David Bowie is (part 17): 'Wir sind dann helden, für einen tag'

After the first tour with Iggy Pop, David Bowie declined to join a second because, in his own words, "the drug use was unbelievable, and I knew it was killing me". However on 16 April 1977 he began producing another album for Iggy Pop, Lust For Life. Once again Bowie had some songs written which Pop added lyrics to, most of which he took just as Bowie had written with one notable exception. The song 'Success' Pop described as a "damn crooning thing". He stripped down the melody and made it his own. One song Bowie didn't write but did have a hand in, in a roundabout way, was 'The Passenger'. Bowie heard guitarist Ricky Gardiner playing around with some chords and urged Pop to use it to write another song which, of course, he did. When the album was released in August it reached number 28 in Britain, still Iggy Pop's most successful album here (Click to hear 'Lust For Life', 'The Passenger', 'Tonight', 'Success' and 'Neighbourhood Threat').

As with The Idiot so with Lust For Life, David Bowie used making an album with Iggy Pop as a way of developing ideas for his own next album. The heart of the 'Berlin Trilogy' the next album, "Heroes", was the only one entirely recorded in Berlin, during July and August. Co-producer Tony Visconti described Berlin at that time as both "a dream... and [a place] where everything said, "We shouldn't be making a record here"". The main Hansa studio was right by the Berlin Wall. Visconti says it was "really scary. We recorded 500 feet from barbed wire, and a tall tower where you could see gun turrets, with foreign soldiers looking at us with binoculars." This set the tone for the sessions.

They were joined by Alomar, Davis and Murray plus Brian Eno once more. The only song Bowie had worked out before reaching the studio was 'Sons of the Silent Age', an interesting track as Bowie employs a singing style from a much earlier time in his career, around 1967. 'V-2 Schneider' is a reference to German rockets from the time of the second world war and the founder of Bowie's favourite German electronic band Kraftwerk, namely Florian Schneider. Again Bowie employed the technique of writing the songs at almost the same time as recording them, in the case of the title track quite literally. Bowie had watched Pop improvising lyrics as he recorded them or finalising them at the last minute and he adopted the same technique on the song "Heroes". Visconti says, "He would scribble down a few notes on the top of the piano, then say, "OK, drop me in after 'Dolphins can swim'." And that way he wrote and sang "Heroes" simultaneously. At the end of half an hour we had a complete vocal." Of course the song also namechecks the Berlin Wall itself, the scene of a romantic moment. Bowie claimed to have seen two lovers share a kiss by the Wall. Later Tony Visconti claimed it was him and his girlfreind although she has since denied it. Strangely, the song that would become Bowie's best known and his fans' favourite only reached number 24 in Britain. The album, however, when it was released in October made number 3.

"Heroes"
All lyrics written by David Bowie; all music composed by Bowie, except where noted.

Side one

1. 'Beauty and the Beast' – 3:32
2. 'Joe the Lion' – 3:05
3. ''Heroes'' (Bowie, Brian Eno) – 6:07
4. 'Sons of the Silent Age' – 3:15
5. 'Blackout' – 3:50

Side two

1. 'V-2 Schneider' – 3:10
2. 'Sense of Doubt' – 3:57
3. 'Moss Garden' (Bowie, Eno) – 5:03
4. 'Neuköln' (Bowie, Eno) – 4:34
5. 'The Secret Life of Arabia' (Bowie, Eno, Carlos Alomar) – 3:46

 

On 9 September 1977 David Bowie began promoting his new album and single with a TV appearance on the new show of his old rival and friend Marc Bolan, called 'Marc'. Bolan's new band was essentially Bowie's old one, namely Tony Newman and Herbie Flowers. When Bolan explained he wanted Bowie to join them for a jam at the end of the show Bowie told him he hadn't brought a guitar. Bolan handed him a vintage Fender Stratocaster and insisted he keep it. Bolan was apparently upset when it became clear that Bowie wanted to play the guitar part himself on the backing track that would accompany him on his performance of "Heroes" (see it here), understandable given it was the first time it had been performed on TV. Bowie showed the song to Newman and Flowers and they picked it up immediately. At the end of the show Bolan announced 'a new song' and they went into the jam (see it here). As Bowie began to sing Bolan attempted to stand on a monitor, missed it and fell off the stage. The camera zooms in on Bowie grinning and the credits roll. The recording of the show was already running very late and the cast of 'Coronation Street' were waiting to begin filming. The unionised crew refused to go into overtime and the show had to go out like that. It wouldn't have been so tragic but for the fact that by the time the show went out Bolan was dead. His girlfriend crashed the purple Mini GT he was in into a tree on the south side of Barnes common around 5am on 15 September. Bowie was devastated by Bolan's death and attended his funeral.

After keeping a low profile during the previous year (the cover of the album 'Low' is a visual pun as in the word 'Low' and a shot of Bowie in profile) Bowie was now doing lots to promote his new material. After his appearance on Marc, Bowie recorded a Christmas special with Bing Crosby. The small talk may have been scripted and appear fake but the politeness and friendliness was apparently genuine. Bowie appeared relaxed, clean-cut and healthy which was a reasonably honest portrait of him at this time. On his up-coming tour he did have one notorious 24-hour coke bender, but that aside Bowie was now living a much cleaner lifestyle. Here is his duet with Bing and here is his specially pre-recorded video of "Heroes" for the 1977 Bing Crosby Christmas Special.
 

Next time: Gigolos, voyages and a stage

David Bowie is (part 16): 'I've lived all over the world'

By the end of May 1976 David Bowie was back in the studio in the French chateau where he had recorded 'Pin Ups'. This time, however, he wasn't recording his own album but an album with Iggy Pop, The Idiot. The starting point was the song 'Sister Midnight' a song Bowie had written with Carlos Alomar and performed on his recent tour. Bowie also offered Iggy 'China Girl' and 'Nightclubbing' which Pop eagerly accepted. The rest of the album was written between them. For Bowie, as producer, it was an opportunity to experiment with tape loops, electronic instruments and European music, something he would develop further on his next album.


Bowie and Iggy Pop decided to move to Berlin to get off cocaine. They were, in a sense, in rehab. Bowie gave away many of his possessions, drastically reduced his entourage to two or three people and bought his own bread and milk. In August 1976 Tony Visconti arrived in Berlin. Hansa Studios on the Kurfurstendamm was to be the location of David Bowie's so-called 'Berlin Trilogy'. Studio 1 had been booked for Bowie to work on some music he had originally recorded for the soundtrack to the film 'The Man Who Fell To Earth'. This had been abandoned when the deal fell apart. Instead the studio was used to do some post-production on Iggy Pop's The Idiot. In early September Visconti, Bowie and his by now consistent band of Alomar, Murray and Davis met up once again in the chateau and were joined by piano player Roy Young and guitarist Ricky Gardiner and later by ex-Roxy Music, art-rock experimenter and synthesiser wizard Brian Eno.

 

The sessions were very experimental. Bowie had come only with a few riffs and ideas which were worked up by the band. After a brief visit by Angie Bowie and her boyfriend Roy Martin which ended in a fight between the two men, Bowie wrote 'Breaking Glass' with the lyrics, "I've been breaking glass in your room again... Don't look at the carpet I drew something awful on it". This referred back to Bowie's interest in Kaballah. 'Always Crashing in the Same Car' was a reference to his Mercedes which he crashed twice. Bowie had an idea for a song based on his experiences in Poland. Whilst he was in Paris for legal meetings with his former manager Michael Lippman, Eno pieced his part together. One day he heard Visconti's son Morgan playing the haunting notes A, B, C on the reception room piano and so Eno incorporated it as the main melody of what became 'Warzawa'. Bowie then added his wordless vocals based on a recording of a Balkan choir.

 

After the sessions came to end there were overdubs to be done. These were done at Hansa in Berlin, at the newly opened Studio 2 which was right next to the Berlin Wall. There they completed 'Subterraneans' and 'Weeping Wall'. The result was an album that, when it was released in January 1977, elicited little critical response and what response it did get was mostly mired in confusion. Some critics did like it but it would take a long time before it would be considered a great work of art. The album reached number two in Britain and the single, 'Sound And Vision', got to number three despite Bowie doing almost nothing to promote the album and refusing to tour with it. The album is, of course, Low.

 

Low

All lyrics written by David Bowie; all music composed by David Bowie except where noted.

Side one

1. 'Speed of Life' – 2:46
2. 'Breaking Glass' (Bowie, Dennis Davis, George Murray) – 1:52
3. 'What in the World' – 2:23
4. 'Sound and Vision' – 3:05
5. 'Always Crashing in the Same Car' – 3:33
6. 'Be My Wife' – 2:58
7. 'A New Career in a New Town' – 2:53

Side two

1. 'Warszawa' (Bowie, Brian Eno) – 6:23
2. 'Art Decade' – 3:46
3. 'Weeping Wall' – 3:28
4. 'Subterraneans' – 5:39

A second single, 'Be My Wife', failed to reach the Top 40 in Britain.

In March 1977 David Bowie decided to tour not with his own new album, Low, but with Iggy Pop's The Idiot. The first gig was in Aylesbury, the town where Ziggy made his debut. At first no one noticed Bowie but a few songs in someone spotted him playing an electric piano. The audience split in two, half the audience moved to catch a glimpse of Bowie, the rest stayed where they were and watched Iggy Pop. Former New York Doll Johnny Thunders, the Sex Pistols' Glen Matlock and the Damned's Brian James had stayed watching Iggy. Nevertheless many punks didn't mind admitting they had been inspired by Ziggy Stardust. During the tour Pop and Bowie were interviewed on the Dinah Shore programme in America. This illuminating interview is most remarkable for how relatively 'ordinary' the pair seem (Click to watch Interview 1, Interview 2, and a performance of 'Funtime'). The band playing with them included brothers Hunt and Tony Sales, who would later be half of Bowie’s band Tin Machine.

Next time: lust, walls and dolphins.

David Bowie is (part 15): 'Don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere'

In October 1975, at the height of his cocaine habit, David Bowie went into Cherokee Studios in LA, a 24-track recording studio, to record his tenth studio album Station to Station. With guitarists Carlos Alomar, Earl Slick, bassist George Murray and drummer Dennis Davis, Bowie produced an album that was the result of "experimentation - and don't worry about how long it takes", as Bowie put it. Bowie went into the studio with nothing written, a way in which he had never worked before but almost always would in future.

It turned out to be a transitional album in more ways than one. Musically, it develops the funk and soul music of Young Americans, while presenting a new direction towards synthesisers and motorik rhythms that was influenced by German electronic bands such as Kraftwerk and Neu!. These elements would be more fully explored on later albums. Station to Station was also a move away from America, which he had now cracked, towards Europe. Indeed it is an album that stands between the American and European traditions of music. The album’s lyrics reflected his preoccupations with Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, mythology and religion, including Buddhism and Christianity. With the character from 'The Man Who Fell to Earth', Thomas Jerome Newton staying with him (the album cover is a still from the film), Bowie developed the character of the Thin White Duke. Impeccably dressed in white shirt, black trousers and waistcoat, he was a hollow man, "throwing darts in lovers' eyes", who sang songs of romance with an agonised intensity, yet felt nothing, "ice masquerading as fire".

 
 

Bowie had done what he would advise others to do, "do the contrary action - do something you're not used to. Let's not make it comfortable - let's make it uncomfortable". Bowie claims to remember almost nothing of the album's production, not even the studio, later admitting, "I know it was in LA because I've read it was". The singer was not the only one doing copious amounts of cocaine during the sessions. Carlos Alomar has said, "if there's a line of coke which is going to keep you awake till 8 a.m. so that you can do your guitar part, you do the line of coke... the coke use is driven by the inspiration." Like Bowie, Earl Slick had somewhat vague memories of the recording: "That album's a little fuzzy—for the obvious reasons! We were in the studio and it was nuts—a lot of hours, a lot of late nights." The first single 'Golden Years' was released in November 1975, two months before the album. It reached number eight in Britain and number ten in America. Station to Station was released in January 1976 and it reached number five in Britain and number three in America.

Station to Station

All songs written by David Bowie, except where noted.

Side one

1. 'Station to Station' – 10:14
2. 'Golden Years' – 4:00
3. 'Word on a Wing' – 6:03

Side two

1. 'TVC 15' – 5:33
2. 'Stay' – 6:15
3. 'Wild Is the Wind' (Ned Washington, Dimitri Tiomkin) – 6:02

 

In 1975, shortly before the release of the album, Bowie appeared as the Thin White Duke on an American chat show, Dinah Shore. As well as the interview and a bizarre karate lesson, Bowie performed a song from the album, 'Stay' as well as 'Five Years' from ...Ziggy Stardust...

You can watch the show by clicking on the following clips:
1. Performance of 'Stay'.

2. Interview with Dinah Shore
3. Interview with Dinah Shore and Henry Winkler (Fonzie from Happy Days)
4. Karate lesson
5. Performance of 'Five Years'

In January 1976, David Bowie  renewed his friendship with Iggy Pop before rehearsing for another tour. The 1976 'Station to Station' tour, also known as the 'Isolar Tour', began on 2 February 1976 with 39 arena shows across North America ending the first leg on 26 March where Bowie met Christopher Isherwood at an after-show party. The conversation inspired Bowie to base himself in Berlin rather than Switzerland as he had been planning. The second leg began in April and went across Europe. The dates in Britain were his first shows since Ziggy's farewell show. At one point Bowie and Iggy went on a train trip to Moscow where they met the KGB. The journey through Poland and particularly Warsaw had a profound effect on Bowie and the bleakness led him to write the haunting instrumental 'Warzawa' that would appear on his next album.

Click on each track to listen to it:
1. Station to Station
2. Suffragette City
3. Waiting For The Man
4. Word On A Wing
5. Stay
6. TVC15
7. Sister Midnight
8. Life On Mars / Five Years
9. Panic In Detroit
10. Fame / Changes
11. The Jean Genie
12. Queen Bitch / Rebel Rebel

Next time: Idiots, Berlin and Eno

David Bowie is (part 10): 'Hang On To Yourself '

From January 1971 until into 1972, David Bowie was gradually forming and evolving the concept behind Ziggy Stardust. Ziggy Stardust was David Bowie's attempt to encapsulate the concept of the outsider, the rock 'n' roll star that burnt out and rocked themselves into oblivion. He was based in part on Vince Taylor, an old-school rocker, whom Bowie had met as a teenager, who was convinced he was the link between UFOs and the son of God. His name came from Iggy Pop and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, a psychobilly act from the 1960s. The sessions began on 8 November 1971 and one of the first songs to be recorded was 'Hang onto Yourself' which quoted Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry and was reminiscent of Gene Vincent and Vince Taylor.   

The look for Ziggy Stardust was partly based on the Droogs from Stanley Kubrick's banned film version of 'A Clockwork Orange'. But, said Bowie later, "to lessen the image of violence, I decided we should go for extremely colourful and exotic material in place of the Droog white cotton". This was matched with the colourful boots wrestlers wore at the time. Finally, with the help of Angie and her hairdresser the trademark flame-coloured hair, spiky on top and straight down the neck was created. On 11 January 1972 Bowie was booked to record a session for the BBC to promote his recently released 'Hunky Dory' album. Instead Bowie played 'Hang onto Yourself' and 'Ziggy Stardust' from the next album. The only track he did play from 'Hunky Dory' was the Velvet Underground-inspired 'Queen Bitch'.

 

For Bowie, Ziggy Stardust was also about sexuality. He talked about 'the pretty things', by which he meant 'the coming generation'. He felt he was writing a manifesto for a generation free of Victorian values, work practices and sexual morality. He was to be the spokesperson for this free, glamorous, bisexual generation (the 'homo superior'). It was in January 1972 that Bowie talked to Michael Watts of Melody Maker. He told him "I'm going to be huge and it's quite frightening in a way". He also said "I'm gay - and always have been, even when I was David Jones". There has been much discussion about whether this was an honest confession or a marketing ploy to gain extra publicity for his music. It seems quite clear that Bowie was bi-sexual but the timing was also clearly planned. It may well not have been as cynical as some suggest, however. I think it simply fitted with what he was trying to say at the time. It was certainly a brave thing to do. Homosexuality had only been decriminalised in Britain in 1967 and arrests for 'Gross Indecency' had actually increased in the intervening years. Yet many people have since said that the sight of an out gay man made it much easier for them to feel that being gay was acceptable or even cool. A catalyst for this was the Top of the Pops show on 6 July 1972 on which Bowie performed 'Starman'. As the chorus approaches Mick Ronson moves in to Bowie's microphone to share the singing responsibilities and Bowie casually put his arm around Ronson. At that moment nation gasped, some in disgust but many in admiration. Lots of people pick that moment as the moment they became a Bowie fan.

 
By July 1972 'Starman' had reached number 10 in the singles chart and 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars' had reached number 5 in the album charts. David Bowie had finally achieved the stardom he craved and the musical acclaim he had been striving for for a decade.
 

The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
All songs written and composed by David Bowie, except where noted.

Side one
No.	Title	Length
1.	'Five Years'	4:44
2.	'Soul Love'	3:33
3.	'Moonage Daydream'	4:35
4.	'Starman'	4:13
5.	'It Ain't Easy' (Ron Davies)	3:00

Side two
No.	Title	Length
6.	'Lady Stardust'	3:20
7.	'Star'	2:50
8.	'Hang On to Yourself'	2:40
9.	'Ziggy Stardust'	3:13
10.	'Suffragette City'	3:25
11.	'Rock 'n' Roll Suicide'	3:00

In September 1972 David Bowie began his US tour. After hiring jazz piano player Mike Garson (or Garson the Parson as Bowie called him because of his constant attempts to convert everyone he met to scientology) the tour bus set off for the gruelling schedule across America. Bowie loved travelling across America. He took in everything he saw and used much of it to write new songs during the tour. The first song he came up with almost immediately was 'Jean Genie'. On 6 October, the band stopped off in New York and recorded it. It was released as a single on 25 November and reached number 2 in Britain. Here is the video.

In November, Bowie wrote 'Drive-In Saturday', inspired by things he saw on the train to Pheonix. He included it in the set almost immediately.

Bowie had a four-day break in Los Angeles on his 1972 US tour before two shows in Santa Monica. They stayed in the Beverley Hills Hotel where there were all manner of boys, girls and drugs on offer. Although Bowie didn't partake in the drugs himself, plenty of people did, Quaaludes being the drug of choice. Elton John was there some of the time (also on tour) as was Andy Warhol and Iggy Pop. Bowie wrote 'Cracked Actor' specifically about his experiences there. The line 'since he pinned you baby' refers to 'pinning' someone, meaning that they were addicted to the drugs you were selling them.

Some of the shows on Bowie's first US tour were quite poorly attended but the two Santa Monica shows on 20 and 21 October were a huge success. The seventeen song set-list ranged across five albums (including the as-yet unrecorded next album) and for the next twenty years the bootleg recording would be a classic and allegedly influenced a number of English punk bands. Here is 'Changes' from 'Hunky Dory' from that night. On 3 December, Bowie returned to New York where he recorded his own version of 'All The Young Dudes' and 'Drive In Saturday'. Then he got the boat back to London.

Post Script
In March 1972 Bowie heard that Mott the Hoople were splitting up. He played them a song that he had just written with them in mind and they loved it. In May they recorded it and it was released in July. It got to number 3 in the charts. Bowie was so confident in what he was doing that he felt comfortable in giving away such a great song. Bowie sings backing vocals on the Hoople version. Here is his version.

Here is rare footage of early Ziggy-era Bowie spliced together from two live concerts just as he was on the cusp of fame.

Here Bowie performs 'Ziggy Stardust' a whole year before the Hammersmith Odeon gig in D. A. Pennebaker's 'Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture'.

Here Bowie, in an interview from 1977, retells how he invented the character of Ziggy Stardust.

In July 1972 Bowie audaciously offered to produce an album for Lou Reed. Reed had been around since the mid-sixties and Bowie had been famous for a matter of weeks. Nevertheless Reed's solo career had stalled and he was personally a mess. The album that resulted, 'Transformer', has since achieved cult status and the tracks 'Walk On the Wild Side' and 'Perfect Day' (also released as two sides of a single) have effectively become Reed's signature songs. See here for more on this.

Next time: Dali, Scientology and suicide.