David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie (born David Robert Jones, January 8, 1947–January 10, 2016) was an influential musician and actor, actively creating music from the 1960s until his death in 2016. He traversed through many genres and styles, and oftentimes has influenced, worked with, and coincided with Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor.

Relating to NIN and Trent Reznor

• In support of his 1995 Outside album, Bowie co-headlined the Dissonance tour with NIN, and both bands would collaborate on each other's repertoire in between sets. He also appears briefly in Closure, chatting backstage as well as performing "Hurt" with the band.
• Reznor remixed Bowie's 1995 single "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" (Alt. Mix).
• Nine Inch Nails (Reznor, Charlie Clouser, Keith Hillebrandt, Dave Ogilvie, Danny Lohner) made five remixes for Bowie's 1997 single I'm Afraid of Americans (V1, V2, V3, V4, V6). Reznor starred in the music video as a psychopathic stalker, taking the role of "Johnny" from the song.
• Reznor revealed during a fan Q&A session conducted in 2000[1] that he "was offered to do some work on [Bowie's] last record, but [he] couldn't." This could be referring to Earthling or Hours..., depending on if Reznor meant the previous or the newest album at that time.
• A special "Farewell Mix" of "I Can't Give Everything Away" was created by Reznor and Atticus Ross, which was then performed live by NIN in 2017.
• Reznor and Ross recorded an instrumental cover of Bowie's "Life On Mars?" for Volume 03 of Watchmen (Music From The HBO Series).
• Reznor and Ross covered "Fantastic Voyage" and "Fashion" (with Mariqueen Maandig Reznor on "Fashion") for A Bowie Celebration: Just For One Day! in 2021.

Inspiration and samples

Reznor said in interviews that he played Low constantly during the recording of The Downward Spiral for inspiration. Incidentally, Reznor has been accused of using the main melody from Bowie's 1980 instrumental single "Crystal Japan" in Nine Inch Nails' 1994 track "A Warm Place." Reznor explained the similarity in an interview.[2] The half-song, half-instrumental approach of Low was also a reference point as The Fragile was being written.[3]

The line "falls wanking to the floor" from Bowie's 1973 song "Time" was featured in several remixes of "Mr. Self Destruct" from Further Down the Spiral. A reversed sample from the end of Bowie's "It's No Game" runs through the background of "Pinion".[4] The lyrics to "We're In This Together" may be inspired by Bowie's song "Heroes".

Bowie also possibly drew some influence from Nine Inch Nails. A beat similar to that of "Closer" was used in Bowie's 1997 track "Seven Years In Tibet" (the kick drum that was sampled for "Closer" had been taken from "Nightclubbing" by Iggy Pop, a track that was co-written and produced by Bowie.) Taking a cue from photographer Joel-Peter Witkin, the music video for "Closer" contains a scene of a bald woman wearing a black mask with a crucified Jesus on it. Though the influence could have come directly from Witkin instead of "Closer", a similar mask is worn by Gail Ann Dorsey in Bowie's 1997 video for "Dead Man Walking".

Body Of Work

Studio Albums

• David Bowie (1967)
• Space Oddity (1969)
• The Man Who Sold the World (1970)
• 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)
• Low (1977)
• "Heroes" (1977)
• Lodger (1979)
• Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980)
• Let's Dance (1983)
• Tonight (1984)
• Never Let Me Down (1987)
• Black Tie, White Noise (1993)
• The Buddha of Suburbia (1993)
• 1.Outside (1995)
• Earthling (1997)
• Hours... (1999)
• Heathen (2002)
• Reality (2003)
• The Next Day (2013)
• Blackstar (2016)
• No Plan - EP (2017)

Live Albums

• David Live (1974)
• Stage (1978)
• Ziggy Stardust: the Motion Picture (1983)
• Santa Monica '72 (1994)
• LiveAndWell.com (1999)
• Bowie at the Beeb (2000)
• Glass Spider (Live Montreal '87) (2007)
• VH1 Storytellers (2009)
• A Reality Tour (2010)
• Live Nassau Coliseum '76 (2017)
• Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74) (2017)
• Welcome to the Blackout (Live London '78) (2018)
• Serious Moonlight (Live '83) (2019)
• Glastonbury 2000 (2018)
• Ouvrez Le Chien (Live Dallas 95) (2020)
• Something In The Air (Live Paris 99) (2020)
• I'm Only Dancing (The Soul Tour 74) (2020)
• No Trendy Réchauffé (Live Birmingham 95) (2020)
• Look At The Moon! (Live Phoenix Festival 97) (2021)
• At The Kit Kat Klub (Live New York 99) (2021)

Soundtrack Albums

• Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (1981)
• Baal (1982)
• Labyrinth (1986)
• The Buddha Of Suburbia (1993)
• Lazarus (2017)

Tin Machine

Tin Machine is an offshoot rock n' roll band that featured Bowie as lead vocalist and longtime collaborators Reeves Gabrels and Tony & Hunt Sales.

• Tin Machine (1989)
• Tin Machine II (1991)
• Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey Baby (1992)
• Live at La Cigale, Paris, 25th June, 1989 (2019)

Filmography

• The Image (1967) … The Boy
• Theatre 625 (1968) … "The Pistol Shot"
• The Virgin Soldiers (1969) … Soldier
• The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976) … Thomas Jerome Newton
• Just A Gigolo (1979) … Paul von Pryzgodski
• Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (1981) … Himself
• Baal (1982) … Baal
• The Snowman (1982) … Narrator (Reissue edition)
• The Hunger (1983) … John
• Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983) … Maj. Jack "Strafer" Celliers
• Yellowbeard (1983) … The Shark
• Jazzin' For Blue Jean (1984) … Screamin' Lord Byron/Vic
• Into The Night (1985) … Colin Morris
• Absolute Beginners (1986) … Vendice Partners
• Labyrinth (1986) … Jareth the Goblin King
• The Last Temptation Of Christ (1988) … Pontius Pilate
• Dream On (1991) … Sir Roland Moorecock ("The Second Greatest Story Ever Told")
• The Linguini Incident (1991) … Monte
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) … Phillip Jeffries
• Basquiat (1996) … Andy Warhol
• Gunslinger's Revenge (1998) … Jack Sikora
• Omikron: The Nomad Soul (1999) … Boz
• B.U.S.T.E.D. (1999) … Bernie
• Saturday Night Live (1991, 1997, 1999) … Musical guest
• Mr. Rice's Secret (2000) … Mr. Rice
• The Hunger (1999–2000) … Julian Priest
• The Prestige (2006) … Nicola Tesla
• Arthur And The Invisibles (2006) … Maltazard
• SpongeBob SquarePants (2007) … Lord Royal Highness ("Atlantis SquarePantis")
• August (2008) … Ogilvie

Press

In 2005, Bowie wrote about NIN in "The Immortals" for Rolling Stone, a list of the 100 greatest rock & roll artists of all time (NIN was #94):

"… In making The Downward Spiral, {Reznor} encouraged the computer to misconstrue input, willed it to spew out bloated, misshapen shards of sound that pierced and lacerated the listener…" [5]

External Links

• Official David Bowie site
• David Bowie on Facebook
• David Bowie on Twitter