How David Bowie ripped off Madness for ‘Ashes to Ashes’
David Bowie thrived as a result of his singularity. The Starman was widely admired for his pioneering work in glam rock and his unwavering artistic vision, flitting between personas with ease and purpose. In his sound and style, innovation and originality were key to his success, but there was one song that didn’t quite fit this brief.
In 1980, David Bowie teased the release of Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) by returning to his Major Tom character on the lead single ‘Ashes to Ashes’. Bouncy synths soundtracked the next chapter of Major Tom’s story, mirroring Bowie’s own issues with substance abuse.
The single and its accompanying video provided another demonstration of Bowie’s innovative artistic vision, receiving immediate acclaim and commercial success, but there was one element of the track he apparently borrowed from another. According to ska staples Madness, the drums for ‘Ashes to Ashes’ were directly inspired by their song ‘My Girl’.
Drummer Dan Woodgate explained how the piece inspired Bowie in their memoir Before We Was We. The songs shared the same producers, who recalled the glam rock pioneer citing the Madness track from the year before as an influence.
“[‘My Girl’s producers] Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley produced ‘Absolute Beginners’ for David Bowie,” he explained, “And Clive told me a story that Bowie told him about ‘Ashes to Ashes’, which came out only a few months after ‘My Girl’.”
Apparently, Bowie was searching for “a drummer to do the ‘My Girl’ beats on ‘Ashes to Ashes’” but couldn’t quite find one that had the “same feeling” as Woodgate. “He’d said, ‘There’s something about the feel that’s really great, and none of the American drummers could do it,’” the drummer explained.
“Clive went to me, ‘Woody, you do realise that if you put ‘Ashes to Ashes’ up against ‘My Girl’, it’s exactly the same?’” Woodgate remarked, “Anyway, it kind of inflated my ego and pissed me off at the same time. I thought, ‘David Bowie could have f**king asked me!’”
Both songs do have that bouncy percussive quality, that distinctive new wave sound. While it certainly is an ego boost to have Bowie trying to emulate your sound, unfortunately for Madness, ‘Ashes to Ashes’ would attain a far lengthier legacy than ‘My Girl’. It’s easy to see why Woodgate had conflicting feelings about the connection.
Perhaps if Bowie had voiced the influence directly to Madness, Woodgate himself might have been willing to play on the track.
Revisit ‘Ashes to Ashes’ below.
