Behind a melancholy guitar arpeggio and soft piano accompaniment of The Rolling Stones’ “Angie,” hides one of the most controversial music stories of our time. From the romance, glamorous orgies, and the endless list of scandalous acts, which legends like David Bowie and Mick Jagger took part in, no one would have predicted that these two idols would participate in what could be called a sexual threesome.
These very images and words fueled the sensationalist media, and their uncultured views on rock led to Bowie and Jagger being unfairly judged. Sidestepping the sensationalism, we look at this anecdote as a small piece of the Dionysian musical trajectory of these two musicians. We well know that rock goes in the opposite direction of the norm and distances itself from the routine-driven world dominated by prejudice.
Wendy Leigh’s book, Bowie: The Biography, mentions that between 1970 and 1980 David Bowie and his wife Angela Barnett were swept away into a world of experimentation and promiscuous sex.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G4jnaznUoQ
The personas Bowie creates like Ziggy and Aladdin Sane show he had a clear interest in savoring as many men and women regardless of what people thought or said. His mansion in Chelsea, London became a night haunt for musicians and friends, where drugs and sex abounded. Didn’t you notice David’s dissolute body when PinUps was released? Those who didn’t have a skeletal body because of the endless nights of rock were not considered gods.
Although David Bowie would dedicate his wife great love poems like “The Prettiest Star” and “Golden Years,” when it came to passion there was no holding back. One of the artists who enjoyed Major Tom’s hospitality the most was Mick Jagger, a noted guest of honor. He too enjoyed the passions of Lady Stardust to the point he dared to sing, “Angie, you’re beautiful, but ain’t it time we said goodbye.” The statements compiled in Bowie: The Biography describes the affair between Jagger and Angie with the consent of Bowie, even encouraging it in some occasions. Sharing a wife was taken as an act of brotherhood and friendship between musicians. Without a doubt the only “Jealous Guy” at the time was John Lennon.
Another version of the story appears in the biography of The Rolling Stones’ vocalist, Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger. The author, Christopher Andersen tells the story of a day Angie arrived to the mansion and the housekeeper told her, “David is upstairs with someone.” She went to her room expecting the worst, and what she found was David and Mick. The book narrates that Mick Jagger went quiet, and she didn’t make a scene, “although she felt sad, some time later she joked about what happened and said laughingly: They were writing ‘Angie’ when I found them in bed together.”
This is how great and close the relationship was between Mick Jagger and David Bowie. Those who are surprised by their closeness is because they are unfamiliar with the frenzied world of rock & roll.
