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David Bowie obituary

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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

Find the key words in the article and write them next to the definitions below. The paragraph numbers are

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

2. changed in a sudden or noticeable way _________________________ (para 2)

3. supported by, allowing it to succeed or continue to exist _________________________ (two words, para 2)

4. natural ability that makes it easy for you to do something well _________________________ (para 3)

5. natural ability to do some things well _________________________ (para 6)

6. completely developed _________________________ (two words, para 8)

7. very beautiful _________________________ (para 8)

8. a role or character adopted by a performer _________________________ (para 11)

9. a period of time spent doing something _________________________ (para 12)

10. attack _________________________ (para 14)

11. the period of time when a person, idea or object is most successful or popular _________________________

(para 15)

12. a skill or ability _________________________ (para 15)

13. do something very often in a short period of time _________________________ (para 15)

14. affected by serious problems such as injury or illness _________________________ (two words, para 21)

15. officially accepted into something such as a group _________________________ (two words, para 22)

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David Bowie obituary

Artist blazed a trail of musical trends and pop

fashion, reinventing himself, his music and

media across many decades
Adam Sweeting
11 January, 2016

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

cancer, was still capable of springing surprises.

His latest album, Blackstar, appeared on his 69th

birthday on 8 January 2016 and proved that his

gift for making dramatic statements as well as

challenging, disturbing music hadn’t

deserted him.

2 Throughout the 1970s, Bowie was a trailblazer

of musical trends and pop fashion. Having

been a late-60s mime and cabaret entertainer,

he evolved into a singer-songwriter, a pioneer

of glam-rock, then veered into what he called

“plastic soul”, before moving to Berlin to create

innovative electronic music. His capacity for

mixing brilliant changes of sound and image

underpinned by a genuine intellectual curiosity is

rivalled by few in pop history.

3 Bowie was born David Robert Jones in south

London. In 1953, the family moved to Kent,

where David showed aptitude in singing and

playing the recorder. Later, he studied art, music

and design. In 1961, David’s mother bought

him a plastic saxophone, introducing him to an

instrument which would become a recurring

ingredient in his music.

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

It was clear that David’s talents and ambition

dictated that he should go solo. David adopted

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 initial 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. Artistically, Bowie was powering ahead.

The Man Who Sold the World was released in

the US in late 1970 and in the UK the following

year, and with its daring songwriting and broody,

hard-rock sound, it was the first album to do full

justice to his writing and performing gifts. The

album’s themes included immortality, insanity,

murder and mysticism, evidence that Bowie was

a songwriter who was thinking way beyond 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 emerged as a fully fledged

science-fiction character – an intergalactic

glam-rock star visiting a doomed planet Earth –

and the album effectively wrote the script for his

own stardom. The hit single Starman brought

instant success for the album, while Bowie’s

ravishing stage costumes and provocative

performances triggered fan enthusiasm unseen

since Beatlemania.

9 Everything Bowie touched turned to gold. He had

his first UK number 1 album with Aladdin Sane

(1973), which generated the hit singles The Jean

Genie and Drive-in Saturday. But Bowie was

already planning fresh career moves.

10 His increasing interest in funk and soul music

came to the fore on the deliciously listenable

Young Americans (1975), which gave him a US

chart-topper with Fame (featuring John Lennon

as a guest vocalist).

11 Station to Station (1976) introduced a new

persona, the Thin White Duke, which Bowie had

carried over from his headlining performance as a

melancholy space traveller in Nicolas Roeg’s film

The Man Who Fell to Earth.

12 Bowie’s relationship with his wife had been

disintegrating 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 spin-

off chart-topping single, Ashes to Ashes, followed

by Bowie’s well-received stint as John Merrick in

The Elephant Man on the Broadway stage.

13 He achieved a number 1 single with his 1981

partnership with Queen, Under Pressure, while

becoming increasingly involved in crossovers

between 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 Bowie continued to make progress as a screen

actor with appearances in The Hunger and the

second world war drama Merry Christmas, Mr

Lawrence, both released in 1983. Musically, this

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Biographical information

3

Answer the questions about David Bowie’s life, if possible without referring back to 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 considered to be a pioneer of?
7. What was he inducted into in 1996?
8. What awards did he receive in 2006 and 2014 respectively?
9. How many times did he marry?
10. How many children did he have?

was the year in which he put his energy into an

all-out commercial onslaught with the album

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

moulded 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 knack

for eye-catching videos fuelled this commercial

splurge, while the six-month Serious Moonlight

tour drew massive crowds. It was to be the most

commercially successful period of his career.

16 His profile gained another boost from his

appearance at the 1985 Live Aid famine relief

concert at Wembley Stadium, where he was one

of the standout performers. In addition, he teamed

up with Mick Jagger to record the fundraising single

Dancing in the Street, which sped to number 1.

17 A few days after his appearance at the Freddie

Mercury tribute concert at Wembley Stadium in

April 1992, Bowie married the Somalian model

Iman and the couple bought a home in New York.

This new start in his private life coincided with a

search for fresh musical inspiration.

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

sprinkled elements of soul, electronica and hip

hop into the mix. It topped the UK album chart

and yielded 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 Bowie was back in the studio the following year

for Reality. However, in the midst of his Reality

tour in 2004, Bowie was stricken with chest pains

while performing in Germany and underwent

emergency surgery in Hamburg to clear a

blocked artery.

22 He took the medical emergency as a warning

and reduced the pace of his activities. In 2006,

he announced he would be taking a year off from

touring and recording. In February that year,

he was given a Grammy lifetime achievement

award, having been inducted 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 contained the single Where

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

hit since 1993. The album topped charts in Britain

and around the world. In 2014, Bowie was given

the Brit Award for Best British Male, making him

the oldest British recipient in the awards’ history.

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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Bowie’s first ______________________ ______________________ (1) came with the song Space Oddity in 1969.
Well known for his different personas, in 1972, Bowie presented himself as a ______________________

______________________ (2) named Ziggy Stardust, an intergalactic glam-rock star visiting planet Earth.
The hit single Starman brought ______________________ ______________________ (3) 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 ______________________

______________________ (4).

1980 was a year of ______________________ ______________________ (5) for Bowie with the album Scary

Monsters (and Super Creeps) and the hit single Ashes to Ashes.
That same year he played the title role in The Elephant Man on the ______________________

______________________ (6).
Bowie’s fans were extremely enthusiastic about his stage costumes and ______________________

______________________ (7).
In the 1980s, his commercial success was supported by his ______________________

______________________ (8), which people could watch on the popular music TV channel MTV.

He was one of the most outstanding performers at the Live Aid ______________________

______________________ (9) concert at Wembley Stadium in 1985.
He had hit singles with many other well-known artists, such as Queen, and also with Mick Jagger on the chart-

topping ______________________ ______________________ (10) Dancing in the Street.
Shortly after performing at the Freddie Mercury ______________________ ______________________ (11) in

1992, Bowie married Iman, a model from Somalia, and they bought a home in New York.
Six weeks after the 9/11 attacks in New York, Bowie was the opening act at a ______________________
______________________ (12) for the victims of the attack.

Collocations

4

a. Join the words to make collocations from the article.
1. benefit
2. Broadway
3. commercial
4. creative
5. eye-catching
6. famine
7. fundraising
8. guest
9. instant
10. provocative
11. science-fiction
12. tribute

b. Use the collocations to complete the sentences about David Bowie and his work.

a. breakthrough
b. relief
c. single
d. concert
e. vocalist
f. triumph
g. character
h. show
i. stage
j. videos
k. success
l. performances

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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. Which of these words could you use to talk about which 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

Music is known for its ability to evoke our memories.
• Do you connect any of Bowie’s music with particular memories or periods of your life?
• Are there any other artists whose music, when you hear it, brings back personal memories?
• What would you say is the soundtrack of your childhood and youth?

NEWS LESSONS / David Bowie obituary / Advanced

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David Bowie obituary

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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. veered

3. underpinned by

4. aptitude

5. gifts

6. fully fledged

7. ravishing

8. persona

9. stint

10. onslaught

11. heyday

12. knack

13. splurge

14. stricken with

15. inducted into

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. the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

8. a Grammy lifetime achievement award; a Brit

Award for Best British Male

9. twice, to Angela Barnett and to Iman

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

step-daughter, Zulekha

4 Collocations

a.

1. h

2. i

3. a

4. f

5. j

6. b

7. c

8. e

9. k

10. l

11. g

12. d

b.

1. commercial breakthrough

2. science-fiction character

3. instant success

4. guest vocalist

5. creative triumph

6. Broadway stage

7. provocative performances

8. eye-catching videos

9. famine relief

10. fundraising single

11. tribute concert

12. benefit show

5 Word fields

Bowie’s songwriting: challenging, disturbing,

innovative, daring, broody, wordy, elaborate,

deliciously listenable
Bowie’s music styles: glam-rock, plastic soul,

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