Brixton
area of
London on January 8, 1947, the son of a working
class family. He
began playing
music at age 12 when his parents bought him a saxophone and he
performed in a series of small-
time groups while in high school. After
graduating from technical school with a degree in art in 1963,
Jones formed his
failed to gain much attention and
Jones quickly moved on to the Manish Boys, but
made-for-TV
band, the Monkeys.
David said he chose the
name because he had
joined a Who-influenced R&B/rock group called the Lower Third, who managed to
release
one single before splitting up.
Bowie then moved on to the Buzz, a
By this
time,
Bowie was a fairly well-known musician and songwriter on the
released
Bowie's debut album of folk-influenced
pop in late 1967 which led to
his signing as the opening act for the
popular psychedelic
band, Tyrannosaurus
When his career failed to flourish,
Bowie decided to take some
time off and
spent several weeks in a Scottish Buddhist monastery. When he left, he studied
with
Lindsay Kemp's mime troupe, forming his own mime company called the
Feathers in 1969. The Feathers were short-lived and later the same year, he
formed the experimental art group, Beckenham Arts Lab.
year and released "
Man of Words, Man of
music", a trippy singer/songwriter album
featuring a song called "
Space Oddity", the
saga of a stranded astronaut,
inspired by the movie 2001. The song was released as a single and became a Top
eventually touring with Bolan, bassist/producer
Tony Visconti, and guitarist
with whom he had a son, Zowie, the following year.
own stylistically, but the album's proto-
glam guitars and over-the-top lyrics
failed to win a wide audience, prompting
Mercury to part ways with
Bowie.
artist and released his
next album, "Hunky Dory" in 1972. Hunky Dory featured a
campy cross-dressing and different colored eyes (the result of a schoolyard
fight that left
one pupil permanently enlarged) as for his dramatic sound.
Capitalizing on his sudden stardom,
Bowie sealed his
fame with 1972's "The
Rise
a now-legendary world tour, complete with
outrageous costumes and outlandish
sets. The tour propelled Ziggy
Stardust (as well as his earlier albums) to the
top of the charts. Ziggy
Stardust was widely hailed by critics as
one of the
best, most influential albums of the
decade; the title track became an
was not released as a single in the U.S.
due to its suggestive lyrics.)
"Transformer" and
Mott the Hoople's "All the
Young Dudes", whose title track was
that he was "
gay" (
Bowie is actually bisexual), becoming the first major rock
the punning "Aladdin Sane", then toured again as Ziggy
Stardust. At a
London
concert in July 1973,
Bowie shocked his fans -- and his own
band -- by suddenly
announcing that "not only is it the last
show of the tour, but it's the last
were no more. Later that year,
Bowie distanced himself from his Ziggy
Stardust
hits meant as a tribute to his earliest years as an aspiring
London musician.
featured a controversial shot of
Bowie as a half-
Man/half-dog and presented a
United States.
Bowie launched a massive tour, even more elaborate than the Ziggy
Stardust outing; however,
due to enormous production expenses, the tour
lost
money even though every night sold out. To commemorate the spectacle,
Bowie
soul," which defined 1975's effort, "
Young Americans". Its standout single,
No. 1
hit. Shortly after the release of
Young Americans,
Bowie starred in the
clean-cut, formal
fashion and announcing that he admired Hitler and Nietzsche.
"Station to Station", which spawned the
Top 10 single "
Golden Years" and was
supported by world tour with an odd 1930s German theatre
motif.
section of
Berlin, where he began collaborating with aspiring producer Brian
and synthesizer-driven ambient
music. Now widely praised by critics, "Low" was
truly ahead of its
time, confusing audiences who were expecting
concise pop
the supporting tour,
Bowie returned to
Berlin and recorded 1978's "Heroes" with
the film "
Just a Gigolo" and the "Heroes" world tour,
Bowie relocated to
Switzerland. His 1979 release, "The Lodger", featured a
reunion with
Tony
Visconti, who played bass on
one track, while 1980's "Scary Monsters" produced
In the
early 1980s,
Bowie put aside his various personas to
deal with his own
life and work on other artistic goals. Turning to acting,
Bowie earned positive
the vampire thriller The Hunger. After recording the
hit single "Under Pressure"
with
Queen,
Bowie announced he was giving up drugs and homosexuality, and
He returned to
music with a vengeance in 1983, releasing his most commercially
album was, not surprisingly, full of funky, danceable
rhythms and
pop
Dance" and "
Cat People." 1984's "Tonight" continued in the same vein, and
featured the
hit single "
Loving the Alien" and the title track, a duet with
Tina
Bowie capped his most public period with a high-profile appearance at the 1985
Live Aid festival, a starring role in the 1986
fantasy film Labyrinth and a
supporting role in 1986's Absolute Beginners. During this
time Bowie also
Bowie's 1987 album, "Never Let Me Down Again", is
best remembered for its
epic
and
vision" and followed it up with another world tour, cautioning his fans that
it would be his final outing playing old material. It was a huge public
relations
success, prompting
sales of his newly re-mastered albums to skyrocket.
To completely break with his past,
Bowie formed a new
band called Tin Machine,
(bass) and
Tony sales (drums). The quartet recorded two albums of
Tin Machine broke up in 1992.
a tribute to his new wife, a supermodel who simply
goes by the
name "
Iman" -- as
first interactive CD-ROM project, "
Jump".
Reuniting with producer
Brian Eno,
Bowie won back critics with his 1995 concept
album "Outside", an industrial-tinged effort on which each song was written from
the perspective of a different "outsider." In keeping with the theme of the
album, it was supported by a U.S. tour with
Nine Inch Nails and a European tour
the feature film Basquiat. That July he was inducted into
the Rock and Roll
Hall
of his single "Telling
Lies." A full-length album, "Earthling", followed shortly
thereafter. The electronica-themed release received positive reviews from
critics, demonstrating that after more than 30 years in
music,
Bowie still has
and promoted the effort by appearing as the musical guest on the season
premiere
of TV's "Saturday Night
Live".
In December 2001,
Bowie announced the
launch of his own independent label, ISO,
on which his first release came in
June, 2002. The album was called "Heathen"
The effort has been termed by rock critics as "rather respectable, a tasteful,
pseudo-experimental sheen that's infinitely preferable to the screeching
techno-rock that
Bowie has so frequently inflicted upon himself of late."
but
no doubt it will be unlike anything anyone else has
ever done.
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