“Nothing’s gonna touch you in these golden years”
As if to consolidate his position as the most popular vinyl singles artist of the year in the UK (see earlier story today), the Golden Years 40th anniversary 7″ picture disc (released worldwide on November the 13th), is at #1 for the second week on the official UK chart.
Bowie currently has four singles on the chart, three of which are in the top 10.
Official Vinyl Singles Chart Top 40
27 November 2015 – 03 December 2015
#01 Golden Years
#06 Space Oddity
#10 Fame
#25 Young Americans
We’re celebrating the fact with another beautiful Steve Schapiro shot from the same session as used on the Golden Years picture disc.
Schapiro is due to publish a 76-page, hardback book of his Bowie photographs on May 17th 2016, via powerHouse Books, simply called David Bowie.
We’ll leave you with a bit about the book and a hint of the fun that Bowie and Schapiro had together during some of those sessions.
David Bowie by Steve Schapiro
At the very apex of David Bowie’s spectacular rise to rock n’ roll fame and glory, photographer Steve Schapiro seized a rare invitation from Bowie’s manager for a private photo session with the pop star in Los Angeles in 1974.
Bowie, by 1974, was a man of many faces and as many albums, had already lived the life of Ziggy Stardust and launched Alladin Sane with albums Pin Ups and Diamond Dogs soon to come. A musical force to be reckoned with, Bowie was also widely regarded as a fashion icon, pushing the envelope of sexuality and style and having created an internationally renowned persona.
The mostly never-before-published images in Schapiro’s rare collection represent Bowie at his most creative and inspired self and present a glimpse into the intimacy that Schapiro and Bowie shared during their time together. As Schapiro tells it: “From the moment Bowie arrived, we seemed to hit it off. Incredibly intelligent, calm, and filled with ideas, he talked a lot about Alistair Crowley whose esoteric writings he was heavily into at the time. When David heard that I had photographed Buster Keaton, one of his greatest heroes, we instantly became friends.”
The first photo session started at four in the afternoon and went through the night till dawn. Bowie went through countless costume changes, each more incredible than the last and each seemed to turn him into a totally different person. Bowie relentlessly created these unique characters, each seemingly alive in their own charismatic space for Schapiro to create visual images to complement their very existence and turn them into iconic images for all time.
Bowie and Schapiro kidded and laughed about shooting a series of close-up portraits on a putrid green background because they felt it was the worst possible background colour for a magazine, and so they did on this lark – with the image eventually becoming a People magazine cover. (Swipe/scroll (or click on little dots) to see People cover)
The last image they made was at four in the morning to wrap up the marathon session when they went outside to shoot Bowie on his motorcycle – the sun hadn’t yet risen and the shot was lit dramatically by only the headlights of a car. This image remains one of Schapiro’s favourites of all time and is certain to live on in posterity.
#DavidBowie #GoldenYears40 #OCCvinyl45s #BowieSchapiro