Original subtitles

Where are we going?

We're going down this way.

Got a drink?

Got a drink?

Yes.

Can you get me a Coca-Cola

for Mr. bowie, please?

I'm only using rock 'n' roll

as a medium.

I don't think it had been really

voiced before then.

I wanted to be the instigator of

new ideas.

I wanted to turn people on to

new things and new perspectives.

I always wanted to be that sort

of catalystic kind of thing.

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Makes a man

take things over ♪

I mean, the image you have is

almost nothing to do with your

real life.

Real life.

It depends which image you're

talking about.

There are so many because, of

course, there will be so many.

It's like looking at an actor's

films and taking clippings from

the films and saying, "here he

is."

Well, that's why you're

different from most rock stars.

Yeah, well, I'm not a rock

star, you see?

You've just said it.

I'm not in rock 'n' roll.

That's nice.

♪ Fashion ♪

♪ Turn to the left ♪

♪ Fashion ♪

♪ Turn to the right ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Fashion ♪

♪ We are the goon squad,

and we're coming to town ♪

And we're coming to town ♪

I've always found that I

collect.

I'm a collector.

And I've always just seemed to

collect personalities, ideas.

♪ Let's dance ♪

♪ Put on your red shoes

and dance the blues ♪

I'm a storyteller and a story

writer, and I decided that I

prefer to enact a lot of the

material I was writing rather

than perform it as myself.

♪ Here's a starman

waiting in the sky ♪

♪ There's a starman

waiting in the sky ♪

I'm a fairly good social

observer, and I think that I

encapsulate areas maybe every

year or so.

I try and stamp that down

somewhere, the quintessence of

that year.

That year.

♪ Let me make it plain ♪

♪ Gotta make way

for the homo superior ♪

♪ Ch-ch-ch-changes ♪

♪ Ch-ch-ch-changes ♪

♪ Learn to face the stranger ♪

♪ Ch-ch-changes ♪

♪ Don't want to have to be

a richer man ♪

♪ Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes ♪

♪ Turn and face the stranger ♪

♪ Ch-ch-changes ♪

♪ I just wanted to be

a better man ♪

♪ But time may change me ♪

♪ But I can't trace time ♪

I got a call from David.

He called me directly, and he

said, "can you come over to the

house?"

And I sat there with him, and

he took out this battered, old

he took out this battered, old

12-string guitar and said, "I'm

going to play you some songs."

And he played me these songs one

after the other.

♪ It's a god-awful,

small affair ♪

♪ To the girl

with the mousy hair ♪

♪ But her mommy

is yelling "no" ♪

♪ And her daddy

has told her to go ♪

Has told her to go ♪

♪ But her friend is nowhere

to be seen ♪

♪ Now she walks

through her sunken dream ♪

"Life on Mars?" From

"hunky dory" was certainly the

stand-out song for me, but it

was a challenge in certain

areas, because of some of the

chord structure, because he

would lead you down the garden

path with quite a bog-standard

chord structure and then

suddenly go awol.

Now I've got to try and remember

this, because it's 40 years

since I've played it, but...

♪ But her friend is nowhere

to be seen ♪

♪ Now she walks

through her sunken dream ♪

♪ To the seat

with the clearest view ♪

Now, this is a classic

example of where he throws in a

chord that you wouldn't expect.

Chord that you wouldn't expect.

Normally after...

You would expect it to go back

there, but he doesn't.

He goes...

But the thing that makes it

really clever is he put an

e-flat in the bass, which just

gives it a bass part that you

can start to move on.

Really clever, so you've got...

♪ But the film

is a saddening bore ♪

♪ For she's lived it

ten times or more ♪

Ten times or more ♪

Now, after that chord, you would

expect it to go to...

But he doesn't.

I mean, nobody -- only David

would do something like that.

It's a piano player's joy.

In fact, I must go home and

learn it.

♪ Take a look at the lawman

beating up the wrong guy ♪

♪ Oh, man! ♪

♪ Wonder if he'll ever know ♪

♪ He's in the best-selling

show-ow ♪

♪ Is there life on ma-a-a-rs? ♪

"Life on Mars?" Is sort of

"life on Mars?" Is sort of

magic realism, really, if you

listen to it, that you recognize

it as a song about britain.

And there are references in it

which anyone who grew up in

suburbia would understand.

Very mundane, and yet it's

magical.

You know, he's seen the cosmos

in the bus stop.

♪ It's on America's

tortured brow ♪

♪ That Mickey mouse has grown up

a cow ♪

♪ Now the workers have struck

for fame ♪

♪ 'Cause Lennon's on sale

again ♪

Again ♪

So, we'd finished

"hunky dory," and a couple of

weeks later I ran into David

walking along the corridor of

trident studios, and he comes up

to me.

He says, "we're going to record

a new album, but you're not

going to like it."

I said, "why?"

And he said, "well, this is

much more rock 'n' roll."

♪ I'm an alligator ♪

♪ I'm a mama-papa

coming for you ♪

Bowie's always been brilliant

at finding the right

collaborators.

He had the extraordinary

Mick Ronson, who could strike

amazing "guitar hero" poses and

fill the hall with riffs in

such a way that bowie shared the

stage with Ronson in a way that

he's never shared a stage with

anybody else.

♪ Freak out

♪ freak out

in a moonage daydream ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

When I first heard him play,

I thought, "that's my Jeff Beck.

He is fantastic.

This kid is great."

And so I sort of hoodwinked him

into working with me.

I forget how it goes, but, I

mean, that's basically...

He is good at stealing.

You've only got to look at

Ziggy, really.

I mean, there is a lot of

Lou Reed in there, a lot of

iggy pop in there, you know?

A lot of all sorts of influences

that he has got in there, you

know.

So, he would steal little bits.

♪ Oh, don't lean on me, man ♪

♪ 'Cause you can't afford

the ticket ♪

♪ I'm back on suffragette city ♪

♪ Oh, don't lean on me, man ♪

♪ 'Cause you can't afford

to check it ♪

♪ I'm back on suffragette city ♪

♪ Is out of sight ♪

♪ Is out of sight ♪

It just seemed a perfectly

natural thing for me at the

time, to put together all these

odds and ends of art and culture

that I really adored.

It was just sort of creating

something thoroughly artificial,

but something that worked in

the confines of rock 'n' roll.

♪ There's only room for one,

and here she comes ♪

♪ Here she comes ♪

What Ziggy stardust does is

it projects him as a rock star.

He sings about the imagined

experience of being a rock star,

experience of being a rock star,

and in doing that becomes a

rock star.

And there is a story about his

wife, Angie, in the front row,

screaming at him as if he was a

rock star, despite the fact that

two men and a dog were there.

What happens, then, really, is

that the world fulfills his

fantasy.

It aligns itself with what he

wants to be, which I think is

what psychologists call

"self-actualization."

Not many people can do it, but

he did.

♪ Ziggy played guitar ♪

♪ Ziggy played guitar ♪

♪ Jamming good

with weird and gilly

and the spiders from Mars ♪

♪ And he played it left-hand ♪

♪ But he made it too fa-a-r ♪

I'd found my character.

One man against the world,

things like -- really

reverberated in my mind.

It was something that I really,

kind of, honed in on.

♪ Screwed-up eyes

and screwed-down hairdo,

like some cat from Japan ♪

Like some cat from Japan ♪

♪ Oh, he could kill 'em

by smiling ♪

Ziggy was this kind of

mythological priest figure.

And I only say that in

retrospect because I didn't

quite know what he was then.

But it does occur to me now

that the androgyny of some of

the tribal priests throughout

history have been transvestite

in nature.

I only know this because I read

Camille paglia on the subject.

Ziggy stardust is, to me, a

kind of colossus that marks a

kind of colossus that marks a

tremendous transition between

the 1960s and the 1970s.

♪ ...about his fans ♪

♪ And should we crush

his sweet hands? ♪

The 1970s were a dark era,

where sexual promiscuity for its

own sake was pursued in a way

that had never been so universal

since probably the Roman empire.

Sex without consequence,

anonymous sex, pick-ups in dark

clubs.

Clubs.

So, Ziggy stardust, when he

appeared, was a kind of

prefiguration, almost like the

book of revelations, a

hallucination of an apocalypse

about to occur.

♪ Making love with his ego ♪

♪ Ziggy sucked up into his mind

like a leper Messiah ♪

Like a leper Messiah ♪

♪ When the kids

had killed the man,

I had to break up the band ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ And Ziggy played guitar ♪

At that particular time,

I was chopping and changing

really quite drastically.

The music that I was listening

to was definitely the soul music

that was really, really big in

the clubs in America at that

particular time.

Particular time.

♪ Oh-ho ho ♪

So, I kind of tried to do my

own version of that kind of

music, which was the basis of

the "young Americans" album.

♪ Whoa-oh-oh-oh, hoo-ooh-ooh ♪

I'd become soul man.

When David really decided

that he wanted to be a soul man,

he said to me, "so, how shall we

do it?

Where shall we go?"

You know, to get the people, the

singers and the band and all

singers and the band and all

that.

And I said, "we should go to.

New York, to Harlem, and go to

the Apollo.

So, he was like, "okay."

So, we went backstage, and he

met everyone.

I didn't know who David bowie

was, but I did know this was

the whitest man I've ever seen.

I'm not talking about white,

like pink.

I'm talking about translucent

white.

And then he had orange hair.

I'm not talking about your

momma's orange.

I'm talking about an orange,

orange!

Orange!

And he was about 98 pounds.

I'm talking about thin, thin.

I mean, he was freaky.

At one point I told him,

"man" -- and you'll have to

excuse the language -- "you

look like shit, man.

You need some food.

You need to come to my house."

Come forward.

Yeah, that's great.

Carlos had been able to

introduce me to a lot of

fantastic new musicians, one

of whom was Luther vandross, of

course.

So, you have this amazing

collaboration between bowie and

collaboration between bowie and

soon to be one of the greatest

soul singers of all time,

Luther vandross, along with some

of the other background singers

who would sing with Luther.

♪ Taking it all

the right way ♪

♪ Keeping it in the back ♪

♪ Taking it all the right way ♪

♪ Never no turning back ♪

♪ No, never no turning back ♪

♪ Taking it all the right way ♪

♪ Taking it all the right way ♪

♪ Keeping it in the back ♪

♪ Taking it all the right way ♪

♪ Never no turning back ♪

♪ Never need ♪

♪ No, never no turning back ♪

"Right," from the

"young Americans" album, was a

difficult song, but Luther put

it all together for him.

We had...

♪ Taking it all the right way ♪

♪ Keeping it in the back ♪

♪ Taking it all the right way ♪

♪ Never no turning back ♪

♪ Never need no... ♪

♪ Never need no... ♪

And then that section comes in.

♪ Wishing, wishing, sometime

doing it

up there ♪

♪ Nobody ♪

♪ Nobody doing it, getting up ♪

That was so hard.

♪ Time ♪

♪ Doing it ♪

♪ Giving it ♪

♪ Keeping it back ♪

That's cool. That's cool.

Next one.

David had, like, a puzzle.

Just the last line.

He brought this paper to us,

and he said, "this is how I want

you to sing this."

You to sing this."

Oh, sorry, man, I wasn't with

you.

It wasn't a straight, "just

sing it linearly and

melodically."

♪ Doing it ♪

Oh, I see, you count from...

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I thought you were doing an

intro.

Right. Three...

Right. One, two...

It was, "I want it to jump in

here, and I want you to jump out

there, and jump back in here."

♪ Keeping it back ♪

Right, that's fine. Okay.

So, we got that.

That one's all right.

That, too, was the first time

I ever seen anything like that

in my life.

But it was brilliant, because

he knew exactly what he wanted.

He knew exactly what he wanted.

Right, okay, and last

section.

♪ Gimme, gimme, yeah ♪

♪ Doing it ♪

Oh, lord, it was too much.

It was like, "man, I'll be glad

when we finish with this song."

♪ Wishing ♪

♪ That sometimes ♪

♪ Sometimes ♪

♪ Doing it, doing it right ♪

♪ Doing it ♪

♪ One time ♪

♪ One time ♪

There was no point in doing a

straightforward take on

American soul music, because

American soul music, because

that's been done already.

So, I just wanted to put this

spin on it.

♪ Pushing it sometimes, yeah ♪

Eventually, of course, when the

album came out, it was very

well-received, and

"young Americans" became a very

big album for me.

I mean, I really sort of

advanced myself.

I sort of was tumbling over

myself with ideas.

♪ Sometimes ♪

In terms of the

"young Americans" stuff, it was

a chance that he grabbed to be

able to do something he had

able to do something he had

wanted to do since he was 12.

And he may have thought, "I

won't have a 40-something,

50-year-old career," and he may

have thought, "well, I'm going

to get this in while I can."

♪ He pulls her down

behind the bridge ♪

♪ He lays her down ♪

♪ She frowns ♪

♪ "Gee my life's a funny thing ♪

♪ Am I still too young?" ♪

♪ He takes her hand and there ♪

♪ She takes his ring,

takes his babies ♪

♪ Takes him minutes ♪

♪ Takes him minutes ♪

♪ Takes her nowhere ♪

♪ Heaven knows,

she'd have taken anything ♪

♪ All night ♪

♪ All night ♪

♪ She wants the young American ♪

♪ Young American,

young American ♪

♪ She wants the young American ♪

♪ All right ♪

After we finished

"young Americans," he called me

down to electric lady studio.

"Okay, let's get to work."

And I started laying down ideas

and laying down ideas.

Let me show you.

I'm going to play the first

I'm going to play the first

thing that we did and how we

layered it so you can hear what

happens.

First part, add a little bass.

Doesn't that sound like "fame"?

David comes in.

He goes, "oh, I hear this line."

What happened is that

John Lennon came to the session.

We sort of said, "let's take

that riff and then write

something over it."

It was Carlos' riff.

"Fame."

John was playing, and he kept

on coming up with, "ame! Ame!"

And I put an "f" in front of it,

and that was it, really.

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Makes a man

take things over ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Lets him loose,

hard to swallow ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Puts you there,

where things are hollow ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Not your brain ♪

♪ It's just the flame

that burns your change

to keep you insane ♪

♪ Sane ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

Now, you've got an

announcement to make to us all,

David, haven't you?

You're changing your plans for

the future.

You haven't planned a figure.

You haven't planned an image,

whatever that may mean.

I think the image I may

adopt may well be me.

I'm sort of inventing me at the

I'm sort of inventing me at the

moment.

I gather that at your end,

you have some music with you.

The song is called "the shape of

things to come."

No, it isn't.

No, of course it isn't.

We're having a preview of

the shape of things to come.

The song is called

"golden tears."

Mr. David bowie, we'll --

"years."

You did get it wrong.

It's years.

Years.

Years.

Why don't you introduce it

from that end?

This is David bowie singing

"golden years," from his

"golden years," from his

forthcoming album,

"station to station."

♪ Golden years,

♪ gold ♪

♪ Golden years ♪

♪ Gold ♪

♪ Don't let me hear you say

life's taking you nowhere ♪

♪ Angel ♪

♪ Come, get up, my baby ♪

♪ Look at that sky ♪

♪ Life's begun ♪

♪ Nights are warm,

and the days are young ♪

And the days are young ♪

♪ Come, get up, my baby ♪

♪ There's my baby lost ♪

♪ That's all ♪

♪ Once I'm begging

you save her little soul ♪

♪ Gold ♪

It was kind of a very weird

time, and it was L.A., and it

was the '70s, and it was coke,

and it was weird people hanging

around and people who didn't

speak and just whistled.

And stuff

like that.

"You know, man, Heavy."

"You know, man, Heavy."

It was like being on another

planet, yeah.

♪ Run for the shadows ♪

♪ Run for the shadows

in these golden years ♪

I was probably fairly

psychically damaged.

Not probably -- I was

psychically damaged.

I guess trying to get what I was

understanding expressed in

musical form.

Everybody was on drugs.

At that period of time, we were

all well out there.

But not so out there that we

but not so out there that we

didn't make a great record.

So, I mean, you know.

Or maybe our view of being out

there and people's views of

being out there doesn't

necessarily correlate with the

fact that we were incapable of

making a record.

So, whatever "out there" was,

"out there" worked.

I think the biggest influence

on that album was the work of

kraftwerk and the new German

sound.

I tried to apply some of the

randomness, and I utilized a

lot of that feeling for

especially the title track,

"station to station."

"Station to station."

The feedback intro at the

beginning of

"station to station" was an idea

that David had.

So, we had a few Marshall stacks

on the back wall, and we just

did the feedback together,

something like...

Earl slick was asked to do

something that was unnatural and

that was, "I want you to sustain

a note for, like, 15 years."

Boom!

I mean, and you're waiting for

your part, but you can't.

You got to hold it.

Don't play.

Don't play.

Just hold it.

Finally, you get to play one

little thing.

"Station to station," I

really can't put a title on what

it is he does.

I mean, I can put a title on

"young Americans," but

everything after that, I don't

have a title for it.

It was supposed to be deadly

and just brutal, just this hard,

hard, heavy, dark, dark texture

that just laid down.

Just bog it down, bog it down.

♪ The return

of the thin white Duke ♪

♪ Throwing darts

in lovers' eyes ♪

♪ Here am I ♪

♪ Here am I ♪

♪ One magical movement ♪

♪ Such is the stuff

from where dreams are woven ♪

"Station to station" dealt with

a character called the thin

white Duke, who was a European

living in America, who wanted to

get back to Europe again.

♪ Bending sound ♪

♪ Dredging the ocean,

lost in my circle ♪

You know what I think?

I think a lot of really nasty

shit happened, business-wise,

shit happened, business-wise,

and with hangers-on and all

these useless fucks that you

accumulate.

♪ It's not the side effects

of the cocaine ♪

♪ I'm thinking

that it must be love ♪

♪ It's too late to be grateful ♪

♪ It's too late

to be late again ♪

♪ It's too late to be hateful ♪

♪ The European Cannon is here ♪

And I started really getting

and I started really getting

very, very worried for my life.

I just had to get myself out of

that situation.

It wasn't surprising at all

that he wanted away from L.A.

He hated L.A. towards the end.

L.A. at that point was a very,

very alien society.

It was kind of unreal with

unreal people.

I just did too much, and I

came close several times to

overdosing.

It was like being in a car,

where the steering had gone out

of control, and you were going

of control, and you were going

towards the edge of a cliff.

I'd almost resigned myself to

the fact that I'm going over the

edge.

You know, I'm not going to be

able to stop.

♪ Too late to be hateful ♪

I was tiring of the method I was

writing.

I wanted to develop a new

language, and so I knew that my

next move was to have to do

that.

I discarded for the time being

characters and environments.

I couldn't look at myself

properly at the time.

I needed some help and who

better to work with, I thought,

than eno.

And, of course, I found what I

consider a soul mate there.

Well, he's a constantly

changing person.

I knew he was sort of getting

I knew he was sort of getting

tired with the way he'd been

working.

I knew also that he liked a

particular album that I had made

very much.

It was "discreet music," which

is my longest, slowest, quietest

album.

The fact that he liked that sort

the fact that he liked that sort

of alerted me to the idea that

he was wanting to go somewhere

else in his own music.

We would get in the studio.

It was really wide open.

That's why I like doing

recordings with him because it

was, like, real easy, you know?

Until Brian eno came along.

That Brian eno, he was a

character.

The problem actually I had at

that time was that I didn't

really understand how good

musicians worked.

I'm not a musician myself in

that sense.

Brian eno had a blackboard,

Brian eno had a blackboard,

you know, like elementary

school, you know?

I'm like, "you've got a

blackboard.

So?"

So, we started coming up with

these ideas for different

chords.

"E," "c," "g," "b," and so

he'd go, "okay, so, I'm going to

point to that chord, and you

play that chord, and then I'll

point to another."

So, I'm playing "d."

When you're working with

when you're working with

really great players, like

Carlos and Dennis, you have to

accept that they have a way of

processing information that is

beyond intellectual.

"Dude, man.

Hey, Brian, look?

What are you...

This is...

This isn't working for me,

man."

But with their incredibly

natural musicianship, the two

together produce something that,

again, one wouldn't have had

with either on their own.

I mean, some of it worked.

I mean, some of it worked.

Some of it didn't.

But, quite honestly, it did take

me out of my comfort zone, and

it did make me leave my

frustration at what I was doing

and totally look at it from

another different point of view.

And although I didn't like the

point of view, when I came back,

I was fresh.

I think eno opened up new

doors of perception.

Doors of perception.

In terms of the use of the

studio, I'd never used a studio

in quite the way that Brian was

using it.

I received a phone call from

David and Brian eno, and they

said, "what could you bring to

the table?"

I said, "well, I've got this new

thing called a harmonizer."

And they said, "what does this

thing do?"

And I thought, and I said, "it

fucks with the fabric of time.

This is science fiction."

And I could hear the two of them

whooping on the other end.

Whooping on the other end.

They just went, like, "whoa!

Whoo!"

Something like that, you know.

It was very exciting because

it enabled you to change the

pitch of things.

So, what we did with Dennis'

snare drum was we fed it

through the harmonizer, dropped

its pitch, and then fed that

back through again.

So it goes...

But faster.

♪ Baby ♪

♪ I've been ♪

♪ Breaking glass

in your room again ♪

In your room again ♪

♪ Listen ♪

It just needed a positive

decision to only do what I want

to do and not do things for

the sake of what, either

David bowie or whoever I was

playing last time,

thin white Duke or something,

was expected to do.

♪ I drew something awful

on it ♪

What I think excites both of

us is the idea of going where

nobody's been before and trying

to find out what you could do

to find out what you could do

there, you know.

David, I think, was really

interested in new moods and

landscapes and textures that

you could get with electronics,

and he didn't feel a compulsion

to turn everything into a song.

On "warszawa," he was using

sort of non-language.

So, they still weren't songs in

so, they still weren't songs in

the conventional sense.

Such a bold experiment for

somebody like him to make, you

know?

♪ Sula vie milejo ♪

♪ Sula vie milejo ♪

♪ Mejo ♪

The music to me sounds really

a little a bit alienated, so

a little a bit alienated, so

I'm very surprised --

alienated from what?

From... From... From...

Okay, from my world.

From your world?

Uh-huh, okay.

Can you understand it, or is

it...

Yes, I can because it's new

language.

I went naked in Berlin.

I really did try and strip down

my life to what I believed to be

absolute basic essentials so I

could build up again.

I virtually gave a lot of

possessions away, and my

wardrobe really was just jeans

and checked shirts, and that's

how I walked about, and I had a

bicycle, and that was it.

I think it was the first freedom

I'd had from all those so-called

trappings of celebrity.

David and I were talking.

We had a number of pieces in

progress, and David said,

"well, what do you think?

What should we do next?

How should we work on them?"

I said, "well, why don't we call

fripp and see what he would

offer?"

The voice came on and said,

the voice came on and said,

"it's Brian. Hello!

I'm here with David.

We're in Berlin.

"Hang on.

I'll pass you over."

So, eno passed the phone over to

David, and David said, "hello.

We're here in...

Do you think you can play some

hairy rock 'n' roll guitar?"

What is hairy rock 'n' roll?

It has danger.

What is the difference between

pop and rock 'n' roll?

You might get fucked.

You might get fucked.

Can you put that, or should I

express it in alternative

terminology?

It was a collaboration, a

highly successful collaboration,

the new one, and with the

addition of fripp as middleman,

I think that helped an awful

lot, as well.

[ Introduction to "heroes"

[ plays ]

♪ I ♪

♪ I ♪

♪ I wish you could swim ♪

Fripp's plaintive guitar cry

really triggered off something

emotive in me, and it was a song

of triumph, and it was like,

"I've been a real idiot some of

my life and put myself in

ridiculously dangerous

situations, and I seem to have

been getting through it."

And that became part and parcel

of that song.

You can overcome some incredible

odds.

♪ We can beat them ♪

♪ Forever and ever ♪

♪ Forever and ever ♪

♪ Oh, we can be heroes ♪

♪ Just for one day ♪

Fripp did three takes on it,

and we used all three.

This is Tony Visconti's genius

that he can do that without it

sounding a mess.

David sat down in the control

room, and he said, "could you

just take a walk?"

He goes, "I'm writing, and I

he goes, "I'm writing, and I

just want to be to myself and

I want to finish these lyrics."

So, I was having a little

flirtation, shall we say, with

the singer antonia maass.

She was the female vocalist on

the album.

We walked outside the studio

where, from the control room,

you could see the Berlin wall,

and you could see a lot of

rubble, and you could see the

guards and the gun turrets.

Guards and the gun turrets.

And right beneath the window, we

had a little snog.

And David saw that and he said,

"that's the second verse!"

♪ And we kissed

as though nothing could fall ♪

The thing that was most

exciting about it all is that I

found that without drugs I was

still writing very well, you

know, and that was probably the

most rejuvenating aspect of it

all is that you don't need to

get stoned out of your gourd to

get stoned out of your gourd to

write well, you know?

I think that was, you know, an

incredibly important period for

me.

Not very fast, are you?

I can't say it was like night

and day that suddenly I was

this different person.

It wasn't.

It took quite a long time.

But I think, you know, I did see

light at the end of the tunnel,

and it wasn't a train.

♪ Do you remember a guy

that's been

in such an early song?

♪ I heard a rumor

from ground control ♪

♪ Oh, no, don't say it's true ♪

It is very interesting that

it is very interesting that

at the end of the '70s, he goes

back to his first key character.

Major tom returns.

But then he takes the character

of major tom, puts it in a new

song, and does very interesting

things with it.

So, major tom becomes a much

more sort of discomfiting,

sinister figure.

♪ Pictures of jap girls

in synthesis,

and I ain't got no money,

and I ain't got no hair ♪

David rang me.

"Could we make a video for this

new single?"

And he said, "I want to be a

clown on a beach."

Clown on a beach."

I said, "oh, whoopee, I've just

done something on a beach, and

by accident I found this great

effect of making the sky black

and everybody have a halo.

Then he wanted a digge

♪ we know major tom's

a junkie ♪

David allows me lots and lots

of freedom to do very much what

I want, the ways I want it

edited.

I storyboard it for him, show

him exactly what frames I want

done.

And then he puts his input in,

as well.

And, especially on

"ashes to ashes," the

combination has been very

successful.

The people round the bonfire

on the beach in "ashes to ashes"

were people from blitz, which is

a London club, which was the

precursor of the modern romantic

movement.

And David managed to clock the

whole modern romantic movement

way before anybody else.

♪ Major tom ♪

♪ Major tom ♪

It showed him co-opting a new

phase of youth culture, which

he'd been the key figure in

inspiring in the first place.

So, some might say he was

imitating his imitators.

Others were saying he was buying

them off and getting them

on board.

It's certainly one of the

better songs I've ever written,

in terms of familiarity and a

song that really kind of hooks

song that really kind of hooks

in.

I felt very positive about the

future, and I think I just got

down to writing a really

comprehensive and well-crafted

album.

David came into the studio

with a lot of ideas, and I

remember he had his demos on

this new contraption called a

walkman.

Carlos alomar flipped when he

saw it and heard it.

"Fashion" for the

"scary monsters" album, David

had this need to kind of maybe

even reproduce a little bit of

the "fame" feeling, and so he

the "fame" feeling, and so he

wanted to keep everything up so

as to kind of give him a secure,

commercially viable album that

he could work with.

And so "fashion" started just

with this very, very funky beat.

Then it grew it into a monster.

People started over-dubbing

stuff on it.

Fripp started overdubbing

this crazy guitar to it.

It was just evolving into a

fantastic track.

Fantastic track.

I don't believe you'll find

another guitarist who would have

played that to that.

It's very out.

From a point of view of making a

contribution to the work of an

artist with their producer, the

opportunity to do that and be

supported and encouraged in

it...

It's out.

It's out.

It's out.

♪ There's a brand-new dance,

but I don't know its name ♪

♪ That people from bad homes

do again and again ♪

It was kind of a little wary of

the lemming-like quality that

people were slaves to fashion.

♪ It's big and it's bland,

full of tension and fear ♪

It was dictatorial authority

that the thing seems to grasp

people.

It was a lightweight, throwaway

it was a lightweight, throwaway

song, I think, as important as

fashion.

♪ Fashion, turn to the left ♪

♪ Fashion, turn to the right ♪

♪ Oooh, fashion ♪

♪ We are the goon squad,

and we're coming to town,

beep-beep ♪

"We are the goon squad, and

we're coming to town,

beep-beep."

Now, ain't that a line which

sticks in the mind?

Sticks in the mind?

♪ Listen to me ♪

♪ Don't listen to me ♪

♪ Talk to me ♪

♪ Don't talk to me ♪

♪ Dance with me ♪

♪ Don't dance with me ♪

♪ No ♪

♪ Beep-beep ♪

♪ Beep-beep ♪

I think I wanted to re-evaluate

what I wanted to do, musically.

I did a hell of a lot in a short

period, and I needed to get some

space away from writing music

because it was becoming,

possibly, too much of an

exercise, and the enthusiasm had

gone.

But now it seems to be back

again.

Emi are celebrating.

Against serious opposition and

for very serious money, they've

just signed a real superstar.

Ladies and gentleman,

Mr. David bowie.

Emi don't give lavish

receptions like this very often.

Receptions like this very often.

They won't say how much they

paid for bowie, but rumors

range from £10 million to

£17 million for a five-year

contract.

Reportedly so, yes.

I'm overwhelmed that I've...

Is that anywhere near

accurate?

It's absolutely nowhere near

accurate.

Can you give us a more

accurate figure?

Of course not!

Thank you very much and good

afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Bowie's attitude to himself

bowie's attitude to himself

and his music seems to have

changed, and with that comes a

change of producer.

So out goes Tony Visconti, who

one associates with the more

sort of art for art's sake

period.

And in comes nile Rodgers.

He's just had that huge run of

hits with chic and

sister sledge.

He's gone on to produce

Diana Ross.

But it just doesn't seem like

what one would have expected

from the David bowie of the

'70s and the first part of the

'80s.

It seems somewhat

uncharacteristic.

When we met originally, it

when we met originally, it

was completely by chance, and

he was sitting alone, back of

this nightclub, and I spotted

him right away.

I walked in with Billy idol,

and Billy walked in and went,

"bloody hell, that's

David bow-ee!"

And when he said "bow-ee" --

'cause he called him bow-ee.

We called him Bo-ee.

And when he said "bow-ee," he

vomited.

He barfed after saying it.

It was, like, hysterical.

By that time, I was already

chatting him up.

Chatting him up.

Later, David said to me that he

wanted me to do what I did best.

So, when I asked David what he

thought I did best, he looked at

me and he says, "you make hits."

I was charged with the

responsibility of doing such.

So, one morning in Switzerland,

he walks into my bedroom.

And he says something to the

effect of, "nile, darling, I

think I have a song that feels

think I have a song that feels

like it's a hit."

And he comes in with this

12-string guitar that only has

six strings on it.

When you see a 12-string guitar,

you're in folk city right away.

Something like that.

So, when I started fooling

around with it, I made it very

jazzy, very cool, but bowie is

a jazzy, cool guy, unbeknownst

to most people.

But I certainly knew that.

So...

So...

[ Plays riff

[ from "let's dance" ]

It was cool.

And it was ultra-cool.

And it was pretty normal cool.

And...

But you put in the delays, and

all of a sudden you get groove

and funk and rhythm all at the

same time.

[ Introduction to "let's dance"

[ plays ]

♪ Let's dance ♪

It has an intention of being

danceable but I think, in terms

of Lyric, I've tried to keep it

simple as anything that I've

ever written before.

I'm trying to write in a more

obvious and positive manner

than I've written in a long

time.

♪ Let's dance ♪

♪ Put on your red shoes

and dance the blues ♪

♪ Let's dance ♪

♪ To the song

they're playing on the radio ♪

They're playing on the radio ♪

♪ Let's sway ♪

"Let's dance" is an

interesting song because it's

basically kind of a funk groove,

an old funk...

♪ Sway through the crowd

to an empty space ♪

And nile just knew how to put

that into place and then put the

hook line behind it, and in the

shortest amount of time, you had

the song.

"Let's dance" is not a

"let's dance" is not a

traditional, what I would call,

dance record, but it's certainly

a record that does make you want

to dance.

And I just thought to myself,

"man, if I don't make a record

that makes people want to dance,

and we call the song

"let's dance," I'm going to have

to trade in my black union card,

'cause that just doesn't make

sense.

♪ Tremble like a flower ♪

This is something that can be

played in every mall in America.

Played in every mall in America.

It's a mainstream record by an

artist who already has a

pedigree.

Mick Jagger tried to do his own

"let's dance" a couple of times.

Never worked.

McCartney dabbled.

A lot of those guys, they

dabbled 'cause that was what was

going on.

None of them made a record as

good as what bowie made.

♪ Under the moonlight,

the serious moonlight ♪

I've tried to produce something

I've tried to produce something

that's warmer and more

humanistic than anything that

I've done for a long time.

Less emphasis on the nihilistic

kind of statement and the icy,

one-dimensional kind of thing

that I've been working with over

the last few years.

So, we had cut "let's dance,"

and at the end of the day he

gives me a copy of "China girl"

and says that he thinks it's a

hit.

Hit.

So, I wanted it to have a hook.

I thought, "man, maybe I'll key

off the word 'China.'"

And I said to myself, "either

David is going to hate this so

much that he's gonna fire me, or

he's gonna get the comedic value

of writing a silly, little,

poppy thing."

But I have to admit, I was

but I have to admit, I was

nervous as hell, and I played it

for him, and David went, "I love

it."

♪ Uh-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪

♪ Little China girl ♪

♪ Uh-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪

♪ Little China girl ♪

♪ I could escape this feeling

with my China girl ♪

♪ I feel a wreck

♪ I feel a wreck

without my little China girl ♪

♪ I hear her heart beating

loud as thunder ♪

♪ Saw the stars crashing ♪

This is the '80s.

It's mtv explosion time.

And he had been a video

experimenter, but this record

put him right there in the

middle of mtv-ization and gave

middle of mtv-ization and gave

his career a whole other life.

♪ You know,

I'll give you television ♪

♪ I'll give you eyes of blue ♪

♪ I'll give you men

who want to rule the world ♪

♪ And when I get excited,

my little China girl ♪

David went from being, let's

say, a high-profile cult star

to mainstream.

To mainstream.

The look was more mainstream,

even though he had the really

bleachy blond hair and all the

suits and everything.

It was a lot different than that

thin white Duke ominous

character or Ziggy.

It was the most mainstream I'd

ever seen him.

Right.

Out of the clear blue sky, he

was taking boxing lessons, and,

like, he was beefy.

He was cleaner.

Don't take any notice of

them.

They're all perfectly harmless.

He was happier and jovial.

He was happier and jovial.

On your new album, you're

determined to be yourself.

How do we know this isn't

another one of your masks?

I don't know.

It's a bit like the boy who

cried wolf.

He was, "hey!"

You know.

I found it a little odd, in that

it was a very happy David.

Do you see the music going

back to basics from here on?

Tonight, I think it might be

tonight, I think it might be

very basic.

Ladies and gentleman, the

1983 "serious moonlight" tour!

David bowie!

♪ Introduction to "let's dance"

[ plays ]

♪ Let's dance ♪

♪ Put on your red shoes

and dance the blues ♪

♪ Let's dance ♪

♪ To the song

they're playing on the radio ♪

I think we're out of characters

now and just into suits, and the

suit will change from tour to

tour, but the bloke inside it is

generally much the same.

♪ Sway through the crowd

to an empty space ♪

To an empty space ♪

♪ And if you say run,

I'll run with you ♪

"Let's dance" hit so strongly

that everything changed.

We were thinking we were just

going to do a couple of indoor

theaters, indoor arenas through

Europe.

It just quickly turned around,

which was a surprise.

And you're just riding this big,

old train going, "all right,

everybody, hang on, here we go."

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Makes a man

♪ makes a man

take things over ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Keeps him loose

and hard to swallow ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Puts him there,

where things are hollow ♪

♪ Fame ♪

It was beyond belief to me.

Suddenly I wasn't a cult artist

anymore.

It really was a shocker, and

we were scurrying around because

we'd already started a tour.

And suddenly, like, we were

doing stadiums out of nowhere.

Gigs were being thrown out, and

stadiums were being put in.

Stadiums were being put in.

It was all by the shirttails,

the whole thing.

Then suddenly, "wow, I've just

had the biggest album I've

ever..."

It was extremely odd.

♪ Is it any wonder,

I reject you first? ♪

♪ Fame, fame, fame, fame ♪

♪ Is it any wonder,

you're far too cool to fool ♪

The "serious moonlight" tour

was him capturing the planet as

a whole.

A whole.

♪ Bully for you,

chilly for me ♪

♪ Got to get a rain check

on pain ♪

It was major at thapoint in

time, in '83.

Everyone -- we're talking about

China, in Korea, and everywhere

else in the world knew who

David bowie was because of that

"serious moonlight" tour, and

it's a peak level.

♪ Fame, fame, fame, fame,

fame, fame, fame, fame,

fame, fame, fame, fame,

fame, fame, fame, fame,

fame, fame, fame, fame,

fame, fame, fame, fame,

fame, fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

There's some moment when the

audience comes to you, as

opposed to you going to them.

He made a record that was in

many senses an experimental

record for him that actually

worked on a pop level, and that

happens a lot for people.

Every artist, their core group

resents the fact that these

outsiders are in on our secret,

outsiders are in on our secret,

but that's the danger of making

a good record.

You never know who's going to

listen to it.

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Fame ♪

I allowed myself to be

pushed into the commercial arena

because I'd never been there,

and it was sort of, "ooh, what's

it like?"

But there it was, and I jumped

in with my future in my hands.

♪ Fame, fame, fame, fame,

fame, fame, fame ♪

♪ What's your name? ♪

People have this idea that he

sort of drifted off into the

stratosphere and, you know,

rumor and gossip starts, and

all of that.

In a sense, he's regained the

in a sense, he's regained the

mystery and distance which was

so powerful, a part of what made

him so exceptional in the 1970s.

Suddenly, we don't know who

David bowie is once again.

Even the current rather

cat-and-mouse game that bowie

has been playing from his

has been playing from his

seclusion is reminiscent of

warhol, the master of games,

pretending to be marginal, when,

in fact, he is the great puppet

master, controlling it all.

But then he comes back with

this record, "the next day," and

he doesn't do interviews.

So, we're back to the show-biz

adage of leave them wanting

more -- very David bowie thing

to do.

Happy hump day, Phil.

Ha!

I didn't get humped. You?

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.

♪ Pushing through

the market square ♪

♪ So many mothers sighing ♪

♪ News had just come over ♪

♪ We had five years left

to cry in ♪

♪ News guy wept

when he told us ♪

♪ Earth was really dying ♪

♪ Earth was really dying ♪

♪ Cried so much

that his face was wet ♪

♪ Knew he wasn't lying ♪