(Mandolin, b. 1945) Grisman was a city kid from New York who fell so deeply in love with the bluegrass music of Bill Monroe that he devoted himself to mastering his repertoire and his instrument, the mandolin. Grisman produced a record by his bluegrass heroes Frank Wakefield and Red Allen in 1963 and joined their band in 1966. But ...
As the guitarist in Pink Floyd, David Gilmour’s place in the pantheon of guitar heroes is guaranteed. But it’s not simply his playing on albums like The Dark Side Of The Moon that has assured his status. His meticulous attention to the sound and tone of his guitar in the studio and in concert has earned the universal admiration of ...
Young mod. Hairy hippie. Ziggy Stardust. Aladdin Sane. Halloween Jack. The Thin White Duke. Plastic Soulman. Godfather of the New Romantics. Tin Machinist. Across the course of his four decades-plus career, David Bowie (1947–2016) adopted more personas and musical genres than just about any other musical icon. He viewed his music and public profile as intertwined, at one point ...
As is the case with pretty much all stars, before the beautiful butterfly came the unremarkable caterpillar. Bowie was born not on Mars but in Brixton, South London. He started life as David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947. His father was a promotions officer for the children’s charity Barnardo’s and his mother a cinema usherette. He had one ...
David Bowie has inspired more musicians than most recording artists, but he naturally also had his own formative influences. Who Does He Love ? It almost goes without saying that Elvis Presley was important to him: few of the musicians who became teenagers in the Sixties weren’t overwhelmed by The King’s stunning larynx and greaseball beauty. Perhaps revealingly, Bowie ...
It’s easy to mock rock stars who pursue parallel careers as thespians. Firstly, because said parallel career has usually only been opened to them by their ‘proper’ job and, secondly, because the presumption of thinking they can excel at something for which others often study for years is mildly contemptible. Perhaps it’s something to do with his early ...
Bowie’s eponymous debut album appeared in June 1967. David Bowie was the work of a man who didn’t yet know quite what to do with his talent. However from 1971 to 1973 Bowie would, with the aid of a newly assembled band, produce a trio of albums that for many are both his finest moments and high watermarks in ...
Bowie’s mega-success with his artistic low point was followed by what can only be described as a lost decade. A Homeland No. 1 At Last In 1979 Bowie had a non-album UK Top 10 hit with ‘John I’m Only Dancing (Again)’, a song that – the old rascal – bore no relation to his 1972 non-album No. 12 hit ‘John I’m ...
Having previously declared that he would never record outside Tin Machine, Bowie proceeded to renege on both this and, in time, his assertion that he would not play his old hits for live audiences. Nobody seemed inclined to sue him for breach of promise. The fact that he once again engaged the production services of Nile Rodgers hardly ...
In March 2013 it was announced that ‘David Bowie is’ – an exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum – had become the fastest-selling in the institution’s history. The traditionally minded V&A had clearly cottoned on to the fact that Bowie, more than any music icon, enabled them to fulfil their remit of exploring art and design in the ...
Many were those in 1972 who would have snorted at the idea that an artist so obsessed with superficiality and chart success would sustain a multi-decade career characterized by career-jeopardising innovation. Hours… (1999) saw Bowie co-writing with Tin Machine guitarist and subsequent frequent collaborator Reeves Gabrels. The album had originated in a commission to score a computer game called Omikron: The ...
Albums 1967 David Bowie 1969 Space Oddity 1970 The Man Who Sold The World 1971 Hunky Dory 1972 The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars 1973 Aladdin Sane Pin Ups 1974 Diamond Dogs 1975 Young Americans 1976 Station To Station 1977 Low “Heroes” 1979 Lodger 1980 Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) 1983 Let’s Dance 1984 Tonight ...
(Alto saxophone, b. 1945) One of the most instantly recognizable and widely imitated voices in jazz during the 1980s, Sanborn emerged from the New York studio session scene – and a seat in Gil Evans’s orchestra – to gain crossover success worldwide on the strength of seven R&B-infused outings for Warner Bros., beginning with 1980’s breakthrough album Hideaway. ...
(Vocals, guitar, b. 1939) Coe broke through first as a songwriter, penning tunes for Tanya Tucker (1973’s No. 1 ‘Would You Lay Me Down (In A Field Of Stone)’, Willie Nelson and George Jones. Coe scored his own hit with 1975’s ‘You Never Even Called Me By My Name’, followed by five more Top 25 hits, including ...
1790–1864, Italian The tenor Giovanni Davide, son of another Italian tenor, Giacomo Davide (1750–1830), made his debut at 18 in Milan, in Simon Mayr’s (1763–1845) Adelaide di Guesclino (1799) and 15 years later created the role of Narciso in Rossini’s Il turco in Italia. Rossini was impressed enough to write other parts for Davide in Otello and ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.