David Bowie Facts: The legendary name of rock music, the king of glam rock, British artist, actor, dancer and producer David Bowie has passed away. Who is David Bowie, who passed away at the age of 69?
List of David Bowie Facts
1- David Bowie, ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars’ Album is in 35th in Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time List
David Bowie also took a place 23th in Rolling Stones 100 Greatest Singers List Every great Bowie song has a specific persona behind it. His chameleonic transformations aren’t just in his appearance but also in his voice, from the androgynous curlicues at the edges of his Ziggy Stardust vocals to the Philly-soul affectations of Young Americans to the hard-boiled crooning of his Eighties arena-rock period. Bowie always keeps his cool, but as anyone who’s ever crashed and burned trying to sing “Ashes to Ashes” at karaoke can tell you, he’s a phenomenally agile singer — as his longtime collaborator Carlos Alomar said, “This dude can wail.” Source : Rollingstones.com
2- David Bowie Just Released an Album & Had a Show on Broadway
Despite battling cancer, Bowie was still incredibly busy with his career. He had just released an album called “Blackstar” on his birthday and had a show, “Lazarus,” on Broadway. Jon Pareles reviewed Blackstar in The New York Times and referred to it as a “strange, daring, ultimately rewarding” album. Blackstar was his 27th album and the very first album that didn’t include a picture of the artist on the cover,
3- David Bowie heart attack 2004
It was a heart attack requiring emergency surgery in july 2004 that caused David Bowie to cancel the remaining 15 dates of what had been his biggest – and best-received world tour in years. Since then, his live appearances have been sporadic.
4- David Bowie BBC interview
His first television appearance was in 1964, at the age of 17, he was interviewed on a BBC program as the founder of The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-haired Men.
5- Bowie’s first hit in Britain was 1969’s Space Oddity, which was used by the BBC in its coverage of the moon landing. It was Bowie’s first top 20 hit in the US.
‘Space Oddity’ gave Bowie his big break. This now-famous track was used by the BBC in its coverage of the moon landing in 1969. Bowie was practically unknown back then – the song became his first UK hit. The fictional astronaut “Major Tom” has appeared in three of Bowie’s songs: “Space Oddity” (1969), “Ashes To Ashes” (1980) and “Hallo Spaceboy” (1996). His hit song “Fame”, was co-written by John Lennon, who also sang backing vocals. “Fame” was David’s first number No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as his first to break the top 10.
6- David Bowie
Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos was overwhelmed upon meeting his idol in 2004. “There’s no actor who’ll ever come close to influencing me as much as Bowie,” he said.
7- Song for Bob Dylan
“Song for Bob Dylan” is a song written by David Bowie for his 1971 album Hunky Dory. The song parodies Bob Dylan’s 1962 homage to Woody Guthrie, “Song to Woody”. Yet while Dylan opens with “Hey, hey, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song,” Bowie addresses Dylan by his birth name saying, “Hear this, Robert Zimmerman, I wrote a song for you.” In the song, Bowie also describes Bob Dylan’s voice “like sand and glue” which is similar to how Joyce Carol Oates described it upon first hearing Dylan: “When we first heard this raw, very young, and seemingly untrained voice, frankly nasal, as if sandpaper could sing, the effect was dramatic and electrifying.”
8- Under Pressure
The song ‘Under Pressure’ – a collaboration between Bowie and Queen – evolved from a collective jam session at Bowie’s studio in Montreux, Switzerland. He’d originally intended to sing backing vocals on a different Queen song, ‘Cool Cat’. Even though it was a huge hit single, Bowie never performed the song “Under Pressure” before a live audience until the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. He and Annie Lennox sang it as a duet (backed by the surviving members of Queen):
9– His 1973 album Pin Ups, features him on the cover alongside iconic ‘60s model Twiggy.
David Bowie co-produced tracks on Lou Reed’s legendary second studio album Transformer. He was a keen artist in his spare time and drew, painted, sculpted and wrote. Some of his favourite artists included Picasso, Michael Ray Charles and Tintoretto.
10- Ziggy Stardust.
David Bowie has had various alter egos, the most famous of which is Ziggy Stardust. Other alter egos he’s had over the years include: Major Tom, Aladdin Sane, the Thin White Duke, Tao Jones, Halloween Jack, and John Merrick.
11-In 1980, he starred in the Broadway production of The Elephant Man.
The Elephant Man with Bowie in the title role, was a hit on Broadway in 1980.
12-The Last Temptation of Christ.
In 1988, Bowie played Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ.
13- Telling Lies
In 1996, Bowie released the single “Telling Lies” exclusively on his website, it was the first-ever downloadable single by a major artist.
14- David Bowie British honor – Commander and knighthood
Bowie has turned down two big British honors: Commander (CBE) in 2000, and knighthood in 2003.
15- SpongeBob SquarePants
David Bowie voiced the character of Lord Royal Highness on an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants in 2007.
David Bowie married Somali-American supermodel Iman in 1992, after meeting on a blind date organised by a friend. They have a daughter Alexandria Zahra Jones, who was born in 2000.
17- The Prestige
Bowie’s last film role was in The Prestige, a 2006 thriller about rival magicians. Adopting a truly terrible European accent, he played the role of Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla. When Bowie was working on the film Prestige, producers made sure he traveled in a blue helicopter. They’d heard that he would refuse to travel in anything else. However, upon seeing the helicopter’s customised décor, he told them he didn’t really give a shit.
18- Hunky Dory – David Bowie
David Bowie has influenced countless musicians. To pick just one, here’s Brandon Flowers on his idol: “I didn’t get into him until I was around 19 or 20, but ‘Hunky Dory’ changed my life. He pushed the envelope while remaining accessible
19- Diamond Dogs
-Bowie plays just about every instrument on ‘Diamond Dogs’ – including the famous guitar riff on ‘Rebel Rebel’.
20-Glastonbury
David Bowie has played Glastonbury twice. His first appearance was in 1971, when he played at 5am. His second, in 2000, has gone down in Glastonbury lore as one of the greatest sets the festival has seen. Persistent rumours Bowie might be playing the 2010 bash proved to be unfounded.
21-Placebo and David Bowie
Bowie is a big fan of Placebo, citing them as one of his favourite bands. He also enjoyed Oasis, before they split.
22- Subterraneans
Almost a decade before The Cocteau Twins popularised the approach, Bowie sang in a completely self-invented language on the 1977 Low album track, Subterraneans.
23- David Bowie – The Buddha Of Suburbia
His image appears on every single one of his album covers – except the UK release of The Buddha Of Suburbia and his final album, Blackstar.
24 – Peter Frampton and David Bowie
Rock guitarist Peter Frampton was Bowie’s friend at school – his dad was head of the art department. He’s gone on to play guitar with Bowie many times during his career.
25- Watchmen -David Bowie
The opening sequence of the 2009 film Watchmen shows actors portraying David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust and Mick Jagger from The Rolling Stones outside New York’s legendary nightclub Studio
26- Ed Chapman – David Bowie
David Bowie was immortalised in stone by artist Ed Chapman, 40, who created a tile mosaic of the Starman to celebrate his 65th birthday.
27- Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie
He found fame in the US with 1972 glam-rock album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Bowie’s music moved with the times and he performed in various other genres, including disco, punk and electronica. Bowie got the idea for the Ziggy Stardust persona after a chance encounter in London’s Carnaby Street with washed-up pop star and acid freak Vince Taylor. Interestingly, the album cover (pictured) was shot just round the corner, on Haddon Street.
