David Robert Jones, known as David Bowie, was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as among the most influential musicians of the 20th century, he was known for his frequent reinvention and visual presentation, and is often referred to as the "chameleon of rock".
His music, stagecraft and fashion have had a significant impact on popular culture.
real name: David Robert Jones
labels: Iso (record label), Columbia Records, Decca, Deram, EMI, RCA, Virgin Records, RCA Records
genres: pop music, rock music, glam rock, psychedelic rock, experimental rock, art rock, hard rock, pop rock
influenced by: Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Jacques Brel, Scott Walker, Little Richard
awards: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Webby Lifetime Achievement Award, Grammy Hall of Fame, Saturn Award for Best Actor, Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, Great Britons, Commander of the Order of the British Empire
plays: saxophone, guitar, piano, voice, keyboard instrument, ARP 2500, musical keyboard, drum kit
member of: Tin Machine, The Arnold Corns, Davie Jones and the King Bees, The Hype, The Spiders from Mars
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
David Robert Jones was born on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London. His mother, Margaret Mary "Peggy" (née Burns), was born at Shorncliffe Army Camp, Kent. She was a waitress at a cinema in Royal Tunbridge Wells. His father, Haywood Stenton "John" Jones, was from Doncaster, Yorkshire, and was a promotions officer for the children's charity Barnardo's. The family lived at 40 Stansfield Road in the south London borough of Lambeth. Bowie attended Stockwell Infants School until he was six, acquiring a reputation as a gifted and single-minded child—and a defiant brawler.
Bowie formed his first band, the Konrads, in 1962 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. When Bowie left the technical school the following year, he informed his parents of his intention to become a pop star. His mother arranged his employment as an electrician's mate. Frustrated by his bandmates' limited aspirations, Bowie left the Konrads and joined another band, the King Bees. Soon after, he signed his first personal management contract with Dick James' partner Leslie Conn.
In addition to music, Bowie took acting roles throughout his career, appearing in over 30 films, television shows and theatrical productions. His acting career was "productively selective", largely eschewing starring roles for cameos and supporting parts; he once described his film career as "splashing in the kids' pool". He mostly chose projects with arthouse directors that he felt were outside the Hollywood mainstream, commenting in 2000: "One cameo for Scorsese to me brings so much more satisfaction than, say, a James Bond." Critics have believed that, had he not chosen to pursue music, he could have found great success as an actor. Others have felt that, while his screen presence was singular, his best contributions to film were the...
Bowie is generally regarded as one of the most influential musicians ever. According to Alexis Petridis of The Guardian, by 1980 he was "the most important and influential artist since the Beatles". His influence was wide-reaching due to constant reinvention, leading him to be dubbed the "chameleon of rock". Billboard's Joe Lynch argued Bowie "influenced more musical genres than any other rock star", from glam rock, folk rock and hard rock, to electronic, industrial rock and synth-pop, to even hip-hop and indie rock. In The New York Times, Jon Pareles said Bowie "transcended music, art and fashion", and introduced his audiences to Philadelphia funk, Japanese fashion, German electronica and drum-and-bass dance music. The biographer Thomas...
Are you them, or do you know them? The mail slot is open.
"Ashes to Ashes" is a song by the English musician David Bowie from his 14th studio album, Scary Monsters (1980). Co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, it was recorded from February to April 1980 in New York and London and features guitar synthesiser played by Chuck Hammer.
"Ashes to Ashes" is an art rock, art pop and new wave song led by a flanged piano riff, and its lyrics act as a sequel to Bowie's 1969 hit "Space Oddity": the astronaut Major Tom has succumbed to drug addiction and floats isolated in space. Bowie partially based the lyrics on his own experiences with drug addiction throughout the 1970s.
Melancholic and introspective, the song's lyrics act as a sequel to "Space Oddity", which ends with Major Tom alone floating out in space. Eleven years after liftoff, Ground Control receives a message from Major Tom, who has succumbed to drug addiction and increased paranoia following his abandonment to space: "Strung out in heaven's high / hitting an all-time low." Ground Control are not keen on the astronaut's reappearance – "Oh no, don't say it's true" – and pretend that he is fine, in Doggett's words, mimicking "government agencies everywhere". The astronaut reflects on his life and hopes for the future and wishes he could break free from his "caged psyche". His pleas are disregarded by the public, leading him to proclaim that he has...
"Ashes to Ashes" was released in edited form as the lead single from Scary Monsters on 1 August 1980, with the Lodger track "Move On" (1979) as the B-side. RCA Records emphasised the relationship of "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes" by releasing a nine-minute promo on 12″ vinyl in the US titled "The Continuing Story of Major Tom", which segued the former into the latter. The British single came in three different picture sleeves, each packaged with four different sheets of adhesive stamps, all featuring Bowie in his Pierrot costume from the music video; Pegg says this was RCA adopting "the craze for limited-edition collectables" that pervaded the 7″ single market at the time. On Scary Monsters, released on 12 September, "Ashes to Ashes"...
"Ashes to Ashes" initially received mixed reviews from music critics. Amongst positive reviews, a writer for Billboard magazine said the song combines "rock and dance beats" with "tight rock rhythms lay[ing] the groundwork for the nuance-rich melody". In their reviews of the Scary Monsters album, Billboard and The Spokesman-Review's Tom Sowa highlighted "Ashes to Ashes" as one of its best tracks.
"Ashes to Ashes", in both its single edit and full-length forms, has made appearances on compilation albums. The single edit is included on Changestwobowie (1981), Best of Bowie (2002), The Platinum Collection (2006), Nothing Has Changed (2014) and Legacy (The Very Best of David Bowie) (2016), while the album version is included on the Sound + Vision box set (1989), Changesbowie (1990) and The Singles Collection (1993). The single edit was also included on Re:Call 3, part of the A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982) compilation, in 2017. An unreleased extended version, allegedly 13-minutes long and featuring additional verses, a longer fade-out and a synthesiser solo, is rumoured to exist, although a 12-minute version that appeared on...
"Fame" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was released on his ninth studio album Young Americans (1975) and was later issued as the album's second single by RCA Records in June 1975.
Written by Bowie, Carlos Alomar and John Lennon, it was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City in January 1975. It is a funk, funk rock and soul song that represents Bowie's dissatisfaction with the troubles of fame and stardom.
With the release of his 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Bowie achieved stardom. On that album, Bowie presented his aspirations to become famous in "Star", which also encapsulated the fantasies of "every adolescent dreamer miming into a hairbrush in a suburban bedroom", on top of Bowie's own frustration with not having fulfilled his potential. By the beginning of 1975, "fame" meant a couple of different things to Bowie. It meant not only his stardom, but also impending lawsuits that were the result of the ending of Bowie's relationship with his manager Tony Defries. It also meant an expensive musical theatre project concocted by Defries, titled Fame, that was financed through MainMan, a company that...
With the Young Americans sessions mostly concluded by late 1974, the material was delayed while Bowie extricated himself from Defries. Sources differ on how "Fame" came to be in the studio, but both Doggett and Nicholas Pegg write that it was the product of "happy" accidents. By late 1974, Bowie was staying in New York City, where he met John Lennon during his "lost weekend" period of estrangement. Shortly after Lennon reunited with his wife Yoko Ono, the pair jammed together, leading to a one-day session at Electric Lady Studios in January 1975. There, Carlos Alomar had developed a guitar riff for Bowie's cover of "Footstompin'" by the Flares, which Bowie thought was "a waste" to give to a cover. Lennon, who was in the studio with them,...
"Fame" was released on 7 March 1975 as the final track on Bowie's ninth studio album Young Americans. It was subsequently released by RCA Records (as PB 10320) as the second single from the album in the US in June 1975 and the following month in the UK, with fellow album track "Right" as the B-side.
"Fame" was released as the B-side of the US release of "Beauty and the Beast" in January 1978. It appears on several compilations, including: Changesonebowie (1976); Bowie: The Singles 1969–1993 (1993); The Best of David Bowie 1974/1979 (1998); Best of Bowie (2002); The Platinum Collection (2006); Nothing Has Changed (2014); and Legacy (The Very Best of David Bowie) (2016). The 7" single version appeared on The Best of Bowie (1980) as well as on Have a Nice Decade: The 70s Pop Culture Box (1998). Re:Call 2, part of the Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976) compilation released in 2016, included an attempted reconstruction of the single edit, which has been criticised as inaccurate.
"Modern Love" is a song written by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was released as the opening track on his 1983 album Let's Dance and issued as the third single from the album later in the year.
Co-produced by Bowie and Nile Rodgers, it is a rock song that contains elements of new wave music. It was recorded at the Power Station in Manhattan and was one of the first tracks recorded for the album.
After "Let's Dance", "Modern Love" was the second song Bowie recorded in December 1982 at the Power Station in Manhattan, New York City. It was co-produced by Nile Rodgers of the American disco band Chic, who had originally hoped to make a "very noncommercial, avant-garde album" with Bowie. Following the recording of the title track and "Modern Love", however, Bowie asked Rodgers to "make [a] great commercial record...". They finished recording the album in 19 days. Rodgers described the track as "an old barrelhouse rocker with a real pounding Little Richard-type piano, while on top it has a very sophisticated jazz horn sound"; he would later call the track one of his favourites. Bowie said Little Richard, his "earliest rock hero", was an...
"Modern Love" was released on 14 April 1983 as the opening track of Let's Dance. It was later released on 12 September 1983 by EMI America on seven-inch vinyl (as EA 158, featuring the shortened single version), and on twelve-inch vinyl (as 12EA 158, featuring the full length song) as the third single of the album, with a live version, recorded in Montreal in July 1983, as its B-side. The single reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100. By the time "Modern Love" was issued as a single, Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour was underway.
The song's music video used footage of Bowie and his band performing the song during a concert on the Serious Moonlight Tour. It was directed by Jim Yukich who, according to Kyle Ryan of The A.V. Club, "captured what looks like Bowie and his band re-emerging for an encore during a four-night stand at Philadelphia's Spectrum theater. The look of Bowie and band presages the swing revival that would follow a decade later." Ryan writes: "As a video, 'Modern Love' is as straightforward as it gets, especially compared to the others Bowie did that year, 'China Girl' and 'Let's Dance'."
Since its release, "Modern Love" has received acclaim from music critics, who praised Bowie's songwriting, its production and its power as an opening track. In a positive review of Let's Dance at the time of its release, Ken Tucker of Rolling Stone wrote that the album as a whole was "thin and niggling", but enjoyed "Modern Love", "Without You" and "Shake It", calling them "three pristine lovelies". He continued:
"Rebel Rebel" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was released in the UK on 15 February 1974 by RCA Records as the lead single from the album Diamond Dogs.
Written and produced by Bowie, the song is based around a distinctive guitar riff reminiscent of the Rolling Stones. Cited as his most-covered track, "Rebel Rebel" has been described as Bowie's farewell to the glam rock movement that he had helped initiate, as well as being a proto-punk track.
Originally planned in late 1973 as part of an aborted Ziggy Stardust musical, "Rebel Rebel" was Bowie's last single in his signature glam rock style. It was also his first hit since 1969 not to feature lead guitarist Mick Ronson; Bowie played guitar himself on this and almost all the other tracks on Diamond Dogs, producing what NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray called "a rocking dirty noise that owed as much to Keith Richards as it did to the departed Ronno". Singer-songwriter Jayne County, who was a cast member of Pork and among Bowie's entourage for two years, maintains that her 1973 song "Queenage Baby", which included the lyric "can't tell whether she's a boy or a girl", was an influence for "Rebel Rebel".
Recording for "Rebel Rebel" began at a solo session at Trident Studios in London in the week after Christmas 1973. It was Bowie's last known visit to Trident, his principal recording studio since 1968. The recording was completed in January 1974 at Ludolph Studios in Nederhorst den Berg, Netherlands. In the studio, Bowie informed bassist Herbie Flowers and guest guitarist Alan Parker that he wanted it to "sound like the Stones", before he picked up Parker's black Les Paul and played it to them. Parker then completed it, before the rest of the backing track was recorded.
"Rebel Rebel" was released on 15 February 1974 in the UK by RCA Records (as LPB05009) as the lead single of Diamond Dogs with the Hunky Dory song "Queen Bitch" as the B-side. The B-side, according to Spitz, was selected by RCA to provide the label with some "much needed fiscal plasma". The single quickly became a glam anthem, the female equivalent of Bowie's earlier hit for Mott the Hoople, "All the Young Dudes". It reached number five on the UK Singles Chart and number 64 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
The song has received critical acclaim for its guitar riff and strength as a glam anthem, being described as a fitting farewell to Bowie's glam era. Marc Spitz praised the song in the biography Bowie: A Biography, calling the riff "magnificent" and Bowie's "last great glitter anthem". He also described the song as Bowie's most "pure and lasting rocker" when mentioning the artist's early 2000s re-recorded version for his 2003 album Reality. Cash Box said that this was "Bowie's best single ever," describing it as a "strong rocker with incredible hooks throughout." Record World said that Bowie "integrates the aura of the American disco-right on down to castinets into his multi-sensual sound." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, in his...
"Space Oddity" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was released on 11 July 1969 by Philips and Mercury Records as a 7-inch single, then was included as the opening track of his second album, David Bowie, released in November.
Produced by Gus Dudgeon, and recorded at Trident Studios in London, it is a tale about a fictional astronaut named Major Tom; its title and subject matter were partly inspired by the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Bowie's feelings of alienation at that point in his career. Its sound departed from the music hall of his debut album to psychedelic folk inspired by the Bee Gees; it was one of the most musically complex compositions he had written up to that point.
Following a string of unsuccessful singles, David Bowie released his music hall-influenced self-titled debut studio album through Deram Records in 1967. The album was a commercial failure and did little to gain Bowie notice, leading to his departure from Deram in May 1968 and becoming his last release for two years. After its commercial failure, Bowie's new manager Kenneth Pitt authorised the production of a promotional film in an attempt to introduce Bowie to a larger audience. The film, Love You till Tuesday, went unreleased until 1984; it marked the end of Pitt's mentorship of Bowie.
"Space Oddity" tells the story of an astronaut named Major Tom, the first of Bowie's famous characters. Major Tom is informed by Ground Control that a malfunction has occurred in his spacecraft; but the astronaut does not get the message. He remains in space "sitting in a tin can, far above the world", preparing for his lonely death. In 1969, Bowie compared Major Tom's fate to the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey, saying: "At the end of the song Major Tom is completely emotionless and expresses no view at all about where he's at. He's fragmenting ... at the end of the song his mind is completely blown – he's everything then." The authors David Buckley and Peter Doggett comment on the unusual vocabulary in the lyrics, such as "Ground...
"Space Oddity" was released as a 7-inch (18 cm) single on 11 July 1969, with "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud" as the B-side, by Philips in the UK and Mercury in the US. In some territories, the single's sleeve included a photograph of Bowie playing an acoustic guitar, a rarity for singles at the time. The label rush-released the single to capitalise on the Apollo 11 Moon mission, which was launched five days later. According to Bowie: "It was picked up by British television and used as the background music for the landing itself in Britain ... Though I'm sure they really weren't listening to the lyric at all; it wasn't a pleasant thing to juxtapose against a moon landing. Of course, I was overjoyed that they did." Upon realising the dark...
Following the commercial breakthrough of Bowie's fifth studio album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in 1972, Bowie's then-label RCA Records undertook a reissue campaign for his Mercury albums that included repackaging David Bowie with the title Space Oddity. To promote this release, RCA rereleased "Space Oddity" as a single, with "The Man Who Sold the World" as the B-side, on 13 December 1972 in North America only. The single reached number 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming Bowie's first hit single in the country. In Canada, it reached number 16 and was his third single on the charts there. Record World said of the reissued single that "this disc is a winner from liftoff to fade". RCA again...
"As the World Falls Down" is a song written by David Bowie for the soundtrack of the 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth.
"As the World Falls Down" is one of five songs Bowie wrote and recorded for the film, in which he also starred as Jareth, the king of the goblins. A love ballad, "As the World Falls Down" was written for a dream sequence in which Jareth and the film's heroine, Sarah, dance at a fantastic masquerade ball. Bowie said of the song, "[Director] Jim Henson wanted something which was fairly old-fashioned in its sentiments and it is, for me, the prettiest tune in the movie, and the most relaxed." The song's melody is heard at the start of the film as the tune played by Sarah's music box.
"As the World Falls Down" is the seventh track on the Labyrinth soundtrack, which was released in July 1986 to coincide with the film's U.S. premiere.
Rolling Stone called the song a "hidden gem" of Bowie's career and included "As the World Falls Down" on its list of 30 essential Bowie songs, describing it as a "sparkling, subdued ballad...which intermingles a tender vocal performance from Bowie and a sinewy bass line with glassy New Romantic synths". The A.V. Club considered it the best song from Labyrinth, and wrote that it "cater[s] in heartfelt empathy, using classic pop chord progressions to relate the joys and pain of love." Smooth Radio chose "As the World Falls Down" as number 11 on its ranking of Bowie's 20 greatest songs, and argued that it "deserves to be considered amongst Bowie's finest ever songs". Newsweek deemed the song "pure 80s cheese", conceding that "it does have a...
"Lazarus" is a song by the English rock musician David Bowie. Released on 17 December 2015 as a digital download, it was the second single from his twenty-sixth and final studio album, Blackstar (2016).
It is Bowie's last single to be released during his lifetime. The single received its world premiere on BBC Radio 6 Music's Steve Lamacq on the day of its release as a single.
"Lazarus" is a swan song. According to Bowie's producer Tony Visconti, the lyrics and video of "Lazarus" and other songs on the album were intended to be a self-epitaph, a commentary on Bowie's own impending death. The song's reference to Lazarus has been interpreted as referring to Bowie's prediction of increased fame following his death.
The official music video for "Lazarus", featuring a shorter edit of the song lasting just over four minutes, was uploaded on 7 January 2016 to Bowie's Vevo channel on YouTube. The video was directed by Johan Renck (who also directed the music video for Bowie's previous single, "Blackstar") in November 2015; during the week of shooting, doctors reportedly informed Bowie the cancer was terminal and that they were ending treatment. The filming location was a studio in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The video is shown in a 1:1 aspect ratio and prominently features Bowie, appearing with a bandage and buttons sewn over his eyes, lying on a deathbed. A director's cut exists restoring the original widescreen aspect.
In 2020, American rapper G-Eazy covered the song for his compilation album Everything's Strange Here.
"Blue Jean" is a song written and recorded by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie for his sixteenth studio album Tonight (1984). One of only two tracks on the album to be written entirely by Bowie, it was released as a single ahead of the album and charted in the United States, peaking at No. 8, becoming his 5th and last top 10 hit with no features.
The song is loosely inspired by Eddie Cochran.
Interviewed in 1987 and asked to compare a track like "Time Will Crawl" to "Blue Jean," Bowie said "'Blue Jean' is a piece of sexist rock 'n roll. [laughs] It's about picking up birds. It's not very cerebral, that piece." BBC reviewer Chris Jones criticised the song in his appraisal of Best of Bowie in 2002, arguing "'Blue Jean' barely exists, so formulaic is it." More positively, rock commentator Chris O'Leary, while locating "Blue Jean" firmly "in the pastiche lane," has described the song as "clever" and "catchy" and one of Bowie's "best second-rate hits."
"Blue Jean" has appeared on a variety of compilation albums, including Changesbowie (1990), The Singles Collection (1993), Best of Bowie (2002), The Platinum Collection (2005), The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987 (2007), Nothing Has Changed (2014) (3-CD and 2-CD editions), and Bowie Legacy (2016) (2-CD edition). A remastered version of the song was released on Loving the Alien (1983–1988) (2018).
"Golden Years" is a song by the English musician David Bowie, released by RCA Records on 21 November 1975 as the lead single from his tenth studio album Station to Station (1976). Partially written before Bowie began shooting for the film The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), the song was mostly compiled in the studio and was the first track completed for the album.
Co-produced by Bowie and Harry Maslin, recording took place at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles during September 1975. Due to Bowie's heavy cocaine use, he later mentioned remembering almost nothing of Station to Station's production.
David Bowie started writing "Golden Years" in May 1975 before shooting commenced for the film The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). Sources differ as to whom the track was written for. Bowie's biographers state the track was supposedly written for American singer Elvis Presley, who turned it down. Bowie recalled that Presley had heard the demos and, because both artists were signed to RCA Records at the time, Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker thought that Bowie should write songs for Presley. Bowie stated that he had "adored" Presley and would have loved to work with him. Although the artists' offices contacted each other, nothing ever came to fruition. Presley sent a note to Bowie saying, "All the best, and have a great tour"; Bowie kept...
Station to Station is commonly regarded as a transitional album in Bowie's career, developing the funk and soul of Young Americans and introducing influences of electronic and the German music genre of krautrock, particularly bands such as Neu! and Kraftwerk, styles Bowie would further explore on his late 1970s Berlin Trilogy. Like its companion album track "Stay", "Golden Years" is built upon the styles of Young Americans but with a harsher, grinding edge. Nicholas Pegg states that the song lacks the "steelier musical landscape" of the rest of the album. The song also utilises elements of 1950s doo-wop; the main guitar riff is based on the 1968 Cliff Nobles and Company song "The Horse" and the multi-tracked vocal refrain resembles the...
On 4 November 1975, Bowie appeared on the American television show Soul Train, miming "Fame" and the then-unreleased "Golden Years". Bowie was the second white artist to appear on the programme, after Elton John six months earlier. During the performance and interview, he was visibly intoxicated and, according to Pegg, was at a "new low in coherency". Bowie later felt ashamed for his behaviour, recalling in 1999 that he had failed to learn "Golden Years" and was scolded afterwards by the show's DJ. Spitz describes the appearance as "canny" and "awkward", while O'Leary calls it Bowie's "loneliest, saddest television appearance". The resulting film clip was used as the song's unofficial music video for promotion worldwide. Like "Rebel Rebel"...
"Golden Years" has been received positively by music critics and biographers. Reviewing Station to Station on release, John Ingham of Sounds magazine heavily praised the album, naming "Golden Years", "TVC 15" and "Stay" some of Bowie's best songs up to that point. Rolling Stone writer Teri Moris considered the track "Bowie's most seductive self-indulgence since Pin Ups [1973]". A reviewer for Billboard felt Bowie had "found his musical niche" with songs like "Fame" and "Golden Years". Record World said that the song has "a rather unadorned style and generates a basic appeal". In his book Starman, biographer Paul Trynka calls "Golden Years" "magnificent [and] sensitive", stating that the track "reflects Bowie's ability to surface from a...
"'Heroes'" is a song by the English musician David Bowie from his 12th studio album of the same name. Co-written by Bowie and Brian Eno and co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, the song was recorded in mid-1977 at Hansa Studio 2 in West Berlin.
The backing track was recorded fully before the lyrics were written; Bowie and Eno added synthesiser overdubs while Robert Fripp contributed guitar. To record the vocals, Visconti devised a "multi-latch" system, in which three microphones were placed at different distances from Bowie and would open when he sang loudly enough.
"'Heroes'" tells the story of two lovers, one from East Berlin and one from West Berlin. Under constant risk of death, they dream of freedom, swimming with dolphins. Similar to other album tracks "Beauty and the Beast" and "Joe the Lion", the song, at its core, represents two opposing forces: the couple's love for each other, and a sense that the Berlin Wall will separate them. The first verse is from the point of view of the man who stresses unity, while the second describes the couple's explicit love and affection for each other. Perone contends that the instrumental passages separating the third verse, wherein the narrator wishes his lover could "swim like the dolphins", represent a transition in the story. The fourth verse is a...
RCA issued "'Heroes'" as the lead single from the album on 23 September 1977, with the album track "V-2 Schneider" as the B-side. Its shortened 3:32 edit, which begins at the third verse, was made in the hopes of more airplay. A 12" promotional single, containing both the single and album versions, was released in the US by RCA (as JD-11151) the same year. On the "Heroes" album, issued on 14 October, the song was sequenced as the third track, between "Joe the Lion" and "Sons of the Silent Age".
"'Heroes'" has subsequently appeared, almost invariably as the single edit, on numerous compilation albums, including The Best of Bowie (1980), Changesbowie (1990), The Singles Collection (1993), The Best of David Bowie 1974/1979 (1998), Best of Bowie (2002), The Platinum Collection (2006), Nothing Has Changed (2014), and Bowie Legacy (2016). The full album track was remastered with its parent album for inclusion on the 2017 box set A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982). The single edit was included on Re:Call 3, part of that box set, while the German single, French single, English-German full-length, and English-French full-length versions were included on an EP in the same set. Additionally, the English-German version of the song...
Initial reviews for "'Heroes'" were mostly positive. Like Low's "Sound and Vision", some viewed it as the most commercial track from "Heroes". Several welcomed the song as a classic addition to Bowie's catalogue. Record Mirror's Tim Lott deemed it "regal" and a "shocking dream[ingly] powerful" song that stands out as the album's best. He found the lyrics are "in a sense throwaway" but display "simple heroism": "Brick by synthesised brick it builds into a leviathan, a monster track that sucks you in and spews you out grinning ..." Kris Needs of ZigZag magazine also considered the song a "monster" track with its end result being "magic". Ira Robbins went further in Crawdaddy magazine, hailing the song as Bowie's best song in three years,...
"I'm Afraid of Americans" is a song by the English musician David Bowie, released as a single from his album Earthling on 14 October 1997 through Virgin Records. The song was co-written by Bowie and Brian Eno and originally recorded during the sessions for Bowie's 1995 album Outside; this version was released on the soundtrack of Showgirls (1995).
The song was then remade during the sessions for Earthling, featuring rewritten lyrics, overdubs and transposed verses. An industrial rock track, it presents a critique of America through the eyes of a stereotypical "Johnny" and is characterised by drum patterns, synthesisers, and various loops and vocal distortions.
"I'm Afraid of Americans" was written by Bowie and Brian Eno and originally recorded during the sessions for Bowie's 1995 album Outside. According to biographer Chris O'Leary, recording took place in late 1994 at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland and the early weeks of 1995 at the Hit Factory in New York City. Titled "Dummy", it featured different lyrics, such as "I'm afraid of the animals" instead of "Americans". Eno recalled in 2016: "I remember [David] recording 'I'm Afraid of Americans' and saying, after one of the early takes, 'No, [the 'Dummy' character's] got to be more self-doubting than that.'" This version was intended for release on the soundtrack for the 1995 film Johnny Mnemonic but was instead released on the...
In an interview with Mojo magazine in 1997, Bowie described the song as "one of those stereotypical 'Johnny' songs: Johnny does this, Johnny does that". The absurdist lyrics present a critique of America, in line with Bowie's 1975 track "Young Americans". Commentators have seen similarities between the song's titular Johnny and the Johnny of the Lodger track "Repetition" (1979); while the Johnny of the former craves objects of status through self-entitlement, the Johnny of the latter emotionally abuses his wife due to his lower status. The song concludes with the revelation that "God is an American", which biographer Marc Spitz considers an "ironic jingoism".
The original version of "I'm Afraid of Americans" was released on the Showgirls soundtrack on 26 September 1995. Earthling was released on 3 February 1997 on CD and LP formats through RCA Records in the UK, Virgin Records in the US, and Arista Records and its parent distributor BMG elsewhere. "I'm Afraid of Americans" was the eighth and penultimate track, between "The Last Thing You Should Do" and "Law (Earthlings on Fire)".
Virgin issued "I'm Afraid of Americans" as a maxi-single in North America only on 14 October 1997, where it was backed by six remixes; the V3 mix featured guest vocals from the rapper Ice Cube, while the producer Photek created the V5 mix. The project was instigated by Nine Inch Nails' frontman Trent Reznor, continuing his and Bowie's association following the Outside Tour. Reznor, who stated that he "tried to make it a bit darker", stripped the production to its roots to create what the biographer David Buckley calls "an eerie, psychotic track". The ending result is an almost 40-minute project that, in Bowie's words, was "not just a remix [but] almost...an album piece in itself. I was absolutely knocked out when I heard what [Reznor] had...
"Let's Dance" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie, originally included as the title track of his 1983 album of the same name. Co-produced by Nile Rodgers of Chic, it was recorded in late 1982 at the Power Station in New York City.
With the assistance of engineer Bob Clearmountain, Rodgers transformed the song from its folk rock origins to a dance number through studio effects and new musicians Bowie had yet to work with. Bowie hired then-unknown Texas guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who added a blues edge.
In 1982, David Bowie left his longtime label RCA Records, having grown increasingly unsatisfied with them, and signed a new contract with EMI for a reported $17 million. With a new label and an idea for a commercial sound, he wanted to start fresh with a new producer. Around autumn, Bowie met Nile Rodgers of the American band Chic in the after-hours New York nightclub Continental, where the two developed a rapport over industry acquaintances and shared musical interests; he eventually asked him to produce his next record. Rodgers initially thought Bowie desired to continue making art rock records—a follow-up to 1980's Scary Monsters—until the artist informed him, "I want you to make hits."
"Let's Dance" was the first song recorded for the album. The sessions, co-produced by Bowie and Rodgers, took place at the Power Station in New York City during the first three weeks of December 1982. Engineered by Bob Clearmountain, the song was completed in one or two takes and set the tone for the rest of the project. The rest of the album was recorded quickly, completed in just 17 days.
Over seven minutes in length, O'Leary states that "Let's Dance" consists of a series of "set pieces", featuring individual solos by trumpet, guitar, percussion and saxophone. The track's verses and refrains are merged, with the bridge acting "as another refrain". The title comes from Chris Montez's 1962 song of the same name that Bowie had played with his first band the Kon-rads.
Pegg writes that the song "maintains a gravity absent from the rest of the album by virtue of its surprising bleakness". Containing an enigmatic sense of peril, the narrator invites his partner to dance, portrayed as a type of ceremonial engagement. Rather than dancing under a "lovers' moon", the two dance "under the moonlight"—a "serious moonlight". Although Bowie told an interviewer at the time the phrase was meaningless, Rodgers felt the "serious moonlight" was indebted to him, telling Buckley that he "used to say 'serious' all the time". Pegg finds a possible inspiration to be Aleister Crowley's 1923 composition "Lyric of Love to Leah", which features lines related to dancing in the moonlight with a lover. Perone interprets the use of...
"Starman" is a song by the English musician David Bowie. It was released on 28 April 1972 by RCA Records as the lead single of his fifth studio album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
Co-produced by Ken Scott, Bowie recorded the song on 4 February 1972 at Trident Studios in London with his backing band known as the Spiders from Mars – comprising guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick Woodmansey. The song was a late addition to the album, written as a direct response to RCA's request for a single; it replaced the Chuck Berry cover "Round and Round" on the album.
"Starman" was written as a direct response to the head of RCA, Dennis Katz's, request for a single. Author Kevin Cann writes that the title may allude to Robert A. Heinlein's 1953 novel Starman Jones, while author Chris O'Leary attributes David Rome's 1965 short story "There's a Starman in Ward 7". The song was recorded on 4 February 1972 at Trident Studios in London, towards the end of the Ziggy Stardust sessions. Also recorded during this session was "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" and "Suffragette City". Co-produced by Ken Scott, Bowie recorded it with his backing band the Spiders from Mars, comprising Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey. Author Peter Doggett finds it similar to his earlier hit "Space Oddity" in that it is a...
The lyrics describe Ziggy Stardust bringing a message of hope to Earth's youth through the radio, salvation by an alien 'Starman'. The story is told from the point of view of one of the youths who hears Ziggy. The song has inspired interpretations ranging from an allusion to the Second Coming of Christ, to an accurate prediction of the plot for the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Similar to fellow album track
"Starman" was released as the lead single of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars on 28 April 1972 by RCA Records (as RCA 2199) with "Suffragette City" as the B-side. The single originally featured a "loud mix" of the "morse-code" piano-and-guitar section between the verse and the chorus. This single mix appeared on the original UK album, but not on other vinyl editions of the album internationally, in which the "morse-code" section was lower in the mix. The single mix appeared on the 1980 compilation album The Best of Bowie, but ChangesTwoBowie (1981) and subsequent compilations featured the more subdued mix, until the "loud mix" finally reappeared on Nothing Has Changed (2014) and on Re:Call 1 as part of the 2015...
Ian Fortnam of Classic Rock, when ranking every track on the album, placed "Starman" at number two, behind "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide", writing that there are several things an octave leap can do: one can "guarantee" a hit, one can elicit an emotional response in listeners, but most importantly, when used the right way, can launch a career. While he calls Judy Garland's leap in "Over the Rainbow" the greatest octave leap of all time, Bowie's use of one on both "Starman" and "Life on Mars?" both launched his career.
"Suffragette City" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was originally released in April 1972 as the B-side of the single "Starman" and subsequently appeared on his fifth studio album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972).
The song was later reissued as a single in 1976, with the US single edit of "Stay" as the B-side, to promote the compilation album Changesonebowie in the UK. Co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott, it was recorded by Bowie at Trident Studios in London with his backing band the Spiders from Mars, consisting of Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey, at a late stage of the album's sessions.
"Suffragette City" was recorded on 4 February 1972 at Trident Studios, London, towards the end of the Ziggy Stardust sessions. Also recorded during this session were "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" and "Starman". It was co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott and recorded with Bowie's backing band the Spiders from Mars, consisting of Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey. Before recording it himself, Bowie offered "Suffragette City" to Mott the Hoople, an English band he greatly admired, provided they forgo their plan to break up. The group refused but recorded Bowie's "All the Young Dudes" instead.
"Suffragette City" was originally released on 28 April 1972 by RCA Records as the B-side of Bowie's single "Starman" (as RCA 2199). It was subsequently released as the 10th and penultimate track on his fifth studio album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, on 16 June of that year. RCA reissued the track as the A-side of a single (RCA 2726) on 9 July 1976, to promote the compilation album Changesonebowie in the UK, with the US single edit of the Station to Station track "Stay" as the B-side. The single failed to chart.
On 16 May 1972, Bowie recorded "Suffragette City" for the BBC radio programme Sounds of the 70s, presented by John Peel; the session was broadcast one week later. In 2000, this recording was released on the compilation album Bowie at the Beeb. Pegg called the performance "excellent", praising Ronson's "sharp" guitar work and the boogie-woogie piano-playing from Nicky Graham. The song was frequently performed by Bowie during concert tours throughout his career. Performances from the Ziggy Stardust Tour (1972–1973) have appeared on the live albums Live Santa Monica '72 (2008) and Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture (1983), the final concert of the tour at which Bowie unexpectedly announced it as "the last show we'll ever do". Performances...
"The Man Who Sold the World" is a song by the English musician David Bowie from his third studio album of the same name. Produced by Tony Visconti, the track was recorded at Trident and Advision Studios in London in May 1970, towards the end of the album's recording sessions.
Bowie recorded his vocal on the final day of mixing for the album, reflecting his generally dismissive attitude during the sessions. Musically, it is based around a "circular" guitar riff from Mick Ronson.
The backing track for "The Man Who Sold the World" was recorded at Trident Studios in London on 4 May 1970, along with other album track "Running Gun Blues". At this point, the track was recorded under the working title "Saviour Machine" and did not contain the title phrase. The lineup featured David Bowie on acoustic guitar, Mick Ronson on electric guitar, producer Tony Visconti on bass, Woody Woodmansey on drums and percussion, and Ralph Mace on Moog synthesiser; Ronson and Woodmansey would later become famous as a part of the Spiders from Mars. According to Visconti, Bowie recorded his vocals on 22 May at Advision Studios, the final day of mixing for the album which, when traveling to Advision, Bowie had originally intended to name...
According to Doggett, the song's title has "precursors", including a 1949 Robert A. Heinlein science fiction novella The Man Who Sold the Moon; a 1954 DC comic, "The Man Who Sold the Earth"; and a 1968 Brazilian political satire, The Man Who Bought the World. None of these have a thematic link to Bowie's song. Pegg suggests that the title partly reflects an element of "self-disgust" Bowie has over the thought of "losing control" and "selling" his private life via profoundly personal music.
The Man Who Sold the World was released in November 1970 through Mercury Records as Bowie's third studio album, with "The Man Who Sold the World" released as the eighth and penultimate track, sequenced between "She Shook Me Cold" and "The Supermen". Although no singles were issued from the album, the song appeared as the B-side on the 1973 reissue US single release of "Space Oddity" and UK single release of "Life on Mars?", both by RCA Records.
Bowie's original recording of "The Man Who Sold the World" has been released on compilation albums, including The Best of David Bowie 1969/1974 (1997), Best of Bowie (2002), Nothing Has Changed (2014) and Legacy (2016). The song, along with its parent album, has been remastered multiple times, including in 2015 as part of the box set Five Years (1969–1973). Bowie performed the song on numerous occasions. He appeared on the American television programme Saturday Night Live in December 1979, performing the song with Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias. Pegg calls this version "superb". He performed the song during his summer 2000 Mini Tour, including at the BBC Radio Theatre in London and at the Glastonbury Festival. Performances from these venues...
"Ziggy Stardust" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie from his fifth studio album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972). The song was recorded at Trident Studios in London in November 1971 with his backing band the Spiders from Mars, comprising Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey.
It was co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott. Lyrically, the song is about Ziggy Stardust, a bisexual alien rock star who acts as a messenger for extraterrestrial beings.
Bowie wrote "Ziggy Stardust" and fellow album track "Lady Stardust" "within days" of each other in early 1971. According to biographer Nicholas Pegg, it was registered with Bowie's publisher Chrysalis as early as April 1971, before the recording sessions for Hunky Dory (1971). Bowie recorded an acoustic demo of the track between February and March 1971 at Radio Luxembourg's studios in London, around the same time he recorded "Moonage Daydream" and "Hang On to Yourself" with his band Arnold Corns. This demo was released as a bonus track on the Rykodisc CD release of Ziggy Stardust in 1990. The demo also appeared on the Ziggy Stardust – 30th Anniversary Reissue bonus disc in 2002.
The song describes Bowie's alter ego Ziggy Stardust, a rock star who acts as a messenger for extraterrestrial beings. The character was inspired by English rock 'n' roll singer Vince Taylor, whom Bowie met after Taylor had a breakdown and believed himself to be a cross between a god and an alien, though Taylor was only part of the character's blueprint. Bowie's allusions to Taylor include identifying himself as a "leper messiah". Other influences included the Legendary Stardust Cowboy and Kansai Yamamoto, who designed the costumes Bowie wore during the tour. Bowie told Rolling Stone that the name "Ziggy" was "one of the few Christian names I could find beginning with the letter 'Z'". He later explained in a 1990 interview for Q magazine...
"Ziggy Stardust" is the ninth track on the Bowie's fifth studio album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, released on 16 June 1972 by RCA Records. The original recording was never released as a single, but a live version recorded at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium during the Ziggy Stardust Tour was released as a single in France and the United States in 1994 to promote the bootleg album Santa Monica '72 (1994). This version was accompanied by a video compiled from live footage shot at Dunstable Civic Hall on 21 June 1972 which, according to Pegg, offers "fascinating glimpses of an early Ziggy show in action." In the wake of Bowie's death in 2016, the song peaked at number 86 on the Portuguese AFP chart, number 75...
Bowie recorded the song for the BBC radio programmes Sounds of the 70s: John Peel and Bob Harris on 11 and 18 January 1972, respectively. On 16 May 1972, he played the song again on Sounds of the 70s: John Peel, which was broadcast a week later on 23 May 1972. The 18 January and 16 May recordings were released on the Bowie at the Beeb album in 2000, while the 11 January recording is included on the album BBC Sessions 1969–1972 (Sampler).