David Bowie Stars in a Classic Performance of Bertolt Brechts Baal (1982)

The 1982 BBC production of Baal, starring David Bowie. Bowie considered the character, according to Allmusic’s Dave Thompson, “the original Super Punk — which is doubtless what attracted him to [the role].” The context of early Brecht serves up “a side of Bowie that he had often claimed existed, but which even his closest friends had seldom seen.” Perhaps all have a Baal within us, but it took rock’s most impressive shapeshifter to give that unpleasant character his definitive late 20th-century form.