BOWIE ON BROADWAY

Congrats to David Bowie on the new album, Black Star! In celebration of his career, here is a rare television clip from 1980 featuring a discussion about Bowie's role in The Elephant Man (with stage footage!). Enjoy! 

BOWIE BLACK STAR

A new album is coming in January from David Bowie! The project was announced in Dec with this first single and video for the title track, Black Star. The record will be available in a variety of formats with bonus lithographs. More info at David's site here. Enjoy!

 

NEW BOWIE PRODUCTION

David Bowie and Enda Walsh have created a new production of The Man Who Fell to Earth for the New York Theatre Workshop. Inspired by the original novel by Walter Tevis (David Bowie starred in the 1976 film adaptation), Mr. Bowie has also written new music as well as new arrangements of previously recorded tunes for the production. More info here.

BOWIE STYLE

Illustrator Helen Green celebrates eery Bowie hairstyle from 1964 to 2014 in a new GIF posted on Slate here. Chart form image below. Enjoy!

DAVID BOWIE

Happy Birthday to David Bowie! Like many teenagers in early 1960s England, Bowie was inspired by American blues and R&B. He took up the saxophone and guitar and formed a string of bands that played blues and rock covers for parties and local entertainment. As a keen student of graphic design, art, and mime (!), his Mod beginnings transformed over the years as he explored areas of musical and theatrical production that we can now recognize as genre-defining outings (1960s Mod, folk-poet, 1970s glam, soul, experimental avant-garde, electronic, dance, 1980s pop, cyber punk, jungle, etc). If an artist is always in the state of becoming, Bowie has spent a lifetime pioneering the outer limits and sending back transmissions of things to come.

David Bowie stayed in the fast lane for forty years, releasing albums and pursuing his acting career, until a heart attack on stage in 2004 made him take stock. There was a nine-year hiatus with few appearances, and it looked like the limelight had been traded for quality time as a stay-at-home dad. He surprised everyone in 2013, however, with an outstanding new album called The Next Day, which was released during a flurry of Bowie-related art shows and a massive retrospective at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The V&A exhibit celebrating his career in music, fashion, graphic arts, fine art, and set design was captured in the illustrated book David Bowie Is. Now Bowie is 68- many happy returns! If his health is up to it, I hope to see him back on stage and recording new material. Collage illustration below by IFAN BATES.

Essential Current Video from The Next Day:

Related post on my Spy Vibe blog: Bowie Spies Berlin. My Bowie-Art image archive on Pinterest here. Essential Bowie: 

Movies: The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), The Hunger (1983), Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983), Labyrinth (1986), Basquait (1996), The Hunger (tv/1999-2000), The Prestige (2006).

Concerts/Videos/Docs: The Best of Bowie, Ziggy Stardust, Reality Tour, Storytellers, Under Review 1976-1979 The Berlin Trilogy, David Bowie Is Happening Now.

Albums: Hunky Dory (1971), Ziggy Stardust (1972), Diamond Dogs (1974), Young Americans (1975), Station to Station (1976), Low (1977), Heroes (1977), Lodger (1979), Scary Monsters (1980), Baal (1981), Outside (1995), Earthling (1997), VH1 Storytellers (2001), The Next Day (2013), Nothing Has Changed (career compilation/2014).