Line #74 Trivia/DavidBowie


1	* ActingForTwo: On ''1. Outside'', he gives voice to a 52-year-old detective, a 14-year-old ''female'' murder victim, {{mad artist}}s of both genders, a 78-year-old shopkeeper, etc. (There are pictures of most of them in the booklet, via the magic of makeup, costume, and image manipulation.)
2	* ArtistDisillusionment: 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...
3	* AwesomeDearBoy: Inverted when he turned down the role of Max Zorin in ''Film/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"). Played straight with several of his film roles, which he usually picked over other, more conventional star vehicle offers because he wanted to work with their directors, performers, or simply liked the concepts.
4	* 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). Tellingly, the 2016 remaster of ''Diamond Dogs'' by Creator/ParlophoneRecords used the US RCA CD as its reference point.
5	* BreakthroughHit: "Starman". In the U.K., his ''Top of the Pops'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOKWF3IHu0I performance of this song]], complete with some FauxYay between him and guitarist Mick Ronson, is as fondly recalled as a superstar-making moment as Music/MichaelJackson's performance of "Billie Jean" on ''Motown 25'' is everywhere else. The 1973 reissue of "Space Oddity" was his U.S. breakthrough (with "Fame" proving his staying power by topping the charts two years later).
6	* BuryYourArt:
7	** 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. This had the effect of ruling out any attempts to improve the song on the 2018 RemixAlbum for ''Never Let Me Down'', which redid the songs' instrumentation to fulfill Bowie's years-old desire to redo the album. 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)'', which includes both the original version of the album and the RemixAlbum, the latter of which was specifically made for the boxed set. 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.
8	** A big factor in Bowie's departure from Creator/RCARecords was his belief that they were "milking" his back-catalog, which included several compilation albums that were put out without his consent (both before and after his ChannelHop to Creator/EMIAmericaRecords). When Bowie reclaimed the rights to his old material at the tail end of the '80s, he had all of RCA's compilations withdrawn and put out ''Changesbowie'' in 1990 as a replacement. The album combined songs from ''Music/{{Changesonebowie}}'' & ''Changestwobowie'', which ''were'' made with his permission, plus some of his EMI America hits. In turn, ''Changesbowie'' would be deleted in 1999 in favor of various other greatest hits albums. While ''Changesonebowie'' and ''Changestwobowie'' eventually went back into circulation following Bowie's death in 2016, the other RCA compilations remain out of print.
9	* CashCowFranchise: While he stopped touring back in 2004, didn't release any new material until ''Music/TheNextDay'' nearly a decade later, and died just three years after that, the bulk of his back catalog is still in print and often receives [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition elaborate reissues]] (particularly his GlamRock works), there's a good deal of merchandising surrounding him, and new documentaries and/or books about his career (especially the latter) come along every year. The ''David Bowie Is'' retrospective of costumes and other memorabilia from his personal archive smashed attendance records at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2013 and toured the world's premier museums well into 2016.
10	* ChannelHop: One of the most well-known examples with a solo artist. The sheer amount of labels Bowie operated under is fairly staggering, to the point where it's made his back-catalog the source of quite a few legal quandaries over the years (most notably with his pre-''Music/SpaceOddity'' material, as illustrated with the infamous 20-year shelving of ''Toy''). In order, Bowie operated under the following record labels:
11	** Vocalion Pop (1964)[[note]]A sublabel of [[Creator/DeccaRecords British Decca]] that released Bowie's first single, credited to "Davie Jones with the King Bees"[[/note]]
12	** Creator/ParlophoneRecords (1964-1965)[[note]]Parlophone also inherited the rights to Bowie's catalog following the dissolution of EMI[[/note]]
13	** Creator/PyeRecords (1966)
14	** Creator/WarnerBrosRecords (1966)[[note]]Bowie's first American release came when Warner licensed his Pye single "Can't Help Thinking 'Bout Me" for the US market, but the label dropped him when the record didn't sell; Bowie's 1992 single [[Film/CoolWorld "Real Cool World"]] was also distributed via Warner Bros. Records.[[/note]]
15	** Creator/DeramRecords (1966-1967)
16	** Creator/MercuryRecords (1969-1971)[[note]]''Music/SpaceOddity'' was originally released through Mercury's parent label, Creator/PhilipsRecords, in the UK and several other countries, but the contract was under Mercury. Bowie was dropped from the label in 1971 at the request of his manager, Tony Defries, who disliked the way that they were handling Bowie's finances. Mercury gave up the rights to the recordings Bowie made under them after Defries paid off his debts to the label.[[/note]]
17	** B&C Records (1971)[[note]]One single released under the pseudonym "Arnold Corns," during Bowie's attempts to get out of his Mercury contract[[/note]]
18	** Creator/RCARecords (1971-1982)[[note]]RCA also reissued ''Music/SpaceOddity'' and ''Music/TheManWhoSoldTheWorld'' worldwide, being granted legal ownership of them once Bowie signed onto the label; RCA's rights to Bowie's 1969-1982 catalog would expire in 1988. Bowie left the label due to a mix of CreativeDifferences, a perception that RCA was "milking" his catalog, and the expiration of a costly, lopsided legal agreement with his ex-manager. He would later make amends with RCA, leading them to be given UK distribution rights for Bowie's 90's albums as well as for ''Music/TheNextDay'' and ''[[Music/BlackstarAlbum ★]]''.[[/note]]
19	** Creator/{{EMI}} (1983-2001)[[note]]Most of Bowie's material during this era was released under various EMI sublabels; ''Music/{{Tin Machine\|Album}}'' and its associated singles, meanwhile, were released through EMI alone. Bowie officially split from EMI as his main label in 1990 due to their reservations towards ''Tin Machine'', but allowed them to release his music internationally until 2001.[[/note]]
20	*** Creator/EMIAmericaRecords (1983-1987)
21	*** 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/HoursDavidBowieAlbum 'hours...']]'' was released exclusively through Virgin. Bowie eventually left the label in 2001 due to the initial shelving of ''Toy''.[[/note]]
22	** Creator/{{Rykodisc}} (1989-1992)[[note]]Remastered reissues of 1969-1981 backlog, plus the ''Sound+Vision'' BoxedSet and "Fame '90" single[[/note]]
23	** Victory Music (1991)[[note]]Singles from this period released through Victory's parent label, London Records[[/note]]
24	** Creator/AristaRecords (1993-1997)[[note]]''Music/BlackTieWhiteNoise'' was specifically released through Arista's sublabel Savage Records[[/note]]
25	** Creator/ColumbiaRecords (2002-2017)[[note]]Also gained ownership of ''Music/{{Outside}}'', ''Music/{{Earthling}}'', and ''[[Music/HoursDavidBowieAlbum 'hours...']]'' until Bowie's death in 2016, after which they were given to Parlophone.[[/note]]
26	* {{Corpsing}}:
27	** Towards the end of "The Laughing Gnome", Bowie starts cracking up.
28	** He also starts giggling a little while singing "Hey, that's far out" in "Starman", and while singing "And you can be mean" in "Heroes".
29	* CreatorBacklash:
30	** Bowie disavowed [[Music/DavidBowie1967 his 1967 debut album]], scarcely bringing up after its release and never reclaiming the rights to it. The only song from it that he ever revisited was "Silly Boy Blue", which was re-recorded for ''Toy'' and appeared on the 2014 retrospective compilation ''Nothing Has Changed''.
31	** Bowie never spoke kindly of "The Laughing Gnome", a non-album single recorded during his brief stint on Creator/DeramRecords. The label's reissue of it after his UK breakthrough with ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars'' gave him no shortage of grief, and when he opened a fan poll to select songs for his 1990 ''Sound + Vision'' tour, ''Magazine/{{NME}}'' rigged it to inflate the vote count for "The Laughing Gnome" specifically because he hated it. When Bowie found out what happened, he scrapped the poll altogether. He even went as far as performing a StylisticSuck joke song, "Requiem for the Laughing Gnome", for Red Nose Day 1999 to highlight his hatred.
32	** Whenever Bowie looked back on his first LiveAlbum, ''David Live'', he never did so fondly, describing it as "the final death of Ziggy [Stardust]" and joking that it should've been called ''David Bowie Is Alive and Well and Living Only in Theory''.
33	** Bowie held ''Music/{{Tonight}}'' in much disdain in the years after his release, holding reservations even towards its bigger highlights (i.e. viewing "Loving the Alien" as overproduced and "Blue Jean" as flat-out sexist). His distaste for the album would even influence his (ultimately failed) attempts at returning to his rock roots with ''Music/NeverLetMeDown''.
34	** Bowie had hardly a kind word to say about ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'' in the years following its release. Songs from it were left off of ''Changesbowie'' (though they would appear on later {{Greatest Hits Album}}s), [[RarelyPerformedSong none of its material was performed live after the Glass Spider Tour wrapped up]], and even his official website initially omitted it from his discography. In particular, Bowie's distaste for the album's penultimate track, "Too Dizzy", has become the stuff of legends among his fans, to the point where he [[BuryYourArt banned it from reissues]].
35	** 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." Bowie also described the film as "my 32 Music/ElvisPresley movies rolled into one."
36	** 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.
37	** Bowie was displeased with his performance as Phillip Jeffries in ''Film/TwinPeaksFireWalkWithMe'', citing how rushed it was thanks to his tight schedule at the time. According to Bowie, he shot his part in "four or five days" because he was also in the middle of rehearsing for Tin Machine's second (and final) tour.
38	* CreatorBreakdown:
39	** ''[[Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum Low]]'' was written and recorded while Bowie was starting to wean himself off cocaine, and while his marriage to Angela was showing fissures that would soon lead to divorce. That set the tone for both the album and its title.
40	** And this was the album where Bowie was ''recovering'' (it has been described, not inaccurately, as "a cocaine come down put to music"). His previous album, ''Music/StationToStation'', was recorded in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles while Bowie was suffering a full-blown cocaine-induced psychotic breakdown. He claimed in interviews that he remembered nothing about the recording other than describing the guitar sound he wanted on the title track to the session musician, but there are many stories about his behaviour at the time.
41	* ContentLeak: The then-unreleased ''Toy'' album was leaked online in 2011, with the leaked version's track list differing from the official version released a decade later.
42	* DiedDuringProduction: In January 2016 of liver cancer, causing a worldwide outpouring of grief. Despite originally intending ''Music/BlackstarAlbum'' to be his final album, Bowie changed his mind after recording it and made demo recordings of five new songs for what he intended to be its follow-up, but he died before he could complete it.
43	* DoingItForTheArt: Bowie cited this as his main reason for making music once he'd moved out of his self-described "Music/PhilCollins years" in the 1980s. Having previously considered retiring after the stress of trying to appeal to not only longtime fans and critics, but also and especially the NewbieBoom that ''Music/LetsDance'' brought him, some advice from collaborator Reeves Gabrels motivated him to stop trying to "play to the gallery" as he put it, instead focusing on whether or not his music appealed to ''himself''.
44	-->"Never play to the gallery ... never work for other people at what you do, always remember that the reason that you initially started working was that there was something inside yourself that you felt that if you could manifest it in some way you would understand more about yourself and how you coexist with the rest of society. I think it's terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other peoples expectations, I think they generally produce their worst work when they do that."
45	* DyeHard: His dark blonde locks were dyed very red to help complete Ziggy Stardust's look in 1972; even after he dropped the character he would stick with predominantly red hair until the end of The Thin White Duke's reign in 1976. He would briefly return to being a redhead during the ''Earthling'' era before reverting back to dark blonde.
46	* ExecutiveMeddling:
47	** With ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars'', Creator/RCARecords execs liked it, but also wanted a song that they could push as a single. So Bowie wrote "Starman", which replaced a cover of Music/ChuckBerry's "Around and Around" on the album and turned out to be the song that made his career.
48	** Part of the reason why ''Music/{{Tonight}}'' and ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'' continued to try and appeal more to fans of the pop rock-oriented ''Music/LetsDance'' was because of pressure from EMI Records following ''Let's Dance''[='s=] runaway success. ''Never Let Me Down'' is an especially bad case in the sense that Bowie wanted to return to his rock roots for the album after the poor reception of ''Tonight'', but his indifferent attitude towards the production gave EMI free reign to stuff in as much flourish as they desired. The end result was an album widely seen as unnecessarily bombastic, overproduced, artificial (even more so that ''Tonight''), and conspicuously dated-sounding. To the day he died, Bowie regarded ''Never Let Me Down'' as one of the biggest mistakes of his career, and longed to get a chance to redo it (which eventually came true in the form of ''Never Let Me Down 2018'', albeit [[DiedDuringProduction over two years after his death]]).
49	** The original version of ''1. Outside'' was roundly rejected for being a collage of electronic experimentation, free jazz and wounded singing that went on for stretches of up 20 minutes per song. The only section that seemed to survive the original sessions was "Segue: Ramona A. Stone/I Am with Name", which was edited down from the lengthiest jam.
50	** Bowie's 2015 single "★" was cut down from "over 11 minutes" to a length of 9:57, as Apple's iTunes Music Store did not allow singles over 10 minutes in length. Bowie was adamant that that song had to be the lead single from the album of the same name; he still could have used the full version for the album, but he thought having two versions of the song would be "confusing". Tony Visconti, Bowie's longtime producer, called Apple's policy "total bullshit."
51	* FlipFlopOfGod: Bowie was famously inconsistent on pretty much everything he thought about regarding himself and his work; he once stated in an interview that "I change my mind like I change hats; I fluctuate between one opinion and another continually."
52	* IronyAsSheIsCast: Played CelibateHero [[Film/ThePrestige Nikola Tesla]] and HollywoodToneDeaf [[Film/TheManWhoFellToEarth Thomas Jerome Newton]] and [[Film/MerryChristmasMrLawrence Jack Celliers.]]
53	* KeepCirculatingTheTapes:
54	** ''Just a Gigolo'' never had a DVD release beyond Germany, and VHS copies date back to TheEighties and are tough to find. It would eventually be re-released by Creator/PrimeVideo.
55	** The BBC production of Creator/BertoltBrecht's ''Baal'' he toplined in 1982 has never been released on video anywhere, and the tie-in EP never had a standalone CD release. However, two of the five songs can be found on official best-of sets, and the entire EP is available on the ''Re:Call 3'' compilation CD included with the ''A New Career in a New Town [1977-1982]'' BoxedSet.
56	** 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 dismissed it 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...
57	** While most of his music videos have been officially released on various formats, a few slipped through the cracks -- including the handful of videos he made with Tin Machine. The videos from the first album can be seen legally on Website/YouTube via VEVO, since EMI uploaded them, but since Bowie and co. did ''Tin Machine II'' on another label, those videos are MIA.
58	** ''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 alleviated 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.
59	** 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 '80s.
60	** Creator/{{Rykodisc}}'s 1990-1992 remasters of Bowie's catalog were never reissued after 1999, but no subsequent remasters of the affected albums 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=].
61	* LimeyGoesToHollywood: Bowie moved to the U.S., ultimately settling down in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles, after the release of ''Music/DiamondDogs'' to work on courting American audiences (the Ziggy Stardust period was merely a cult success there); the Diamond Dogs Tour solely toured North America. During this period he recorded ''Young Americans'' and ''Station to Station'' and filmed ''Film/TheManWhoFellToEarth'' (a British production shot in the U.S.)... the downside was his CreatorBreakdown unfolding during all this; he didn't think well of L.A. for a long time afterward.
62	* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: Several of his albums have received this treatment, but none more so than ''Music/StationToStation'' in 2010 -- the Special Edition included an additional two discs containing his much-bootlegged Nassau Coliseum concert from '76. The ''Deluxe'' Edition...[[http://www.amazon.com/Station-Deluxe-5CD-DVD-3LP/dp/B003UTUQ3O/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1292665767&sr=1-1 oh my]]...all for an album that has a less than 40-minute run-time and six songs.
63	* MagnumOpusDissonance: Bowie's entire career is rife with this, with the songs he wrote for art generally not as well known as those he wrote for commerce (though there are exceptions: "'Heroes'" may not have been a hit when it was ''new'' but is now a candidate for his SignatureSong). Among other examples:
64	** The first and biggest example for him would be a little song he slapped together out of boredom... he was actually embarrassed by it. "Music/SpaceOddity", his first hit -- and still popular to this day. His personal favorite songs of his, meanwhile, were included on the 2008 compilation ''[=iSelect=]''. While [[Music/HunkyDory "Life on Mars?"]] aligns well with popular consensus, the rest of the tracklist is much different, featuring songs such as "Some Are" (an obscure outtake otherwise exclusive to the 1991 reissue of ''Music/{{Low\|DavidBowieAlbum}}''), "Time Will Crawl" (from ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'', an album that fans, critics, and Bowie himself otherwise loathed), and "Teenage Wildlife" (a deep cut from ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps'').
65	** ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars'' is widely considered Bowie's best album by fans and critics alike. However, in a 2003 interview, Bowie instead said that his favorite album of his was ''Music/TheBuddhaOfSuburbia'', an obscure release that was mis-marketed as a soundtrack album before being quickly removed from print due to low sales.
66	** To this day, "Under Pressure" is one of his most popular songs/collaborations, both for himself and Music/{{Queen\|Band}}. But he was reportedly dissatisfied with much of his work on ''Music/HotSpace'' itself, requesting that many of his contributions be removed.
67	* MissingEpisode: ''Toy'' was originally planned to be released after ''[='hours...'=]''. It wouldn't be SavedFromDevelopmentHell until two decades later.
68	* MoneyDearBoy:
69	** Bowie was pretty open that the purpose of ''Music/LetsDance'' was "to have hits". Although a big seller in the 1970s, a disastrous deal with his manager meant he saw very little of the money.
70	** With regard to ''Let's Dance'', consider the CoverVersion of "China Girl", a track off of [[Music/TheStooges Iggy Pop]]'s album ''Music/TheIdiot'' that was written by both Bowie and Iggy. It was a hit single, which was most likely [[HeterosexualLifePartners a calculated move on Bowie's part, because Iggy was having severe financial troubles]]. And Bowie's next two albums included at least one Iggy Pop cover apiece...
71	* MultiDiscWork:
72	** The sole double-album in his studio career was the vinyl release of ''Music/TheNextDay'', which took the form of two [=LPs=] with a few bonus tracks added at the end to fill up all four sides. This configuration would also be used for the single-disc deluxe edition CD.
73	** When Creator/{{Rykodisc}} released the first round of remasters of Bowie's catalog in the early '90s, each album included several bonus tracks appended to the end. When Ryko released ''Music/SpaceOddity'', ''Music/TheManWhoSoldTheWorld'', ''Music/HunkyDory'', and ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars'' on vinyl, they were each made sesquialbums, with the third side containing the bonus tracks. Creator/{{EMI}}'s international LP releases of the remasters and Ryko's LP releases of the post-''Ziggy'' albums simply bumped some of the songs from side two up to side one to make space for the bonus tracks.
74	** Due to their lengths making it difficult to include them on just one LP each, the vinyl releases of ''Music/BlackTieWhiteNoise'', ''Music/TheBuddhaOfSuburbia'', ''Music/{{Outside}}'' (which initially appeared on LP as the truncated, single-disc ''Excerpts from Outside''), and ''Music/{{Earthling}}'' would all be released across two discs each when they were remastered in 2021. The comparatively short length of ''Earthling'' meant that it only occupied three sides, with the fourth featuring an etching of the Kirlian photograph used to represent "Little Wonder" in the liner notes.
75	** The 2014 retrospective compilation ''Nothing Has Changed'' was released as both double-CD and triple-CD sets. The former organizes tracks from throughout his decades-long career in chronological order, while the latter features them in reverse-chronological order, starting with the new track "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" (later re-recorded for ''Music/BlackstarAlbum'') and ending with his debut single from 1964, "Liza Jane". A modified version of the two-CD set would later be released as ''Bowie Legacy'' to cash in on his PosthumousPopularityPotential after his death in 2016.
76	** The 2018 remix of ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'', included exclusively as part of the BoxedSet ''Loving the Alien (1983-1988)'', is a three-sided double-LP, with the fourth side featuring an etching of the "David Bowie" logo on the front cover.
77	** The posthumous album ''Toy'' (initially recorded in 2000 and held on TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment for 21 years) would first see a single-CD release as part of the 2021 BoxedSet ''Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001)'' before seeing a three-CD BoxedSet of its own the following January as ''Toy:Box'', with the second and third discs featuring alternate mixes. A later standalone release, divorced from both boxes, would eventually come out seven months later. The album itself, both in ''Brilliant Adventure'' and as a standalone release, appears on vinyl as a three-sided double-LP, with the fourth side featuring an etching of the front cover's logo.
78	* NoBudget: The video for "Love Is Lost" cost only $12.99 according to the [[http://www.davidbowie.com/news/watch-bowie-s-1299-love-lost-video-here-now-52201 official press release]]! The life-sized puppets? They were actually created for an unreleased 1999 video (see What Could Have Been below) and taken out of mothballs in 2013. The three-person crew included himself!
79	* OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt: He did the Pepsi ad in 1987 because he needed the money to help fund his Glass Spider tour; indeed, he said it's probably the ''only'' reason anyone would do an ad.
80	* PlayingAgainstType: He made his Broadway debut as the title character of the play ''Film/TheElephantMan'' in 1980. While he didn't use prosthetics (as per the play's instructions, he distorted his body language and voice instead), [[TheGrotesque the gentle grotesque]] definitely contrasted to his usual bold, sexy image. In ''Jazzin' for Blue Jean'', dorky Vic is also absent Bowie's usual charms, and is deliberately contrasted with Screamin' Lord Byron, a more conventionally Bowie-esque figure, albeit one who's PlayedForLaughs.
81	* PromotedFanboy
82	** As stated in [[https://www.davidbowienews.com/2022/12/exclusive-interview-with-tony-fox-sales-tin-machine-iggy-pop-and-world-premiere-of-his-new-video-for-success-featuring-clem-burke-of-blondie/ a 2022 interview]], Tony Sales was a big fan of Bowie prior to collaborating with him as a fellow touring musician on the supporting tour for Music/IggyPop's ''Music/TheIdiot'', as a session player on ''Music/LustForLife'' (which Bowie co-produced), and especially as a bandmate in Tin Machine.
83	** Creator/TildaSwinton has been an avowed Bowie fan ever since she saw ''Film/TheManWhoFellToEarth,'' and in the 2013 video for "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" she got to play his wife.
84	** Bowie himself was a big fan of the Music/VelvetUnderground since before their first album even came out, and ended up producing frontman Music/LouReed's solo album ''Music/{{Transformer}}.''
85	** Likewise with Music/{{Devo}}, Bowie became a near-instant fan of them from hearing their demo tapes in 1977, and ended up providing additional production on ''Music/QAreWeNotMenAWeAreDevo'' alongside Music/BrianEno; Bowie also contributed backing vocals to the album, but these went unused (Mark Mothersbaugh still has Bowie's recordings on-hand though, alongside production embellishments by Eno that also went unused).
86	** Obviously [[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor]], Bowie being Reznor's idol, and the two of them toured in 1995. Reznor even [[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/trent-reznor-recalls-how-david-bowie-helped-him-get-sober-20160126 credited Bowie]] with inspiring him to get sober.
87	** A mutual instance for Music/TVOnTheRadio; Bowie was one of the band's earliest boosters, having fallen in love with their 2003 ''Young Liars'' EP, which had been passed along to him by a mutual friend. Bowie took to the band, gave them advice on the mixing for their debut album ''Desperate Youths, Blood Thirsty Babes'' and appeared as a backing vocalist on their 2006 single "Province". Dave Sitek, the band's guitarist and producer, once quipped about his appearance on "Province" that "I never expected to be in a situation where I’m at a mixing board asking David Bowie to enunciate a consonant."
88	* RarelyPerformedSong:
89	** 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/HoursDavidBowieAlbum '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).
90	** 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 "Blue Jean" reappearing during the Sound + Vision tour and both it and "Loving the Alien" appearing in the supporting tour for ''Music/{{Reality}}''.
91	** 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". Additionally, ''Music/SpaceOddity'' would only be performed a handful of times after the tour.
92	* ReclusiveArtist: He was once so accessible that he regularly communicated with his fanbase via his official website at the TurnOfTheMillennium. But then he slowly became this. He had not released a new album since 2003, his last tour -- one cut short by a heart attack that required multiple bypass surgeries -- was in 2004, and his last live performance was in 2006. A few film/[=TV=] roles and guest appearances on other artists' albums later, and that was all. He only seemed to surface for the odd premiere or charity fundraiser, and didn't grant interviews. In TheNewTens, it was generally accepted by fans and the music press that he quietly retired to raise his family, preserve his health, indulge in his hobbies (he painted, sculpted, and was an avowed BookWorm), and enjoy the fruits of his labors... which made January 8, 2013 something of a WhamEpisode for '''everybody''' when the website was relaunched, a new album announced, and a video for its first single released. ''The Next Day'' was a huge hit, but he still would not grant interviews -- longtime producer and friend Tony Visconti has said Bowie ruled out the possibility completely -- and would not be going on tour to support any new releases. His only guest appearance afterwards was as a backing vocalist on the TitleTrack of Music/ArcadeFire's ''Reflektor'' in 2013, and public appearances were nonexistent (with even his attendance of the premiere of ''Lazarus'' only becoming known after people noticed him there first). Any chances of this changing ended with his death three years later.
93	* RenamedToAvoidAssociation: David Jones took the stage name David Bowie to avoid confusing with Davy Jones of Music/TheMonkees.
94	* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Bowie's sponsorship deal with Pepsi was cut off after he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in Dallas, Texas (he would later be acquitted by a grand jury), cutting off plans to take the Glass Spider Tour to Russia and South America.
95	* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: ''Toy'', an album consisting of rerecorded versions of older songs as well as some new material, was intended to be released in 2001. It remained unreleased until late 2021, two decades after its original release date and half a decade after Bowie's death.
96	* TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment:
97	** ''Music/{{Low\|DavidBowieAlbum}}'' was completed in November of 1976 but was put on hold by Creator/RCARecords and ex-manager Tony Defries (who still held partial ownership of Bowie's output) until January 1977, due to their reservations about the album's commercial viability.
98	** The ConcertFilm ''Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'' was filmed over the course of Bowie's final tour as Ziggy Stardust in 1973 and was given a few private screenings at college towns in the proceeding years, but it wouldn't make its public debut until the 1979 Edinburgh Film Festival, owed to Bowie's desire to distance himself from his stage persona. Its worldwide release, meanwhile, wouldn't occur until 1983 off the heels of Bowie's smash success with ''Music/LetsDance''; Bowie and regular collaborator Tony Visconti remixed the film's audio in 1981 in preparation for this, knowing that Bowie's contract with Creator/RCARecords was due to expire in 1982.
99	** ''Toy'' was completed in late 2000 and planned for a surprise release in 2001, but a mix of logistical difficulties and financial troubles from Creator/VirginRecords led to it being shelved. Two songs recorded for the album, "Uncle Floyd and "Afraid", would be re-recorded for ''Music/{{Heathen}}'' (the former being renamed "Slip Away"), various other songs would appear as B-sides, bonus tracks, and the ''Nothing Has Changed'' compilation, and an early version of the album would leak in 2011 (with ''Classic Rock'' magazine even formally reviewing it) before a completed version of the full album released in 2021.
100	* ShortLivedBigImpact:
101	** Bowie's 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.
102	** 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, PunkRock, GlamMetal, and rock music history as a whole.
103	* SimilarlyNamedWorks:
104	** Bowie's song [[Music/YoungAmericans "Fascination"]] is unrelated to Music/TheHumanLeague's song of the same name.
105	** Both Bowie and Music/PeterGabriel have songs named "Modern Love", though [[Music/LetsDance Bowie's song]] is more famous than Gabriel's. Similarly, the Gabriel song's [[Music/{{Car}} parent album]] includes a song named "Slowburn", which is similar in name to the Bowie song on ''Music/{{Heathen}}''.
106	** In the music world alone, ''Toy'' shares its name with albums by Music/{{Yello}}, A Giant Dog, Funkadelic, Uri Cane, and the ''band'' Toy, as well as songs by Music/SpandauBallet and Netta Barzilai.
107	* SoMyKidsCanWatch:
108	** 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 would additionally give Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} permission to use a modified version of "No Control" for ''Theatre/TheSpongeBobMusical''.
109	** He performed on Music/BingCrosby's last Christmas special partly because his mother was a fan.
110	* ThrowItIn: While recording the title track for ''"Heroes"'', Bowie, Tony Visconti, and Music/BrianEno had [[Music/KingCrimson Robert Fripp]] record three separate takes of the song's iconic guitar line. Just for the hell of it, they tried playing the three takes together, liked the way it sounded, and the rest is history.
111	* TroubledProduction: Being an artist who always had a heavy amount of ambition, it's only inevitable that it would sometimes result in him biting off more than he could chew and paying the price for it.
112	** The first leg of the Diamond Dogs Tour in 1974 was rough going for him. It was an early example of SceneryPorn in rock tours with its colossal, skyscraper-dominated "Hunger City" set -- which obscured his band and backup singers, who were not happy at being marginalized for most of the show and would sneak out from behind the buildings as he performed. Beyond the big budget the show required, those backing performers weren't getting their checks on time, a symptom of larger problems Bowie was having with his spendthrift management, whom he would soon part ways with, but not without litigation that lasted him the rest of TheSeventies. All the while, Bowie's problems with illicit substances firmly took hold of him. A memorable incident at one show had the cherry picker arm that carried him in a chair over the audience for "Space Oddity" get stuck, leaving him to crawl down it to get back to the stage while audience members grabbed at him (according to producer Tony Visconti, who witnessed it firsthand). On another occasion, the show's staff outright ''forgot'' to lower the cherry picker at the end, leaving him stuck up there, alone, for a good while after the concert had already finished, before his team remembered about him and sheepishly returned to a very cross, very snarky Bowie. Tellingly, the second leg of the tour dropped the set altogether, and his next two tours took far more minimalist approaches to staging. The BBC documentary ''Cracked Actor'' followed him on this tour, and is legendary not only for being the only source of good-quality footage of the tour, but also for vividly capturing Bowie's frantic state of mind during this period.
113	** ''David Live'', recorded near the end of the first leg of the Diamond Dogs tour, had some additional troubles of its own:
114	*** Bowie's backup band learned of the intent to record the shows at Philadelphia's Tower Theatre only a few hours before the first one. Since recording a live album had not been provided for by their contracts, they threatened to walk out, and stuck to their guns when Bowie's initial offer was too low. Finally, after he promised them $5,000 each, they agreed to play. However, the bad taste the whole experience had left in their mouth affected their performances to an extent that is audible on the album.
115	*** But at least those performances were audible. As the album's notes admit, some of the backing vocals had to be overdubbed after recording since the singers were often too far from the microphone, and later it was divulged that this issue had affected some of the sax parts as well.
116	*** Many critics have also taken issue with Bowie's new arrangements of his songs, and his heavily strained singing (probably a result of the already-stressful tour combined with the effects of cocaine abuse). Bowie admitted in retrospect that the cover image makes him look dead. Despite these shortcomings, the album is still essential listening as it captures Bowie as he transitioned from the Ziggy Stardust[[note]]He has since described this album as the "final death" of Ziggy[[/note]] sound and persona of his GlamRock period to the more soul-influenced sound of ''Young Americans''.
117	** Bowie was in much better shape mentally and financially come 1987, thanks to the huge success of the mainstream-appealing ''Music/LetsDance'' and the Serious Moonlight Tour of '83. But according to Paolo Hewitt's retrospective ''Album by Album'', EMI America wanted the money train to keep rolling (1985-86 had him focus on film work following the tepid reception of ''Music/{{Tonight}}'', itself the result of Bowie feeling pressured to follow up ''Let's Dance'' ASAP) and in 1987 pressured him into recording and touring again, resulting in the infamously reviled ''Music/NeverLetMeDown''. For the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_Spider_Tour Glass Spider Tour]] meant to support that album, Bowie took another shot at {{Spectacle}}, with SceneryPorn and a small troupe of dancers who interacted with him throughout in colorful vignettes. The giant set turned out to be problematic at outdoor venues, particularly in Europe: unusually rainy weather hurt the English and Spanish shows, and venues that decreed that the show was obligated to start before sundown made the lighting effects hard to appreciate. Among the many incidents on the tour:
118	*** A lighting engineer fell to his death from the scaffolding before the Florence, Italy show.
119	*** At Ireland's Slane Castle, a fan died trying to swim the River Boyne to get backstage.
120	*** Fans who couldn't get into the stadium in Milan, Italy rioted, though this was resolved peacefully.
121	*** In Dallas, Texas, Bowie was accused of sexually assaulting a fan at his hotel; while he was cleared of the charges, an ad he did for tour sponsor Pepsi was pulled.
122	*** All along, audiences in seats further out from the stage could hardly see what Bowie and his troupe were doing. The tour was his most highly-attended yet, but he put up with bad reviews (especially in his native England) that called it overblown, as if the poor response to ''Never Let Me Down'' weren't enough for him (the few good reviews the tour did get were from writers who attended the rare nighttime show, when the visual effects could actually work as intended). What's more, he was frustrated that the audience he was trying to appeal to didn't understand/appreciate his artistic flourishes and older/less-popular songs closer to his heart. Tellingly, over the course of the tour, several of the new songs were cut. Exhausted by the end, [[ArtistDisillusionment he considered giving up on music altogether.]] But guitarist Reeves Gabrels convinced him to [[DoingItForTheArt create only for himself again]] -- leading to Bowie's HardRock period with the group Tin Machine.
123	*** The Glass Spider Tour is '''still''' joked about by fans who regard the bulk of TheEighties as a colossal AudienceAlienatingEra 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]].
124	* TypeCasting: Most of his roles, be they goodies or baddies, human or inhuman, are linked by a cool, mysterious aura -- the trailer for ''Film/TheHunger'' referred to this as "cruel elegance."
125	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
126	** Bowie's {{Channel Hop}}ping over the years could've taken different paths at various points in his career:
127	*** In the leadup to ''Music/SpaceOddity'', manager Kenneth Pitt was scouting a number of labels at the same time as Bowie's talks with Creator/MercuryRecords, unaware that they were happening. Of the ones Pitt looked at, Creator/AtlanticRecords is the only one named in any official sources.
128	*** 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.
129	*** As shown in the BoxedSet ''Divine Symmetry'', Bowie signed to the publishing arm of Creator/ChrysalisRecords on October 23, 1970, and he wrote the material for both ''Music/HunkyDory'' and ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars'' up to the end of 1971; the main label even pressed a test 7" of the demos that he recorded for ''Hunky Dory''. Additionally, Music/TheBeatles' vanity label, Apple Records, manufactured a test pressing of ''Hunky Dory'' for promotional purposes. However, Tony Defries' label-scouting in the US would ultimately bring Bowie under the arm of Creator/RCARecords.
130	*** Creator/RCARecords were willing to renegotiate Bowie's contract when it was due to expire in 1982, but Bowie turned the offer down, feeling that they were "milking" his backlog too much. Creator/GeffenRecords and Creator/ColumbiaRecords also expressed interest in signing Bowie, but he turned down both of them in favor of signing with Creator/EMIAmericaRecords; he'd eventually move to Columbia anyways in 2002.
131	*** Bowie's contract with Savage Records in the early '90s was intended to last three albums, but he was let go following the label's bankruptcy and a subsequent legal dispute over the underperformance of ''Music/BlackTieWhiteNoise''.
132	** He was preparing a musical version of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' 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 ''Music/DiamondDogs''. A 1980 ''New Music Express'' interview revealed he actually worked on a surreal, partially-animated film based on the album, intending to release it DirectToVideo.
133	** In 1973, it was announced he was going to play Valentine Michael Smith in a film adaptation of ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand''.
134	** He was announced as a cast member for the 1976 film version of ''Literature/TheBlueBird'' (perhaps as Fire -- the only major role fit for someone his age), but didn't like the script enough to go through with it.
135	** "Golden Years" was written for Creator/RCARecords labelmate Music/ElvisPresley, but he turned it down, which explains its uncharacteristically doo-wop sound compared to the rest of ''Station to Station'' (fun fact: Presley and Bowie were both born on January 8).
136	** He worked on a musical score for ''Film/TheManWhoFellToEarth'' with Paul Buckmaster, but it didn't pan out. Aside from a bass part that, played backward, was incorporated into the ''[[Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum Low]]'' track "Subterraneans", none of this music has been made available. It would have included a song called "Wheels" (referencing the train imagery in the film).
137	** He wanted to be in ''Film/TheEagleHasLanded'' but the director went on record as saying his audition wasn't good. Other could-have-been movie projects in the late 1970s included:
138	*** An adaptation of ''Theatre/TheThreepennyOpera'' directed by Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder, and...
139	*** ''Wally'', in which he would have played painter Egon Schiele (this came ''very'' close to being a reality).
140	*** Director Lina Wertmueller wanted to work with him, but he didn't want to work with her.
141	*** Creator/MartinScorsese who cast Bowie as Pontius Pilate in ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'', planned to work with him in a movie about Music/GeorgeGershwin, where Bowie would have played... Creator/FredAstaire. Indeed, Scorsese discussed the project with Astaire in his final years and Astaire gave Bowie ApprovalOfGod.
142	** David Hemmings, who directed Bowie in ''Just a Gigolo,'' also filmed one of his 1978 concerts, but Bowie wasn't happy with the result and it was never released.
143	** There is evidence that Mark David Chapman, the man who murdered Music/JohnLennon, considered murdering Bowie, who was also in New York City at the end of 1980 (performing in ''The Elephant Man'' on Broadway). He apparently made a choice between killing Bowie or Lennon-- what if he'd gone with the former? Or much worse, decided to kill ''both'' men?
144	** Related to the above, he planned to tour in 1981 in the wake of ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps'', but pulled the plug after Lennon's assassination and the discovery that he was also on Chapman's hitlist.
145	** He bid for the rights to ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' in the early '80s, but was outbid by Giorgio Moroder. As the trope page for the film puts it, "God knows what he...scratch that, probably even ''God'' doesn't know what Bowie would have done with ''Metropolis''."
146	** His busy schedule in TheEighties not only forced him to drop out of the title role in the ''Series/FaerieTaleTheatre'' adaptation of Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin (Eric Idle took over the part), but also kept the ''Series/DoctorWho'' producers from casting him as Sharaz Jek in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani "The Caves of Androzani"]] (the Fifth Doctor's final serial) and the DJ in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E6RevelationOfTheDaleks "Revelation of the Daleks"]].
147	** During the making of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie TV movie]], Bowie was one of many actors considered for the role of the Master.
148	** As noted above under AwesomeDearBoy, he was offered the part of Zorin in ''Film/AViewToAKill'' but turned it down.
149	** His participation in Live Aid was supposed to include a live trans-Atlantic duet with Music/MickJagger 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, 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.
150	** Was the original choice to play Lawrence Jamieson in ''Film/DirtyRottenScoundrels'', which was initially conceived as a vehicle for him and Jagger to reteam. Bowie had to back out due to him being signed onto ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'' at around the same time, while Jagger was already committed to ''Running Out of Luck''.
151	** Bowie was one of many actors considered for the role of Jack Napier/the Joker in ''Film/Batman1989'' prior to the casting of Creator/JackNicholson.
152	** He was sought for the title role in ''Film/{{Hook}}'' but turned it down -- he probably came closer to being in a ''Franchise/PeterPan'' movie than Music/MichaelJackson ever was.
153	** Shortly after the release of ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'', Bowie expressed interest in making a follow-up more in the vein of his Berlin Trilogy. However, these plans were dropped as a result of the immense critical and fan backlash to both ''Never Let Me Down'' and its associated Glass Spider tour, which instead led to the creation of Tin Machine as a means of breaking Bowie out of his artistic slump. Supposedly, the tracks "Lucy Can't Dance" & "Pretty Pink Rose" and a cover of [[Music/BobDylan "Like a Rolling Stone"]] were originally planned for inclusion on this aborted album, but were eventually repurposed in different forms on later projects.[[note]]"Lucy Can't Dance was re-recorded in an acid jazz style as a bonus track on initial CD releases of ''Music/BlackTieWhiteNoise'' in 1993; "Pretty Pink Rose" was re-recorded as a duet with Music/KingCrimson frontman Adrian Belew for the latter's 1990 solo album ''Young Lions''; the "Like a Rolling Stone" cover was recorded with former [[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars Spiders from Mars]] member Mick Ronson on guitar and included on the latter's 1994 posthumous album ''Heaven and Hull''.[[/note]] Bowie would eventually make a SpiritualSuccessor to the Berlin trilogy in the form of 1993's ''Music/TheBuddhaOfSuburbia'', but the one that was intended to follow ''Never Let Me Down'' never really came to fruition.
154	** ''2. Contamination'' and ''3. Africaans'', the planned continuations of ''1. Outside'', were never recorded (supposedly some of ''2. Contamination'' was recorded onto tape, but will never see daylight).
155	** 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. Two of the puppets-- the Thin White Duke and Pierrot-- got their closeups in 2013, when he reused them for the "Love Is Lost" video.
156	** In the lead up to the 30th anniversary of ''Ziggy Stardust'' in 2002, he considered such ideas as a stage musical about the character or outright reviving him on the concert stage, none of which came to pass.
157	** 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.
158	** In 2011, rumours of a 2012 Farewell Tour with a reformed Music/NineInchNails surfaced, only to be revealed as an {{April Fools\|Day}} joke.
159	** The world might have come to call him ''Sir'' David Bowie, but he turned down the opportunity to be knighted.
160	** He was asked to perform at the 2012 UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, but declined. That didn't stop ""Heroes"" from serving as the unofficial theme song of the British athletes, and several of his other songs were incorporated into the opening and closing ceremonies.
161	** In the late '70s and TheEighties, he frequently expressed a desire to ''direct'' movies as well as act in them. Although he did receive co-director credit on several of his videos, he never would direct a feature. (His son Creator/DuncanJones, on the other hand...)
162	** The creators of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' tried to get Bowie to voice himself, but never heard back from him/his agent.
163	** Chris Martin of Music/{{Coldplay}} asked Bowie to sing backing vocals on one of their songs, but was turned down because it "wasn't one of his best."
164	** Just before Bowie died of cancer in 2016, Creator/JamesGunn and Kevin Feige were planning to ask him to cameo in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2''.
165	** As mentioned above, the TitleTrack of ''★'' was initially planned to be over eleven minutes long, but was cut for release because of iTunes' limitations on the length of a single, and Bowie did not want to confuse listeners by releasing two versions of the song.
166	** While the album was ''already'' a pretty big WhatCouldHaveBeen due to being the start of an OrphanedSeries, Music/BrianEno revealed that towards the end of his life, Bowie was talking with him about ''1. Outside'' and considering revisiting the album (and, we might infer, possibly resuming work on its abandoned sequels). One can only imagine what he might have come up with had he lived long enough to do so.
167	** Prior to Bowie's death, Bryan Fuller said that he was considering to cast him as Robert Lecter in NBC's ''Series/{{Hannibal}}.''
168	** After his death, Tony Visconti said that Bowie was at the time demoing a follow-up to ''Music/BlackstarAlbum'' during his last months. He recorded five demo tracks for it, and it's possible they'll eventually see release, but even if we hear them, we'll only be able to guess what the finished product would have sounded like. Given what a radical reinvention ''Blackstar'' was, there's hardly any question that it would have been amazing.
169	** In a Website/{{Reddit}} AMA posted after Bowie's death, Creator/{{Harmonix}} said that they created an avatar based on him for ''Amplitude'', but the avatar was removed from the final product due to technical issues.
170	** Shortly after his death, Dominic Monaghan confirmed the long-standing rumor that he'd auditioned for a role in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. The most popular speculation is that he wanted to play Elrond.
171	** At one point Bowie was asked to appear AsHimself for the ''Music/FlightOfTheConchords'' series episode "Bowie", but turned it down due to already appearing as himself elsewhere around that same time. The role eventually ended up being filled in by Jemaine Clement himself, which oddly enough worked in his favor for later roles.
172	** Bowie had long teased writing an autobiography, and apparently made several attempts throughout his career. One such project was ''David Bowie: Object'', in which he would have told his life story through 100 objects. The project ultimately fell through, but found a spiritual successor in the ''David Bowie Is...'' exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Bowie was not involved with that project, but did allow its curators access to his extensive personal archives, and apparently most of the items that Bowie had set aside for ''Object'' wound up being selected for the exhibit.
173	** He was set to reprise his role from ''Film/TwinPeaksFireWalkWithMe'' as Phillip Jeffries in the 2017 revival of ''Series/TwinPeaks'', but his death prevented it from happening. However, prior to his death, he gave his blessing to allow Creator/DavidLynch to reuse footage of his character but on one condition: To have him [[LoopingLines being]] [[SameLanguageDub redubbed]] [[FakeShemp by]] Nathan Frizzell.
174	** He was offered a role in ''Film/AtomicBlonde'' as one of the interrogators in the framing story, but turned it down, likely not wanting to risk dying before all his scenes were filmed.
175	** He was considered to play Neander Wallace in ''Film/BladeRunner2049'', but died before he would accept it. Creator/JaredLeto eventually played the character.
176	** He offered Music/RickWakeman a permanent spot in his backing band, but Wakeman decided to join Music/{{Yes}} instead. Tony Kaye, the man Wakeman replaced, played keyboards on Bowie's 1976 Isolar tour.
177	** An early version of "I'm Afraid Of Americans", recorded late into the sessions for ''1. Outside'', was almost submitted to the soundtrack of ''Film/JohnnyMnemonic'', but Music/BrianEno convinced Bowie to withdraw it because he was dubious about the quality of the film. This same version ended up being used in ''{{Film/Showgirls}}'' instead - ironically, ''both'' movies ended up being {{Box Office Bomb}}s.
178	** 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'', ''Music/DiamondDogs'', ''David Live'', and ''Music/YoungAmericans'' under the EMI-Capitol Entertainment Properties and EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets imprints. 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.
179	** When Tin Machine first formed, Reeves Gabrels suggested naming the band White Noise. Bowie, however, shot the idea down, fearing that it would make them sound like a white power group. "Leather Weasel" and "The Emperor's New Clothes" were also brought up as possible band names.
180	** According to Creator/TheCriterionCollection's liner notes for the 1984 film adaptation of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', Bowie was originally tapped to provide the film's soundtrack, but was ultimately let go. Sources vary on why, with some claiming that he asked for too much money and others claiming that he wanted an "organic" soundtrack that clashed with Virgin Films' desire for a youth-oriented rock score. Regardless, the final score would ultimately be done by Music/{{Eurythmics}}.
181	* WordOfGod: "All the Young Dudes" is not a song celebrating youth according to Bowie but the very opposite.
182	* WorkingTitle: For his albums:
183	** ''Metrobolist'' for ''Music/TheManWhoSoldTheWorld'' (later repurposed for its 50th anniversary remix)
184	** ''A Lad Insane'' and ''Love Aladdin Vein'' for ''Music/AladdinSane''
185	** ''We Are the Dead'' for ''Music/DiamondDogs''
186	** ''Dancin''', ''Somebody Up There Likes Me'', ''One Damned Song'', ''The Gouster'', ''Shilling the Rubes'' and ''Fascination'' for ''Music/YoungAmericans''
187	** ''The Return of the Thin White Duke'' and ''Golden Years'' for ''Music/StationToStation''
188	** ''New Music: Night and Day'' for ''Music/{{Low\|DavidBowieAlbum}}''
189	** ''Planned Accidents'' for ''Music/{{Lodger}}'', which explains why Bowie appears as a car wreck victim on the cover art. Another one was ''Despite Straight Lines''.
190	** ''Vampires and Human Flesh'' for ''Music/LetsDance''
191	* 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).

Context Trivia / DavidBowie