DAVID BOWIE is always ahead of
the cultural curve. The
oft-mimicked, style-setting
musician is renowned more for his
ground-breaking influence on
subsequent generations of
performers--from metal heads to glam
rockers to punks to new-wavers to
disco devotees to lounge lizards to
electro-philes--than for achieving
consistent commercial success in any
particular genre. While evolving from
folksy singer to senior statesman of
rock, Bowie has maintained a three-decade-long career that has
continually broken musical boundaries and defined and redefined the
term "rock star."
Born in a low-rent section of London, David Jones endured a hard
scrabble childhood. His publicist father and movie-theater usher
mother didn't marry until after he was born--a highly scandalous
break from convention in 1947; his brother was hospitalized for
psychiatric problems; and a street fight as a teen rendered the pupil
of his left eye permanently dilated. Music, on the other hand, proved
a positive force, and the Jones family encouraged young David's
interest in such American rock pioneers as Chuck Berry, Fats
Domino, and Elvis Presley. He learned to play guitar, and later
saxophone, while a student at Bromley Technical High School, and
was composing songs by the time he dropped out in 1964 to accept
a short-lived position as a commercial artist.
Soon thereafter, Jones joined his first band, an R&B ensemble called
Davie Jones and the King Bees. The group and its two more modish
successors, the Manish Boys and the Lower Third, each recorded
and achieved a modicum of regional popularity, but never hit the big
time like many of their contemporaries. Frustrated with the groups'
relative lack of success, Davie Jones renamed himself David
Bowie--he wanted to avoid being confused with the lead singer of the
Monkees--and recorded his first solo album, The World of David
Bowie (1967). His cockney-tinged offering drew some comparisons to
English composer-entertainer Anthony ("What Kind of Fool Am I?")
Newley, but generally the record escaped notice of any kind, and
Bowie dropped out of the music scene altogether. He pondered
Buddhism, acted in community theatre, and spent more than two
years as a member of the Lindsay Kemp Mime Troupe.
During this period, Bowie made the acquaintance of Angela Barnet,
whom he would marry in 1970. Barnet convinced a friend at Mercury
Records to give her beau's music a listen, and Bowie resurfaced in
1969 with the single "Space Oddity," which was followed shortly by
an album of the same title (released Stateside as Man of Words/Man
of Music). The title track nonetheless became the singer's first hit
single--the BBC even played it during coverage of the moon
landing--and its success proved motivating. Next up was a
hard-edged rock album, The Man Who Sold the World (1970).
Although the cover photo of Bowie wearing a dress raised many an
eyebrow, the album's cold, Orwellian look at the future attracted a
small, esoteric audience. (Some critics have since pointed to the
record--and to Mick Ronson's guitar work, in particular--as the
genesis of heavy metal.) Bowie embarked on his first trip to the
United States to promote the record.
Commercial acceptance also evaded his 1971 album, Hunky Dory,
which marked a partial return to Bowie's earthier past with its tribute
tunes to Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol. (That same year, Angela gave
birth to their son, Zowie Duncan Heywood Bowie.) Quick on the heels
of Hunky Dory came the album that made Bowie a legend: The Rise
and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1972). The
high-concept record--about an androgynous space-rock messiah
destroyed by the fanaticism he incites--and its associated tour
earned the entertainer legions of his own followers. During this flush
of fame, Bowie discussed his fluid sexuality with the press, and the
controversial disclosure both fueled and occasionally eclipsed his
burgeoning musical celebrity.
Bowie kept the albums coming fast and furious. Within the next two
years, he released the conceptual Alladin Sane (1973), the
nostalgically swingin' Pin Ups (1973), the gloomy Diamond Dogs
(1974), and the concert album David Live (1974). He found time
between projects to produce records for such other notables as Lou
Reed, for whom he masterminded "Walk on the Wild Side." In 1975,
Bowie scored his first No. 1 single in America with "Fame"
(co-written with John Lennon), off his soul-flavored Young Americans
album. That same year, he relocated to Los Angeles to star in his
first fictional feature, The Man Who Fell to Earth, for director Nicolas
Roeg. After the movie wrapped, Bowie recorded Station to Station
(1976) and moved to Berlin, where he created three innovative
albums--Low (1977), Heroes (1977), and Lodger (1979)--under the
supervision of ambient-electronic music pioneer Brian Eno. During his
German residency, Bowie fought a successful battle to halt his
serious drug abuse. He and Angela divorced in 1980, with custody of
their son going to Barnet.
The seventies sensation re-emerged as an eighties icon with the
single "Under Pressure," a collaboration with the group Queen, and
the album Let's Dance (1983). The album featured such
listener-friendly singles as "Modern Love" and the title track, and
introduced the former Ziggy Stardust to a new generation of fans. A
busy man during this period, Bowie appeared on Broadway in The
Elephant Man, and on the silver screen opposite Catherine Deneuve
in The Hunger (1983) and Tom Conti in Merry Christmas, Mr.
Lawrence (1983); performed at 1985's Live Aid concert; and restyled
Martha and the Vendellas' "Dancing in the Street" with Mick Jagger
for a famine-relief single that hit America's Top Ten. Bowie's
popularity dipped a notch when his follow-on albums, Tonight (1984)
and Never Let Me Down (1987), failed to thrill the masses. Fans
nevertheless turned out in droves for his spectacular, world-sweeping
Glass Spider tour, which was rumored to have cost in the
neighborhood of $20 million to produce.
As the eighties wound down, Bowie stepped out of the solo spotlight
to form the quartet Tin Machine. The stripped-down sound of the
band's two eponymous albums (1989, 1991) failed to generate much
excitement, and Tin Machine soon went on hiatus. On the personal
front, Bowie married sleek Somali model Iman in 1992. The following
year, he resumed his solo career with the release of Black Tie White
Noise, and in 1995, he collaborated again with Brian Eno on Outside.
Neither album sold exceptionally well, but their contents and a 1996
world tour reassured fans that the chameleonic experimenter remains
a cutting-edge talent. Bowie celebrated his fiftieth birthday in January
of 1997 with an all-star concert at Madison Square Garden and the
release of Earthling.
THANX TO THE DAVID BOWIE "WALL OF SOUND PAGE"