'hours...' is a 1999 album by British musician David Bowie. It was released October 4, 1999
(1999-10-04) on Virgin Records. This was Bowie's final album for the EMI sub-label.
A lot of the material that ended up on 'hours...' was originally used, in alternate versions, for the
video game Omikron - The Nomad Soul, which also featured two characters based on Bowie, as
well as one on his wife Iman, one on 'hours...' collaborator Reeves Gabrels, and one on bassist
Gail Ann Dorsey.
To drum up interest in the impending album, a "Cyber Song" contest was held on Bowie's
personal website BowieNet to compose lyrics to an early instrumental version of the song
"What's Really Happening." The winning lyrics would be featured on 'hours...' . Contest winner
Alex Grant also won a trip to Phillip Glass' Looking Glass Studios on May 24, 1999 to watch
Bowie record the final vocal during a live Webcast. There, Grant contributed backing vocals to
the song, along with a friend who accompanied him. Bowie also gave a "special creativity
award" to Derek Donovan of Love Among Puppets for his entry, which Donovan posted on the
Web after combining elements of the original instrumental track with his own new recording.
The album cover, designed by Rex Ray with photography by Tim Bret Day and Frank
Ockenfels, depicts the short-haired Bowie persona from the intensely energetic previous album
Earthling resting exhaustedly in the arms of a long-haired, more youthful version of Bowie.
Indeed, 'hours...' is a much mellower album than its predecessor, and features numerous
references to earlier parts of Bowie's musical career (particularly the early 1970s). For the
album's initial release, a number of copies featured a lenticular version of the cover, lending a
three-dimensional effect to the image.
In January 2005, Bowie's new label ISO Records reissued 'hours...' as a double CD set with the
second CD comprising remixes, alternate versions, and single B-sides.
It was the first Bowie studio album to miss the US Top 40 since Ziggy Stardust and peaked at
number 47.
(1999-10-04) on Virgin Records. This was Bowie's final album for the EMI sub-label.
A lot of the material that ended up on 'hours...' was originally used, in alternate versions, for the
video game Omikron - The Nomad Soul, which also featured two characters based on Bowie, as
well as one on his wife Iman, one on 'hours...' collaborator Reeves Gabrels, and one on bassist
Gail Ann Dorsey.
To drum up interest in the impending album, a "Cyber Song" contest was held on Bowie's
personal website BowieNet to compose lyrics to an early instrumental version of the song
"What's Really Happening." The winning lyrics would be featured on 'hours...' . Contest winner
Alex Grant also won a trip to Phillip Glass' Looking Glass Studios on May 24, 1999 to watch
Bowie record the final vocal during a live Webcast. There, Grant contributed backing vocals to
the song, along with a friend who accompanied him. Bowie also gave a "special creativity
award" to Derek Donovan of Love Among Puppets for his entry, which Donovan posted on the
Web after combining elements of the original instrumental track with his own new recording.
The album cover, designed by Rex Ray with photography by Tim Bret Day and Frank
Ockenfels, depicts the short-haired Bowie persona from the intensely energetic previous album
Earthling resting exhaustedly in the arms of a long-haired, more youthful version of Bowie.
Indeed, 'hours...' is a much mellower album than its predecessor, and features numerous
references to earlier parts of Bowie's musical career (particularly the early 1970s). For the
album's initial release, a number of copies featured a lenticular version of the cover, lending a
three-dimensional effect to the image.
In January 2005, Bowie's new label ISO Records reissued 'hours...' as a double CD set with the
second CD comprising remixes, alternate versions, and single B-sides.
It was the first Bowie studio album to miss the US Top 40 since Ziggy Stardust and peaked at
number 47.
Bowie's interest in music was sparked at the age of nine when his father brought home a collection of American 45s,
including Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and, most particularly, Little Richard. Upon listening to "Tutti Frutti", Bowie would later
say, "I had heard God". His half-brother Terry introduced him to modern jazz and Bowie's enthusiasm for players like
Charles Mingus and John Coltrane led his mother to give him a plastic saxophone for Christmas in 1959. Graduating to a
real instrument, he formed his first band in 1962, the Konrads. He then played and sang in various blues/beat groups, such
as The King Bees, The Manish Boys, The Lower Third and The Riot Squad in the mid-1960s, releasing his first record, the
single "Liza Jane", with the King Bees in 1964. His early work shifted through the blues and Elvis-inspired music while
working with many British pop styles.
During the early 1960s, Bowie was performing either under his own name or the stage name "Davie Jones", and briefly
even as "Davy Jones", creating confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkees. To avoid this, in 1966 he chose "Bowie" for his
stage name, after the Alamo hero Jim Bowie and his famous Bowie knife. During this time, he recorded singles for
Parlophone under the name of The Manish Boys and Davy Jones and for Pye under the name David Bowie (and The
Lower Third), all without success.
Bowie released his first album in 1967 for the Decca Records offshoot Deram, simply called David Bowie. It was an
amalgam of pop, psychedelia, and music hall. Around the same time he issued a novelty single, "The Laughing Gnome",
which utilised sped-up Chipmunk-style vocals. None of these releases managed to chart, and he would not cut another
record for two years. His Deram material from the album and various singles was later recycled in a multitude of
compilations.
Influenced by the dramatic arts, he studied with Lindsay Kemp—from avant-garde theatre and mime to Commedia
dell'arte—and much of his work would involve the creation of characters or personae to present to the world. During 1967,
Bowie sold his first song to another artist, "Oscar" (an early stage name of actor-musician Paul Nicholas). Bowie wrote
Oscar's third single, "Over the Wall We Go", which satirised life in a British prison. In late 1968, his then-manager, Kenneth
Pitt, produced a half-hour promotional film called Love You Till Tuesday featuring Bowie performing a number of songs, but
it went unreleased until 1984.
Bowie's first flirtation with fame came in 1969 with his single "Space Oddity," written the previous year but recorded and
released to coincide with the first moon landing. This ballad told the story of Major Tom, an astronaut who becomes lost in
space, though it has also been interpreted as an allegory for taking drugs. It became a Top 5 UK hit. Bowie put the finishing
touches to the track while living with Mary Finnigan as her lodger. Finnigan and Bowie joined forces with Christina Ostrom
and the late Barrie Jackson to run a Folk Club on Sunday nights at The Three Tuns pub in Beckenham High Street, south
London. This soon morphed into the Beckenham Arts Lab and became extremely popular. In August 1969, The Arts Lab
hosted a Free Festival in a local park, later immortalised by Bowie in his song "Memory of a Free Festival". In 1969 and
1970, "Space Oddity" was used by the BBC during both its Apollo 11 moon landing coverage and its coverage of Apollo 13.
The corresponding album, his second, was released in November 1969 and originally titled David Bowie, which caused
some confusion as both of Bowie's first and second albums were released with that name in the UK. In the U.S. the same
album originally bore the title Man of Words, Man of Music to overcome that confusion. In 1972, the album was re-released
on both sides of the Atlantic by RCA Records as Space Oddity, a title it has kept until today.
including Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and, most particularly, Little Richard. Upon listening to "Tutti Frutti", Bowie would later
say, "I had heard God". His half-brother Terry introduced him to modern jazz and Bowie's enthusiasm for players like
Charles Mingus and John Coltrane led his mother to give him a plastic saxophone for Christmas in 1959. Graduating to a
real instrument, he formed his first band in 1962, the Konrads. He then played and sang in various blues/beat groups, such
as The King Bees, The Manish Boys, The Lower Third and The Riot Squad in the mid-1960s, releasing his first record, the
single "Liza Jane", with the King Bees in 1964. His early work shifted through the blues and Elvis-inspired music while
working with many British pop styles.
During the early 1960s, Bowie was performing either under his own name or the stage name "Davie Jones", and briefly
even as "Davy Jones", creating confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkees. To avoid this, in 1966 he chose "Bowie" for his
stage name, after the Alamo hero Jim Bowie and his famous Bowie knife. During this time, he recorded singles for
Parlophone under the name of The Manish Boys and Davy Jones and for Pye under the name David Bowie (and The
Lower Third), all without success.
Bowie released his first album in 1967 for the Decca Records offshoot Deram, simply called David Bowie. It was an
amalgam of pop, psychedelia, and music hall. Around the same time he issued a novelty single, "The Laughing Gnome",
which utilised sped-up Chipmunk-style vocals. None of these releases managed to chart, and he would not cut another
record for two years. His Deram material from the album and various singles was later recycled in a multitude of
compilations.
Influenced by the dramatic arts, he studied with Lindsay Kemp—from avant-garde theatre and mime to Commedia
dell'arte—and much of his work would involve the creation of characters or personae to present to the world. During 1967,
Bowie sold his first song to another artist, "Oscar" (an early stage name of actor-musician Paul Nicholas). Bowie wrote
Oscar's third single, "Over the Wall We Go", which satirised life in a British prison. In late 1968, his then-manager, Kenneth
Pitt, produced a half-hour promotional film called Love You Till Tuesday featuring Bowie performing a number of songs, but
it went unreleased until 1984.
Bowie's first flirtation with fame came in 1969 with his single "Space Oddity," written the previous year but recorded and
released to coincide with the first moon landing. This ballad told the story of Major Tom, an astronaut who becomes lost in
space, though it has also been interpreted as an allegory for taking drugs. It became a Top 5 UK hit. Bowie put the finishing
touches to the track while living with Mary Finnigan as her lodger. Finnigan and Bowie joined forces with Christina Ostrom
and the late Barrie Jackson to run a Folk Club on Sunday nights at The Three Tuns pub in Beckenham High Street, south
London. This soon morphed into the Beckenham Arts Lab and became extremely popular. In August 1969, The Arts Lab
hosted a Free Festival in a local park, later immortalised by Bowie in his song "Memory of a Free Festival". In 1969 and
1970, "Space Oddity" was used by the BBC during both its Apollo 11 moon landing coverage and its coverage of Apollo 13.
The corresponding album, his second, was released in November 1969 and originally titled David Bowie, which caused
some confusion as both of Bowie's first and second albums were released with that name in the UK. In the U.S. the same
album originally bore the title Man of Words, Man of Music to overcome that confusion. In 1972, the album was re-released
on both sides of the Atlantic by RCA Records as Space Oddity, a title it has kept until today.
(c) 2008 unclestinkstradingpost.com
David Bowie was born David Robert Hayward-Jones in Brixton,
London to parents who were married in September 1947 shortly
after his birth. His mother Margaret Mary "Peggy" (née Burns), of
Irish descent worked as a cinema usherette and his father Hayward
Stenton "John" Jones was a promotions officer for Barnardo's.
Bowie attended a school in Stockwell until he was six years old,
when his family moved from Brixton to the suburb of Bromley, Kent,
where he attended Bromley Technical High School.
When Bowie was 15-years-old, his friend, George Underwood,
wearing a ring on his finger, punched him in the left eye during a
fight over a girl. Bowie was forced to stay out of school for eight
months so that doctors could conduct operations to repair his
potentially blinded eye. Doctors could not fully repair the damage,
leaving his pupil permanently dilated. As a result of the injury,
Bowie has faulty depth perception. Bowie has stated that although
he can see with his injured eye, his colour vision was mostly lost
and a brownish tone is constantly present. Each iris has the same
blue colour, but since the pupil of the injured eye is wide open, the
hue of that eye is commonly mistaken to be different. Despite the
fight, Underwood and Bowie remained good friends, and
Underwood went on to do the artwork for Bowie's earlier albums.
London to parents who were married in September 1947 shortly
after his birth. His mother Margaret Mary "Peggy" (née Burns), of
Irish descent worked as a cinema usherette and his father Hayward
Stenton "John" Jones was a promotions officer for Barnardo's.
Bowie attended a school in Stockwell until he was six years old,
when his family moved from Brixton to the suburb of Bromley, Kent,
where he attended Bromley Technical High School.
When Bowie was 15-years-old, his friend, George Underwood,
wearing a ring on his finger, punched him in the left eye during a
fight over a girl. Bowie was forced to stay out of school for eight
months so that doctors could conduct operations to repair his
potentially blinded eye. Doctors could not fully repair the damage,
leaving his pupil permanently dilated. As a result of the injury,
Bowie has faulty depth perception. Bowie has stated that although
he can see with his injured eye, his colour vision was mostly lost
and a brownish tone is constantly present. Each iris has the same
blue colour, but since the pupil of the injured eye is wide open, the
hue of that eye is commonly mistaken to be different. Despite the
fight, Underwood and Bowie remained good friends, and
Underwood went on to do the artwork for Bowie's earlier albums.
David Bowie
David Bowie - Hours
