Man from Space: 20 facts from the life of the legendary David Bowie

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Sad news spread around the world this morning: at the age of 69, one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century died - David Bowie … After a year and a half of confronting cancer, the disease, nevertheless, won. But millions of fans refuse to believe obituaries: just a couple of days ago, on January 8, on his own birthday, David released a new album "Blackstar" … Maybe this is all - a clever marketing ploy of the genius Bowie? After all, he repeatedly "killed" his stage characters in order to soon appear on stage in a completely new way. One thing is certain: without this gentleman, the modern pop and rock scene would look very different. In memory of the musician, we offer a selection of unusual facts from the life of this truly unusual person.

1. Knife Man and Mick Jagger

The musician's real name is David Jones … A Bowie Is the name of the English hunting knife. David decided to take a pseudonym in 1966 so that he would not be confused with the then famous vocalist Davey Jones, a member of The Monkees. What does Mick Jagger have to do with it? Simply "jagger" is translated from Old English as "knife". And young David, being a fan The rolling stones, borrowed the idea.

2. Fight with your best friend

Who doesn't quarrel with friends as a teenager? But not all fights leave a lifelong imprint. At the age of 15, the future musical legend got into a fight with his friend, George Underwood. Because of the girl, of course. The fist with the Underwood ring was in David's left eye. The injury was so significant that Bowie risked going blind. After four months of operations, doctors saved the vision of the future rock star, but the damaged eye lost its perception of color and its the pupil was always dilated … This, among other things, made the musician's appearance even more unusual. It is noteworthy that after this drama, the guys made up and remained friends. In the future, artist Underwood will even do illustrations for Bowie's early albums. Boys are boys.

3. Bowie - "techie"

Despite his early talent in the arts, after school, David went to study in Bromley Technical High Schoolwhere he studied typographic layout and printing. That did not prevent him from simultaneously studying music and putting together his own group.

4. Man on the Moon

Bowie became a star in 1969 after the release of the single "Space Oddity" ("A Strange Case in Space"). The theme of space travel then excited many and the "alien" image of the musician shot. The song "Space Oddity" even sounded in BBC reports on the Apollo 11 moon landing and Apollo 13 flight.

5. The man who sold the world

A song known to many The Man Who Sold the World performed by the group Nirvana actually belongs to David Bowie. In 1970, a musician in the image Ziggy Stardust released a self-titled album. Kurt Cobain was then 3 years old.

6. The star who was afraid to fly

Despite his rapid career takeoff and an increased interest in outer space, in his youth, Bowie was afraid to fly an airplane. Even my first visit to Russia in 1973 during the Ziggy Stardust Tour, the musician traveled by land. And the way was by no means close: the road from Yokohama (Japan) to Moscow took as long as 18 days.

7. Moonwalk

This will be a revelation for many, but the first artist to perform the famous "moonwalk" on stage was David Bowie. Unusual moves were part of his performance on the 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour. It is noteworthy that one of the concerts was attended by a young Michael Jackson, who in later interviews said that he was impressed by the performance in general and the musician's manner of moving in particular.

8. "Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars"

This and similar statements that Bowie allowed himself in interviews in the mid-to-late 70s, caused a lot of scandals. Soon, the musician began in every possible way to disavow his old views, publicly take his words back and donate money to funds for the fight against racism. According to him, at that time he was "out of his mind, completely crazy", and the fault was Nietzsche's hobby and, of course, hard drugs. Underline whatever applicable.

9. Invented language

Song lyrics Subterraneans from the album Low (1977) written in a non-existent language invented by Bowie himself.

10.10 groups

Throughout his career, David Bowie has been a member of 10 musical groups, and in some he alternately played all the instruments. Here is a complete list of his commands: The Konrads, The Hooker Brothers, The King Bees, The Manish Boys, The Lower Third, The Buzz, The Riot Squad, The Hype, Tin Machine and Tao Jones Index.

11. Multi-instrumentalist

Few people know that Bowie is not only a talented poet and performer, but also a top-class musician. He perfectly played a variety of instruments: guitar, saxophone, harmonica, piano, synthesizer, mellotron, stylophone, xylophone, vibraphone, koto, drums and percussion. And at the same time there was left-handed.

12. Max Zorin and the Joker

Bowie's unusual appearance and the ability to easily change images provided him with many offers to play in films. Especially villains. For example, a musician was invited to the role Max Zorinand in bondian (episode "View of the Murder", 1985) and considered him for the role Joker in Batman … David refused the first offer himself, arguing that he did not want to "spend five months watching your stunt fall from the mountains." As a result, the role went to Christopher Walken … And the Joker played Jack Nicholson.

13. Pontius Pilate

But Mr. Bowie happily agreed to the controversial role of Pontius Pilate in the sensational Martin Scorsese "The Last Temptation of Christ" in 1988. Since playing villains, it's biblical.

14. Morrissey

Early 90s icon of the 70s Bowie is friends with the icon of the 80s Morrissey (The Smiths) … The musicians record cover versions of each other's songs, scatter in compliments and demonstrate mutual admiration in every possible way. But the legendary friendship quickly and ugly ends in 1995: Bowie calls Morrissey on a joint tour, but in the end Moz acts, in fact, as an opening act for David, while the fans are not yet filling the hall. Bowie's demand to replace a musician from a colleague's team with his own becomes the last straw. Under the pretext of illness, Morrissey leaves the tour and never speaks to David again. A few years later, he will only casually, in his usual caustic manner, express himself about that incident: "Bowie was a great artist in 1973, but not now."

15. Tea

A true Briton, Bowie nevertheless hated tea. After the mysterious "tea incident" at the age of 5, the musician never liked this traditional drink.

16. The king who refused the Queen

Bowie relinquished the title of knight in 2003. “This is not what I have worked for all my life,” the singer commented succinctly.

17. Brother

David had a pivot brother terry, 9 years older than the musician. Terry suffered from schizophrenia and took his own life in 1985. The brothers had a close relationship. Bowie songs Aladdin Sane, All The Madmen, The Bewlay Brothers and Jump They Say dedicated to Terry.

18. Son

Bowie has a son from his first marriage. He inherited from his father not only the stage name (Duncan Zoey Haywood Jones also known as Zoey Bowie), but also talent. True, Duncan is not a singer, he is a director. Among his most famous works is a science fiction drama "Moon 2112" … Apparently, the love of space travel is also transmitted with genes.

19. Iman

In 1992, the scandalous star and enviable bachelor Bowie (his first marriage of ten years ended in 1980) remarried. Somali model became the chosen one Iman … The black beauty gave the musician a daughter, made a tattoo on her ankle with the same Bowie hunting knife and was with her husband until the end.

20. End

David Bowie passed away January 10, 2016 … All his life, the rebellious musician died peacefully, with his family. Release of his latest album "Blackstar" took place a few days before the sad event - January 8, on the singer's 69th birthday.

But the king of rock and roll can't die. The maximum is to go back to the cold stars, while his songs continue to live on Earth. More rare shots of David and others celebrities of a bygone era can be seen in this review.