David Bowie: The First Five Years (2019) - full transcript
A look at the early years in the life of rock star, David Bowie.
Once upon a time,
your father, my father,
everybody's father, I presume,
wanted a good job with a good income
to secure their family life.
A role in society,
and that's where it ended,
but now people want to be
an individual, and I think there's
a lot of searching to find
the individual within oneself.
♪ Fashion!
♪ Turn to the left... ♪
Once upon a time, there was
a little house.
MUSIC: The Man Who Sold The World
by David Bowie
Just say where you came from?
David Robert Jones...
..from Stansfield Road, Brixton.
That's the first thing I knew,
in case I got lost,
because I used to wander off a lot.
It wasn't a particular happy
childhood.
My parents were cold emotionally.
There weren't many hugs.
I always sort of craved affection
and that because of that.
♪ I never thought I'd need
♪ So many people
♪ A girl my age went off her head
♪ Hit some tiny children... ♪
I think there's a passion for most
people who have an iota of sort of
curiosity about them to escape
and get out and try and find
who one is.
♪ A small Jean Genie snuck off
to the city
♪ Strung out on lasers
and slash-back blazers
♪ Ate all your razors
while pulling the waiters
♪ Talking 'bout Monroe
and walking on Snow White... ♪
And I spent all those formative
teenage years adopting guises
and changing roles, and...
..erm...
..just learning to be somebody.
♪ There's a starman
♪ Waiting in the sky
♪ There's a starman
♪ Waiting in the sky... ♪
♪ Ashes to ashes funk to funky... ♪
I need some really quick changes
on the encore today.
Oh, yeah. There will be.
There will be.
Providing Mick keeps out
the dressing room!
I can hardly move.
For a dress-maker...
Can I? Hey?
When she's off sometime?
What, borrow?
Sure you can.
No, I told Ron about some things,
has he told you? Yeah.
In the intro to the show?
..for the show is just Michael,
right?
Yeah. Have you...? Have you?
What were you doing before you hit
the bright headlights?
Were you a nobody who
suddenly thought,
"Jesus, I must get into the scene
by some other way?"
I never asked Jesus for a thing,
no,
it was always on my own
initiative.
LAUGHTER
When I was 14, I was,
I became a mod, and it just
carried on from there, I've always
dressed in what I considered
clothes that prevent
me from becoming humdrum, so that
I would receive reaction from
people,
which would encourage me to write.
MUSIC: I Can't Explain
by David Bowie
London represented a lifestyle,
a new kind of language, culturally.
It was really
fantastic at that point.
Were you writing songs in this
period? Not very good ones.
So a majority of the things were
other people's numbers.
Little Richard stuff
and things like that.
But I became disenchanted with
singing other people's songs.
I thought I'd write my own.
MUSIC: You've Got A Habit of Leaving
by Davy Jones (And The Lower Third)
He was a nobody,
within my scope of knowledge of who
was in the music industry.
But we needed a singer.
And different people came,
amongst them was David Jones.
Or Davy Jones as he was promoting
himself at that time.
♪ And you've got
a habit of deserting me... ♪
We were impressed with his voice,
although, I thought
he was going to play the saxophone.
He had the alto sax round his neck,
and it wasn't until he started
singing, we realised that
was the boy for us, really.
We employed him, he didn't employ
us. We employed him.
And this was David's fourth go,
in terms of bands,
hoping this would be it.
♪ Wanted to, wanted to
Wanted to... ♪
But David of course had his own
agenda, where it was going to
be Davy Jones and the Last Third
now,
but next it's going to be
David Bowie and whatever.
So there was a side to David that
wasn't revealed to you.
He was a rascal, mate. That's it.
That's all I can really
say about it.
♪ Baby loves that way
♪ Yes she does, yes she does
♪ Baby loves that way
♪ Oh I love my baby... ♪
I mean, I was always very vain.
Then I found out that up in London,
all the mods wore make-up,
eyeshadow, and I thought that was
really peculiar,
and I thought it looked rather good.
The group van was this
London LCC ambulance.
We lived in this ambulance,
as well as travelling to the gigs.
So we were talking about how could
we be different from everybody else,
and David said,
"What about wearing make-up?"
"Right, make-up? OK." Now, I thought
he meant clown make-up.
Graham was driving, as he always
did, yeah?
I said, "Dave's just come out
with the idea.
"What about we wear make-up?"
So Graham turns around, "Fuck that!"
Yeah, so later,
I had the same problems.
I didn't actually tell The Spiders
that we'd have to wear make-up.
I said, "You looked very green
tonight on stage.
"I think if you wore make-up,
"you'd probably look a little more
natural-looking."
♪ Poor Jean Genie
Snuck into the city
♪ Strung out on lasers
and slash-back blazers
♪ Ate all your razors
while pulling the waiters
♪ Talking 'bout Monroe
and walking on Snow White
♪ New York's a no-go
and everything tastes nice
♪ Poor Jean Genie... ♪
Actually, when they realised how
many girls they could pull when
they looked so otherworldly, they
took to it like a fish to water.
HE LAUGHS
♪ The Jean Genie loves
chimney stacks
♪ He's outrageous
He screams and he bawls
♪ Jean Genie, let yourself go
Whoa... ♪
David had such a wide, eclectic
taste in things, he thought,
"Well, let's have a go at this,
because it's completely different.
"It's going to throw
people off balance, I'm sure,
"and just see how it goes."
And we did that
with our set on stage.
Mostly it was David's own
compositions, but we'd do hits by
The Kinks or The Who
but we'd also do things like
Chim Chimney from Mary Poppins.
♪ Chim chiminey, chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-ee
♪ A sweep is as lucky
as lucky can be... ♪
"Chim Chimney," he said. I thought,
"Why are we doing that stuff?"
Looking back on it, it just
felt like a lot of fun at the time,
and quite kind of mischievous.
You laugh a lot when you're young,
and it was just...
A lot of it was really funny.
Greetings, pop pickers,
it's Pick Of The Pops!
David told us
we got an audition at the BBC.
This was, wow, you know,
something special - the BBC.
So we walked into the BBC
and did our three numbers.
Out Of Sight, Chim Chimney
and Baby, That's A Promise.
That's one of David's songs.
We did that, came away
and then waited for the results.
MUSIC: That's A Promise
by David Bowie
I've been having second thoughts
about this, and I'd like to
hear more from the music department.
Well, frankly, to me, they strike me
as too much of a gimmick.
They said it was
"quite a different sound,
"especially in the Mary Poppins
number.
"And the treatment
of Chim-Chim-Cheree kills the
"song completely!"
HE LAUGHS
You cheeky sods.
"Routine beat group,
strange choice of material.
"Amateur-sounding vocalist..."
HE LAUGHS
..who sings wrong notes
and out of tune." Yes.
"Group has nothing to recommend it."
HE CHUCKLES
"I don't think the group will get
better with more rehearsal.
"The singer is a Cockney type..."
HE CHUCKLES
"but not outstanding enough."
Well, you need to be an outstanding
Cockney, obviously, for the BBC.
"There is no entertainment
in anything they do.
"An inoffensive, pleasant nothing.
"Backing - a singer
devoid of personality."
Where are these people now?
And each one says no, no,
no, no, no.
So that was our postmortem,
I suppose.
We failed.
But we got a recording
contract with Tony Hatch.
This to me was awe-inspiring.
MUSIC: Can't Help Thinking About Me
by David Bowie and the Lower Third
I'd written and produced
the song Downtown with Petula Clark.
I'd produced Sandie Shaw's first
hit, and when somebody called me
and said, "We have this artist and
he really has got a great talent,
"and he writes all his own things,"
I was more than happy.
David came up with
Can't Help Thinking About Me.
We rehearsed it,
played it at the Marquee
and then took it into the studio
and recorded it with Tony Hatch.
♪ I can't help thinking about me
♪ I can't help thinking
about me... ♪
I thought, "This has got the shape
of a hit. It's structured well.
"It has a very strong hook."
♪ I can't help thinking
about me... ♪
HE PLAYS THE MELODY
I don't know where you found this,
but it's, erm...
It is a piano...
..in case
anybody wondered what it was.
♪ Question-time that says
I brought dishonour... ♪
Can't help thinking about me.
Well, this came out of trials
in short-story writing,
little things about leaving home,
and stuff like that.
♪ Mother says that she can't stand
the neighbours talking
♪ I've gotta pack my bags, leave
this home, start walking, yeah... ♪
I couldn't really relate to
America too well.
So I started writing
more about Bromley and Peckham,
and tell a story from beginning
to end.
♪ Remember when we used to go to
church on Sundays
♪ I lay awake at night
Terrified of school on Mondays... ♪
He was certainly a different child,
and I think you could tell
he was gifted, even at that age.
Eight or nine years old. A thinker.
♪ I can't help
thinking about me... ♪
The difference with him
and other kids was that David had
interests and things that other
kids didn't have.
He was ahead of his time regarding,
you know, reading and music
and all the things which he
was into.
♪ As I pass a recreation ground
♪ I remember my friends
Always been found and I can't... ♪
There are some songwriters
that are just commentators,
but Bowie was a storyteller,
and so he was going to rummage
into all his experiences to find
things that he could write about.
It was something new.
♪ The station seems so cold
The ticket's in my hand
♪ My girl calls my name
♪ Hi, Dave
♪ Drop in, see around
Come back... ♪
SHE SPEAKS IN GERMAN
Es ist London's top teenage club,
der Marquee.
♪ Two by two they go walking by
♪ Hand in hand they watch me cry
♪ Two by two
♪ Hand in hand
♪ Lonely nights I dream you're there
♪ Morning sun and you're gone
♪ Lonely nights... ♪
David wanted The Buzz to play
sessions.
And we would be his band on stage.
He wanted a band that
was very much a backing band,
so that he would be the front man
as a separate entity.
♪ I'll do anything you say... ♪
And now a young British boy whose
career will surely
develop him into one of the bigger
names in the showbiz field.
He's a great attraction
here at the Marquee,
and his name is David Bowie!
David, you're working with
the backing group The Buzz.
Have you always been with them?
As David Bowie, yes.
Why do you say "as David Bowie"?
You worked...?
I was somebody else before.
This is, what, your second record,
and it's a song you wrote?
Yes, I write most of the stuff
I record, the B-sides and A-sides.
I don't think people realised
how important the Marquee was
as a venue.
It was the hottest place to go,
as far as I'm concerned.
I wouldn't have said that
I would have gone specially
to see his act at the Marquee club.
I went mainly to see some of what
I call the hotter bands.
I would sit in the audience
and gape at the Yardbirds,
or the Who.
♪ Maybe I'll do anything you say
♪ Maybe I'll do anything you say
♪ Maybe Do anything you say
Do anything... ♪
The record company decided
it didn't matter what I was
going to make with David,
they were losing faith.
His songs...
They weren't good enough
to actually capture
everybody's imagination.
You know, it still isn't
that unique Bowie magic.
David was never the success that
all his other contemporaries were.
Because of being that much younger,
you could say that he almost had
missed the boat.
♪ Do anything you say
Do anything you say... ♪
But he was a very driven man,
even from those early days.
But he always was helpful to me.
You know, I always felt that I was
kind of a fellow musician with him.
♪ Do anything you say
Do anything you say! ♪
Love never came into it,
which, thank God, you know?
If you're going to fall in love
with Bowie,
you might as well
kiss your sanity goodbye.
Because he loved himself extremely -
always did.
And I was quite happy with that.
At one point, David said,
"Do you want to come home
and meet my parents?"
I said, "Yes, why not?" That meant
taking the train to Bromley.
You find yourself in the middle of
two worlds.
There's the extreme values of people
who grow up in the countryside
and the very urban feel of the city.
In suburbia,
you're given the impression
that nothing, culturally,
belongs to you.
That you are sort of
in this wasteland.
David lived in Sundridge Park,
a mile or so from
the centre of Bromley,
and, er, it was quite quiet,
not a lot happening there.
You know, there was a corner pub,
a couple of shops.
When I was in his parents' house,
they're facing a television,
and the parents were sitting there
quite quiet.
They offered me
some tuna-fish sandwiches,
but then there was silence.
And I'm somebody that...
I mean, I can talk to anybody,
and it was hard going.
It was soulless.
Once they'd gone out, he said,
"Whatever it takes,
I want to get out of here.
"I do not want to live like this."
I think there's a passion
for most people to have an iota of
sort of curiosity about them
to escape and get out
and try and find who one is
and find some kinds of roots,
you know.
A desperation and exhaustion with
the blandness of where we grew up.
So London was magnetic for us.
It was somewhere
we wanted to belong in.
And I think that's why David
writes about it so often
in his early career.
He wanted to write songs
from the perspective,
like Ray Davies did, really,
of a London boy.
He always wanted it to be, er,
home-grown.
♪ Bow Bell strikes
♪ Another night
♪ Your eyes are heavy
and your limbs all ache
♪ You've bought some coffee
Butter and bread
♪ You can't make a thing... ♪
♪ ..Cos the meter's dead
♪ You moved away
♪ Told your folks
you're gonna stay away... ♪
What struck me was just,
a lot of them were really...
They were great songs.
They just... People didn't know
about them yet.
He just wasn't David Bowie, per se.
As we know him today.
♪ Bow Bell strikes
Another night... ♪
For him to revisit
these early songs of his,
it's just a very typical thing
for him to do.
You hear the Bowie
in the early songs.
He's already there. You know,
he's bubbling to the surface,
but he's already there.
♪ You moved away
♪ Told your folks
you're gonna stay away
♪ Bright lights, Soho
♪ Wardour Street
♪ You hope you make friends
with the guys you meet
♪ Somebody shows you round
♪ Now you've met the London boys
♪ Things seem good again
♪ Someone cares
♪ About you... ♪
That's not your typical
'60s pop song, is it?
None of it was. The London Boys
is a really good example of
David using his natural accent to
sing, to make the point. Right.
If you're going to write a song
called London Boys,
and you are from London,
and it's about you being a young man
in London,
then the accent
really drives the point home.
I think he even exaggerated it
a little bit.
It's almost like theatre.
Exactly, yeah.
It is, in a sense.
He's doing a song, and whatever
the theme of that song is,
he's putting on the character
vocally
that tells the story the right way.
That's... Exactly.
He's brilliant at that.
♪ It's too late now
♪ Cos you're out there, boy
♪ You've got it made
with the rest of the toys
♪ Now you wish
you'd never left your home
♪ You've got what you wanted
but you're on your own
♪ With the London boys
♪ Now you've met the London boys
♪ Now you've met the London boys
♪ Now you've met the London boys. ♪
♪ Two and two are four
♪ Four and four are eight... ♪
So much of what any teenager
or young person writes
comes from a sense of uniqueness.
Other than just rock music, that has
always been a history of the rebel,
of not being drawn to
the tyranny of the mainstream.
I really am open to influence
and new ideas,
and old ideas as well.
I don't put a block on things.
♪ ..dear Mistress
and cure his heart... ♪
I was one of the first kids
in Britain
to have the Velvet Underground
album.
I know that for a fact
because somebody had brought me back
a demo copy of it
before it was even released
in America.
The Underground were, I thought,
the most incredible sound.
There was this sort of mixture of
rock and avant-garde,
and the combination was so brutal.
I don't think David
lacked confidence in himself.
He probably always knew that
he was very adaptable,
and it was more a question of him
getting on the right track
to do the thing
that would take him furthest.
And it obviously took him
a long time to do that,
with The Lower Third
and then The Buzz
and the other things that he did.
♪ Well, I know you had it bad, girl
♪ And you're not to blame... ♪
I think the attraction for David
is that he was looking to
move forward
and be a lot more adventurous
with his musical styles.
And we were looking for a singer
that was totally flexible.
♪ ..if you go my way.... ♪
But then David made it plain,
really, right from the get-go,
that he wanted to go
more left-field,
if that's the right term,
musically.
And already he was talking
about Velvet Underground.
He knew what he wanted,
and he was there to do it.
He just wanted a backing band
with extra goodies put in,
which he did - he started
having face painted,
we started going more outrageous.
He was coming over to me,
"Can I draw just a petal on your
face, or a flower on your cheek?"
I said, "Yeah, do what you want
with my face."
♪ I'm waiting for my man
♪ 26 dollars in my hand... ♪
David thought I'm Waiting For My Man
did have gay connotations.
"I'm waiting for my man,
to take him home" -
and as the act went,
David was out front,
and everybody used to march up
behind him in close contact.
I didn't, cos I was on the organ,
but you had Bob Evans...
David Bowie, Bob Evans,
Rod Davis was lead guitar,
used to go round the stage
really as a homosexual thing,
I'm Waiting, and really
close contact together.
Do you remember that? No!
You can't? I can't, no.
I'm laughing at the fact
you're talking about
you being on the organ...
Oh, I see!
♪ Oh, pardon me, sir
♪ It springs to my mind
♪ I'm just lookin' for
a good friendly behind
♪ I'm waiting for my man. ♪
But he had some great ideas
for that time.
But David's time with us was
eight weeks, 25 gigs - that's all.
Maybe he just felt overnight,
you know,
he's done his bit with us
and now I want to move on to
something a bit more theatrical.
I was looking for someone
who could be
an all-round entertainer,
and I thought in David we had found
someone who could be.
When we first went
to the Deram label,
the man who was in charge of
the album department said to me,
"This is the greatest thing
that's come here since Tony Newley."
♪ No star to guide me
♪ And no-one beside me... ♪
And he was a funny sort of guy.
Very much a Cockney,
lovable Cockney kind of character.
And David would only be
Anthony Newley,
all the way through
doing all the other stuff.
♪ Maybe tomorrow
♪ I'll find what I'm after
♪ I'll throw off my sorrow
♪ Beg, steal or borrow
my share of laughter... ♪
The thing is, I never thought that
I could sing very well
and I used to kind of
try on people's voices,
if they appealed to me,
when I was a kid, about 15, 16.
So I started singing
like Anthony Newley.
♪ ..You turn away. ♪
So I was writing these really weird
Tony Newley type songs.
I thought, "Yeah, this is my bag."
♪ Rubber band
♪ Won't you play a haunting theme
again to me
♪ While I eat my scones
and drink my cup of tea?
♪ The sun is warm
but it's a lonely afternoon... ♪
He just had such wacky songs.
About the only thing that used to
bother us is that he sounded like
Anthony Newley all the time,
to the point that
we used to comment on it,
and David would just say,
"I can't sing any other way."
We knew bloody well he could,
but I think he just had a fixation
to the point that as soon as
he opened his mouth,
Anthony Newley shot out.
You know, it was like
he just had no control over it.
I hope you break your baton!
Ha-ha-ha-ha! A-ha-ha-ha-ha.
A-ha.
Ha-ha-ha-ha.
Ha-ha-ha!
Go on!
PLAYS "LAUGHING GNOME" RIFF
♪ Da-da-dun-dun
♪ Bom-bom-bom-bom
♪ Ba ba-ba ba-ba ba-ba...♪
It's very, very simple.
♪ I was walking down the high street
♪ When I heard footsteps behind me
♪ And there was a little old man
Hello!
♪ In scarlet and grey
Chuckling away... ♪
CHUCKLING
One of the great influences
that he had was Anthony Newley.
Which to me, I didn't get that.
Who got it was my wife Robin.
He was singing once,
and Robin looked at me and went...
"Did he just Anthony Newley us?"
I was like, "Yes, I think he did,
honey."
♪ Ha ha ha
♪ Hee hee hee
♪ I'm a laughing gnome
and you can't catch me
♪ Ha ha ha... ♪
I'll always associate Laughing Gnome
with Gus Dudgeon
because he used to sit there
doing tricks with his glasses
whilst I was making it!
Because we had the technology.
RECORDED LAUGHTER PLAYS
Get down with it! Woo!
Fuck off.
Hee hee hee!
He said, "Right, we need some
gnome voices on this thing."
And I showed him it could be done,
and he went, "Oh, well, that's it,
we've got to do it."
♪ I'm a laughing gnome
and you can't catch me... ♪
You had to slow the tape down
to pretty much half speed
and sing normally.
We did quite a lot of takes,
and got very silly, and
got very rude at times,
and there were some obscenities
that we can't possibly talk about,
but everyone had a good time
doing it.
Come on, Fred!
♪ Ha ha ha!
♪ Hee hee hee
♪ I'm the laughing gnome
and you can't catch me
♪ Said the laughing gnome. ♪
In a way, David's also very clever.
That simplicity aspect, I think,
is very, very important.
I mean, his love for the Velvet
Underground and the whole
Lou Reed thing, and the simplicity
of Waiting For The Man.
HE PLAYS:
I'm Waiting For The Man
♪ Waiting for the man... ♪
That same pulsation...
♪ ..I was walking
♪ Da-da da-da
♪ Da da daa da daa da daaa... ♪
It's exactly the same.
♪ Waiting for the man... ♪
Two chords.
I mean, Fame is three chords.
And so, this simplicity is amazing.
And it's totally relevant.
But...
The Velvet Underground was cool.
There's nothing cool about
The Laughing Gnome.
♪ Ha ha ha
♪ Hee hee hee... ♪
BOWIE LAUGHS
♪ ..I'm the laughing gnome
♪ And you can't catch me
♪ Ha ha ha
♪ Hee hee hee Oh, dear me!
♪ I'm the laughing gnome
and you can't catch me... ♪
Everything he did kind of failed.
The Laughing Gnome,
that single that he loathed,
didn't give him satisfaction.
I don't know how he coped with this,
except that I do know that
if you want something hard enough
and it's not happened,
it only makes you want to go on
and want it even more.
♪ La-la la la-la la
♪ La-la la la-la la la... ♪
Oh, my word!
54 years or so
of history coming back at me.
Bowie was young. He was trying
to make a mark for himself.
And he was very much a Jack the lad,
there's no two ways about it.
But I remember he was
very funny to work with.
We did have a lot of moments
where we collapsed in laughter.
VERNON: ..Four.
NORTHERN ACCENT:
Where there's muck, there's brass.
Crisp cream short and a lemonade
sandwich out on a... oh, sure!
That's where the men are.
David was an easy guy
to get along with, you know.
It's just that his songs were wild.
One, two. One, two, three, four.
They were totally quirky
and off the wall, you know.
And there are some really
good songs and there are emotions
and there are stories.
And this was the one thing
that Bowie was very good at.
There's no discussion about it.
♪ Just look through your window
♪ Look who sits outside
♪ Little me is waiting
♪ Standing through the night
♪ When you walk out
through your door
♪ I'll wave my flag and shout
♪ Oh, beautiful baby
♪ My burning desire
started on Sunday
♪ Give me your heart
and I'll love you till Tuesday. ♪
Well, I might be able
to stretch it till Wednesday.
The songs had
a different viewpoint.
Singing songs that were...
appeared to be written by children.
I don't remember ever hearing
really any other song at that time
that was a story that was
apparently being told by children.
It seemed to me completely unique.
♪ There is a happy land
♪ Where only children live
♪ They don't have the time
to learn the ways of you, sir
♪ Mr Grown-Up... ♪
Good heavens. It's been
60 years since I've been here.
And I never, ever
use the front door.
We always came in
through the back alley.
♪ It's a secret place
and adults aren't allowed there
♪ Mr Grown-Up
♪ Go away, sir... ♪
David used to do his performances
on the windowsill over there,
and David would go, "Ta-da!"
And he'd do his Flowerpot Men.
He would jump around with
a terracotta pot on his head.
THEY LAUGH
Plop! Plop!
His father John
absolutely doted on him.
But David's mum Peggy
never became involved in games.
She would sit and watch, but
she would never enthuse, you know.
She wouldn't be, "Oh, how
wonderful!" or anything like that.
And she would often tell us
we were being soppy.
♪ Two and two are four
♪ Four and four are eight... ♪
Inchworm, Danny Kaye,
conjures up my childhood for me.
HE LAUGHS
It's very sweet, and it was from
the film Hans Christian Andersen.
♪ Inchworm, inchworm
♪ Measuring a marigold... ♪
It sounded so personal.
And the person who was singing it
sounded like he'd been hurt, too.
And I think that really got to me,
and it might have gone into
the way I wrote a bit, you know?
"I've been hurt too!"
♪ Inchworm
♪ Inchworm... ♪
Often talking out your hurt,
you know,
is something I find that,
you know, writers can do.
And I may have
done that a few times.
David's mum was quite quiet,
really. She didn't say a lot.
I wasn't sure she liked me, even.
You know?
Because sometimes, you think,
"Well, maybe she doesn't like me.
"She's a bit quiet
and doesn't say anything."
I never saw her laugh or smile.
Certainly not to me.
And bless her heart, when she died,
I wrote to David and said,
"I'm sorry about your mother," etc.
I said, "Actually, she never
quite took to me, your mother."
And he wrote back to me and said,
"Trouble is, Geoff, she never
quite took to me either."
♪ Smiling girls and rosy boys
♪ Come and buy my little toys
♪ Monkeys made of gingerbread
♪ And sugar horses painted red... ♪
David spent his entire life
trying to win her approval.
I think when David was young,
he suffered a lot from the problems
in his parents' marriage.
They didn't engage in affectionate
conversation with each other.
John was very much in love
with Peggy.
Peggy would say to John's face
it was a marriage of convenience.
And so there was this rift,
and David had to be very careful.
If he allowed his father
to make too much of him,
it would annoy Peggy.
I think the most significant thing
in David's life was that
he was always striving
for Peggy's love.
I think he spent his life
trying to win her approval.
♪ Rich men's children running fast
♪ Their fathers dressed in hose
♪ Golden hair and mud
of many acres on their shoes
♪ Gazing eyes and running wild
♪ Past the stocks and over stiles
♪ Kiss the window, merry child
♪ But come and buy my toys... ♪
The idea of writing sort of
short stories, I think
that was quite novel at the time,
excuse the pun!
I was quite satisfied with
the way things were going.
I mean, I hadn't found
any voice style,
and I hadn't found
any way to perform.
The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper
unfortunately
came out at the same time. I mean,
it was pretty strong competition.
There was...
Frankly, Bowie didn't
stand a chance, really,
and that's why the record, I guess,
at the time, completely flopped.
It didn't really do
any business at all.
I thought it was
absolutely beautiful.
It was the first time
that I heard David.
I loved all the songs,
some more than others, I suppose,
and it was that song,
When I Live My Dream...
♪ When I live my dream
I'll be there... ♪
..that started the whole thing off.
That's when I fell in love with him,
for one thing.
♪ When I live my dream,
I'll take you with me
♪ Riding on a golden horse... ♪
Lindsay was using the Deram
album in his show.
He was miming to certain
aspects of this album,
and news of that got to David,
and therefore, he went to see
one of Lindsay's performances.
And the curtains opened
and there was a very beautiful man
sitting in the front row
who turned out to be David Bowie.
But he came round after
the show and
there was kind of a tatty curtain
which you pulled to one side.
But it was like the
Archangel Gabriel standing there.
Just this kind of light.
♪ Till that day
♪ You'll run to many other men
♪ And let them know
it's just for now
♪ Tell them that I've got a dream
♪ And tell them
you're the starring role. ♪
He had a grace and a brain
as well, though, as beauty.
But he was funny.
And, you know, I mean,
beauty and humour are the two things
that attract me the most.
They've got to have both of those.
If they're going to last
more than a weekend!
We said, "Well,
let's get together, you know.
"I'd love to write some music
for your show." And he said,
"Well, I can't pay you,"
because he wasn't earning anything.
"Yeah," I said,
"Well, look, that's all right,
"because I want to learn mime.
So in exchange, you teach me mime,
"and I'll work with you
in writing music."
♪ Bang the drum
and blow the bugle call
♪ Pierrot takes the stage
to play for all
♪ For here's the life
misfortune rules
♪ Forsaken by his Columbine. ♪
The premiere was at
the Oxford Playhouse,
so we got paid
a nominal kind of fee from there,
and we transferred to the West End.
Albeit West 11, Notting Hill,
which was not quite so fashionable
then as it is now,
and the tiny Mercury Theatre,
the home of British ballet.
And I think it sat 120 seats,
so we didn't make much money.
Need I say more?
And nobody came at all!
Nobody came at all.
♪ Till the day my dream
cascades around me
♪ I'm content to let you
pass me by... ♪
I thought, well, here I am, I'm
a bit sort of mixed up creatively,
I've got all these things going
I like doing at once on stage,
or whatever.
I'm not quite sure if I'm a mime
or a songwriter or a singer.
Why am I doing
any of these things anyway?
And I realised it was because
I wanted to be well known.
♪ Tell them I'm
a dreaming kind of guy... ♪
I've always been a very curious
and enthusiastic person.
I just had to accept that I was
a person that had a very short
attention span, would move from
one thing to another quite rapidly,
then I got bored with the other.
♪ Ground control to Major Tom
♪ Your circuit's dead
♪ There's something wrong
♪ Can you hear me, Major Tom? ♪
Somehow I knew that what
I was doing was important.
Taking elements from areas
that really shouldn't sit
comfortably with each other.
The name was Hermione Farthingale,
and I absolutely adored her.
I mean, she was the real
first love in my life.
And she was a ballet dancer.
We did fall in love.
It took maybe five minutes.
SHE LAUGHS Maximum.
He was a lad, a youthlet.
He was very, very young.
He looked ridiculously young.
He looked about eight.
And in fact, when I first
went out with him,
it did sort of bother me
a little bit.
I had to keep reminding myself
he was actually 21.
♪ And we'd talk with our eyes
♪ Of the sweetness in our lives
♪ And tomorrow's
a rich surprise... ♪
Hermione was a couple of notches up,
you know. She was posh.
But really nice. They did look like
mirror images, so they fit together.
Our life was not regular.
Neither of us were working 9 to 5.
It wasn't a very
rock 'n' roll life either.
Occasionally we had a glass
of white wine!
And David wasn't even very
good at having a spliff.
♪ Baby, baby
♪ Brush the dust of youth
from off your shoulder
♪ Because the years of threading
daisies lie behind you now... ♪
David was, I have to say,
the perfect English gentleman.
I mean, I remember, for example,
when he and Hermione
sat down for dinner,
David held the chair for her
and pushed the chair in for her
and being very polite,
easy-going and very lovely people.
♪ Let your hair hang down
♪ Wear the dress your mother wore
♪ Let me sleep beside you... ♪
In the early days, he wasn't happy
professionally at all
because it was a massive struggle,
that whole year.
I remember there was this endless
period where I was, like,
scrubbing out people's kitchens.
I know I did that.
Anything to pick up a few dollars.
But I needed something that didn't
tie me down in any way
so if an audition came along
or whatever,
I'd be free to do it, you know?
But by August,
it suddenly came to him
that what he wanted to do was this
mixed media performance.
♪ I will give you dreams
♪ And I'll tell you things
you'd like to hear
♪ Let your hair hang down
♪ Wear the dress
your mother wore... ♪
I was in a mixed media group,
which means that one of us
could dance, another one could sing
and another one had some poetry
and we put it all together.
And went underground.
It was called Feathers.
And the girl was Hermione
and the guy was Hutch on guitar.
♪ While stepping through
a heaven's eye
♪ Two lovers' souls we spied
♪ Their whisper cloud voice
sang to me
♪ A tearful, happy cry... ♪
David and Feathers,
we could do a song quite heavy
and quite deep, but you can
change the mood on a gig
by doing something with it,
a nice snappy guitar riff,
and Ching-A-Ling song was fine.
It was a good song.
And it had...
..you know, that was unusual
in its way.
Ching-A-Ling was based on David's
12-string, his travelling piano.
You know, that's what he used
all the time to write on
and as long as he stayed on
that instrument,
songs were going
to come out that way.
There was... You know, you can't
play rock riffs on a 12-string.
You just can't.
He'd try one thing,
try another, things didn't...
If they didn't work out,
that was absolutely fine
and just move on to the next,
but he wasn't lost.
He just wasn't found either.
We used to do some mime pieces,
you know, and it was, like...
Just throwing in everything I knew
to keep an audience's attention
more than anything else.
I can't remember the specifics
of his performance
other than what I photographed.
It was pretty much like mime
exercises, but a bit extra.
It didn't really do it for me.
But the man did.
♪ Sell me a coat
with buttons of silver
♪ Sell me a coat that's red or gold
♪ Sell me a coat... ♪
I didn't shoot colour of David
cos it seemed like a waste.
Colour was a whole different
thing and expense.
Yeah, he was obviously not going
to be a massive star, so...
..why would I want colour
in my library?
David asked me to see it,
a little show that he'd got
together with Feathers.
I was walking home and I happened
to glance in the window
of this junk shop and there it was.
He did a piece called The Mask.
David, I suppose, had seen
Marcel Marceau along the line,
but he wasn't Marcel Marceau.
LAUGHTER
It was dreadful!
I cringed, I really cringed.
And there are always
people that say,
"He was very good in
that miming, wasn't he?"
No, no, he was a lot of shit.
INTERVIEWER: Has any of
the criticism,
or any of the attacks hurt you?
Yes, everything hurts me very much.
I'm very sensitive.
But I put myself in that position,
so that's what I'm in for, isn't it?
Feathers was never destined to last.
He never said, "Let's the three of
us get really famous together."
It was a stepping stone.
But I had also said to myself,
"Am I actually going to be with
David for the rest of my life?"
And I didn't think
I was actually going to.
He was clearly going somewhere
and I just didn't think I was going
to tread that path with him.
Song Of Norway was a big MGM
spectacular which needed dancers
for seven months or so.
It was something that nobody
in their right mind
would have turned down.
I just thought, "Yeah,
this is what I want to be doing."
I suddenly realised that I had to...
..I had to pull out and stop.
Oh, God, yes, my heart broke.
She was doing this funny romp
in Norway with bits of ballet in it
and she was cast in that.
God, I didn't get over that
for such a long time.
It really broke me up.
I think he was vulnerable and
he was scared of being abandoned.
I think he was very hesitant
about giving himself.
And David must have been very
frightened by all the comings
and goings of various
family members.
♪ When I'm five
♪ I will read the magazines
in Mummy's drawer
♪ When I'm five
♪ I will walk behind the soldiers
in the May Day parade... ♪
I have a cousin who is very dear
to me who was shuttled around
from family to family and came
and stayed with us for a while.
My mother had children
that I never really knew about,
but that were also shifted off to
another family.
It just seemed everybody
in the family had this kind
of attribute of being in transition
from one stage to another.
♪ When I'm five
♪ I will catch a butterfly
and eat it and I won't be sick... ♪
I think I'd realised that
the transitory nature of life
was, erm... something that we all
had to deal with.
I think one of the reasons
he was so very good as a child,
and he was, was because he was
afraid he'd be given away, too.
VOCALS ONLY:
♪ Ground Control to Major Tom
♪ Your circuit's dead,
there's something wrong
♪ Can you hear me, Major Tom? ♪
I related it to myself a lot
more than
anything I'd written up until then.
There was something about it
that touched areas of my fears
about my own insecurities socially
and maybe emotionally.
This feeling of isolation that
I had ever since I was a kid,
was really starting
to manifest itself.
I think the isolation of the film
2001 made itself very obvious
when I wrote the song Space Oddity,
because for the first time,
I really felt a sense of how you
could write as an isolationist.
I thought, "Well, gee,
I am Major Tom.
"Here I am in my own cosmic space
and nobody can possibly understand
"what it's like to be out here
on this umbilical cord
"attached to my craft."
♪ Ground Control to Major Tom
♪ Ground Control to Major Tom
♪ Take your protein pills
and put your helmet on... ♪
David wrote it
as a song for two people -
Ground Control and Major Tom.
David would sing the lead
and I would come up with
the easiest way for me
to sound right as the harmony voice.
♪ Check ignition
and may God's love be with you... ♪
Blast off!
Not only that,
I should have been on the record!
As Ground Control, obviously.
But I'd left. I was in a drawing
office in Scarborough by then.
♪ This is Major Tom
to Ground Control
♪ I'm stepping through the door
♪ And I'm floating in a most
peculiar way
♪ Can I please get back inside now
if I may? ♪
When I heard the demo
of Space Oddity,
I didn't like it all that much
and I handed it to Gus Dudgeon.
He really loved David.
I said, "Tony, you're crazy!
"Are you sure you don't
want to do this song?"
He said, "No, you want to
do it, obviously."
I said, "I can't wait."
And so he said, "Well,
you do that and the B-side
"and I'll do the rest of the album."
I said, "OK, fine."
If Gus were alive,
which he isn't, unfortunately,
he would be presenting this to you
and I was really, really impressed
with the job that David
and Gus Dudgeon had done on this.
What makes this work is drama.
The first thing you hear
is an ominous
12-string guitar fade up
from nothing.
DRUMS ENTER
So, all that is quite dramatic.
That's not your average pop song,
but, you know,
it doesn't hit you in the face,
doesn't hit you in the head.
It's drama and you are sucked
into it,
so this is a very clever
device that he used.
♪ Ground Control to Major Tom
♪ Ground Control to Major Tom... ♪
So, David used this revolutionary
new instrument,
the mighty little Stylophone.
RISING ELECTRONIC NOTE
So it all adds to the kind of
science fiction quality of the song.
♪ Check ignition
and may God's love be with you... ♪
Very dramatic liftoff, isn't it?
MELODY BUILDS
♪ This is Ground Control
to Major Tom
♪ You've really made the grade... ♪
And another new thing
it had on it,
which the Beatles kind of debuted,
was the Mellotron.
ELECTRONIC STRING CHORDS
David wanted it because he wanted it
to sound not like strings,
but like strings,
and I knew exactly what he meant.
It's recorded strings.
It's the tapes inside.
Erm...
..but one of the problems you have
with this instrument is that
a note only lasts eight seconds...
..and then it cuts out.
So if you hold a chord long enough,
and sometimes you need to hold it
for a lot longer than eight seconds,
after you get to the eight
second mark, it starts to...
CHORD DISTORTS AND DIES
..to do that, which is
why I hated the bloody thing,
to be brutally honest with you.
♪ And the papers want to know
whose shirts you wear
♪ Now it's time to leave the capsule
if you dare... ♪
Covered it in echo to get the actual
sound that David wanted.
Which I have nicked ever since
to use on Yes records.
♪ Though I'm past 100,000 miles
♪ I'm feeling very still
♪ And I think my spaceship knows
which way to go
♪ Tell my wife I love her very much
♪ She knows
♪ Ground Control to Major Tom
♪ Your circuit's dead,
there's something wrong
♪ Can you hear me, Major Tom? ♪
INTERVIEWER: David, the record which
you have in the charts in Britain
at the moment is undoubtedly your
biggest success to date, isn't it?
My only success to date, yeah!
♪ Here am I
floating round my tin can... ♪
When he had the big hit
with Space Oddity,
that's where the change came, where
he started seeing himself as a star.
♪ Planet Earth is blue
♪ And there's nothing I can do... ♪
People knew who
David Bowie was, then.
He was the Major Tom guy and they'd
say, "Hey, Major Tom!" and all that.
People would see him, you know?
Which he loved.
He absolutely loved it.
APPLAUSE
Accepting the special merit award
for originality, David Bowie.
But I said, "You're never write
another song like this again."
And he didn't.
What he did come up with
was something
no-one dreamt about at the time.
He was the first rock star
to take on a different identity.
In other words, it was
Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie.
That was his stroke of genius.
Off the record, everybody told me,
they said, "David, you've
got to have a single."
So I said, "Right, I'll go away
"and I will write an archetype
single in my style
"based loosely on Space Oddity,"
so that people say,
"Ah, this is what we were waiting
for from David Bowie
"as a follow-up to Space Oddity."
That's Starman.
Starman was strictly...
I wrote it in about 15 minutes.
I used every cliched phrase
I could think of
to do with star men
and people in space,
and "Let the children boogie"
and all that.
Shoved it in - three minutes
and on a nice tune.
♪ Didn't know what time it was
♪ And the lights were low, oh, oh
♪ I leaned back on my radio, oh, oh
♪ Some cat was laying down some
♪ Get it on rock and roll
♪ He said...
♪ Then the loud sound
did seem to fa-a-ade
♪ Came back like a slow voice
on a wave of pha-a-se
♪ That weren't no DJ
♪ That was hazy cosmic jive... ♪
INTERVIEWER: Do you enjoy
being a rock star?
Fantastic.
BOWIE LAUGHS
I'm just...
You know, messing around.
I never really thought I'm going
to make my mark as a...
I just thought, "Well, I'll be
David Bowie, the first David Bowie,"
that's all.
♪ There's a starman
waiting in the sky
♪ He'd like to come and meet us,
but he thinks he'd blow our minds
♪ There's a starman
waiting in the sky
♪ He told us not to blow it
♪ Cos he knows it's all worthwhile,
he told me
♪ Let the children lose it
♪ Let the children use it
♪ Let all the children boogie
♪ Starman... ♪
When we did the Space Oddity album
in Trident Studios,
David used to walk about
like he was a star.
You could see it just by...
He could walk into a pub
and you'd think, "He's going
to be a star," and, you know,
but not necessarily by his music or
his playing at that time, you know?
He was a bit like a folky singer.
He wasn't like
the rock god he became.
But then again, David was very deep,
you know?
He would never...
wear his heart on his sleeve.
He would never come up
to you and say,
"I'm really worried about this,"
you know?
He would just ride over it.
♪ The hand that wrote this letter
sweeps the pillow clean
♪ So rest your head
♪ And read a treasured dream
♪ I care for no-one else but you
♪ I'd tear my soul to cease the pain
♪ I think maybe you feel the same
♪ What can we do? ♪
So I wrote my, you know,
my Letter To Hermione on my album.
I thought, "There, that'll show her!
"If I write something that public,
"then she'll see that she really
messed me up."
♪ So I've been writing
just for you... ♪
He was definitely feeling that song.
That was him being vulnerable.
I think we only did
one or two takes.
There was no reason to keep
recording it
and do it one more time better.
He just did that performance and it
was heart-tugging.
♪ They say your life is going
very well
♪ They say you sparkle
like a different girl
♪ But something tells me
that you hide
♪ When all the world
is warm and tired
♪ You cry a little in the dark
♪ Well, so do I... ♪
Did I cry?
Probably.
I missed him terribly.
We missed each other as friends.
Apart from anything else, you know,
that's what we really missed. Yeah.
♪ I'm not quite sure
what I'm supposed to do
♪ So I'll just write some
love to you. ♪
♪ I still don't know what
I was waiting for
♪ And my time was running wild
♪ A million dead-end streets and
♪ Every time I thought
I'd got it made
♪ It seemed the taste
was not so sweet... ♪
It almost seemed that 1970
was the cumulative year for me,
that's where it all
sort of started to make sense.
♪ I took this walk to ease my mind
♪ Find out what's gnawing at me
♪ Wouldn't think to look at me
♪ That I spent a lot of time
on education... ♪
I was living in this huge
almost neo-Gothic pile
down in Beckenham
called Haddon Hall,
which had some kind of baronial hall
entrance hall type thing
and the band that
we collected together,
Visconti and, at the time, Angela,
all kind of shared
this baronial hall,
so it was kind of a commune thing.
Angie, when I met her,
was this free spirit.
She was outspoken, had courage
like you wouldn't believe.
She could walk up to anybody
and give them a piece of her mind
or get things, and Angie was
the one who made things happen.
NORTHERN ACCENT:
Mick came from Hull.
You know, he was very down to earth.
BOWIE LAUGHS
But when I first heard him play,
I thought, "That's my Jeff Beck!
"He is fantastic,
this kid is great."
And so I sort of hoodwinked him
into working with me.
He'd get a song and he'd sit there
and he'd just play it on the
acoustic guitar, singing.
I kind of just watched him and kind
of played through everything
and I guess everybody
kind of liked it.
I'd played classical piano,
you know, and I played violin
and with David kind of pushing you
into doing these different things,
that was really good, too,
because he encouraged you
to do those things.
My new band was called Hype.
Tony Visconti on bass,
Mick Ronson on guitar
and John Cambridge on drums
and myself on rhythm guitar
and keyboard thing.
♪ In the corner
of a morning in the past
♪ I would sit and blame
the master first and last
♪ All the roads were straight
and narrow
♪ And the prayers were small
and yellow
♪ And the rumour spread that
I was ageing fast... ♪
One of the first gigs that we did
was in February 1970
at the Roundhouse with Hype.
And I think it was probably
my first costume band.
And our respective girlfriends
and wives and whatever put together
all these really ridiculous, like,
cartoon capers, comic hero costumes.
The Roundhouse gig with the
costumes, that was Angie's idea.
She said we should all get dressed
up, and maybe David did want to,
maybe a bit in it as well,
but Angie had a lot to do with it.
I was Cowboyman, with a cowboy hat,
and I had a frilly shirt.
Ronson was Guitar Gangster, and
he wore a sort of gangster's outfit,
and I became this kind of
Spaceman, silver and all that.
Tony was Hypeman. It was like
a converted Superman-type thing.
Over the years I forgot the colours
of this, until I saw that video of
us in colour and, you know, it was
green and red and all that.
I didn't even know what colour
it was.
And then they made me, instead of
a Superman cape,
they made me a very big cape
with wires in it,
so I had this collar.
♪ So softly a super god cries... ♪
We thought that we were kind of,
you know, smart,
but nobody even
looked at the stage.
I mean, it was really just the most
depressing night of our lives.
♪ All were minds in uni-thought
♪ Power's weird
by mystics taught... ♪
But I think I was getting nearer
to what I wanted to do,
which was to create this
alternative world,
which is what I ultimately ended up
doing with the Ziggy thing.
♪ Nightmare dreams no mortal
mind could hold
♪ A man would tear his brother's
flesh, a chance to die
♪ To turn to mould... ♪
I got a call from David.
"I've got this place in Beckenham,
in Kent, called Haddon Hall,
"and we all live there.
"And I'm doing another album,"
you know, "will you come?"
So I was like, "Ooh!"
♪ Gather round all you people
♪ Watch me while you can... ♪
So it was like a mansion,
and it was real cheap too, you know,
because David only paid £7 a month,
and £7 a month was nothing,
you know.
There was a lot of things
went on there, you know.
Mick and I slept on the landing
in sleeping bags.
And I remember waking up one
morning, there was a...
..oh, just a giggling and screaming
down below, through the banisters.
I looked down and there was, like,
ten naked females
prancing about downstairs.
♪ You don't have to be a big wheel,
you don't have to be the end... ♪
I never saw ten naked women.
I saw two.
But people were trying to
get into my bedroom,
and climb into bed with Liz
and myself,
and it was like,
"Mate, you're in the wrong room.
"Go back in that room," you know?
"It's not like a bordello."
..which it kind of resembled
after a while.
You never quite knew what was
going to happen,
and then David would come down the
staircase in the dress, you know?
And you'd never seen that before.
"It's a man's dress."
I said, "Yeah, I assumed that,"
you know?
It was definitely a man's dress,
although zipped up in the same
way as a woman's.
We all wore dresses at that time,
and... No, we didn't.
No!
MUSIC: She Shook Me Cold
by David Bowie
♪ We met upon a hill
♪ The night was cool and still... ♪
I was still very much trying to find
who I was as a writer,
and electric music was appealing
to me more and more,
especially the heavier
kind of guitar-oriented things.
♪ I will go back again
♪ My God, she shook me cold. ♪
I mean, The Man Who Sold The World
is not completely disconnected
from the Led Zeppelin-style heavy
metal that was beginning to
arrive as well.
I think all the sounds that
he's going through
are things that he's listening to,
having a look at, pulling
into the next record and, you know,
using that and going on from there.
♪ I slash them cold,
I kill them dead
♪ I broke the gooks,
I cracked their heads
♪ I'll bomb them out
from under the beds
♪ But now I've got
the running gun blues. ♪
On Man Who Sold The World, he was
starting to get more of a concept
of "I'll do what I want to do" -
lyrically particularly and songwise.
The Man Who Sold The World
opened the floodgates.
I think he was learning
that his ideas could be put across,
and I think the times
when he didn't compromise on what
he wanted to say
were the successful things.
♪ Day after day
♪ They send my friends away
♪ To mansions cold and grey... ♪
One of my sort of
half-siblings meant so much
to me in my early years,
and his name was Terry.
He was my half-brother.
My mother's son.
♪ To the far side of town
♪ Where the thin men stalk
the streets
♪ While the sane stay underground. ♪
Terry probably gave me
the greatest education
that I could ever have had.
I mean, he just introduced me
to the outside things.
And I guess Terry had shown me
that there's always been a history
of the outside, of the rebel,
of not being in the centre,
and not being drawn to the tyranny
of the mainstream.
But then he would go
away for long periods.
One period he went away
and joined the RAF.
And when he came back
he had changed considerably,
and was showing very evident
signs of schizophrenia.
And then he went into hospital,
and he stayed in hospital
for the rest of his life.
♪ Day after day
♪ They tell me I can go
♪ They tell me I can blow
♪ To the far side of town
♪ Where it's pointless to be high
♪ Cos it's such a long way down
♪ So I tell them that
♪ I can fly, I will scream,
I will break my arm
♪ I will do me harm... ♪
Insanity...
..was something that
I was terribly fearful of.
But I felt that I was the lucky one
because as long as I could
put those psychological
excesses into my music,
then I could always be
throwing it off.
One of the porkies that David
perpetuated for a very long time
was that he came from a family where
insanity seemed to be the norm.
And it just wasn't true.
Yes, Terry had his breakdown,
but I believe it was
a bad acid trip.
♪ Than perish with the sad men
roaming free... ♪
Every arrangement we did on
The Man Who Sold The World album,
we started them in Haddon Hall,
but we finished
most of the album in the studio and
made up our own parts on the spot.
And David would go off into the
hallway and write the lyrics.
I'd go out half an hour later,
and he'd just be holding
hands with Angie.
And I'd go, "Come on, write the damn
lyrics, for God's sake!"
The Man Who Sold The World was
written, the lyrics were written,
on the same day we recorded it,
which was the last day of the album.
MUSIC: The Man Who Sold The World
by David Bowie
The Man Who Sold The World as a song
was kind of about meeting
himself in the future
and where he'd been,
and you kind of... That's the
picture you, or I, had in my head.
♪ We passed upon the stair
♪ We spoke of was and when
♪ Although I wasn't there
♪ He said I was his friend
♪ Which came as some surprise
♪ I spoke into his eyes
♪ I thought you died alone
♪ A long, long time ago... ♪
I thought at the time,
"OK, it's pretty hard rock,
"and progressive, a lot of it."
So imagine you've got a Zeppelin
album, a Sabbath album,
and this guy in a dress.
It's not going to happen,
just for the cover alone.
♪ Who knows?
♪ Not me
♪ I never lost control
♪ You're face to face
♪ With the man
who sold the world... ♪
I was having to create
a bill out of nothing,
and so I started off with people
that I liked and knew.
And so I rang David and said,
"Are you interested in doing it?"
I got Angie, who said,
"No, he's doing some solo gigs,
"and he's not enjoying them
very much,"
in her inimitable way.
And then I rang again
and got David a couple of days later
and he said, "Well, I'm
kind of interested in doing it."
I got out to the stage about 5.30
in the morning.
And when I hit the stage,
nobody knew any of my songs,
and I'd just written this one called
Oh! You Pretty Things.
MUSIC: Oh! You Pretty Things
by David Bowie
♪ Wake up you sleepy head
♪ Put on some clothes,
shake out your bed. ♪
MUSIC STOPS No...
CROWD LAUGHS
This is about Homo superior.
You're letting the lyrics down,
badly.
David, Angie
and I went to Glastonbury,
and I do remember people crawling
out of their sleeping bags
and their tents,
and he was up there on his own.
♪ I still don't know what
I was waiting for
♪ And my time was running wild
♪ A million dead end streets and
♪ Every time I thought
I'd got it made
♪ It seemed the taste was not
so sweet... ♪
Then a few more arrived,
and then a few more arrived,
and then people were
running around waking people up.
I could see people... I could see
little scurrying figures up
the hillside, and from my seat
on the side of the stage,
until eventually there
were about 400 or 500 people there.
♪ Of how the others must see
the faker... ♪
The sun was out, it was warming up,
and these people had
obviously just thought they were
the only people on the planet
that had discovered this young man.
And it really was an important
moment, for a lot of people.
I tell you what, I just want
to say that you've given me
more pleasure than I've
had in a good few months of working,
and I don't do gigs any more
because I got
so pissed off with working and dying
a death every time I worked,
and it's really nice to have
somebody appreciate me,
for a change!
APPLAUSE
'71 is when I got down to
seriously writing,
and trying to not
diversify too much.
I was trying to be a one-man
revolution, you know?
HE LAUGHS
I know exactly what he wanted -
he told me.
He said, "World domination."
He said there was absolutely
no doubt that he was going to be,
you know, a world-class superstar
that he became.
And that's what he wanted.
♪ Still don't know what
I was waitin' for
♪ And my time was runnin' wild
♪ A million dead end streets and
♪ Every time I thought
I'd got it made
♪ It seemed the taste was not
so sweet
♪ Then I turned myself to face me
♪ But I never caught a glimpse
♪ Of how the others must see
this faker
♪ I'm much too fast to take
that test
♪ Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
♪ Woohoo, changes... ♪
♪ Don't tell us to grow up and
out of it
♪ Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
♪ Oh, changes!
♪ Pretty soon you've left us
up to our necks in it
♪ Time may change me
♪ But I can't trace time... ♪
God came to me and he said,
"Let there be Ziggy," you know,
and I just saw the world in another
kind of fashion.
And it was about putting
together all the pieces
and all the things that
fascinated me culturally,
a hybrid of everything I liked.
Just playing around with the idea of
rock and roll.
♪ Turn and face the strange
♪ Ch-ch-changes
♪ Look out,
all you rock 'n' rollers. ♪
He needed a vehicle.
He needed a character,
to feel comfortable,
and to put his ideas across.
It seemed like he really
needed that...
..which was missing from all those
earlier attempts at success.
♪ Time may change me
♪ But I can't trace time. ♪
MUSIC: Five Years
by David Bowie
♪ My death waits like a beggar blind
♪ Who sees the world through
an unlit mind
♪ Throw him a dime
for the passing time
♪ My death waits
to allow my friends
♪ A few good times before it ends. ♪
Is it difficult for you to do what
you've just been doing
in a tiny television studio?
I mean, throwing yourself outwards.
I find singing and performing
very easy, but this is awful.
I've never done this before,
a chat show like this.
Never done... I find this very
difficult.
Are you nervous? Yes, very.
♪ Let's pick violets for
the passing time
♪ My death waits there in
a double bed
♪ Sails of oblivion at my head
♪ Pull up the sheets against
the passing time. ♪
How long do you give it?
What, me?
Yeah. How long do I give me?
How many years do you give yourself?
AUDIENCE LAUGHS
I don't mean how many years do you
give you yourself in life,
but how many years can you be a head
of the glamour field, and the head
of the glitter field? Oh, Lord...
No, I've never been a head
of anything.
I've been, I think, on my own.
I'm not in an Olympics.
The artist is strictly a figment
of people's imagination.
I really believe that.
We're the original false prophets.
We are the gods.
We want it all. You know, we want
all the adulation,
and people to read the lyrics
and everything,
and just to play the game, you know?
We don't exist.
And I know that that's...
..I feel that same emptiness that
they all feel,
when they get there.
Because they know that it's
not real.
David didn't like a comfort zone.
He could have done Ziggy
for his whole life,
and he would have had fans,
but he wanted to move on.
So I knew Ziggy was not going to be
long-lived.
Well, it's the last one tonight,
you know?
Is it?
Oh, I heard it would last for all
time - is that right?
We shall see at the end of the show.
Yeah.
It has been mentioned.
You're making an announcement,
though, here tonight?
Erm... if that's the case, I will be.
I knew that it was
a very important show.
I knew he was nervous.
Because something
was really working,
and he spent a decade working
to that.
CROWD SCREAMS
Go away.
I can dig that you are nervous,
but I really think the audience
you have tonight, it's the easiest
you've ever had.
You think so?
Oh, and how!
♪ I'm an alligator
♪ I'm a mama-papa coming for you
♪ I'm the space invader
♪ I'll be a rock 'n' rollin'
bitch for you
♪ Keep your mouth shut
♪ You're squawking like
a pink monkey bird
♪ And I'm busting up my brains
♪ For the words
♪ Oh, I am
♪ Keep your 'lectric eye
on me, babe... ♪
The Hammersmith gig, of the
thousand shows I did with him,
had a mystique, an energy,
this was something special.
There was something electric
about it.
♪ Oh, don't lean on me, man
♪ Cos you can't afford the ticket
♪ I'm back on Suffragette City
♪ Oh, don't lean on me, man
♪ Cos you can't afford to check it
♪ I'm back in Suffragette City... ♪
We'd finished the last song,
and David walked to my side
of the stage, and said,
"Don't start Rock 'n' Roll Suicide,"
which I play the intro on,
"until I tell you."
So I figured he must be going
to say, "Thanks for the tour,
"I'll see you in September,"
or whatever.
But he didn't.
Of all the shows on this tour,
this particular show will
remain with us the longest.
Because...
CHEERING
Not only is it... not only is it
the last show of the tour,
but it's the last show that
we'll ever do. Thank you.
CHEERING
I thought,
"OK, maybe this is a stunt."
And then part of me was going,
"I've just got the sack! Live!"
♪ Time takes a cigarette
♪ Puts it in your mouth
♪ You pull on your finger
♪ Then another finger
♪ Then your cigarette
♪ Well, the wall-to-wall is calling
♪ It lingers
♪ But still you forget
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh
♪ You're a rock 'n' roll
suicide... ♪
It did really seem odd that,
at the very height of his career,
he was extinguishing it
with a couple of phrases.
It must have seemed to people,
"why would you do that?
"Why would you give it all up,
"when you're just
at the starting grid?"
♪ You can't eat
when you've lived too long...
An extraordinary night,
an extraordinary statement.
♪ You're a rock 'n' roll
suicide... ♪
There was something
very calculated about it.
And I think what he had that
most artists didn't have,
he had a sense of
what is commercial,
what works, what can sell,
in addition to his own integrity.
♪ Don't let the sunlight
blast your shadow
♪ Don't let the milk float
ride your mind... ♪
Ziggy Stardust was the culmination
of all the things
that David tried to do in the '60s.
I think, with the Ziggy Stardust,
he achieved the success...
..that an individual like
Ziggy Stardust would aim for.
But David himself wasn't
Ziggy Stardust.
So I think he'd already stepped
outside of that character,
back into being David Bowie.
Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
We love you.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
INTRO PLAYS: Rebel Rebel
To make the kind of
breakthrough I needed,
I had to put on a few
trappings in the beginning.
And I think now, I will
just be David Bowie, period.
♪ Doo doo doo-doo-doo
♪ Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo
♪ Rebel rebel
♪ You've torn your dress
♪ Rebel rebel
♪ Your face is a mess
♪ Rebel rebel
♪ How could they know?
♪ Hot tramp, I love you so!
♪ Rebel rebel
♪ You've torn your dress
♪ Rebel rebel
♪ Your face is a mess, your
♪ Rebel rebel
♪ How could they know?
AUDIENCE:
♪ Hot tramp, I love you so! ♪
You bet!
♪ Hey, baby, listen to me
♪ Hey, baby,
let's stay out tonight. ♪
CHEERING
Thank you!