Singer David Bowie. David Bowie: biography, personal life, creativity
David Bowie: short biography
Called a musical chameleon due to his ever-changing appearance and sound, future rock star David Bowie was born in London on 01/08/47. The real name of the British singer is David Robert Jones. He showed an interest in music from an early age and began playing the saxophone at age 13. David was significantly influenced by his half-brother Terry, who was nine years older and introduced him to the worlds of rock music and beat literature. But Terry was not well. He suffered from mental illness, due to which his family was forced to place him in a mental institution. This haunted David all his life. Terry committed suicide in 1985. The tragedy formed the basis of Bowie's song Jump They Say.
After graduating from Bromley Technical School at the age of 16, David began working as an artist. He continued to play with a number of bands and formed his own called Davy Jones and the Lower Third. Several singles were released then, but none of them gave the much-needed to a young performer commercial impulse.
Carier start
Out of fear that he would be confused with Davy Jones of the Monkeys, the aspiring artist changed his last name - he was inspired by a knife named after the 19th century American folk hero Jim Bowie.
Eventually, David began performing alone. But after an unsuccessful solo album he temporarily left the music world. As often happened in his later life, these years turned out to be experimental for the young artist. For several weeks in 1967, he lived in a Buddhist monastery in Scotland. Bowie later formed his own mime troupe called the Feathers.
Pop star
By early 1969, Bowie had returned to music. He signed an agreement with record company Mercury Records and the single “Space Oddity” was released in the summer. Bowie later admitted that the song came to him after watching Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The composition quickly resonated with the public, in large part due to the fact that the BBC used it during its coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The track was also a success upon its release in the US in 1972, peaking at number 15 on the charts.
Bowie's next album, The Man Who Sold the World (1970), brought him even closer to fame. The recording featured a heavier rock sound than previous compositions and included the song "Everybody's Crazy", dedicated to his brother Terry. The next effort, “Hunky Dory” (1971), included two hits: the title track, which was dedicated to Bob Dylan and the Velvet Underground, and “Changes,” which became the embodiment of David himself.
Ziggy Stardust
As Bowie's celebrity status grew, so did Bowie's desire to keep fans and critics constantly guessing. In an interview with Melody Maker magazine in January 1972, he claimed to be gay and then introduced the imaginary rock star Ziggy Stardust and his backing band, the Spiders from Mars, into the pop world. His 1972 album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders of Mars, made him a superstar. Dressed in a suit from some wild future, the British singer ushered in a new era in rock music that seemed to officially announce the end of the 1960s and the era of Woodstock.
Was David Bowie gay? The singer's biography is full of contradictory facts. In September 1976, in an interview with Playboy magazine, he announced that he was bisexual. According to his first wife, Bowie had an affair with Mick Jagger. However, in a 1983 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he said that he had always been heterosexual.
More change
David Bowie, whose biography is marked by frequent changes of images, also quickly changed the image of Stardust. The singer took advantage of his popularity and produced collections and Lou Reed. In 1973, he broke up Spiders from Mars and shelved Ziggy. David Bowie musical works in the style of glam rock, collected in the collection Alladin Sane (1973). The release included the songs "Genie Jean" and "Let's Spend the Night Together", which were the result of his collaborations with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Around the same time, he expressed his passion for English fashion and released Pin Ups, an album of cover versions of songs popular groups, including Pink Floyd and Pretty Things.
Conquest of America
By the mid-1970s, Bowie had undergone a full-scale reinvention. Gone are the outrageous costumes and flashy sets. In just two years, he released the albums Diamond Dogs (1974) and Young Americans (1975). The former went to number one in the UK with the hits Rebel Rebel and Diamond Dogs, and number five in the US. Promotional tour of North America ran from June to December 1974. The big-budget production featured theatrical special effects, but was marred by David Bowie's mental illness. Documentary Cracked Actor, directed by Alan Entob, depicts a pale and emaciated singer suffering from a severe drug addiction. The album Young Americans featured a young Luther Vandross on backing vocals, and the song "Glory", written with Carlos Alomar and John Lennon, became Bowie's first American single to reach number one on the charts.
After moving to Los Angeles, David Bowie recorded the song Station to Station, which made the plastic soul of the Young Americans collection more avant-garde, and the track became a hit. Bowie soon decided that the city was too boring for him and returned to England. After arriving in London, he greeted crowds of fans with a Nazi-like wave of his hand, a manifestation of the drug-addicted singer's growing detachment from reality. The incident caused a huge scandal, and Bowie left the country to live in Berlin, where he lived and worked with Brian Eno.
In Berlin, David came to his senses and began drawing and studying art. He became interested in German electronic music, and Eno helped record their first joint album Low. Released in 1977, the release was a stunning blend electronic music, pop and avant-garde. Although the collection received mixed reviews, it proved to be one of the most influential albums of the late '70s, as did its follow-up, Heroes, released the same year. In 1977, Bowie not only recorded two collections of solo compositions, but also produced recordings of Iggy Pop's tracks "Idiot" and "Lust for Life" and toured anonymously as his keyboardist. That same year, David resumed his acting career by starring in the film Just Gigolo with and Kim Novak. He returned to the stage in 1978, starting an international tour, the recording of which was released as a double album, Stage.
In 1980, David Bowie, whose biography was again connected with New York, released the collection Scary Monsters. The release received positive reviews and included the single "Ashes to Ashes", a kind of new version early composition “Cosmic Oddity”. The release was accompanied by a number of innovative videos (Fashion, DJ, Ashes to Ashes), which became the basis of early MTV.
Three years later, Bowie recorded Let's Dance (1983), which featured hits such as "Modern Love" and "Chinese Girl" and the guitar virtuoso of Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Works in cinema
Of course, music is not the only thing David Bowie was interested in. The singer's biography is marked by his participation in many feature films. His love for cinema helped him get the lead role in the 1976 film “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” In 1980, Bowie performed on Broadway in The Elephant Man, and his performance was critically acclaimed. In 1986, he starred as Jareth in the fantasy adventure film Labyrinth, directed and produced by George Lucas. The actor performed with a young Jennifer Connelly and the dolls in the film, which became a classic of the 1980s. Just a Gigolo (1978), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, Hunger (1983), Linguini Incident (1991) - pictures in which David Bowie played the main role. Films he played in cameo roles- “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988) and Zoolander (2001). In addition, he participated in several television series, as well as documentaries about his career.
In decline in popularity
Over the next decade, David Bowie tried to combine films and music, which negatively affected his popularity. The artist's musical career began to decline. His side project with musicians Reeve Gabrels and Tony and Hunt Sales, known as Tin Machine, produced two self-titled albums in 1989 and 1991, which were failures. The much-hyped 1993 compilation Black Tie White Noise, which David Bowie called a wedding gift for his new wife supermodel Iman Abdulmajid also struggled to gain the attention of music lovers.
Ironically, David's most popular creation from this period was bonds backed by royalties from his pre-1990 work. Bowie issued the securities in 1997 and earned $55 million from the sale. The rights to the songs were returned to him when the bonds expired in 2007.
Last years
In 2004, Bowie suffered a heart attack while performing on stage in Germany. He made a full recovery and returned to work with the band Arcade Fire and American actress Scarlett Johansson on her album Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008) - a collection of cover versions of Tom Waits compositions.
David Bowie was awarded a Grammy Award in 2006. He remained silent for several years until the release of his 2013 album, which rocketed to number two on the Billboard charts the very next day. IN next year Bowie released a best-of collection, Nothing's Changed, which featured a new song, "Sue." In 2015, he participated in the production of the rock musical Lazarus, starring Michael C. Hall, which refreshed the image of his character from the film The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Bowie released his last album, Blackstar, on 01/08/16, when he turned 69 years old. The New York Times critic noted that it was "strange, irreverent and ultimately useful work with a mood created by the bitter awareness of mortality." Only a few days later the world learned that the album was recorded under difficult conditions.
Death and posthumous awards
The pop icon died on January 10, 2016, two days after his 69th birthday. A post on his Facebook page stated that the singer died quietly surrounded by his family after a year and a half of battle with cancer. David Bowie's wife Iman, his son, daughter Alexandria and adopted daughter Zulekha Haywood were left without a husband and father. The musician's legacy consists of 26 released albums. His producer and friend Tony Visconti wrote on Facebook that Blackstar was a "parting gift."
David Bowie's death shocked his friends and fans. Iggy Pop tweeted that his friendship was the light of his life. He had never met such a brilliant person. The Rolling Stones remembered him as a "wonderful and kind man" who was "truly original." And even those who did not know him personally felt the influence of his work. Kanye West tweeted: "David Bowie was one of my most important inspirations." According to Madonna, this great artist changed her life.
In February 2017 last work Bowie won in the Grammy categories for Best Production Design, Best Engineering, Best Rock Performance, and Best Album alternative rock" and "Best rock composition".
David Bowie: biography. Family
In the late 1960s, the British singer met American top model Angela Barnett. Their wedding took place on March 19, 1970, and on May 30, 1971, the couple had a son. They divorced in 1980. Bowie's son is now known by his real name, Duncan Jones.
On April 24, 1992, in Lausanne, David married the Somali-American model Iman. The wedding took place on June 6 in Florence. In August 2000, the couple had a daughter, Alexandria Zahra Jones. The couple lived in New York and London, and owned apartments in Sydney.
On July 10, 2016, exactly 6 months after the death of David Bowie, his grandson was born, whose father was Duncan.
Celebrity biographies
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He took 39th place in Rolling Stone's prestigious top list ("100 greatest performers rock music of all times"), sold more than 136 million records, he shocked and surprised, inspired and changed styles - from the “alien” and androgyne to the aristocratic decadent. The biography of David Bowie is unique, and on the 70th birthday of the British songwriter and rock singer, we will remember its main milestones.
Biography of David Bowie
School choir member and fidget
David Robert Jones (this is the musician's real name) was the son of Londoners, his mother worked in a cinema, his father in the personnel department. The Joneses' only son was born on January 8, 1947. At first the family lived in the Brixton area, then moved to Bromley. Even then, when he went to school, David surprised everyone with his desire for self-expression. He was a school choir member, took part in concerts with enthusiasm, but did not like lessons very much, and was known as a fidget and a fighter.
He heard the voice of God
David Bowie's life changed when he started buying vinyl records and listening to rock musicians, he was especially struck by Elvis Presley. It was then that the Briton decided that he too would become a singer; he called Presley’s voice “the voice of God.” David began learning to play the guitar, and as a young man he mastered acoustic and bass guitars, piano and ukulele. He would later become an outstanding multi-instrumentalist. His first musical group appeared at school - in 1962, the guys performed at parties. Bowie tried to study at college, but after the first year he left there, dreaming of devoting himself only to music.
Androgynous messiah Ziggy
Where did the pseudonym "David Bowie" come from? It's simple: one David Jones already reigned on the rock scene - he was the lead singer of The Monkees, so our hero began to look for another sonorous surname, and found: “Bowie knife” means “hunting knife.”
David did not follow the beaten path, he invented his own direction, which was later dubbed “glam rock.” Already in the mid-1960s, he appeared on stage in unusual, shocking images, and his music was innovative, sometimes psychedelic, sometimes glamorous. The experiments were successful and not so successful. So, in 1972, Bowie asked everyone to call himself “Ziggy Stardust” and said that he was a science fiction character designed to save our world. The most famous album of this androgynous hero was called “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.”
Age of the White Duke
But the image of the “Haggard White Duke” became more famous, then Bowie really was emaciated and very addicted to cocaine. The album (and single of the same name) “Young Americans” dates back to this period. It was probably a tribute to the American singers that David listened to as a teenager. In 1976, the musician went to travel around Europe and stayed in Switzerland and Germany, where the “Berlin Trilogy” was born (three discs released in 1977 and 1979).
The army of fans grew, as did the influence of the singer’s transformations and creativity on his colleagues. In the early 1980s, the album “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” was wildly popular; it brought the vocalist incredible income. At the same time, David Bowie’s biography began to include more performances with colleagues - he collaborated with many, from Iggy Pop to Cher and Tina Turner. The White Duke was forgotten, as were the drugs.
He could have been Chapman's victim
Bowie was greatly affected by the murder of John Lennon, especially since the psychopath Chapman had targeted David as his second victim. Even in his testimony, the criminal emphasized: if it had not worked out with John, he would have shot David. So David Bowie's death was bypassed that time.
The singer continued to experiment, used soul in his compositions, and enriched them with electronic sound, tried hip-hop, jungle and drum and bass. This is especially noticeable in his concept album “1.Outside” (it was supposed to be the first in the series, but something didn’t work out).
After the release of the disc “Reality” in 2003, during a promotional tour to promote it, Bowie felt ill. David was admitted to the clinic and had surgery (an artery was blocked in the shoulder area). The singer took an indefinite leave of absence, some people decided that creative biography David Bowie is over. But after a couple of years he returned and toured a lot. True, the release of the new album was delayed - until 2013.
Alien, Gigolo, Vampire, Goblin King, Pilate
Throughout his musical career, Bowie acted in films quite a lot, although he himself joked that he was more often invited to strange roles - from aliens to transvestites. Indeed, David's debut on big screen- This is the role of the alien Thomas in the science fiction film “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” released in mid-1976.
But, for example, the image of the military man Paul in the drama “Beautiful Gigolo - Unhappy Gigolo” is quite “human”. By the way, this film is the last work of Marlene Dietrich, she played the owner of an underground brothel for old rich women, and Bowie’s hero was one of her “call boys.”
Tony Scott's decadent fantasy drama The Hunger is making waves. This arthouse film was about a couple of vampires (Bowie and Catherine Deneuve) who were faced with a problem: John Blaylock suddenly began to age, although ghouls are immortal. And then his passion found a new toy - a pretty doctor (Susan Sarandon).
One of the most bright roles David Bowie's acting biography featured the role of Jareth, the goblin king who kidnapped the little brother of Jennifer Connelly's young heroine (the excellent gothic fantasy Labyrinth). The elaborate suit and long-haired wig made Bowie a charming and irresistible monster. The musician wrote no less beautiful compositions for this Jim Henson film.
In Martin Scorsese's controversial adaptation of the controversial novel The Last Temptation of Christ, the singer unexpectedly appeared as Pontius Pilate.
Joker in the deck of fate
They say that Tim Burton wanted to invite an Englishman to play the role of the Joker in his film “Batman”, but still settled on the candidacy of Nicholson. But Bowie worked with David Lynch (the thriller Twin Peaks: Walkthrough the Fire) and Christopher Nolan. In the thriller "Prestige" the singer reincarnated as one of the most mysterious scientists victorian era– played by Nikola Tesla.
Bowie’s thirtieth studio disc, “The Next Day,” was released in January 2013, and exactly 3 years later, to the same day, the disc “Blackstar” was released. It was timed to coincide with the author's 69th birthday. It turned out that this is the final “joker” in the deck of David Bowie’s life.
Everyone was discussing the stunning video by the British artist “Lazarus” (later the video would be called a terrible prophecy). And 3 days after the 69th birthday of the glam rock icon, the world learned the terrible news about the death of David Bowie. It turned out that for a year and a half the singer struggled with cancer, liver cancer.
Personal life of David Bowie
Stormy youth
Despite the constant rumors about the singer's bisexuality (and even homosexuality), he married twice. David Bowie's first wife Angela lived with him for 10 years. It was a turbulent time, and when the singer decided to settle down and quit cocaine (in 1980), he divorced Angie.
They have a son together, Duncan Jones, born in 1971 (he famous director, who directed “Warcraft”). Later, the singer lamented how little time he spent with his son, but when Duncan grew up, the two got along.
Beautiful Iman and baby Lexi
The divorce from his first wife took place in 1980, and in 1992 the musician walked down the aisle again - it was a very magnificent ceremony in Florence. David Bowie's second wife is the famous model Iman ( full name– Iman Abdulmajid), a native of Somalia. The couple lived either in the USA (in New York, Manhattan) or in London.
The singer was very happy and lavished compliments on his other half, calling her the most beautiful in the world - and not only in appearance.
Thanks to this new turn in his life, David Bowie once again became a father, quite late - at 53 years old. The daughter was named Alexandria - Lexi.
This morning, sad news spread around the world: one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century, one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century, died at the age of 69. David Bowie. After a year and a half of fighting cancer, the disease finally won. But millions of fans refuse to believe the obituaries: just a couple of days ago, on January 8, on his own birthday, David released new album "Blackstar". Maybe this is all a cunning marketing ploy by the brilliant Bowie? After all, he repeatedly “killed” his stage characters in order to soon appear on stage in a completely new image. One thing is certain: without this gentleman, the modern pop and rock scene would look completely different. In memory of the musician, we offer a selection unusual facts from the life of this truly extraordinary man
1. Knife Man and Mick Jagger
The real name of the musician is David Jones. A Bowie is the name of an English hunting knife. David decided to take a pseudonym in 1966 so that he would not be confused with the then famous vocalist Davy Jones, a member of The Monkees. What does Mick Jagger have to do with it? It’s just that “jagger” is translated from Old English as “knife”. And young David, being a fan The Rolling Stones, borrowed the idea.
2. Fight with your best friend
Who doesn't quarrel with friends as a teenager? But not all quarrels leave an imprint for life. At the age of 15, the future music legend got into a fight with his friend, George Underwood. Of course, because of the girl. The fist with Underwood's ring ended up in David's left eye. The injury was so significant that Bowie risked going blind. After four months of operations, doctors saved the vision of the future rock star, but the damaged eye lost color perception and its the pupil always remained dilated. Which, among other things, made the musician’s appearance even more unusual.
It is noteworthy that after this drama the guys made peace and remained friends. In the future, artist Underwood will even create illustrations for Bowie's early albums. Boys will be boys.
3. Bowie is a “techie”
Despite his early talent in the arts, after school David went to study at Bromley Technical High School, where he studied typographic layout and printing. That didn’t stop him from studying music at the same time and putting together his own group.
4. Man on the Moon
Bowie became a star in 1969 after the release of the single "Space Oddity"(“Strange Case in Space”). The topic of space travel was of concern to many at the time, and the “alien” image of the musician took off. The song "Space Oddity" was even played in BBC reports on the Apollo 11 moon landing and Apollo 13 flight.
5. The Man Who Sold the World
A well-known song The Man Who Sold the World performed by the group Nirvana actually belongs to David Bowie. In 1970, the musician in the form Ziggy Stardust released an album of the same name. Kurt Cobain was 3 years old at the time.
6. The Star That Was Afraid to Fly
Despite the rapid rise in career and increased interest in outer space, in his youth, Bowie was afraid of flying. Even your first visit to Russia in 1973 During the Ziggy Stardust Tour, the musician traveled by land. But the journey was by no means close: the road from Yokohama (Japan) to Moscow took as long as 18 days.
7. Moonwalk
This will be a revelation for many, but the first artist to perform the famous “moonwalk” on stage was David Bowie. The unusual moves were part of his performance on the 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour. It is noteworthy that one of the concerts was attended by a young Michael Jackson, who in later interviews said that he was struck by both the performance in general and the musician’s manner of moving in particular.
8. “Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars.”
This and similar statements that Bowie allowed himself in interviews in the mid-to-late 70s became the cause of a lot of scandals. Soon the musician began to renounce his previous views in every possible way, publicly take back his words and donate money to anti-racism funds. According to his admission, at that time he was “out of his mind, completely crazy,” and the culprit was his passion for Nietzsche and, of course, hard drugs. Underline whatever applicable.
9. Made up language
Lyrics Subterraneans from the album Low (1977) written in a non-existent language invented by Bowie himself.
10. 10 groups
Throughout his career, David Bowie was a member of 10 musical groups, and in some he played all instruments alternately. Here is the full list of his commands: The Konrads, The Hooker Brothers, The King Bees, The Manish Boys, The Lower Third, The Buzz, The Riot Squad, The Hype, Tin Machine And Tao Jones Index.
11. Multi-instrumentalist
Few people know that Bowie is not only a talented poet and performer, but also a top-class musician. He played many instruments beautifully: guitar, saxophone, harmonica, piano, synthesizer, mellotron, stylophone, xylophone, vibraphone, koto, drums and percussion. And at the same time there was left-handed.
12. Max Zorin and Joker
Bowie's unusual appearance and ability to easily change images provided him with many offers to play in films. Especially the villains. For example, a musician was invited to play the role Max Zorin and in bondians(episode "A View to a Kill", 1985) and considered him for the role Joker in Batman. David himself refused the first offer, citing that he did not want to “spend five months watching your stunt double fall from the mountains.” In the end the role went to Christopher Walken. And he played the Joker Jack Nicholson.
13. Pontius Pilate
But Mr. Bowie happily agreed to the controversial role of Pontius Pilate in the sensational Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" in 1988. Since I'm playing villains, it's of biblical proportions.
14. Morrissey
In the early 90s, 70s icon Bowie becomes friends with 80s icon Morrissey (The Smiths). Musicians record cover versions of each other's songs, shower each other with compliments and demonstrate mutual admiration in every possible way. But the legendary friendship ends quickly and ugly in 1995: Bowie invites Morrissey on a joint tour, but in the end Moz performs, in fact, as an opening act for David, while fans are not yet filling the hall. Bowie's demand to replace a musician from his colleague's team with his own becomes the last straw. Under the pretext of illness, Morrissey leaves the tour and never speaks to David again. A few years later, he would only briefly, in his characteristic caustic manner, speak about that incident: “Bowie was a great artist in 1973, but not now.”
15. Tea
Being a true Briton, Bowie nevertheless hated tea. After a mysterious “tea incident” at the age of 5, the musician forever disliked this traditional drink.
16. The King Who Refused the Queen
Bowie has a son from his first marriage. He inherited from his father not only his stage name ( Duncan Zoe Heywood Jones also known as Zoe Bowie), but also talent. True, Duncan is not a singer, he is a director. Among his most famous works– sci-fi drama "Moon 2112". Apparently love for space travel also transmitted with genes.
19. Iman
In 1992, the scandalous star and eligible bachelor Bowie (his first ten-year marriage ended in 1980) married for the second time. The chosen one is the Somali model Iman. The black beauty gave the musician a daughter, got a tattoo of that same Bowie hunting knife on her ankle, and was with her husband until the end.
But the king of rock and roll cannot die. The maximum is to go back to the cold stars while his songs continue to live on Earth.
More rare pictures David and others.
British rock legend, artist, actor, producer and great experimenter David Bowie has passed away at just under 70 years old. The cause of death was cancer, which he fought for 18 months. The fifty-year career of the “chameleon of rock music,” as he is often called due to his constant experiments with appearance and style, is enough for more than one biopic. He has been recognized more than once as the greatest of the greatest - Bowie's music has inspired and continues to inspire the most talented musicians of the era, David is one of the most influential Britons of our time, he is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2003 he was almost awarded a knighthood, but refused .
Every person who is at least a little interested in music should read the biography of this great, without a doubt and all “buts,” musician. We are sure that it will not be difficult to find a meaningful article about the stages of Bowie’s formation as a musician and legend, so we will not dwell on the usual “birth, growing up, development”, but will tell you only about a few interesting moments from Bowie’s life, which are better than any biographer, describe the personality of the musician.
- In August 2011, David Bowie announced his retirement from music. More precisely, the fact that the musician will no longer appear on stage was announced by his biographer Paul Trinca, who also emphasized that the singer will appear on stage only if he is ready to produce a “genuine earthquake.” Two years later, in 2013, Bowie released his first single in 10 years, “Where Are We Now?”, and on November 20, 2015, the title track from the album “Blackstar” was released, which was released in full on the musician’s birthday, January 8, 2016. Both release really had the effect of a bomb.
- Bowie's eyes are one of his fans' fetishes. Firstly, they different color, one is blue and the other is brown. Secondly, the pupil of the left eye is always dilated. According to legend, at the age of 16, David got into a fight with his friend George Underwood over a girl, and he injured his eye. Since then, the pupil has atrophied. By the way, at the beginning of his career, Bowie tried to give significance to this feature of his, actively using a brown pencil along the very line of eyelash growth. Great move!
- Bowie explains his “schizoidness” with two facts from his childhood. He was born in London, but after leaving school he moved to Yorkshire, in the north of England, and lived there on a farm. During his time there he became intimately familiar with the Brixton slums, with their complex population and social problems, and the peaceful village life. These two opposing worlds firmly settled in the musician’s head and became, in his own words, the basis of his dual attitude towards life and the world.
- In addition to his musical career, Bowie has several film credits to his name, the main one being his first film, released in 1976, “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” The film tells about an alien who finds himself among people and tries to maintain his original duality. On the outside he is a man, but on the inside he is still an alien. After watching it, it’s hard to believe that everything described is fiction. Another film that is worth highlighting in the musician’s filmography is “Labyrinth.” Below you can watch an excerpt from the tape.
- Moving to the USA became one of the most important moments in Bowie's life. He greatly changed his attitude towards the world and the surrounding reality. He was especially surprised by the views of the Americans; they seemed broad and comprehensive to him, unlike those to which he was accustomed in his native Britain, including the attitude towards music: “Here (in the USA) music is a means of total communication. But here (in the UK) music is something to be listened to.”
- Want to know what kind of music Bowie himself liked? Pixies, Sonic Youth, The Cure, Velvet Underground, Elgar, Little Richard, The Mekons.
- In the 1980s, pop music underwent further changes. New attitude, new sound, new heroes. Bowie had something to say about this too. It seemed to him that over the course of a decade, music had lost its sexuality and, surprisingly, the musician himself was extremely impressed. Sex neatly and imperceptibly became almost taboo topic, which gave a lot of new options and opportunities for creativity. This is what the musician stated, although not without fear.
- The bisexuality of a musician is one of the most sensitive and discussed topics. Much has been said and written about this subject by various journalists, but it was best said, unsurprisingly, by Bowie himself. In January 1972, in an interview with Melody Maker magazine, David spoke for the first time about his bisexuality, and in September 1976 he confirmed it again in an interview with Playboy. True, already in 1980, in an interview with Rolling Stone, he called those confessions “the biggest mistake he ever made,” stating that such a coming out was made for the sake of fashion. A more detailed and extensive comment followed only in 2002, when the musician told Blender magazine that this recognition prevented him from realizing a lot of what he dreamed of. According to the musician, he did not at all want to carry someone’s flag and represent a particular group, even if this was true.
- Famous image fictional character Ziggy Stardust, created by David Bowie for his album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, appeared in David's head after meeting rock musician Vince Taylor. This is his alter ego - one of the most replicated images of our time.
British rock singer David Bowie has died at the age of 70. On January 8, the singer celebrated his 69th birthday and released a new album, Blackstar. The musician passed away after an 18-month battle with cancer, news of his death appeared on the official website, which said: “While many of you sympathize with the loss, we ask you to respect privacy families in times of grief." Help us remember the work of David Bowie Interesting Facts from his biography.
1. Bowie claimed that at the age of five he had a "horrible accident" involving tea - and has never drunk it since.
2. David graduated from school with a grade of “0” in art.
3. At the age of eight, Bowie had a dream of becoming a saxophonist. This prompted him to buy his first saxophone, although it was made of pink plastic. For the sake of such a purchase, little Dave was forced to carry orders for the butcher shop. In 1961, his mother gave him an alto saxophone. best quality.
4. Bowie's right pupil is always dilated - the result of a school fight he had with a friend named George Underwood. The quarrel was, of course, over a girl. Doctors feared that he would lose his sight, but were able to perform a series of operations and prevent blindness. It was not possible to completely restore his vision - as a result of the injury, Bowie developed defective perception of the depth of his visual field. Having become famous, the artist stated that although he can see with his injured eye, the perception of color is lost (a brown background is always present). The pupil of the injured eye became mydriatic, giving the appearance of different eye colors. Despite the fight, Underwood and Bowie stayed good friends.
5. Bowie is a multi-instrumentalist. He plays guitar, piano, harpsichord, harmonica, mellotron, stylophone, vibraphone, koto, drums and percussion.
6. Being a big fan of Mick Jagger, Bowie learned that “jagger” means “knife” in Old English, so David took a similar pseudonym ( bowie knife- a type of hunting knife named after Texas Revolutionary hero Jim Bowie). David Bowie's birthday is considered to be January 14, 1966. It was on this day that he first appeared under that name with the band The Lower Third on the cover of the album “Can’t Help Thinking About Me”.
7. “I really wanted to become famous, but I didn’t know how to do it, and throughout the 1960s I tried everything I could - in the theater, fine arts and music,” Bowie admitted in an interview in the eighties. Undoubtedly, at that time the artist’s work was greatly influenced by the frontman Pink Floyd Sid Barrett, who left the group after recording the first album. “There was something otherworldly about Sid, and that attracted me greatly. He looked like Peter Pan,” said the musician.
8. In 1974, Michael Jackson attended a Bowie concert. He later spoke out about the musician’s strange movements, referring to the moonwalk. This dance originally appeared in Bowie's pantomime plays of the sixties.
9. The small recording studio "Hansa", whose windows used to look out onto Berlin Wall, has become one of the favorite places for tourists, although it continues to operate as a studio. All because of Bowie, who recorded the so-called “Berlin Trilogy” there (“Low” - “Heroes” - “Lodger”).
10. Beginning on September 24, 1980, Bowie performed on Broadway for three months in The Elephant Man. During this period, his friend and colleague John Lennon was killed by a crazy fanatic, Mark Chapman. This event made an extremely difficult impression on David - he not only lost a close friend, but also realized that he himself was close to death. Chapman attended the play, photographed Bowie at the stage doors, and shot Lennon shortly afterwards. He told the police that if he had failed to kill John, he would have returned to the theater and shot David.
11. In David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Firewalker (1992), Bowie played the mysterious FBI agent Phillip Jeffries. He appears in the film for only a few seconds, but he makes an indelible impression. "It was a dream. We're living in a dream," he says, drawing viewers into the middle of one of the outstanding masters arthouse.
12. Bowie visited Moscow three times. He first visited the capital in 1973 while traveling from Japan to Europe. At that time, he was afraid to fly on airplanes and preferred to use ground transport. In order to get to Moscow, he had to take a ship from Yokohama to Nakhodka, and from there on the Trans-Siberian Railway. On April 30, 18 days after leaving, Bowie arrived in Moscow for three days. Then he attended the May Day parade, visited the Armory Chamber and GUM. Bowie's second trip to Moscow, now together with Iggy Pop, took place in early April 1976. Then the border guards confiscated his Nazi literature, which was prohibited from import. The third trip took place in June 1996, this time with a concert at the State Kremlin Palace. Before the press conference, a fan meeting was organized with Bowie in his room. Fans told him about the poor acoustics in the Kremlin and the high cost of tickets. Bowie immediately gave them to those who did not have enough money. On June 18, the concert took place and David was terribly dissatisfied with it - because of the seated audience and the strange organization of the hall. Then he promised that he would never come to Russia again.
13. In 2000, as a result of a survey in which over 190 thousand people took part, jointly with Queen song"Under Pressure" was ranked tenth on the list of the best songs of the millennium.
14. From contemporary performers Bowie preferred the work of Rufus Wainwright, Placebo, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Arcade Fire.
15. In 2009, German scientist Peter Jaeger discovered a new rare view spiders and decided to name it after Bowie. A representative of the species, called Heteropoda davidbowie, was discovered by a researcher in Malaysia. According to the arachnologist, he was inspired by the Glass Spider tour and the song Ziggy Stardust.
