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David Bowie obituary

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Intermediate

Key words

2

Quick quiz

1

Do the quiz. Then, scan the article to check your answers.

1. David Bowie was ...

a. … a British singer, songwriter and actor.
b. … a British painter and actor.
c. … an American musician and artist.

2. What do these people have in common?

• Ziggy Stardust
• the Thin White Duke

3. Put the following David Bowie albums in order of

their release (one per decade).

• Blackstar

• David Bowie

• Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

• Young Americans

• Black Tie White Noise

Match the key words with the definitions below. Then, find them in the article to read them in context. The

paragraph numbers are given to help you.

1. someone who is the first to do something or to discover something _________________________ (para 2)

2. the feeling that you want very much to become successful, rich and famous _________________________

(para 4)

3. start to do something alone rather than with others _________________________ (para 4)
4. a time when you begin to be successful at something _________________________ (para 5)
5. thinking and worrying about something a lot _________________________ (para 6)
6. natural ability to do some things well _________________________ (para 6)
7. a musical record with only one song or piece of music on each side _________________________ (para 8)
8. a list showing the music that people have bought the most copies of in the previous week

_________________________ (para 10)

9. a role or character adopted by a performer _________________________ (para 11)
10. a great success _________________________ (para 12)
11. the period of time when a person, idea or object is most successful or popular _________________________

(para 15)

12. the activity of trying to persuade people or organizations to give money for a specific purpose, especially for a

charity _________________________ (para 16)

13. something you do to show respect for someone _________________________ (para 17)
14. an event organized to make money for people or a charity _________________________ (para 20)

ambition

benefit

breakthrough

broody

chart

fundraising

gifts

go solo

heyday

persona

single

trailblazer

tribute

triumph

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David Bowie obituary

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David Bowie obituary

Adam Sweeting
11 January, 2016

1 Until the end, David Bowie, who has died of

cancer, was still full of surprises. His latest album,

Blackstar, appeared on his 69th birthday on 8

January 2016 and proved that he hadn’t lost his

gift for making dramatic statements as well as

challenging, disturbing music.

2 Throughout the 1970s, Bowie was a trailblazer

of musical trends and pop fashion. He became

a singer-songwriter, a pioneer of glam-rock, then

got into what he called “plastic soul”, before

moving to Berlin to create innovative electronic

music. His ability to mix brilliant changes of sound

and image is unique in pop history.

3 Bowie was born David Robert Jones in south

London. In 1953, the family moved to Kent,

where David showed talent for singing and

playing the recorder. Later, he studied art, music

and design.

4 At 15, David formed his first band, the Kon-rads.

It was clear that David’s talents and ambition

meant that he should go solo. David took the

name Bowie to avoid confusion with Davy Jones

of the Monkees.

5 Bowie’s first album, released in June 1967, was

titled simply David Bowie. In July 1969, Bowie

released Space Oddity, the song that would give

him his first commercial breakthrough. Timed to

coincide with the Apollo 11 moon landing, it was a

top five UK hit.

6 In March 1970, Bowie married art student, Angela

Barnett. The Man Who Sold the World was

released in the US in late 1970 and in the UK the

following year. With its daring songwriting and

broody, hard-rock sound, it was the first album to

really show his writing and performing gifts. The

album’s themes included immortality, insanity,

murder and mysticism, which showed that Bowie

was a songwriter who was thinking outside of

pop’s usual boundaries.

7 He followed it with 1972’s Hunky Dory, a mix of

wordy, elaborate songwriting. It was an excellent

collection that met with only moderate success

but that all changed with The Rise and Fall of

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars later

that year.

8 This time, Bowie appeared as a science-fiction

character – an intergalactic glam-rock star visiting

planet Earth. The hit single Starman brought

instant success for the album.

9 Everything Bowie touched turned to gold. He had

his first UK number 1 album with Aladdin Sane

(1973), which included the hit singles The Jean

Genie and Drive-in Saturday. But Bowie was

already planning his next career moves.

10 His increasing interest in funk and soul music

could be heard on the album Young Americans

(1975), which gave him a US chart-topper with

Fame (with John Lennon as a guest vocalist).

11 With the album Station to Station (1976), Bowie

introduced a new persona, the Thin White Duke.

This persona was the same as his role as a sad

space traveller in Nicolas Roeg’s film The Man

Who Fell to Earth.

12 Bowie’s relationship with his wife had been

suffering under the pressures of success and

the couple divorced in 1980. This was a year of

further creative triumph, bringing a fine album,

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), and its

chart-topping single, Ashes to Ashes, followed by

a period playing the title role in The Elephant Man

on the Broadway stage.

13 He achieved a number 1 single with his 1981

partnership with Queen, Under Pressure, and

became increasingly involved with different

media. He appeared in the German movie

Christiane F (1981) and wrote music for the

soundtrack. He had another chart hit with Cat

People (Putting Out Fire) from Paul Schrader’s

movie Cat People (1982).

14 1983 was the year in which he put his energy into

the album Let’s Dance and follow-up concerts.

Let’s Dance turned Bowie into a crowd-friendly

global rock star, with the album and its singles

Let’s Dance, China Girl and Modern Love all

becoming huge international hits.

15 This was the heyday of MTV and Bowie’s talent

for eye-catching videos increased his popularity,

while the six-month Serious Moonlight tour

drew massive crowds. It was to be the most

commercially successful period of his career.

16 At the 1985 Live Aid famine relief concert at

Wembley Stadium, Bowie was one of the best

performers. In addition, that year, he teamed up

with Mick Jagger to record the fundraising single

Dancing in the Street, which quickly went to

number 1.

17 A few days after his appearance at the Freddie

Mercury tribute concert at Wembley Stadium in

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Biographical information

3

Answer the questions about David Bowie’s life with information from the article.
1. Where was David Bowie born and in what year?
2. What was Bowie’s birth name?
3. Why did he change his name?
4. What did he study at college?
5. What was the name of his first band?
6. What style of music is he most connected with?
7. How many times was he married?
8. How many children did he have?

April 1992, Bowie married the Somalian model

Iman and the couple bought a home in New York.

18 For the album Black Tie White Noise (1993), he

included elements of soul, electronica and hip

hop. It topped the UK album chart and gave him

a top 10 single, Jump They Say.

19 New media and technology influenced his

recordings, too. His 1999 album Hours…

was based around music he had written for a

computer game called Omikron, in which Bowie

and Iman appeared as characters. The birth of

Bowie and Iman’s daughter, Alexandria, followed

in August 2000.

20 As an adopted New Yorker, Bowie was the

opening act at the Concert for New York City in

October 2001, where he joined Paul McCartney,

Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, the Who and Elton John

in a benefit show six weeks after the 9/11 attacks.

21 During his Reality tour in 2004, Bowie had chest

pains while performing in Germany and needed

emergency surgery in Hamburg.

22 He saw the medical emergency as a warning and

started to slow down. In February 2006, he was

given a Grammy lifetime achievement award. He

was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

in 1996.

23 The Next Day (2013) was his first album of new

material in a decade. It included the single Where

Are We Now?, which gave him his first UK top 10

hit since 1993. The album went to the top of the

charts in Britain and around the world. In 2014,

Bowie was given the Brit Award for Best British

Male, making him the oldest person to get

the award.

24 He is survived by Iman, their daughter,

Alexandria, his stepdaughter, Zulekha, and his

son, Duncan, from his first marriage.

25 • David Bowie (David Robert Jones), singer,

songwriter and actor, born 8 January, 1947; died

10 January, 2016

© Guardian News and Media 2016
First published in The Guardian, 11/01/16

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6. famine
7. opening
8. hit
9. medical
10. international

Bowie’s first ______________________ ______________________ (1) came with the song Space Oddity in 1969.
Well known for his different personas and ______________________ ______________________ (2), in 1972,
Bowie presented himself as a ______________________ ______________________ (3) named Ziggy Stardust,
an intergalactic glam-rock star visiting planet Earth.
The song Starman brought ______________________ ______________________ (4) for the album titled The
Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
He first topped the US charts with Fame, which featured John Lennon as a ______________________
______________________ (5).

The 1980 album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) included the ______________________
______________________ (6) Ashes to Ashes.
His next album Let’s Dance, with its ______________________ ______________________ (7), turned Bowie into
a crowd-friendly global rock star.
He was one of the most outstanding performers at the Live Aid ______________________
______________________ (8) concert at Wembley Stadium in 1985.
Six weeks after the 9/11 attacks in New York, Bowie was the ______________________
______________________ (9) at a benefit concert for the victims of the attack.
After a ______________________ ______________________ (10) on stage in Germany in 2004, Bowie started to
slow down and reduce his work.

f. hits
g. emergency
h. relief
i. single
j. act

Collocations

4

Match the words in the left-hand column with those in the right-hand column to make expressions from
the text.

1. guest
2. science-fiction
3. instant
4. dramatic
5. commercial

a. statements
b. vocalist
c. breakthrough
d. character
e. success

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David Bowie obituary

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Intermediate

a. Complete the word wheels with words from the article that the author used to describe Bowie’s music

and songwriting, and his styles of music.

b. Use some of the words to talk about other musicians.

Word fields

5

Words describing

Bowie’s

songwriting

Bowie’s music

styles

Webquest

7

See photos of some the David Bowie’s key looks (including Ziggy Stardust) here:

www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2016/jan/11/david-bowie-key-looks-pictures

See pictures from his life and career here:

www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2016/jan/11/david-bowies-life-and-career-in-pictures

Discussion

6

We all know that music is strongly connected with memories.
• Do you connect any of Bowie’s music with particular memories or periods of your life?
• What music do you connect with your childhood and youth?

NEWS LESSONS / David Bowie obituary / Intermediate

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David Bowie obituary

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Intermediate

KEY

1 Quick quiz

1. a

2. They are personas created by David Bowie.

3. David Bowie (1967)

Young Americans (1975)

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980)

Black Tie White Noise (1993)

Blackstar (2016)

2 Key words

1. trailblazer

2. ambition

3. go solo

4. breakthrough

5. broody

6. gifts

7. single

8. chart

9. persona

10. triumph

11. heyday

12. fundraising

13. tribute

14. benefit

3 Biographical information

1. in South London; in 1947

2. David Robert Jones

3. to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the pop

group the Monkees

4. art, music and design

5. the Kon-rads

6. glam-rock

7. twice, to Angela Barnett and to Iman

8. two of his own, Duncan and Alexandria, and a

step-daughter, Zulekha

4 Collocations

1. b

2. d

3. e

4. a

5. c

1. commercial breakthrough

2. dramatic statements

3. science-fiction character

4. instant success

5. guest vocalist

6. h

7. j

8. i

9. g

10. f

6. hit single

7. international hits

8. famine relief

9. opening act

10. medical emergency

5 Word fields

Bowie’s songwriting: challenging, disturbing,

innovative, daring, broody, wordy, elaborate
Bowie’s music styles: glam-rock, plastic soul,

electronic, electronica, hard rock, funk, soul, hip hop