Eight-year-old David Bowie (born David Jones) at Burnt Ash Primary School, 1955.
Gallery of David Bowie
1958
The 1957-58 Burnt Ash football team - David Jones is on the far left of the middle row.
Gallery of David Bowie
1961
A 14-year-old Bowie, 1961.
Gallery of David Bowie
Bowie at Ravens Wood School.
College/University
Career
Gallery of David Bowie
1963
London, England, United Kingdom
Teenage Bowie and his mandolin on Kingly Street in London during a shoot for Boyfriend magazine in the summer of 1963.
Gallery of David Bowie
1966
London, England, United Kingdom
Bowie in London, 1966.
Gallery of David Bowie
1971
Bowie jams at a party thrown by publicist and future nightclub DJ Rodney Bingenheimer at lawyer Paul Figen's house in Los Angeles, 1971.
Gallery of David Bowie
1971
Bowie with singer Dana Gillespie, 1971.
Gallery of David Bowie
1973
Bowie dressed as Ziggy Stardust in a New York City hotel room, 1973.
Gallery of David Bowie
1973
Bowie performs onstage during his "Ziggy Stardust" era in Los Angeles, 1973.
Gallery of David Bowie
1973
English model Twiggy poses with Bowie for the cover of his Pin Ups album in Paris, 1973.
Gallery of David Bowie
1973
Bowie performing as Ziggy Stardust, in his "woodland creatures" costume, 1973.
Gallery of David Bowie
1973
Bowie wearing a mesh outfit with fake hands holding his chest, 1973.
Gallery of David Bowie
1974
Gallery of David Bowie
1974
Bowie performs "Rebel Rebel" on the TV show TopPop, 1974.
Gallery of David Bowie
1974
Amstel Hotel, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Angie Bowie, son Zowie Bowie (Duncan Jones), and David Bowie at a press conference at the Amstel Hotel in Amsterdam, 1974.
Gallery of David Bowie
1975
From left, David Bowie, Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, and Roberta Flack at the Grammy Awards in 1975.
Gallery of David Bowie
1976
David Bowie in Nicolas Roeg's 1976 film "The Man Who Fell to Earth."
Gallery of David Bowie
1976
Bowie performing on the Thin White Duke tour in 1976.
Gallery of David Bowie
1976
Bowie poses for a portrait in 1976.
Gallery of David Bowie
1977
Germany
David Bowie, right, and Iggy Pop in Germany, 1977.
Gallery of David Bowie
1978
Bowie, performing at Madison Square Garden during a 1978 world tour.
Gallery of David Bowie
1983
Bowie on Madison Avenue, New York, 1983.
Gallery of David Bowie
1983
Bowie on his 1983 Serious Moonlight tour.
Gallery of David Bowie
1985
Singers David Bowie and Tina Turner perform on stage at the NEC Birmingham in 1985.
Gallery of David Bowie
1985
Mick Jagger and David Bowie performing in the 1985 video for "Dancing in the Street,'"which the friends recorded to raise money for Live Aid famine relief. It only took 13 hours for the pair to record the song and finish the music video.
Gallery of David Bowie
1986
David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly in a scene from the movie Labyrinth, 1986.
Gallery of David Bowie
1989
Bowie leans out of a window to pass autographs to fans during a visit to, Brixton, London, 1989. He was visiting his birthplace for the opening of the new Brixton community center, which he helped fund.
Gallery of David Bowie
1991
Bowie performs as part of Tin Machine at The Brixton Academy. London, 1991.
Gallery of David Bowie
1991
David Bowie in Twin Peaks.
Gallery of David Bowie
1995
Trent Reznor and David Bowie during "The Outside Tour" in 1995. Reznor recalled: "We found out a way to do the show that made sense, where it all felt like one experience… One of the greatest moments of my life was standing onstage next to David Bowie while he sang 'Hurt' with me. I was outside of myself, thinking, 'I'm standing onstage next to the most important influence I've ever had, and he's singing a song I wrote in my bedroom.' It was just an awesome moment."
Gallery of David Bowie
1996
David Bowie as Andy Warhol on the set of the 1996 film Basquiat.
Gallery of David Bowie
2000
Bowie poses backstage at the Glastonbury festival, in a coat designed by Alexander McQueen, in 2000.
Gallery of David Bowie
2002
Bowie in London, 2002.
Gallery of David Bowie
2002
Paris, France
David Bowie performs in Paris on September 24, 2002.
Gallery of David Bowie
2003
David Bowie arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit Gala sponsored by Gucci on April 28, 2003.
Gallery of David Bowie
2003
David Bowie and his wife Iman attend the Costume Institute Benefit Gala sponsored by Gucci at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on April 28, 2003.
Gallery of David Bowie
2006
David Bowie in New York in 2006.
Gallery of David Bowie
2006
David Bowie with David Gilmour at Royal Albert Hall (2006).
Gallery of David Bowie
2008
Iman and David Bowie attend the Keep a Child Alive organization's Black Ball at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on November 13, 2008.
Gallery of David Bowie
2015
David Bowie arriving at the Theatre Workshop in New York to attend the premiere of the musical Lazarus on 12 December 2015.
Gallery of David Bowie
2015
David Bowie released "The Next Day," his first album in 10 years, as a complete surprise in 2013.
Mick Jagger and David Bowie performing in the 1985 video for "Dancing in the Street,'"which the friends recorded to raise money for Live Aid famine relief. It only took 13 hours for the pair to record the song and finish the music video.
Bowie leans out of a window to pass autographs to fans during a visit to, Brixton, London, 1989. He was visiting his birthplace for the opening of the new Brixton community center, which he helped fund.
Trent Reznor and David Bowie during "The Outside Tour" in 1995. Reznor recalled: "We found out a way to do the show that made sense, where it all felt like one experience… One of the greatest moments of my life was standing onstage next to David Bowie while he sang 'Hurt' with me. I was outside of myself, thinking, 'I'm standing onstage next to the most important influence I've ever had, and he's singing a song I wrote in my bedroom.' It was just an awesome moment."
David Bowie and his wife Iman attend the Costume Institute Benefit Gala sponsored by Gucci at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on April 28, 2003.
(Thomas Jerome Newton (David Bowie) is a humanoid alien wh...)
Thomas Jerome Newton (David Bowie) is a humanoid alien who comes to Earth to get water for his dying planet. He starts a high technology company to get the billions of dollars he needs to build a return spacecraft.
(This movie portrays the drug scene in Berlin in the 70s, ...)
This movie portrays the drug scene in Berlin in the 70s, following tape recordings of Christiane F. 14 years old Christiane lives with her mother and little sister in a typical multi-storey apartment building in Berlin. She's fascinated by the 'Sound', a new disco with the most modern equipment. Although she's legally too young, she asks a friend to take her. There she meets Detlef, who's in a clique where everybody's on drugs. Step by step she gets drawn deeper into the scene. Free upgrade to first-class mail.
(Written largely by Monty Python veteran Graham Chapman an...)
Written largely by Monty Python veteran Graham Chapman and with an all-star comedic cast, Yellowbeard is a hilarious spoof of every pirate movie ever made. A 16th-century raunchy pirate spoof in which everyone - Monty Python, Cheech, and Chong, James Mason, Madeline Kahn, Peter Boyle - wants to get their hands on the hidden pirate treasure. But first, they have to capture Captain Yellowbeard's son, who has the map tattooed on his skull.
(A musical adaptation of Colin MacInnes' novel about life ...)
A musical adaptation of Colin MacInnes' novel about life in late 1950s London. Nineteen-year-old photographer Colin is hopelessly in love with model Crepe Suzette, but her relationships are strictly connected with her progress in the fashion world.
(The carpenter Jesus of Nazareth, tormented by the temptat...)
The carpenter Jesus of Nazareth, tormented by the temptations of demons, the guilt of making crosses for the Romans, pity for men and the world, and the constant call of God, sets out to find what God wills for him. But as his mission nears fulfillment, he must face the greatest temptation: the normal life of a good man.
(One hopes that at the annual HBO characters Christmas par...)
One hopes that at the annual HBO characters Christmas party, Larry Sanders, Carrie Bradshaw, and Tony Soprano make a point to raise a toast to Martin Tupper, the hapless hero of Dream On. This groundbreaking 1990 sitcom from future Friends creators David Crane and Marta Kaufman ushered in a bold new era of original cable programming not bound by broadcast network content restrictions. Hence, the profanity and nudity, which distinguished the series and helped put HBO on the pop culture map. Brian Benben stars as Martin, a New York book editor still reeling from the breakup of his marriage. The show's gimmick is that baby boomer Martin, a member of the first television generation, flashes on vintage TV clips that express his innermost feelings and desires. When his wife, Judith (Wendie Malick), visits Martin in "The First Episode," he fantasizes reconciliation, but she wants him to sign the divorce papers so she can remarry. The scene is punctuated by clips in which boxer Lee Marvin is pummeled in the ring and knocked out. But the clips and the language and the sex would get old fast if we didn't like the characters. Benben has the Everyman charm of a young George Segal, and he wears his anxiety to hilarious effect. He is devoted to his young teenage son, and still loves Judith, who is marrying a paragon, never seen, but described at one point as a "Ghandi for our times." His dating relationships spectacularly crash and burn (cue clip of disabled aircraft). In one episode, he comes undone when he discovers his new lover was a porn star. At the office, he is at the mercy of his caustic secretary (Denny Dillon).
(In the town of Twin Peaks, everyone has their secrets-but...)
In the town of Twin Peaks, everyone has their secrets-but especially Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). In this prequel to his groundbreaking 1990s television series, David Lynch resurrects the teenager found wrapped in plastic at the beginning of the show, following her through the last week of her life and teasing out the enigmas that surround her murder.
(On a dare, twelve-year-old, terminally ill Owen Walters s...)
On a dare, twelve-year-old, terminally ill Owen Walters sneaks into the mortuary and videotapes Mr. Rice's funeral. Later, Owen and his friends break into Mr. Rice's house to watch the tape. In the bedroom, they discover a sealed envelope addressed to Owen - a letter from Mr. Rice, written in his secret code. Owen soon discovers that Mr. Rice has left him a medieval code ring, a treasure map, and a series of clues. Clues that will lead him on a surreal treasure hunt and one step closer to his destiny - which may save his life.
(Three-time male model of the year, Derek Zoolander, is de...)
Three-time male model of the year, Derek Zoolander, is devastated when he loses the title to newbie Hansel. After the news, Mugatu’s fashion empire brainwashes Derek into being an assassin.
(From the creative mind of talented filmmaker Luc Besson, ...)
From the creative mind of talented filmmaker Luc Besson, comes a larger-than-life, family adventure about a boy who, after his grandfather disappears, sets out to save his family home from emerging real estate developers. Arthur learns that he must follow his grandfather's ancient clues to a vast treasure - and unlock the passageway to a spectacular new world.
David Bowie was a British singer, songwriter, and actor who was most prominent in the 1970s and best known for his shifting personae and musical genre-hopping. David Bowie was not only one of the most influential and prolific writers and performers of popular music, but also an accomplished actor, a mime and an intellectual, as well as an art collector.
Background
David Robert Jones was born on January 8, 1947, in Brixton, South London, England. His mother, Margaret Mary "Peggy" was born in Kent and worked as a waitress. His father, Haywood Stenton "John" Jones, from Yorkshire, was a promotions officer for the children's charity Barnardo's. The family lived at 40 Stansfield Road, near the border of the south London areas of Brixton and Stockwell.
David was a creative child who developed an early interest in music. He listened to songs of artists like Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, the Platters, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, and Little Richard. He was greatly influenced by Elvis Presley.
Education
Bowie attended Stockwell Infants School until he was six years old, acquiring a reputation as a gifted and single-minded child - and a defiant brawler.
In 1953, Bowie moved with his family to Bromley. Two years later, he started attending Burnt Ash Junior School. His voice was considered "adequate" by the school choir, and he demonstrated above-average abilities in playing the recorder. At the age of nine, his dancing during the newly-introduced music and movement classes was strikingly imaginative: teachers called his interpretations "vividly artistic" and his poise "astonishing" for a child. The same year, his interest in music was further stimulated when his father brought home a collection of American 45s by artists including the Teenagers, the Platters, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, and Little Richard. Upon listening to Little Richard's song "Tutti Frutti," Bowie would later say that he had "heard God."
Presley's impact on Bowie was likewise emphatic: "I saw a cousin of mine dance to 'Hound Dog' and I had never seen her get up and be moved so much by anything. It really impressed me, the power of the music. I started getting records immediately after that." By the end of the following year, he had taken up the ukulele and tea-chest bass, begun to participate in skiffle sessions with friends, and had started to play the piano; meanwhile, his stage presentation of numbers by both Presley and Chuck Berry - complete with gyrations in tribute to the original artists - to his local Wolf Cub group was described as "mesmerizing ... like someone from another planet." After taking his eleven-plus exam at the conclusion of his Burnt Ash Junior education, Bowie went to Ravens Wood School.
After graduating from Bromley Technical High School at 16, David started working as a commercial artist. He also continued to play music, hooking up with a number of bands and leading a group himself called Davy Jones and the Lower Third. Several singles came out of this period, but nothing that gave the young performer the kind of commercial traction he needed. Out of fear of being confused with Davy Jones of The Monkees, David changed his last name to Bowie, a name that was inspired by the knife developed by the 19th-century American pioneer Jim Bowie.
Eventually, Bowie went out on his own. But after recording an unsuccessful solo album, Bowie exited the music world for a temporary period. Like so much of his later life, these few years proved to be incredibly experimental for the young artist. For several weeks in 1967, he lived at a Buddhist monastery in Scotland. Bowie later started his own mime troupe called Feathers.
By early 1969, Bowie had returned full time to music. He signed a deal with Mercury Records and that summer released the single "Space Oddity." Bowie later said the song came to him after seeing Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey: "I went stoned out of my mind to see the movie and it really freaked me out, especially the trip passage." The song quickly resonated with the public, sparked in large part by the BBC's use of the single during its coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The song enjoyed later success after being released in the United States in 1972, climbing to number 15 on the charts.
Bowie's next album, The Man Who Sold the World (1970), further catapulted him to stardom. The record offered up a heavier rock sound than anything Bowie had done before and included the song "All the Madmen," about his institutionalized brother, Terry. His next work, 1971's Hunky Dory, featured two hits: the title track that was a tribute to Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground, and Bob Dylan; and "Changes," which came to embody Bowie himself.
As Bowie's celebrity profile increased, so did his desire to keep fans and critics guessing. He claimed he was gay and then introduced the pop world to Ziggy Stardust, Bowie's imagining of a doomed rock star, and his backing group, The Spiders from Mars. His 1972 album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, made him a superstar. Dressed in wild costumes that spoke of some kind of wild future, Bowie, portraying Stardust himself, signaled a new age in rock music, one that seemed to officially announce the end of the 1960s and the Woodstock era.
But just as quickly as Bowie transformed himself into Stardust, he changed again. He leveraged his celebrity and produced albums for Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. In 1973, he disbanded the Spiders and shelved his Stardust persona. Bowie continued on in a similar glam rock style with the album Aladdin Sane (1973), which featured "The Jean Genie" and "Let's Spend the Night Together," his collaboration with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Around this time he showed his affection for his early days in the English mod scene and released Pin Ups, an album filled with cover songs originally recorded by a host of popular bands, including Pretty Things and Pink Floyd.
By the mid-1970s, Bowie had undergone a full-scale makeover. Gone were the outrageous costumes and garish sets. In two short years, he released the albums David Live (1974) and Young Americans (1975). The latter album featured backing vocals by a young Luther Vandross and included the song "Fame," co-written with John Lennon and Carlos Alomar, which became Bowie’s first American number-one single.
Bowie's interests didn't just reside with music. His love of film helped land him the title role in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). In 1980, Bowie starred on Broadway in The Elephant Man and was critically acclaimed for his performance. In 1986, he starred as Jareth, the Goblin King, in the fantasy-adventure film Labyrinth, directed by Jim Henson and produced by George Lucas. Bowie performed opposite teenage Jennifer Connolly and a cast of puppets in the movie, which became a 1980s cult classic.
Over the next decade, Bowie bounced back and forth between acting and music, with the latter especially suffering. Outside of a couple of modest hits, Bowie's musical career languished. His side project with musicians Reeve Gabrels and Tony and Hunt Sales, known as Tin Machine, released two albums, Tin Machine (1989) and Tin Machine II (1991), which both proved to be flops. His much-hyped album Black Tie White Noise (1993), which Bowie described as a wedding gift to his new wife, supermodel Iman, also struggled to resonate with record buyers.
Oddly enough, the most popular Bowie creation of that period was Bowie Bonds, financial securities the artist himself backed with royalties from his pre-1990 work. Bowie issued the bonds in 1997 and earned $55 million from the sale. The rights to his back catalog were returned to him when the bonds matured in 2007.
In 2004, Bowie received a major health scare when he suffered a heart attack while onstage in Germany. He made a full recovery and went on to work with bands such as Arcade Fire and with the actress Scarlett Johansson on her album Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008), a collection of Tom Waits covers.
Bowie released Blackstar, his final album, on January 8, 2016, his 69th birthday. New York Times critic Jon Pareles noted that it was a "strange, daring and ultimately rewarding" work "with a mood darkened by bitter awareness of mortality." Only a few days later, the world would learn that the record had been made under difficult circumstances.
The music icon died on January 10, 2016, two days after his 69th birthday. A post on his Facebook page read: “David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer." He was survived by his wife Iman, his son Duncan Jones and daughter Alexandria, and his step-daughter Zulekha Haywood. Bowie also left behind an impressive musical legacy, which included 26 albums. His producer and friend Tony Visconti wrote on Facebook that his last record, Blackstar, was "his parting gift."
In late 2017, HBO unveiled a trailer for the documentary David Bowie: The Last Five Years, which explores the period in which the artist released his final two albums and brought his stage musical to life. Airing January 8, 2018, on what would have been his 71st birthday, the documentary features never-before-seen footage of Bowie and conversations with the musicians, producers and music video directors who worked with him on his final tour.
From music and film to art and the Internet, Bowie has challenged the perceptions of fans and critics alike with his many malleable personas which seemed to mirror the cutting edge trends of the day. Bowie covered many genres including art rock, hard rock, glam rock, alternative rock, krautrock, protopunk, post-punk, electronica, Blue-eyed soul, New Wave, Industrial, Techno, Jazz, Dance music, Funk, Disco, Experimental rock, Folk, Instrumental, Ambient, and house.
On February 6, 2018, the maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carried Elon Musk's personal Tesla Roadster and a mannequin affectionately named Starman into space. "Space Oddity" and "Life on Mars?" were looping on the car's sound system during the launch.
Over the years, Bowie made numerous references to religions and to his evolving spirituality. Beginning in 1967, he showed an interest in Buddhism; after a few months' study at Tibet House in London, he was told by a Lama, "You don't want to be Buddhist... You should follow music." Like so many aspects of this man, Bowie is difficult to pin down - even to himself. By his own account, he’s tried about every religion in the book, saying: "I was young, fancy free, and Tibetan Buddhism appealed to me at that time. I thought, ‘There’s salvation.’ It didn’t really work. Then I went through Nietzsche, Satanism, Christianity… pottery, and ended up singing. It’s been a long road."
After Bowie married his wife Iman in a private ceremony in 1992, he said they knew that their "real marriage, sanctified by God, had to happen in a church in Florence." Earlier that year, he knelt on stage at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and recited the Lord's Prayer before a television audience of up to one billion people. In 1993, Bowie said he had an "undying" belief in the "unquestionable" existence of God. Interviewed in 2005, Bowie said whether God exists "is not a question that can be answered... I'm not quite an atheist and it worries me. There's that little bit that holds on: "Well, I'm almost an atheist. Give me a couple of months... I've nearly got it right'".
In his will, Bowie stipulated that he be cremated and his ashes scattered in Bali "in accordance with the Buddhist rituals."
Politics
Bowie was rather non-political, even refusing honors from politicians - which he calls pointless.
In 1976, speaking as The Thin White Duke, Bowie's persona at the time, and "at least partially tongue-in-cheek," he made statements that expressed support for fascism and perceived admiration for Adolf Hitler in interviews with Playboy, NME and a Swedish publication. Bowie was quoted as saying: "Britain is ready for a fascist leader... I think Britain could benefit from a fascist leader. After all, fascism is really nationalism... I believe very strongly in fascism, people have always responded with greater efficiency under a regimental leadership." He was also quoted as saying: "Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars" and "You've got to have an extreme right front come up and sweep everything off its feet and tidy everything up." Bowie later retracted these comments in an interview with Melody Maker in October 1977, blaming them on mental instability caused by his drug problems at the time, saying: "I was out of my mind, totally, completely crazed."
In the 1980s and 1990s, Bowie's public statements shifted sharply towards anti-racism and anti-fascism.
In a rare direct statement, Bowie joined celebrities in 2014 who urged Scotland to vote no in the independence referendum. He used an acceptance speech at the Brit Awards, read in his absence by Kate Moss, to say: "Scotland, stay with us."
Views
David Bowie once told a sceptical Jeremy Paxman he had enormous belief in the future of the internet: "I don't think we've even seen the tip of the iceberg. I think the potential of what the internet is going to do society - both good and bad - is unimaginable. I think we're actually on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying." Bowie's belief in the future, in a world of fewer boundaries and greater interconnectedness led him to joke that the internet was life from Mars, but it showed an optimism in people and in technology. Bowie could see past the here and now, he was, even in his later years, an optimist for the future.
Beyond that, he advocated in his own way for social, commercial, and sexual freedom, seeing possibilities and bringing them to life.
Quotations:
"I always had a repulsive sort of need to be something more than human. I felt very very puny as a human. I thought, "Fuck that. I want to be a superman."
"I wanted to prove the sustaining power of music."
"I'm an instant star. Just add water and stir."
"I get offered so many bad movies. And they're all raging queens or transvestites or Martians."
"I'm terribly intuitive - I always thought I was intellectual about what I do, but I've come to the realization that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing half the time, that the majority of the stuff that I do is totally intuitive, totally about where I am physically and mentally at any moment in time and I have a far harder time than anybody else explaining it and analysing it. That's the territory of the artist anyway: to be quite at sea with what he does, and working towards not being intuive about it and being far more methodical and academic about it."
"I'm not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I'm living on."
"I think fame itself is not a rewarding thing. The most you can say is that it gets you a seat in restaurants."
"Music has given me over 40 years of extraordinary experiences. I can't say that life's pains or more tragic episodes have been diminished because of it. But it's allowed me so many moments of companionship when I've been lonely and a sublime means of communication when I wanted to touch people. It's been both my doorway of perception and the house that I live in."
"It's odd but even when I was a kid, I would write about "old and other times" as though I had a lot of years behind me."
"Strangely, some songs you really don't want to write. I didn't like writing "Heathen." There was something so ominous and final about it. It was early in the morning, the sun was rising and through the windows I could see two deer grazing down below in the field. In the distance a car was driving slowly past the reservoir and these words were just streaming out and there were tears running down my face. But I couldn't stop, they just flew out. It's an odd feeling, like something else is guiding you, although forcing your hand is more like it."
"I'm just an individual who doesn't feel that I need to have somebody qualify my work in any particular way. I'm working for me."
"The truth is, of course, is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time."
"Heathenism is a state of mind. You can take it that I'm referring to one who does not see his world. He has no mental light. He destroys almost unwittingly. He cannot feel any Gods' presence in his life. He is the 21st century man. However, there's no theme or concept behind Heathen, just a number of songs but somehow there is a thread that runs through it that is quite as strong as any of my thematic type albums."
"I'm always amazed that people take what I say seriously. I don't even take what I am seriously."
Personality
David Bowie was full of energy, always on the go, fidgety, and quite hyperactive.
From the time of his earliest recordings in the 1960s, Bowie employed a wide variety of musical styles. His early compositions and performances were strongly influenced by rock and rollers like Little Richard and Elvis Presley, and also the wider world of show business. He particularly strove to emulate the British musical theatre singer-songwriter and actor Anthony Newley, whose vocal style he frequently adopted, and made prominent use of for his 1967 debut release, David Bowie. Bowie's music hall fascination continued to surface sporadically alongside such diverse styles as hard rock and heavy metal, soul, psychedelic folk and pop.
Voice instructor Jo Thompson describes Bowie's vocal vibrato technique as "particularly deliberate and distinctive." Schinder and Schwartz call him "a vocalist of extraordinary technical ability, able to pitch his singing to particular effect." Here, too, as in his stagecraft and songwriting, the singer's role-playing is evident: historiographer Michael Campbell says that Bowie's lyrics "arrest our ear, without question. But Bowie continually shifts from person to person as he delivers them... His voice changes dramatically from section to section." In a 2014 analysis of 77 "top" artists' vocal ranges, Bowie was 8th, just behind Christina Aguilera and just ahead of Paul McCartney.
In addition to the guitar, Bowie also played a variety of keyboards, including piano, Mellotron, Chamberlin, and synthesizers; harmonica; alto and baritone saxophones; stylophone; viola; cello; koto (in the Heroes track "Moss Garden"); thumb piano; drums (on the Heathen track "Cactus"), and various percussion instruments.
The world is never short of self-absorbed would-be artists, but Bowie was able to break out and become the first misfit megastar. That undoubtedly had a good deal to do with talent. Edgy vocals and chord sequences with an eerie refusal to reach the expected resolution were two hallmarks through a long songwriting career, where the sound would change almost as often as the vision. The musicianship was often impressively tight as well as inventive, but if Bowie had a genius it was not of the narrowly musical variety, rather it was in grasping the full breadth of what the pop form involves, and then mastering not only the songs but also the clothes, the performances and later the videos. Bowie had a consummate flair for the whole lot, but also – and perhaps just as important an ingredient of pop success – an instinctive affinity with his times.
In the early 1970s, during the heyday of glam rock, the androgynous style was popular among musicians and the scenic images of the young Bowie only fueled rumors of his bisexuality. The musician confirmed them in an interview with Melody Maker in January 1972, along with the creation of the image of Ziggy Stardust. "It's true - I am a bisexual. But I can't deny that I've used that fact very well. I suppose it's the best thing that ever happened to me." In a 1983 interview with Rolling Stone, Bowie said his public declaration of bisexuality was "the biggest mistake I ever made" and "I was always a closet heterosexual." On other occasions, he said his interest in homosexual and bisexual culture had been more a product of the times and the situation in which he found himself than of his own feelings.
David Bowie was also a painter and artist. One of his paintings sold at auction in late 1990 for $500, and the cover for his 1995 album Outside is a close-up of a self-portrait (from a series of five) he painted that same year. He was invited to join the editorial board of the journal Modern Painters in 1998, and participated in the Nat Tate art hoax later that year.
Physical Characteristics:
Bowie received a serious injury at school in 1962 when his friend George Underwood punched him in the left eye during a fight over a girl. After a series of operations during a four-month hospitalisation, his doctors determined that the damage could not be fully repaired and Bowie was left with faulty depth perception and a permanently dilated pupil, which gave a false impression of a change in the iris' colour.
Quotes from others about the person
Moby: "David Bowie is my favorite musician of the 20th century, I mean, he's an amazing live performer, and I can't think of a single musician from the 20th century who made as many remarkable albums as he did. Also, he influenced everybody. Without David Bowie, popular music as we know it pretty much wouldn't exist."
Following Bowie's death, Mick Jagger said "David was always an inspiration to me and a true original. He was wonderfully shameless in his work. We had so many good times together... He was my friend. I will never forget him." Friend and collaborator Iggy Pop described him on social media as "the light of my life," while singer Madonna tweeted: "Talented. Unique. Genius. Game Changer" and sang "Rebel, Rebel" at her Houston concert.
Elton John commented that "we all know how inspiring he is. We all know that his music stands. We don't have to say anything about the music: it speaks for itself. He was innovative, he was boundary-changing, and he danced to his own tune - which in any artist is really rare." John also performed a cover of "Space Oddity" at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles two days after Bowie's death.
Interests
Philosophers & Thinkers
Nietzsche
Writers
Michael Moorcock, James Graham Ballard, Anthony Burgess, William Burroughs, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, George Orwell
Artists
Tintoretto, John Bellany, Erich Heckel, Picasso, Michael Ray Charles
Music & Bands
Little Richard, the Platters, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, Igor Stravinsky, The Velvet Underground, Mick Jagger, James Brown, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan
Connections
Bowie married his first wife, Mary Angela Barnett on March 19, 1970, at Bromley Register Office in Bromley, London. Their son Duncan, born on 30 May 1971, was at first known as Zowie. Bowie and Angela divorced on February 8, 1980, in Switzerland.
On 24 April 1992, Bowie married Somali-American model Iman in a private ceremony in Lausanne. The wedding was later solemnized on 6 June in Florence. They had one daughter, Alexandria "Lexi" Zahra Jones, born in August 2000.
1984 - David Bowie - British Male Solo Artist;
2014 - David Bowie - British Male Solo Artist;
2017 - David Bowie - British Male Solo Artist;
2017 - Blackstar - British Album of the Year.
1985 - Jazzin' for Blue Jean - Best Video, Short Form;
2017 - "Blackstar" - Best Rock Performance;
2017 - "Blackstar" - Best Rock Song;
2017 - Blackstar - Best Alternative Music Album;
2017 - Blackstar - Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
1985 - Jazzin' for Blue Jean - Best Video, Short Form;
2017 - "Blackstar" - Best Rock Performance;
2017 - "Blackstar" - Best Rock Song;
2017 - Blackstar - Best Alternative Music Album;
2017 - Blackstar - Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
1969 - "Space Oddity" - Special Award For Originality;
1984 - "Let's Dance" - The Best Rock Song;
1984 - "Let's Dance" - International Hit of the Year;
1990 - David Bowie - Outstanding Contribution to British Music.
1969 - "Space Oddity" - Special Award For Originality;
1984 - "Let's Dance" - The Best Rock Song;
1984 - "Let's Dance" - International Hit of the Year;
1990 - David Bowie - Outstanding Contribution to British Music.
1984 - "China Girl" - Best Male Video;
1984 - David Bowie - Video Vanguard Award;
1986 - "Dancing in the Street" - Best Overall Performance in a Video;
2016 - "Blackstar" - Best Art Direction.
1984 - "China Girl" - Best Male Video;
1984 - David Bowie - Video Vanguard Award;
1986 - "Dancing in the Street" - Best Overall Performance in a Video;
2016 - "Blackstar" - Best Art Direction.
iHeartRadio Much Music Video Awards
1998 - "I'm Afraid of Americans" - EyePopper Award
1998 - "I'm Afraid of Americans" - EyePopper Award
1973 - David Bowie - World Male Singer;
1973 - David Bowie - British Male Singer;
1974 - David Bowie - World Male Singer;
1974 - David Bowie - British Male Singer;
1974 - David Bowie - Best Producer;
1977 - David Bowie - Best Male Singer;
1978 - David Bowie - Best Male Singer;
1981 - David Bowie - Best Male Singer;
1983 - David Bowie - Best Male Singer;
1983 - David Bowie - Best Dressed Male;
2016 - Five Years (1969–1973) - Best Reissue.