David Bowie
Biography, CDs and sheet music

Added on August 29, 2006:
After 9/11, David Bowie opened the "Concert for New York City" at Madison Square Garden on October 20, 2001 performing the songs "America" and "Heroes". In 2002, his album Heathen was released. The following year, in September 2003, another album, Reality, was put on the market. Its release was followed by a tour to promote it. In the German town of Schessel on June 25, 2004, he suffered from pain in his shoulder on stage. It was later diagnosed as a blocked artery. An emergency angioplasty was performed in the regional hospital. In 2005 and 2006, David Bowie has only appeared occasionally. No plans for a new album or a new tour have been announced so far.

Article added in December 1999:
David Robert Jones, better known as David Bowie, was born in Brixton in 1947. He is one of those exceptional talents of pop culture who continuously reinvent themselves. He has experimented with music, cinema, video, internet, mimic art, theatre and all sorts of hybrid forms of art. David Bowie regularly works together with musicians like Lou Reed, Iggy Pop or Brian Eno. He got his inspirations in London, New York or Berlin. David Bowie is not only a serious artist, but also an innovative and visionary businessman. "Bowie" has become a corporation and is an officially quoted share. As early as 1983, he's Serious Moonlight Tour communication was conducted through electronic mail. By 1988, David Bowie had the first artist news group on the Internet and, in 1997, broke new ground with his internet-only release of the drum-n-bass single Telling Lies. In 1998, he launched BowieNet, the world's first artist-created Internet service provider. In 1999, BowieNet was a nominee for the 1999 WIRED Award for Best Entertainment Site of the Year.
 
Now David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust (EMI) as a re-release. Richard Cromelin described this path breaking record in the Rolling Stone magazine of July 20, 1972, as David Bowie's thematically most ambitious and musically most coherent album up to that date. The artist presented himself as androgynous - that was very popular in the early 70s. David Bowie never ignored the sings of the time, on the contrary, but his references to the Zeitgeist were (almost) never superficial. For Cromelin, Bowie's androgyny in 1972 was not only a simple ballyhoo, but part of his image and art. On The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, the artist confronted himself with frustrations. His record was surrounded by a bittersweet melancholy. David Bowie was not only extravagant, as you can see him on his videos of that period, he also cultivated subtle distinctions. Among his major themes were mortality, pain, conflicts between old and new. His songs do not shock anymore and remind us, that Bowie was ahead of his time. His videos are still avant-garde. Tracks like Lady Stardust, Starman or Ziggy Stardust have become classics of popular music.
 
In a sense, David Bowie's new CD hours... (EMI, 1999) is a sequel to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. Its melancholic sound together with narcissistic elements - visible in his brilliant video clip to the track Thursday's Child - build the background for a subtle introspection. Is hours ... the expression of David Bowie's midlife crisis or just of his permanent artistic introspection? What strikes us are not his reflections on aging and death, fidelity and regret, loss and pain, hopes and fears, but his new natural touch - although the video Thursday's Child is of a deliberate "artificial naturalness". He literally encounters himself in the clip. New is his reserve in the musical and vocal background as well as in expression and atmosphere. Reeves Gabrel's guitar play is largely responsible for that fact. David Bowie appears on Hours ... as a purified Ziggy Stardust or Major Tom, without his usual eccentricity. Hours ... is definitively an album of the late 90s. Its subtleness, questioning and depth only unfolds after repeated listening (but for some songs we are still in the listening phase ...). On the negative side: David Bowie's voice seems to have suffered over the years. Besides Thursday's Child only three tracks are exceptional: Survive, If I'm Dreaming My Life and Seven. Still not too bad. - Buy David Bowie sheet music.

David Bowie: The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, 1972. Get the CD from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon Canada. Order the MP3 from Amazon.com or MP3 from Amazon.co.uk.
 

David Bowie: hours..., 1999. Get the CD from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr,  Amazon.de, Amazon Canada.
 

David Bowie: Heathen. Sony, 2002. Get the CD from Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Amazon Canada. - Buy David Bowie sheet music.