Like millions of teens in the 1960s, he had been a Beatles fan. His own career began to take off in the mid 1960s, during which time he flirted with influences ranging from the Rolling Stones to the Who to Syd Barrett\u2019s Pink Floyd. But while Bowie never dabbled in the Beatles\u2019 style of pop, but he was enamored of the group, and John Lennon in particular.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOh hell, he was one of the major influences on my musical life,\u201d Bowie said in an interview recorded in the 1980s. \u201cI mean, I just thought he was the very best of what could be done with rock and roll, and also ideas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt such kin to him in as much as that he would rifle the avant-garde and look for ideas that were so on the outside, on the periphery of what was the mainstream \u2014 and then apply them in a functional manner to something that was considered populist and make it work. He would take the most odd idea and make it work for the masses.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I thought that was just so admirable. I mean, that was like making artwork for the people and not sort of having it as an elitist thing. There was just so much about him that I admired. He was tremendous, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
David Bowie On John Lennon – YouTube
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Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n By 1974, Bowie had moved to New York, the same city to which Lennon had emigrated in 1971. It was perhaps inevitable the two would meet. It happened soon after at a party given by actress Elizabeth Taylor.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we were polite with each other, in that kind of older-younger way,\u201d Bowie recalled of their meeting.<\/p>\n As his longtime producer and friend Tony Visconti revealed in a 2021 interview with BBC Radio 4, Bowie was intimidated by the former Beatle.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was terrified of meeting John Lennon,\u201d he recalled. When shortly after the party Lennon scheduled a visit to Bowie, the singer insisted Visconti come along \u201cto buffer the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n Bowie didn\u2019t need to worry. Lennon was a fan.<\/p>\n “I must say, I admire him for the vast repertoire of talent the guy has, you know,\u201d Lennon said in 1980. \u201cI was never around when the Ziggy Stardust<\/a> thing came, because I\u2019d already left England while all that was going on, so I never really knew what he was\u2026 I think he\u2019s great.”<\/p>\n Visconti recalled that the meeting took place late in the day. When he arrived, he found Bowie on the floor sketching on an art pad with charcoal while Lennon sat nearby. Neither said much to the other for a couple of hours, when Lennon broke the silence by asking for a few sheets of paper so he could draw as well.<\/p>\n \u201cSo John started making caricatures of David, and David started doing the same of John and they kept swapping them,\u201d Visconti said. \u201cAnd then they started laughing and that broke the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n Bowie recalled in a later interview how Lennon responded when he asked his opinion of glam rock.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Yeah, it\u2019s great,\u2019\u201d Bowie said, mimicking Lennon\u2019s Liverpool accent. \u201c\u2018But it\u2019s just rock and roll with lipstick on.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I was impressed as I was at virtually everything he said. He was probably one of the brightest, quickest witted, earnestly socialist men I\u2019ve ever met in my life. Socialist in true definition, not in a fabricated political sense. But a real humanist.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd a really spiteful sense of humor \u2014 which, of course, being English, I adored. I just thought we\u2019d be buddies forever and we\u2019d get on better and better and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n David Bowie: Full Interview (1995) | MTV News – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n The two artists collaborated soon after meeting. Bowie had just completed recording his album Young Americans in Philadelphia. But in January 1975, he and Lennon got together at New York City\u2019s Electric Lady Studios to cut two more tracks for it: a cover of Lennon\u2019s 1968 Beatles tune \u201cAcross the Universe\u201d \u2014 included on the group’s 1970 swan song, Let It Be<\/a> \u2014 and a new song composed by Bowie, Lennon and Carlos Alomar<\/a>, Bowie\u2019s guitarist and the player behind the tune\u2019s signature funk electric guitar<\/a> riff. Titled \u201cFame,\u201d it became Bowie\u2019s first number-one single.<\/p>\n David Bowie \u2022 Fame \u2022 Live 1978 – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n But Bowie got considerably more than a hit out of his collaboration. He got a friend for what little time remained in Lennon\u2019s life.<\/p>\n And along the way, he picked up some priceless advice from Lennon about songwriting.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll never forget something John Lennon told me,\u201d he recalled in a 1983 interview, in which he reflected on Lennon\u2019s death three years earlier. \u201cWe were talking about writing, and I would always admire the way he used to cut through so much of the bullshit and just come straight to the point with what he wanted to say.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said, \u2018It\u2019s very easy, all this. All you have to do is say what you mean, make it rhyme, put a backbeat to it. I keep coming back to that principle.\u201d<\/p>\n Bowie added that \u201cFame\u201d came about in just that way.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, absolutely. I mean it was so easy.<\/p>\n \u201cJohn had an incredible charisma that made you cut through things. I can see the effect that he must have had on Paul McCartney<\/a>. I\u2019d imagine McCartney sorely misses that now.\u201d<\/p>\n David Bowie remembers a writing advice from John Lennon – YouTube
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