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David Bowie Music Innovators

David Bowie British actor; ; recording artist

Born: January 8, 1947; , , Died: , 2016; Primary Field: performer Group Affiliation: Ziggy Stardust

Introduction There one constant factor in the ever-shifting ca- reer of David Bowie, best known for his unsurpassed mastery of theatrical and media manipu- lation: “I am an actor,” as Bowie himself put it. “My whole professional life is an act.” The British enter- tainer, whose basic training was in mime, began com- posing and performing ballads in the mid-, when his “folk” style was suggestive of to some and of to others. After several years as a “straight,” -strumming, saxophone-playing, leader of small pop bands, he shot to interna- tional stardom in 1972 in the of his androgy- nous , “Ziggy Stardust,” the king/queen of rock. After several transformations, Bowie shed his elaborate stage gimmickry and broadened his appeal, in conscious emulation of . The protean performer, who aspired to be a motion picture director, was the star of the 1976 science fiction film Fell to Earth, his first screen credit, and had roles in other films and television shows. In music, A turning point in Bowie’s life came when he where he garnered nine platinum, eleven gold, and eight read Jack Kerouac’s . Influenced by Ker- silver recordings in the UK, along with five platinum ouac and other writers, Bowie was and seven gold ones in the United States, he was highly practicing meditation long before it became a fad, and successful in recording in a variety of styles. for a brief period he contemplated entering a Tibetan Mahayana monastery. His elementary school teachers Early Life tried, without success, to force the left-handed Bowie David Bowie, who was of Anglo-Catholic-Jewish heri- to become right-handed. By the time he entered high tage, was born David Jones on January 8, 1947 (accord- school, the gaunt boy was doing long-distance running, ing to most sources; at least one gives 1948) in Brixton, playing saxophone, and coming to the conclusion “a very rough area,” as Bowie described it, in south that he would “have to invent” his “own world” in order London. “It was like Harlem,” he told Rex Reed in an “to be fulfilled”—to “become a ” because he interview for an article in the Sunday News “felt puny.” (June 13, 1976). “I was very butch in those days. I was “I wanted my freedom quickly,” Bowie recounted, in street brawls and everything. [He emerged from one “and looked for a profession that would let me be ec- fracas with a permanently paralyzed left eye.] My father centric and express my idiocies.” At first interested in was a gambler and drinker and a layabout for most of painting as well as music, Bowie studied commercial his life. art at Technical High School and then, as he recalled, “tried advertising, and that was awful . . . the

178 Music Innovators David Bowie lowest” “But I was well into my little saxophone,” he devastatingly beautiful. With his loofah hair and stated in the interview, “so I left advertising eyes, he pads around like every schoolgirl’s wonder and thought, ‘Let’s give rock a try.’ You can have a good movie star. He smiles; you melt. He winks; you disin- time doing that and usually have enough money to live tegrate. He fumbles away on his twelve string acoustic on. Especially then. It was the days: clothes guitar with ferocious gusto. He apologizes that his rep- were half the battle. . . . I lived out of dustbins on the ertoire is mostly his own , which he admits sound back streets of Carnaby. . . . The very best designers all very much the same.” were down there and . . . if any of the shirts had a button Bowie’s second was The Man Who Sold the off or anything like that it would go into the dustbin. World (Mercury, 1970), containing, among other com- We’d go around and nick all the stuff out of the dust- positions of his, the bizarre sexual “She Shook Me bins. Entire wardrobes for, well nothing.” Cold,” and the sci-fi tune “Savior Machine.” Review- Bowie the performer was always, in his own eyes, ing the LP in (February 18, 1971), John primarily an actor. His basic theatrical training was a Mendelsohn wrote: “Bowie deals throughout . . . in two-and-a-half-year period as a mime artist with Lind- oblique and fragmented images that are almost impen- say Kemp. “That’s how I became fascinated with Gen- etrable separately but which convey with effectiveness et—the androgynous, the neuter, the Everyman theme. an ironic and bitter sense of the world when considered I used all of that mime experience in rock music the together.” Mendelsohn noted that producer Tony Vis- way Keaton did in films.” The first rock groups conti had used echo, phrasing, and other techniques on organized and led by Bowie were David Jones and the Bowie’s voice to achieve “a weird and supernatural tone Buzz, David Jones and the Lower Third, and a multime- reminiscent of a robot,” by which he did not mean to dia mime troupe called Feathers. Early in his career he imply that Bowie sings mechanically but that “his voice had some small stage roles, and he tried, unsuccessfully, is oddly metallic to begin with.” to start a local in modeled on Jim The same reviewer, again writing in Rolling Stone Haynes’s defunct Drury Lane organization. (January 6, 1972), found that in his third album, Hunky The admittedly bisexual Bowie recalled how he Dory (his first on the RCA label), Bowie bore little re- met his wife, also professedly bisexual, and how she semblance to the “dangerous loony” of The Man Who was in getting him his first recording con- Sold the World. Mendelsohn wrote: “For the most part, tract: “Angela and I knew each other because we were is back, after an affair with heavy high-energy both going out with the same man. Another one of killer techniques, back into his 1966-ish, Tony Newley boyfriends, a talent scout for , took her / pop-rock thing, and happily so: Hunky is his most eas- to a show at The , where I happened to be ily accessible, and thus most readily enjoyable work playing. He hated me. She thought I was great. Ulti- since his Man of Words/Man of Music album of 1969.” mately, she threatened to leave him if he didn’t sign me. Among the songs on were “Changes”— So he signed me.” a classic about childhood and aging—“,” “,” and “.” Life’s Work The “” which Bowie was credited with The first song recorded by Bowie was his composi- originating might be traced back to the cover of the Brit- tion “,” about an astronaut named Major ish version of The Man Who Sold the World album, with Tom who blasts off from Cape Canaveral and decides its picture of Bowie in long hair, makeup, and feminine never to return, bewildering ground control by bid- attire. The photo was a parody of Dante Gabriel Ro- ding his wife good-bye and then shutting off his com- setti, but Bowie told his publicists not to bother explain- munication circuits. That single, appealing to alienated ing, as he recalled: “I said, ‘Fine. . . . I’ll play along. young people, surfaced in the charts in the late autumn Anything, absolutely anything to break me through,’ of 1969, and it was included in the album David Bow- Because of everybody’s thirst for scandal . . . they gave ie: Man of Words/Man of Music, issued by Mercury in me a big chance. All the papers wrote volumes about December 1969. how sick I was, how I was helping to kill off true art. . Reviewing a given by Bowie in London’s . . They wasted all that time and effort and paper on my Purcell Room, Tony Palmer wrote in the London Ob- clothes and my pose. Why? Because I was a dangerous server (December 7, 1969): “On stage, he is quite statement.” At first an underground “ queen” cult

179 David Bowie Music Innovators formed behind him, but “bisexual chic,” with Bowie as band . The stage was conspicuously empty of its leader, became a public phenomenon beginning in props, with Bowie alone, dressed in white shirt, black 1971, when Bowie, during an interview with an imper- vest, pumps, and pants, under white light, sing- tinent journalist he wanted to shock, went on record as ing a range of songs from ’s “Mahagon- the first bisexual rock star to come “out of the closet.” ny” to his own durable “,” “Panic in De- Partly inspired by the of , an troit,” and “”— songs which, as Larry ‘n’ roll musician of his acquaintance Rohter said in (March 15, 1976), whom he had seen go mad in the 1960’s, Bowie wrote Bowie would probably be singing “long after his latest, himself the role of Ziggy Stardust, the protagonist of Frank Sinatra-inspired persona has joined its predeces- his fourth LP, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and sors on the junk pile.” (RCA). “I began to wonder what After seeing the BBC television documentary about it would be like to be a rock and roll star, so basical- Bowie, , movie director Nicholas Roeg ly I wrote a script and played it out as Ziggy Stardust asked Bowie to play the title part in The Man Who Fell on stage and on record,” Bowie recounted. Released to Earth (British Lion, 1976), based on a science fiction in mid-1972, the album quickly rose up the English novel by Walter Tevis about an alien from outer space charts to the number three spot, at the same time that who comes to earth in search of water for his drought- “Starman”—a cut from the LP about a visitor from ridden planet. Reviewers were lavish in their praise of outer space who proclaims, “Let the children ”— Bowie. “Beyond being fascinating to watch, Bowie acts reached number ten. Other songs on the LP included with conviction and sensitivity as someone homesick “,” written with Vince Taylor spe- and trapped in an alien environment,” William Wolf cifically , and “,” inspired by the fate wrote in Cue (June 12, 1976). In of Bowie’s brother. “Five Years” is an apocalyptic dirge (May 20, 1976), Richard Eder called the casting of ending with the line—repeated over and over—“We’ve Bowie “inspired” and his performance “extraordinary.” got five years, that’s all we’ve got.” “The details, the chemistry of this tall pale figure with In 1973 Bowie’s album was released, black-rimmed eyes are clearly not human,” Eder wrote. and in 1974 , on the cover of which he “Yet he acquires a moving, tragic force as the stranger appeared as half-man, half-dog, was issued by RCA. caught and destroyed in a strange .” The Diamond Dog stage show in which he toured in Bowie wrote “,” the song that 1974 was an elaborate production—the lighting alone brought the group Mott to the top of the cost $200,000—dramatizing the death of the cities. In charts in 1973, and he produced records for collaboration with , one of Bowie’s few and . At that time he was planning possible close friends among his rock peers (another was Mick movie roles, exhibitions of his paintings and sculpture, Jagger), Bowie wrote “,” the single hit of a of China, and, of course, becoming a film the year 1975. “‘Fame’ was an incredible bluff that director. In numerous interviews he expressed his desire worked. . . Bowie told the Playboy interviewer. “I’m someday to enter politics—“the greatest art form.” Be- really knocked out that people dance to my re- cause his intention in interviews was, more often than cords. . . . But let’s be honest; my rhythm and are not, to shock, it is difficult to know if Bowie was serious thoroughly plastic. [RCA], the album when he said that the brand of politics he believed in ‘Fame’ is from, is, I would say, the definitive plastic is fascism, because “the only way we can speed up the soul record.” sort of liberalism that’s hanging foul in the air at the mo- The ever-changing, unpredictable Bowie aban- ment is to speed up the progress of a right-wing, totally doned “” in his next album, Station to Sta- dictatorial tyranny.” In the Playboy interview he said: tion (RCA), an LP dismissed by Dave Marsh in the New “A liberal wastes time saying, ‘Well, , what ideas York Post (January 22, 1976) as “the most significant have you got?’ Show them what to do, for God’s sake. advance in LP filler since Lou Reed’s Metal Machine If you don’t, nothing will get done. I can’t stand people Music.” In his 1976 tour Bowie turned what he called just hanging about. Television is the most successful “Brechtian,” starting his concert with a showing of Luis fascist, needless to say. Rock stars are fascists, too. Ad- Bunuel’s classic and a olf Hitler was one of the first rock stars. . . . He staged tape recording of the robot-like German a country.” Boowie later retracted these comments,

180 Music Innovators David Bowie

Affiliation: Ziggy Stardust

The Ziggy Stardust persona was a “Clockwork Orange” planet.” sex symbol of ambiguous gender, a rock star from outer The After Dark correspondent recounted Bowie’s space who called himself “ Stardust,” whose music appearance offstage, at a press conference, as looking was capable of driving audiences to commit murder, like “a hard-edged painting in acrylics that had come and who committed spiritual suicide when time, and to life.” “My appearance changes from month to with it age, overtook him. Reporting from London for month . . . ,” Bowie stated at the press conference. “I After Dark (October 1972), Henry Edwards described don’t want to be stationary. I want to make myself a Bowie performing as Ziggy on stage: “His hair is dyed a vehicle, a prop for .” He compared his act to brutally bright orange. His soft-featured, childlike face “a visual newspaper—it must portray what is happen- is painted clown white. He is wearing an astonishingly ing at the moment.” (The cinematic-minded Bowie multicolored jump suit and he looks as if he were an often said that his records were only “half there,” Ariel who had somehow flown to Hell and had come because the visual aspect was missing.) back to tell all about it. The Spiders, resplendently In retrospect, Bowie saw that what he did with Ziggy dressed in gold costumes, begin to play some palpitat- Stardust was to “package a totally credible, plastic rock ing rock and roll. They wheel around the stage like ‘n’ roll singer—much better than could demented tops. Occasionally David’s hand rests on his ever fabricate.” But, without even thinking about it, he hip while he’s belting out his tunes. The lights playing became off-stage the character he had assumed on his innocent, unlined face color him an unearthly onstage. “I became convinced I was a messiah. Very green.” scary. I woke up fairly quickly.” Edwards observed that many of the “ideas and Reviewing Bowie’s performance at ’s moments” filling the Ziggy performance were bor- Radio City in Cue (February 24, 1973), Mike rowed from other rock acts, including , Jahn called it “a shallow freak show.” But Robert Christ- , MC-5, , and the gau of (February 16, 1973) thought it would Beatles, but that Bowie was “an authentic songwriting be “willful” to dismiss Bowie “as a hype.” Christgau and singing talent” in his own right, the creator of an found that “the most surprising thing about Bowie is act “that has been carefully staged and polished to per- that he is not only talented but likeable,” that he “proj- fection.” In the New Yorker (October 14, 1972), Ellen ects a sweetness that belies” his icy, aloof image. Later Willis wrote of Bowie as Ziggy: “What Bowie [really] in the same year, when RCA brought out Bowie’s Pin offers is not ‘decadence’ . . . but a highly professional Ups, containing his renditions of some rock “oldies,” pop surface with a soft core: under that multicolored from the period 1964–67 in , Loraine Alter- Day-Glo frogman’s outfit lurks the soul of a folkie who man, writing in the New York Times (November 1, 1973), digs Brel, plays an amplified acoustic guitar, and sings judged that LP as suffering from “too much style and with a catch in his voice about the downfall of the technique.” blaming them on mental instability caused by drug about everything in movies before 1933.” When Bowie problems. In later years he made sharply antiracist and traveled, his automobile transportation was his Fleet- antifascist statements. wood Cadillac, driven by a chauffeur. His entourage After interviewing Bowie, Rex Reed reported in the included a bodyguard named Tony, and his secretary- New York Sunday News (June 13, 1976): “I am amazed factotum, Corinne Schwab. Afraid of flying, he never to discover that astoundingly literate, traveled by plane. fantastically well-read, creative and professional. He Bowie, who referred to himself in the work- has written nine screenplays, a book of poems and es- ing title of his autobiography-in-process as “The Pale says, a novel, and a collection of short stories. He car- White Duke,” and who was at that time still dyeing his ries around a 16-mm. newsreel camera which he uses to hair a bright orange, was found by an interviewer for photograph everything around him. He’s . . . into mys- Newsday (September 29, 1972) to possess a “winsome- ticism and numerology, and he’s very knowledgeable ness” that “is a welcome change from the normal star

181 David Bowie Music Innovators megalomania.” Bowie said he would “do anything to Symphony No. 4 “”. Glass has praised Bowie’s avoid the so-called fashionable people—so they think gift for creating “fairly complex pieces of music, mas- I’m a tight-lipped little bastard.” His real friends, he querading as simple pieces.” said, “are very loyal. . . . They know how to be with After completing Low and “Heroes,” Bowie spent me.” He smoked cigarettes. Regarding drugs he told the much of 1978 on the Isolar II world tour, bringing the Playboy interviewer: “I’ve been knocking on heaven’s music of the first two Trilogy to almost door for eleven years now, with one sort of high or an- a million people during 70 in 12 countries. By other. The only kinds of drugs I use though, are the ones now he had broken his drug addiction; biographer Da- that keep me working for longer periods of time. I hate vid Buckley writes that Isolar II was “Bowie’s first tour downs and slow drugs like grass.” Ironically, in Roch- for five years in which he had probably not anaesthe- ester, New York, Bowie was around that time charged tized himself with copious quantities of cocaine before with possession of marijuana, which, he explained, be- taking the stage. . . . Without the oblivion that drugs had longed to a member of his entourage. brought, he was now in a healthy enough mental condi- Before the end of 1976, Bowie’s interest in the bur- tion to want to make friends.” Recordings from the tour geoning German music scene, as well as his drug ad- made up the live album Stage, released the same year. diction, prompted him to move to to clean The final piece in what Bowie called his “triptych,” up and revitalize his career. There he was often seen Lodger (1979), eschewed the minimalist, ambient na- riding a bicycle between his apartment on Hauptstraße ture of the other two, making a partial return to the in Schöneberg and Hansa Tonstudio, the recording stu- drum- and guitar-based rock and pop of his pre-Berlin dio he used, located on Köthener Straße in , era. The result was a complex mixture of new wave and near the . While working with , in places incorporating Hijaz non- and sharing an apartment with Iggy Pop, he began to scales. Lodger reached number 4 in the UK and num- focus on minimalist, for the first of three ber 20 in the US, and yielded the UK hit singles “Boys albums, co-produced with , that became Keep Swinging” and “DJ.” Towards the end of the year, known as his . During the same period, Bowie and Angela initiated divorce proceedings, and Iggy Pop, with Bowie as a co-writer and musician, com- after months of court battles the marriage was ended in pleted his solo album debut The Idiot and its follow-up early 1980. Lust for Life, touring the UK, Europe, and the US in Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) pro- March and April 1977. duced the number one hit “Ashes to Ashes,” revisiting The album Low (1977), partly influenced by character of from “Space Oddity.” The sound of Kraftwerk and Neu!, evidenced a song gave international exposure to the underground move away from narration in Bowie’s songwriting to movement when Bowie visited the a more abstract musical form in which lyrics were spo- London club “Blitz”—the main New Romantic hang- radic and optional. Although he completed the album in out—to recruit several of the regulars (including Steve November 1976, it took his unsettled record company Strange of Visage) to act in the accompanying another three months to release it. It received consid- video, renowned as one of the most innovative of all erable negative criticism upon its release—a release time. While Scary Monsters utilized principles estab- which RCA, anxious to maintain the established com- lished by the Berlin albums, it was considered by critics mercial momentum, did not welcome, and which Bow- to be far more direct musically and lyrically. ie’s ex-manager, , who still maintained a Bowie reached a new peak of popularity and com- significant financial interest in the singer’s affairs, tried mercial success in 1983 with Let’s Dance. Co-produced to prevent. Despite these forebodings, Low yielded the by Chic’s , the album went platinum in both UK number three single “,” and its the UK and the US. Its three singles became top twenty own performance surpassed that of hits in both countries, where its title track reached num- in the UK chart, where it reached number two. Lead- ber one. “Modern Love” and “China Girl” made num- ing contemporary described Low ber two in the UK, accompanied by a pair of acclaimed as “a work of genius” in 1992, when he used it as the promotional videos that, as described by biographer basis for his Symphony No. 1 “Low”; subsequently, David Buckley, “were totally absorbing and activated Glass used Bowie’s next album as the basis for his 1996 key archetypes in the pop world. ‘Let’s Dance’, with its

182 Music Innovators David Bowie little narrative surrounding the young Aborigine couple, merely a band member. A series of singles targeted ‘,’ and ‘China Girl,’ with its nude (and failed to chart, and Bowie, after a disagreement with later partially censored) beach lovemaking scene (a EMI, left the label. Like his audience and his critics, homage to the film ), was suffi- Bowie himself became increasingly disaffected with his ciently sexually provocative to guarantee heavy rotation role as just one member of a band. Tin Machine began on MTV.” By 1983, Bowie had emerged as one of the work on a second album, but Bowie put the venture on most important video artists of the day. Let’s Dance was hold and made a return to solo work. Performing his followed by the Serious Moonlight Tour, during which early hits during the seven-month Sound+Vision Tour, Bowie was accompanied by guitarist and he found commercial success and acclaim once again. backing vocalists Frank and George Simms. The world Tin Machine resumed work the same month, but tour lasted six months and was extremely popular.” their audience and critics, ultimately left disappointed Tonight (1984), another dance-oriented album, by the first album, showed little interest in a second.Tin found Bowie collaborating with Turner and, once Machine II ‘s arrival was marked by a widely publicized again, Iggy Pop. It included a number of cover songs, and ill-timed conflict over the : after production among them the 1966 Beach Boys hit “God Only had begun, the new , Victory, deemed the Knows.” The album bore the transatlantic top ten hit depiction of four ancient nude Kouroi statues, judged “,” itself the inspiration for a short film that by Bowie to be “in exquisite taste,” “a show of wrong, won Bowie a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Mu- obscene images,” requiring air-brushing and patching sic Video, “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean.” Bowie performed at to render the figures sexless. Tin Machine toured again, Wembley in 1985 for , a multi-venue benefit but after the live album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby concert for Ethiopian famine relief. During the event, failed commercially, the band drifted apart, and Bowie, the video for a fundraising single was premièred, Bow- though he continued to collaborate with Gabrels, re- ie’s with . “” sumed his solo career. quickly went to number one on release. In 1993, Bowie released his first solo offering since His final solo album of the decade was 1987’sNev - his Tin Machine departure, the soul, jazz and hip-hop er Let Me Down, where he ditched the light sound of his influenced . Making prominent previous two albums, instead offering harder rock with use of electronic instruments, the album, which reunited an industrial/ dance edge. Peaking at number six Bowie with Let’s Dance producer Nile Rodgers, con- in the UK, the album yielded the hits “Day-In, Day- firmed Bowie’s return to popularity, hitting the num- Out” (his 60th single), “,” and “Never ber one spot on the UK charts and spawning three top Let Me Down.” Bowie later described it as his “nadir,” 40 hits, including the top 10 song “.” calling it “an awful album.” Supporting Never Let Me Bowie explored new directions on The Buddha of Sub- Down, and preceded by nine promotional press shows, urbia (1993), a soundtrack album of incidental music the 86-concert Tour commenced on May composed for the TV series adaptation of Hanif Kurei- 30. Critics maligned the tour as overproduced, saying it shi’s novel. It contained some of the new elements in- pandered to the current stadium rock trends in its special troduced in Black Tie White Noise, and also signaled a effects and dancing. move towards . The album was a critical Bowie shelved his solo career in 1989, retreating to success but received a low-key release and only made the relative anonymity of band membership for the first number 87 in the UK charts. time since the early . A hard-rocking quartet, Tin Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Machine came into being after Bowie began to work ex- of Fame on January 17, 1996. His next album, which perimentally with guitarist . The line-up incorporated experiments in British jungle and drum ‘n’ was completed by Tony and , whom Bowie bass, Earthling (1997), was a critical and commercial had known since the late 1970s for their contribution, success in the UK and the US, and two singles from the on bass and drums respectively, to Iggy Pop’s 1977 al- album became UK top 40 hits. Bowie’s song “I’m Afraid bum Lust For Life. of Americans” from the film Tin Machine’s first world tour was a commercial was re-recorded for the album, and remixed by Trent success, but there was growing reluctance—among fans Reznor for a single release. The heavy rotation of the and critics alike—to accept Bowie’s presentation as accompanying video, also featuring Reznor, contributed

183 David Bowie Music Innovators to the song’s 16-week stay in the US . November, alongside , at the Black Ball, a The Earthling Tour took in Europe and North America New York benefit event for , a per- between June and November 1997. In November 1997, formance marking the last time Bowie performed his Bowie performed on the BBC’s char- music on stage. ity single “Perfect Day,” which reached number one in On the 40th anniversary of the moon the UK. Bowie reunited with Visconti in 1998 to record landing—and Bowie’s accompanying commercial “(Safe in This) Sky Life” for . Al- breakthrough with “Space Oddity”—EMI released the though the track was edited out of the final cut, it was individual tracks from the original eight-track studio re- later re-recorded and released as “Safe” on the B-side of cording of the song, in a 2009 contest inviting members Bowie’s 2002 single “Everyone Says ‘Hi’.” The reunion of the public to create a . , a double led to other collaborations including a limited-edition album of live material from the 2003 concert tour, was single release version of Placebo’s track “Without You released in January 2010. I’m Nothing,” co-produced by Visconti, with Bowie’s On his 66th birthday, Bowie announced the release harmonized vocal added to the original recording. of . Bowie’s first studio album in a de- Sessions for the planned album Toy, intended to cade, The Next Day contained 14 songs plus 3 bonus feature new versions of some of Bowie’s earliest pieces tracks. His website acknowledged the length of his as well as three new songs, commenced in 2000, but the hiatus. Tony Visconti said 29 tracks album was never released. Bowie and Visconti contin- were recorded for the album, some of which could ap- ued their collaboration, producing a new album of com- pear on Bowie’s next record, which he might start work pletely original songs instead: the result of the sessions on later in 2013. The announcement was accompanied was the 2002 album Heathen. by the immediate release of a single, “Where Are We On June 25, 2000, Bowie made his second appear- Now?,” written and recorded by Bowie in New York ance at the in England, playing and produced by longtime collaborator Visconti. The 30 years after his first. On 27 June, Bowie performed single topped the UK iTunes Chart within hours of its a concert at BBC Radio Theatre in London, which was release, and debuted in the UK Singles Chart at No. 6, released in the Bowie at the Beeb, his first single to enter the top 10 for two decades (since which also featured BBC recording sessions from 1968 “Jump They Say” in 1993). A second video, “The Stars to 1972. (Are Out Tonight),” was released 25 February. Directed In October 2001, Bowie opened the Concert for by , it stars Bowie and Tilda Swin- New York City, a charity event to benefit the victims ton as a married couple. On 1 March, the album was of the , with a minimalist perfor- made available to stream for free through iTunes. The mance of Simon & Garfunkel’s “America,” followed Next Day debuted at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart, by a full band performance of “Heroes.” 2002 saw the his first since Black Tie White Noise (1993), and was release of Heathen, and, during the second half of the the fastest-selling album of 2013 at the time. The mu- year, the Heathen Tour. Taking place in Europe and sic video for the song “The Next Day” created some North America, the tour opened at London’s annual controversy, initially being removed from YouTube for festival, for which Bowie was that year ap- terms-of-service violation, then restored with a warning pointed artistic director recommending viewing only by those 18 or over. In the years following his recuperation from a His next compilation album, Nothing Has heart attack in 2004, Bowie reduced his musical out- Changed, was released in November. The album fea- put, making only one-off appearances on stage and in tured rare tracks and old material from his catalogue in the studio. Bowie was awarded the Grammy Lifetime addition to a new song titled “Sue (Or in a Season of Achievement Award on February 8, 2006. In April, he Crime).” In May 2015, “Let’s Dance” was announced announced, “I’m taking a year off—no touring, no al- to be reissued as a yellow vinyl single on July 16, bums.” Nevertheless, he made a surprise guest appear- 2015 in conjunction with the “David Bowie is” exhi- ance at ’s 29 May concert at the Royal bition at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image Albert Hall in London. The event was recorded, and a in . In August 2015, it was announced that selection of songs on which he had contributed joint vo- Bowie was writing songs for a Broadway musical based cals was subsequently released. He performed again in on the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon series. Bowie

184 Music Innovators wrote and recorded the opening title song to the televi- Bowies, who lived in New York for three years, made sion series , which aired in November their home in a seven-bedroom house in the hills above 2015. The theme that was used for The Last Panthers , Switzerland. Bowie and Angela divorced on was also the title track for his January 2016 release February 8, 1980, in Switzerland. Blackstar which is said to take cues from his earlier In October 1990, a decade after his divorce from krautrock-influenced work. Angela, Bowie and Somali-born supermodel were Blackstar was released on January 8, 2016, Bowie’s introduced by a mutual friend. Bowie recalled, “I was 69th birthday, and was met with critical acclaim. Fol- naming the children the night we met . . . it was abso- lowing his death on 10 January, producer Tony Visconti lutely immediate.” On April 24, 1992, Bowie married revealed that Bowie had planned the album to be his the Somali-American model Iman in a private ceremo- swan song, and a “parting gift” for his fans before his ny in . The wedding was later solemnized on death. Several reporters and critics subsequently noted 6 June in . They had one daughter, Alexandria that most of the lyrics on the album seem to revolve “Lexi” Zahra Jones, born in August 2000. The couple around his impending death, with CNN noting that the resided primarily in New York City and London, as album “reveals a man who appears to be grappling with well as owning an apartment in . On January 10, his own mortality.” Throughout his career he sold an 2016, two days after his 69th birthday and the release of estimated 140 million albums. In the United Kingdom, the album, Blackstar, Bowie died from liver cancer at he was awarded 9 Platinum, 11 Gold and 8 Silver al- his New York home. He had been diagnosed bums, and in the United States, 5 Platinum and 7 Gold. earlier, but had not made the news of his illness public. In the BBC’s 2002 poll of the , he was ranked 29. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Further Reading him 39th on their list of the 100 Greatest Rock Artists After Dark 5:38+ O 72 pors of All Time. N Y Times II pl+ Mr 21 76 pors Playboy 23:57 + S 76 pors Personal Life Rolling Stone p784* F 12 76 pors David Bowie and his wife Angela were married in 1970. Spitz, M, Bowie: A Biography (2009) They had one child, a son, Zowie, born in 1971. The

Michelle Branch Singer /

Born: July 2, 1983; Phoenix, Arizona ability, yearning, intensity, and tenderness all in one Primary Field: Pop/Rock/Folk voice. She also has a knack for crafting melodic vocal Group Affiliation: Solo Artist leads, which further define her infectious sound.

Introduction Early Life A self-described singer/songwriter in the pop/rock/folk The second of three children, Michelle Jacquet De- tradition, Michelle Branch has pursued stardom with Sevren Branch was born prematurely on July 2, 1983 uncommon determination since her early teens. She in Phoenix, Arizona. According to the Eurasian Na- achieved her goal at the 18, with the release of tion Web site, she is of mixed Irish, Dutch, French, her album . In a highly enthusiastic re- and Indonesian descent; other Web sites have listed view of that record, which has sold more than two mil- Spanish-Mexicans, too, among her antecedents. Her lion copies, Liana Jonas wrote for the All Music Guide father, David Branch, worked as a plumbing contrac- (online), “The 11-track set showcases this precocious tor; her mother, Peggy, managed a restaurant. She and artist on guitar (electric and acoustic) and a substantial her family, which includes her older brother, David, vocal presence that blends innocence, passion, vulner- and younger sister, Nicole, lived in Flagstaff, Arizona,

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