Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Gillian Woodward.
Speaker 2: And I'm Roger Bassic. Spotlight uses a special English method
Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 1: Nineteen seventy seven, Berlin, A thirty one year old David
Speaker 1: Bowie looks out of his window at the Berlin Wall.
Speaker 1: For most of his life, the young music star had
Speaker 1: spent his time imagining he was other people. He invented
Speaker 1: characters to put forms Ziggy Star Dust, a rock star
Speaker 1: from another planet, the thin white Duke, English Royalty Major Tom,
Speaker 1: someone who traveled to outer space.
Speaker 2: These characters made Boie different than other musicians. The changes
Speaker 2: in the way he showed himself interested everyone. But Boie's
Speaker 2: fame and drug use were hurting him. He felt lost.
Speaker 2: His move to Berlin suggested another change, but this time
Speaker 2: Boie would not invent another character. Berlin was a way
Speaker 2: to discover who he was himself.
Speaker 1: Today's Spotlight is on the English rock star Dave Bowie.
Speaker 1: Most of Boie's musical life was defined by the different
Speaker 1: characters he created. They seemed to be part of an
Speaker 1: ever changing person. Some had their beginning in personal insecurity,
Speaker 1: but Bowie's personalities were also a way of exploring the
Speaker 1: different parts of his life. They were away of showing
Speaker 1: that all of us changed.
Speaker 2: David Bowie was born in nineteen forty seven in London.
Speaker 2: His full name was David Robert Jones. Bowie became interested
Speaker 2: in music when he was very young. He joined his
Speaker 2: first music group when he was just fifteen. They were
Speaker 2: called the Conrads. Bowie was sure he would one day
Speaker 2: be a famous musician.
Speaker 1: Bowie had a difficult beginning. He recorded many of his
Speaker 1: songs on his own, but he did not find much
Speaker 1: success until releasing the song Space Oddity on the surface.
Speaker 1: Space Oddity was about a man named Major Tom. The
Speaker 1: United States launches Major Tom into space, but something goes
Speaker 1: wrong with his ship. Major Tom floats around in space
Speaker 1: speaking to people on Earth, but he knows he will
Speaker 1: never be able to return to them. Soon he goes
Speaker 1: too far to speak to anyone. He is alone. Bowie
Speaker 1: would later say about the song.
Speaker 3: When I originally wrote about Major Tom, I thought I
Speaker 3: knew all about the great American dream. I knew where
Speaker 3: it started and where it should stop. Here was the
Speaker 3: great rocket of American technology. It pushed this man up
Speaker 3: into space, but once he gets there, he is not
Speaker 3: sure why he is there, and that is where I
Speaker 3: left him.
Speaker 2: Space Oddity was also about Boie's life. Bowie was depressed
Speaker 2: about his lack of success. He had recently left someone
Speaker 2: he loved. He felt as if he were a man
Speaker 2: floating with nowhere to go.
Speaker 1: Space Oddity was Bowie's first major success. It was also
Speaker 1: his only one for another three years. Struggling for recognition,
Speaker 1: Bowie began to try different musical styles. He also tried
Speaker 1: different styles of art. Lindsey Kemp was a theater director
Speaker 1: and teacher. He taught Bowie how to act. His style
Speaker 1: was also a great influence on Bowie. In a talk
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy four, Kemp said.
Speaker 4: My performance is exactly the same as my life, but
Speaker 4: it is even more amazing because it has to be
Speaker 4: noticed from farther back. My makeup, for example, people talk
Speaker 4: about the actor covering his face, but there is no covering.
Speaker 4: It is just a way to make what already exists bigger.
Speaker 2: Boie would take Kemp's guidance very seriously for his first
Speaker 2: major recording, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and
Speaker 2: the Spiders from Mars Ziggy Stardust about a being who
Speaker 2: came to Earth to play music, but in his performances,
Speaker 2: Boie would also play a character called Ziggy Stardust. He
Speaker 2: called his group the Spiders from Mars. The character Ziggy
Speaker 2: Stardust enlarged different parts of Boie's personality. Bowie had always
Speaker 2: felt strange among normal people. Pretending as a person from
Speaker 2: another planet made this feeling solid. It turned part of
Speaker 2: his life that he did not care for into something
Speaker 2: to be celebrated.
Speaker 1: Boie's music and persona got the public to notice him.
Speaker 1: Almost everyone knew his name by the mid nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: but Bowie's growing fame was beginning to be a problem.
Speaker 1: He started using cocaine heavily. This drug caused intense feelings
Speaker 1: of pleasure, but cocaine also made Bowie extremely fearful. He
Speaker 1: continued to invent new characters for himself to play.
Speaker 4: With.
Speaker 1: Each new record came a new character, but Boie began
Speaker 1: to lose himself in them. He no longer knew who
Speaker 1: he was.
Speaker 2: Bowie's move to Berlin in the late seventies came as
Speaker 2: a shock to many fans. He was at the height
Speaker 2: of his popularity, but to those who knew Bowie, it
Speaker 2: was a welcome change. The star's health was very bad.
Speaker 2: His cocaine us made it difficult for him to see reality.
Speaker 2: He was emotionally and physically broken.
Speaker 1: This move could have been the end for Bowie. Fans
Speaker 1: wanted his show. They loved his new characters and his
Speaker 1: music as it was. But instead of continuing on with
Speaker 1: the same unhealthy path, Bowie did what he was best at.
Speaker 1: He changed.
Speaker 2: Bowie's next several records. Low and Heroes were different than
Speaker 2: anything he had done before. Instead of rock, he created
Speaker 2: electronic music, and when he performed it was not as
Speaker 2: someone else. Boie would continue to be interested in acting
Speaker 2: in theater, but it would no longer take him over.
Speaker 2: From now on, Boie would only be Boie.
Speaker 3: He said, I needed to discover for myself a new
Speaker 3: form of musical language. I could not continue writing otherwise.
Speaker 3: Low and Heroes are not complete on their own. They
Speaker 3: are a process of discovery. I am searching for a
Speaker 3: new artistic language so that I can go farther.
Speaker 1: The rest of Boie's life would be a process of
Speaker 1: self discovery. He experimented with musical styles to express what
Speaker 1: he thought, thought and felt music writers called each of
Speaker 1: his new records reinventions. They thought that Boie was creating
Speaker 1: himself anew but really he was just exploring different parts
Speaker 1: of his music. He changed, but he changed because we
Speaker 1: all do. His popularity grew because of it.
Speaker 2: Boie's last recording was called Black Star. It was recorded
Speaker 2: just before his death by cancer in twenty sixteen. Boie
Speaker 2: wrote the music knowing that he was dying, but this
Speaker 2: did not stop him from learning and growing. Released two
Speaker 2: days before his death, black Star held some of the
Speaker 2: most interesting music Boie ever.
Speaker 1: Made, Even though they caused problems, Bowie's changes were a
Speaker 1: part of him. He could have stayed with one kind
Speaker 1: of music. He could have created different characters for his
Speaker 1: whole life, but Bowie's art followed his life. He was
Speaker 1: always finding out who he was.
Speaker 2: How have you changed in your life? Have you ever
Speaker 2: tried to start over like David Bowie? Could you? You
Speaker 2: can leave a comment on our website at Spotlight English
Speaker 2: dot com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok,
Speaker 2: and x. You can also get our programs delivered directly
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Speaker 2: Spotlight English app.
Speaker 1: The writer and producer of this program was Dan Christman.
Speaker 1: The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and
Speaker 1: the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program
Speaker 1: and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called David Bowie Changes.
Speaker 2: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 2: Spotlight program. Goodbye,