Speaker 1: Off the Record is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: David Bowie's face was pressed against the glass of the
Speaker 1: helicopter windows that hovered high above Wembley Stadium. From the heavens.
Speaker 1: He watched his friend Freddie Mercury on the massive screen below,
Speaker 1: presiding over a crowd of eighty thou people. They swayed
Speaker 1: as if a single organism. Though David couldn't hear much
Speaker 1: over the relentless thump of the chopper blade, it was
Speaker 1: clear that Freddy had them in the palm of his hand.
Speaker 1: Talk about a tough actor follow and in less than
Speaker 1: an hour David would have to do just that. It
Speaker 1: was July. David was on his way to perform at
Speaker 1: the British stage of Live Aid, the Transatlantic All Star
Speaker 1: benefit concert to raise money for Ethiopian famine relief. He
Speaker 1: had been one of the first headliners to lend their
Speaker 1: name to the event, opening the floodgates for a host
Speaker 1: of rock and roll a listers like Elton John, You
Speaker 1: to The Who and Paul McCartney to sign on. The
Speaker 1: weather it thankfully cooperated. It was a beautiful summer's afternoon
Speaker 1: without a cloud in the sky. The same couldn't be
Speaker 1: said for inside the helicopter, which was fogged by the cigarettes.
Speaker 1: David anxiously chain smoked. The pilot could barely see his
Speaker 1: instrument panel through the haze, and begged him repeatedly to stop,
Speaker 1: but David just ignored him. He needed something to steady
Speaker 1: his nerves. His hands trembled as he drew each cigarette
Speaker 1: to his lips. Perhaps it was just the turbulence, but
Speaker 1: his whole body seemed to shake. It wasn't the prospect
Speaker 1: of following Queen that had him spooked. Heck those kids, please.
Speaker 1: He knew Freddie back when he was just another guy
Speaker 1: selling you's clothes at Kensington Market. David remembered him well.
Speaker 1: Freddie was on his hands and knees one day, fitting
Speaker 1: David with a pair of suede boots when he muttered
Speaker 1: something about starting a band of his own. David's only
Speaker 1: experience with success at that point was Space Oddity, but
Speaker 1: he was already pretty jaded. Why would you ever want
Speaker 1: to get into this business, he replied. Ultimately. Freddie didn't
Speaker 1: listen to David, probably for the best. From David's present
Speaker 1: point of view in the helicopter, he was doing quite well.
Speaker 1: Good for him, No following Queen wasn't a concern, nor
Speaker 1: was the prospect of performing for a televised audience of
Speaker 1: over a billion people in a hundred and ten countries
Speaker 1: around the globe. He wasn't even troubled by the fact
Speaker 1: that his band had only rehearsed three times. No, the
Speaker 1: problem was the twelve minute flight from central London to
Speaker 1: the stadium. You see, the starman hated to fly. After
Speaker 1: years of stubbornly refusing any sort of air travel, he'd
Speaker 1: begrudgingly begun taking planes. But helicopters. That was just ridiculous.
Speaker 1: What kind of death trap was this? How much longer?
Speaker 1: He constantly asked the pilot during their brief time in
Speaker 1: the air. But it was the only way to get
Speaker 1: to Wembley. Heavy traffic surrounding the stadium made it imposse
Speaker 1: able to get the steady stream of artists in and
Speaker 1: out in a timely manner. There was, after all, a
Speaker 1: strict schedule to keep The entire event had been timed
Speaker 1: with military precision to keep pace with the satellite broadcast
Speaker 1: of the corresponding concert occurring simultaneously across the Pond in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: Everything about the day had grown somewhat larger in scope
Speaker 1: than anyone in anticipated across the country. It was all
Speaker 1: anyone was talking about. There was no escaping it. As
Speaker 1: David drove to the helipad, he could hear the radio
Speaker 1: reports spilling out of every car on the road. The
Speaker 1: drive had taken him past the house where he was
Speaker 1: born in Brixton, and the sidewalks were eerily quiet. Everyone
Speaker 1: was indoors, glued to their television sets, all tuned to
Speaker 1: the same channel. No one had seen anything like this before,
Speaker 1: at least not since the moon landing. There was a
Speaker 1: similar sense of optimism in the air. The Union of
Speaker 1: Talent and Technology seemed to make good on the umanitarian
Speaker 1: promise of Woodstock a decade and a half earlier. The
Speaker 1: Flower children had grown up, and now they were in charge,
Speaker 1: and they were determined to use their power for good.
Speaker 1: It's a laughable notion when considering the greed is good
Speaker 1: ethos of the eighties, but just for one day, a
Speaker 1: brighter future seemed in reach. David's helicopter touched down in
Speaker 1: a cricket field behind Wembley, where a motorcid was on
Speaker 1: hand to whisk him inside the stadium. As he exited
Speaker 1: the car and as Cris Blue Suit, a hungry horde
Speaker 1: of two photographers scrambled to get their shot to the uninitiated.
Speaker 1: The firestorm of flash bulbs would seem terrifying, but he
Speaker 1: loved this bit. The nerves were gone, the flight was over,
Speaker 1: The hard part of the day was done. Now only
Speaker 1: had to do. Would sing a few songs in front
Speaker 1: of a billion people, a fifth of the planet. Only
Speaker 1: David Bowie can make him look easy. Hello and welcome
Speaker 1: to Off the Record, the show that goes beyond the
Speaker 1: songs and into the hearts and minds of rock's greatest legends.
Speaker 1: I'm your host Jordan Runtug. This season explores the life,
Speaker 1: or rather lives of David Bowie. Today's episode looks at
Speaker 1: David in the eighties, a time that saw him grow
Speaker 1: from a famous artist to a global superstar, A one
Speaker 1: man brand bolstered by the fresh force of MTV. David
Speaker 1: embraced the exponential growth of mass media and shamelessly corded
Speaker 1: mass popularity. He got it, but the success changed his
Speaker 1: reputation in a way that was irreversible. Up till then,
Speaker 1: he was the world's most famous outsider. To all who
Speaker 1: felt marginalized or misunderstood. He'd been a towering example of power, strength,
Speaker 1: grace and courage. Now his move to the mainstream read
Speaker 1: as a reject action of those who felt mothered and
Speaker 1: looked to him as their patron voice and guardian. Bowie
Speaker 1: himself would struggle with the impact of his creative choices
Speaker 1: in this period. Was he a sellout? It was a
Speaker 1: classic case of careful what you wish for. David Bowie
Speaker 1: closed out the seventies with the song that began it
Speaker 1: for him, Space Oddity. The saga of Major Tom had
Speaker 1: brought David his first notoriety, launching him into the decade
Speaker 1: he'd grow to dominate. Now, he unveiled a new version
Speaker 1: of the track on a New Year's Eve television special
Speaker 1: in Britain. Instead of the technical tour to force heard
Speaker 1: on the original, he delivered a stripped down acoustic rendition,
Speaker 1: just drums, piano and David's furiously strummed twelve string guitar.
Speaker 1: This new version was striking, almost shocking, and its sparsity.
Speaker 1: Instead of the lushly orchestrated lift off section, he offers
Speaker 1: just twelve seconds of silence. The interplay between ground control
Speaker 1: and major Tom becomes an intensely passionate, solitary vocal shorn
Speaker 1: of the production pyrotechnics, it goes from being a theater
Speaker 1: piece to something more personal. He was practically naked. David
Speaker 1: Bowie had been many things over the last ten years,
Speaker 1: but rarely as unadorned self. It was a fitting way
Speaker 1: to end the decade that, as one paper noted, would
Speaker 1: have been pretty boring without him. The musical book end
Speaker 1: not only appealed to his sense of dramatic symmetry, but
Speaker 1: also helped him in taking stock of the last ten years.
Speaker 1: The character of Major Tom had come to him in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine after years of commercial failures. It was
Speaker 1: a time when his dreams of artistic success were starting
Speaker 1: to fade. He had been dropped by his label and
Speaker 1: his girlfriend had just left him. Flash forward a decade.
Speaker 1: He was famous around the globe and was in the
Speaker 1: midst of a messy divorce. He'd gotten what he wants.
Speaker 1: It was it worth it? Knowingly or unknowingly. David and
Speaker 1: his doomed space Man had been on parallel journeys. Like
Speaker 1: Major Tom, David adventured out into the furthest regions of
Speaker 1: the human experience, far above the world. Also, like Major Tom,
Speaker 1: he felt like he'd had little choice in the matter. Sure,
Speaker 1: he'd signed up to go on the journey, but he
Speaker 1: hardly realized what it would entail. As the fame, drugs,
Speaker 1: business pressures, and personal problems mounted, he nearly drifted into
Speaker 1: the abyss. The force was just too much to alterra trajectory.
Speaker 1: Life became something that was inflicted on him a series
Speaker 1: of increasingly out there occurrences. Often this is the point
Speaker 1: when casualties occur. Yet through some combination of strength, will
Speaker 1: and luck, he regained control. Towards the end of his
Speaker 1: time in Berlin in the late seventies, he told a
Speaker 1: friend that he had quote grown up at last. David
Speaker 1: would face challenges and pain in the future, but he
Speaker 1: would never be quite as lost again. For a man
Speaker 1: who was loath to look backwards, processing his past would
Speaker 1: be a crucial part of moving forward. He'd long confounded
Speaker 1: critics with as many faces. Now he was searching for
Speaker 1: a through line. You have to accommodate your pasts within
Speaker 1: your persona, he'd later say, of the period. You have
Speaker 1: to understand why you went through them. You cannot just
Speaker 1: ignore them or put them out of your mind and
Speaker 1: pretend they didn't happen, or just say oh, I was different.
Speaker 1: Then he'd absorb all of his alter egos into one,
Speaker 1: a strong, self assured artist who could be whatever he
Speaker 1: wanted on demand. David Jones would just be David Bowie,
Speaker 1: the ultimate character. His reflective mood carried over into his creativity.
Speaker 1: David poured over old demos and session tapes as he
Speaker 1: geared up to start work on a new record. The
Speaker 1: remarkable three year creative streak with Brian Eno had yielded
Speaker 1: the groundbreaking records forever known as the Berlin Trilogy, but
Speaker 1: now their partnership was coming to an end. A new
Speaker 1: decade called for a fresh start. I felt I was
Speaker 1: becoming static, David would say, I wanted to break away.
Speaker 1: Every few years, I have to redefine what I'm writing.
Speaker 1: I had to do it when I went to Berlin,
Speaker 1: and now I had to do it again. His reacquaintance
Speaker 1: with Major Tom inspired him to write an update on
Speaker 1: the Spaceman saga, checking in to see what ten years
Speaker 1: had drift had done to him. The Astronauts journey had
Speaker 1: driven him the drugs. Now he was addicted and risk
Speaker 1: taking permanent leave of his senses. Once more, David used
Speaker 1: Major Tom as a lyrical proxy for himself. The song
Speaker 1: was called Ashes to Ashes, and he addressed listeners with
Speaker 1: uncharacteristic frankness. Do you remember a guy that's been in
Speaker 1: such an early song. I've heard a rumor from ground control.
Speaker 1: Oh no, don't say it's true. Ashes to Ashes, funk
Speaker 1: to funky. We know Major Tom's at junkie strung out
Speaker 1: in Heavens High, hitting an all time low too many.
Speaker 1: It seemed to be an almost literal depiction of his
Speaker 1: mid seventies crisis, a time when his music was going
Speaker 1: from the funk of young Americans to the supremely funky
Speaker 1: avant garde station, the station he battled substance abuse in
Speaker 1: the City of Angels, strung out in Heavens High. Then
Speaker 1: he departed for Europe, hitting an all time low that
Speaker 1: ultimately produced the album of the same name. But he
Speaker 1: saves the most damning lines for the lacerating lament of
Speaker 1: the bridge. I never done good things. I never done
Speaker 1: bad things. I never did anything out of the blue.
Speaker 1: Years later, David would single out the words as crucial
Speaker 1: to understanding as meaning those three particular lines represented in
Speaker 1: tinuing returning feeling of an adequacy over what I've done,
Speaker 1: He'd say, I have a lot of reservations about what
Speaker 1: I've done, inasmuch as I don't feel much of it
Speaker 1: as any import at all. Denigrating the image of the
Speaker 1: hero from his breakthrough hit was certainly a bold move
Speaker 1: for Bowie. The act of outlining Major Tom's tragic fall
Speaker 1: from Grace had much the same effect of killing off
Speaker 1: Siggy Stardust on stage. By destroying his own creation, is
Speaker 1: set him free to charge into the new decade, unfettered
Speaker 1: by his past. Perhaps that's why David called the track
Speaker 1: ashes to ashes in death. There was a rebirth if
Speaker 1: the song was a chronicle of the rough and tumble
Speaker 1: road that had led him to the eighties. The video
Speaker 1: featured his first overt acknowledgement of a younger generation of
Speaker 1: artists that had followed in the trail that he blazed.
Speaker 1: Such reckoning is always a bittersweet moment in a pop
Speaker 1: star's life. Rock and roll is, after all, a young
Speaker 1: person's game. By acknowledging the younger crowd, you admit that
Speaker 1: you're not a part of it. It's not a long,
Speaker 1: logical leap to consider yourself old. Being young didn't interest
Speaker 1: Bowie as much as being new, or at least perceived
Speaker 1: as such. Constant reinventions had staved off the inevitable staleness
Speaker 1: that comes with a long career in the public eye.
Speaker 1: But being fresh forever it was simply impossible. He was
Speaker 1: only thirty three, but he was already being treated as
Speaker 1: a star from another era. Time was no longer waiting
Speaker 1: in the wings, it was beating at his door. Was
Speaker 1: the dawn of the first post Bowie decade, and there
Speaker 1: was already a kind of ziggy revival taking place in Britain.
Speaker 1: The kids whose lives have been forever changed by watching
Speaker 1: David and Veils starman to the masses during his appearance
Speaker 1: on Top of the Pops eight years earlier. We're growing
Speaker 1: up now and in some cases already making names for themselves.
Speaker 1: Just look at bands like Joy Division, XTC, Susie and
Speaker 1: The Banshees, and a short time later you too. Even
Speaker 1: David's electro experiments with Eno inspired British kids to invest
Speaker 1: in since inform groups like Depeche Mode and The Human League.
Speaker 1: For a time, David paid little mind to these upstarts.
Speaker 1: Punk had passed him by completely. He'd been in Germany
Speaker 1: when the first wave it crested in London. Aside from
Speaker 1: his tour with Iggy Pop, he rarely engaged. But when
Speaker 1: he began to hear electro tinged art pop singles that
Speaker 1: seemed to his ears a little too close to his
Speaker 1: recent work, that got his attention real quick. They say
Speaker 1: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Despite David's reputation
Speaker 1: for borrowing influences and styles freely, he wasn't exactly gracious
Speaker 1: when people paid him the same uh compliment. David was
Speaker 1: more tolerant of a new subculture springing up around London
Speaker 1: known as the New Romantics. Most were recovering punks who
Speaker 1: become distancing themselves from the movement due to a combination
Speaker 1: of changing tastes and it's increasing reputation for attracting skinheads
Speaker 1: and nationalists. Instead, many punks reverted back to the glam
Speaker 1: rock that they've been raised on. The alternative attitude in
Speaker 1: general flamboyance that had led them to mohawks and piercings
Speaker 1: made them feel right at home in the theatrical realm
Speaker 1: of ziggy They suited up in velvet and ruffles, and
Speaker 1: decked themselves out and costom jewelry and elaborate sexually ambiguous makeup,
Speaker 1: setting the stage for new waivers like Boy George and
Speaker 1: Duran Duran. The burst of nostalgia for the early seventies
Speaker 1: sparked renewed passion for Bowie. New romantic dance clubs held
Speaker 1: dedicated Bowie Knights where they blasted Jeane Genie and Rebel
Speaker 1: Rebel like it was still in three The most famous
Speaker 1: of these hot spots was called Blitz, a wine bar
Speaker 1: inexplicably decorated with images of the Nazi blitz Creeg from
Speaker 1: World War Two. Every Tuesday, hundreds of Bowie fans turned
Speaker 1: up in their glam finery, forming a line that stretched
Speaker 1: around the block. Admission was not guaranteed. They had a
Speaker 1: pretty strict door policy. Even Mick Jagger was turned away
Speaker 1: one night, supposedly for being drunk and borish. But when
Speaker 1: Bowie himself showed up to Bowie Knight, they were a
Speaker 1: little more accommodating. Hell, it was like God himself had
Speaker 1: showed up, and the crowds parted like the Red Sea.
Speaker 1: He'd come not just to check out the scene, but
Speaker 1: also the recruit extras for the Ashes to Ashes music video,
Speaker 1: due to be filmed later that week. He rounded up
Speaker 1: a handful of suitably stylish clubvers and told them to
Speaker 1: meet at his hotel on a few days. To these
Speaker 1: Bowie worshippers, it was like they died and gotten to Heaven.
Speaker 1: It wasn't heaven exactly, but a frigid beach on the
Speaker 1: English coast, not much to look at in person, but
Speaker 1: director David Mallett worked as technical magic, turning the visuals
Speaker 1: into with jarring fever dream fantasy, using the early computer
Speaker 1: graphics program Paintbox the radically alter the colors of the film.
Speaker 1: He rendered the sky a hallucinogenic black and the ocean pink.
Speaker 1: So it seems slightly dated now, this was some of
Speaker 1: the earliest technology available to achieved such an effect, and
Speaker 1: its use added to the exorbitant cost of the video
Speaker 1: some five hundred thousand dollars then or almost two million
Speaker 1: dollars today, making it the most expensive video ever made
Speaker 1: at the time. Bowie appears in several guys is, most
Speaker 1: notably a puro style clown that recalls his early mime days.
Speaker 1: He also donned outfits for a major tom like astronaut
Speaker 1: and an impatient at a psych ward, quite possibly a
Speaker 1: reference to his half brother Terry. He strolls the beach
Speaker 1: draped in these relics of his past, as the new
Speaker 1: Romantic Kids follow quite literally in his footsteps. The clip
Speaker 1: would be a pivotal moment in the history of music videos,
Speaker 1: helping kick off the MTV age a year early. The
Speaker 1: song would be the centerpiece of the new album. David
Speaker 1: began recording with Tony Visconti in February of Night after
Speaker 1: years of plucking song fragments from studio experimentations with Eno
Speaker 1: or jam sessions with his band. These sessions mark David's
Speaker 1: returns to slightly more traditional composition. Rather than improvised the
Speaker 1: lyrics as he'd done for much of the Berlin trilogy,
Speaker 1: he took a two month break to craft the words
Speaker 1: and melodies. His focused approach is reflected in the songs,
Speaker 1: among the most melodic and commercial that he'd produced in years.
Speaker 1: In addition to Ashes to Ashes, another highlight was Fashion,
Speaker 1: a relentless dance stomper that took aim at slaves the style.
Speaker 1: In a way. It was the spiritual sequel to his
Speaker 1: song Fane. Deconstructing the image that was so essential to
Speaker 1: the very notion of celebrity. He tackled a similar subject
Speaker 1: on teenage Wildlife on the flip side, Screamed Like a
Speaker 1: Baby is an unsettling tale the ugly price one pays
Speaker 1: for failing to fit in the society. The paranoid themes
Speaker 1: continue on the song Scary Monsters, which finds David running
Speaker 1: scared from a stalker. The track would lend its name
Speaker 1: to the album's ultimate title, Scary Monsters and Super Creeps.
Speaker 1: The record was released in September of nineteen eighty, just
Speaker 1: in time for David to conquer a new stage Broadway.
Speaker 1: That summary had been offered the lead role in the
Speaker 1: production of The Elephant Man. The show was based on
Speaker 1: the life of John Merrick, a severely deformed man whose
Speaker 1: job as a circus attraction at the turn of the
Speaker 1: century earned him a living but little compassion. David threw
Speaker 1: himself into preparation for the role with his usual verve.
Speaker 1: He embarked on a self directed research trip, visiting the
Speaker 1: British hospital where Marek had been treated. He examined his clothes,
Speaker 1: including the hood he had been forced to wear to
Speaker 1: shield his disfigured face from the public. He even saw
Speaker 1: his misshapen skeleton, a testament to the extreme physical pain
Speaker 1: that Merrik constantly endured, exacerbating his emotional anguish. The experience
Speaker 1: left David in tears. It evoked his strongest boyhood feeling
Speaker 1: of being alone. He was especially moved by the model
Speaker 1: Church America, constructed out of cardboard, a poignant symbol of
Speaker 1: his desire for beauty and tranquility in his own troubled life.
Speaker 1: David felt a kinship for the late Merrick. Both were smart, articulate,
Speaker 1: sensitive souls who spent much of their life as performers
Speaker 1: being dismissed as freaks. His co stars were the first
Speaker 1: to witness David's stunning portrayal of Merrek. His talent was
Speaker 1: bigger than his ego, which is rare. One cast mate
Speaker 1: would recall David has showed makeup and prosthetics, fearing that
Speaker 1: it would reduce the character to a caricature. Instead, he
Speaker 1: played him the hard way, with grotesque facial ticks and
Speaker 1: torturous movements. The expressions of physical agony were so intense
Speaker 1: that he required chiropractic treatment after each performance. His background
Speaker 1: as a musician made him an excellent listener, a subtle
Speaker 1: but crucial skill that all actors must master. The winning
Speaker 1: instant praise from his cast mates the pre show jitters remained,
Speaker 1: as he told journalists at the time, this is the
Speaker 1: most terrifying position I've ever put myself in. Ever. The
Speaker 1: show was scheduled to open in Denver that July, before
Speaker 1: moving briefly to Chicago and finally Broadway. David stood backstage
Speaker 1: minutes before the curtain went up for his first performance,
Speaker 1: very seriously wondering what on earth am I doing? He
Speaker 1: needed the worried the show was a triumph, So is
Speaker 1: his Broadway debut that September, which drew a dazzling array
Speaker 1: of figures from David's past, like Elizabeth Taylor and Andy Warhol.
Speaker 1: Even his former manager Ken Pitt flew over from England
Speaker 1: to catch a performance. He always knew that David had
Speaker 1: what it took to be an actor, even when David
Speaker 1: himself couldn't care less, and he was thrilled to see
Speaker 1: him on the Great White Way. The reviews were effusive,
Speaker 1: and so were the groups of Bowie die hards who
Speaker 1: couldn't resist shouting Starman or Ziggy at some point during
Speaker 1: each show. The cast grew to expect it. They were
Speaker 1: disturbed to see how closely David's life mirrored that of
Speaker 1: the circus freak he played on the stage. Everywhere he
Speaker 1: went he was chased by mobs of people. Yes, they
Speaker 1: loved him, but it was frightening. Nonetheless, for one show,
Speaker 1: he had to be driven to the theater hidden in
Speaker 1: a garbage truck and slithered into the venue through a
Speaker 1: basement window. When the show towards Chicago, major hotels were
Speaker 1: unable to guarantee his privacy, so David was forced to
Speaker 1: stay at a grubby apartment above a local department store.
Speaker 1: Even then, his residence was discovered and his clothes were
Speaker 1: stolen by over zealous fans. If he could even call
Speaker 1: them fans, it was hard to tell. The line got
Speaker 1: even more blurred when the cast recognized the same group
Speaker 1: of six girls who showed up to every performance for
Speaker 1: a week. They were kind of hard to miss, always
Speaker 1: in the front row, with funky clothes and dyed hair.
Speaker 1: At first, they thought the kids were just unusually devoted.
Speaker 1: Bowie remembered the sweet dedication of the Sigma kids back
Speaker 1: in Philly. Then one night, during curtain call, the six
Speaker 1: girls stood up in tandem, clutching metallic items from their purses.
Speaker 1: Security intervened before they could get very far and hustled
Speaker 1: them out of the building, but it was still unsettling.
Speaker 1: David never found out what they intended to do, but
Speaker 1: it's doubtful that it was anything good. David arrived home
Speaker 1: there was Manhattan Loft on the night of December eight
Speaker 1: and heard the news John Lennon had been shot murdered
Speaker 1: outside his Upper West Side apartment. His wife, Yoko Ono,
Speaker 1: was at his side. They were coming home to tuck
Speaker 1: in their five year old son. David's mind went blank.
Speaker 1: The information was impossible to process. His initial numbness soon
Speaker 1: gave way to anger. What the hell is going on
Speaker 1: with this world? He repeatedly screamed between tears. He would
Speaker 1: recall A whole piece of my life seemed to have
Speaker 1: been taken away, A whole reason for being a singer
Speaker 1: and songwriter seemed to be removed from me. It was
Speaker 1: almost like a warning. He was left with his memories.
Speaker 1: John had gone from a hero to a mentor, an
Speaker 1: elder brother who advised him on business. Being a celebrity
Speaker 1: and had to communicate effectively and efficiently through music. It's
Speaker 1: very easy, John told him as they collaborated on the
Speaker 1: track fame In. Say what you mean, make it rhyme
Speaker 1: and put a backbeat to it. It was classic Lennin, honest, unpretentious,
Speaker 1: and achingly sincere. More than just a giver of sage
Speaker 1: rock star advice, Lennin was a good friend. A few
Speaker 1: years back, they bumped into each other by sheer chance
Speaker 1: at a hotel in Hong Kong. David was passing through
Speaker 1: following a tour with Iggy Pop. John was just on vacation,
Speaker 1: a favorite activity after clearing up his immigration issues that
Speaker 1: have prevented him from traveling for much the seventies. He
Speaker 1: loved setting out for far flung locales with just a
Speaker 1: small briefcase containing his wallet and a T shirt. He
Speaker 1: was a freeman. As soon as Lennon and David saw
Speaker 1: each other in Hong Kong, the fund began instantly. First,
Speaker 1: they went to a fancy resort restaurant, but the atmosphere
Speaker 1: proved too stuffy, so they went for a swim, and
Speaker 1: then they browsed the street markets, where John found the
Speaker 1: kiosks that sold Beatle style jackets. He couldn't resist posing
Speaker 1: in one for Bowie's polaroid camera. As the day grew late,
Speaker 1: they slunk around the backstreets to, according to David, at
Speaker 1: least find a place to eat monkey brains. Members of
Speaker 1: a Chinese gang recognized the two superstars and brought them
Speaker 1: to a back room, where they persuaded them to take
Speaker 1: shots of snake's blood, which got them hopelessly stoned. John
Speaker 1: then tricked David into eating something called a thousand day egg,
Speaker 1: an egg cooked in urine and buried a manure not
Speaker 1: for a thousand days, but was disgusting all the same.
Speaker 1: The rest of the night was a bit of a blur.
Speaker 1: They wound up at a strip club, were excited patrons
Speaker 1: bought them an unhealthy number of beers. John, who was
Speaker 1: never great at handling his booze, started mouthing off, and
Speaker 1: soon they were escorted out. The scene ended with an
Speaker 1: indignant John pounding on the door shouting, let me back in.
Speaker 1: I'm a freaking beetle. The mere mention of the B
Speaker 1: words sent Bowie into hysterics. He'd never seen him pull.
Speaker 1: The FAB four card was now the middle of the
Speaker 1: night outside of back Alley Hong Kong strip club. Really
Speaker 1: the time I can't believe you said that, David said,
Speaker 1: between tears of laughter, Say it again, I dare you.
Speaker 1: I'm a freaking beatle, Jump bellowed as they both collapsed
Speaker 1: in heaps of giggles. And now he was gone. It
Speaker 1: was inconceivable. The shocking crime hit so close to home,
Speaker 1: and it could have been even closer. Detectives told David
Speaker 1: that he was next on the hit list of Lennon's killer.
Speaker 1: Investigators reportedly found a flyer for The Elephant Man in
Speaker 1: the Gunman's Hotel room with David's name circled in black.
Speaker 1: He bought a front row ticket for the production, scheduled
Speaker 1: the day after Lennon's murder. It was a fallback if
Speaker 1: his deadly mission with John failed. He would wait for
Speaker 1: David at the stage door of the Booth Theater, named
Speaker 1: for the brother of John Wilkes Booth, who shot Abraham
Speaker 1: Lincoln in the middle of a play. In another erie coincidence,
Speaker 1: John and Yoko also had front row seats for the
Speaker 1: same show as John's murderer. None of them made it.
Speaker 1: When David stood before the spotlight that night, he found
Speaker 1: it hard not to focus on the three empty seats
Speaker 1: just beyond the stage. I can't tell you how difficult
Speaker 1: that was to go on. He later said, I almost
Speaker 1: didn't make it through the performance. The producers offered to
Speaker 1: let David take some time off from the Elephant Man,
Speaker 1: but David wouldn't hear of it. He also declined and
Speaker 1: their offers to rework the show, minimizing the amount of
Speaker 1: time that he needed to be on stage. But he
Speaker 1: did take other precautions. He hired a bodyguard, an ex
Speaker 1: Navy seal who was trained to kill. This was a
Speaker 1: common response after Lennon's murder in the Rock community. Keith
Speaker 1: Richards took it a step further, carrying a gun for
Speaker 1: self protection. David and others took courses designed to teach
Speaker 1: high profile figures to interact with fans and the safest
Speaker 1: possible way, educating them on possible warning signs and threats
Speaker 1: from stalkers or even killers. Intimate encounters like he'd had
Speaker 1: with the Sigma Kids in Philly all those years ago,
Speaker 1: were now a thing of the past. John and David
Speaker 1: had both loved New York for the freedom had offered
Speaker 1: they could go out together and stroll the streets without
Speaker 1: any hassle. For brief moments they could live normal lives.
Speaker 1: Two days before his death, John marveled at these simple
Speaker 1: pleasures to a journalist, I can go out this door
Speaker 1: right now and go to a restaurant. Do you want
Speaker 1: to know how great that is? For David, that freedom
Speaker 1: was over and he never did get it back. David
Speaker 1: told producers that he planned to leave The Elephant Man
Speaker 1: after his contract was up. He performed his final show
Speaker 1: on January four, just weeks after the murder. A proposed
Speaker 1: stadium tour for his new album, Scary Monsters and Super
Speaker 1: Creeps was abandoned. Instead, he returned to his home in Switzerland.
Speaker 1: The Scary Monsters and Super Creeps were just too real.
Speaker 1: After David took his final bows for The Elephant Man
Speaker 1: in January of one, he returned to his home in Switzerland,
Speaker 1: where he secluded himself for the better part of a year.
Speaker 1: Instead of music, he said his focus on being an attentive,
Speaker 1: loving father to his son, Zoe, who was nearing his
Speaker 1: tenth birthday that spring. David had been an infrequent presence
Speaker 1: in the boys early years, often called away for tours
Speaker 1: and recording dates. Now he was eager to make up
Speaker 1: for lost time. He was a hands on dad, driving
Speaker 1: Zoe to school and visiting on parents night. When David
Speaker 1: had dinners with rock star friends like Mick Jagger and
Speaker 1: Keith Richards, he brought Zoe along and bragged about the
Speaker 1: boys skill on the sports field. They went on trips
Speaker 1: to the zoo and even on safari to Kenya. They
Speaker 1: bonded over many things, but music wasn't one of them.
Speaker 1: Zoe would sit backstage at David's concerts, bored out of
Speaker 1: his mind, waiting for Dad to finish work so they
Speaker 1: could go home. Performance life just didn't interest him. David
Speaker 1: gave Zoe an impressive assortment of instruments to try to
Speaker 1: spark his interest saxophone, guitar, piano, drums, but it just
Speaker 1: wasn't happening. Instead, Zoe was much more taken by their
Speaker 1: movie nights. Dvid would sometimes wheel out a primitive video
Speaker 1: player the size of a shopping cart for Star Wars
Speaker 1: viewing parties with friends. David fostered the boys growing passion
Speaker 1: by getting him an eight millimeter camera and showing him
Speaker 1: how to make little stop motion films with his toy
Speaker 1: action figures. He also taught him the basic process of
Speaker 1: movie making like storyboarding, screenwriting, lighting and editing, sowing the
Speaker 1: seeds for his future career as a successful film director,
Speaker 1: and there is legal name Duncan Jones. In many ways,
Speaker 1: they were less like father and son and more like
Speaker 1: a pair of brothers, with David learning as much from
Speaker 1: Zoe as the boy did from him. Having a son
Speaker 1: helped cure David of his more nihilistic tendencies a decade earlier.
Speaker 1: His work reflected a man obsessed with dystopia and the apocalypse.
Speaker 1: As he's sang on the Diamond Dogs track, you'll be
Speaker 1: shooting up on anything. Tomorrow's never there. Now he was
Speaker 1: a little more optimistic about a bright future. My son
Speaker 1: keeps me remembering that there is a tomorrow, he'd say.
Speaker 1: For someone who's fearlessly freaky as David, he could be
Speaker 1: a surprisingly straight laced dad. He later enrolled the boy
Speaker 1: in the highly disciplined and also highly exclusive British boarding
Speaker 1: school Gordonston, which counted Prince Charles and other members of
Speaker 1: the royal family among its all male graduates. When Zoe
Speaker 1: dyed his hair a punkish green and red as a teen,
Speaker 1: David was aghast, and he uttered that famous phrase familiar
Speaker 1: to parents all over the world. You are not going
Speaker 1: out looking like that. Even Zoe had to laugh at
Speaker 1: the absurdity of it all. David Bowie was telling him
Speaker 1: that he looked weird. In addition to being a better father,
Speaker 1: David did all he could to be a better son.
Speaker 1: His relationship with his mother, Peggy had never been an
Speaker 1: easy one, especially since she grumbled about him in the
Speaker 1: press back in the mid seventies. Over time, they reached
Speaker 1: a tentative understanding, and slowly the iciness between them began
Speaker 1: the fall. David kept his distance, but he was sure
Speaker 1: to send your tickets to his shows, which she attended
Speaker 1: with pride. Nine eight gig in London was the scene
Speaker 1: of a minor breakthrough. Peggy was sitting in a private
Speaker 1: box thumbing through her copy of the tour program. When
Speaker 1: the door opened. There stood David in full makeup and
Speaker 1: stage costume, grinning from ear to ear. They hadn't seen
Speaker 1: each other face to face and so long for a moment.
Speaker 1: Peggy was dumb struck before blurting out, you didn't have
Speaker 1: to come up here and see me, David replied, you're
Speaker 1: my mum. That this minor courtesy was a big deal.
Speaker 1: Gives some indication of how strained their relationship had been,
Speaker 1: but the baby steps added up. He flew Peggy to
Speaker 1: New York to see him in The Elephant Man, introducing
Speaker 1: her to each member of the cast and crew. They
Speaker 1: exchanged letters, spent holidays together, and fell into a routine
Speaker 1: of warm, regular contact. I've gotten closer to her, David
Speaker 1: said at the time. I think the recognition of the
Speaker 1: frailty of age makes one more sympathetic to the earlier
Speaker 1: strains of the parent child relationship. For much of one
Speaker 1: David was unusually absent from the columns of entertainment magazines
Speaker 1: and trade papers. Several unfavorable contracts were due to expire
Speaker 1: the following year, and he was more than content to
Speaker 1: wait them out. One was with his former manager, Tony
Speaker 1: de Freeze. The lawsuit that terminated their partnership seven years
Speaker 1: earlier gave the Frieze a sizeable percentage of David's record income.
Speaker 1: Through everything David released till then, the Frieze got a
Speaker 1: chunk of the sales. As a result, David was less
Speaker 1: than motivated to get back in the studio. He didn't
Speaker 1: like the idea of making his ex associate rich off
Speaker 1: his own Sweat and Blood. David's deal with his label
Speaker 1: r c A was also up in two. He'd become
Speaker 1: disillusioned with his longtime musical home, especially after the tepid
Speaker 1: response to his Berlin experiments with Brian Eno. All c
Speaker 1: A had responded to Low, an album that's now hailed
Speaker 1: as a groundbreaking masterpiece, by sending him a formal rejection letter.
Speaker 1: David had to throw his weight around to get it
Speaker 1: released as he saw fit. The incident left him convinced
Speaker 1: that our Cier had lost faith in him as an artist.
Speaker 1: He believed they weren't promoting his new work, instead preferring
Speaker 1: to repackage is more commercial past on greatest hits albums
Speaker 1: and other cash in collections. They viewed him as a product,
Speaker 1: pure and simple, he thought, and he wanted out as
Speaker 1: soon as possible. David's two major musical offerings from one
Speaker 1: We're both collaborations. The first was the title song for
Speaker 1: the film Cat People, which saw him pair with the
Speaker 1: Italian electro pioneer Georgio Moroder, famous for Donna Summer's robo
Speaker 1: disco hits, interesting but mostly as a curio in the
Speaker 1: Bowie cannon. The other song as a somewhat bigger reputation.
Speaker 1: It began David was recording Cat People and Mountains studios
Speaker 1: in Montrose, Switzerland. By chance, Queen was working at the
Speaker 1: studio next door. David decided to stop by and say
Speaker 1: hello to the band. He'd known those guys since forever.
Speaker 1: David remembered Freddie Mercury standing down front at his early gigs,
Speaker 1: practically taking notes on his flamboyant attire and stage moves.
Speaker 1: His influence on Queen was no secret, but they had
Speaker 1: the musical talent and originality to pull it off, David
Speaker 1: would admit. Of all the more theatrical rock performers, Freddie
Speaker 1: took it further than the rest. Queen was in the
Speaker 1: midst of recording their album Hot Space. Initially, they tossed
Speaker 1: around the idea of David's singing background on the song.
Speaker 1: They were working on, a slinky R and B number
Speaker 1: called cool Cats, but it just wasn't coming together. Instead,
Speaker 1: they started jamming on an unfinished Queen song called Feel Like.
Speaker 1: Freddie and David faced off for an improvised vocal battle,
Speaker 1: each trying to outdo the other. Was Scott Syllables sung
Speaker 1: with superhuman levels of passion. The music coalesced around a
Speaker 1: repetitive riff by bassist John Deacon. It became the hallmark
Speaker 1: of the song under Pressure. Neither Bowie or Queen or
Speaker 1: sure whether it should ever see the light of day.
Speaker 1: It seemed too raw, almost half baked. Eventually, someone on
Speaker 1: the business end realized that a duet between the two
Speaker 1: biggest British music acts of the last decade would probably
Speaker 1: do quite well. It did, reaching number one in the UK.
Speaker 1: Under Pressure was released on Queen's label E M I.
Speaker 1: David was in no mood to give our ci a
Speaker 1: something good instead for the final release he owed them.
Speaker 1: Before his contract was up, David turned in a five
Speaker 1: song EP the soundtrack to the play by Berthold Brecht
Speaker 1: called Ball. David had grown fascinated by the German dramatist
Speaker 1: during his years living in Berlin, and eagerly accepted a
Speaker 1: role in a version of the play broadcast on the
Speaker 1: BBC in March of now teen two. Like most of
Speaker 1: David's finest performances, the role wasn't too much of a stretch.
Speaker 1: The character of Ball was a wandering, sexually promiscuous, egocentric
Speaker 1: poet who occasionally drank too much. In short, the classic
Speaker 1: Brectian anti hero. It was a role David was born
Speaker 1: to play. The performance earned praise, as did the soundtrack.
Speaker 1: As a piece of art, it had all the integrity
Speaker 1: in the world. The tasteful arrangements were recorded at Hansa's
Speaker 1: studios in Berlin. Was some of Breck's original pit musicians,
Speaker 1: and David's vocals were strong, showcasing his range in a
Speaker 1: way he seldom could in his pop career. But baroque
Speaker 1: stylings of tragic chance from an early twentieth century drama.
Speaker 1: This was never destined to set the charts on fire.
Speaker 1: It seemed like Bowie's perverse revenge against our Cer for
Speaker 1: dismissing Low and the rest of his Berlin trilogy. It
Speaker 1: was like he was saying that wasn't uncommercial. I'll show
Speaker 1: you uncommercial. In any event, the release ended dave It's
Speaker 1: association with our c a closing a chapter that began
Speaker 1: with Hunky Dorry in vent One. One of the last
Speaker 1: links to his past was now severed. Before diving back
Speaker 1: into the rock and roll rat race, Bowie spent most
Speaker 1: of nine eight two further developing his acting chops. He
Speaker 1: appeared in two feature film roles that year. The first
Speaker 1: was The Hunger, an overwrought vampire flick most notable for
Speaker 1: its sensationalized love affair between leading ladies Kathine Deneuve and
Speaker 1: Susan Sarandon. The movie was directed by Tony Scott, whose
Speaker 1: brother Ridley had directed David in an ice cream advertisement
Speaker 1: back in nineteen sixty nine. Ridley Scott had graduated from
Speaker 1: Ads to Blade Runner by this point, but The Hunger
Speaker 1: was not blade Runner. Bowie plays an eighteenth century vampire
Speaker 1: living in modern day New York, tarling Manhattan's discos for
Speaker 1: Blood Don't Us. Following The Elephant Man and Ball, The
Speaker 1: Hunger was lowbrow in the extreme. It was build rather
Speaker 1: optimistically as a modern classic of perverse fear. Well, they
Speaker 1: had the perverse part right at least. The movie was
Speaker 1: panned upon its release, but filming was not without its
Speaker 1: high points. David and Susan Sarandon enjoyed a brief affair,
Speaker 1: though her radical liberal tirade started a grade on him
Speaker 1: after a while. Zoe also visited him on the set,
Speaker 1: further stoking his passion for movie making. He was there
Speaker 1: the day they shot the scene where David's character ages
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty years. Unfortunately, no one warned the
Speaker 1: poor kid and he burst into tears at the side
Speaker 1: of his father. As an ultra elderly man. David, on
Speaker 1: the other hand, loved the makeup because he could walk
Speaker 1: around in public completely unnoticed. On more than one occasion
Speaker 1: he snuck out to the pub to have a rare
Speaker 1: taste at true privacy. Filming brought him back to England
Speaker 1: for his first substantial stay in years, and as a rival,
Speaker 1: brought a flood of unhappy memories. Many concerned his elder
Speaker 1: half brother Terry. After years of being shuttled in and
Speaker 1: out of the Cane Hills Psychiatric Hospital, Terry could bear
Speaker 1: it no longer. He threw himself out of a second
Speaker 1: story window of the facility in an apparent attempt to
Speaker 1: take his own life. He suffered a fractured arm and leg,
Speaker 1: but survived. A few weeks later, hospital staff were stunned
Speaker 1: when David turned up to see Terry bearing gifts of cigarettes, books,
Speaker 1: and a cassette player. They hadn't seen one another in years,
Speaker 1: and spent an hour talking alone, just the two of them,
Speaker 1: just like they did in their bedroom while those years ago.
Speaker 1: Then it was time to go. David promised Terry he'd return.
Speaker 1: Terry excitedly told his nurses that his famous little brother
Speaker 1: was coming back to rescue him and take him away
Speaker 1: from this terrible place. His brother was David Bowie. You know,
Speaker 1: he could do anything. But David never came back. One
Speaker 1: of his aunts took shots at him in the press,
Speaker 1: accusing him of ignoring his stricken brother, turning his back
Speaker 1: on the family, and generally being heartless. But of course
Speaker 1: that wasn't true. David certainly never stopped loving Terry. He
Speaker 1: would be one of the most influential figures in his life,
Speaker 1: but the bonds between them had been broken beyond repair.
Speaker 1: The man David had known in his youth, the wild,
Speaker 1: free thinker who set his soul alight with beat, poetry
Speaker 1: and free jazz, it was no longer there. He was gone,
Speaker 1: consumed by mental illness. Authentic communication was made all but impossible.
Speaker 1: David would say, I've never been able to get through
Speaker 1: to Terry about how he really feels. I guess nobody has.
Speaker 1: Seeing what his beloved brother had become was too much
Speaker 1: to bear. A painful reminder of what had been and
Speaker 1: what will never be again. Once The Hunger wrapped, Dave
Speaker 1: had left England for the South Pacific to shoot his
Speaker 1: part in the World War two drama Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.
Speaker 1: It was something of a one eighty from The Hunger.
Speaker 1: David played a British prisoner of war, a man racked
Speaker 1: with guilt for failing to protect his handicapped brother throughout
Speaker 1: his tormented childhood. Once again, David found himself in a
Speaker 1: role that allowed him to draw on feelings from the
Speaker 1: depths of his soul. He would admit as much when
Speaker 1: speaking to a reporter when the film opened at the
Speaker 1: con Film Festival in three. I found in the character
Speaker 1: all too many areas of guilt and shortcomings that are
Speaker 1: a part of me, he said. I feel tremendous guilt
Speaker 1: because I grew so apart from my family. I hardly
Speaker 1: ever see my mother, and I have a half brother
Speaker 1: I don't see anymore. It was my fault. We grew
Speaker 1: apart and it's painful, but somehow there's no going back.
Speaker 1: By the end of two, David was finally free of
Speaker 1: his legal obligations to his record label and his former manager.
Speaker 1: I'm massive psychic weight had been lifted, and he also
Speaker 1: stood to make a great deal of money for the
Speaker 1: first time in his professional life. An enormous portion of
Speaker 1: his income wouldn't be going to management. If there was
Speaker 1: ever a time to score a massive smash, this would
Speaker 1: be it, though it's strange to think now. Up to
Speaker 1: this point, David had never been a commercial success on
Speaker 1: a truly global scale. His base in England had always
Speaker 1: been kind to him since breaking UK sales records with
Speaker 1: Ziggy Stardus back in two British fans could always be
Speaker 1: counted on to push his releases into the upper echelons
Speaker 1: of the charts, but aside from his duet with Queen,
Speaker 1: his top forty success in the US was limited to
Speaker 1: just three singles in Young Americans Fame and Golden Years.
Speaker 1: His albums were well reviewed and sold in healthy numbers,
Speaker 1: and he was certainly known around the world, but more
Speaker 1: as a character than as a commercial force. It had
Speaker 1: always been part of his illusion, dating back to his
Speaker 1: main Man days project the image of success, but totald
Speaker 1: gargantuan blockbuster sales figures had so far eluded him. With
Speaker 1: his next record, he wanted to change that. The incentives
Speaker 1: were many. He would make a mint with his new
Speaker 1: financial deal and stick it to his ex associates, who
Speaker 1: had doubted him for the first time since showcasing his
Speaker 1: avant garde streak on Station A Station nearly seven years earlier.
Speaker 1: He would actively pursue a hit. More than that, he
Speaker 1: would wage an all out assault on the worldwide music markets.
Speaker 1: Now into his mid thirties, practically ancient in rock terms,
Speaker 1: he was aware that it may be his last chance.
Speaker 1: He cleaned house creatively just weeks before sessions were due
Speaker 1: to begin for his new album. He parted company with
Speaker 1: his tried and true co producer Tony Visconti, a friend
Speaker 1: since the sixties and the guiding hand during the Berlin
Speaker 1: Trilogy and Scary Monsters record. Instead, he turned to Nile Rodgers.
Speaker 1: Nile helped to find the sound of the late seventies
Speaker 1: with the quicksilver electro funk of his band Chic and
Speaker 1: the chart topping single t He'd produced for Diana Ross
Speaker 1: and Sister Sledge, But the anti disco backlash at the
Speaker 1: start of the decade had been hard on Nile two.
Speaker 1: He'd had a string of flops. Like so many important
Speaker 1: meetings in Bowie's life, it happened by chance or at
Speaker 1: least carefully arranged happenstance. They met in the fall of
Speaker 1: two at an ultra hit Manhattan nightclub called The Continental.
Speaker 1: Nile walked in just before closing time with Billie Idol,
Speaker 1: who was a little worse for the wear. Suddenly, Billy's
Speaker 1: eyes grew wide. There's David Bowie, he exclaimed, or at
Speaker 1: least that's what he was trying to say. The word
Speaker 1: Bowie was slightly obscured by the vomit that suddenly sprayed
Speaker 1: out of his mouth. Nile was shocked, and not by
Speaker 1: his friends poorly times spew that was David Bowie. He
Speaker 1: was expecting ziggy stardust, not this average look guy drinking
Speaker 1: an orange juice by himself. Hell, the guy was in
Speaker 1: a suit. This was the early eighties. Everyone had shoulder
Speaker 1: pads and fox tails hanging off their jackets. David was
Speaker 1: the least freaky guy in the place. Despite the inauspicious start,
Speaker 1: their intro would prove memorable. Nyland David hit it off
Speaker 1: right away. R and B was an immediate point of connection.
Speaker 1: Nile was old friends with David's Young Americans era collaborators
Speaker 1: like Carlos Alamar Luther Vandross and Dennis Davis like them.
Speaker 1: He was impressed by the depth of David's musical knowledge.
Speaker 1: They talked till dawn. Then a few days later, David
Speaker 1: s Nile the producer's next album just like that, but
Speaker 1: he had a crucial directive Nile, David said, I really
Speaker 1: want you to make hits. They met up a short
Speaker 1: time later at David's new home at Chateau style Residents
Speaker 1: in the Swiss town of Blazon. The purpose of the
Speaker 1: visit was mostly just to get to know one and there.
Speaker 1: It all seemed casual, but Nile recognized that he was
Speaker 1: being programmed. David was downloading his influences into his new collaborator.
Speaker 1: They thumbed through copies of his extensive vinyl collection, poring
Speaker 1: over the vibrant, colorful album covers from the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 1: some of which he'd purchased as a boy back in Bromley.
Speaker 1: The Isley Brothers doing Twist and Shout, Henry Mancini's swinging
Speaker 1: theme to Peter Gunn, James Brown Elmore, James Johnny Otis,
Speaker 1: Stan Kenton. This was the stuff that had made him
Speaker 1: want to make music in the first place. He'd recently
Speaker 1: become reacquainted with these oldies, passing the long hours on
Speaker 1: film sets with homemade mixtapes. It was very non uptight music,
Speaker 1: and it comes from a sense of pleasure and happiness.
Speaker 1: He'd later explained. There's an enthusiasm and optimism on those recordings.
Speaker 1: David showed Nile a vintage shot of his hero Little Richard,
Speaker 1: looking too cool for this world in a red suit,
Speaker 1: hopping into his red Cadillac convertible. Even though it was
Speaker 1: from the past, it also looked like it could be
Speaker 1: from the future, Nile Darling, David said as he pointed
Speaker 1: to the image. I want the album to sound like this.
Speaker 1: David walked into Nile's bedroom one morning, strumming a new
Speaker 1: song and his old war torn twelve string guitar. It
Speaker 1: sounded almost folky, like something Peter, Paul and Mary or
Speaker 1: the Birds would have done. I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a hit, David said. Nile didn't quite get it at first.
Speaker 1: He thought it was a prank or even some kind
Speaker 1: of a test. He called a mutual friend in New
Speaker 1: York to get a gut check. Would David play me
Speaker 1: a crappy song just to see if I'm some sort
Speaker 1: of a yes man. The answer came back no, so
Speaker 1: David was serious. That meant Nile had his work cut
Speaker 1: out for him. David called the song Let's Dance, but
Speaker 1: how the hell was anyone going to dance to that?
Speaker 1: He'd have to funk it up, which was after all,
Speaker 1: what Nile Rodgers did best. Slowly, a production plan began
Speaker 1: to take shape, borrowing from many of the run since
Speaker 1: David had shared. The stacked vocal oz from Twist and
Speaker 1: Shout became the songs intro. The horn blasts from the
Speaker 1: Peter Gun theme were lifted to punctuate David's verses. Like
Speaker 1: all the best stuff, it came together fast. David and
Speaker 1: Nile books twenty one days at New York's Power Station
Speaker 1: studios in December. It only took them seventeen days to
Speaker 1: record and mix the whole album. It was the easiest
Speaker 1: record either of them had ever made. There was no
Speaker 1: one to answer to. David didn't have a record contract
Speaker 1: and paid for the sessions out of his own pocket.
Speaker 1: As Nile would later say, it felt like just me
Speaker 1: and David against the world. There was only one minor
Speaker 1: disagreement whether to use a young hot shot guitarist named
Speaker 1: Stevie ray Vaughan, who was just starting to make waves
Speaker 1: with his Texas blues collective Double Trouble. Nile thought it
Speaker 1: was a little too derivative, like a retread of Albert
Speaker 1: King's stuff, but Bowie had seen Evie at the Montre
Speaker 1: Jazz Festival and insisted they give him a chance. Stevie
Speaker 1: laid down his part for six tracks, instantaneously tearing off
Speaker 1: rips on his old beat up Fender Strat. The rest
Speaker 1: of the crew were handpicked by Nile, including chic bandmates
Speaker 1: and his usual session pros, filling out the sound that
Speaker 1: he dubbed modern big band rock. For the first time,
Speaker 1: David didn't play a single instrument on his own album.
Speaker 1: He trusted niles proven track record as a hit maker
Speaker 1: and pretty much left him to it, affording him a
Speaker 1: degree of control rare for one of his co producers. Often,
Speaker 1: David would just hang out in the lounge to the
Speaker 1: studio watching TV as Nile worked as digital sorcery. Then
Speaker 1: Nile would invite David in and blow his mind with
Speaker 1: the playback. David would later admit, with a touch of resentment,
Speaker 1: it was more Nile's album than mine. Nile would more
Speaker 1: or less agree, later saying, but we spent the entire
Speaker 1: session sitting on the sofa while I made his record.
Speaker 1: The record it in question was Let's Dance. If David
Speaker 1: had desired commercial material, it succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. Catchy, accessible,
Speaker 1: and radio friendly in the extreme, The tracks helped fuel
Speaker 1: a bidding war between a host of record labels. On
Speaker 1: Freddie Mercury's recommendation, he signed with E M I, negotiating
Speaker 1: himself a deal valued at a reported seventeen million dollars.
Speaker 1: It was the first serious money that he'd ever had.
Speaker 1: After a decade of worldwide fame, David had finally entered
Speaker 1: the financial realm of the Stones, Elton John and the Beatles.
Speaker 1: All that money had gone through in the seventies suddenly
Speaker 1: came back to me, he'd later marvel before clarifying, but
Speaker 1: I'm not wealthy. I'm rich, and there's a difference. The
Speaker 1: rich know how much money they've got. The wealthy don't.
Speaker 1: And that was just the beginning for Bowie's bank balance.
Speaker 1: Let's Dance was released on the fourteenth of April to
Speaker 1: unprecedented commercial success. It eventually sold eleven million in copies,
Speaker 1: far more than any other album of his career. His
Speaker 1: new label, E M I would declare it their fastest
Speaker 1: selling release since the Beatles. Sergeant Pepper in the title
Speaker 1: track topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic
Speaker 1: for the first time in David's career, and he followed
Speaker 1: it up with a pair of Transatlantic top twenty hits,
Speaker 1: Modern Love and China Girl. Even Bowie was taken aback
Speaker 1: by the reaction, believing he'd never actually surpassed his mid
Speaker 1: seventies apex I thought, well, I've had my big deal.
Speaker 1: This is where I am, He'd say. Then the explosion
Speaker 1: happened when that song was a hit, and that really
Speaker 1: threw me for a few months. It's just snowballed. It
Speaker 1: was unbelievable. The song's pervasiveness was due in large part
Speaker 1: to a gargantuan pr push by E M I, keen
Speaker 1: to kick off a fresh era for their newly acquired
Speaker 1: prestige artist. They were TV specials, Home Videos and Stories,
Speaker 1: and Time and Newsweek, but the biggest factor was the
Speaker 1: advent of music television. Let's Dance was Bowie's first album
Speaker 1: of the MTV age for one of the most visually
Speaker 1: conscious artists of his generation. David took to the network immediately.
Speaker 1: Music videos were no new thing to him. He'd been
Speaker 1: doing them since the late sixties, when Ken Pitt shelled
Speaker 1: out for a Space oddity promo. David was quick to
Speaker 1: realize that these music videos were not merely visual companion
Speaker 1: pieces for new songs. They were, in effect advertisements. Bowie,
Speaker 1: the son of a pr man and a former ad
Speaker 1: agency employee, was one of the first major artists to
Speaker 1: recognize the value, the necessity, even of building oneself into
Speaker 1: a brand. His son kissed face and bright yellow popolore
Speaker 1: that featured so prominently in his videos became a logo
Speaker 1: for his one man corporation, beamed out across the air
Speaker 1: waves at regular intervals, alongside sneakers, swooshes and soda swirls.
Speaker 1: Critic Paul Trenko would observe that if seventy two was
Speaker 1: the year that mass media discovered David Bowie, three was
Speaker 1: the year that David Bowie discovered mass media. He was
Speaker 1: an easy sell. The afprofescent music, the thoroughly charming charisma
Speaker 1: on display during his press tour, and of course, the
Speaker 1: pair of vibrant videos for Let's Dance and China Girl,
Speaker 1: directed by David Mallett and shot on location in Australia.
Speaker 1: David looks tanned, blonde, handsome and healthy. Everything about him
Speaker 1: is remarkably positive, including the underlying themes of the videos,
Speaker 1: which David summed up bluntly as it's wrong to be racist.
Speaker 1: Let's Dance was a full throated endorsement of Aboriginal rights
Speaker 1: in Australia, and China Girl Trump's interracial relationships and satirizes
Speaker 1: Asian stereotypes as a way of condemning the west demeaning
Speaker 1: view of the East. These were messages of tolerance that
Speaker 1: everyone could get behind, miles away from the fascist flirtations
Speaker 1: of the thin white Duke era. David also acted on
Speaker 1: his principles, becoming of the few artists to directly challenge
Speaker 1: the burgeoning MTV monolith on its questionable policy concerning videos
Speaker 1: by black artists. Nil Rogers had alerted David to the
Speaker 1: problems that many artists of color had getting mainstream play
Speaker 1: for their music. The records Nile produced with Chic were
Speaker 1: perfectly in line with prevailing new wave of electropop sensibilities,
Speaker 1: yet they were automatically categorized as R and B and
Speaker 1: ignored by white stations who felt the music didn't fit
Speaker 1: their demo. It was musical prejudice. It didn't matter what
Speaker 1: they sounded like. Black songs were R and B and
Speaker 1: white songs were pop. This distinction carried over into MTVS
Speaker 1: early programming practices. MTV saw itself as a rock network,
Speaker 1: and music by black artists wasn't considered rock enough. Even
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson wasn't immune to give his videos crossover appeal.
Speaker 1: He needed a Hollywood style epic with Three's Thriller or
Speaker 1: the guitar pyrotechnics of Eddie Van Halen on beat It.
Speaker 1: That same year, David halted an interview with an m
Speaker 1: t V VJ to ask point blank why they didn't
Speaker 1: play more black artists. The VJ offered a meek excuse,
Speaker 1: effectively saying that this music wouldn't resonate with audiences and
Speaker 1: the flyover states. David didn't buy the argument. I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what the Isisley Brothers or Marvin Gay means to
Speaker 1: a black seventeen year old, he said, and surely he's
Speaker 1: part of America as well. Shouldn't it be a challenge
Speaker 1: to make the media far more integrated. It would be
Speaker 1: wrong to suggest that David forced anyone's hand or played
Speaker 1: a personal role in MTV's decision to broaden their playlists.
Speaker 1: Like the fall of the Berlin Wall, change was inevitable,
Speaker 1: but He's set an important example. But no amount of
Speaker 1: MTV plays could replicate the ground swell of publicity generated
Speaker 1: by a tour, especially the way David Bowie did them.
Speaker 1: He'd been away from the concert stage for five years,
Speaker 1: the longest stretch in his career. For Let's Dance, he
Speaker 1: launched the trek for the Ages, spanning sixteen countries over
Speaker 1: ninety six performances. It would be known as the Serious
Speaker 1: Moonlight Tour, own named for a delightfully nonsensical lyric and
Speaker 1: Let's Dance. Not even David's rivals and the Stones could
Speaker 1: compete with such a gargantuan undertaking. It would become a
Speaker 1: definitive stadium event. Every show was sold out, with David
Speaker 1: playing to more than two and a half million people
Speaker 1: over the course of seven months. To prep, he trained
Speaker 1: like an athlete and started boxing obsessively, a significantly healthier
Speaker 1: alternative to the mounds of cocaine that had fueled prior tours,
Speaker 1: like the album it promoted, the serious Moonlight Tour was
Speaker 1: designed to normalize David Bowie for a mass audience. As
Speaker 1: he said at the time, I was getting really piste
Speaker 1: off for being regarded as just a freak. This time,
Speaker 1: I won't be trying to put on a pose or
Speaker 1: a stance. You won't see weird ziggi or whatever. I
Speaker 1: was just gonna be me having a good time as
Speaker 1: best they can. That was my premise for this tour,
Speaker 1: to re represent myself. He played an active role in
Speaker 1: every aspect of the production, including set design. A master
Speaker 1: stroke of modern minimalism, the stay, which was dominated by
Speaker 1: a large moonset piece and four enormous light columns affectionately
Speaker 1: dubbed the condoms. Weighing sixteen tons of piece. They set
Speaker 1: the mood for the career spanning setlist by bathing the
Speaker 1: arena and colored light. The band was styled and what
Speaker 1: could be best described as futurist tiki outfits, flushed with
Speaker 1: pastel zoot suits, wide brimmed hats, and the occasional sailor's cap.
Speaker 1: The colors aimed to soothe and excite, transmitting sunshine and
Speaker 1: positive energy. David himself took the spotlight in a high
Speaker 1: cut jacket and bow tie, a masterclass in eighties style.
Speaker 1: He seemed to glow with health. David had effectively stopped
Speaker 1: doing drugs and barely even drank for most of the tour.
Speaker 1: He was a self professed good boy, cleaner than he'd
Speaker 1: been in years. His biggest vice with a cigarettes that
Speaker 1: he chained smoked at all hours. Maybe he did a
Speaker 1: little line of blow every now and then with friends,
Speaker 1: but hey, he had a lot of friends. The tour
Speaker 1: attracted royals, politicians, movie stars, and titans of the entertainment world.
Speaker 1: David seemed to belong to everyone, and in a way
Speaker 1: he did. Yeah With Let's Dance, David Bowie had made
Speaker 1: the most accessible album of his life, a record everyone
Speaker 1: could enjoy, certainly an admirable achievement. To some, it was
Speaker 1: a jubilant celebration after years of music mired in his
Speaker 1: own personal health scape. This wasn't the post apocalyptic holocaust
Speaker 1: of Diamond Dogs, or the coked out paranoia of Station
Speaker 1: a Station, or the emotional desolation of Low. For perhaps
Speaker 1: the first time on record, David Bowie was happy. Critic
Speaker 1: Charles Sharr Murray would rave that the record was quote
Speaker 1: a tribute to love and life that is as uncontrived
Speaker 1: as anything he's ever done in his entire career. This
Speaker 1: album just goes straight to the heart of it. It's warm, strong,
Speaker 1: inspiring and useful. You should be ashamed to say you
Speaker 1: don't love it. Rolling Stone was a little more muted,
Speaker 1: calling it merely functional, but Mass Appeal had its drawbacks.
Speaker 1: Some were disappointed by the blindingly glossy sheen found on
Speaker 1: David's latest work. The concerns were summed up by critic
Speaker 1: Michael Watts, one of the few voices of outright descent
Speaker 1: at the time. Bowie's new album seems to be a
Speaker 1: step sideways. He wrote, He's not doing anything particularly new,
Speaker 1: and I suspect for the first time ever, his fans
Speaker 1: are up there with him and he's not ahead of
Speaker 1: the game. In addition to happy, David could now be
Speaker 1: described with another word that was altogether new to him, safe,
Speaker 1: and from safe, it's a short journey to boring. On
Speaker 1: the album Diamond Dogs, David Bowie had painted a pretty
Speaker 1: bleak portrait of the year four then still a decade
Speaker 1: in the future. He's sang of faceless forces, sucking thoughts
Speaker 1: out of u cranium and shooting up anything just to
Speaker 1: dull the pain of no tomorrow. But when finally arrived,
Speaker 1: it actually wasn't so bad. For a start, the overwhelming
Speaker 1: success of Let's Dance and the pact dates for the
Speaker 1: serious Moonlight Tour had made David seriously rich. For the
Speaker 1: first time in his life. He didn't have to worry
Speaker 1: about money, and he spent accordingly. Gone was the family
Speaker 1: man Volvo and in its place a new Mercedes. He
Speaker 1: renovated his Manhattan apartment, painting in a vibrant red, and
Speaker 1: filled his new Swiss abode with art from London's finest galleries.
Speaker 1: Awards and honors poured in from all sides. His status
Speaker 1: as a bona fide MTV idol was cemented at the
Speaker 1: first ever Video Music Awards in four when the network
Speaker 1: presented him a coveted moon Man statue for the China
Speaker 1: Girl visuals. His on stage charisma was so strong that
Speaker 1: the James Bond producer was considered casting him as a
Speaker 1: villain in the next Double O seven movie, a casting
Speaker 1: that tragically never materialized. David made the cover of Rolling
Speaker 1: Stone and was named Playboy's Man of the Year. Not
Speaker 1: tied to any single relationship, David was enthusiastically unattached. I've
Speaker 1: got a number of girlfriends that I see around the world,
Speaker 1: He'd say, I'm a bit sailor, like I suppose. Notably,
Speaker 1: no mention of boyfriends. The bisexual relationships he's so publicly
Speaker 1: declared in his ziggy era now seemed to be a
Speaker 1: thing of the past. In the Rolling Stone cover story,
Speaker 1: he told journalist Kurt Loder that his homosexual dalliances were
Speaker 1: merely quote, youthful experimentation. Perhaps that's true. However, many you
Speaker 1: lauded David's coming out in the seventies felt a sense
Speaker 1: of betrayal, as if homosexuality or bisexuality had become inconvenient
Speaker 1: in the Reagan era, a time when aids the so
Speaker 1: called gay play have further stigmatized the LGBTQ community. Some
Speaker 1: homosexual fans weren't bothered, believing that artists had no obligation
Speaker 1: to anything but their art, but others felt used to them.
Speaker 1: It was no different than MTV's reluctance to play black
Speaker 1: videos for fear of alienating Middle America. Being gay didn't
Speaker 1: play in the Heartland. The incident was indicative of David's
Speaker 1: tricky maneuvering towards the middle of the road. The mainstream
Speaker 1: popularity of Let's Dance had given him so much, but
Speaker 1: it had also taken something away, something potent yet indefinable, danger, individuality, freakiness.
Speaker 1: For all of his career up to this point, David
Speaker 1: Bowie had challenged convention, gleefully dancing on the edge of
Speaker 1: social and cultural norms. Yes, he'd had some success in
Speaker 1: the seventies, but he remained at hard a fringe artist.
Speaker 1: To say he sold out with Let's Dance isn't fair
Speaker 1: or even accurate. Yet something was irrevocably changed at least
Speaker 1: two fans who looked up to him as the patron
Speaker 1: saying of the weird, it's never pleasant when something that
Speaker 1: feels like your little secret becomes ubiquitous. It feels less personal,
Speaker 1: less precious, less special. It's human nature and iron clad
Speaker 1: rule of fandom. Bowie had been a comforting figure, summoned
Speaker 1: in countless teenage bedrooms with the spin of a record.
Speaker 1: Now is tanned face and perfectly quaffed blonde popolore made
Speaker 1: the rounds on television every few minutes. He was a
Speaker 1: vision of hetero normalcy, or just plain old normalcy. What
Speaker 1: happened to daring to be different? There was an incident
Speaker 1: that occurred years earlier. It was the height of his
Speaker 1: ziggy androgyny, a time when he seems more alien than human.
Speaker 1: David asked the famous music producer about the final form
Speaker 1: he should take. How should I end up in a suit?
Speaker 1: The man responded, you can only be liberaci for so long.
Speaker 1: They both laughed, but it was true. For Bowie, a
Speaker 1: suit was the last frontier. No more masquerades, no more masks,
Speaker 1: no more costumes, just a man in a suit. Too
Speaker 1: many fans, David's transition into a bronzed mtv ida would
Speaker 1: be his last major character shift. More than just his image,
Speaker 1: the rebelliousness that had fuelled his best work also seemed
Speaker 1: to have deserted him, albeit temporarily. That had, after all,
Speaker 1: been what attracted David did the musician's life in the
Speaker 1: first place, But nearing his late thirties, there was little
Speaker 1: rebel against He was an obscenely rich rock star who
Speaker 1: spent his days skiing in the Alps with his adorable
Speaker 1: son before retiring to his exquisite home with one of
Speaker 1: any number of equally exquisite escorts. Life was good. Rather
Speaker 1: than falsify angst to fulfill any adolescent expectations, he chose
Speaker 1: happiness and positivity. Wouldn't you Murtunely for fans, this had
Speaker 1: a somewhat disastrous effect on his musical output. His creative
Speaker 1: apathy is clear on his next album, Tonight. David made
Speaker 1: the record not because he had something to say, or
Speaker 1: even because he necessarily wanted to. For the first time
Speaker 1: in his career, he made the record for no other reason.
Speaker 1: Then it was time to make a record. E M
Speaker 1: I was anxious to capitalize on Let's Dance with an
Speaker 1: immediate follow up. They didn't much care what it was.
Speaker 1: Apparently neither did David. Tonight was basically a covers album,
Speaker 1: but without the clear intention and quiet dignity of being
Speaker 1: a covers album. Five of the nine songs are covers.
Speaker 1: Three of these had originally been recorded by David's Berlin
Speaker 1: buddy Iggy Pop Don't Look Down, Neighborhood Threat, and Tonight.
Speaker 1: The latter was recast as a vaguely reggaeish duet with
Speaker 1: Tina Turner scrubbing every bit of Grit from Iggy's raw original.
Speaker 1: Two of the four new songs on the album, Dancing
Speaker 1: with the Big Boys and Tumble and Twirl, were also
Speaker 1: co writes, with Iggy leading some of the wonder if
Speaker 1: the whole album was simply a scheme that just brings
Speaker 1: some cash to David's frequently broke friend. The track list
Speaker 1: is rounded out by a decidedly lackluster cover of the
Speaker 1: Beach Boys God Only Knows, and also an old soul
Speaker 1: number by Chuck Jackson called like Keep Forgetting. That left
Speaker 1: just two new originals solely penned by David, scraped together
Speaker 1: from demos, Loving the Alien and Blue Gene. Both are
Speaker 1: high points of the album, but that's not saying much.
Speaker 1: In his defense, David had every right to be exhausted.
Speaker 1: It had been just a few months since wrapping the
Speaker 1: punishing serious Moonlight tour, and he probably would have rather
Speaker 1: been resting. The album's co producer, Hugh Pagum certainly seem
Speaker 1: to think so. He'd recall the Bowie's boredom during the
Speaker 1: sessions in Canada that spring was palpable. The public were
Speaker 1: even less enthusiastic. It hit number one in the UK
Speaker 1: briefly with all of the advanced press, how could it not,
Speaker 1: But it vanished from the charts almost immediately, as if
Speaker 1: slinking away in shame. This was far from the transatlantic
Speaker 1: smash of Let's Dance, and the critics were quick to
Speaker 1: point it out. This album is a throwaway, rolling Stone, declared,
Speaker 1: and David Bowie knows it. He appeared almost apologetic while
Speaker 1: doing interviews to promote the record. In private, he referred
Speaker 1: to it almost immediately as a bomb. Tonight was David's
Speaker 1: first major musical failure since The Laughing Gnome In in
Speaker 1: a sense, it flopped for much the same reason David
Speaker 1: had looked outward instead of inward for inspiration. I really
Speaker 1: liked the money I was making from the touring, he'd say,
Speaker 1: and it seemed obvious that the way that you make
Speaker 1: money is give people what they wanted. And the downside
Speaker 1: of that is that had just dried me up as
Speaker 1: an artist completely. More than that, he'd ceased to higher
Speaker 1: collaborators who would push him. It was a tactical error
Speaker 1: common to many legacy artists of the sixties and seventies
Speaker 1: as they made their bumpy transition into the eighties. They
Speaker 1: tired young bucks who understood the new musical landscape. But
Speaker 1: these kids were too overawed by working with legends to
Speaker 1: offer constructive criticism and honest opinions. The results were generally tentative, unfocused,
Speaker 1: and in a word, bad. Hugh Pagem, no fan of
Speaker 1: the production work he did on tonight, summed it up best.
Speaker 1: Who am I to say to Mr David Bowie that
Speaker 1: his songs suck? The strongest song on tonight is the
Speaker 1: Bowie original Blue Jean. It's an up tempo fifties pastiche
Speaker 1: the Bowie would jokingly referred to as quote a piece
Speaker 1: of sexist rock and roll about picking up the birds,
Speaker 1: taking a page from the same playbook Michael Jackson had
Speaker 1: used for Thriller. The single was launched with a twenty
Speaker 1: one minute short film called Jazz and for Blue Jean.
Speaker 1: It was directed by Julian Temple, the man responsible for
Speaker 1: the notorious sex pistols mockumentary The Great Rock and Roll Swindle.
Speaker 1: David plays two characters in the clip. One is a
Speaker 1: appless Cockney nerd who attempts to impress a girl by
Speaker 1: introducing her to a wild and braddy rock star, also
Speaker 1: played by David. The plot is nothing revolutionary. The rock
Speaker 1: star steals the girl, but David's performance really sells it.
Speaker 1: He plays it for laughs by poking funded himself and
Speaker 1: his career, slipping in numerous references to his drug use,
Speaker 1: hyperactive sex life, and of course, his music. I caught
Speaker 1: your tour in Berlin, Bowie the Nerd tells Bowie the Star,
Speaker 1: I thought they hung the music up too much on
Speaker 1: light and trickery, bit over the top, don't you agree. Later,
Speaker 1: as the rocker makes off with this date, David the
Speaker 1: Nerd screams after him, your record sleeves are better than
Speaker 1: your songs in the case of tonight, this was certainly true.
Speaker 1: Julian Temple, who got to know Bowie closely as a
Speaker 1: friend over the years, would cite the short as an
Speaker 1: uncharacteristically revealing performance a rare moment when David Jones made
Speaker 1: a public appearance instead of David Bowie. He played the
Speaker 1: shy guy with heart and compassion because at his essence,
Speaker 1: it was him. Temple would say, the ordinary version of
Speaker 1: himself that he plays in the film was the closest
Speaker 1: approximation of what David was actually like. It's the nearest
Speaker 1: thing to the real David that's ever appeared on screen.
Speaker 1: As far as the director was concerned, His near constant
Speaker 1: performance as David Bowie was a character that he based
Speaker 1: on his brother Terry. Terry was the mad one. Literally,
Speaker 1: Temple would say, he was the wild one, the extrovert
Speaker 1: who devoured the underbelly of London. It wasn't David. Terry
Speaker 1: fed him all this fabulous stuff when David was still
Speaker 1: very young and impressionable, and he carried it with him
Speaker 1: throughout his life. Since the brothers last saw each other
Speaker 1: two years earlier, Terry had remained in Cane Hill's psychiatric hospital,
Speaker 1: his home for most of his adult life, despite David's
Speaker 1: assurances he had and returned. On some level, Terry must
Speaker 1: have been used to his absences. David also didn't make
Speaker 1: it to his wedding day back in two He was
Speaker 1: busy playing his first ever gig as Ziggy Stardust, introducing
Speaker 1: his fantastical dream brother to the world. If Terry minded,
Speaker 1: he didn't show it. The marriage didn't last, and now
Speaker 1: he was alone in the psych ward. He kept the
Speaker 1: loneliness at bay by listening to his Kid Brothers albums
Speaker 1: on the cassette player. David had brought him on their
Speaker 1: last visit. He was charming like David and well liked
Speaker 1: by the staff, often wandering around, singing and bumming cigarettes
Speaker 1: off the order lease. But whatever treatment Terry received wasn't helping.
Speaker 1: He fell in love with another patient, Wants. When she
Speaker 1: was discharged, their relationship came to an abrupt end. Terry
Speaker 1: was heartbroken and his underlying depression worsened. Just after Christmas,
Speaker 1: he'd had enough. Terry climbed over the hospital wall and
Speaker 1: trudged through the snow until he reached a local train station.
Speaker 1: Hearing the rumble of the oncoming London Express train, he
Speaker 1: put his head on the tracks. The icy metal vibrated
Speaker 1: against the skull. The headlight appeared in the distance. Terry
Speaker 1: turned his head in the opposite direction, but the intensifying
Speaker 1: shakes and ear splitting whistle told him that death was
Speaker 1: getting close. At the last minute, he rolled out of
Speaker 1: the way and down a muney embankment. Two railway workers
Speaker 1: had seen the whole thing and tried to tackle him.
Speaker 1: Before they could stop him, Terry shoved fistfuls of sleeping
Speaker 1: pills into his mouth. He lost consciousness before the paramedics arrived.
Speaker 1: He awoke in the same hospital where he had been
Speaker 1: treated two years before, when he tried to take his
Speaker 1: own life by jumping out a window. The last time
Speaker 1: David had appeared, Maybe he would again. Terry demanded that
Speaker 1: he be driven home to his mother Peggy's house. David
Speaker 1: will be waiting for me, he said. Instead, he was
Speaker 1: taken back to Cane Hill's psych ward. He went back
Speaker 1: to the station two weeks later and waited for the
Speaker 1: inbound train. This time, he didn't roll away. David got
Speaker 1: a call that morning from his mother Peggy, telling him
Speaker 1: that Terry was gone. He was David's immediate response is unrecorded,
Speaker 1: but not difficult to imagine. His hero, his protector, his muse,
Speaker 1: his biggest influence, his big brother was dead. The loss
Speaker 1: was incalculable. There were eleven mourners at Terry's funeral. David
Speaker 1: wasn't among them. He stayed away, fearful of turning the
Speaker 1: service into a media circus. In his place, he sent
Speaker 1: a bouquet of flowers with a note that read, You've
Speaker 1: seen more things than we can imagine, but all these
Speaker 1: moments will be lost like tears washed away by the rain.
Speaker 1: God bless you, David. He hunkered down at his home
Speaker 1: in Switzerland to recover. It took some time. He spent
Speaker 1: much of early plotting his next move, living a life
Speaker 1: that bordered on reclusive. As a friend would note, David
Speaker 1: did nothing by halves when he dropped out. He vanished,
Speaker 1: stunned by Terry's death and disoriented by the unfulfilling experience
Speaker 1: of making Tonight. He didn't seem to know what to
Speaker 1: do next. He told one confidante that he was facing
Speaker 1: an artistic crisis. Did he even want to be a
Speaker 1: musician anymore? He regretted making the nakedly commercial Let's Dance,
Speaker 1: telling friends that it was a cop out. The self
Speaker 1: loathing left him guilt ridden, and he was unable to
Speaker 1: sleep at night. I was better off before, he moaned.
Speaker 1: At Least I kept up the fight. I had fantastic
Speaker 1: luck now what. He's seriously considered abandoning music in favor
Speaker 1: of the visual arts that had intrigued him as a student.
Speaker 1: Back at Bromley Tech, he painted and worked on a
Speaker 1: long jest stating film script. He'd try anything except making
Speaker 1: a new David Bowie album. It just didn't interest him.
Speaker 1: Director Julian Temple was able to coax him out of
Speaker 1: his funk with the role in the movie Absolute Beginners,
Speaker 1: a period piece set in the late fifties, and the
Speaker 1: same Soho club Land He'd Proud with Terry as a
Speaker 1: timid schoolboy out way past his bedtime. David was moved
Speaker 1: by the project and composed two new songs for the soundtrack.
Speaker 1: To record them, he'd assembled a group of session players,
Speaker 1: including guitarist Kevin Armstrong, bassist Matthew Seligman and drummer Neil Conti.
Speaker 1: At some point during the sessions in the spring, he
Speaker 1: casually of them about a benefit gig he agreed to do,
Speaker 1: but his usual touring band all at other commitments. It's
Speaker 1: just a little gig, will you do it? He asked.
Speaker 1: The little gig was live aid, an event witnessed by
Speaker 1: a fifth the planet Earth. It was the brandchild of
Speaker 1: Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof, who had been moved to
Speaker 1: tears by a BBC news report documenting the Ethiopian famine
Speaker 1: that would kill upwards of a million people. Geldof and
Speaker 1: organized Britain's Biggest Acts to record a charity single called
Speaker 1: Do They Know It's Christmas? Over holiday season, but Bowie
Speaker 1: had been unable to participate this time. He wouldn't let
Speaker 1: Geldof down. Once Bowie signed on, other big names practically
Speaker 1: tripped over themselves the follow suit. David wanted to do
Speaker 1: more than simply perform at the concert. That's what everyone
Speaker 1: else was doing, how boring. His first choice was a
Speaker 1: sing a duet with Mick Jagger from Space. That's right, Space,
Speaker 1: you know, the final Frontier. David actually had someone call
Speaker 1: NASA to see if they'd fly one of them up
Speaker 1: into orbit to duet with the other back down on Earth. Hey,
Speaker 1: he's made your tom after all, and it's for charity.
Speaker 1: Someone eventually had to break it to David that NASA
Speaker 1: didn't rent out their space shuttles, so they moved on
Speaker 1: to a plan B, a transatlantic duet via satellite with
Speaker 1: mixed singing from Live aids American Stage in Philadelphia and
Speaker 1: David at Wembley For a song. They chose Bob Marley's
Speaker 1: One Love, thinking that the loping, laid back reggae beat
Speaker 1: would suit the half second satellite delay. David and mixed
Speaker 1: management teams organized the conference call to try it out,
Speaker 1: with the two superstars swapping lines back and forth, Sadly,
Speaker 1: the technology wasn't good enough to make it work. The
Speaker 1: meeting quickly devolved into David and Mick, forever rivals, trying
Speaker 1: to outsing each other in the boardroom as their respective
Speaker 1: handlers looked on awkwardly. They continue the showdown that evening
Speaker 1: at a nightclub, where they engaged in a hilariously intense
Speaker 1: dance battle, two peacocks, both pushing forty, competing for the
Speaker 1: attention of every female in the place. The night on
Speaker 1: the town inspired a new idea, although less ambitious than
Speaker 1: a space due they'd record a cover of the motown
Speaker 1: chestnut dancing in the street. The Rolling Stone was a
Speaker 1: diva from the moment, as Limo pulled up at the session,
Speaker 1: demanding numerous retakes and generally prancing around like Nick Jagger,
Speaker 1: But their competition yielded good results as the two handed
Speaker 1: it up on the vocals. The whole ridiculous recording reaches
Speaker 1: an even higher level of absurdity thanks to the music
Speaker 1: video made up on the spot in just a few
Speaker 1: hours shortly after leaving the recording studio. There's nothing high
Speaker 1: concept about it. The pair are literally dancing in the street.
Speaker 1: The public may be expected something a little better from
Speaker 1: these twin titans of British popular music, or at least
Speaker 1: something better than a karaoke level singing performance and I
Speaker 1: clearly improvised promo video. Initially intended to be a one
Speaker 1: off broadcast only once at Live Aid, the response was
Speaker 1: good enough to merit a single release, which raised badly
Speaker 1: needed funds for famine relief. With the recording out of
Speaker 1: the way, it was time to focus on his live act.
Speaker 1: The preparation was pretty spotty. David was busy filming the
Speaker 1: Jim Henson Children's Fantasy Labyrinth, could only afford three afternoons
Speaker 1: to rehearse with his untested eight piece band, which now
Speaker 1: included technopop prodigy Thomas Dolby. For a while, they couldn't
Speaker 1: even figure out what they were gonna play. David's assistant,
Speaker 1: Coco Schwab, arrived at their first rehearsal with a computer
Speaker 1: print out of all two hundred of David's songs for
Speaker 1: him to browse. It proved overwhelming, and he kept changing
Speaker 1: his mind. They were still tinkering with the set list
Speaker 1: at their last rehearsal. When it was over, they still
Speaker 1: didn't know what they were gonna play. Bowie would figure
Speaker 1: it out later. His parting words to his band were
Speaker 1: be lucky and where blue. They would need all the
Speaker 1: luck they could get. There would be no dress rehearsal
Speaker 1: at the venue or even a sound check. They've never
Speaker 1: even had a chance to play their four songs set
Speaker 1: all the way through. They were going in cold July
Speaker 1: go time. Live Aid organizers had assembled the biggest airlifts
Speaker 1: since the Falklands War. David's chopper delivered him to the
Speaker 1: makeshift landing strip on a cricket field behind Wembley. A
Speaker 1: wedding reception was taking place nearby on the field. Bowie
Speaker 1: stopped to wish them well, apologize for the noise, and
Speaker 1: pose for some pictures, a quick, lighthearted pit stop before
Speaker 1: performing for a billion people. He arrived just in time
Speaker 1: to see Freddie Mercury stride off stage, secure in the
Speaker 1: knowledge that he and Queen had stolen the show. Thank God,
Speaker 1: that's over, he screamed, before downing a double vodka. Freddie
Speaker 1: and David were thrilled to see on another and they
Speaker 1: chatted for a few minutes. It was a playful, intimate
Speaker 1: atmosphere backstage, with everyone similarly famous, an odd sense of
Speaker 1: normalcy prevailed. Elton John wore a chef's hat and man
Speaker 1: the barbecue. David and Paul McCartney engaged in a faux
Speaker 1: boxing match for the camera. Bob Geldof, the Man of
Speaker 1: the Hour, was doubled over with a muscle spasm trying
Speaker 1: to crack his own back on a flight case. David
Speaker 1: came over and gave him a quick massage. After greeting
Speaker 1: his friends and fellow rock star brethren, David retired to
Speaker 1: the shared dressing room a little more than a cracked
Speaker 1: mirror folding table and a child's makeup box. He had
Speaker 1: to freshen up and change, and it was immaculate, double
Speaker 1: breasted blue suit. It dated back to the Diamond Dogs
Speaker 1: era over a decade earlier, and he took great delight
Speaker 1: in telling all an earshot how well it's still fit.
Speaker 1: He looked good. Freddie, Mercury's boyfriend, had done his hair
Speaker 1: the night before. Just before walking on stage, Freddie gave
Speaker 1: him a once over. If I didn't know you better, dear,
Speaker 1: I'd have to eat you, he said with a wink.
Speaker 1: The compliment was still ringing in David's ears as he
Speaker 1: stepped through the canvas flap and onto the stage. It
Speaker 1: was just after seven fifteen Thomas Dolby hit the intro
Speaker 1: for station, the station's TV C one five. David smiled, waved,
Speaker 1: dipped into his trademark bow legged stance and got it rolling.
Speaker 1: So far, so good, then into Rebel, Rebel a little fast.
Speaker 1: David held on for Dear Life as a song lurched
Speaker 1: forward at breakneck speed. What would you expect from a
Speaker 1: band who rehearsed the grand total three times? He followed
Speaker 1: it up with modern love before sending it home with
Speaker 1: his show stopper heroes. He dedicated the song to his son,
Speaker 1: and to all the children, and to the children of
Speaker 1: the world. As he looked out at the eighty thousand
Speaker 1: of static fans, many of whom were moved to tears,
Speaker 1: he must have rethought any ideas of musical Ironman come on,
Speaker 1: He'd missed this, He'd miss them. When the song was over,
Speaker 1: there was only one thing left to do, take a
Speaker 1: bow off. The record is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Noel Brown and shan Ty Tone.
Speaker 1: The supervising producers are Taylor Kogn and Tristan McNeil. The
Speaker 1: show was researched, written and hosted by me Jordan run
Speaker 1: talk and edited, scored and sound designed by Taylor she
Speaker 1: coogn and Tristan McNeil, with additional music by Evan Tire.
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave
Speaker 1: us a review. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows,