Bowie partnered with Mick Rock during 1972 and 1973 to make promotional music videos “John, I’m Only Dancing”, “The Jean Genie”, “Space Oddity”, and “Life on Mars?”. Esteemed rock critic Lester Bangs called “John, I’m Only Dancing”, the beginning of the modern music video. It was shot for only $200. “The Jean Genie” followed. Bowie wears the most traditionally rock ’n’ roll attire of the Ziggy era in a bomber jacket and black pants, whose street-tough swagger are betrayed by brightly colored socks and heels. The video is intercut with scenes of Bowie on the street alongside Cyrinda Foxe (a friend of the Bowie’s who was employed by his management company MainMan). Fittingly, the streetside shots were filmed outside The Mars Hotel in San Fransisco.
This video would be one of the last appearances of Bowie’s eyebrows for a couple of years. In a bizarre act of frustration directed towards Mott the Hoople (who refused to record a version of his song “Drive-In Saturday”), he shaved them off in the days before his November 17th show at Florida’s Pirate World.