All language subtitles for David.Bowie.The.Last.Five.Years.2017.WEBRip.x264-ION10.HI

(BRIGHT TONE)

- ♪ Something happened
on the day he died ♪

♪ Spirit rose a meter
and stepped aside ♪

♪ Somebody else
took his place ♪

♪ And bravely cried ♪

Always remember that the reason

that you initially
started working

was that there was
something inside yourself

that you felt that

if you could manifest it
in some way,

you would understand

more about yourself

and how you coexist

with the rest of society.

♪ How many times
does an angel fall ♪

♪ How many people lie ♪

♪ Instead of talking tall ♪

People have either
really accepted what I do

or they've absolutely

sort of pushed it
away from them.

I guess that's what I am,
you know?

But I would love to feel that
what I did

actually changed
the fabric of music.

(ROCK MUSIC)

♪ ♪

Even though I seem to

superficially change such a lot,

a style does come through.

(ELECTRONIC MUSIC)

By virtue of the fact
that I'm getting older,

it's given me quite a scope

on what I can draw
from within my own

catalog of albums.

♪ ♪

♪ Look up here ♪

♪ I'm in heaven ♪

♪ I've got scars
that can't be seen ♪

♪ ♪

'Allo, 'allo, 'allo!

It's your lucky day!

♪ ♪

♪ Where are we now? ♪

♪ Where are we now? ♪

- I think that David's music

is totally autobiographical.

He's telling you everything

if you just know
what to look for.

- ♪ The moment you know ♪

♪ You know you know ♪

- He was a kind of provocateur.

- ♪ Where the fuck
did Monday go? ♪

- He offered an alternative
to people,

and that, to me,
is a great artist.

You know?
Someone who can

offer that for generations
to come.

♪ ♪

- This is one human being

who has single-handedly
changed

basically the course of my life,

and you can't say that
about most people.

(ROCK DRUM MUSIC)

(ROCK MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- ♪ Loving the alien ♪

♪ Watch that man ♪

- ♪ Oh, honey,
watch that man ♪

- ♪ Blue, blue,
electric blue ♪

♪ That's the color
of my room ♪

♪ I'm looking for a vehicle ♪

♪ I'm looking for a ride ♪

♪ I'm looking for a party ♪

♪ I'm looking for a side ♪

♪ We can be heroes ♪

♪ Just for one day ♪

(MUSIC FADES)

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(ROCK MUSIC)

♪ ♪

I've this poetic, romantic,
kind of juvenile idea

that I would be dead by 30,

but suddenly you're 30
and you're 40.

Then you're 50 and 57,
and all that,

and it's a new land, you know?

- Sure.
- I'm a pioneer.

♪ Got your mother
in a whirl ♪

♪ ♪

♪ She's not sure
if you're a boy or a girl ♪

♪ Hey, baby ♪

♪ Your hair's all right ♪

♪ Hey, baby,
let's stay out tonight ♪

- It's a big tour
you're starting now, isn't it?

- Yeah, it's gonna go on
for months and months,

but, uh, I think
we're up for it.

- How do you feel right now?

- Pretty relaxed, you know.

Uh, I enjoy the songs a lot,

so, uh, I'm gonna--
I'm gonna have a good time.

(LAUGHS)
♪ You're ♪

♪ ♪

- You know, I'm gonna
be honest with you.

The happiest I've ever seen
that man

in 42 years that I spent,
on and off, with him,

was that tour.

I--I'd never seen him
like that before.

- ♪ You're ♪

ALL: ♪ Rebel, rebel ♪

- ♪ Put on your dress ♪

ALL: ♪ Rebel, rebel ♪

- ♪ Face is a mess ♪

♪ You're a ♪

ALL: ♪ Rebel, rebel ♪

- ♪ How could they know? ♪

ALL: ♪ Hot tramp,
I love you so ♪

- ♪ You bet ♪

- At a certain time
in your life,

you get to a point where

you do feel freer

and you don't really care

what people...
(LAUGHS)

Think, and you can be yourself

and you can laugh at things

and you can not take things,
maybe, so seriously.

♪ ♪

- ♪ Hey, baby,
let's stay out tonight ♪

- When it came to
the "Reality Tour,"

I think he had decided that
he was gonna take down

that kind of
screen, if you like...

- Thank you!

- And be David Bowie,

not in a cheesy way,

but he--he allowed more access

to himself.

- On guitar,
from Dublin's fair city,

Gerry Leonard.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

Actually, he's--

He's actually from
Tunbridge Wells,

but he always gets
the good applause

when I say that.

I'm not really very keen
to put on

much of a theatrical show,
you know,

in terms of big sets
and elephants and fireworks

and things like that.

Of course, it doesn't mean that

I won't go back on my word,
because that's, you know,

part and parcel
of what I do for you,

as part of
my entertaining factor

is lying to you.

♪ ♪

- His sense of humor was on.

He always had one anyway,

but publicly,

he didn't show it as much.

You know what I mean?
There was that

serious artist thing
going on, you know,

during some of the tours.

The "Reality Tour"
wasn't like that,

because there was some nights
I was falling down laughing

for some of the shit
that he would say or do

or that happened.

- These must be my albums

that nobody ever bought,

so they've gotten really cheap.

Look, they got "Lodger"
and "Tin Machine,"

Isn't that because...

- We're at some truck stop
in Montana,

and I'm at--
You know--you know those

machines that you never win at

where you put in the quarter

and then the claw comes down

and it picks up
the stuffed animal?

- Yeah, good boy.

- Oh!

ALL: Oh!

- I do, it, and I actually get

the thing out of it,

and it's the--
But it's the two of us.

It's this competition

of who's gonna get

the stuffed animal.

- I think it's kind of

a 50/50 thing here,

so I'll take that one...
- Oh, cut--

It was Cat's money.

That's just not the David

that I had known in early years.

- (LAUGHS)
- That's brilliant.

- Some of the fun and games
that were going on--

I think that really was

who he was, you know?

The real David was the one
that you saw

at the time of
the "Reality Tour."

He was--he's just--
He was always funny.

He always had
a funny sense of humor.

- (SQUAWKS)
- He was always joking

about things.
- (SQUAWKS)

- All right.

- Oh, you're doing your bird.

- Dun-dun-dun-dun.

- Guess the movie.

(LAUGHTER)

- There was a sense
that David looked

as young and as youthful

as ever on that tour.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

It did seem like he had

the gift from the gods,
you know?

That--that he was never
gonna get old.

- ♪ Never ever, ever
gonna get old ♪

♪ ♪

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

That's a lie,
but it's only a little lie.

- He looked so good

and youthful at the same time

and one night, I said,

"You look really good
in that suit,"

and for some reason,
the way I said it--

He said,

"I'm happily married."

(LAUGHS)

So I didn't realize what I--
(LAUGHS)

how I was saying that.

But yeah, he just looked great,

all the time.

(CHUCKLES)

- ♪ Billy rapped all night ♪

♪ About his suicide ♪

♪ Kick it in the head
when he was 25 ♪

That's just speed jive.

♪ Don't wanna stay alive ♪

♪ When you're 25 ♪

- Playing "All the Young Dudes,"

that's such--
Like an anthem, really.

In a way,
it was almost like church,

you know,
when you really do feel like

you have this congregation
of people

and everyone's singing

and the whole place is swaying.

ALL: ♪ All the young dudes ♪

- Yeah, you in the back!

ALL: ♪ Carry the news ♪

- In the St. George T-shirt!

ALL: ♪ Dudes ♪

- ♪ Carry the message ♪

♪ One more ♪

- It was just a--

An incredible connection

to the audience,
I think, for that show,

for pretty much the whole show.

ALL: ♪ Boogaloo dudes ♪

♪ Carry the news ♪

♪ ♪

- He just got into
tunnel vision,

like he was gonna make this

not just successful,

but just be prepared to play it,

because it was a lot of music
every night.

We would go in

2 1/2-hour sets,

and, you know,
you have to really

be physically capable
to handle that.

(SOMBER MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- Going on tour
excited him very much,

but, uh, he said to me,
flat-out,

"I'm tired,"

so I think, um,

he fulfilled
all his wishes and dreams,

and maybe he got
a little over-saturated

in the touring.

♪ ♪

- We got to Prague,

and then, during a show,

David was sweating profusely

and unable to sing.

- And then he started
to hunch over.

He looked over,
and I looked over at him,

and I went, "There's something
really wrong."

I said--
And I went, like--

And I signaled
to his floor manager,

and I went,
"Boss, you're not okay."

- The security person ran out
and took him off the stage.

Just took him away.

- It was a little mysterious
to everybody

as to what it might be,

because it really did
come out of the blue.

- I just was thinking,
"Okay, he's seeing the doctor.

Maybe they've
given him a shot, or whatever."

Then we got ready to go
to the Hurricane Festival.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

- We'll leave this one for you,

for me, for my band,

for our families.

Thanks very much.

- We played the entire set,

and it seemed, you know, normal.

Not as--quite as--
As energetic

and as charged

as the performances before.

♪ ♪

- ♪ But I'll drink
all the time ♪

♪ ♪

♪ 'Cause we're lovers ♪

♪ ♪

♪ That is a fact ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Yes, we're lovers ♪

- We finished the show...

- ♪ And that is that ♪

- And then it seemed like

David was in a lot of pain

and obviously
something was wrong.

- They sent an ambulance,
and took him away.

We went back in the vans, um,
with the band,

and he went off
in an ambulance that night.

- I think we were told that, um,

he had a mild heart attack

and that his life
wasn't in danger,

but that was it.
We were going home.

(DESOLATE AMBIENT NOISE)

(DISTANT SIRENS WAILING)

- He said he
wasn't gonna work for a while

and, uh, he wasn't sure

if he'd ever record again,

or tour again.

He just wanted to take time off.

(HORN BLARING)

(TRAFFIC RUMBLES)

♪ ♪

- I think any kind of
unexpected thing,

like a heart attack--
It makes you

reevaluate things, and I--

But I never thought
he'd stop working.

♪ ♪

- We would exchange emails
about things that were

interesting to each other
or relevant,

but there wasn't
a lot of contact.

♪ ♪

- It's hard to figure out David,

you know, and I stopped
trying to figure him out.

Just hope the phone would ring,

and/or get an email from him,

and I did.

(BRIGHT DRUM MUSIC)

♪ ♪

(ROCK MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- Having not heard from him
for a while,

I suddenly got an email

to see if I was available

to come and play on the album.

I received, then,
an email from the management

about the fact that
if I was going to do this,

it would have to be secret,

and if I

said anything about it,

I would be in big trouble...

(LAUGHS)
Legally.

♪ ♪

- I got an email,

really out of the blue,
from David.

"Do you want to come

and work on some new songs
for a week?"

Uh, "P.S.,

uh, keep schtum."

♪ ♪

- Once we got to the studio,

one of the first things he did

was hand out NDAs to everybody:

these papers to sign.
It's the first time

that I'd ever been asked

to do something like that
for him.

♪ ♪

- The hours were very short,

compared to normal.

By 6:00, that was it,
no matter what,

and some days,
even earlier than that.

That was not the David Bowie

that I ever worked with before.

Ever.
I've never seen that.

He would go in there

and stay there until

he was spent or done,

but this was like a...

"Mm. I'm leaving.

6:00. See you."

♪ ♪

- He really wanted
no pressure on him

to release an album.

There was no press release
saying

"Expect a Bowie album
on this date."

This way, he could finish
every song to perfection.

(ETHEREAL MUSIC)

♪ ♪

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

- I'm much more interested

in the process of life

and what is it that we're--

We're uncovering
with our every move?

The celebrity side of it--
I couldn't give a sausage.

(LAUGHS)

(ROCK MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Stars are never sleeping ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh,
ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Dead ones and the living ♪

♪ We live closer
to the earth ♪

♪ Never to the heavens ♪

♪ The stars are never
far away ♪

♪ The stars are out tonight ♪

- David!

Mr. Bowie! Mr. Bowie!

David, can you wave?

- ♪ The stars must stick
together ♪

- "The Stars Are Out Tonight"
song

is about David's attitude
towards celebrities.

He's had a good dose

of other people's celebrity,

which, uh, he found distasteful.

♪ ♪

- There were definitely
things on his mind

and he'd been ruminating over,

and it was all coming out now.

It was like
he was birthing the stuff.

♪ ♪

- He was trying a lot of things.

He had to flex his muscles,

to get back in shape,
like a runner,

or an athlete.
That's what he had to do.

You know, we just would throw
these songs at the musicians,

and they haven't
heard them before.

So we have David Torn
on this track.

For instance, the intro--
If I play David Torn...

(LOOPING MUSIC)

♪ ♪

And that's his role in this,
you know.

- I had this loop--
Something like this going,

which sounded like this,

and I was moving it in and out

while the--
While the whine was happening.

♪ ♪

- And I remember also
that he was changing his vocal

over the chords
to create different sections,

so we kind of had the idea
to, uh,

put some little
different guitar riffs

to kind of signify

the changes over that.

(SMOOTH GUITAR MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- I put Torn and Leonard
together--

Torn and Leonard.

♪ ♪

Very complementary.

♪ ♪

(MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY)
Okay.

(FUNKY BASS GUITAR MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- It's that kind of--
Almost a Motown kind of--

I don't know where that
kind of comes from.

- Very Motown-y, yeah.

♪ ♪

- ♪ Sugar pie,
honey bunch ♪

- But he never said
anything about doing that.

- That's right.
- We kind of assumed.

- If you've got a smile,

you're going in the right
direction, you know?

If you get that kind of, like,

you're just like, "Oh, no,

I wasn't thinking that at all."

You know?

- And it made me think
of another song

which is a David song,

which was, uh,

"China Girl."

(DRUM MUSIC)

- David would come
to the studio with

pages full of lyrics,
and start scratching them out.

Up until the last minute,
he would keep revising,

and sometimes,
he would come in and

just re-sing one line.

("THE STARS" PLAYING)

♪ ♪

- "Stars Are Out Tonight."
I think that's

one of my favorite songs

on the record, actually.

I think that song was a--

For lack of a better word,

a good piss-take...

(LAUGHS)
In a way,

on--on what fame has become,

which just is
out-of-control machine.

♪ ♪

- You know, David had great,
grand ideas.

To become well-known,
famous,

was for him, initially,

was to have the resources

to realize what his ideas were.

He really does come from
that spirit.

Um, he just didn't
want to be famous per se.

(CHEERY ROCK MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- ♪ Da-da-da-da ♪

I just wanted to make
a really big name for myself.

I wanted to make a mark.

♪ Just look through
your window ♪

♪ Look who sits outside ♪

- David had quite an edgy
personality.

He was intrigued by edgy stuff.

He wanted to do many things.

He loved the idea of theater.

He loved the idea of acting.

He loved the idea
of working with actors.

- ♪ Ah ♪

♪ Beautiful baby ♪

♪ And my heart's aflame ♪

♪ I'll love you till Tuesday ♪

♪ My head's in a whirl ♪

♪ And I'll love you
till Tuesday ♪

- He loved the idea of
working with musicians.

Being one himself,

he always

was looking right and left,
or over his shoulder,

uh, at what might be,

or what--
"What could I do next."

(ELECTRIC GUITAR MUSIC)

- It took me all the '60s

to try everything
that I could think of

to find out exactly what it was

I wanted to do anyway,

but just about
the end of the '60s,

it just started
to come together.

♪ Strange games
they would play then ♪

♪ No death for
the perfect men ♪

♪ Life rolls
into one for them ♪

♪ So softly ♪

♪ A super-god cries ♪

Through circumstances,

I'd run into a drummer

called John Cambridge,

and Tony Visconti
and Mick Ronson,

and we'd put together a band
called Hype.

It was probably
my first costume band.

As far as I'm aware,
that was the very first

so-called "glam rock" gig.

♪ No pain of flesh ♪

♪ No power too great ♪

- Hype was very important

to David's development.

This was the only way
he could see

at that time

that he could, uh,

be famous, become famous,

and become--
Become well-known,

and it wasn't quite
the right incarnation,

because he was not yet

dyeing his hair orange,

and he hadn't taken on

the Ziggy persona yet.

- ♪ And he was all right ♪

♪ The band was all together ♪

♪ Yes, he was ♪

♪ All right ♪

♪ The song went on forever ♪

♪ And he was ♪

♪ Awful nice ♪

♪ Really quite out of sight ♪
And he sang...

- ♪ All ♪
- ♪ All night ♪

♪ All night long ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Ooh, how I sighed ♪

♪ When they asked
if I knew his name ♪

♪ Oh, he was ♪

- ♪ All ♪
- ♪ All right ♪

The real characterization

really didn't kick in
till the Ziggy.

I mean, I was always
quite a shy kid,

and I didn't come alive
on stage.

I just got even shier,

but I found I didn't get so shy

if I sort of adopted
a character,

so it was a convenience

as well as a very bright
theatrical idea.

(LAUGHS)

♪ Didn't know
what time it was ♪

♪ Lights were low ♪

♪ I leaned back ♪

♪ On my radio ♪

♪ Some cat was laying down
some ♪

♪ Get it on
rock and roll ♪

♪ He said ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Then the loud sound
did seem to fade ♪

♪ Came back like a slow voice ♪

♪ On a wave
of phase haze ♪

♪ That weren't no DJ ♪

♪ That was hazy cosmic jive ♪

(PLUCKY PIANO MUSIC)

♪ Uh-huh ♪

♪ ♪

♪ There's a starman ♪

♪ Waiting in the sky ♪

♪ He'd like to come
and meet us ♪

♪ But he thinks
he'd blow our minds ♪

♪ And there's a starman ♪

♪ Waiting in the sky ♪

♪ He told us not to blow it ♪

♪ 'Cause he knows
it's all worthwhile ♪

♪ He told me
let the children use it ♪

♪ Let the children lose it ♪

♪ Let all the children boogie ♪

- Have you always wanted
to be a star?

- Yeah.

It's more than being a star.

What it is, really,
is I want to be

productive.

I'm not content to be

just a rock-and-roll star
all my life.

I am trying to be one
at the moment,

because I need it
for a particular reason,

so I can get off
and do other things.

♪ There's a starman ♪

♪ Waiting in the sky ♪

♪ He told us not to blow it ♪

♪ 'Cause he knows
it's all worthwhile ♪

♪ He told me ♪

♪ Let the children use it ♪

♪ Let the children lose it ♪

♪ Let all the children boogie ♪

♪ ♪

- You could feel that David

wanted to be the greatest artist

and the next Elvis Presley.

You could feel it from
every pore of his body.

♪ ♪

He would bring me
up to his suite

and we would watch
Elvis Presley videos

and Frank Sinatra,

and we'd have discussions

about it,

and he would do certain moves,

and does this seem right
and natural, all that.

I mean, he was interested

to look at those people

and set such icons

as his goals.

- Oh, yes,
David wanted to be famous.

David wanted to be an icon

like he is now.

He would say things to me like

"You have to be someone that

"thousands and millions

"of people

"want to listen to

and--and believe in."

(FOREBODING MUSIC)

♪ ♪

But he once said, too,

that being super-successful

was like living
in a goldfish bowl,

and it was for him,

because people became

totally obsessed with him.

- ♪ Fame makes a man ♪

♪ Take things over ♪

Do you know that feeling
you get in a car

when someone's accelerating
very, very fast,

and you're not driving,
and you get

that thing in your chest
when you're being

forced backwards,
and you think, "Ooh,"

and you're not sure
whether you like it or not?

It's that kind of feeling.

That's what success was like.

The first thrust

of being totally unknown,

to being what seemed to be

very quickly known.

It was very frightening for me.

♪ Fame puts you there ♪

♪ Where things are hollow ♪

♪ ♪

- I'm not sure if
he can handle it consistently,

because it is a
demanding mistress

that doesn't take "no"
for an answer

and is on-call 24 hours,

and so it makes you

a little bit more paranoid

than you used to, doesn't it?

And now we're being looked upon

as we have to deliver something.

The minute you go outside,
"Ooh, let me look

a certain way.
I'm famous now."

- ♪ Fame ♪

- ♪ What you need
is in the limo ♪

- ♪ Fame ♪

- ♪ What you get
is no tomorrow ♪

- ♪ Fame ♪

- ♪ What you need
you have to borrow ♪

- ♪ Fame ♪
- ♪ Fame ♪

♪ ♪

- ♪ Fame ♪
- ♪ Mine, it's mine ♪

♪ Is just his line ♪

♪ To bind you to crime ♪

- ♪ Crime ♪
- ♪ Crime ♪

- Do I have to do it for, uh...

- Because this rock-star
thing--

You once described it as being

a "dreadful existence."

- In a sort of, um,

a very luxuriant
mental hospital...

- So you can rehearse in...

- Where you're sort of

put in a padded room

and meals are brought to you,
and the only time

you're sort of let out
on your lead

is when you're supposed to go
and earn money for

just about everybody else
except yourself.

♪ Is it any wonder ♪

♪ I reject you first? ♪

♪ Fame, fame, fame, fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Is it any wonder ♪

♪ You're far too cool to fool ♪

♪ Fame ♪
- ♪ Fame ♪

- Did David enjoy being a star?

I would say what he said to me.

"It's great

"when you want to get tickets
for a concert,

"when you want to get backstage
and see your friends,

"or if you want a good table
at a restaurant,

but the rest of the time,
it's a pain in the ass."

And I think that's

pretty much a verbatim quote.

I watched him deal with it

too many times.

That was his view on it.

- I didn't--we didn't--

- I find this
an incredible intrusion.

Fuck off.

- That's the--you know
that's the only bit

we're gonna use, don't you?

- Yeah. (LAUGHS)

I know when to pick me lines.

(LAUGHS)

(ROCK MUSIC)

Yeah, that's better.

♪ ♪

- Once he experienced the fame,

and all that comes with that,

I think he was done with it.

(LAUGHS) And he was
done with it,

and I think he realized

he made a deal with the devil

and it'd be the rest of his life

trying to undo that.

♪ ♪

- Happy hump day, Phil.

- Ha! I didn't get humped. You?

- Yeah.

- Some people, huh?
They just get lost.

- Well, it's more exciting

than anything we've got
around here.

- Well, I wouldn't say that.

We have a nice life.

- We have a nice life.

- The idea that he had for

"The Stars Are Out Tonight"
video

was that there were celebrities

that were stalking normal people

to study them,

and then he whipped out
the photograph

of Tilda Swinton,

and I was like,

"Okay, that's fantastic."

You know, him and Tilda

were to play the normal couple.

(LIGHT ROCK MUSIC)

David really wanted to play up

the androgyny card,

because, you know, I mean,

he is the androgynous being

that we've grown up with.

♪ ♪

So I cast boys
in the girl's parts

and girls in the boy's parts.

- ♪ Are never sleeping ♪

- At that stage, I think he was

able to definitely

sit back and reflect on

what fame meant,

and I think that song, in a way,

is kind of like--
That's why it's

"the stars are never
sleeping."

It's like, you can't escape it.

- ♪ They know just what
we do ♪

♪ That we toss and turn
at night ♪

♪ They're waiting to make
their moves ♪

♪ For the stars are out
tonight ♪

- ♪ Tonight ♪

- Eventually,
the celebrities--

They are in their home.

And when they come
into the home,

there's a transfer
that happens...

♪ ♪

And now, the normal people

are dressed like celebrity,

and the celebrities
have succeeded

in becoming the normal people.

You know, as an artist,
you collect things,

and he's had years of

not having to put things out,

and so he's collecting things

he wants to sort of

hold up a mirror and say,

"Hey, look at this over here.

Look at this over here,"

and, you know, comment on it,

but make it, you know,

in an artistic way.

♪ ♪

- ♪ The stars are out
tonight ♪

♪ Living ♪

♪ ♪

- Do you ever look back?

- Uh, only with fond amusement,

you know, 'cause I've done

such a lot of work in 40 years

and it's only recently

that maybe I've started to

write in a kind of, uh,

autobiographical way,

and this maybe something
to do with age

and the way that one matures.

♪ ♪

- Then...

♪ ♪

I don't recall

David on the sessions

really talking a lot about

being old.

I think maybe he would joke that

he would wear his slippers,
you know.

He had his slippers
brought down,

and he would pop his slip--
You know,

when he got to the studio,
he would pop his slippers on.

We made a few jokes about that.

- ♪ Where are we now? ♪

♪ Where are we now? ♪

♪ ♪

- So David came in
with a piano demo

(PIANO AND GUITAR MUSIC)

This was the DB piano--
David Bowie piano.

♪ ♪

It's got a combination of piano

and strings on the patch.

I couldn't take the strings off,

so those strings are

him playing at home.

♪ ♪

- We found
this kind of atmosphere

in the demo.

The next time we played that,

it was when we went
in the studio

and Zack was there.

♪ ♪

- I should add the drum.

♪ ♪

- David's instruction,
I remember,

specifically was,

"One...

One."

He just said,
"Emphasize the one,"

so...

(DRUM MUSIC WITH
STRONG FIRST BEAT)

♪ ♪

- If I add David,

it's practically it.

♪ ♪

That's...

- ♪ Where are we now? ♪

♪ Where are we now? ♪

♪ ♪

♪ The moment you know ♪

♪ You know you know ♪

- Out of the blue,
he called me up

and said he'd like
to talk to me about something.

He explained this situation,

that he had been secretly
working on this track,

and I was like,
"Oh, that's fantastic."

You know,

"What do I have to do with it?"

and he goes, "Well,
I'd like you to make

the video for that."

♪ ♪

Oh, that's quite a task,
you know?

I was thinking

this big-budget video,
you know,

and I was thinking,
"God, to do this justice,

"you know, it has to be this

"momentous video, you know,

"that's gonna break the silence

of all these years," you know,

and David said,

"No, I want to do it, like,

"in your studio.

"It'll be these figures.

Very simple, rough."

("WHERE ARE WE NOW?" PLAYING)

♪ ♪

- These figures were
something I was making

like, fairly exclusively,

and did a number of exhibitions
of them,

and David, of course,
loved these figures.

You know.

- ♪ Just walk in the day ♪

- I did a rough sketch,
and I was like,

"This is what
you had in mind, right?"

This rough-hewn stretched face,
you know.

It's not very flattering,

but that's exactly
what he wanted

to look actually beyond

what the years had done to him.

It's a strange--
You know, through the...

Here, he's leaving.

He's had enough.

(LAUGHS)

He's like,
"Stop going on about my face."

- ♪ Where are we now ♪

- So the idea was that

he wanted all this stuff

in the studio situation,

and we kind of arranged things
around

and we talked about transparency

and reflection,

and as this was coming together,

I said to him, "You know,

people can read into
every part of this."

- This one is perhaps the most
deliberately

a nostalgic look into his past,

and, um, he's talking about
all the old places...

- Yeah.
- That he frequented in Berlin,

and it's deliberately sad.

He's in the latter part
of his life.

Those days are gone.

- Yeah.

(MELANCHOLY ROCK MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- Berlin was the first freedom
I'd had from

all the so-called
trappings of, uh, celebrity

and, uh--and my own problems.

Really, I'm quite fond of

that freedom that it gave me.

♪ ♪

I put myself in
a very anonymous situation

in a quite working-class part
of Berlin, Turkish area,

and started to live
a different life,

and I tried to distance myself

from the very drug-oriented
lifestyle

that I'd been leading.

♪ Had to get the train ♪

♪ From Potsdamer Platz ♪

It was just a tremendous
place to be,

and the music was
some of the most rewarding,

for me as an artist, in my life.

♪ ♪

♪ I ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I will be king ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And you ♪

♪ You will be queen ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Though nothing ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Will drive them away ♪

♪ ♪

♪ We can beat them ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Forever and ever ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Oh, we can be heroes ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Just for one day ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I ♪

♪ I can remember ♪

- ♪ I remember ♪

- ♪ Standing ♪

♪ By the wall ♪

- But you can't read
"Where Are We Now?"

as just a nostalgic story
about Berlin at all.

You know?
But I mean, really,

it's much more how memories

affect the way
we move forward or not.

(SOMBER MUSIC)

- The Song for Norway
T-shirt--

I said, "That's very cheeky,"

and he goes, "I know."

It was something like that.

And, uh, he never explained

why he wore it.

♪ ♪

- The name is
Hermione Farthingale,

and I absolutely adored her.

I mean, she was the real
first love in my life,

and she was a ballet dancer

and, uh, a very good
I--singer,

and, uh, she played
a little bit of

bed/sitting room guitar.

You know, that kind of
folk guitar that every girl

could--that looked beautiful
could play in those--

I don't know why,
but all the beautiful girls

could play a little bit of
acoustic guitar.

She was doing a film
called "Song of Norway,"

and she fell in love with one of

the actors on it,
and she left me for him

God, I didn't get over that
for such a long time.

It really broke me up.

- I did see David when

he'd just separated from her,

and he was very, very upset.

I think it was also

he was working with her,

so it was a double thing

that he'd lost his girlfriend

and he'd lost someone in his--

In his, uh, band.

I don't know which one
was the worse,

to be honest, but, uh,

yeah, it hit him pretty hard.

(ROCK MUSIC)

- I think he wanted to
release something

that would cause
a lot of ripples

and, uh, question marks
all around,

and he was able to get that
with this.

♪ ♪

- ♪ As long as there's sun ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ As long as there's rain ♪

♪ ♪

♪ As long as there's fire ♪

♪ ♪

♪ As long as there's fire ♪

- I knew this was about Berlin,

and I thought it was
really, really sweet

and quite nostalgic, but, uh,

the thing that really
made me teary-eyed

was when I saw the video for it.

Oh, my gosh.

You know, I thought,

"I'd never expect him
to look back.

You know, this is
a new thing for him."

(ROCK MUSIC)

♪ ♪

(HORN HONKS)

- I think, because of
my orientation

towards the apocalyptic,

I think it rather hones that

low-level anxiety,

especially the--you know,

the event of a new child.

My daughter really sort of
focused my

fears and apprehensions.

I mean, what a disappointing
21st century

this has been so far, you know?

♪ ♪

- I have to say,
this track has swagger.

All this loose playing--
It's all on purpose.

But we didn't want it
to get too fancy,

and it had to sound like
a bunch of high school kids

playing their instruments.

♪ ♪

Very, very cheesy-sounding,

but perfect for this song,

because of the lyrical content
of the song,

about this, you know,
person called Valentine

who, uh, is a mass murderer.

♪ ♪

- I mean, "Valentine's Day,"

from a musical point of view,

that's--that is way old.

That's like, old-school.

All those chord changes,

that whole thing.

But if you listen to the lyrics,

there's subject matter there.

- ♪ Valentine told me
who's to go ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Feelings he's treasured
most of all ♪

- There had been
a number of incidents

prior to creating this song

that had moved him.

I think he was really troubled

by this trend of

people going and shooting kids.

- ♪ The teachers
and the football star ♪

♪ ♪

♪ It's in his tiny face ♪

♪ ♪

♪ It's in his scrawny hand ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Valentine told me so ♪

♪ He's got something to say ♪

♪ It's Valentine's Day ♪

- But he really wanted
to bring the audience

into the mind of that killer,

and, uh, that transition

from sort of
the David that we know

to this other character

that he was inhabiting
in this song

was, uh, very shocking, really.

♪ ♪

- ♪ Valentine told me
how he'd feel ♪

♪ ♪

- ♪ Ooh ♪

- ♪ If all the world ♪

♪ Were under his heels ♪

- Being right there
in front of him

and seeing him pull this
out of himself--

You know, it was a--

It was quite terrifying
to watch.

- ♪ His tiny face ♪

♪ ♪

♪ It's in his scrawny hands ♪

- I really wanted to introduce
a weapon into the video,

and David was really against it.

He didn't want any guns,

he didn't want any blood.
(LAUGHS)

But he was very much aware of

making a statement about
gun control,

and the importance of that,
in his own style.

- To defeat the divisive forces

that would take freedom away,

I want to say
those fighting words...

♪ ♪

"From my cold, dead hands."

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

- ♪ It's in his scrawny hand ♪

♪ It's in his icy heart ♪

♪ It's happening today ♪

♪ Valentine, Valentine ♪

- He was very interested
in society.

You know,
what makes people operate,

what makes societies operate,

and that was one of his
less cryptic

and more straight-up lyrics
that he's ever written.

(DESOLATE MUSIC)

- I'm not an original thinker.

What I'm best at doing
is, uh, synthesizing

those things in society
or culture

refracting those things

and producing some kind of glob

of how it is that we live
at this particular time.

(SLOW ROCK MUSIC)

♪ Pushing through
the market square ♪

♪ So many mothers crying ♪

♪ News had just come over ♪

♪ ♪

♪ We had five years left
to sigh in ♪

♪ ♪

♪ News guy wept
when he told us ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Earth was really dying ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Cried so much
that his face was wet ♪

♪ That I knew
he was not lying ♪

♪ ♪

- He let you know
something's not right here.

So that's the best I knew.

He didn't come up
with the solutions,

but at least he could express

and others could resonate
with that.

♪ ♪

- ♪ Girl my age
went off her head ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Hit some tiny children ♪

♪ ♪

♪ If the black hadn't've
pulled her off ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I think she would have
killed them ♪

I'm not a Dylan
and I'm not a--

I'm not somebody who can
sit down

and stoically write
a clear picture

of what's happening,

but I can leave
a very strong impression

of how I feel about it.

♪ Five years ♪

- ♪ Five years ♪

- ♪ Do-do-do-do, yeah ♪

- ♪ Five years ♪

- ♪ Do-dun-a-ga-da-he-eh ♪

- ♪ Five years ♪

- ♪ Didn't hear ya ♪

ALL: ♪ Five years ♪

- ♪ That's all we've got ♪

- ♪ Five ♪

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(ELECTRONIC MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- It's very hard to
not continue to re-address

the same subject matter
endlessly.

I mean, I have a certain niche
that I work in,

A lot of it, until recently,
tends to be about alienation

and, uh, being on the
outside of things.

♪ It's the darkest hour ♪

♪ You're 22 ♪

♪ ♪

♪ The voice of youth ♪

♪ The hour of dread ♪

That tends to be where

I feel more comfortable
as a writer,

but I think one keeps
re-addressing that situation

and trying to express it
in a different way.

I guess that's what I do.

♪ Love is lost ♪

♪ Lost is love ♪

♪ ♪

- When I spoke to David
on the phone,

it was definitely,

"Don't say a word about this."

In fact, we even

had a code word for it,

so if anybody

intercepted the phone calls,

they wouldn't know
we were talking about,

um, the album.

So the album was actually

code-named "the table."

(LAUGHS)

♪ ♪

There was a lot of discussion
about

what the album would be called
at the time.

It was quite gratifying
to know that

not even David Bowie
has everything planned out.

♪ ♪

So it was possibly even called
"Love is Lost."

♪ ♪

Possibly going to be called
"The Next Day,"

possibly called
"Where Are We Now?"

- ♪ Say hello
to the lunatic men ♪

- The thing that started
the concept for the design

was this photograph.

It's from the '70s and he said,

"I want to do something with
this photo

for the cover,"

which I found quite puzzling.

He was looking back on his life,

even looking at that image,

I really struggled with
using the image,

and then it took Bowie
to say "Jonathan,

"why don't you just

turn the image upside-down?"

And within that moment,

he subverted his whole history

(ROCK MUSIC)

So the process was to go
through every record cover,

every printed image of him,

and see how we could subvert it.

♪ ♪

The cover of "Heroes" really had

that youthful image of Bowie

looking forward to the future,

and the square obliterates it.

It's existentially talking about

someone who's coming
closer to the end

of their life and looking back

on the past.

I really wasn't sure about it
at the time,

to the point, in fact,
where the night before

it was sent off
to the record company,

I wrote to him and said,
"Are you sure?"

And he actually said to me,

"No, this is--have faith,
Jonathan.

"This is a good idea.

It's an original idea."

- ♪ I'd rather be high ♪

- I think he was subverting
people's expectation

because of the years away,

so he could play with his image.

He wasn't a young man

desperate to be original.

He was someone who lived life

and was not up for
playing the game

of being in the media
all the time.

(FOREBODING MUSIC)

♪ ♪

Bowie was incredibly happy

that we'd managed to

keep this thing secret
all this time.

We had accomplished something
unique

in a time when everybody

knows everything.

He was quite attracted to

all the furore
around an album being released,

but he wanted to play it
the right way.

(SOMBER MUSIC)

- ♪ Then we saw ♪

- Hello, David Bowie's
back in sound and vision,

with his first new album
in a decade.

- He hasn't performed
since 2006,

and has rarely been
seen in public

since then, but now he's back.

- But after a bout of
ill health,

it was thought he had retired.
Wrong.

- His new album,
his first in ten years,

shot to the number one spot
last weekend.

In fact, it's the fastest-
selling of the year so far,

having shifted
over 100,000 copies

in less than two weeks.

- ♪ The night was always
falling ♪

♪ The peacock in the snow ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And I tell myself ♪

♪ I don't know who I am ♪

♪ ♪

- He just stopped
giving interviews

many years ago,

and, um, this is something that

he needed to do, I think,
for himself.

He couldn't--he couldn't
have his life examined

any longer.
He didn't want

any speculation about his life.

♪ ♪

(ROCK DRUM MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- I think it's
terribly dangerous

for an artist to fulfill
other people's expectations.

If you feel safe

in the area
that you're working in,

you're not working
in the right area.

Always go a little further
into the water

than you feel you're capable
of being in.

Go a little bit out of
your depth,

and you don't feel that
your feet are

quite touching the bottom,

you're just about
in the right place

to do something exciting.

(JAZZ PIANO MUSIC)

- The way David works.

He just keeps evolving,
evolving, evolving.

David's always looking
for that new element

and unique musicians

to be the carriage

for his new ideas.

♪ ♪

Maria Schneider is
an amazing jazz composer

and how she could've been
off my radar,

I don't--I don't know,
because,

uh, she suddenly appeared
in my life through David.

And when I heard
her compositions,

it was everything
David and I loved

about big band music:

that it was discordant

and strange and ethereal.

(MELANCHOLY ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- Out of the blue, David called.

I said, "Hello?"

(LAUGHS)
Then--and then

proceeded to start
to talk to him about

the idea, uh, that he had

to collaborate on a song.

(DARK JAZZ MUSIC)

♪ ♪

David brought a little demo
of "Sue,"

so I listened to it

and immediately heard this:

(PLAYS PIANO PIECE
WITH QUICK BASS)

I said, "Where do you want
this to go?"

So it's--
It's pretty bright--

You know, sounding,
and he said, "Oh,

I want it to be really dark."

So then I started
playing around with

ways in which I could
make that--

(PLAYS DISCORDANTLY)

That melody dark,

and I just fooled around
over here

and then I looked at him
and I said,

"Okay, let's try this."

- Maria Schneider said,

"You have to listen
to this guy, Donny McCaslin."

Donny had a band.

(PLAYS SCALES ON SAXOPHONE)

This band were
trained jazz musicians,

so we had more colors
to the palette.

(ENERGETIC DRUM BEAT)

- Then I just worked on it
on my own a little bit.

And then David came over,

and then I presented him

with all these sketches of ideas

and said, "Okay,

let me play you
lots of different things,"

and he would either say,

"Yeah, yeah, I r--
Oh, I really like that."

You know, if it had got
a real reaction of him--

From him, then I said,
"Okay, maybe that's

the direction,"
so I just kind of

tried to feel him out.

(JAZZ MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- It was adventure.

Adventure, adventure.

Let's try this, let's try that.

Let's make it as far-out
as possible.

Let's go somewhere
no one's ever gone before.

You know?

♪ ♪

- I mean, recording it
was, like,

six hours or something...

- Yeah.
- So he comes out,

then he lays down
the vocal for the whole song,

seven, eight minutes,

so he's been in the studio
all day long...

- Just sitting there.

- You know,
we're just sitting there,

listening--you know,
taking this all in,

goes out, a little
one-two-three on the mic,

and then, boom.

- ♪ Sue ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I got the job ♪

♪ ♪

♪ We'll buy the house ♪

♪ You'll need to rest ♪

♪ But now we'll make it ♪

- So I remember
doing this interview

with Tony Visconti.

The interviewer asked us both,

you know, what was David's
relationship to jazz music,

something like that,

and Tony's response was that

he thought that that influence

had always been there
in David's music,

but it was just sort of
underneath the surface,

and that now, it was just,

you know, out there.

♪ ♪

- ♪ Sue, I pushed you down ♪

♪ Beneath the weeds ♪

♪ Endless faith ♪

♪ In hopeless deeds ♪

- Of course, when this thing
was released,

there were
all sorts of comments.

Some people were just
absolutely hating it

and some people were loving it

and some people
didn't know what to think.

♪ ♪

- ♪ Good-bye ♪

- This is David Bowie.

He's not gonna pigeonhole
even himself.

Imagine how ridiculous
he would have looked,

you know, if he kept
dyeing his hair orange

and he was 65 years old

with orange hair

and platform shoes, you know.

He was smart.

(DARK PIANO MUSIC)

♪ ♪

The radical shift between
"Sue" and "The Next Day"

is like when he did the, uh,
ambient music

of "Low" and "Heroes"

with Brian Eno.

- ♪ Dun-dun-dun-dun... ♪
(IMITATING EARLY PIANO PLAYING)

(LAUGHS)

Oh... And he'll play that
again.

♪ Dun, dun, dun, dun ♪

Oh, wow, I'm feeling low.

(BRIGHT '80S MUSIC)

Brian Eno's methodology

is a little bit different

than any methodology

I've ever encountered.

That's not rock and roll.

Rock and roll is, "Hey, man,
I got this great riff.

Listen to this."
(IMITATES ELECTRIC GUITAR)

You know?

But when you start experimenting

with soundscapes,

which is what they were doing,

it makes other things
come to light.

David was listening to
a few German bands back then

that were at the epicenter

of electronic music,

and I think that the

elec-tronic-al part

was too much.

That's why he had a R&B, a--

A black rhythm section,

being, "You want a machine?

Let me give you a funk band."

(ENERGETIC MUSIC)

But I'll add
all the electronic stuff

on top of that.

Otherwise, he might
take the chance of

sounding like European

electronic music,

which he did not
want to reproduce.

♪ ♪

- I'd gotten into the idea

of real experimentation
in music,

with the new sounds of Europe

and it was this kind of
hybrid thing

that appealed to me so much.

The idea of mixtures

has always been something
that I've found

absolutely fascinating.

♪ Blue, blue, electric blue ♪

♪ That's the color of my room ♪

♪ Where I will live ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Blue, blue ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Pale blinds drawn all day ♪

♪ Nothing to do,
nothing to say ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Blue, blue ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I will sit right down ♪

♪ Waiting for
the gift of sound and vision ♪

- I was just amazed that

David was the kind of person
that he was,

because I wasn't expecting that.

I was expecting something
sort of

superhuman, strange, walking in

and he presented himself
so normal.

As a matter of fact,

the doorman from downstairs

called me and said,

"There's a--what?
What's your name?

Oh, David, here to see you."

And I thought, "Oh, dear."

(ENERGETIC JAZZ MUSIC)

♪ ♪

Can I just stop a second?
Did I just say he was normal?

There's really nothing normal
about David Bowie.

You know?
But anyway...

♪ ♪

(QUIET DRUM MUSIC)

♪ ♪

(TRANQUIL ROCK MUSIC)

- When I was around 17, 18,

what I wanted to do,
more than anything else,

was write something
for Broadway.

I wanted to write a musical.

Had no idea of how you did it

or how musicals were
constructed,

but the idea of writing
something

that was rock-based
for Broadway

really intrigued me.
I thought, "That would be

a wonderful thing to do."

♪ ♪

- When we first talked
quite quickly

he said,

"I wanna do a musical,"

and I said, "Great,"

and he said, "All I know

"is that it's called Laz--

"it's gonna be called
'Lazarus, '

"and it's based on
the character I played

"in 'The Man Who Fell to Earth'

in the movie,
Thomas Jerome Newton."

♪ ♪

- Thomas Newton is an alien.

He can't get home.

He's relegated to this Earth.

He is in the world,
but not of it.

♪ ♪

- Outsiders,
marginalized people,

people that don't belong,

that are disp--

That feel displaced,

not at home,

even when they have a house,

like Newton.

Rich, you know, on Earth,

but lost on Earth.

It resonated with him.

♪ ♪

- My initial reaction was,

"I've got the chance
to do a musical

"with David, which is wonderful,

but it sure ain't
gonna buy me a yacht."

- (DISTORTED)
♪ Oh, say, can you see ♪

- That was my amused comment
to myself,

but he said,
"I want to see this,"

you know, "I want this on."

- Okay.

So, uh, thank you very much,
Sophia.

- Just before
we were due to start

a small workshop,

I was asked to go to
David's office in New York

at a specific time,

and when I walked in the room,

David was on Skype,

and then he said, "I need
to explain something to you,

"because I'm not gonna be

"able to be around a lot

"during this workshop.

"Which doesn't mean that I'm

"not gonna be totally involved
in it.

"It just means that I
can't be there sometimes,

"because I'm having treatment

because I have, uh, a cancer."

(CLASSICAL PIANO MUSIC)

I was shocked,

but his attitude was

that he was gonna be okay.

And that was kind of the end of
the conversation.

- I'm here to get you out
of this apartment!

Get you home to your planet!

I think we should build
a rocket!

(BOLD ROCK MUSIC PLAYS)

- But of course,
once we started,

sort of, rehearsal,

he was there a lot.

He was sort of in and out
and in and out,

you know, so...

♪ ♪

So he would go,
"Oh, let's remove that

"scene, and can I write a--
Can I write a song?

I feel as if I should
write a song here,"

and he was really excited
about that.

♪ ♪

- He was ill, and, um,
he said, uh,

writing the musical
was on his bucket list.

You know, getting
finally writing a musical

and all that.

So that's the only time

he got a little bit, you know,
sentimental, maybe,

like I've got to do
these things.

- Stupid animal!
Stupid creature!

- Why don't you tell me
what's going on?

- Because I can't.

- I think that David
intended it to be a play

that's supported by music,

rather than a musical
that's supported by dialogue.

- ♪ But the film is a saddening
bore ♪

- It's about as far from
a typical West End

or Broadway show
as you could get.

He wanted this to be
an art piece.

- ♪ As I ask you to focus ♪

♪ Sailors fighting
in the dance hall ♪

♪ Oh, man, look at
those cavemen go ♪

♪ It's the freakiest show ♪

- I'd heard that he wanted
to do a musical since--

Someone said the mid-'70s
or something or other,

and I thought, "Oh, God,

"we're beginning something
that feels

"very, very close to his heart

and his head
and where he's at."

(CRESCENDOING ROCK MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- ♪ Ronda ♪

I really had it in my mind

to do a musical of "1984."

It was a book that I'd loved
all through my youth,

but of course, I didn't really
take into account

the second Mrs. Orwell,

who, when she got wind
of what we were doing,

absolutely put her foot down
and said,

"Not having
rock-and-roll people

"work on my late husband's

great piece of work."

And I thought, "Oh,

sorry,
I'll do me own version then."

- That's a naught.

- 2015!

- This is the beginning
of a film

called "Diamond Dogs,"

and I've put naught in here

because I didn't know
what year it's set in.

- Wanting to do something

like write a musical for "1984"

and then not being able
to do it,

via the album "Diamond Dogs,"

kind of gelled into this thing

that we later toured in America.

- (SINGING)

- David had the idea of

using dance and mime,

uh, with two vocalists,

myself being one...

- ♪ Jean Genie ♪

- And Gui Andrisano,

who had been a child star.

♪ ♪

It kind of worked with
the input that we had

from Toni Basil,

in terms of choreography.

- But when I met him
the first day

in his hotel suite,

the set was there.

The set was already
a little mock-up set.

- ♪ We feel that we are paper ♪

♪ Choking on you nightly ♪

♪ They tell me,
son, we want you ♪

♪ Be elusive,
but don't walk far ♪

♪ For we're ♪

- He had the cityscape

and a set list.

So for me,

the set list was my thread

of what ideas
I could come up with

in collaboration with him

to make this theatrical piece
happen.

- ♪ But I love you ♪

♪ In your fuck-me pumps ♪

♪ And your nimble dress
that trails ♪

♪ Oh dress yourself ♪

- At that time, there was not

really a lot of rock stars

that focused on theatricality.

A lot of them thought
it was corny,

or they were afraid
to approach it.

So I knew he was
a great performer,

extremely theatrical,

that would just always be
outside the box,

always be walking on the edge.

♪ ♪

- ♪ In the year
of the scavenger ♪

♪ The season of the bitch ♪

♪ Sashay on the boardwalk ♪

♪ Scurry to the ditch ♪

♪ Just another future song ♪

♪ Lonely little kitsch ♪

- "Diamond Dogs" was
probably the most difficult

one to choreograph, because

we were on long pieces of rope.

And the idea was to

tie him down

without fully disabling him

and, uh, tripping him up.

♪ ♪

- ♪ There you go
whoo ♪

♪ Call them the diamond dogs ♪

It was hideously pressurized
for me.

I had these awful tensions
and stresses

but the physicality
of performing a show like that

was alarmingly strenuous.

♪ Oh, honey ♪

♪ You're so bad ♪

- "Diamond Dogs" is
a series of vignettes

of what could happen

when society breaks down,

so it was more sketchy,

rather than a story
from beginning to end.

♪ ♪

- I started getting into
the idea of writing

a kind of a non-narrative

that just had situations
within it

and the audience kind of
joins up the dots

their own way, in the way

they want to make it.

They'd remake the material
they're offered.

♪ Just one day, I say ♪

♪ Oh, honey ♪

♪ You're so bad ♪

♪ Best I ever had ♪

♪ ♪

- He brought me another song
to work on.

And I said to him,
"I would love to do this,

"but I just--I can't, David.

I'm recording an album
with my own band."

♪ ♪

And then, I said to him,

"I think you should do a record

with Donny's group."

He said, "Really, you think so?

You think they'd want
to do that?"

and I said, "You kidding me?"

and I said, "I think
it would be amazing."

♪ ♪

- I got an email from him
and--

Basically saying that

he would really like to record
different tunes with us.

There was a sentence
that he said--

Something like, you know,

"It would be my dream

"to record a few songs

with the Donny McCaslin group."

I think that that sentence

was kind of, like, wow.

(MELANCHOLY MUSIC)

♪ ♪

Whatever he was going through,
health-wise, at the time,

one thing that was
really inspiring

was how, from the first day,

the first note, he was just

totally in it.

- By the time I joined you guys,

I was not aware of anything,

and I was actually--

Even being ignorant of all this,

I was struck
by how healthy and energetic

and in great spirits he was.

(UNEASY ORCHESTRAL LULLABY)

♪ ♪

- So David had a lot of
vocal ideas

that needed to be done.

We have him singing this.

- ♪ In the villa of Ormen ♪

♪ In the villa of Ormen ♪

♪ Stands a solitary candle ♪

♪ Ah, ah ♪

♪ Ah, ah ♪

♪ In the center of it all ♪

♪ In the center of it all ♪

♪ Your eyes ♪

- Now, the reason
it sounds so good

is that's just one David Bowie
singing,

but with his voice put up
a fifth interval.

- ♪ On the day of execution ♪

♪ ♪

♪ On the day of execution ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Only women kneel and smile ♪

♪ Ah, ah ♪

♪ Ah, ah ♪

♪ At the center of it all ♪

♪ At the center of it all ♪

♪ Your eyes ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Your eyes ♪

- He asked me if
I would be interested

in perhaps putting
some images to this song,

and then began, you know,
a couple of months of

a very interesting
collaborative process.

He would send me drawings

that he would literally say,

"Do what you want
with these drawings,"

you know?

He would have this character
that he drew

with the man with sort of gauze,

you know, across his face,

with two buttons for eyes,

and we named him "Button-Eyes."

♪ ♪

And he also sent me an image
of a spaceman

with a skeleton inside.

- ♪ Ah-ah-ah ♪

- To me, it was 100%
Major Tom, you know?

A character that he had,
you know,

revisited and used
over his career.

- Major Tom, for him,

was like some sort of talisman
or something.

He was really along
for the ride with David,

and the idea of space,

I think, represented--

Maybe it represented freedom.

(ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC)

- Major Tom
still means a lot to me.

It was the first time
I'd been able

to create a character

that, uh, was very credible,

and I think for any writer,
that's a high point.

He preceded all the others,

and I suppose one has
his special place for him.

I do.

♪ Ground control
to Major Tom ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Ground control
to Major Tom ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Take your protein pills ♪

♪ And put your helmet on ♪

- What is it with spaceships?

- Well, it's--it's

an interior dialogue

that you manifest physically.

(SAXOPHONE MUSIC)

It's my little inner space,
isn't it?

Writ large.

I wouldn't dream of
getting on a spaceship.

It would scare the shit
out of me.

(LAUGHS)

I have absolutely no interest
or ambition

to go into space whatsoever.

I'm scared, going down
the end of the garden.

(ROCK MUSIC)

♪ 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? ♪

♪ Can you hear me,
Major Tom? ♪

♪ Can you hear me,
Major Tom? ♪

- Major Tom was
a really great device

to keep returning to.

Maybe there was some little,

you know, obviously a bit of,
maybe,

sentimental attachment to it,

because it represented a lot

in terms of
how he became known to us

and became famous.

- ♪ The shrieking
of nothing is killing ♪

♪ Just pictures of Jap girls
in synthesis ♪

♪ And I ain't got no money ♪

♪ And I ain't got no hair ♪

- (MURMURING)

Something please the air.

- ♪ But I'm hoping to kick ♪

♪ But the planet is glowing ♪

♪ Ashes to ashes
and funk to funky ♪

♪ We know Major Tom's
a junkie ♪

♪ Strung out in heaven's high ♪

♪ Hitting an all-time low ♪

(DISCORDANT ELECTRONIC MUSIC)

- He just would take
these bits of the past

and fashion the future
out of them,

and Major Tom
was a big part of that.

♪ ♪

And he's been looking for home

for, you know, how long?

50 years or something.

You know, a long time,

Major Tom's been trying to

find peace and rest,
and he found it in "Blackstar."

Major Tom is home, finally.

(SEPULCHRAL MUSIC)

- "Blackstar," you know--
It's really wildly open

to interpretation.

And, uh, I think
he enjoyed this very much,

like any artist.

Any great artist
wants you to stand back

and look at the work

and analyze it,

and--and feel things from it,

and you might not
feel the same things.

The idea of art

is to stimulate
your own imagination.

♪ ♪

- ♪ Ooh-ooh-ooh ♪

- You know, after a week or two

of us, uh, having these chats

about Button-Eyes
and the spaceman,

I get a text message from him,
said, uh,

"I need to Skype
with you. Can you Skype?"

And he's saying, "There's
something I have to tell you,"

um, and I said, "Sure."

And then he says,

"I have to tell you that
I'm very ill

and that I'm probably
gonna die."

You know?
You know,

utterly out of the blue.

You know, just like that.

(OTHERWORLDLY MUSIC)

- (LOW WAILING)

- Let this be
only coming from me,

but I think
part of the way I reacted

also was I felt

that when he was saying that,

I thought for a brief second

that he looked scared, actually.

♪ ♪

And then, a second later,
he would joke about it.

You know.

Over the next
six or eight months,

the disease or illness
was never mentioned,

and he was in no way,
in my mind,

you know, affected
by his illness.

- ♪ Something happened
on the day he died ♪

♪ Spirit rose a meter
and stepped aside ♪

♪ Somebody else
took his place ♪

♪ And bravely cried ♪

♪ I'm a blackstar ♪

♪ I'm a blackstar ♪

- This is, uh, a tradition

that David and I always had.

Like, how can we mangle
the voice?

Eh, you know,
how can we change it

and make one person
sound like many people

and in many different contexts

and in many different
spatial areas?

- ♪ I'm a blackstar ♪

♪ Way up, oh, honey ♪

♪ I've got game ♪

♪ I see right so white ♪

♪ So open-hearted pain ♪

♪ I want eagles
in my daydreams ♪

♪ Diamonds in my eyes ♪

♪ I'm a blackstar ♪

♪ I'm a blackstar ♪

- David is like some, like,
bizarre skeletal choir

doing "I'm a blackstar,
I'm a blackstar."

It's this weird thing. It's--

It makes this whole
section very supernatural.

- ♪ Somebody else
took his place ♪

♪ And bravely cried ♪

♪ I'm a blackstar ♪

♪ I'm a starstar ♪

♪ I'm a blackstar ♪

♪ I'm a blackstar ♪

- I imagine it must have
been cathartic for him.

He was working tirelessly,
both on "Blackstar"

and on "Lazarus"

at the same time.

Um, perhaps the catharsis

surrounding "Lazarus" was unique

in as much as its execution

required him
to relinquish control

and allow so many other people

to take it and make it happen.

- Countryside disappears
beneath our feet.

- You know, I mean,
I must say, you know,

there were times
when David and me

would be reading scenes
together.

You could feel him more
in there.

(PIANO TUNE)

- This isn't happening.

I'm still inside my head.

- You know, you forget--
You forget that

actually, he's--he's--

Of course, we forgot
that he was dying.

- I'm done with this life!

- The cast, of course,
never knew.

Only me, uh, Ivo, and Robert.

- And so a new universe.

I'll dream big up there.

♪ ♪

And although always
stuck inside my breaking mind,

♪ ♪

I've stepped off the Earth
and into a better place.

- David didn't want "Heroes"
in "Lazarus,"

because "Heroes" had become

like an anthem.

He wanted a song

that would have
sent everyone out,

slitting their wrists.

♪ ♪

Ivo and Enda

persuaded him that if "Heroes"

was treated, musically,

in a different way,

it would work

for the ending of "Lazarus."

♪ ♪

- ♪ I ♪

♪ I will be king ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And you ♪

♪ You will be queen ♪

- It's a reflective--
It's a beautiful moment.

"Heroes" is melancholy
instead of triumphant.

♪ ♪

- Through his relationship
with this girl,

and her re-awakening him

to his vitality,

Newton is brought back to life,

that he may ready himself
to die,

perhaps.

Or not. (LAUGHS)

♪ But we could be safer ♪

♪ Just for one day ♪

- In this catharsis moment
at the end with the "Heroes,"

you know, when things clear up,

he cuts loose everything which

what in a normal life
of a normal human being

is important.

BOTH: ♪ We can be heroes ♪

- And then he has to let go

every hope,

just accepting,

well, his own death, at the end.

BOTH: ♪ We can be heroes ♪

♪ ♪

♪ We can be heroes ♪

- So the last thing
that you see is

Michael C. Hall
is still on stage, alive,

but in his mind, he's

flying away into the stars.

That's the last image.

- ♪ Just for one day ♪

♪ ♪

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

- I didn't expect
David to be there

at our opening night.

We had heard that
he was getting weak,

but he so wanted to be there,
and, uh,

and he turned up,
and he watched it,

and then afterwards,
and he took the bows with us.

It was very, very sweet.

- You know, he got through
the night,

but I really am convinced that

he was fighting death

and he wanted to continue
and to continue

and then afterwards,
we were sitting a little bit,

talking behind stage,

and he said, "Let's start
the second one now,

the sequel"...
(LAUGHS)

"To 'Lazarus.'"

(MELANCHOLY PIANO MUSIC)

- The last thing I remember
David saying to me

after, you know, the hugs
and the smiles

and after, uh,

after that opening night
performance,

was "I think it went well
tonight, don't you?"

That's the last thing

I remember him saying,
and I said, "Yeah,

I think it did."

♪ ♪

- After the musical opened,

I got a call saying

"David would love to see you,"

and so I went over to see him,

and he was in his bedroom,

and we chatted.

It was all very lovely.

Peaceful.

And so then we
walked to the elevator

and he said, "You're a genius,"

to me, and I said, "No, no, no.

"I'm not a genius.

"I'm just the producer.

You're the fucking genius."

And, um,

we had a hug,

I got in the elevator.

That was it.

Last time I saw him.

(LIGHT ROCK MUSIC)

♪ ♪

- David said,
"I just want to make

a simple performance video,"

I immediately said,

"The song is called 'Lazarus.'
You should be in a bed."

♪ ♪

To me, that had to do with

the Biblical aspect of it,
you know?

The man who would rise again.

And it had nothing to do
with him being ill.

That was only because
I liked the imagery of it.

You know.

♪ ♪

I found out later

that the week we were shooting

is when he found out

that this is--it's over,
you know?

We'll end treatments,
or, you know,

in whatever capacity
that means that--

That his illness has won.

♪ ♪

- ♪ Look up here ♪

♪ I'm in heaven ♪

♪ I've got scars ♪

♪ That can't be seen ♪

♪ I've got drama ♪

♪ Can't be stolen ♪

♪ Everybody ♪

♪ Knows me now ♪

♪ ♪

- I've watched him record,

and he's in that song,

in that feeling, in that moment.

He would stand in front
of the mic,

and for the four or five
minutes he was singing,

he would pour his heart out.

The audio picked up
his breathing

between those lines.

- ♪ Look up here, man ♪

♪ I'm in danger ♪

(AUDIBLE BREATHING)

♪ I've got nothing left
to lose ♪

♪ I'm so high,
it makes my brain whirl ♪

♪ Dropped my cell phone
down below ♪

(ENERGETIC ROCK MUSIC)

- It wasn't that
he was out of breath.

He was, like, hyperventilating
in a way.

Like, getting--
Getting his energy up

to sing this,
to deliver this song.

- ♪ I'll be free ♪

- He was quite stoked.

Like I--like I like to say,
in the zone,

and I could see him
through the window

that he was, you know,
really feeling it

♪ ♪

- ♪ Oh, I'll be free ♪

(AUDIBLE BREATHING)

♪ Ain't that just like me? ♪

- A man on top of his game.

It's brilliant,
absolutely brilliant,

and the saddest lyrics
to hear--

Hear them now.

- It's nine minutes past 7:00.

Well, the shock news
has only just been

officially confirmed.

David Bowie is dead.

- David Bowie,
rock and roll rebel,

actor, and cultural icon,

has died at age 69.

- We lost David Bowie, uh,
this morning...

um, and it's a big deal.

(ROCK DRUM INTRO)

- ...have the news crews

and fans from all around
the world

leaving full tribute...
- ...In downtown Manhattan,

and you can see behind me...
- He is David Bowie.

- ...Like his life,
has shocked

fans laying flowers from his...

- Even the
Archbishop of Canterbury

was a fan.

- ♪ Heaven loves ya ♪

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

♪ The clouds part for ya ♪

♪ Nothing stands in your way ♪

♪ When you're a boy ♪

(UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC)

♪ ♪

♪ Clothes always fit ya ♪

♪ Life is a pop
of the cherry ♪

♪ When you're a boy ♪

It's been a incredibly
full life,

and, uh, apart from the drugs
in the '70s,

I think little of it
has been wasted

in terms of I've been able to

sort of harness
every moment in a way.

I'm--I'm a really lucky chap.

♪ Favorite things ♪

- And legacy. What--
How would you like

your legacy written?

- I'd love people to believe

that I really had
great haircuts.

(LAUGHS)

♪ Boys ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Boys keep swinging ♪

♪ Boys always work it out ♪