Every Thursday on CBC Radio 2 Drive, Rich Terfry gives you a chance to win a great prize if you can separate the facts from the fiction about a famous artist. Rich will give you three clues, and one of them is true. Listen at 5:15 p.m. and send your answer on Twitter, Facebook or Email: R2Drive@cbc.ca Today: David Bowie.
The Thin White Duke has returned. Who would have guessed we would see another album from David Bowie in 2013? The new record is called The Next Day hit stores this week, but how much do you really know about this man? To celebrate a career of this musical maverick and style trendsetter we are sharing some interesting facts about David Bowie.
1. David Bowie started his career as Davy Jones in his band Davy Jones and the Lower Third. He didn't want to be confused with Davy Jones of The Monkees, so he changed his name to Bowie after an American pioneer named Jim Bowie.
2. David Bowie grew up near a prison in his hometown of Brixton.
3. Always one to try new things, Bowie lived at a Buddhist monastery in Scotland in the mid-'60s.
4. In the early '70s, Bowie became a producer, guiding Lou Reed and Iggy Pop through their new albums. By 1973, he had disbanded his own live group and quit the concert business.
5. David Bowie's album Let's Dance featured promising guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar. Vaughan did not take part in the tour.
6. Bowie moved to Berlin in the mid '70s. He explained that the move was due to being broke and that no one recognized him there.
7. Bowie is a craftsman of song, but when he recorded his album Heroes, he not only used many first takes of his vocals, but wrote the lyrics as he was singing them.
Here is what he said in an interview. "Most of my vocals were first takes, some written as I sang. Most famously 'Joe the Lion' I suppose. I would put the headphones on, stand at the mike, listen to a verse, jot down some key words that came into mind then take. Then I would repeat the same process for the next section etc. It was something that I learnt from working with Iggy and I thought a very effective way of breaking normality in the lyric."
8. Iggy Pop and David Bowie had a close writing relationship in the 1970s and '80s. At one point Iggy claimed that the song "Lust For Life" was written by Bowie in front of a television in Berlin. Bowie was playing a ukulele, mimicking the rhythm he heard from the tapping Morse Code beat of the Forces Network theme. Bowie confirmed the story was true.
9. One of Bowie's most popular creations in the 2000s was nothing to do with music. Bowie created Bowie Bonds. These financial securities were backed by Bowie himself using royalties made from his pre-1990 recordings. He made a cool $55 Million off the deal.
10. Bowie's latest record, The Next Day, was a huge secret in the industry for months. Only one person ended up leaking it. Robert Fripp of King Crimson blogged that he had been asked to play on the record, but no one believed him.
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