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Remembering David Bowie, born on this day in 1947
David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie, was an English singer, songwriter, musician and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, and his music and stagecraft has had a significant impact on popular music.
Bowie developed an interest in music from an early age. He studied art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. He released a string of unsuccessful singles with local bands and a self-titled solo album (1967) before achieving his first top-five entry on the UK singles chart with “Space Oddity” (1969). After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of “Starman” and its album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (both 1972), which won him widespread popularity.
In 1975, David Bowie’s style shifted towards a sound he characterised as “plastic soul”, initially alienating many of his UK fans but garnering his first major US crossover success with the number-one single “Fame” and the album Young Americans (both 1975). In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station.
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In 1977, he again changed direction with the electronic-inflected album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that came to be known as the Berlin Trilogy. “Heroes” (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise.
After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had three number-one hits: the 1980 single “Ashes to Ashes”, its album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and “Under Pressure” (a 1981 collaboration with Queen). He achieved his greatest commercial success in the 1980s with Let’s Dance (1983). Between 1988 and 1992, he fronted the hard rock band Tin Machine before resuming his solo career in 1993.
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Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including industrial and jungle. He also continued acting; his roles included Major Jack Celliers in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), Jareth the Goblin King in Labyrinth (1986), Phillip Jeffries in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Andy Warhol in the biopic Basquiat (1996), and Nikola Tesla in The Prestige (2006), among other film and television appearances and cameos.
He ceased touring after 2004 and his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006. He returned from a decade-long recording hiatus in 2013 with The Next Day and remained musically active until his death from liver cancer in 2016. He died two days after both his 69th birthday and the release of his final album, Blackstar.
During his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at over 100 million worldwide, made him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Grammy Awards and four Brit Awards. Often dubbed the “chameleon of rock” due to his constant musical reinventions, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Rolling Stone ranked him among the greatest singers, songwriters and artists of all time. As of 2022, Bowie was the best-selling vinyl artist of the 21st century.
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David Bowie Discography
David Bowie (1967)
David Bowie[f] (1969)
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 (1975)
Station to Station (1976)
Low (1977)
"Heroes" (1977)
Lodger (1979)
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980)
Let's Dance (1983)
Tonight (1984)
Never Let Me Down (1987)
Black Tie White Noise (1993)
The Buddha of Suburbia (1993)
Outside (1995)
Earthling (1997)
Hours (1999)
Heathen (2002)
Reality (2003)
The Next Day (2013)
Blackstar (2016)
Toy (posthumous, 2021)The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
Just a Gigolo (1978)
The Hunger (1983)
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)
Absolute Beginners (1986)
Labyrinth (1986)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
The Linguini Incident (1991)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Basquiat (1996)
Gunslinger's Revenge (1998)
Everybody Loves Sunshine (1999)
Mr. Rice's Secret (2000)
The Prestige (2006)
Arthur and the Minimoys (2006)
August (2008)
David Bowie – Space Oddity (Official Video)
The official music video for David Bowie – Space Oddity Taken from Bowie’s 2nd studio album ‘David Bowie’ released in 1969 (aka Space Oddity), of which this was the only single.
David Bowie would turn 78: why releasing “Space Oddity” quickly was one of the best decisions in rock history
Today, David Bowie would have turned 78 years old . One more year, his legacy remains more alive than ever and his themes, indelible and immortal, continue to resonate every day in our eardrums. We want to remember one of them, “Space Oddity”, today. The legendary anthem had to be published quickly in what would become one of the most successful decisions in rock history.
The following may not sound like music to you, but it is important to understand the history of the song.
We find ourselves in May 1961 and the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy , decides that it is time to undertake one of the most important missions in history: sending a man to the Moon… and bringing him back whole, alive. and healthy. It didn’t seem easy.
The goal? Manage to reach the satellite before the end of the decade with everything that that entailed. That would be called Project Apollo.
If we come to the end of the decade, although Kennedy had been assassinated years before, the mission was still very much alive. Until that moment, eight and a half years of research and preparation had been accumulated, in a hot competition with the Soviet Union so that the United States would be the first superpower to reach the Moon. Luckily, the Apollo XI mission was already scheduled to begin on July 16, 1969. Of course, the arrival would be televised.
And here comes David Bowie
Oblivious to all this, David Bowie was taking the first steps of his career , with only one album behind him and few fans, for the moment, behind him. One day, the artist decided to go to the cinema to see ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ by Stanley Kubrick . As you may remember, part of the film is set in space, where several astronauts face a computer that becomes self-aware – and therefore dangerous and aggressive – during a mission to Jupiter to investigate alien life.
That inspired the creative and brilliant mind of the White Duke, who would soon begin working on a song called “Space Oddity.”
Speaking to Performing Songwriter in 2003, the artist had this to say: “I was beside myself anyway, I was so stoned when I went to see her, several times too, and it was really a revelation to me. She made the song flow.”
However, producer Tony Visconti, who read more newspapers than he watched movies, thought that the intention of the song, or perhaps its inspiration, ran along other paths, as he told The Bob Lefsetz Podcast in 2023: ” When David played it for me, I said, ‘I know what you’re doing. Now there’s a guy in space. NASA just put a guy in space in their can.’ “I told him: ‘ But it’s a low blow. It’s based on a special event .’”
Low blow or not… the idea worked
Visconti was not interested in the song . He had his reasons, since even the president at that time, Nixon, had recorded two messages to the world: one in case the mission went well and another in case it went badly. If the song, whose lyrics were about an astronaut who disappears in space, was released and things went wrong, Bowie’s career could be in jeopardy.
Braver was Gus Dudgeon , a producer also known for his work with Elton John, who agreed to work on the song. And it didn’t matter the intention with which Bowie had composed it, because when the song reached the ears of the directors of his record company, it was decided to publish it quickly and quickly to maximize its potential success . The song was released on July 11, 1969 in single format, just five days before the launch of Apollo XI.
And boy did it work. The BBC used the song in its coverage of the Moon landing. Of course, for whatever reason, he only put it on when Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin were already safely on Earth. Once again, it would have been in bad taste to reproduce it if things had not turned out well. In fact, even Bowie was surprised that the song was on television given its nature.
“ I’m sure they weren’t listening to the lyrics at all [laughs]. It wasn’t nice to juxtapose it with a moon landing ,” Bowie recalled in 2003. “Of course, I was very glad they did it. Obviously some BBC official said, ‘Oh okay, that space song, Major Tom, blah blah blah, it’ll be great.’ ‘Um, but you’re stranded in space, sir.’ Nobody had the courage to tell the producer [Laughs].”
Thus, with a happy ending, this story ends. “Space Oddity”, thanks to its television appearance, ended up reaching fifth place in the UK. Bowie wouldn’t achieve another one until three years later.