History Trivia / DAVIDBOWIE

** He would have been in ''The Eagle Has Landed'', but the filming schedule conflicted with his '76 tour. Other potential movie projects in the late 1970s that never came to be included an adaptation of ''TheThreepennyOpera'' to be directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and a movie in which he would have played painter Egon Schiele.

** His participation in Live Aid was supposed to include a live trans-Atlantic duet with Mick Jagger on "Dancing in the Street", but this proved technologically impossible; instead, they made the infamous video for it that aired during the broadcast. Also, Bowie's set was going to include five songs rather than four (the fifth would have been "Five Years" from ''Ziggy Stardust''), but he chose to give up the time so a montage of video footage of the suffering Ethiopians the concert was benefiting could be aired instead.

** He would have been in ''The Eagle Has Landed'', but the filming schedule conflicted with his '76 tour.

* SoMyKidsCanWatch: Twice. He narrated a 1978 recording of ''PeterAndTheWolf'' because his son was a fan of the work. Decades later, his daughter was a ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' fan, hence his voicework in the "Atlantis Squarepantis" special as Lord Royal Highness.

** He was preparing a musical version of ''[[Main/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'' as a post-Ziggy Stardust project, but couldn't get the rights from Orwell's widow; some of the songs he wrote for it were recorded and released on ''Diamond Dogs''.

** His participation in Live Aid was supposed to include a live trans-Atlantic duet with Mick Jagger on "Dancing in the Street", but this proved technologically impossible; instead, they made the infamous video for it that aired during the broadcast. Also, Bowie's set was going to include five songs rather than four (the fifth would have been "Five Years" from ''Ziggy Stardust''), but he chose to give up the time so a montage of video footage of the suffering Ethiopians the concert was benefitting could be aired instead.

** He declined to cover one of Music/PeterGabriel's songs for his ''[[CoverAlbum Scratch My Back]]'' companion project ''I'll Scratch Yours'', where each of the artists he covered covers one of his songs in turn. We got Music/BrianEno instead.

** In addition to providing backing vocals, Music/LutherVandross co-wrote a song on ''Young Americans'' ("Fascination"). Over a decade later, he contributed to the backing vocals on [[Main/{{Labyrinth}} "Underground"]]...as did Chaka Khan.

* SoMyKidsCanWatch: Twice. He narrated a 1978 recording of "Peter and the Wolf" because his son was a fan of the work. Decades later, his daughter was a ''SpongebobSquarepants'' fan, hence his voicework in the "Atlantis Squarepantis" special as Lord Royal Highness.

** Two of Bowie's biggest hits of TheNineties came via remixes with guest performers -- Msic/PetShopBoys on "Hallo Spaceboy" (''1. Outside'') and Music/NineInchNails on "I'm Afraid of Americans" (''Earthling'').

* Notable guests/backup performers in Bowie's work (beyond duets and his well-established collaborative efforts with Iggy Pop and Brian Eno) include:
** [[{{Yes}} Rick Wakeman]] on piano on ''Hunky Dory'', ladies and gentlemen!
** In addition to providing backing vocals, LutherVandross co-wrote a song on ''Young Americans'' ("Fascination"). Over a decade later, he contributed to the backing vocals on [[Main/{{Labyrinth}} "Underground"]]...as did Chaka Khan.
** Also from ''Young Americans'', JohnLennon not only co-wrote "Fame" but provided backing vocals and guitar work on that and Bowie's cover of "Across the Universe".

** [[KingCrimson Robert Fripp]] on guitar for ''"Heroes"'' and Adrian Belew for ''Lodger''.
** [[TheWho Pete Townshend]], Robert Fripp and Chuck Hammer on guitar for ''Scary Monsters''. Townshend would come back for ''Heathen''.
** Two of Bowie's biggest hits of TheNineties came via remixes with guest performers -- PetShopBoys on "Hallo Spaceboy" (''1. Outside'') and NineInchNails on "I'm Afraid of Americans" (''Earthling'').

** He declined to cover one of PeterGabriel's songs for his ''[[CoverAlbum Scratch My Back]]'' companion project ''I'll Scratch Yours'', where each of the artists he covered covers one of his songs in turn. We got Brian Eno instead.

** A ConceptVideo was shot for "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell" (''...hours''), with Bowie encountering several of his past personas as "played" by life-sized puppets, but he wasn't happy with the result and it remains unreleased.

* AwesomeDearBoy: Inverted -- he turned down the role of Max Zorin in ''AViewToAKill'' because he hated the script and didn't think it would be fun to work on ("I didn't want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs").

* SoMyKidsCanWatch: His daughter was a ''SpongebobSquarepants'' fan, hence his voicework in the "Atlantis Squarepantis" special as Lord Royal Highness.

** ''Toy'' was intended to be the album between ''...hours'' and ''Heathen'' and it would've featured newly rearranged versions of his obscure mid-'60s stuff, with a few new tracks tossed in as well. Two of the new songs ("Slip Away" and "Afraid") made it onto ''Heathen'', and a few other tracks appeared in the U.K. or Japan as B-sides. And then in the spring of 2011, the album was leaked online and generated enough press that it was formally reviewed by ''Classic Rock'' magazine.

** He declined to cover one of PeterGabriel's songs for his ''[[CoverAlbum Scratch My Back]]'' companion project ''I'll Scratch Yours'', where each of the artists he covered covers one of his songs in turn. We got Brian Eno instead.

** In addition to providing backing vocals, Luther Vandross co-wrote a song on ''Young Americans'' ("Fascination"). Over a decade later, he contributed to the backing vocals on [[Main/{{Labyrinth}} "Underground"]]...as did Chaka Khan.

** Two of Bowie's biggest hits of TheNineties came via guest-driven remixes -- PetShopBoys on "Hallo Spaceboy" (''1. Outside'') and NineInchNails on "I'm Afraid of Americans" (''Earthling'').

** ''Toy'' was intended to be the album between ''...hours'' and ''Heathen'' and it would've featured newly rearranged versions of his obscure mid-'60s stuff, with a few new tracks tossed in as well. Two of the new songs ("Slip Away" and "Afraid") made it onto ''Heathen'', and a few other tracks appeared in the U.K. or Japan as B-sides.

* Notable guests/backup performers in Bowie's work (beyond duets and Brian Eno co-writing much of, and performing on, the Berlin Trilogy) include:

** [[TheWho Pete Townshend]], Robert Fripp and Chuck Hammer on guitar for ''Scary Monsters''.

** Was going to play the title character in the ''FairieTaleTheatre'' adaptation of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin", but ran into a scheduling conflict (Eric Idle took over the part).

* FanNickname: his crotch has been deified and named The Area by fans. It has its own [[http://id34111.securedata.net/areaology/ website]] and religion.

** He worked on a musical score for ''TheManWhoFellToEarth'', but it didn't pan out.

** ''Toys'' was intended to be the album between ''...hours'' and ''Heathen'' and it would've featured newly rearranged versions of his obscure mid-'60s stuff, with a few new tracks tossed in as well. Two of the songs ("Slip Away" and "Afraid") made it onto ''Heathen''.

** He was offered the part of Zorin in ''AViewToAKill'', but he turned it down after reading the script.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Oh, so many possibilities unfulfilled...

** He declined to cover one of PeterGabriel's songs for his ''[[CoverAlbum Scratch My Back]]'' companion project ''I'll Scratch Yours'', where each of the artists he covered covers one of his songs in turn. We got Brian Eno instead. (The album received rather poor reviews. Perhaps it was for the best.)

** Stevie Ray Vaughan on ''Let's Dance''.

** He declined to cover one of PeterGabriel's songs for his ''[[CoverAlbum Scratch My Back]]'' companion project ''I'll Scratch Yours'', where each of the artists he covered covers one of his songs in turn. We got Brian Eno instead. (The album received rather poor reviews. Perhaps it was for the best.)

** He was planning to provide the musical score for ''TheManWhoFellToEarth'', but it didn't pan out.

** ''Toys'' was intended to be the album between ''...hours'' and ''Heathen'' and it would've been mostly newly re-arranged versions of his obscure mid-'60s stuff, with a few new tracks tossed in as well. Two of the songs ("Slip Away" and "Afraid") made it onto ''Heathen''.

** In addition to providing backing vocals, Luther Vandross co-wrote a song on ''Young Americans'' ("Fascination"). Over a decade later, he contributed to the backing vocals on [[Main/{{Labyrinth}} "Underground"]]...as did Chaka Khan and [[Main/{{Rent}} Daphne Rubin-Vega]].