Soul Train

Bowie appeared on Soul Train for its first show of 1976. At the time, only one White artist appeared each year or so. While he wasn’t the first, his performance still had another audacity to it: he was there to sing “Fame” and “Golden Years”, songs which were deeply indebted to the sound of Black Philadelphia soul. After his death, The Boston Globe noted that while there had been a long history of Black musicians playing to principally White audiences, the reverse was highly uncommon. Nevertheless, the appearance was a success, and the studio audience loved his performance.