Major Tom, Ziggy and the Thin White Duke Diplomarbeit
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Major Tom, Ziggy and the Thin White Duke An Analysis of personas, fictional characters and their worlds in selected lyrics by David Bowie Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades einer Magistra der Philosophie an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vorgelegt von Bettina TROPPER am Institut für Anglistik Begutachter: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr.phil. Hugo Keiper Graz, 2018 Eidesstattliche Erklärung Ich erkläre ehrenwörtlich, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbstständig und ohne fremde Hilfe verfasst, andere als die angegebenen Quellen nicht benutzt und die den Quellen wörtlich oder inhaltlich entnommenen Stellen als solche kenntlich gemacht habe. Die Arbeit wurde bisher in gleicher oder ähnlicher Form keiner anderen inländischen oder ausländischen Prüfungsbehörde vorgelegt. Graz, Juni 2018 ………………… Bettina Tropper Danke an meine Eltern, Gerlinde und Harald, die mich in meinem Leben in jeder Lebenslage mit viel Liebe unterstützt haben. Durch euch habe ich diese Musik kennengelernt, die mich dazu inspiriert hat, diese Arbeit zu schreiben. Danke an meinen Freund, Robert, für die jahrelange Unterstützung in meinem Studium und den Optimismus, der mich immer wieder motiviert hat, weiterzumachen. Danke an meinen Sohn, Jonathan, für das Verständnis, dass viel Zeit der letzten Jahre dem Studium gewidmet war. Du bist der Grund warum ich den Mut hatte weiter zu studieren. Danke an meine Großeltern, Gabi und Franzi, und Schwiegereltern, Irene und Walter, für die großartige Hilfe und Unterstützung. Ohne euch hätte ich die Möglichkeit, Kurse an der Uni zu absolvieren, nicht gehabt. Danke an meine Kommilitonen, Bettina, Nadine, Johannes und Phillip, für die traumhafte und intensive Zeit, die wir zusammen verbracht haben. Danke an meine Freundinnen, Lisa, Julia und Anna (meinem study buddy), für die Motivation und das stundenlange Lernen, das mich immens weitergebracht hat. Ein besonderer Dank gilt meinem Betreuer, Herrn Hugo Keiper, für die guten Ratschläge und die Geduld die mir entgegengebracht wurde. Ihre Zuversicht und außerordentliche Unterstützung hat mir das Schreiben wesentlich leichter gemacht. Table of contents 1. Introduction/Personal Preface ........................................................................................... 6 2. Outer space ........................................................................................................................ 8 2.1 David Bowie’s obsession with outer space ..................................................................... 8 2.2 Outer space and Bowie’s songs ....................................................................................... 8 3. Major Tom ....................................................................................................................... 11 3.1 Who is Major Tom? ....................................................................................................... 11 3.2 “Space Oddity” .............................................................................................................. 12 3.2.1 Song background ........................................................................................................ 12 3.2.2 “Ground control to Major Tom” ................................................................................. 16 3.3. “Ashes to Ashes” .......................................................................................................... 22 3.3.1 A sequel to “Space Oddity” ........................................................................................ 22 3.3.2 Music video, releases and prizes ................................................................................ 22 3.3.3 “We know Major Tom’s a junkie” ............................................................................. 24 4. Ziggy Stardust ................................................................................................................. 26 4.1 Bowie’s first trip to America ......................................................................................... 26 4.2 The birth, life and death of Ziggy Stardust .................................................................... 27 4.3 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars .................................. 30 4.4 “Ziggy played guitar” .................................................................................................... 36 4.5 “There’s a starman waiting in the sky” ......................................................................... 40 5. Aladdin Sane or “Ziggy goes to America” ...................................................................... 43 5.1 Who is Aladdin Sane? ................................................................................................... 43 5.2 “Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?)” ................................................................................ 44 5.2.1 Song background ........................................................................................................ 44 5.2.2 “Who will love Aladdin Sane” ................................................................................... 45 6. Halloween Jack ................................................................................................................ 48 6.1 Who is Halloween Jack? ............................................................................................... 48 6.2 “Diamond Dogs” ........................................................................................................... 48 6.2.1 Song background ........................................................................................................ 48 6.2.2 “They call them the Diamond Dogs” ......................................................................... 49 7. The Thin White Duke ...................................................................................................... 55 7.1. Los Angeles .................................................................................................................. 55 7.2 Who is the Thin White Duke? ....................................................................................... 56 7.3 “Station To Station” ...................................................................................................... 57 7.3.1 Song background ........................................................................................................ 57 7.3.2 “The Return of the Thin White Duke” ....................................................................... 58 8. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 64 9. Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 66 10. Appendix: Lyrics ........................................................................................................... 74 1. Introduction/Personal Preface “I was not a natural performer. I didn’t feel at ease on stage, but I felt really comfortable going on stage as somebody else [..]” (David Bowie, “Sound and Vision”, 2012, online) If there is one word to describe David Bowie, it would definitely be “performer”, rather than singer, songwriter or actor. David Bowie was a natural talent at performing on stage. Hence, he thrilled his audience concert after concert. His changing identities made it nearly impossible for his audience to keep track. In one concert, he dressed up as Ziggy Stardust, but preferred to be Aladdin Sane during the next one. His ideas for embodying different characters on stage shaped his lyrics enormously, and made Bowie one of the most outstanding musicians of our time. David Bowie was born as David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 in Bromley, London. He was the child of Margret Mary Burns (known as Peggy) and Haywood Stenton Jones (known as John). His half-brother, Terry, introduced him to different kinds of music, and soon Bowie felt the overwhelming urge to become a musician. Although many of his early songs did not chart, he did not give up, and finally landed a hit with the song “Space Oddity”. The song introduces the listener to Bowie’s first fictional character, Major Tom, who blasts off into space. However, the astronaut was just one of his numerous characters. Not only did David Bowie invent several fictional characters, he also created worlds for them to live in; fictional and non-fictional. His favorite fictional world was indeed outer space, where Major Tom resides. His other invented character, Halloween Jack, lives in the fictional Hunger City. The aim of this thesis is to take a very close look at selected songs written by David Bowie and analyze them, in terms of the fictional characters living in their different surroundings. I delve deep into his life to find explanations for writing his songs by breaking down the lyrics. He wrote all the songs that are analyzed in this thesis by himself. Therefore, it is possible to find out about his state of mind, at the time he wrote them. Since I refer back to Bowie’s life throughout the whole thesis, no biography is provided at the beginning of the it. In order to keep the focus on meaning of the lyrics, no explanations about lyrical devices are given. Thus, in order to find out more about them, the readers are referred to Hugo Keiper’s “The Windmills of Your Mind: Notes Towards an Aesthetic of the Pop Song” or to The Poetry Toolkit: the Essential Guide to Studying Poetry by Rhian Williams. All five chapters revolve around a different fictional