David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known as David Bowie, was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as among the most influential musicians of the 20th century, he was known for his frequent reinvention and visual presentation, and is often referred to as the "chameleon of rock". His music, stagecraft and fashion have had a significant impact on popular culture.
Bowie studied art, music and design before embarking on a music career in 1962. He released a string of unsuccessful singles with local bands and a self-titled solo album before achieving his first success in 1969 with "Space Oddity", a UK number-five single from his second album. His major commercial breakthrough came in 1972, during the glam rock era, with the Ziggy Stardust character and its accompanying album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. In 1974, he changed direction and adopted a new persona, Halloween Jack, for the album Diamond Dogs. The soul-influenced Young Americans (1975) was followed by Station to Station (1976), which saw him adopt the Thin White Duke persona and begin taking his music towards art rock, electronica and ambient. Bowie would explore these styles most fully with the Berlin Trilogy: Low, "Heroes" (both 1977) and Lodger (1979). He achieved his greatest commercial success with Let's Dance in 1983. From 1988 to 1992, he fronted the hard rock band Tin Machine. Bowie resumed his solo career in 1993 and continued experimenting with musical styles, including industrial, jungle and drum and bass.
Outside of music, Bowie received recognition for his acting roles, emphasising smaller parts and cameos rather than leading roles. His best-known films include The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), Absolute Beginners, Labyrinth (both 1986), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Basquiat (1996), and The Prestige (2006). He was also a painter and writer, created the first modern celebrity bond ("Bowie Bonds") and, via his website BowieNet, was one of the first artists to engage with fans directly through the Internet. He performed live regularly throughout his career, before retiring from touring in 2004; his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006. He returned from a decade-long recording hiatus in 2013 with The Next Day. His final studio album, Blackstar, released two days before his death in 2016, was analysed as a powerful farewell to his fans.
During his lifetime, his record sales were estimated at over 100 million worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He achieved eleven UK number-one albums, including Aladdin Sane (1973) and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980), and had UK or US number-one singles with "Space Oddity" (which reached number-one in the UK on reissue in 1975), "Fame", "Ashes to Ashes", "Under Pressure" (with Queen), "Let's Dance", and "Dancing in the Street" (with Mick Jagger). He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Grammy Awards and four Brit Awards. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Rolling Stone ranked him among the greatest singers, songwriters and artists of all time. Although his sexuality is disputed, he is regarded as an influential figure in the LGBTQ community.
David Robert Jones was born on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London. His mother, Margaret Mary "Peggy" (née Burns), was born at Shorncliffe Army Camp, Kent. She was a waitress at a cinema in Royal Tunbridge Wells. His father, Haywood Stenton "John" Jones, was from Doncaster, Yorkshire, and was a promotions officer for the children's charity Barnardo's. The family lived at 40 Stansfield Road in the south London borough of Lambeth. Bowie attended Stockwell Infants School until he was six, acquiring a reputation as a gifted and single-minded child—and a defiant brawler.
From 1953, Bowie moved with his family to Bickley and then Bromley Common, before settling in Sundridge Park in 1955 where he attended Burnt Ash Junior School. His voice was considered "adequate" by the school choir, and he demonstrated above-average ability on the recorder. At the age of nine, his dancing was strikingly imaginative: teachers called his interpretations "vividly artistic" and his poise "astonishing" for a child. The same year, his father brought home a collection of American 45s by artists including the Teenagers, the Platters, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley and Little Richard. Upon listening to Little Richard's song "Tutti Frutti", Bowie later said that he had "heard God".
Bowie was first impressed with Presley when he saw his cousin Kristina dance to "Hound Dog" soon after its release in 1956. According to Kristina, she and David "danced like possessed elves" to records of various artists. By the end of the following year, Bowie had taken up the ukulele and tea-chest bass, begun to participate in skiffle sessions with friends, and had started to play the piano; his stage presentation of numbers by both Presley and Chuck Berry—complete with gyrations in tribute to the original artists—to his local Wolf Cub group was described as "mesmerizing ... like someone from another planet". Having encouraged his son to follow his dreams of being an entertainer since he was a toddler, in the late 1950s David's father took him to meet performers preparing for the Royal Variety Performance, introducing him to Alma Cogan and Tommy Steele. After taking his eleven-plus exam, Bowie went to Bromley Technical High School, which biographer Christopher Sandford described as "rich in arcane ritual as any [English] public school".
Bowie's maternal half-brother, Terry Burns, was a substantial influence on his early life. Burns, who was 10 years older, had schizophrenia and seizures, and lived alternately at home and in psychiatric wards. While living with Bowie, he introduced the younger man to many of his lifelong influences, such as modern jazz, Buddhism, Beat poetry and the occult. In addition to Burns, a significant proportion of Bowie's extended family members had schizophrenia spectrum disorders, including an aunt who was institutionalised and another who underwent a lobotomy; this has been labelled as an influence on his early work.
Bowie studied art, music and design. After Burns introduced him to modern jazz, his enthusiasm for players like Charles Mingus and John Coltrane led his mother to give him a Grafton saxophone in 1961. He was soon receiving lessons from baritone saxophonist Ronnie Ross.
He received a serious injury at school in 1962 when his friend George Underwood punched him in the left eye during a fight over a girl. After a series of operations during a four-month hospitalisation, the damage could not be fully repaired and Bowie was left with faulty depth perception and anisocoria (a permanently dilated pupil); his eye later became one of Bowie's most recognisable features. Despite their altercation, Bowie remained on good terms with Underwood, who went on to create the artwork for Bowie's early albums.
In 1961 he met Peter Frampton, who was three years younger. They were schoolmates at Bromley Technical School. Frampton's band the Little Ravens played on the same bill at school as Bowie's band, George and the Dragons. Peter and David would spend lunch breaks together, playing Buddy Holly songs.
1962–1967: Early career to debut album
Bowie formed his first band, the Konrads, in 1962 at the age of 15. Playing guitar-based rock and roll at local youth gatherings and weddings, the Konrads had a varying line-up of between four and eight members, Underwood among them. When Bowie left the technical school the following year, he informed his parents of his intention to become a pop star. His mother arranged his employment as an electrician's mate. Frustrated by his bandmates' limited aspirations, Bowie left the Konrads and joined another band, the King Bees. Soon after, he signed his first personal management contract with Dick James' partner Leslie Conn.
Bowie's debut single, "Liza Jane", credited to Davie Jones with the King Bees, was not commercially successful. Dissatisfied with the King Bees and their repertoire of Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon covers, Bowie quit the band less than a month later to join the Manish Boys, another blues outfit, who incorporated folk and soul. Their cover of Bobby Bland's "I Pity the Fool" was no more successful than "Liza Jane", and Bowie soon left to join the Lower Third, a blues trio strongly influenced by the Who. "You've Got a Habit of Leaving" fared no better, signalling the end of Conn's contract. Declaring that he would exit music "to study mime at Sadler's Wells", Bowie nevertheless remained with the Lower Third. His new manager, Ralph Horton, later instrumental in his transition to solo artist, helped secure him a contract with Pye Records. Publicist Tony Hatch signed Bowie on the basis that he wrote his own songs. Dissatisfied with Davy (and Davie) Jones, which in the mid-1960s invited confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees, he took on the stage name David Bowie after the 19th-century American pioneer James Bowie and the knife he had popularised. His first release under the name was the January 1966 single "Can't Help Thinking About Me", recorded with the Lower Third. It flopped like its predecessors.