David Bowie

Early years

David Robert Jones was born in Brixton, London, on 8 January 1947. He formed his first group, the Konrads, in 1962 at the age of fifteen, and went on through the King Bees, the Manish Boys and the Lower Third. His solo single The Laughing Gnome in April 1967 and his first album, David Bowie, in June of that year both failed.

The break came with Space Oddity, released as a single on 11 July 1969 and a UK top five hit. The album of that year followed in November and was later retitled after the single. The Man Who Sold the World came out in the United States in 1970, and he made it with Tony Visconti and the guitarist Mick Ronson.

Hunky Dory, Ziggy and glam

With Ronson, the bassist Trevor Bolder and the drummer Mick Woodmansey, Bowie made Hunky Dory at Trident Studios in London in the summer of 1971. The producer Ken Scott said almost everything was done in one take. It held Life on Mars? and did not chart on release, then climbed to number three in the UK once its successor made him famous.

He launched the Ziggy Stardust persona on 10 February 1972. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars came out in June, recorded largely live, with the concept built after the songs. RCA asked for a single, so he wrote Starman in early February and cut it within days. He retired the character on stage at the Hammersmith Odeon on 3 July 1973. Aladdin Sane was his first UK number one, and the pianist Mike Garson's jazz background steered it. Diamond Dogs followed in 1974.

Philadelphia and Berlin

In August 1974 he began recording in Philadelphia, and Young Americans (1975) gave him his first US number one with Fame, written with Carlos Alomar and John Lennon. Station to Station (1976) introduced the Thin White Duke. He made it in Los Angeles during heavy cocaine use, and later called it the work of an entirely different person.

In August 1976 he moved to West Berlin. With Visconti and Brian Eno he made the three albums known as the Berlin trilogy: Low and "Heroes" in 1977, then Lodger in 1979, made in Montreux and New York with the new guitarist Adrian Belew and built from songs rather than ambient pieces. Low put rock songs on one side and ambient pieces on the other. "Heroes" was recorded entirely in Berlin, with Robert Fripp playing lead guitar over a few days. Its title song, "Heroes", became one of his most played.

Pop success and the long middle

Scary Monsters (1980) opened with the single Ashes to Ashes, his second UK number one. In September 1981 he recorded Under Pressure with Queen in Montreux, and it reached number one in the UK. Let's Dance (1983), made with Nile Rodgers, was his commercial peak and best seller, and its title song became the biggest single of his career. Tonight (1984), Never Let Me Down (1987) and the Glass Spider Tour followed, then the hard-rock band Tin Machine at the turn of the 1990s. His solo career resumed in 1993 with industrial, jungle and drum and bass influences. Heathen (2002), his first album on his own ISO label and his first full album with Visconti since 1980, was praised as his best since Scary Monsters. He stopped touring in 2004.

The last albums

On his 66th birthday, 8 January 2013, he released Where Are We Now? and ended a ten-year silence. Everyone who worked on The Next Day had signed a non-disclosure agreement, and Sony's president did not learn of it until October 2012. It reached UK number one in March 2013, his first in two decades.

He was diagnosed with liver cancer in the summer of 2014. Blackstar came out on 8 January 2016, his 69th birthday, and he died two days later. Visconti called it a parting gift, and Lazarus read as the singer's own epitaph. Bowie entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and is estimated to have sold more than 100 million records. Philip Glass adapted the Berlin trilogy into symphonies.