The glitter. The fashion. The glam. The androgyny. The chameleon. These and myriad other descriptors and styles can be applied to David Bowie, but John Eller has always been most interested in one thing: the songs.
"He's a grossly underrated songwriter," says Eller, as he gears up for the fifth-annual Bowie tribute show-slash-cat-shelter-benefit for the Minnesota Valley Humane Society affectionately known as Rock for Pussy. "I think when people think of him, they think of the theatrics and things, and don't look at some of the actual songs, like 'Heroes' and 'Life on Mars,' which are two of the greatest songs ever written."
Each year, Eller commandeers a one-night-only Bowie band made up of some of the best players in town, all of whom take seriously their job of doing justice to the Bowie songbook, if not look. "We get great players together to really map out and really learn the parts," says Eller. "We're trying to reproduce these sounds and songs to the letter, rather than reinterpreting. So it's definitely being a cover band to the max."
Much of the credit goes to Eller, the veteran St. Paul-based guitarist, songwriter, bandleader and music teacher who was recruited to crack the Ziggy Stardust whip by Rock for Pussy organizer and 89.3 The Current DJ Mary Lucia.
"Five years ago when we were putting RFP together, Eller's involvement couldn't have been a bigger 'duh,' " says Lucia. "Dude's musical vocabulary is sick; his savant-like musicianship never ceases to blow me and everyone else away, and we're lucky having him lead the musical details of this show. For the record, though, he's allergic to cats."
Author/songwriter Laurie Lindeen, who will perform "Rock & Roll Suicide" on Friday night, can name where and when she discovered Bowie -- in college, listening to a friend's brother's cover band do "Suffragette City." Bowie, she said, "is everything that appeals to me in one package, which is rare: beauty, fashion, great songwriting, acoustic songs and rockers, the whole package. I've always gone through androgynous stages, boyish stages and real girly-girl stages -- and I realize that guys don't have that freedom at all. So he was probably much more helpful to guys, to say, 'You can have these phases, too, and we're all cool.' "
For Eller, of course, Bowie "was hugely influential to me growing up. He's one of the quintessential pop artists of the past 40 years."
As such, it's high time Rock for Pussy be known for the music of Bowie rather than the controversy that surrounds its actually-pretty-tame-if-tattoo-worthy moniker. (A few years ago, one charity pulled out when it didn't want to be associated with the "P" word.) This writer has witnessed all five (and sung at two), and the night is as magical as anything on the local live music docket gets.
"I'm surprised, year after year, that nobody has picked 'Cat People' to sing," Eller says. "Maybe that's just too obvious."
