
David Bowie
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David Bowie Biography
The cliché about David Bowie says he's a musical chameleon,
adapting himself according to fashion and trends. While such a
criticism is too glib, there's no denying that Bowie demonstrated
remarkable skill for perceiving musical trends at his peak in the '70s.
After spending several years in the late '60s as a mod and as an
all-around music-hall entertainer, Bowie reinvented himself as a hippie
singer/songwriter. Prior to his breakthrough in 1972, he recorded a
proto-metal record and a pop/rock album, eventually redefining glam
rock with his ambiguously sexy Ziggy Stardust persona. Ziggy made Bowie
an international star, yet he wasn't content to continue to churn out
glitter rock. By the mid-'70s, he developed an effete, sophisticated
version of Philly soul that he dubbed plastic soul, which eventually
morphed into the eerie avant-pop of 1976's Station to Station. Shortly
afterward, he relocated to Berlin, where he recorded three experimental
electronic albums with Brian Eno. At the dawn of the '80s, Bowie was
still at the height of his powers, yet following his blockbuster
dance-pop album Let's Dance in 1983, he slowly sank into mediocrity
before salvaging his career in the early '90s. Even when he was out of
fashion in the '80s and '90s, it was clear that Bowie was one of the
most influential musicians in rock, for better and for worse. Each one
of his phases in the '70s sparked a number of subgenres, including
punk, new wave, goth rock, the new romantics, and electronica. Few
rockers ever had such lasting impact.
David Jones began performing music when he was 13 years old, learning
the saxophone while he was at Bromley Technical High School; another
pivotal event happened at the school, when his left pupil became
permanently dilated in a schoolyard fight. Following his graduation at
16, he worked as a commercial artist while playing saxophone in a
number of mod bands, including the King Bees, the Manish Boys (which
also featured Jimmy Page as a session man), and Davey Jones & the
Lower Third. All three of those bands released singles, which were
generally ignored, yet he continued performing, changing his name to
David Bowie in 1966 after the Monkees' Davy Jones became an
international star. Over the course of 1966, he released three mod
singles on Pye Records, which were all ignored. The following year, he
signed with Deram, releasing the music hall, Anthony Newley-styled
David Bowie that year. Upon completing the record, he spent several
weeks in a Scottish Buddhist monastery. Once he left the monastery, he
studied with Lindsay Kemp's mime troupe, forming his own mime company,
the Feathers, in 1969. The Feathers were short-lived, and he formed the
experimental art group Beckenham Arts Lab in 1969.
Bowie needed to finance the Arts Lab, so he signed with Mercury Records
that year and released Man of Words, Man of Music, a trippy
singer/songwriter album featuring Space Oddity. The song was released
as a single and became a major hit in the U.K., convincing Bowie to
concentrate on music. Hooking up with his old friend Marc Bolan, he
began miming at some of Bolan's T. Rex concerts, eventually touring
with Bolan, bassist/producer Tony Visconti, guitarist Mick Ronson, and
drummer Cambridge as Hype. The band quickly fell apart, yet Bowie and
Ronson remained close, working on the material that formed Bowie's next
album, The Man Who Sold the World, as well as recruiting Michael
Woody Woodmansey as their drummer. Produced by Tony Visconti, who
also played bass, The Man Who Sold the World was a heavy guitar rock
album that failed to gain much attention. Bowie followed the album in
late 1971 with the pop/rock Hunky Dory, an album that featured Ronson
and keyboardist Rick Wakeman.
Following the release of Hunky Dory, Bowie began to develop his most
famous incarnation, Ziggy Stardust: an androgynous, bisexual rock star
from another planet. Before he unveiled Ziggy, Bowie claimed in a
January 1972 interview with the Melody Maker that he was gay, helping
to stir interest in his forthcoming album. Taking cues from Bolan's
stylish glam rock, Bowie dyed his hair orange and began wearing women's
clothing. He began calling himself Ziggy Stardust, and his backing band
-- Ronson, Woodmansey, and bassist Trevor Bolder -- were the Spiders
from Mars. The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from
Mars was released with much fanfare in England in late 1972. The album
and its lavish, theatrical concerts became a sensation throughout
England, and it helped him become the only glam rocker to carve out a
niche in America. Ziggy Stardust became a word-of-mouth hit in the
U.S., and the re-released Space Oddity -- which was now also the
title of the re-released Man of Words, Man of Music -- reached the
American Top 20. Bowie quickly followed Ziggy with Aladdin Sane later
in 1973. Not only did he record a new album that year, but he also
produced Lou Reed's Transformer, the Stooges' Raw Power, and Mott the
Hoople's comeback All the Young Dudes, for which he also wrote the
title track.
Given the amount of work Bowie packed into 1972 and 1973, it wasn't
surprising that his relentless schedule began to catch up with him.
After recording the all-covers Pin-Ups with the Spiders from Mars, he
unexpectedly announced the band's breakup, as well as his retirement
from live performances, during the group's final show that year. He
retreated from the spotlight to work on a musical adaptation of George
Orwell's 1984, but once he was denied the rights to the novel, he
transformed the work into Diamond Dogs. The album was released to
generally poor reviews in 1974, yet it generated the hit single Rebel
Rebel, and he supported the album with an elaborate and expensive
American tour. As the tour progressed, Bowie became fascinated with
soul music, eventually redesigning the entire show to reflect his new
plastic soul. Hiring guitarist Carlos Alomar as the band's leader,
Bowie refashioned his group into a Philly soul band and recostumed
himself in sophisticated, stylish fashions. The change took fans by
surprise, as did the double-album David Live, which featured material
recorded on the 1974 tour.
Young Americans, released in 1975, was the culmination of Bowie's soul
obsession, and it became his first major crossover hit, peaking in the
American Top Ten and generating his first U.S. number one hit in
Fame, a song he co-wrote with John Lennon and Alomar. Bowie relocated
to Los Angeles, where he earned his first movie role in Nicolas Roeg's
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). While in L.A., he recorded Station to
Station, which took the plastic soul of Young Americans into darker,
avant-garde-tinged directions, yet was also a huge hit, generating the
Top Ten single Golden Years. The album inaugurated Bowie's persona of
the elegant Thin White Duke, and it reflected Bowie's growing
cocaine-fueled paranoia. Soon, he decided Los Angeles was too boring
and returned to England; shortly after arriving back in London, he gave
the awaiting crowd a Nazi salute, a signal of his growing, drug-addled
detachment from reality. The incident caused enormous controversy, and
Bowie left the country to settle in Berlin, where he lived and worked
with Brian Eno.
Once in Berlin, Bowie sobered up and began painting, as well as
studying art. He also developed a fascination with German electronic
music, which Eno helped him fulfill on their first album together, Low.
Released early in 1977, Low was a startling mixture of electronics,
pop, and avant-garde technique. While it was greeted with mixed reviews
at the time, it proved to be one of the most influential albums of the
late '70s, as did its follow-up, Heroes, which followed that year. Not
only did Bowie record two solo albums in 1977, but he also helmed Iggy
Pop's comeback records The Idiot and Lust for Life, and toured
anonymously as Pop's keyboardist. He resumed his acting career in 1977,
appearing in Just A Gigolo with Marlene Dietrich and Kim Novak, as well
as narrating Eugene Ormandy's version of Peter and the Wolf. Bowie
returned to the stage in 1978, launching an international tour that was
captured on the double-album Stage. During 1979, Bowie and Eno recorded
Lodger in New York, Switzerland, and Berlin, releasing the album at the
end of the year. Lodger was supported with several innovative videos,
as was 1980's Scary Monsters, and these videos -- DJ, Fashion,
Ashes to Ashes -- became staples on early MTV.
Scary Monsters was Bowie's last album for RCA, and it wrapped up his
most innovative, productive period. Later in 1980, he performed the
title role in stage production of The Elephant Man, including several
shows on Broadway. Over the next two years, he took an extended break
from recording, appearing in Christine F (1982) and the vampire movie
The Hunger (1982), returning to the studio only for his 1981
collaboration with Queen, Under Pressure, and the theme for Paul
Schrader's remake of Cat People. In 1983, he signed an expensive
contract with EMI Records and released Let's Dance. Bowie had recruited
Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers to produce the album, giving the record a
sleek, funky foundation, and hired the unknown Stevie Ray Vaughan as
lead guitarist. Let's Dance became his most successful record, thanks
to stylish, innovative videos for Let's Dance and China Girl, which
turned both songs into Top Ten hits. Bowie supported the record with
the sold-out arena tour Serious Moonlight.
Greeted with massive success for the first time, Bowie wasn't quite
sure how to react, and he eventually decided to replicate Let's Dance
with 1984's Tonight. While the album sold well, producing the Top Ten
hit Blue Jean, it received poor reviews and ultimately was a
commercial disappointment. He stalled in 1985, recording a duet of
Martha & the Vandellas' Dancing in the Street with Mick Jagger
for Live Aid. He also spent more time jet-setting, appearing at
celebrity events across the globe, and appeared in several movies --
Into the Night (1985), Absolute Beginners (1986), Labyrinth (1986) --
that turned out to be bombs. Bowie returned to recording in 1987 with
the widely panned Never Let Me Down, supporting the album with the
Glass Spider tour, which also received poor reviews. In 1989, he
remastered his RCA catalog with Rykodisc for CD release, kicking off
the series with the three-disc box Sound + Vision. Bowie supported the
discs with an accompanying tour of the same name, claming that he was
retiring all of his older characters from performance following the
tour. Sound + Vision was successful, and Ziggy Stardust re-charted
amidst the hoopla.
Sound + Vision may have been a success, but Bowie's next project was
perhaps his most unsuccessful. Picking up on the abrasive, dissonant
rock of Sonic Youth and the Pixies, Bowie formed his own guitar rock
combo, Tin Machine, with guitarist Reeves Gabrels, bassist Hunt Sales,
and his drummer brother Tony, who had previously worked on Iggy Pop's
Lust for Life with Bowie. Tin Machine released an eponymous album to
poor reviews that summer and supported it with a club tour, which was
only moderately successful. Despite the poor reviews, Tin Machine
released a second album, the appropriately titled Tin Machine II, in
1991, and it was completely ignored.
Bowie returned to a solo career in 1993 with the sophisticated, soulful
Black Tie White Noise, recording the album with Nile Rodgers and his
now-permanent collaborator, Reeves Gabrels. The album was released on
Savage, a subsidiary of RCA, and received positive reviews, but his new
label went bankrupt shortly after its release, and the album
disappeared. Black Tie White Noise was the first indication that Bowie
was trying hard to resuscitate his career, as was the largely
instrumental 1994 soundtrack The Buddha of Suburbia. In 1995, he
reunited with Brian Eno for the wildly hyped, industrial rock-tinged
Outside. Several critics hailed the album as a comeback, and Bowie
supported it with a co-headlining tour with Nine Inch Nails in order to
snag a younger, alternative audience, but his gambit failed; audiences
left before Bowie's performance and Outside disappeared. He quickly
returned to the studio in 1996, recording Earthling, an album heavily
influenced by techno and drum'n'bass. Upon its early 1997 release,
Earthling received generally positive reviews, yet the album failed to
gain an audience, and many techno purists criticized Bowie for
allegedly exploiting their subculture. hours... followed in 1999. For
2002, Bowie reunited with producerToni Visconti and released Heathen to
very positive reviews. He continued on with Visconti for Reality in
2003. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Written by Stephen Thomas Erlewine