David Bowie by Alan Cross

David Bowie by Alan Cross

Author:Alan Cross [Cross, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780986742484
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2011-04-14T21:00:00+00:00


Fast Facts

When Bowie was producing Transformer for Lou Reed, Bowie hired his first music teacher, Ronnie Ross, to play the saxophone part in “Walk on the Wild Side.”

In November 1964, Bowie was a founder of the International League for the Preservation of Animal Filament, a group dedicated to the protection of male pop musicians with long hair. The league’s anti-persecution campaign received a surprising amount of newspaper and TV coverage.

Fragments of a lost rock opera written sometime in 1968 turned up at an auction in the summer of 1996. It told the story of Ernie Johnson, a sad sod who planned to stage a party in honor of his suicide.

In November 1969, “Space Oddity” was rewritten as “Ragazzo Solo, Ragazza Sola” (“Lonely Boy, Lonely Girl”) for release in Italy. Sung in Italian, this version had nothing to do with Major Tom. A French translation, “Un Homme a disparu dans le ciel” (“The Man Who Is Lost in the Sky”) appeared in France.

“All the Madmen” from The Man Who Sold the World was inspired by a difficult confrontation with his half-brother, Terry, who had been sent to Cane Hill, a mental institution, in an effort to treat his schizophrenia. Unable to cope after years of suffering, Terry committed suicide on January 16, 1985, by throwing himself in front of a train.

Angela Bowie’s maiden name is Mary Angela Barnett.

The telephone booth featured on the back of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was located at the northwest end of Heddon Street near Piccadilly. The original booth was removed in the late ’70s and sold at an auction.

People tend to forget that Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust tour wasn’t a grand commercial success everywhere. One show in St. Louis attracted just 110 people to a venue that held 11,000. Bowie played the entire show just the same.

Bowie and Angela’s son, Duncan Zowie Hayward, was born in a Bromley hospital on May 28, 1971.

On February 14, 1973, at a show at Radio City Music Hall, Bowie collapsed from exhaustion at the end of the set. Initial rumors said that he had been shot by someone in the audience. These rumors became central to the plot of the 1998 glam fantasy film, Velvet Goldmine.

Elements of Low were incorporated into a Philip Glass symphony in 1993.

Perhaps 50 songs are left over from the Berlin triptych, but it’s doubtful they will ever all be released. They’re just not that good.

In September 1988, Bowie became one of the few humans to ever appear on the cover of Architectural Digest when the magazine ran a pictorial of his home in Mustique.

Mick Ronson died of liver failure on April 30, 1993, aged 46.

Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by David Byrne at a ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria in New York on January 17, 1996.

Bowie was asked by Volkswagen to design a limited-edition millennium version of the Beetle.

Hardcore fans should check out the magazine design Bowie did for film director Francis Ford Coppola. Look for the summer 1999 issue (vol.



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