David Bowie In-depth 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