Iconic musician David Bowie is the subject of a new podcast series hosted by Kate Moss on BBC Sounds
A newly unearthed interview from David Bowie has explained the reasons behind his music style of the 70s – saying it was driven by “lust, anger” and being a bit moody. The iconic musician released a host of albums in that decade which saw him transition through his glam rock era to his experimental “Berlin Trilogy” albums
LPs included Hunky Dory (1971), The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), Aladdin Sane (1973), Pin Ups (1973), Diamond Dogs (1974), Young Americans (1975), Station to Station (1976), before the trilogy of Low (1977), “Heroes” (1977), and Lodger (1979).
In new podcast series Changeling, an archived interview of Bowie is played and he can be heard saying: “I think that throughout the 60s and most of the 70s I was driven by lust, as much as anything. It’s a great creative force.
“That in turn is replaced by anger haha, when you ask where the money is. And then you get depression, and then you go to Berlin and write really moody instrumental stuff. It’s the triptych of the 70s. Lust, anger, moody.”
The comments come in the series hosted by supermodel Kate Moss and she also explains how they became close friends: “David, who by the way his nickname for me was Smasher, started phoning me on my birthday. I didn’t need any other presents after that.
“At The Brit Awards in 2014 Bowie asked me to accept his Lifetime Achievement Award on his behalf. I said I would, as long as I could wear something from his archive. I wore the original Kansai Yamamoto bodysuit that David had worn for his Rainbow Theatre gigs in 1972 – it fit me like a glove. It was a very surreal experience.”
Other celebrities also line up to speak of his “angelic” and “ground breaking” and inspirational in many ways when it came to their own careers.
Changeling examines how Bowie, one of music’s most transformative figures, reinvented himself in the first half of the 1970s to become an era-defining rock legend.
The biggest name in music praise Bowie and his music, who has 11 number one albums and five number one singles iincluding Ashes to Ashes and Let’s Dance.
He won a host of awards, including three BRIT Awards, Best British Male Artist in 1984, 2014 and 2017, and British Album for Blackstar. He died from liver cancer on January 10, 2016 two days after his 69th birthday and the release of the album Blackstar
Paying tribute to him on the podcast, Elton John said: “His music speaks for itself – he’s a giant, a ground-breaking artist, songwriter, performer, actor – and his legacy will be there forever”.
Robbie Williams said: “He was basically a celestial, angelic member of a fraternity that exists outside of this planet and this ‘normie’ realm and there are very few that are sent to teach us, love us, show us the way, but he was one of them.”
Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode said: “Bowie had a huge impact on me from the moment I first saw him on Top of the Pops. The way Bowie looked was equally as important as the music. It went together, you know, it was part of the fantasy, it was part of going to where he was going and this imagery that he was creating. I felt like I belonged there too. And it was outrageous.”
Actor Tilda Swinton said: “I think that what Bowie contributed and contributes still – and presumably always will contribute to the culture – is a model of flexibility, curiosity. He was a portal to the idea of a kind of properly engaged and up for it relationship with himself and with the development of his work. And was clearly a deeply experimental spirit, so dedicated to not repeating himself and very healthily not invested in minding when other people didn’t like what he was up to.”
And St. Vincent said: “There are so few artists who are able to make consistently challenging, exciting, erotic, scary, profound work for their entire lives. He is truly my ‘north star’ as an artist. He was able to take the lunatic fringe and the deeply accessible and put them together and make a body of work in so many mediums that will live for eternity.”
