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“…five, four, three, two, one, lift off…”
It’s 44 years since the release in the UK of the record that put David Bowie’s name firmly in the public arena with his first top five hit.
Still one of his most popular recordings, Space Oddity still sounds incredible today. But, if you’ve somehow managed to avoid its charm thus far, check it out here.
If you think you could improve on the original mix, don’t forget you can create your own version via the iKlax Space Oddity iPhone app.
“He played it left hand” *
Just two of the David Bowie items auctioned at Bonhams on Wednesday (July 3rd) exceeded all expectations when they sold for a remarkable £32,500 GBP (approx. $49,000 USD).
Of the various Bowie items up for grabs, the following were the two particular lots that created a bit of a stir.
Lot # 239
David Bowie: A Vox Mk.XII twelve-string electric guitar, late 1960s, with Vox-style ‘teardrop’ body finished in red, three pickups and three volume/tone controls, three-way selector switch, aluminium scratchplate, fingerboard with dot markers, in case, with stand.
Sold for £13,750 inc. premium
Footnotes
The vendor began his career in the music business as a production assistant for the Gem Group (co-founded by Tony Defries in 1966) and later worked for Mainman Limited from 1970 to 1973. He purchased the guitar in 1971 from a well-known music shop in Richmond, Surrey, on a brief to find a suitable replacement while Bowie’s 12-string acoustic was being given a new, blue finish.
This is the guitar that is shown in the photograph of David, taken in August 1972 by Japanese photographer Masayoshi Sukita. This same photograph is featured on p.13 of the exhibition catalogue, ‘David Bowie Is’, Victoria & Albert Museum, March-August 2013. It is also reproduced in ‘Uncut’ magazine, April 2012, a copy of which is included in this lot. Another photograph from the 1972 session, featuring this guitar, was used on a concert poster for David Bowie and Roxy Music at the Rainbow Theatre, London, 19th-20th August 1972.
The lack of any maker’s name or other identifying detail on the scratchplate and headstock, the absence of a serial number and snap-on circular pad on the rear of the body, and the usage of plastic-head Van Ghent machine heads rather than metal Vox-branded Van Ghents all indicate that this guitar was made circa 1968/69, after the demise of Jennings Musical Instruments, maker of Vox amplification and guitars. Much of JMI’s guitar stock was purchased by Arbiter, who then produced Vox models, incorporating Vox’s original parts, under their own name. This model appears in Arbiter’s 1969 catalogue as the ‘4520’.
Lot # 240
David Bowie: A rare set of handwritten lyrics for The Jean Genie, signed Bowie dated 1972, from the album ‘Aladdin Sane’, each verse and the chorus written across 18 lines in black ballpoint pen on cream lined notebook paper, framed, accompanied by documents concerning the provenance, 11 x 8½ inches (28 x 21.5cm).
Sold for £18,750 inc. premium
Footnotes
David Bowie gave these lyrics to Neal Peters, the then President of the Original David Bowie Fan Club in the USA. The authorised fan club was established in 1973 and Peters was appointed by Bowie himself.
The accompanying paperwork includes a letter from the Neal Peters Collection, on headed paper, confirming the lyrics were a gift from David Bowie and copy documents relating to Peter’s and the work he did with the fan club, during its infancy.
* Actually he didn’t play it at all. The guitar was used as a prop for all of ten minutes during a photo session with Sukita in London, August, 1972.
David BowieFarewell Speech/Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide (4.57)Cat No.: DB 3773Matrix No.: DB 3773A
“Because You’re Young”
Photographer Richard Young has an exhibition of a small selection of his huge Bowie archive that he has amassed since he first started photographing The Thin White Duke in 1976.
Here’s the blurb from the Richard Young Gallery.
Richard Young Gallery is excited to announce the opening of DAVID BOWIE, an exhibition featuring striking photography of the legendary musician. Spanning nearly 40 years and taken by Britain’s foremost celebrity photographer Richard Young, this exhibition will showcase 16 photographs, including 6 new, never-before-seen images recently discovered from Richard’s ever expanding, 2 million+ archive. The exhibition will comprise of both black & white and colour images of Bowie performing and socialising out on the town.
Richard Young first met David Bowie as a teenager before Bowie became famous. He recalls:
In 1964 when I was sixteen, I used to hang out in the Bataclan Club in Princes Street near Oxford Circus it was a very cool place to hang out in the day. It was there I met a guy called Geoff, we became friends through our love of music and French girls. Very often on Sunday afternoons a group of us would make our way to Geoff’s place in South London where we would listen to soul music till the early hours. Occasionally a guy called David Jones would come over and hang out. Little was I to know who David would become! Sadly as it was over forty years ago and we were all in a psychedelic haze, I don’t remember much else of what went on. I recently chatted with David about the old days and he couldn’t remember much either! Geoff MacCormack went on to become David’s back-up singer and it wasn’t until 1974 that I became a photographer.
Richard has been photographing David Bowie since 1976. He has covered all of Bowie’s concerts, photocalls, premieres and parties. Richard never misses a chance to see him perform. According to Richard:
David Bowie is the most stylish man in music, his taste in clothes is impeccable, and not only that, he is one of the nicest men in the business also.
12th July – 25th October 2013
Richard Young Gallery
4 Holland Street
London
W8 4LT
Tel: 0207 937 8911
“Halfway gladness, dazzled by the new”
David Bowie’s triumphant return to the fray, The Next Day, has been placed in the mid-year favourite albums list of both The Quietus and Rolling Stone magazine.
The 27th Bowie studio album is #2 in the very impressive Quietus list, illustrating how the excellent online review site still stands by the words written by Chris Roberts for their original review of the album.
Here are the concluding words from that review:
David Bowie, then. History, but still happening. And the next day, and the next. Greatness. It can’t go on. It goes on.
Rolling Stone has shown similar appreciation in their “unranked list of the year’s best so far”.
Again, here’s the concluding paragraph from their original review by Rob Sheffield:
There are loads of musical and lyrical references to his past, as Bowie broods over the places he’s gone and the faces he’s seen. But he’s resolutely aimed at the future. And when he hits the delirious heights of “The Stars (Are Out Tonight),” he makes the future sound irresistible.