History Trivia / DAVIDBOWIE

** No reissue of ''Never Let Me Down'' includes "Too Dizzy", at Bowie's personal request. The song also does not appear on the ''Loving the Alien'' box set which otherwise features his complete recordings from 1983 to 1989, including a non-album tracks set. Bowie historian Nicholas Pegg theorizes in ''The Complete David Bowie'' that Bowie sees it as OldShame since it's a [[SillyLoveSongs Silly Love Song]] that can be interpreted as a rapist's monologue: she's reluctant and already has a lover, but the singer is determined to make her his...

* BetterExportForYou: CD releases of the man's catalog are notoriously spotty in quality, going all the way back to the earliest run of releases on the format by Creator/RCARecords. However, RCA's [=CDs=] had two major instances where the US version is widely agreed to be better than the equivalents in Bowie's native UK: ''Music/AladdinSane'' features clearer audio on the earliest US [=CDs=] pressed by CSR, while the US RCA CD of ''Music/DiamondDogs'' features improved equalization (the UK CD featured an unusual amount of bass-boosting).

* ArtistDisillusionment: Narrowly averted. After the Glass Spider Tour, Bowie seriously considered focusing on his hobby of painting instead of music, having found so little lasting satisfaction in trying to please the fans ''Music/LetsDance'' had brought him. Reeves Gabrels convinced him that he could learn to love his work again if he just focused on what made him happy, and from there the seeds of Tin Machine were planted...

** ''Tin Machine II'' itself received little to no reissues after its initial release in 1991 because that the label it was released on, Victory Records, went defunct in 1994; the commercial disappointment of the album seems to have demotivated any other labels from trying to put it out again. The only re-releases ''Tin Machine II'' saw were not only few and far-between, but also [[NoExportForYou exclusive to Japan and Russia]] for whatever reason. This was finally averted on July 17, 2020, when the album was given its first major reissue on both silver vinyl and CD via sister reissue labels Music on Vinyl and Music on CD, respectively.

* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: On many albums, Bowie went into the studio with a few chord changes and wrote the songs on the hoof (''[[Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum "Heroes"]]'' was being written as it was recorded). Averted, however, on ''Music/HunkyDory'', on which Bowie carefully crafted the songs on the piano before entering the studio.

** After Creator/{{Rykodisc}}'s rights to Bowie's 1969-1980 catalog lapsed in 1998, Creator/{{EMI}} and Creator/CapitolRecords made plans to keep them in print, briefly reissuing ''Music/PinUps'', ''David Live'', and ''Music/YoungAmericans'' under the EMI Capitol Enterprises imprint. However, these plans were scrapped when Creator/VirginRecords put together their own in-house remasters in 1999, which included not only the studio albums in Rykodisc's series, but also ''Music/LetsDance'', ''Music/{{Tonight}}'', ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'', and ''Music/{{Tin Machine|Album}}''. Since then, the Rykodisc [=CDs=] have never been reissued.

** Creator/{{Rykodisc}}'s 1990-1992 remasters of Bowie's catalog were never reissued after 1999, but none of those releases include the bonus tracks that were present on Ryko's [=CDs=]. While many of them reappeared on later compilations and live albums, [[https://www.tumblr.com/bowiesongs/29565725664/a-bowie-rykodiscography?source=share plenty others]] remain AWOL; consequently, the only legal way to hear them is to scour secondhand stores for the Ryko [=CDs=].

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes

** The original Creator/RCARecords [=CDs=] tend to be coveted by audiophile Bowie fans for having the best sound quality of any Bowie CD releases, yet to this day only one of them has ever been re-pressed: the 1984 West German CD for ''Music/StationToStation'', as part of the 2010 deluxe edition. The situation gets tougher when accounting for how variable the sound quality is per region and per album, plus the fact that the discs went out of print after Bowie regained the rights to his RCA catalog at the end of the 80's.

** He wasn't happy with how ''Just a Gigolo'' (1978), his first film after ''The Man Who Fell to Earth'', turned out -- "Listen, you were disappointed, and you weren't even in it. Imagine how we felt."

** ''Just a Gigolo'' never had a DVD release beyond Germany, and VHS copies date back to TheEighties and are tough to find.

* OldShame:
** He disavowed his 1967 album in general. The 2014 greatest hits album ''Nothing Has Changed'', which had Bowie's input in selecting the tracklisting, includes a charitable selection of pre-"Space Oddity" tunes (including his first single "Liza Jane"), but "The Laughing Gnome" is nowhere to be found.
** He regreted sticking with the style of ''Music/LetsDance'' for as long as he did.
** He wasn't happy with how ''Just a Gigolo'' (1978), his first film after ''The Man Who Fell to Earth'', turned out -- "Listen, you were disappointed, and you weren't even in it. Imagine how we felt."
** The Thin White Duke period was this in some ways due to his flirtation with fascism during the period, which he later disowned. He doesn't seem to have had a negative opinion of the music of ''Music/StationToStation'' itself though, despite not remembering much about its recording process.

** After the Glass Spider Tour in 1987, material from ''Music/{{Tonight}}'' mostly vanished from Bowie's setlists, while material from ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'' completely vanished, owed to Bowie's fierce CreatorBacklash towards both albums. The most representation ''Tonight'' got post-1987 consisted of "Loving the Alien" and "Blue Jean" briefly reappearing during the Sound + Vision tour (which only featured the latter) and the supporting tour for ''Music/{{Reality}}''.

*** The Glass Spider Tour is '''still''' joked about by fans who regard the bulk of TheEighties as a colossal DorkAge for him, though (thanks in part to the official video of the Sydney, Australia shows, which shows his work in the best light) there are those who regard it fondly. It was rumored for years that Bowie and his crew destroyed the Glass Spider set by lighting it on fire in a field after the final show in New Zealand (as a means to relieve to the stress the tour had provided). It took until 2016 for that rumor to be refuted: [[http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/75811908/kiwi-urban-myth-about-david-bowies-glass-spider-tour-finally-put-to-rest the set was just placed in storage in an Auckland warehouse]].

** Creator/PhilipsRecords/[[Creator/MercuryRecords Mercury Records]] (1969-1971)[[note]]Philips owned Mercury, so the ''Music/SpaceOddity'' album was on Philips on some countries and Mercury in others; ''Music/TheManWhoSoldTheWorld'' was originally released on Mercury worldwide. Bowie eventually left the label due to ExecutiveMeddling regarding the UK cover art of ''The Man Who Sold the World''; Bowie would take the master tapes and the legal rights for his Philips/Mercury recordings with him after leaving the labels.[[/note]]

** To this day, "Under Pressure" is one of his most popular songs/collaborations, both for himself and ''Music/{{Queen}}''. But he was reportedly dissatisfied with much of his work on ''Music/HotSpace'' itself, requesting that many of his contributions be removed.

* MagnumOpusDissonance: His entire career is rife with this, as the songs/albums he wrote for art are generally in the shadow of those he wrote for commerce. However, the first and biggest example for him would be a little song he slapped together out of boredom... he was actually embarrassed by it. "Space Oddity", his first hit-- and still popular to this day.

*** Creator/MercuryRecords were willing to renegotiate Bowie's contract for the release of ''Music/HunkyDory'', but manager Tony Defries forced the label to drop Bowie instead out of disdain towards their handling of his finances. Defries sought out a number of labels in the US (none of which are named in official biographies) before eventually settling on Creator/RCARecords.

* NamesTheSame: He was born David Robert Jones. He changed his name to avoid being confused with Davy Jones of Music/TheMonkees.

** Creator/ParlophoneRecords (1964-1965)[[note]]Parlophone has also distributed reissues of Bowie's back-catalog throughout TheNewTens and TheNewTwenties, under license from Bowie's rights-holding company ISO Records[[/note]]

* BuryYourArt: While Bowie expressed open regret for much of his output during the '80s, he reserved his strongest, yet least-vocalized vitriol for the ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'' track "Too Dizzy", banning it from ever seeing the light of day again after the album's original 1987 release. Bowie's labels and his estate have adhered to his request to this day, not even including it in the otherwise comprehensive BoxedSet ''Loving the Alien (1983-1988)''. Bowie himself dismissed "Too Dizzy" as a throwaway song and described it as his least favorite track on his least favorite album, while biographer Nicholas Pegg attributes the self-imposed ban to the song's unintentionally creepy lyrics, being a jealousy song that accidentally came off as a stalker anthem.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen

*** Creator/VirginRecords (1993-2001)[[note]]Various single releases and albums from 1993-1997 were released through Virgin outside of the UK; Virgin also distributed remastered reissues of his 1983-1988 backlog in 1995 and his 1969-1989 backlog in 1999. ''Music/{{Hours}}'' was released exclusively through Virgin. Bowie eventually left the label in 2001 due to the initial shelving of ''Toy''.[[/note]]

** Creator/ColumbiaRecords (2002-2017)[[note]]Also gained ownership of ''Music/{{Outside}}'', ''Music/{{Earthling}}'', and ''Music/{{Hours}}'' until Bowie's death in 2016, after which they were given to Parlophone.[[/note]]

** All of Bowie's pre-''Music/SpaceOddity'' material disappeared from Bowie's setlists once his career took off in the early '70s, owed to a mix of its EarlyInstallmentWeirdness and his CreatorBacklash towards it. Bowie eventually incorporated "Can't Help Thinking About Me" into his setlist during the supporting tour for ''Music/{{Hours}}'' in 1999 and featured "I Dig Everything" and "The London Boys" in the Mini Tour the following summer. This revisiting of his early material led to the making of the re-recordings album ''Toy'' in 2000 (though the album went unreleased until 2021).

** Twice. He narrated ''Music/PeterAndTheWolf'' in 1978 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.

** Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" phase only lasted for around a year, covering around three albums at most. However, it's considered Bowie's most famous persona with a major influence on GlamRock, PunkMusic, GlamMetal, and rock music history as a whole.

* ShortLivedBigImpact: Not Bowie himself, but his band Tin Machine. They were only active for roughly four years (1988-1992) and put out just two studio albums and a live record within that time before dissolving, with Bowie returning to his solo career afterwards. However, in hindsight, the band has been noted for being a major influence on 1990's AlternativeRock and especially {{grunge}}; an account from Tin Machine producer Tim Palmer attests that when he was working with Music/PearlJam as the mixer for ''Music/{{Ten|PearlJamAlbum}}'', he walked into the studio one day to find the group listening to "Heaven's in Here". This retrospective realization has been credited as a major catalyst in the band becoming VindicatedByHistory, having gone from receiving lukewarm responses from fans and critics to being considered one of the most important bands of the late 80's.

** To this day, "Under Pressure" is one of his most popular songs/collaborations, both for himself and ''Music/{{Queen}}''. But he was reportedly dissatisfied with his much of his work on ''Music/HotSpace'' itself, requesting that his much of his contributions be removed.

** Bowie deliberately sought to invoke this with his 1990 Sound + Vision tour, done to promote Creator/{{Rykodisc}}'s remasters of his back-catalog. Not wanting to become a legacy act, the idea behind the tour was that he would perform all his greatest hits (plus the recent [[Music/KingCrimson Adrian Belew]] collaboration "Pretty Pink Rose") for one last run before permanently retiring them from his setlists. The plan mostly fell through during the supporting tour for ''Music/{{Outside}}'', where his unwillingness to play old songs drew staunch criticism and forced him to renege on his idea, but he still deprioritized them in favor of post-1990 material, and six tracks featured on the Sound + Vision tour [[https://bowiesongs.tumblr.com/post/29900916399/did-bowie-really-retire-his-oldies did indeed disappear]] from Bowie's setlists for good: [[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide"]], "John, I'm Only Dancing", "Amsterdam", "Music/YoungAmericans", [[Music/StationToStation "TVC 15"]], and "Pretty Pink Rose".

** To this day, "Under Pressure" is one of his most popular songs/collaborations, both for himself and ''Music/Queen''. But he was reportedly dissatisfied with his much of his work on ''Music/HotSpace'' itself, requesting that his much of his contributions be removed.