted was a Bowie album) and he replied:

‘He’s amazing Deb and you’ll get to like him too.’

I was sceptical until he said:

‘He even mentions Mickey Mouse in a song.’

‘Yeeeaaah riiiiiiiight!‘ I exclaimed.

‘Listen’, he said, and he played ‘Life on Mars’, and I was delighted to hear the line, ‘Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow.’ But it wasn’t just that. I remember even back then thinking it was the most beautiful song imaginable.

My Mam was mortified because Bowie graffiti would be spotted around Blarney Street and Strawberry Hill occasionally, and I remember her saying, ‘Couldn’t they just like Abba like everyone else ’cause it would be much harder to narrow down who was behind Abba graffiti!’

We called our dog ‘Davy’ after him. Davy lived from ’76 till ’89 and had the good grace to howl along to many a Bowie track, and I was lucky to see him live in concert twice — the man, not the dog!