No-one saw it coming, except maybe Bowie himself – and bluesman Robert Johnson.
In 1970, David Bowie was struggling to break through. He had been a mime artist, a mod, and a pop singer with two novelty hit singles in The Laughing Gnome and Space Oddity.
He had made two albums, both called David Bowie, both commercial failures, with neither, despite their titles, really capturing the essence of the artist we know today.
By 1971, in a transformation that maybe only bluesman Robert Johnson could relate to, Bowie began a winning streak that saw him have a hand in nine classic albums in just three years.
They say that Robert Johnson was an average guitarist who sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads in order to become the influential blues player he became. Bowie didn’t sell his soul and his salvation came from Hull, not hell. Guitarist Mick Ronson and the band that became known as the Spiders From Mars, would reinvigorate Bowie, and transform him from a Dylanesque singer-songwriter into an electric rock star.
Bowie’s vision came to life. The inspiration they provided, the arrangements, and the momentum carried him through his first purple patch and saw him have a hand in some of the greatest, most notorious and influential albums of all time. All in a three year period.
Without Ronson, Bowie had struggled a little but proved himself. He needed other collaborators, and he looked for them in Philadelphia and then Berlin, where he would soon hit another purple patch – between 1975 and 1980 he had his hand in seven albums that would help define new wave and post-punk. But that's another story…
