Sleep with David Bowie, Part 1

Speaker A: 00:00:00

Welcome to Sleep With Rockstars, the Gen.

Speaker B: 00:00:05

X Sleep Podcast because you deserve a good night's sleep or whatever.

Speaker A: 00:00:13

I'm Sloane Spencer. In each Sleep With Rockstars Sleep podcast, I will read from Wikipedia about your.

Speaker B: 00:00:24

Favorite Gen X musicians and bands.

Speaker A: 00:00:28

If this podcast helps you relax and fall asleep, please leave a five star rating and a kind review in your favorite podcast app. You may find that the more you listen, the more your mind will begin to associate these stories with sleep.

So feel free to return to each episode again and again. Repetition can help create a signal to your brain that it's time to rest. And if the musical act isn't your favorite, that's perfectly okay.

You don't need to pay close attention. Instead, let the words wash over you. Let their rhythm and softness lull you, not for interest, but for sleep.

You're not here to be entertained, you're here to let go. Now let your breath guide you deeper into stillness. Take a moment to settle in. Gently close your eyes and let your body begin to rest.

There's nowhere you need to be, nothing you need to do. This is your time. A time to let go of the day. Unwind and allow your mind to slow down.

With each breath in, invite, calm with each breath out, release the tension.

As your body begins to soften into the surface beneath you, imagine a gentle wave of warmth from the crown of your head to the tips of your toes, carrying away the weight of the day.

Speaker B: 00:02:48

January: 1947

professional music career in: 1963

and a self titled solo album: 1967

him widespread popularity. In: 1975

the album Young Americans. In: 1976

In: 1977

ommercial success in the late: 1970

Throughout the: 1990

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence: 1983

cade long recording hiatus in: 2013

Rock and Roll hall of fame in: 1996

nd artists of all time. As of: 2022

His mother, Margaret Mary Peggy nee Burns, was born at Shorncliffe Army Camp near Cheriton, Kent. She worked as a waitress at a cinema in Royalton Bridge, Wells.

His father, Haywood Stinton John Jones was from Doncaster, Yorkshire and worked as a promotions officer for the children's charity Bernardo's. The family lived at 40 Stansfield Road on the boundary between Brixton and Stockwell and the South London borough of Lambeth.

ld and a defiant brawler from: 1953

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 interest in music was further stimulated when 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 Judy Frutti, Bowie later said that he had heard God.

Dog soon after its release in: 1956

By the end of the following year, Bowie had taken up the ukulele and teaches bass, begun to participate in skiffle sessions with friends, 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 Club group, was described as mesmerizing, like someone from another planet.

he was a toddler in the late: 1950

by the time David arrived in: 1958

There were houses named after 18th century statesmen like Pitt and Wilberforce. There was a uniform and an elaborate system of rewards and punishments.

There was also an accent on languages, science and particularly design, where a collegiate atmosphere flourished under the tutorship of Owen Frampton. In David's account, Frampton led through force of personality, not intellectual.

His colleagues at Bromley Tech were famous for neither and yielded the school's most gifted pupils to the arts, a regime so liberal that Frimton actively encouraged his own son Peter to pursue a musical career with David, a partnership briefly intact. 30 years later. Bowie's maternal half brother, Terry Burns, was a substantial influence on his early life.

Burns, who was 10 years older than him, 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 institutionalized and another who underwent a lobotomy. This has been labeled as an influence on his early work. Bowie studied art, music and design after Burns introduced him to modern jazz.

ve him a grafton saxophone in: 1961

a serious injury at School in: 1962

After a series of operations during a four month hospitalization, the damage could not be fully repaired and Bowie was left with faulty depth perception and Anna Segoria a permanently dilated pupil. His eye later became one of Bowie's most recognizable features.

for Bowie's early albums. In: 1961

They were schoolmates at Brumley Technical School where Frampton's father Owen was their art teacher. Frampton's band, the Little Ravens, played on the same bill at school as Bowie's band George and the Dragons.

ddy Holly songs. Music career: 1962

Playing guitar based rock and roll at local youth gatherings and weddings. The Conrad's had a varying lineup 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 Conrads and joined another band, the King Bees. He wrote to entrepreneur John Bloom inviting him to do for us what Brian Epstein has done for the Beatles and make another million.

Bloom did not respond to the offer, but his referral to Dick James partner Leslie Kahn led to Bowie's first personal management contract. Khan quickly began to promote Bowie. His debut single Liza Jane, credited to Davy 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. I used to dream of being Their Mick Jagger, he recalled. Their cover of Bobby Bland's I Pity the fool was no more successful than Liza Jane.

And Bowie soon moved on again to join the Lower Third, a blues trio strongly influenced by the who.

You've got a habit of leaving fared no better singling the end of Khan's contract, declaring that he would exit the pop music world to study mime at Settler's Wells, Bowie nevertheless remained with the Lower Third. His new manager, Ralph Orton, 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.

nder the name was the January: 1966

Recorded with the Lower Third, it flopped like its predecessors.

Bowie departed the Lower Third after the single's release, partly due to Horton's influence, and released two more singles for PI, Do Anything you say and I Dig Everything, both of which featured a new band called the Buzz, before signing with Durham Records. Around this time, Bowie also joined the Riot Squad.

Their recordings, which included one of Bowie's original songs and material by the Velvet Underground, went unreleased. Kenneth Pitt, introduced by Horton, took over as Bowie's manager.

His April: 1967

ham and left unreleased until: 1970

The tracks marked the beginning of Bowie's working relationship with producer Tony Visconti, which with large gaps lasted for the rest of Bowie's career.

through: 1971

d feathers. Between September: 1968

lodger. In February of March: 1969

Continuing the diversions from rock and roll and blues begun by his work with Farthingale, Bowie joined forces with Finnegan, Christina Ostrom and Barry Jackson to run a folk club on Sunday nights at the 3 Tons Pub in Beckenham Street. The club was influenced by the Arts Lab movement developing into the Beckenham Arts Lab and became extremely popular.

, which went unreleased until: 1984

Feeling alienated over his unsuccessful career and deeply affected by his breakup, Bowie wrote Space Oddity, a tale of a fictional astronaut named Major Tom.

July: 1969

Originally issued in the UK as David Bowie, it caused some confusion with its predecessor of the same name and the US release was instead titled man of Words, man of Music.

s reissued internationally in: 1972

He wrote his: 1970

The band Bowie assembled comprised John Cambridge, a drummer Bowie met at the Arts Lab, Visconti on bass and Mick Gronson electric guitar known as Hype, the bandmates created characters for themselves and wore elaborate costumes that prefigured the glam style of the Spiders from Mars. After a disastrous opening and gig at the London Roundhouse, they reverted to a configuration presenting Bowie as a solo artist.

Their initial studio work was marred by a heated disagreement between Bowie and Cambridge over the latter's drumming style, leading to his replacement by Mick Woodmansee. Not long after, Bowie fired his manager and replaced him with Tony DeFries.

This resulted in years of litigation that concluded with Bowie having to pay fit compensation.

, The man who Sold the World,: 1970

between January and February: 1971

He took the dress with him and wore it during interviews to the approval of critics including Rolling Stone's John Mendelssohn, who described him as ravishing, almost disconcertingly reminiscent of Lauren Bacall.

During the tour, Bowie's observation of two seminal American proto punk artists led him to develop a concept that eventually found form in the Ziggy Stardust character, a melding of the Persona of Iggy Pop with the music of Lou Reed producing the ultimate pop idol. Bowie later stated, it's not who does it first, it's who does it second.

A girlfriend recalled his scrawling notes on a cocktail napkin about a crazy rock star named Iggy or Ziggy, and on his return to England he declared his intention to create a character who looks like he's landed from Mars. The Stardust surname was a tribute to the legendary Stardust Cowboy, whose record he was given during the tour.

Trip on a Gemini spaceship on: 2002

It again featured a stylistic shift towards art pop and melodic pop rock, with lightfair tracks such as Kooks, a song written for his son Duncan Zoe Haywood Jones, born on 30 May.

Elsewhere, the album explored more serious subjects and found Bowie paying unusually direct homage to his influences with songs for Bob Dylan, Andy Worhol and Queen Bitch, the latter a Velvet Underground pastiche. His first release through rca, it was a commercial failure, partly due lack of promotion from the label.

Peter Nooney of Herman's Hermits covered the album's track oh you, Pretty Things, which reached number 12 in the UK.

-: 1974

The show was hugely popular, catapulting him to stardom as he toured the UK over the next six months and creating, as described by David Buckley, a cult of Bowie that was unique. Its influence lasted longer and has been more creative than perhaps almost any other force within pop fandom.

The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and Spiders From Mars, combining the hard rock elements of the man who Sold the World with the lighter experimental rock and pop of Hunky Dory, was released in June and was considered one of the defining albums of glam rock. Starman issued as an April single ahead of the album was to cement Bowie's UK breakthrough.

Both single and album charted rapidly following his July Top of the Pops performance of the song. The album, which remained in the chart for two years, was soon joined there by the six month old Hunky Dory.

At the same time, the non album single John I'm Only Dancing and All the Young Dudes, a song he wrote and produced for Mott the Hoople, were successful in the uk. The Ziggy Stardust tour continued to the United States.

eyboards and guitar to Reed's: 1972

Described by Bowie as Ziggy Goes to America, it contained songs he wrote while traveling to and across the US during the earlier part of the Ziggy tour, which now continued to Japan to promote the new album. A Latin saying spawned the UK top five singles the Gene Genie and Drive in Saturday.

Bowie's love of acting led to his total immersion in the characters he created for his music. Offstage I'm a robot. On stage I achieve emotion. It's probably why I prefer dressing up as Ziggy to being David.

With satisfaction came severe personal difficulties acting the same role over an extended period it became impossible for him to separate Ziggy Stardust and later the Thin White Duke from his own character. Off stage, Ziggy, Bowie said, wouldn't leave me alone for years. That was when it all started to go sour. My whole personality was affected.

It became very dangerous. I really did have doubts about my sanity.

July: 1973

From Mars, which premiered in: 1979

World had been re released in: 1972

same chart in September, his: 1967

Bowie the best selling act of: 1973

-: 1976

Diamond Dogs: 1974

ica between June and December: 1974

Resulting documentary Cracked Actor featured a pasty and emaciated Bowie. The tour coincided with his slide from heavy cocaine use into addiction, producing severe physical debilitation, paranoia and emotional problems.

He later commented that the accompanying live album David Live ought to have been titled David Bowie is Alive and well and Living only in Theory. David live nevertheless solidified Bowie's status as a superstar, charting at number two in the UK and number eight in the US.

It also spawned a UK 10 hit and a cover of Eddie Floyd's Knock on Wood. After a break in Philadelphia, where Bowie recorded new material, the tour resumed with a new emphasis on soul.

sessions was Young Americans: 1975

The album's sound, which Bowie identified as plastic soul, constituted a radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees. Young Americans was a commercial success in both the US and the UK and yielded Bowie's first US one fame, a collaboration with John Lennon.

A reissue of the: 1969

A few months after Fame achieved the same in the us he mimed Fame in his November single Golden Years on the US variety show Soul Train, earning him the distinction of being one of the first white artists to appear on the program. The same year, Bowie fired Defries as his manager at the culmination of the ensuing months long legal dispute.

He watched, as described by Sanford, millions of dollars of his future earnings being surrendered in what were uniquely generous terms for Dufries, then shut himself up in West 20th street, where for a week his howls could be heard through the locked attic door. Michael Lippman, Bowie's lawyer during the negotiations, became his new manager, but was fired the following year.

Station to Station: 1976

Visually, the character was an extension of Thomas Jerome Newton, the extraterrestrial he portrayed in the film the man who Fell to Earth the same year, developing the funk and soul of young Americans. Station to Station synthesizer heavy arrangements were influenced by electronic and German Kraut rock.

Bowie's cocaine addiction during this period was at its peak.

He often did not sleep for three to four days at a time during Station to Station's recording sessions and later said he remembered only flashes of its making. His sanity, by his own later admission, had become twisted from cocaine. He referenced the drug directly in the album's ten minute title track.

The album's release was followed by a three and a half month long concert tour. The Isolar tour of Europe and North America.

nit. For the remainder of the: 1970

The tour was highly successful but mired in political controversy, Bowie was quoted as saying that Britain could benefit from a fascist leader and was detained by customs on the Russian Polish border for possessing Nazi paraphernalia. Matters came to a head in London in May in what became known as the Victoria Station incident.

Arriving in an open top Mercedes convertible, Bowie waved to the crowd in a gesture that some alleged was a Nazi salute, which was captured on camera and published in an Emmy. Bowie said the photographer caught him in mid wave.

He later blamed his pro fascism comments and his behavior during the period on his cocaine addiction, the character of the thin white duke, and his life in Los Angeles, a city he later said should be wiped off the face of the earth. He later apologized for these statements and throughout the 80s and 90s criticized racism in European politics and the American music industry.

ns of Pakistani immigrants in: 1976

Berlin Era In August: 1976

Bowie's interest in German kraut rock and the ambient works of multi instrumentalist Brian Eno culminated in the first of three albums co produced with Visconti that became known as the Berlin Trilogy.

The album Low was recorded in France and took influence from kraut rock and experimental music and featured both short song fragments and ambient instrumentals. Before its recording, bowie produced a EPOP's debut solo album, the Idiot, described by Vague as a stepping stone between Station to Station and Low.

Low was completed in November but left unreleased for 3 months. RCA did not see the album as commercially viable and was expecting another success following Young Americans and Station to Station.

Bowie's former manager Tony Defries, who maintained a significant financial interest in Bowie's affairs, had tried to prevent the album from being released.

Upon its release in January: 1977

,: 2025