WEBVTT - Chapter Three: Major Tom (1966-1969) 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:06.080 Off the record is a production of I Heart Radio Darkness. 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:11.799 That's how it always starts. Then from nothing, something, an idea, 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.800 a notion, a concept. In this case, we'll call it 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:20.280 a song. David Bowie is at the movies, the Modern Cathedral, 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:24.040 Make Believe, where anything is possible. The sixties are drawing 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:26.400 to a close, and he's staring mouth agape at two 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:30.960 thousand one of Space Odyssey Standy Kubrick's groundbreaking special effects 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:32.880 and made all the more mind melding by the drops 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:35.159 of cannabis soil. David drills it on his tongue just 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:41.240 before taking a seat. The images of outer space flicker 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:44.600 before him, but he's fixated on inner space. Like the 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.760 doomed astronaut in the film. He's adrift, isolated, and extremely lonely. 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:53.199 David's life has gone off course. His music career is 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.520 going nowhere. In nine years, he'd fronted eight bands and 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.120 worked solo, yet each create a pursuit left him drifting 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.240 further and further into the commercial abyss. He had been 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:07.080 dumped by his label. Worse still, he'd been dumped by 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:09.600 his girlfriend. The first woman he had ever loved, just 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:14.600 left him for another man. Now she's gone living in Norway, 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.280 of all places, to a poor, bummed out Londoner, Norway 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:22.120 might as well be another planet. Almost in spite of himself, 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.559 David starts crafting a song in his head. It's about 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.720 a spaceman similar to the one on the screen. He 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:32.160 calls his character Major Tom, and he calls the song 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:39.280 Space Oddity. In later years, many would dismiss the song 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.600 as a frivolous novelty number, a cross attempt to cash 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:44.880 in on moon Manny is sweeping the globe thanks to 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:48.840 Neil Armstrong's giant leap for mankind that summer, The Goofy 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.160 title a playfu LaMarche Da Kubrick's overblown epic only seen 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.600 the bolster their case. But these detractors missed the point. 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:59.840 David Bowie spent the sixties chasing trends, trying to bandwagon 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.160 up his way to the top of the charts, Rock 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.760 R and B, psychedelic whimsy, what have you? When he sang, 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:09.360 he opened his mouth, but not his soul. That changed 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.040 with Space Oddity, which is less about an astronaut and 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.680 more about himself. It's an emotional confession couched in the 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.480 sci fi world that enthralled him as a boy. I 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:21.359 am Major Tom, he would later admit, here, I am 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:24.840 in my own cosmic space, and nobody can possibly understand 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:28.760 what it's like to be out here. It's fitting that 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.840 Bowie's breakthrough took the form of a schizoid space track. 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.160 It kicked off a career long fascination with other worldly personas, 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:39.480 informing songs like Life on Mars, Starman and of course 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:43.960 siky Stardust. The lyrics read almost like a premonition, commencing 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:48.239 countdown engines on. David Bowie was ready for blast Off. 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.960 The voyage would send them very, very far from home 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:54.480 and come at the cost of true love. Would the 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.519 trade be worth it? Back at the theater, the movie 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:10.360 was over, but David's story is just beginning. Hello, and 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:12.960 welcome to Off the Record, the show that goes beyond 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:15.280 the songs and into the hearts and minds of rock's 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:19.600 greatest legends. I'm your host, Jordan Runtop. This season explores 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.960 the life, or should I say lives David Bowie. In 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:25.920 this episode, we're going to talk about Major Tom, the 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:33.800 psychedelic spaceman that launched Bowie into orbit on June one. 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.320 The music Press celebrated the release of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.800 Hearts club band the Beatles Day Glows studio masterpiece that 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:45.119 would come to define rock in the sixties. But elsewhere 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.800 in the trade papers you might have noticed a smaller announcement. 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:49.880 The man who would help to find rock in the 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.840 seventies also released an LP that day, his first, but 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:56.640 David Bowie's self titled debut did not have the impact 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.520 of Sergeant Pepper. In fact, it was all but ignored 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:03.200 upon its release and later disowned by Bowie himself, which 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:07.119 is unfortunate because it's not bad. Sure, the cover arts 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:09.880 a little stale, with a mods suited David peering out 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.160 from under his page boy haircut like a heart throb 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.640 and a teenbeat magazine, but the musical content is wonderfully 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.000 weird enough to do the future Ziggy start us proud. 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:22.640 When Sessions began in the fall of nineteen sixty six, 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.719 David had a fresh sound. He'd stopped taking his creative 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:27.920 lead from American R and B acts and their feeble 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:31.640 British copycats. Instead, he made like many in Swinging London 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:35.240 and embraced his own englishness. Bands were dropping their phony 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.320 state side accents and writing songs steeped in the distinctly 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.839 British brand of psychedelia that was coming to the Four 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:45.280 Characterized by surreal sketches of childhood innocence faded at Wardian 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:52.039 glamour and domestic eccentricity. The Beatles offered acid tinged memories 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:55.279 of their adolescent haunts with Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane, 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.840 not to mention the wonderland whimsy of Lucy and the 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.640 Sky with Diamonds. The Kink touted the Village Green Preservation 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.560 Society and the dandie clothes horses of Carnaby Street. Pink 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.599 Floyd even immortalized the local Panty Steeler with their debut 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:15.159 single Arnold Lane. Always hip to the latest trends, David 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:19.000 sensed the sea change and responded accordingly. He crafted songs 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:21.200 in the British music hall tradition with a hint of 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:25.040 hippie hipness for flavor. He dispensed with the time honored guitar, 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:26.960 bass and drums set up that had served as the 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:29.440 blueprint for British groups since the dawn of the decade. 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:33.120 In its place, where brass bands and string sections performing 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:37.039 offbeat arrangements and complex time signatures. Despite his lack of 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:40.920 any formal musical training, David wrote the orchestrations himself, striving 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:43.480 for the musical grandeur of the Beach Boys groundbreaking new 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:47.400 album Pet Sounds. He patterned was singing after Anthony Newley, 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:50.320 a singer, songwriter and actor who's a mainstay on the 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:57.039 British stage and screen, and So I Must Go. David 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.960 managed to pitch his vocal delivery and almost exact mimic 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.520 of Newly stagey Cockney twang so dead on that Newly 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:06.520 himself got wind of it and became extremely annoyed this 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:09.719 new kid was stealing his voice. The released at the 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:13.280 start of the Summer of Love, David's debut, is decidedly dark, 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:17.440 loaded with troubling vignettes about lonely misfits and unsettled children's 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:21.240 tales Please Mr Gravedigger, for example, as about as sunny 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:24.360 as its title, taking inspiration from the real life murder 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.160 of a ten year old Little Bombardier, is a portrait 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:29.800 of an elderly alcoholic vet who forms a bond with 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.479 two children until the neighbors accused him of being a 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.320 pedophile and chase him out. Of Town, but there were 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.280 also signposts pointing towards David's later work We Are Hungry Men, 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:42.760 for shadows of dystopian themes of ziggy, stardust and diamond dogs, 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:47.679 representing a future where racial purity is maintained through abortions. 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.120 She's Got Metals, on the other hand, is a jaunty 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.560 tune about a woman who downs men's clothes to fight 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:55.640 in the war, a precursor to the gender bending motifs 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:59.560 of Bowie's early seventies personas, but his most infamous recording 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.080 of the Air. It was the album's lead single. It's 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:04.640 Very titles enough to inspire fear and loathing in the 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:08.520 heart of nearly every Bowie fan. It's called The Laughing Gnome. 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:10.800 To be fair, it made a certain amount of sense 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:13.920 when it was released in April nineteen sixty seven. The 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:16.800 rediscovery of JRR. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:18.920 the Rings trilogy in the late sixties led to a 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:23.280 spade of songs about fairies, wizards, goblins, and other mystical creatures. 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:26.960 British psyche bands like Pink Floyd and Tomorrow also made 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.520 gnome centered contributions to rock, but There's were sober and serious. 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:33.600 David's ditty about a little old man in scarlet and 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.960 gray fell somewhere between novelty number and full blown parody. 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.640 The penny lyrics were bad enough, especially with the joke 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.560 about a band called the Rolling Gnomes, but the addition 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:46.360 of a shrill Gnome voice achieved through sped up tape 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:48.920 made the song sound like a stoned outtake from one 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:52.440 of the Chipmunks sessions. For all of David's trouble, the 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.520 Laughing Gnome became his eighth consecutive single that failed the chart. 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.320 Even worse, it became a liability in light of David's 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:03.320 more mature to come. The Gnome duet frequently resurfaced in 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.200 opportune times throughout his career, like an embarrassing naked baby photo. 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.800 His feelings about his debut disc weren't much warmer, how 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:14.520 cringe e he moaned when asked about it. In later years, 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:17.400 The critics, at least the ones who bothered to review it, 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.640 were a little kinder. Upon its release, a trade paper 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.280 called The Disc and Music Echo called it a remarkable 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:26.400 creative album by a nineteen year old londoner. Here's a 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:32.640 new talent that deserves attention. Try David Bowie, He's something New. Unfortunately, 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.760 few tried David Bowie and the album sank like a stone. 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.120 The failure was made worse by the personal tragedy that 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.560 loomed back home and his parents house in the London 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:45.920 suburb of Bromley. David's beloved half brother, Terry, his hero 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.560 and mentor, who had freed his teenage mind with beat 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:52.440 literature and experimental jazz, was sliding further into the grips 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:56.040 of mental illness. Eleven years older than David, Terry had 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:58.800 struggled ever since returning from the army in the late fifties. 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:03.240 Now it's psychic episodes were becoming more frequent and more disturbing. 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:09.440 David realized the extent of the problem in February seven 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:11.560 when he took Terry to see a concert by Eric 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:14.839 Clapton and Cream. It started off as a nice night. 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.000 Terry had been the one who introduced David the Soho's 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:21.720 jazz clubs as a wide eyed schoolboy years earlier. Now 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:24.280 David was thrilled to reciprocate by taking his brother to 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.640 his first psychedelic rock and roll concert. But the ear 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:30.680 splitting music had a profound effect on Terry, the kind 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:34.200 David couldn't have predicted. The pole setting vibrations from the 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.400 power trio tore a hole in Terry's fragile reality, and 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:40.000 his body began to vibrate like a human tuning fork. 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.119 David realized something was badly wrong and hustled his brother outside. 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.160 Terry immediately collapsed on the sidewalk, his world of dangerous 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.760 and chaotic jumble. The ground appeared to open up, spewing 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:55.000 fire and smoke into the night. Terry gripped the asphalt 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:57.480 with all his might, certain that forests were trying to 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:01.360 suck him into the sky. David watched helplessly as Terry 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:05.040 stared a new abyss that only he could see. The 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.839 storm and Terry's mind eventually passed, but David was horrified. 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:13.320 He wasn't sure how to react. Mental illness was hardly discussed, 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.599 much less treated with a degree of compassion and understanding 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:20.120 that we strive for today. Those suffering in the sixties 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.240 were usually denounced as mad and sent to asylums, which 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:27.960 were almost indistinguishable from prisons. Overwhelmed by the gravity of 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:31.280 his brother's condition, David simply pushed the thoughts from his mind. 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:36.040 But Terry's problem grew worse. He started going off on 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.240 walks without a word to his family, disappearing for days 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:43.319 as he followed visions of Christ. Once he was missing 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.520 for more than a week until authorities found him in 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:49.280 a grocery store, filthy and starving, politely asking for a 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:53.520 piece of fruit. Terry stayed with his parents until permanent 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.680 care could be arranged. This made the Jones modest house 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.880 in Bromi even more cramped than it already was. Da 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:01.880 of it hated the place at the best of times, 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:04.200 but the presence of his troubled brother made the bad 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:07.840 vibes even worse. So. In the summer of nineteen sixty seven, 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:10.960 twenty year old David Bowie moved out of the family home. 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.320 He was taken in by his new manager, Ken Pitt, 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:17.400 a man who would more or less become a second 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:21.800 father to David Urbane. Educated and a consummate gentleman, Ken 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:24.040 was a show biz veteran had represented the likes of 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:28.560 Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and even Anthony Newley. 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:31.720 He had initially passed when asked to manage David. Then 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.480 Ken Son performed and quickly changed his mind. David was 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:39.160 equally taken with Ken and his impressive credentials. Most British 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.800 pop up starts were managed by fly by night hucksters 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.120 and wheeler dealers. Ken had genuine stars in his orbit, 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:50.440 and David wanted to fly among them. He arrived at 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:52.840 Ken's elegant London apartment with a little more than some 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.400 records and clothes. Soon the two settled into a comfortable 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:02.600 bohemian routine. Incense and half finished songs wafted from David's room. 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:05.480 The smell bothered Ken, but David's habit of strolling nude 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.840 through the apartment definitely did not. In his memoir, Ken 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:12.440 remembers David, in his words, loping around the flat naked, 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.480 his long, weighty penis swaying from side to side like 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:19.320 the pendulum of a grandfather clock. In case it's not 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:22.079 already obvious, Ken's interest in David was a little more 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.280 than musical. Many close to the pair believe Ken loved 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.559 David in a more than a client kind of way, 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:31.199 but David's feelings are less clear and likely more complex. 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.880 He was a well documented sexual opportunist, willing to do 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:36.920 whatever with whoever if would help him get where he 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.679 wanted to go. But it's clear he regarded Ken is 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:42.320 more than just a step on a ladder, though some 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.240 have speculated it's unknown if they ever cemented their relationship 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.960 in a physical way. As Ken noted in his memoir, 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:51.600 David was a tease. Considering the many hours David spent 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.120 split out naked between a pair of Hi Fi speakers 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:56.439 in their living room, this is something of an understatement. 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.559 Like Terry before him can act is David's cultural mentor, 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.679 whisking him around the West End theaters and encouraging him 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:07.600 to scour through the many bookshelves that dominated their flat. 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:12.200 David devoured works by Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Wall and William 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.840 Butler Yates, and poured over collections by the German expressionist 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:21.200 Egon Shield and printmaker Eric Gill. Ken also provided a 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.800 master class in the art of press relations. David, the 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.840 son of a PR manager, took to it very quickly. 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:31.440 Never argue with an interviewer, but tell them exactly what 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.599 they want to hear, he said, consider the outlet and 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:38.679 tailor your responses to their readers. You're speaking to them. 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.719 On more than one occasion, Ken caught David poking through 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.840 letters on his desk. We're listening in on telephone calls, 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:47.320 all in hopes of picking up more tricks of the 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.760 promotional trade. Once he took David to a glamorous party 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:55.360 featuring a venerable who's who of the British entertainment industry. 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:59.120 Rather than mingle, David made a scene by passionately snogging 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:01.720 a woman in the middle of the room. This wasn't 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:04.200 the sort of network and Ken had in mind. I 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:05.880 thought they were going to copulate in front of the 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:11.319 British music industry, the scandalized manager later wrote. But there 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.760 was nothing, no party, no book, no theatrical premiere that 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:17.160 would equal the impact of a record Ken gave David 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.000 in the fall of nineteen sixty six. He picked it 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.400 up during a recent business trip to New York, just 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:24.360 one of the many discs shoved into his hand by 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.360 over zealous label Exex. It was a test pressing of 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:29.640 a new album by a group of Low Reastside proto 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:33.160 punks called the Velvet Underground. Ken gave it a spin, 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.440 but the atonal shriek of Heroin and the sado massochistic 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.400 themes of Venus and furs left him cold. He was 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:41.760 more of a Judy Garland guy, so he passed it 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.000 to David, making one of the first people in Britain 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:46.800 to hear it. Just as a Little Richard's Tutti Fruity 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.960 had a decade earlier. The record changed his life, imprinting 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:54.280 itself permanently on David's Psyche. Lou Reed Street Poetry conjured 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:56.680 the dark edge of humanity in a way seldom done 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.400 on a major label record, plus a boast of the 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:03.320 artistic degree of the band's patron, Andy Warhol. The primitive 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.600 beat of Motucker's drums, the howl of John Klee's viola, 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:09.520 and the wash of lou Reed and Sterling Morrison's guitars 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:13.400 blared from David speakers. To him. It was a declaration 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:17.440 of independence from boring top forty decorum pop music wanted 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:20.040 to make you feel good. This music just wanted to 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.360 make you feel anything. David would later say, the music 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:26.680 was savagely indifferent to my feelings. It didn't care if 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:30.640 I liked it or not. David recorded a cover of 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:32.680 the Velvets I'm Waiting for the Man, but it was 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.840 deemed too uncommercial and shelved This was the fate of 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.640 nearly all the demos David recorded during this period for 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:42.000 his label. The songs bounced from genre the genre, and 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.480 idea to idea with a manic abandoned that bordered on incoherence. 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.160 David was desperate to prove his adaptability and find a 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.800 voice that fit. So far, it wasn't Lou Reid or 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.200 Anthony Newley. I was trying to be a one man revolution, 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:00.320 he would later say, but mostly he just confused people. 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:03.080 David's label was at a loss for what to do 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.280 with him, so in a classic act of delegation, they 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:09.200 made the new guy deal with it. Tony Visconti was 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.480 a twenty three year old Brooklyn kid who just arrived 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.200 in England. He was gearing up to produce David's old 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.480 friend and rival, Mark Boland. Then a label big shot 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:19.880 called him into his office. You seem to have a 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.720 talent for working with weird acts, the exact said, before 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.560 playing him David's debut LP. Tony dug it right away 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:30.760 and what was obviously a prearranged set up, David was 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.920 also casually waiting outside the office. When the listening session 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.080 was complete, he and Tony got the talking, and well, 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.920 it doesn't take long for one music never to recognize another. 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:43.040 Soon they were trading lines from Frank Zappa songs and 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:46.360 Continental art films. They talked until the office closed for 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:48.280 the day. Then they went for a walk and talk 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:51.400 some more. They parted company later that night as firm 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:55.800 lifelong friends. Within weeks, Visconti oversaw production of a new 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.920 Bowie song called let Me Sleep Beside You. The results 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:01.640 were stronger than any of the songs on David's debut album, 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.480 but it too was deemed unacceptable by the label, who 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.119 feared that the title was too risque. Even in swinging London, 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.439 let Me Sleep Beside You was just too hot. His 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.480 compositions were offered to other artists like Judy Collins, Peter 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:16.760 Paul and Mary big Brother in the Holding Company and 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.040 the Jefferson Airplane to record, but they all opted the pass. 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:24.720 With his music career stalled, Ken Pitt suggested David try 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.760 is handed acting. It was a good idea. David had 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:30.520 spent years pretending to be other people, both on stage 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:33.399 and off, why not get paid for it. In n 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.360 s seven, he bagged his first role as a painting 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:38.879 that comes to life in a short film called The Image. 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.679 But if David dreamed of Hollywood glamour, he was in 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.119 for a rude awakening, and a wet one at that. 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.720 The film was shot on location in a dilapidated house. 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:50.879 One scene required David to hang from a second story 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.320 window sill without a harness while stage hands doused him 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:58.040 with buckets of cold water to simulate rain. Kempitt recalls 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:00.240 on returning home that night looking like a dre ound 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:04.400 mouse and complaining bitterly to make matters worse, The fourteen 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:08.440 minutes silent film had a very select appeal. In other words, 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:10.960 it was an even bigger flop than his debut LP, 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:14.000 But hey, at least he got some badly needed cash 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:18.639 for the Ordeal. Despite the rough star, David learned that 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:22.240 he really did like acting. This realization sent ken Pitt's 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.600 old school managerial brain in the high gear. Who needs 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:29.000 pop music? That's kids stuff. He'd moved David into the 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:32.840 realm of all around entertainers. Like David's hero Anthony Newley, 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:38.320 Ken envisioned big plans, TV appearances, theatrical showcases, supper club cabarets. 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:43.960 David had a different and slightly less mainstream idea mine. 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:46.919 You know, quiet guy with face paint trapped in an 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:52.080 imaginary box, that sort of thing. Though outwardly supportive, Ken 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.320 was less than thrilled as David ventured down one of 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:57.879 the least commercial artistic avenues known to man. But in 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:00.360 a way, it was his own fault. Ken had sent 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:03.280 copies of David's debut LP had dozens of his contacts 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:06.159 in the entertainment community. One of these wound up in 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:09.080 the hands of Lindsay Kemp, a renowned mime and performer 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:12.760 had once studied under Marcel Marceau. Working as an occasional 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:14.920 support act with some of the more open minded rock 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:17.320 bands of the day, Kemp was best known as one 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:21.040 of London's most flamboyant bohemian bon vivans. I like to 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:24.480 do everything fully, he once boasted. I drink until I'm drunk, 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:27.840 I eat until I'm full, frequently until I'm sick. I 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:31.280 don't fancy people. I fall in love with them. Lindsay 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:33.159 fell in love with David Bowie from the moment he 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:35.960 first saw him on the album cover. He was struck 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:39.480 again when he actually played the disc. The buoyant theatricality 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.320 of the music lent itself perfectly to his own stage work, 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:44.760 and he began playing the album during the intermission for 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:47.920 his one man show. Word got back to David, who 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:51.640 returned the compliment by attending when A Kemp's performances. Once 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:53.840 the thrill of hearing his record in public war off, 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:57.080 he grew intrigued by the possibilities and potential of mime. 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:02.840 After curtain call, even went backstage to introduced himself. Campbell's 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:05.320 floored by the side of David in the flesh, he 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.720 would recall, it was like the archangel Gabriel standing there. 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:13.000 He was in a beam of light, glowing beautiful, clearly. 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:18.520 Kemp nine years David Sr. Was smitten. David asked if 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:21.200 he could study with him. Lindsey suggests that he dropped 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:23.320 by his Soho flat the next day to talk it over. 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:26.680 For David, it was like walking into a velvet underground song. 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.640 Lindsey's home was a hub for strippers, hookers, pimps and junkies. 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:34.280 It was David's bohemian fantasy brought to life. He felt 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:37.600 right at home. Over breakfast, the pair bonded over their 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:41.520 shared love of musicals, expressionism in the circus. Lindsey turned 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:45.320 him onto the two gens Jeanelle and Cocteau. Bowie turned 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:49.159 Lindsay on the Buddhism. These converging Eastern and Western philosophies 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:52.879 yielded their first collaboration, a mind piece called Perot and Turquoise. 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.200 David dressed and it was the Bethan rough and caked 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.600 in white face paint, played Cloud, a beautiful young muse 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:03.200 of of the clown played by ken Case. You couldn't tell. 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:09.480 The pieces somewhat autobiographical. In exchange for contributing songs to 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.680 the production, David attended Lindsay's dance and Movement class is 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:15.600 free of charge. There he studied the finer points of 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:19.840 my avant garde theater and commedia dell Artetill clumsy at first, 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:22.720 he absorbed the lessons like a sponge. This was more 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:26.639 than mere stagecraft. David was perfecting methods to present persona 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.639 in a physical way through minute manipulations of his hands 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:33.760 and face. Lindsey had a word for it, exteriorizing, exposing 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:36.600 his soul to the world. He encouraged David to be 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:41.439 fearless and continually toyed with the audience's expectations. The stage 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:44.280 became a training ground where he could experiment without fear 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:48.520 of consequences. Lindsey called it the hypnotist. In the Casanova technique, 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:51.480 you have to hypnotize an audience to enchant them, but 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:54.760 then you have to make them love you. David at 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:57.560 a head start on the casanova part. The women in 0:21:57.600 --> 0:21:59.919 his movement class fought for the privilege of being his 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:04.119 scene partner, improvising scenarios that nearly always involved rolling around 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:06.520 with him on the floor. But if the students had 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:10.640 a crush, the teacher was full on infatuated. Lindsay regularly 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:13.040 took David back to his flat tom as he called it, 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:16.240 muck about. Their affair didn't lack for passion, but it 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:18.680 hit a snag when the production of Paroh and Turquoise 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:22.679 hit the road for a brief tour in early David 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:25.520 got cozy with the costume designer, a glamorous woman named 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:29.199 Natasha Korlinov, who happened to be Lindsay's best friend for 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:32.120 a time. Natasha and David carried on their tryst in secret, 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:36.880 but hotel walls can be thin. One night, Lindsay heard banging, thumping, 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:39.399 and the unmistakable sound of David's grunts coming from the 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:45.600 room next door the betrayal of Lindsay. Heartbroken, he resolved 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:47.560 to end it all in a way befitting his status 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:52.520 as a professional dramatist. He'd hurl himself into the ocean. Unfortunately, 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:55.400