Misplaced Pages

#119880

237-551: Hunky Dory is the fourth studio album by the English musician David Bowie , released in the United Kingdom on 17   December 1971 through RCA Records . Following a break from touring and recording, Bowie settled down to write new songs, composing on piano rather than guitar as in earlier works. Bowie assembled the guitarist Mick Ronson , the bassist Trevor Bolder , and the drummer Mick Woodmansey , and began to record

474-489: A Grafton saxophone in 1961. He was soon receiving lessons from baritone saxophonist Ronnie Ross . He received a serious injury at school in 1962 when his friend George Underwood punched him in the left eye during a fight over a girl. After a series of operations during a four-month hospitalisation, his doctors determined that the damage could not be fully repaired and Bowie was left with faulty depth perception and anisocoria (a permanently dilated pupil), which gave

711-418: A pop-art agent provocateur". In a time when rock musicians looked to traditions and established standards, Bowie looked to be radically different and challenge tradition, reinventing himself again and again, thereby creating new standards and conventions. Buckley further said: "Its almost easy-listening status and conventional musical sensibility has detracted from the fact that, lyrically, this record lays down

948-469: A sumo wrestling loincloth or simulating oral sex with Ronson's guitar. Bowie toured and gave press conferences as Ziggy before a dramatic and abrupt on-stage "retirement" at London's Hammersmith Odeon on 3 July 1973. Footage from the final show was incorporated for the film Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars , which premiered in 1979 and commercially released in 1983. After breaking up

1185-579: A "cult of Bowie" that was "unique—its influence lasted longer and has been more creative than perhaps almost any other force within pop fandom." The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), combining the hard rock elements of The Man Who Sold the World with the lighter experimental rock and pop of Hunky Dory , was released in June and was considered one of the defining albums of glam rock . " Starman ", issued as an April single ahead of

1422-515: A BAFTA Award for best original soundtrack the following year. Yundi's recording of three Beethoven sonatas went platinum in his native China. The label also released Andreas Ottensamer 's debut "Portraits", and the label debut of Brooklyn Rider "A Walking Fire". Milos Karadaglic's "Latino Gold" topped the UK classical charts and entered the pop charts. Banjo soloist and 15-time Grammy Award winner Bela Fleck 's concerto for banjo and orchestra "The Impostor"

1659-399: A bonus CD containing an interview with Wilma Cozart Fine, and a deluxe booklet detailing the history of Mercury Living Presence. The CD set was issued worldwide and was sold by major retailers. A limited-edition six-LP box set was also issued. The CD set brings back into print dozens of titles that had not been available as manufactured CDs since the early 2000s. In 2013, Decca Classics issued

1896-778: A collection of covers of his 1960s favourites, followed in October, producing a UK number three hit in his version of the McCoys 's " Sorrow " and itself peaking at number one, making Bowie the best-selling act of 1973 in the UK. It brought the total number of Bowie albums concurrently on the UK chart to six. Bowie moved to the US in 1974, initially staying in New York City before settling in Los Angeles. Diamond Dogs (1974), parts of which found him heading towards soul and funk ,

2133-469: A considerable time", while Danny Holloway of the NME described it as Bowie "at his brilliant best". Holloway added that "[ Hunky Dory is] a breath of fresh air compared to the usual mainstream rock LP of [1972]. It's very possible that this will be the most important album from an emerging artist in 1972, because he's not following trends – he's setting them". In the US, John Mendelsohn of Rolling Stone called

2370-519: A contract with Mercury Records and its UK subsidiary Philips , who issued "Space Oddity" as a single on 11 July 1969, five days ahead of the Apollo 11 launch. Reaching the top five in the UK, it was his first and last hit for three years. Bowie's second album followed in November. Originally issued in the UK as David Bowie , it caused some confusion with its predecessor of the same name, and

2607-442: A contrast to the darker themes. Doggett describes Bowie's vocal performance as "quite unadorned, presented so starkly ... that it [is] almost unsettling". Designed to sound like a "continuation" of the previous track, "Eight Line Poem" is described by Pegg as the album's most "overlooked" song. It features Bowie on a gentle, sporadic piano while he sings and a country -influenced guitar line from Ronson. Exactly eight lines long,

SECTION 10

#1732802213120

2844-405: A departure from the acoustic guitar and folk rock style established by his second album, to a more hard rock sound. Mercury financed a coast-to-coast publicity tour across the US in which Bowie, between January and February 1971, was interviewed by media. Exploiting his androgynous appearance, the original cover of the UK version unveiled two months later depicted Bowie wearing a dress. He took

3081-475: A disagreement with EMI, left the label. Like his audience and his critics, Bowie himself became increasingly disaffected with his role as just one member of a band. Tin Machine began work on a second album, but recording halted while Bowie conducted the seven-month Sound+Vision Tour , which brought him commercial success and acclaim. In October 1990, Bowie and Somali -born supermodel Iman were introduced by

3318-701: A distinctive and fresh perspective to classical music. In its first year, artist signings to the label included Icelandic neoclassical composer Olafur Arnalds , New York-based string quartet Brooklyn Rider , Chinese pianist Yundi , and Austrian clarinetist and Berlin Philharmonic soloist Andreas Ottensamer . The label also oversees the recording career of Montenegrin classical guitarist Milos Karadaglic , and has an ongoing partnership with Tori Amos , which dates back to her work with Buhr on her classically inspired Night of Hunters album for Deutsche Grammophon in 2011. Following Buhr's longstanding relationship with

3555-492: A division of PolyGram K.K. (now Universal Music Japan ). In 1995, it was relaunched as Mercury Music Entertainment. It later merged with Kitty Records in 2000 and became Kitty MME. Half of it was merged into the Universal J label in 2002, the other half became known as Universal Sigma in 2004. Its artist roster included Seiko Matsuda , Yūji Oda , Delta, ZIGGY, Kinniku Shōjo Tai , and Takashi Sorimachi . After 13 years,

3792-456: A false impression of a change in the iris' colour, erroneously suggesting he had heterochromia iridum (one iris a different colour to the other); his eye later became one of Bowie's most recognisable features. Despite their altercation, Bowie remained on good terms with Underwood, who went on to create the artwork for Bowie's early albums. Bowie formed his first band, the Konrads, in 1962 at

4029-592: A featured oboe player in the late 1940s for Mercury). The first record in this new Mercury Olympian Series was Pictures at an Exhibition performed by Rafael Kubelík and the Chicago Symphony . The group that became the best known using this technique was the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra , which, under the leadership of conductor Antal Doráti , made a series of classical albums that were well reviewed and sold briskly, including

4266-466: A free festival in a local park, the subject of his song " Memory of a Free Festival ". Pitt attempted to introduce Bowie to a larger audience with the Love You till Tuesday film, which went unreleased until 1984. Feeling alienated over his unsuccessful career and deeply affected by his break-up, Bowie wrote " Space Oddity ", a tale about a fictional astronaut named Major Tom . The song earned him

4503-401: A fundraising single, which went to number one in the UK and number seven in the US; its video premiered during Live Aid. Bowie took an acting role in the 1986 film Absolute Beginners , and his title song rose to number two in the UK charts. He also worked with composer Trevor Jones and wrote five original songs for the 1986 film Labyrinth , which he starred in. His final solo album of

4740-412: A group with Bowie and guitarist John Hutchinson named Feathers; between September 1968 and early 1969 the trio gave a small number of concerts combining folk, Merseybeat , poetry and mime. After the break-up with Farthingale, Bowie moved in with Mary Finnigan as her lodger. In February and March 1969, he undertook a short tour with Marc Bolan 's duo Tyrannosaurus Rex , as third on the bill, performing

4977-539: A label), hence those labels control US rights to these works (in the case of The Who, they had been on US Decca Records and MCA Records in the past, their prebreakup catalogue is now on Geffen Records in North America). Mercury Classics was relaunched in 2012 as an international classical label by UMGI, appointing musicologist and record executive Dr. Alexander Buhr as managing director. The label aims to identify and work with strong creative individuals who bring

SECTION 20

#1732802213120

5214-426: A limited-edition single release version of Placebo 's track " Without You I'm Nothing " with Bowie's harmonised vocal added to the original recording. Bowie, with Gabrels, created the soundtrack for Omikron: The Nomad Soul , a 1999 computer game in which he and Iman also voiced characters based on their likenesses. Released the same year and containing re-recorded tracks from Omikron , his album Hours featured

5451-480: A low-key release, had almost no promotion and flopped commercially, reaching number 87 in the UK. Nevertheless, it later received critical praise as Bowie's "lost great album". Reuniting Bowie with Eno, the quasi-industrial Outside (1995) was originally conceived as the first volume in a non-linear narrative of art and murder. Featuring characters from a short story written by Bowie, the album achieved UK and US chart success and yielded three top 40 UK singles. In

5688-423: A melding of the persona of Iggy Pop with the music of Lou Reed , producing "the ultimate pop idol". A girlfriend recalled his "scrawling notes on a cocktail napkin about a crazy rock star named Iggy or Ziggy", and on his return to England he declared his intention to create a character "who looks like he's landed from Mars". The "Stardust" surname was a tribute to the " Legendary Stardust Cowboy ", whose record he

5925-679: A merger with a competitor, consolidated all of its Nashville operations under the Mercury name. Mercury Nashville took over management of all of PolyGram's country back catalog from sister labels such as Polydor (including releases once issued by MGM Records), A&M , and the small country back catalog of Motown Records (Motown released these albums under subsidiary labels). All country artists under contract to other PolyGram labels either moved to Mercury or were dropped altogether. Today, Mercury Nashville continues to be an active imprint under Universal Music Group Nashville, where it continues to manage

6162-658: A mime act. Continuing the divergence from rock and roll and blues begun by his work with Farthingale, Bowie joined forces with Finnigan, Christina Ostrom and Barrie Jackson to run a folk club on Sunday nights at the Three Tuns pub in Beckenham High Street. The club was influenced by the Arts Lab movement, developing into the Beckenham Arts Lab and became extremely popular. The Arts Lab hosted

6399-509: A modified Westrex mixer. For the original LPs, the mixer directly fed the custom cutting chain. At Fine Recording in New York City, the Westrex cutter head on a Scully lathe was fed by modified McIntosh 200W tube amplifiers with very little feedback in the system. Older mono records were made with a Miller cutter head. The original LP releases of the classical recordings continued through 1968. The Mercury classical-music catalogue (including

6636-400: A more minimalist image reflecting the album's "preoccupation with the silver screen". He later said: "I was into Oxford bags, and there are a pair, indeed, on the back of the album. [I was attempting] what I presumed was kind of an Evelyn Waugh Oxbridge look." The final image is a close-up of Bowie looking past the camera while he pulls back his hair. Pegg writes that his pose was influenced by

6873-521: A move that provoked mixed reactions from both fans and critics, Bowie chose Nine Inch Nails as his tour partner for the Outside Tour . Visiting cities in Europe and North America between September 1995 and February 1996, the tour saw the return of Gabrels as Bowie's guitarist. On 7 January 1997, Bowie celebrated his half century with a 50th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden at which he

7110-444: A musician and publicist/manager, persuaded Mercury to let Patti Page (whom he managed) record a song that had been planned to be done by Vic Damone , "Confess". The budget was too small for them to hire a second singer to provide the "answer" parts to Page, so at Rael's suggestion, she did both voices. Though "overdubbing" had been used occasionally on 78-rpm discs in the 1930s, for Lawrence Tibbett recordings, among others, this became

7347-537: A mutual friend. He recalled, "I was naming the children the night we met ... it was absolutely immediate." They married in 1992. Tin Machine resumed work the same month, but their audience and critics, ultimately left disappointed by the first album, showed little interest in a second. Tin Machine II (1991) was Bowie's first album to miss the UK top 20 in nearly twenty years, and was controversial for its cover art. Depicting four ancient nude Kouroi statues,

Hunky Dory - Misplaced Pages Continue

7584-474: A new album in mid-1971 at Trident Studios in London. Rick Wakeman contributed piano shortly before joining Yes . Bowie co-produced the album with Ken Scott , who had engineered Bowie's previous two records. Compared to the guitar-driven hard rock sound of The Man Who Sold the World , Bowie opted for a warmer, more melodic piano-based pop rock and art pop style on Hunky Dory . His lyrical concerns on

7821-565: A number of cover songs, including three Pop covers and the 1966 Beach Boys hit " God Only Knows ". The album bore the transatlantic top 10 hit " Blue Jean ", itself the inspiration for the Julien Temple -directed short film Jazzin' for Blue Jean , in which Bowie played the dual roles of romantic protagonist Vic and arrogant rock star Screaming Lord Byron. The short won Bowie his only non-posthumous Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video . In early 1985, Bowie's collaboration with

8058-445: A one-off single release, " Under Pressure ". The duet was a hit, becoming Bowie's third UK number-one single. Bowie was given the lead role in the BBC 's 1982 televised adaptation of Bertolt Brecht 's play Baal . Coinciding with its transmission, a five-track EP of songs from the play was released as Baal . In March 1982, Bowie's title song for Paul Schrader 's film Cat People

8295-711: A part of the Mercury Music Group, a division of Universal Music Group, which Group controls the French operations of UMG labels Mercury, Fontana Records, Verve Records, Decca Records, Blue Note Records , Island Records, and Virgin Records, among others. Various other national Universal Music Group companies are known to actively use the Mercury Records trademark as an imprint for their local A&R operations, but no other Universal Music Group companies use

8532-604: A pose inspired by actresses of the Hollywood Golden Age . RCA offered little promotion for Hunky Dory and its lead single "Changes", wary that Bowie would transform his image shortly. Thus, despite very positive reviews from the British and American music press, the album initially sold poorly and failed to chart. After the commercial breakthrough of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album in 1972, Hunky Dory garnered renewed interest, with sales peaking at number three on

8769-555: A producer, Scott would borrow some of the acoustic sounds of George Harrison 's All Things Must Pass (1970), an album he engineered. Scott would retain the role of co-producer for Bowie's next three records: Ziggy Stardust , Aladdin Sane and Pin Ups . Bowie played demos for Scott and the two picked which ones would be recorded for the album. On 8   June, the band recorded "Song for Bob Dylan", although according to Pegg this version

9006-401: A promotional album for Gem Productions. By this point, the songs "Oh! You Pretty Things", "Eight Line Poem", "Kooks", "Queen Bitch" and "Andy Warhol" had been recorded; the mixes of "Eight Line Poem" and "Kooks" on the promotional album differed from the final versions on Hunky Dory . Two takes of " The Bewlay Brothers " were recorded on 30   July, the second appearing on the final album; it

9243-439: A radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees. Young Americans was a commercial success in both the US and the UK and yielded Bowie's first US number one, " Fame ", a collaboration with John Lennon . A re-issue of the 1969 single "Space Oddity" became Bowie's first number-one hit in the UK a few months after "Fame" achieved the same in the US. He mimed "Fame" and his November single " Golden Years " on

9480-430: A regime so liberal that Frampton actively encouraged his own son, Peter , to pursue a musical career with David, a partnership briefly intact thirty years later. Bowie's maternal half-brother, Terry Burns, was a substantial influence on his early life. Burns, who was 10 years older than Bowie, had schizophrenia and seizures , and lived alternately at home and in psychiatric wards; while living with Bowie, he introduced

9717-471: A reputation as a gifted and single-minded child—and a defiant brawler. From 1953, Bowie moved with his family to Bickley and then Bromley Common , before settling in Sundridge Park in 1955 where he attended Burnt Ash Junior School. His voice was considered "adequate" by the school choir, and he demonstrated above-average abilities in playing the recorder . At the age of nine, his dancing during

Hunky Dory - Misplaced Pages Continue

9954-714: A second, 55-CD box set, along with a second six-LP box set. The CD box set included two bonus discs: a new reissue of the 1953 monophonic recording of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" by Dorati with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, and a first-time-on-CD reissue of the premiere recording of John Corigliano 's Piano Concerto, played by Hilde Somer with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Victor Alessandro. On January 4, 2015, Mercury co-founder Irwin Steinberg died at

10191-458: A single in January 1971, was a commercial flop. The whole Hunky Dory album reflected my newfound enthusiasm for this new continent that had been opened up to me. That was the first time a real outside situation affected me so 100 percent that it changed my way of writing and the way I look at things. —David Bowie discussing how America impacted the album, 1999 The Man Who Sold the World

10428-452: A song with lyrics by the winner of his "Cyber Song Contest" Internet competition, Alex Grant. Making extensive use of live instruments, the album was Bowie's exit from heavy electronica. Hours and a performance on VH1 Storytellers in mid-1999 represented the end of Gabrels' association with Bowie as a performer and songwriter. Sessions for Toy , a planned collection of remakes of tracks from Bowie's 1960s period, commenced in 2000, but

10665-517: A string of unsuccessful singles with local bands and a self-titled solo album (1967) before achieving his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart with " Space Oddity " (1969). After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust . The character was spearheaded by the success of " Starman " and its album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and

10902-549: A suitable property, but found themselves confined to their hotel, under curfew: the 1992 Los Angeles riots began the day they arrived. They settled in New York instead. In 1993, Bowie released his first solo offering since his Tin Machine departure, the soul, jazz and hip-hop influenced Black Tie White Noise . Making prominent use of electronic instruments, the album, which reunited Bowie with Let's Dance producer Nile Rodgers, confirmed Bowie's return to popularity, topping

11139-706: A superstar, charting at number two in the UK and number eight in the US. It also spawned a UK number ten hit in a cover of Eddie Floyd 's " Knock on Wood ". After a break in Philadelphia , where Bowie recorded new material, the tour resumed with a new emphasis on soul. The fruit of the Philadelphia recording sessions was Young Americans (1975). Sandford writes, "Over the years, most British rockers had tried, one way or another, to become black-by-extension. Few had succeeded as Bowie did now." The album's sound, which Bowie identified as " plastic soul ", constituted

11376-440: A sweeping, cinematic mélange of high and low art, ambiguous sexuality, kitsch, and class". Michael Gallucci of Ultimate Classic Rock notes that it is Bowie's first record to include "a mix of pop, glam, art and folk wrapped in an ambisexual pose that would come to define the artist". James Perone similarly describes the album as "a unique blend of folk, pop, glam, and progressive rock" that distinguished Bowie from other musicians at

11613-495: A time during Station to Station 's recording sessions and later said he remembered "only flashes" of its making. His sanity—by his own later admission—had become twisted from cocaine; he referenced the drug directly in the album's ten-minute title track. The album's release was followed by a 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 -month-long concert tour, the Isolar Tour , of Europe and North America. The core band that coalesced to record

11850-404: A uniform and an elaborate system of rewards and punishments. There was also an accent on languages, science and particularly design, where a collegiate atmosphere flourished under the tutorship of Owen Frampton . In David's account, Frampton led through force of personality, not intellect; his colleagues at Bromley Tech were famous for neither and yielded the school's most gifted pupils to the arts,

12087-528: A variety of recording styles from classical music to psychedelic rock. Its subsidiaries, though, focused on their own specialized categories of music. From 1947 to 1952, John Hammond was a vice-president of Mercury Records. Mercury, under its EmArcy label, released LPs by many post-swing and bebop artists, including Clifford Brown and Max Roach , Kenny Drew , Dinah Washington , Nat Adderley , Cannonball Adderley , Ernestine Anderson , Sarah Vaughan , Maynard Ferguson , Walter Benton , Herb Geller . In

SECTION 50

#1732802213120

12324-455: A vocalist, Scott stated: "He was unique. [He is] the only singer I ever worked with where virtually every take was a master." Bolder described recording with Bowie for the first time as a "nerve-wracking experience", saying: "When that red light came on in the studio it was, God, in at the deep end of what!" As a co-producer Bowie took an active interest in the album's sound and arrangements, an about-face from his generally hands-off attitude during

12561-476: A waitress at a cinema in Royal Tunbridge Wells . His father, Haywood Stenton "John" Jones, was from Doncaster , Yorkshire, and worked as a promotions officer for the children's charity Barnardo's . The family lived at 40 Stansfield Road, on the boundary between Brixton and Stockwell in the south London borough of Lambeth . Bowie attended Stockwell Infants School until he was six, acquiring

12798-474: A week his howls could be heard through the locked attic door." Michael Lippman, Bowie's lawyer during the negotiations, became his new manager; Lippman, in turn, was awarded substantial compensation when he was fired the following year. Station to Station (1976), produced by Bowie and Harry Maslin, introduced a new Bowie persona, the Thin White Duke of its title track . Visually, the character

13035-638: A week, Wakeman thought "the band were hot! They were so good, and the tracks just flowed through." This story has been contested by other band members, including Bolder, who told the biographer Kevin Cann: "[That's] rubbish. David would never have told the band off in the studio. Especially as Mick and Woody had already left him once, and everyone was now getting on. The band would not have survived that – it definitely didn't happen." Scott contended: "I definitely don't remember that, and it's not something I would forget. I would definitely dispute that one." With Wakeman in

13272-523: Is "where Bowie starts to become Bowie", featuring lyrical and stylistic themes he would replicate on future releases. He concludes that all Bowie's future guises begin to find their voices with Hunky Dory . NME ' s Emily Barker called it Bowie's "most time-tested album" and wrote, "it was [his] incredible song-writing gifts on [the record] that convinced us he was beamed from the stars." Writer Colin Larkin called it his most "eclectic" album and served as

13509-528: Is a phrase that "embodies a continued quest for the new and the bizarre". Pegg summarises the lyrics as Bowie "holding a mirror to his face" just as he is about to achieve stardom. Doggett notes that "Changes" is a "statement of purpose": as the opening track, the song provided a stark contrast to the hard rock sound found on its predecessor. The song was also unlike "Space Oddity" and its 1969 parent album, but rather "pure, unashamedly melodic, gleefully commercial, gorgeously mellifluous pop". "Oh! You Pretty Things"

13746-459: Is both catchy and deeply felt". Hunky Dory has continued to receive critical acclaim and is regarded as one of Bowie's best works. Many reviewers have praised the songwriting, with a writer for Blender calling the songs some of the best Bowie has ever written. Others, including Bryan Wawzenek of Ultimate Classic Rock , have commended the wide array of genres present in the songs and their ability to blend together throughout. Erlewine wrote: "On

13983-409: Is right in the world. The original UK cover featured Bowie's name and the album title; in the US the title was instead printed on a sticker and placed onto the translucent wrapping. According to Cann, initial UK pressings were laminated, which enhanced the colour to create a "superior finish"; these pressings are now collector's items. The back cover featured Bowie's handwritten notes about each song from

14220-484: Is unsure whether this account is fictionalised or real. Some of the lyrics refer to other tracks on Hunky Dory , including "Song for Bob Dylan", "Oh! You Pretty Things" and "Changes". Bowie also uses the word "chameleon" in the song, which became an oft-used term to describe him. The cover photograph was taken by Brian Ward, who was introduced to Bowie by Bob Grace at Ward's studio in Heddon Street . An early idea

14457-735: The A Reality Tour , with an estimated attendance of 722,000, grossed more than any other in 2004. On 13 June, Bowie headlined the last night of the Isle of Wight Festival 2004 . On 25 June, he experienced chest pain while performing at the Hurricane Festival in Scheeßel , Germany. Originally thought to be a pinched nerve in his shoulder, the pain was later diagnosed as an acutely blocked coronary artery , requiring an emergency angioplasty in Hamburg. The remaining fourteen dates of

SECTION 60

#1732802213120

14694-465: The Hunky Dory liner notes and biographer Nicholas Pegg, except where noted. Production David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( / ˈ b oʊ i / BOH -ee ), was an English singer, songwriter, musician and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie

14931-537: The Isolar II world tour , bringing the music of the first two Berlin Trilogy albums to almost a million people during 70 concerts in 12 countries. By now he had broken his drug addiction; Buckley writes that Isolar II was "Bowie's first tour for five years in which he had probably not anaesthetised himself with copious quantities of cocaine before taking the stage. ... Without the oblivion that drugs had brought, he

15168-609: The Man Who Sold the World sessions. The keyboardist Rick Wakeman , noted session musician and member of the Strawbs , plays piano on the album; he previously played Mellotron on David Bowie (1969). In 1995 he recalled that he met with Bowie in late June 1971 at Haddon Hall, where he heard demos of "Changes" and " Life on Mars? " in "their raw brilliance ... the finest selection of songs I have ever heard in one sitting in my entire life ... I couldn't wait to get into

15405-636: The Pat Metheny Group , " This Is Not America ", for the soundtrack of The Falcon and the Snowman , was released as a single and became a top 40 hit in the UK and US. In July that year, Bowie performed at Wembley Stadium for Live Aid , a multi-venue benefit concert for Ethiopian famine relief. Bowie and Mick Jagger duetted on a cover of Martha and the Vandellas ' " Dancing in the Street " as

15642-658: The Paul Verhoeven film Showgirls was re-recorded for the album, and remixed by Trent Reznor for a single release. The heavy rotation of the accompanying video, also featuring Reznor, contributed to the song's 16-week stay in the US Billboard Hot 100 . Bowie received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 12 February 1997. The Earthling Tour took place in Europe and North America between June and November. In November, Bowie performed on

15879-472: The UK Albums Chart . Retrospectively, Hunky Dory has been critically acclaimed as one of Bowie's best works, and features on several lists of the greatest albums of all time. Within the context of his career, Hunky Dory is considered the album where "Bowie starts to become Bowie", definitively discovering his voice and style. After David Bowie completed his third studio album, The Man Who Sold

16116-604: The electronic -inflected album Low , the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that came to be known as the Berlin Trilogy . "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise. After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had three number-one hits: the 1980 single " Ashes to Ashes ", its album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and " Under Pressure " (a 1981 collaboration with Queen ). He achieved his greatest commercial success in

16353-440: The hard rock sound of The Man Who Sold the World , Hunky Dory features a stylistic shift from Bowie towards art pop and melodic pop rock . The songs are mostly piano-led rather than guitar-led. The biographer Marc Spitz believes the piano incites a warmer feel on this record compared to its two predecessors. Christopher Sandford states that "the songs [are] characterised by the lush ambience established by Bowie's vocal and

16590-464: The "angst" of "Quicksand" and the "cautionary warnings" of "Changes" and is best remembered for Bowie's saxophone break, Ronson's string arrangement, and Wakeman's piano solo. The song "Andy Warhol" is a tribute to American artist, producer, and director Andy Warhol, who had inspired Bowie since the mid-1960s and was described by him as "one of the leaders" of "the media of the streets, street messages". Originally written for Bowie's friend Dana Gillespie,

16827-456: The "supermen" of Friedrich Nietzsche. "Quicksand" also evokes spiritualism through the mention of Buddhist teachings such as bardo . The instrumental track features multiple layers of acoustic guitars atop one another, which was done at Scott's insistence. "Fill Your Heart", written by Biff Rose and Paul Williams , is the only track on Hunky Dory not written by Bowie; it is his first recorded cover song in six years. It replaced "Bombers" as

17064-424: The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s, one place above Ziggy Stardust . In the same year, VH1 placed it 47th in their list of the 100 greatest albums. In 2010, Time magazine chose it as one of the 100 best albums of all time, with journalist Josh Tyrangiel praising Bowie's "earthbound ambition to be a boho poet with prodigal style". The same year, Consequence of Sound ranked the album number 18 on their list of

17301-414: The 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. The album ranked number 16 and number 23 in the 1998 and 2000 editions of Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums , respectively. In their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time , Rolling Stone ranked it number 107 in 2003, number 108 in the 2012 revised list, and number 88 in the 2020 revised list. In 2004, Pitchfork ranked the album 80th on their list of

17538-666: The 100 greatest albums of all time. In 2013, NME ranked the album third in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time , behind the Beatles' Revolver and the Smiths ' The Queen Is Dead . In 2015, Ultimate Classic Rock included it in their list of the 100 best rock albums from the 1970s. Robert Dimery included the album in his 2005 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . All tracks are written by David Bowie, except "Fill Your Heart", written by Biff Rose and Paul Williams . Side one Side two Album credits per

17775-485: The 1970s, Mercury released hits by musicians such as The Statler Brothers , Paper Lace , Rod Stewart , Bachman-Turner Overdrive , Cledus Maggard and The Citizen's Band , William Bell , Rush , and Reba McEntire . From late 1974 to early 1983, the company's label design featured a painting of three famous buildings that are located in Chicago: Marina City , John Hancock Center , and One IBM Plaza ,

18012-758: The 1980s with Let's Dance (1983). Between 1988 and 1992, he fronted the hard rock band Tin Machine before resuming his solo career in 1993. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including industrial and jungle . He also continued acting; his roles included Major Jack Celliers in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), Jareth the Goblin King in Labyrinth (1986), Phillip Jeffries in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Andy Warhol in

18249-476: The 2015 remaster, as well as an "alternative" version of Hunky Dory , made up of alternate mixes; the latter was released separately on vinyl in February 2023. Hunky Dory has frequently appeared on several lists of the greatest albums of all time by multiple publications. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted it the 43rd greatest album of all time; in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 16 in its list of

18486-565: The Arts Lab, Visconti on bass and Mick Ronson on electric guitar. Known as Hype , the bandmates created characters for themselves and wore elaborate costumes that prefigured the glam style of the Spiders from Mars. After a disastrous opening gig at the London Roundhouse , they reverted to a configuration presenting Bowie as a solo artist. Their initial studio work was marred by a heated disagreement between Bowie and Cambridge over

18723-651: The BBC's Children in Need charity single " Perfect Day ", which reached number one in the UK. Bowie reunited with Visconti in 1998 to record "(Safe in This) Sky Life" for The Rugrats Movie . Although the track was edited out of the final cut, it was later re-recorded and released as "Safe" on the B-side of Bowie's 2002 single " Everyone Says 'Hi' " . The reunion led to other collaborations with his old producer, including

18960-596: The Deutsche Grammophon label, some of Mercury Classics' early core classical recordings were rereleased under the aegis of sister company Deutsche Grammophon . In 2013, Mercury Classics released Olafur Arnalds ' label debut For Now I Am Winter , which entered the US Classical Chart at number one. It was followed by an EP of Arnalds' soundtrack of the ITV crime series Broadchurch , which received

19197-536: The February 2001 and February 2003 concerts to support Tibet House US at Carnegie Hall in New York. In October 2001, Bowie opened the Concert for New York City , a charity event to benefit the victims of the September 11 attacks , with a minimalist performance of Simon & Garfunkel 's " America ", followed by a full band performance of " ' Heroes ' ". 2002 saw the release of Heathen , and, during

19434-712: The Gang (following the dissolution of De-Lite Records in 1985), the first three albums of the 1979-86 self titled series of the Gap Band (via Total Experience Productions) and Cameo (via distribution of leader Larry Blackmon's label Atlanta Artists Records). And the label released early rapper Kurtis Blow 's hit "The Breaks" (1980) also. Mercury released blues musician Robert Cray. In 1980, Phonogram moved its headquarters from Chicago to New York City. In 1981, Mercury, along with other U.S. PolyGram-owned labels, which included Polydor , RSO Records , and Casablanca , consolidated under

19671-629: The King Bees, was not commercially successful. Dissatisfied with the King Bees and their repertoire of Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon covers, Bowie quit the band less than a month later to join the Manish Boys, another blues outfit, who incorporated folk and soul—"I used to dream of being their Mick Jagger ", he recalled. Their cover of Bobby Bland 's " I Pity the Fool " was no more successful than "Liza Jane", and Bowie soon moved on again to join

19908-472: The Konrads and joined another band, the King Bees. He wrote to the newly successful washing-machine entrepreneur John Bloom inviting him to "do for us what Brian Epstein has done for the Beatles —and make another million." Bloom did not respond to the offer, but his referral to Dick James 's partner Leslie Conn led to Bowie's first personal management contract. Conn quickly began to promote Bowie. His debut single, " Liza Jane ", credited to Davie Jones with

20145-549: The Living Presence catalogue) is currently managed by Decca Label Group through Philips Records, which reissued the recordings on LP and then CD. In turn, Mercury now manages the pop/rock catalog of Philips Records. In 2012, Decca Classics, the current owner of the Mercury Living Presence label, issued a value-priced 51-CD box that included 50 of the 1990s CD titles (remastered by Wilma Cozart Fine),

20382-856: The Lower Third after the single's release, partly due to Horton's influence, and released two more singles for Pye, " Do Anything You Say " and " I Dig Everything ", both of which featured a new band called the Buzz, before signing with Deram Records . Around this time Bowie also joined the Riot Squad ; their recordings, which included one of Bowie's original songs and material by the Velvet Underground , went unreleased. Kenneth Pitt , introduced by Horton, took over as Bowie's manager. His April 1967 solo single, " The Laughing Gnome ", on which speeded-up and high-pitched vocals were used to portray

20619-510: The Lower Third, a blues trio strongly influenced by the Who . " You've Got a Habit of Leaving " fared no better, signalling the end of Conn's contract. Declaring that he would exit the pop music world "to study mime at Sadler's Wells ", Bowie nevertheless remained with the Lower Third. His new manager, Ralph Horton, later instrumental in his transition to solo artist, helped secure him a contract with Pye Records . Publicist Tony Hatch signed Bowie on

20856-622: The Mercury Records division of UMG France, the Mercury Studios film division (which absorbed Eagle Rock Entertainment , acquired by UMG in 2014), the classical music label Mercury KX, and catalogue reissues in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan, and Brazil, as well. In 2024, Mercury Records became part of Universal Music Group-owned Republic Corps , joining sister labels Republic Records , Island Records ,[Casablanca Records]] and Def Jam Recordings . In 1951, under

21093-575: The Oklahoma-based three-piece Hanson . Mercury, by having Thin Lizzy, Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Def Leppard, Kiss, the Scorpions, and various other rock acts on their roster, became a premiere label for hard rock music. Most of these bands were on Vertigo Records in Europe (that label specialized in progressive rock and hard rock including subgenres like glam metal ). In late 1998, PolyGram

21330-591: The Platters , Brook Benton , the Diamonds, and Patti Page . In 1961, Philips , a Dutch electronics company and owner of Philips Records , which had lost its distribution deal with Columbia Records outside North America, played a key role in Mercury's future by signing an exchange agreement with the American record company. A year later, Mercury was sold to Consolidated Electronics Industries Corp. (Conelco), which

21567-627: The Queen singer's death the previous year. As well as performing " ' Heroes ' " and "All the Young Dudes", he was joined on "Under Pressure" by Annie Lennox , who took Mercury's vocal part; during his appearance, Bowie knelt and recited the Lord's Prayer at Wembley Stadium. Four days later, Bowie and Iman married in Switzerland. Intending to move to Los Angeles, they flew in to search for

21804-623: The Russian/Polish border for possessing Nazi paraphernalia. Matters came to a head in London in May in what became known as the " Victoria Station incident". Arriving in an open-top Mercedes convertible , Bowie waved to the crowd in a gesture that some alleged was a Nazi salute , which was captured on camera and published in NME . Bowie said the photographer caught him in mid-wave. He later blamed his pro-fascism comments and his behaviour during

22041-481: The Spiders from Mars (both 1972), which won him widespread popularity. In 1975, Bowie's style shifted towards a sound he characterised as " plastic soul ", initially alienating many of his UK fans but garnering his first major US crossover success with the number-one single " Fame " and the album Young Americans (both 1975). In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station . In 1977, he again changed direction with

22278-489: The Spiders, Bowie attempted to move on from his Ziggy persona. His back catalogue was now highly sought after: The Man Who Sold the World had been re-released in 1972 along with Space Oddity . Hunky Dory 's " Life on Mars? " was released in June 1973 and peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart . Entering the same chart in September, his 1967 novelty record "The Laughing Gnome" reached number six. Pin Ups ,

22515-605: The UK and number 20 in the US, and yielded the UK hit singles " Boys Keep Swinging " and " DJ ". Towards the end of the year, Bowie and Angie initiated divorce proceedings, and after months of court battles the marriage was ended in early 1980. The three albums were later adapted into classical music symphonies by American composer Philip Glass for his first , fourth and twelfth symphonies in 1992, 1997 and 2019, respectively. Glass praised Bowie's gift for creating "fairly complex pieces of music, masquerading as simple pieces". Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) produced

22752-489: The UK chart and spawning three top 40 hits, including the top 10 single " Jump They Say ". Bowie explored new directions on The Buddha of Suburbia (1993), which began as a soundtrack album for the BBC television adaptation of Hanif Kureishi 's novel The Buddha of Suburbia before turning into a full album; only the title track " The Buddha of Suburbia " was used in the programme. Referencing his 1970s works with pop, jazz, ambient and experimental material, it received

22989-410: The UK chart, where it reached number two. Bowie himself did not promote it, instead touring with Pop as his keyboardist throughout March and April before recording Pop's follow-up, Lust for Life . Echoing Low ' s minimalist, instrumental approach, the second of the trilogy, "Heroes" (1977), incorporated pop and rock to a greater extent, seeing Bowie joined by guitarist Robert Fripp . It

23226-574: The UK. Dressed in a striking costume, his hair dyed reddish-brown, Bowie launched his Ziggy Stardust stage show with the Spiders from Mars —Ronson, Bolder, and Woodmansey—at the Toby Jug pub in Tolworth in Kingston upon Thames on 10 February 1972. The show was hugely popular, catapulting him to stardom as he toured the UK over the next six months and creating, as described by David Buckley,

23463-544: The UK. The Ziggy Stardust Tour continued to the United States. Bowie contributed backing vocals, keyboards and guitar to Reed's 1972 solo breakthrough Transformer , co-producing the album with Ronson. The following year, Bowie co-produced and mixed the Stooges ' album Raw Power alongside Iggy Pop. His own Aladdin Sane (1973) was his first UK number-one album. Described by Bowie as "Ziggy goes to America", it contained songs he wrote while travelling to and across

23700-522: The US during the earlier part of the Ziggy tour, which now continued to Japan to promote the new album. Aladdin Sane spawned the UK top five singles " The Jean Genie " and " Drive-In Saturday ". Bowie's love of acting led to his total immersion in the characters he created for his music. "Offstage I'm a robot. Onstage I achieve emotion. It's probably why I prefer dressing up as Ziggy to being David." With satisfaction came severe personal difficulties: acting

23937-471: The US release was instead titled Man of Words/Man of Music ; it was reissued internationally in 1972 by RCA Records as Space Oddity . Featuring philosophical post- hippie lyrics on peace, love and morality, its acoustic folk rock occasionally fortified by harder rock, the album was not a commercial success at the time. Bowie met Angela Barnett in April 1969. They married within a year. Her impact on him

24174-501: The US variety show Soul Train , earning him the distinction of being one of the first white artists to appear on the programme. The same year, Bowie fired Defries as his manager. At the culmination of the ensuing months-long legal dispute, he watched, as described by Sandford, "millions of dollars of his future earnings being surrendered" in what were "uniquely generous terms for Defries", then "shut himself up in West 20th Street, where for

24411-522: The World , in May 1970, he became less active in both the studio and on stage. His contract with music publisher Essex had expired and his new manager Tony Defries was facing prior contractual challenges. Bowie was also without a backing band, as the musicians on The Man Who Sold the World – including its producer and bassist Tony Visconti , the guitarist Mick Ronson and the drummer Mick Woodmansey – departed in August 1970 due to personal conflicts with

24648-447: The World . After his short-lived band Arnold Corns folded in February, Bowie returned to the studio in May 1971 to record his next album. He concluded that he could not do the project without Ronson, who was enthusiastic when Bowie contacted him for the first time in nine months. Woodmansey returned with Ronson, who began looking for a bass player to replace Visconti. Ronson initially suggested Rick Kemp , with whom Bowie had recorded in

24885-675: The accompanying video, renowned as one of the most innovative of all time. While Scary Monsters used principles established by the Berlin albums, it was considered by critics to be far more direct musically and lyrically. The album's hard rock edge included conspicuous guitar contributions from Fripp and Pete Townshend . Topping the UK Albums Chart for the first time since Diamond Dogs , Buckley writes that with Scary Monsters , Bowie achieved "the perfect balance" of creativity and mainstream success. Bowie paired with Queen in 1981 for

25122-459: The actresses Lauren Bacall and Greta Garbo . Originally shot in monochrome, the image was recoloured by illustrator Terry Pastor, a partner at Covent Garden 's recently initiated Main Artery design studio with George Underwood; Pastor later designed the cover and sleeve for Ziggy Stardust . Pegg writes: "Bowie's decision to use a re-coloured photo suggests a hand-tinted lobby-card from the days of

25359-425: The age of 15. Playing guitar-based rock and roll at local youth gatherings and weddings, the Konrads had a varying line-up of between four and eight members, Underwood among them. When Bowie left the technical school the following year, he informed his parents of his intention to become a pop star. His mother arranged his employment as an electrician's mate. Frustrated by his bandmates' limited aspirations, Bowie left

25596-551: The age of 94. This division of Mercury handled US distribution of most pre-1998 Polydor Records pop/rock releases currently under UMG control. Some exceptions remain, however. Some artists based outside the US did not have their releases on Polydor in North America, signing to various other labels, instead. Some of these bands, such as The Who , did sign to a label that also is now part of the UMG family (or later absorbed by such

25833-656: The album Bowie's "most engaging album musically" up to that point and praised his songwriting, particularly his ability to convey ideas without employing "a barrage of seemingly impregnable verbiage". Billboard gave the album a positive review, praising it as "a heavy debut for RCA, loaded with the kind of Top 40 and FM appeal that should break him through big on the charts. Strong material, his own, for programming includes 'Changes', 'Oh! You Pretty Things', and 'Life on Mars?'". Several reviewers praised Bowie as an artist. The New York Times wrote that with Hunky Dory , Bowie became "the most intellectually brilliant man yet to choose

26070-463: The album and tour—rhythm guitarist Carlos Alomar , bassist George Murray and drummer Dennis Davis —continued as a stable unit for the remainder of the 1970s. Bowie performed on stage as the Thin White Duke. The tour was highly successful but mired in political controversy. Bowie was quoted in Stockholm as saying that "Britain could benefit from a Fascist leader", and was detained by customs on

26307-440: The album explored more serious subjects, and found Bowie paying unusually direct homage to his influences with " Song for Bob Dylan ", " Andy Warhol " and " Queen Bitch ", the latter a Velvet Underground pastiche. His first release through RCA, it was a commercial failure, partly due lack of promotion from the label. Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits covered the album's track " Oh! You Pretty Things ", which reached number 12 in

26544-529: The album went platinum in both the UK and the US. Its three singles became top 20 hits in both countries, where its title track reached number one. " Modern Love " and " China Girl " each made number two in the UK, accompanied by a pair of "absorbing" music videos that Buckley said "activated key archetypes in the pop world... 'Let's Dance', with its little narrative surrounding the young Aboriginal couple, targeted 'youth', and 'China Girl', with its bare-bummed (and later partially censored) beach lovemaking scene...

26781-570: The album". In the handwritten liner notes on the LP sleeve, Bowie wrote "For Small Z". According to Pegg, "Quicksand" was inspired by Bowie's trip to America in February 1971. Doggett states that the song "was written about a lack of inspiration and as a means of accessing it". Writer Colin Wilson wrote in The Occult (1971) that thought was a form of quicksand that allowed consciousness to keep

27018-486: The album, "Life on Mars?" is mostly piano-led, but features a string arrangement from Ronson – his first – that is described by Doggett as "gargantuan". Bowie's vocals – recorded in one take – are delivered passionately during the chorus and almost nasally in the verses. He mentions "the girl with the mousy hair", whose identity commentators have debated, and who according to Greene "goes to the movies as an escape from life". A few days after his son Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones

27255-533: The album, was to cement Bowie's UK breakthrough: both single and album charted rapidly following his July Top of the Pops performance of the song. The album, which remained in the chart for two years, was soon joined there by the six-month-old Hunky Dory . At the same time, the non-album single " John, I'm Only Dancing " and " All the Young Dudes ", a song he wrote and produced for Mott the Hoople , were successful in

27492-487: The album. It also bore the credit "Produced by Ken Scott (assisted by the actor)" – the "actor" being Bowie himself, whose "pet conceit", in the words of the NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray , was "to think of himself as an actor". A few months after he had terminated Bowie's contract with Mercury, Defries showcased the newly recorded Hunky Dory to multiple labels in the US, including New York City's RCA Records . Defries told RCA that they "had nothing since

27729-483: The artist Andy Warhol , the singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and the rock band the Velvet Underground , more specifically their singer Lou Reed . After the tour, Bowie returned to his apartment in Haddon Hall, Beckenham , where he recorded many of his early 1970s demos, and began writing. According to his then-wife Angela , Bowie had spent time composing songs on piano rather than acoustic guitar, which would "infuse

27966-490: The artist. After hearing a demo of Bowie's " Holy Holy ", recorded in autumn 1970, Defries signed the singer to a contract with Chrysalis , but thereafter limited his work with Bowie to focus on other projects. Bowie, who was devoting himself to songwriting, turned to Chrysalis partner Bob Grace, who loved the demo of "Holy Holy" and subsequently booked time at Radio Luxembourg 's studios in London for Bowie to record his demos. "Holy Holy", recorded in November 1970 and released as

28203-490: The authors of Alias David Bowie , that the landlord had an unusual vocabulary that was infused with "upper-crust jargon" such as "prang" and "whizzo" and "everything's hunky-dory". Grace told Bowie, who loved it. Pegg notes that there was a song from 1957 by American doo-wop band the Guytones also titled "Hunky Dory" that may also have played a part. Spitz states that "hunky-dory" is an English slang term that means everything

28440-441: The back cover read: "some V.U. White Light returned with thanks". Unlike the majority of the album's tracks, "Queen Bitch" is primarily driven by guitar rather than piano, and characterized as glam rock and proto-punk . The chorus sings about Bowie mincing his "satin and tat" as a reference to the dancer Lindsay Kemp . Pegg states: "Part of the genius of 'Queen Bitch' is that it filters the archness of Marc Bolan and Kemp through

28677-523: The basis that he wrote his own songs. Dissatisfied with Davy (and Davie) Jones, which in the mid-1960s invited confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees , he took on the stage name David Bowie after the 19th-century American pioneer James Bowie and the knife he had popularised . His first release under the name was the January 1966 single " Can't Help Thinking About Me ", recorded with the Lower Third. It flopped like its predecessors. Bowie departed

28914-461: The beginning of Bowie's artistic success. Pegg writes: " Hunky Dory stands at the first great crossroads in Bowie's career. It was his last album until Low to be presented purely as a sonic artefact rather than a vehicle for the dramatic visual element with which he was soon to make his name as a performer". Buckley notes that 1971 was a pivotal year for Bowie, the year in which he became "something of

29151-487: The biopic Basquiat (1996), and Nikola Tesla in The Prestige (2006), among other film and television appearances and cameos. He ceased touring after 2004 and his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006. He returned from a decade-long recording hiatus in 2013 with The Next Day and remained musically active until his death from liver cancer in 2016. He died two days after both his 69th birthday and

29388-471: The blueprint for Bowie's future career". Spitz writes that many artists have their "it all came together on this one" record. "For David Bowie, it's Hunky Dory ". The biographer Paul Trynka states that the record marked a "new beginning" for the artist and that has a "freshness" to it that all of Bowie's previous studio albums lacked, primarily because when making his previous albums, Bowie was working to satisfy record executives. When making Hunky Dory , Bowie

29625-635: The cannon shots, and the bells of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon at the Riverside Church in Chicago. Besides Mercury's mono and stereo versions of the 1812 , only one other classical album rang up gold-record sales in the 1950s in the U.S. The New York Times music critic Howard Taubman described the Mercury sound on Pictures at an Exhibition as "being in the living presence of

29862-489: The chords from Bowie's early composition "All the Young Dudes" played backwards, and "Red Money" took backing tracks from The Idiot 's "Sister Midnight". The album was recorded in Switzerland and New York City. Ahead of its release, RCA's Mel Ilberman described it as "a concept album that portrays the Lodger as a homeless wanderer, shunned and victimized by life's pressures and technology." Lodger reached number four in

30099-415: The chorus is derived from the titles of two Velvet Underground songs, "Here She Comes Now" and "There She Goes Again". Buckley writes that the song is "probably the weakest" on the album and Pegg considers it "little-regarded". The final tribute song on the album, "Queen Bitch" is largely inspired by the rock band the Velvet Underground, specifically their lead singer Lou Reed. The handwritten sleeve notes on

30336-415: The company. Philips and German electronics giant Siemens reorganized their joint-ventured record operations, Grammophon-Philips Group, home of Deutsche Grammophon , Philips Records, and Polydor to become PolyGram in 1972. That year, PolyGram bought Mercury from NAPC. Mercury's corporate name was changed to Phonogram Inc. to match a related company in the UK that operated the Mercury label there. During

30573-402: The conclusion of his Burnt Ash Junior education, Bowie went to Bromley Technical High School . It was an unusual technical school, as biographer Christopher Sandford wrote: Despite its status it was, by the time David arrived in 1958, as rich in arcane ritual as any [English] public school . There were houses named after eighteenth-century statesmen like Pitt and Wilberforce . There was

30810-455: The country back catalog that once belonged to PolyGram (MCA Nashville manages what Universal had already owned at the time of the PolyGram merger). In 1958, Mercury switched its distribution in the UK from Pye to EMI, and in 1964 to Philips. Mercury operated as an imprint in the UK under Phonogram, a division of Dutch electronics company Philips from the mid-1960s until 1998, when Phonogram

31047-508: The decade was 1987's Never Let Me Down , where he ditched the light sound of his previous two albums, instead combining pop rock with a harder rock sound. Peaking at number six in the UK, the album yielded the hits " Day-In Day-Out ", " Time Will Crawl " and " Never Let Me Down ". Bowie later described it as his "nadir", calling it "an awful album". He supported the album on the 86-concert Glass Spider Tour . The backing band included Peter Frampton on lead guitar. Contemporary critics maligned

31284-445: The decade. Hunky Dory was released in the UK on 17   December 1971 through RCA. By this time, the sessions for Ziggy Stardust were underway. The album release was supported by the single "Changes" on 7   January 1972. The album received little promotion from RCA due to its unusual cover image and a warning that Bowie would be changing his image for his next album. Pegg writes that there were disagreements over how much money

31521-434: The direction of recording engineer C. Robert (Bob) Fine and recording director David Hall , Mercury Records initiated a recording technique using a single microphone to record symphony orchestras. Fine had for several years used a single microphone for Mercury small-ensemble classical recordings produced by John Hammond and later Mitch Miller (indeed, Miller, using his full name of Mitchell Miller, made several recordings as

31758-466: The dress with him and wore it during interviews, to the approval of critics – including Rolling Stone ' s John Mendelsohn , who described him as "ravishing, almost disconcertingly reminiscent of Lauren Bacall ". During the tour, Bowie's observation of two seminal American proto-punk artists led him to develop a concept that eventually found form in the Ziggy Stardust character:

31995-494: The establishment of Rock Against Racism . In August 1976, Bowie moved to West Berlin with his old friend Iggy Pop to rid themselves of their respective drug addictions and escape the spotlight. Bowie's interest in German krautrock and the ambient works of multi-instrumentalist Brian Eno culminated in the first of three albums, co-produced with Visconti, that became known as the Berlin Trilogy . The album, Low (1977),

32232-407: The fifties" but they could "own the seventies" if they hired Bowie. "Because David Bowie is going to remake the decade, just like the Beatles did in the sixties." Its head Dennis Katz had never heard of Bowie but recognised the potential of the piano-based songs that Defries played for him and signed the artist to a three-record deal on 9   September 1971; RCA would be Bowie's label for the rest of

32469-680: The film Stealth . He returned to the stage on 8 September 2005, appearing with Arcade Fire for the US nationally televised event Fashion Rocks, and performed with the Canadian band for the second time a week later during the CMJ Music Marathon. He contributed backing vocals on TV on the Radio 's song "Province" for their album Return to Cookie Mountain , and joined with Lou Reed on Danish alt-rockers Kashmir 's 2005 album No Balance Palace . Mercury Records Since

32706-483: The first documented example of "overdubbing" using tape. The company released an enormous number of recordings under the Mercury label, as well as its subsidiaries ( Blue Rock Records , Cumberland Records, EmArcy Records , Smash Records , and Wing Records , later via Fontana Records and Limelight Records after being absorbed by Philips). In addition, they leased and purchased material by independent labels and redistributed them. Under their own label, Mercury released

32943-524: The first-ever complete recordings of Tchaikovsky 's ballets Swan Lake , The Sleeping Beauty , and The Nutcracker . Dorati's 1954 one-microphone monaural recording (Mercury MG 50054) and 1958 three-microphone stereo rerecording (Mercury MG 50054) of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture included dramatic overdub recordings of 1812-era artillery and the bells of the Yale University Carillon . A stereo release in 1960 featured new recordings of

33180-582: The flavour of the new album". In total, he composed over three-dozen songs there, many of which would appear on Hunky Dory and its follow-up album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars . The first song Bowie wrote for Hunky Dory was " Oh! You Pretty Things " in January 1971. After recording its demo at Radio Luxembourg, Bowie gave the tape to Grace, who showed it to Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits . Noone decided to record his own version and release it as his debut single. Released in April 1971, Noone's version of "Oh! You Pretty Things"

33417-457: The gnome, failed to chart. Released six weeks later, his album debut, David Bowie , an amalgam of pop, psychedelia and music hall , met the same fate. It was his last release for two years. In September, Bowie recorded " Let Me Sleep Beside You " and " Karma Man ", both rejected by Deram and left unreleased until 1970. The tracks marked the beginning of Bowie's working relationship with producer Tony Visconti which, with large gaps, lasted for

33654-525: The greatest singers, songwriters and artists of all time. As of 2022, Bowie was the best-selling vinyl artist of the 21st century. David Robert Jones was born on 8 January 1947 in Brixton , London. His mother, Margaret Mary "Peggy" (née Burns), was born at Shorncliffe Army Camp near Cheriton , Kent. Her paternal grandparents were Irish immigrants who had settled in Manchester . She worked as

33891-405: The hard rock quartet Tin Machine . The line-up was completed by bassist and drummer Tony and Hunt Sales , who had played with Bowie on Iggy Pop's Lust for Life in 1977. Although he intended Tin Machine to operate as a democracy, Bowie dominated, both in songwriting and in decision-making. The band's 1989 self-titled debut album received mixed reviews and, according to author Paul Trynka ,

34128-559: The high-budget stage production was filmed by Alan Yentob . The resulting documentary, Cracked Actor , featured a pasty and emaciated Bowie: the tour coincided with his slide from heavy cocaine use into addiction, producing severe physical debilitation, paranoia and emotional problems. He later commented that the accompanying live album, David Live , ought to have been titled "David Bowie Is Alive and Well and Living Only in Theory". David Live nevertheless solidified Bowie's status as

34365-558: The iTunes top 10 in more than 20 countries. Influential classical music website Alto Riot named Mercury Classics its Label of the Year 2013. In 2016, Mercury Classics became Mercury KX and changed its focus to post-classical music Mercury's Nashville unit dates back to 1957, when Mercury formed a joint venture with Starday Records specifically for releasing artists performing country music. Mercury bought out Starday's half in 1958. In 1997, PolyGram, looking to cut costs in anticipation of

34602-472: The label announced it was stopping the production of CD and vinyl singles, and would only release them physically as "rare exceptions". In 2012, signings on Mercury included Pixie Lott , Arcade Fire , Amy Macdonald , Noah and the Whale , Chase & Status , Jake Bugg , and Bo Bruce . In July, Mercury announced that Mike Smith was joining as president of its music division. In March 2013, Mercury UK

34839-574: The label as a key marketing differentiator, nor do they operate frontline divisions based on the Mercury label. The Mercury label was first launched in Japan in 1952, by Taihei Onkyo . The company's name was later changed to Nippon Mercury in 1953, however, the Mercury label started to be handled by King Records in 1957, and later by Nippon Victor . It was relaunched in 1970 by Nippon Victor and Matsushita Corporation , as Nippon Phonogram. It operated several Phonogram labels in Japan. In 1993, it became

35076-412: The late 1950s, Mercury released jazz recordings of multiple artists, including Max Roach, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young , Dizzy Gillespie , and Buddy Rich. During the 1960s albums were released by artists including Gene Ammons , Quincy Jones , Buddy Rich , Cannonball Adderley , Dinah Washington , Max Roach , Paul Bley and Jimmy Smith. During the 1950s, Mercury released hits of musicians such as

35313-563: The latter which was Mercury's headquarters during that period, having moved from its long-time address at 35 East Wacker Drive . Mercury released soul musicians such as the Dells and Marvin Sease. From the 1970s through the early 1980s, Mercury released albums of funk musicians such as Ohio Players , the Bar-Kays , Con Funk Shun , and Hamilton Bohannon . Mercury released albums by Kool &

35550-445: The latter's drumming style, leading to his replacement by Mick Woodmansey . Not long after, Bowie fired his manager and replaced him with Tony Defries . This resulted in years of litigation that concluded with Bowie having to pay Pitt compensation. The studio sessions continued and resulted in Bowie's third album, The Man Who Sold the World (1970), which contained references to schizophrenia, paranoia and delusion. It represented

35787-420: The line-up, on 9   July Bowie and his band recorded two takes of "Bombers" and "It Ain't Easy", the latter featuring backing vocals by Dana Gillespie . Five days later, the group recorded four takes of " Quicksand ", the last of which appears on the finished album. On 18   July, the group spent the day rehearsing and mixing. Further mixing sessions were carried out between 21 and 26   July to compile

36024-443: The long-playing album as his medium of expression", while Rock magazine called him "the most singularly gifted artist making music today. He has the genius to be to the '70s what Lennon, McCartney, Jagger and Dylan were to the '60s." In The Village Voice , Robert Christgau hailed Bowie as "a singer-composer with brains, imagination, and a good idea of how to use a recording console", and the album "a quick change tour de force that

36261-409: The lyrics describe a room where a cat just knocked over a spinning mobile and a cactus sits in a window. Doggett believes there is a metaphor between the cactus and a prairie. At the time of the album's release, Bowie described the song as the city that is "a kind of high-life wart on the backside of the prairie". " Life on Mars? " is described by Buckley as a "soaring, cinematic ballad". Although Bowie

36498-407: The mid-1960s, but Bowie was unimpressed with Kemp's audition at Haddon Hall. According to some reports, per the biographer Nicholas Pegg , it was Defries who rejected Kemp, because of his "receding hairline". Ronson then suggested his acquaintance Trevor Bolder , a former hairdresser and piano tuner who had previously seen Bowie in concert in 1970 and met Ronson at Haddon Hall. After Bolder was hired,

36735-411: The minimalist, ambient nature of its two predecessors, making a partial return to the drum- and guitar-based rock and pop of his pre-Berlin era. The result was a complex mixture of new wave and world music , in places incorporating Hijaz non-Western scales . Some tracks were composed using Eno's Oblique Strategies cards: "Boys Keep Swinging" entailed band members swapping instruments, "Move On" used

36972-469: The most cryptic, mysterious, unfathomable and downright frightening Bowie recording in existence", and Buckley considers it "one of Bowie's most disquieting moments on tape, an encapsulation of some distant, indefinable quality of expressionistic terror". Many reviewers have perceived the track to have homoerotic undertones; others believed it to be about Bowie's relationship with his schizophrenic half-brother Terry Burns, which Bowie confirmed in 1977. Buckley

37209-542: The nature of stardom and power". Rick Quinn described the songs in PopMatters as a fusion of "British pop, orchestral works, art-rock , folk and ballads" that emerge to form glam rock . Robert Dimery, in his book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die , calls it "a toybox of acoustic oddities, tributes to heroes and surrealism". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic describes it as "a kaleidoscopic array of pop styles, tied together only by Bowie's sense of vision:

37446-609: The new name PolyGram Records, Inc. (now UMG Recordings ). Under PolyGram, Mercury absorbed the artists and catalogue of Casablanca Records (also home to the 20th Century Records back catalogue), which consisted of hard rockers Kiss and disco stars Donna Summer and the Village People , and primarily became a rock/pop/new wave label with Van Morrison , Thin Lizzy , All About Eve , Julian Cope , Scorpions , Rush , John Cougar Mellencamp , Big Country , Tears for Fears , Bon Jovi , Cinderella , and Def Leppard as well as

37683-551: The new record label, Victory , deemed the cover "a show of wrong, obscene images" and airbrushed the statues' genitalia for the American release. Tin Machine toured again, but after the live album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby (1992) failed commercially, Bowie dissolved the band and resumed his solo career. He continued to collaborate with Gabrels for the rest of the 1990s. On 20 April 1992, Bowie appeared at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert , following

37920-540: The newly created Def Soul Records. Mercury's former country unit became Mercury Nashville Records . However, Mercury Records was relaunched in 2007 as a label under The Island Def Jam Music Group, appointing record executive David Massey as the President and CEO of the new venture. The label was defunct in 2015. On April 11, 2022, Republic Records announced that they had acquired Mercury Records, and it will continue as their imprint. The Mercury name also survives on

38157-567: The newly introduced music and movement classes was strikingly imaginative: teachers called his interpretations "vividly artistic" and his poise "astonishing" for a child. The same year, his interest in music was further stimulated when his father brought home a collection of American 45s by artists including the Teenagers , the Platters , Fats Domino , Elvis Presley and Little Richard . Upon listening to Little Richard's song " Tutti Frutti ", Bowie later said that he had "heard God". Bowie

38394-477: The number one single " Ashes to Ashes ", featuring the textural guitar-synthesiser work of Chuck Hammer and revisiting the character of Major Tom from "Space Oddity". The song gave international exposure to the underground New Romantic movement when Bowie visited the London club "Blitz"—the main New Romantic hangout—to recruit several of the regulars (including Steve Strange of the band Visage ) to act in

38631-418: The only record where I've experienced total jaw-dropping awe for the whole of it because that feeling of being lost and being taken somewhere else is so strong." In an interview with NME the following year, Guy Garvey of Elbow recognised Hunky Dory as the album that had influenced him the most. The album has been reissued multiple times. Following its release on compact disc in the mid-1980s, Hunky Dory

38868-602: The orchestra" and Mercury eventually began releasing their classical recordings under the 'Living Presence' series' name. The recordings were produced by Mercury vice president Wilma Cozart , who later married Bob Fine. Cozart took over recording director duties in 1953 and also produced the CD reissues of more than half of the Mercury Living Presence catalog in the 1990s. By the late 1950s, the Mercury Living Presence crew included session musical supervisors Harold Lawrence and Clair van Ausdall and associate engineer Robert Eberenz. Besides

39105-516: The original artists—to his local Wolf Cub group was described as "mesmerizing ... like someone from another planet". Having encouraged his son to follow his dreams of being an entertainer since he was a toddler, in the late 1950s David's father took him to meet singers and other performers preparing for the Royal Variety Performance , introducing him to Alma Cogan and Tommy Steele . After taking his eleven-plus exam at

39342-572: The period on his cocaine addiction, the character of the Thin White Duke and his life living in Los Angeles, a city he later said "should be wiped off the face of the Earth". He later apologised for these statements, and throughout the 1980s and 1990s criticised racism in European politics and the American music industry. Nevertheless, his comments on fascism, as well as Eric Clapton 's alcohol-fuelled denunciations of Pakistani immigrants in 1976, led to

39579-448: The piano" and, along with Elton John and Phil Collins , helped create music on the "easy-listening continuum". Lior Phillips of Consequence of Sound wrote that the songs are accessible, both musically and lyrically, allowing the listener to dissect them again and again. Music journalist Peter Doggett concurs, regarding Hunky Dory as "a collective of attractively accessible pop songs, through which Bowie tested out his feelings about

39816-439: The pop market with names such as Frankie Laine , Vic Damone , Tony Fontane , and Patti Page . In 1946, Mercury hired Eddie Gaedel , an American with dwarfism, most notable for participating in a Major League Baseball game, to portray the "Mercury Man", complete with a winged hat similar to its logo, to promote Mercury recordings. Some early Mercury recordings featured a caricature of him as their logo. In 1947, Jack Rael,

40053-399: The preparation for Bowie's subsequent changes in musical direction. In 2016, Billboard ' s Joe Lynch argued that Hunky Dory provided the "blueprint" for lo-fi indie pop records for the next 25 years, citing Ariel Pink as an artist influenced by the album. Many musicians have acknowledged the album's influence. In 1999, Dave Stewart of Eurythmics said: " Hunky Dory – I love

40290-535: The record range from the compulsive nature of artistic reinvention on " Changes " to occultism and Nietzschean philosophy on " Oh! You Pretty Things " and " Quicksand "; several songs make cultural and literary references. He was also inspired by his United States tour to write songs dedicated to three American icons: Andy Warhol , Bob Dylan , and Lou Reed . The song " Kooks " was dedicated to Bowie's newborn son Duncan . The album's cover artwork, photographed in monochrome and subsequently recoloured, features Bowie in

40527-521: The record's 50th anniversary, Parlophone announced a vinyl picture disc reissue of the album (2015 remaster), which was released on 7   January 2022. The announcement coincided with the digital release of a new mix of "Changes" by Scott. In November 2022, a multi-disc box set focusing on Hunky Dory was released with the title Divine Symmetry: The Journey to Hunky Dory . The collection comprises home demos, BBC radio sessions, alternate mixes, and other live and studio recordings from 1971. It also includes

40764-428: The recordings with the Chicago and Minneapolis orchestras, Mercury also recorded Howard Hanson with the Eastman Rochester Orchestra, Frederick Fennell with the Eastman Wind Ensemble , and Paul Paray with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra . In late 1955, Mercury began using three omnidirectional microphones to make stereo recordings on three-track tape. The technique was an expansion on the mono process—center

41001-440: The release of Yundi's new album Emperor/Fantasy , including Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto with Berlin Philharmonic and Daniel Harding, Mercury Classics held the top two spots on the UK classical chart. In May 2014, the label released Tori Amos' 14th studio album Unrepentant Geraldines . The album entered the US Billboard top 200 at number seven, charted in UK (number 13), Netherlands (number 10), and Germany (number 15), and hit

41238-462: The release of his final album, Blackstar . During his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at over 100 million worldwide, made him one of the best-selling musicians of all time . He is the recipient of numerous accolades , including six Grammy Awards and four Brit Awards . Often dubbed the "chameleon of rock" due to his constant musical reinventions, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Rolling Stone ranked him among

41475-471: The rest of Bowie's career. Studying the dramatic arts under Lindsay Kemp , from avant-garde theatre and mime to commedia dell'arte , Bowie became immersed in the creation of personae to present to the world. Satirising life in a British prison, his composition "Over the Wall We Go" became a 1967 single for Oscar ; another Bowie song, " Silly Boy Blue ", was released by Billy Fury the following year. Playing acoustic guitar, Hermione Farthingale formed

41712-556: The same role over an extended period, it became impossible for him to separate Ziggy Stardust—and later, the Thin White Duke—from his own character offstage. Ziggy, Bowie said, "wouldn't leave me alone for years. That was when it all started to go sour ... My whole personality was affected. It became very dangerous. I really did have doubts about my sanity." His later Ziggy shows, which included songs from both Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane , were ultra-theatrical affairs filled with shocking stage moments, such as Bowie stripping down to

41949-459: The second half of the year, the Heathen Tour . Taking place in Europe and North America, the tour opened at London's annual Meltdown festival, for which Bowie was that year appointed artistic director. Among the acts he selected for the festival were Philip Glass, Television and the Dandy Warhols . As well as songs from the new album, the tour featured material from Bowie's Low era. Reality (2003) followed, and its accompanying world tour,

42186-426: The separation of Island Records , Motown , Mercury Records, and Def Jam Recordings combining the Island Def Jam Music Group , Mercury Records has been placed under Island Records, although its back catalogue is still owned by the Island Def Jam Music Group (now Island Records). Mercury Records was started in Chicago in 1945 and over several decades, saw great success. The success of Mercury has been attributed to

42423-421: The side two opener late in the album's development. "Fill Your Heart" is one of the more up-tempo tracks on the album, and according to Doggett is "practically identical" to Rose's original version, albeit more "bouncy" and less "swung". The piano-driven arrangement differs from Bowie's live performances of the song in 1970 when acoustic guitar dominated. Pegg writes that the track provides a "cogent counterpoint" to

42660-439: The silent cinema and, simultaneously, Warhol's famous Marilyn Diptych screen-prints." Dimery writes that Bowie took a photo book that contained multiple Marlene Dietrich prints with him to the photoshoot. Although Bowie normally waited to name his albums until the last possible moment, the title "Hunky Dory" was announced at the John Peel session. Grace got the idea from an Esher pub landlord. He told Peter and Leni Gillman,

42897-424: The song for him, Warhol hated it and left the room; Bowie recalled in 1997 that he found the meeting "fascinating" because Warhol had "nothing to say at all, absolutely nothing". "Song for Bob Dylan" is a tribute song to singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was described by Bowie at the time as "how some see BD", and its title is a parody of Dylan's 1962 tribute to folk singer Woody Guthrie , " Song to Woody ". Throughout

43134-410: The song is based around a riff played on two acoustic guitars that heavily resembles the intro of Ron Davies ' "Silent Song Across the Land". The lyrics emphasise Warhol's belief that life and art blur together. The song's opening features Ken Scott saying "This is 'Andy Warhol', and it's take one", only for Bowie to correct his pronunciation of "Warhol". When Bowie met Warhol in September 1971 and played

43371-542: The song, Bowie addresses Dylan by his real name "Robert Zimmerman". Pegg and Doggett believe the song highlights Bowie's struggle with identity, from his real name David Jones, to his stage name David Bowie and, very shortly, to Ziggy Stardust. The lyrics specifically present Dylan as no longer being a hero figure for rock music, and demand that he return to his roots and come to the rescue for the unfaithful. According to Doggett, Bowie initially wrote it for his friend George Underwood. The music contains Dylanesque chord changes and

43608-413: The sound of it. I still kind of use it as a sort of reference-point." In 2002, Culture Club 's Boy George cited Hunky Dory as the record that changed his life, saying: "The album as a whole is so unusual, so far removed from anything you heard on the radio. It's so complete, it all fits together." In an interview with Mojo in 2007, KT Tunstall declared Hunky Dory her favorite album, saying: "It's

43845-449: The streetwise attitude of Reed: this is a song that succeeds in making the phrase 'bipperty-bopperty hat' sound raunchy and cool." Daryl Easlea of BBC Music writes that the song's glam rock sound foreshadowed the direction Bowie took on Ziggy Stardust . [It's] another vaguely anecdotal piece about my feelings about myself and my brother, or my other doppelgänger. I was never quite sure what real position Terry had in my life, whether Terry

44082-415: The studio and record them." The piano Wakeman played was the same 1898 Bechstein used by Paul McCartney for " Hey Jude " and later by Queen for " Bohemian Rhapsody ". According to Wakeman, the first few sessions started poorly as the band had not learned the songs. He recalled that Bowie had to halt the sessions, telling the musicians off and to come back when they knew the music. When they returned after

44319-472: The success of Ziggy Stardust helped Hunky Dory garner a larger audience. RCA released "Life on Mars?" as a single on 22   June 1973, which also made number three in Britain. A reissue returned the album to the UK chart in January 1981, where it remained for 51 weeks. Hunky Dory was met with very positive reviews from several British and American publications. Melody Maker called it "the most inventive piece of song-writing to have appeared on record in

44556-446: The surface, [having] such a wide range of styles and sounds would make an album incoherent, but Bowie's improved songwriting and determined sense of style instead made Hunky Dory a touchstone for reinterpreting pop's traditions into fresh, postmodern pop music". Similarly, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune described the album as "the first taste of Bowie's multifaceted genius". In a 2013 readers' poll for Rolling Stone , Hunky Dory

44793-403: The three-track tapes or magnetic film, with a 3-2 mix occurring in the mastering room. The same technique—and restored vintage equipment of the same type—was used during the CD reissues. Specifically, three-track tapes were recorded on Ampex 300-3 (½-in, three-track) machines at 15 in/sec. The 35-mm magnetic film recordings were made on three-track Westrex film recorders. The 3-2 mixdown was done on

45030-480: The time. Peter Ormerod of The Guardian writes that the music of Hunky Dory celebrates "uncertainty, rootlessness, inner chaos, difference, otherness, doubt and impermanence" and did it with "beauty, style and charisma". The opening track, " Changes ", is built around a distinctive piano riff. The lyrics focus on the compulsive nature of artistic reinvention and distancing oneself from the rock mainstream. The biographer David Buckley writes that "strange fascination"

45267-465: The title track on Marc Bolan's television show Marc , and again two days later for Bing Crosby 's final CBS television Christmas special, when he joined Crosby in " Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy ", a version of " The Little Drummer Boy " with a new, contrapuntal verse. RCA belatedly released the recording as a single five years later in 1982, charting in the UK at number three. After completing Low and "Heroes" , Bowie spent much of 1978 on

45504-476: The tour as overproduced, saying it pandered to the current stadium rock trends in its special effects and dancing, although in later years critics acknowledged the tour's strengths and influence on concert tours by other artists, such as Prince , Madonna and U2 . Wanting to completely rejuvenate himself following the critical failures of Tonight and Never Let Me Down , Bowie placed his solo career on hold after meeting guitarist Reeves Gabrels and formed

45741-424: The tour were cancelled. In the years following his recuperation from the heart attack, Bowie reduced his musical output, making only one-off appearances on stage and in the studio. He sang in a duet of his 1971 song " Changes " with Butterfly Boucher for the 2004 animated film Shrek 2 . During a relatively quiet 2005, he recorded the vocals for the song "(She Can) Do That", co-written with Brian Transeau , for

45978-456: The trio grouped at Haddon to rehearse some of Bowie's new material, such as the song " Andy Warhol ". Bowie and his new backing trio, soon to be named the Spiders from Mars , played for the first time on 3   June on BBC DJ John Peel 's radio programme In Concert . The set included debut performances of several songs Bowie had recently written such as " Queen Bitch ", " Bombers ", " Song for Bob Dylan " and "Andy Warhol". The title "Hunky Dory"

46215-416: The unconscious beyond reach, from which Doggett concluded that " 'Quicksand' was Bowie's plea to search within himself to be shown the way". In the mid-1970s, Bowie described the song as "a mixture of narrative and surrealism" and a "precursor" to the music of his 1977 album Low . Throughout the track, Bowie makes numerous references to Crowley and his Golden Dawn, Winston Churchill , Heinrich Himmler and

46452-505: The use of alternative marketing techniques to promote records. The conventional method of record promotion used by major labels such as RCA Victor , Decca Records , and Capitol Records was dependent on radio airplay, but Mercury Records co-founder Irving Green decided to promote new records using jukeboxes instead. By lowering promotion costs, Mercury was able to compete with the more established record labels, and thus became an established record label itself. Mercury Record Corporation

46689-596: The younger man to many of his lifelong influences, such as modern jazz , Buddhism , Beat poetry and the occult . In addition to Burns, a significant proportion of Bowie's extended family members had schizophrenia spectrum disorders , including an aunt who was institutionalised and another who underwent a lobotomy ; this has been labelled as an influence on his early work. Bowie studied art, music and design, including layout and typesetting. After Burns introduced him to modern jazz, his enthusiasm for players like Charles Mingus and John Coltrane led his mother to give him

46926-419: Was a commercial success, reaching number 12 on the UK Singles Chart . It was the first time most listeners had heard of Bowie since " Space Oddity " (1969). Noone told NME : "My view is that David Bowie is the best writer in Britain at the moment ... certainly the best since Lennon and McCartney ." Following the success of the single, Defries sought to extricate Bowie from his contract with Mercury, which

47163-600: Was a real person or whether I was actually referring to another part of me, and I think 'Bewlay Brothers' was really about that. —David Bowie describing "The Bewlay Brothers", in the BBC documentary Golden Years The album closer, "The Bewlay Brothers", was a late addition and the only track that was not demoed. The instrumentation echoes the music of The Man Who Sold the World , featuring "sinister" sound effects and Bowie's vocal accompanied by Ronson's acoustic guitar. The song's obscure lyrics have caused confusion among Bowie biographers and fans. Pegg describes it as "probably

47400-606: Was absorbed into Virgin EMI by Universal Music. Virgin EMI was rebranded as EMI Records in June 2020. Launched in 1955 exclusively as a full-service local (Australian) A&R operation. Mercury Records first known Australian artist was Keith Potger in 1968, but the label was put into hibernation in 1999 in favour of the Universal label until 2007–2013. Some successful Australian artists on Mercury included: INXS , Kamahl , Bullamakanka , Darren Hayes , Carl Riseley, The Preatures , Tiddas , Dragon, Teen Queens , Melissa Tkautz and Karise Eden . In France, Mercury Records operates as

47637-402: Was acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, and his music and stagecraft has had a significant impact on popular music . Bowie developed an interest in music from an early age. He studied art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. He released

47874-403: Was also announced at this session. Bowie and the future Spiders officially started work on the new album at Trident Studios in London on 8   June 1971. Ken Scott , who had engineered Bowie's two previous records, was hired to co-produce alongside him. Scott accepted the position as a way to gain experience, although at the time he didn't believe Bowie would become a huge star. His debut as

48111-531: Was an affiliate of Philips under its U.S. Trust division; in 1963, Mercury switched British distribution from EMI to Philips. In 1962, Mercury began marketing a line of phonographs made by Philips bearing the Mercury brand name. In July 1967, Mercury Records became the first U.S. record label to release cassette music tapes ( Musicassettes ). In 1969, Mercury changed its corporate name to Mercury Record Productions Inc., while its parent Conelco became North American Philips Corp. (NAPC) after Philips bought control of

48348-419: Was an extension of Thomas Jerome Newton, the extraterrestrial being he portrayed in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth the same year. Developing the funk and soul of Young Americans , Station to Station ' s synthesiser-heavy arrangements were influenced by electronic and German krautrock . Bowie's cocaine addiction during this period was at its peak; he often did not sleep for three to four days at

48585-650: Was born on 30 May 1971, Bowie completed " Kooks " and dedicated it to him. Performed by Bowie as early as 3 June, the Hunky Dory version features a string arrangement from Ronson and trumpet played by Bolder. "Kooks" is noticeably lighter than the two tracks it is sequenced between but, according to Pegg, ultimately "carries a hint of [the album's] preoccupation with the compulsion to fictionalise life, as Bowie invites his son to 'stay in our lovers' story'". Doggett writes that its inclusion on Hunky Dory "ensured its enduring appeal among those who were less entranced by his explorations of politics, psychology and occult elsewhere on

48822-408: Was bought by Seagram , which then absorbed the company into its Universal Music Group unit. Under the reorganization, Mercury Records was closed and folded into the newly formed The Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJMG). Mercury's pop roster was predominantly taken over by Island Records , while its hip-hop acts found a new home at Def Jam Recordings , and some of Mercury's R&B acts were moved to

49059-632: Was bought by Universal Music. In March 2013, its artist roster was moved to Virgin EMI in a restructuring of Universal's UK labels. In 2005, Jason Iley was appointed the new managing director of Mercury. He joined the company from Island Records, where he was general manager. In July 2005, Iley appointed Paul Adam to senior artist and repertoire (A&R) director of the label; the two had previously worked together at Island Records. In October 2006, U2 decided to leave Island Records and moved to Mercury Records, reportedly to rejoin Iley, with whom they had worked previously at Island Records. In March 2011,

49296-406: Was expecting another success following Young Americans and Station to Station . Bowie's former manager Tony Defries, who maintained a significant financial interest in Bowie's affairs, had tried to prevent the album from being released. Upon its release in January 1977, Low yielded the UK number three single " Sound and Vision ", and its own performance surpassed that of Station to Station in

49533-517: Was first impressed with Presley when he saw his cousin Kristina dance to " Hound Dog " soon after its release in 1956. According to Kristina, she and David "danced like possessed elves" to records of various artists. By the end of the following year, Bowie had taken up the ukulele and tea-chest bass , begun to participate in skiffle sessions with friends, and had started to play the piano; meanwhile, his stage presentation of numbers by both Presley and Chuck Berry —complete with gyrations in tribute to

49770-431: Was fixated on becoming Ziggy Stardust at the time of its recording, the song has no connection to Mars itself; the title was a reference to the recent media frenzy of the US and Soviet Union racing to get to the red planet. The song is a parody of singer Frank Sinatra 's " My Way " and uses the same chord sequence for its opening bars. The handwritten notes on the back cover say "Inspired by Frankie". Like most songs on

50007-422: Was for Bowie to dress as a pharaoh , partly inspired by the media's infatuation with the British Museum 's new Tutankhamun exhibit. According to Pegg, photos of Bowie posing "as a sphinx and in a lotus position" were taken – one was released as part of the 1990 Space Oddity reissue – but the idea was ultimately abandoned. Bowie recalled: "We didn't run with it, as they say. Probably a good idea." Bowie opted for

50244-451: Was formed in Chicago in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams , Ray Greenberg, and Arthur Talmadge . The company was a major force in R&B , doo wop , soul music , pop doo wop, pop soul, blues , pop, rock and roll , jazz and classical music . Early in the label's history, Mercury opened two pressing plants, one in Chicago and the other in St. Louis, Missouri . By hiring two promoters, Tiny Hill and Jimmy Hilliard, they penetrated

50481-439: Was given during the tour. Bowie later covered "I Took a Trip on a Gemini Space Ship" on 2002's Heathen . Hunky Dory (1971) found Visconti supplanted in both roles by Ken Scott producing and Trevor Bolder on bass. It again featured a stylistic shift towards art pop and melodic pop rock , with light fare tracks such as " Kooks ", a song written for his son, Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones , born on 30 May. Elsewhere,

50718-407: Was immediate—he wrote his 1970 single " The Prettiest Star " for her —and her involvement in his career far-reaching, leaving Pitt with limited influence which he found frustrating. Having established himself as a solo artist with "Space Oddity", Bowie desired a full-time band he could record with and could relate to personally. The band Bowie assembled comprised John Cambridge, a drummer Bowie met at

50955-511: Was joined in playing his songs and those of his guests, Lou Reed, Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters , Robert Smith of the Cure , Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins , Black Francis of the Pixies , and Sonic Youth . Incorporating experiments in jungle and drum 'n' bass , Earthling (1997) was a critical and commercial success in the UK and the US, and two singles from the album—" Little Wonder " and " Dead Man Walking "—became UK top 40 hits. The song " I'm Afraid of Americans " from

51192-406: Was now in a healthy enough mental condition to want to make friends." Recordings from the tour made up the live album Stage , released the same year. Bowie also recorded narration for an adaptation of Sergei Prokofiev 's classical composition Peter and the Wolf , which was released as an album in May 1978. The final piece in what Bowie called his " triptych ", Lodger (1979), eschewed

51429-402: Was only after the breakthrough of Ziggy Stardust in mid-1972 that Hunky Dory became a commercial success. It climbed to number three in the UK (two places higher than Ziggy Stardust ), and remained on the chart for 69 weeks. Hunky Dory also peaked at number 39 on the Kent Music Report in Australia. Gallucci writes that although the album did not make Bowie a star, it "got him noticed", and

51666-415: Was put into the album and whether Bowie was an "unproven one-hit-wonder". Marketing manager Geoff Hannington recalled in 1986: "We soon knew we were in a situation where the artist was going to change like a chameleon from time to time." Because of this, the album initially sold poorly and failed to break the UK Albums Chart . According to Sandford, the album barely sold 5,000 copies in the first quarter. It

51903-461: Was quickly dismissed as "pompous, dogmatic and dull". EMI complained of "lyrics that preach" as well as "repetitive tunes" and "minimalist or no production". It reached number three in the UK and was supported by a twelve-date tour . The tour was a commercial success, but there was growing reluctance—among fans and critics alike—to accept Bowie's presentation as merely a band member. A series of Tin Machine singles failed to chart, and Bowie, after

52140-434: Was recorded in France and took influence from krautrock and experimental music and featured both short song-fragments and ambient instrumentals. Before its recording, Bowie produced Iggy Pop's debut solo album The Idiot , described by Pegg as "a stepping stone between Station to Station and Low ". Low was completed in November, but left unreleased for three months. RCA did not see the album as commercially viable and

52377-419: Was recorded on a tape that contained scrapped versions of "Song for Bob Dylan" and "Fill Your Heart". On 6   August, the band recorded "Life on Mars?" and "Song for Bob Dylan", after which the recording process was considered finished. Before the sessions ended, Bowie asked Wakeman if he wanted to be a part of the Spiders from Mars. Wakeman declined and joined the progressive rock band Yes instead. After

52614-404: Was released as a live album in November 2018. On 27 June, he performed a concert at the BBC Radio Theatre in London, which was released on the compilation album Bowie at the Beeb ; this also featured BBC recording sessions from 1968 to 1972. Bowie and Iman's daughter, Alexandra, was born on 15 August. His interest in Buddhism led him to support the Tibetan cause by performing at

52851-494: Was released as a single. A collaboration with Giorgio Moroder , it became a minor US hit and charted in the UK top 30. The same year, he departed RCA, having grown increasingly dissatisfied with them, and signed a new contract with EMI America Records for a reported $ 17 million. His 1975 severance settlement with Defries also ended in September. Bowie reached his peak of popularity and commercial success in 1983 with Let's Dance . Co-produced by Chic 's Nile Rodgers ,

53088-477: Was released in the United States through Mercury Records in November 1970. The album sold poorly but fared better both critically and commercially in the US than in the UK. It was played on American radio stations frequently and its "heavy rock content" increased interest in Bowie. The critical success of the album prompted Mercury to send Bowie on a promotional radio tour of the US in February 1971. The trip inspired him to write tribute songs for three American icons:

53325-421: Was released in the fall. In 2014, Mercury Classics released "Aranjuez", Milos Karadaglic's recording of iconic guitar concertos by Joaquin Rodrigo, featuring Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The album topped the iTunes Classical charts in more than 10 countries and the classical charts in the US, UK, France, New Zealand, and Denmark, where it peaked in the pop charts at number 17. With

53562-507: Was rereleased by Rykodisc / EMI in 1990 with bonus tracks, including the outtake "Bombers". In 1999, the original album was rereleased on CD through Virgin /EMI with 24-bit digitally remastered sound. This edition was reissued in 2014 by Parlophone , having acquired the Virgin-owned Bowie catalogue. In 2015, the album was remastered for the Five Years (1969–1973) box set . It was released in CD, vinyl, and digital formats, both as part of this compilation and separately. In 2021, to celebrate

53799-407: Was scrapped and the released version was not recorded until 23   June. Scott later recalled that recording went very quickly: "Almost everything was done in one take." He was surprised when he and the Spiders would think a vocal or guitar part needed re-recording but Bowie would say "No, wait, listen", and when everything was played simultaneously it would sound perfect. Regarding Bowie's talent as

54036-423: Was set to expire in June 1971. Defries felt that Mercury had not done Bowie justice financially. Although Mercury had intended to renew it on improved terms, Defries forced the label to terminate the contract in May by threatening to deliver a low-quality album. Defries then paid off Bowie's debts to Mercury through Gem Productions, and the label surrendered its copyright on David Bowie (1969) and The Man Who Sold

54273-402: Was shelved due to EMI/ Virgin 's lack of faith in its commercial appeal. Bowie and Visconti continued their collaboration, producing a new album of completely original songs instead: the result of the sessions was the 2002 album Heathen . On 25 June 2000, Bowie made his second appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in England, playing almost 30 years after his first. The performance

54510-690: Was still paramount. Once the center, single microphone was set, the sides were set to provide the depth and width heard in the stereo recordings. The center microphone still fed the mono LP releases, which accompanied stereo LPs well into the 1960s. From 1961, Mercury enhanced the three-microphone stereo technique by using 35-mm magnetic film instead of half-inch tape for recording. The greater emulsion thickness, track width, and speed (90 ft/min or 18 in/sec) of 35-mm magnetic film increased prevention of tape layer print-through and gained in addition extended frequency range and transient response. The Mercury 'Living Presence' stereo records were mastered directly from

54747-561: Was sufficiently sexually provocative to guarantee heavy rotation on MTV". Then-unknown Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan guested on the album, featuring prominently on the title track. Let's Dance was followed by the six-month Serious Moonlight Tour , which was extremely successful. At the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards Bowie received two awards including the inaugural Video Vanguard Award . Tonight (1984), another dance-oriented album, found Bowie collaborating with Pop and Tina Turner . Co-produced by Hugh Padgham , it included

54984-422: Was the album where he staked his claim as the most altered ego in rock & roll." Hunky Dory gave me a fabulous groundswell. I guess it provided me, for the first time in my life, with an actual audience – I mean, people actually coming up to me and saying, 'Good album, good songs.' That hadn't happened to me before. —David Bowie, 1999 Many biographers and reviewers have agreed that Hunky Dory marked

55221-464: Was the first track written for the album. The piano style has been compared to the Beatles' " Martha My Dear ". The lyrics reference the teachings of the occultist Aleister Crowley and his Golden Dawn and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche , particularly with the lines "the homo superior", "the golden ones" and "homo sapiens have outgrown their use". "Homo Superior" refers to Nietzsche's theory of Übermensch , or "Superman". The music itself provides

55458-456: Was the only album recorded entirely in Berlin. Incorporating ambient sounds from a variety of sources including white noise generators, synthesisers and koto , the album was another hit, reaching number three in the UK. Its title track was released in both German and French and, though only reached number 24 in the UK singles chart, later became one of his best-known tracks. In contrast to Low , Bowie promoted "Heroes" extensively, performing

55695-475: Was the product of two distinct ideas: a musical based on a wild future in a post- apocalyptic city, and setting George Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty-Four to music. The album went to number one in the UK, spawning the hits " Rebel Rebel " and " Diamond Dogs ", and number five in the US. The supporting Diamond Dogs Tour visited cities in North America between June and December 1974. Choreographed by Toni Basil , and lavishly produced with theatrical special effects,

55932-648: Was voted Bowie's second greatest album, behind Ziggy Stardust . Douglas Wolk of Pitchfork reviewed the album's remaster for the 2015 box set Five Years 1969–1973 and gave it a 10-out-of-10 rating, believing the songs to be "scattered but splendid" and finding Bowie's songwriting a "huge leap" from his previous works. Another Pitchfork writer, Ryan Schrieber, stated: "The album is by no means his most cohesive release, but it remains one of his most charming, and unquestionably, one of his best." Following Bowie's death in 2016 , Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone listed it as one of Bowie's essential albums, writing, " Hunky Dory

56169-531: Was working to satisfy himself, which is reflected in the record. BBC Music's Daryl Easlea wrote that the album saw Bowie finding his own voice after "scrabbling around stylistically" for almost a decade and "finally demonstrated [his] enormous potential to the listening public". Schrieber stated: " Hunky Dory marked the true start of what would be one of the most successful careers in rock music, spawning millions of scarily obsessive fans." Similarly, Michael Gallucci of Ultimate Classic Rock contended that Hunky Dory

#119880