Television: Dinah!

David Bowie and Iggy Pop made an appearance on CBS TV’s Dinah! on 15 April 1977.

They were nearing the end of Pop’s The Idiot Tour, which concluded in San Diego the following night. Bowie played keyboards on the tour; the other band members were Ricky Gardiner on guitar, Tony Sales on bass guitar, and Hunt Sales on drums.

Dinah! was a daytime variety talk show hosted by singer and actress Dinah Shore. Pop and the band performed ‘Sister Midnight’ and ‘Funtime’, and he and Bowie were interviewed by Shore.

The show was filmed at CBS Television City at 7800 Beverly Boulevard in Fairfax, Los Angeles. The episode was broadcast on 6 May 1977.

Shore: Where did you meet?

Pop: In a bar in New York. We were both unrecognised at the time. So we had a lot in common.

Bowie: What Jimmy was doing… I’d never seen Jimmy really but I’d heard some of his albums. It sounded like, uh… nihilistic rock. It was nihilism, which fascinates me. I love nihilism!

Pop: My music is just basically, I look for things to tear apart.

Bowie: In the studio, Jimmy would make up the lyrics on the spot and keep everything that he did and occasionally change a line after we recorded. I’d never seen anybody be able to make lyrics up so fast, just out of his head for a track. And it’s more like – he’ll hate me – the beatnik era. Jimmy and I collaborated because I was intoxicated with what I thought he stood for and I never want it to be thought that I’m some kind of hand manipulator or Svengali behind what Jimmy’s doing now because he’s getting popular now. It’s only because he was six years too early with what he was doing with The Stooges.