David Bowie by Yazan Inshewat (Music of the 60s)
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Born in 1947, David Robert Jones, later known as David Bowie was a super influential English artist who was a pioneer in pop-rock, singer-songwriter and other experimental genres of the time.
Bowie started his music career in 1963 (although not mentioned in Mel’s course). After a series of initial commercial failure his hit single “Space Oddity”, released in 1969 made it into the UK top 5 singles chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo
The single was written about the then-upcoming Apollo 11 moon landing.
“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” -Bowie
Space Oddity is still popular today, in fact in 2013 the Canadian astronaut Chris Hatfield covered the song in space aboard the International Space Station, it was the first music video ever to be recorded in space
In 1972 Bowie rebirthed as a new alter-ego which was flamboyant and experimental for the time: “Ziggy Stardust”
This new appearance was accompanied by an album that was a huge success: “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” won bowie commercial success and popularity.
This conceptual album discusses political issues, drug use, sexual orientation, the fake side of popular rock music and stardom (the rise and fall off it)
In 1973, just a year after the successful “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”. Bowie released “Aladdin Sane”. A 10-track album that has become my personal favorite. The album was co-produced by Ken Scott- one of the Beatles’ main producer. The album was influenced mainly by American culture as Bowie wrote it while on the road touring in the USA. A cover of “Let’s Spend the Night Together” by the Rolling Stones is also included.
In 1976, partially influenced by his struggle with drug addiction, Bowie moved to Berlin in order to live a cleaner life. There he also found interest in the German music scene. In Berlin, Bowie shared an appartement with his friend Iggy Pop and during their time together they worked on new music individually.
Up next came “Heroes” in 1977, the album was written during Bowie’s time in Berlin and with the help of his close friend Iggy Pop. The album showcased Bowie’s musical growth as well as his personal maturity. The track titled “Heroes” – same name as the album did not initially gather positive reviews (the album as a whole did) but later went on to become one of Bowie’s most popular songs until today- and my personal favorite.
Fast forward to 1981, Bowie collaborated with the band Queen on the super catchy single “Under Pressure”, which went on to become his 3rd single to top the UK charts (and Queen’s 2nd). The song came to be after Bowie and Freddie met by coincidence while recording individual music at the same studio in Switzerland.
In 1983 Bowie released his 15th album titled ‘Let’s Dance’, the track of the same title went on to achieve platinum sales in both the UK and USA. The album release was accompanied by several music videos which were experimental in nature.
It is also worth noting that Stevie Ray Vaughn played guitar on the track named “Let’s Dance”.
The 80’s were a great time in David Bowie’s acting career, after the end of his successful and very popular world tour in 1983.
In 1986, Bowie played the character of Jareth the goblin king in the famous classic “Labyrinth”.
In the same year he went on to star in “Absolute Beginners”, a British musical film. While the film was not as much of a success as Labyrinth, the track sharing the same title from the movie soundtrack was very popular.
in 1989, Bowie started a band with his friend and guitarist Reeves Gabrels (current guitarist of The Cure), the band was not very successful as their politicized lyrics did not receive great reception.
In 1992 Bowie married the Somali fashion model Iman and settled in New York. They had met 2 years earlier on a surprise date set up by a mutual friend.
The 90s were important in the way the world started perceiving and appreciating David’s musical achievements. In 1996 he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and just one year later he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
During the 2000s, Bowie’s health state started declining however he continued to release music, headline festivals and also star in movies.
In 2006 Bowie played Nikola Tesla in Christopher Nolan’s ever famous and amazing movie “The Prestige” – perhaps my favorite movie ever. He also received a Grammy in the same year.
Holding off a secret battle with cancer, Bowie continued to push out new music until has last album titled “Blackstar” was released on the 8th of January, 2016. The album was full of grim appearances and interesting visuals. Blackstar was Bowie’s furthest away album from his typical style, in fact during writing he listened to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly for hip-hop influences.
The track titled Lazarus in my opinion was Bowie’s way of saying goodbye as he had felt that the end was near.
David Bowie died of liver cancer on the 10th of January, 2016. Two days after the release of “Blackstar”
“Tonight, even in the low key, the glorious octave leap up to ‘Mars’ that had launched a career was no longer effortless and transcendent; it spoke of pain.” ‘ Bowie’s last live performance ever:
Published: Apr 28, 2022
Latest Revision: May 30, 2022
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