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#bowie is trending, cuz it's the 49th anniversary of the release of Hunky Dory, a stone-cold masterpiece of an album. I was 11, and was totally mesmerized by "Life On Mars." Took that week's paper-route $ and bought the album. I was now a Bowie fan.
Curiously, "Life on Mars wasn't released as a single until 1973! After Ziggy Stardust and concurrent with Aladdin Sane. That's when "Life on Mars" charted. The B-side was "The Man Who Sold the World", off the 1970 album of the same name.
Bowie's story of writing this tune is amazing. When he started out in music, he had a job writing English lyrics for European pop songs. He did so with a French song, "Comme d'habitude," and then forgot about it.
Later, he unexpectedly heard it on the radio, but not with his his lyrics. These were different. He contacted the music publisher, and they told Bowie, yeah, your lyrics were shit, so we hired Paul Anka to write new ones.
That song was "My Way," and the guy singing it on the radio was Frank Sinatra!
Bowie, who was a rock star by then, was so pissed he thought, I'll show them, I'll write my own "My Way," that kind of swelling anthem that brings tears to the eyes of an audience. That was "Life on Mars."
He succeeded. Over the years, no matter where I am when this song plays, I pause and listen.
Here's a wonderful 2002 interview where Bowie tells this story, and then sings Life on Mars.
Here's a wonderful 2002 interview where Bowie tells this story, and then sings Life on Mars.
David and Angie Bowie in 1973. He describes their relationship as "like being married to a blowtorch."
