Intuitive Music

Born David Robert Jones in Brixton, London 1947 on January 8th, 1947, David Bowie is one of the most charismatic and innovative pop artists in the history of modern music. Apart from having one of the most beautiful, elegant and expressive voices in pop music, Bowie has been nicknamed “The Chameleon” due to his capability of re-inventing himself. He is one of the most influential artists during the last decades in music.

David Bowie started playing the saxophone at age thirteen, inspired by the jazz of the West End. He took lessons from Ronnie Ross, who later in 1973 played solo baritone saxophone on the Lou Reed classic “Walk On The Wild Side”. David Bowie was in the control room and he introduced himself to the ex-teacher as the bloke who used to be his pupil, to which ross said: “Good God! You said you were going to be a rock star, didn’t you?”.

In 1961, David got hurt in his left eye after he was punched by a schoolfriend George Underwood during an argument over a girl named Carol Goldsmith. Part of the pupil had to be surgically enlarged giving him the peculiar effect of having different coloured eyes. His friend George, by the way remained as a good friend and he was involved in the design of the album sleeves for “Hunky Dory” and “Ziggy Stardust”. David started soon playing with a number of local bands, including The Konrads, The King Bees, The Konrads, The Hooker Brothers and The Manish Boys. The Konrads was formed in 1962 by David Jones (vocals, tenor saxophone), Neville Wills (guitar), Alan Dodds (guitar), Dave Crook (drums), George Underwood (vocals). George Underwood left soon later and David Hadfield was replaced Dave Crook on drums. Also, members Rocky Shahan on bass, Roger Ferris on vocals, and sisters Christine and Stella Patton joined the band. During those days, David changed his surname to ‘Dave Jay’, inspired by Peter Jay And The Jaywalkers. In August 1962, The Konrads recorded their first single “I Never Dreamed’ and soon after the recording David left the band because he wanted to play more blues numbers, and the band stayed together for a long time and even toured as the opening act for The Rolling Stones.

After his departure, Bowie joined The Hooker Brothers along with George Underwood (rhythm guitar, vocals, harmonica) and Viv Andrews (drums), playing regular gigs at the Bromel Club. In order to get more gigs they also used the name of ‘Dave’s Reds And Blues. This band gave birth to The King Bees, with the addition of Roger Bluck on lead guitar), Dave Howard on bass and Robert (Bobby) Allen on drums. The band used to perform in clubs and colleges in the Bromley area, Kent.

In August 1964, David Bowie joined the Manish Boys, which was originally formed from the band Group Seven, featuring Johnny Flux (lead guitar), John Watson (guitar, vocals), Bob Solly (organ), Paul Rodriguez (bass guitar, tenor saxophone, trumpet), Woolf Byrne (baritone saxophone, harmonica) and Mike White (drums). After leaving school at 16, David started working for an advertising agency as a Junior Visualiser/Paste Up Artist and later joined the Yorkshire based company Nevin D. Hirst Advertising in London. In 1964, he quit the job to start a solo career as a singer under the name of David Jones, playing numerous gigs at London clubs and including the legendary Marquee Club. During those days, David also performed with various bands on a casual basis, including The High Numbers, later known as the Who, the T-Bones, and blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson. The Lower Third were formed by Dave Jones (vocals, tenor & alto saxophone), Denis ‘Tea-Cup’ Taylor (lead guitar), Graham Rivens (bass guitar), Les Mighall (drums) along with Neil Anderson’s occasional appearances. The Lower Third got a renowned residency at The Bournemouth Pavilion.

In 1964, an audition for Ralph Horton was arranged at The Roebuck Public House on the Tottenham Court Road, London, which resulted in Horton becoming the band’s manager. In June that same year, Bowie released his first single “Liza Jane’ / ‘Louie Louie Go Home” on Vocalion pop label as David Jones and the Bee Kings. The Bee Kings featured George Underwood (guitar), Roger Black (guitar), Francis Howard (bass) and Robert Allen (drums).

In February 1966, David formed his new band, The Buzz, and auditions were held at the Marquee Club and at Ralph Horton’s flat. The band was formed by David Jones (vocals, guitar, saxophone), John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (guitar), Derek ‘Dek’ Fearnley (bass guitar), John ‘Ego’ Eager (drums) and Derek ‘Chow’ Boyes (keyboards). From 10th April through to 12th June, David and The Buzz started a residency at the Marquee Club. The show was sponsored by Radio London. The band went later through changes when John Hutchinson quit, being replaced by Billy Gray, who also quit later remaining the band as a trio.

During 1967, David played a short UK tour with a band named The Riot Squad, who were known for their use of make up and theatrical stage show. A year later, Bowie formed Turquoise, a trio consisting of David himself, Hermione Farthingale (vocals) and Tony Hill (acoustic guitar, vocals). This lineup only lasted for a few weeks after Tony Hill joined High Tide and the name of the band changed to Feathers, which was an act that included music, mime and dance consisting of David Jones (vocals, mime), Hermione Farthingale (vocals, mime) and John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (acoustic guitar). This interest in the art of mime coincided with his studies with the celebrated British mime Lindsay Kemp.

In 1969, Hermione Farthingale left Feathers in early February, leaving David and John Hutchinson to continue as a duo for three more gigs. After signing with Kenneth Pitt as his manager to release several pop singles in the Pye and Deram labels, such as “Can’t Help Thinking About Me”, “Do Anything You Say”, “I Dig Everything”, “Rubber Band”, “The Laughing Gnome” and “Love You Till Tuesday”.

Later, David Jones changed it to David Bowie to avoid confusion with the lead singer of the Monkees, Davy Jones. The name of “Bowie”, taken from the Bowie knifes, was apparently suggested by his friend and roommate at the time Marc Bolan of T. Rex. During this period, he also turned to Buddhism which has been an important influence throughout his career.

In 1969, David Bowie released his debut solo album “Space Oddity”, which was originally released on Mercury records under the title of “Man of Words, Man of Music”. The album was produced by Gus Dudgeon and Tony Visconti, and recorded at London’s Trident studios under the engineering of the prestigious engineer Ken Scott. “Space Oddity” featured David Bowie (vocals, 12-string guitar, organ, stylophone, kalimba), Keith Christmas (acoustic guitar), Tim Renwick, Mick Wayne (guitar), Paul Buckmaster (cello), Tony Visconti (flute, recorder, bass), Benny Marshall (harmonica), Rick Wakeman (electric harpsichord, Mellotron), John Lodge (bass), Herbie Flowers (bass), Terry Cox (drums), and John Cambridge (drums). “Space Oddity” is considered the first David Bowie’s significant work and where he started forging the style that made him one of the main music figures of the 21st century in an eclectic mix of folk, rock, blues, rock n’ roll, and electronic sounds. The album, which pays tribute to all the influences of the London artistic scene, represented his first hit in America and the beginnings of Bowie’s career of fame and success. On the 10th May 1970, David Bowie was awarded with an Ivor Novello Award from the Songwriters’ Guild of Great Britain for Best Original Song “Space Oddity”, which he performed on the ceremony accompanied by the Les Reed Orchestra.

After a North-American tour, David Bowie signed to RCA label to record the album “Hunky Dory” at London’s Trident studios, which was originally developed from a 6-song demo. The album featured his personal band, including Mick Ronson (guitar, vocals, mellotron), Travor Bolder (bass, trumpet) and Woody Woodmansey (drums), plus the studio collaboration on piano of Rick Wakeman from the Strawbs and later Yes. This was the first work that featured the imprint of Mick Ronson’s personal guitar, which remained in Bowie’s works for many years. “Hunky Dory” also featured some of the biggest Bowie classic songs, such as “Changes” and “Life On Mars?”, and mixed in a peculiar and tasteful cocktail the sounds of rock, pop, folk and cabaret music. Part of Bowie’s geniality was the personal way of combining the strong influence of artists like Lou Reed (“Queen Bitch”) and Bob Dylan (“Song for Bob Dylan”). As a comparison to painter Pablo Picasso, some people has pointed that David Bowie is the best stealer in the world of pop music because he just take the ideas from other people and just make give the his personal touch.

In 1971, Bowie formed the supporting band Arnold Corns, featuring his costume designer Freddie Burretti on vocals, nicknamed name Rudi Valentino, Mick Ronson on guitar, Trevor Bolder on bass, Mick Woodmansey on drums and Mark Carr Pritchard on guitar. These band rehearsed part of the material that would give shape to Bowie’s forthcoming mythical album, which was originally going to be entitled “Looking For Rudi”. Of all of the pop-stars from the 70’s, David Bowie is probably the one who has most influenced the future generations. David Bowie, with his peculiar, androgynous, and ambiguous sexual image, became one of main icons of the glam rock scene. In May that same year, Bowie got married Mary Angela Barnett, known as Angie, after they met when. According to Bowie’s words, they were both “fucking the same bloke”, who was in fact the Asian record executive Calvin Mark Lee. Bowie and Angy had a baby, Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones. Despite this facts, his name was during the early 70’s followed by a controversy about his sexuality. David Bowie was the first pop artist who shocked the music world by announcing that he was bi-sexual at an interview to the Melody Maker magazine in January 1972.

In August that same year, David Bowie declared to Beat Instrumental magazine: “If Elvis Presley’s image wasn’t bisexual then I don’t know what. I think Jagger’s image was also very bisexual. People talk about ‘fag-rock’ but that’s an unwieldy title at the best of times. I think it’s all rock ‘n roll. It’s the audiences that are fags if anything.” This coincided with the release of his legendary album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”, where his unique visionary poetry full of urban icons and futuristic imagery would become part of our modern culture. For the stage show, Bowie weared several costumes designed by Freddie Burretti, the vocalist from Arnold Corns. Several other costumes were designed by Michael Fish and Natasha Kornilof and Kansai Yamamoto.

During the summer of 1972, Bowie started a parallel career as a producer for his best friend Lou Reed’s album “Transformer”, and later “All The Young Dudes” for Mott The Hoople. After one of the most legendary tours in the history of pop music David Bowie announced on June 3, 1973 his retirement from the stages: “Of all the shows on the tour this one will stay with us for the longest because not only is this the last show of the tour, but it is the last show we will ever do”.

In April 1973, a new album “Aladdin Sane” was released, which was inspired by his experiences in America. Bowie’s next step led him to France, where he worked on his next album “Pin-Ups”, which was the last tone to feature Mick Ronson on guitar and Ken Scott at the production. Bowie also collaborated in several solo albums from Ronson, including “Slaughter On 10th Avenue” (1974), “Play Don’t Worry” (1975), “Heaven And Hull” (1994), “The Mick Ronson Memorial Concert” (1994) and “Main Man” (1998). Sadly, Mick Ronson died of cancer on April 29, 1993.

In 1974, Bowie was victim of an grotesque incident when a stalker breaks into his apartment in London’s Chelsea and requested to kiss his feet, being later arrested by the Police. That same year he also released “Diamond Dogs” (1973), where his music headed toward the genres of soul and disco. The next year saw the unpredicted David Bowie’s comeback to the stages with an U.S. tour, which included a choreography of dancers. He also appeared in numerous collaborations, including Dana Gillespie’s “Weren’t Born A Man” (1974), Ron Wood’s “I’ve Got My Own Album To Do” (1974), Steeleye Span’s “Now We Are Six” (1974) and the uncredited Rolling Stones’ “It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll” (1974).

Bowie’s fascination for the American soul music gave birth in 1975 to the album ‘Young Americans’, produced by Tony Visconti. That same year he also collaborated with his friend John Lennon on the song “Fame”, which was born out of an improvised session at Electric Ladyland studios in New York. The song was included in the album in the very last minute and it was David Bowie’s first ever No. 1 single in the U.S. After the release of the album, Bowie moved to Los Angeles to start the shooting of the first movie of his acting career, “The Man Who Fell To Earth” directed by Nicolas Roeg.

His next album in 1976, “Station to Station” was primarly oriented to funk music . This was followed by the “White Light” tour that un-veiled a new marked musical direction under the influence of the German early synth pop scene and the sound of the synthesizers, and played out with a scene inspired by the works of the author Bertol Brecht.

In 1977, David Bowie was highly influenced by writer William Burroughs “cut-up” technique -a short of poetic collage- and the electronic Berlin scene protagonized by artists like kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, and Klaus Schulze. This way, Bowie moved to the Schoneberg section of the German city to start the trilogy of albums formed by “Low”(1977), “Heroes” (1977) and “Lodger” (1979) produced by himself and Tony Visconty.

The first in the trilogy, “Low”, was the most experimental album form Bowie’s career. For the album, Bowie teamed up with Brian Eno who was also at the time fascinated with the krautrock scene and experimenting in early ambient music. During the period of recording of the album Bowie collaborated and produced the albums “The Idiot” and later ‘Lust For Life’ of his close friend Iggy pop, who as well as Bowie, had moved Berlin to get clean from the cocaine addiction. A big fan of Iggy pop’s work, David Bowie started a lifetime friendship with him in 1973 and helped him to stall a career. Bowie also collaborated in Iggy pop’s albums “Raw Power” (1973), “TV Eye” (1978), “Soldier” (1980) and “Blah-Blah-Blah” (1986).

“Heroes”, featuring Brian Eno again, also had the presence of Robert Fripp from King Crimson lead on guitar, and is probably the most experimental and musically advanced of all David Bowie’s albums, which included ambient experiments such as “Sense of Doubt”, “Moss Garden” and “Neukoln”, as well as pieces like “Blackout” and “V-2 Chneider” with a clear influence from krautrock bands like Neu! and Faust. By taking the krautrock world to British pop music, “Heroes” was one of David Bowie’s works that clearly draw the influential guidelines for the later British synth pop scene.

At the same time, Bowie participated in the movie “Just A Gigolo” and also narrated Prokofiev’s “Peter And The Wolf” with the Philadelphia Orchestra. On September 11th, 1977, he was invited to sing with Bing Crosby for the yearly BBC TV Christmas special. Bing had never heard of Bowie’s music but David was a secret fan and jumped at the chance to perform “The Little Drummer Boy” as a duet. Bing told in an interviewer four days later: “Bowie is a clean cut kid and a real fine asset to the show. He sings well, has a great voice and reads lines well. He could be a good actor if he wanted.” Sadly, Bing Crosby died a month later, before the show was broadcasted.

After re-locating to Vevey, Switzerland, for a short period, Bowie landed to France in 1978 for the recordings of “Lodger”. This was followed by his Broadway debut as the main roll in the work “The Elephant Man”, based on the life of Joseph Merrick and opened in September 1980.

His album “Scary Monsters And Super Creeps” (1980) was another step ahead of his time in the doorways of the synth pop era. At this stage, David Bowie’s private life was subject of scandal in the yellow press of the 70’s. Apparently, at some point there was a triangle affair in between David Bowie, Angie and Mick Jagger. In 1990, Angie claimed on The Joan Rivers TV Show that she once walked in the bedroom and found Mick Jagger and David Bowie in bed and she reacted by asking them if they wanted some coffee. The press has also oftenly pointed that Bowie had homosexual relations with his best friends Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. In January 1978, Angie Bowie attempted suicide. On 8th February 1980, David and Angie Barnett got divorced after nine years of turbulent marriage. Angie Bowie later became a writer and gave lectures on bisexuality. She has published several books where she aired in detail her marriage years with Bowie.

In 1981, David Bowie was protagonist of one of the most unique duets in the history of pop music when he joined forces with Queen to release the hit single “Under Pressure”, which riff was later famously stolen by Vanilla Ice. After the album, Bowie got involved in various film and movie projects, including the cult movie “The Hunger” directed in 1982 by Tony Scott and co-starred by Catherine Deneuve, and “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” directed in 1983 by Nagisa Oshima.

During the 80’s, David Bowie established as one of the most commercially successful pop artists, and specially in 1983 with the release of “Let’s Dance”, where he gave a 180º turn to his career with a collection of elegant dance floor songs produced by Nile Rogers from the disco act Chic. The album was followed by the media scandal after the video clip for the song “China Girl” was censored in the US for it’s explicit erotic content. “Let’s Dance” remains as the biggest selling album of all Bowie’s career, selling 8 million copies.

1985 was a sad moment in Bowie’s life after the suicide of his step-brother Terry in January. He would later write the song “Jump They Sayâ€? in 1992, regarding the tragic success. After his appearance at Live Aid concert, he released the top hit “Dancing in the Streets” with Mick Jagger, and started the theatrical Glass Spider tour, featuring Peter Frampton on guitar, who happened to be the son of Bowie’s Art teacher at school. In the late 1988, Bowie formed the band Tin Machine, with the Sales Brothers and Reeves Gabrels, moving to a more rock oriented sound. Two years later, Tim Machine was over and he toured again to support the release of the boxed set “Sound and Vision”, featuring Adrian Belew, of King Crimson and Talking Heads fame, on guitar. Tin Machine released got to release two studio albums: “Tin Machine” (1989) and “Tin Machine II” (1991).

On 2nd April 1990, David Bowie was honored with the ‘Outstanding Contribution To British Music’ trophy at the 35th Annual Ivor Novello awards. That same year, Bowie recovered two old solo projects: “Black Tie White Noise”, and “Jump”. This last one was one of rock’s first CDROMs edited and it featured Nile Rogers on the production and the come-back of Bowie’s funk style. After this successful work, Bowie and Brian Eno collaborated together again in the album studio “1.Outside” inspired in the obsession of the western society for the physical perfection.

On 24th April 1992, David Bowie married the Somali top model Iman Abdulmajid, after having living together for 20 months. Among the 68 invited guests were Yoko Ono, Brian Eno, Bono, Eric Idle, Geoff MacCormack, George Underwood, Herve Leger and Thierry Mugler.

In 1996, David Bowie collaborated in the movie “Basquiat” playing the roll character of his old friend, the pop art icon Andy Warhol, and to whom he dedicated the song “Warhol” in the album “Hunky Dory”. That same year, he also embarked on a tour around the US with the industrial act Nine Inch Nails. He also performed acoustically with Neil Young and Pearl Jam at the Bridge Benefit Concert in San Francisco and also at Roskilde and Phoenix Festivals. At a performance at the VH-1 Fashion Awards on 25th October, he debuted his new single “Little Wonder” from his new “Earthling” album, where he approached the electronic music world again in the shape of drum ‘n’ bass. The album featured the collaboration of a band formed by Gail Ann Dorsey on bass and vocals, Mike Garson on keyboards, Reeves Gabrels on guitar and synths and Zachary Alford on drums. The album also featured the controversial single “I’m Afraid Of Americans”, in collaboration with Brian Eno, which video showed David and Nine Inch Nail’s Trent Reznor chasing through the streets of Greenwich Village.

On the 21st of September 1999, David Bowie became the first major artist to distribute his music by Internet, with the release of the “Hours” album. The music was released in Liquid Audio format and included the bonus track “No One Calls”. This was preceded by the Internet-only release of the single “Telling Lies” in 1997. This coincided with the celebration of his 50th birthday in January of 1997 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, featuring Lou Reed, Robert Smith, Sonic Youth, Billy Corgan, Foo Fighters and Frank Black onstage.

In 1999, David Bowie worked on the film “Mr. Rice’s Secret’” and launched the David Bowie Radio Network on the Rolling Stone Radio website. Also in May of this year he received an honorary doctorate in music from Berkley College, Boston, which has also been received by Quincy Jones, Sting, BB King, Sting, James Taylor and Dizzy Gillespie. Bowie also appeared at the annual Brit Awards ceremony to join Placebo for a performance of the Marc Bolan’s “Twentieth Century Boy”, which was later released as a single.

In July 1999, David Bowie was voted as the “Biggest Music Star of the 20th Century” in a poll of the Sun newspaper. He was also voted the 6th Greatest Star of The Century on Q magazine’s poll and the “Most Influential Artist of All Time” by the NME magazine. 1999 also saw the release of David Bowie’s album “Hours”, featuring the close collaboration of Reeves Gabrels, which was described by the press as a return to the times of Hunky Dory and his most autobiographical records to date. Bowie said on the album: “I wanted to capture a kind of universal angst felt by many people of my age. You could say that I am attempting to write some songs for my generation.”

During the early 00’s Bowie concentrated in his family life, now being the father of the first child with his wife Iman, Alexandria Zahra Jones. During this period, he collected a number of songs that resulted in the album “Heathen”, which was produced with Tony Visconti and released in his own label Iso Records. The album featured the collaboration of Pete Townsend of the Who and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters. 2003 saw the release of the album “A Reality”, a collection of diverse independent songs which was followed by a accident-prone tour. The Miami show was cancelled after the death of a stagehand from his crew, Wally Thomas, who died in a fatal fall just before the concert after the Stereophonics supporting set. Later,
David Bowie was forced to cancel the Vienna and Salzburg concerts after a performance at the Hurricane Festival in Prague where pain caused him a pinched nerve in his back, being taken to hospital right after the show. He was later diagnosed with a blocked artery that had resulted in a minor heart attack which forced him to stop the tour and put him to rest for a while.

David Bowie is one of the singers who has most influeced the pop music from the 80’s and 90’s and his footprint can be detected musically and visually in most of the synth pop, new romantic and new wave bands, including Depeche Mode, Adam and the Ants, Japan, Soft Cell, New Order, Ultravox, Japan, and Visage.

David Bowie has also appeared in numerous other artists works, including Adrian Belew’s “Young Lions” (1989), Ava Cherry’s “People From Bad Homes” (1995), Earl Slick’s “Zig Zag” (2003), Goldie’s “Saturnz Return” (2001), Kristeen Young’s “Breasticles” (2003), Lulu’s “The Man Who Sold The World” (1970), T. Rex’ “Futuristic Dragon” (1976), Rustic Overtones’ “Viva Nueva” (2001), The Who’s “Substitute” (1980) and Tina Turner’s “Live In Europe” (1988).