David Bowie

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Biography

David Bowie ( ; born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English musician, actor, record producer and Arrangement|arranger . A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. He is known for his distinctive voice and the intellectual depth and eclecticism of his work.

Bowie first caught the eye and ear of the public in July 1969, when his song " Space Oddity (song)|Space Oddity " reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart . After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single " Starman (song)|Starman " and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars . Bowie's impact at that time, as described by biographer David Buckley, "challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day" and "created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture." The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona proved merely one facet of a career marked by continual reinvention, musical innovation and striking visual presentation.

In 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the number-one single " Fame (David Bowie song)|Fame " and the hit album Young Americans (album)|Young Americans , which the singer characterised as " plastic soul ". The sound constituted a radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees. He then confounded the expectations of both his record label and his American audiences by recording the minimalist music|minimalist album Low (David Bowie album)|Low (1977)—the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno over the next two years. The so-called " Berlin Trilogy " albums all reached the UK top five and garnered lasting critical praise.

After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 single " Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)|Ashes to Ashes ", its parent album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) , and " Under Pressure ", a 1981 collaboration with Queen (band)|Queen . He then reached a new commercial peak in 1983 with '' Let's Dance (David Bowie album)|Let's Dance , which yielded several hit singles. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including blue-eyed soul , industrial music|industrial , adult contemporary music|adult contemporary , and drum and bass|jungle . His last recorded album was Reality (David Bowie album)|Reality (2003), which was supported by the 2003–04 Reality Tour .

Buckley says of Bowie: "His influence has been unique in popular culture—he has permeated and altered more lives than any comparable figure." In the BBC's 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons , Bowie was placed at number 29. Throughout his career, he has sold an estimated 140& nbsp;million albums. In the UK, he has been awarded nine Platinum album certifications, 11 Gold and eight Silver, and in the US, five Platinum and seven Gold certifications. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him 39th on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", and 23rd on their list of the best singers of all-time.

Biography

1947–62: early years

David Bowie was born David Robert Jones in Brixton , London, on 8 January 1947. His mother, Margaret Mary "Peggy" (née Burns), of Irish descent, worked as a cinema usherette, while his father, Haywood Stenton "John" Jones was a promotions officer for Barnardo's . The family lived at 40 Stansfield Road, located near the border of the south London areas of Brixton and Stockwell . A neighbour recalled that "London in the forties was the worst possible place, and the worst possible time for a child to grow up in." Bowie attended Stockwell Infants School until he was six years old, acquiring a reputation as a gifted and single-minded child—and a defiant brawler.Sandford (1997): pp. 9–16

In 1953 the family moved to the suburb of Bromley , where, two years later, Bowie progressed to Burnt Ash Junior School. His voice was considered "adequate" by the school choir, and his recorder playing judged to demonstrate above-average musical ability.Sandford (1997): pp. 18–19 At the age of nine, his dancing during the newly introduced music and movement classes was strikingly imaginative: teachers called his interpretations "vividly artistic" and his poise "astonishing" for a child. The same year, his interest in music was further stimulated when his father brought home a collection of American Gramophone record|45s by artists including Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers , The Platters , Fats Domino , Elvis Presley and Little Richard .Buckley (2000): p. 21. Upon listening to " Tutti Frutti (song)|Tutti Frutti ", Bowie would later say, "I had heard God". Presley's impact on him was likewise emphatic: "I saw a cousin of mine dance to ... ' Hound Dog (song)|Hound Dog ' and I had never seen her get up and be moved so much by anything. It really impressed me, the power of the music. I started getting records immediately after that."Sandford (1997): pp. 19–20 By the end of the following year he had taken up the ukelele and tea-chest bass and begun to participate in skiffle sessions with friends, and had started to play the piano; meanwhile his stage presentation of numbers by both Presley and Chuck Berry —complete with gyrations in tribute to the original artists—to his local Cub Scout|Wolf Cub group was described as "mesmerizing ... like someone from another planet." Failing his eleven plus exam at the conclusion of his Burnt Ash Junior education, Bowie joined Ravens Wood School|Bromley Technical High School .

It was an unusual technical school, as biographer Christopher Sandford writes:
Bowie studied art, music, and design, including layout and typesetting. After Terry Burns, his half-brother, introduced him to modern jazz , his enthusiasm for players like Charles Mingus and John Coltrane led his mother to give him a plastic alto saxophone in 1961; he was soon receiving lessons from a local musician.Sandford (1997): p. 25 He received a serious injury at school in 1962 when his friend George Underwood, wearing a ring on his finger, punched him in the left eye during a fight over a girl. Doctors feared he would lose the sight of the eye, and he was forced to stay out of school for a series of operations during a four-month hospitalisation. The damage could not be fully repaired, leaving him with faulty depth perception and a permanently mydriasis|dilated pupil (the latter producing Bowie's appearance of having Heterochromia|different coloured eyes , though each iris has the same blue colour). Despite their fisticuffs, Underwood and Bowie remained good friends, and Underwood went on to create the artwork for Bowie's early albums.Buckley (2005): p.19

1962–68: the Konrads to the Riot Squad

Graduating from his plastic saxophone to a real instrument in 1962, Bowie formed his first band at the age of 15. Playing guitar-based rock and roll at local youth gatherings and weddings, the Konrads had a varying line-up of between four and eight members, Underwood among them.Sandford (1997): p. 28 When Bowie left the technical school the following year, he informed his parents of his intention to become a pop star. His mother promptly arranged his employment as an electrician's mate. Frustrated by his band-mates' limited aspirations, Bowie left the Konrads and joined another band, the King Bees. He wrote to the newly successful washing-machine entrepreneur John Bloom (businessman)|John Bloom inviting him to "do for us what Brian Epstein has done for the Beatles—and make another million." Bloom did not respond to the offer, but his referral to Dick James 's partner Leslie Conn led to Bowie's first personal management contract.Sandford (1997): pp. 29–30

Conn quickly began to promote Bowie. The singer's debut single, " Liza Jane (David Bowie song)|Liza Jane ", credited to Davie Jones and the King Bees, had no commercial success. Dissatisfied with the King Bees and their repertoire of Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon blues numbers, Bowie quit the band less than a month later to join the Manish Boys, another blues outfit, who incorporated folk and soul — "I used to dream of being their Mick Jagger ", Bowie was to recall. " I Pity the Fool " was no more successful than "Liza Jane", and Bowie soon moved on again to join the Lower Third, a blues trio strongly influenced by The Who . " You've Got a Habit of Leaving " fared no better, signalling the end of Conn's contract. Declaring that he would exit the pop world "to study mime at Sadler's Wells Theatre|Sadler's Wells ", Bowie nevertheless remained with the Lower Third. His new manager, Ralph Horton, later instrumental in his transition to solo artist, soon witnessed Bowie's move to yet another group, the Buzz, yielding the singer's fifth unsuccessful single release, " Do Anything You Say ". While with the Buzz, Bowie also joined the The Riot Squad|Riot Squad ; their recordings, which included a Bowie number and Velvet Underground material, went unreleased. Ken Pitt, introduced by Horton, took over as Bowie's manager.Sandford (1997): pp. 35–39

Dissatisfied with his stage name as Davy (and Davie) Jones, which in the mid-1960s invited confusion with Davy Jones (actor)|Davy Jones of The Monkees , Bowie re-named himself after the 19th century American Frontiersman#American frontier|frontiersman Jim Bowie and Bowie knife|the knife he had popularised .Buckley (2000): p. 33 His April 1967 solo single, " The Laughing Gnome ", utilising sped-up The Chipmunks|Chipmunk -style vocals, failed to chart. Released six weeks later, his album debut, David Bowie (album)|David Bowie , an amalgam of pop, psychedelic rock|psychedelia , and music hall , met the same fate. It would be his last release for two years.

Bowie's fascination with the bizarre was fuelled when he met dancer Lindsay Kemp : "He lived on his emotions, he was a wonderful influence. His day-to-day life was the most theatrical thing I had ever seen, ever. It was everything I thought Bohemia probably was. I joined the circus."Buckley (2005): pp. 41–42 Kemp, for his part, recalled, "I didn't really teach him to be a mime artiste but to be more of himself on the outside, ... I enabled him to free the angel and demon that he is on the inside." Studying the dramatic arts under Kemp, from avant-garde theatre and mime artist|mime to commedia dell'arte , Bowie became immersed in the creation of personae to present to the world. Satirising life in a British prison, meanwhile, the Bowie-penned "Over the Wall We Go" became a 1967 single for Paul Nicholas|Oscar ; another Bowie composition, "Silly Boy Blue", was released by Billy Fury the following year.Buckley (2005): p. 46 After Kemp cast Bowie with Hermione Farthingale for a poetic minuet, the pair began dating; they soon moved into a London flat together. Playing acoustic guitar, she formed a group with Bowie and bassist John Hutchinson; between September 1968 and early 1969, when Bowie and Farthingale broke up, the trio gave a small number of concerts combining folk, Beat music|Merseybeat , poetry and mime.Buckley (2005): pp. 49–52

1969–73: psychedelic folk to glam rock

Space Oddity to Hunky Dory

Because of his lack of commercial success, Bowie was forced to try to earn a living in different ways. He featured in a Lyons Maid ice cream commercial, but was rejected for another by Kit Kat .Sandford (1997): pp. 49–50 Intended as a vehicle to promote the singer, a 30-minute film featuring performances from his repertoire, Love You till Tuesday (film)|Love You till Tuesday , was made. Although not released until 1984, the filming sessions in January 1969 led to unexpected success when Bowie told the producers, "That film of yours—I've got a new song for it." He then demoed the song that would provide his commercial breakthrough. " Space Oddity (song)|Space Oddity " was released later in the year to coincide with the first moon landing. Breaking up with Farthingale shortly after completion of the film, Bowie moved in with Mary Finnigan as her lodger.Sandford (1997): p. 53 Continuing the divergence from rock and roll and blues begun by his work with Farthingale, Bowie joined forces with Finnigan, Christina Ostrom and Barrie Jackson to run a folk club on Sunday nights at the Three Tuns pub in Beckenham High Street. This soon morphed into the Beckenham Arts Lab, and became extremely popular. The Arts Lab hosted a free festival in a local park, later immortalised by Bowie in his song " Memory of a Free Festival ". "Space Oddity" was released on 11 July, five days ahead of the Apollo 11 launch, to become a UK top five hit. Bowie's second album, Space Oddity (album)|Space Oddity , followed in November; originally issued in the UK as David Bowie , it caused some confusion with its predecessor of the same name, and the early US release was instead titled Man of Words/Man of Music . Featuring philosophical post-hippie lyrics on peace, love and morality, its acoustic folk rock occasionally fortified by harder rock, the album was not a commercial success at the time of its release.Sandford (1997): p. 60

Bowie met Angela Bowie|Angela Barnett in April 1969. They would marry within a year. Her impact on him was immediate, and her involvement in his career far-reaching, leaving Pitt with limited influence.Sandford (1997): pp. 54–60 Having established himself as a solo artist with "Space Oddity", Bowie now began to sense a lack: "a full-time band for gigs and recording—people he could relate to personally". The shortcoming was underlined by his artistic rivalry with Marc Bolan , who was at the time acting as his session guitarist.Sandford (1997): pp. 62–63 A band was duly assembled. John Cambridge, a drummer Bowie met at the Arts Lab, was joined by Tony Visconti on bass and Mick Ronson on electric guitar. Known as The Hype, the band members created characters for themselves and wore elaborate costumes that prefigured the glam style of The Spiders From Mars. After a disastrous opening gig at the Roundhouse (venue)|London Roundhouse , they reverted to a configuration presenting Bowie as a solo artist.Buckley (2000): pp. 89–90 Their initial studio work was marred by a heated disagreement between Bowie and Cambridge over the latter's drumming style; matters came to a head when Bowie, enraged, accused, "You're fucking up my album." Cambridge summarily quit and was replaced by Mick Woodmansey .Sandford (1997): p. 67 Not long after, in a move that would result in years of litigation, at the conclusion of which Bowie would be forced to pay Pitt compensation, the singer fired his manager, replacing him with Tony Defries .

The studio sessions continued and resulted in Bowie's third album, The Man Who Sold the World (album)|The Man Who Sold the World (1970). Characterised by the heavy rock sound of his new backing band, it was a marked departure from the acoustic guitar and folk rock style established by Space Oddity . To promote it in the United States, Mercury Records financed a coast-to-coast publicity tour in which Bowie, between January and February 1971, was interviewed by radio stations and the media. Exploiting his androgyny|androgynous appearance, the original cover of the UK version unveiled two months later would depict the singer wearing a dress: taking the garment with him, he wore it during interviews—to the approval of critics, including Rolling Stone s John Mendelsohn who described him as "ravishing, almost disconcertingly reminiscent of Lauren Bacall "—and in the street, to mixed reaction including laughter and, in the case of one male pedestrian, producing a gun and telling Bowie to "kiss my ass".Sandford (1997): pp. 73–74Pegg (2000): pp. 260–65 During the tour Bowie's observation of two seminal American proto-punk artists led him to develop a concept that would eventually find form in the Ziggy Stardust character: a melding of the persona of Iggy Pop with the music of Lou Reed , producing "the ultimate pop idol". A girlfriend recalled his "scrawling notes on a cocktail napkin about a crazy rock star named Iggy or Ziggy", and on his return to England he declared his intention to create a character "who looks like he's landed from Mars".

Hunky Dory (1971) found Visconti, Bowie's producer and bassist, supplanted in both roles, by Ken Scott and Trevor Bolder respectively. The album saw the partial return of the fey pop singer of "Space Oddity", with light fare such as " Kooks (song)|Kooks ", a song written for his son, Duncan Jones|Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones , born on 30 May.Buckley (2005): pp. 95–99 (His parents chose "his kooky name"—he would be known as Zowie for the next 12 years—after the Greek word zoe , life.)Sandford (1997): p. 80 Elsewhere, the album explored more serious themes, and found Bowie paying unusually direct homage to his influences with " Song for Bob Dylan ", " Andy Warhol (David Bowie song)|Andy Warhol ", and " Queen Bitch ", a Velvet Underground pastiche. It was not a significant commercial success at the timeSandford (1997): pp. 85–86 but was ranked No.16 by voters in the All Time Top 1000 Albums .

Ziggy Stardust

With his next venture, Bowie, in the words of biographer David Buckley, "challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day" and "created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture". Dressed in a striking costume, his hair dyed red, Bowie launched his Ziggy Stardust stage show with the The Spiders from Mars|Spiders from Mars —Ronson, Bolder and Woodmansey—at the Toby Jug pub in Tolworth on 10 February 1972. The show was hugely popular, catapulting him to stardom as he toured the UK over the course of the next six months and creating, as described by Buckley, a "cult of Bowie" that was "unique—its influence lasted longer and has been more creative than perhaps almost any other force within pop fandom."Buckley (2005): pp. 135–36 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), combining the hard rock elements of The Man Who Sold the World with the lighter experimental rock and pop of Hunky Dory , was released in June. " Starman (song)|Starman ", issued as an April single ahead of the album, was to cement Bowie's UK breakthrough: both single and album charted rapidly following his July Top of the Pops performance of the song. The album, which would remain in the chart for two years, was soon joined there by the six-month-old Hunky Dory . At the same time the non-album single " John, I’m Only Dancing ", and " All the Young Dudes (song)|All the Young Dudes ", a song he wrote and produced for Mott the Hoople , became UK hits. The Ziggy Stardust Tour continued to the United States.Sandford (1997): pp. 93–95

Bowie contributed backing vocals to Lou Reed's 1972 solo breakthrough Transformer (album)|Transformer , co-producing the album with Mick Ronson.Buckley (2000): p. 156 His own Aladdin Sane (1973) topped the UK chart, his first number one album. Described by Bowie as "Ziggy goes to America", it contained songs he wrote while travelling to and across the United States during the earlier part of the Ziggy tour, which now continued to Japan to promote the new album. Aladdin Sane spawned the UK top five singles " The Jean Genie " and " Drive-In Saturday ".Pegg (2004): pp. 281–83Sandford (1997): p. 108

Bowie's love of acting led his total immersion in the characters he created for his music. "Offstage I'm a robot. Onstage I achieve emotion. It's probably why I prefer dressing up as Ziggy to being David." With satisfaction came severe personal difficulties: acting the same role over an extended period, it became impossible for him to separate Ziggy Stardust—and, later, the Thin White Duke—from his own character offstage. Ziggy, Bowie said, "wouldn't leave me alone for years. That was when it all started to go sour ... My whole personality was affected. It became very dangerous. I really did have doubts about my sanity."Sandford (1997): pp. 106–7 His later Ziggy shows, which included songs from both Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane , were ultra-theatrical affairs filled with shocking stage moments, such as Bowie stripping down to a sumo|sumo wrestling loincloth or simulating oral sex with Ronson's guitar.Carr & Murray (1981): p. 7 Bowie toured and gave press conferences as Ziggy before a dramatic and abrupt on-stage "retirement" at London's Hammersmith Odeon on 3 July 1973. Footage from the final show was released in 1983 for the film Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (film)|Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars .Carr & Murray (1981): p. 116

After breaking up the Spiders from Mars, Bowie attempted to move on from his Ziggy persona. His back catalogue was now highly sought: The Man Who Sold the World had been re-released in 1972 along with Space Oddity . " Life on Mars (song)|Life on Mars? ", from Hunky Dory , was released in June 1973 and made number three in the UK singles chart. Entering the same chart in September, Bowie's novelty record from 1967, " The Laughing Gnome ", would reach number four.Buckley (2005): p. 163 Pin Ups , a collection of covers of his 1960s favourites, followed in October, producing a UK number three hit in " Sorrow (David Bowie song)|Sorrow " and itself peaking at number one, making David Bowie the best-selling act of 1973 in the UK. It brought the total number of Bowie albums currently in the UK chart to six.Sandford (1997): p. 115

1974–76: soul, funk and the Thin White Duke

Bowie moved to the United States in 1974, initially staying in New York City before settling in Los Angeles.Buckley (2005): p. 3 Diamond Dogs (1974), parts of which found him heading towards soul (music)|soul and funk , was the product of two distinct ideas: a musical based on a wild future in a post- apocalypse|apocalyptic city, and setting George Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984 to music.Buckley (2005): pp. 180–83 The album went to number one in the UK, spawning the hits " Rebel Rebel " and " Diamond Dogs (song)|Diamond Dogs ", and number five in the US. To promote it, Bowie launched the Diamond Dogs Tour , visiting cities in North America between June and December 1974. Choreographed by Toni Basil , and lavishly produced with theatrical special effects, the high-budget stage production was filmed by Alan Yentob . The resulting documentary, Cracked Actor , featured a pasty and emaciated Bowie: the tour coincided with the singer's slide from heavy cocaine use into addiction, producing severe physical debilitation, paranoia and emotional problems.Buckley (2005): pp. 204–5 He later commented that the accompanying live album, David Live , ought to have been titled "David Bowie Is Alive and Well and Living Only In Theory". David Live nevertheless solidified Bowie's status as a superstar, charting at number two in the UK and number eight in the US. It also spawned a UK number ten hit in Bowie's cover of " Knock on Wood (song)|Knock on Wood ". After a break in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia , where Bowie recorded new material, the tour resumed with a new emphasis on soul.Sandford (1997): p. 128

The fruit of the Philadelphia recording sessions was Young Americans (album)|Young Americans (1975). Biographer Christopher Sandford writes, "Over the years, most British rockers had tried, one way or another, to become black-by-extension. Few had succeeded as Bowie did now."Sandford (1997): p. 138 The album's sound, which the singer identified as " plastic soul ", constituted a radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees.Carr & Murray (1981): pp. 68–74 Young Americans yielded Bowie's first US number one, " Fame (David Bowie song)|Fame ", co-written with John Lennon , who contributed backing vocals, and Carlos Alomar . Lennon would call Bowie's work as "great, but just rock and roll with lipstick on".Buckley, 2003, p.130. Earning the distinction of being one of the first white artists to appear on the US variety show Soul Train , Bowie mimed "Fame", as well as " Golden Years (song)|Golden Years ", his October single,Sandford (1997): p. 146 and that it was offered to Elvis Presley to perform, but Presley declined it. Young Americans was a commercial success in both the US and the UK, and a re-issue of the 1969 single "Space Oddity" became Bowie's first number one hit in the UK a few months after "Fame" achieved the same in the US. Despite his by now well established superstardom, Bowie, in the words of biographer Christopher Sandford, "for all his record sales (over a million copies of Ziggy Stardust alone), existed essentially on loose change."Sandford (1997): pp. 135–36 In 1975, in a move echoing Ken Pitt's acrimonious dismissal five years earlier, Bowie fired his manager. At the culmination of the ensuing months-long legal dispute, he watched, as described by Sandford, "millions of dollars of his future earnings being surrendered" in what were "uniquely generous terms for Defries", then "shut himself up in West 20th Street, where for a week his howls could be heard through the locked attic door." Michael Lippman, Bowie's lawyer during the negotiations, became his new manager; Lippman in turn would be awarded substantial compensation when Bowie fired him the following year.Sandford (1997): pp. 137, 153

Station to Station (1976) introduced a new Bowie persona, the " Thin White Duke " of its title track. Visually, the character was an extension of Thomas Jerome Newton, the extraterrestrial being he portrayed in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth (film)|The Man Who Fell to Earth the same year.Buckley (2005): p. 238 Developing the funk and soul of Young Americans , Station to Station also prefigured the Krautrock and synthesiser music of his next releases. The extent to which drug addiction was now affecting Bowie was made public when Russell Harty interviewed the singer for his London Weekend Television talk show in anticipation of the album's supporting tour. Shortly before the satellite-linked interview was scheduled to commence, the death of the Spanish dictator General Franco was announced. Bowie was asked to relinquish the satellite booking, to allow the Spanish Government to put out a live newsfeed. This he refused to do, and his interview went ahead. In the ensuing conversation with Harty, as described by biographer David Buckley, "the singer made hardly any sense at all throughout what was quite an extensive interview. Bowie looked completely disconnected and was hardly able to utter a coherent sentence."Buckley (2005): p. 244 His sanity—by his own later admission—had become twisted from cocaine; he overdosed several times during the year, and was withering physically to an alarming degree.

Station to Station s January 1976 release was followed in February by a three-and-a-half-month concert tour of Europe and North America. Featuring a starkly lit set, the Isolar – 1976 Tour highlighted songs from the album, including the dramatic and lengthy Station to Station (song)|title track , the ballads " Wild Is the Wind (song)|Wild Is the Wind " and " Word on a Wing ", and the funkier " TVC 15 " and " Stay (David Bowie song)|Stay ". The core band that coalesced around this album and tour—rhythm guitarist Alomar, bassist George Murray (musician)|George Murray , and drummer Dennis Davis —would continue as a stable unit for the remainder of the 1970s. The tour was highly successful but mired in political controversy. Bowie was quoted in Stockholm as saying that "Britain could benefit from a Fascist leader", and detained by customs on the Russian/Polish border for possessing Nazi paraphernalia.Buckley (2000): pp. 289–91. Matters came to a head in London in May in what became known as the " London Victoria station|Victoria Station incident". Arriving in an open-top Mercedes-Benz|Mercedes convertible , the singer waved to the crowd in a gesture that some alleged was a Nazi salute, which was captured on camera and published in NME . Bowie said the photographer simply caught him in mid-wave. He later blamed his pro-Fascism comments and his behaviour during the period on his addictions and the character of the Thin White Duke.Carr & Murray (1981): p. 11. "I was out of my mind, totally crazed. The main thing I was functioning on was mythology ... that whole thing about Hitler and Rightism ... I'd discovered King Arthur ...".Sandford (1997): p. 158 According to playwright Alan Franks, writing later in The Times , "he was indeed 'deranged'. He had some very bad experiences with hard drugs."Buckley (2005): p. 252

1976–79: the Berlin era

Bowie moved to Switzerland in 1976, purchasing a chalet in the hills to the north of Lake Geneva . In the new environment, his cocaine use increased; so too did his interest in pursuits outside his musical career. He took up painting, producing a number of post-modernist pieces. When on tour, he took to sketching in a notebook, and photographing scenes for later reference. Visiting galleries in Geneva and the Brücke Museum in Berlin, Bowie became, in the words of biographer Christopher Sandford, "a prolific producer and collector of contemporary art. Not only did he become a well-known patron of expressionist art: locked in Clos des Mésanges he began an intensive self-improvement course in classical music and literature, and started work on an autobiography".Sandford (1997): pp. 154–55

Before the end of 1976, Bowie's interest in the burgeoning German music scene, as well as his drug addiction, prompted him to move to West Berlin to clean up and revitalise his career. Working with Brian Eno while sharing an apartment in Schöneberg with Iggy Pop, he began to focus on minimalist, ambient music for the first of three albums, co-produced with Tony Visconti, that would become known as his Berlin Trilogy .Sandford (1997): p. 149 During the same period, Iggy Pop, with Bowie as a co-writer and musician, completed his solo album debut, The Idiot (album)|The Idiot , and its follow-up, Lust for Life (album)|Lust for Life , touring the UK, Europe, and the US in March and April 1977. Low (David Bowie album)|Low (1977), partly influenced by the Krautrock sound of Kraftwerk and Neu! , evidenced a move away from narration in Bowie's songwriting to a more abstract musical form in which lyrics were sporadic and optional. It received considerable negative criticism upon its release—a release which RCA, anxious to maintain the established commercial momentum, did not welcome, and which Bowie's ex-manager, Tony Defries, who still maintained a significant financial interest in the singer's affairs, tried to prevent. Despite these forebodings, Low yielded the UK number three single " Sound and Vision ", and its own performance surpassed that of Station to Station in the UK chart, where it reached number two. Leading contemporary composer Philip Glass described Low as "a work of genius" in 1992, when he used it as the basis for his Symphony No. 1 (Glass)| Symphony No. 1 "Low" ; subsequently, Glass used Bowie's next album as the basis for his 1996 Symphony No. 4 (Glass)| Symphony No. 4 "Heroes" .Sandford (1997): pp. 166–68Perone (2007): p. 175 Glass has praised Bowie's gift for creating "fairly complex pieces of music, masquerading as simple pieces".Thomson (1993): p. xiii

Echoing Low s minimalist, instrumental approach, the second of the trilogy, "Heroes" (1977), incorporated pop and rock to a greater extent, seeing Bowie joined by guitarist Robert Fripp . Like Low , "Heroes" evinced the zeitgeist of the Cold War, symbolised by the divided city of Berlin.Pegg (2000): pp. 90–92 Incorporating ambient sounds from a variety of sources including white noise generators, synthesizers and koto (musical instrument)|koto , the album was another hit, reaching number three in the UK. Its "Heroes" (song)|title track , though only reaching number 24 in the UK singles chart, gained lasting popularity, and within months had been released in both German and French.Sandford (1997): pp. 181–82 Towards the end of the year, Bowie performed the song for Marc Bolan's television show Marc , and again two days later for Bing Crosby 's televised Christmas special, when he joined Crosby in " Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy ", a version of " The Little Drummer Boy " with a new, contrapuntal verse. Five years later, the duet would prove a worldwide seasonal hit, charting in the UK at number three on Christmas Day, 1982.

After completing Low and "Heroes" , Bowie spent much of 1978 on the Isolar II – The 1978 World Tour|Isolar II world tour , bringing the music of the first two Berlin Trilogy albums to almost a million people during 70 concerts in 12 countries. By now he had broken his drug addiction; biographer David Buckley writes that Isolar II was "Bowie's first tour for five years in which he had probably not anaesthetised himself with copious quantities of cocaine before taking the stage. Without the oblivion that drugs had brought, he was now in a healthy enough mental condition to want to make friends."Buckley (2005): p. 293 Recordings from the tour made up the live album Stage (David Bowie album)|Stage , released the same year.Sandford (1997): p. 189

The final piece in what Bowie called his " triptych ", Lodger (album)|Lodger (1979), eschewed the minimalist, ambient nature of the other two, making a partial return to the drum- and guitar-based rock and pop of his pre-Berlin era. The result was a complex mixture of New Wave music|New Wave and World Music , in places incorporating Phrygian dominant scale|Hejaz Musical scale#Non-Western scales|non-Western scales . Some tracks were composed using Eno and Peter Schmidt (artist)|Peter Schmidt 's Oblique Strategies cards: "Boys Keep Swinging" entailed band members swapping instruments, "Move On" used the chords from Bowie's early composition "All the Young Dudes" played backwards, and "Red Money" took backing tracks from "Sister Midnight", a piece previously composed with Iggy Pop.Carr & Murray (1981): pp. 102–7 The album was recorded in Switzerland. Ahead of its release, RCA's Mel Ilberman stated, "It would be fair to call it Bowie's Sergeant Pepper a concept album that portrays the Lodger as a homeless wanderer, shunned and victimized by life's pressures and technology." As described by biographer Christopher Sandford, "The record dashed such high hopes with dubious choices, and production that spelt the end—for fifteen years—of Bowie's partnership with Eno." Lodger reached number 4 in the UK and number 20 in the US, and yielded the UK hit singles " Boys Keep Swinging " and " DJ (song)|DJ ".Buckley (2005): p. 281Sandford (1997): pp. 191–92 Towards the end of the year, Bowie and Angela initiated divorce proceedings, and after months of court battles the marriage was ended in early 1980.Sandford (1997): p. 197

1980–89: from superstar to megastar

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) produced the number one hit " Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)|Ashes to Ashes ", featuring the textural work of guitar-synthesist Chuck Hammer and revisiting the character of Major Tom from "Space Oddity". The song gave international exposure to the underground New Romantic movement when Bowie visited the London club "Blitz"—the main New Romantic hangout—to recruit several of the regulars (including Steve Strange of the band Visage ) to act in the accompanying video, renowned as one of the most innovative of all time.Pegg (2000): p. 29 While Scary Monsters utilised principles established by the Berlin albums, it was considered by critics to be far more direct musically and lyrically. The album's hard rock edge included conspicuous guitar contributions from Robert Fripp , Pete Townshend , Chuck Hammer and Tom Verlaine .Carr & Murray (1981): pp. 108–14 As "Ashes to Ashes" hit number one on the UK charts, Bowie opened a three-month run on Broadway on 24 September, starring in The Elephant Man (play)|The Elephant Man .Sandford (1997): pp. 205–7The same year, he made a cameo appearance in the German film Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (film)|Christiane F. , a real-life story of teenage drug addiction in 1970s Berlin. The soundtrack, in which Bowie's music featured prominently, was released as Christiane F. (album)|Christiane F. a few months later.

Bowie paired with Queen (band)|Queen in 1981 for a one-off single release, " Under Pressure ". The duet was a hit, becoming Bowie's third UK number one single.
Bowie was given the lead role in the BBC's 1981 televised adaptation of Bertolt Brecht 's play Baal (play)| Baal . Coinciding with its transmission, a five-track Extended play|EP of songs from the play, recorded earlier in Berlin, was released as Baal (EP)|''David Bowie in Bertolt Brecht's Baal'' . In March 1982, the month before Paul Schrader 's film Cat People (1982 film)|Cat People came out, Bowie's title song, " Cat People (Putting Out Fire) ", was released as a single, becoming a minor US hit and entering the UK top 30.Sandford (1997): pp. 208, 211–12

Bowie reached a new peak of popularity and commercial success in 1983 with '' Let's Dance (David Bowie album)|Let's Dance ''. Co-produced by Chic (band)|Chic 's Nile Rodgers , the album went platinum in both the UK and the US. Its three singles became top twenty hits in both countries, where its Let's Dance (David Bowie song)|title track reached number one. " Modern Love (song)|Modern Love " and " China Girl (song)|China Girl " made number two in the UK, accompanied by a pair of acclaimed promotional videos that, as described by biographer David Buckley, "were totally absorbing and activated key archetypes in the pop world. 'Let's Dance', with its little narrative surrounding the young Australian Aborigines|Aborigine couple, targeted 'youth', and 'China Girl', with its bare-bummed (and later partially-censored) beach lovemaking scene (a homage to the film From Here to Eternity ), was sufficiently sexually provocative to guarantee heavy rotation on MTV. By 1983, Bowie had emerged as one of the most important video artists of the day. ''Let's Dance'' was followed by the Serious Moonlight Tour , during which Bowie was accompanied by guitarist Earl Slick and backing vocalists The Simms Brothers Band|Frank and George Simms . The world tour lasted six months and was extremely popular.Buckley (2005): pp. 335–55 Stevie Ray Vaughan was guest guitarist playing solo on "Let's Dance".

Tonight (David Bowie album)|Tonight (1984), another dance-oriented album, found Bowie collaborating with Tina Turner and, once again, Iggy Pop. It included a number of cover songs, among them the 1966 The Beach Boys|Beach Boys hit " God Only Knows ". The album bore the transatlantic top ten hit " Blue Jean (song)|Blue Jean ", itself the inspiration for a short film that won Bowie a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video , " Jazzin' for Blue Jean ". Bowie performed at Wembley Stadium (1923)|Wembley in 1985 for Live Aid , a multi-venue benefit concert for Ethiopian famine relief. During the event, the video for a fundraising single was premièred, Bowie's duet with Mick Jagger. " Dancing in the Street (cover)|Dancing in the Street " quickly went to number one on release. The same year, Bowie worked with the Pat Metheny Group to record " This Is Not America " for the soundtrack of The Falcon and the Snowman . Released as a single, the song became a top 40 hit in the UK and US.Buckley (2005): pp. 165–66

Bowie was given a role in the 1986 film Absolute Beginners (film)|Absolute Beginners . It was poorly received by critics, but Bowie's theme song rose to number two in the UK charts. He also appeared as Jareth , the Goblin King, in the 1986 Jim Henson film Labyrinth (film)|Labyrinth , for which he wrote five songs. His final solo album of the decade was 1987's Never Let Me Down , where he ditched the light sound of his previous two albums, instead offering harder rock with an industrial music|industrial / techno dance edge. Peaking at number six in the UK, the album yielded the hits " Day-In Day-Out|Day-In, Day-Out " (his 60th single), " Time Will Crawl ", and " Never Let Me Down (song)|Never Let Me Down ". Bowie later described it as his "nadir", calling it "an awful album". Supporting Never Let Me Down , and preceded by nine promotional press shows, the 86-concert Glass Spider Tour commenced on 30 May. Bowie's backing band included Peter Frampton on lead guitar. Critics maligned the tour as overproduced, saying it pandered to the current arena rock|stadium rock trends in its special effects and dancing.

1989–91: Tin Machine

Bowie shelved his solo career in 1989, retreating to the relative anonymity of band membership for the first time since the early 1970s. A hard-rocking quartet, Tin Machine came into being after Bowie began to work experimentally with guitarist Reeves Gabrels . The line-up was completed by Tony Sales|Tony and Hunt Sales , whom Bowie had known since the late 1970s for their contribution, on drums and bass respectively, to Iggy Pop's 1977 album Lust For Life .Buckley (2005): p. 387

Though he intended Tin Machine to operate as a democracy, Bowie dominated, both in songwriting and in decision-making.Sandford (1997): p. 274 The band's album debut, Tin Machine (album)|Tin Machine (1989), was initially popular, though its politicised lyrics did not find universal approval: Bowie described one song as "a simplistic, naive, radical, laying-it-down about the emergence of neo-Nazis"; in the view of biographer Christopher Sandford, "It took nerve to denounce drugs, fascism and TV in terms that reached the literary level of a comic book."Sandford (1997): p. 275 EMI complained of "lyrics that preach" as well as "repetitive tunes" and "minimalist or no production".Sandford (1997): p. 273 The album nevertheless reached number three in the UK. Tin Machine's first world tour was a commercial success, but there was growing reluctance—among fans and critics alike—to accept Bowie's presentation as merely a band member.Buckley (2005): p. 394 A series of Tin Machine singles failed to chart, and Bowie, after a disagreement with EMI, left the label.Sandford (1997): pp. 278–79 Like his audience and his critics, Bowie himself became increasingly disaffected with his role as just one member of a band.Sandford (1997): p. 278 Tin Machine began work on a second album, but Bowie put the venture on hold and made a return to solo work. Performing his early hits during the seven-month Sound+Vision Tour , he found commercial success and acclaim once again.Sandford (1997): pp. 280–86

In October 1990, a decade after his divorce from Angela, Bowie and Somali people|Somali -born supermodel Iman (model)|Iman were introduced by a mutual friend. Bowie recalled, "I was naming the children the night we met ... it was absolutely immediate." They would marry in 1992.Sandford (1997): p. 289 Tin Machine resumed work the same month, but their audience and critics, ultimately left disappointed by the first album, showed little interest in a second. Tin Machine II s arrival was marked by a widely publicised and ill-timed conflict over the cover art: after production had begun, the new record label, Victory, deemed the depiction of four ancient nude Kouros|Kouroi statues, judged by Bowie to be "in exquisite taste", "a show of wrong, obscene images", requiring air-brushing and patching to render the figures sexless.Sandford (1997): p. 292 Tin Machine toured again, but after the live album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby failed commercially, the band drifted apart, and Bowie, though he continued to collaborate with Gabrels, resumed his solo career.Sandford (1997): pp. 294–95

1992–99: electronica

In April 1992 Bowie appeared at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert , following the Queen frontman's death the previous year. As well as performing "Heroes" and "All the Young Dudes", he was joined on "Under Pressure" by Annie Lennox , who took Mercury's vocal part.Sandford (1997): pp. 298–99 Four days later, Bowie and Iman were married in Switzerland. Intending to move to Los Angeles, they flew in to search for a suitable property, but found themselves confined to their hotel, under curfew: the 1992 Los Angeles riots began the day they arrived. They settled in New York instead.Buckley (2005): pp. 413–14

1993 saw the release of Bowie's first solo offering since his Tin Machine departure, the soul, jazz and hip hop music|hip-hop influenced Black Tie White Noise . Making prominent use of electronic instruments, the album, which reunited Bowie with ''Let's Dance'' producer Nile Rodgers , confirmed Bowie's return to popularity, hitting the number one spot on the UK charts and spawning three top 40 hits, including the top 10 song " Jump They Say ".Sandford (1997): pp. 301–8 Bowie explored new directions on The Buddha of Suburbia (soundtrack)|The Buddha of Suburbia (1993), a soundtrack album of incidental music composed for the TV series adaptation of The Buddha of Suburbia (novel)|Hanif Kureishi's novel . It contained some of the new elements introduced in Black Tie White Noise , and also signalled a move towards alternative rock . The album was a critical success but received a low-key release and only made number 87 in the UK charts.Buckley (2000): pp. 494–95, 623

Reuniting Bowie with Eno, the quasi- industrial music|industrial Outside (David Bowie album)|Outside (1995) was originally conceived as the first volume in a non-linear narrative of art and murder. Featuring characters from a short story written by Bowie, the album achieved US and UK chart success, and yielded three top 40 UK singles.Buckley (2000): pp. 623–24 In a move that provoked mixed reaction from both fans and critics, Bowie chose Nine Inch Nails as his tour partner for the Outside Tour . Visiting cities in Europe and North America between September 1995 and February the following year, the tour saw the return of Gabrels as Bowie's guitarist.Buckley (2000): pp. 512–13

Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 17 January 1996. Incorporating experiments in British jungle and drum and bass|drum 'n' bass , Earthling (album)|Earthling (1997) was a critical and commercial success in the UK and the US, and two singles from the album became UK top 40 hits. Bowie's song " I'm Afraid of Americans " from the Paul Verhoeven film Showgirls was re-recorded for the album, and remixed by Trent Reznor for a single release. The heavy rotation of the accompanying video, also featuring Reznor, contributed to the song's 16-week stay in the US Billboard Hot 100| Billboard Hot 100 . The Earthling Tour took in Europe and North America between June and November 1997.Buckley (2000): pp. 533–34 Bowie reunited with Visconti in 1998 to record "(Safe in This) Sky Life" for The Rugrats Movie . Although the track was edited out of the final cut, it would later be re-recorded and released as "Safe" on the B-side of Bowie's 2002 single " Everyone Says 'Hi' ".Thompson (2006): p. 203 The reunion led to other collaborations including a limited-edition single release version of Placebo (band)|Placebo's track " Without You I'm Nothing (Placebo song)|Without You I'm Nothing ", co-produced by Visconti, with Bowie's harmonised vocal added to the original recording.Thompson (2006): pp. 203, 212

1999–present: neoclassicist Bowie

Bowie created the soundtrack for Omikron: The Nomad Soul|Omikron , a 1999 computer game in which he and Iman also appeared as characters. Released the same year and containing re-recorded tracks from Omikron, his album '' 'Hours...' '' featured a song with lyrics by the winner of his "Cyber Song Contest" Internet competition, Alex Grant.Buckley (2005): p. 466 Making extensive use of live instruments, the album was Bowie's exit from heavy electronica.Perone (2007): p. 125 Sessions for the planned album Toy (David Bowie album)|Toy , intended to feature new versions of some of Bowie's earliest pieces as well as three new songs, commenced in 2000, but the album was never released. Bowie and Visconti continued their collaboration, producing a new album of completely original songs instead: the result of the sessions was the 2002 album Heathen (David Bowie album)|Heathen .Buckley (2005): pp. 488–89 Alexandria Zahra Jones, Bowie and Iman's daughter, was born on 15 August.Buckley (2005): p. 485

In October 2001, Bowie opened The Concert for New York City , a charity event to benefit the victims of the September 11 attacks , with a minimalist performance of Simon & Garfunkel 's " America (Simon & Garfunkel song)|America ", followed by a full band performance of "Heroes".Buckley (2005): p. 491 2002 saw the release of Heathen , and, during the second half of the year, the Heathen Tour . Taking in Europe and North America, the tour opened at London's annual Meltdown (festival)|Meltdown festival, for which Bowie was that year appointed artistic director. Among the acts he selected for the festival were Philip Glass , Television (band)|Television and The Polyphonic Spree . As well as songs from the new album, the tour featured material from Bowie's Low (David Bowie album)|Low era.Buckley (2005): pp. 493–95 Reality (David Bowie album)|Reality (2003) followed, and its accompanying world tour, the A Reality Tour , with an estimated attendance of 722,000, grossed more than any other in 2004. Onstage in Oslo, Norway, on 18 June, Bowie was hit in the eye with a lollipop thrown by a fan; a week later he suffered chest pain while performing at the Hurricane Festival in Scheeßel , Germany. Originally thought to be a pinched nerve in his shoulder, the pain was later diagnosed as an acutely blocked artery, requiring an emergency angioplasty in Hamburg. The remaining 14 dates of the tour were cancelled.Buckley (2005): pp. 504–5

Since recuperating from the heart surgery, Bowie has reduced his musical output, making only one-off appearances on stage and in the studio. He sang in a duet of his 1972 song " Changes (David Bowie song)|Changes " with Butterfly Boucher for the 2004 animated film Shrek 2 .Buckley (2004): p. 16 During a relatively quiet 2005, he recorded the vocals for the song "(She Can) Do That", co-written with Brian Transeau, for the film Stealth (film)|Stealth .Perone (2007): p. 142 He returned to the stage on 8 September 2005, appearing with Arcade Fire for the US nationally televised event Fashion Rocks, and performed with the Canadian band for the second time a week later during the CMJ Music Marathon.Thompson (2006): pp. 291–92 He contributed back-up vocals on TV on the Radio 's song "Province" for their album Return to Cookie Mountain , made a commercial with Snoop Dogg for XM Satellite Radio , and joined with Lou Reed on Danish alt-rockers Kashmir (band)|Kashmir's 2005 album No Balance Palace .

Bowie was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award on 8 February 2006.Thompson (2006): p. 293 In April, he announced, "I’m taking a year off—no touring, no albums." He made a surprise guest appearance at David Gilmour 's 29 May concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The event was recorded, and a selection of songs on which he had contributed joint vocals were subsequently released. He performed again in November, alongside Alicia Keys , at the Black Ball, a New York benefit event for Keep a Child Alive .

Bowie was chosen to curate the 2007 High Line Festival, selecting musicians and artists for the Manhattan event,Schinder & Schwartz (2007): p. 500 and performed on Scarlett Johansson 's 2008 album of Tom Waits covers, Anywhere I Lay My Head . On the 40th anniversary of the July 1969 moon landing—and Bowie's accompanying commercial breakthrough with "Space Oddity"—EMI released the individual tracks from the original eight-track studio recording of the song, in a 2009 contest inviting members of the public to create a remix. A Reality Tour (album)|A Reality Tour , a double album of live material from the 2003 concert tour, was released in January 2010.

In late March 2011, Toy (David Bowie album)|Toy , Bowie's previously unreleased album from 2001, was leaked onto the internet, containing material used for Heathen and most of its single B-sides, as well as unheard new versions of his early back catalogue.

Acting career

Biographer David Buckley writes, "The essence of Bowie's contribution to popular music can be found in his outstanding ability to analyse and select ideas from outside the mainstream—from art, literature, theatre and film—and to bring them inside, so that the currency of pop is constantly being changed."Buckley (2005): p. 526 Buckley says, "Just one person took glam rock to new rarefied heights and invented character-playing in pop, marrying theatre and popular music in one seamless, powerful whole."Buckley (2005): p. 2 Bowie's career has also been punctuated by various roles in film and theatre productions, earning him some acclaim as an actor in his own right.

The beginnings of his acting career predate his commercial breakthrough as a musician. Studying avant-garde theatre and mime artist|mime under Lindsay Kemp , he was given the role of Cloud in Kemp's 1967 theatrical production Pierrot in Turquoise (later made into the 1970 television film The Looking Glass Murders ).Sandford (1997): p. 43 In the black-and-white short film|short The Image (short film)|The Image (1969), he played a ghostly boy who emerges from a troubled artist's painting to haunt him.Buckley (2005): p. 49 The same year, the film of Leslie Thomas 's 1966 comic novel The Virgin Soldiers saw Bowie make a brief appearance as an extra. In 1976 he earned acclaim for his first major film role, portraying Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien from a dying planet, in The Man Who Fell to Earth (film)|The Man Who Fell to Earth , directed by Nic Roeg . Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo|Just a Gigolo (1979), an Anglo-German co-production directed by David Hemmings , saw Bowie in the lead role as Prussian officer Paul von Przygodski, who, returning from World War I, is discovered by a Baroness ( Marlene Dietrich ) and put into her Gigolo Stable.

Bowie took the title role in the Broadway theatre production The Elephant Man (play)|The Elephant Man , earning high praise for an expressive performance. He played the part 157 times between 1980 and 1981. Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (film)|Christiane F.& nbsp;– Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo , a 1981 biographical film focusing on a young girl's drug addiction in West Berlin , featured Bowie in a cameo appearance as himself at a concert in Germany. Its soundtrack album, Christiane F. (album)|Christiane F. (1981), featured much material from his Berlin Trilogy albums.Sandford (1997); p. 208 Bowie starred in The Hunger (1983 film)|The Hunger (1983), a revisionist vampire film, with Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon . In Nagisa Oshima 's film the same year, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence , based on Laurens van der Post 's novel The Seed and the Sower , Bowie played Major Jack Celliers, a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp. Bowie had a cameo in Yellowbeard , a 1983 pirate comedy created by Monty Python members, and a small part as Colin, the hitman in the 1985 film Into the Night (film)|Into the Night . He declined to play the villain Max Zorin in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985).Pegg (2004) p. 561.

Absolute Beginners (film)|Absolute Beginners (1986), a rock musical based on Colin MacInnes 's 1959 novel about London life, featured Bowie's music and presented him with a minor acting role. The same year, Jim Henson 's dark fantasy Labyrinth (film)|Labyrinth found him with the part of Jareth, the king of the goblin s.Sandford (1997): pp. 252–53 Two years later he played Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese 's 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ (film)|The Last Temptation of Christ . Bowie portrayed a disgruntled restaurant employee opposite Rosanna Arquette in The Linguini Incident (1991), and the mysterious FBI agent Phillip Jeffries in David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). He took a small but pivotal role as Andy Warhol in Basquiat (film)|Basquiat , artist/director Julian Schnabel 's 1996 biopic of Jean-Michel Basquiat , and co-starred in Giovanni Veronesi 's Spaghetti Western Il Mio West (1998, released as '' Gunslinger's Revenge '' in the US in 2005) as the most feared gunfighter in the region.Thompson (2006): p. 195 He played the ageing gangster Bernie in Andrew Goth's Everybody Loves Sunshine (1999), and appeared in the TV horror serial of The Hunger (serial)|The Hunger . In ''Mr. Rice's Secret (2000), he played the title role as the neighbour of a terminally ill twelve-year-old, and the following year appeared as himself in Zoolander .

Bowie portrayed physicist Nikola Tesla in the Christopher Nolan film, The Prestige (film)|The Prestige (2006), which was about the bitter rivalry between two magicians in the late 19th century. He voice-acted in the animated film Arthur and the Invisibles as the powerful villain Maltazard, and lent his voice to the character Lord Royal Highness in the '' SpongeBob's Atlantis SquarePantis television film. In the 2008 film August (2008 film)|August , directed by Austin Chick , he played a supporting role as Ogilvie, alongside Josh Hartnett and Rip Torn , with whom he had worked in 1976 for The Man Who Fell to Earth .

Sexual orientation

Buckley writes, "If Ziggy confused both his creator and his audience, a big part of that confusion centred on the topic of sexuality."Buckley (2005): p. 140 Bowie declared himself bisexual in an interview with Michael Watts of Melody Maker in January 1972, a move coinciding with the first shots in his campaign for stardom as Ziggy Stardust. In a September 1976 interview with Playboy , Bowie said: "It's true—I am a bisexual. But I can't deny that I've used that fact very well. I suppose it's the best thing that ever happened to me."

In a 1983 interview with Rolling Stone , Bowie said his public declaration of bisexuality was "the biggest mistake I ever made", and on other occasions he said his interest in homosexual and bisexual culture had been more a product of the times and the situation in which he found himself than his own feelings; as described by Buckley, he said he had been driven more by "a compulsion to flout moral codes than a real biological and psychological state of being".Buckley (2000): p. 401Buckley (2005): p. 106

Asked in 2002 by Blender (magazine)|Blender whether he still believed his public declaration was the biggest mistake he ever made, he replied:

Buckley's view of the period is that Bowie, "a taboo-breaker and a dabbler ... mined sexual intrigue for its ability to shock",Buckley (2005): p. 141 and that "it is probably true that Bowie was never gay, nor even consistently actively bisexual ... he did, from time to time, experiment, even if only out of a sense of curiosity and a genuine allegiance with the 'transgressional'."Buckley (2005): p. 147 Biographer Christopher Sandford says that according to Mary Finnigan, with whom Bowie had an affair in 1969, the singer and his first wife Angie "lived in a fantasy world and they created their bisexual fantasy."Sandford (1997): p. 48 Sandford tells how, during the marriage, Bowie "made a positive fetish of repeating the quip that he and his wife had met while 'fucking the same bloke' Gay sex was always an anecdotal and laughing matter. That Bowie's actual tastes swung the other way is clear from even a partial tally of his affairs with women."

Musicianship

From the time of his earliest recordings in the 1960s, Bowie has employed a wide variety of musical styles. His early compositions and performances were strongly influenced not only by rock and rollers like Little Richard and Elvis Presley but also by the wider world of show business. He particularly strove to emulate the British musical theatre singer-songwriter and actor Anthony Newley , whose vocal style he frequently adopted, and made prominent use of for his 1967 debut release, David Bowie (album)|David Bowie (to the disgust of Newley himself, who destroyed the copy he received from Bowie's publisher).Sandford (1997): pp. 41–42Perone (2007): p. 4 Bowie's music hall fascination continued to surface sporadically alongside such diverse styles as hard rock and heavy metal, soul, psychedelic folk and pop.Perone (2007): pp. 22, 36–37

Musicologist James Perone observes Bowie's use of octave switches for different repetitions of the same melody, exemplified in his commercial breakthrough single, " Space Oddity (song)|Space Oddity ", and later in the song " "Heroes" (song)|Heroes ", to dramatic effect; Perone notes that "in the lowest part of his vocal register his voice has an almost crooner-like richness."Perone (2007) p. 12

Voice instructor Jo Thompson describes Bowie's vocal vibrato technique as "particularly deliberate and distinctive". Schinder and Schwartz call him "a vocalist of extraordinary technical ability, able to pitch his singing to particular effect."Schinder & Schwartz (2007): p. 483 Here, too, as in his stagecraft and songwriting, the singer's chamaeleon-like nature is evident: historiographer Michael Campbell says that Bowie's lyrics "arrest our ear, without question. But Bowie continually shifts from person to person as he delivers them His voice changes dramatically from section to section."Campbell (2008): p. 254

Bowie plays many instruments, among them electric, acoustic, and twelve-string guitar , alto, tenor and baritone saxophone, keyboards including piano, synthesizers and Mellotron , harmonica, Stylophone , xylophone , vibraphone , Koto (musical instrument)|koto , drums and percussion, and string instruments including viola and cello.Thompson (2006): p. 346Perone (2007): pp. 17–44, 152–60Buckley (2004): p. 48

Legacy

Bowie's innovative songs and stagecraft brought a new dimension to popular music in the early 1970s, strongly influencing both its immediate forms and its subsequent development. A pioneer of glam rock, Bowie, according to music historians Schinder and Schwartz, has joint responsibility with Marc Bolan for creating the genre.Schinder & Schwartz (2007): p. 482 At the same time, he inspired the innovators of the punk rock music movement—historian Michael Campbell calls him "one of punk's seminal influences". While punk musicians trashed the conventions of pop stardom, Bowie moved on again—into a more abstract style of music making that would in turn become a transforming influence. Biographer David Buckley writes, "At a time when punk rock was noisily reclaiming the three-minute pop song in a show of public defiance, Bowie almost completely abandoned traditional rock instrumentation."Campbell (2008) p. 304Buckley (2004): p. 45 Bowie's record company sought to convey his unique status in popular music with the slogan, "There is old wave, there is new wave, and there is Bowie..."Thomson (1993): p. 217 Musicologist James Perone credits him with having "brought sophistication to rock music", and critical reviews frequently acknowledge the intellectual depth of his work and influence.Perone (2007): p. 183

Buckley writes that, in an early 1970s pop world that was "Bloated, self-important, leather-clad, self-satisfied, ... Bowie challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day." As described by John Peel , "The one distinguishing feature about early-70s progressive rock was that it didn't progress. Before Bowie came along, people didn't want too much change." Buckley says that Bowie "subverted the whole notion of what it was to be a rock star", with the result that "After Bowie there has been no other pop icon of his stature, because the pop world that produces these rock gods doesn't exist any more. ... The fierce partisanship of the cult of Bowie was also unique—its influence lasted longer and has been more creative than perhaps almost any other force within pop fandom." Buckley concludes that "Bowie is both star and icon. The vast body of work he has produced ... has created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture. ... His influence has been unique in popular culture—he has permeated and altered more lives than any comparable figure."Buckley (2005): pp. 516–17, 524, 529

Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Through perpetual reinvention, he has seen his influence continue to broaden and extend: music reviewer Brad Filicky writes that over the decades, "Bowie has become known as a musical chameleon, changing and dictating trends as much as he has altered his style to fit", influencing fashion and pop culture.". Biographer Thomas Forget adds, "Because he has succeeded in so many different styles of music, it is almost impossible to find a popular artist today that has not been influenced by David Bowie."

Awards and recognition

Bowie's 1969 commercial breakthrough, the song "Space Oddity", won him an Ivor Novello Awards|Ivor Novello Special Award For Originality. For his performance in the 1976 science fiction film The Man Who Fell to Earth (film)|The Man Who Fell to Earth , he won a Saturn Award for Best Actor . In the ensuing decades he has been honoured with numerous awards for his music and its accompanying videos, receiving, among others, two Grammy Award s and two BRIT Awards .

In 1999, Bowie was made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. He received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music the same year. He declined the royal honour of Order of the British Empire|Commander of the British Empire in 2000, and turned down a knight hood in 2003, stating: "I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. I seriously don't know what it's for. It's not what I spent my life working for."

Throughout his career he has sold an estimated 250& nbsp;million albums. In the United Kingdom, he has been awarded 9 Platinum, 11 Gold and 8 Silver albums, and in the United States, 5 Platinum and 7 Gold. In the BBC's 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons , he was ranked 29. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 39th on their list of the 100 Greatest Rock Artists of All Time and the 23rd best singer of all time. Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 17 January 1996.

Discography

David Bowie (album)|David Bowie (1967)

Space Oddity (album)|Space Oddity (1969)

The Man Who Sold the World (album)|The Man Who Sold the World (1970)

Hunky Dory (1971)

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)

Aladdin Sane (1973)

Pin Ups (1973)

Diamond Dogs (1974)

Young Americans (album)|Young Americans (1975)

Station to Station (1976)

Low (David Bowie album)|Low (1977)

"Heroes" (1977)

Lodger (album)|Lodger (1979)

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980)

'' Let's Dance (David Bowie album)|Let's Dance (1983)

Tonight (David Bowie album)|Tonight (1984)

Never Let Me Down (1987)

Black Tie White Noise (1993)

Outside (David Bowie album)|Outside (1995)

Earthling (album)|Earthling (1997)

'' 'Hours...' (1999)

Heathen (David Bowie album)|Heathen (2002)

Reality (David Bowie album)|Reality (2003)

Copyright Citations

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1. B-52's 2. Bob Dylan 3. Bryan Ferry 4. Cat Stevens 5. Cher 6. David Ball 7. Def Leppard 8. Devo 9. Duran Duran 10. Eric Clapton 11. Franz Ferdinand 12. Freddie Mercury 13. Iggy Pop 14. Jeff Beck 15. Jethro Tull 16. Jimi Hendrix 17. Joan Jett 18. John Lennon 19. Lenny Kravitz 20. Morrissey 21. Neil Young 22. Nick Lowe 23. Oasis 24. Paul McCartney 25. Paul H. Williams

Pop & Rock Music Artists

David Bowie

Biography

Biography

1947–62: early years

1962–68: the Konrads to the Riot Squad

1969–73: psychedelic folk to glam rock

Space Oddity to Hunky Dory

Ziggy Stardust

1974–76: soul, funk and the Thin White Duke

1976–79: the Berlin era

1980–89: from superstar to megastar

1989–91: Tin Machine

1992–99: electronica

1999–present: neoclassicist Bowie

Acting career

Sexual orientation

Musicianship

Legacy

Awards and recognition

Discography

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

Copyright Citations