5 Things You Didn’t Know About David Bowie
Planet earth dropped a tier on Sunday when legendary rock artist David Bowie died at the age of 69. Bowie left us with a goodbye present; his new album, “Backstar” which was released last week.
You probably know a lot about Bowie, but here are some life events and facts you might not have known about him.
1. He founded the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men.
When Little Bowie, then known as David (or Davey) Jones, was 17, he founded the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men. He was even on TV, talking about the society on the BBC show Tonight programme by Cliff Michelmore.
Here’s a recording from that 1964 show:
2. There’s a spider named after him
The Heteropoda Davidbowie was first described in 2008 and was named in honor of Bowie, with particular reference to songs like ‘Glass Spider’ and the resemblance of the frontal view of the spider to the artist’s face in his early career. It was supposed to be a compliment!
3. He was the first to release a downloadable single to the internet
Bowie was a real pioneer, trying to find new ways to combine his are with technology.
In 1996, he made his song ‘Telling Lies’ available for download on his website. That was the first downloadable single ever from a major artist!
Remember that the internet wasn’t as fast as it is today. Meaning, to download the song then took about 11 minutes if you were using a dial-up speed internet. But it was totally worth it.
4. He set up his own internet service provider (ISP)
A few years later, In 1998, Bowie launched his own Internet Service Provider called BowieNet in the United Kingdom.
The BowieNet offer had exclusive access to Bowie’s visual artistry, words and music. More than that, each member was given 20MB to build his own home page and an email (that ended with @davidbowie.co.uk or @davidbowie.com) and real-time chat sessions with Bowie himself as well as other artists and celebrities.
“I wanted to create an environment where not just my fans, but all music fans could be part of a single community where vast archives of music and information could be accessed, views stated and ideas exchanged.”
The service kept going until 2012.
5. He rejected CBE Title and Knighthood
In 2000, David was offered a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) title, but he turned it down. A few months earlier, his friend Mick Jagger accepted the same honor. Bowie’s response to The Sun newspaper was that he didn’t have any intention of accepting anything like that, stating “O seriously don’t know what it’s for. It’s not what I spent my life working for”.
Three years later, Bowie was offered an even greater title – Knighthood from the Queen. The artist declined that too.
For us, David Bowie will always be a knight, prince, and the king!
“I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.” – Bowie
