David Bowie | New Music And Songs | David Bowie About David Bowie The cliché about David Bowie is that he was a musical chameleon, adapting himself according to fashion and trends. While such a criticism is too glib, there's no denying that Bowie demonstrated a 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'd 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 have 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 its release, 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 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 called himself Ziggy Stardust, and his backing band -- Ronson, Woodmansey, and bassist Trevor Bolder -- were the Spiders from Mars. The Rise and 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 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, but it 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. In 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 the 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 Christiane F (1981) 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 its 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 was ultimately 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, claiming 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 Hunt's brother, drummer 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 by-then-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. In 2002, Bowie reunited with producer Toni Visconti and released Heathen to very positive reviews. He continued on with Visconti for Reality in 2003, which was once again warmly received. Bowie supported Reality with a lengthy tour but it came to a halt in the summer of 2004 when he received an emergency angioplasty while in Hamburg, Germany. Following this health scare, Bowie quietly retreated from the public eye. Over the next few years, he popped up at the occasional charity concert or gala event and he sometimes sang in the studio for other artists (notably he appeared on Scarlett Johansson's Tom Waits tribute Anywhere I Lay My Head in 2008). Archival releases appeared but no new recordings did until he suddenly ended his unofficial retirement on his 66th birthday on January 8, 2013, releasing a new single called "Where Are We Now?" and announcing the arrival of a new album.

Entitled The Next Day and once again produced by Visconti, the album was released in March of 2013. Greeted with generally positive reviews, The Next Day debuted at either number one or two throughout the world, earning gold certifications in many countries. The following year, Bowie released a new compilation called Nothing Has Changed, which featured the new song "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)." This song turned out to be the cornerstone of Bowie's next project, Blackstar. Arriving on January 8, 2016, the album found Bowie re-teaming with Tony Visconti and exploring adventurous territory, as signaled by its lead single, "Blackstar." Just two days after its release, it was announced that David Bowie had died from liver cancer. In a Facebook post, Tony Visconti revealed that Bowie knew of his illness for at least 18 months and created Blackstar as "his parting gift." It topped several national charts -- including the Billboard 200, which made it his first number one album in the U.S. By the autumn of 2016, posthumous projects began to surface, including Who Can I Be Now?

-- a collection of his mid-'70s albums that functioned as a sequel to the previous year's box set Five Years -- and the release of the cast recording to Lazarus, the Broadway musical he completed in his final years. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi David Bowie - Biography - IMDb David Bowie Biography Showing all 147 items Jump to: Overview (5) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trade Mark (10) | Trivia (62) | Personal Quotes (67) Overview (5) 5' 10" (1.78 m) Mini Bio (1) David Bowie is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of pop music. Born David Jones, he changed his name to Bowie in the 1960s, to avoid confusion with the then well-known Davy Jones (lead singer of The Monkees ). The 1960s were not a happy period for Bowie, who remained a struggling artist, awaiting his breakthrough. He dabbled in many different styles of music (without commercial success), and other art forms such as acting, mime, painting, and playwriting.

He finally achieved his commercial breakthrough in 1969 with the song "Space Oddity," which was released at the time of the moon landing. Despite the fact that the literal meaning of the lyrics relates to an astronaut who is lost in space, this song was used by the BBC in their coverage of the moon landing, and this helped it become such a success. The album, which followed "Space Oddity," and the two, which followed (one of which included the song "The Man Who Sold The World," covered by Lulu and Nirvana ) failed to produce another hit single, and Bowie's career appeared to be in decline. However, he made the first of many successful "comebacks" in 1972 with "Ziggy Stardust," a concept album about a space-age rock star. This album was followed by others in a similar vein, rock albums built around a central character and concerned with futuristic themes of Armageddon, gender dysfunction/confusion, as well as more contemporary themes such as the destructiveness of success and fame, and the dangers inherent in star worship. In the mid 1970s, Bowie was a heavy cocaine abuser and sometime heroin user.

In 1975, he changed tack. Musically, he released "Young Americans," a soul (or plastic soul as he later referred to it) album. This produced his first number one hit in the US, "Fame." He also appeared in his first major film, The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). With his different-colored eyes and skeletal frame, he certainly looked the part of an alien. The following year, he released "Station to Station," containing some of the material he had written for the soundtrack to this film (which was not used). As his drug problem heightened, his behavior became more erratic. Reports of his insanity started to appear, and he continued to waste away physically. He fled back to Europe, finally settling in Berlin, where he changed musical direction again and recorded three of the most influential albums of all time, an electronic trilogy with Brian Eno "Low, Heroes and Lodger." Towards the end of the 1970s, he finally kicked his drug habit, and recorded the album many of his fans consider his best, the Japanese-influenced "Scary Monsters." Around this time, he played the Elephant Man on Broadway, to considerable acclaim.

The next few years saw something of a drop-off in his musical output as his acting career flourished, culminating in his acclaimed performance in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983). In 1983, he recorded "Let's Dance," an album which proved an unexpected massive commercial success, and produced his second number 1 hit single in the US. The tour which followed, "Serious Moonlight," was his most successful ever. Faced with this success on a massive scale, Bowie apparently attempted to "repeat the formula" in the next two albums, with less success (and to critical scorn). Finally, in the late 1980s, he turned his back on commercial success and his solo career, forming the hard rock band, Tin Machine, who had a deliberate limited appeal. By now, his acting career was in decline. After the comparative failure of Labyrinth (1986), the movie industry appears to have decided that Bowie was not a sufficient name to be a lead actor in a major movie, and since that date, most of his roles have been cameos or glorified cameos. He himself also seems to have lost interest in movie acting.

Tin Machine toured extensively and released two albums, with little critical or commercial success. In 1992, Bowie again changed direction and re-launched his solo career with "Black Tie White Noise," a "wedding" album inspired by his recent marriage to Iman . He released three albums to considerable critical acclaim and reasonable commercial success. In 1995, he renewed his working relationship with Brian Eno to record "Outside." After an initial hostile reaction from the critics, this album has now taken its place with his classic albums. In 2003, Bowie released an album entitled 'Reality.' The Reality Tour began in November 2003 and, after great commercial success, was extended into July 2004. In June 2004, Bowie suffered a heart attack and the tour did not finish it's scheduled run. After recovering, Bowie did not release any new music, but did a little acting. In 2006, he played Tesla in The Prestige (2006) and had a small cameo in the series Extras (2005).

In 2007, he did a cartoon voice in SpongeBob SquarePants (1999) playing Lord Royal Highness. He has not appeared in anything since 2008; however, after a ten year hiatus from recording, he released a new album called 'The Next Day.' Bowie has influenced the course of popular music several times and influenced several generations of musicians. His promotional videos in the 1970s and 80s are regarded as ground-breaking, and as a live concert act, he is regarded as the most theatrical of them all. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Dara O'Kearney <daraok@iol.ie> Spouse (2) His distinctive and idiosyncratic singing style, wide ranging vocals and rich baritone His one permanently dilated pupil that gives him the appearance of different colored eyes Known for having a different theme on almost every album Lyrics with science fiction or fantasy themes His highly theatrical style and performances His musical eclecticism and experimentation Wearing sharp suits in the 1980s The intellectual depth of his work His marriage of music and visual art Trivia (62) His eyes were both blue.

However, one pupil was permanently dilated due to an incident when he was punched by a school friend, George Underwood , when he was 15, and as a result, one eye looked darker than the other. Underwood became a successful artist and remained a friend of Bowie's for the rest of his life, including designing artwork for him. In 1968 while he was still a struggling artist, Bowie wrote some English lyrics to a French song titled "Comme d'Habitude" ("As Usual"). His version, "Even a Fool Learns to Love", never did get recorded, but when the French melody caught the attention of Paul Anka , he reworked the lyrics and the song became "My Way". Of course, when Frank Sinatra recorded "My Way" his way, it turned to gold. Bowie had one son in 1971 with his then-wife Angie Bowie , originally named Zowie - who later changed it to Joe and who is now known as Duncan Jones . Duncan was Bowie's best man at his 1992 wedding to Iman . He studied at a film school in London and became a successful writer and director.

(August 15, 2000) His daughter, with Iman , Alexandria Zahra Jones, was born. Bowie was the first sexually ambiguous British pop star, declaring himself "gay" in 1972 (before contemporaries such as Freddie Mercury and Elton John made declarations that they were bisexual) and only five years since male homosexuality had been decriminalized in the UK. In a magazine interview, he stated that he met his first wife when they were in a relationship with the same man. Whether this was true or a joke has been the subject of much speculation. His appearance on Top of the Pops (1964) in 1972 with "Starman", when he put his arm around guitarist Mick Ronson , has been cited by many as a key moment for gay liberation in Britain and described by journalist Caitlin Moran as "the gay moon landing". In a 1983 interview with Rolling Stone, he stated that his bisexuality was really a sham. He claimed he made the story up to create more mystery about himself and defined himself as a "closet heterosexual".

In later years he would neither confirm nor deny he had engaged in gay relationships, merely admitting (in a 2002 interview by Jonathan Ross ) that he'd been "incredibly promiscuous". Dancer Lindsay Kemp has often claimed in interviews that he slept with Bowie. He was born and raised in London, England, of English parents. His father was originally from Yorkshire. His mother was from Kent and was of Irish ancestry. The Jones side of the family had roots in West Wales. In his composition "Slip Away", on his album "Heathen", he makes cryptic references to The Uncle Floyd Show (1974), a program popular in the late 1970s and 1980s in the New York City area. Broadcast on a local television station, it featured two puppets, "Oogie" and "Bones Boy", mentioned in the song, as well as the host, "Uncle" Floyd Vivino . He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 (by Madonna ) and the American Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005.

He contributed the song "Everyone Says Hi" to the all-star War Child album "Hope", which assisted child victims of the war in Iraq, in 2003. His 1972 album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" came 8th in Classic Rock Magazine's list of the 30 greatest concept albums of all time. [March 2003] He performed with (on separate occasions) Queen , Mick Jagger , Iggy Pop , Al B. Sure! , Tina Turner , Annie Lennox , 'Nine Inch Nails' and Bing Crosby . Something that he and actor John Hurt had in common is that both men played the Elephant Man. Bowie was consistently listed in later life as one of the wealthiest British music stars in the world. In November 1997, Business Age magazine reported his net worth as being over $900 million, surpassing even that of fellow British musician Paul McCartney , making him Britain's richest rock star. In 1999, Reuters placed his net worth at roughly $917 million.

In 2003, the Sunday Express claimed his net worth was still in the $900 million (£510 million) range but that this placed him second to Paul McCartney . However, in 2005, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated his fortunes at roughly $185 million (£100 million). Following his death in 2016, his estate, which was mainly bequeathed to his widow and two children, was valued at $100 million (£70 million). His song "Five Years" was covered by former Marillion singer Fish on his 1993 album "Songs from the Mirror", a collection of songs which reflected his musical influences. His song "Life on Mars" was covered by Marillion frontman Steve Hogarth and the H Band on the album "Live Spirit: Live Body" (released 2002). Bowie cited Little Richard as his first musical influence, hearing him at the age of eight, and, according to producer Nile Rodgers , he was a key influence on his most commercially successful album, "Let's Dance". Bowie drew from a wide range of musical influences from his earliest days.

In 2015, British music publication Mojo released a compilation album of 15 tracks by his earliest influences. It comprised of tracks by Little Richard , Chuck Berry , Bobby Bland , Ronnie Ross , Frank Sinatra , Jacques Brel , Lotte Lenya , Nina Simone , Nat 'King' Cole , Billy Fury , Anthony Newley , The Flares, Vince Taylor , The Yardbirds and The Pretty Things . He declined the royal honor of Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000, and turned down a knighthood in 2003. He took the pseudonym "David Bowie" to keep himself from being confused with Davy Jones of The Monkees . (June 25, 2004) He had an emergency angioplasty in Germany while on his current tour. The remainder of the tour was obviously cancelled. Bowie was a big fan of The Velvet Underground . He later recorded with and produced the band's songwriter Lou Reed . He also frequently collaborated as a songwriter with Iggy Pop from The Stooges . Bowie, Reed and Pop are all considered to be among the most influential rock musicians of all time.

Bowie included a version of "China Girl", which he had written with Pop in the 1970s (and had been recorded by Pop on his 1977 album "The Idiot"), on his 1983 album "Let's Dance" in order to help Pop financially. The song became one of Bowie's biggest international hits. Following Bowie's death, Pop described Bowie's friendship as "the light of my life". He played 14 different instruments. The first instrument he learned was the saxophone at the age of 12 and performed it on several of his own songs. Although a talented rhythm guitarist (which included playing the famous riff of "Rebel Rebel"), Bowie found himself lacking in ability as a lead guitarist. He was voted the 39th Greatest Artist in Rock 'n' Roll by Rolling Stone. He turned down the role of Captain Hook in Hook (1991), which went to Dustin Hoffman . He underwent triple heart bypass surgery following a heart attack. He also gave up his smoking habit of 50 cigarettes a day in the same year. [July 2004] He was loosely the basis for the film Velvet Goldmine (1998).

He sang a duet with Kasper Eistrup on the album "No Balance Palace" by the Danish rock band Kashmir . [2005] He was credited as himself in Zoolander (2001). He was the judge of the fashion "walk-off" between Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller . He was the first major recording artist to release a song only on the Internet. He is mentioned in "Life Is a Rock But the Radio Rolled Me", a 1974 international hit single by Reunion and "Monkey Business", a 1991 international hit single by heavy metal band Skid Row (the lyric "thinkin' Bowie's just a knife"). He was the son of Margaret Mary Jones . He was the winner of the British Phonographic Industry Award for British Male Solo Artist in 1984 following the success of his multi-million selling album "Let's Dance". He was also the winner of the 1996 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution. In 2014, Bowie became the oldest person to date to win the British Male Solo Artist award following the success of his comeback album "The Next Day". He was more than 40 years older than the other nominees.

He played Serbian/American scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla in The Prestige (2006). Bowie revealed that he turned down a lucrative opportunity to record a theme song for a James Bond film because he didn't like the franchise. He was also originally approached to play Max Zorin in A View to a Kill (1985), but turned it down citing his lack of enthusiasm for the script. The role went to Christopher Walken instead. He was also considered for the role of The Joker in Batman (1989) and Max Shreck in Batman Returns (1992), but turned down the latter to appear in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). He was ranked #12 on VH1's 100 Sexiest Artists and #7 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll. Bowie considered "Tonight" (released in 1984) and "Never Let Me Down" (released in 1987) to be his weakest albums. Both albums were critically panned and led to Bowie forming the group Tin Machine in an attempt to shed his mainstream audience and reinvent himself as a creative force.

Despite his low opinion of these albums, Bowie did later choose a song from each album ("Loving the Alien" from "Tonight" and "Time Will Crawl" from "Never Let Me Down") as among his fifteen favourite tracks from his own career for the 2008 compilation album "iSelect". He resided in New York City from 1992 until his death. He appeared in Bing Crosby 's last television show before his death, a Christmas special taped in London that aired after Crosby's death in December 1977. It is memorable for Crosby and Bowie singing a duet of "The Little Drummer Boy": Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas (1977). He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 12, 1997. Early in his career, Bowie was once snubbed by The Beatles ' Apple record label. He had a fear of flying (Aviophobia). He asked Stevie Ray Vaughan to play guitar on the album "Let's Dance" after seeing Double Trouble perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

He was a big influence on Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks of the progressive rock band Genesis , who both followed his career from the early days in the 1960s. Banks became a fan from buying a copy of his 1966 single "Can't Help Thinking About Me", which he loved for its unusual chords. His song "Heroes" was recorded by Gabriel on his album "Scratch My Back", released in 2010. It was a very different arrangement from Bowie's original, with Gabriel's voice accompanied only by orchestral instruments. In 1969, he starred in a black-and-white Lyons Maid ice cream commercial directed by Ridley Scott . (The slogan was: "The pop ice cream. Nine pence.") In 1983, Bowie starred in The Hunger (1983) directed by Ridley's brother Tony Scott . He went through a heroin addiction, which resulted in him blacking out and unable to account for his own behavior for much of the mid-1970s. His song "Ashes to Ashes" documents his struggles with drugs.

Bowie was one of the first artists to pay tribute to Freddie Mercury following his death in 1991 and performed at The Freddie Mercury Tribute: Concert for AIDS Awareness (1992). Bowie was also a friend of his glam rock contemporary Marc Bolan , whose funeral he attended in 1977. Elton John revealed in an interview with The Evening Standard following Bowie's death that he had been close to Bowie during their early careers, they had spent time together at music venues and gay clubs, but they had also fallen out back in the 1970s due to comments Bowie made about John to Rolling Stone magazine. He said they were never close again after that. Nevertheless, John performed a version of "Space Oddity" in a concert as a tribute to Bowie following his death. He was awarded Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by French culture minister Catherine Trautmann in 1999. He was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in June 2013. He was the main inspiration for Tilda Swinton 's character in A Bigger Splash (2015), rock musician Marianne Lane.

Swinton appeared next to Bowie on the music video for his song "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)". Bob Geldof envisaged him as singing the first line on "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid . However, Bowie was unavailable for the recording, so Paul Young sang it instead as it was felt he had the closest voice to Bowie of all the performers participating. Bowie did get to eventually sing the opening of the song at the Live Aid (1985) finale at Wembley Stadium. He is mentioned in the lyrics of the theme tune for Only Fools and Horses.... (1981), one of the UK's most popular sitcoms of all time. He met wife-to-be Iman in October 1990 through mutual hairstylist Teddy Antolin after Bowie had earlier 'discovered' the supermodel in the pages of a fashion magazine aboard a plane between tour gigs. David proposed to Iman under the Pont Neuf bridge on the River Seine while serenading her with the love song "April in Paris". Known for his sense of style, Bowie has been described by director Geoff Wonfor as "one of only three people in music who really looked good in a suit.

The others are Bryan Ferry and Robert Palmer ". He tried to live as normal and inconspicuous a life as possible in New York in later years. He was also known to be a dedicated family man. In 2002 he said he could never come back to live in the UK because of the media intrusion which had developed there. When Bowie was extremely young, perhaps between the ages of 2 to 4 years old, his parents enrolled him in what is called 'infant's school' in Britain. In the US it would be considered 'Nursery School' or 'Preschool'. His teachers said that during the music and dance parts of the days, Bowie astonished them with his grace and poise of movement. They said they had never witnessed a child so young able to move like that. He died two days after his 69th birthday. Bowie often said he was ''a collector'', and people close to him said he rarely threw anything away. He made remarks in his twenties that sounded megalomaniacal at the time, saying that he envisioned collecting everything he did in his life and organizing it all meticulously in archives. He wasn't kidding: he did make good on his intent.

He saved all his handwritten lyrics, all his stage outfits once he retired them, paintings and art pieces he made, and everything else he valued that he created during his life's work, and had them stored under meticulous security in Switzerland, organized and archived as he said he would. The BBC television dramas Life on Mars (2006) and Ashes to Ashes (2008) were named after two of his most famous songs. Shortly after his passing, fans from Berlin, Germany, started a petition to change the name of the "Hauptstraße" in Berlin Schöneberg into "David-Bowie-Straße" (David Bowie Street). The reason behind it is that Bowie lived there from 1976 until 1978, a time that is considered for not only saving his career, but also for saving his life. During that time, he produced three of his most well-known albums, "Low", "Heroes" and "Lodger". His video for "Ashes to Ashes" was 27th in Channel 4's countdown of The 100 Greatest Pop Videos (2005).

The video featured Bowie fan Steve Strange , whose band Visage later covered Bowie's song "Loving the Alien" on their 2015 album "Demons to Diamonds". The influential British singer-songwriter Paul Weller named one of his children "Bowie" after him. Weller has cited "Low" as "one of my favourite records". Bowie's first four albums, "David Bowie" (1967), "David Bowie" (1969) (also subsequently titled "Space Oddity"), "The Man Who Sold the World" (1970) and "Hunky Dory" (1971), all failed to chart in the UK on their initial release. He first entered the album chart with "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" in 1972. In 1971, Peter Noone (of Herman's Hermits fame) had his only solo UK chart hit with a cover of Bowie's song "Oh! You Pretty Things", which reached number 12. In 1974, Lulu had a number three single in the UK with her cover of his song "The Man Who Sold the World".

Neither song was a hit for Bowie in the 1970s. Music producer Nile Rodgers , the BBC's arts editor Will Gompertz and Professor Michael Spitzer, the Head of the Department of Music at the University of Liverpool, have all likened Bowie as a musician to the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso , who had a far-reaching and enduring impact on the art world in the 20th century similar to the impact Bowie had on popular music during his lifetime, which has earned Bowie the alliterative nickname "The Picasso of Pop". Gompertz said that Bowie was, like Picasso, "an innovative, visionary, restless artist who synthesised complex avant-garde concepts into beautifully coherent works that touched the hearts and minds of millions". Personal Quotes (67) [on whether he thinks he is a good actor] I took you in, didn't I? I rest my make-up case. [during an interview about his new album in 1999] I have nothing to say about the new album. Can I go now? Talking about art is like dancing about architecture. I rate Morrissey as one of the best lyricists in Britain. For me, he's up there with Bryan Ferry .

[on receiving an honorary degree from Boston's Berklee College of Music] Any list of advice I have to offer to a musician always ends with, "If it itches, go and see a doctor.". I know about Kylie [ Kylie Minogue ] and Robbie [ Robbie Williams ] and Pop Idol (2001) and stuff like that. You can't get away from that when you hit the [British] shore, so I know all about the cruise ship entertainment aspect of British pop. I'm an instant star; just add water. [from 1992] It would be my guess that Madonna is not a very happy woman. From my own experience, having gone through persona changes like that, that kind of clawing need to be the center of attention is not a pleasant place to be. I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human. I'm looking for backing for an unauthorized autobiography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version in which I will play everybody. [in 1976 interview with Playboy] It's true - I am a bisexual.

But I can't deny that I've used that fact very well. I suppose it's the best thing that ever happened to me. Fun, too. You would think that a rock star being married to a supermodel would be one of the greatest things in the world. It is. [on his biggest worldwide hit song, "Let's Dance"] I don't know how many times someone has come up to me and said, "hey, let's dance!" I hate dancing. God, it's stupid. I reinvented my image so many times that I'm in denial that I was originally an overweight Korean woman. [on being 50] Fab. But, you know, I don't feel fifty. I feel not a day over forty-nine. It's incredible. I'm bouncy, I feel bouncy. I once asked [ John Lennon ] what he thought of what I do. He said, "it's great, but its just rock and roll with lipstick on". I gave up smoking six months before I had the heart attack - so that was worth it, wasn't it! I started to give up when my daughter was born because I wouldn't smoke in the house with her there so I had to go outside.

It's bloody cold in winter in New York, so I just quit. [on Syd Barrett ] The few times I saw him perform in London at UFO and the Marquee clubs during the '60s will forever be etched in my mind. He was so charismatic and such a startlingly original songwriter. Also, along with Anthony Newley , he was the first guy I'd heard to sing pop or rock with a British accent. His impact on my thinking was enormous. A major regret is that I never got to know him. A diamond indeed. [on his pop sound during the 1980s] There was a period when I was performing in front of these huge stadium crowds at that time and I'm thinking: "What are these people doing here? Why have they come to see me? They should be seeing Phil Collins ." They were definitely Phil Collins type audiences, you know? And then, that came back at me and I thought: "What am I doing here? I should be playing to people who don't look like they've come to see Phil Collins ." That's what I'd been used to up until that point. I don't know the guy.

There's a certain kind of mainstream field that I'm not comfortable in. I'm just not comfortable in it. [from 1983] I get offered so many bad movies. And they're all raging queens or transvestites or Martians. [in 2002] I had no problem with people knowing I was bisexual. But I had no inclination to hold any banners or be a representative of any group of people. I knew what I wanted to be, which was a songwriter and a performer, and I felt that bisexuality became my headline over here for so long. America is a very puritanical place, and I think it stood in the way of so much I wanted to do. [on Elvis Presley ] I saw a cousin of mine when I was young. She was dancing to "Hound Dog" and I had never seen her get up and be moved so much by anything. It really impressed me, the power of the music. I started getting records immediately after that. [ Sigmund Freud ] would have a heyday with me. The whole animal of rock keeps changing itself so fast and so furiously that you just can't plan ahead. Rock has always been the devil's music.

The only thing I ever got out of fame was a better table in a restaurant. And for that I gave up being able to relate to people. I think Mick Jagger would be astounded and amazed if he realized to many people he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image. I like crazy art and, most of the time, out-there music. Rather than having a hit song these days, I like the idea that I'm in there changing the plan of what society and culture look like, sound like. I did change things; I knew I would. It feels great, and very rewarding. "Hunky Dory" gave me a fabulous groundswell. I guess it provided me, for the first time in my life, with an actual audience - I mean, people actually coming up to me and saying,"'Good album, good songs.". That hadn't happened to me before. It was like, "Ah, I'm getting it, I'm finding my feet. I'm starting to communicate what I want to do. Now: what is it I want to do?" There was always a double whammy there.

[speaking in 2002] Of the 26 albums I've made I think there were two when I really wasn't involved and that was "Tonight" and "Never Let Me Down", the two follow-ups to "Let's Dance". That period was my Phil Collins years. [speaking in 2002] It seems to be traditional now that every album since "Black Tie White Noise" is the best album I've put out since "Scary Monsters". [on the song "Dance Magic" from Labyrinth (1986)] In a recording studio, a baby I'd picked from one of the backup singers . . . couldn't put two gurgles together. And it wouldn't work for me, it wouldn't go, I kicked it, I did everything to make it scream but it wouldn't, it really buttoned its lips so I ended up doing the gurgles, so I'm the baby on that track as well. I thought "What the hell? I've done "Laughing Gnome", I might as well go all the way with that.". I never thought in 20 years I'd come back to working with gnomes.

[on Freddie Mercury ] Of all the more theatrical rock performers, Freddie took it further than the rest. He took it over the edge. And of course, I always admired a man who wears tights. I only saw him in concert once and as they say, he was definitely a man who could hold an audience in the palm of his hand. [in 1972] Sometimes I don't feel as if I'm a person at all. I'm just a collection of other people's ideas. [in 1980] I have a lot of reservations about what I've done, inasmuch as I don't feel much of it has any import at all. [in 1975] I like fast drugs. I hate anything that slows me down. [on declining the royal honor of Commander of the British Empire in 2000, and turning down a knighthood in 2003] I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. I seriously don't know what it's for. It's not what I spent my life working for. [in 1973] Offstage, I'm a robot. Onstage, I achieve emotion.

It's probably why I prefer dressing up as Ziggy to being David. The lowest point in my life was in 1975, when I was 28, living in Los Angeles. I really did think that my thoughts about not making 30 would come true. Drugs had taken my life away from me. I felt as though I would probably die and it was going to be all over. My assistant, Coco, got me out of it. Thanks to her, I got myself out of America to Berlin. Best advice, which I wish I had known at 18? Don't do drugs. [on Annie Lennox ] Most exquisite. Absolutely fabulous. Ashes To Ashes by David Bowie Songfacts Ashes To Ashes by David Bowie Songfacts Songfacts This song can be seen as a sequel to Bowie's 1969 hit, " Space Oddity ." It revisits the fictional astronaut, Major Tom, who is now in space.

He has regained communication with Ground Control and tells them he is happy, but they deem him nothing but a "junkie, strung out in heavens high, hitting an all-time low." Fans believe this to be Bowie's autobiographical piece about his fight against drug abuse and other personal demons. The closing refrain of this song, "My mama said to get things done, you'd better not mess with Major Tom," suggests that in order to make the best of the future, one should not dwell on the past. It has also been suggested that "Space Oddity" was a thinly veiled reference to a drug trip, and that "Ashes to Ashes" is hinting that in order to move on, Bowie must kick these drug habits. >> Suggestion credit: Jason - Watford, England In his 2003 interview with Performing Songwriter magazine, Bowie explains that the song "Inchworm," which was sung by Danny Kaye in the 1952 movie Hans Christian Andersen, was a big influence on "Ashes To Ashes." Said Bowie: "I loved it as a kid and it's stayed with me forever. I keep going back to it.

You wouldn't believe the amount of my songs that have sort of spun off that one song. Not that you'd really recognize it. Something like 'Ashes to Ashes' wouldn't have happened if it hadn't have been for 'Inchworm.' There's a child's nursery rhyme element in it, and there's something so sad and mournful and poignant about it. It kept bringing me back to the feelings of those pure thoughts of sadness that you have as a child, and how they're so identifiable even when you're an adult. There's a connection that can be made between being a somewhat lost five-year old and feeling a little abandoned and having the same feeling when you're in your twenties. And it was that song that did that for me." The music video for "Ashes to Ashes" features Bowie dressed as Pierrot in a variety of bizarre situations. Steve Strange of the New Wave band, Visage, cameos. Bowie has said the shot of himself and other characters marching towards the camera in front of a bulldozer symbolizes "oncoming violence." During this scene, the characters behind Bowie are not bowing, but simply trying to pull their gowns away from the bulldozer so they don't get stuck!

This, and many other images in the video suggest that Bowie may be trying to bury the various personas he developed. The video, which Bowie directed with David Mallet, cost £250,000 to produce, making it the most expensive music video ever made at the time. It was released a year before MTV went on the air. In 1983, Peter Schilling released "Major Tom (I'm Coming Home)," which is based on the Major Tom character. It was a rare instance of someone making a sequel to a song by another artist. This was sampled on Samantha Mumba's "Body II Body." Bowie gave his seal of approval to Samantha's song, but a lot of his fans hated it. >> Suggestion credit: Adam - Dewsbury, England The British BBC TV series, Ashes to Ashes, was named after this song. The series served as the sequel to Life on Mars, which was also named after the Bowie song of the same name .

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) was ranked at #30 on Q Magazine's "100 Greatest British Albums Ever." David Bowie | Rolling Stone artists > D > David Bowie > Bio David Bowie Bio A consummate musical chameleon, David Bowie has been a folksinger, androgyne, alien, decadent, blue-eyed soul man, art-rocker and a modern pop star, with each persona spawning a new league of imitators. His late-Seventies collaborations with Brian Eno made Bowie one of the few older stars to be taken seriously by the new wave. In the Eighties Bowie followed the mainstream pop smash Let's Dance (Number One, 1983) with numerous attempts to keep up with current trends. In the Nineties, that meant embracing grunge, industrial rock, rap and dance music, to varying degrees of success. But by then Bowie's place in history was secure: This is a man who did for pretensions what Jimi Hendrix did for electric guitar.

Bowie — born David Jones on January 8th, 1947 in London — took up the saxophone at age 13, and when he left Bromley Technical High School (where a friend permanently paralyzed his left pupil in a fight) to work as a commercial artist three years later, he had started playing in bands (the Konrads, the King Bees, David Jones and the Buzz). Three of Jones' early bands — the King Bees, the Manish Boys (featuring session guitarist Jimmy Page), and Davey Jones and the Lower Third — each recorded a single. He changed his name to David Bowie (after the knife) to avoid confusion with the Monkees' Davy Jones, and in 1966 recorded three singles for Pye Records; the following year he signed with Deram, issuing several singles and The World of David Bowie (most of the songs from that album, and others from that time, were collected on Images 1966-67). On those early records, Bowie appears in the singer-songwriter mold.

In 1967 he spent a few weeks at a Buddhist monastery in Scotland, then apprenticed in Lindsay Kemp's avant-garde theater and mime troupe and in 1968 started his own troupe, Feathers. American-born Angela Barnett met Bowie in London's Speakeasy and married him on March 20, 1970. (Son Zowie, now Joey, was born in June 1971; the couple divorced acrimoniously in 1980.) After Feathers broke up, Bowie helped start the experimental Beckenham Arts Lab in 1969. To finance the project, he signed with Mercury. Man of Words, Man of Music included "Space Oddity," which the album would later be re-titled after the single's release was timed to coincide with the U.S. moon landing. It became a European hit that year but did not make the U.S. charts until its rerelease in 1973, when it reached Number 15. Marc Bolan, an old friend, was beginning his rise as a glitter-rock star in T. Rex and introduced Bowie to his producer, Tony Visconti. Bowie mimed at some T.

Rex concerts, and Bolan played guitar on Bowie's "Karma Man" and "The Prettiest Star." Bowie, Visconti, guitarist Mick Ronson and drummer John Cambridge toured briefly as Hype. Ronson eventually recruited drummer Michael "Woody" Woodmansey, and with Visconti on bass they recorded The Man Who Sold the World, which included "All the Madmen," inspired by Bowie's institutionalized brother, Terry. Hunky Dory (Number 93, 1972), Bowie's tribute to the New York City pop-art scene of Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground and Bob Dylan, included the song that would become Bowie's theme, "Changes" (Number 66, 1972, rereleased 1974, Number 41). Bowie started changing his image in late 1971. He told Melody Maker he was gay in January 1972 and started work on a new theatrical production. Enter Ziggy Stardust, Bowie's projection of a doomed messianic rock star. Bowie became Ziggy; Ronson, Woodmansey and bassist Trevor Bolder became Ziggy's band, the Spiders From Mars.

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (Number 75, 1972) and the rerelease of Man of Words as Space Oddity (Number 16, 1972) made Bowie the star he was portraying. The live show, with Bowie wearing futuristic costumes, makeup and bright orange hair (at a time when the rock-star uniform was jeans), was a sensation in London and New York. It took Aladdin Sane (Number 17, 1973) to break Bowie in the U.S. Bolan and other British glitter-rock performers barely made the Atlantic crossing, but Bowie emerged a star.

He produced albums for Lou Reed (Transformer and its hit "Walk on the Wild Side") and Iggy and the Stooges (Raw Power) and wrote and produced Mott the Hoople's glitter anthem "All the Young Dudes." In 1973 Bowie announced his retirement from live performing, disbanded the Spiders and sailed to Paris to record Pin Ups (Number 23, 1973), a mix of covers of mid-Sixties pop and deep-cut rock songs including the Easybeats "Friday on My Mind" and Pink Floyd's "See Emily Play." That same year, the 1980 Floor Show, an invitation-only concert with Bowie and guests Marianne Faithfull and the Troggs, was taped for broadcast on the TV program The Midnight Special. Meanwhile, Bowie worked on a musical adaptation of George Orwell's 1984 but was denied the rights by Orwell's widow. He rewrote the material as Diamond Dogs (Number Five, 1974) and returned to the stage with an extravagant American tour.

Midway though the tour, Bowie entered Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios (then the capital of black music) and recorded the tracks that would become Young Americans (Number Nine, 1975). The session had a major effect on Bowie, as his sound and show were revised. Bowie scrapped the dancers, sets and costumes for a spare stage and baggy Oxford trousers; he cut his hair and colored it a more natural blond. His new band, led by former James Brown sideman Carlos Alomar, added soul standards (like Eddie Floyd's "Knock on Wood") to his repertoire, and included a young Luther Vandross (who cowrote "Fascination" with Bowie) on back-up vocals. David Live (Number Eight, 1974), also recorded in Philadelphia, chronicles this incarnation. "Fame," cowritten by Bowie, Almoar and John Lennon, was Bowie's first American Number One single (1975). Bowie moved to L.A. and became a fixture of American pop culture.

He played the title role in Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth in 1976; the same year, he released Station to Station (Number Three, 1976), another album of "plastic soul" recorded with the Young Americans band, portrayed Bowie as the Thin White Duke (also the title of his unpublished autobiography). His highest charting album, Station to Station contained his second Top 10 single, "Golden Years" (Number 10, 1975). Bowie complained life had become predictable and left L.A. He returned to the U.K. for the first time in three years before settling in Berlin, where he lived in semiseclusion, painting, studying art and recording with Brian Eno. Bowie's work with Eno — Low (Number 11, 1977), "Heroes" (Number 35, 1977) and Lodger (Number 20, 1979) — was distinguished by its appropriation of avant-garde electronic music and the "cut-up" technique, a concept made famous by author William Burroughs.

(Composer Philip Glass wrote a symphony incorporating music from Low in 1993.) Bowie revitalized Iggy Pop's career by producing The Idiot and Lust for Life (both 1977) and toured Europe and America with Pop unannounced as the singer's pianist. Bowie narrated Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra's recording of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and spent the rest of 1977 acting with Marlene Dietrich and Kim Novak in Just a Gigolo. The next year, he embarked on a massive world tour. A second live album, Stage (Number 44, 1978), was recorded on the U.S. leg of the tour. Work on Lodger was begun in New York, continued in Switzerland and completed in Berlin. Bowie settled in New York to record the paranoiac Scary Monsters (Number 12, 1980), updating "Space Oddity" in "Ashes to Ashes." One of the first stars to understand the potential of video, he produced some innovative clips for songs from Lodger and Scary Monsters. After that album, Bowie turned his attention away from his recording career.

In 1980 he played the title role in The Elephant Man, appearing in Denver, in Chicago and on Broadway. He collaborated with Queen on 1981's "Under Pressure" and provided lyrics and vocals for "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" (Number 67, 1982), Giorgio Moroder's title tune for the soundtrack of Paul Schrader's remake of Cat People. His music was used on the soundtrack of Christiane F (1982), and he also appeared in the film. That year, Bowie also starred in the BBC-TV production of Brecht's Baal, and as a 150-year-old vampire in the movie The Hunger. In 1983 Bowie signed one of the most lucrative contracts in history and moved from RCA to EMI. Let's Dance (Number Four, 1983), his first album in three years, returned him to the top of the charts. Produced by Nile Rodgers with Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar, the album was a slick revision of Bowie's soul-man posture.

It contained three Top 20 singles — "Let's Dance" (Number One, 1983), "China Girl" (Number 10, 1983) and "Modern Love" (Number 14, 1983) — which were supported with another set of innovative videos, all staples of early MTV; the sold-out Serious Moonlight Tour followed. Bowie's music career was revitalized. But what first seemed like a return to form actually ushered in a period of mediocrity. Without Rodgers' production savvy, Bowie's material sounded increasingly forced and hollow; his attention alternated between albums and film roles. Tonight (Number 11, 1984) had only one hit, "Blue Jean" (Number Eight, 1984). Bowie and Mick Jagger dueted on a lame cover of Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Street" (Number Seven, 1985) for Live Aid.

Although Never Let Me Down (Number 34, 1987), with Peter Frampton on guitar, was roundly criticized, it made the charts with "Day In, Day Out" (Number 21, 1987) and the title song (Number 27, 1987). Bowie hit the road with another stadium extravaganza, the Glass Spiders Tour; it was recorded for an ABC-TV special. He had scarcely better luck in his acting career: Into the Night (1985), Absolute Beginners (1986) — a Julien Temple musical featuring some Bowie songs — Labyrinth (1986), The Linguini Incident (1992) and Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me (1992) were neither critical nor commercial successes. Bowie set about reissuing his earlier albums on CD. Sound + Vision (Number 97, 1989), a box-set overview, and ChangesBowie (Number 39, 1990), a revamped version of an earlier greatest hits album on a single disc, revived interest in Bowie's career.

The set list for the accompanying tour was partially based on fan response to special phone lines requesting favorite Bowie songs. Bowie claimed it would be the last time he performed those songs live. Later reissues, with previously unreleased bonus tracks, brought the Ziggy-era Bowie back into popularity. Bowie formed Tin Machine in 1989. The band included Bowie discovery Reeves Gabrels on guitar and Hunt and Tony Sales (sons of comedian Soupy Sales), who had worked with Bowie on Iggy Pop's Lust for Life album and tour in the Seventies. Although Bowie claimed the band was a democracy, Tin Machine was perceived as Bowie's next project. The group debuted with a series of club dates in New York and L.A., followed by an album, Tin Machine (Number 28, 1989), which was a rougher, more guitar-oriented collection than any of Bowie's previous albums. Tin Machine II (Number 126, 1991), lacked the novelty of the debut and was quickly forgotten. In 1992 Bowie married Somalian supermodel Iman.

Black Tie White Noise (Number 39, 1993), which Bowie called his wedding present to his wife, received decent reviews but failed to excite the public. For a follow-up, Bowie reunited with Brian Eno to create Outside - The Nathan Adler Diaries: A Hyper Cycle, a concept album of sorts that did not create much in the way of sales, although Bowie did tour the States with Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails opening. The Buddha in Suburbia is the music from the British television show of the same name; Lenny Kravitz appears on guitar. Bowie celebrated his 50th birthday in January 1997 with a sold-out gig at Madison Square Garden, where he was joined onstage by Lou Reed, the Cure's Robert Smith, Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, Frank Black, the Foo Fighters and Sonic Youth. In early 1997 Bowie was again on the cutting edge — this time in the financial world. In a complicated transaction that was a first, something called Bowie Bonds were offered for sale.

These asset-backed bonds (in this case the assets are the royalties on Bowie's songs recorded prior to 1990) allowed Bowie to collect $55 million. The sale of the bonds came on the eve of the release of Earthling, which incorporated the electronic-dance style drum-and-bass into a basically rock sound and received mixed reviews. By the end of the year a Reznor remix of the track "I'm Afraid of Americans" was receiving video and Modern Rock radio airplay. Reznor had inserted some keyboard and guitar textures into the edgy song (cowritten with Eno), and a rap by Ice Cube. Hours . . . (1999) was not a particularly well-received album but was notable for expanding Bowie's early and enthusiastic advocacy of the Internet; the entire album was available for download weeks before its official release and contained a song available only online. That year Bowie also appeared in, and contributed a soundtrack to, the videogame Omikron: The Nomad Soul.

In 2002, Bowie reunited with Tony Visconti to record Heathen, featuring a cover of the Pixies' "Cactus." He also put together an annual edition of London's Meltdown Festival, at which Bowie performed 1977's Low in its entirety. A year later, he released Reality, and while touring behind it had a minor heart attack onstage in Germany, brought on by heavy smoking; Bowie fully recuperated. Some of his more famous songs appeared on the soundtrack for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou in 2004, both in Bowie's original versions and in updated renditions by Brazilian singer Seu Jorge, who translated the lyrics to Portuguese. Bowie curried favor with the new generation of indie rockers by appearing onstage with the Arcade Fire and singing on TV on the Radio's 2006 album Return to Cookie Mountain; that year he also received a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2008 he contributed vocals to actor Scarlett Johansson's Anywhere I Lay My Head, her album of Tom Waits covers.

The following year he released iSELECT, a random collection of his favorite songs from his own albums that included only one well-known hit, "Life on Mars." In 2013, Bowie put out his first album in a decade, The Next Day , which went to Number One on the U.K. chart and Number Two in the States. He had recorded the LP in secret and announced its existence on his birthday that year. The artist's last theatrical foray was the 2015 off-Broadway play Lazarus , which starred Michael C. Hall and continued the story of Newton from The Man Who Fell to Earth. Along with songs from throughout Bowie's career, it also featured new tunes. David Bowie died after a long battle with cancer at the age 69. Two days before his death, the singer put out ★ ( pronounced "Blackstar" ), this time on his birthday. The record reflected the ever-evolving artist's interest in jazz and hip-hop. "We were listening to a lot of Kendrick Lamar," producer Tony Visconti told Rolling Stone of the recording sessions. "We wound up with nothing like that, but we loved the fact Kendrick was so open-minded and he didn't do a straight-up hip-hop record.

He threw everything on there, and that's exactly what we wanted to do. The goal, in many, many ways, was to avoid rock & roll." After his unexpected death, there was a huge outpouring of grief and disbelief from his fans and musicians around the globe, since few had been aware of his health issues up until that point. Many tribute and concerts ensued, and Bowie's final recordings were planned for the Lazarus cast album .The three tracks – "No Plan," "Killing a Little Time" and "When I Met You" – originally appeared in the musical, where the production's cast performed them. Lazarus Cast Album's second disc features Bowie's own versions of these three tracks, recorded along with the same jazz troupe, led by saxophonist Donny McCaslin, that featured on Blackstar. Bowie's album version of "Lazarus" is also included. A London production of Lazarus was set to open in October 2016 . Portions of this biography appeared in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001). Mark Kemp and Kory Grow contributed to this article.

Question: Bowie's mother appeared with him in the innovative video for which song?
Answer: Ashes To Ashes