![]() ![]() Bowie’s solution was to move to Berlin to escape his addiction, as well as to look for inspiration in the burgeoning Berlin krautrock scene. Leading up to what many would later see as his creative peak, in the late ’70s Bowie’s physical and mental well-being were being tested by a mixture of litigation between him and his management as well as his own addiction, the singer reportedly surviving on a diet of cocaine and milk during this period. Personal Lows and Creative Highs: Low, Heroes and Lodger His embracing of African American music on these albums was a huge milestone in such music reaching the mainstream. Stylish, aloof, pale and skinny, it was as the duke that Bowie would make history by being the first white artist to perform on Soul Train. Powered largely by cocaine during this period, Bowie’s new character was almost a physical embodiment of the drug. This era would also introduce us to Bowie’s new character - The Thin White Duke. However, with 1975’s Young Americans, recorded in Philadelphia while on tour in 1974, Bowie would drastically change his aesthetic and sound, embracing funk and soul in a style he called ‘plastic soul’.Īlong with his subsequent album Station To Station (1976), this period saw Bowie release legendary singles like Fame and Golden Years. While he did try to leave Ziggy behind in 1973, Bowie’s next album Diamond Dogs (1974) still very much bore the mark of the martian pop idol. The Thin White Duke: Young Americans and Station To Station Bowie would keep up the same aesthetic for the next album Aladdin Sane, before famously retiring the character of Ziggy onstage in 1973. ![]() The album was so successful it actually dragged his previous work, fourth album Hunk Dory (which was six months old at the time) back into the charts along with other previously released tracks. A melding of the image and character of Iggy Pop with the music of Lou Reed, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars would come to be one of the most seminal albums of the 20th Century. It would be the time Bowie spent in the US promoting his third album The Man Who Sold The World (1970) that would inspire him to create his greatest creation to date, the outer-space pop idol Ziggy Stardust. Outer-space Pop Idol: Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars and Aladdin Sane Later re-recorded and re-released with a more Ziggy Stardust-flavored video, the original clip above is an amazing look at Bowie pre-stardom, Space Oddity being the single that would establish him as a solo artist. Pre-Ziggy: Space Oddity, Hunky Dory and The Man Who Sold The Worldįamously inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Space Oddity, the title track from Bowie’s 1969 sophomore album, is a true slice of pop genius, not least because it pioneered syncronised marketing by being released five days before the Apollo 11 moon landing. ![]() Millions heard themselves as that “you” and took his words as a pledge of solidarity, a tribal code.With a career that spanned over half a century, Bowie not only gave us many great songs - he gave us so many amazing versions of himself over the years, that we thought we’d look back his legacy through his many eras from Space Oddity to his latest and final album, Blackstar. “I’m the space invader/I’ll be a rock’n’rollin’ bitch for you,” sang Bowie. But Bowie didn’t just place himself above the adoring crowd he also situated himself among it. Impersonating an alien, he spoke to the alienated, to those who, by dint of sexual preference or adolescent confusion or fabulous hair and makeup and clothes, felt like they had tumbled to Earth from a distant planet. Ziggy Stardust was an elaborate performance-art jape about the superhuman, even messianic, qualities with which audiences invest in rock stars. Remembering David Bowie: His Life in Photos It’s a place and it’s a muse it’s an all-purpose metaphor that takes in existential conundrums, utopian fantasies, dystopian nightmares, parables about technology and sex and fame and rock’n’roll. Before Bowie, pop sci-fi had been pure kitsch - goofy novelty hits like “Flying Saucer Rock’n’Roll” and “Martian Hop.” But in Bowie’s work, outer space plays the same role as the crossroads in Delta blues or the New Jersey Turnpike in Bruce Springsteen‘s catalog. “Space Oddity” was recorded on June 20, 1969, exactly one month before the Apollo 11 moon landing. Bowie’s early embrace of science fiction was a sign of the times. ![]()
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