Fame
Englishmen meet in New York
We were first introduced in about 1974 by Elizabeth Taylor. We were in LA, and one night she had a party to which both John and I had been invited. David Bowie, 1999
Like millions of other teenagers, David Bowie was a keen Beatles fan. Though there were more obvious influences — particularly Anthony Newley — on his early records in the mid Sixties he remained an admirer, making several attempts to establish contact with The Beatles.
In 1968 Bowie even tried to change label, from Decca to Apple, submitting an audition tape via his manager. None of The Beatles had any recollection of hearing this read story here.
Englishmen in New York
In the early 70s David Bowie was no longer an obscure folk singer, though he had a relatively low profile in the US. To improve this, he went to New York to record his ‘white soul’ album Young Americans.
In later interviews (see above), he implied that his first meeting with Lennon was a chance encounter. Other accounts by Visconti and others suggest that there was a determined campaign to establish contact.
According to May Pang, who was living with Lennon during his estrangement from Yoko, the two immediately men got on well. Other witnesses have reported that they drew caricatures of each other and drank cognac (hopefully in that order).
Encouraged by their initial ‘chance’ meeting, and keen to get a Beatle on his new album — Bowie phoned Lennon directly. “I’m recording a version of Across the Universe,” he told him. “Would you like to play on it?”. This bold request paid off. Lennon agreed to come to the studio play acoustic guitar.
The session was a success and Lennon later said he liked Bowie’s version better than his original recording with The Beatles on Let It Be.
5. Fame & Friendship
The two Englishmen returned to the studio for another jamming session. As they improvised, guitarist Carlos Alomar played a riff he had intended for Bowie cover of the R & B song Footstompin.
Impressed, Bowie and Lennon then developed this into a new song in which Lennon sang ‘aim’ over the Alomar guitar.
Bowie then rewrote the lyric, changing ‘aim’ to ‘fame’. The resulting single was Bowie’s most successful in the US, reaching the Top Ten for the first time. Another shout-out to Lennon occurs in the title track of Young American’ (I heard the news today, oh boy!).
Legacy
David Bowie was born only four years after George Harrison, but until the 1970s admired them from afar. A fan from his teens, the inventor of the ‘long haired society’ effectively failed the audition to join Apple after his early recording career stalled.
Yet he shared with his idols a tenacity that would eventually bring him worldwide fame. By the end of his life he could claim three of the Fab Four as personal friends.
Though Lennon and Bowie did not record together again, they remained friends until the former’s death in 1980. When David Bowie died in 2016, Yoko described him as family. He was on friendly terms with Paul McCartney, who spoke of ‘the great laughs we had through the years’. The two men did not record together, but did share a stage at Live Aid in 1986.
Ringo was also an admirer — and recorded ‘All the Young Dudes’ on his 2006 album Ringo and Friends.
Only George kept his distance, sharing with Rod Stewart and Elton John a skepticism about the authenticity of youngest Bowie’s outre reputation: “David Bowie ought to make up his mind what sex he is and then decide what kind of music he wants to play.”
According to mutual friends like Eric Idle and Tony Visconti that frostiness endured. It probably didn’t help that Bowie became so publicly associated with John Lennon, with whom George was sadly estranged in his final years
How The Beatles turned down Bowie
The Day I Met the Dame an afternoon with ‘David Bowie
