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.

In support of his 1995 Outside album, he 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 NIN.

Inspiration and samples

Trent 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.[1]

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".[2]

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 beat 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".

Nine Inch Nails Remixes

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 5 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.

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)
Pinups (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)

Live Records

David Live (1974)
Stage (1978)
Ziggy Stardust: the Motion Picture (1983)
Santa Monica '72 (1994)
LiveAndWell.com (1999)
Bowie at the Beeb (2000)
VH1 Storytellers (2009)
A Reality Tour (2010)

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)

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
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…" [3]