Ok old gits.. I was a teen in the glam rock early to mid 70s.. which makes me eminently qualified to comment on Bowie..

He is the most important musical figure of my generation, certainly as far as me and the mrs are concerned..
Bowie is my decade's Beatles.. he's that important to us..

..and like the Beatles, a lot of his lyrics are now badly dated surrealist shite...

Yes.. he was pretentious.. so were most of his contemporaries in the 'art rock' scene way back then...

In later life, as he matured, and became more highly educated through experience and interaction with the art word,
he actually ascended to becoming a 'real' fine artist,
in the milieu of modern gallery / multi media culture...

Personally speaking, 'my' Bowie was more than dependant on the musical 'genius' of Mick Ronson.

He was an excellent choice for Mick Ronson and the Spiders from Mars lead singer and front man..

Almost as good a charismatic pop star as his old mate and rival Marc Bolan... 😜