David Bowie on the “undisputed king” of soul
Following the end of his Ziggy Stardust persona, David Bowie needed an image change and re-branded himself as a soul artist. It was a move that shocked audiences as he became the new poster boy for the blue-eyed soul, but Bowie felt his artistic transformation was a necessary step.
Bowie was famed for his progressive attitude and always casting an eye firmly on the future. He first interspersed soul into his sound on Diamond Dogs, but it was on the accompanying tour and the follow-up record Young Americans when Bowie turned it up a notch. Intriguingly, his mid-1970s step into soul was influenced by a decision to be retrospective and revisit the records that soundtracked his youth.
Fan John Neilson, who caught both legs of the Diamond Dogs tour in Detroit, explained the severity of Bowie’s soul shake-up to NPR: “I went to the Diamond Dogs show [in June] expecting something like Ziggy Stardust. And then in October I expected to see something like Diamond Dogs, and it was the soul revue. It might as well have been a completely different artist.”
Years after Bowie made the substantial switch, he reflected upon the move in conversation with David Buckley. He explained: “I sunk myself back into the music that I considered the bedrock of all popular music: R&B and soul. I guess from the outside it seemed to be a pretty drastic move. I think I probably lost as many fans as I gained new ones.”
Referring to soul as the “bedrock of all popular music” says everything about his adoration of the genre. As much as his work helped get new ears on the sound, it wasn’t his culture, and Bowie was always willing to give props to those who pioneered it.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Bowie discussed his favourite record of all time and spoke about the profound effect a 1963 live album by James Brown from New York’s Apollo had on him. After listening to the LP, Bowie was finally convinced soul had a superstar and called Brown “an undisputed king”.
He recalled: “My old schoolmate Geoff MacCormack brought this around to my house one afternoon, breathless and overexcited. ‘You have never, in your life, heard anything like this,’ he said. I made a trip to see Jane Greene that very afternoon”.
Adding: “Two of the songs on this album, ‘Try Me’ and ‘Lost Someone,’ became loose inspirations for Ziggy’s ‘Rock & Roll Suicide.’ Brown’s Apollo performance still stands for me as one of the most exciting live albums ever. Soul music now had an undisputed king.”
Listen below to the track Bowie admitted was loosely inspired by the soul king, James Brown.
