Biography of the Greatest Rock-Star, David Bowie, undoubtedly versatile, infinitely changeable, fiercely progressive songwriter, the innovative visuals inventor, passionate artist, and the Greatest Rock Star to ever exist!
Article about David Robert Jones; David Bowie
David Robert Jones, an English Pop Singer, songwriter, and actor, was officially popular as David Bowie. He is remember as one of the most prominent personalities of the 20th century. David was a leading personality in the music industry who was complimented by musicians and critics. He was honored by many achievements till the end of his journey in the music industry. His success was marked mainly by the visual elements he introduced by the reinvention of visual in music and stagecraft presentation. All his efforts lasted an influential impact on the popular music industry. He was adored by everyone, either the youth or the older generation. His style, his music, his stagecraft, his personality was all the way well-adored by his followers. These factors made him stand out among the rest of the musicians of the 20th century. He is still remembered for his innovative implementations in the music industry.
Also, he is among the most famous and well-off singers till now. In his lifetime, the estimated recorded sales are over 100 million records throughout the world. This recorded success has made him a top-notch music personality of all time.
The early life of David Bowie
David Bowie was born on 8th January 1947 in Brixton. His mother, Margret Mary was a waitress while his father Haywood Stenton, was promotion officers and his grandparents were reportedly Irish immigrants. His family lived for 40 years in South London at the border between Brixton and Stockwell.
His interest in music was known to everyone from his early age. He was a popular voice artist in his school, where everyone considered him a child with an extraordinary melodious voice. His dancing abilities emerged when he was 9 years old as he used to play and dance on the popular music albums of that time, which made him well reputed because of his gifted voice. His instructors and mentors were all astonished and fan of his above-average skills. He was always known to be a strikingly impressive child with so many artistic skills. His passion for music and dancing was boosted when his father would bring home those famous music albums that made him lost in the beats and voice. His half-brother, Terry Burns, introduced him to modern Jazz, Beat poetry, and the Occult. He used to dance with his cousin Krystina on modern albums that literally polished his skills at that young age. His mother, seeing him this passionate, gave him to Grafton saxophone, and in no time, he was procuring lessons from the Baritone saxophonist Ronnie Ross. All of them contributed to making him imaginatively passionate for a child. He has been unbelievably influential throughout his life because of his early age teaching and practices.
College Life of David Bowie
Before embarking on a professional career, he excelled in his degree in art, music, design, layout, and typesetting that clearly highlights his enthusiasm toward music and his strong insights for innovative visuals on stage, costume, performances, and music videos. He was distinctively innovative in his artistic skills that were imaginatively astonishing for the music followers of the late 1970s. He was admired and emulated for his transformed personae with evolving tenures of his life. He had a different personality for each decade that had built a tough competition for the artists of that time.
His Excellency David Bowie
Mr. Bowie gathered appreciation from critics and music followers all around the world because of his versatility and excellence in the musical spectrum, from rocker’ n roll, punks, hip hop acts, balladeers, the invention of pop visuals to composing classic music videos. Though he was an influential music personality, he embarked his impression for visually traversed styles that drove his influenced lovers from continents and eras in a matter of moments. From adopting German expressions to Commedia dell’arte to spacesuits to Japanese kimonos, he set an example and a challenge for other traditional music personae to come to the standards of contemporary musical trends.
Music Career of David Bowie
He was named an Artful chameleon due to his colored musical career. With each passing decade, David was excelling in his artistic expertise, and his music videos were the major hit of 20th century.
1960s: A journey from Starting career to Debut Music Album
At the age of 15, after commanding over his passion for music, he formed his very first musical band that varies line-up from 4-8 members. The band played Guitar-based rock’ n roll music at local youth parties and weddings, etc. Being a foreseeing artist from birth with innovative music insights and capabilities, the limited aspiration of his band fellows made him left the band. Soon after, he joined another musical band named King Bee. He wrote to the washing-machine entrepreneur John Bloom for making an agreement with him, but John Bloom refused. Later, his referral to Dick James’s business partner Leslie Conn had given David Bowie his first individual management contract.
Conn started to promote Bowie. Bowie’s first debut single, “Liza Jane,” attributed to Davie Jones with King Bees, was not a commercial hit. This made him dissatisfied with his King Bee band and also some of their choices,” Howlin’ Wolf” and Willie Dixon cover, and he quit his membership with the band within less than a month of joining them officially. His downs didn’t end here. After entering and quitting three other bands and releasing four consecutive unsuccessful single releases, he moved on to join the Lower third. Where the trio released “You have got a habit of leaving” that did no fare to the exceptionally talented David Jones. He again left the Lower third and declared that he is planning to exit the Pop music world to study mime at the Sadier’s Wells.
Mid 1965
His later manager, Ralph Horton, confirmed that he has moved to another band, the Buzz. This group released another disastrous single release. The manager later witnessed that Bowie parted their way from the Buzz and became a contributor to his transition to a solo artist. During his team-up with the Buzz, he also got to the Riot Squad, where he recorded one of his original songs that remained unreleased. Displeased with Davie Jones, which was confused in the mid 1960s with Davy Jones of Monkees, he decided to modify his official stage name to David Bowie. Soon after, in April 1967, his solo single release fast and high pitched vocals, “The Laughing Gnome” did no justice to his efforts. Exactly after a period of six months, he released his debut music album, “David Bowie, an amalgam of pop,” which brought success to his fate. The next two years of his life remained deserted.
1968: Space Oddity
In 1967, Bowie’s composition “Over the Wall we go” was the single recommendation for Oscar. Another song by Billy Fury, “Silly Boy Blue,” was released in the same year. Later, Bowie formed a band named Feathers with John Hutchinson and performed in some concerts. On 11th July, 1969 The “Space Oddity” was released that successfully made its place among the top 5 release in the UK. Later, his second Album was released in the UK with the title “David Bowie,” which caused some confusion in the US. After forming the ‘Art lab’, he met some new talented professionals, and they formed a band ‘Hype.’ Then he released his third album named “The man who sold the World” it followed the theme of psychic patients as established in ‘Space Oddity,’ and it was also a significant hit of his life.
1970s: Hunky Dory
David Bowie later performed two projects with a weird costume, and finally, the third one, “Hunky Dory” with another weird costume, become a massive success. He got married in 1970. His life was impacted greatly, and he started focusing on his acting career.
1980s: Blue Jean
In this decade, David Bowie was majorly focusing his acting career. He did a tremendous job in many films, and along with that, he started working in Tv series. In 1984, he released his next new album, “Blue Jean” For its promotion, he also shooted a 21 minutes short film named ‘ Jazzin’ in Blue Jean.’
2000 and later decade
Bowie was not only focusing on his music and acting career, but he also started producing films. He did acting projects in documentaries, videos, TV series, and Films. And later, he got ill. But the last Album of his life “Blackstar” was released on his 69th birthday, and exactly after two days of casting, he left his fans mourning over his death.
Acting Career of David Bowie
As we are already aware of the fact that David Bowie was not only an extraordinary musician and artist but also a great actor. He was awarded Satin Award for Best Actor in 1976 for his science fiction film. Along with his exciting music career, he equally pursued his brilliance in the field of the film industry. He has been a part of many major projects, plays, series, documentaries, and videos. The love for acting was not developed all of a sudden, BUT David has practiced acting and dancing in his early life. From his school plays to College Theater, he has always been an active participant in field of acting. He never let his passion for music ruled over his love for acting. Adding to that, he has gained fame and popularity with the contribution of his acting. Either a main role or a specific character, he has always nailed the character with his adequate acting. These skills helped him a lot during his music career. He confidently traversed visuals, expressions, and adaptations of the almost every kind of personae that he has embraced during his musical journey. And this modification has earned a lot of respect, fan following, and revenue for him.
Acting in Films from 1969 to 2009:
His Film was released from 1969 to 2009. Before that, he was doing theatre. His Famous roles in the Film are still remembered. He worked in the following films released in the following years;
The Image, The Virgin Soldiers, Pierrot in Turquoise in 1969, The Looking Glass Murders in 1970, The Man Who Fell to Earth released in 1976, Just a Gigolo in 1978, Christiane F. in 1981, The Snowman in 1982, The Hunger in 1983, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, Yellowbeard, Jazzin’ for Blue Jean in 1984, Into the Night in 1985, Absolute Beginners in 1986, Labyrinth and The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988, Dream On in 1991 in The Linguini Incident and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me in 1992, Full Stretch in 1993, Basquiat in 1996, Gunslinger’s Revenge in 1998, Everybody Loves Sunshine in 1999, Omikron: The Nomad Soul and The Hunger in 1999–2000, Empty in 2000, Mr. Rice’s Secret and Zoolander in 2001, The Rutles 2: Can’t Buy Me Lunch in 2002, Extras in 2006, The Prestige and Arthur and the Invisibles in 2007, SpongeBob SquarePants and August in 2008, Bandslam in 2009.
Filmed as an object of Videos, Documentries and TV Series:
You didn’t only acted in famous films, but also his passion and skills for acting lead him to perform in videos, TV series, and documentaries that were officially released as films. The List of them are as follow;
Love you till Tuesday in 1984, Bowie special in 1973, Ziggy Stardust and Mars spiders in 1974, The 1980, Floor Show in October 1973, Cracked Actor in 1974, Live at the Beat Club in 1978, Serious Moonlight in 1983, Ricochet in 1984, Glass Spider in 1987 in Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby in 1991, Bowie – The Video Collection in 1993 or earlier, David Bowie: Black Tie White Noise in 1993, David Bowie and Friends: A Very Special Birthday Concert in 1997, VH1 Storytellers: David Bowie in 1999, Best of Bowie in 2002 or earlier, Reality album bonus DVD in 2003, A Reality Tour in 2003. His performance was undoubtedly exceptional in all these projects.
As Producer of Films 1994-2006:
His love for acting and strong insights into the acting industry lead him to contribute as a producer. As a producer he produced the “Büvös vadász aka Magic Hunter” that was released in 1994. Another great movie, “Passaggio per il Paradiso aka Gentle Into the Night or Passage to Paradise” which was screened in 1998. Followed by them, he has produced the “Scott Walker: 30 Century Man” that was officailly released in 2006. He produced lesser films because of his extreme indulgence in his music career and secondly in his acting career.
Personal life of David Bowie
Marriage
David married twice in his life. His first wife was Mary Angela Barnett. They married in 1970 in London and parted their ways reportedly in 1980. They have a son Duncan, whose custody was handed to David. Later, Bowie married a Somalian-American model Iman in 1992. They have a daughter named Alexandria Zahra Jones. Bowie also had a stepdaughter.
Childhood Injuries
David Robert had a serious injury at school in 1962 where he fought with his friend George Underwood who punched him over his face. This caused some serious injuries to his eye. He went through various operations and was hospitalized for four consecutive months. After undergoing a series of operations during his stay in the hospital, his doctors examined that the damage over his eye couldn’t be fully cured. He was left with Anisocoria, a permanently dilated pupil. This made his iris look darker due to false depth perception that everyone mistakenly confused with Heterochromia (a condition where the iris colors are variant from each other). In a result, he had one light blue and one dark blue eye. But this had proved to be a blessing in disguise for the late pop singer as later, his variant eye colors were significantly marked as his famous, recognizable feature.
And despite of their Altercation, David Bowie and George Underwood maintained on good terms and were friends till the last years of their life and also Underwood created the artwork of Bowie’s early music albums.
Religion and Spirituality
During his life, Bowie made many references to his religion and evolving inclination towards spirituality. He was studying Buddhism and was trying to get to that spiritual level. Bowie has often admitted that he has abandoned religion for many years that made him away from God.
Sexuality
David Jones also became the first British pop singer who made a confession regarding bisexuality during an interview. Later, it was adopted as a trend as other artists also confirmed their ambiguous sexuality.
Later he said that he had made the biggest mistake of his life by calling himself bisexual as he never developed such feelings naturally, but it was all situational.
Hobbies
Bowie has hobbies other than music and acting. He was a great painter, and he professionally practiced painting when he was rehabilitated to abandon drugs. He sells many of his paintings.
Interest in Politics
Other than that, David was keen on keeping news about the country’s and world’s politics. He would often give statements related to that in his interviews. Bowie had also release Bowie Bond for musicians and actors and Bowienet, an internet service provider with a partner that was allegedly ended in 2006.
Last years
Though he lived a healthy life, at the age of 67, he was diagnosed with Cancer. He died of Liver Cancer after fighting from the Cancer for more than 18 months.
Bowie’s Death 10th January, 2016
Fighting from Cancer from the last 18 months of his life, he left for his eternal journey right after two days of his 69th birthday. On 10th January, 2016 his Facebook page indicated that he died peacefully surrounded by his beloved family members after battling cancer for over one and half years. Just two days before his death, he released his last music album ‘Blackstar’
He was awarded in four categories at Grammy music awards and is also remembered as the ‘Greatest Pop Star of all the time.’
Major Achievements of David Browie
- He is the best-selling music artist of all time and listed among the richest music artists on Forbes’s list.
- His music album witnessed over 100 million records throughout the world during his life.
- He was awarded ten Platinum Album Certificates in the UK where he was further rewarded with Eleven Gold, Eight Silver awards with eleven most appreciated music album releases.
- Rolling stone made his position among the 100 greatest artists of all time.
- In February 2017, after his death, he received recognition for his final Album as he won the awards in categories of the Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical). Best Alternative Rock album, Best recording package, Best Rock Song, Best Rock performance at the Grammy music awards.
- He was acknowledged with Five Platinum and Nine Gold certificates in the US.
- He won a special award for originality by Ivor Novello for his commercial breakthrough in 1969 by the sone “Space Oddity.”
- He also won Satun Award for Best Actor for his acting skills in the science fiction film “The man who fell to earth,” released in 1976.
- He was awarded the national award of the French government.
- He was regarded as the Greatest Rock Star Ever after his death.
‘Stardust’ The Biopic of David Bowie
A biopic of David Robert Jones, named ‘Stardust’ was announced to expectedly release on 31st January 2019. This biopic is starring the musician and actor Johnny Flynn as Bowie, Marc Maron, and Jena Malone as his wife, Angie. The Film is directed by Gabriel Range and written by Christopher Bell. It is opposed by Bowie’s son before its release saying that he was not consulted before making his father’s biopic, and also, he has disallowed to use any of Bowie’s music album in the Film. The expected premiere of the Film was anticipated at the Tribeca Film Festival 2020. The festival was postponed later as a deadly Global Covid-19 Pandemic has attacked the world.