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174-619: Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) , also known simply as Scary Monsters , is the fourteenth studio album by the English musician David Bowie , released on 12 September 1980 through RCA Records . His first album following the Berlin Trilogy ( Low , "Heroes" and Lodger ), Scary Monsters was Bowie's attempt at creating a more commercial record after the trilogy proved successful artistically but less so commercially. Co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti , Scary Monsters

348-489: 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

522-469: 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

696-623: A synthaxe as the primary instrument to reshape audio elements while recording this musique concrète piece. In 1989 Hammer designed AVA studios in New York City, a multi media production facility, that focused on film and digital music scoring. Between 1994 and 2004 he composed soundtracks for an extended series of non fiction documentaries; collaborating extensively with The New York Times , National Geographic , Discovery Communications , and A&E Network . These soundtracks were widely broadcast internationally and in effect broadened

870-579: 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

1044-504: A "fine record of its particular type". On its end-of-the-year list, Record Mirror named Scary Monsters the second best album of the year, behind Sound Affects by the Jam , while NME ranked it the ninth best album of the year. On The Village Voice ' s annual Pazz & Jop music critics' poll, it placed 19th. Bowie decided not to support Scary Monsters on a concert tour. Instead, he continued his acting career by performing

1218-419: A "warning for those who might dare to follow in his footsteps." Reviewing the album's remaster for the 2017 box set A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982) , Chris Gerard of PopMatters highlighted Bowie's vocal performance on the record as among his best, further complimenting the songs' arrangements and harmonies as "jaw-droppingly brilliant as anything you'll find in the realm of rock 'n' roll." Analysing

1392-432: A Laser", " Scream Like a Baby " features a contemporary new wave sound with lyrics of instability and political imprisonment , comparable with themes present on The Man Who Sold the World (1970). Bowie recorded his vocal using varispeed , a technique that displays a "split personality" effect. "Kingdom Come", Bowie's first cover on a studio album since Station to Station , is in the same key as Verlaine's original, but

1566-640: 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 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

1740-763: 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 ,

1914-519: 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

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2088-418: A cover of Tom Verlaine 's "Kingdom Come". Bowie felt the track was a standout from Verlaine's 1979 eponymous solo album and asked Verlaine to play lead guitar. Verlaine agreed, although Fripp ended up playing lead guitar. There was a certain degree of optimism making [ Scary Monsters ] because I'd worked through some of my problems, I felt very positive about the future, and I think I just got down to writing

2262-476: A culmination of Bowie's 1970s works and the record's sound to be not "far removed from the post-punk of the early '80s". Nicholas Pegg agrees, describing the record as "the triumphant culmination of Bowie's steely art-rock phase and a crucial doorway into early 1980s British pop". In a career retrospective, Consequence of Sound described Scary Monsters as "a high watermark of art pop by which Bowie's future releases are still compared." Carr and Murray describe

2436-405: 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

2610-475: 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

2784-456: 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

2958-466: 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

3132-401: 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

3306-412: 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

3480-421: A guide on how to save marriage relationships; Carr and Murray see this as a reference to Bowie's divorce from Angie Bowie . Musically, it features unusual time signatures and a Bo Diddley -inspired beat. For the title track , the rhythm section took inspiration from Joy Division ; Davis's drum performance has been compared to Stephen Morris's on " She's Lost Control " (1979). Described by Perone as punk rock ,

3654-409: A half weeks, with an additional week used for overdubs . Tracks completed were solely instrumental. One instrumental, titled " Crystal Japan ", was originally intended to be the album's closing track, but was dropped in favour of a reprise of " It's No Game "; the reprise, titled "It's No Game (No. 2)", was completed in its entirety during the initial sessions. At Alomar's suggestion, Bowie recorded

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3828-426: 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

4002-480: 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

4176-423: 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

4350-658: 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

4524-521: 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

4698-537: 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,

4872-565: 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

5046-445: 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

5220-472: A professional career as a musician in 1963. He released 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

5394-576: 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 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

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5568-439: 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

5742-595: A really comprehensive and well-crafted album. —David Bowie, 1999 Rather than improvising lyrics and music as he had with prior releases, Bowie took time composing and developing the lyrics and melodies, ensuring the musicians adhered to his thought-out structures before adding their own personal touches. Many of the tracks had working titles early on. Some of the these included "People Are Turning to Gold" (" Ashes to Ashes "), "It Happens Everyday" (" Teenage Wildlife "), "Jamaica" (" Fashion "), "Cameras in Brooklyn" (" Up

5916-454: A reggae "spoof" started by Clark on his synthesiser and features guitar "squeals" from Fripp. Apart from being a dance track, the song provokes elements of fascism , with lyrics such as "we are the goon squad" and "turn to the left, turn to the right". The "beep beep" lines were taken from an earlier unreleased song titled "Rupert the Riley". " Teenage Wildlife ", the longest track on the album,

6090-452: 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

6264-549: 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

6438-706: 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

6612-408: A target. Carr and Murray state that the song is Bowie reflecting on his younger self, while Pegg considers it a confrontation to critics who tried to prevent Bowie from evolving throughout the 1970s. Bowie himself wrote in 2008 that the lyrics are about "taking a short view of life, not looking too far ahead and not predicting the oncoming hard knocks". Although it descends from the early-mid 1970s "I Am

6786-495: 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

6960-474: 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

7134-410: A younger generation. Townshend's contributions are placed low in the mix. The album ends with " It's No Game (No. 2) ", which provides a stark contrast to "No. 1"; it features new lyrics and is more mellow and meditative throughout. Doggett writes that whereas "No. 1" "climaxed with the signals of insanity", "No. 2" "just end[s], draining color from everything around it". Similar to how

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7308-484: Is described as a "junkie", which has been interpreted as parallel to Bowie's own struggles with drug addiction throughout the 1970s. Musically, "Ashes to Ashes" is built around a guitar synthesiser theme by Hammer, augmented by Clark's synthesiser. Like "Space Oddity" before it, the song was built in stages, and features layers of instruments in its mix. " Fashion " is reminiscent of Bowie's former single " Golden Years ", with its mix of funk and reggae . It evolved out of

7482-487: Is described by Buckley as a "macho, samurai voice", which was done at Bowie's insistence as a way to "break down a particular type of sexist attitude about women". James E. Perone writes that the track establishes the album's theme of "scary events". The lyrics of " Up the Hill Backwards " deal with the struggle of facing a crisis. Bowie misquotes Thomas Anthony Harris 's 1967 self-help book I'm OK – You're OK ,

7656-449: Is more grand in style. Doggett describes the arrangement as "an unhappy cross between Motown sound and the sterility of American AOR ". Lyrically, the song features similar themes to other album tracks, including frustration, boredom and repetition. On release, Bowie dedicated "Because You're Young" to his then nine-year-old son Duncan . Lyrically, the song is similar to other Scary Monsters tracks, featuring Bowie reflecting and advising

7830-592: Is something Bowie lost over the course of the '80s." Eduardo Rivadavia praised the record's "risk-taking creativity" in Ultimate Classic Rock , writing that the artist's decision to take time writing lyrics resulted in some of the best lyrics and vocal performances of his career. He ultimately called the album one of Bowie's "very best career efforts." The author Peter Doggett describes Scary Monsters as one of Bowie's "most valuable statements", writing that it "annull[ed] audience expectations" and launched

8004-501: Is structurally similar to " ' Heroes ' " but does not feature a refrain ; its verses only end with the title being sung over Fripp's guitar breaks. Its backing vocals are reminiscent of the Ronettes , while piano is provided by Roy Bittan. The song's lyrics have been widely interpreted. One interpretation is they are an attack on Bowie imitators who emerged in the late 1970s, such as Gary Numan , who personally believed himself

8178-535: Is the new art-rock, I'm for it." The New York Daily News ' s Clint Roswell likewise hailed the record as Bowie's best in years, naming "Ashes to Ashes", "Fashion", "Because You're Young" and the title track as songs that recognise the artist as "the preminent figure in pop". Adding further praise was James Johnson of the Evening Standard , who described the "remarkable" LP as one of the year's best and "proves that Bowie can still maintain his mastery of

8352-477: 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 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

8526-735: 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

8700-537: 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

8874-610: The New Romantic movement. The single debuted at No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart ; after premiering the music video on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops , the single shot to No. 1, becoming Bowie's fastest-selling single and dethroning ABBA 's " The Winner Takes It All ". It was Bowie's second No. 1 single in the UK, after a reissue of "Space Oddity". However, the US release, featuring "It's No Game (No. 1)" as

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9048-636: 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

9222-658: 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

9396-532: The UK Albums Chart and restored Bowie's commercial standing in the US, reaching No. 12. Scary Monsters would later be referred to by commentators as Bowie's "last great album" and a benchmark for subsequent releases. It was Bowie's final studio album for RCA and the final collaboration between him and Visconti for over 20 years. Several publications have considered it one of the greatest albums of all time. The album has been reissued multiple times, and

9570-578: The UK Albums Chart , his first since Diamond Dogs (1974), and remained on the chart for 32 weeks, his longest since Aladdin Sane (1973). The album restored Bowie's commercial standing in the US, peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and remained on the chart for 27 weeks. Buckley writes that with Scary Monsters , Bowie achieved "the perfect balance" of creativity and mainstream success. The second single, "Fashion",

9744-440: The "100 Greatest British Albums Ever". In 2002, Pitchfork placed it at number 93 on its list of the top 100 albums of the 1980s. In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at number 27 on its list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s, saying "Bowie bridles the experimentation of his Berlin trilogy and channels those synth flourishes and off-kilter guitar licks into one of the decade's quirkiest pop albums." In 2013, NME ranked

9918-412: The "benchmark" for each new release. Well-regarded later efforts such as Outside (1995), Earthling (1997), Heathen (2002) and Reality (2003) were cited as "the best album since Scary Monsters ." Buckley suggested that "Bowie should pre-emptively sticker up his next album 'Best Since Scary Monsters ' and have done with it". The biographer Marc Spitz considers it more accurate to call

10092-666: The '80s", while Billboard correctly predicted that it "should be the most accessible and commercially successful Bowie LP in years". The Guardian 's Robin Denselow agreed, describing Scary Monsters as being "full of accessible, highly original melodies that are increasingly inaccessible". Debra Rae Cohen of Rolling Stone found the record to be a "clarification" of Bowie's collaborations with Eno and similar in vein to Aladdin Sane , further finding Bowie "settling old scores" throughout Scary Monsters . Fellow critic Dave Marsh considered it one of Bowie's best, saying "if this

10266-408: The 1980s were a less-than-stellar decade for the artist creatively, he began the decade strong with Scary Monsters , praising Bowie's vocal performance and describing "Ashes to Ashes" in particular as "gorgeous". Erlewine praised the album for its culmination of Bowie's 1970s works: "While the music isn't far removed from the post-punk of the early '80s, it does sound fresh, hip, and contemporary, which

10440-851: 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 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

10614-565: 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

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10788-671: The B-side, fared worse, peaking at No. 79 on the Cash Box Top 100 chart and No. 101 on the Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart. Scary Monsters was released on 12 September 1980. RCA promoted the album with the tagline "Often Copied, Never Equalled", seen as a direct reference to the new wave acts Bowie had inspired over the years. The album was a major commercial success, peaking at No. 1 on

10962-560: The B-side. It peaked at No. 32 in the UK, performing the worst out of all the singles. Scary Monsters received universal praise from music critics. Record Mirror awarded it a rating of seven stars out of five; the same publication voted Bowie the best male singer of 1980, as did the Daily Mirror . Smash Hits gave it a 9 out of 10 rating, describing it as "possibly his most consistently effective long player of all". Melody Maker called it "an eerily impressive stride into

11136-549: 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

11310-671: The Berlin Trilogy had "petered out" by that record. It was the fifth and final Bowie album with the core lineup of Dennis Davis (drums), Carlos Alomar (guitar) and George Murray (bass), who had been together since Station to Station (1976); only Alomar continued working with Bowie hereafter. King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp , who played on "Heroes" , was brought back for the sessions, replacing Lodger guitarist Adrian Belew . Bowie hired an additional guitarist, Chuck Hammer , after hearing him play with Lou Reed in London

11484-634: The Digital Guitar Interface. In 1985 he recorded "Glacial Guitars", a series of Guitarchitecture pieces that deploy cello timbres and string controlled sampling. in 1986 Hammer recorded "Cathedral Guitars", a series of solo acoustic pieces. In November 1986 he collaborated with David Gordon , composing "The Seasons", for the Next Wave Festival, which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Hammer utilized

11658-592: 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

11832-627: The Hill Backwards ") and "I Am a Laser" (" Scream Like a Baby "), which was originally written and recorded in 1973 by a group of Bowie collaborators known as the Astronettes. The lyrics for the title track , which dated back to a 1975 song called "Running Scared", were written in response to a promotional campaign for Kellogg's Corn flakes cereal, which offered novelty toys of "Scary Monsters and Super Heroes". Other tracks were recorded and left unfinished, including "Is There Life After Marriage?" and an instrumental cover of Cream 's " I Feel Free ";

12006-629: 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

12180-527: 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

12354-856: 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

12528-510: 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

12702-627: 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

12876-623: 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

13050-538: 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 ,

13224-605: 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

13398-489: 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

13572-410: 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

13746-574: 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,

13920-607: 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

14094-522: 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

14268-471: 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

14442-501: 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

14616-496: The World ." Visconti further said: "It is one of my favourite Bowie albums ever." Despite his glowing assessment of the album, Scary Monsters proved to be the final collaboration between Bowie and Visconti for over 20 years, after Bowie chose Nile Rodgers to produce Let's Dance . Although Bowie would achieve worldwide mega-stardom and commercial success in the following years, in particular with Let's Dance , many commentators consider Scary Monsters to be "his last great album" and

14790-675: 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

14964-410: The actress Michi Hirota for "It's No Game (No. 1)". By the time of Scary Monsters the kind of music that I was doing was becoming very acceptable   ... it was definitely the sound of the early eighties. —David Bowie, 1990 Commentators have classified Scary Monsters as art rock , new wave , and post-punk. Writing for AllMusic , Stephen Thomas Erlewine considers Scary Monsters to be

15138-425: 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

15312-505: The album Bowie's "last 'young' record", in that it was his final "perfectly confident statement" and the final time that Bowie's "search for the 'new' in our world of sound [felt] pure, as opposed to betraying itself". Bowie's biographers continue to praise Scary Monsters . Pegg writes that retrospectively, Scary Monsters sounds "as fresh and dynamic as ever", and ended "Bowie's golden run of cutting-edge albums." O'Leary described it in 2019 as Bowie's most "modern"-sounding album. Spitz finds

15486-535: The album a more mixed assessment in NME , stating: " Scary Monsters is shorn of all hope, yet it represents a call to arms. It is an album which presupposes defeat, yet it is unashamedly and unequivocally confrontational." He further called it the "realist's" Bowie record. In The New York Times , John Rockwell felt the album lacked appeal for all rock listeners due to it being "too misshapenly ugly. grindingly abrasive and proudly self-withholding. Nevertheless, he deemed it

15660-463: 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

15834-408: The album as "a near-perfect balance of [Bowie's] pop and experimental sides" and that it remains one of the artist's "most important and consistent albums". In 2011, Paul Trynka wrote: " Scary Monsters still sparkles today. Its intense, churning grooves sound remarkably contemporary   ... but despite the complexity of its arrangements there are many moments of unaffected simplicity." He considers

16008-602: The album at number 381 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time . In 2018, Pitchfork placed it at number 53 on its revised list of the 200 best albums of the 1980s. In 2020, Rolling Stone placed it at number 443 on its revision of the 500 greatest albums of all time . The album has been rereleased five times to date on compact disc. It was first released on CD by RCA in the mid-1980s. A second CD release, in 1992 by Rykodisc and EMI , contained four bonus tracks. A 1999 CD release by EMI / Virgin , with no bonus tracks, featured 24-bit digitally-remastered sound. The album

16182-473: The album begins, it ends with the sound of a tape rewinding and playing out, although this time, it slows to a halt. The cover artwork of Scary Monsters is a large-scale collage by the artist Edward Bell featuring Bowie in the Pierrot costume worn in the "Ashes to Ashes" music video, along with photographs taken by the photographer Brian Duffy . Duffy was reportedly upset by the final artwork, as he felt

16356-440: 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

16530-498: The album for its 40th anniversary in 2020, Stereogum ' s Ryan Leas described Scary Monsters as "the less-heralded classic of Bowie's career", complimenting the way Bowie was able to mesh the different eras of his career up to that point into a creative whole. Leas concluded: "[ Scary Monsters ] was the album that best-captured everything Bowie was about — and it will always be the conduit through which everything travelled, all of his old selves folded in and carried forward through

16704-529: 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...

16878-493: The album's "dense, tough, rock-meets-funk backup" as influential on later bands such as Blur and the Strokes . The American electronic music producer Skrillex named his 2010 EP Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites after Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) . Scary Monsters has appeared on several lists of the greatest albums of all time by multiple publications. In 2000, Q ranked Scary Monsters at number 30 on its list of

17052-401: The album's sound as being harsher – and his worldview more desperate – than anything he had released since Diamond Dogs (1974). The biographer Christopher Sandford writes that lyrically, Scary Monsters reaffirms themes that Bowie had explored throughout his career up to that point, including madness, alienation and the "redeeming power of love"; in this case however, Bowie is able to bring

17226-482: 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

17400-578: 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

17574-576: The cartoon demeaned his photographs. The Pierrot costume, designed by Natasha Korniloff, was indebted to Bowie's time performing as a mime with the dancer Lindsay Kemp in the 1968 play Pierrot in Turquoise . The original LP's rear sleeve referred to four earlier albums, namely the immediately preceding Berlin Trilogy and 1973's Aladdin Sane , the latter also having been designed and photographed by Duffy. The cover images from Low , "Heroes" and Lodger —the last showing Bowie's torso superimposed on

17748-489: 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

17922-423: The cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station . In 1977, he again changed direction with 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

18096-508: 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

18270-461: The digital film medium, and his recorded guitar work. Hammer was accorded pioneer status by Rolling Stone , alongside an eclectic and select group, including Robert Fripp and Allan Holdsworth , having been attributed with leading a new era of development in the global guitar community, influencing instrument capabilities, form and functions in music. He is currently developing a series of Guitarchitecture soundtracks. In 2016 Hammer completed

18444-466: 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:

18618-479: The earliest use of guitar-synth in Bowie's catalogue. The actual instruments utilized on these tracks included a Roland GR-500 with Eventide Harmonizer and multiple analogue tape delays. Textural tracks, such as those on Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" and "Teenage Wildlife", exhibited a highly experimental multi-layered approach to recording and composing with the guitar. Hammer's recordings with David Bowie represent one of

18792-500: 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 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

18966-494: 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),

19140-529: The figure from Aladdin Sane ' s inside gatefold picture—were portrayed in small whitewashed frames to the left of the tracklisting. The lettering used was a reworking of Gerald Scarfe 's lettering for Pink Floyd 's The Wall , which would be replicated on many album covers in the ensuing years. These images were not reproduced on the Rykodisc reissue in 1992, but were restored for EMI / Virgin 's 1999 remastered edition. The original framed album artwork

19314-674: 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 . Chuck Hammer He

19488-457: 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

19662-406: The guitar's textural vocabulary by altering its temporal sustain characteristics and context. This approach often utilizes extended sustain, reshaped timbres, discreet vibrato techniques, textural event layering, and simply breaking down a chord to its basic elements and recording each element separately (as a modified guitar orchestra). The term Guitarchitecture applies to both Hammer's soundtracks in

19836-405: 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 ,

20010-559: 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

20184-399: 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 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

20358-489: The latter was fully covered for Black Tie White Noise (1993). The sessions resumed in April 1980 at Good Earth Studios in London, Visconti's own studio at the time. Final instrumental overdubs were provided by Fripp and the keyboardist Andy Clark , along with a guest appearance by the Who guitarist Pete Townshend on "Because You're Young". Vocal tracks were recorded last, including the Japanese narration provided by

20532-445: 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

20706-571: The lead role of Joseph "John" Merrick in the Broadway play The Elephant Man , which ran from July 1980 to January 1981, and guest starring as himself in the film Christiane F. (1981). Following John Lennon 's murder in December 1980, Bowie withdrew to his home in Switzerland and became a recluse. Nevertheless, he continued working, recording the title song of the film Cat People (1982) with Giorgio Moroder and " Under Pressure " with

20880-428: The liner notes and biographer Nicholas Pegg. Production Sales figures based on certification alone. Shipments figures based on certification alone. 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

21054-485: The listener in instead of "freezing [them] out". The album opens with " It's No Game (No. 1) ", which features sinister guitar loops and Bowie's screaming vocal performance, which Chris O'Leary cites as reminiscent of John Lennon 's performance on Plastic Ono Band (1970). Partly taken from an older tune titled "Tired of My Life", it features lyrics read by the Japanese actress Michi Hirota, which were translated by Hisahi Miura. Hirota delivers her performance in what

21228-411: 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

21402-412: The most influential and genre defining approaches to textural guitar layering. They are regarded as having opened the door to the textural guitar movement that followed. Hammer's recorded work is broadly known as Guitarchitecture, a process and term which he developed in 1977. The underlying thought behind Guitarchitecture is to extend the sonic vocabulary of the guitar. Guitarchitecture involves widening

21576-403: The most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie 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

21750-504: The music and lyrics; several were recorded under working titles and some contained reworked elements of earlier, unreleased songs. The album cover is a large-scale collage featuring Bowie donning a Pierrot costume, with references to his prior releases on the rear sleeve. The album's lead single , " Ashes to Ashes ", revisited the character of Major Tom from " Space Oddity " and was promoted with an inventive music video . Scary Monsters garnered critical and commercial acclaim: it topped

21924-406: The music is heavily distorted, featuring Fripp's ferocious guitar-playing, Davis's pounding drums, and David Bowie's treated Cockney accent. Lyrically, it follows a claustrophobic relationship between a woman (dating back to Bowie's Berlin days) and a man (the demons inside Bowie). " Ashes to Ashes " revisits the character of Major Tom from " Space Oddity " (1969). Over ten years later, Major Tom

22098-607: 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

22272-477: 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

22446-572: 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

22620-416: The record to have an energy that his later "good" albums don't (naming Outside and Heathen ). Doggett considers it as one of Bowie's "most valuable statements", exceeding his listeners' expectations while at the same time sending a warning out to anyone who dared to follow in his footsteps. Sandford states that with Scary Monsters , Bowie "found his voice again" after years of experimentation. Perone praises

22794-519: The recording and production of "Blind On Blind" with Billy Martin ; Jamaaladeen Tacuma ; and Jamie Saft . A 76-minute gapless album recorded over a three-year period that explores Hammer's concept of Recombinant Textural Layering. Appears on: In 1983 Hammer began composing film soundtracks with a Synclavier , adding a Digital Guitar Interface in 1984. Later that same year he worked with Laurie Anderson , triggering synchronized samples, from her Mister Heartbreak multitrack recordings live, utilizing

22968-530: 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

23142-414: The rest of his life. In a 2013 readers' poll for Rolling Stone , Scary Monsters was voted Bowie's seventh greatest album. The magazine argued that it would be his final "satisfying from start to finish" album. Reflecting on the critical and commercial success of Scary Monsters , Visconti stated, "We kind of felt that we'd finally achieved our Sgt. Pepper , a goal we had in mind since The Man Who Sold

23316-485: The rock band Queen in July 1981. The following month, Bowie performed the title role in a BBC adaptation of Bertolt Brecht 's play Baal and recorded an accompanying soundtrack EP , both released in early 1982. He also starred in the films The Hunger and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence , both released in 1983. Bowie did not release another studio album until Let's Dance , released in April 1983. Scary Monsters

23490-608: The rock mainstream whenever he feels like it". The Boston Globe ' s Jim Sullivan found side two weaker than the first, but concluded "Bowie continues to present a complex, invigorating challenge". Tom Sowa was more mild in The Spokesman-Review . He hailed Scary Monsters as Bowie's finest in four years, highlighting Fripp's contributions and signalled out "Ashes to Ashes" and "Because You're Young", but panned "Teenage Wildlife" as "an overheated, confused and totally embarrassing four minutes of plastic". Murray gave

23664-619: 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

23838-475: The school's most gifted pupils to the arts, 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

24012-582: 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,

24186-552: 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 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

24360-465: 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

24534-476: 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

24708-424: 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

24882-497: The video was highly praised, with Record Mirror voting both as the best music videos of 1980. The title track was released as the third single, again in edited form, on 2 January 1981, backed by "Because You're Young". The single continued Bowie's commercial success in the UK, peaking at No. 20. The fourth and final single, "Up the Hill Backwards", was released in March 1981, with the non-album Japanese single "Crystal Japan" as

25056-530: The year before. According to the NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray , Hammer added multiple textural layers deploying guitar synth and Fripp brought back the same distinctive sound he lent "Heroes" . The pianist Roy Bittan , a member of Bruce Springsteen 's E Street Band , returned from the Station to Station sessions. Initial sessions at the Power Station took place over two and

25230-596: 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

25404-520: 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 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

25578-475: Was also Bowie's final studio album for RCA Records, who had been his label since Hunky Dory (1971). Bowie had grown increasingly dissatisfied with the label, who he felt was "milking" his back catalogue. Although RCA was willing to re-sign, Bowie signed a new contract with EMI America Records , and with Let's Dance , began an era of major commercial success. Retrospectively, Scary Monsters continues to receive acclaim. Jon Dolan of Spin wrote that although

25752-419: 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

25926-424: 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 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

26100-709: Was born in New York City and attended University at Buffalo , studying classical guitar with Oswald Rantucci, jazz with Archie Shepp , and attended lectures presented by Karlheinz Stockhausen . As a guitarist Hammer was a central figure within the Lou Reed Band that hosted the June 1979 concerts at The Bottom Line in New York City that included Don Cherry . Hammer toured extensively as a textural guitarist with Lou Reed from 1978 through 1980. During these concerts Hammer utilized new guitar technology, known as guitar-synth , to orchestrate songs from Berlin , Street Hassle , The Bells and The Velvet Underground . It

26274-585: 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 a waitress at a cinema in Royal Tunbridge Wells . His father, Haywood Stenton "John" Jones, was from Doncaster , Yorkshire, and worked as

26448-418: 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 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

26622-457: Was during this time that Hammer developed an approach to composing and recording known as Guitarchitecture . Hammer recorded with Reed on Growing Up in Public , January 1980. In March 1980, Hammer recorded guitar-synth tracks with David Bowie on the album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) , including multiple textures across " Ashes to Ashes " and " Teenage Wildlife ", both of which marked

26796-406: 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

26970-584: Was featured in the David Bowie Is touring museum exhibit. The lead single , "Ashes to Ashes", was released in edited form by RCA Records on 1 August 1980, with the Lodger track "Move On" as the B-side. It was issued in three different sleeves, the first 100,000 copies including one of four sets of stamps, all featuring Bowie in the Pierrot outfit he wore in the music video for the song. The song

27144-439: 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,

27318-606: Was hindered by artists who were influenced by the earlier Berlin releases, such as Gary Numan . According to the biographer David Buckley, Numan's fame indirectly led to Bowie taking a more commercial direction for his next record. Recording for the album began at the Power Station in New York City in February 1980. Bowie informed returning producer Tony Visconti that this was going to be a more commercial record than his previous releases. Eno did not return, having ended his collaboration with Bowie after Lodger , stating he felt

27492-407: 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

27666-742: 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

27840-457: 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

28014-460: Was promoted with a music video which, at a budget of £250,000 (equivalent to £1,400,000 in 2023), was the most expensive music video made up to that point. Directed by David Mallet , who directed all of Lodger ' s music videos, the video depicts Bowie in a Pierot costume designed by his former collaborator Natasha Korniloff. The single and video are both regarded by biographers as one of Bowie's finest, with Pegg stating that it kickstarted

28188-461: 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

28362-451: Was re-released in 2003 by EMI as a Super Audio CD , again with no bonus tracks. In 2017, the album was remastered for the A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982) box set released by Parlophone . It was released in CD, vinyl, and digital formats, both as part of this compilation and then separately the following year. All songs written by David Bowie , except where noted. Albums credits per

28536-459: Was recorded between February and April 1980 at the Power Station in New York City, and later Good Earth Studios in London. Much of the same personnel from prior releases returned for the sessions, with additional guitar by Chuck Hammer and Robert Fripp , and a guest appearance by Pete Townshend . The music incorporates elements of art rock , new wave and post-punk . Unlike the improvisational nature of prior releases, Bowie spent time writing

28710-487: 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

28884-632: 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

29058-494: 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 ,

29232-453: Was released in edited form on 24 October 1980, with "Scream Like a Baby" as the B-side. The single was another commercial success, peaking at No. 5 in the UK and No. 70 in the US. Like the first single, it was promoted by a music video again directed by Mallet. The video depicts Bowie and his backing musicians as "gum-chewing tough guys", interspersed with shots of dancers rehearsing and New Romantic followers. Like "Ashes to Ashes",

29406-487: Was remastered in 2017 as part of the A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982) box set. From 1976 to 1979, David Bowie recorded what became known as the Berlin Trilogy , which consisted of Low , "Heroes" (both 1977) and Lodger (1979), made in collaboration with the musician Brian Eno and the producer Tony Visconti . Although considered highly influential, the trilogy had proven less successful commercially. Lodger ' s commercial performance, in particular,

29580-528: 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

29754-461: Was spearheaded by the success of " Starman " and its album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and 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

29928-561: 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

30102-456: 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

30276-538: 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,

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