What was inside David Bowie’s record assortment?…
Everyone, at some point, digs deep for inspiration. Even David Bowie. And when the Thin White Duke wanted a musical enhance, he turned to black vinyl.
English singer David Bowie performs on the set of his music video “Jump They Say” in Los Angeles, California, in March 1993. Getty Images
According to the lately printed “Music Lover: The Inside Story of David Bowie’s Record Collection,” Bowie’s sources have been deep and various. Albums ran the gamut from soul king Bobby Womack to glam rockers Mott the Hoople and rapper Kendrick Lamar.
Sometimes, Bowie’s earworms of the second have been off-the-wall. “There was a Polish folk ballet album [‘Helokanie’] that he basically rearranged and made up words to,” co-author Geoff MacCormack, a lifelong pal of Bowie, recalled to The Post. “It became something on one of his German albums. I think it was ‘Low.’ He picked up the album at Tower Records when we were in there browsing.”
David Bowie works on the set of the “Jump They Say” music video in Los Angeles in March 1993. Lester Cohen
Co-authors MacCormack and Jérôme Soligny (he met Bowie as a music journalist and so they turned music-swapping buddies), say that even the well-known Ziggy Stardust is rooted in the offbeat title of another.
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy performs in a photograph taken circa 1970. Michael Ochs Archives
In the Nineteen Sixties, a singer-songwriter from Texas dubbed himself the Legendary Stardust Cowboy and put out a few singles on Mercury Records, the label to which Bowie himself was signed. Bowie gave props to the Cowboy when he invited him to carry out in London’s 2002 Meltdown Festival, which he had curated. That same 12 months, on the record “Heathen,” Bowie did a version of the Legendary Stardust Cowboy’s other-worldly ditty “I Took a Trip (On a Gemini Space Ship).”
Bowie also “praised” Florence Foster Jenkins, the lady who adamantly sang out of tune and was performed by Meryl Streep in a film based on her life.
American soprano vocalist Florence Foster Jenkins, identified for her lack of skill, poses for a portrait in the Nineteen Twenties. Getty Images
Paramount
According to Soligny, “David would love the thought of somebody who said, ‘People can say I can’t sing, however nobody can ever say I didn’t sing.’
“David realized you could be doing interesting things and not everybody’s going to get it. It’s like the accidents in songwriting or recording. That famous piano sound in ‘Ashes to Ashes’ — it’s from a keyboard that didn’t work on the day of recording. And now it defines the song.”
English singer David Bowie performs on the set of his music video “Jump They Say” in Los Angeles, California, March 1993. Getty Images
Indie rockers Grandaddy acquired a style of the Bowie magic after he took to their 2000 album “The Sophtware Slump.” Bowie performed it up during an look on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, met the band backstage at a few reveals and shouted out requests from his seat when he noticed Grandaddy at the Beacon Theater.
“It was such a confidence boost,” frontman Jason Lytle told The Post. “If you have David Bowie over there, saying he loves the band, then it’s, like, screw everyone else.”
Jason Lytle of Grandaddy performs on stage at Potterrow in Edinburgh, Scotland, Thursday, March 23, 2017. Getty Images
As to what Bowie dug about the group, Lytle said, “I’m hoping he honed in on our sincerity. The album was made scrappily in a little farm house where we tried to make something way beyond our knowledge and reach. Perhaps, he tapped into that.”
While Bowie was not past sending assistants off on record-buying sprees — in an unverified notice that turned up on Reddit, he requested that a “go-for” from RCA Records decide up albums by British punks the Stranglers, Ultravox and the Damned before an impending journey to “Swizzleland” — he often did his personal record buying.
One of his Manhattan spots was the House of Oldies Rare Records in Greenwich Village. Bob Abramson, who owns the retailer, recalled to The Post, “His hair was fluffy, and he was extremely nice.”
David Bowie performs the track ‘Rebel Rebel’ on the Dutch TV present TopPop in Hilversum, Netherlands, Feb. 7, 1974. Redferns
Bowie knew what he wished: “He collected rare records, a lot of rockabilly stuff, like Carl Perkins and Gene Vincent. He bought a first pressing of a Larry Williams album” — who wrote “Bony Moronie” and “Dizzy, Miss Lizzy” — “which I think sold for around $200 at the time.”
Abramson factors out that Bowie wished to be a low-key buyer, and the proprietor was joyful to honor that want. But another charismatic record-hound was not so accommodating. Bob Plotkin, now deceased, was the loveable curmudgeon who owned the Village’s punk-centric Bleecker Bob’s Golden Oldies. He had enjoyable at the expense of his rock-star buyer.
David Bowie performs at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Aug. 3, 1987. Redferns
David Bowie arrives at King’s Cross Station in London on May 15, 1973, en path to Aberdeen, Scotland, for his Ziggy Stardust tour. Getty Images
“Bowie came into the store and Bob called him ‘Davie’ before putting on Bowie’s silliest song, ‘The Laughing Gnome.’ Bowie got embarrassed but loved it,” Jennifer “JK” Kitzer, Plotnik’s girlfriend and associate, told Dylan Jones for his Bowie bio. “Before touring with Nine Inch Nails [in 1995], Bowie bought lots of techno stuff.”
Some of the data that landed on Bowie’s turntable got here at the advice of MacCormack. Sometimes, he and Bowie exchanged musical suggestions through textual content and e mail. Sounding just a little unhappy, he remembered his last rec, which got here during the latter a part of August 2015.
It was a YouTube clip from an experimental band called Algiers. Upon checking it out, Bowie replied, “Geoff, your music choices are so on the money, every time. I’m so glad you’ve been my friend all these years. I miss you lots — now f–k off!!”
MacCormack, figuring he was responding in the spirit of the second, wrote again, “Yes, likewise pal. Off and f–ked.”
Bowie replied: “Mission accomplished.”
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