David Bowie

See also: Flaming Lips, Lou Reed

David Bowie is one of rock 'n' roll's preeminent showmen and a master of musical reinvention. In a career that has spanned 35 years and countless personae, Bowie has ushered in musical trends with astounding foresight. He was born David Robert Jones in London on Jan. 8, 1947, and began performing as a teenager. By the late '60s he had released singles with several bands, all to little acclaim. In 1969, Bowie signed to Mercury Records, which released his debut single "Space Oddity." The track peaked at No. 5 on the U.K. pop singles chart and would eventually reach No. 15 in the U.S. upon its 1972 release there. In 1972, Bowie introduced his first major "character," Ziggy Stardust. A gender-unspecified, alien rock star with orange hair, Stardust and his backing band, the Spiders from Mars, released "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust" album to critical acclaim that year. The blend of flashy rock and intensely theatrical live shows became a smash in the U.K. and U.S., but Bowie pressed on.

By the end of 1973, Stardust was permanently retired while Bowie tackled his own brand of American soul for the 1975 "Young Americans" album (the single "Fame" hit No. 1 in the U.S.). In 1976, Bowie furthered his theatrical ambitions by starring in the film "The Man Who Fell To Earth." He also introduced his stately "Thin White Duke" persona on the "Station To Station." Bowie then relocated to Berlin and began a period of fruitful collaboration with producer Brian Eno that yielded some of his most musically adventurous albums.

At the end of the '70s, Bowie was at the top of his game. The 1979 album "Lodger," the last of his collaborations with Eno, reached No. 20, while the following year's "Scary Monsters" hit No. 12. Videos for songs from these records were some of the first of their kind, and received mass airplay on the then-fledgling MTV network. For the next few years, Bowie devoted himself to acting. In the meantime, he recorded the track "Under Pressure" with Queen, which hit No. 1 in the U.K. In 1983 he released "Let's Dance," his first album under a new contract with EMI. Produced by Nile Rodgers and featuring the then unheard-of Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar, the album was an instant success. The title track, a slick, post-disco number, hit No. 1 in May 1983, while "China Girl" and "Modern Love" hit the top-15.

The late '80s and early '90s saw Bowie again shaking things up, as he supervised the reissue of his back catalog for the Rykodisc label. He also formed the hard-rock quartet Tin Machine, which released two successful albums but was generally panned by critics. On the 1995 album "Outside," another collaboration with Eno, Bowie drew on the edgy and popular industrial rock of Nine Inch Nails. Always shrewd in non-musical matters, he took an unprecedented step in 1997 when he issued bonds backed by royalties from his song catalog. It wasn't long before Bowie was valued as one of the world's wealthiest living rock stars.

Album reviews

Outside
Virgin (1995)
David Bowie has been everything from a bisexual glam rocker to a punk prototype to an 1980s rock dinosaur.

Features

Funeral At The Movies: The Man Who Fell To Earth
Published December 20, 2002
Mark Groeschner decides it's time we revisit a few of history's storied rock and roll films. First up: the David Bowie flick "The Man Who Fell To Earth." Be afraid, very afraid.