david

Bowie
is the
subject
of this
book
 david
Bowie
is the
subject

V&A Publishing
First published by V&A Publishing, 2013
Victoria and Albert Museum
South Kensington
London SW7 2RL
www.vandapublishing.com

Distributed in North America by Harry N. Abrams Inc., New York

The Board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2013
The moral right of the author(s) has been asserted.

Hardback edition ISBN 978 1 85177 737 2

Paperback edition ISBN 978 1 85177 735 8
Library of Congress Control Number 2012948899
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
2017 2016 2015 2014 2013

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
written permission of the publishers.

Every effort has been made to seek permission to reproduce those

images whose copyright does not reside with the V&A, and we are
grateful to the individuals and institutions who have assisted in this
task. Any omissions are entirely unintentional, and the details should
be addressed to V&A Publishing.

Graphically yours: Jonathan Abbott & Jonathan Barnbrook [Barnbrook]

Copy-editor: Alexandra Stetter
Index: Hilary Bird

New photography by Richard Davis and Eileen Travell

V&A Photography by V&A Photographic Studio
Colour reproduction, DL Imaging Ltd., London
Printed in Italy by Graphicom s.r.l.

Special thanks to
JPMorgan Chase & Co. | Technology for Social Good
for the use of camera equipment

opposite: Promotional photograph of David Bowie for Diamond Dogs, 1974

(printed 2009) Terry ONeill V&A: E.3152011
 ASTRONAUT OF
David Bowie is curators INNER SPACES
what follows preface Sundridge Park, Soho,
Foreword Victoria Broackes London Mars
Martin roth & Geoffrey Marsh Geoffrey Marsh
[17] [19] [27]

Theatre Of Gender OH! YOU Putting out fire

David Bowie at the Climax PRETTY with gasoline
of the Sexual Revolution THINGS Designing David Bowie
Camille Paglia Jon Savage Victoria Broackes
[69] [99] [117]

David Bowie Bowie | music

Lucky old sun is in my sky
for We are the
goon squad
Bowie, style and the power
Changes
Bowies life story

is content
Howard Goodall of the LP cover, 19671983 Oriole Cullen
[163] Christopher Breward [235]
[193]

DAVID BOWIE THEN

David Bowie David bowie is
DAVID BOWIE NOW
is photographic mapping new
christopher Frayling,
Nicholas Coleridge territories
philip hoare & mark kermode
[304] [306]
[283]

David bowie acknowledgEments David bowie

is Referenced [315] is Indexed
Notes Picture credits Index
[308] [316] [317]
 David
Bowie is an
absolute
beginner

[1] opposite David Bowie, 1966

Photograph by Doug McKenzie
David Bowie
is a joy
forever

[2] opposite David Bowie from the Hunky Dory

album sessions, 1971 Photograph by Brian Ward
David Bowie
is moving
like a tiger
onvaseline

[3] opposite David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust, 1972

Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita
I opened doors that would have blocked Their way I braved Their cause to guide, for little pay
 David Bowie has left an indelible stamp on the look, the style, the sound and the attitudes of
his time. It is an extraordinary achievement and I am delighted that the V&A is staging the
exhibition, David Bowie Is. One of the key roles of the museum is to celebrate great design.
Bowie is not only one of the great musicians and performers of the last half century, but is also
among the great design visionaries. An instigator not just of memorable individual pieces
an album sleeve, a costume, a hairstyle but of a particular zeitgeist that is uniquely his and
yet resonates with enormous numbers of people around the globe.
I felt this impact personally, a teenager growing up in Germany, proud that David
Bowie had come to live in my country, in Berlin, where he spent two of his most
productive years, and where he created Heroes, the centrepiece of a triptych of
groundbreaking albums. This book attempts to chart the wider significance of Bowies
impact on our cultural life. Frustratingly, of course, no book can fully capture what
for many people remains the essence of David Bowie his music. Fortunately the
exhibition is able to fill that gap delighting not just the eye, but also the ear.
Exhibitions such as David Bowie Is could not be staged without the involve-
ment of sponsors, and it gives me particular pleasure to thank Sennheiser
GmbH and Gucci for their support. It was clear from the beginning that

David Bowie
music was going to be fundamental to the exhibition, but the use of sound
in museums is relatively new, and we have much to learn about how to use
it to its best effect. Sennheiser know more than most that the enormous
rise in the sound quality of consumer goods has increased the publics
expectations. Their aim has been to help the V&A to present the music
with the same distinction as the physical artefacts, and recreate the

is what
sound experience of a real performance. Their financial and technical
support has been much appreciated.
David Bowie is a style icon, and one of the most instantly
recognizable men on the planet. One of his greatest impacts
on our cultural life has been as a proponent of individualism
that we should be what we want to be, look how we want to

follows
look, and lead, not follow, without depending always on the
views of others. As Brian Eno, Bowies collaborator, once
responded to an over-enthusiastic critic exhorting him to
do the same thing again, If Id followed your advice in
the first place, Id never have got anywhere. For over 90
years the House of Gucci has protected and nurtured
its founding traditions and values, while evolving into
a contemporary global business. They have travelled
a distinctive path in an industry that has undergone
extraordinary upheaval. Gucci understand, better
than most, that Changes, rebels, Fame, Time,
pretty things, Heroes, the Speed of Life,
Fascination and Who can I be now? are all
part and parcel of Fashion.
As well as thanking our sponsors I must
also offer my profound gratitude to The
David Bowie Archive. Without their
extraordinary generosity none of this
would have been possible.

Martin Roth
Director, Victoria and Albert Museum
 Travelling recently through London, we stopped at the junction of Grove End Road and Abbey
Road. Although it was early evening, there were still about thirty people, mostly tourists, mill-
ing around taking photos of each other on that zebra crossing. Most of them would not have
been born on 8 August 1969 when, as David Bowies first hit Space Oddity crept towards
the charts, Iain Macmillan took his iconic photograph of the Beatles. In a single image he
anchored not only the group and their studio, but also created a landmark and a metaphor
for the cultural journey that the Beatles opened up for people around the world.
For Bowie there is no single equivalent location. The plaque unveiled in 2012 on Heddon
Street commemorating the birth of Ziggy Stardust only applies to part of his career, and it
came forty years after the event. Besides, central London has changed a lot over the last half-
century. The capitals booming status as a world city reflects and proclaims the profound
changes that have occurred since Bowies Soho days.
David Bowie is one of the most important artists of the last fifty years. He is cited as an
inspiration by numerous contemporary artists and designers and recognized as one of the

curators
most innovative of performers. He has been at the forefront of a revolution in freedom of
individual expression and sold more than 140 million albums. It is straightforward to make
the case for him as the most significant musician of his generation, but the impact of his
music, visual style and public presence has spread further. His influence in the wide arena
of performance, fashion, art, design and identity politics continues to shape contemporary
culture in the broadest sense.

Preface
A vigorous forward-looking spirit was fostered in the decades post 1945 by artists, such
as Bowie, who channelled the avant-garde into the populist mainstream without compromis-
ing its subversive, liberating power. Bowie forms a link that connects Andy Warhol, Bertolt
Brecht, William Blake, Charlie Chaplin, Antonin Artaud, Salvador Dal, Marlene Dietrich,
Philip Glass, Nietzsche, Hollywood glamour, graphic design, platform shoes, film, music,
Kurt Weill, Berlin, New York, London, Alexander McQueen, the 2012 London Olympics, Jim
Henson, the moon landings, Kansai Yamamoto, Kate Moss and Marshall McLuhan.
Hundreds of thousands of words in many languages have been written about Bowie,
from the carefully considered to the intuitive response, and even bitter festering rage. There
are already several biographies published, and books continue to be produced that analyse
his career in ever-greater forensic detail. No previous book, however, has illuminated and
drawn in full on The David Bowie Archive. That exceptional collection, astutely amassed
over many years and spanning the entirety of Bowies career, has set the course for this book
and the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition. Both seek to link Bowies art and music,
through artefacts from costume to film, into the wider cultural narrative represented by the
Museums own collections.
Bowies music catalogue together with his archive gives us wonderful material for a
gallery exhibition, but only partly explain his iconic role and growing status. The remain-
ing parts of the picture lie in the changes in the world around us and with us, his audience.

victoria broackes and geoffrey marsh

19
When I first discovered David Bowie, as a young girl in Rome, I was electrified As you can imagine, music is at the very heart of the David Bowie Is exhibition,
by his voice and enigmatic stage persona. From Ziggy Stardust to the Thin White which is dedicated to one of the greatest music and style icons of our times. And
Duke, his fearlessly inventive spirit has stayed with me, and still proves a constant as music and sound are the heartbeat of Sennheiser, we are naturally delighted to
source of inspiration in my own work at Gucci. be providing the audio equipment for this genuinely unforgettable experience.
This is why I am so proud that Gucci is sponsoring David Bowie Is. The exhi- The Victoria and Albert Museum has very much designed this exhibition as
bition is significant for many reasons, first among which is the chance for an an audio experience. Therefore, you will have the Sennheiser audio guide and
unprecedented look into the personal archive of one of the most influential sound system that should hopefully fully immerse you in the many sounds of
performers of the past century, and secondly, for the preservation of iconic David Bowie. They will also enable you to discover all of the facets of an artist
cultural artefacts, a cause to which Gucci is strongly committed. who has continually reinvented both himself and his music. Our sound engi-
Bowie needs no introduction or explanation: his creativity and idiosyncratic neers have used their considerable expertise to assist in the audio design of the
authenticity have helped shape everything from contemporary art, music and exhibition as they are well aware that perfect music reproduction is needed to
fashion to popular culture and social conventions. His contribution to the mod- truly reach the audience.
ern world will be felt for decades to come. We sincerely hope that you will enjoy the exhibition as much as we have
I hope that this book sparks your imagination and stimulates you to continue enjoyed working with the Victoria and Albert Museum on helping put together
his legacy by challenging yourself to create something that is truly your own. this extraordinary event.

Frida Giannini Paul Whiting

Creative Director, Gucci President, Global Sales, Sennheiser
 [4] opposite David Bowie aged 10 months, 1947 The David Bowie Archive

[5] above David Bowie aged 6, 1953 The David Bowie Archive

22 23
 [6] above David Bowie aged 19, 1966
Photograph by Robin Bean The David Bowie Archive

[7] opposite Life mask in resin, 1975

The David Bowie Archive

24
 GEO FFre y M ARSH
The Last of England The London of Suburbia
leaving the homeland
Actually, the suburbs are far more sinister places than most city
Living in lies by the railway line dwellers imagine. Their very blandness forces the imagination
Pushing the hair from my eyes into new areas. I mean, ones got to get up in the morning
Elvis is English and climbs the hills thinking of a deviant act, merely to make certain of ones free-

ASTRONAUT
Cant tell the bullshit from the lies dom. It neednt be much; kicking the dog will do.
Screaming along in south London
Vicious but ready to learn You see these suburbs spring up. They represent the optimum
Sometimes I fear that the whole world is queer of what people want. Theres a certain sort of logic leading
Sometimes but always in vain towards these immaculate suburbs. And theyre terrifying,
because they are the death of the soul. This is the prison this

OF INNER
David Bowie, Buddha of Suburbia, 19931
planet is being turned into.
On 29 March 1974, David Jones Bowie, then aged 27 (pl.9),
J. G. Ballard4
left London, crossed the Channel by ferry and, although he did
not know it at the time, abandoned England as his home. Since Suburbia, a distinctive form of English housing development,
then, his stays in Britain have been fragmented and Bowie has has become a world phenomenon. Between 1918 and 1939,
become a globalized citizen currently resident in Manhattan. nearly four million new houses were built in the UK.5 Around

SPACES:
This chapter explores how Bowie began his global journey by every town, a tide of red roofs swept across the fields and, swal-
travelling through the cultures, textures and streets of post- lowing up villages, eventually set into a rigid framework of
World War II London. This psychogeography was fundamental low-rise Modernist social ambition subverted by speculative
to the evolution of his career. free enterprise (pl.11). Over 600,000 of these houses, homes
Before 1972, Bowie had spent only a few weeks abroad.2 for over two million people escaping inner-city grime, were on
Prior to Young Americans in 1975, his career had been founded on the edges of London, doubling the capitals area and creating

SUNDRIDGE
a powerful personal reaction against England and specifically a tight corset of suburbia.6 Among these drowned settlements
the values of suburban London a city that during his life- was Sundridge Park a clump of Victorian villas planted around
time has transformed itself from the bombed-out, soon-to-be an eighteenth-century country-house estate, nine miles from
ex-imperial capital of 1947 to its current status as one of the the centre of London.7 Somewhat apart, next to the branch-line
three great world financial centres (pls 10 and 11).3 Bowies railway station, stands a short terrace of two-up, two-down
career has paralleled that transformation in terms of globaliza- Victorian railway workers houses. Here at 4 Plaistow Grove,

PARK, SOHO,
tion, status and recognition. Neither success was inevitable. backing on to a pub, David Jones grew up from 1955 to 1967.
Both, in the face of intense competition, have used unfettered This street was surrounded by avenues of larger inter-war semi-
ambition, deep experience, shrewd marketing and some luck to detached houses with proper gardens, garages and indoor
secure their current position. The Batman-loving Uncle Arthur, bathrooms.8 Apart from being the physical manifestation of the
Major Tom, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and the others were expanding middle classes, this new suburban Britain imposed a
conceived with a British sensibility, but during a period when rigid code of social, moral and dress conformity.9 This survived

LONDON
American influence on Britain remained profound. World War II and, arguably, reached its apogee in the late 1950s,
when, thanks to a booming economy, the consumer culture of
America finally began to infiltrate the households of respect-
able Acacia Avenues.10 Over a quarter of the 500,000 boys born
in 1947, the peak of the post-World War II baby boom, grew up
in these identikit suburbias, and many in the 1960s and 70s

MARS
came to rail against their perceived blandness. These were the
precious babies that would inherit the brave new world for
which their parents generation had suffered, but they were
often to show little gratitude. However, few rejected it as vehe-
mently as Bowie, and only a handful broke through to become
performance stars.11 What happened there? What did he see
there? What did he think to generate such a powerful reaction?
How did home, family mythology, education and Bowies even-
tual escape shape his career? Bowies home life did not match
the ideal of the conventional, contented two-child suburban

27
 nuclear family gathered together around the television beloved Meanwhile the young Davids interest in entertainment
of 1960s advertisers. His parents had four children between increased. In 1956, his father was appointed head of public
them but after 1953, Bowie never lived with his older half-sib- relations at Barnardos and began to use leading entertainers
lings, except for short periods. Mostly, he was effectively an only of the day to promote the charitys work.21 As a result, Bowie
child, and he has commented on the stresses underlying this met showbiz stars, such as Tommy Steele in 1957. His interest
situation:12 I think theres an awful lot of emotional, spiritual in music also grew his cousin Kristina recalls that Bowie had a
mutilation goes on in my family.13 Although he had friends, he tin guitar at an early age and, unusually, a 78rpm record player.22
grew up relying on his own company in his backroom bedroom. At Christmas 1961, John Jones made a significant investment by
He didnt actually go out very much, but preferred to stay buying his son a British white acrylic Grafton saxophone, and
at home, his childhood friend George Underwood remembers. shortly afterwards an American brass Conn sax.23 I wanted
Id often invite him to a party and he would say, No, Im going to be a white Little Richard at eight or at least his sax player,
to stay in, Ive got some work to do. No doubt thats why he Bowie remembers (pl.8).24 I wanted to be a musician because
became so successful.14 it seemed rebellious, it seemed subversive.25
Alone in his bedroom, Bowie could let his imagination Bowie did not, as is often erroneously stated, go to art
run free, soaking up ideas and images from books, magazines college, as Pete Townshend, Brian Eno and many other key
and records: I felt often, ever since I was a teenager, so adrift musicians did in the early 1960s, but his secondary school
and so not part of everyone else so many dark secrets about had a strong arts focus. After passing his 11-plus exam in 1958,
my family in the cupboard they made me feel on the outside Bowie chose the brand-new Bromley Technical High School for
of everything.15 Boys in preference to Bromley Grammar School.26 In his third
He recalled later: year his form master and art teacher was Owen Frampton, who
developed a progressive, creative syllabus.27 Bowies first band,
I wanted to be a fantastic artist, see the colours, hear the Kon-rads (including his school friend George Underwood),
the music, and they just wanted me turned down. I had made their first public performance at a PTA fte on 16 June 1962.
to grow up feeling demoralized and thinking, They are Earlier that year, Bowie had been hit in the face by Underwood
not going to beat me. I had to retreat into my room; a blow that required a couple of months convalescence and
so you get in the room and you carry that ruddy room resulted in his distinctive non-matching eyes. Thus at 15, Bowie
around with you for the rest of your life.16 had an unusual, and unexpected, opportunity to practise his
new saxophone but also to spend time analysing his personal
Most families have their own mythology, a mix of fact and circumstances, thoughts and ambitions.
storytelling that legitimizes their present reality. Throughout As Bowie became old enough to begin spreading his creative [8] above left Little Richard,
Bowies childhood his father, Haywood Stenton John Jones, wings, his half-brother Terry, older by a decade, returned from 1950s This publicity photograph
has been in David Bowies
had steady employment with Dr Barnardos Children Homes.17 National Service in the RAF in 1958. Although Terry did not live possession since the 1950s
However, this quiet and hardworking man had an exotic past. with David, they spent time together, with Terry introducing The David Bowie Archive
In 1933, as a 21-year-old jazz enthusiast new to London, he him to Beat writing such as Jack Kerouacs recently published [9] above David Bowie at a
had inherited the substantial sum of 3,000.18 He decided On the Road (1957), jazz and stories, at least, of visits to the licit press conference at the Amstel
Hotel, Amsterdam, February
to become an entertainment impresario by investing all this and illicit pleasures of Soho clubland.28 1974 Photograph by
money in promoting the career of his newly met and newly wed Gijsbert Hanekroot Getty Images
wife, Hilda Sullivan a singer known as Chrie The Viennese [10] centre left Cyclists on a
Nightingale, who had just fled from the growing political tur- bombed street in London, October
1944 Originally published in
moil in Austria.19 Picture Post (no.1814) in Londons
The result was a financial and emotional disaster. John Jones Bombed Homes: A Defeat On
lost his whole inheritance in a matter of months on a variety of The Home Front Photograph
by Haywood Magee / Getty Images
ventures. The last was the Boop-A-Doop, a piano bar located
[11] centre right Suburban
in the Swiss Club (Schweizerbund) at 74 Charlotte Street in sprawl in south London following
bohemian north Soho.20 the war Getty Images
As Bowie grew up, the family memory of a European-style [12] bottom left The 2is
nightclub in pre-war Soho and a squandered inheritance must Coffee Bar, Old Compton Street,
have offered powerful symbols of the exciting and enticing but London, 1966 S&G Barratts /
EMPICS Archive
also dangerous opportunities that lay beyond the confines of
[13] bottom right David Bowie
a small terraced house on the edge of London. performing with the Buzz at the
Marquee Club, London,
April 1966 Michael Ochs
Archives / Getty Images

28
 Remaking Soho and the Modernist vision However, the Soho that Bowie began to frequent seemed
to be under a death sentence. Nearly half of central Soho
Bright lights, Soho, Wardour Street and Piccadilly Circus were slated for demolition as modernist
You hope you make friends with the guys that you meet architects, in an unholy alliance with property developers and
politicians of both the left and the right, promised to create a
David Bowie, The London Boys, 1966
Brave New London.36 Harry Hyams towering and un-let Centre
Down on my knees in suburbia Point (pl.14), completed in 1965, was to be only the first
Down on myself in every way of over a dozen similar office blocks intended to transform
With great expectations I change all my clothes the area.37 Speculators bought up many of the West Ends
Mustnt grumble at silver and gold nineteenth-century theatres for demolition as they offered the
Screaming above central London large footprints necessary for building skyscrapers.
Never born, so Ill never get old In 1960, most people would have probably agreed that
such redevelopments were a good thing the physical transfor-
David Bowie, Buddha of Suburbia, 199329
mation of central London to match the newly minted welfare
1963: Dr Who arrives, John Profumo leaves, Martin Luther King state.38 Modernism offered a progressive vision of orderly and
dreams and the UK is barred from the EU. In the summer of spacious streets with clean and efficient flats, compared to the
that year, a revolution was underway in the UKs popular music. smells, dirt and immigrants of inner-city slums.39 Just to the
Between January 1962 and April 1963, Cliff Richard and/or the north, the silhouette of the new Post Office Tower (pl.17), built
Shadows were at number one for a total of 22 weeks. But as between 1961 and 1964, created a powerful and compelling icon
Bowie left school in July, the Liverpool/Epstein/George Martin of the white heat of technology promoted by the new Labour
dynamic began to take over, with I Like It by Gerry and the government.40 Harold Wilson offered a vision of a new-look
Pacemakers at the top of the charts,30 and the group in the studio technocratic Britain, a United Kingdom for forward-looking
to record their third number one hit, Youll Never Walk Alone. people who wanted to forget about the fading empire.
At the same time, the Beatles were recording She Loves You, Despite the tightening noose of demolition, traditional
soon to be their second number one, and the Rolling Stones bohemian Soho hung on, just, and four new venues launched
were just beginning to tour. new cultural trajectories. On 22 April 1956, the 2is Coffee
At 16, Bowie might have disappeared into a series of dead- Bar was opened at 59 Old Compton Street (pl.12). It became
end jobs and short-lived south London bands. Fortunately, his an instant Mecca for musicians and the birthplace of British
art teacher had found him work as a paste-up artist at Nevin D. rocknroll, attracting performers such as Tommy Steele, Cliff
Hirst, an advertising agency in New Bond Street in Londons Richard and the Most Brothers.41 Two years later, in 1958, the
Mayfair and Bowie became a commuter, travelling by train London Hippodrome on Charing Cross Road, the flagship of
to Charing Cross station. Although commentators are often the Moss Empires music-hall chain, was gutted and converted
disparaging about this job, it provided Bowie with a regular into the Talk of the Town, with the aim of providing a Las Vegas-
escape route, out of suburbia and into a creative milieu that style show and cabaret venue.42 That same year, Paul Raymond
was being transformed as London started to swing.31 Twelve opened his Revuebar, the first British strip club a develop-
months in advertising also introduced him to current theories ment that heralded the rapid growth of sex-related businesses
on maximizing the effectiveness of mass marketing. in Soho.43 Also in 1958, the Marquee Club was founded at 165
In the aftermath of the brainwashing hysteria of the Korean Oxford Street. A few years later, the club moved to 90 Wardour
War, major research was undertaken into methods for manipu- Street. On opening night, Friday 13 March 1964, Sonny Boy
lating public opinion.32 Bowie would have had the opportunity Williamson, the Yardbirds and Rod Stewart were on the bill.
to pick up a wealth of ideas about how to influence audiences, Eight months later Bowie would be playing there, and hosting
in particular; as the ad man in Hitchcocks North by Northwest his Sunday afternoon session, the Bowie Showboat (pl.13),
(1959) explains, in the world of advertising theres no such thing two years later.44 The move of the Marquee Club reflected the
as a lie. There is only expedient exaggeration. Combined with explosive growth of businesses based around pop music. In 1964
his fathers experience in PR, Bowie developed a precocious Beatlemania went global, and the huge success of the British
marketing talent.33 And beyond the agencys walls the job gave Invasion of America secured Londons position as one of the
him the opportunity to explore more of the West End, from key music cities of the world. On the back of this breakthrough,
Dobells Records34 and the second-hand bookshops of Charing fashion, advertising and photography transformed the capital
Cross Road to the surviving rag-trade businesses around Berwick into Swinging London a success that coincided with a decisive
and Carnaby Streets.35 shift towards a youth culture of rebellion against authority,

[14] opposite David Bowie on a rooftop in front of the newly built

Centre Point, September 1967 Photograph by Mark Hayward

30
 excitement, sexual liberation and permissive legislation.45 This
changing social climate was symbolized by the BBCs creation of
Radio 1, launched on 30 September 1967, and the Governments
reduction of the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1969.
Although accounts of the period tend to focus on the
fashions of the Kings Road and Carnaby Street, Soho and the
surrounding Theatreland retained their role as the vibrant hub
of the entertainment world. It was like a village with networks of
personal connections, and for a few years Soho became Bowies
second home. It offered a world of opportunity for anyone with
the drive to hustle hard. In a few minutes Bowie could walk was still seen as a short-lived career trajectory, with the lucky
from the Gioconda Caf to the Marquee Club, passing by Saint or ambitious few cutting through into mainstream entertain-
Martins School of Art, the Astoria dance hall, Les Cousins folk ment in the form of TV light entertainment shows, West End
club and Ronnie Scotts. Close by were other music venues, like pantomime or film work.52
the 2is, Flamingo Club, Le Discothque, 100 Club, Tiles and But outside the small group of closely linked entertainment
the Scene. Many of the new music venues, such as Brian Epsteins dynasties, the first wave of pop-group managers, such as Andrew
Saville Theatre (1965), the UFO Club (1966) and the Electric Loog Oldham and Brian Epstein, were struggling to crack open
Garden/Middle Earth (1966), opened on the borders of Soho this closeted world and create new business models.53
and Covent Garden. Battling his way into this tight-knit business, Bowies driving
Bowie plunged into the mod music scene, which shaped ambition took him a long way.54 In 1966, Ken Pitt, an experi-
him by instilling an idea of experimentalism, of a true mod- enced showbiz operator, became his manager (a position he held
ernism.46 By May 1964, he had his first record deal with Decca. until 1970), and provided a careful guiding hand. Bowie tried
His first single, Liza Jane (see pl.61),47 was released on 5 June a wide range of approaches: writing songs for himself, writing
1964, the following day he appeared on BBC1s primetime Juke songs for others, or trying to break into films and childrens
Box Jury48 and a few weeks later he gave up his advertising job to television. In an interview with Radio London at the Marquee
concentrate on a music career full time. At the age of only 17, in 1966, he spoke about developing a musical with Tony Hatch,
major success seemed just around the corner. adding that hed like to get into cabaret, obviously.55
And yet, as it happened, that leap proved elusive. For the By late 1966, Pitt had secured Bowie a contract with
next five years Bowie grafted his way around the shifting London Deccas prestigious and progressive new Deram label.56 The
music scene. The Gioconda Caf at 9 Denmark Street, in variety of Bowies work was seen as suitable for this new audio
Londons Tin Pan Alley, became his unofficial hang-out, with approach, and this is reflected in the final choice of tracks on
hours passed over cups of tea.49 It was only five years later, in his first LP, David Bowie, released on 1 June 1967, the same day as
1969, that he achieved his breakthrough success with Space Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band on Parlophone (EMI). Both
Oddity. By then London, youth culture and British society had covers (pls 15 and 16) feature military jackets, but each records
shifted radically. impact was very different.57 Although it received some positive
Bowie might have had a precocious introduction to Sohos reviews, Bowies album was not a commercial success, and he
musicland, but Londons entertainment industry in the early was dropped by Deram. Then, almost immediately afterwards,
1960s was an altogether more impenetrable obstacle for the Bowies London years were to take a sharp turn towards a new
lets get a band together and cut a record ambitions of a typi- aesthetic.
cal suburban teenager. The London Palladium, physically and Ironically, if Bowie had become a commercially successful
commercially, still dominated popular entertainment: Sunday singer-songwriter at this point, he might still have had a lengthy
Night at the London Palladium was the anchor variety show of musical career, but much less overall cultural impact. Looking
Independent Television (ITV), from the launch of commercial back, Bowie noted: In a way, if anything had happened for me
television in Britain in 1955 until 1967.50 The Beatles appeared in the mid-60s, I might well have been cut off from an awful lot
on 13 October 1963 to an estimated audience of 15 million. The of influences.
BBC struggled to match the new commercial networks focus
on the mass market, but responded with The Black and White
Minstrel Show, which ran from 1958 to 1978.51 [15] above left David Bowie, 1967 Deram
The music business was a small world of interconnected [16] above right Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967
managers, investors, publishers, promoters and publicists work- The Beatles Parlophone
ing around the four main recording companies Parlophone [17] opposite The Post Office Tower, Maple Street, London, 1969
(EMI), Decca, Phillips and Pye (ATV from 1959). Pop music Fox Photos / Getty Images

32
 New destinations: New directions for artistic exploration were beginning to Bowie was also to be strongly influenced by Andy Warhol
Tripping into Inner Space be defined, notably by J. G. Ballard, writing in Shepperton, far and his creation of the Factory in New York in the 1960s. In
out in Londons western suburbia. Bored by traditional science August 1965, Warhol made Outer and Inner Space, possibly the
If there was unison, it was in reflecting the schizophrenic world fiction and influenced by the Surrealists, he wanted to explore first example of video art.70 Comprising two films projected
of Vietnam, Oxfam, Twiggy, the invasion of Czechoslovakia, the ambiguity of private fantasy that might be obscure, mean- alongside each other, to evoke the inner and outer selves of his
the Beatles, LBJ, Che, the Space Race, and trendy figures like ingless or nightmarish: star, Edie Sedgwick, the piece is a forerunner of Chelsea Girls
Gagarin, McLuhan, Buckminster Fuller, plus James Bondery, (1966, pl.21). In May 1963, Life magazine had published Long
acid, GNP, Swinging London, TW3, and the theories of This zone I think of as inner space, the internal land- Voyage in Inner Space, an article about Whilden P. Breen, Jr.,
Durkheim, Marcuse, and Laing, with, if you like, Timothy scape of tomorrow that is a transmuted image of the who was in the middle of five months confinement in a window-
Leary, Wilson-and-Brown, and Marx. past, and one of the most fruitful areas for the imagina- less, soundproof isolation chamber, a NASA experiment to
tive writer. It is particularly rich in visual symbols, and discover the psychological effects of prolonged isolation. On
Brian Aldiss58
I feel that this type of speculative fantasy plays a role 15 May 1961, President Kennedy had announced the mission to
The fast-forward London in which Bowie started his career in very similar to that of Surrealism in the graphic arts. The land a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
1963 lasted only a few short years. At 5.45 a.m. on 16 May 1968, painters de Chirico, Dal and Max Ernst, among others, The artistic investigations of imagination were intertwined
Ivy Hodge, a 56-year-old cake decorator, struck a match to light are in a sense the iconographers of inner space, all with an increasing interest in self discovery and mystical
her gas oven in Flat 90 on the eighteenth floor of Ronan Point concerned with the discovery of images in which the religion, particularly from the East. These were paralleled
61
(pl.18), a high-rise block in east London, completed earlier that internal and external reality meet and fuse. by an upsurge in interest in mystic Albion, associated with
year. The explosion and partial collapse of the tower symbolized, Stonehenge, ley lines and the myths of Glastonbury.71 The past,
in the UK at least, the end of the Modernist dream of villages In stories written between 1966 and 1969, which eventually the distant, the futuristic and the mystic became a vast ware-
in the sky.59 formed The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), Ballard explored ideas of house of old stock, ready to be pillaged to create new identities,
While councils, particularly on the left, continued compre- fragmentation in character, narrative, language and meaning whether through buying antiques, wearing costume or ethnic
hensive housing clearance schemes for a few more years, the similar to those promoted by the writer William S. Burroughs clothes or stopping inner-city redevelopment.72 Psychedelic
growing social problems associated with new estates eventually and others.62 Burroughs impact at this time was considerable, as explorations of the self were linked to the rise of drug use to
brought the process to a halt, and it was finally finished off by the important movers in the counter-culture took up his interests.63 provide new forms of perception, as promoted in Timothy
Thatcherite attack on the entire principle of council housing.60 His friend Brion Gysin, who was involved with the Surrealists, Learys The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan
This was part of a broader reaction against the tenets of had developed his cut-up technique in 1959 in Paris, and first Book of the Dead (1964).73 Within a couple of years, such ideas
modernist social planning, and the growing shift towards an published the resulting texts as First Cut-Ups in 1960.64 A were entering the mainstream for example, Dirk Bogardes LSD
appreciation of the past alongside restoration and renewal few years later, the artist and activist Jeff Nuttall launched My trip in the 1968 film Sebastian, set in the British secret service.
[18] Cartoon referencing the collapse of the Ronan Point instead of demolition. On a personal level, this development Own Mag, a magazine he produced from 1963 to 1966, which Bowie, along with many of his contemporaries, became
tower, 22 November 1968 Ralph Steadman Published in paralleled a swing towards a focus on the self and the individual, published Burroughs cut-ups.65 During this time, Burroughs interested in Buddhism. In 1967, when interest in Eastern
Private Eye magazine
rather than grandiose and theoretical strategies for the mass a also experimented with Anthony Balch in film-making, creating religions was at its height, he thought of becoming a monk
shift that was to become fundamental to Bowies interests. a 19-minute short, The Cut-Ups, released in 1967.66 and, in September of that year, stayed briefly in Scotland at the
The same ideas were being explored by others. According Buddhist retreat at Eskdalemuir, then at the start of its develop-
to Burroughs, Alexander Trocchi, the Scottish Beat writer, ment.74 International Times magazine was an important conduit
called himself the Cosmonaut of Inner Space at the famous for disseminating ideas to a wider audience, who may never
Edinburgh Writers Conference in August 1962.67 Burroughs have bothered to read original works. Issue 12 (28 April 1967)
later commented: contained a psychedelic centre spread containing cut-up texts
by Brion Gysin (pl.19).
In my writing I am acting as a map-maker, an explorer London was convulsing but David Bowie, who was physi-
of psychic areas, a cosmonaut of inner space, and I cally close to the epicentre of all of this activity in the West End,
see no point in exploring areas that have already been was, until June 1967, still sometimes commuting the nine miles
thoroughly surveyed.68 home to stay at Sundridge Park.

Artists increasingly wanted to explore these new mind-

scapes. In September 1967, Bowie appeared in his first film, The
Image, which was described as a study of the illusionary reality
world within the schizophrenic mind of the artist at his point
of creativity.69

34 35
 [19] above Minutes to Go cut up texts by Brion Gysin International
Times, Issue 12, 28 April 1967

[20] left Soundtrack for Hair!, 1968 Recording by the original

London cast Polydor Records

[21] opposite Poster for Andy Warhols film Chelsea Girls, October
1968 Designed by Alan Aldridge Drury Lane Arts Laboratory

36
 Taking The Stage Kemp, for his part, was equally taken with Bowie:

In 1967, aged 20, Bowie discovered The Stage. I felt a bit like the Virgin Mary, confronted by this vision
Not the tatty stages, feeble PA systems and basic lighting of the archangel Gabriel, glowing, shining, incredibly
of the ballrooms and clubs he had toured in previous years. beautiful and immediately inspiring.
Rather, the vast philosophical stages of theatre thinkers such
as Stanislavski, Artaud and Brook, where there is no beginning Kemps total commitment to his art introduced Bowie to an
or end, and the limits are solely those of the deviser stages that edgy world of make-up, camp and sexual ambiguity, but perhaps
could become any type of space. more important was the experience of living as a complete per-
The London alternative performance scene took off in formance.83 Bowie started training and working with Kemp (I
the mid 1960s. There were new ideas, new performers, new taught David to free his body, Kemp said later),84 and in 1968
companies and new venues.75 In 1966 the American-born Jim he spent several weeks first rehearsing and then performing at
Haynes set up the London Traverse Theatre Company with venues in London and elsewhere (pls 24 and 25).85
set designer Ralph Koltai, among others, at the new Jeanetta Bowie learnt not only to act, but also gained fundamental
Cochrane Theatre.76 In 1964, the playwright Arnold Wesker had experience in the power of costume, lighting and sets. He
launched Centre 42 at the Roundhouse, turning a nineteenth- understood increasingly how to work the bond with the audi-
century railway shed into a performing arts venue.77 Alongside ence through characterization, voice and physical expression.
new theatres were happenings, including the famous On 13 and 14 September 1967 he acted in the short film The Image,
International Poetry Incarnation held at the Royal Albert Hall on and received his Equity card on 28 October (pl.22).86 In 19689,
11 June 1965. Bowie auditioned twice for the musical Hair (pl.20) and was an
There was also an increasing interest in crossing art-form extra in the film The Virgin Soldiers.87 Ken Pitt, his manager at the
boundaries, and using different types of space to match these time, also encouraged him to see mainstream theatre.88
new manifestations, often involving multimedia installations. In Bowies immersion in performance deepened when he met,
1967 Haynes took over an empty warehouse at 182 Drury Lane and fell in love with, Hermione Farthingale Dennis, a classi-
and established the famous, if short-lived, Drury Lane Arts Lab, cally trained ballet dancer, in April 1968. Not only was she a
where Bowie performed.78 The Lab included a theatre, cinema, supportive partner and musical collaborator with whom he
gallery and restaurant, alongside music, an information bank could discuss every aspect of performing, she was also involved
and astrological readings. The Arts Lab, Haynes wrote, was in some of the major films of the time, playing an Edwardian
many things to many people: a vision frustrated by an indifferent, chorus girl in the musical film Oh! What a Lovely War a fascinating
fearful and secure society; an experiment with such intangibles mix of staging, songs and styles designed to evoke World War I.89
as people, ideas, feelings and communication.79 By early 1969, his understanding of stagecraft had been
The following year, the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) transformed. Ironically, it was just at this point that, having
moved into its new home on The Mall.80 Across the country, been dropped by Hermione, a saddened Bowie retreated to
local Arts Labs were started, many eventually morphing into the suburbs, establishing his own Arts Lab in Beckenham in the
permanent arts centres. spring of 1969.90 Once again he might have faded into suburban
Moving elegantly and enigmatically through this upheaval obscurity, but the eventual chart success of Space Oddity at
was the distinctive figure of Lindsay Kemp, mime artist, dancer, the end of the year finally launched Bowie towards stardom.
actor and total performer extraordinaire at least by his own
definition (pl.23). Kemp was using Bowies music in his show,
and the two met in early August 1967 and immediately fell
for each other.81 Lindsay Kemp was a living pierrot, Bowie
subsequently said. He lived and talked Pierrot. He was tragic
and everything in his life was theatrical. And so the stage thing
for him was just an extension of himself.82 And later, he said
of Kemp:

Lindsay was a trip and a half He lived on his emotions,

he was a wonderful influence. His day-to-day life was
the most theatrical thing Id ever seen, ever. Everything
I thought Bohemia probably was, he was living.
[22] above David Bowies entry in casting directory
Spotlight, 1969 Kevin Cann Collection

[23] above right Lindsay Kemp in Soho, c.1967

The David Bowie Archive

38

39
 [24] above and [25] opposite David Bowie as a mime, 7 May 1968
Photograph by Kenneth Pitt, London Kevin Cann Collection

40 41
 Genesis: The Apollo 8 Mission Following the success of Space Oddity in November 1969,
and Selling the Earth Bowie had stardom within his reach. His complete immersion
in the craft of performance in 19678 had complemented the
In 1968, the concept of scientific progress was the dominant understanding of audience manipulation he had already devel-
practical belief system for most people in the West. The space oped through his advertising experience. Over the next 20
race, as a symbolic demonstration of technocratic ritual, months, Bowie acquired a new manager, a new music publisher,
exerted a massive pull on the publics imagination throughout a new producer, a new set of musicians, new friends, new design-
the decade.91 ers, new experiences,98 a wife, a son and a new home99 and a
On Christmas Eve 1968, David Bowies career course cut new iconic identity, captured on film in September 1970 (which
across that of world history. Apollo 8 became the first manned would eventually feature on the cover of The Man Who Sold the
flight to orbit the moon and return a journey captured in the World (April 1971).100 This cover image for his third LP, then still
Earthrise photograph, taken by NASA astronaut Bill Anders, titled Metrobolist, is crucial, since it was conceived entirely by
which has been called the most influential environmental Bowie and provides a freeze-frame of his ideas during a period
photograph ever taken (pl.26).92 Viewed across the barren of hectic development and creativity.101 In the time before the
moonscape, Earth is a small blue sphere utterly alone in the vast music videos of the 1980s, album covers were critical in com-
blackness of space. The answers to mankinds problems were municating identity.
not out there they existed, if they did at all, within the human The defining characteristics of the photographer Keith
race anchored on that tiny speck. Macmillans work for albums at this time were their rejection of
Thirteen days later, on 6 January 1969, The Times published Modernism, science, celebrity and professionalism there are
a special Apollo 8 insert that included the Earthrise image.93 no glossy portraits or spaceships; no white space or fine typogra-
Within a week, by 13 January, Bowie had crossed into a new psy- phy [instead] they call forth a grimness that is radically at odds
choscape and created Space Oddity: with music business gloss and rockist self aggrandizement.102
However, for The Man Who Sold the World Bowie would
For here twist this approach to achieve his own ends. The cover shows
Am I sitting in a tin can a relaxed Bowie stretched out on a chaise-longue in a Mr Fish
Far above the world man-dress and long brown leather boots, in a retro-Raphaelite
Planet Earth is blue setting (pl.27).103 In his hand, Bowie holds the King of Diamonds
And theres nothing I can do.94 (pl.28).104 Bowie, now the complete performer, holds cen-
tre stage. He looks out coolly and slightly questioningly at
In doing so, as Bowie turned 22, he turned off the centurys Macmillans camera and through to his audience. The shot,
timeline, and set off on his own.95 In a few words Bowie rejects taken in Haddon Hall, Beckenham, projects a Universalist vision.
the triumph of technology, whether western or communist, and Firstly, Bowie is alone; there is no company of support-
speaks instead of a new challenge for humanity. If the individual ing actors.105 He will be the success but beyond that there is
demands the choice to determine his own future, what then is no obvious story. He is set among scattered fragments whose
the relationship between that individual and society?96 individual meaning is unclear. Together, this antique detritus
Bowies stage was now inner space and, over the next five evokes no specific date, but collectively it rejects the twentieth-
years, he delved deeply into the worlds of fear, envy, madness, century suburban dream. However, there is no permanence,
self-loathing and isolation. It is often suggested that Bowies no conclusion the image is clearly a constructed set, outside
interest in alienation and dystopia stems from the depressing reality. Secondly, and most remarked on, gender is subverted
political and economic state of Britain in the early 1970s. 97 through hair, clothing, gesture and pose. Interestingly, in 1970,
Space Oddity, however, was written when the heady days of there is no questioning of ethnicity or age. Finally, there is no
1968 were only just beginning to fade. exclusivity; Bowie will give up his place if you want to take it,
for he is already moving on.

[26] opposite Earthrise Photograph taken by astronaut Bill Anders

during the Apollo 8 lunar mission, 24 December 1968 NASA

42
 In April 1971, when The Man Who Sold the World was finally
released in the UK, the music tide had suddenly turned Bowies
way with the rise of glam rock.106 From being an outsider Bowie
now moved centre stage, eventually leaving even Marc Bolan
behind, and rode the glitter wave until he jumped neatly aside
as its energy dissipated.
In January 1971, Bowie went to America on a promotional
tour, where he had the opportunity to try out his personal
man-dress character in cities as diverse as Detroit, Houston
and Los Angeles.107 He was not disappointed by the reactions,
which ranged from appreciation to confusion and outright Those four decades of changing social attitudes and rising
aggression and he knew now that there were no limits to what personal wealth shaped a growing Me culture, where people
and how he could perform.108 Bowie landed back in London on increasingly put the self before social duty. The support frame-
18 February, bringing with him a group of new songs that he works of increasing state intervention, organized religion,
registered on 1 April with Chrysalis, his new publisher among two-party politics, mass trade unions and monarchy began to
them Ziggy Stardust. Nine days later The Man Who Sold the be eroded and subverted. Bowie came to prominence as these
World was released in Britain, but Bowie knew by then that his changes gathered pace, and he has survived long enough to see
vision lay far beyond. There might be nothing on Mars, but the full effects.
there were worlds of endless possibilities inside his head, The consequences, even by the late 1970s, were ambiguous
which he could explore by bringing an alien messiah down to and often unexpected. The statements every human being is
earth an alien capable of infiltrating any space. London was equally important and freedom to live your life your way came
where Ziggy was launched and where he was retired but the not from Bowie, nor even from pop music, but from Margaret
citys exhausted three-day week existence in 19734 placed Thatchers speech to the 1975 Conservative Party conference
too great a constraint on Bowies ambitions. He wanted a space and The Sun newspapers editorial on election day, 3 May 1979,
with fewer boundaries and so he left for the world (pl.30); which advised its readers to switch to the Conservatives and
despite Londons own distinctive reinvention over the last helped sweep Thatcher to victory. By the Thatcherite Spring
30 years, there has been nothing to bring him back for a signifi- of the 1980s, anti-elitism had been mobilized to promote the
cant engagement. market as the moral authority for public services. However, by
For the four decades prior to the mid 1990s and the start then Bowie was far away.
of the PC/digital/internet age, pop music and pop culture pro-
vided a communication system for young people whose only
means of sharing their likes and dislikes beyond their locality
were the Royal Mail and a household hard-wired phone or
maybe a public telephone box. Pop music may have been con-
trolled by a few corporations, been limited in its world-view,
and the source of enormous amounts of rubbish, but it was the
critical communication system of the era. Nobody with the
access and subject opportunities of the YouTube/Facebook age
would want to go back there now; not when communicating with
anybody about anything is seen as a right.

[27] above The Man Who Sold the World, April 1971 Mercury (UK)

[28] opposite The Man Who Sold the World (reverse), April 1971
Mercury (UK)

44
 And where is Major Tom off to now? West there are major forces for which Ziggy is no cosy historic
character, but a living threat.110
Neil and Edna Denny were military folk Decent people And here lies a dilemma. Bowie created Ziggy, but provided
who had successfully defended their country against Nazi no guide for how to achieve such individual liberation except
invasion, endured food rationing throughout the war and for through his own personal route of self-belief, iron will and
nearly ten years afterwards, and felt pride in the coronation of complete control. There is no scripture, creed or service. The
a glamorous young queen. They loved, nurtured and sheltered philosophy of Ziggy is utterly personal be yourself, whatever
their children. But they were utterly unprepared for the bomb that is.111 It worked for Bowie, but it is not an appealing message
culture of pop. for many today, who look for greater certainties, the reassurance
of dogma and the seductive pleasure of being part of a mass.
Rob Young, Electric Eden:
Worldwide, a counter-reformation is underway, with some now
Unearthing Britains Visionary Music, 2010
arguing that such libertarian views are weird:112

The wordless cover of Fairport Conventions album Unhalfbricking w estern

(1969, pl.29) speaks volumes about the gap between the genera- e ducated
tions that expanded during the 1960s the band are inside a i ndustrialized
walled garden, separated from singer Sandy Dennys parents by r ich
a fence. As the generations parted at the end of the 1960s, was d emocratic
there still time for tea together?109
It is a truism that Britain was at its most integrated and Will Ziggy, like King Arthur, now remain sleeping forever or
socialist during World War II. The threat of Nazi conquest, will he/she return to save mystic Albion from its enemies? Or
alongside rationing, conscription for men and national service will the Heroes be found on other sides by then? Is Major Tom
for women, created the opportunity for a modernist agenda to still drifting? Or has he refocused and reconnected with others
organize for total war. In 1945, it offered a beguiling future to to overthrow the London of global capitalism?
the new mass society as its reward. In the 1950s, something had David Jones grew up in 1950s London dreaming of being
to fill the loss of Empire and a technocratic future offered a pro- a successful entertainer. As David Bowie he tried, tried very
gressive vision for the left, and a hope of salvaging some control hard, and became a world-famous performer. In the process,
for the right. In the end, however, growing personal affluence he helped establish a key part of Western twenty-first century
and the enticing individual delights of consumer capitalism out- liberal belief: that anybody should be allowed to be what they
flanked modernisms failure to provide a convincing alternative. want to be. Self before duty, with duty a choice. He did not
On 29 March 2012 a plaque(pl.31) was unveiled to Ziggy invent the idea, but he did promote it to a huge audience. The
Stardust in Heddon Street, London, where photographer Brian marketing worked and the London of today, ethnically diverse,
Ward caught an image of the illusive visitor in 1972. Forty years culturally open and relatively tolerant, is an on-going testament
on, the relics of Sohos rag-trade past have disappeared. The to this belief. In the remaining years of this century, there are
cleaned-up, pedestrianized street provides upmarket restau- plenty of groups for whom such a culture is anathema. It will be
rants servicing the confident consuming crowds that now flow interesting to see how this journey, which started in Brixton,
along the global mart of Regent Street. If Ziggy walked past London SW9, continues to unfold.
today, there would be recognition, welcome and a positive
response probably people saying, I expected Ziggy would look When the tone of the music changes, the walls of the city shake.
more different. Now, in the affluent West, Ziggy is everywhere
Plato, The Republic
and nowhere, a figure who has passed into general ownership.
But worldwide the story continues, and beyond the liberated

[29] far left Unhalfbricking, 1969

Fairport Convention Island

[30] left The Rise and Fall of Ziggy

Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, 1972
RCA Victor

[31] opposite Ziggy Stardust plaque on

Heddon Street, London, 2012

46
 David
Bowie is
looking
for infor-
mation
[32] opposite David Bowie backstage, 1972
Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita

48
 [33] opposite and above Quilted two-piece suit, 1972 Designed by
Freddie Burretti for the Ziggy Stardust tour The David Bowie Archive

[34] following pages David Bowie performing Star Man with the
Spiders from Mars on Top of the Pops, recorded 5 July 1972 Photographs by
Harry Goodwin Harry Goodwin Archive

50 51
52 53
 [35] above and opposite Quilted jumpsuit, 1972 Designed by
David Bowie and Freddie Burretti for the Ziggy Stardust album cover
and subsequent tour The David Bowie Archive

54
David Bowie
is blowing
our minds

[36] opposite David Bowie, 1973

Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita

56
 [37] above and opposite Asymmetric knitted
bodysuit, 1973 Designed by Kansai Yamamoto for the
Aladdin Sane tour The David Bowie Archive

58 59
 [38] above and opposite Cloak decorated with kanji characters,
1973 Designed by Kansai Yamamoto for the Aladdin Sane tour
The writing translates as one who spits out words in a fiery manner
and phonetically reads David Bowie The David Bowie Archive

60
 [39] above and opposite Metallic bodysuit, 1973 Designed by
Kansai Yamamoto for the Aladdin Sane tour The David Bowie Archive

62
 [40] above and opposite Tokyo Pop vinyl bodysuit, 1973 Designed by
Kansai Yamamoto for the Aladdin Sane tour The David Bowie Archive

64
David Bowie
is jumping
from
universe to
universe

[41] opposite David Bowie, 1973

Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita

66
 [42] Station to Station
Camil l e Pagl ia promotional postcard, 1976
The David Bowie Archive
David Bowie burst on to the international scene at a pivotal
point in modern sexual history. The heady utopian dreams
of the 1960s, which saw free love as an agent of radical
political change, were evaporating. Generational solidarity
was proving illusory, while experimentation with psyche-
delic drugs had expanded identity but sometimes at a cost
of disorientation and paranoia. By the early 1970s, hints
of decadence and apocalypse were trailing into popular
culture. Bowies prophetic attunement to this major shift

Theatre
was registered in his breakthrough song, Space Oddity
(1969), whose wistful astronaut Major Tom secedes from
Earth itself. Recorded several months before the Woodstock
Music Festival, Space Oddity, with its haunting isolation
and asexual purity and passivity, forecast the end of the
carnival of the Dionysian 1960s.

Of Gender:
In their rebellious liberalism, nature worship and cele
bration of sex and emotion, the 1960s can be seen as a
Romantic revival. Folk and rock music, emerging from both
black and white working-class traditions, were the ver-
nacular analogue to William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor
Coleridges epochal Lyrical Ballads (1798), which used rural

David Bowie
popular forms against an ossified literary establishment.
But events, mirrored and magnified by mass media, had such
force and velocity in the 60s that Romanticism soon flipped
over into its decadent late phase. Bowie was the herald and cartoonish predators like interplanetary spiders or hybrid
leading symbol of that rapid transformation as if Oscar dog-men, nature appears in Bowie mainly as the blank void
Wilde had appeared less than a decade after Wordsworth. of outer space. Like Wilde, who free-lanced as a fashion

at the Climax
Bowie has in fact described himself as an artist who tries to journalist, Bowie is a dandy for whom costume is an art form.
capture the rate of change the theme of one of his signa- But his lineage descends not direct from Beau Brummell
ture songs, Changes.1 but refracted through the English dandyism imported by
Bowie assumed the persona of a Romantic precursor, French decadents such as the poet Charles Baudelaire, who
Lord Byron, in the video for Blue Jean (1984), excerpted portrayed the dandy as an arbiter of distinction, elegance
from a 20-minute narrative, Jazzin for Blue Jean, directed and cold apartness exactly like the Thin White Duke per-

of the Sexual
by Julien Temple. Like Bowie, Byron was a charismatic, sona of Bowies 19756 tours (pl.42). Barbey dAurevilly,
bisexual exile of enormous and at that time unprecedented Baudelaires friend and ally, called dandies the Androgynes
scandalous fame. Now reduced to a footloose, effeminate of History.
nightclub entertainer, Screaming Lord Byron, he is mount- Music was not the only or even the primary mode
ing his over-the-top act at the Bosphorus Rooms (only through which Bowie first conveyed his vision to the world:
London appearance, blares a poster), attended by enthusi- he was an iconoclast who was also an image-maker. Bowies

Revolution
astic but depthless dating couples. His fancy Aladdin outfit command of the visual was displayed in his acute instinct
of turban, Turkish trousers and gold slippers with turned-up for the still camera, honed by his attentiveness to classic
toes recalls the 1813 portrait of Byron in the opulent crimson Hollywood publicity photographs, contemporary fashion
and gold Albanian dress of a Greek patriot. Bowies ingen- magazines and European art films. His flair for choreog-
iously shadowed trompe-l-il make-up also evokes two other raphy and body language had been developed by his study
of his sexually ambiguous antecedents, the dancer Vaslav of pantomime and stagecraft with the innovative Lindsay
Nijinsky in Ballets Russes productions of Scheherazade and Kemp troupe in London in the late 1960s. Bowies earliest
Laprs-midi dun faune, and Rudolph Valentino, silent-film ambition was to be a painter, and he has continued to paint
star of The Sheik, who was excoriated by the press for his face throughout his life especially, he has said, when he is hav-
powder, mascara, floppy pants and platinum slave bracelet. ing trouble writing songs.2 The multimedia approaches
But Bowie is closer in spirit to the late Romantic Wilde, that were gaining ascendance over the fine arts during the
a provocative man of the theatre and a lover of masks. Like 1960s also helped foster his desire to fuse music with visuals
Wilde, who satirized Wordsworths cult of nature, Bowie has on stage. While working at an advertising agency when he
always been urban in sensibility: the city is his wilderness was 16, he learned story-boarding techniques that he later
and his stage. Artifice is his watchword; indeed, except for employed for his videos.

69
 [43] opposite Annotated
back cover image for Hunky Dory
album, 1971 Designed by David
As he was searching for a voice and place in the music Bowie Photograph by Brian
industry, Bowies look steadily changed. Beatifically singing Ward The David Bowie Archive
Let Me Sleep Beside You for a 1969 promotional film, he Finocchio), a Philadelphia drag queen.3 Harlow had gained
appeared in standard mod dress of open-necked floral shirt passing attention as the star of The Queen, a 1968 documen-
and hip-huggers and projected the harmless, wiggly charm tary chronicling a New York drag beauty pageant the prior
of the bashful boy next door. By his third album the follow- year where the panel of judges (Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick
ing year, however, he had embarked on a challenging new and journalist George Plimpton) awarded her the crown.
course, putting his commercial acceptance at risk through The film, which Bowie saw and which created a press stir at
unsettling cross-dressing scenarios. The cover of The the Cannes Film Festival, showed the furious backlash by
Man Who Sold the World (pl.129) shows him sporting heavy, disappointed fellow contestants: Harlows soft, feminine
winsome, shoulder-length locks and wearing a luxuriously look was a marked departure from drag queens traditional
patterned pink-and-blue velvet maxi-dress over tight knee- hard glamour, modelled on Hollywood stars like Marlene
high boots normally associated with stylish young women. Dietrich. Harlow, who became a transsexual in 1972, was
(This man-dress was designed by Michael Fish, who also did later linked to a rumoured scandal involving Grace Kellys
Mick Jaggers short white dress for the Rolling Stones free brother Jack, who dropped out of the Philadelphia mayoral
Hyde Park concert in 1969.) Bowies languidly seductive, race because of it.
serpentine reclining posture is equally cheeky a parody
of Canovas nude statue of Pauline Borghese (Napoleons
sister) as Venus. This cover was so sexually radical at the time
that it was vetoed by his record company for distribution in The cover art for Bowies fifth album, The Rise and Fall of
the United States. A cartoon by Michael J. Weller showing Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972, pl.133), enacted
the mental hospital to which Bowies half-brother Terry a brisk gender reversal from the prior two albums: a now
had been committed was hastily substituted instead. It was short-haired, Nordically blonde Bowie is posted in macho
replaced in 1972 by a mediocre black-and-white shot of a mode, leg up on a rubbish bin on a London night street,
blurry Bowie kicking up his heels on stage. his guitar slung like a rifle at his side while he warily scans
In the close-up portrait on his next album cover for the distance like a soldier on patrol. But the garish colours
Hunky Dory (1971, pl.143), Bowie adopted a dreamy expres- (superimposed afterwards) of his turquoise jumpsuit and
sion of sentimental, heavenward yearning drawn from the purple wrestlers boots, inspired by the army boots of the
lexicon of studio-era Hollywood for women stars. Also marauding droogs of Stanley Kubricks film of A Clockwork
startlingly feminine is his gesture of frank self-touching, Orange (1971), betray another subtext. That sexual contrary
as he smooths his long blonde hair back with both hands. is revealed by the sensational photograph on the back of
The picture cleverly combines two images from Edward the album: Bowie piercingly meeting the viewers eyes
Steichens great 1928 photo series of Greta Garbo draped from within a lighted telephone box, where he loiters with
in black (republished by Life magazine in 1955). The Hunky the graceful hands and hip-shot stance of a woman but the
Dory cover was stunning at release not only for its daring bare chest and bulging crotch of a male hustler (recalling
gender play but for its evocation of Hollywood glamour, Renaissance codpieces as well as the oversized jockstraps of
which was not yet taken seriously in nascent film studies. Its A Clockwork Orange). Bowies eccentric posture here was his
unnatural, metallic-yellow tinting of Bowies hair had a Pop first public use of drag queen mannerisms, which have been
art edge but also recalled airbrushing conventions of 1920s highly stylized since the Victorian era and probably long
fan magazines, while its soft focus replicated the flattering before. The exhibitionistic brazenness of the scenario a
aura of ageless mystery produced in Hollywood by applying rent boy waiting at a telephone markedly departed from the
Vaseline to the camera lens. relaxed domestic transvestism of the cover of The Man Who
On the back of Hunky Dory (pl.43), a long-haired Bowie Sold the World, where Bowie could be mistaken for a rumpled
sombrely stands in blousy, flowing, high-waisted trousers eighteenth-century lord at his glossy leisure, like Thomas
tailored in what was then a highly unusual retro 1930s cut Gainsboroughs Blue Boy. There was also a disconnect in the
(preceding Halstons contemporary variation on it). The pic- gay persona of the telephone box: in that period, male hus-
ture resembles a canonical 1939 photo of Katharine Hepburn tlers (rough trade) would normally affect a stereotypical
fiercely standing with shoulder-length hair and in similar tan masculine look, such as that of a sailor, labourer, motorcy-
slacks before a fireplace on the New York stage set of The clist or cowboy. Bowie created something entirely new in
Philadelphia Story (a year before it was filmed). Although this taunting yet fey street tough, based on his own observa-
Bowie cited Pre-Raphaelite precedents, the oblique inward- tion of the rent boys who lingered around Londons hot spots
ness and intriguingly half-concealing Veronica Lake hair and who paralleled the hunky male hustlers whom Andy
were partly influenced, as was his beret photo on the back of Warhol filmed gambolling with the gamine Edie Sedgwick
The Man Who Sold the World, by Rachel Harlow (born Richard in his grainy early short films in New York.

70
 [44] opposite David Bowie
receded in the rainbow riot of his Portobello Road retro and Mick Ronson on stage
during the Ziggy Stardust tour,
wear. Marc Bolan, with whom Bowie co-invented glam rock, December 1972 / January 1973
had become known for an arch combination of lavish boa Bowie is wearing a pair of
platform shoes decorated with
and shiny top hat that almost certainly came from Helmut palm trees by Pelican Footwear,
Bergers drag routine as Dietrich in The Damned, Luchino New York Photograph by
Viscontis 1969 film about the Third Reichs war on Weimar Mick Rock

Ziggy Stardust, Bowies most famous invented charac- excess. Ziggys shoulder shimmies or bouts of hand-on-hip
ter, did not appear on the cover of the album that bears his swish frankly signalled Weimar sleaze and nostalgie de la boue,
name but was theatrically developed on the unusually long which were most notoriously captured by Mick Rocks clas-
world tour (from January 1972 to July 1973). Ziggy became sic photo of Bowie fallen to his knees and avidly mouthing
so potent an entity that he virtually annihilated his creator Mick Ronsons vamping guitar. Gay fellatio was shocking
and spun Bowie, by his own admission, into a fragile psy- enough at the time, yet even more notable in that perverse
chological state, exacerbated by cocaine, that was near ritual was that a major male star was unashamedly exhibit-
schizophrenia.4 Ziggys flamboyant make-up, rooster comb ing himself in a sexually subordinate role. The Ziggy album
of spiky, razor-cut red hair and futuristic costumes designed abounds with overtly gay references, from the title songs
by Kansai Yamamoto turned him into an alien rock messiah boast about God-given ass to the provocative Put your ray
(Bowies term), leader of a band of space invaders come to gun to my head and The church of man love is such a holy
redeem errant earthlings.5 Bowie said Ziggy was modelled place to be (Moonage Daydream).
on Vince Taylor, a British-born pop singer who had lived in But beyond his besmirched decadence, Ziggy Stardust
the US and achieved second-tier prominence in England also had a dazzling visionary beauty, above all when Bowie
and France until he began to suffer drug-related religious was wearing his short-skirted white silk kimono and high
hallucinations on stage. However, there was little sexual buskins, which made him resemble an Amazonian huntress
ambiguity in Taylors self-presentation, which surviving like Belphoebe in Edmund Spensers Faerie Queene (pl.46).
TV clips show to have been a straight rockabilly knock-off With his silver lipstick and forehead astral sphere, he evoked
of Gene Vincent, a hyperactive, black-leather-clad peer of the radiant allegorical figures of courtly masque. At key
the hip-swivelling Elvis Presley. moments in the Ziggy gender mirage, Bowie would plant his
Bowie pushed Ziggys gender into another dimension feet wide and show off his rippling, muscled thighs, a blazon
of space-time, where sexual personae of both East and West of his underlying masculine athleticism (pl.44). Indeed, in
met and melded. Then very intrigued by Asian culture, Ziggy Stardusts supernormal militant energy and shuffled
he made Ziggy a strange amalgam of samurai warrior and masks, we may have come closer than we ever will again to
kabuki onnagata the male actor who played female roles glimpsing how Shakespeares virtuoso boy actors performed
in traditional Japanese theatre. (On tour in Japan in April the roles of Rosalind, Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth. With
1973, Bowie received instruction in kabuki make-up from his haughty architectonic cheekbones and implacable will,
Tamasaburo Bando, Japans foremost living onnagata.) But Ziggy at times resembled the young Katharine Hepburn,
Bowies cynically suggestive stage manner (most overt in another sexually heterodox personality who chopped off
Time, with its sinister honky-tonk piano) was drawn from her hair and called herself Jimmy in childhood and who
German cabaret. The Broadway musical Cabaret had had a made a spectacular Broadway entrance in 1932 as an Amazon
successful London run, with Judi Dench as Sally Bowles, in warrior leaping down a flight of steps with a dead stag over
1968; a revival of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weills Threepenny her shoulders. Ziggy at his most lashing and relentless also
Opera, starring Hermione Baddeley and Vanessa Redgrave, recalled Mary Woronovs brilliant improvisation as Hanoi
opened in the West End in early 1972. Bob Fosses movie of Hannah in Warhols epic Chelsea Girls (1966), a flight of
Cabaret was released the same year: Joel Gray would win one ferocity so breathtaking that some viewers mistook her
of the films eight Academy Awards for his insinuating, repel- for a rampaging drag queen. Woronov played a dominatrix
lently flirtatious performance as an epicene master of cer- doing a whip dance with the poet Gerard Malanga in a multi-
emonies. Bowies very title, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, media show, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, staged by the
alluded to Brecht and Weills The Rise and Fall of the City of Velvet Underground, a group which had a heavy influence
Mahagonny, a satire of America from which came Alabama on Bowie. Indeed, Bowie prefaced the encore to his final
Song, later performed by Bowie on his 1978 world tour. performance as Ziggy, as can be seen in D. A. Pennebakers
Ziggy flashes with Weimar decadence, from the insom- concert documentary, with a heartfelt tribute to the Velvets
niac blackened hollows of his eyes to his impudent feather Lou Reed, who was then recording in a London studio.
boa, a femme accessory that once belonged to Lindsay Bowie elsewhere called Reed the most important writer
Kemp and that descended from Marlene Dietrichs early in modern rock and lauded the street-gut level of his
film roles as a cabaret singer. The love god Jimi Hendrix work.6 The title of Bowies song, Velvet Goldmine (later
had often affected a pink boa, solarized to a psychedelic borrowed by Todd Haynes for a 1998 movie), clearly riffs
orange on the cover of his 1967 debut album, but it generally on Reeds band.

72
 [45] above Cover photograph for Aladdin Sane, 1973 Photograph by Brian Duffy

[46] opposite David Bowie on stage during the Aladdin Sane tour, 1973
Photograph by Mick Rock

74
 [47] above and opposite White silk suit, 1973
Designed by Kansai Yamamoto for the Aladdin Sane tour
The David Bowie Archive

76
 [48] opposite David Bowie
on stage in Scotland during
By the time we saw him on the front of an album, Aladdin
the Aladdin Sane tour, 1973
Sane (1973), Ziggy Stardust was already in eclipse. The Photograph by Mick Rock
cover photograph by Brian Duffy with its red-and-blue
lightning bolt crossing Bowies face has become one of
the most emblematic and influential art images of the past
half century, reproduced or parodied in advertising, media
and entertainment worldwide (pl.45). It contains all of
Romanticism, focused on the artist as mutilated victim of
his own febrile imagination. Like Herman Melvilles Captain
Ahab, whose body was scarred by lightning in his quest for
the white whale, Bowie as Ziggy is a voyager who has defied
ordinary human limits and paid the price. Aladdin sane in the For the cover of his next album, Pin Ups (1973, pl.135), a
realm of art is a lad insane everywhere else. A jolt of artistic vigorous collection of cover versions of hard-rock classics,
inspiration has stunned him into trance or catatonia. He is Bowie used a photograph of himself with Twiggy taken in
blind to the outer world and its social contacts Bowies Paris by Justin de Villeneuve for Vogue. The two look lost
recurrent term for an area of experience that had proved and stricken, like Adam and Eve after the Fall (pl.48). Who
troublesome for Major Tom as well as himself.7 are these waifs? They appear to be wearing masks actually
Pierre La Roches ingenious zigzag make-up looks at first cleverly drawn on with make-up. The striking colour con-
glance like a bloody wound an axe blow through the skull trast on Twiggy (she was tanned from a Bermuda holiday)
of a Viking warrior laid out on his bier. Ziggy appears to be in sparks a frisson of uncertainty about both race and gender:
hibernation or suspended animation, like the doomed astro- it might very well be a black man in a female mask leaning his
nauts in their mummiform chambers in Stanley Kubricks head so confidingly on the tensely alert Bowie. As a pop idol
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), which had inspired Bowies now bruised by fame, Bowie had arrived in the purgatorial
Space Oddity. The background blankness is encroaching territory of Twiggys declining star she who as a coltish girl-
like a freezing cryogenic wave upon the figure. Its as clini- boy had been a supreme symbol of the 1960s youthquake.
cal as an autopsy, with a glob of extracted flesh lodged on Bowie returned to Weimar sensibility for the cover of
the collarbone. This teardrop of phalliform jelly resembles Diamond Dogs (1974, pl.136), a lurid painting by Guy Peellaert
the unidentifiable bits of protoplasm and biomorphic con- in a German Expressionist style complementing the albums
glomerations that stud the sexualized landscapes of Salvador dystopian narrative. The opening howl, recitation about
Dal. Also Surrealist are the inflamed creases of Ziggys arm- rotting corpses and graphic bestiality Bowie and two
pits, which look like fresh surgical scars as well as raw female crouching, ghoulish women are depicted in half-dog form
genitalia. Like Prometheus, a rebel hero to the Romantics, was the closest he ever came to the Grand Guignol horror-
he has lost his liver for stealing the fire of the gods. Like the movie gambits of Alice Cooper, whose 1971 European tour
solitary space traveller in 2001, he may be regressing to the had been attended by both Bowie and Elton John. The setting
embryonic stage to give birth to himself. of the Diamond Dogs cover is a sideshow (The Strangest
With his smooth, lithe, hairless body, Aladdin Sanes Living Curiosities) drawn from Tod Brownings disturb-
rouged androgyne has evolved past gender, as blatantly ing 1932 film, Freaks, which is glossed in the title song.
dramatized by the full-length picture in the inside gatefold, Bowies canine loins (presumably alluding to Iggy Pops
where Ziggys long legs and sleek, sexless torso are turn- breakthrough song, I Wanna Be Your Dog) may have been
ing silver robotic. His proudly aristocratic stance with its glaringly male the genitalia were soon airbrushed away to
streamlined waist grip is another quotation from Katharine head off rising controversy but the rest of him is a bitch.
Hepburns unique publicity pose for The Philadelphia Story, He wears a large loop earring, a lushly enhanced silhouette
combined with a salute to Veruschka von Lehndorff, the of red lipstick and a lavishly teased bouffant variation of
great supermodel (seen in Michelangelo Antonionis his Ziggy haircut. Despite his sinewy arms, the effect is
Blow-Up) who had posed nude in spectacular body paint in sensuously female an alluring prone pose propped up on
a 1966 photo shoot in Kenya with Peter Beard and Salvador elbows that was commonly used for publicity shots of bos-
Dal. In a 1977 interview on American TV, Bowie compared omy studio-era stars like Lana Turner and even the mature
his friend Iggy Pops method of working to his own: Iggys Gloria Swanson. Peellaert worked from two sketches drawn
ideas, said Bowie, blocking off space with both hands, came by Bowie of his variation on an Egyptian sphinx. Precedents
from the viscera and crotch, while his own ideas came from for the picture can be found in Symbolist paintings of femmes
the chest and head: Im a cyborg, he declared.8 The bust- fatales, specifically Fernand Khnopffs Sphinx (1896), where a
like cover of Aladdin Sane shows the artist in creative process, reclining leopard with a womans face smugly caresses a girl-
having jettisoned the mundane appetites of belly and geni- ish Oedipus. The songs on Diamond Dogs portray a decadent
tals. This dreaming head is lifting off into a shamanistic zone world of fast sex in city doorways (Sweet Thing) and trampy
of vision purged of people and matter itself. boys in torn dresses and smudged make-up (Rebel Rebel).

79
78
 [49] opposite Bowie on set
during the filming of the Boys
Young Americans (1975, pl.137) was the last album cover
Keep Swinging video, 1979
that Bowie used as a gender canvas. Once again he meets Earhart) in Christopher Strong and also the spectacular, skin- Directed by David Mallet
the viewers eyes but no longer with the hard edge of urban tight nude dress of beaded silk souffl designed in 1953 The David Bowie Archive
prostitution seen on Diamond Dogs. It is another Hollywood by Jean Louis for Marlene Dietrichs cabaret concerts. (For
glamour portrait, his short but flowing hair softly backlit to the second half of those shows, which toured the world,
form a halo. The startlingly feminine silver bangle bracelets, Dietrich changed into the top hat and tails of her 1930 film,
jarringly juxtaposed with a subtly Art Deco mans plaid shirt, Morocco.) There is also a suggestion of the fashion model
gleam like a starburst. The impression of wavering gender is Jerry Halls disruptive, sashaying entrance in a black-slashed
accentuated by his discreet pink lipstick and longish mani- gold tiger gown in Bryan Ferrys 1976 video for Lets Stick
cured fingernails. (Russet nail polish, missing from the US Together. At the end of the sequence, Bowie breaks role by
album, was restored to the picture for the 1999 remastered aggressively whipping off his wig and smearing his lipstick
CD release.) A ghostly spiral of cigarette smoke, airbrushed with the back of his hand, staring down the viewer with a
in, is another vintage Hollywood touch. This wistful, clois- frightening sneer of rage a reversal of the usual hilarity
tered figure might be a kept boy or a neurasthenic aesthete, and applause-inviting bonhomie accompanying the gender
like the artist Aubrey Beardsley or the poet Lord Alfred revelation at the end of drag acts. This golden androgyne is
Douglas, who brought down Oscar Wilde. A similar pensive truly Bowies Queen Bitch (the tenth song on Hunky Dory).
brand of guarded androgynous male beauty was captured by The third drag impersonation is of Dietrich herself,
Peter OToole in his multifaceted portrayal of the cultivated, with whom Bowie had recently starred in Just a Gigolo (1978),
tormented Laurence of Arabia in David Leans 1962 film. directed by David Hemmings. Bizarrely, they never met:
What must be observed about Bowies gender fanta- Bowies dialogue with Dietrich was spliced together in post-
sia is how rarely he ever did straight drag. The significant production. In Boys Keep Swinging, he got his revenge:
exception was a video directed by David Mallet for Boys the aged Dietrich, dressed in an understated knit Chanel
Keep Swinging, a song on Lodger (1979), the final album suit, walks haltingly with a cane down the fashion catwalk,
in Bowie and Brian Enos Berlin Trilogy. The song was not from which old women are normally banned. Pausing at
released in the US because of record company fears about the edge, she feebly yet contemptuously blows a kiss at the
the videos unpalatable transvestism. It begins with Bowie viewer with her cigarette, the fading superstar still hungry
as a Cliff Richard-style early 1960s rocknroll singer clad in for dominance. In this video, Bowie penetrated to the cold
a generic dark suit and rollicking away with standard kinetic masculine soul and monstrous lust for power of the great
moves at a standing microphone. Attention then shifts to female stars, which drag queens had always sensed and
his trio of hilariously bored female back-up singers, each turned into rambunctious comedy.
one played by Bowie in drag. There is a blowsy, blas, gum- The video for Boys Keep Swinging had camp wit but
cracking Elizabeth Taylor in a tendrilous chignon wig and a shabby production values. That all changed the following
big crinoline skirt topped with a violet cinch belt Taylors year with Ashes to Ashes, from the Scary Monsters (and Super
signature colour. Bowie had met John Lennon five years Creeps) album. Directed by Bowie and David Mallet (work-
earlier at a party at Elizabeth Taylors Los Angeles house. ing from Bowies own storyboards), it was at the time the
Photos of the zaftig Taylor bear-hugging the alarmingly frail most expensive music video ever made. This mini-movie,
Bowie she was wearing his fedora made it seem as if she with its dreamlike collage, profoundly influenced the direc-
could crush him like an eggshell. tion of music videos, which exploded with the spread of
Next in the video is an icy Valkyrie in a svelte metallic- cable TV and the introduction of a round-the-clock music
gold sheath dress with fetishistically deformed sleeves channel, MTV, in 1981. Bowie called the song Ashes to
boxy Joan Crawford shoulder pads sprouting lateral wings Ashes an ode to childhood, but its video became a portrait
like shark fins (pl.49). Her full, dark hair resembles that of the isolated, suffering artist, with motifs and techniques
of the enigmatic Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not as drawn from the entire history of European art films from
well as the stormy Bette Davis in All About Eve. The dress Carl Dreyers The Passion of Joan of Arc and Luis Buuel and
itself recalls the clinging metallic moth costume worn by Salvador Dals Un Chien Andalou to Jean Cocteus Orphe
Katharine Hepburn (playing an aviatrix modelled on Amelia and Ingmar Bergmans The Seventh Seal. The songs self-
referential nature was signalled by the return of Bowies
debut character, Major Tom, now a notorious junkie in a
crisis of addiction.
In Ashes to Ashes (a phrase from the Anglican funeral
service), Bowie assumes the role of Pierrot, a figure of
seventeenth-century commedia dellarte who became promi-
nent in French pantomime. Many painters, such as Watteau,
saw themselves in the melancholy Pierrot, with his tender-
ness and navet and his humbling enforced straddling of the
line between art and entertainment. Bowies Pierrot, wearing
a tufted white clown costume and dunce cap, has a gangly
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 (A male trick from Sunset and Vine forces a closeted star to
awkwardness and a timid, pre-sexual innocence. In other his knees earlier on the album in Cracked Actor.) The jean Jenny is a hotel chambermaid who harbours secret thoughts
scenes, however, an elegantly handsome Major Tom sits genie is a reptile, a rattlesnake, a scrappy sprite and male of class revenge and pitiless massacre: Im kind of grinning
caged in a padded cell and an exploding kitchen or, haggard hustler slithering outside the system who, like Peter Pan, while Im scrubbing. And you say, Whats she got to grin?
and stony, hangs moribund in a watery grotto that is half retains his freedom by never growing up. If there is a refer- Her chilling refrain forecasts the arrival of a black freighter
wrecked spaceship and half nightmare womb. ence to Jean Genet in his name (as Bowie later admitted was with a skull on its masthead as well as the privileged choice
Bowie has rarely spoken publicly of his mother and, in possible), then he is Genets ideal of the thief and outcast, now handed to her: Kill them now or later?
the 1970s, curtly rebuffed prominent British and American better than your songs! In Ashes to Ashes, the limited representing the association of homosexuality with heroic Bowies chambermaid is more chatelaine or cool adven-
TV interviewers when they presumptuously prodded him personal mother is only an instrument of or proxy for larger Romantic criminality that Genet got from Andr Gide and turess than brooding, vengeful servant, but the clothes are
about it.9 The finale of Ashes to Ashes addresses the mat- processes of fate. The mammoth bulldozer, for example, that Gide got from Wilde.12 Denim (preceding the designer strewn here too a messy trail of sexual haste. Dont be
ter in dramatic symbolism, like the depressed film director which menacingly follows Pierrot and his troupe of female jeans trend of the late 70s) still had an outlaw connotation, afraid of the room, he confidently sings, but this is whistling
Guidos dream encounter with his parents in a cemetery in priests is a modernization of Times winged chariot hurry- as shown in Warhols snapshot of the crotch of a jeans-clad in the dark (shown by his rise to vulnerable falsetto), for she
Federico Fellinis 8. Hectored by a small, gesticulating ing near (from Andrew Marvells To His Coy Mistress) a male hustler for the zippered cover of the Rolling Stones rules the womb-tomb of the female body. After the brisk
older woman, whom Bowie said (when introducing this fascist force pushing all of humanity into a mass grave. 1971 album, Sticky Fingers. fresh air of the peripatetic genie, we are in a dark sensory
video for a 1993 MTV retrospective) resembled his mother, The subterranean disturbances in Bowies uvre around Bowies jean genie is a vagabond and derelict who zone of intoxicating hormonal scents cologne and musky
Pierrot strolls with abashed attentiveness and dutiful res- the issue of women and their ungovernable power can be savours squalor and filth as a defiance of female order and oil from African civets. With her full breasts and impen-
ignation along the edge of an infernal underground sea.10 detected in Suffragette City (from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy control and who even asserts the right to slash, maim and etrable psyche, Lady Grinning Soul represents absolute
A moment before, he stands flinching and paralysed from Stardust), with its heady refrain, Dont lean on me, man, violate his own mother-made flesh. (Ate all your razors is a sexual difference, not the misty, blurred ground of gender
the camera flash of a merciless paparazzo: the shooting of a because you cant afford the ticket back from Suffragette splendid Beat-style line vividly referencing the stage-diving experiment that Bowie normally traverses. It is as if he has
picture (the videos third photo portrait) becomes a real bul- City! Gender relations were changing fast after the rebirth Iggys notorious self-cutting on broken glass.) The genies come face to face with Homers Circe or Calypso, in whose
let shot. Is Pierrot now dead and his mother come to reclaim of feminism in the late 1960s. This line shows men unpre- delirious manic motion is caught by the buzz and fuzz of the realms men shrink to swine or slaves. But she is also a series
his body like Mary for a piet? Bowies ending evokes that pared for the shift and running around in circles like antic aggressive guitars, which evoke the unleashed boy energy of of other seductive femmes fatales Carmen (suggested by the
of The Tramp, where another childlike, genderless clown, squirrels. It says in effect, Dont ask me for advice, because the rave-up Yardbirds in their covers of Bo Diddleys brag- Spanish guitar), Gustav Klimts Judith (whose supercilious
Charlie Chaplin in a fake moustache, rambles away down a I sure cant help! It implies that castration, metaphorical gart Im a Man and Howlin Wolfs Smokestack Lightning, lolling head is mimicked by Bowie in his 1973 video of Life
dirt road. There are also striking visual parallels to a mordant or otherwise, is the toll exacted by women whose quest for which pictures sex and its betrayals as a constantly hurtling on Mars?), and Alban Bergs heartless Lulu. The female
moment in Fellinis La Dolce Vita where a fierce matriarch of equality may sometimes conceal a drive for dominance. train. (The genie loves chimney stacks belching, sparking principle is shown as mysterious, elusive, ungraspable. She
the old Italian nobility materializes at dawn with a priest and The songs other blazing refrain, Wham, bam, thank you, phallic totems as well as soft entry points for home burglary.) will be your living end, croons Bowie in the hypnotic, ach-
imperiously summons her carousing adult children to Mass. maam! a common old American catchphrase probably Bowie, who daringly talks rather than sings this song, can be ingly elegiac refrain: pleasure and pain, love and death (as
The other decadent partygoers stand stupefied as they watch about prostitution tauntingly suggests that loveless hit- heard doing the legendary bluesmans eerie whoo-hoo (the in Wagners Liebestod) are intertwined. Any mans victory in
their recently priapic but now cowed playfellows fall in line and-run sex is one foolproof way to avoid swampy entrap- trains receding siren) as a chorus. sex with a woman is transient and illusory.
and obediently troop away. ment by women. But woman gets the last word on Aladdin Sane. Lady The genesis of Lady Grinning Soul may have been in
In the finale of Ashes to Ashes, Bowie was questioning Few if any songs in Bowies great period contain a Grinning Soul was reportedly inspired by Claudia Lennear, the lyrics of a Jacques Brel song, My Death, a flawed trans
his identity as an artist and a man. Despite his wandering, he fully developed portrait of a woman, positive or negative, an African-American soul singer who had been one of Ike lation of which Bowie had been singing on the Ziggy Stardust
evidently still felt the stubborn tug of his origins, a regulated comparable to Bob Dylans sympathetic Sad-Eyed Lady and Tina Turners back-up Ikettes. (Despite widespread tour: Angel or devil, I dont care My death waits there
suburban conformity from which he had escaped to a vivid of the Lowlands or the toweringly furious Like a Rolling claims, it remains unclear whether it was Lennear or another between your thighs. Bowie turned it into a stark encounter
universe of omnisexual fantasy that had bewitched an entire Stone. Bowies exhilarating China Girl (1983), with its American, Marsha Hunt, mother of Mick Jaggers first child, with elemental realities, a descent to the underworld. Lady
generation. In the video, his mother is both peripheral and wonderfully expansive video directed by David Mallet, who was the model for the Rolling Stones Brown Sugar.) Grinning Soul has hauntingly immersive atmospherics and
central, a voice he cant get out of his head. The poignant substitutes political for psychological issues and was in any Lady Grinning Soul becomes a great archetypal sexual an incisive power that standard poetry written in English
refrain, echoing a traditional British childrens song, identi- case co-written by Iggy Pop about an Asian woman he was vision that transcends its origins much as Percy Bysshe was losing in the 1970s. Indeed, in its hair-raising candour
fies the mother with pressing practical reality: My mother courting in Switzerland. Bowies most concentrated medi- Shelleys Epipsychidion left Emilia Viviani behind. From yet sardonic banter, the song bears comparison to Sylvia
said to get things done/ Youd better not mess with Major tation on sexual identity and gender relations is contained the first entrance of Bowies voice, apprehensively a capella Plaths savage Oedipal nursery rhyme, Daddy (written
Tom. Tom is Bowie the daydreamer who spaces out. His in the staggered finale of Aladdin Sane a matched set of and distorted by echoes, we know we are in perilous territory. in England in 1962). She comes, she goes: Bowies rest-
mother is like the poet Wallace Stevens contrary Mrs Alfred songs, one inspired by an American man and the other by The title alludes to Aretha Franklins 1968 album, less, piratical traveller who trifles with men and has a way
Uruguay, who boasts, I have wiped away moonlight like mud. an American woman. They are pointedly introduced by a Lady Soul, but that phrase is now split by a deaths head. 13 with cards sounds like a capricious, fortune-telling Muse,
The videos bleak, solarized colour suggests that, at this cover version of the Rolling Stones Lets Spend the Night Grinning almost certainly comes from Pirate Jenny in The flooding the artist with ideas and then leaving him high and
moment, the mother is winning. Pierrot sinks slowly in the Together, which in this context posits not just sexual Threepenny Opera, a song premiered by Lotte Lenya in Berlin dry. Art-rock, a genre that showed enormous promise but
sea, while the landscape seems to be losing its fictive energy, intercourse but dialogue and detente which may prove in 1928 and volcanically performed at New Yorks Carnegie failed to develop and deliver over time, produced only two
like the anaemic, fading characters in Jaques Rivettes 1974 impossible between the entrenched positions of the new Hall in 1964 by Nina Simone, who fused it with black radical enduring masterpieces: the Doors 1967 Freudian-Jungian
film, Celine and Julie Go Boating. Bowies scathingly self- gender wars. politics. (Bowie deeply admired Simone and met her in Los psychodrama, The End, and Bowies Lady Grinning Soul
critical dual perspective would soon take comic form in The first song, The Jean Genie, is an anthem to boy Angeles in 1975; he recorded Wild is the Wind, from her (which ends with virtually the same words as begin the
Jazzin for Blue Jean, where Screaming Lord Byrons excess power partly inspired by Iggy Pop, one of Bowies closest 1966 album of that name, as the finale of Station to Station.)14 Doors song). Crucially contributing to the late Romantic
and vanity are satirized by Bowie himself playing a dual role friends in the 1970s and his flatmate during his low-profile lyricism of Lady Grinning Soul is Mike Garsons amazing
as a maladroit nerd who shouts at Byron, You conniving, exile in Berlin after the burn-out of Ziggy Stardust. Bowie piano work, a sumptuously florid improvisation that exposes
randy, bogus Oriental old queen! Your record sleeves are said that in this song he wanted to locate Ziggy as a kind of the rifts, fractures, illusions and turmoil of sexual desire.
Hollywood street rat in other words, one of the home-
less, rootless kids who flocked to the Sunset Strip in the
late 1960s and 70s, a colourful scene rife with drugs and
prostitution that was also a matrix of new music and style.11
82 83
 [50] Photo-collage by
David Bowie of manipulated
film stills from The Man Who
Fell to Earth, 19756 Film
Beginning in an ominous mood of decadent Vienna and stills by David James
The David Bowie Archive
Berlin, Garson creates a compelling emotional world of
anxiety and entrancement, tinged with panic and despair.
With fistfuls of virtuoso runs and trills, he invokes the
most flamboyant Romantic music-making from Liszt and
Rachmaninoff to Liberace and Ferrante and Teicher a style
often used in classic movies such as the 1941 British film, Hollywood films like The Women (1939). The way that the
Dangerous Moonlight, where Richard Addinsells Warsaw self-conscious mannequin style had been instantly absorbed
Concerto is played amidst the rubble of the Nazi invasion by the new woman can be seen in Man Rays 1926 photograph
of Poland. Nina Simone used the same rapid, rippling piano of heiress Nancy Cunard with her arms robotically stacked
style to accompany herself on the 1966 album version of with big African bangle bracelets and in August Sanders 1931
Wild is the Wind. Bowie has reportedly never performed photographs of a slender secretary with boyishly cropped
Lady Grinning Soul live a testament perhaps to its excru- hair at a West German radio station in Cologne. These two
ciatingly sensitive material. After the infectious gaiety of women with their penetrating eyes and steely emancipation
The Jean Genie, this harrowing sojourn into the female capture the intersexual look of avant-garde modernism
boudoir, which is both burrow and palace, yields a Wildean and eerily anticipate the classic androgyny of David Bowie
revelation: men are simple, women complex. himself. The mannequin theme is overt when Bowie calls his
Bowies theatre of gender resembles the magic-lantern diamond dogs, on the title song of that album, mannequins
shows or phantasmagoria that preceded the development of with kill appeal. In the same lyric, the chillingly faceless
motion-picture projection. The multiplicity of his gender little hussy of his alter ego Halloween Jack wears a Dal
images was partly inspired by the rapid changes in modern brooch, recalling the jellied teardrop fixed to the collar-
art, which had begun with neoclassicism sweeping away bone of Aladdin Sane. Mannequins became automaton-like
rococo in the late eighteenth century and which reached a agents of what Bowie elsewhere called a ritualizing of the
fever pitch before, during and after World War I. Bowie told a body in art that interested him.19
TV interviewer in 1976, I was always totally bedazzled by all The Surrealists, who emerged from Dada, seized on
the art forms of the twentieth century, and my interpretation the fashion mannequin as a symbol of modern personality
comes out my way of these art forms from Expressionism to assertive and hard-contoured yet empty and paralysed. They
Dadaism. Even if the definition isnt understood, he tried were partly following the precedent of the Metaphysical
to break it down to convey his own feeling to the audi- painter, Giorgio de Chirico, who showed genderless tailors
ence.15 One of Bowies leading achievements is his linkage dummies marooned in twilit deserted plazas. (Bowie explic-
of gender to the restless perpetual motion machine of mod- itly voiced his admiration for de Chirico and later replicated
ern culture. I have no style loyalty, he has declared.16 His his work, as well that of the Surrealist Ren Magritte, in the
signature style is syncretism a fusion or synthesising (his hallucinatory sets for the 1985 video of Loving the Alien.)20
word) of many styles that is characteristic of late phases such Mannequins were major players in the 1938 International
as the hybrid, polyglot Hellenistic era, when religions too Surrealist Exhibition in Paris, where the entry courtyard was
seeped into one another.17 Bowie has in fact used the word dominated by Dals installation, Rainy Taxi, with its nude
hybrid to describe his approach.18 His stylistic eclecticism mannequin seated amidst 200 live snails on a bed of lettuce.
in performance genres combining music hall, vaudeville, Inside the building was an avenue of mannequins stationed
pantomime, movies, musical comedy, cabaret, theatre like streetwalkers and festooned with symbolic regalia and
of cruelty, modern dance, French chanson and American outright junk. In 1945, the Dadaist Marcel Duchamp, who
blues, folk, rock and soul created countless new angles of had posed in drag as his alter ego Rrose Slavy for Man Ray
perception and startling juxtapositions. two decades before, inserted a headless, book-reading man-
A superb example of the way Bowie brings art and gen- nequin in a skimpy negligee into the window of New Yorks
der into single focus was his adaptation of the mannequin Gotham Book Mart to advertise the latest release by Andr
style, a prototypical twentieth-century motif. As women Breton, the father of Surrealism. In the age of abstraction,
were liberated in the Jazz Age, fashion sped up, promulgated the plaster mannequin, so easily chipped and seedy, was
by new media like high-budget movies and glossy magazines the derelict heir of canonical life-size Western sculpture
with vastly improved techniques of photographic printing. in marble or bronze. The mannequin was so artificial that it
Mannequins as living models as well as department-store eventually became gender-neutral. Its spectral aura was well
dummies became vivid cultural presences, as shown by the captured in The After Hours (1960) from the first season
frequency of elaborate fashion show sequences in prestige of The Twilight Zone, a TV series launched by Americas
greatest native Surrealist, Rod Serling: here department
store mannequins are tracked as they roam, freeze and
frighteningly come alive again.

84
 [51] David Bowie on stage
during The 1980 Floor Show,
1973 Photograph by Mick Rock

Bowie said that America had always been a myth land

Bowies stunning variation on the Surrealist mannequin for him.21 The idol of his youth had been Little Richard,
was that he became it: never before had a major male artist the gender-bending, high-wattage rocknroller whom he
so completely submerged himself in a female objet de culte. had seen in person at the Brixton Odeon.22 Andy Warhol
Bowies genius for using the camera as others use a paint- and his coterie represented the next stage in Bowies Anglo-
brush or chisel not from behind the camera but before American artistic journey. His contacts with Warhol figures
it was dramatized in The 1980 Floor Show, his last appear- are well documented. In August 1971, Bowie saw the London
ance as Ziggy Stardust. This cabaret-structured programme production of Pork, a self-satirizing farce by the Warhol
was recorded over three nights in October 1973 at the coterie of Andys obsession with gossipy telephone calls.
Marquee Club in London and was broadcast on American (The stage was adorned with two nude, fetchingly long-
TV the following month. (It was never aired in Britain, and haired boys.) A slew of Pork personnel was immediately
the film footage is evidently lost.) In one routine, Bowie hired by Bowie, including Cherry Vanilla, Tony Zanetta
wore a see-through black fishnet body suit (designed by and Leee Black Childers. Bowie and Warhol met just once
him and Freddie Burretti) adorned with two gold-painted the following month in New York, an awkward and mutu-
mannequins hands attached to his chest (pls 51 and 52). A ally diffident encounter from which survives a video of the
third hand affixed to the crotch had been scuttled after a long-haired Bowie in a raffish black hat doing a strangely
battle royal with the NBC film crew, who also insisted that self-disembowelling mime. In his song, Andy Warhol
Bowie cover up his black jockstrap with gold semi-leggings. on Hunky Dory (released December 1971), Bowie hailed
The two cupped hands formed a bizarre brassiere that made Warhols perverse, voyeuristic theatricality by envisioning
it seem as if Bowie had sprouted breasts. Yet given womens him as an art gallery and silver screen, a cinema of the
swerve away from nail lacquer since the mid-1960s, the mind that he longed to emulate. However, the refrain Andy
hands black varnished nails (a nihilist colour not yet in the Warhol looks a scream upset and offended Warhol. Bowie
female arsenal) also suggested a man in drag: it was as if would later use the dead Warhols own wig and eyeglasses
Bowie were being sexually pawed and clawed from behind to play him in Julian Schnabels 1996 film, Basquiat (pl.204).
by a raging queen in heat. Or was he split in gender and acro- In 1975, Bowie co-produced Lou Reeds only hit song,
batically embracing himself? a trick (imitated by Bowie on Walk on the Wild Side, with its litany of drag queens and
tour) often employed in burlesque by strippers turning their hustlers from the Warhol Factory. Bowie gave one of them,
backs to the audience (pl.53). Furthermore, it seemed as if Joe Dallesandro, a cameo role in his 1987 video, Never Let
his body were being played like a piano not unlike the way Me Down, directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.
Man Ray turned the body of Kiki de Montparnasse into a In its brash humour and dreamlike fantasy, Pop art, as
sensuous violin. The eye was titillated and confounded by an is widely accepted, was the heir of Dada and Surrealism.
optical illusion: which of the multiple hands, including that But by embracing commercial popular culture, Pop ended
on Bowies glitter-sheathed right arm, were the real ones? the oppositional avant-garde tradition that had been born
Bowies mannequin masque was a tremendous tour de with Romanticism. The momentum of new art styles imme-
force, Dadaist in impulse and Surrealist in conception and diately slowed after Pop and soon stopped altogether. No
execution. It fulfilled Baudelaires dictum in The Painter of one style has dominated any period since. Thus Bowie,
Modern Life that fashion should be a sublime deformation with his protean multiplicity of styles, must be acknowl-
of nature. In that one event, seen only by Americans, Bowie edged as having taken the next important step in the fine
inserted himself permanently into the story of modern arts after Warhol. He remains Warhols true successor. It
art. He instantly revived and renewed the Warhol legacy, is indisputable that Bowie, through his prolific work in
which had been flagging since Warhol was shot and nearly the 1970s, was one of the principal creators of performance
killed in 1968, leaving him physically depleted and unable art, which would flood the cultural scene in the 1980s
to advance beyond his set formulas. The Bowie broadcast and 90s. Another seminal figure in that movement,
on NBCs late-night variety show, The Midnight Special, Eleanor Antin, who emerged from American radical theatre
was electrifying in its direct address to Americans who had and conceptual art after Fluxus, boldly declared Bowie
been following the sexual radicalism of Warhol and his cir- one of my favorite artists in 1973, when he was still being
cle since his pioneering short films of the 1960s notably dismissed by many critics as a flashy fad. She explicitly
Harlot (1965), Warhols first sound film, starring Mario paralleled his creation of volatile, autonomous cross-
Montez as a charismatic blond drag diva photographed with dressing characters to her own (such as a bearded ballerina
slow, ritualistic solemnity. or a melancholy vagrant king modelled on Charles I). Some-
thing is in the air, Antin said. Maybe its in the stars.23

86
 [52] opposite and above Cobweb bodysuit, 1973
Designed by Natasha Korniloff for The 1980 Floor Show
The David Bowie Archive

89
 [53] opposite David Bowie
on stage in Scotland during
the Aladdin Sane tour, 1973
What Bowie and Antin were separately formulating was a Photograph by Mick Rock
theory of gender as representation or performance, ante- Bowies shocking proclamation of his gayness to Melody
cedents for which can be found in Shakespeares plays, Maker in 1972 was unprecedented for a major star at the
where theatre becomes a master metaphor for life. Role- height of his fame. It was a bold and even reckless career
playing as constitutive of identity had been a basic premise gamble. But the overall pattern of Bowies life has been
of social psychology since the 1920s and had been most bisexual, something paradoxically far more difficult for
fully analysed in the Canadian-American sociologist Erving many gay activists to accept, then and now. His open mar-
Goffmans highly influential 1959 book, The Presentation riage to the equally bisexual Angie Barnett (another of his
of Self in Everyday Life, which applied theatre metaphors of American alliances) went further toward bohemianism
acting, costume, props, script, setting and stage to social than did the communal 60s hippie mnage typified by the
behaviour. (Goffmans theory of the performative self was Mamas & the Papas in Charlotte Amalie and Laurel Canyon.
a primary source for Michel Foucault, to whom these ideas His loquacious wife, with her brazen verve, encouraged
are often incorrectly attributed.) Gender roles were in flux his androgyny and helped costume it, notably apropos his
from the mid-1960s well into the 70s due to a convergence man-dresses.
of dissident energies from the reawakened womens move- Yet despite his pioneering stand, Bowie was on a tra-
ment in the US and from a pop culture revolution that had jectory diverging from that of both feminism and the gay
started even earlier in England. The unisex crusade of the liberation movement, which sprang up after the 1969 riots
1960s was born in mod London and spread to the world at New Yorks Stonewall Inn. Although black and Latino drag
cropped haircuts, pinstriped trousers and sailors pea coats queens had been central in that first resistance to a routine
for urchin girls; crimson satin, purple velvet and flouncy Tom police raid, the drag queen soon became persona non grata
Jones shirts for peacock boys. to gay men who wanted to distance themselves from the
But transsexual impersonation of the kind undertaken age-old imputation of effeminacy. Similarly, the womens
by David Bowie and Eleanor Antin was something new movement was hostile to drag queens for their supposed
and different or rather something as old as Teiresias, the mockery of women. The flaming lipstick and rouge of glam
shaman and prophet who crossed into forbidden sexual rock flouted feminists mass flight from make-up: cosmetics
terrain. Drag was a familiar quantity in British music hall, were among the accoutrements of female oppression flung
with its rambunctiously outspoken pantomime dame, into a Freedom Trash Can on the boardwalk at the famous
whose roots were in the rigidly conformist Victorian era feminist protest at the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City
and who begot the immensely popular entertainer Danny in 1968. Bowies orientation toward fashion, glamour and
La Rue. From the 1920s on in Britain, Germany and the US, Hollywood went completely against the feminist grain in
gay nightclubs featured drag queens doing campy parodies the 1970s, when identity politics made a highly ideological
of glamorous Hollywood stars or lip-syncing to rousing cult landfall in academe. Although lipstick lesbians emerged
classic songs. (By Bowies formative years, the international in San Francisco in the late 1980s, the cult of beauty would
drag anthem was Shirley Basseys incendiary Goldfinger, not be restored to feminism until Madonna led the way in
perhaps the most terrifying manifestation of ruthless star 1990 with her Vogue video glamorizing high fashion and
power ever recorded.) Bowie never had a triumphalist view Hollywood love goddesses.
of sexual liberation or gender games. He told an American Just as Bowie was debuting Ziggy Stardust, furthermore,
magazine in 2000 (in response to a question about the song gay men were heading in a macho direction first with San
Boys Keep Swinging), I do not feel that there is anything Franciscos Castro Street hippie clone look of beards,
remotely glorious about being either male or female.24 On T-shirts and tight hip-hugger jeans and later with New Yorks
the contrary, he had always systematically experimented Christopher Street clone uniform of thick moustaches,
with disorienting suspensions of gender, as in his ode to the flannel lumberjack shirts, riveted farm jeans and work boots.
Homo Superior, Oh! You Pretty Things (on Hunky Dory), The gay stereotypes were already fixed by the 1977 debut of
where sexually ambiguous boys and girls have shifted into the Village People, a comedic novelty band that won surpris-
an indeterminate thing state, like works of art. ing mainstream acceptance. The icon-maker of that period
was Tom of Finland, whose ebullient beefcake drawings of
gigantically endowed, black-leather-clad orgiasts shaped
the sadomasochistic urban underground documented by
Robert Mapplethorpes photographs. Bowies first conces-
sion to this trend was the cover of Heroes (1977, pl.140),
where he wears a soft, chicly continental black leather jacket,
offset by the angular hand gestures of an avant-garde dancer.
The pose combines Nijinskys stylized imitation of Greek
vase-painting with the stigmata scene in Un Chien Andalou.

90
 [54] opposite David Bowie
in Chicago during the Ziggy
Stardust tour, 1972 Photograph
by Mick Rock

After his half dozen years of uneven success on the

London music scene, Bowies artistic persona suddenly
coalesced in the early 1970s at the climax of the sexual
revolution. The idealism of the 60s, stoked by peaceable,
communal, giddy-making marijuana, had drifted and stalled. The Aeolian lyre, a harp hanging in the wind, was a cardi-
Now dawned the cynical disillusion of the 70s, symbol- nal metaphor for the Romantic poet, passively played upon
ized by nervous, ego-inflating, jealously secreted cocaine. by the forces of nature. During his supreme decade of the
Spontaneous romantic romps in the sunny or soggy meadows 1970s, David Bowie too was an Aeolian lyre, with the totality
at Woodstock would yield to predatory stalking and anony- of the fine and popular arts of the time playing through him.
mous pickups in murky, mobbed, deafening disco clubs Even when Bowie at his most alienated sings in a dissonant,
or barricaded elite venues like Studio 54. Bowies archly jagged, splintered or wandering way (partly drawing from
knowing and seductively manipulative Ziggy Stardust sprang his early history as a saxophone player), there is always a high
into being at the invisible transition into this exciting but emotional charge to his work. Here is his salient distinction
mechanically hedonistic sexual landscape. from the postmodernist artists and theorists of the 1980s
Although himself a hyperactive athlete of the new lib- with their ironic appropriations and derivative pastiches.
ertinism, Bowe never viewed sex as salvation. In his classic Bowies emotional expressiveness, heard at its height in
work, identity is a series of gestures or poses. Sex is repre- songs like Look Back in Anger (whose artists garret video
sented as a theatrical entry into another dimension, parallel adapts Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray), would help trigger
to but not coexistent with social reality. Like Wilde, Bowie the foppish New Romantic movement in British music of the
made sex a medium for a sharpening of self-consciousness late 1970s and 80s that produced Duran Duran, Boy George
rather than its Dionysian obliteration. The megalomania and of Culture Club and eventually Depeche Mode.
delusionalism of Ziggy Stardust marked the start of the long Bowies empathic virtuosity is on magnificent display
and confused period of gender relations that we still inhabit. in the gospel-inflected Fascination, which he wrote with
The fall of the old taboos has not enhanced eroticism but Luther Vandross in Philadelphia for Young Americans. It is a
perhaps done the opposite. Women have gained widespread song so passionate, powerful and grand that it can be under-
career status, and homophobia has receded, but divorce has stood as Bowies artistic manifesto, addressed to no one but
soared, and the sexes still collide in bitter public recrimina- himself. Ive got to use her: if she is a drug, then it is merely
tions. The evident progress in sexual freedom and tolerance a coin of passage to his inner realm. The song describes his
in the secular West given that it is hemmed in by populous violent seizure by and enamoured fascination with his own
conservative cultures that consider it decadent might be aspiring, gender-conflating mind. He is his own Muse. Can
just as evanescent as it was during the Roman Empire. a heartbeat / Live in the fever/ Raging inside of me? Is there
Bowies darker intimations about the sexual and cultural room for personal love or even life itself for the artist driven
revolution were signalled in his background vocal for Mott by uncontrollable flashes of inspiration? Bowies mesmer-
the Hooples All the Young Dudes (1972), which he wrote izing theatre of costume, music and dance is animated by
for the group when they seemed to be disbanding. The song, mercurial yet profound emotion the universal language
with its spunky androgynous misfits (he dresses like a queen that transcends gender.
but he can kick like a mule), was widely interpreted as a cel-
ebration of the glam rock insurgency, but Bowie warned that
it was no hymn to the youth but completely the opposite,
a prelude to the end of the Earth.25 That storm clouds were
already gathering over the defiant new dandies can be sensed
in the songs dirge-like foreboding, nowhere clearer than
in the unforgettable refrain, All the young dudes carry the
news: the smoothly harmonizing Bowie breaks news into
two syllables, a rupture that sounds like a sob (boo-hoo).
It was oracular prescience: the apocalypse came a decade
later as the plague of AIDS, which decimated an entire
generation of gifted young writers, artists, musicians and
fashion stylists.

92
 [55] above and opposite Angel of Death red
vinyl costume, 1973 Designed by Freddie Burretti
for The 1980 Floor Show The David Bowie Archive

[56] overleaf David Bowie and Marianne Faithfull

on stage during The 1980 Floor Show, 1973 Photograph
by Mick Rock

94
 Jon Savage

[Burroughs] The weapon of

oH! YOU
On 28 February 1974, Rolling Stone published a remarkable
encounter between David Bowie and William S. Burroughs
the Wild Boys is a bowie (pl.57). Entitled Beat Godfather Meets Glitter Mainman,
the event had been hosted in November 1973 by the American
knife, an 18-inch bowie journalist A. Craig Copetas, who hoped to develop a new inter-
view style. As published it took the form of a Q & A between
knife, did you know that? the writer and the musician that, in retrospect, was an inspired
piece of positioning for both parties.
[Bowie] An 18-inch bowie David Bowie was then at the zenith of his pop star cycle.
Five days before the cover date, Bowies latest single, Rebel
knife you dont do things Rebel, entered the British charts, where it would peak at
number five. Its a powerful rocker built around an irresist-
by halves, do you? No, I ible riff that is aimed directly at his audience: Youve got your
mother in a whirl cause shes/ Not sure if youre a boy or a girl/
didnt know that was their Hey babe, your hairs alright/ Hey babe lets stay out tonight/
You like me and I like it all/ We like dancing and we look divine.
weapon. The name Bowie With its teen address, deep androgyny and dancehall
imperative, Rebel Rebel was very much in a line with previ-
just appealed to me when ous Bowie hits like John, Im Only Dancing and The Jean
Genie. But although nobody knew it at the time, it would be
I was younger. I was into a the last in that sequence. For Bowie wasnt a traditional pop
star, happy to be known for one sound or one idea and then
kind of heavy philosophy be quickly discarded by a fickle public. That was the Ziggy
Stardust storyline and he was determined to avoid the fate
thing when I was 16 years of his fictional alter ego.
Late 1973 saw Bowie at a particular crossroads. Stardom
old, and I wanted a truism had come hard and fast, after a long apprenticeship. 1972
had been his breakthrough year, with three hit singles and
about cutting through the an extraordinarily successful album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy
Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. His success pulled into the
lies and all that. charts previous albums like Hunky Dory, Space Oddity and
The Man Who Sold the World as new fans delved into his past.
[Burroughs] Well, it cuts both He became a kind of impresario, producing hit records for
Lou Reed (Walk on the Wild Side) and Mott the Hoople
ways, you know, double- (All the Young Dudes) and promoting the most feral rock
group then in existence, Iggy and the Stooges.
edged on the end. Ziggymania as it was coined had begun, but this was
something more than stardom. David Bowie had become a
[Bowie] I didnt see it cutting phenomenon, the kind of performer that comes along just
once in a generation, and pulls the whole culture along in
both ways till now. his or her wake. His only contemporary competitors Marc
Bolan and Rod Stewart did not have quite his allure or his

PRETTY
A. Craig Copetas, Beat Godfather Meets Glitter cutting edge: during this period, Bowie was moving faster
Mainman (Rolling Stone, 28 February 1974) and further than the media which was trying to contain him.
1973 saw no let up: with the Spiders from Mars, Bowie
toured America and Japan, travelling back by train through
Russia and West Germany. A new album, Aladdin Sane,
became Bowies first number one. It coincided with the

THINGS
peak of fan mania during the groups 61-date UK tour
(pl.58) through the spring and early summer and, thanks
[57] opposite David Bowie with William to Pierre La Roches red and blue lighting flash make-up,
S. Burroughs, February 1974 Photograph by served up the single most identifiable image of Bowie for
Terry ONeill with colour by David Bowie
The David Bowie Archive fans and the general public alike.

99
 Ziggy was on the point of saturation. The
speed at which this was happening can be judged
from an archetypal low-end teen product. Aladdin The encounter went well: as Copetas wrote, there was immediate
Sane was released in April 1973. Two months later, liking and respect between the two. Both parties were equally aware
New English Library published the novel Glam of what they had to offer each other. For Burroughs, who had been
by Richard Allen the sixth book in the Skinhead publishing ground-breaking books for twenty years without much
series, the 1970s equivalent of penny dreadfuls. appreciable financial return, it was the association with fame and
With a tag line that reads Johnny Holland fights to the music industry, as well as the possible benefits: a wider reader-
stay idol of a million fans, the cover shows a young ship, possible film hook-ups and more money.
man with a poorly executed red and blue flash right Burroughs had already had a brush with pop: he met Paul
down his face. McCartney several times in late 1965 and early 1966 having set
In June 1973, Bowie decided to kill off Ziggy. It up a tape studio with Ian Sommerville in McCartneys Montagu
was an inspired piece of timing: the look, culture Square flat and had been rewarded with a cameo portrait on the
and attitude that he had fostered were in danger of cover of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. He was an under-
being totally assimilated and superseded. Glam rock ground press staple and a counter-cultural influence, not the
it was called, a combination of hard rock flash, often least in the coinage of group names like the Insect Trust and
absurd silver costumes and an attempted, androgynous then current hot favourites Steely Dan.
glamour. By the middle of 1973, the purity and power Bowies needs were less obvious, but nonetheless urgent.
of Bowies initial breakthrough had become dulled by Searching for an exit from conventional pop stardom, he
imitation and repetition the full stupidity of fashion/ needed another way of working and a different kind of
trend evanescence: here today, gone tomorrow. Diluted public persona. Literary cachet offered the chance of a
elements of his breakthrough style were all over the pop deeper, wider and more permanent cultural relevance, while
charts: Sweet, Mud, Alvin Stardust. Burroughs in particular had an impeccable avant-garde
Bowie sidestepped the issue with Pin Ups, an exercise reputation and an image that was at once forbidding and
in creative nostalgia in which he covered hard-edged, forbidden, remote and culturally potent.
experimental mod singles: Rosalyn by the Pretty Things, Most of all, Burroughs had a technique that would
I Wish You Would and Shapes of Things by the Yardbirds enable Bowie to retool his entire method of writing lyr-
(whose lead guitarist Jeff Beck had guested at the final Ziggy ics and making music (pl.65). During the early 1960s,
show), I Cant Explain and Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere by Burroughs and his colleague, the painter and writer
the Who. These records were, as he wrote in the sleeve notes, Brion Gysin, had developed the cut-up as a method of
among my favourites from the 6467 period of London. visual and verbal reassembly that was equally applica-
That was the period when Bowie was not a leader but a ble to painting, montaged artworks, calligraphy, tape
follower: a young man, still in his teens, trying to make his manipulation and the word. It offered, in fact, a whole
way in the music industry and struggling to find an original new way of seeing.
voice. The mid 1960s had shaped him, by instilling an idea of The cut-up had originated when Gysin sliced
experimentalism, of a true modernism. By returning to the through a pile of newspapers with his Stanley knife
source, Bowie hoped to buy time and gather strength. By late while cutting mounts for his latest pictures. He
1973, he was not just a pop star but a culture leader, the focus reshuffled the shredded newsprint and was fasci-
for several micro-generations of fans, ranging from teens to nated by the way the chopped pictures and words
twenty-something urban sophisticates. And he was looking to created a new narrative. When Burroughs saw the
push them, and himself, forward into uncharted territory. results a few days later, he realized that this was not
So the November meeting with William Burroughs was well just a new working tool one that was reminiscent
timed. In 1973, the author was well known, but not the cult he of some Dada experiments but a different way
would later become. He was near the end of his time in London, of processing and interpreting time.
where he had lived since 1968, and his burst of early 1960s crea- As Burroughs observed in his essay The
tivity brought on by the discovery of the cut-up technique had Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin,
slowed down somewhat. However in 1971 he published The Wild
Boys: A Book of the Dead, a nightmarish vision of a future (dated 1988) cut-ups are for everyone. Anybody
overrun by adolescent guerilla armies of specialized humanoids. can make cut-ups. It is experimental
Bowie later stated that he got the shape and the look of what in the sense of being something to do.
Ziggy and the Spiders were going to become from The Wild Boys Right here right now Cutting and
and Stanley Kubricks 1971 film version of Anthony Burgess novel rearranging a page of written words
A Clockwork Orange (1962): They were both powerful pieces of work, introduces a new dimension into
especially the marauding boy gangs of Burroughs Wild Boys with their writing enabling the writer to turn
bowie knives. I got straight on to that. I read everything into everything. images in cinematic variations.
Everything had to be infinitely symbolic. Images shift sense under the scis-
sors smell images to sound sight [58] above David Bowie and Mick Ronson on stage during
to sound sound to kinesthetic. the Ziggy Stardust tour, 1972 Photograph by Mick Rock

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 What attracted many young people in the 1960s and 70s to the cut-up
was the way in which it enabled the user to process and reprogramme the
increasing volume of sheer data the proliferation of media, newsprint and
the like during those years and the way in which it delivered a prose style
that encoded this acceleration of time. The cut-up narrative was fast, asym-
metrical, chopped in logic and, like a Picasso painting, it was a jump cut in
the fabric of time: it made the future present.
Bowie had long been fascinated by science fiction: the central premise
of Five Years the first track on Ziggy Stardust was that, in his own words,
the world will end because of lack of natural resources. Indeed, the bulk You see, he admitted to
of the interview with Burroughs hinged on this mutual interest ranging Burroughs as their conversation
from discussions about the speed of life, the media-sponsored escalat- began to come to a close, trying to
ing rate of change, fractured attention spans, infrasound, black noise, tart the rock business up a bit is getting
Andy Warhol and Wilhelm Reichs Orgone Accumulator. nearer to what the kids themselves are
This was enough to project him forward. Having read Burroughs like, because what I find, if you want to
cut-up novel Nova Express to prepare for the interview, Bowie applied talk in the terms of rock, a lot depends on
the technique to the words and sound of his next album, the darkly sensationalism and the kids are a lot more
dystopian Diamond Dogs a fusion of Burroughs and George Orwell. sensational than the stars themselves. The
The cut-up, as he admitted later, perfectly suited his own fragmented rock business is usually a pale shadow of
consciousness, and it also enabled him to cut through the tangle of what the kids lives are usually like. The
expectation and image that threatened to slow him down. It sped admiration comes from the other side.
everything up. David Bowie saw his audience raw and
The meeting with Burroughs was as momentous as Craig close-up in 1972 and 1973 (pl.59). He knew
Copetas hoped it would be. As well as enhancing the authors fame their strengths, their weaknesses, and he rel-
and credibility, it helped to set Bowies trajectory for the next few ished their diversity. He knew he and they were
years a series of dazzling physical and artistic changes that would a kind of mutation, and that empowered him to
not slow until the early 1980s. Bowie became the pop star as har- push himself and his fans as far and fast as he and
binger of the future, at the same as he injected many of Burroughs they would go. He felt and hoped that they would
ideas and techniques into the mainstream of popular culture. follow him, and they did, passing through their own
Within five years of Ziggy, the punks were enacting The Wild rites of passage: glam rockers, soul boys, punk and
Boys on the streets of London, Manchester, Liverpool and other eventually, in 1980, the New Romantics.
cities in Britain as if to promote and preview an inevitable col- Those years paralleled the rapid development in
lapse of society. Many accounts of punk accentuate its social subcultural theory that, in the hands of Phil Cohen,
realism, but it also had a very strong science fiction element, Dick Hebdige and others, sought to define and explain
projecting into a conceivable nightmare future. The music the extraordinary proliferation of youth types in Britain.
developed further the chopped acceleration that Bowie had The process had begun way back in the 1950s with the
previewed on Diamond Dogs and it continued the dystopian Edwardians, the Teds, who had mixed a strong sense of
preoccupations of that album. style with a penchant for violence and mayhem that made
Few could have foreseen in 1974 a youth culture that them front page news. The connection was made: Youth +
took many of its cues from a figure like Burroughs, but Strange Clothes = Trouble.
Bowie saw it and helped to bring it about. As a charismatic The key document was Stanley Cohens Folk Devils and
star, he could pull a whole section of his audience into the Moral Panics (1972), which offered a sociological and crimi-
future and he could do it consciously. After all, he had nological analysis of the infamous mod/rocker riots of Easter
been in the audience himself, as a real-time teenager, and 1964. In his introduction, Cohen noted that one of the most
he understood the dynamic of public performance with a recurrent types of mass-media moral panics was associated with
clarity that very few stars have had before or since. the violent and delinquent behaviour of youth types marked out
by their dress and attitude: the Teddy Boys, the Mods and Rockers,
the Hells Angels, the Skinheads and the Hippies.
David Bowie had encountered almost all of these groups in the
mid to late 1960s and, in some cases, tried to live out their tenets
in his own life. His relationship to youth subcultures is complex and
fascinating, as it shadows his development as an artist and a mass-media
performer. He begins as a follower, trying things out before he begins
to find his individual voice; he then becomes an outsider, as he attempts
to develop that voice; when he finds it, he becomes a leader creating
[59] opposite David Bowie and Mick Ronson on youth culture in his own image.
stage in Japan during the Ziggy Stardust tour, 1973
Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita

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 In June 1964, Davie Jones and the King Bees released their
one and only single, Liza Jane. Taken from the Slim Harpo song In 1966, Bowie released four singles that, to varying degrees,
Im A King Bee covered to great effect by the Rolling Stones on explored his relationship to the peer subculture of the day. Cant
their first album, the groups name attempted to slot right into Help Thinking About Me was promoted by a Cyrus Andrews photo
the first wave of British Pop R&B then making the charts. The that presents Bowie as the young mod around town, half a boy and
A-side was a reasonable R&B facsimile, written by manager Leslie half a man, with a perfect haircut and a slim, highly patterned,
Conn, while the flip, Louie Louie Go Home was a Paul Revere almost Op-art tie, and the song captures that confused mixture of
and the Raiders song later covered by the Who. adolescent shyness, the desire to fit in and the need to stand out.
David Jones as he was then was 17. He had already been The second single with Bowies new group, the Buzz, I Dig
involved with music for two years, joining the Kon-rads a Everything was another jazzy shuffle, enlivened by a Hammond
Shadows-type instrumental group back in June 1962. This was a organ and Latin percussion. Its a song about the possibilities and
transformative period in British pop culture and the few pictures drawbacks of independent, teen London life: Got a backstreet
of Jones tell the story: within 18 months he has changed from a room in the bad part of town and I dig everything. The lyric
plastic rocker hairdo, all quiffed up (pl.60), to a Beatle fringe takes in coded drug use (a connection named Paul), superficial
and, for the promo of Liza Jane, a beatnik mod scruffy with a friendships and a deep, deep loneliness: Ive made good friends
tab collar, just like Mick Jagger (pl.61). with the time-check girl on the end of the phone.
As a late teen, Jones was perfectly placed to track the Released at the end of the year, The London Boys is Bowies
changes, week by week, month by month. Living at home with first masterpiece: an unflinching dissection of Sohos mod
his parents in Bromley, suburban south-east London, meant that subculture sung in a quiet, precise tone and enhanced by a
he was close enough to visit the city centre, but far enough away sympathetic brass arrangement. The first two verses revisit
to get some perspective. For a time, he worked in an advertising the territory of I Dig Everything but the third lays it all out:
agency: the classic mod locus later explored in the film of the Oh, the first time that you tried a pill/ You feel a little queasy,
Whos nostalgic examination of the high sixties, Quadrophrenia. decidedly ill/ Youre gonna be sick, but you mustnt lose faith/
During 1964 and 1965, David Jones bounced between a To let yourself down would be a big disgrace with the London
variety of musical genres, a number of different groups and an boys, with the London boys.
almost bewildering parade of hair and clothes styles. After the The song also extends the examination of the individual/
failure of Liza Jane, there were the Manish Boys: for this incar- peer relationship that Bowie had begun on Cant Help
nation, Jones assumed the long, straight, shaggy hairstyle of the Thinking About Me: Youre seventeen, but you think youve
then-controversial and popular Pretty Things and attracted grown/ In the month youve been away from your parents
some media attention of his own with his fictitious Society for home. In the final minute, Bowie opens up his vocal chords
the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men. and delivers the pay-off: Now you wish youd never left your
Their only single, produced by Shel Talmy (the Kinks, the home/ Youve got what you wanted but youre on your own/
Who) was a quantum leap from Liza Jane: I Pity The Fool was With the London boys.
a crunchy cover of a Bobby Bland song, with an assured vocal The London Boys was powerful and heartfelt: it also
and a fiery guitar solo from session guitarist Jimmy Page. The marked the moment when Bowie after three or so years
flip, Take My Tip, is the singers first-ever recorded composi- of assiduously following the trends, of trying to fit in
tion, an engaging jazz shuffle in the vein of Georgie Fame then made the break with his peer culture and began to go his
Londons hard-core mod favourite with a number one under own way. An avid club-goer, he had seen the Pink Floyd,
his belt (Yeh Yeh) and a residency in Sohos Flamingo Club. fronted by the charismatic and androgynous Syd Barrett,
After the Manish Boys, there was the Lower Third, whom but decided not to join them and a whole section of the
Jones met at the Gioconda coffee bar in Denmark Street, mod cult in the next youth culture blowing in from the
Soho Londons Tin Pan Alley. With Talmy, they recorded one West Coast.
Who/Kinks sound-alike 45, Youve Got a Habit of Leaving In 1967, Bowie released his first, self-titled album.
replete with two wild, atonal guitar breaks in the vein of Its almost defiant in the way that it contains almost no
Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere. In the summer, Jones cut off trace of contemporary pop modes. Despite Bowies
his long hair and assumed the bouffant, French mod style; in deep interest in Buddhism, he had no sympathy with
September, he adopted the stage name of Bowie. the hippie package: the record was a strange mixture
Bowie also appeared in a fashion shoot with Jan De Souza of exaggerated, cockney vocals inspired both by
that September. Taken by Fiona Adams and printed in Fabulous Anthony Newley and Syd Barrett intricate arrange-
magazine, the photo shows the young-looking singer cradling ments and songs that constantly shifted tone and
a violin while dressed in the latest mod gear wide whale mood, from horror to farce, from Edwardiana to fairy
cords, a polo-style shirt and a short fringe cut. This was the tales and back again.
period when Bowie became, in his own words, a trendy mod,
and the manic London youth culture began to supply him with
ideas for his own songs material that would go deeper than [60] opposite Publicity
anything hitherto. photograph for The Kon-rads, 1966
Photograph by Roy Ainsworth
The David Bowie Archive

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 One song in particular, Join The Gang, tackled the days psyche-
delic culture: Let me introduce you to the gang/ Johnny plays the sitar,
hes an existentialist/ Once he had a name, now he plays our game/ You
wont feel so good now that youve joined the gang. The jaunty piano
melody includes snippets of sitar, a snatch of Keep on Running and
hearty raspberries during the instrumental break: This is what to do The convoluted lyric is couched as a dialogue between the
now that youre here/ Sit around doing nothing all together very fast. voice of the crowd and their leader, the Thinker, growing older
Its a big illusion but at least youre in, Bowie sang, but as a teen- and so bitter, soon to be deserted like Ziggy Stardust would be
ager he had often felt like an outsider looking in. He would remain so two and a half years hence: I gave them life, I gave them all. They
for the next few years: I was never a flower child, he told Cameron drained my very soul dry. In Bowies voice, counter-culture
Crowe in early 1976. I was always a sort of throwback to the Beat slogans like Kick Out the Jams and Love Is All We Need rang
period in my early thinking. So when the hippies came along with as hollow as he felt they did in the dog days of 1969. At the time,
all their funny tie-dyes and things, it all seemed naive and wrong. It however, there seemed to be little alternative.
didnt have a backbone. In early 1970, Bowie took what were in retrospect two crucial
His first chart breakthrough turned that alienation into a timely steps. He hired guitarist Mick Ronson, whose scalpel-sharp tone
parable. Coincidental with the first moon landings, Space Oddity would add that rocknroll element that fuelled his rise to super-
presented space travel not as a breakthrough for mankind but stardom. With Ronson, producer Tony Visconti and drummer John
merely an expensive journey to complete isolation. As an expres- Cambridge, he formed his first electric group since 1966: when
sion of Bowies tendency towards dystopia, it was also a creative they played the Roundhouse in Camden in March, Bowie wore
extrapolation from his state of mind: if you feel out of sync with silver clothes and performed a version of Im Waiting for the Man
the world, then imagining that youre a space boy or a space girl is by the Velvet Underground.
a workable fantasy. These were early signs of the glitter and the glam androgyny as
It wasnt quite that simple. Bowie did partake of the pervading the stylistic counterpoint to hippie earthiness and earnestness. For
idealism when he helped to found the Beckenham Arts Lab, a local in attendance at the Roundhouse was Bowies contemporary, friend
south London experiment in audience participation and engage- and rival Marc Bolan, a very early mod who had gone through a similar
ment that ran from spring 1969 until the end of the year. As well tour through the sixties music industry as a solo artist and with the
as other musicians like Marc Bolan and Tucker Zimmerman, the band Johns Children. Bolan contributed a guitar part to Bowies
Buddhist monk Chime Youngdung Rinpoche and Lionel Bart,the March 1970 single, The Prettiest Star, but the atmosphere was tense.
composer of Oliver!, were invited to give talks and performances. Bowies success had brought jealousy, but the tables would
In August 1969 the Arts Lab organized a free festival in a soon be turned. In 1970, Bolan slimmed down his band name from
Beckenham park: the next month, Space Oddity re-entered Tyrannosaurus Rex to T.Rex and went fully electric: in October, Ride
the Top 40, where it would eventually peak at number five. a White Swan went into the charts the first of eight top ten hits (and
Bowie had become a pop star, and the brief illusion of unity and four number ones) within two years. Bolan became a huge teen icon
inclusiveness that had sustained the Arts Lab soon shattered. In not just a pop star but a mass-media sensation, under the brand name
those days I used to be very social and idealistic, he told Andrew of T.Rexstasy as well as the leader of a new pop generation.
Lycett in 1971. But the people didnt come along to take part Bowies feelings about his contemporary were ambivalent: hence
in any of the activities. They came along to be entertained. the parody of Bolans trademark high warble on Black Country Rock.
And that became even worse when Space Oddity became However 1970 and early 1971 saw him strangely paralysed, unable to
successful. Then they came along to see David Bowie the star. rise to the challenge of the new generation gap. The Man Who Sold the
There were some good things we did though: the highlight was World was an introspective album that explored highly personal themes
a beautiful free festival that we put on in Beckenham with no madness, the gnostic tradition, the nature of leaders and followers in
name groups at all and 5,000 people came along to it. It was some depth. Its qualities would reveal themselves, but it was not yet pop.
wonderful. But I realize they wanted a dictator. They didnt In January 1971, David Bowie turned 24. Time began to accelerate:
want a communal life. They wanted to be organized. the doldrums dispersed. During that year, he released two albums in the
Bowies next album, also called David Bowie, contained UK and recorded the bulk of another. He visited the US twice, signing
two views of the Arts Lab. Memory of a Free Festival was a major deal with RCA Records and meeting such touchstones as Andy
wide-eyed and gentle: Oh to taste just one drop of all the Warhol, Iggy Stooge, Moondog and the Velvet Underground without Lou
ecstasy that swept that afternoon. The song ended with a Reed. He recorded and wrote singles for other artists, and he began to
Hey Jude-type fade on the lyric the sun machine is going visualize himself into becoming something more than a pop star.
down, were going to have a party. In contrast, the nine- In June, Peter Noone formerly teen star Herman, lead singer of
minute Cygnet Committee unfolds with all the force of a Hermans Hermits had a top twenty hit with Oh! You Pretty Things, a
blast from the id, as Bowie left his group and their dreams song that reflected Bowies fascination with the impending apocalypse at
of collective action behind. the same time as it addressed the new generation: Oh you pretty things/
Dont you know youre driving your mamas and papas insane. At the same
time, the parents were warned: Look at your children/ See their faces
[61] opposite Sheet music for Liza Jane, 1964 in golden rays/ Dont kid yourself they belong to you/ Theyre the start
Davie Jones with the King-Bees Dick James Music of a coming race.
Limited The David Bowie Archive

107
 Bowie recorded the song for his new album, Hunky Dory,
which released right at the end of the year laid the foundations
for his impending breakthrough. Its a world away from the dense,
often confused sound of The Man Who Sold the World: a collection Bowie spoke to the weirdos, the outsiders, and those teens and post-
of mainly light and sparsely arranged songs that sounded spon- teens up for a bit of excitement. In May 1973, Bowie reflected on how he
taneous, while paying homage to existing heroes Andy Warhol, had created a somewhat strange audience but its also full of little Noddy
Bob Dylan, the Velvet Underground in a way that said, Ive Holders, and little Iggy Pops. I know we used to attract a lot of queens at
assimilated the lessons: Im next! one stage but then other factions of people crept in. Now you cant tell.
Queen Bitch was the key: a hard rocker with lyrics and a Theyre all there for some reason. And we get young people. Those lovely
scenario that plugged directly into the gay subculture. Mick young people. And they have to be considered very seriously.
Ronsons guitar provided the edge of instability and excitement On 12 May 1973, Bowie and the Spiders from Mars played at Earls
that would mark this period of Bowies music and a small note Court, a cavernous Deco venue in west London, and Cream sent along a
on the reverse sleeve gave the context: (Some V.U, White Light writer and photographer to record the event. Julie Welch described the
Returned With Thanks). (For more, including a scorching version audience as small scurrying groups of people, most the results of post-
of White Light, White Heat, listen to the BBC Radio sessions war copulations. She noted a blue sea of denim, the beautiful young,
from late 1971 and early 1972 on the Bowie at the Beeb album.) the comic young, girls in their ballet shoes, here and there the but-
1971 was the year that Andy Warhol and his world became terfly element (men like Bowie) in gold chains and shattered dresses.
a feature within British pop culture. The first three Velvet Mick Golds photos tell another story. There are the teens with
Underground albums were reissued, to more acclaim and sales their bipperty-bopperty hats, but there are also well-dressed and
than they had had the first time around. In August Warhols Pork foppish young men in jackets, bow ties and white gloves; a perfectly
a slice of his world, edited down into a play from 200 hours of his dressed rocker with sprayed-on, studded jeans, a sleeveless T-shirt,
telephone conversations opened at the Roundhouse to tabloid a studded wristband and long quiffed hair reaching his shoulders
outrage. Several of the cast would become integral to Bowie in (pl.63). His partner is dressed up in thirties/forties finery, with a
his pop-star phase. long patterned dress, bangles, a cigarillo and a flower behind her
In late 1971 Bowie was busy working the media, carefully posi- ear. Another couple essay the French existentialist look, with
tioning himself in contrast to the pop culture of the day. I feel belted white coats and an intense air (pl.64).
were all in a fucking dead industry that really relates to nothing This is not just an audience, but a culture. The early 1970s
anymore, he told Cream magazine. The most important person were a retro time, when fashions from the twenties, thirties and
in Europe and England today is Marc Bolan, not because of what forties were easily available in charity shops and market stalls
he says but because he is the first person who has latched onto the and were plundered for contemporary looks. Bowies constant
energy of the young once again. He has got his dictatorships fixed reinvention the idea that the world is a constantly revolving
up. Hes kind of neuter and he has that star quality. That is very stage and his powerful aura (Welch again: he was utilizing his
important. Marc Bolan is the new angry young man. Marc Bolan most splendid gift, his sense of largeness and glory) empow-
has that angry young life. You can quote me on that. I also like Iggy ered his audience to attempt the same on the streets of cities
Stooge and the Flaming Groovies. Rock should tart itself up a bit around the UK, in a living cut-up (pl.62).
more, you know. People are scared of prostitution. There should After the demise of the Spiders, Bowie lost some of the
be some real unabashed prostitution in this business. closeness that he had had with his audience. Foreign tours,
How to cut through the half-baked products of a dead indus- elaborate concepts and the deleterious effects of super-
try? In January 1972, Bowie was interviewed by Michael Watts of stardom meant that he would no longer see the whites of
the Melody Maker, who wrote: their eyes and hear the beating of their hearts in quite the
same way. In this, Rebel Rebel reads like the ending of [62] top left, [63] above and [64] left
Davids present image is to come on like a swishy queen, the phase that had begun with Oh! You Pretty Things. David Bowie fans outside Earls Court during
the Aladdin Sane tour, 12 May 1973
a gorgeously effeminate boy. Hes as camp as a row of Bowies interview with William Burroughs came at Photographs by Mick Gold
tents, with his limp hand and trolling vocabulary. Im the end of his intimate pop star phase. It projected him
gay, he says, and always have been, even when I was into a new set of engagements that saw him become
David Jones. But theres a sly jollity about how he says more disengaged, more abstracted indeed more alien:
it, a secret smile at the corners of his mouth. a trajectory enshrined on film by Nicolas Roeg in The
Man Who Fell to Earth. This was deliberate: Bowie had
The addition of an electric hard-rock sound and a New become a leader but, as he had written in Cygnet
York attitude gay confrontation, slice-of-life lyrics and a most Committee and Ziggy Stardust, the leader always
un-English directness to Bowies existing preoccupations gets deserted by his followers. The trick was to with-
(alienation, science fiction, the nature of crowds) pushed him draw before they deserted you.
further and faster than he could have imagined. As his star rose,
Marc Bolans began to falter, but Bowies was a more complex
package one that appealed not just to the teeny-boppers, but a
much wider subcultural constituency.

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 Bowies increasingly remote persona and ever
more radical image/sound changes didnt prevent In doing so, Bowie helped to set the electronic style that took
the public from buying his records: although his over once punk was exhausted: the wave of synthesizer groups,
singles sales dropped from the 19723 peak, his like the Human League, that became very successful in the early
albums would all make the top five until the end 1980s. Once again, he seemed to be supernaturally in touch with
of the decade. Musically, his hardcore fans would future trends just like the Beatles had been in the 1960s. But he
follow him wherever he directed: into science fic- was no longer involved intimately with youth subcultures, nor did
tion dystopias, contemporary American soul music, his continued relevance depend on this closeness.
icy motorik and the ambient instrumentals of Low Bowie tackled this directly in a track from the 1980 album
and Heroes. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). Teenage Wildlife typifies one
His subcultural influence would continue to be of the new wave boys/ Same old thing in brand new drag/ Comes
strong: in the Soul Boys of 1975 and 1976, with their sweeping into view, oh ho ho ho ho ho/ As ugly as a teenage mil-
Jerome Newton hairdos and plastic sandals, and the lionaire/ Pretending its a whizz kid world. Even in his thirties,
bizarre, cartoon-like punks that began to emerge Bowie continued to cleave to his individualism, his outsider
from Londons outer suburbs in 1976. The most vis- status: But they move in numbers and theyve got me in a corner/
ible of these were given a group name, the Bromley I feel like a group of one, no-no/ They cant do this to me/ Im
Contingent, and they showed the depth of Bowies not some piece of teenage wildlife.
influence in their dress and demeanour. The hit single from the album was Ashes to Ashes, a num-
In the mid-1970s, Siouxsie Sioux lived in Bromley: ber one record that lyrically appeared to close the cycle that
like Bowie had, she made trips up to town, in her case to had begun with Space Oddity, 11 years before. Shot by David
the Biba building in Kensington High Street. Mallett, the groundbreaking video featured Bowie in Pierrot
costume walking along a beach with the most florid examples
I was besotted with Art Deco, Art Nouveau. That of the latest youth subculture that he had inspired: the New
was my escape from humdrum. I think Bowie Romantics, who fused several periods of Bowie Aladdin Sane,
and Roxy [Music] had a big part in that. Whoever Station to Station, and Low all at once.
latched on to them then were that way inclined. In the same year, Bowie filmed a live appearance for the West
The whole thing, not just the music. It aroused German film Christiane F. Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, the lightly
something that was dormant, that was causing fictionalized story of a teenage drug addict in Berlin. Bowie was
frustration. presented at the centre of German youth culture, while the
city of Berlin was re-envisioned by the use of a soundtrack that
Her friend Steve Severin also lived in Bromley: included the ambient instrumentals from Low and Heroes. It
was the most popular German film of 1981.
Something had to happen. Mainly searching for Bowie didnt release a new record for another couple of
people with shared interests. I think it was all years, while he freed himself from his contractual obligations to
sparked by Bowie. A lot of the people at the concerts RCA Records and former manager Tony Defries. He returned in
didnt look as if they could understand what he was April 1983 with the number one single and album Lets Dance a
about. Following Bowie closely led you to all sorts strong mixture of blues-rock guitar and contemporary dance
of other things, to Burroughs and Lou Reed and Iggy music promoted by the freshly ubiquitous medium of the pop
Pop. There was a whole world behind it, rather than promo. In the videos for the records singles, Bowie was tanned,
just someone else with a band. healthy, seemingly at peace with his demons.
Lets Dance has been retrospectively assessed in terms of
In 1976, the two friends formed one of the first punk bands, its extraordinary success, but at the time there was no guar-
Siouxsie and the Banshees. They were only among the most antee that it would work. It may well mark the normalization
obvious examples of just how deep Bowies influence had been of David Bowie, but there is another side to the story. One
on this generation, just old enough to be bowled over by his 1972 forgotten highlight of the album is a brief, melodic love song,
breakthrough. They were attracted, as were many others, by the Without You, sung tenderly and without irony. Like the album
idea that Bowie was an artist and that pop culture was a place to as a whole it contains no youth culture references, and indeed
be experimental and confrontational, a place where outsiders it reveals Bowie to be freed from these constraints, freed to be
could gain visibility and take their revenge. what he is: an individual and an adult.
David Bowie turned 30 in January 1977. Just as his children
flooded the media with angry noises and blank poses in an echo
of Diamond Dogs and the Stooges Raw Power he was into his next
phase with Low, an album of two faces: one side of short, clipped
songs with cut-up music and cut-up lyrics, and another of longer, [65] opposite Cut-up lyrics by David
atmospheric synthesizer instrumentals. His second album of the Bowie for Blackout from Heroes, 1977
The David Bowie Archive
year, Heroes, fleshed out this dichotomy to even greater effect.

110
Youre too old to lose it too young to choose it
 [66] above David Bowie in Tokyo, 1978 | Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita
114 115
 Vic toria Broac k e s
David Bowie has created not only some of the most interest- It was like two different worlds, Franks music was com-
ing and influential music of the twentieth century, but also pletely created by him and the idea was for you to play
produced ground-breaking and iconic designs for costumes, it consistently and correctly. The idea was not to add
album covers, stage sets and videos. His abilities as an artist and something to it. The idea was to play it right, or sing it
designer, along with his preference for directing all aspects of right. With Bowie, the idea was entirely different. He
his image and exceptional career, make him a unique subject; gave me full rein to be his guitarist and to add a lot of
and his complex and complete orchestration and involvement colours and sounds.6
with the material culture of being a pop star present rich
opportunities for critical interpretation. Bowie is adept at bringing out the best in his collaborators
By embracing Marshall McLuhans notion that the medium within his chosen framework, before he decides what makes the
is the message throughout his long career, Bowie actively par- final cut. In his book about Bowie, Nicholas Pegg highlights this
ticipated in producing and co-producing his music, as well as composition method:

Putting out
playing a part in the design of his album covers, conceptualizing
his music videos and designing his tours even the merchandise [Bowie] has systematically surrounded himself with
to go with them. One of his great assets as an artist has been his colleagues who exert conflicting gravitational pulls on
ability to establish and develop relationships with talented col- his own strongly vaudevillian instincts. Figures like Iggy
laborators a talent that seems linked to his ability to predict Pop, Pete Townshend and Tin Machines Sales Brothers
and develop popular trends. have popped up over the years to inject into Bowies

fire with
As a teenager, Bowie chose to study art at Bromley Technical work the kind of authentic rocknroll street cred he has
High School (from September 1958 to July 1963, leaving with an often craved, while the likes of Eno, Fripp and Gabrels
A-level in art and O-levels in English and Engineering Drawing), have empowered his avant-garde ambitions. Bowie is
where he was taught by Owen Frampton, Peter Framptons blessed with the rare ability to synthesize what he wants
father.1 In July 1963 he left school a week before the end of term from two necessarily confrontational approaches; it is
to take up a position as a trainee commercial artist at the New his particular triumph that he is neither Lou Reed nor

gasoline:
Bond Street offices of Nevin D. Hirst Advertising.2 In Michael John Cale, but a bit of both.7
Apteds documentary film Inspirations (1997), Bowie recalls that
the job appeared promising to a teenager with a sharp interest To appropriate Bowies lyrics for the song Fame what you
in style and image: Being very much a child and product of the need you have to borrow. This atypical skill extends to Bowies
early sixties, it seemed to me to be terribly exciting and maybe visual art collaborations, and has been key in the development
kind of glamorous to be a commercial artist At the time I of his creative work.

Designing
thought thats Madison Avenue, you know, thats advertising. Bowies unique understanding of his audience and his
Thats the place to be.3 anticipation of future trends in a variety of media distinguish
The reality was more disappointing. It was diabolical, him from the artists who are either unconscious of, or uncon-
Bowie said of the job in a 1972 interview. I never realized being cerned by, their audiences perception of their work. As he sings
an artist meant buckling under so much.4 Although he found in Ashes to Ashes, Bowie never did anything out of the blue.
it creatively frustrating to be a commercial artist, he put many He is not only aware of what he intends, but also conscious of

David Bowie
of the skills that he learned at the firm to use in promoting and what is being received; almost certainly his early struggles to
developing his budding musical career. One of Bowies first find success in the 1960s played a role in honing his abilities
bandmates, David Hadfield, who played alongside him in the to understand his public. In 1974 he explained that he wanted
Kon-rads, said: [He] had thousands of [ideas], a new one every his music to be three-dimensional a song has to take on
day that we should change the spelling of our name, or our character, shape, body and influence people to the extent that
image, or our clothes, or all the songs in our repertoire. He they use it for their own devices. It must affect them not just as
also came up with lots of black-and-white sketches of potential a song, but as a lifestyle.8 Describing his songs as often being
advertising campaigns for the band.5 very illustrative and picturesque, Bowie continued the theme
In addition to his investment in all artistic aspects of his in the BBC documentary Cracked Actor, first shown in January
production, Bowie chooses collaborators with great care, 1975: I felt [my material] was more three-dimensional. I wanted
sourcing them personally and often unconventionally. Having to give it dimension.9 Although musical experimentation and
fully researched those with talent that he wishes to work with, expression is the bedrock of his career, sound is only one dimen-
he gives them creative scope to work at what he chose them to sion of Bowies complete creative vision as the title of his 1977
do. Adrian Belew, poached from Frank Zappa to join Bowies song (and 1990 world tour) Sound and Vision suggests.
band in 1978, recalls:

117
 Indeed, Bowie seems to have a rare intuition when it comes The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
to understanding and leading his fans. He has consistently and the Spiders from Mars
exhibited an uncanny ability to anticipate the next pop/cultural
movement, be it glam rock, electronic music, music videos or The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was
internet distribution. Interviewed for the New York Times in released on 6 June 1972 (pl.70). Widely regarded as Bowies
2002, he accurately anticipated the impact the internet would breakthrough album, it tells the story of the otherworldly Ziggy
have on the music industry in the next decade: Stardust and his rise to fame. Ziggy is the human manifestation
of an alien being who unexpectedly alights upon a doomed earth
Music itself is going to become like running water or some time in the not so distant future. He attempts to deliver
electricity Youd better be prepared for doing a lot of a message of hope to the human species headed for extinction,
touring because thats really the only unique situation and is inevitably destroyed by his own success and excessive
thats going to be left. Its terribly exciting. But on the lifestyle. It was this narrative-driven, theatrical and visually
other hand it doesnt matter if you think its exciting intriguing album that would serve to set Bowie apart from the
or not; its whats going to happen.10 other musicians of his day. What is more, the character of Ziggy
a persona he adopted both on and off stage won more notoriety
This shrewdness might suggest something at odds with than any other Bowie devised throughout his career. So strong
traditional notions of the artist (though not in the postmodern was his image that people and even Bowie himself came to
period, the values of which it seems to enshrine perfectly), but conflate Ziggys identity with Bowies own (pl.116).
coupled with Bowies constant quest for new inspiration and The Ziggy look centred around an unforgettable haircut.
ideas, his attention to design detail, his openness to taking crea- While at the turn of the decade Bowies hair had been long and
tive risks and his refusal to settle for a winning formula or take an blond, by 1972 it underwent a dramatic transformation, render-
easy option, this prescience has earned him his status as one of ing him virtually unrecognizable. This was not a unique move, as
the most influential cultural figures of the late twentieth century. Bill Janowitz noted in his book about the Rolling Stones: The
Jonathan Barnbrook, the graphic designer Bowie chose English music press in particular (the weeklies, anyway) has
to collaborate with on the cover designs of Heathen and Reality always interpreted new hairstyles as indications of exciting new
in the early 2000s, affirms that David Bowie understands the musical forms.12 In January 1972, Bowies wife at the time, Angie,
power of the visual.11 This essay will explore how Bowie chose introduced him to Suzi Fussey, who worked as a hairdresser at
to design his career by utilizing the skills he learned and honed the Evelyn Page salon in Beckenham. He asked her to create a
during his childhood and early career. Whether designing album new cut to his design, which was based on a striking selection
art, staging a concert tour or making a video, Bowies dynamic of photographs from various magazines, including shots of
approach to the visual material associated with his music has a young female model with vivid, cropped red hair, taken by
resulted in an exceptional portfolio; investigating how he photographer Alex Chatelain for Vogue Paris (pl.67), and the
directed its creation sheds light on his wider work. latest designs by Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto, as shown
in British Vogue and Harpers & Queen.13 Not only was the cut itself
unusual, reminiscent of the kabuki wigs in the Yamamoto fea-
ture (pl.68), Bowie soon after also decided to dye his hair red,
in keeping with the Chatelain photograph. First, Fussey used a
combination of Schwarzkopf hair dye (in the shade Georgette
256/Cherry Red) and peroxide to create a red-orange colour.
She then applied copious amounts of setting lotion to style it
into a mullet.14 Unlike any other seen on Londons streets, this
hairstyle served the important function of rendering Bowie
instantly recognizable (pl.71).

[67] above left Christine Walton for Vogue Paris,

August 1971 Photograph by Alex Chatelain

[68] above and [69] left Harpers & Queen,

London, July 1971 Designs by Kansai Yamamoto.
Hair and makeup by Sachiko Shibayama

118
 [70] opposite Cover artwork separations for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, 1972
Designed by Terry Pastor and David Bowie Photograph by Brian Ward The David Bowie Archive

[71] above Cover artwork for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, June 1972 Designed by
Terry Pastor and David Bowie Photograph by Brian Ward The David Bowie Archive
 Costumes were, of course, employed to similar effect. But Bowie was Ziggys originator, but he depended on many hair,
while Bowies hairstyle remained largely the same from 1972 costume and make-up collaborators to help him carry his look,
to 1973, his stage costumes changed dramatically, becoming and there can be no question that Bowies fame and popularity
increasingly avant-garde as his popularity grew. His early stage during this period lay as much in his image as in his music. While
wear was not heavily stylized rather, his outfits were cobbled the appearance of Ziggy and his Spiders may have evolved as
together from whatever was around. When success permitted they became increasingly successful, it was the album cover
him to wear specially designed pieces, he turned to his friends, that firmly established Bowies other-worldly alien credentials.
designer and tailor Freddie Burretti and costumier Natasha Good record cover design connects with the music, connects
Korniloff. Together, Bowie and Burretti developed Bowies the listener to the music and then enhances the understanding
vision for concerts showcasing the albums material, creating of that music, Barnbrook says. And its beyond logic, actually.
costumes that drew inspiration from Stanley Kubricks 2001: Its about the spirit of the age, the spirit of the music and some
A Space Odyssey (1968) and A Clockwork Orange (1972, in the unconscious understanding of whats going on there.19
UK). Both films were well known in the early 1970s and Bowie The photographs for the Ziggy Stardust cover were taken on a
appreciated their themes as well as the costume designs, which cold, wet night in January 1972 by Brian Ward, who had a studio
he later described as being fab 2001 with its Courrges-like on Londons Heddon Street the site of the shoot. Both the front
leisure suits and Clockworks droogs, dressed to kill.15 Ziggys and back cover photographs (which feature Bowie alone) were
earliest stage costumes were two-piece suits designed by Bowie, shot using Kodak Royal-X Pan black-and-white film and later
the patterns cut and made up by Burretti and a neighbour, Sue colourized by Terry Pastor of Main Artery, the design studio
Frost; the tour wardrobe was later augmented by one-piece set up by a childhood friend of Bowies, George Underwood.
jumpsuits, conceived and made by Buretti in various colours Underwood, incidentally, was the one who accidentally dam-
and materials (pls 33 and 35). aged the pupil of Bowies left eye in a fight at school, leaving it
By 1973, after the release of Aladdin Sane, Bowie was in a permanently dilated. Ward took 54 photographs in all.20
position to commission original pieces from Kansai Yamamoto The album cover shows Bowie on a London backstreet,
himself (pls 3741 and 69). Describing these flamboyant cos- looking as if he had just been beamed down from another planet.
tumes, he later said: [They were] everything that I wanted them While colourized blue on the cover, the suit was actually the
to be and more heavily inspired by kabuki and samurai, they green-and-cream outfit Bowie wore on the BBC2 programme
were outrageous, provocative, and unbelievably hot to wear The Old Grey Whistle Test in early February 1972, and while
under the lights.16 his hair looks yellow (due to the light of a street lamp), contact
By the time Ziggy and the Spiders finally retired in July 1973, sheets from the shoot show that it was medium-fair. Although
Bowies wardrobe had expanded considerably. His cosmetics Bowie had not yet morphed fully into a space samurai, the
kit, too, was overflowing. It is said that towards the end of his albums sleeve sets the mood for all his subsequent perfor-
Ziggy period, Bowie needed to allow at least two hours before mances a good record cover expresses the psychology of the
each performance to apply his stage make-up (pl.72). Although music. The wet, stormy weather lent the band an element of
broadly self-taught, he had learned theatrical make-up tech- mystery, and Bowies lone appearance under the prominent
niques from mime artist and choreographer Lindsay Kemp, a K. West sign, which could be read as Quest, alludes to his alien
close friend and mentor of Bowies in the late 1960s. In January mission, conjuring an otherworldly feeling that is reinforced
1973, make-up artist Pierre La Roche applied the iconic light- by the colourization. The landscape and aesthetic of the cover
ning flash make-up for Bowies Aladdin Sane cover shoot (pl.45). image closely resemble the opening scenes of Michael Powells
The success of this look led to La Roche joining Bowie for the groundbreaking and controversial film Peeping Tom (1960),
subsequent tour as his personal make-up artist. and may owe something to this cult classic. Equal prominence
In April 1973, Bowie also received instruction in kabuki- is given, in visual terms, to the names David Bowie and Ziggy
style makeup techniques from one of the stars of Japanese Stardust helping to cement the idea that David Bowie was
kabuki theatre, Tamasaburo, while visiting Japan.17 As Jonathan Ziggy Stardust. Bowie had not yet undergone the transformation
Barnbrook notes of Bowie: He is always very actively looking into his fully-fledged performance persona, but in mid-January
for people he wants to work with the right voice, the right tone 1972, the seeds for this metamorphosis were already sown. The
that matches his work. [People who] express the same point of seventies began when this photograph was taken, and Ziggy
view to his or have a spirit that he requires in his work.18 Stardust presented himself in a very different guise to anything
wed seen in the sixties, says musician Gary Kemp. And it did
affect a generation.21

[72] left Make-up chart for David Bowie on the

Diamond Dogs tour, 1974 The David Bowie Archive

[73] above Signed lithographic print of David

Bowie by Mick Rock, 1973 The David Bowie Archive
122
 [74] right and below right
Preparatory photography
for Diamond Dogs, 1974
Diamond Dogs Tour Further personal encounters also influenced the shape of Photographs by Terry ONeill
the project, particularly a meeting with Burroughs. In an encoun- Guy Peellaert referred to these
images while painting the
Released in 1974, Diamond Dogs marked the end of David Bowies ter arranged by Craig Copetas, a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, artwork for the album cover
glam-rock period and heralded a new phase in his career. If his the musician and the legendary Beat author exchanged views on The David Bowie Archive
1969 single Space Oddity had captured the sense of unease science fiction, sexuality and the creative process.24 Burroughs [75] following pages
and wonder provoked by the first moon landing, the new album was well known for his habit of fragmenting and rearranging nar- Promotional photographs
for Diamond Dogs, 1974
and subsequent concert tour, informed by Bowies reading of rative: a collage technique termed cut-up by the painter Brion Photographs by Terry ONeill
George Orwells 1984, reflected a public mood of dread and Gysin, the method was traceable as an artistic approach to the The David Bowie Archive
foreboding. While the 1960s had been fuelled by optimism, the Dadaists of the early twentieth century and the later Surrealist
1970s were tainted with misgiving and disillusionment. Bowie movement.25 Bowie started to apply the technique to songwrit-
produced an album and concerts that simultaneously mirrored ing with the aim of subverting lyrical and musical expectations
and fuelled the feelings of a generation. Rather than rebuff by using a familiar system and distorting it into an alarming new
predictions of environmental disaster, social chaos and global shape. Fragmentation and cut-up lyrics would be employed
annihilation, Bowie generated poignant narratives that not only to great effect in the creation of the 11 tracks on Diamond Dogs,
confirmed his audiences worst suspicions but also lent form to which are musically highly evocative, but often lyrically opaque.
their palpable fears.22 As with the Ziggy Stardust album, the actual narrative underlying
In 1973, Bowies then manager, Tony Defries, was pushing Bowies new production remained understated. Deliberate nar-
him to capitalize on the success of Ziggy Stardust by writing a rock rative voids would, however, enable listeners to construct their
musical around the character, but Bowie had moved on. He was own interpretations of both album and rock show.26
channelling his long-standing interest in musicals, dating from Fragmentation also heavily influenced the design of the
the early 1960s, into the project of adapting George Orwells Diamond Dogs project, nowhere more evident than on the
1984 for the stage. In late 1973, however, Orwells widow, Sonia albums sleeve. The work of Belgian painter Guy Peellaert, the
Brownell, refused Bowie the rights to use 1984 as the basis for cover image portrays Bowie as a bizarre mix of man and beast.
a rock show. The planned album and corresponding tour were Mick Jagger, with whom Bowie was engaged in a playful rivalry
reconceptualized: having been denied the right to refashion at the time, had introduced Bowie to Peellaerts work in 1973
Orwells Oceania, Bowie replaced it with his own decaying and intimated that the Rolling Stones intended to engage him
and crumbling Hunger City, based on the dystopian workers to make the art for one of their upcoming albums. Captivated
underworld in Metropolis (1927) and inhabited by ravaging tribes by the artists work and its grotesque Surrealist overtones (and
of proto-punk peoploids. presumably excited by the prospect of pre-empting Jagger),
Bowie settled in New York in 1974 to further develop the Bowie commissioned Peellaert to paint the Diamond Dogs sleeve.
album that would become Diamond Dogs. As Peter Doggett has In January 1974 he gave Peellaert the brief to create a central
observed, it brought together many of the themes that had sphinx-like image, combining a dog and Bowie himself. To pro-
preoccupied Bowie since 1969, in the service of a dark study vide Peellaert with images to use as reference material for the
of cultural disintegration.23 Bowies enduring interest in the painting, Bowie also arranged a photo session with Terry ONeill
prophetic power of science fiction came to a head, and a num- later that month (pls 74 and 75).
ber of novels and films, including Harlan Ellisons A Boy and his While working on the painting (pl.76), Peelleart devel-
Dog and William S. Burroughs The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead, oped a further circus sideshow element, and the tagline The
published in 1969 and 1971 respectively, as well as the 1971 film Strangest Living Curiosities was added to the artwork.27 Both
The Omega Man (specifically Charlton Hestons performance the phrase and the image evoked Tod Brownings highly con-
as Robert Neville), could be cited as key influences during this troversial 1932 film Freaks, in which actors with real physical
period. Bowies personal experiences also shaped the eventual deformities play circus performers who exact revenge for having
form of the tour to a large degree. After his 1973 tour of Japan, he been on the receiving end of acts of cruelty and discrimination.
made his way back home to England over land and sea, in order The Diamond Dogs cover was intended to entice and provoke
to avoid flying. This extended journey took him through Siberia, its viewers to listen to a carnival-esque freak show of Bowies
Russia, Poland and East Germany, and proffered insights into the own creation.28 Thematically, the albums cover art also refers
lives of those living under totalitarian regimes. back to the fictional worlds of Burroughs novels, populated
by desensitized mental and physical cripples drug addicts,
criminals, and sexual deviants.29 Music writer David Buckley
has suggested that with Diamond Dogs, Bowie succeeded in
incorporating low-life decadent culture into the mainstream
popular aesthetic. As Siouxsie Sioux once remarked, Bowie is
an unusual pop star in that he comes with a reading list.

124
 [76] above Cover artwork for Diamond Dogs, 1974
Painting by Guy Peellaert The David Bowie Archive
 Terry ONeill, whose photo session with Bowie provided The choreography, the set list and eventually the set
the brief for Peellaert to work from, had come to prominence in (pls 80 and 81) evolved during the course of the tour. The band
the 1960s with the new generation of photographers including was largely obscured behind flats for the first two shows, with
David Bailey who rejected the static formality of the posed the eight musicians acting like an orchestra. Dancers were on
photographs of the 1950s and went instead for spontaneity and stage for many of the songs during Diamond Dogs they were
unusual settings.30 The Diamond Dogs photo shoot, which took attached to leashes although Bowie remained the focal point
place on 30 January 1974, was no exception. of the performance. No film of the show was made, although
The famous image depicts a seated Bowie, relaxed and a rough cut of the July performance at the Tower Theater in
dashing in a Spanish Cordoba hat, high-heeled boots, a book Philadelphia does exist.
at his feet and looking the real cool cat.31 He seems entirely Conceived as a narrative-driven musical or rock opera, the
unperturbed by the enormous, rearing dog to his right. It has show materialized with only a loose storyline, but there is ample
been claimed that the shot was an accidental stroke of good evidence that Bowie worked on a never-realized film version
fortune the dog reared up on its hind legs suddenly but in for some considerable time (pl.82). He produced hand-drawn
fact it was carefully staged for dramatic effect. Contact sheets storyboards for its various scenes, pages of film notes, built set
show that the dog was leaping towards a piece of meat dangled models and drew character sketches of the story (pls 838).
from above (pl.75). As ONeill says: The harder you work, the Set in Hunger City, the narrative revolves around Halloween
more pictures you take, the more decisive moments you cap- Jack who, according to the film notes, was to inhabit a deserted
ture.32 Certainly decisive, the photograph was used to promote skyscraper and travel with a gang of youths around the city on
the Diamond Dogs tour, and it is now in the V&As Photography roller skates, looting furs and diamonds, subsisting on a diet
Collection. It did not feature on the original album sleeve, but of mealcaine. 36 Bowie drew inspiration from accounts of
was used for subsequent RYKO/EMI releases. Victorian London as told to him by his father, who worked for
The album and, later, the tour, were aggressively publicized Dr Barnardos Homes from 1945 until his death in 1969.
in the United States. Defries adopted a two-pronged approach Barnardos patron, Lord Shaftesbury, is said to have found hun-
to the promotion of Bowie in America: the first stage involved dreds of children living on the streets and roofs of London dur-
the widespread circulation of the albums sensational cover art ing an inspection of the citys slums in the nineteenth century.37
and the creation of a tremendous amount of memorabilia; the The Diamond Dogs tour proved tremendously successful,
second was to be the tour itself. It was one of the most theatrical but there were difficulties stemming from Bowies worsen-
rock shows ever staged, and also reputedly the most expensive. ing cocaine habit, a gruelling schedule covering enormous
The total cost for the set came to roughly $250,000.33 Bowie distances and contractual disputes with Defries management
conceived the design (pl.77) of an angular cityscape inspired by organization, MainMan. The elaborate set had to be transported
the German Expressionist cinema of the silent age: particularly in three 45-foot trailers, and took 35 men at each venue a whole
Fritz Langs Metropolis (1927, pl.78) and Robert Wienes The day to erect.38 Following a road accident on the journey from
Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919). The show was designed by American Atlanta, Georgia to Tampa, Florida, much of the set ended up
lighting designer Jules Fisher34 and set designer Mark Ravitz, in a swamp. A stripped-back show had to be put on in Tampa,
with technical support from stage engineer Chris Langhart and but the set was up and running again by 5 July and used until
direction from Bowie and Los-Angeles-based choreographer 17 September 1974. In October, a new set was introduced that
Toni Basil. It featured several enormous props, including street was designed to reflect the new, more soul-influenced songs
lamps, a drawbridge and a diamond-studded hand, which opened Bowie had been writing on tour, which anticipated the Young
[77] top Stage set model for the Diamond
Dogs tour, 1974 Designed by Jules Fisher and to reveal Bowie perched on it. Bowie was transported, supported Americans album in style. This set was used until December 1974.
Mark Ravitz The David Bowie Archive by a cherry picker, over the audience while sitting on an office Difficulties aside, this remains one of the most spectacular tours
[78] above Poster for the French release chair and singing Space Oddity into a telephone.35 ever to have been staged, and undoubtedly paved the way for the
of Metropolis, 1927 Directed by Fritz Lang elaborate rock concerts that followed, with the Rolling Stones
Designed by Boris Bilinsky
commissioning Jules Fisher for their Tour of the Americas the
[79] above right Pale blue suit, 1974 following year.39 Rock shows were never the same again.
Designed by Freddie Burretti for the Diamond
Dogs tour The David Bowie Archive

[80] right and [81] far right Set design

notes by Mark Ravitz for the Diamond Dogs
tour, 1974 The David Bowie Archive

131
 [82] ABOVE Part of a storyboard by David Bowie
for an unrealized film set in Hunger City, 1974
The David Bowie Archive

[83] opposite Preparatory drawing by David Bowie

for an unrealized film film set in Hunger City, 1974
The David Bowie Archive
 [848] above and opposite Preparatory drawings by David Bowie for
an unrealized film set in Hunger City, 1974 The David Bowie Archive
 Ashes to Ashes The video for the single (pl.89) was shot in May 1980 on
location at Beachy Head and Hastings, on the East Sussex coast.
The song Ashes to Ashes from the album Scary Monsters (and At a cost of 25,000 it was, at that time, the most expensive
Super Creeps), released in September of 1980, was the single music video ever made. In it, Bowie plays three distinct roles:
Bowie used, in his words, to purge himself of the 1970s. For the first is a Pierrot figure, the second an astronaut and the third
Bowie, that decade was marked by the rise and fall of legendary an inmate of a padded cell. Bowie storyboarded the promo him-
performance alter egos, excess in America (a period during self, drawing it shotby-shot and working on the edit alongside
which he composed the albums Young Americans and Station to Mallet (pls 90 and 93).
Station), as well as a desperately needed recuperative escape to While there is no particular narrative to the video, the
Berlin, which resulted in the triptych of albums Low, Heroes and interconnected scenes are introduced through a series of
Lodger. In 1979 Bowie released the final panel of the triptych incongruous images presented by Bowie, who holds a video
the album Lodger and was eager to consolidate his musical postcard that displays the first shot of the following scene, as
experimentation into a new sound for a new decade. His next he emphasizes the words Oh no, dont say its true. Bowie at
project marked the beginning of his 1980s creative work that, first is a sympathetic stock Pierrot character of pantomime
just as in the 1970s, was peppered with innovative collaboration, (wearing a reproduction of a Lindsay Kemp outfit designed by
experimentation and creativity. Natasha Korniloff, pls 92 and 1623), and we follow him into a
Co-produced by the familiar duo of Bowie and Tony Martian landscape, walking along an abandoned beach past piles
Visconti who had previously worked together on the albums of burning refuse, and promenading with pseudo-ecclesiastical
Young Americans, Low, Heroes, Stage and Lodger the album companions, pursued by a bulldozer that seems to be pushing
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) was made just as the influence him towards the water.
of visual media truly came to the forefront of pop culture. 40 This strange setting was achieved by incorporating the then
Temporarily putting aside the improvisatory methods of record- new Paintbox technique to solarize the scene, turning the sky
ing he had developed while working with Brian Eno in Berlin black and the ground pink to create a somewhat apocalyptic or
(although at times still using the cut-up technique of writing alien landscape. Bowies liberal direction with regard to the look
inherited from Brion Gysin and William Burroughs), Bowie he wished to achieve made an impact on Jonathan Barnbrook,
carefully developed and crafted the music and lyrics of the who recalls seeing the video as a teenager:
album and made a concerted effort to translate the songs into
new, visually expressive media. Film was as malleable as anything else. You could pro-
As David Buckley has noted, In the 1980s, simply being a cess film as you could process an instrument. You
pop star was no longer enough. Superstars now were expected could cut up a piece of typography And that kind of
to colonize film and video.41 The birth of MTV on 1 August 1981 freedom meant that the creative source can go into
heralded a new era of the music video, with the success of a song anything, whether its design, video or music, so it was
being inextricably linked to the appeal of the accompanying quite liberating seeing this video for the first time.44
video. The visual aesthetic of a pop stars look became para-
mount for a mass audience, and the result of this heightened I think [Bowies] influence on early music videos was probably
focus on the visual, at times, trumped the quality of the music the greatest influence of all, Mallet said in the 2002 docu-
produced. For the visually adept Bowie, it was an opportunity mentary David Bowie: Sound and Vision. He wasnt frightened
that played further to his strengths. to do something that was surreal. He wasnt frightened to go
Ashes to Ashes was the first single from the album, and the back to French silent, Surrealist movies. He wasnt frightened
pioneering music video was co-directed by Bowie and David to do anything.45
Mallet. Bowie had met Mallet in April 1979 while performing The Pierrots entourage consists of three religious figures
Boys Keep Swinging on The Kenny Everett Video Show, which in heavy make-up and a young woman dressed as a dancer, all
Mallet produced for Thames Television. Impressed, Bowie hired serving as a chorus ready to interject in any given scene, repeat-
Mallet to create videos for Boys Keep Swinging, DJ and a ing a lyric in unison: Im happy/ Hope youre happy too or My
pared-down, yet highly stylized, performance of Space Oddity mother said/ To get things done/ Youd better not mess/ With
the same year. The success of Ashes to Ashes in 1980 cemented Major Tom. The chorus comprises recruits that Bowie enlisted
their creative partnership, which continued into the 1990s.42 on a visit to the Blitz nightclub in London a haven for New
Ashes to Ashes, like the Space Oddity video, incorporated a Romantic musicians, including Steve Strange of Visage, as well
non-linear narrative with three interconnecting characters, and as Marilyn and George ODowd (better known as Boy George),
features similar cinematography: intense close-ups of Bowies who were, to their regret, passed over for the video.46
face combined with stark lighting, pyrotechnics and scene
fades. However, that is where the similarities end. Nicholas Pegg
describes the video as an outstanding promo [that] redefined
rock video and jump-started the New Romantic movement.43
136 [89] above Stills from the Ashes to Ashes video, 1980 Directed by David Mallet
 [90] above Original storyboards by David Bowie for the
Ashes to Ashes video, 1980 The David Bowie Archive

[91] left Songbook for Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), 1980
The David Bowie Archive

[92] below Pierrot (or Blue Clown) costume, 1980 Designed

by Natasha Korniloff for the Ashes to Ashes video and Scary Monsters
(and Super Creeps) album cover The David Bowie Archive

[93] opposite Original storyboards by David Bowie for the

Ashes to Ashes video, 1980 The David Bowie Archive
 As the character in the padded cell, Bowie is alone, without A progression towards insanity, or a sequential mental dete- In Ashes to Ashes, Bowie created a video that heralded the One of the surest tests [of the superiority or inferiority
theatrical make-up and dressed in his simplest costume of the rioration, was a well-explored theme throughout the 1970s.48 New Romantic movement which had itself been inspired by of a poet] is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature
video: a white dress shirt and black trousers with studded seam, For Bowie, the lost idealism is manifested in the failures of Major him. By referencing the copy, he popularized a cult that centred poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what
tucked into green mid-calf boots. In his cell he sits on a chair, Tom and his space exploration, or promise of modernity and on his own heritage, relaunching his own past at the same time they take, and good poets make it into something better,
singing directly to the camera, with backing vocals echoing over cosmic hope. In reprising Space Oddity, the song that arguably as putting it behind him. As Buckley notes, Ashes to Ashes or at least something different. The good poet welds
the main lyric. His gaze is glassily fixed, yet he seems subdued, brought Bowie his first big success, Ashes to Ashes critically stands as a Bowie landmark [not simply] because it was techni- his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly
broken and controlled. Next he is seen sitting on the floor in the re-examines Major Tom and his story of space adventure gone cally brilliant, but also because it encapsulated 1980 perfectly. different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet
corner of his cell, despondently singing as he gently moves his awry. Reflecting on the album in its entirety in 1990, Bowie said: In a press interview after his 1977 performance on the Dutch throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good
knee slowly back and forth: time and again I tell myself/ Ill stay television programme TopPop, Bowie said: poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time,
clean tonight/ But the little green wheels are following me/ Oh Scary Monsters for me has always been some kind of or alien in language, or diverse in interest.55
no, not again. Whether the desire to stay away from drugs refers purge. It was me eradicating the feelings within myself Im a fairly good social observer and I think I encapsu-
to Bowie himself or the infamous Major Tom, the inmate refer- that I was uncomfortable with You have to accom- late areas maybe every year or so. I try and stamp that With these attributes Bowie has become arguably the most
ences repeated lapses, eerily echoed by his slow movements that modate your pasts within your persona. You have to down somewhere. What that year is all about rather than culturally significant and visually interesting pop musician of
give a sense of time and again and the spinning green wheels understand why you went through them. Thats the what it was all about or what it is going to be. Its very the twentieth century. Jonathan Barnbrook sums up his unique
that follow him. This most obviously Bowie-like character is last major thing. You cannot just ignore them or put them much trying to capture the quintessence of that year.53 appeal: Its about the spirit of the age, the spirit of the music and
seen isolated in his corner, dramatically lit with a spotlight as he out of your mind or pretend they didnt happen or just some unconscious understanding of whats going on.
repeats the nursery rhyme-like refrain: My mother said/ To get say, Oh I was different then.49 In the documentary film Inspirations (1997), Bowie reveals not
things done/ Youd better not mess/ With Major Tom. only his keenness to participate in the visual elements of all
Whereas the final scene of the inmate narrative shows Bowie Though Bowie had found closure for Ziggy Stardust with the aspects of music production, but also his use of the visual arts
trapped within the asylum, in the final scenes of the Pierrot story characters infamous death on 3 July 1973 at the Hammersmith as a creative aid in his songwriting:
arc we see him releasing what appears to be a dove on the beach, Odeon, Major Tom had not previously been dealt with. While
before being led away along the water by an older woman, who Bowie had identified the futility inherent in space travel in 1969 If Ive found myself in some kind of cul-de-sac in the
is talking sternly to him or possibly imploring him. The feel- with Space Oddity, this same disillusionment did not become music, Id break down a problem by actually painting
ing of being mentally lost and physically trapped is conveyed public opinion until the late 1970s. In returning to the character it. I try and visualize what the problem was I try and
strongly. (It is interesting to note the visual reference to Bowies of Major Tom in Ashes to Ashes, Bowie found a means of repris- visualize those textures and paint them and then find
sketch for the backcover of Space Oddity, where a Pierrot and an ing and later departing from his seventies legacy, and the outer/ out what was wrong, and then when Ive solved that
old woman are shown walking away together in the bottom left inner space meaning it represented for him.50 problem Id take it back into the studio. Ive never really
corner, made 11 years earlier, pls 946). There was a certain degree of optimism making [Scary compartmentalized things. Everything for me is just this
The final Bowie character in Ashes to Ashes is a low-tech, Monsters] because Id worked through some of my problems, flux of doing stuff. Some of its music and some of its
kitchen-sink astronaut redolent of Major Tom. He crashes on Bowie said in 1999. I felt very positive about the future, and visual, and the two have always been very entwined.54
a Martian beach and is then seen hooked up to a life-support I think I just got down to writing a really comprehensive and
machine, amid explosions, in an environment that resembles well-crafted album.51 The album is often said, even by Bowie At a time when the apotheosis of fame and influence is to
a late 1950s/early 1960s hair salon within a domestic kitchen. himself, to be a turning point in his career, providing a catharsis be a pop star, and being a pop star requires a combination of the
Removed from this setting by an explosion, Major Tom falls to the 1970s. Its release coincided with his divorce from Angie musical and the visual while embodying the spirit of the age,
to an underground lair, fastened to a wall by tubes entering becoming absolute in 1980, as well as his gaining custody of his Bowies musical and visual talents, which he considers as part
his body and surrounded by some form of living, non-human child, Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones. In an interview in 1980, of a continuum, have allowed him to not only embrace visual
growth (Ridley Scotts Alien was released the previous year, in Bowie gave his own perspective on Ashes to Ashes, peering media as an organic product of his own unique visual approach
1979). There he hangs, defeated and depleted. He is attached forward into the new decade while simultaneously looking back to songwriting, but also to become a forerunner in produc-
to his organic surroundings, lifeless, with only enough energy at his previous work: Its a nursery rhyme. Its very much a 1980s tion and dissemination a sort of appropriating prophet. His
to look up at a camera that can offer no assistance or reprieve. nursery rhyme. I think 1980s nursery rhymes will have a lot to do exceptional breadth of interests alongside his acceptance of
Major Tom remains in his prison and, as the video comes to an with the 1880s/1890s nursery rhymes, which are all rather hor- the mantra the medium is the message have opened him to
end, the camera zooms in one last time on the lost astronaut as rid and had little boys with their ears being cut off and stuff like inspiration by others but as we have seen, he takes inspiration
he hangs in quiet desperation. The message is clear: Bowie is that.52 This ties in directly to his early work, encapsulated on from an exceptional breadth of subjects and creates from them
condemning the intrepid spaceman who has failed to bring a his debut solo album David Bowie (1967). That album showcases something entirely new. In the words of T. S. Eliot:
promise of hope, and the video, in Peggs words, once again fuels a nursery-rhyme-laden series of songs that bring out the darker
the notion that Ashes to Ashes is a comprehensive exorcism side of tales for children. With the video for Ashes to Ashes
of his [Bowies] past.47 there is a similar perversion of child-like innocence, as we see
the tale of the heroic Major Tom come to a dark, disturbing end
as he hangs expressionless in his organic subterranean prison.

140 141
 [94] above Artwork for the back cover of Space Oddity, 1969
Illustration by George Underwood The David Bowie Archive

[95] opposite above Still from the Ashes to Ashes video, 1980
Directed by David Mallet

[96] opposite below Sketch by David Bowie for the back cover
of Space Oddity, 1969 The David Bowie Archive

142 143
 [97] opposite and above Double-breasted suit and turquoise boots, 1973
Suit designed by Freddie Burretti The David Bowie Archive

145
David Bowie is
dressed from
head to toe

[98] opposite David Bowie photographed for the Pin Ups album
artwork and promotional material, 1973 Photograph by Mick Rock

146
 [99] opposite and above Pale blue suit, 1974 Designed by
Freddie Burretti for the Diamond Dogs tour The David Bowie Archive

[100] overleaf David Bowie on stage during the

Diamond Dogs tour Photographs by Ken Regan The David Bowie Archive

149
 [101] above and opposite Black suit and dress shirt, 1976
Designed by Ola Hudson for the Station to Station tour
The David Bowie Archive

152
 David Bowie
is intent
on pulling
everything
into the
present,where
life is always
beginning
[102] opposite David Bowie on stage during the
Stage tour, 1978 Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita

154
 [103] above and opposite Nautical costume, 1978 Designed by
Natasha Korniloff for the Stage tour The David Bowie Archive

156
David Bowie
is gazing a
gazely stare

[104] opposite David Bowie, 1977

Photograph by Bruce Weber

158
I, I will be king And you,you will be queen
 [105] opposite Supro Dual It is musics good fortune that David Bowie fell into this art form as his first medium
Howard Goodal l Tone electric guitar used on the
Reality tour, 2004 Manufactured
of choice as a young man. We can now see, given the restless gallimaufry of other
by Valco, Ltd, c.195760 interests and skills revealed since, that this was by no means a certainty. Whats
The David Bowie Archive more, his semi-formal musical training, such as it was, bore all the hallmarks of an
amateurs enthusiastic but directionless exploration into the field, likely to throw
up a brief entanglement with the heady, chaotic circus arena of pop, followed
by an equally swift decline, talent depletion and burnout. Other pop wannabes
populating the lower and middle orders of the charts in April 1967, the month that
saw the release of his novelty single, The Laughing Gnome, had disappeared into
Z-list obscurity by the end of that decade: Bowies invasion of the world was still
nearly five years in the future and would last well into the twenty-first century.
That Bowies career did not follow the oft-trodden path taken by rock and pop
artists with a touch of panache and flair, arresting looks, mastery of basic guitar
technique and a knack of being at the happening party with access to happening
drugs tells us that his musical instincts were of a different order altogether and
that his capacity for musical growth was exceptional. His musicality reacted like a
chemical with the minds of the young, first erupting in the early 1970s and reignit-

Bowie|: music
ing time and time again in the subsequent 40 years. He may have concocted new
performance personae, new costumes, new public poses, new ways of connecting
with audiences, but essentially as a composer he has developed like any other,
discovering fresh possibilities and collaborations as his personality has developed
and matured, being open to and colliding with different cultural stimuli as time has

Lucky old sun

passed. This was Beethovens path, as it was Mahlers, McCartneys and Gershwins.
Of course, Bowie has been a fashion icon of considerable stature and his public
performances as an actor and musician have reverberated across Western culture,
yet all of these colourful manifestations of his imagination we owe to the fact of his
astonishing output as a composer-producer. Put starkly, even if we were to strip away
the flamboyant personalities of Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke, of starmen,

is in my sky
spacemen, earth-bound falling men and video-art marionettes, Bowies influence
as the producer of Iggy Pops The Idiot, as co-producer of Lou Reeds Transformer, as
songwriter of Life on Mars?, All the Young Dudes, Rebel Rebel and Ashes to
Ashes, or as co-creator with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti of the resolutely intimate,
cross-genre experiment of Low are reasons on their own for him to be considered
one of the most significant musicians of the twentieth century.
While lovers of classical music have Leonard Bernstein conducting a multi-
national orchestra and choir in Beethovens ninth symphony firmly imprinted
on their memories as the musical embodiment of the fall of the Berlin Wall in
November 1989, to an even greater body of millions just one song by David Bowie
and Brian Eno, written in the shadow of that wall 12 years earlier, captured the
essence of the moment. Even though, unlike the Beethoven, Heroes was (rather
surprisingly) not performed live there at that time nor broadcast via satellite to
the world, its status as the song of the Wall, as witness to the pain it caused and its
eventual vanquishing by ordinary people, has cast its spell over the historical real-
ity of events ever since (pl.106). Add to the small list above Bowies bewilderingly
fecund catalogue of other songs and studio recordings, the scale of his creativity
behind closed doors, as it were, is staggering. So his musical gift is in itself somewhat
miraculous and it deserves further scrutiny: why has David Bowies music as music
made such a profound impact on other artists in all fields, as well as on the public
at large, over so extended a period?

163
 The first consideration is Bowies knack of capturing and reprocessing the
musical trends of the moment. Broadly speaking, composers of all periods in his-
tory can be divided into three groups: genuine innovators, second-wave absorbers
who synthesize pioneer developments and adept, polished sweepers who satisfy
the publics delayed appetite for what was new five or ten years previously. It is a
common misconception that the famous, landmark composers like Bach, Mozart,
Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner or Gershwin were cutting-edge innovators of the first
group, whereas in fact all of the above fall into the second category, as does Bowie.
Very few of the true pioneers of musical change come down to us, decades or
centuries later, as the leading names of their age. Mozart considered J. S. Bachs
son Carl Philip Emmanuel the modern vanguard of his youth and never thought of
himself as a challenger of older traditions (far from it, Mozart was an avid admirer
of Bach and Handel, definitely yesterdays almost-forgotten men during his life-
time). Joseph Haydn, often credited with the invention of the orchestral symphony,
would have been surprised to have been awarded such an epithet, knowing that if it
belonged to anyone, such a claim belonged to Mannheim-based Czech composer
Johann Stamitz (or Stamic). The young Beethovens apparently novel dramatic
piano style, alarming and titillating to audiences in staid early nineteenth-century
Vienna, was gleaned in part from his insiders familiarity with another Czech
composer, London-based Jan Dussek, unknown to all but the ultra-musically-
informed of the day. Wagner would be nowhere without the visionary advances in
musical style and technique made by the man who would eventually become his
father-in-law, Franz Liszt.
What all these second-wave composers have in common is a highly developed
sense of what else is in the ether, what styles are emerging and where to find such
ingenuity. They are then able to blend new, exploratory ideas with their own well-
developed skills, packaging the ensuing mix for the general audience in such a way
as to intrigue and delight without leaving them utterly bewildered. These are rare
gifts, sometimes perhaps always intuitive rather than studied, which is why the
number of composers whose work results in a universal change in stylistic direction
remains small. Bowies name is among them.
Nor is the sleight of hand involved digesting and transforming the experimen-
tal, the contemporary, the not-yet-modish into something personal and fresh in any
way secretive. Bowie himself has never been coy about the process. Why should an
artist as honest and courageous as he has been have been anything other than open
about it? All musical invention is built on the source material of others and the world
of pop/rock and lately hip-hop is mostly beguilingly free from the deathly taint that
has hung around the notion of borrowing in newly composed classical music since
the deaths of Bach and Handel in the mid-eighteenth century. Some aspects of this
taboo (which these two composers would not have recognized, accustomed as they
were to regular and widespread borrowings from their own and others works) were
carried into twentieth-century popular music. Fear of the accusation of plagiarism
inhibited many a budding writer long before the internet made copy and paste an
idlers charter. Fear of nothing, on the other hand, has been a hallmark of Bowies
career, and his devouring and reshaping of the cultural department store of the late
twentieth century is one of its most stimulating features. It also explains his ability
to renew his musical output over a 40-year stretch.

[106] above EMS Synthi AKS synthesizer

purchased in 1974 by Brian Eno and used for the
recording of Heroes, 1977 The David Bowie Archive

165
 With his first recordings in the 1960s, Bowie was mining the whimsical seam
of English music hall novelty songs (in Uncle Arthur, The Little Bombardier
and Ching-A-Ling, as well as in The Laughing Gnome, the song that causes the
subsequent hardcore Bowie faithful to wince, pl.107), though, to be fair, so were
many others in the swinging London of the Beatles, the Kinks, Hermans Hermits
and (the name says it all) the New Vaudeville Band. By November 1969 and the
release of his album Space Oddity, a new set of influences was evident: psychedelic
hippie folk-rock, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, the Beatles Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery
Tour and the fledgling glam-rock style soon to be the calling card of his friend Marc
Bolan. For the next four decades, similar amalgams of sometimes incongruously
combined ingredients would be stirred into Bowie melting pot after melting pot,
each stew, however delicious, abandoned after each extended recording project
and accompanying tour(s), to the chagrin of waves of newly converted fans. Bowie
has made a habit of thwarting any likelihood of his sound settling into any chosen
groove. It is quite possible to love one Bowie album and hate another, simply
because very few of them (there are more than 20 in total) are alike.
Early Bowie (prior to Space Oddity), while trawling the attic of cockney
music hall, had a weirdness to it that set it apart from much of the whimsy skirting
the charts in the mid-1960s. The London Boys (released in December 1966) is
an unsettling example. Apart from an opening nod to the sound of brass bands,
practically obligatory on English pop songs after the Beatles landmark Revolver had
introduced them into Yellow Submarine (the single of which installed itself at
number one for the summer of 1966), and a similarly disjointed, brassy playout, the
core of The London Boys is altogether more sinister, with an R&B-style Hammond
organ, bass and drums mixed starkly to the front, making no concession to the [107] above Original lead sheet (drum) for The Laughing
easy-going catchiness of pop whatsoever. Bowies lyric, part-autobiographical, Gnome, arranged by Dek Fearnley and David Bowie, 1967
The David Bowie Archive
part-prophetic, traces a teenage wannabes initiation to Sohos club, drug and
[108] opposite Original lead sheet (guitar) for Space
celebrity scene of the time (and, as it has turned out, any time since): Oh, the Oddity by David Bowie, 1969 Handwritten by Paul
first time that you tried a pill/ You feel a little queasy, decidedly ill/ Youre gonna Buckmaster The David Bowie Archive
be sick, but you mustnt lose face/ To let yourself down would be a big disgrace/
With the London boys.
Though the lyric caused Bowies record companies on both sides of the Atlantic
enough anxiety to attempt to bury the song, in fact it is the songs musical com-
ponent that is most unexpected after all, Paul McCartneys admitting that his
Motown-inspired Got to Get You Into My Life on Revolver was a tribute to mari-
juana didnt stop it being enormously popular. Bowies disorientated, meandering
melody with its uneven phrase lengths, drifting listlessly across an accompaniment
that seems oblivious to it, defies cosy accessibility. Unlike McCartney, a social
commentator who stood impartially aside from his fictitious characters, from Mr
Nowhere Man and the meticulous barber of Penny Lane to the melancholic Eleanor
Rigby and Lovely Rita, meter-maid, Bowie became his characters, and despite The
London Boys being written in the third person, he appears to have taken his vic-
tims voice for his own vocal performance. This impulse has reoccurred countless
times in his work.

166
 The unpredictable harmonies of The London Boys, underlining the sense of
alienation in the voice, are out of place in late 1960s pop, defiantly so, but they are
wholly appropriate to the mood of the song. Shifting uneasily from chord to chord,
the Hammond B3s vibrato further undermining the stability of the tuning, the
overall musical effect of the accompaniment of this song feels more at home next
to Blurs Parklife of 1994, particularly the track London Loves, than it does nestled
up to the other hits of late 1966 the Beach Boys Good Vibrations, Donovans
Mellow Yellow and Frank Sinatras Thats Life. Bowies messed-up runaway was
also characterized by his uncompromisingly south London accent, a sound that is
heard across Bowies output until he began touring the United States in earnest and
the reedier, more cosmopolitan voice of Aladdin Sane took over in the mid 1970s.
Space Oddity (July 1969) was Bowies breakthrough from quirky also-ran to
front runner, helped in no small part to its capturing the Zeitgeist with impeccable
timing. Stanley Kubricks 2001: A Space Odyssey had been released the previous
summer and the single started receiving heavy radio play as Apollo 11 made its
historic manned landing on the moon. But typically for Bowie, this was no sing-
along celebration of technological endeavour, nor was Space Oddity a feast of
metaphor like Bart Howards Fly Me to the Moon, the carefree anthem to the
1960s high life as epitomized in Sinatras swing cover of 1964. No, Bowie placed
his astronaut in isolated jeopardy and, in contrast to the cynicism of The London
Boys or the clownishly ironic, rum-ti-tum Love You till Tuesday, the single
that immediately preceded Space Oddity, responded to the man-on-the-moon
moment with a hymn to humanity, the doomed astronauts last words being Tell
my wife I love her very much.
[109] opposite Original lead sheet (electric guitar) Musically rich, with one of Bowies best-ever narrative melodies, Space
for Space Oddity by David Bowie, 1969 Handwritten by Oddity mixes the open-stringed warmth and rhythmic precision of strummed
Paul Buckmaster The David Bowie Archive
acoustic guitars very 1969 with a pseudo-orchestra provided by Rick Wakeman
[110] above Original lead sheet (violin) for Space
Oddity by David Bowie, 1969 Handwritten by Paul
on a string mellotron, the staple sound wash of the Moody Blues also very 1969
Buckmaster The David Bowie Archive (pls 10810). Again, Bowies vocal identifies equally with the Ground Control and
Major Tom characters, but instead of delivering both with tongue firmly in cheek,
as he might have done two or three years earlier, he invests them with a sincerity
that makes the song far more than a comic-book novelty single, of which there were
a great number in the 1960s. It was as if Bowie had found in the song a new recipe
that combined his natural theatricality with a musically broadened palette, bring-
ing together, if you like, the imaginative observation and symphonic ambition of
McCartney with the grainy, urbane realism of Lennon.
Bowie rarely returned to the lush, benevolent, film-score-style soundscape of
Space Oddity in his later career, with the distinguished exception of the magiste-
rial Life on Mars? Even when he revisited the character of Major Tom in the 1980
hit Ashes to Ashes, the sweeping, wide-screen panorama of Space Oddity was
replaced with a distorted, quivering piano, jerkily syncopated internal rhythms
and backing vocals that obscured and surrounded the lead voice like a cloaking
fog. Musically, it was as if the first encounter with Major Tom had the infinity of
space as its backdrop, while the second took place in the claustrophobic metal box
where he met his nemesis.

169
 Bowie was working hard enough in the three years between the UK hits Space
Oddity and Starman, but the general public would have been forgiven for forget-
ting about his existence. His re-emergence in spectacular fashion with the second
of these space-travel ballads on Top of the Pops on 6 July 1972 recalibrated where
he stood in the public eye and his own image of himself. Yet the pot-pourri of sources
for Starman were characteristically numerous and varied. His unassuming opening
chordal dissonances, on the instrument whose light, jangling, chordal presence
on a track was virtually compulsory in the 1970s, the 12-string guitar, betrayed the
unravelling of musical surprises about to take place. Marc Bolans period of wiz-
ards, witches and fairies (as exemplified in songs like Ride a White Swan, By the
Light of a Magical Moon and Cosmic Dancer) was giving way to his harder, more
electric, T-Rex glam-rock style in songs like Hot Love and those with frequent
calls to boogie, and elements of both phases are found in Starman (particularly
in its exhortation to let all the children boogie, a refrain that also references John
Lee Hookers Boogie Chillen).
The most obvious debt, though, was a melodic one, to Harold Arlen, composer
of Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz, the 1939 musical film starring Judy
Garland. By happy accident or design and I strongly suspect the former the
identification of Bowies new extra-terrestrial loner, complete with technicolor
jumpsuit, almost vertical crimson-orange hair, eyeliner and mascara, and lascivi-
ously bisexual body language directed at his fellow (male) guitarist, with Dorothy
and all she represents to the gay community was a stroke of tongue-in-cheek, up-
yours genius that royally relaunched Bowie. It also announced to the world the
metaphorical centre-stage-entrance of Ziggy Stardust (pl.111), a moment worthy
of Marilyn in Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend or Streisand in Hello, Dolly!, in front of
15 million open-mouthed Britons. It was a moment of theatre, for sure, but acted
out in an arena, pop, of such contemporary power and resonance that it had the
urgency and impact of a news report. What was original was the gesture, the cul-
ture shock, the artifice, even if the individual musical components had been heard
before in their separate guises.
It is important to stress that Bowies flirtations with the musical idiosyncrasies
of others around him have never been simple imitations or lazy reproductions in the
hope of commercial popularity-surfing. For one thing, actively seeking popularity
has never been his principal driving force, not since Starman, at any rate. His inter-
est in other peoples music, from whatever source or genre, is first and foremost a
personal passion such as he might have developed if visual art had been his chosen
path instead of music. His musical education, rather than being concentrated into
his childhood and student days, as it is with many professional musicians, has been
virtually uninterrupted since boyhood. His discovery of the catalogue of German-
American composer Kurt Weill (190050), for example, was made not as part of a
university syllabus (as was mine) but as an intrigued, self-motivated adult.

[111] opposite Original lyrics for Ziggy Stardust by

David Bowie, 1972 The David Bowie Archive

171
 Weill-like chords and melodic corners seep into Bowies style and most
noticeably into his vocal delivery throughout his career. In his 1978 world tour, he
programmed Kurt Weills Alabama Song (from the musical play-turned-opera Weill
wrote with Bertolt Brecht, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, first performed
in 1930), which he subsequently recorded and released as a single in February
1980. The way the lyric of this song is constructed, with its series of disjointed,
theatrical declamations and exclamations in the verse followed by a chorus that
paints a seemingly unrelated picture, shares many similarities with a classic Bowie
lyric shape. While the rest of the musical play/opera of Mahagonny is in Brecht and
Weills native German, these words were written in English for Brecht by Elisabeth
Hauptmann (who had previously contributed significantly to the text of another
Brecht-Weill music theatre work, The Threepenny Opera, which is set in Londons
Soho, while Mahagonny is set in a fictional dystopian wasteland representing
America). Hauptmanns verse snaps:

Oh, show me the way

To the next whiskey bar
Oh, dont ask why
Oh, dont ask why

(repeated)

For if we dont find

The next whiskey bar
I tell you we must die
I tell you we must die
I tell you, I tell you
I tell you we must die

The music, hitherto staccato and unfriendly, abruptly changes gear, broadening
and warming into a sweepingly memorable tune for the chorus:

Oh, moon of Alabama

We now must say goodbye
Weve lost our good old mama
And must have whiskey, oh, you know why

Compare this with Bowies lyrical architecture for Ashes to Ashes (pl.112)
from his album of the same year, 1980, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). The verse
throws out unanswered questions, random memories and disconnected utterances:

Do you remember a guy thats been

In such an early song?
I heard a rumour from Ground Control
Oh no, dont say its true
They got a message from the Action Man
Im happy, hope youre happy too
Ive loved all Ive needed love
Sordid details following.

The shrieking of nothing is killing

Just pictures of Jap girls in synthesis
And I aint got no money and and I aint got no hair
But Im hoping to kick but the planet is glowing aglow

[112] opposite Original lyrics for Ashes to Ashes

by David Bowie, 1980 The David Bowie Archive

172
 Then, as we slip into the refrain, the tune fills and simplifies, replacing the
haiku-like parade of haphazard thoughts with an image of Bowies earlier alter ego,
the lost, confused astronaut Major Tom, abandoned in space:

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky,

We know Major Toms a junkie
Strung out in heavens high
Hitting an all-time low

Undoubtedly highly effective live on stage, dominated as it was by Bowies

superlative, characterized singing, the recording of Alabama Song featured an
attempt, ingenious in conception, to disrupt the expected drum beats of the Weill
accompaniment (which has the feel of a tiny, ragged street band) by overdubbing
the deliberately non-rhythmic drum pattern after all the other parts had been
recorded. The result is chaotic (not in a good way), sounding as if a passer-by has
been let loose with a cheap toy drum machine somewhere within earshot of a real
band of musicians. No one said experimentation always worked.
On the EP (extended-play single) released in February 1982 of five songs from
Bowies performance in the TV dramatization of Brechts play-with-songs Baal, he
covered a song from Weills Berlin Requiem of 1928 (the texts of which were also
written by Brecht). His rendition of The Drowned Girl, as well as four other songs
with music by Brecht himself (arranged beautifully on this occasion by composer
Dominic Muldowney, a Weill expert) reveals both how suited Bowies voice was to
the sardonic, gritty delivery usually associated with Brecht-Weill stage works and
also how Weills edgy Singspiel style had surreptitiously crept into Bowies own com-
positional armoury by the 1980s, since the five-song Baal EP does not sit awkwardly
outside the rest of his recorded output, but seems to fit neatly within it. The EP was
recorded at the Hansa Studios in Berlin the studio by the Wall where Bowie
had made parts of Low and all of Heroes, and which was within walking distance
of the cabaret clubs and low-rent theatres that had inspired Weill and Brechts
music theatre collaborations in 1920s and 30s Weimar Germany. Intentionally
or subconsciously, Bowies haunting I Cant Read (first released in September
1989, with a revised version prepared for Ang Lees 1997 film The Ice Storm), with its
melancholic fatalism and its angular harmonies supporting a semi-dissonant tune,
looks on the page remarkably like the kind of song Weill would have been proud to
have written had he lived beyond his meagre 50 years.
Bowies unorthodox relationship with the music that has inspired him not to
imitate but to use as a launching pad for his own creations can be seen at work in
his interplay with the signature riff-oriented rock and roll or, more accurately, the
Chicago-derived urban rhythm and blues of the Rolling Stones. The Stones first
three British hits were Chuck Berrys Come On, Lennon-McCartneys I Wanna Be
Your Man and Buddy Hollys Not Fade Away, but by late 1965 their international
status was confirmed with a worldwide hit composed by Keith Richards and Mick
Jagger themselves, (I Cant Get No) Satisfaction. Whatever smorgasbord of tastes
had gone into their formative years, from 1965 on the Stones had a distinctive sound
of their own, one that a skilled guitarist could pastiche without much difficulty.

[113] opposite Original lyrics for Rebel Rebel

by David Bowie, 1974 The David Bowie Archive

174
 So Bowies inclusion of a song penned by Jagger and Richards in 1966, Lets
Spend the Night Together, on his 1973 album Aladdin Sane might have been a
straightforward cover tribute: after all, the Stones were the biggest band in the
world that year, particularly successful in America. Aladdin Sane, despite its title
name-checking a Chinese character from a Middle Eastern compendium of sto-
ries popular in English Christmas pantomime, was primarily Bowies response to
his impressions of the grimy, unstable underbelly of American culture, as he had
experienced or imagined it from the windows of his tour bus. Elsewhere on the
album, Mick Ronsons in-your-face electric guitar is unashamedly Stones-like,
Bowies vocal mannerisms owe more than a little to Jaggers swagger and the opening
track, Watch That Man, seems like a re-run of the 1971 Jagger-Richards soon-to-be
[114] opposite Oblique Strategy cards created standard, Brown Sugar. The bizarre, brittle, at times avant-jazz, at times high camp
by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt Published in 1975 overarching atmosphere of Aladdin Sane, though, nodding in the direction of the
The David Bowie Archive
prog-rock band King Crimson as well as 1950s Americana, is largely inhospitable
[115] above Notes written by David Bowie and
Brian Eno prior to receiving the Q Inspiration Award,
territory for the unambiguous R&B of the Rolling Stones, and Bowies treatment
1995 The David Bowie Archive of Lets Spend the Night Together is as unexpected as it is thrilling.
Bowie speeds the song up and adds in some fabulously demented, discordant,
high-energy piano from Mike Garson and some equally crazed gyrating synthe-
sizer and Hendrix-like lead-guitar figures, taking the song, which had courted
controversy enough when first released by the Rolling Stones in 1967 thanks to its
suggestive lyrics, to a new level of sexual abandon. In Bowies version, the night in
question promises to be not merely wild but illegally so. Drugs and under-age sex
may well have been meat and drink to touring rock groups of the 1970s, no less so
for Bowie and his entourage by all accounts, but the manic energy with which they
are celebrated in this recording is unusual. Most of the excesses described in the
rebellious, psychedelic music of the 1960s and 70s now seem tame, even rather
quaint, but Bowies radical makeover of Lets Spend the Night Together remains
uncompromising, brutal and electrically charged in the twenty-first century, in
a manner that is not dissimilar to the continuing challenge of Stanley Kubricks
A Clockwork Orange, which scandalized audiences across the free world in the year
before the recording of Aladdin Sane.
Aladdin Sane was not Bowies final brush with a Rolling Stones sound. One of
his most enduringly popular songs, Rebel Rebel (pl.113), first worked on in the
studio in London over Christmas 1973, bears the unmistakable imprint of a Keith
Richards-type riff (though rumours that Richards himself played on the sessions
are groundless: on the record the player of the famous riff was Alan Parker). Again,
despite the stated aim of mimicking a Stones intro, what Bowie and his musicians
create is typically decoupled from its given starting point, veering off into a glam-
rock anthem to transsexualism/transvestism (it is worth noting that Rebel Rebel
was released in 1974, two years before Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean,
Jimmy Dean opened in Columbus, Ohio, eight years before its film adaptation and
four years before the release of the French-Italian film version of La Cage aux Folles).
The songs now iconic phrase, not sure if youre a boy or a girl, derives from the
ubiquitous street shout of 1960s navvies in London: Are you a boy or a girl?
It is a measure of Bowies highly idiosyncratic performance in the song that in
the nearly 40 years since the release of Rebel Rebel it hasnt occurred to most
listeners that it was originally prompted by another bands style. In both Lets
Spend the Night Together and Rebel Rebel the process Bowie engages in is a
form of distortion of the template provided by another band, rather than a homage.
This is a crucial distinction, since it is the process he adopts time and time again,
colliding, for example, with Philadelphia soul in Young Americans (1975), with Nile
Rodgers New York dance scene in Scary Monsters (1980) and with Trent Reznors
industrial metal soundscapes and early drumnbass grooves in 1. Outside (1995).
He does it most drastically in his three Berlin albums, which deserve and receive
discussion of their own below.

176
177
 The urge to experiment has extended well beyond the multitude of musical Underpinning this pressure-cooker working environment was the inspiration
and non-musical influences that have fed into each Bowie recording project (for of German synthesizer-based groups Kraftwerk, Neu! and Tangerine Dream. These
the intelligently uncomplacent Heathen, made in his fifty-fifth year, Bowie cited so-called Krautrock bands, as well as Eno and others in the vanguard of electronica,
Richard Strauss Four Last Songs of 1948 as musical preparation and Nietzsches were able to develop and thrive in the late 1970s thanks to advances in synthesizer
1882 philosophical tract Die Frhliche Wissenschaft, not to mention defaced medi- technology, led by Moog and ARP. Bowie met the members of Kraftwerk Ralf
eval and Renaissance Christian art as non-musical elements: not a combination of Htter, Florian Schneider, Wolfgang Flr and Karl Bartos at their purpose-built,
influences likely to be found in any other popular artist of the early twenty-first state-of-the-art Kling-Klang studio in Dsseldorf, West Germany, in 1977, not long
century, I suspect). Long-term, on-off working relationships with a small group of after the release of the groups groundbreaking album Radio-Activity. One critical
key musical partners notwithstanding Tony Visconti, Brian Eno, Carlos Alomar, difference between Kraftwerks approach and Bowies was the emphasis placed by
Mike Garson, Gail Ann Dorsey, Reeves Gabrels, Mark Plati and Mick Ronson chief the Germans on finding electronic means for all departments of the sound: process-
among them Bowie has sought out a diverse range of musicians in his career, often ing vocals in keyboard-operated vocoders, usurping acoustic drums with machines
(one imagines deliberately) placing himself or the musician in question out of their and so on. By contrast, to the newly synthesized, ambient washes of sound made
comfort zone, challenging him or her to avoid the expected, the easy reliance on available by machine technology, Bowie and Eno added human players on guitar,
muscle memory or deeply ingrained training. drums, bass, acoustic piano and cello, with Bowie providing emotionally taut vocals
Sometimes musicians were asked to exchange instruments in sessions, to pro- on some tracks, alongside occasional male and female backing vocals.
voke the potential novelties arising from a beginners inexperience or technical Put bluntly, Low redefined what a pop album might be. While underground and
innocence. Brian Eno introduced Bowie to games played by classical avant-garde niche-market artists and technicians had been playing with the concept of long,
composers in the 1950s, whereby chance the throwing of a dice, the dealing slowly shifting rivers of synthesized and modulating wave forms for some time before
of numbered cards and so on would determine how or what players might play, Bowie, Eno and Visconti joined the party, Bowies engagement with the movement
a technique known formally as aleatory composition. Enos favourite method ensured its transition to the mainstream, where it reacted with a huge number of
of encouraging unpredictable musical behaviour was the use of a set of cards he musicians and listeners across the globe. In its way it was as much a redrawing of
had devised with artist Peter Schmidt called Oblique Strategies, which involved the musical map as the Beatles Revolver had been ten years earlier. Whats more,
musicians picking up cards (pl.114) with instructions on them, such as What would Bowies entanglement with German electronica released it from the limitations
your closest friend do? The commands on the cards could also be more specific it had placed upon itself. Low, unlike the mechanistic ramblings of Kraftwerks
to music: You are a disgruntled ex-member of a South African rock band. Play the Autobahn (1974) and Radio-Activity (1975), or Neu!s Neu 1 (1971), was filled with
notes you were not allowed to play. Pretentious though some of these theories human emotion, even if it was invariably confined to melancholia or ennui.
of musician-manipulation may now appear, on the whole the players themselves, Lows genesis lay in Bowies too-late-for-inclusion soundtrack ideas for Nicolas
perhaps dulled by years of sessions where they did indeed rely on familiar tricks, Roegs darkly futuristic 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth, in which Bowie played
seemed open to them. For all the artificiality of the process, the aural results, in the leading role of the humanoid alien Thomas Jerome Newton. Much of the
albums such as 1. Outside and Low, are certainly original and unpredictable. Whether pessimistic tone of the album reflects the films themes of isolation and the con-
they would have been anyway, given Bowies strange state of mind for the latter sequences of greed. The most startling feature of the records overall musical
and the unusual circumstances of the recording sessions in a converted French impression for listeners at the time (I can still recall vividly the shock at my first
chteau, in a studio adjacent to the Berlin Wall during the Cold War and, in the case playing of it, as a Bowie-idolizing music student) was not its black mood, common
of 1. Outside, up a mountain in the Alps we will never know. enough in rock, but its apparent rhythmic, harmonic and melodic inactivity. It was
Low (1977) did not set the musical world on fire at the time of its release and like frozen music. What mainstream music lovers were mostly unaware of in the
many Bowie admirers found the switch of direction from Station to Station (1976) mid-1970s was that this bare, musical stasis was in fact part of a growing, soon-to-be
too drastic for comfort, but with the benefit of a longer period of reflection it has all-conquering movement across modern culture.
rightly been judged one of the seminal musical recordings of the late twentieth The term mimimalism was coined by English composer Michael Nyman in
century. Low is traditionally grouped with Heroes (pl.122) and Lodger into a trilogy 1968 to refer to a trend in classical music that began in the 1960s on the fringes
of Berlin albums, though of the three only Heroes was recorded in its entirety at of musical activity with experimental composers Terry Riley, La Monte Young and
the Hansa Studios. The triptych is distinguished not so much by the Berlin studio John Cage, before gradually occupying the centre ground with composers Steve
premises as by the creative chemistry of Bowie, Eno and producer Tony Visconti Reich, Philip Glass and John Adams in the 1970s and 80s. In essence this trend was
working in a milieu of electronic-acoustic experimentation, in a closed, creatively a reaction to the frantic complexity and theoretical overload of so much modern-
claustrophobic, often inescapably tense atmosphere. Despite the fact that Bowie ist music in the first half of the twentieth century, though minimalisms apparent
was submitting himself to the painful process of trying to shake off his addiction simplicity is deceptive. The undisputed master of the genre is American composer
to cocaine at the time and that a dark mood would often descend on proceedings, Steve Reich, who in studying the drumming and mallet-based musics of Africa
these unpropitious conditions nevertheless bred a surprising degree of artistic and Indonesia came to the realization that what seemed to be endless, hypnotic
freedom and the creative outcome successfully defied the commercial impera- repetition in this music was in fact continuously, subtly changing. He sought to
tives of the record industry no mean feat in itself for an asset as valuable as Bowie. adapt this theory of incremental transformation to Western music in a series of
landmark works, which also extended its scope to include voice sampling and the
derivation of rhythmic patterns from looped tapes of speech. David Bowie is the
conduit through which this relatively private, art-music idea made the leap across
genres into modern pop: Low was the project in which he brought about this cross-
fertilization. Brian Eno was his pilot into the new territory.

178 179
 Enos 1975 album Discreet Music, an obsessively favourite vinyl record of Bowies
at the time, had taken many of the same precepts Steve Reich was exploring the
looping of musical phrases back on to themselves, the repetition of units of melody
or harmony so that their timbre gradually morphs into new sounds, almost imper-
ceptibly (the albums title track is over half an hour long, the length of a Haydn
symphony). Discreet Music is reserved, gentle and unobtrusive (this is no criticism,
it is intentionally so), investigating the possibilities of French composer Erik Saties
theories on musique dameublement. Saties furniture music was meant to form part
of the background of a room or scene or moment, rather than be its primary focus.
He introduced the concept with five short pieces in 1917, whose subtitles carried
various descriptors such as to be played in a vestibule or for a drawing room. Eno
applied this logic to what has since been termed his ambient music. It is no fault of
Enos, whose ideas were fresh and searching, that his ambient music was to become
the template for myriad listless wallpaper-like soundtracks to dentists surgeries.
Enos urge to withdraw ego from music, to allow chance and accident to play
a viable part in the creative process, was, in the context of the mid-1970s, coura-
geous, radical and renewing. The subdued, almost pastoral calm of Discreet Music,
though, stands in stark contrast to the menacing, suppressed energy of Low and even
more so to the muscular, industrial intensity of Heroes. What Bowie and his rock
players brought to the ambient ethos was a raw forcefulness. The combination
of rich synthetic textures (totally new aural sensations for the majority of listen-
ers), Bowies languorously emotive vocals as if always teetering on the precipice
of some unspecified calamity and the grinding, often disorientatingly slow rock
pulse of the three-album set was thoroughly dynamic. It proved liberating to musi-
cians the world over.
Within months, if not weeks, of the release of Low, the landscape in which
other composers stood shifted in its direction. For myself, I borrowed a stupen-
dously unattainable ARP 2600 synthesizer from a kindly producer and immedi-
ately put it to work accompanying the stage antics of my fellow student, the then
barely known comic Rowan Atkinson. And soon, with the revolutionary Yamaha
CS-80 polyphonic synth in my Kilburn bedsit, I was creating endless cassettes of
Low-inspired songs and meandering instrumental expositions. My experience was
multiplied a thousandfold among young musicians. A whole pop movement, the so-
called New Romantics, was to be spawned from Bowies subsequent 1980 song and
video, Ashes to Ashes (a craze I confess I mischievously lampooned in Nice Video,
Shame About the Song, a song I wrote for Not the Nine OClock News, the first
line of which reads, Lets spend our honeymoon in East Berlin), but the musical
impact of Low and its sequel Heroes was far deeper and longer lasting, stretching
out beyond pop into the culture at large, embracing film music, performance art,
dance and classical concert works.
As we have seen, the American composers John Cage, Terry Riley, Steve Reich [116] opposite Character notes for Ziggy Stardust by
and Philip Glass were a significant influence on the minimalist style of the Berlin David Bowie, 1972 The David Bowie Archive

albums. In the wake of Low, Heroes and Lodger, the flow of influence reversed on [117122] following pages
[117] Original lyrics for Oh! You Pretty Things by
itself and Glass composed two symphonies based on source material from two of the David Bowie, 1971 The David Bowie Archive
set the Low symphony in 1992, followed in 1996 by Heroes, which was also adapted [118] Original lyrics for Lady Stardust by David Bowie,
into a contemporary dance work choreographed by Twyla Tharp. The interaction 1972 The David Bowie Archive

of these two worlds, contemporary classical and pop, in the to and fro of Bowie, [119] Original lyrics for Fascination by David Bowie,
Eno and Glass, represents a milestone in the convergence of musical genres that 1975 The David Bowie Archive
[120] Original lyrics for Fashion by David Bowie, 1980
has been the story of recent musical history. It must also be immensely gratifying The David Bowie Archive
to Bowie, a man whose artistic appetite has been unusually eclectic since his teens, [121] Original lyrics for Battle for Britain (The
to witness the gloriously fruitful interplay of art forms that is the reality of modern Letter) by David Bowie, 1997 (signed 2007)
creativity: not many who dream of these rapprochements can also claim hefty respon- The David Bowie Archive
[122] Original lyrics for Heroes by David Bowie, 1977
sibility for their coming into being. David Bowie, composer, is one such catalyst. The David Bowie Archive

180
 [123] above Print after a self-portrait [124] above David Bowie during the Heroes album
by David Bowie, 1978 The David Bowie Archive sessions, 1977 Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita

188 189
David Bowie
is forever
and ever

[125] above Heroes album cover mock-up, 1977

The David Bowie Archive

190 191
 Chris top he r Bre ward

For We are
David Bowies special place in an iconography of chosen and purchased with devout intention, and their
extremist British style was spotted quickly by Peter covers opened up decorative possibilities that turned
York, one of the sharpest of Britains pop-culture teenage bedrooms into holy shrines. For those (and I
pundits. In his influential essay Them, published in counted myself among them) whose provincial loca-
the October 1976 issue of Harpers & Queen, he isolates tion kept them distant from, and subservient to, the
Bryan Ferry, the Roeg/Bowie film The Man Who Fell to pulse of metropolitan fashionability, from Them, an

the goon
Earth and Andrew Logans Miss World competition as LP cover propped against a skirting board could stand
quintessential examples of Themness, and describes in for all sorts of imagined and hoped-for affiliations.2
subscribers to the Them cult: Bowies were always among the most effective, yet
disorientating, productions in this regard, perhaps
[They are] examples of a new breed, the crea- because he had such a direct creative influence on
tors of the dominant high-style of the seven- their format. In focusing on their construction and

squad:
ties. These new aesthetes have in common a content, this essay explores how key covers, from
visual sensibility so demanding that they are 1967s David Bowie onwards, distilled both the elusive
prepared to sacrifice almost anything for the fashion moment and the character of the artist in
look Thems are the word made flesh. Thems extraordinary ways.
put the idea into their living; they wear their
rooms, eat their art.1 London

Bowie, style
Such intensity pervades Bowies metamorphic career Gerald Fearnleys June 1967 head-and-shoulders shot
and responses to it. As a high priest of Themness, his for Bowies eponymous debut set the bar in offering a
music, lyrics, public utterances, body and wardrobe format that was both seemingly generic and yet slightly
continue to be scrutinized for prescient meaning, unsettling of the status quo (pl.126). Photographed
for clues about the last or the next big thing. If the in Fearnleys basement studio in Bryanston Street,
dominant quality of Them style could be described near Marble Arch, the young artist carries all the

and the
as the capturing of the soon rather than the now, trappings of Swinging London, then in its Indian
then Bowies co-option of it, particularly during the summer, on his narrow shoulders. The modish (as
1970s, operated like a compass, pointing magnetically in mod and mode) Robert James page-boy haircut
towards its future (or sometimes confusingly to its and the quasi-military coat (designed by Bowie him-
past) material manifestations. Successive framings of self) suggest the laddish dandyism of Carnaby Street
his compelling form seemed to combine the qualities (glinting gold button reflecting burnished blond

power of
of nostalgia and futurism in tandem, ensuring that his hair), while the Disney-like, West-Coast graphics
image resided not in the present, but tantalizingly and wistful gaze betray a sense of other-worldliness
elsewhere. As captured on the cover of an LP, Bowies that almost undermines Bowies emerging notoriety
style retained a talismanic power with wide-reaching as a recognizable face, sharp and streetwise. Such
influence. Certainly my own experience, growing up willful contrarianism placed him in the same milieu
far from London in the 1970s, was, like that of many as the more whimsical and experimental of his music
other sensitive, isolated boys of my generation and contemporaries, including his elfin friend Marc Bolan

the LP cover,
after, ineffably marked by Bowies spectral presence and Ray Davies of the Kinks. Yet as Peter Doggett notes
glowing through the television screen, emblazoned in his account of Bowies career in the 1970s, true fame
across a record sleeve. remained elusive. Following the release of the album
In the digital age we perhaps forget how impor- Bowie was forced to take up part-time work in a West
tant album covers were in the promotion of stars, as End reprographics store and seemed to disappear
vehicles for artistic collaboration and as signifiers of for two years.3 In some ways then the visuals of David

19671983
allegiance and aspiration among fans. Their vivid visual Bowie perfectly capture the universal longing of the
appeal and haptic immediacy offered a tangible con- star-struck suburban shop-boy: hungry for success, in
nection between performer and listener: albums were fashion though not yet of it.

193
 By the summer of 1969, however, following the suggestions. Many of the signifiers already displayed
release of Space Oddity (pl.127), Bowie had both across the first UK cover of The Man Who Sold the World
escaped from his rut and established a more convinc- are reprised in the piece, ballast to Bowies mischievous
ing and suggestive creative grounding. In July 1967 assertion, halfway through the interview: Im gay
he had met the mercurial avant-garde mime artist and and always have been. Watts opens with an album-
dancer Lindsay Kemp, who would become a mentor referencing tongue-in-cheek complaint that even
and regular collaborator throughout the following though he wasnt wearing silken gowns right out of
decade, and from there on life had changed. The Keith Libertys, and his long blond hair no longer fell wavily
McMillan image chosen for the cover of the first UK past his shoulders, David Bowie was looking yummy.
version of Bowies next LP, The Man Who Sold the World He goes on to make the following assertion:
(pl.129), already shows Kemps interstitial sexuality
wielding its influence. Here Bowie reclines across Davids present image is to come on like a
a day-bed draped in shimmering blue silk, sporting a swishy queen, a gorgeously effeminate boy.
Mr Fish man-dress of cream velvet with a Beardsley- Hes as camp as a row of tents, with his limp
esque print of indigo fruits and flowers, which strains hand and trolling vocabulary He knows that [126] David Bowie 1967 [127] David Bowie (re-released as Space Oddity in 1972) 1969
open across his pale chest, accentuates the curve in these times its permissible to act like a male
of his hip and flares out to the calves, where black tart, and that to shock and outrage, which pop
leather boots emerge and cross. Long, lightly curled has always striven to do is a balls-break-
hair falls to his shoulders while he raises a bejewelled ing process The expression of his sexual
arm to adjust the brim of a fedora. In his other hand he ambivalence establishes a fascinating game
elegantly holds a single playing card above the pack of In a period of conflicting sexual identity he
cards that has been strewn across the floor of a studio shrewdly exploits the confusion surrounding
whose red curtains and exotic accessories mimic the the male and female roles. Why arent you
fittings of a Victorian opium den, a bordello or one of wearing your girls dress today? I said to him
the many bohemian squats that peppered Notting Hill, Oh dear, he replied, you must understand
Kensington and Camden Town in the period. that its not a womans. Its a mans dress.5
By 1971 Bowie is the ultimate odalisque, resplend-
ent in his provocation. In some ways his chameleonic Though at the time the interview went relatively
persona was again simply soaking up the influences unremarked, in later years its message caused the
already surrounding him. Mr Fish and his generation predictable flurries of manufactured controversy that
of tailors on Savile Row and Jermyn Street had been Bowie continued to manipulate and encourage. But as
selling kaftans and tightly cut unisex suits to wayward Gill cautions, you didnt need to be Roland Barthes to
aristocrats, fashion photographers, interior design- decode the public persona that David Bowie was pro-
ers and pop stars since 1968. Mick Jagger had long jecting. Although maybe you did: Barthes might have
since laid claim to that turf, but Bowie is flirting more picked up on the subtext of artifice and performance
determinedly with the dangerous territory of sexual that everyone else seemed to overlook at the time.6 [128] The Man Who Sold the World (original US release), 1970 [129] The Man Who Sold the World (original UK release) 1971
ambiguity. In his survey of the wider music industrys Indeed subsequent alternative covers for The Man Who
relationship with homosexuality, John Gill notes the Sold the World (pls 12831) indiate a much more fluid
prescience of Bowies interview with Jeremy, the UKs approach to intentionality, meaning and audience,
first mainstream gay magazine, in 1970. Though an revealing Bowies willingness to test and exploit pos-
unremarkable and wholly anodyne piece, the inter- sibilities at this formative stage of his career. They
view was in the nervous context of the times a radical included a US version that featured a cartoon by Mike
act, and could only have started pushing buttons with a Weller of a deranged cowboy, stetson shot to pieces,
gay audience starved of contemporary queer culture.4 blanket-wrapped Winchester shotgun under his arm,
If talking to Jeremy was one thing, Bowies infa- passing the south London mental asylum in which
mous interview with Michael Watts of Melody Maker Bowies brother was receiving treatment and emitting
in January 1972 was quite another, and explosive in its a speech-bubble, the words of which (Roll up your

194

[130] The Man Who Sold the World (original German release) 1971 [131] The Man Who Sold the World (worldwide re-release) 1972

195
sleeves and show us your arms) Mercury Records had menace and the anticipation of perverse sex and vio-
excised. This riff on madness was perhaps closer to the lence among the rain-soaked, litter-strewn backstreets
themes of the record within, but its power to shock of depressed early 1970s London. A fan recalls having
paled beside that of a preening Bowie in a man-dress. intense feelings about Bowie at this time, as described
The second UK version of The Man Who Sold the in a volume of pop-star fantasies collated by Fred and
World, released in 1972 with a monochrome image by Judy Vermorel in 1985:
photographer Brian Ward of a guitar-wielding Bowie
kicking his leg in the air, could not have been more Bowie was magic and he was supreme. He had
different to the effete Pre-Raphaelite ennui of its the qualities of a type of ruler. He was science
predecessor, or to the intervening retro-camp glam- fiction personified. To me he represented
our distilled into the cover for Hunky Dory in 1971 the most bizarre things which were evil and
(pl.132), where Wards tinted portrait transforms not of this world and completely beyond the
the star into a latter-day Greta Garbo. In many ways, imagination. I really believed he was an alien [132] Hunky Dory 1971 [133] The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars 1972
while referencing the grittier queer machismo of of some kind. I didnt think he was normal,
New York contemporaries such as Lou Reed (a close human I would look at him in his posters
friend, whose album Transformer Bowie produced in and try to understand the sexuality in his
1972), the second version of The Man Who Sold the World records. Id analyse them to death. Id think
also echoed the explosive and simultaneous debut of that means this and this means that I think
Bowies most successful persona, Ziggy Stardust. Here he should be made aware of how hes influ-
was a look infused with a strange, superhuman, sexual enced peoples dress, their manners, their
energy, captured by Watts description of Bowies behaviour Its a terrible thing he did really.
wardrobe in the 1972 Melody Maker interview: Hes got a lot to answer for.8

Hed slipped into an elegant-patterned type The next two album covers exploited the propa-
of combat suit, very tight around the legs, gandist potential of the poster format in their stark
with the shirt unbuttoned to reveal a full presentation of Ziggys spiky, painted, naked nar-
expanse of white torso. The trousers were cissism, all overlaid with the sheen of a peculiarly
turned up at the calves to allow a better 1973 version of elegance (a look that Bowie would
glimpse of a huge pair of red plastic boots later characterize as a cross between Nijinsky and
with at least three-inch rubber soles; and the Woolworths in a 1976 Daily Express interview 9).
hair was Vidal Sassooned into such impecca- Released in April 1973, Aladdin Sane (pl.134) featured
ble shape that one held ones breath in case a cover shot by fashion photographer Brian Duffy that [134] Aladdin Sane 1973 [135] Pin Ups 1973
the slight breeze from the open window dared was so innovative in its use of seven-colour printing
ruffle it. I wish you could have been there to that the album sleeve could only be printed in Zurich.
varda [see] him; he was so super.7 The effect was hyper-real: Ziggys trademark copper
hair and Flash Gordon lightning bolt make-up (applied
Ziggys heart-stopping image bestrode four album by Bowies new personal stage make-up artist, Pierre
covers. Released in June 1972, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy La Roche of the House of Arden, who would go on
Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was the first (pl.133). to be in charge of make-up for the Ziggy Stardust/
Brian Ward captured the alien star outside his studio Aladdin Sane tour of 1973 and later worked on the
in Londons Heddon Street, clad in a Bowie-designed Rocky Horror Picture Show) searing against the pure
costume, cut and sewn by Freddie Burretti, who would white background. The strong fashion references con-
go on to design subsequent Ziggy outfits. The costume tinued in Pin Ups (pl.135), released six months later.
was inspired by the get-up of the Droogs in Stanley The cover was photographed by Justin de Villeneuve
Kubricks notorious film of the Anthony Burgess novel and features his protge Twiggy, who leans her pol-
A Clockwork Orange, released in the UK earlier that ished frame into Ziggys neck, the blank expressions
year. The colourized photograph exudes mystery, of both as fragile as china Pierrot dolls. These are

196
[136] Diamond Dogs 1974 [137] Young Americans 1975

197
images of such attenuated artificiality that they chime Bowies increasing reliance on cocaine, just as the shift
perfectly with the sensibility of a contemporary inter- towards a colder, harder-edged creative impulse was
national fashion world that through the work of Yves transforming cultural production in the worlds of art,
Saint Laurent, Halston, Ossie Clark and Walter Albini theatre, fashion, film and music. Hugo Wilcken puts
valorized a vague elision of camp Art Deco revivalism, it succinctly:
a sensual attention to surfaces and the glittery bril-
liance of Futurism.10 Theres a part of his drug addiction that falls
into clich. After all, Bowie was hardly the only
New York and Los Angeles rock star in mid-seventies LA burning himself
out on cocaine. Each era has its drug, which
The prettiness of Pin Ups did not survive for long, and translates its myth in the mid sixties LSD
Ziggy was famously abandoned by his progenitor, like reflected a nave optimism about the possibil-
Frankensteins hapless monster, at a dramatic concert ity of change; and in the mid seventies, cocaine [138] Station to Station 1976 [139] Low 1977
at the Hammersmith Odeon in July 1973. His final echoed the grandiose nihilism of post-Manson
appearance, as a mutant canine/human in a painting LA. And Bowie fell into that trap.11
by Guy Peellaert (a Belgian artist purloined from the
stable of Mick Jagger) on the cover of the May 1974 The covers of the four albums produced between
album Diamond Dogs (pl.136), anticipated the coming 1976 and 1979 betray both the vicissitudes of Bowies
shift to darkness in Bowies repertoire. The fashion personal inner tumult and this lurch towards the para-
photographer Terry ONeill had previously produced noid, introspective, post-industrial, dehumanized
a striking monochrome portrait of a louche Bowie character of late Cold-War pop culture. Their harsh
in pseudo-gaucho dress, a huge and angry snarling visual bleakness was irresistible to a generation of
hound leaping up next to him (pl.175). Peellaerts NME-reading sad young men (and they generally
version was no less disturbing, with its sphinx-like were young men) whose imaginative parameters were
star sprawled across the gatefold as if in an American- sketched out by the novels of J. G. Ballard, the music
Gothic freak show, the prominent genitals painted of Kraftwerk and the films of Nicolas Roeg. Station to
out to pacify conservative US mores. As a reflection Station (pl.138), released in January 1976, used a photo-
of the dystopian vision revealed by the LPs music and graph taken by Steve Schapiro on the set of Roegs
the deteriorating state of Bowies mental equilibrium film The Man Who Fell to Earth on the cover. Bowie,
the cover worked perfectly. And though Bowie later who starred as the alien Thomas Jerome Newton, is
disavowed that punk held any sway over him, its visual walking through the doorway of his spaceship (repre-
codes and nihilistic nastiness did seem to herald the sented in the film by an anechoic recording chamber). [140] Heroes 1977 [141] Lodger 1979
coming of the end of glam aesthetics for something Writing about the way the image was used on the
far more disturbing. album, Wilcken notes:
Diamond Dogs coincided with Bowies self-
enforced exile, first to New York and Los Angeles and On the original release it was cropped
then, from 1976, to Lake Geneva and Berlin. The cover and black and white, giving it an austere,
of his 1975 release Young Americans (pl.137) briefly Expressionist flavour redolent of the
reprised the nostalgic haziness of Hunky Dory in its use European Modernism of the 1920s and the
of a backlit and heavily airbrushed portrait by Stephen photography of Man Ray. The stark, red sans
Jacobs (an image that owes a debt to the cover of Toni serif typography the album title and artist
Basils 1974 album After Dark Basil was the choreog- are run together adds to the retro-Modern-
rapher for the Diamond Dogs concert tour). With his ist feel. Bowie himself hovers somewhere
checked shirt, glinting bangle and sinuously smoulder- between America and Europe, his hair in
ing cigarette, Bowie comes across like a young and a James Dean quiff, his tieless white shirt
androgynous Katharine Hepburn. But the soft-focus severely buttoned to the neck.12
effects were not to last. The move to America marked

198
[142] Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) 1980 [143] Lets Dance 1983

199
 Berlin like Schieles portrait of Friederike Maria around the edge of the LP suggests nothing more than York finished the essay with a postscript, written
Beer, distorted like the same artists lacerat- a spread in Vogue or an advert for lipstick. It is all too at some point in the present:
By the release of Low (pl.139) and Heroes (pl.140) the ing self-portraits. It was as if the turmoil of theatrical to be true.
following year, the transition to Europe was complete, the previous records had been focused on to Louises closed soon after. Just couldnt han-
musically in terms of Low and aesthetically in so far as the artwork of Lodger, leaving the music itself London dle the punk invasion. Steve Strange went off
the visual references of the Heroes cover went. The unsettlingly free of emotion.14 to do the Moors Murderers. Caroline went to
cover of Low fell back once more on the imagery of Peter York included a short piece entitled Bowie DJ at Billys, another little gay bote on Meard
The Man Who Fell to Earth, featuring a manipulated still Deliberately shot in low resolution with a Polaroid Night in Style Wars, a collection of his essays launched Street Steve Strange was on the door, and
from the film, one already used for a paperback reis- SX-70 camera, a black-suited Bowie, in full victim in 1980 the same year as Scary Monsters. He describes a lot of the freaks went Most of Billys peo-
sue of the original Walter Tevis novel, and designed make-up with an apparently broken nose, starred, the aftermath of a party in fashion designer Thea ple were into Bowie In November 1978, a
by Bowies old school friend George Underwood masochistically, in a crime scene scenario. Strikingly Porters Greek Street shop that must have taken place Tuesday, they got up a Bowie night. Frankie
The dominant colour is an autumnal orange. Bowies reminiscent of Weegees shockingly violent Lower a few years previously, around 1976, just as punk hit did her act, which was taking on some sec-
hair is exactly the same shade as the swirling, Turner- East Side social documentary photographs of the London and at around the same time that Harpers & ondary Bowie characters developing them
esque background, underlining the solipsistic notion 1940s, the image would also prove eerily close in Queen ran his feature on Them: in mime. Out of that, of course, came Neon
of place reflecting person, object and subject melding spirit to New York artist Robert Longos stark Men in Night at the Blitz, the ascent of Steve Strange,
into one.13 With its Neo-Expressionist photographic the Cities drawings of 1981 (Longo would himself go on In the corner is the biggest Bowie casualty Ive Studio 21 and the whole new old world.19
portrait by Masayoshi Sukita, Heroes of October to direct New Orders Bizarre Love Triangle video in ever seen, and Ive seen a few Shes done up
1977 is more clearly revealing of Bowies obsession 1986 using similar motifs).15 Inside the gatefold sleeve, completely as late 72 Bowie, i.e. the ginger In their moment of fame, Steve Strange and the habit-
with German culture of the first half of the twentieth a collage of found images arranged by artist Derek Joe Brown crop a wasp striped leotard, all us of the Blitz club unsurprisingly took starring
century, which appeared to encompass everything Boshier included a picture of Che Guevaras corpse, in one job and the little ballet shoes and the roles in the video for Ashes to Ashes, the lead single
from the cabaret scene of the 1930s evoked in Mantegnas Lamentation over the Dead Christ and studio one chandelier earring, which is actually a sil- on Scary Monsters. This marked a paradigm shift in
Christopher Isherwoods Goodbye to Berlin through the shots of Bowie being prepared for his death scene. ver leaf hanging from a red star. But the main British pop music, where the promotional film and the
rise of Fascism (the trappings of which Bowie seemed thing is, shes got the full tilt mime face on, red cir- world of the visual perhaps began to take prominence,
to flirt with) to the bleak psycho-pathology of the New York cles on the cheeks, red lips and red around the eclipsing the importance of the album cover and even,
divided city. In common with the cover chosen for Iggy eyes on a white base the full clown job. Her arguably, the music.
Pops The Idiot (produced by Bowie during this period), If Lodger marked a bereavement, then the first album teeth, like Davids, are a bit weaselish.17 Meanwhile, in 1980 I still resided in a teenage
the Heroes cover seemingly makes reference to the of the following decade indicated, in the words of its bedroom in provincial England. For me the video
angular, attenuated gestures of those paintings by author, a purging.16 Released in September 1980, York goes on to describe how the company moves for Ashes to Ashes represented a perverse world
members of Die Brcke that fascinated Bowie as he Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) washed away the on to the lesbian bar Louises next door, a venue where of impossible glamour that I feared but desperately
sought refuge in Berlins art galleries, and quotes disturbing memories of Los Angeles and Berlin with the evolved Bowie freaks, and the original punks feel needed to join; and the old Bowie LPs, propped
directly from a scene in Luis Buuel and Salvador Dals the help of fashion illustrator Edward Bells delicate at home, but where tensions are emerging: Down against the skirting board like trophies, would soon
Surrealist masterpiece Un Chien Andalou (1929), in drawing of a tousled Bowie in Pierrot costume, super- Louises that night are Malcolm McLaren with Sid start to take second place to a mournful singer from
which ants pour out of the stigmata in the centre of imposed against ethereal photographs by Brian Duffy and Nancy and Steve Strange, who had a different Manchester called Morrissey, with his vaguely danger-
the artists palm. (pl.142). This cover image returned its protagonist name then and is done up like a miniature Vivienne ous and arousing album covers featuring grainy shots
While unpopular with the music critics, 1979s back to his shape-shifting of the early 1970s, but also Westwood with black candy floss spikes and a camou- from Warhols Flesh, and rough boys in vests with Jean
Lodger (pl.141), the final album of the Berlin triptych, seemed to reveal the mechanics that lay behind his flage bondage suit. Frankie, the Bowie casualty, intro- Cocteau-inspired tattoos on their shoulders. By the
marked a watershed in terms of the design concept, as former incarnations as simple acts of performance. duces York to her lesbian punk friend Caroline and the autumn of 1984 I had left home and arrived in London.
Peter Doggett records: By choosing Bell, Bowie seemed to be signalling an evening ends messily in a squat in Kensington Gardens Bowies hugely successful (in commercial terms)
understanding of the superficialities and contingency Square, in a space that seems to telescope the previous album Lets Dance, with its glossy cover art by Greg
Its rather alarming cover art, photographed of fashion and its importance in his own work an ten years of subcultural history: I meet her pals, which Gorman and Derek Boshier (pl.143), had supplied the
by Brian Duffy, outstripped any of the arena he had explored in the recent single Boys Keep is to say a cross-cut of sci-fi, alternative rock n roll, soundtrack to the previous valedictory summer, but
music for boldness Lodger represented Swinging, with its attendant drag video, and in the art hippie life, right across from 1966/7.18 York could our old Bowie records had been packed away, never
a deliberate step into a world in which mildly cynical track Fashion on Scary Monsters. On the almost see the conceit of Scary Monsters coming: We to be displayed in that way again.
Egon Schiele became the art director for a albums cover, Bowie seems caught in the act of robing see the morning in, listening to Diamond Dogs. Through
futuristic horror movie, directed perhaps or disrobing as he adjusts the frills on his shoulder, and the window you can see the twinkling sci-fi red on the
by David Cronenberg. Bowies body was the graphic facility with which Bell indicates stage Post Office Tower. We talk about apocalyptic nonsense
depicted across the gatefold sleeve, prone make-up and scrawls the title in expressive calligraphy and Bowie and the end of everything.

200 201
 [150] 1. Outside 1995 [151] Earthling 1997
[144] Tonight 1984 [145] Never Let Me Down 1987

[152] Hours ... 1999 [153] Heathen 2002

[146] Tin Machine 1989 [147] Tin Machine II 1991

[148] Black Tie White Noise 1993 [149] The Buddha of Suburbia 1993 [154] Reality 2003

202 203
 David
Bowie is
a human
being

[155] opposite David Bowie at the time of his performance

in The Elephant Man, 1980 Photograph by Anton Corbijn

204
 [156] above and opposite Jumpsuit with a graphic pattern inspired by
Le Corbusier, 1979 Designed by Willie Brown and worn for Dick Clarks
Salute to the Seventies The David Bowie Archive

206
 [157] above and opposite Skirt suit, 1979 Designed by
Brooks Van Horn costume house, New York, for a performance on
Saturday Night Live The David Bowie Archive

208
 [158] above and opposite Puppet and poodle props, 1979 The television in the
poodles mouth screened the performance on Saturday Night Live as it happened
Designed by Mark Ravitz The David Bowie Archive

[159] following pages Costume inspired by Sonia Delaunays designs

for Tristan Tzaras play Le Cur Gaz (1923), 1979 Designed by Mark Ravitz
and David Bowie The David Bowie Archive

[160] pages 21415 David Bowie performing The Man Who Sold The World
with Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias on Saturday Night Live, 1979
Photograph by Edie Baskin The David Bowie Archive

210
 [161] above and opposite Jumpsuit with vintage trenchcoat, 1979
Designed by Willie Brown and worn for the DJ video The David Bowie Archive

216
 [162] opposite and above Pierrot (or Blue Clown) costume, 1980
Designed by Natasha Korniloff for the Ashes to Ashes video and
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) album cover The David Bowie Archive

219
David Bowie
is turning
us all into
voyeurs

[163] opposite David Bowie during the filming of the

Ashes to Ashes video, 1980 Photograph by Brian Duffy

220
 [164] opposite and above Military-style suit, 1983 Designed by
Peter Hall for the Serious Moonlight tour The David Bowie Archive

223
 [165] opposite and right
Lime-green suit, 1983 Designed by
Peter Hall for the Serious Moonlight
tour The David Bowie Archive

225
 [166] above and opposite Red suit, 1987 Designed by
Diana Moseley for the Glass Spider tour The David Bowie Archive

226
 [167] opposite and above Black silk suit, 1990 Designed by
Giorgio Armani for the Sound + Vision tour The David Bowie Archive

229
 David
Bowie is at
any given
moment in
time a given
moment in
time
[168] opposite David Bowie, 1995
Photograph by Lord Snowdon

230
One more weekend of lights and evening faces Fast food living nostalgia
 Oriol e Cul l e n
Changes is Bowies life story. On 23 September 2011, the Financial Times reported on the
latest incarnation of the David Bowie fashion phenomenon,
All he ever does is change. currently sweeping the nation. In a piece entitled Mens wear
ch ch changes, Mark C. OFlaherty noted that fashion has
Thats why theres never an had a four-decade love affair with Bowie thats only getting
stronger. Indeed, Bowie may be the most referenced musician
identifiable direction. Hes in fashion history.1 Designers such as Phoebe Philo at Celine,
Lucas Ossendrijver at Lanvin and Dries Van Noten had all
everything all at once. Every included references to Bowie in their Autumn/Winter 2011
song is a different side of collections. Vogue Paris produced a Bowie-inspired cover in
December 2011, and the following month German Vogue pub-
Bowie and the world he sees. lished a fashion shoot starring Daphne Guinness, styled in a
tribute to Bowies career. The previous season, London-based
designer Richard Nicoll had shown a collection inspired by
(New Musical Express, Albums: Bowie at his brilliant best,
Bowies manifestation as the Thin White Duke, with Bowies
29 January 1972)
Station to Station album playing throughout the presentation.
On the subject of Bowie, Nicoll said: Ive always loved the
decadence and fearlessness of his style and music.2

Changes
In the capricious world of fashion, its extraordinary that
Bowie has continued to be a source of inspiration for so many
years. But it is specifically the characters that Bowie created
in the decade from the early 1970s to the early 1980s, and
the images in which they are recorded, that have become
such important points of reference: he has built an unparal-

Bowies life
leled bank of different looks and characters that have been
captured not only through music but also in photographs,
documentaries and feature films. Bowies collaborations with
highly regarded photographers and film-makers have been
key to his style legacy, with Mick Rock, Masayoshi Sukita,
Brian Duffy, Terry ONeill, D. A. Pennebaker and Nicolas

story
Roeg all contributing to the visual archive available to todays
designers. It is interesting to note that as Bowies public
appearances and musical output have become more intermit-
tent, the appetite for his image and influences has soared.
Cultural historian Janice Miller has written about the
symbiotic relationship between the worlds of fashion and
rock music, suggesting that the fashion world is drawn to the
music industry because of rocks authenticity, its under-
ground credentials and, in particular, the notion of rock as
something powerful and dangerous.3 She notes that truth-
fulness and authenticity in music performance have a perva-
siveness that, in turn, adds value when placed in association
with fashion.4 The fashion industry also relies on the visceral
quality and impact of music for the seasonal show presenta-
tions: according to journalist Tim Blanks, the role of music
in a show is to amplify or clarify the designers vision.5 And
year after year, Bowies music is played at fashion shows it is
rare not to hear Fashion, his ironic homage to the industry,
at some point over a season.

235
 From his earliest teenage years, Bowie seems to have been
an avid consumer of fashionable style: a photograph shows him
as a neatly coiffed 13-year-old in a three-button jacket, tapered
trousers and a pair of sharply pointed winkle-pickers. He had
Bowie has always used artifice as part of his act. In a 1974 already begun to experiment with dying his hair and modifying
interview, asked if he regretted that much of his publicity was his school trousers.11 As someone who understood first-hand
about his image, his response was a frank acknowledgement of the thrill and excitement of consuming fashion, Bowie was
Emmanuelle Alt, editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris since how the star system and publicity worked: able to comprehend and appeal to the passions of his fan base.
2011, has always acknowledged the importance of rock Fearlessly experimenting with changes in style and look in
music to her work as a fashion stylist. She was responsi- People must write about me as they feel. I like to think his early career, Bowie morphed from a sharp-suited mod to
ble for styling and propagating the incredibly popular my most important contribution is the music but Ive a shaggy-haired hippie, taking in fringed suede boots, leather
rock-inspired collections designed by Christophe got no right to insist that others feel the same way. If jerkins and numerous hairstyles along the way. Displaying an
Decarnin at Balmain from 2008 to 2011 (Autumn/ someone thinks of me as an important fashion trend- attitude perfectly in tune with the constant renewal and shifts Writing about Bowie in Melody Maker at the time, Michael
Winter 2008 featured garments with crystal-embroi- setter, good luck. Just as long as they write about me.8 that structure the fashion world, he rapidly assimilated and Watts noted that the expression of his sexual ambivalence
dered lightning bolts, la Aladdin Sane). Her tenure projected the look of the moment, then moved swiftly on. In establishes a fascinating game: is he or isnt he? In a period of
as editor of Vogue has seen an emphasis on images This attitude was recognized by his fans, as Simon Frith 1972, Bowie said: conflicting sexual identity he shrewdly exploits the confusion
inspired by rock music, including a music-themed noted in 1983: To appreciate Bowie was not just to like his music surrounding the male and female roles. The important fact is
issue that featured Kate Moss on the cover in a Ziggy or his shows or his looks, but also to enjoy the way he set himself Ive never had any direction. Im very faddy; I always that I dont have to drag up, Bowie says in the article, I want
Stardust pose (pl.169).6 Photographed by Mert Alas up as a commercial image. How he was packaged was as much an have been ever since I was 13 or 14. It just keeps my to go on like this long after the fashion has finished.14 Bowies
and Marcus Piggott, Moss is shown wearing a spiked aspect of his art as what the package contained.9 Bowies stage interest. I find if I do one type of thing too long, Im American record label, Mercury, felt the dress image was too
red wig and a metallic Balmain jumpsuit open to the personae may have been artfully constructed, but the passion a little bored. It is out of necessity really to keep my provocative for their audiences and chose to release The Man
navel. She is lit from the side, holding up her wrist to and energy he put into these characters, his performances and functions alive.12 Who Sold the World with a different cover (see pl.131). Asked about
reveal a tiny ships anchor tattoo. The composition his music were completely authentic: the dress in 1972, while he was on the American leg of the Ziggy
and lighting recall Mick Rocks 1973 promotional Bowies image really began to stand out as his projected Stardust tour, Bowie said: It was a velvet handprint by Michael
film for John, Im Only Dancing, which featured When I go out onto a stage I try to make the perfor- androgyny developed. The cover of the 1970 album The Man Who Fish. I like clothes design; Im interested in his clothes
Bowie with spiked red hair, jacket open to the navel mance as good and as interesting as possible, and I Sold the World shows him in a dress (see pl.129), one of a range of That was a dress designed for a man: there were a lot of those
and a tiny ships anchor on his left cheek. (Bowie later dont just mean by singing my songs and moving off. menswear pieces by the flamboyant London designer Mr Fish, things going around in London three years ago.15 The contrast
claimed this tattoo was inspired by Samantha from I think if youre really going to entertain an audience whose clothes were labelled with the legend Peculiar to Mr between the 1970 commitment to wearing dresses long after
the 1960s television series Bewitched, who often wore then you have to look the part too. I feel very comfort- Fish. Michael Fish had opened his shop in 1967 at the height of the fashion moment was over, and the knowing acceptance a
little shapes painted on her face.)7 able in the clothes I wear and theyre part of me, and Londons Dandy Revolution, supplying a more exclusive and couple of years later that the moment had passed and the style
part of my act.10 radical version of the cheap disposable fashion of the Carnaby partially dismissed is intriguing. Bowie would later say of the
Street boutiques to a young and moneyed elite who dabbled controversial image:
Bowie has never claimed to be an inventor of fashion in the hippie aesthetic see-through voiles, brocades and
rather, he has always declared his magpie tendencies for picking spangles, and miniskirts for men, blinding silks, flower-printed It was a parody of Gabriel Rosetti. Slightly askew, obvi-
up disparate elements and melding them together to present hats.13 Bowie was not the first figure in the public eye to wear ously. So when they told me that a drag-queen cult was
something that uniquely channels the Zeitgeist. He has drawn a Mr Fish dress: in 1969 Mick Jagger had chosen to wear a short forming behind me, I said, Fine, dont try to explain
from high fashion and channelled it to the street via his fans, white man-dress by the designer to the infamous Brian Jones it; nobody is going to bother to try to understand it. Ill
but he has also channelled elements of street and subcultural memorial concert in Londons Hyde Park. Echoing the pleated play along, absolutely anything to break me through.16
fashion into the mainstream. His early 1970s collaboration with tunic or foustanlla of traditional Greek menswear, Jaggers out-
Kansai Yamamoto brought the work of the Japanese designer to fit at least had some, if vague, menswear credentials. Bowies Bowie also wore the Mr Fish dress to promote the single
a worldwide audience, while his 1980 video for Ashes to Ashes dress, however, was a flowing silk velvet garment decorated released by his experimental band the Arnold Corns Project. He
did the same for the underground London style of the Blitz Kids. with a floral print. An ankle-length skirt with inverted pleats and frontman Freddie Burretti, a.k.a. Rudi Valentino, appeared
Bowie consistently acknowledges the designers whose clothes fell from a tightly fitted bodice fastened with two decorative on the cover of the May/June 1971 issue of Curious magazine
he has worn and those he has collaborated with, from Freddie frogged closures, exposing the chest. While Fishs clothing in similarly styled dresses: Burretti, seated, is wearing a deep
Burretti and Kansai Yamamoto to Thierry Mugler and Alexander was not cheap, Bowie was fortunate to find two of his dresses purple satin version, while Bowie is standing by his side in the
McQueen, recognizing their contributions to some of his most on sale for 50. The other dress, in a slubbed blue raw silk, had floral-print velvet, clutching Burrettis arm, with his long hair
important looks. a more modest zipper fastening down the centre front, but was blowing across his face. Bowie had met Freddie Burrett, a young
cut with the same tight bodice and pleated skirt. A headshot of tailor and fashion student who went by the name Burretti, in the
Bowie in this garment appeared on the back cover of the album. Sombrero, a gay bar in Londons Kensington. Trevor Bolder,
who played bass with Bowie in the early 1970s, remembers that
Burretti was girly and skinny, but always wore suits.17 Burretti
and Bowie began to collaborate on both musical and fashion
projects, but while the Arnold Corns Project quickly faded away,
[169] above Kate Moss on the cover of Vogue the sartorial relationship between the two men grew to become
Paris, December 2011 Photographed by a key component of Bowies style in the following years, with
Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott Cond Nast
Burretti designing the early look for Ziggy Stardust as well as
the signature suits that Bowie wore off-stage.

236 237
 In 1967, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band had
introduced mass audiences to the concept album, with [170] left Quilted jumpsuit,
the Beatles donning their bright satin band uniforms for 1972 Designed by David
Bowie and Freddie Burretti
the sleeve. When Bowie extended the idea in January for the Ziggy Stardust album
1972 by bringing his own concept of Ziggy Stardust cover and subsequent tour
The David Bowie Archive
and the Spiders from Mars to life, he depended on the
albums music to introduce Ziggys story to the fans, but [171] opposite Photograph
for the Exhibitionist issue,
the visual image was key to marking out this new identity i-D magazine, March 2011
(pl.170). Bowie later acknowledged the influence of Photograph by Benjamin
A. Huseby, styling by
Stanley Kubricks film A Clockwork Orange, released in Jacob Kjeldgaard
1971: The initial clothes I designed for the Spiders from
Mars were very much based on the Clockwork Orange
jumpsuits. I had them made out of very flowery material,
very feminine material, very colourful.18 Describing the
outfits he and the other members of Bowies backing
band were given to wear, Trevor Bolder said:

We were supposed to look like Droogs out of

A Clockwork Orange. He took us to see the
movie, and our costumes were kind of the
same: boots, boilersuits, but more colourful.
But then we went on to these black and silvery, Bowie designed the suit he wore on the cover of The Rise and Fall
sparkly suits, and Mick [Ronson, lead guitarist] of Ziggy Stardust, Freddie Burretti cut the pattern for the blouson-
had his pants tucked into his socks, with little style jacket and trousers, and the clothes were sewn by Burretti and
bows on. That was a bit weird.19 Sue Frost (the Bowies neighbour at Haddon Hall). Bowie had found
the material for the suit at a stall run by Takis Andriou in a street
Bolder also recalled the influence of Bowies wife market the year before: a quilted fabric printed with a geometric
Angela at this time: a driving force behind the new dark-green pattern on a white ground (which was later tinted tur-
look, she urged the band and Bowie to go further quoise by the albums graphic designer), with a green-dot print on
with their outrageous identities. She was constantly the same white ground for the lining.20 It is interesting to reflect
on the lookout for new clothing and styles for her hus- on the low-key production of what became one of the twentieth-
band and, as they wore the same size, they often shared centurys most referenced garments, as described by Bowie himself:
garments. Images of David and Angie Bowie from this
period have been endlessly referenced and re-created The very first series of outfits for Ziggy and company were
by the fashion world, with stylists and designers finding made by Freddie and anyone else in Haddon Hall who
inspiration in shots of the Bowies at home in their flat could reasonably handle a needle. This would usually be
at Haddon Hall, a Victorian Gothic villa in suburban our babysitter Sue who lived downstairs Although full
south-east London, with styled hair and glam-rock fash- of good intentions no-one else would last more than about
ions, often accompanied by their young son. As fashion 20 minutes before the pure hard graft of threading and
images go, these photographs epitomize the bohemian stitching wore down all enthusiasm for the job.21
rock-star world of the 1970s. In a 2001 American Vogue
shoot by Stephen Meisel, models Hannelore Knuts and Freddie Burretti also worked closely with his friend Daniella
Diana Meszaros were dressed as David and Angie Bowie Parmar, who sourced much of the fabric for the Ziggy costumes at
respectively, in a riot of snakeskin and multicoloured Indian markets in south London. Burretti and Frost made a number
glam-rock-inspired suits. The March 2011 edition of i-D of identical suits, three of which survived the rigours of touring,
magazine the Exhibitionist issue featured a story which took its toll on many of Bowies stage costumes. Rock journal-
by photographer Benjamin A. Huseby (pl.171) based on ist Lenny Kaye attended a Ziggy Stardust concert at Friars Aylesbury
the Bowies: styled by Jacob Kjeldgaard, a flame-haired in Buckinghamshire in 1972:
James Jeannette Main in the character of David lounges
decadently with peroxide-blonde model Britt Maren At the end of the show he took off his satin blouse and
in the role of Angie. While David and Angie Bowies threw it into the audience. And I, a fan/writer, grabbed
relationship had come to an end by the mid-1970s (they the sleeve. The next day when I interviewed him, I tied it
divorced in 1980), the strength of the couples image around my upper arm. At one point he said, Whats that
from this period remains an inspiration that perfectly on your arm? and I said, Oh, its just a rag I picked up
encapsulates the early seventies for the fashion world. somewhere. I still have it.22

238
 Bowies clothing was now taking on the form of reliquary
for fervent fans, but these were not Beatles-chasing teenagers.
Through Ziggy, Bowie appealed directly to a new young audi-
ence, addressing them in his songs and inspiring them to mimic The conduit for this fashion breakthrough, David Bowie,
his style, but to do so individually. His influence spread way was at that time living in the London suburb of Beckenham,
beyond the realms of the suburban British teenager described where a copy of the July 1971 edition of Harpers would find its
artfully by Michael Watts in Melody Maker in July 1972: way. The PVC boots by Kansai Yamamoto caught Bowies eye
but, at 28, they were out of his price range, so he had them
[He was] clutching his copy of the new David Bowie copied by south London bootmaker Stan Dusty Miller.26
album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, which he hoped When he did eventually purchase his first piece of Yamamoto
David would autograph after the show. He was wearing clothing from the exclusive stockists of the designers collec-
his red scarf, flung nonchalantly over his shoulder, and tion in London, the Boston 151 boutique on the Fulham Road,
his red platform boots. His hair was long down the back Bowie chose a leather leotard with 11 red poppers down the
but cropped fairly short on top so that it stuck up when front. It was decorated with hand-drawn winged rabbits and
he brushed his fingers through it. He hated that it was hand-painted black swirls along the edges (pls 172 and 173).
dark brown. Hed promised himself that when he even- Once again, as with the Mr Fish dresses a few years previously,
tually split to London hed have it done bright blond.23 he acquired the garment at a reduced price: I did get my hands
on my first Kansai Yamamoto costume quite cheaply as nobody
For American guitarist Reeves Gabrels, who has worked wanted to buy it, let alone wear it. It was the impossibly silly
with Bowie on many occasions, including as a member of Tin bunny costume.27 Bowie and Yamamoto met on Valentines
Machine in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was a great period Day 1973, when the designer flew to New York to present the
1970 to 1973 because you could go to school with a green streak musician with five specially created garments (Yamamoto had
in your hair and say, Fuck you, I look like David Bowie.24 been informed of Bowies admiration for his work by stylist
In the early 1970s the world of international high fashion Yusuko Takahashi). Yamamoto designed a further nine tour
was a rarefied place. Readers of the more exclusive fashion costumes for Bowie, and presented them to him in April of that
titles, such as Harpers & Queen and Vogue, could see a carefully year when the tour arrived in Japan.28 At the time, Yamamoto
edited selection of garments for that season, but they were only said: He has an unusual face Hes neither man nor woman
able to access fashions that had been shown to buyers six months which suited me as a designer because most of my clothes are
previously, and these would gradually filter down to the high for either sex.29
street some six months later. Newspaper reports from inter
national fashion shows were illustrated with the occasional line
drawing, while television programmes might report on youth
trends and the work of local designers. New collections from
Paris and Italy, let alone Japan, could have little or no immediate
impact on the general public they were not available.
In July 1971 Harpers & Queen eagerly reported a fashion
moment the first London show of the brilliant young Japanese
designer Kansai Yamamoto. Under fashion editor Jennifer
Hocking (the magazines masthead also listed Anna Wintour,
then a young assistant), the magazine devoted the cover and a
six-page editorial to the clothes of the first Japanese designer to
show in London. Photographed by Hiroshi, the images featured
model Marie Helvin, eyebrows shaved and wearing bright pink
make-up, in fantastically sculptural multi-coloured garments:
giant padded coats, dramatically curved trousers, floor-length
circular skirts and PVC platform boots (pl.69). The accompany-
ing text proclaimed: Its a whole new concept of dressing, and
its for this reason that we believe Kansai Yamamoto will have a
massive impact on the world of fashion.25 The final part of this
statement proved to be prophetic, but the positive reception
of Londons fashion crowd notwithstanding it is unlikely that
the writer could have envisioned that the audience who would
be inspired by Yamamotos clothes would find them via an alien
from outer space: Ziggy Stardust.

[172] opposite David Bowie on stage at the

Hammersmith Odeon, 1973 Photograph by
Debi Doss Getty Images

240
 [173] above and opposite Woodland Creatures leather leotard, 1972
Designed by Kansai Yamamoto and worn for the Ziggy Stardust and
Aladdin Sane tours The David Bowie Archive

242
 While the light-blue suit followed the fashionable lines of
There were elements of kabuki theatre thrown the time, Burretti was experimental with his cut and patterns,
in, Bowie later said of the Ziggy look. It was a real using different seam arrangements, curved lapels without
hodgepodge, there was no kind of direct through-line notches and an integrated waistband to give the suit a unique
with Ziggy at all. It just kind of evolved. I very much finish. Seams running diagonally from each shoulder towards
had the idea of Japanese culture as the alien culture the centre create an unusual V-shaped insert on both the back
because I couldnt conceive a Martian culture.30 and front of the jacket. The strong, sharp, slightly exagger-
Key to Ziggys alien look was his signature spiked, ated shoulder line was a signature of Burrettis tailoring that
bright-red hair. Hairdresser Suzi Fussey (later the remained a constant throughout the different cuts he created
wife of Mick Ronson) put the final coloured touch to for Bowie. (The suits were an inspiration for the Autumn/Winter
the Ziggy hairstyle in February 1972, having cut it into 2012 Miu Miu campaign, photographed by Mert and Marcus,
shape the previous month. The style echoed that of a and styled by Katie Grand, pl.174. Draped languidly in a chair
female model in an Alex Chatelain photograph, which with orange hair, turquoise eyeshadow and a hyper-patterned
appeared in Vogue Paris in 1971 (pl.67), but in 2005 suit with high-collared shirt and tie, Sevigny recalled Mick
Bowie set the record straight: Tomasaburo, a star of kabuki theatre. A 1973 article in Music Scene offered Rocks images of Bowie in Buretti suits, pl.178.)
tips: David tells us that mostly all of his make-up comes from a little shop Bowie wore an almost identical version of the blue suit at
Daniella Parmars dye-job convinced me of in Rome, Italy, that imports fantastic coloured powders and creams from the retirement party thrown at the Caf Royal on 4 July 1973 to The article was ghost-written by Bowies American publicist
the importance of a synthetic hair colour for India Basic essentials also include a white rice powder from Tokyos celebrate the demise of Ziggy Stardust (the only difference was Cherry Vanilla. Kevin Cann reports that in 2002 Bowie said, I
Ziggy. This turned into reality when I spied Woolworths equivalent Indian kohl usually in black for his eyes. 34 a waistcoat made from a purple and green satin hounds-tooth remember nothing of this party, absolutely nothing.38
the Kansai Yamamoto model on a fashion However, while make-up was key, it wasnt always straightforward. Bowie fabric, to match the shirt Bowie wore with the suit). Bowie had The Burretti suit was reprised in 2003 for a music-themed
magazine cover. It was a slightly girlie maga- recalls his first appearance at Radio City Music Hall in New York: Id had announced the end of Ziggy and the Spiders at a concert at the edition of British Vogue, which featured photographs of Kate
zine like Honey, definitely not Vogue. some make-up done by Pierre La Roche and he did some brilliant things, Hammersmith Odeon on 3 July, and a star-studded wake was Moss by Nick Knight. Knight has often referenced Bowie in
In 1972, I duplicated not only the colour but he used glitter on me for the first time, and it ran in my eyes. I did the held in central London the next day. Bowie described the event his work, with images that seem to capture and channel the
from this cover but the cut as well. A com- whole show almost blind.35 in a letter to fans, published ten days later in Mirabelle magazine: energy, lighting and glamour of a rock performance. He has
plete lift. Ive read in different accounts that Off-stage, Bowie continued to wear sharply tailored suits by Freddie also collaborated directly with Bowie: in 1993 he shot the cover
the Ziggy cut came from a number of different Burretti, one of which can be seen in a 1973 promotional film for Life Oh, what a night it turned out to be! Mick Jagger, Lou photograph for the Black Tie White Noise album. Moss appeared
sources, or was designed by a local hairdresser on Mars?, directed by Mick Rock (pls 1779). In the opening scene the Reed, Jeff Beck, Lulu, Spike Milligan, Dana Gillespie, on the cover of this special issue of Vogue in the guise of Bowies
in Bromley or Beckenham. Absolute tosh!31 camera pans down past Bowies thatch of spiked orange hair, focusing on Ryan ONeal, Elliott Gould, Ringo Starr and Barbra Aladdin Sane album sleeve, interpreted as a black-and-white
the metallic blue orbs painted around his eyes before revealing a shiny Streisand ... all there at my last concert party at the head shot with an overlaid graphic of a lightning bolt. In a refer-
Style journalist Dylan Jones observed that light-blue suit designed by Burretti. With its tight, streamlined fit long luxurious Caf Royal everyone looking so lovely in ence to the back cover of Bowies album, an outline version of
clothes, though vital to the success of Ziggy, were jacket with wide lapels and wide-legged trousers with large turn-ups their sparkling evening clothes and colourful make-up the same image of Moss appeared inside the magazine. In her
nothing compared to the influence of the haircut the suit was of the moment. In fact, this was a fashionable silhouette for ... me in my ice-blue iridescent Freddy [sic] suit.37 editors letter, Alexandra Shulman said that Bowies seventies
[it] epitomized the androgyny of glam rock and, cop- womens trouser suits from Yves Saint Laurent and Barbara Hulanickis performance of Ziggy Stardust at Earls Court was one of lifes
ied by both boys and girls became the hit of 1973.32 Biba store in London. However, Bowies otherworldly appearance, the seminal moments.39
Make-up was also a key part of the image. Bowie had hair, make-up and the choice of metallic blue fabric combined to create an Knight also shot Moss for an editorial story in the same
learned the importance of the effect it created while unmistakable Bowie look. The Autumn/Winter 2006 Gucci collections, issue. The clothes for this shoot were supplied by Bowies
working with mime Lindsay Kemp: From make-up designed by Frida Giannini, featured long, narrow, sharply tailored suits archive, and Moss is pictured in original pieces by Kansai
to costume, his ideas of an elevated reality stuck and paired with platform shoes to echo the silhouette of the Life on Mars? Yamamoto and Freddie Burretti. Wearing the ice-blue Burretti
his commitment to breaking down the parameters outfit. Giannini told journalist Suzy Menkes where she found her inspira- suit (pl.179), she moves across the starkly lit studio space, remi-
between on-stage and off-stage life remained firmly tion: My most important images are from David Bowie and that period, niscent of the setting of Mick Rocks original video of 1973, a
in my soul.33 Bowie applied his own make-up, but later because he was an icon in terms of influence and edge.36 twist in her hips, elbows drawn up and back as though performing
worked with make-up artist Pierre La Roche on tour on stage. The suit is still sharp.
and, while in Japan, he received make-up lessons from Another garment from this period highlights Burrettis
stylish, yet slightly whimsical, approach to tailoring a jacket
made from black-and-white horizontally striped fabric with a
metallic silver thread, cut so that the stripes follow the shape
of the wide lapels (pl.176). Worn by Bowie on a journey from
[174] above Chlo Sevigny in Miu Miu London to Aberdeen in May 1973, it was captured by Mick Rock
Autumn/Winter 2012 Photograph by Mert Alas in a series of intriguing photographs. These images later inspired
& Marcus Piggott, styling by Katie Grand
designer Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy to open his Spring/Summer
[175] opposite, above Black and white jacket
by Givenchy Spring/Summer 2012
2010 show with a black-and-white striped blazer with identically
striped lapels (pl.175). In January 2010, the piece was photo-
[176] opposite, below David Bowie during
the Ziggy Stardust tour, 1973 Jacket designed by
graphed by Stephen Meisel for American Vogue: the Givenchy
Freddie Burretti Getty Images jacket was worn by model Sasha Pivovarova in a story entitled
Rock the House, which featured young rock musicians.

244 245
 [177] above and opposite Ice-blue suit, 1972
Designed by Freddie Burretti for the Life on Mars? video
The David Bowie Archive

246
 [178] opposite Still from the Life on Mars? video, 1973 Photograph by Mick Rock

[179] above Kate Moss wearing the Life on Mars? suit in a photo shoot for British Vogue,
2003 Photograph by Nick Knight Courtesy of Trunk Archive Nick Knight

248 249
 Bowies use of suits was summed up by Marc C. OFlaherty in his piece
for the Financial Times: Bowie demonstrated that the suit could be outra-
geous and expressive as much as it was smart or a slightly dandy uniform.40
At the Autumn/Winter 2011 Celine show, a booklet of pictorial references
left on seats for members of the audience included a picture of a mustard-
yellow Burretti suit. The 1974 Terry ONeill photograph shows Bowie in
this suit, wearing a shirt with yellow-and-white horizontal stripes, with a
cigarette in his mouth and a pair of tailors shears dangling from his fingers
(pls 1813). Fashion historian Cally Blackman noted that although he is
obviously posing, he isnt in costume. And its a great outfit Hes very
beautiful, very ambivalent so appeals to both genders, very elegant and has
always shown considered taste in everything he does, despite appearances
to the contrary, as some might see it.41 In 1974, Bowie said:

Im turned on by people who have taste, especially my kind of

taste. One of my great loves is clothes. Im really mad about
them. I go through so many different phases, at the moment Im
into short-jacketed double-breasted suits, but next week I might
be into something completely different. With all my changes of
mood Freddie is extremely patient. He just listens to my ideas and
has this sort of telepathy. Because whatever I think of in my mind
he produces for real. I suppose Ive come to admire Freddie as a
person through his work, because peoples personalities really
come through when they are working, as much as any other time.
Freddie comes across as a really tolerant and talented guy. I just
hope hell continue to design incredible clothes for me.42

London-based hat designer Craig West remembers the Bowie Mania

that accompanied the musicians plastic soul phase, around the time of
Young Americans in the mid 1970s (pl.180). Advertisements in the back
of the NME promised the Bowie look: readers could send off for short
jackets as seen on the David Live LP released in 1974, as well as eight- and
20-pleat trousers, all supplied by Christopher Robin of Carnaby Street.
West ordered the 20-pleat version, priced at 16.95. He and his friends
would saunter around with long bleached fringes and the requisite pleated
trousers, the whole look finished with a copy of Kafka peeking out from
an overcoat pocket.43 Noting a new trend for elegance in the Autumn/
Winter 2011 menswear shows, journalist Godfrey Deeny singled out the
collection of Dries Van Noten, whose choice of inspiration was David
Bowie though not space-age Major Tom, more David Live Bowie, in out-
sized pants and double-breasted jackets a world away from the synthetic
creations advertised in the back of the NME.44

[180] above Nautical costume, 1978 Designed by Natasha

Korniloff for the Stage tour The David Bowie Archive

[181] opposite David Bowie at the time of the

Diamond Dogs tour, 1974 Photograph by Terry ONeill

250 251
 [182] above and opposite Mustard-yellow suit, 1974
Designed by Freddie Burretti The David Bowie Archive

252
[183] opposite and above David Bowie at the time of the
Diamond Dogs tour, 1974 Photographs by Terry ONeill

255
 In 1975 Bowie began working with director Nicolas Roeg on
the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, based on a novel by Walter Tevis.
Bowie starred as Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien who lands on
earth on a quest to bring water back to his drought-stricken
planet. The costumes for the film (pl.199) were designed by Ola
Hudson, who had previously worked closely with performers
such as John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Diana Ross. The image
Hudson created for Newton owed much to Bowie himself: the
white-blonde hair of the character in the original book was
changed to Bowies orange; the trilby he wears is similar to one
that Bowie wore to the 1975 Grammy Awards several months
before filming commenced (pl.184). Bowie was so taken with
Hudsons tailored pieces that he wore them, along with white
shirts supplied by recently established designer Paul Smith,
on his 1976 Isolar tour, appearing as his latest incarnation, the
Thin White Duke. This new character owed much to Berlin
cabaret of the Weimar era (with a touch of Marlene Dietrich), While Britain was witnessing the birth of the punk move-
and the tour featured an almost bare stage with dramatic white ment in the mid to late 1970s, Bowie was touring the world
lighting (pl.42). A reviewer noted that Bowie appeared in a and living in Berlin. But Tim Blanks notes that while Bowie
simple outfit consisting of a white shirt with French cuffs, and was not physically present, his music and image had a presence
matching black vest and pants His hair was the same severely within that movement: The dystopian vision Bowie conveyed
slicked-back red with frontal highlights that he sported in The in his music, acting and style in 1976 was a huge influence on
Man Who Fell to Earth.45 In 2008 the New York Times reported on the punk scene that was coalescing in London Bowie was
a video presentation of Stefano Pilatis menswear for Yves Saint one old-waver who was cool to the new.48 Bowie later said of
Laurent, which included shiny David-Bowie-in-The-Man-Who- the early punk era:
Fell-to-Earth blousons and 70s-inspired suits with cuffed
wide-legged trousers making it one of many collections that I didnt get the full brunt of all that, because it was
have referenced this period in Bowies style evolution. In August just when I was settling in Berlin, so it came from a
2011, celebrated actress Tilda Swinton appeared on the cover of different direction there and it didnt have the full
W magazine in the guise of Bowies Thin White Duke, as shot by wrath and anger of what happened in England. For
Tim Walker and styled by Jacob Kjeldgaard (pl.185). The maga- me its all just footage and I cant feel the same thing.
zine contained an editorial featuring Swinton in various looks I really regret missing out on that. Id love to have
inspired by Roegs film. Asked to name her style icons, Swinton seen the dialogue on television and the feel of the
replied: David Bowie whom Ive been orbiting ever since I saw clubs at that time.49
The Man Who Fell to Earth in 1976.46 She went on to say that she
and Bowie share the same planetary DNA.47 As the 1970s turned into the 80s, another London scene
centred around the Blitz club in Soho paid a more direct
debt to Bowies influence. Defined by outrageous costumes
and dramatic make-up for both sexes, proponents of the style
were christened Blitz Kids and later New Romantics by the
press. Steve Strange, the clubs host, was only too happy to be
asked to round up some friends to appear in Bowies video for
Ashes to Ashes. In one of the most expensive music videos
of the time, the club kids wore long gothic robes by Judith
Frankland and dark imposing headwear designed by the newly
[184] opposite David Bowie wearing a suit established milliner Stephen Jones. Jones later recalled how
designed by Ola Hudson at the 17th Annual everyone was in awe of Bowies appearance at the Blitz, but
Grammy Awards, 1975 Photograph by Ron Galella
also felt it was a little weird that someone so old would come
[185] above Tilda Swinton on the cover of
W magazine, August 2011 Photograph by Tim
to the club (Bowie was 32 at the time).50 Bowies own costume
Walker, styling by Jacob Kjeldgaard Cond Nast was a Pierrot suit by Natasha Korniloff (see pl.162), a close
friend from his days with Lindsay Kemp, and with whom he had
collaborated several times for his stage costumes.

256 257
 After Ashes to Ashes, Bowies stage wear became less Discussing his approach to fashion in 2005, Bowie inadvertently high-
obviously outlandish. lighted how his influence on fashion had come full circle. Explaining that he
was currently wearing clothes by one particular designer, he said: I just rely
The outfits I use on stage now are far more functional on Hedi Slimane Ive always been extremely lucky that theres always been
I think the major difference, of course, is that I was some designer or other who wants to give me clothes. For the last little while
designing for characters, which Ive kind of stopped. Hedi Slimane has wardrobed me.54 Slimane, who is currently head designer at
I wrapped that up in the early 1980s and I didnt do char- the house of Saint Laurent Paris, received global acclaim for the slim, tailored
acters after that. Those first years, the Thin White Duke menswear he created for Christian Dior Homme in the early 2000s. Bowie
and all those guys, I really was dressing in character.51 was sent some early designs by Slimane: The stuff was apparently influenced
by the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, and it was all that very slim-line black,
Bowie did, however, toy with more dramatic looks for and its very much become his signature look.55 Slimane acknowledges the
the Outside and Earthling tours of 19967, reprising a spiked debt: I was born with a David Bowie album in my hand He was Adam
crop of bright-orange hair. He had become interested in the and Angie Bowie was Eve.56
work of an irreverent young London designer called Alexander The unparalleled impact that Bowie in his various incarnations has had
McQueen, and began to collaborate with him in 1995 on stage on several generations of adolescents is directly responsible for his persis-
wear for the Outside tour (McQueen also dressed Bowies bass- tent importance to the fashion world. As Tim Blanks has pointed out, Bowie
ist Gail Ann Dorsey). McQueen was a Bowie fan, and had based elevated sensibilities to a degree acute enough that those so changed were
his Spring/Summer 1996 collection, which included garments able to exert similar influence when they became editors, designers, musi-
that appeared to have been slashed open and a shirt stained with cians and artists in their later lives.57 It is abundantly clear that throughout his
bloody handprints, on the film The Hunger (1983), which starred collaborations with designers, Bowie has always retained a laser-sharp view
Bowie and Catherine Deneuve. of the image he wishes to project. He has always been in control, and while
In a conversation between the two men published in Dazed he appropriates and appreciates the work of fashion designers, he considers
& Confused magazine, Bowie invited McQueen to come to the fashion a tool to enhance his overall performance: Im far more interested
1996 VH1 Fashion Awards in New York: Cos you know Im wear- in the theatrical implications of clothes than I am in everyday fashion.58 It
ing the Union Jack on that. Because millions of people deserve is precisely his theatrical, often androgynous interpretations of clothing,
to see it. McQueens comeback was Youve got to say This is alongside his music, that have kept the fashion world intrigued for so long.
by McQueen!52 The Union Jack in question was a frock coat As designer Dries Van Noten says: Bowie has proven to be timeless and
McQueen had made at Bowies request from a British flag. relevant in a moment when many musicians fade into oblivion his playing
Bowie had actually asked for a distressed garment based on the with androgyny was so powerful. I think that what was avant-garde back in the
1960s jacket worn by the Whos Pete Townsend, but in the style 1970s is consistent with todays psyche.59 As each new generation rediscovers
of McQueens signature frock coat. The designer obliged with each incarnation and character, the fashion world repeatedly finds in Bowie
a beautifully constructed coat, which he had then artfully burnt and his personae the point where style, metamorphosis, performance and
and aged (pl.186). Bowie opened each show of the Earthling presentation converge.
tour in the McQueen coat, standing with his back to the audi-
ence, and wore it on the cover of the Earthling album, in a similar
pose. The coat was included in the Anglomania exhibition at the
Metropolitan Museum in New York in 2006 ruined yet pre-
cisely tailored, the coat is a pastiche of patriotism,53 a perfectly
considered symbol for the subversive collaboration between
Bowie and McQueen.

[186] opposite and following pages Union Jack coat, 1997

Designed by Alexander McQueen and David Bowie for the
Earthling album cover and tour The David Bowie Archive

258
260 costume
David Bowie
is staring
at you so
what do
you do?

[187] opposite David Bowie at the time of the Reality album sessions, 2003
Photograph by Frank W. Ockenfels 3

262
 [188] opposite and above Gold brocade jacket, 1997 Designed by
Alexander McQueen for the Earthling tour The David Bowie Archive

265
David Bowie
is showing
you hes
real

[189] opposite Gold brocade jacket, 1997

Designed by Alexander McQueen for the Earthling tour
The David Bowie Archive

266
 extra
pages

[190] above and opposite Distressed frock coat, 1997

Designed by David Bowie for The Fiftieth Birthday Concert
The David Bowie Archive

268
 [191] above and opposite Brogues and 1920s suit Photographed for
the Heathen album cover The David Bowie Archive

270
 [192] opposite and above Blue silk suit, 2002 Designed by
Hedi Slimane for Dior for the Heathen tour The David Bowie Archive

273
 [193] above and opposite Distressed tailcoat and ensemble, 2003
Designed by Deth Killers of Bushwick for the Reality tour The David Bowie Archive

274
 [194] opposite and above Distressed frock coat and trousers, 1995
Designed by Alexander McQueen for the Outside tour The David Bowie Archive

277
 David Bowie
is resembling
himself

[195] opposite David Bowie, 2003

Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita

278
But who are we So small in times such as these
 Aroundtable discussion witheducationalist
Geoffrey Marsh and writer Sir
Christopher Frayling Christopher
Philip HoareFrayling, Mark Kermode
writer Philip Hoare and film-critic and broadcaster Mark Kermode, chaired by
Geoffrey Marsh, Director of Theatre & Performance Collections at the V&A.

[GM] Christopher, you were born on [CF] Well, theres south London, which wasnt hip, which was out of town, which seemed very
Christmas Day 1946, two weeks isolated and a very long way from the metropolis that element of taking the train in and
before David Bowie, and in south going to clubs, and interesting cinemas, because thats where the action was.
London as well, so your life has Theres America, the whole discovery of American culture in the early 1950s, when the
tracked Bowies over five dec- grown-ups were saying that America was Tastee-Freez, and [that it was] smothering English
ades. Could you give an overview culture Leavis, Orwell, and T. S. Eliot and Brideshead Revisited. Suddenly one way out was
of how you see his relationship America: American pop music, American films and American clothes. I think its interesting
with this country has evolved over that Bowies name references the Bowie knife, and Richard Widmarks character Jim Bowie
those years? in John Waynes film The Alamo. I remember all that very well, but in particular the sense of
isolation, of living out in the sticks and that the way in was America. And parents hated that
all the talk about how the Americans came in to the War far too late and how Hollywood
claimed that they won it for us.

DAVID BOWIE
I started getting involved in art schools a bit later but, of course, Bowie didnt go to one;
he went to Bromley Technical High School, where he was fast-tracked to take the art A-level
at 16. Peter Framptons father Owen was his art teacher, and he must have been talking about
what was in the ether. I didnt dress up as a youngster much too conventional but one of
the ways out was to challenge the stereotypes of gender, as well as class. One of the things
that Bowie did at that time was change the debate from class to gender; we were going on

THEN
about class Marx, demonstrations and all that but he was talking about something else.

[GM] Philip, you were born 10 years [PH] Like Christopher says, Bowie was this creature of the suburbs but in a way he transcended
later, so you were a teenager at mortal experience. And growing up in suburban Southampton, from a lower middle-class
school when Bowie was making family, for me seeing Bowie fellate Mick Ronson on stage was concomitant with Nijinsky

DAVID BOWIE
many of his key records. How do wanking in Laprs-midi dun faune. Bowies ability to travel through time and bring together
you remember it? all kinds of subversion resembled Wildes. He commoditized decadence for the suburbs, and
Aladdin Sane is Dorian Gray as is Ziggy Stardust.
My first introduction to Bowie was in my bedroom on a very bad cassette recording of
Ziggy Stardust that I taped from someone else, and playing it illicitly in my box bedroom in
Southampton, and hoping my parents wouldnt hear. And then looking at photographs of

NOW
David Bowie that were akin to pornography he represented an extraordinary sense of
enablement. Its with me still. It defines me.
I was at a monastery school run by De La Mennais Brothers in Southampton, and I would
arrive with a fur-collar coat and a trilby hat in tribute to Bowie. That sense of being other, in
a place like Southampton that had no sense of connection to any cosmopolitanism, although
its a port he created a pattern that one could follow, which was, as Christopher says, not
about class, but about gender. But it was beyond that, because he was beyond homosexuality.
He showed that the way one looked could be a statement of identity at a time of incred-
ible greyness and brownness everything was brown in the early 1970s, as you remember.
To go out wearing a womans jacket and high-heeled shoes, with a pair of pink-satin Oxford
bags that my mother had made from a pair of curtains, and then falling down the stairs of the
number three bus in the middle of Southampton: you could believe you were David Bowie.

[GM] And did you discuss it with a [PH] My best friend and I were only friends with people who liked David Bowie. You couldnt really
group at school? talk to anyone else. Being in a monastery school gave a particular piquancy to it all. I remem-
ber opening up the first Roxy Music album in a classroom and a monk steaming in, hitting
the cover from our hands, saying, I dont look at pictures of girls, I look at pictures of men.
And the irony was that we were looking at the gatefold inside, which of course was pictures
of men it was Bryan Ferry and Eno. So that whole era I cant say legitimized, because thats
the wrong word is what Bowie gave me access to. It was an entire other universe.

283
[GM]
Geoffrey
And Mark,
Marsh you cametoChristopher
it slightly Frayling [MK] I was
Philip born in 1963, soI first
Hoare Markbecame
Kermodeaware of Bowie in the early 1970s, almost entirely through [PH] Its because
Geoffrey Marsh hes not serious. Hes aFrayling
Christopher very typical
English artist in that he
Philip Hoare doesnt take it seriously. Hes
Mark Kermode
later. What was your take when cinema. Its interesting you said that Southampton wasnt at all cosmopolitan, which it wasnt, almost amateur in the way he approaches things what annoyed those musos is the fact that hes not
Bowie crossed your horizons? but it did have a massive number of cinemas. Ken Russell remembers growing up there and not Springsteen, and hes not Jimmy Page hes always playing, always playing with you. And hes always
being able to throw a stone without hitting a cinema. I first became aware of Bowie because picking out things and stealing stuff. Hes a vampire, a creature of the night. People talk about this
at an early age I went to see 2001: A Space Odyssey, and so Space Odyssey and Space Oddity sense of vampirism, a transsexual vampire.
became connected in my mind. I remember what would have been the re-release cover of The Man Who Fell to Earth is such a key point in the Bowie universe because it exists sui generis its
Man of Words/Man of Music [the album originally released in the UK in 1969 as David Bowie] completely of its own. It could be a science-fiction film made by Powell and Pressburger. You have the
as Space Oddity with that picture of David Bowie with the spikey-up hair, which was in the way he looks in it, inspired by that great scene in Cracked Actor, the Alan Yentob Arena documentary,
record stores around that time. There was that, The Man Who Sold the World, Ziggy Stardust and when Bowie is being driven in a limousine through the desert, and hes making a joke when he sees a wax
Aladdin Sane and that was back in days when record shops would display album covers in the museum, saying Youd think it would melt, wouldnt you? The man is transfixed by cocaine. You can
windows, so youd get all those albums displayed together. almost feel it boring through his brain. And hes skeletal thin. He has been reduced to the essence of
I called him Boughie back then. And theres an interesting discussion to be had about how Bowie-dom. And the translation of that to The Man Who Fell to Earth is almost nothing; theres just a thin
you pronounce his name in relation to how you think of him. On Future Legend on Diamond membrane between the two. The way he looks in the film just takes on that step of always being beyond.
Dogs you very clearly hear a voice saying Boughie, Boughie, and in the early 1970s he was, as Noel Coward said that when David Lean asked him how hed managed to survive through so many
far as I was concerned, David Boughie, becoming Bowie later on. More like the Bowie knife. periods that it seemed centuries, Cowards retort was: Always pop out of another hole. Bowie always
I know theres a whole subculture that refers to him as Bow-ee. But to me, he was seems to confound expectation, and I think he really does that intensely in The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Boughie, and was connected with science-fiction films, and he was initially scary. He looked
like his dress sense came from A Clockwork Orange, there was clearly a whole thing about the
mixture of bovver boots and gender-neutral clothing, which was in itself strange. You look at [CF] I was surprised that the V&As Postmodernism [MK] The interesting thing about that image from The Man Who Fell to Earth is not only that it
the early pictures of Malcolm McDowell from A Clockwork Orange with that very, very coiffed exhibition didnt include that clip of The depicts how people watch television now and its a common image but also that it
hair, but part thug, part effete, and non-specific gender. So my first memory was, Wow, thats Man Who Fell to Earth of the alien sitting seems to be the distillation of Bowies entire image. Its significant to point out that
really scary. I promised Christopher I wouldnt say this, but around the same time The Exorcist there with a hundred television channels the cover images of both Station to Station and Low are taken from the film (pls 138 and
was having the same effect on me, which was: Its really scary, so Im interested in it. There all going at once, and this channel-hopper 139). For Station to Station, you wonder why hes putting his head through a bunch of
is a connection, which is that anything that was worrying your parents, which was creating just vacuuming in all this material. Its such black cones, and then you realize its him putting his head into the space cabin from
scandal, was inevitably very alluring. So I remember being interested because Bowies image a key image of that culture of quotations The Man Who Fell to Earth. The Low cover was pretty close to a publicity image for The
was like science fiction, it was like something that looked scary, and also your parents didnt moment. It would have distilled much Man Who Fell to Earth and on the second side of Low we find the song Subterraneans
like it. You look at a film, not so long ago, like Velvet Goldmine, which Bowie isnt involved with of the exhibition: breadth rather than that he had written for The Man Who Fell to Earth that ended up not being used in the
in any way but theres that fantastic scene where the teenager is pointing at the television depth; moving horizontally through infor- film according to Nic Roeg, because someone stiffed him on the money. Being
and saying, Thats me, that is, thats me. That strange sense of recognition. mation; life in inverted commas; no more slightly completist, a while ago I took The Man Who Fell to Earth and put some of the
And then, not so long after that, only a few years later, you get The Man Who Fell to Earth, grand narratives. Low music on to it. It works brilliantly! Clearly thats what its the soundtrack to.
which of course is his defining role, not just in cinema but across all these cultural references. The interesting thing with the film is that its hard to imagine anybody else getting
Obviously its based on a very respectable book by Walter Tevis, and its a film thats grown in away with that role, because there are a lot of things about that film that in anybody
stature over the years but thats what he was. He himself once said in an interview: I was the elses hands would have just appeared clunky and ridiculous. There is no surer way of
man, no, I was the androgyne for the time. That was it. The sense was that he was genuinely a making a fool of yourself than to be asked to act like youre extraterrestrial and not
space alien who had somehow ended up on earth, and ended up making recordings of bizarre human. Actors consistently drop the ball doing that because its so hard to do. The
extra-terrestrial poetry. Thats why Nic Roeg casting him in that film was so brilliant. He didnt genius of casting Bowie was that he didnt appear to be acting at all. In fact, the one
have to act it. You just thought that it was exactly what he seemed to have been. moment in the film when it doesnt ring true is when they stick him in the space-lizard
So he was a spaceman, living on earth, being a bit scary and therefore interesting, working make-up. Then he just looks like a bloke in space-lizard make-up.
in records and films, both of which we had been told were slightly debased, slightly rebellious
art forms that you probably shouldnt concentrate on too much. Consequently, you end up
completely obsessing about them and him. [CF] Nic Roeg said that he saw the Cracked Actor documentary on TV, and when he met Bowie it
was as if someone was walking towards the part. He just had to be, really. I think that Bowies
best film performances are when he just has to be. When hes Warhol in Basquiat, when hes
[CF] I remember the great debate about Bowie among earnest cultural studies professors another invention Tesla in The Prestige or when hes Mr Newton, I think hes astonishingly charismatic and enig-
of the late 1960s was whether the alien image, the A Clockwork Orange image and later the Isherwood matic. But hes not an actorly actor he just is. Casting Bowie was quite a risk, when you
Berlin image of the early 1970s were actually an escape from the real stuff you know, that we should be think about it. Hed made a few records and in the pop world was very successful, but in film
on the streets protesting; we should be doing the things that people did in the 1960s. But he kept step- terms Hollywood Whos he?
ping out of that commitment all sorts of commitments, actually: the commitment to gender, sexuality,
personality to anything. He was such a fluid personality that a lot of the heavy mob in cultural studies
never really forgave him; they thought he was copping out. Id argue that actually he was doing something [GM] How do you feel about an exhibition about Bowie at the V&A? [PH] I think Bowie was the Ballet Russes for my generation. When I saw
even more radical by redefining gender roles and all these other things weve touched on. He was moving Do you think it is part of the myth-making that is going on? Is it the V&As Ballet Russes exhibition and saw the backcloth for Le Train
the debate on from the crude Marxism of the 1960s into the politics of identity. But at the time critics appropriate? Its the UKs National Museum of Art, Design and bleu, it was unbelievable. It suddenly threw you back to the astonish-
wanted their rocknroll to be authentic, they wanted Springsteen, a sort of blue-collar guy who wears his Performance; clearly fashion and popular culture are things that ing multimedia effect that the Ballet Russes had at that point. I think
heart on his sleeve, and its all about him and his life. And Bowie was completely different, he was stand- audiences are interested in. In the 1970s, Bowie would probably it is the same thing for Bowie. Having seen Joseph Beuys and Bryan
ing aside from all that and creating all these roles and being very detached, like a Pop artist manipulating have thought the V&A was a very grey and dusty place. Ferry lecture at the V&A, I dont think, in true Bowie tradition, that
all these signs. A singing Warhol. They didnt like that, having to ask, Where is he, in all this? there is a barrier there.

284 285
 [196] top left Publicity poster for The Man Who Fell to Earth,
1976 Directed by Nicolas Roeg The David Bowie Archive

[197] above Script for The Man Who Fell to Earth, 1976
Directed by Nicolas Roeg The David Bowie Archive

[198] left World Enterprises clothing logo from

The Man Who Fell to Earth, 1976 The David Bowie Archive

[199] opposite Black suit for Thomas Jerome Newton

played by David Bowie, in The Man Who Fell to Earth, 1975
Designed by Ola Hudson The David Bowie Archive

286
[MK] I think
Geoffrey there are veryfew
Marsh pop starsFrayling
Christopher who, if youheard
Philipthey
Hoare Mark Kermode [CF]
had an exhibition At the opening of the V&As Kylie Minogue exhi- [CF] Im not
Geoffrey sure that themusic
Marsh in and of
Christopher itself
Frayling Philip [MK]
HoareI slightly disagree
Markwith you on the music issue. If, after all these years, you can still
Kermode
at the V&A, you wouldnt laugh. But in the case of Bowie, to sneer would bition in 2006, this diminutive girl stood there will be what survives with Bowie, but the listen to Cygnet Committee and think Blimey! I had that album [1969s David
be ridiculous. It is always really difficult when you talk about anybody who by the microphone and said: Look, theres me, music in relation to everything else. The Bowie] when I was about ten or 11, and I still listen to it and am amazed at how much
first made their mark in pop music; to then talk about them doing anything Kylie Minogue, Im here tonight, and theres the videos are so important as extra informa- is going on. Memory of a Free Festival is the same.
outside that field automatically invites derision. Nobody wants to see pop other Kylie Minogue, who belongs to the history tion being overlaid over the lyrics of the The thing about his musical influence is that its actually harder to think of
stars act in films because theyre rubbish. No one wants to see a pop stars of culture, and the history of art and design. And songs. Whereas for the Beatles, I think something that he hasnt influenced. On the radio the other day, someone was doing
screen prints because theyre rubbish. Nobody wants to see a pop stars this exhibition isnt about me, the little girl from that some of the songs will long outlive a retro thing and playing a track by Suede and for the first bit you think, Oh, its
volume of poetry because its rubbish. We all know that. Australia, its about culture, and the history of them, Im not so sure that will happen Bowie. Oh, no, sorry. Its not, its Suede doing Bowie. One of the funniest moments
But the fact of the matter is, when you consider Bowies work in pop design. I thought that was a wonderful thing to say musically with Bowie. But when you put in any David Bowie film is that moment in The Hunger when he walks into a club and
music you inevitably start thinking about all the other areas you think and explained why that exhibition was happening. the videos with the songs, then theres Bauhaus are in a cage playing Bela Lugosis Dead. It must be an intentional gag:
about the music, you think about the videos, you think about the fashion, In 1910, 85 per cent all recorded music was something extraordinary going on: the Bowie not looking at Pete Murphy, who has got to where he is by doing a David Bowie
you think about the political or non-political statements, you think about classical music, now less than ten per cent of verbal and the visual, the fashion element, impression, yet doesnt notice Bowie walking past him.
the films you go from gender identity in the 1960s and 1970s through to recorded music is classical. You cant say the V&A the construction of celebrity All these Theres a recent film I mentioned earlier called Bandslam, aimed at 13- or 14-year-
the after-effects of 9/11. Clearly it would be absurd to think anything but is just there for the ten per cent; its there for the things are happening visually. As long as olds, a story about young wannabe rock musicians. It ends with David Bowie picking
that it is completely justified. 90 per cent as well, and actually its the soundtrack we can find a way of conserving videos, them up on the internet and ringing them up and saying, Ive seen your video and
My only thought when I heard about the exhibition was, How big is to our lives now, and you have to accept that. in 50 years I suspect that will be what Id like to produce you. I saw that film with my daughter, who admittedly grew up in
the room? Literally, where are you going to put it all? You take any five- or Another point is the high-low issue. Bowie goes into the archive the mixture of the a house with all the Bowie albums around her, but of course she knows who David
ten-year period within his career and there is more than enough to fill one radically stood for breaking down the distinc- two. Then there will be the legacy, the Bowie is and the makers of that film must have understood that his role as an icon
exhibition. What I hope the exhibition wont do is to focus just on 197080, tion between, on the one hand, Dada, Duchamp, rock family tree, and who he influences. I even to teenagers is big enough that the gag will work. At the end, theyll think, Oh
and do that to the exclusion of everything else. I would shy away from the idea Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, you name it and on the would say that Michael Jackson is a good yeah, I know him.
that that is the only significant period, because I think his cultural signifi- other hand, Tin Pan Alley. Bowie broke down those example of someone who completely As far as the connection between the music and the videos is concerned, I abso-
cance is, if anything, more now than it was then because he has passed into distinctions, and I think that thats part of the new changes his image and act as part of the lutely agree that the videos are really important we all remember where we were
the ether. I cant think of many people I obsessed over in the 1970s whose role of the V&A. It used to embody those distinc- backwash from Bowie. when we saw Ashes to Ashes, or when someone said, Wow, hes made a little feature
name would be instantly recognizable to the average teenager now. But if tions, and it now has to learn how to break them film called Jazzin for Blue Jean, its like a pop video but it goes on for ages. That
you ask a 13-year-old Do you know who David Bowie is?, theyll say yes down, and get into the bloodstream of culture. To drew comparison with John Landis doing Michael Jacksons Thriller people said,
and actually the chances are that they saw him in Bandslam. interpret visual culture across the spectrum. Theyve spent how much money making it? There was that crossover. But I think
that the music stands up on its own, because its uncanny how many pop movements
have come, like punk, that wiped out all the old dinosaurs but of course not Bowie.
[MK] The high-low thing is embodied in A Clockwork [GM] Lets fast-forward to 2012. A few months ago a commemorative plaque to Then along comes techno, and all the New Romantic bands, who all look like theyre
Orange. It inspired so much of Bowies early stage Ziggy Stardust was unveiled in Heddon Street for the fortieth anniversary trying to be David Bowie with tea cloths over their shoulders.
work, and combines the bovver boy with the person [of the release of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars]; He had worked with German electronic bands long before everybody had a
who listens to Beethoven. There was, from the its one of only three plaques in London to imaginary characters. It struck Kraftwerk album. He played the icon in Christiane F. ages before anybody thought,
earliest breakout of Bowies pop career, the idea me that if Ziggy Stardust walked down Regent Street today nobody would Oh actually, thats where the future is. And then the disco thing happens the drum
that you didnt have to be either an aesthete or blink an eyelid but if he walked through a lot of other capital cities, Ziggy sound that he develops on Low is the drum sound that you then hear for the next ten
somebody that worked in a factory. might have a lot of problems. How do you see his overall impact looking back years in every dance record. Its easier to pick out the music that hasnt been defined
over 40 years? by him even if the people who made it would shudder at the thought that actually
what theyre doing is recycling Bowie. And that ties in with the idea of being a magpie,
a thief, of stealing things. Of course he did; the genius of what he did was exactly
[PH] Where do you start? Like you, I went down to Heddon Street to see the plaque, which is deeply disappointing, that. He has got an extraordinary sense of history who wouldnt have, when the
I think. In 1912 on the same street where the plaque was erected was the Cave of the Golden Calf, which was first records you make are mod records and you go on television and complain about
probably one of the most decadent clubs ever devised in Britain. Visitors were greeted by a golden calf carved being chased down the street because youve got long hair, and the next thing is that
by Eric Gill that was coved in gold, a phallic symbol, and it was worshipped by people to the soundtrack of youre doing Anthony Newley? By the time he arrived at what we think of as the early
nigger music, which was what jazz was called then. There were men walking around with nail varnish on proper hits Space Oddity hes got a whole career in musical theatre behind him.
So that sense of what Bowie means now is inflected by what he would have meant a hundred years ago. When
you see that image of Ziggy Stardust, he might have been teleported there by Diaghilev or Warhol, as much
as from a century in future. And he lives on in that way because of the strength of the image he created, and [GM] So what other people and [CF] There are lots of other traditions alongside what [PH] On the dress sleeve of The Man
the strength of the myth that he created, and the strength of the narratives of his songs, which are universes ideas do you see when weve been talking about. Can I quote Oscar Who Sold the World hes channelling
in their own right in a way Theyre timeless, because he was trying to deal with the future. Nothing dates so you think of Bowie, his Wilde? I was a man who stood in symbolic rela- Wilde, via the Aesthetic move-
much as the future from the past, but Bowie seems to have escaped that. image and his relation- tionship to the art and culture of my age. There ment, only bringing it forward
I last saw him at Glastonbury in 2001, when he just rendered everything else around him and everything ship to culture? was nothing I said or did that didnt make people into the twenty-first century.
that had gone before to be almost an opening act for what he was. Specifically, when you look at the progress of wonder. I think thats spot on.
music, he has been influential throughout. Punk wouldnt have happened without him. The Bromley Contingent
were in the audience when I first saw David Bowie, on the Station to Station tour in 1976. I saw Siouxsie Sioux
and Steve Severin walking out. They were Bowies children. A generation later at the Taboo club, Leigh Bowery
was a bloated Bowie from the Antipodes. Theres this transgenic influence being passed from generation to
generation through the people who worship Bowie, from Joy Division to Lady Gaga. Tilda Swinton channels
him, brilliantly, in fashion shoots. And my 12-year-old nephew knows all the lyrics to Ziggy Stardust.

288 289
 [200] top left Poster for the UK release of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence,
1983 Directed by Nagisa Oshima The David Bowie Archive

[201] top right Poster for the Japanese release of Merry Christmas
Mr Lawrence, 1983 Directed by Nagisa Oshima The David Bowie Archive

[202] left Poster from Basquiat, 1996 Directed by Julian Schnabel The
original poster, featuring Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, promoted
their joint exhibition in 1985 This replica made for the film shows David
Bowie and Jeffrey Wright in character The David Bowie Archive

[203] above David Bowie as Andy Warhol on the set of Basquiat, 1996
The David Bowie Archive

[204] opposite David Bowie as Andy Warhol on the set of Basquiat, 1996
Photograph by Eric Liebowitz The David Bowie Archive

290
[CF] Lets Marsh
Geoffrey rewind to the moment of his formation
Christopher Frayling asa performer: Mark Kermode [MK] He always thought of himself as Marlene
Philip Hoarehes just leftschool, [PH]
Geoffrey
Its hisMarsh
version of Sinatra
Christopher
and Frayling
[CF]
And
Philip
notHoare
forgetting Basquiat,
Markwhere
Kermode
he at last plays
in 1963/64, then after that, 196572 The things that were in the ether that Dietrich and on the cover of Hunky Dory, The Man with the Golden Arm. Warhol and actually wore Warhols wig, and his clothes,
I think he distilled: youve got Mythologies by Roland Barthes, so there is the he is being Dietrich, he does look like her. and carried his handbag. That must have been a great
language of signs and manipulating signs, and nothing is natural or given, its avatar moment for him. Like Warhol himself using a
all manufactured and in someones interest. Then youve got Warhol saying the double in a wig for media interviews.
same things about celebrity, and thats absolutely hitting England in about 1966. [PH] Hes a romantic figure in the tradition
Then theres Georges Bataille writing about transgression and taboo, and that of Byron or Keats or Shelley. Its a shame
one of the ways you define yourself is in finding societys taboos and exploit- that he has to change When he went [PH] Bowie was Warhols Frankensteins creature. Without Warhol Bowie couldnt have [GM] There is this idea that Bowie, like
ing them. Theres some Nietzsche, Start your rebirth tomorrow and do what to America he became something that existed. He was the product of that new attitude to commodification and to art, some other artists such as Blake and
thou wilt, arguing that remaking yourself is the way to refresh your life. All of he ought not to have become, commod- where Bowie, a musician, could be an artist a fine artist. Thats where the notion maybe Derek Jarman, has this habit
these theoretical contribtutions are in the ether, and somehow he picks up on itized, the same time as he signed to EMI. of him being in films, films that arent completely under his control, which arent of ranging across different art forms
them. And on the Oscar Wilde-Aubrey Beardsley revival. Hes not at art school, Theres this ten-year miraculous period an extension of his unreal personality, almost dont work for me. I respect what you and as a result theres an element of
unlike Lennon, and Eric Burden, and Pete Townshend and Freddie Mercury, hes where hes this lodestone, a lightning say about those films, Mark, but they dont interest me because theyre not actually discomfort in critical circles
actually at the technical college down the road, but somehow he picks up on all conductor for all this amazing stuff thats about David Bowie, theyre about another character.
this. I think his significance long-term is the distillation of that moment when going on, and he introduces us to Jean The Man Who Fell to Earth works because hes playing David Bowie. That part was
visual languages were beginning to be understood, and our art was becoming Genet, and Burroughs, and Man Ray. Just written for him before he arrived. Theres this sense of things going on around him [PH] The nearest cultural figure to him is
concerned with referring explicitly to signs New York was taking over from that sense of something which is beyond as this creature falls to the earth; its the same as Jay Gatsby standing on the end of William Blake.
Paris. He embodies the symbolic relationship to the art and culture of the age his control, almost. his Long Island dock. This person who is completely ahead of his era, and is lead-
in a very visual and aural way. Thats extraordinary. People will also look back on ing the era, and is an avatar that is untouchable. He symbolizes something that is
his beauty as we do at great Hollywood stars. Stills of Bowie will be like latter- unattainable for us all. [CF] ...except that William Blake was utterly
day Hollywood studio portraits. I was talking to a friend about David Bowie the other day, and he said: What does incapable of commercializing himself in
he do now? Do you think he has any friends? I dont think that David Bowie has ever any possible way, and that Blake believed
had friends. How could you be friends with David Bowie? in his mythology so deeply that he couldnt
[MK] I would be very careful about imagining that there was a golden age that stopped. I think that we need to be careful, produce anything that anyone wanted in
because this conversation is about what David Bowie is now, and there is a sense that he transcended pop in the 1960s his own lifetime.
and 1970s, but in fact hes been active since then. What happens after Scary Monsters, Lets Dance and Modern Love, when
he was massive, is that he moves into other areas, whether thats art, or film, or the internet, or stage production. I saw
The Elephant Man on stage not with Bowie [in 1980], but with David Schofield, and I thought it was brilliant. But for [PH] Au contraire Blake printed his own books so that [CF] But he wasnt a commodi [PH] But I dont think David Bowie is,
Bowie, the idea that he would lay himself bare, when hes got everything to lose, is interesting. hed have complete control over them. I think com- fication man, at all. really even the Bowie Bonds,
On the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) theres a note of what hes known for. Two of the films listed in that sec- mercialism defeated him in his age. when they come later on.
tion are Se7en and Inglourious Basterds. Now, for Se7en its because of The Hearts Filthy Lesson, and Inglourious Basterds
because of Putting Out Fire, which of course is the theme from Cat People. There is a whole body of work that is more
significant to a generation who think that Bowie started with Lets Dance, who remember buying Modern Love and [CF] Bowie Bonds in the mid 1990s were a very New York phenomenon. There [PH] Thats only because hes being interested in
think that everything before that is the preamble to the point at which he became danceable and mainstream. It was was an economist who reckoned that David Bowie caused the entire bank- Warhol. Its an artistic statement, not a commer-
really interesting for me, who has always considered The Man Who Fell to Earth as the most definitive thing hes done, ing crash, because he gave everyone the idea of producing bonds out of cial one. His commercial stuff, after he signed to
that the IMDb says that the most important thing is the theme to Se7en. thin air against the royalties of the future that might or might not happen, EMI you feel as though hes doing it to pay tax
I think that the Bowie movie legacy is better than many people think it is, because people remember the scene which created a trend for inventing financial services living on nothing. If bills. When hes really doing something, he never
in Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, which I dont like as a film, where he pretends to shave, and everyone says, Oh yeah, you want a single cause of the banking crisis, the economist said, look no thinks about the money. Pop was just a convenient
he studied with Lindsay Kemp, and thats pompous, pretentious and boring. Also theres the tragedy of Just a Gigolo, further. Wow! platform for what he wanted to do. Theres a great
which is a disastrous film and he shouldnt have had anything to do with it. What people forget is that hes really good Even in 1972/73 he was casting the audience in the role of young consum- irony that hes Ziggy Stardust, this person who is
in The Prestige, where he has a pretty good go at [the Serbian-American] Teslas complicated accent. You watch it and ers rather than angry teenagers. At that time the role of the hero in the mov- killed by his fans. Hes inviting that. He brings it
think, Sorry, what accent is that? but apparently it would have been exactly that. ies, in rock music, changes from being a crusader something you believe upon himself and then he feeds off it. He is created
in, something you root for, which is very Blake to something thats a style by that energy.
statement. The focus changes into a projection of someones dreams rather
[CF] Nikola Tesla is such an interest- [MK] Hes great in that. He has a brilliant cameo in Into the Night in which hes used by John Landis than a model to emulate; thats absolutely Bowie, I think. You dont want to
ing character. Theres a famous to play a really hard killer. Its only a brief role, but hes really good in it. Hes great in The be him because of what he believes in or because of what hes fighting for. You
photo of him in a metal cage with Hunger, which as a film is basically MTV on the big screen. Im not a fan of the film, but he want to be him because you like his style and that turns the audience into [CF] We keep talking about Bowie, and actually were
all this electricity being chucked does a vampire and you mentioned the vampire in connection with the music and hes per- consumers, and thats not Blake, at all. More like Henry Fuseli if you want to talking about the myth of Bowie. Im not sure
at him its now known to be a fectly cast. The problem is that people remember like this: The Man Who Fell to Earth great. go back to that period; Fuseli, who sold lots of pictures and really played the even he knows who he is anymore rather like
fake, but it was very influential. Just a Gigolo terrible. Followed by Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, which actually nobody liked game. In universities in the 1960s, there was the Marxism and sociology, the some actors. Its an odd comparison, but for Woody
Had a huge influence on the crea- (other than for the score) but you went to see because it was Oshima. And then they forget idea of us against the world, we dont like commodification. I think Bowie Allen or Clint Eastwood, because theyve played
tion sequence in James Whales that the significant roles are in other movies, whether its providing music for Se7en or being really picked up on the idea that theres no shame in commodifying yourself. the same parts so often, we confuse them with the
Frankenstein. Its perfect that in The Prestige, which is the most underrated Nolan movie. Its terrific. Or its appearing in Actually, it doesnt ruin the art in some ways it enhances it. person they are playing. Bowie has played lots of
Bowie plays Tesla. Christiane F., which at the time was such a controversial film that the censors beat themselves parts, but we always talk about him as if they exist.
up about it for ages. I remember going to see it and being astonished because Id never seen I dont know what lies behind those parts. All I
a film that dealt with drug addiction in such a visceral way. The idea of putting Bowie right in know about is the myth, because that is what we
the middle of that was very bold. are presented with.

292 293
 Geoffrey Marsh Christopher Frayling Philip Hoare Mark Kermode Geoffrey Marsh Christopher Frayling Philip Hoare Mark Kermode

[205] top left Signed photograph from John Hurt,

1980 The David Bowie Archive

[206] top right Caricature of David Bowie in

Chicago, 1980 The David Bowie Archive

[207] left Playbill for the Booth Theatre,

New York production of The Elephant Man, 1980
The David Bowie Archive

[208] above Invitation to David Bowies Broadway

debut, 1980 The David Bowie Archive

[209] opposite Promotional poster for The

Elephant Man, 1980 Directed by Jack Hofsiss
The David Bowie Archive

294 295
[GM] Moving
Geoffrey on to the twenty-first
Marsh century:
Christopher Philip Hoare [CF] Thats
Fraylingalthough a very
Mark theoretical, post-structuralist, Baudrillard-type position.
Kermode [GM] You havent
Geoffrey Marsh been tempted to Frayling
Christopher Philip Hoare [MK] There is a Bowie
Mark Kermode biography from the early 1970s, written I suppose around
Bowie wasnt in New York on 9/11, he was close by. People died. There were atrocities. They happened. Its NOT a movie, where write something, Phillip? the time Aladdin Sane was out. It relied very heavily on the idea that once
Some argue that 9/11 was planned as the ultimate were all in the society of the spectacle, and its all spectacle, and it all evens Bowies father died, things fundamentally changed for him. It was one of
piece of media theatre to maximize its interna- out at some level. In the end Bowies an entertainer, and hes in a particular those little paperbacks that were popular at the time. That was 40 years ago.
tional news impact. Do you think that it actually world, and inside that world his innovations that weve been talking about [PH] No, I wouldnt. Or only if he asks me! Bowie has One of the problems is, as the plethora of books about him demonstrates,
out-Bowied Bowie? That its one of the few things have been fantastic. But outside that world, theres all this history going never written a book; he doesnt need to write: all that the changes have been so dramatic. Think about the ten years between
that has not overlaid Bowie, but gone further? on. I cant bear Derrida and Baudrillard saying that war is actually a spec- of those song-stories are extraordinary narratives. 1969 and 1979, think of all the phases he goes through. Think about the ten
tacle, or that Vietnam didnt really happen in the accepted sense because Also, I dont want Bowie to interpret himself. I years that Oasis were together and all the changes that they singularly didnt
we all watched it on television. I dont buy that all. People died. Its not dont want him to write his autobiography. Its go through.
the same as the entertainment business, unless youre talking about the already there. Its in the albums, its in the videos Any one period of Bowies life would more than occupy a biographer.
television coverage. and its in the films. The temptation is always to imagine that all the interesting work was done
in the 1970s, but I would contest that. I think there are other periods that
are equally interesting. Crucially, the thing I remember about that book I
[PH] Frank Kermode talks about how we live through disconfirmed apocalypses, [GM] Bowie opened the Concert for New York at [CF] Well, the myth is. The traditional role of the biog- mentioned was reading it as a teenager because obviously as a teenager
and that theyre a trope of modern culture, but that theyre a trope of medi- Madison Square Gardens, six weeks after 9/11, with rapher is to peel that aside, and to try to and find you think, I want to find out whats behind Bowie and you get to the bit
eval culture as well. Bowies landscape is post-apocalyptic, from Weve got [Simon and Garfunkels] America followed by this intelligence, but you cant do that with Bowie; where it says, Its to do with the death of his father, then everything changes.
five years, stuck on my eyes, it runs all the way through his work. He inhabits Heroes. As a Londoner, I thought it was extraor- theres an empty room. Like in those sci-fi films But I got there and thought: That is utter rubbish, or, if its not utter rub-
The Wasteland which is why Joy Division can inhabit the same wasteland in dinary to see an Englishman, someone from the where the hero finally breaks into the centre of bish, I dont want to know it. I dont care. What I care about is the fictional
industrial Manchester in the 1970s and early 1980s. What Bowie represents suburbs, being a lightning rod for New Yorks grief. intelligence and theres no one there. invented character.
culturally is that the apocalypse has already happened, that 9/11 has already Was there something about him, as a migrant to
happened. As soon as I saw the photographs of the ruined twin towers, I America, that allowed him to hold an American
opened the gatefold of Diamond Dogs, and its the same image. audience that night? [CF] Part of the game with Warhol was inventing your CV; a part of the celebrity thing is to invent. An early
press release about Bowie said he went to Bromley Art School, because they felt he ought to have
done. It begins there, and people have latched on to certain biographical moments for example, his
[CF] It was a very strange moment. I was there [MK] If I can add just two things: I feel very uncomfortable about 9/11 ever being talked stepbrothers mental health problems, the father dying, guilt about the family. Does this help to define
a week later, putting on an exhibition in about as anything other than a hideous terrorist atrocity. You get into very danger- Bowie? They latch on to the two or three things they think they know about his biography, because of
Grand Central Station about the best of ous territory when you start comparing it with spectacle or exhibition for obvious all the smokescreens.
British design. We were going to cancel it reasons. However, more significant for me in this is that I dont think of Bowie as One of the dangers of the celebrity approach to autobiography is that people will believe things
because we thought it was appalling taste living in America at all. that are barefaced lies, but that is part of the joke, in a way. In Bowies case people have made much
to encourage people to be consumers at Ive been convinced for years, whether fact or not, that he lives in Switzerland too much of tiny little biographical snippets, because they are desperate to know more, and its all
this dreadful time, but someone came up because it seems more appropriate that he should live in Switzerland. He always seems they have. It would be more interesting to write a fictional autobiography. In so far as there are bio-
with a new slogan, UK in NY: Shoulder to me to be someone who should live outside of time and place, and Switzerland graphical snippets, they all come out of promotional interviews, while he is promoting his work. The
to Shoulder. So we put that on the front my grandmothers from Switzerland seems to be the perfect place. A place where famous 1972 I am gay statement was from a promotional interview. In fact he made some really quite
of the exhibition and suddenly it seemed you live in a hermetically sealed world that isnt part of the normal world, neutral in prescient comments about internet culture a lot later, talking about how people tend to skim and go
very emotional, very right. The Guards wars and with a banking system thats isolated from everyone else. It seems to have sideways horizontal thinking rather than depth thinking long before that became a fashionable
Band was playing Gilbert and Sullivan on arrived from outer space. You made a very good point before about whether you can thing to say. Again, that was said in a promotional interview for a record.
the Rockefeller Center garden in scarlet imagine him ever having friends. I was thinking, What you mean earth friends?
uniforms all these greatest hits of British In my head he lives in Switzerland.
design were in Grand Central Station Also, he was doing BowieNet very early on, and Bowie Art [bowieart.com is [PH] Everything he said was a lie anyway. His statements about [CF] There was that famous interview in Melody Maker in January
and Bowie doing the concert it was a Bowies on-line gallery], and all those things seem to exist without national bounda- his sexuality were fantastically ambiguous. To be ambigu- 1972 where he said: I am gay, and I always have been gay,
very odd moment. People were wearing ries. For me, although I think of him absolutely as British, and I think that the Bromley ous about something that is already ambiguous my God! even when I was David Jones I was gay. And thats quite
badges with Union Jacks and the Stars and thing is very important, he does seem to exist in the world without being of a specific How can you do that? something at least the first time somebody says it.
Stripes next to each other, saying, Youre country. Which is why if you listen to Aladdin Sane it makes sense, because its about
our only friends in the world. Youre the travelling through areas but not being connected with them. Its why in the Cracked
only people we can trust. Blair and Bush. Actor documentary the key scene is him in the limousine looking through a glass [PH] I know, but he always retracts those statements. He has [CF] But it was brave because no one had publicly outed a British
Bowie and Paul Simon. window, being in the world but not of it. Its why when people say He lives in New retracted that by his existence since, because, as far as I pop musician, ever. Because it was opposed
York, you think, Does he? because that doesnt make any sense. know, he has not had a relationship with a man since

[GM] We have over 20 books here about Bowie [CF] It is partly because he acts as a lightning rod for all these theoretical concerns at the [PH] Of course it was opposed! All the role models for gay peo-
and there must be at least double that pub- moment critics love deconstructing things, and running down theoretical rabbit ple before Bowie were so extraordinarily patronizing, I
lished, with more on the way, apart from holes. Partly its the mystery, the enigma: who is Bowie behind all this? Is he the suppose is the word. Because it allows people to put you
all the countless magazine articles. Why Invisible Man? Thats intriguing for a biographer. Partly I think its because there are in a box, and then along comes this person that opens the
does he continue to fascinate writers? so many unreleased videos, takes and records, and there are these myths of all the box, and says, You can do any of it.
material out there and people think, Why wont he release it? Biographers love
to talk about all this intrigue: where are all the versions of the record? Who helped
to record it? Where is the master tape?

296 297
 Geoffrey Marsh Christopher Frayling Philip Hoare Mark Kermode Geoffrey Marsh Christopher Frayling Philip Hoare Mark Kermode

[210] opposite Storyboard for Labyrinth, 1986

Directed by Jim Henson The David Bowie Archive

[211] above Letter from Jim Henson to

David Bowie, 1986 The David Bowie Archive

[212] right Promotional poster for Labyrinth, 1986

Directed by Jim Henson The David Bowie Archive

298 299
[MK]
Geoffrey
I think
Marsh
it is interesting
Christopher
to also acknowledge
Frayling Duncan
PhilipJones
Hoarecareer at thispoint,
Mark again
Kermode [GM] As we began our discussion about London, Geoffrey Marsh Christopher Frayling Philip Hoare Mark Kermode
as we are talking about Bowie now. Duncan Jones, who turns out to be a brilliant I would like to bring the discussion full
director, and who kept his tinder dry for a very long time and worked, as far as anyone circle. London has reinvented itself in last
can tell, deliberately not in the shadow of my famous father. 15 years, and the 2012 Olympics brought
The first film he makes is Moon, which is a very 1970s science-fiction movie, the focus of the world on the capital.
and in interviews he talks about him and his dad making little movies together. And Bowie could live anywhere in the world,
of course this is around the time that Bowie was doing all the things we are talking but he chooses to live in New York; clearly
about, and Bowie was obviously influenced by 2001, Silent Running, Solaris, all those whatever transformation has taken place
great movies from the 1960s and early 1970s. Duncan Jones career is fermented in in London, in parallel to his career, is not
that. Its interesting that one of the things that shows the ongoing influence of Bowie, sufficient to bring him back here.
now, is that he clearly raised a kid who grew up being very cine-literate, and having
a very, very wily take on how and when to talk to the media.
I was listening to Hunky Dory and there is a song on there, Kooks, about a kid
who then grew up to make a film that I really like, and you dont immediately con-
nect those two things. I think there is something very impressive about the fact that
Bowies influence on his son has not only inculcated a love of cinema and a love of
science fiction and all of that, but also clearly he has learnt that the media is some-
thing that you deal with very carefully, and at arms length.

[CF] In supreme irony, he was actually asked about this recently: Why dont you move [MK] He always said that he liked that about
back to London? He said that the trouble is the celebrity culture, they hound you; New York, the anonymity, the idea you
the paparazzi are everywhere. That is a supreme irony in his life, but he is right, no could walk around in New York and
one would leave him alone. With all these discussions about bugging and hacking, nobody bothered you.
Bowie would be everywhere. Maybe in New York it isnt like that. And spiritually he
was always closer to Warhols Factory than to Bromley.

[PH] I think that his London is a fictional, fantastical London. He was, [GM] Finally, to end, if Bowie had been with us today, what would
trans-chronologically, the spirit of all the subversive Londons that you like to have asked him?
have ever existed and may ever exist. Thats what that image of
Ziggy Stardust is about. He is this fairy sprite, almost holographi-
cally projected on to London. So his existence in London is always [CF] What irritates you most about critics writing about you?
here and not here at the same time.

[PH] I cant think of a single question to which Id [MK] Id want to ask him, What now?, because, in a way, everything thats hap- So that would be the question: What now?
receive a satisfactory answer or, indeed, one Id pened up until now has been so pored over and so personalized that it doesnt
want to hear. I mean, where do you start, when matter what he thinks anymore. It doesnt matter what he meant when he
faced with someone who is responsible for your wrote Heroes, and it doesnt matter what he thought when he did the cover
alternative education, for opening up the world photography for The Man Who Sold the World. It doesnt matter because those
to you? It would be like Blake talking back to the things are in the public domain. I think we own the Bowie back catalogue
angels on Peckham Rye. more than he does.
But I think that as somebody who has done so much over that relatively
short period and has reinvented themselves so many times and been so
significant not just in the world of music but also the world of cinema and
popular culture, and who seems still to be active, on the internet the ques-
tion is, What now? The reason is, in my mind he is still a spaceman who
when he is on Earth lives in a limousine looking at the world from behind
a sheet of glass. And he probably doesnt age, and he probably, like Dr Who,
has two hearts. And in the end he will go back to whichever planet it is hes
come from. And as he is still here, he hasnt finished. So then, what now?
I think it comes back to The Man Who Fell to Earth quintessentially sum-
ming up what he is. I saw him at the end of Bandslam and I thought how young
he looked, but of course he looks young, hes a spaceman moving on a dif-
ferent time continuum.

300 301
 David
Bowie is
famous and
thinking
about
something
else
[213] opposite David Bowie and Iman at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute
Annual Gala, 2008 Photograph by Stephen Lovekin

302
 David Bowie is photographic
Nicholas Coleridge

Has any rock star collaborated with a wider range of important It was striking, when selecting my 16 all-time best Bowie
creative photographers, over a longer period, than David Bowie? images, how often one reverted to Sukita. Perhaps it took a
The trajectory of his image, and its projection across four Japanese eye to do justice to the high-gloss veneer and ironic
decades, tracks the history of photography during the period. nihilism of the unfolding Bowie uvre. Nobody recorded the
Brian Ward, Bruce Weber, Brian Duffy, Masayoshi Sukita, Lord Ziggy and Aladdin Sane eras better than Sukita (the 1972 por-
Snowdon, Frank Ockenfels, Anton Corbijn: all played a role in traits with red guitar and in Yamamoto costume and, perhaps
amplifying, refining and sometimes even defining the Bowie most of all, the 1973 hand-on-thigh pout-shot against red back-
image, as surely as Holbeins portraits of Henry VIII or Van Dykes ground, are all classics) but his style evolved in sync with the
of Charles I did for their respective patrons centuries earlier. artist to produce the defining images of the Heroes period and
From the very beginning, Bowie had an unerring instinct for beyond. I have frequently pondered on the 1978 Tokyo subway
who to entrust with his album covers and collateral publicity; shot, with David Bowie strap-hanging on a late-night tube train;
over time, he sought out the most interesting, modish and often one senses he wasnt a frequent public transport-user at this
challenging photographers to interpret each new phase of his point in his career. But it has a peculiar magic.
journey as an artist. I admire Bruce Webers 1977 portrait with Bowies face in
Of course, it helped that he is good looking and photogenic. shadow, because it comes from a completely different place
In the entire archive of Bowie portraits and stage shots, running aesthetically, harder and American, with no lingering Ziggyisms.
to tens of thousands of images, almost none are unflattering. As Only the cigarette survives Bowies late-1970s style transforma-
early as the mid-1960s, when his career had scarcely begun, the tion. And I like the bravery the impertinence of obscuring
photographs that survive show him poised and cool. I have always his face. It would be disallowed as a passport shot, but you know
loved Doug McKenzies 1966 mod look shot of a 19-year-old who it is immediately by the body language.
Bowie, which somehow, in its brooding existentialism, presages I have selected two strongly stylized portraits by contrast-
the whole later period of his life in Berlin; it could have been ing photographers, the Dutch-born Corbijn and very British
taken in the Unter den Linden. It already has the hallmark Bowie Snowdon, which nevertheless bear some artistic resemblance:
look to it, staring into the camera lens through narrowed eyes, Corbijns Elephant Man shoot of 1980, with diagonal shafts of
somewhat intense, somewhat sceptical, a little bit vulnerable, light across Bowies face, and the almost Beatonesque 1995 por-
a little bit camp. You see the same look in Frank Ockenfels trait by Lord Snowdon, in which Bowie poses in a white tuxedo
sitting for the Reality album cover 37 years later, and the same and looks disconcertingly like David Beckham. Both sittings are
floppy fringe, come to that. meticulously stage-managed and artificial, but express impor-
Although Bowies status as musical genius would be intact tant aspects of Bowies personality and allure. Similarly, the 1980
if hed never been photographed at all, if hed been as ugly as Brian Duffy Ashes to Ashes image demands inclusion, since it
sin and a lifelong recluse, we diehard Bowie fans were far from encapsulates a decisive transition point in the Bowie aesthetic;
indifferent to the photographic images. Brian Wards cover with half a nod back to the late 1960s mime-class days of Lindsay
shoot in the Heddon Street telephone box for the Ziggy album Kemp, but foretelling the impending era of Tin Machine.
remains an iconic image of the age; I work in the Soho area and My final choice is neither a studio portrait nor even a per-
never to this day miss an opportunity for a quick Heddon Street formance action picture, but a red carpet pap shot by Stephen
detour, on my way back from meetings. But it was Wards earlier Lovekin taken of David Bowie and his wife Iman arriving at a
portrait for the Hunky Dory album session that touched me first: New York fundraiser. I include it because, unlike every other
the androgynous Pre-Raphaelite, fuzzy and soft-focus, which rock star in the world with the exception of Bryan Ferry, Bowie
always makes me think of Virginia Woolfs Orlando. still looks great and cool and trim and enviably young, 43 years
If I had to choose my favourite Bowie image of all time, it after the first photograph in this portfolio was taken. There is
would be Masayoshi Sukitas 1972 Backstage by Door shot, something gratifying and optimistic in this fact, in knowing that
taken at the height of the Ziggy Stardust period. I love every- ones heroes dont have to grow old.
thing about it: posed but not over-posed, grungy but glamorous,
seedy but chic, the three blocks of backstage typography (To
Stage with the arrow and the two Exits) satisfyingly juxtaposed
with the shoulders of his jacket. And, obviously, one covets the Nicholas Coleridge CBE is President of Cond Nast International,
trousers too. and a Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
 David bowie is mapping
new territories

Despite redevelopment, much of the central London David 1. London Charing Cross Station
Bowie knew in the 1960s and early 1970s still survives. On 2. Dobells Record Shop
leaving school in 1963, aged 16, Bowie started at an advertis- 3. The Saville Theatre
ing agency in New Bond Street but left after a year to become 4. Saint Martins School of Art
a full-time musician and songwriter. Travelling in by train from 5. Denmark Street
his Sundridge Park home, Bowie would arrive at Charing Cross 6. Lindsay Kemps flat at Batemans Buildings
station (1). Often he would head up Charing Cross Road, lined 7. Tiles nightclub
with second-hand bookshops and home to Dobells Record Shop 8. Essex Music publishers
(2), which was crucial for rare or imported records before the 9. Trident Studios
advent of mail order. 10. The Marquee Club
The Saville Theatre (3), owned by the Beatles, was a key 11. The 2is coffee bar
live music venue and Bowie saw Jimi Hendrix perform there. 12. The Flamingo / The Wag Cub
Further, beyond Saint Martins School of Art (4), is Denmark 13. The Scene nightclub
Street (5), then the centre of the UKs music business with 14. Carnaby Street
publishers, agents, studios, hustlers and press such as NME 15. Heddon Street
and Melody Maker. Aspiring musicians, including Bowie, would 16. Caf Royal
hang out at cafs such as the Gioconda waiting for leads. Across 17. Electric Garden nightclub
Charing Cross Road, is Soho proper, home to the film industry, 18. Drury Lane Arts Lab
run-down flats housing prostitutes and bohemians such as 19. The UFO nightclub
artiste Lindsay Kemp (6), clubs like Tiles (7) and publishers 20. The Boop-A-Doop nightclub
Essex Music (8).
The cutting-edge Trident Studios (9) was a critical venue,
where Bowie recorded five early albums including Space Oddity.
Around the corner was Wardour Street (namechecked in The
London Boys), with the famous Marquee Club (10), where
Bowie often played. Pubs and cafs, such as the 2is (11) where
musicians and journalists gossiped, as well as mod clubs the
Flamingo (later the Wag Club, 12) and Scene (13), were also
nearby. Past the clothes shops of Carnaby Street (14) was Heddon
Street (15), where in 1972 the photograph for the Ziggy Stardust
cover was taken. Ziggys death was celebrated at a party at the
Caf Royal (16) after a concert at the Hammersmith Odeon on
3 July 1973.
 30 The second of the groups first three singles, all of Sammy Lee, starring Anthony Newley, released in 1963. common practice in the 1960s that also accounts for

David bowie is Referenced which made number one, a feat not repeated until
Frankie Goes to Hollywood in the early 1980s.
31 Andy Warhol had, of course, started in advertising,
According to George Tremlett in David Bowie: Living on
the Brink (London, 1996), Ken Pitt, Bowies manager,
had worked on the film and kept out-takes of Newley,
the loss of most early recordings of Top of the Pops.
49 Now the Giaconda [sic] Dining Rooms. In 2012 a short
section of film turned up showing Bowie and the Manish
working as a commercial illustrator from 1949. For which he later showed to Bowie. Boys walking into the caf in 1965. Both Melody Maker
an amusing account of working in a film commercials 40 Ranks short film Look at Life Eating High (1966) and the New Musical Express had their offices in Denmark
company in the mid 1960s in New Bond Street, see presents the towers newly opened revolving restaurant, Street. There was also the Tin Pan Alley Studio (TPA)
ASTRONAUT OF INNER SPACES: phenomenon and how it shaped their music. From the infamous 43 Club in Gerrard Street, had just died, Jeremy Scotts account of James Garrett and Partners in managed by Billy Butlin, as the place for the modern from 1954, mostly used for demos, and from the early
SUNDRIDGE PARK, SOHO, LONDON MARS the mid 1970s, inner-city gentrification increasingly violence, vice, protection rackets, corruption and the Fast and Louche (London, 2003), pp. 16786. successful businessman to eat. Bowie dined there in 1960s, Regent Sound Studios was at number four, one
Geoffrey Marsh offered a lifestyle alternative to suburbia and by the police were never far away, see Judith R. Walkowitz, 32 This is also the period when Marshall McLuhans March 1967, after seeing Cliff Richard in Cinderella of the first independent studios in London. The Rolling
1990s predictions began to be made of suburbia Nights Out: Life in Cosmopolitan London (New Haven, ideas on the media and the gobal village began to at the London Palladium. One wonders if he looked Stones recorded their first album there early in 1964.
1 The road shown in the video of The Buddha of becoming slumurbia. 2012), p. 20952, which explores the role of such clubs spread. Bowie discussed McLuhan in an interview with down below at the site of his fathers failed nightclub, Music publisher Dick James (192086), who signed
Suburbia (1993) is not where Bowie lived, or indeed 12 Terence Terry Guy Adair Burns (193785) was Bowies in developing jazz. Following a court case in 1932, many Patrick Salvo in the May 1971 issue of Circus. By this a couple of streets away. The restaurant features in the Beatles and founded Northern Songs with Brian
typical of his home area. St Matthews Drive, Bromley, half-brother and lived with him until he was six. He was bottle party clubs opened in 19334. Bowie recalls time McLuhans influence, massive in the 1960s, was the trendy spy thriller Sebastian, released in 1968. Epstein, worked around the corner in Charing Cross
a cul-de-sac of bungalows, was chosen because it could the son of Davids mother, Margaret Mary Peggy Burns stories of wrestlers congregating at his fathers club, beginning to decline. The director, David Greene, also specifically used Road. A fascinating Path Film survives of the street in
be easily shut off for filming. (19122001). In 1968 Bowie said: My father tries so following the relaunch of the sport in 1930 and prior to 33 See for example Bowies flair for publicity in creating the new complex of office blocks along London Wall, 1951 and the Kinks immortalized it in 1970 in Denmark
2 Mostly short visits to Germany and Holland to record hard but his upbringing was so different that we cant its ban in the late 1930s. The London Schweizerbund was the fictitious International League for the Preservation previously included in Antonionis Blow-Up (1966), Street: Down the way from the Tottenham Court Road/
TV appearances, but also a ten-day trip to music communicate. He and all his friends were in the army founded in the late nineteenth century in what was then of Animal Filament, then renamed the Society for to communicate a new-look London to American Just round the corner from old Soho/ Theres a place
festivals in Malta and Italy in the summer of 1969, and during the war an experience I cant imagine and he one of the main German areas of London. It survived the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men, audiences. Wilson gave his famous speech at the 1963 where the publishers go/ If you dont know which way to
three weeks in the USA promoting his third LP, The Man takes naturally to iron discipline. See S. More, The until after World War II and the building is still a club, which garnered coverage by Cliff Michelmore on the Labour Party Conference. In October 1964 he became go/ Just open your ears and follow your nose/ Cos the
Who Sold the World, in early 1971. Restless Generation: 2, The Times, 11 December 1968. although currently boarded up. topical magazine show Tonight, broadcast on the newly Prime Minister. street is shakin from the tapping of toes/ You can hear
3 When Bowie was born in January 1947, London 13 See interview with Bowie in the TV programme David 21 During the following decade, as a result of major launched BBC2 on 12 November 1964. 41 Ranks short film Look at Life Coffee Bar (1959) shows that music play anytime on any day/ Every rhythm, every
was still, just, an imperial capital. India and Pakistan Bowie: Sound and Vision, produced as part of the changes in childcare methods, Dr Barnardos Homes 34 Dobells Records was located at 77 Charing Cross Road. the venues basement. The short inspired the feature way/ You got to a publisher and play him your song/ He
were granted their independence at midnight on Biography documentary series by the A&E network in began closing its famous childrens homes and the Doug Dobell started selling records in 1946 after he was film Beat Girl (1960), starring Adam Faith, which was says I hate your music and your hair is too long/ But Ill
15 August 1947. the United States, November 2002. organization changed its name to Dr Barnardos in 1966. demobbed. Shops such as his were crucial in the 1950s promoted with the line Hop-Head UK School Girls sign you up because Id hate to be wrong.
4 Interviews with Thomas Frick, The Paris Review, c.1984 14 Kevin Cann, Any Day Now: David Bowie, The London Years: 22 Bowie had to slow it down with his hand to play 45s. and 60s for supplying rare records and imports. The Get in Trouble. The music for the film was composed by 50 The show was produced by Associated Television
and 30 October 1982, in Re/Search (1984), no. 8/9. 19471974 (London, 2010), p.22. His father picked out rare records from among shop closed in 1980. John Barry and became the first British film soundtrack (ATV), controlled by Lew Grade (19061998). An
5 These houses still form 20 per cent of the UKs current 15 See interview with Bowie in the TV programme David donations to Dr Barnardos. 35 Berwick Street declined after 1940 due to clothes to be released as an LP. In a neat summary of shifting indication of ATVs power in the 1960s is that the
housing stock. Bowie: Sound and Vision, produced as part of the 23 The Grafton was a UK brand developed in the late rationing and bomb damage. John Stephen opened His generational conflict, the wayward daughter is a student company bought the Beatles catalogue with the
6 Frozen in the mid-twentieth century by the creation Biography documentary series by the A&E network in 1940s. At 55, it was a significant investment, about Clothes, the first boutique in Carnaby Street, in 1958. at Saint Martins School of Art, while her architect purchase of Northern Songs in 1969.
of the Green Belt by the Green Belt (London and the United States, November 2002. a tenth of the price of a new car such as a Cortina. 36 The City Of Westminster Plan, published in 1946, father is designing a Le Corbusier-inspired high-rise 51 The three LPs of The Black and White Minstrel
Home Counties) Act, 1938, enhanced by the Town and 16 Kevin Cann, Any Day Now: David Bowie, The London Years: Although half the price of a brass sax, it was used by proposed the comprehensive clearance of 130 acres Ville Radieuse for a British ex-colony. See also Andrew Showall made number one between 1961 and 1963, the
Country Planning Act, 1947. 19471974 (London, 2010), p.19. Dates quoted in this many professionals, notably Charlie Parker, John in central London, including the whole of Greek, Ings, Rockin At The 2is Coffee Bar (Brighton, 2010). first for nine weeks. Robert Luffs stage version at the
7 The existing Sundridge Park House was designed by essay are largely drawn from his book, which provides Dankworth and Ornette Coleman. John gave careful, Frith, Dean and Old Compton Streets see Judith 42 On 10 May 1970, Bowie received a Novello Award at the Victoria Palace Theatre, which ran from 1960 to 1972
John Nash in 1797. Although much of the grounds were an exhaustive analysis of this period. cautious but consistent support for his sons ambitions R. Walkowitz, Nights Out: Life in Cosmopolitan London Hippodrome for Space Oddity. The BBC broadcast the was, with 6,477 performances, the longest-running
sold off for housing in the 1930s, the core remains as a 17 John Jones (191269) was orphaned at a young age in the entertainment world, including maintaining his (New Haven, 2012), p.28991. In 1962, Lord Holfords ceremony on Radio 1, but it was shown on television in musical in the UK until Cats.
golf course and tennis courts: more Miss Joan Hunter and does not seem to have had a particularly happy financial records. scheme for redeveloping Piccadilly Circus proposed the US and on the continent, and the footage survives. 52 See, for example, the career of Cilla Black in the 1960s.
Dunn than Inner City Blues. childhood in Yorkshire. Prior to the massive expansion 24 See interview with Bowie in the TV programme David the complete demolition of the eastern side and the 43 Paul Raymond (19252008) had started in show 53 Oldham (b. 1944) was manager and producer of the
8 David Bowie-to-be Jones was born on 8 January 1947 at in social services in the late 1960s, such employment by Bowie: Sound and Vision, produced as part of the construction of three towering office blocks. At this business after World War II, touring nude revues. By Rolling Stones aged 19. Epstein (193467) became
40 Stansfield Road in Brixton, south London. When he a charity was much more unusual than it would be today. Biography documentary series by the A&E network in period, the Government also commissioned Sir Leslie September 1955, his show Burlesque, featuring the Sex manager of the Beatles aged 27. See also Joe Boyd, White
was six, the family moved close to Bromley in Kent, then 18 3,000 would have bought six new semidetached the United States, November 2002. Martin, architect of the Royal Festival Hall, to plan the Appeal Girls, was at the Chelsea Palace, Kings Road, Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s (London, 2006) for a
just outside the official boundary of London. The Jones suburban houses in London which in the mid-1930s 25 Ibid. complete redevelopment of Whitehall. His scheme, one of Londons fine Edwardian inner-city music halls good account of the development of the music business
family moved twice before settling at Plaistow Grove. sold for 495 upwards. It is tricky to translate this sum 26 Now Ravens Wood School, sometimes confused with which would have left the Banqueting House on a traffic then sliding downwards towards demolition. at this time.
The first two houses were more modern and larger. At into modern values, but using average wages (4 per the separate Ravensbourne Art College. Twenty years island, was finally abandoned in 1971. 44 The new Marquee Club also included a small recording 54 It is often forgotten how much performing Bowie
Plaistow Grove, the Joneses were in a Victorian terrace week in 1933; 725 in 2009), it would be equivalent to earlier, Sir George Martin had attended the Grammar 37 The architect of Centre Point was Richard Seifert, studio made famous by the success of the Moody Blues was doing. In 19657, he averaged over 60 appearances
2-up, 2-down. 400,000600,000. It is difficult to envisage how School, now Ravensbourne School. who also designed the cylindrical Space House, off Go Now (1964). Recording work in Soho expanded in a year.
9 Ethnically, almost 100 per cent white. It is estimated John could have lost so much so quickly unless he was 27 Owen Frampton was the father of musician Peter Kingsway, at this time. The 17-storey Kemp House 1967, when the Sheffield Brothers opened their state 55 See Radio London interview at the Marquee Club, 1966.
that in 1939, 30 per cent of British families lived in a the victim of fraud or extortion. Frampton (b. 1950) of Humble Pie fame, who also tower block in Berwick Street, completed in 1962, of the art eight-track Trident Studios, across the road 56 Bowies single Rubber Band/London Boys was
house built in the last 20 years, the highest proportion 19 Hilda Sullivan (19081900) was of Irish-Italian attended the school and later played with Bowie. gives a good idea of what the whole of Soho might at 17 St Annes Court. This become one of Londons the seventh single released by Deram. The label was
in the last hundred years. parentage. Her mother, an acrobat, was killed in a 28 The two were close but Bowie has admitted mytholo have become. These flats replaced the heart of the key studios, and Bowie recorded five albums there, established in 1966 to exploit Deccas new Deramic
10 In 1956, only 25 per cent of middle-class households circus accident when she was five. She was brought up gizing Terrys influence. It is not clear what music pre-war clothing district, which had been flattened beginning with Space Oddity in 1969. Stereo Sound (DSS) audio system, which was made
had an electric fridge see M. Young and P. Willmott, in France by her grandmother and was a talented pianist venues they visited together, prior to Bowie going to by a landmine. 45 On 26 September 1968, theatre censorship was redundant by the introduction of eight-track recording
The Symmetrical Family: A Study of Work and Leisure in the and singer. In March 1933, as Hitler came to power in the new R&B clubs in west London in 1962 with his 38 See, for example, the London County Councils huge abolished in the UK. The following evening the in 1968. Among Derams first successes was the Moody
London Region (1973), Table 2. For comparison, 42 per Germany, the Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss became friend George Underwood. The main shift of clubs Alton Estate at Roehampton (1958/9), inspired by the American rock musical Hair opened at the Shaftesbury Blues concept album Days of Future Past, including
cent had a washing machine and 52 per cent a television. dictator. Nine months later, John married Hilda, on from jazz to R&B took place in 19623, symbolized by planning ideals of Le Corbusier, which even appeared Theatre. Other permissive legislation included the Nights in White Satin. Other early signings included
The comparative figures for working-class households 19 December 1933. They divorced in August 1947. the change of the former Cy Laurie Jazz Club/Macs on a British stamp in 1964. By 1966 Franois Truffauts Abortion Act of 1967, which came into effect in April Cat Stevens, the Move and Amen Corner. From 1967 to
were 4, 13 and 35 per cent respectively. As late as 1970, 20 Named after Helen Cane, the famous American singer, Rehearsal Rooms (from 1948 to 1950 Ronnie Scotts film Fahrenheit 451 was already using these buildings as 1968, and the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, which 1970, Deram was releasing a single a week.
75 per cent of middle-class residents in outer London known as the Boop-Boop-a-Doop Girl and the original Club 11 supposedly the location of the first recorded backdrops for a future dystopian state where books are partially decriminalized homosexual activity. The latter 57 Sgt. Pepper spent 21 weeks at the top of the UK album
still wanted to move further out and, prior to inner-city source of the cartoon character Betty Boop, created arrest in the UK for cannabis possession) in Ham banned. In 1963, work started on the vast Aylesbury only applied to England and Wales. charts. Clinton Heylins The Act Youve Known For All
gentrification, only 10 per cent wished to move into in 1932 and subsequently the cause of a long-running Yard/41 Great Windmill Street, to The scene, one of the Estate in Southwark, designed for 10,000 people. 46 See Jon Savage,Oh! You Pretty Things, pp.99ff. These Years (Edinburgh, 2007) provides exhaustive
inner London. court case. The song Dont Take My Boop-Oop-A- key mod venues over the next few years. During Bowies daily commute into central London, he 47 Recorded at Deccas main studios in Broadhurst detail on the album and its time, including the impact
11 It is often noted how many leading musicians of the Doop Away first appeared in the film Musical Justice 29 The novel The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) was written by would have passed through an entire swathe of inner Gardens, West Hampstead, now the rehearsal rooms of of the cover designed by Peter Blake.
1960s, from bands like the Who, the Kinks, the Rolling (1931). I am indebted to Kevin Cann for the location Hanif Kureishi (b. 1954), who attended Bowies school south London being re-planned with council estates. English National Opera but not much changed. 58 Brian Aldiss, My Country tis not only thee A Story of the
Stones etc., had suburban upbringings, but little of this venture. Soho nightclubs at this time were no a decade later in itself, an indicator of the changes to 39 For a good indication of the seedy appearance of Soho 48 The show regularly had an audience of 12 million. It World after the Vietnam War (1987).
research has been done to analyse the detail of this place for the unwary. Although Kate Merrick, who ran south-east London in the 1970s. at this time, see the street scenes in The Small World of was Bowies TV debut, but the BBC wiped the tape, a 59 The event prompted a famous cartoon in Private Eye

308 309
 (22 November 1968, no. 181, p.8), the satirical magazine context of the threat of a nuclear strike. In 1966 he also information of the many companies that started at this 85 Bowies documented music performances dropped off young Lynne Tillman, is included in Jamie Wadhawans landing on the moon on 20 July. It was also played over
founded in Soho in 1961, targeting the builders, Taylor founded The People Show theatre group, a key part of the time, see the Unfinished Histories website during late 1967 and 68, but George Tremlett believes Cains Film (1969). the PA system at the huge, free Rolling Stones concert
Woodrow, who sued. alternative theatre movement. (www.unfinishedhistories.com). For the parallel he was undertaking engagements without telling his 91 Stanley Kubricks film 2001: A Space Odyssey, released in in Hyde Park on 5 July. The song peaked at number five at
60 The complementary shift was the growing love affair 66 The work was created from chopped-up film originally story in New York, see Stephen J. Bottoms, Playing manager, see George Tremlett, David Bowie: Living on the UK on 10 May 1968 (in the middle of the Paris riots), the start of November, a literal case of per ardua ad astra.
with Victorian architecture, symbolized by the saving shot in 19615 for a planned documentary entitled Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s the Brink (London, 1996), p.83. His first theatre work had a significant impact not least on Bowie, who saw Bowie was not unique in this approach. J. G. Ballard
of St Pancras station from demolition in 1967. The film Guerrilla Conditions. Off-Off- Broadway Movement (Michigan, 2004). with Kemp, Pierrot in Turquoise, opened on 28 December it at the cinema several times. At the end of Kubricks had rejected space travel in the 1960s; see Memories of
Smashing Time (1967), written by George Melly as a 67 See Burroughs introduction to Man at Leisure (1972), 76 Haynes had previously helped establish the UKs 1967 at the New Theatre, Oxford, before moving to the ambiguous film, the Star Child turns to consider the the Space Age (Wisconsin, 1988), which collects stories
satire on swinging London, shows the filthy condition a book of poems by Alexander Trocchi (192584). See first paperback bookshop and the Traverse Theatre Mercury Theatre, Ladbroke Road, in London. However, Whole Earth floating in front of it, both glowing a bright dating back to The Cage of Sand, originally published
of the station at the time. In 1972, Equity launched also Fred Kaplan in 1959: The Year Everything Changed in Edinburgh. Bowie was still interested in music, Marc Bolan recalling blue-white. The two appear as newborn versions of Man in 1963. This is discussed in Gary Westfahl, The Man
a campaign to save Londons Victorian Theatreland, (New York, 2010), pp.2640, who seems to suggest 77 No new theatres had been built in the West End since the hours spent discussing the contemporary scene. and Earth, face-to-face, ready to be born into a future of Who Didnt Need to Walk on the Moon: J. G. Ballard
ignited by the threatened demolition of 16 theatres, that Burroughs used the phrase in 1959. The conference the 1930s and the first was the New London, opened 86 Bowies membership number was 57135. He unthinkable possibilities see Robert Jacobs, Whole and The Vanished Age of Space, Internet Review of
including the Lyceum and the Coliseum. By the late was organized by Jim Haynes and Sonia Orwell, in 1973, based on the Total Theatre designed by Walter subsequently appeared in Spotlight, the casting Earth or No Earth: The Origin of the Whole Earth Icon Science Fiction (July 2009). NASA reformed its strategy
1970s a massive heritage boom was taking place across among others, personalities who later were to feature Gropius. Performance, therefore, largely still meant directory, where he was categorized in 1969 as Juvenile in the Ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, The Asia-Pacific as Mission to Planet Earth in the 1990s.
the UK see Robert Hewison, The Heritage Industry: significantly in Bowies career. sitting in a typical Victorian theatre with a proscenium and Juvenile-Character Men. Journal (28 March 2011), vol. 9, issue 13, no. 5. The film 97 See Dominic Sandbrook, Seasons in the Sun: The Battle for
Britain in a Climate of Decline (London, 1987). 68 Quoted in Eric Mottram, William Burroughs: The Algebra arch design. The trustees of the new National Theatre, 87 The initial impact of Hair, with its on-stage nudity, has Barbarella (1968) is another reminder that space was Britain 19741979, (London, 2012).
61 J. G. Ballard, Time, Memory and Inner Space, The of Need (London, 1977), pt 1, ch. 1. still in the planning stages during the 1960s, did not faded over the years. However, it was significant at the viewed in many ways at the time, from the deadly serious 98 Bowie first travelled to the USA from 23 January to
Woman Journalist Magazine, 1963. The term inner space 69 Kevin Cann, Any Day Now: David Bowie, The London Years: consider a studio space appropriate, although the time not just because of its story, but because it was a to the high camp and comic. 18 February 1971 to promote The Man Who Sold the World.
was first used by W. H. Auden in 1940 and J. B. Priestley 19471974 (London, 2010), p.116. future Cottesloe Theatre was slipped into the design as product of the New York fringe. Its director descibed 92 See Robert Poole, Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth Because of work permit issues, he did not perform
in 1953, see John Baxter, The Inner Man: The Life of 70 This just preceded Nam June Paiks video-art a storage area. The Inner London Education Authority it as an opportunity to create a theatre form whose (New Haven, 2008). The 24 December 1968 broadcast on this trip. Bowie first mentioned the idea of Ziggy
J. G. Ballard (London, 2011), p.120. Ballard set out his experiments. Both were made possible by the built the first fringe venue, the Cockpit, at Paddington demeanour, language, clothing, dancing, and even its was the most watched TV programme in history up to Stardust while in Los Angeles.
views in Which Way to Inner Space?, New Worlds (May introduction of the first consumer video equipment, in 196970. This was designed as a theatre in the round. name accurately reflect a social epoch in full explosion that time. The three astronauts recited Genesis, verses 99 And a new level of income: George Tremlett estimates
1962), No.118. Astronauts of Inner-Space: An International notably the Sony Portapak, which slashed the costs of 78 At least once on 6 December 1968, as Feathers, for more details, see Scott Miller, Sex, Drugs, Rock & 110, concluding their message with and from the crew that in October 1969, Bowie earned more than in the
Collection of Avant-Garde Activity 17 Manifestoes, making films and provided instant viewing. Warhol used a although Bowie may have rehearsed and played there Roll, and Musicals (Boston, 2011), pp.6083. Jules Fisher, of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a whole of 1968. See David Bowie: Living on the Brink
Articles, Letters, 28 poems & 1 Filmscript was published Norelco machine for a detailed discussion of this piece on other occasions. the shows designer, subsequently designed Bowies merry Christmas and God bless all of you, all of you on (London, 1996), p.102.
in San Francisco in 1966. It included contributions and its broader importance in portraiture and identity, 79 See final letter dated 28 October 1969, announcing Diamond Dogs tour in 1974. In 1969 Kenneth Tynan the good earth. Life magazine selected the image as one 100 The Man Who Sold the World was released in the US in
by William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Marshall see Callie Angell, Doubling the Screen: Andy Warhols the closure of the Arts Lab. See also Jim Haynes, Thanks launched his nude revue Oh! Calcutta! of its 100 most important photographs of the twentieth November 1970 and on 10 April 1971 in the UK. The
McLuhan and others. Outer and Inner Space, Millennium Film Journal (Spring for Coming (London, 1984). The Arts Lab showed work 88 Including Cabaret, with Judi Dench starring as Sally century. A similar image appeared in autumn 1968 on history of the cover is complicated by censorship see
62 See John Baxter, The Inner Man: The Life of J.G.Ballard 2002), No. 38. In November 1966, Ken Pitt, Bowies by many artists/writers, including Yoko Ono, Steven Bowles, on 5 April 1968. the first issue of the Whole Earth Catalog, created by Kevin Cann, Any Day Now: David Bowie, The London
(London, 2011), pp.1729. Burroughs wrote the manager, visited Warhol at the Factory and brought back Berkoff and Roelef Louw. It also provided a home for 89 Bowie auditioned for the film but was unsuccessful. Oh! the radical writer and ecologist Stewart Brand. This Years 19471974, pp.21013. The eventual UK cover was
preface to The Atrocity Exhibition. Part of the book a test pressing of Lou Reids Velvet Underground and Nico, the London Film-Makers Co-Op and was the first place What a Lovely War was filmed by Richard Attenborough is cited by Steve Jobs as one of the key milestones in photographed in September 1970 at Bowies new marital
The Assassination Weapon was produced as a which he gave to a fascinated Bowie. in London to show Warhols Chelsea Girls in October and Brian Duffy in the summer of 1968 on the West Pier, the evolution of the information age. However, it home at Haddon Hall, Beckenham.
multimedia performance at the ICA, produced by 71 See Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain, 1968. This was advertised by the famous Alan Aldridge Brighton, and nearby. One only needs to look at Bowies seems doubtful that Bowie would have seen this US 101 Photographer Keith Keef Macmillan was the same
Stewart McKenzie, on 1116 August 1969. John Cage an anthology published by Penguin in 1969, with its poster, commissioned at Warhols request, of the nude performance of Rubber Band in the promotional film publication by early 1969. Brand had led a campaign age as Bowie and well established, with a string of
had explored chance in composing after receiving a strong nod to William Blake, whose Glad Day is on the 16-year-old actress Clare Shenstone, photographed by Love Me Till Tuesday, recorded in February 1969, to see the to get NASA to release images of Earth taken from successful album covers for artists such as Black
translation of the I-Ching in 1951 see also his music/ cover. For the overall context of this interest see Rob Don Silverstein. It was designed at Ink Studios. A New connections. Five years later, Duffy took the photographs unmanned spacecraft, as he felt it would help develop Sabbath and Rod Stewart for the progressive Vertigo
art composition Chess Pieces, created for the Imagery of Young, Electric Eden: Unearthing Britains Visionary Music Arts Lab was established in Robert Street, Camden, of Aladdin Sane. Farthingale subsequently appeared in a new environmental sensitivity. Records and others. He went on, from 1975, to be a
Chess exhibition organized by the Surrealists in New (London, 2010), pp. 327350. The first Glastonbury in October 1969 and in April 1970 it was the location another four films, including MGMs The Great Waltz 93 It was included as an insert since The Times was pioneer of music videos, working with Kate Bush, and
York in 1944. From 1953 onwards, Cage worked with Festival, celebrating Midsummer, was held in 1970. for the infamous exhibition Jim Ballard: Crashed (1972), one of the last films released in Cinerama. She still printed in black and white at the time. There is eventually became a successful TV producer.
his partner Merce Cunningham on such ideas in dance. Bowie appeared at the second and much larger Cars, originally planned for the ICA in 1968. Bowie also appears, in a cloud, in the top left-hand corner of the a photograph of this insert at www.photo-transport. 102 See John Beck and Matthew Cornford, Home Counties
Terming it the mosaic approach, Marshall McLuhan festival in 1971. never performed at the ICA. The Arts Lab movement back cover of David Bowie (released November 1969), co.uk/moon/moon Surrealism, Eye: The International Review of Graphic
used a similar technique in writing about the media 72 The first battles about saving entire areas, rather than reflected the massive loss of city-centre commercial which includes the song Letter to Hermione. 94 Bowie had been urged by his manager Ken Pitt to Design (Summer 2008), no.68 (eyemagazine.com;
in separated essays as early as The Mechanical Bride: individual buildings, were beginning to gear up in theatres (particularly ex-music halls) and cinemas 90 This Arts Lab, Growth, took place on Sunday evenings compose a new song for a promotional film planned accessed 29 April 2012).
Folklore of Industrial Man, published in 1951. He based Covent Garden and Tolmers Square in Euston. during the late 1950s and 60s as television killed off at the Three Tuns, 157 High Street, Beckenham, from for German TV and elsewhere. The popularity of such 103 Bowie was photographed in two different Mr Fish
the title on the work of Marcel Duchamp. His book 73 In January 1966, John Lennon had acquired a copy of the last remnants of live variety. 4 May 1969 until 5 March 1970, when the venue changed promotional films was driven by the successes of the man-dresses originally for the inside of a gatefold
The Medium is the Message: An Inventory of Effects (1967) Learys book from the Indica bookshop, opened by 80 The opening of the ICA on The Mall was followed by into a folk club. Growth organized the Beckenham Beatles and the Moody Blues. In December 1968, album sleeve. The setting is sub-Christopher Gibbs
attempts to convey his thesis through the actual design. Barry Miles, John Dunbar and Peter Asher the previous the Hayward Gallery, which opened in July 1968 as part Free Festival on 16 August 1969 the Saturday before the Rolling Stones made Rock and Roll Circus, also see his designs for Performance, filmed in 1968 but
63 William S. Borroughs (191497) lived in London from November, and subsequently wrote Tomorrow Never of the major expansion of the Southbank arts complex. the Woodstock Festival in the USA. In an interview planned for TV (but unreleased until 1996). Bowies released in summer 1970. Bowie knew of Mr Fishs
1966 to 1973. His took part in a joint interview with Knows. LSD was, of course, legal in the USA and UK Performance also moved into mainstream art. In 1967, with Chris Welch in Melody Maker, published in promotional film was not released at the time, but was shop, opened in 1966 at 17 Clifford Street, just off
Bowie on 17 November 1973, just before his return until Autumn 1966. while at Saint Martins School of Art, Richard Long September 1969, he extols the talent available eventually issued as Love Me Till Tuesday in 1984. Space Savile Row, as his school friend Geoff MacCormack
to America. Published in Rolling Stone magazine on 74 There was also considerable interest in Scientology. created A Line Made by Walking, which distilled his in suburban Beckenham and describes Drury Lane, Oddity was recorded at Morgan Studios, Willesden, worked for him. The shop often featured in films
25 February 1974, Beat Godfather Meets Glitter Burroughs took up Scientology in 1967/8 but earlier experiments with land art into a single line then about to close, as tripe and on another occasion on 2 February 1969 and filmed four days later at about Swinging London and can be seen in the film
Mainman is one of the key texts recording the subsequently rejected it. See I, William Burroughs, recorded by a black-and-white photograph. as pretentious. It may just be that the main organizers Clarence Studio, Greenwich. for Sell Me a Coat in Bowies promo film Love You
development of Bowies ideas prior to his leaving the Challenge You, L. Ron Hubbard, Mayfair (January 81 Kemp opened his show Clown Hour, using Bowies at Drury Lane, who were a good decade older, 95 A key, but often overlooked, factor in the creation Till Tuesday, recorded early in 1969, but only released
UK. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1959) was cleared of 1970), vol.5, 1. album as the interval music, at the Little Theatre, experienced and strongly opinionated, ignored the of Space Oddity was that in January 1969 nobody, in 1984.
obscenity charges in Massachusetts in 1966, the last 75 Peter Brook, The Empty Space (London, 1968). The Garrick Yard, on 4 August 1967. At the time he was interest and ideas of the 21-year-old Bowie. Ironically, including Bowie, knew that Apollo 11 would land on the 104 The image on the back cover is from a set using the
such trial in the US. controversy over Edward Bonds Saved, produced at living above a strip club in Batemans Buildings, Bateman Jim Haynes was a colleague of Sonia Orwell, George moon in July. Obviously, this was NASAs objective, but second man-dress, and he holds the King of Diamonds.
64 Brion Gysin (191686) joined the Surrealists after the Royal Court Theatre in London in November 1965, Street, a run-down alleyway in the middle of Soho. Orwells literary executor, and lived in the basement the Apollo missions 8, 9 and 10 were to test manned This card is called Caesar by French playing-card
arriving in Paris in 1934, but was expelled from the was key in the abolition of theatre censorship by the 82 Following quotes from Kevin Cann, Any Day Now: David of her house when he moved to London. In 1973, she capsules. If anything had gone wrong, as had happened manufacturers, who name each of the court cards. The
group in 1935. Theatres Act, 1968. In 1968, Thelma Holt founded the Bowie, The London Years: 19471974 (London, 2010), p.112. turned down Bowies request to make a musical of with Apollo 1, 6 and 13, the programme would have King of Spades is David.
65 Jeff Nuttall (19332004) was one of the founders Open Space Theatre in Tottenham Court Road and 83 A few weeks later on 25 September 1967, Gilbert and Orwells 1984, a project that changed into Diamond been rescheduled, although NASA was desperate to 105 Bowie has appeared on all of his studio-album covers,
of International Times (IT), the magazine of the UK Lonie Scott-Matthews moved Pentameters, founded George met for the first time at Saint Martins School of Dogs. For another view of the Arts Lab, see also Stuart meet Kennedys 1961 deadline to achieve a landing by apart from Tin Machine II.
counter-culture, which was launched on 14 October in August 1968, to the Three Horseshoes, its current Art it was love at first sight. However, it took them Home, Walk on Gilded Splinters: In Memorandum to the end of the decade. 106 The origins of glam are complicated and lie outside this
1966 at the Roundhouse, London, at a gig featuring home in Hampstead, in 1971, leaving Dan Crawford some time to develop their total living sculpture. memory 13 April 1969 Alex Trocchis State of Revolt 96 Ironically, the song came to prominence as a result of essay. However, the start is conventionally linked to the
Pink Floyd. His book Bomb Culture (1968) is important the honour of opening Londons first pub theatre 84 Kevin Cann, Any Day Now: David Bowie, The London Years: at the Arts Lab in London for a flavour of events there. the release of a new recording, made on 20 June 1969 success of Marc Bolans Hot Love in March 1971 and
for its examination of contemporary culture in the at the Kings Head, Islington, in 1970. For detailed 19471974 (London, 2010), p.112. Some footage of this chaotic evening, organized by a at Trident Studios, Soho, to coincide with Apollo 11 his appearance on Top of the Pops.

310 311
107 The image was considered by Mercury too provocative interview for NBCs The Today Show, April 1987: I 12 Charles Shaar Murray, David Bowie: Gay Guerrillas & I fell in love with the Little Richard band. I had never (taken from different angles); nine under a tall 43 Nicholas Pegg, The Complete Bowie (London, 2009), p.28.
for the American public and Bowies concept for the wanted the best of the contemporary fields working Private Movies, New Musical Express, 24 February 1973. heard anything that lived in such bright colours in the lamppost; four under a sign marking the premises of 44 Jonathan Barnbrook interviewed by Victoria Broackes,
sleeve was revised, without him knowing, for the with me, kind of like Diaghilev did when he was 13 Aretha Franklin can be heard singing a smash hit from air. It really just painted the whole room for me. furriers K. West; six of him leaning against the building, March 2012.
albums November 1970 US release. doing ballets. Lady Soul, (You make me feel like a) Natural Woman, (13 November 1980.) holding a guitar; 12 in the alley; two outside a telephone 45 David Bowie: Sound and Vision, 2002. Produced and
108 A confidence, strengthened if needed, by the impact 6 Craig Copetas, Beat Godfather Meets Glitter in the limousine crossing the desert in the 1975 BBC 23 Art Talk: Conversations with 15 Women Artists, ed. Cindy box and 12 close-ups. directed by Rick Hull. Researchers: Mai-Ly Nguyen
of the Warhol-driven play Pork at the Roundhouse in Mainman, Rolling Stone magazine, 28 February 1974. documentary Cracked Actor, where Bowie drinks milk Nemser (New York, 1975; revised edition 1995), p.252. 21 Gary Kemp interviewed by Victoria Broackes, April 2012. and Karl D. Ring. Van Ness Films, Inc. For Foxstar
August 1971, which caused a scandal in the UK media. Conversation between Bowie and William S. Burroughs from a large carton and is questioned by Alan Yentob. 24 Watch That Man, BUST magazine, Fall 2000. 22 For an extended analysis of this period of Bowies Productions. 20th Century Fox Film Corporation.
All the elements for offending middle-class suburban the prior November at Bowies London home. (Aired 26 January 1975.) It was this sequence which 25 Craig Copetas, Beat Godfather Meets Glitter career, see Peter Doggett, The Man Who Sold the World: 46 Nicholas Pegg, The Complete Bowie (London, 2009),
sensibilities were there see George Tremlett, David Bowie reveals he had taken the name of American convinced director Nicolas Roeg to cast Bowie as the Mainman, Rolling Stone magazine, 28 February 1974. David Bowie and the 1970s (London, 2011). pp.301.
Bowie: Living on the Brink (London, 1996), pp.1504. frontiersman Jim Bowie, inventor of the massive Bowie alien star of The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). Bowie tells William S. Burroughs that All the Young 23 Ibid., p.10. 47 Ibid, p.29.
Bowie also saw the shock-rock American Alice Cooper knife, because I wanted a truism about cutting through 14 Introducing his version of Wild is the Wind, Bowie Dudes refers to the terrible news collected by Ziggy 24 Elizabeth Thomson and David Gutman (eds), The Bowie 48 See Clinton Heylin, All the Madmen: Barrett, Bowie,
perform at the recently opened Rainbow Theatre, the lies. In a 1996 interview with Avi Lewis for the said, During the mid-1970s, I got to know Nina Stardust, who is torn to pieces on stage by the black Companion (Cambridge, MA, 1996), pp 10517. Drake, Pink Floyd, the Kinks, the Who and the Journey to
Finsbury Park, on 7 November. In 1971, Brian Ward Canadian television programme The New Music, Simone, whom Ive got incredible respect for as an hole of the infinites. This news, Bowie says, appears 25 Nick Stevenson, David Bowie: Fame, Sound and Vision the Dark Side of English Rock (London, 2012).
photographed Bowie in a full Egyptian outfit, a look Bowie said that however many critics were saying how artist and a composer and a singer. Even though she had in Five Years, his first song on the Ziggy Stardust album: (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008), p.67. 49 Bowie in interview, Musician magazine, July 1990
also used by the occultist Aleister Crowley (18751947), important the Beatles were at the time, the artists not written this song, her tremendous performance News had just come over, we had five years left to cry 26 For a detailed discussion of the albums development 50 J. G. Ballard discusses what he means by inner space
who was popular with rock musicians at the time. were talking instead about the Velvet Underground: of it had affected him greatly: I recorded it as an in Five years, thats all weve got. see David Buckley, Strange Fascination: David Bowie: The in the essay Time, Memory, and Inner Space see
This was before the hugely successful Tutankhamen Tomorrows culture is always dictated by the artists hommage to Nina. (David Bowie Weekend on MTV, Definitive Story (London, 2005), pp.18190. pp. 345 of this book, Geoffrey Marsh, Astronaut of
exhibition at the British Museum in 1972. The artists make culture, not the critics. 4 and 5 April 1993.) 27 Henry Edwards and Tony Zanetta, Stardust: The Life and Inner Spaces. The full article is at www.jgballard.ca/
109 The background and iconography of this photograph is 7 Bowie about Major Tom: He was my own ideal of what 15 Dinah!, CBS talk show recorded in Los Angeles, Putting out fire with gasoline: Times of David Bowie (London, 1986), p.176. non_fiction/non-fiction.html
discussed in detail in Rob Young, Electric Eden: Unearthing I wanted to do, somebody totally in his own world 24 February 1976. Dinah Shores other guests were Designing David Bowie 28 Nick Stevenson, David Bowie: Fame, Sound and Vision 51 Quoted in Nicholas Pegg, The Complete Bowie (London,
Britains Visionary Music (London, 2010), p.326. He was a hero to me but an antihero he didnt have Nancy Walker and Henry Winkler. Earlier Bowie says Victoria Broackes (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008), p.179. 2009), pp.333 and 35960.
110 See Larry Schweikart, 7 Events that made America America any social contacts [laughs]. (Interview in 1980 with about his continual openness to and influence by other 29 David Buckley, Strange Fascination: David Bowie: The 52 Scary Monsters Interview (RCADJL13840), 1980
(New York, 2010), which argues for the role of Western Ian Molly Meldrum for Countdown, an Australian performers and styles, Im usually saturated. 1 The A-level was taken early, at 16. Bowies school was Definitive Story (London, 2005), p.184. (US). Bowie talking about the Ashes to Ashes video.
pop music in undermining Communism. television programme.) In a 1979 interview with 16 Interview with Alan Yentob, recorded 16 May 1978 in focused on arts subjects. It is sometimes reported that 30 Michelangelo Antonionis 1966 film Blow-Up captures 53 Interview, backstage footage after performing
111 John Walsh, Me, Ziggy and the passion of pure fandom, Mavis Nicholson, Bowie recalled putting himself in Cologne for the BBC2 documentary series Arena. Bowie has only one O-level, which is not the case. the glamour and celebrates the innovatory spirit of this Heroes on TopPop, 13 October 1977, Avro TV,
The Independent, 29 March 2012: it makes no sense, but dangerous situations, specifically areas where I have 17 Ibid. 2 Kevin Cann, David Bowie, Any Day Now: The London Years: new generation of photographers. The Netherlands.
it means everything. to be in social contact with people, which Im not very 18 Parkinson, BBC1 chat show, recorded 27 November 19471974 (London, 2010), p.29. 31 The book at Bowies feet is a novel by Walter Ross, The 54 Inspirations, 1997. Directed by Michael Apted for
112 See Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People good at doing. (Afternoon Plus, Thames Television, 2003. Michael Parkinson asks, What was Ziggy about? 3 Inspirations, 1997. Directed by Michael Apted, Argo Immortal (1958). The main protagonist, Johnny Preston, Argo Films and Clear Blue Sky Productions.
are Divided by Politics and Religion (London, 2012). recorded 12 February 1979.) Bowie replies, It was about pushing together all the Films, Clear Blue Sky Productions. is said to be based on James Dean. An alternative dust 55 Eliot, T.S., Philip Massinger, The Sacred Wood,
8 Dinah!, CBS talk show, 15 April 1977. Iggy Pop pieces and all the things that fascinated me culturally 4 Quoted in Richard Cromelin, David Bowie: Darling jacket (not the one shown in the Diamond Dogs portrait) New York: Bartleby.com, 2000.
sat on the couch between Bowie and Dinah Shore, everything from kabuki theatre to Jacques Brel to Little of the Avant-Garde?, Phonograph Record magazine, was designed by Andy Warhol.
Theatre Of Gender: David Bowie the motherly blonde host. Bowies pelvic thrust Richard to drag acts. Everything about it was sort of a January 1972. 32 Dylan Jones, Haircults: fifty years of styles and cut (London,
at the Climax of the Sexual Revolution punctuating his analysis of Iggys method drew a faux hybrid of everything I liked. 5 Sometimes known as the Konrads, the band appear as 1990), p.67. For We are the goon squad: Bowie, style
Camille Paglia naf response of I wonder what he means by that! Gee 19 Interview at Stadthalle, Vienna, 1996. Bowie says, I was Kon-rads on their drum kit, as seen in Roy Ainsworths 33 Nicholas Pegg, The Complete Bowie (London, 2009), and the power of the LP cover, 19671983
whiz! (producing audience laughter) from the other trying to pinpoint a tradition of ritualizing of the body. photographs. It is likely that (as with the pronunciation p.471. Christopher Breward
1 TopPop, television programme, The Netherlands, guest, Rosemary Clooney, a veteran big-band singer, He cites as a semi-nihilistic equation Andr Bretons of Bowie), the name and spelling did change. See Peter 34 Jules Fishers previous work included the first American
October 1977. like Shore. Despite his gentlemanly British manner, definition of the ultimate Surrealist act as shooting Doggett, The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie and the tour of Tommy and the Broadway production of Jesus 1 Peter York, Style Wars (London, 1980), pp.1134.
2 Interview with Jools Holland on The Tube, Channel Bowie had managed to break the code of American a pistol randomly into a crowd (from the Second 1970s (London, 2011), p.31. Christ Superstar. 2 For this reason I dedicate this essay to my friend Mark,
4, March 1987. Bowie: If Im writing and recording, I television, then very strict on daytime programmes Surrealist Manifesto of 1930). Bowie calls it as potent 6 Quoted in David Buckley, Strange Fascination: David 35 For further analysis of the Diamond Dogs set see who among my childhood friends got to Bowie first.
find I dont need to paint. But if Im not doing very well, directed at homemakers. an image as Duchamps urinal in presenting the body Bowie: The Definitive Story (London, 2005), p.291. Nicholas Pegg, The Complete Bowie (London, 2009), 3 Peter Doggett, The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie
and I cant write, and theres a kind of block or a blank 9 The Dick Cavett Show, ABC, recorded in New York on as a ritualistic way of articulating twentieth-century 7 Nicholas Pegg, The Complete Bowie (London, 2009), p.10. p.471 and David Buckley, Strange Fascination: David and the 1970s (London, 2011), p.45.
there, then I revert to painting, and it opens up like a 2 December 1974; aired 5 December 1974. Cavett asked experience. (In the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, 8 Craig Copetas, Beat Godfather Meets Glitter Mainman, Bowie: The Definitive Story (London, 2005), pp.199203. 4 John Gill, Queer Noises (London, 1995), p.106.
watershed of ideas and associations and things. In Bowie about his mother: Does she have any trouble Breton compared the modern mannequin to romantic Rolling Stone magazine (28 February 1974). Reprinted in 36 See pl.82. Detailed storyboards illustrated and 5 Hanif Kureishi and Jon Savage (eds.), The Faber Book
an interview recorded on 16 May 1978 in Cologne, explaining you to the neighbors? Bowie replied, I ruins in exemplifying the marvellous, a central Elizabeth Thomson and David Gutman (eds), The Bowie annotated by Bowie feature mealcaine as food, as of Pop (London, 1995), pp.3914.
Germany, for the BBC2 documentary series Arena, think she pretends Im not hers [laughs] We were Surrealist principle.) Bowie mentions as an antecedent Companion (Cambridge, MA, 1996), p.108. well as rollerskating youths, film notes, set models and 6 Gill, p.107.
Bowie told Alan Yentob that when he returned to never that close particularly. We have an understanding. the Romantic writer Thomas DeQuinceys 1827 essay, 9 Cracked Actor, 1974. Directed by Alan Yentob, character sketches. 7 Kureishi and Savage, p.391.
Europe after living in Los Angeles, painting helped him In a remote-camera interview from London, Russell On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts. In first shown on BBC 2 as part of the series Omnibus, 37 For further discussion of Bowies London influence, 8 Kureishi and Savage, pp.45664.
get back into music. He described his painting style as Harty condescendingly probed Bowie (in Burbank, the same interview, he says that he liked Expressionism 26 January 1975. see Geoffrey Marsh, Astronaut of Inner Spaces, 9 Hugo Wilcken, Low (New York, 2008), p.28.
a form of Expressionistic Realism. California) about his mother; Bowie coldly replied, since he was a kid and that he had especially admired 10 Quoted in Jon Pareles, David Bowie: 21st Century pp.2767. 10 Christopher Breward, Camp and the International
3 Bowie said he had a Pre-Raphaelite kind of look on Thats really my own business. (The Russell Harty Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and the Blaue Reiter group. Entrepreneur, New York Times, 9 June 2002. 38 Fifteen roadies, supplemented by a 20-man crew Language of 1970s Fashion in Maria Luisa Frisa and
Hunky Dory. Interview with Ian Molly Meldrum for Show, BBC, recorded 28 November 1975.) Cavett 20 In a 1987 interview, Bowie said, I was always very 11 Jonathan Barnbrook interviewed by Victoria Broackes, recruited at each venue. Nicholas Pegg, The Complete Stefano Tonchi (eds.), Walter Albini and his Times
Countdown, a weekly Australian music television asked Bowie what he was reading: What would we seriously affected by my dreams I found the dream March 2012. Interview at www.vam.ac.uk/channel/ Bowie (London, 2009), p.473. (Venice, 2010), pp.1517.
programme, taped in October 1980 in a Japanese find on your coffee table in your apartment? Bowie state magnetic. It just captured everything for me. When 12 Bill Janovitz, The Rolling Stones Exile on Main St, 33 13 39 In the light of Bowies appropriation of Guy Peellaert 11 Wilcken, p.79. See also Glenn Adamson and Victoria
restaurant in New York during Bowies run in The responded, At the moment, mainly pictures. I bought he saw the films of Dal and Buuel and the paintings of (London, 2005), p.1. from the Stones, this counter-exchange seems to neatly Kelley (eds.), Surface Tensions: Surface, Finish and the
Elephant Man on Broadway. Diane Arbuss book of photographs, a photographer I de Chirico, he thought, Yes, thats exactly how I want to 13 Information supplied by the The David Bowie Archive. complete the creative circle. Meaning of Objects (Manchester, 2012).
4 I was so lost in Ziggy, it was all a schizophrenia. like very much. write. How do you work like that? (Day In, Day Out, 14 Henry Edwards and Tony Zanetta, Stardust: The Life and 40 Visconti previously solo-produced the albums Space 12 Wilcken, p.15.
Cracked Actor, BBC documentary filmed in 1974 10 Bowie on the making of the Ashes to Ashes video: MTV special during Bowies Glass Spider tour.) Times of David Bowie (London, 1986), pp.11213. Oddity, The Man Who Sold the World and David Live. 13 Wilcken, p.127.
and first aired on 26 January 1975. We went down to the beach, and I took a woman there 21 Cracked Actor, BBC documentary filmed in 1974 and 15 David Bowie and Mick Rock, Moonage Daydream: The Life 41 David Buckley, Strange Fascination: David Bowie: 14 Doggett, p.307.
5 Bowie about Ziggy Stardust: I wanted to define the who looked like my mother. Thats the surrealistic part first aired on 26 January 1975. and Times of Ziggy Stardust (London, 2005), p.12. The Definitive Story (London, 2005), p.333. 15 Glenn Adamson and Jane Pavitt (eds.), Postmodernism:
archetype messiah/rock star thats all I wanted to do. of making movies. (David Bowie Weekend on MTV, 22 In an Australian television interview, Bowie said of 16 Ibid., p.192. 42 Mallet went on to collaborate with Bowie on several Style & Subversion 19701990 (London, 2011), p.94.
Interviewed by musicians Flo and Eddie of the Turtles 4 and 5 April 1993.) The actress was Wyn Mac, wife of Little Richard, He was my idol (28 November 1978). 17 Ibid., p.248. other music videos including Lets Dance and the 16 Doggett, p.325.
and Mothers of Invention for 90 Minutes Live, CBC, comedian Jimmy Mac, who played Warwick on the BBC Elsewhere Bowie said, I wanted to be a white Little 18 Jonathan Barnbrook interviewed by Victoria Broackes, censored China Girl in 1983, and Hallo Spaceboy in 17 York, p.241.
25 November 1977. In the 1978 Yentob interview for sitcom Are You Being Served? Richard at eight or at least his sax player. (David March 2012. 1996, in addition to the documentary films of Bowies 18 York, p.243.
BBC2, Bowie said about his stage characters, Theyre 11 David Bowie and Mick Rock, Moonage Daydream: The Life Bowie: Sound and Vision, A&E networks Biography 19 Ibid. performances, Glass Spider (1988) and David Bowie: 19 York, p.244.
all messiah figures. Bowie about Yamamoto in an and Times of Ziggy Stardust (New York, 2005), p.140. series, 6 October 2002.) Bowie told ABCs 20/20, 20 Nine of Bowie posing in front of 23 Heddon Street Black Tie White Noise (1993).

312 313
 Changes: Bowies life story 22 Garry Mulholland, Stardust Memories, Uncut 53 Ian Buruma, Tell A Man by his Clothes, Anglomania:

1
Oriole Cullen

Mark C. OFlaherty, Mens wear ch-ch-changes,

magazine, April 2012, p.28.
23 Adrian Deevoy, Boys Keep Swinging, Q Magazine,
June 1989. 54
Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion (New
Haven, 2006), p.19.
David Iztkoff, The Fashion Rocks Q&A, Lucky
acknowledgements
Financial Times [online], 23 September 2011, 24 Michael Watts, Waiting for the Man, Melody Maker, magazine, October 2005.
www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c395d1b0-e075-11e0-bd01- July 1972. 55 Ibid.
00144feabdc0.html, accessed 27 February 2012 25 The Kansai Yamamoto Show!!!, Harpers & Queen, 56 Dean Mayo Davies, The Sound of Style: Hedi
2 Richard Nicoll, email exchange with Oriole Cullen, July 1971, p.47. Slimane, Another magazine [online], 14 May 2010,
25 April 2012. 26 David Bowie and Mick Rock, Moonage Daydream: The www.anothermag.com/current/view/243/
3 Janice Miller, Fashion and Music (Oxford, 2011), p.1. Life and Times of Ziggy Stardust (London, 2005), p.17. Hedi_Slimane, accessed 3 April 2012.
4 Ibid, p.2. 27 Ibid., p.80. 57 Tim Blanks, Tim Blanks Recommends: The It is the case with pop culture subjects generally and pop music in particular that the world is full
5 Dean Mayo Davies, The Sound of Style: Tim Blanks, 28 Kevin Cann, Any Day Now: David Bowie The London Bowie Book, Fantastic Man magazine [online], of genuine experts: from individuals such as David Buckley, Kevin Cann and Nicholas Pegg, whose
AnOther Magazine [online], 14 June 2011, www. Years 19471974 (London, 2010), p.285 17 October 2011, www.fantasticman.com/#/
books we have consulted on a daily basis, to the non-published Bowie fans, who not only know a
anothermag.com/current/view/1161/ 29 Ibid., p.289. recommendations/tim-blanks-recommends-the-
huge amount, but also have a passion for their subject that is unparalleled in more traditional V&A
Tim_Blanks, accessed 17 April 2012 30 David Iztkoff, The Fashion Rocks Q&A, Lucky bowie-book/, accessed 12 April 2012.
6 In recent years, the fashion world has anointed magazine, October 2005. 58 David Iztkoff, The Fashion Rocks Q&A, Lucky exhibition subjects. We have received assistance of every kind: intellectual, practical and personal.
Bowies fellow South Londoner Kate Moss as the 31 David Bowie and Mick Rock, Moonage Daydream: The magazine, October 2005. We would like to thank the many friends and new contacts, within and outside the V&A, for their
embodiment of Bowie-style. A model who shot to Life and Times of Ziggy Stardust (London, 2005), p.38 59 Mark C. OFlaherty, Mens wear ch-ch-changes, continuous interest and offers of insights and material which has meant that we have completed
fame by bringing an androgynous look to the era 32 Dylan Jones, Haircults: fifty years of styles and cut, Financial Times [online], 23 September 2011, http:// the project with our fascination growing. The broader art, design and performance community has
of the supermodel, with an edge of the English (London, 1990), p.67. www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c395d1b0-e075-11e0-bd01-
also been remarkably generous in supporting our efforts.
rebel and her own standing as something of an 33 Ibid., p.72. 00144feabdc0.html#axzz1tGAgnALV, accessed
Profound thanks go to Dr Kathryn Johnson, the projects assistant curator, whose contribution
icon, she is the perfect vessel to channel Bowie. 34 David Bowies Make-up Dos and Donts, Music 27 February 2012.
While she is known for her own style and for Scene, November 1973. has helped us every step of the way; and Sandy Hirshkowitz of The David Bowie Archive, who has
the various relationships she has had with rock 35 Charles Shaar Murray, The Byronic Man, The Face, been with us from the outset, alerting us to the best material and acting as one-woman conduit to the
musicians her role as a model has always been to October 1984. delights stored in the archive. Their contributions have been both extensive and crucial. Thanks to
provide a blank canvas from which to project the 36 Suzy Menkes, Gucci does David Bowie glam rock, Bill Zysblat for making it possible. Equally deep thanks go to the rest of the core project team: our
creations of designers/stylists and photographers, New York Times [online], 22 February 2006,
wonderfully inventive exhibition designers 59 Productions working with Real Studios, graphics and
she does this so deftly that her persona does not www.nytimes.com/2006/02/22/style/
lighting specialists; Eleanor Townsend and the Exhibitions department; external advisors Jonathan
infringe in anyway on the Bowie mystique but simply 22iht-rmilan23.htm, accessed 27 February 2012
ads a hint of contemporary glamour. In October 37 Mirabelle, 14 July 1973. Barnbrook, Kevin Cann, Howard Goodall, Paul Morley and Jon Savage; cost consultants; our
2003, Q magazine published Clash of the Titans, 38 Kevin Cann, Any Day Now: David Bowie, The London editor Tom Windross and the team at V&A Enterprises, Davina Cheung, Clare Davis, Mark Eastment
an interview with David Bowie by Kate Moss Years 19471974 (London, 2010), p.304. and Vicky Haverson. We are grateful to Alexandra Stetter, our copy-editor, and Jonathan Abbott.
accompanied by photographs by Ellen von Unwerth. 39 Alexandra Shulman, Vogue, May 2003. We would also like to thank all the contributors to this book, who added their own diverse
7 David Bowie and Mick Rock, Moonage Daydream: The 40 Mark C. OFlaherty, Mens wear ch-ch-changes,
perspectives and broadened the scope of literature on Bowie. Their articles not only informed our
Life and Times of Ziggy Stardust (London, 2005), p.86. Financial Times [online], 23 September 2011,
own understanding of the subject but also influenced the content of the exhibition. Thanks also
8 20 questions to David Bowie about his image, www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c395d1b0-e075-11e0-bd01-
Mirabelle magazine, January 1974. 00144feabdc0.html, accessed 27 February 2012 go to the photographers who have allowed us to show their work.
9 Simon Frith, Only Dancing: David Bowie Flirts with 41 Cally Blackman, email exchange with the author, Countless external people have contributed: Oliver Bradbury, Brian Croft, Chris Duffy, James
the Issues in Angela McRobbie (ed.), Zoot Suits and 18 April 2012. Hyman (The James Hyman Pop Culture Magazine Archive), Dr Elizabeth Kehoe, Gary Kemp, Geoff
Second-Hand Dresses (London, 1989). 42 People Who Turn Me On, Fan magazine, McCormack, Ewan ONeill, Helene Thian, Francis Whately, Kansai Yamamoto. At the V&A others
10 Paul Raven, Popping the question: David Bowie, October 1974
have also contributed hugely to the project. Space does not permit us to mention everyone, but
Mirabelle magazine, September 1972. 43 Correspondence with the author, 2012.
we would particularly like to thank: Richard Davis, Alan Derbyshire, Liz Edmunds, Lara Flecker,
11 Kevin Cann, Any Day Now: David Bowie The London 44 Godfrey Deeny, The Paris mens wear shows,
Years 19471974 (London, 2010), p.20. Financial Times [online], 28 January 2011, Tom Grosvenor, Adair Harper, Diana McAndrews, Richard Mulholland, Gesa Werner and Anna Wu.
12 Teen-Age Page, Nashua Telegraph, 4 November www.ft.com/cms/s/2/f3b343ac-2a61-11e0-804a- We benefited greatly from the assistance of interns throughout the project. We would like to
1974, p.14. 00144feab49a.html, accessed 6 March 2012 recognize them all here, and thank them for their time and energy: Jasmine Aslan, Edie Campbell,
13 Nik Cohn, Ball the Wall: Nik Cohn in the Age of Rock 45 Ben Edmonds, Ol Orange Hair is Back, RAM, Lauren Fried, Claudia Goss, Holly Harris, Ben Jefferson, Sara Nuzzi, Amanda Pajak, Evie Prichard,
(London, 1989), p.309. March 1976.
Louise Rytter, Dzmitry Suslau.
14 Michael Watts, Oh You Pretty Thing, Melody Maker, 46 Diane Solway, W magazine [online], August 2011,
The V&A Research and Theatre & Performance Departments have been stimulating environ-
22 January 1972. www.wmagazine.com/fashion/2011/08/tilda-
15 Teen-Age Page, Nashua Telegraph, 4 November swinton-cover-story-fashion, accessed 3 April 2012 ments in which to develop such a project, and we are grateful to our colleagues for their advice and
1974, p.14. 47 Ibid. support. On behalf of everyone at the V&A we would like to thank Mark Jones, former Director of
16 Cameron Crowe, Candid Conversation: An 48 Tim Blanks, Tim Blanks Recommends: The Bowie the Museum, Ian Blatchford, former Deputy Director, and Damien Whitmore, Director of Public
outrageous conversation with the actor, rock Look Revisited, Fantastic Man [online], 21 October Affairs, who had the confidence in the idea and us to commit the Museum to the project.
singer and sexual switch-hitter, Playboy magazine, 2011, www.fantasticman.com/#/recommendations/
September 1976. tim-blanks-recommends-the-bowie-look-revisited/
17 Garry Mulholland, Stardust Memories, Uncut accessed 10 February 2012.
magazine, April 2012, p.28. 49 Charles Shaar Murray, Sermon From the Savoy,
18 David Iztkoff, The Fashion Rocks Q&A, Lucky New Musical Express, 29 Sept 1984.
magazine, October 2005. 50 Correspondence with the author, 2012.
19 Garry Mulholland, Stardust Memories, Uncut 51 David Iztkoff, The Fashion Rocks Q&A, Lucky
magazine, April 2012, p.31. magazine, October 2005.
20 David Bowie and Mick Rock, Moonage Daydream: The 52 Fashion: turn to the left. Fashion: turn to the
Life and Times of Ziggy Stardust (London, 2005), p.17. right, Dazed & Confused magazine, issue no.26,
21 Ibid. November 1996.

314 315
 Picture credits David bowie is indexed

ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2012: pl.78 Adams, Fiona 104 Beethoven, Ludwig van 165 Buuel, Luis 80, 200 Dench, Judy 72
Roy Ainsworth / Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive / Adams, John 179 Belew, Andrew 117 Burden, Eric 292 Deneuve, Catherine 258
Image Victoria and Albert Museum: pl.60 Addinsel, Richard 84 Bell, Edward 2001 Burgess, Anthony 100, 196 Dennis, Hermione Farthingale 38
S&G Barratts / EMPICS Archive: pl.12 Alabama Song 72, 172, 174 Berg, Alban 83 Burretti, Freddie 501, 545, 86, 945, 122, Denny, Sandy 46
Courtesy of Edie Baskin / Art Collection Management / The David Bowie Archive: pl.160 Aladdin Sane 27, 100, 110, 122, 123, 169, 284 Berger, Helmut 72 130, 1445, 1489, 196, 236, 237, 238, 24450, Depeche Mode 92
Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive: pls 28, 42 album cover 78, 196, 197, 245 Bergman, Ingmar 80 2457, 2523 Deram label 32
Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive / Image Victoria and Albert Museum: pls 48, 23, costumes 5765, 67, 767, 236, 2423 Berlin 19, 110, 174, 1789, 200, 257, 284, 304 Burroughs, William 35, 98, 99, 1003, 108, Deth Killers 2745
33, 35, 3740, 47, 52, 55, 61, 65, 702, 77, 808, 901, 923, 967, 99, 101, 103, 105123, make-up 74, 78, 99 Berlin trilogy 80, 136, 178 124, 136, 292 Detroit 44
125, 127, 1569, 1612, 1647, 170, 173, 177, 180, 186, 18890, 1914, 1979, 203, 2059, 211 songs 823, 177, 296 Berlin Wall 163, 178 The Buzz 29, 104 Diamond Dogs 80, 110, 201, 284, 296
Alex Chatelain Vogue Paris: pl.67 tour 75, 79, 91, 99, 109 Berry, Chuck 174 Byron, Lord 69, 82, 292 album cover 78, 12431, 125, 1289, 197, 198
Chelsea Girls. Copyright 1971 Alan Aldridge: pl.21 Alas, Mert 236, 236, 244 The Black and White Minstrel Show 32 cut-ups 103
Anton Corbijn: pl.155 Albini, Walter 198 Black Country Rock 107 Cabaret 72 lyrics 84
Brian Duffy Duffy Archive: pls 45, 163, 214 Aldiss, Brian 34 Black Tie White Noise 202, 245 The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 131 make-up 123
Courtesy of EMI Music / The David Bowie Archive: pls 16, 1436, 152 Aldridge, Alan 37 Blackman, Cally 250 Caf Royal, London 245 promotional photos 5, 1267
Gavin Evans / Horton-Stephens LLP: pl.215 All the Young Dudes 92, 99, 163 Blackout 111 Cage, John 179, 180 songs 78
Ron Galella / WireImage / Getty Images: pl.184 Allen, Richard 100 Blake, William 19, 293 Cale, John 117 tour 124, 1501, 198, 2515
Getty Images: pls 1011, 17, 172, 176, 213 Allen, Woody 293 Bland, Bobby 104 Cambridge, John 107 Diddley, Bo 83
Mick Gold: pls 62, 64 Alomar, Carlos 178 Blanks, Tim 235, 257, 258 Cann, Kevin 245 Dietrich, Marlene 19, 70, 72, 80, 257, 292
Mick Gold / Redferns / Getty Images: pl.63 Alt, Emmanuelle 236 Blitz club, Soho 136, 201, 257 Canova, Antonio 70 Dior, Christian 258, 2723
Harry Goodwin: pl.34 Anders, Bill 42 Blitz Kids 236, 257 Cant Help Thinking About Me 104 DJ video 21617
1974 Gijsbert Hanekroot / Getty Images: pl.9 Andrews, Cyrus 104 Blue Jean 69 Celine 235, 250 Dobells Records 30
Courtesy of Harpers Bazaar: pls 689 Andy Warhol 86 Blur 169 Centre 42 38 Doggett, Peter 124, 193, 200
MARK AND COLLEEN HAYWARD ARCHIVE: pl.14 Angel of Death costume 945 Bogarde, Dirk 35 Centre Point, London 30, 31 Donovan 169
Benjam Huseby: pl.171 Antin, Eleanor 8690 Bolan, Marc 44, 72, 99, 107, 108, 166, 171, 193 Changes 69 The Doors 83
Nick Knight / Trunk Archive: pl.179 Antonioni, Michelangelo 78 Bolder, Trevor 237, 238 Chaplin, Charlie 19, 82 Dorsey, Gail Ann 178, 258
Eric Liebowitz / Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive / Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere 100 Boop-A-Doop (piano bar) 28 Chatelain, Alex 118, 119, 244 Douglas, Lord Alfred 80
Image Victoria and Albert Museum: pl.204 Apollo missions 42, 43, 169 Boro, Tomasa 244 Chelsea Girls 35, 37, 72 drag queens 70, 80, 90
Doug McKenzie / Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive: pl.1 Apted, Michael 117 Boshier, Derek 200, 201 Un Chien Andalou 80, 90, 200 Dreyer, Carl 80
Mert & Marcus Vogue Paris: pl.169 Arias, Joey 21415 Bowery, Leigh 288 Childers, Leee Black 86 The Drowned Girl 174
Mert & Marcus / Courtesy of Prada S.p.A: pl.174 Arlen, Harold 171 Bowie, Angie (Angie Barnett, DBs wife) 90, China Girl 82 Drury Lane Arts Lab 38
Courtesy of Miramax LLC / The David Bowie Archive / Armani, Giorgio 2289 118, 140, 238, 258 Chirico, Giorgio de 35, 84 Duchamp, Marcel 84, 288
Image Victoria and Albert Museum: pl.202 Arnold Corns Project 237 Bowie, David Christiane F. Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo 110, Duffy, Brian 74, 78, 196, 200, 221, 235,
NASA 2013: pl.26 Art Deco 80, 198 album covers 42, 7080, 122, 12431, 289, 292 304
Terry ONeill: pls 181, 183 Artaud, Antonin 19, 38 193201 Chrysalis 44 Duran Duran 92
Terry ONeill / Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive: pls 74, 75 Arts Labs 38, 107 clothes 69, 122, 23558 Clark, Ossie 198 Dylan, Bob 82, 108, 166
Terry ONeill / Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive / Ashes to Ashes 117, 163, 169, 180 discovers The Stage 38 A Clockwork Orange 70, 100, 122, 177, 196, 238,
Image Victoria and Albert Museum: pl.57 album cover 304 early life 278 284, 288 Earthling 203, 258, 25961, 2645, 267
Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images: pl.13 costumes 21819, 221, 2578 first record deal 32 Cocteau, Jean 80 Earthrise 42, 43
Frank W Ockenfels 3: pl.187 lyrics 1724, 173 gender issues 7080, 8490 Cohen, Phil 103 Eastwood, Clint 293
The Estate of Guy Peellaert, all rights reserved / Courtesy of video 802, 110, 13641, 1379, 143, 201, haircut 118, 244 Cohen, Stanley 103 Electric Garden/Middle Earth 32
The David Bowie Archive / Image Victoria and Albert Museum: pl.76 236, 289 influence of Lindsay Kemp 38, 69, 194 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor 69 The Elephant Man 205, 292, 2945, 304
Kenneth Pitt: pls 24, 25 Atkinson, Rowan 180 interest in Buddhism 35, 104 Conn, Leslie 104 Eliot, T. S. 141
Ken Regan / Camera 5 / The David Bowie Archive: pl.100 ATV 32 make-up 78, 99, 122 Cooper, Alice 78 Ellison, Harlan 124
Rex Features: pl.31 mannequin style 846 Copetas, A. Craig 99, 100, 103, 124 EMI 32, 292
Mick Rock 1972, 1973, 2012: pls 44, 46, 48, 51, 534, 56, 58, 98, 178 Baal 174 marriage to Angie 90, 238 Corbijn, Anton 205, 304 Eno, Brian 28, 80, 117, 136, 163, 164, 176, 177,
Mick Rock 972, 1973, 2012 / The David Bowie Archive / Bacall, Lauren 80 meeting with William Burroughs 99, 178, 17980, 283
Image Victoria and Albert Museum: pl.73 Baddeley, Hermione 72 1003, 108 Cracked Actor 83 Epstein, Brian 30, 32
Corinne Schwab / Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive: pl.49 Bailey, David 131 music 16380 Cracked Actor documentary 117, 285, 296 Equity 38
PHOTOGRAPH BY SNOWDON, CAMERA PRESS LONDON. Balch, Anthony 35 self-portrait 188 Crawford, Joan 80 Ernst, Max 35
Photograph by Snowdon, Camera Press London: pl.168 Ballard, J.G. 27, 35, 198 sexuality 902, 194 Cronenberg, David 200 Eskdalemuir 35
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment: pls 89, 95 Ballets Russes 69, 285 videos 802, 13641 Crowe, Cameron 107
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment / Balmain 236 Warhols influence 35, 86 Culture Club 92 Fabulous magazine 104
The David Bowie Archive: pls 30, 13242, 14851, 1534 Bando, Tamasaburo 72 and women 82 Cunard, Nancy 84 The Factory 35, 86, 300
Courtesy of Sony Pictures / The David Bowie Archive / Bandslam 288, 289, 300 works for advertising agency 30, 69, 117 Curios magazine 237 Fairpoint Convention 46, 46
Image Victoria and Albert Museum: pls 210, 212 Barnados 28, 131 and youth subcultures 10310, 118 cut-ups 35, 1003, 124, 136 Faithfull, Marianne 967
STUDIOCANAL Films Ltd / Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive / Barnbrook, Jonathan 118, 122, 136, 141 see also individual songs and albums Cygnet Committee 107, 108, 289 Fame 117
Image Victoria and Albert Museum: pls 50, 196 Barnett, Angie see Bowie, Angie Bowie at the Beeb 108 Fame, Georgie 104
Ralph Steadman is a registered trademark. Copyright Ralph Barrett, Syd 104 Bowie Showboat 30 Dada 84, 86, 100, 124, 288 Fascination 92, 184
Steadman 2012. All rights reserved worldwide: pl.18 Bart, Lionel 107 Boy George 92, 136 Dal, Salvador 19, 35, 78, 80, 84, 200 Fashion 185, 200, 235
Masayoshi Sukita / The David Bowie Archive: pls 3, 32, 36, 41, 59, 66, 102, 124, 195 Barthes, Roland 194, 292 Boys Keep Swinging 80, 81, 90, 136, 200 Dallesandro, Joe 86 Fearnley, Gerald 193
George Underwood / The David Bowie Archive / Basil, Toni 131, 198 Brecht, Bertolt 19, 72, 172, 174 dAurevilly, Barbey 69 Fellini, Federico 82
Image Victoria and Albert Museum: pl.94 Basquiat 86, 285, 2901, 293 Breen, Whilden P., Jr. 35 David Bowie 32, 32, 104, 107, 140, 193, 195, Ferry, Bryan 80, 193, 283, 285, 304
Courtesy of Universal Music Group / Bassey, Shirley 90 Brel, Jacques 83 284, 289 Fiftieth Birthday Concert 2689
The David Bowie Archive: pls 15, 27, 29, 126, 128, 1301, 152 Bataille, Georges 292 Breton, Andr 84 David Bowie: Sound and Vision 136 Financial Times 235, 250
Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC / The David Bowie Archive / Battle for Britain (The Letter) 186 Bromley Contingent 110, 288 David Live 250 Fish, Michael (Mr Fish) 42, 70, 194, 237
Image Victoria and Albert Museum: pls 2001 Baudelaire, Charles 69, 86, 288 Bromley Technical High School 28, 117, 283 Davies, Ray 193 Fisher, Jules 130, 131
Image Victoria and Albert Museum: pls 19, 20, 22 BBC 32, 117, 122 Brook, Peter 38 Davis, Bette 80 Five Years 103
Courtesy of Victor Entertainment / The David Bowie Archive: pl.147 Beach Boys 169 Brown, Willie 2067, 21617 Dazed & Confused magazine 258 Fluxus 86
W / Cond Nast Archive / Cond Nast: pl.185 Beard, Peter 78 Browning, Tod 78, 124 De Souza, Jan 104 Folk Devils and Moral Panics 103
Brian Ward / Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive: pls 2, 43 Beardsley, Aubrey 80, 292 Die Brcke 200 Decarnin, Christophe 236 Fosse, Bob 72
Bruce Weber: pl.104 The Beatles 19, 30, 32, 32, 110, 166, 179, 238, 289 Brummell, Beau 69 Decca 32 Foucault, Michel 90
WWD / Cond Nast / Corbis: 175 Beck, Jeff 100 Buckley, David 124, 136, 141 Deeny, Godfrey 250 Frampton, Owen 28, 117, 283
Beckenham 38 Buddha of Suburbia 27, 30, 202 Defries, Tony 110, 124, 131 Frankland, Judith 257
Beckenham Arts Lab 38, 107 Buddhism 35, 104 Delaunay, Sonia 210 Franklin, Aretha 83

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Frayling, Sir Christopher 283300 Human League 110 Korniloff, Natasha 889, 122, 136, 138, 1567, album cover 42, 44, 45, 70, 1946, 195, Orwell, George 103, 124 Ronson, Mick 72, 73, 101, 102, 107, 108, 177, Sukita, Masayoshi 13, 49, 57, 67, 11415, 155, 189, Flesh 201
Freaks 78, 124 The Hunger 258, 289, 292 21819, 250, 257 237, 289 Oshima, Nagisa 290, 292 178, 238, 244, 283 200, 235, 279, 304 influence on Bowie 293, 297
Fripp 117 Hunger City 131, 1325 Kraftwerk 179, 198, 289 on Saturday Night Live 21415 Ossendrijver, Lucas 235 Rosalyn 100 Sullivan, Hilda 28 Outer and Inner Space 35
Frith, Simon 236 Hunky Dory 11, 70, 71, 80, 86, 90, 99, 108, Kubrick, Stanley 70, 78, 100, 122, 169, 177, Manish Boys 104 OToole, Peter 80 Ross, Diana 257 The Sun 44 Pork 108
Frost, Sue 122, 238 196, 197, 198, 292, 300, 304 196, 238 Mantegna, Andrea 200 Outer and Inner Space 35 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel 237 Sundridge Park, London 27, 35 sexual radicalism 86
Fuseli, Henry 293 Hunt, Marsha 83 Mapplethorpe, Robert 90 Outside 177, 178, 203, 258, 2767 The Roundhouse, London 38, 107, 108 Sunset Strip 823 Sticky Fingers cover 83
Fussey, Suzi 118, 244 Hurt, John 294 La Roche, Pierre 78, 99, 122, 196, 244 Maren, Britt 238 Roxy Music 283 Surrealism 35, 78, 846, 124, 136 Watch That Man 177
Future Legend 284 Huseby, Benjamin A 238, 239 La Rue, Danny 90 Marilyn 136 Page, Jimmy 104 Royal Albert Hall, London 38 Swanson, Gloria 78 Watteau, Antoine 80
Futurism 198 Hyams, Harry 30 Labyrinth 2989 Marquee Club, London 29, 30, 32, 86 Parker, Alan 177 Swinging London 302, 193 Watts, Michael 108, 194, 196, 237, 240
Lady Gaga 288 Marsh, Geoffrey 283300 Parlophone 32 Saint Laurent, Yves 198, 244, 257, 258 Swinton, Tilda 257, 257, 288 Weber, Bruce 159, 304
Gabrels, Reeves 117, 178, 240 I Cant Explain 100 Lady Grinning Soul 834 Martin, George 30 Parmar, Daniella 238, 244 Sales Brothers 117 Switzerland 296 Weegee 200
Gainsborough, Thomas 70 I Cant Read 174 Lady Stardust 183 Marvell, Andrew 82 Pastor, Terry 120, 122 San Francisco 90 Symbolism 78 Weill, Kurt 19, 72, 1712, 174
Garbo, Greta 70, 196 i-D magazine 238, 239 Lake, Veronica 70 Meisel, Stephen 238, 245 Peellaert, Guy 78, 12431, 1289, 198 Sander, August 84 synthesizers 164, 179, 180 Welch, Julie 108
Garson, Mike 834, 177, 178 I Dig Everything 104 Landis, John 292 Melody Maker 90, 108, 194, 196, 237, 240, 297 Peeping Tom 122 Satie, Erik 180 Weller, Mike 70, 1946
Genet, Jean 83, 292 I Pity the Fool 104 Lang, Fritz 130, 131 Melville, Herman 78 Pegg, Nicholas 117, 136, 140 Saturday Night Live 208, 210, 21415 Takahashi, Yusuko 240 Wesker, Arnold 38
German Expressionism 78, 84, 131, 198 I Wish You Would 100 Langhart, Chris 131 Memory of a Free Festival 107 Pennebaker, D. A. 72, 235 Saville Theatre 32 Take My Tip 104 West, Craig 250
Germany 174, 1789, 200 The Ice Storm 174 Lanvin 235 Menkes, Suzy 244 The Philadelphia Story 70, 78 Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) 80, 110, Talk of the Town 30 Westwood, Vivienne 201
Gerry and the Pacemakers 30 The Idiot 163, 200 The Laughing Gnome 163, 166, 166 Mercury, Freddie 292 Phillips 32 13640, 138, 172, 177, 199, 2001, 21819, Talmy, Shel 104 Whale, James 292
Giannini, Frida 244 Iggy Pop 78, 823, 99, 107, 108, 110, 117, Le Corbusier 2067 Mercury Records 196, 237 Philo, Phoebe 235 292 Tamasaburo 122 The Who 100, 104
Gide, Andr 83 163, 200 Lean, David 80 Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence 290, 292 Picasso, Pablo 103 Schapiro, Steve 198 Tangerine Dream 179 Wiene, Robert 131
Gill, John 194 The Image 35, 38 Leary, Timothy 35 Meszaros, Diana 238 Pierrot 802, 13640, 138, 21819 Schiele, Egon 200 Taylor, Elizabeth 80 Wilcken, Hugo 198
Gioconda Caf, London 32, 104 Iman 303, 304 Lee, Ang 174 Metrobolist 42 Piggott, Marcus 236, 236, 244 Schmidt, Peter 176, 178 Taylor, Vince 72 Wild is the Wind 83, 84
Givenchy 245, 245 Independent Television (ITV) 32 Lennear, Claudia 83 Metropolis 124, 130, 131 Pilati, Stefano 257 Schnabel, Julian 86 Teenage Wildlife 110 Wilde, Oscar 69, 80, 83, 92, 288, 289, 292
glam rock 44, 90, 92, 100, 103, 166 Inglourious Basterds 292 Lennon, John 80, 169, 174, 257, 292 Miller, Janice 235 Pin Ups 78, 100, 147, 196, 197, 198 Scott, Ridley 140 Temple, Julien 69 Williamson, Sonny Boy 30
Glass, Philip 19, 179, 180 inner space 35, 42 Lenya, Lotte 83 Miller, Stan Dusty 240 Pink Floyd 104 Scott, Ronnie 32 Tevis, Walter 200, 257, 284 Wilson, Harold 30
Glass Spider tour 2267 Inspirations 117, 141 Let Me Sleep Beside You 70 minimalism 17980 Pitt, Kenneth 24, 32, 38, 401 Sebastian 35 Thatcher, Margaret 34, 44 Wintour, Anna 240
Glastonbury 35 Institute of Contemporary Art (ICI) 38 Lets Dance 110, 199, 201, 292 Minogue, Kylie 288 Pivovarova, Sasha 245 Sedgwick, Edie 35, 70 Tharp, Twyla 180 Without You 110
Goffman, Erving 90 International Poetry Incarnation 38 Lets Spend the Night Together 82, 177 Mr Fish 42, 194, 237, 240 Plath, Sylvia 83 Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band 32, 32, 100, Themness 193 The Wizard of Oz 171
Gold, Mick 108, 109 International Times 35, 36 Life magazine 35 Miu Miu 244, 245 Plati, Mark 178 166, 238 Thin White Duke 69, 235, 257, 258 Woodstock Music Festival 69, 92
Gorman, Greg 201 Into the Night 292 Life on Mars 83, 163, 169, 244, 2469 Modern Love 292 Plato 46 Serious Moonlight tour 2225 The Threepenny Opera 72, 83, 172 Wordsworth, William 69
Grammy awards 256, 257 Isherwood, Christopher 200, 284 lifemask 25 Modernism 30, 34, 42, 46 Plimpton, George 70 Serling, Rod 84 Time 72 World War II 46
Gray, Joel 72 Isolar tour 257 Little Richard 28, 29, 86 Mondino, Jean-Baptiste 86 poodle prop 211 Se7en 292 The Times 42 Woronov, Mary 72
Gucci 244 Liza Jane 32, 104, 106 Monroe, Marilyn 171 Pop art 70, 86 Severin, Steve 110, 288 Tin Machine 202, 240, 304
Guevara, Che 200 Jackson, Michael 289 Lodger 80, 136, 178, 180, 199, 200 Montez, Mario 86 Pork 86, 108 Sevigny, Chlo 244, 245 Tin Machine II 202 Yamamoto, Kansai 19, 5865, 72, 767, 118, 119,
Guinness, Daphne 235 Jacobs, Stephen 198 Logan, Andrew 193 Montparnasse, Kiki de 86 Post Office Tower 30, 33, 201 The Shadows 30 Tisci, Riccardo 245 122, 236, 240, 2423, 244, 245, 304
Gysin, Brion 35, 36, 1003, 124, 136 Jagger, Mick 70, 83, 104, 124, 1747, 194, London 44, 300 Moody Blues 169 Powell, Michael 122 Shakespeare, William 72, 90 Tokyo 11415, 304 Yardbirds 30, 83, 100
198, 237, 245 alternative performance scene 38 Moonage Daydream 72 Pre-Raphaelites 70 Shapes of Things 100 Tokyo Pop vinyl bodysuit 645, 67 York, Peter 193, 201
Haddon Hall, Beckenham 42, 238 James, Robert 193 Soho 302, 46 Moondog 107 Presley, Elvis 72 Shelley, Percy Bysshe 83, 292 Tom of Finland 90 Young, La Monte 179
Hadfield, David 117 Janowitz, Bill 118 suburbia 19, 27, 283 Morrissey 201 The Prestige 285, 292 Shulman, Alexandra 245 Tonight 202 Young, Rob 46
Hair 36, 38 Japan 72, 122, 244 Swinging London 302, 193 Moseley, Diana 2267 The Prettiest Star 107 Simon, Paul 166, 296 Top of the Pops 523, 171 Young Americans 27, 80, 92, 131, 136, 177, 197,
Hall, Jerry 80 Jarman, Derek 293 The London Boys 30, 104, 1669 Moss, Kate 19, 236, 236, 245, 249 Pretty Things 100, 104 Simone, Nina 83, 84 Townshend, Pete 28, 117, 258, 292 198, 250
Hall, Peter 2225 Jazzin for Blue Jean 69, 82, 289 London Hippodrome 30 Moss Empires 30 Profumo, John 30 Sinatra, Frank 169, 293 Transformer 163, 196 Youve Got A Habit of Leaving 104
Halloween Jack 84, 131 The Jean Genie 823, 84, 99 London Palladium 32 The Most Brothers 30 punk 103, 110, 198, 257, 288 Siouxsie Sioux 110, 124, 288 Trocchi, Alexander 35
Halston 70, 198 Jeanetta Cochrane Theatre, London 38 London Traverse Theatre Company 38 Mott the Hoople 92, 99 puppet 210 Slim Harpo 104 Turner, Ike and Tina 83 Zanetta, Tony 86
Hammersmith Odeon 198, 241, 245 Jeremy 194 Longo, Robert 200 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 165 Pye 32 Slimane, Hedi 258, 2723 Turner, Lana 78 Zappa, Frank 117
Hansa Studios, Berlin 178 John, Elton 78 Look Back in Anger 92 Mugler, Thierry 236 Smith, Paul 257 The 21s Coffee Bar, London 29, 30, 32 Ziggy Stardust 19, 27, 728, 92, 99100, 103,
happenings 38 John, Im Only Dancing 99, 236 Los Angeles 44, 200 Muldowney, Dominic 174 Quadrophenia 104 Snowdon, Lord 231, 304 Twiggy 78, 196, 197 124, 283, 284, 293
Harlow, Rachel 70 Join the Gang 107 Louie Louie Go Home 104 My Own Mag 35 Queen Bitch 80, 108 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long- 2001: A Space Odyssey 78, 122, 169, 284, 300 album covers 196, 304
Harpers & Queen 118, 119, 193, 201, 240 Jones, Brian 237 Louis, Jean 80 Haired Men 104 Tzara, Tristan 21213 character notes 181
Hatch, Tony 32 Jones, Duncan (DBs son) 140, 300 Love You till Tuesday 169 NASA 35, 42 Radio London 32 Soho 28, 302, 46 costumes 13, 501, 545, 72, 122, 23744,
Hauptmann, Elisabeth 172 Jones, Dylan 244 Lovekin, David 303, 304 NBC 86 Ravitz, Mark 130, 131, 21013 Sommerville, Ian 100 UFO Club 32 238, 2423, 245
Haynes, Jim 38 Jones, Haywood Stenton John (DBs father) Loving the Alien 84 Neu! 179 Ray, Man 84, 86, 198, 292 Soul Boys 110 Underwood, George 28, 122, 142, 200 death of 100, 140, 198, 245
Haynes, Todd 72 28, 131, 297 Low 110, 136, 163, 174, 1789, 180, 199, 200, Never Let Me Down 86, 202 Raymond, Paul 30 Sound and Vision 117 haircut 72, 118, 244
Hayward, Mark 31 Jones, Hilda (DBs mother) 82 285, 289 Nevin D. Hirst Advertising 30, 117 RCA Records 107, 110 Sound + Vision tour 2289 Valentino, Rudolph 69 lyrics 170
Heathen 118, 178, 203, 2703 Jones, Stephen 257 Lower Third 104 New Musical Express (NME) 198, 235, 250 Reality 118, 162, 203, 263, 2745, 304 Space Oddity 19, 69, 110, 136, 140, 16971, Van Horn, Brooks 2089 make-up 72, 196, 244
Hebdige, Dick 103 Jones, Terry (DBs brother) 28, 70 Lycett, Andrew 107 New Order 200 Rebel, Rebel 99, 108, 163, 175, 177 194, 284, 289 Van Noten, Dries 235, 250, 258 The 1980 Floor Show 86, 879, 947
Helvin, Marie 240 Joy Division 288, 296 New Romantics 92, 103, 110, 136, 141, 180, Redgrave, Vanessa 72 Diamond Dogs tour 131 Vandross, Luther 92 personal philosophy 46
Hemmings, David 80 Juke Box Jury 32 McCartney, Paul 100, 163, 166, 169, 174 257, 289 Reed, Lou 72, 86, 99, 117, 163, 196, 245 influences 78, 124, 169 Vanilla, Cherry 86, 245 plaque 46, 47, 288
Hendrix, Jimi 72, 177 Just a Gigolo 80, 292 McDowell, Malcolm 284 New York 19, 90, 292, 296, 300 Reich, Steve 17980 lyrics 42 Velvet Goldmine 72 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders
Henson, Jim 19, 2989 McKenzie, Doug 9, 304 New York Times 118, 257 Reich, Wilhelm 103 score 1679 Velvet Underground 72, 107, 108 from Mars 46, 702, 82, 99, 118, 1201, 122,
Hepburn, Katharine 70, 72, 78, 80, 198 Kaye, Lenny 238 McLaren, Malcolm 201 Newley, Anthony 104 Revere, Paul 104 success 32, 38, 107 Vermorel, Fred and Judy 196 196, 197, 23840
Hermans Hermits 166 Keats, John 292 McLuhan, Marshall 19, 117 Nicoll, Richard 235 Revuebar, London 30 Space Oddity (album) 99, 140, 1423, 166 Veruschka 78 song 44
Heroes 136, 174, 178, 180, 296 Kelly, Jack 70 Macmillan, Iain 19 Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm 19, 178, 292 Reznor, Trent 177 Spenser, Edmund 72 Village People 90 Starman 171
album cover 90, 189, 191, 199, 200 Kemp, Gary 122 Macmillan, Keith 42, 194 Nijinsky, Vaslav 69, 90, 196, 283 Richard, Cliff 30, 80 Spotlight 39 Villeneuve, Justin de 78, 196 tour 501, 72, 73, 93, 101, 102
and the Berlin Wall 163 Kemp, Lindsay 38, 39, 69, 72, 122, 136, 194, McQueen, Alexander 19, 236, 258, 25961, 9/11 terrorist attacks 296 Richards, Keith 1747 Stage 136, 1557, 250 Vincent, Gene 72 Zimmerman, Tucker 107
Christiane F. soundtrack 110 244, 292, 304 2645, 267, 2767 The 1980 Floor Show 86, 879, 947 Riley, Terry 179, 180 Stanislavski, Konstantin 38 The Virgin Soldiers 38
lyrics 111, 187 Kennedy, John F. 35 Madonna 90 Nomi, Klaus 21415 Rinpoche, Chime Youngdung 107 Starman 171 Visage 136
synthesizer 164 Kermode, Frank 296 Magritte, Ren 84 Noone, Peter 107 The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny 72, 172 Starr, Ringo 257 Visconti, Luchino 72
Heston, Charlton 124 Kermode, Mark 283300 Main, James Jeannette 238 North by Northwest 30 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders Station to Station 69, 83, 110, 136, 1523, 178, 198, Visconti, Tony 107, 136, 163, 178, 179
Hiroshi 240 Kerouac, Jack 28 Main Artery 122 Nuttall, Jeff 35 from Mars 46, 702, 82, 99, 118, 1201, 122, 199, 235, 285, 288 Vogue 78, 118, 119, 201, 235, 236, 236, 238, 240,
Hitchcock, Alfred 30 Khnopff, Fernand 78 MainMan 131 Nyman, Michael 179 196, 197, 23840 Steadman, Ralph 34 244, 245, 249
Hoare, Philip 283300 King, Martin Luther 30 Major Tom 27, 46, 69, 78, 802, 140, 169, 174 Rivette, Jacques 82 Steele, Tommy 28, 30
Hocking, Jennifer 240 The King-Bees 104, 106 Malanga, Gerard 72 Oblique Strategy cards 176, 178 Robin, Christopher 250 Steichen, Edward 70 W magazine 257, 257
Holly, Buddy 174 King Crimson 177 Mallet, David 80, 82, 110, 136, 137, 143 Ockenfels, Frank 263, 304 Rock, Mick 72, 75, 79, 87, 91, 93, 101, 147, 235, Stevens, Wallace 82 Wagner, Richard 83, 165
Hollywood 70, 80, 84, 90, 292 The Kinks 166, 193 Mamas & the Papas 90 OFlaherty, Mark C. 235, 250 236, 244, 245, 249 Stewart, Rod 30, 99 Wakeman, Rick 169
Homo Superior 90 Kjeldgaard, Jacob 238, 239, 257 The Man Who Fell to Earth 108, 193, 198, 284, Oh! What a Lovely War 38 Rodgers, Nile 177 Stonehenge 35 Walk on the Wild Side 99
Hooker, John Lee 171 Klimt, Gustav 83 286, 292, 293, 300 Oh! You Pretty Things 90, 1078, 182 Roeg, Nicolas 108, 179, 193, 198, 235, 257, 284 Strange, Steve 136, 201, 257 Walker, Tim 257, 257
Hours... 203 Knight, Nick 245, 249 costumes 257, 258, 287 Oldham, Andrew Loog 32 Rolling Stone magazine 99, 124 Strauss, Richard 178 Ward, Brian 11, 46, 71, 122, 196, 304
Houston 44 Knuts, Hannelore 238 and Low 179, 200, 285 Olympic Games, London (2012) 19, 300 Rolling Stones 30, 70, 82, 83, 104, 124, 131, Streisand, Barbara 171 Warhol, Andy 19, 70, 103, 107, 284, 292
Howlin Wolf 83 Koltai, Ralph 38 photo-collage 85 The Omega Man 124 1747 suburbia 278, 29 Basquiat 86, 285, 2901, 293
Hudson, Ola 1523, 256, 257, 287 the Konrads 28, 104, 105, 117 The Man Who Sold the World 44, 99, 107, 108, ONeill, Terry 5, 98, 124, 1257, 131, 198, 235, Romanticism 69, 78, 834, 86, 92 Suede 289 Chelsea Girls 35, 37, 72
Hulanicki, Barbara 244 Korean War 30 284, 300 250, 2515 Ronan Point 34, 34 Suffragette City 82 The Factory 35, 86, 300

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 [214] above and front cover David Bowie [215] above and back cover David Bowie, 1995
Photograph by Brian Duffy Photograph by Gavin Evans

David Bowie
is the end
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