🌳 Ep. 222: David Bowie – Top 7 Songs Memory Mnemonic
👋 Intro
Hello and welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Memory", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.
I’m Jans, your Mnemonic Man, and today's episode will be on the chameleon of rock, English singer David Bowie.
Also known as “The Thin White Duke,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “Aladdin Sane,” Halloween Jack,” “Dame David,” and “Davie Jones,” Bowie is known for his constant transformations, musically and aesthetically.
Born in Brixton, London, in 1947, David Bowie developed an early passion for music, influenced by American rock records and his half-brother, Terry.
He formed several bands in the 1960s and was part of many more, which included The Konrads, The King Bees, The Manish Boys, Davy Jones & The Lower Third, The Buzz, The Riot Squad, and The Hype.
Born David Robert Jones, Bowie changed his name to avoid confusion with another artist working in the music industry at the time. After several failed singles, Bowie’s breakthrough came with the release of “Space Oddity,” which reached the top five in the UK.
This was followed by the album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,” which gave rise to his alter ego Ziggy Stardust. This made him a superstar in the UK, and he exploded in the US, where he eventually moved.
The Album “Young Americans” was a hit, and the single “Fame,” which was co-written with John Lennon, reached number one on the US charts.
Beyond music, Bowie has appeared in around 18 films, some of which have included The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Prestige, Labyrinth and of course his supporting role in one of my favourite movies, Zoolander.
His final album, “Blackstar,” released just days before his death from cancer, was widely interpreted as a creative farewell, from a man whose legacy and impact will live on well into the future.
Today’s mnemonic will be on David Bowie’s top seven songs.
So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.
📖 Wikipedia Summary
David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known as David Bowie,[a] was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as among the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie received particular acclaim for his work in the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, and his music and stagecraft have had a great impact on popular music.
Bowie studied art, music and design before embarking on a music career in 1962. He released a string of unsuccessful singles with local bands and a self-titled solo album (1967) before achieving his first top-five entry on the UK singles chart with "Space Oddity" (1969).
After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The single "Starman" and its album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972) won him widespread popularity. In 1975, Bowie's style shifted towards a sound he characterised as "plastic soul", initially alienating many of his UK fans but garnering his first major US crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the album Young Americans (1975).
In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. In 1977, he again changed direction with the electronic-inflected album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that came to be known as the Berlin Trilogy. "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top-five and received critical praise.
After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had three number-one hits: the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes", its album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and "Under Pressure" (a 1981 collaboration with Queen). He achieved his greatest commercial success in the 1980s with Let's Dance (1983).
He retired from touring in 2004 and his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006. He returned from a decade-long recording hiatus in 2013 with The Next Day. His death in 2016 came two days after the release of his final studio album, Blackstar.
During his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at over 100 million worldwide, made him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Grammy Awards and four Brit Awards. Often dubbed the "chameleon of rock" due to his continual musical reinventions, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Rolling Stone ranked him among the greatest singers, songwriters and artists of all time. As of 2022, Bowie was the best-selling vinyl artist of the 21st century.
Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie]
🧠 Memory Mnemonic
David Bowie – Top 7 Songs Memory Mnemonic – SSCARY Monsters
(Picture David Bowie releasing his 14th studio album, Scary Monsters, in 1980, featuring its most popular song, “Ashes to Ashes.”)
1. Space Oddity (1969)
2. Starman (1972)
3. Changes (1971)
4. Ashes to Ashes (1980)
5. Rebel Rebel (1974)
6. Young Americans (1975)
7. Modern Love (1983)
🔎 Five Fun Facts
1. David Bowie was born in London on January 8, 1947, as David Robert Jones. But even before he got going with his musical career as a teen, he had a problem. There was a Davy Jones who just happened to be the lead singer of a little band called The Monkees. So, hence the name change to Bowie, which he adopted in homage to the 19th -century American pioneer Jim Bowie, who died defending the Alamo.
2. It is often confused that David Bowie had heterochromia, which is the same condition as Alexander the Great, which is two different coloured eyes. This is incorrect. Both his eyes are blue, and he actually had the condition anisocoria, which is a permanently dilated pupil. This happened when Bowie was 15 years old, when he got into a fight with his friend, George Underwood, over a girl and Underwood’s fingernail sliced into Bowie’s eye.
3. Bowie had a wide circle of famous friends and collaborators. His friendship with Peter Frampton was struck up in high school, with Frampton’s dad, actually, Bowie’s art teacher. Bowie and Elton John were also good friends when younger and would frequently get together to talk about music. Unfortunately, they fell out when Elton John heard that Bowie called him ‘rock ’n’ roll’s token queen’ in an interview with Rolling Stone. Iggy Pop was a close friend; he collaborated with Mick Jagger and Queen with “Dancing in the Street” and “Under Pressure” respectively, and was close friends with John Lennon in the mid -70s.
4. Bowie’s song “Space Oddity” was linked to some big events in history. Firstly, the moon landing, where the BBC ended up using his song over its coverage of Apollo 11’s lunar landing. He had just released the song nine days earlier, and this fortuitous timing would help the song become Bowie’s first big hit in the UK. Secondly, “Space Oddity” was playing in a Tesla Roadster that Elon Musk launched into space. The dummy in the car also had a link to Bowie, with it being named “Starman”, another outer space-themed song by Bowie.
5. Bowie’s appeal was wide, and in 2019, which was the 50th anniversary of “Space Oddity,” a Barbie was created to commemorate the date. The Barbie was androgenous looking, had Ziggy’s flame red hair, a gold forehead astral sphere, black nail polish, platform boots, and a psychedelic space suit. While the box was a collage of photos of the musician.
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🎓 Three-Question Quiz
Q.1. What was David Bowie’s birth name?
Q.2. Which alter ego did Bowie retire dramatically on stage in 1973?
Q.3. What was the name of the astronaut in the song “Space Oddity”
Bonus Q. Which fellow musician did Bowie help revive by co-writing and producing albums like The Idiot and Lust for Life?
Bonus Q. Why was David Bowie good at test-taking?
🧠 Memory Mnemonic Recap
David Bowie – Top 7 Songs Memory Mnemonic – SSCARY Monsters
(Picture David Bowie releasing his 14th studio album, Scary Monsters, in 1980, featuring its most popular song, “Ashes to Ashes.”)
1. Space Oddity (1969)
2. Starman (1972)
3. Changes (1971)
4. Ashes to Ashes (1980)
5. Rebel Rebel (1974)
6. Young Americans (1975)
7. Modern Love (1983)
🎓 Three-Question Quiz Answers
Q.1. What was David Bowie’s birth name?
A. David Robert Jones
Q.2. Which alter ego did Bowie retire dramatically on stage in 1973?
A. Ziggy Stardust
Q.3. What was the name of the astronaut in the song “Space Oddity”
A. Major Tom
Bonus Q. Which fellow musician did Bowie help revive by co-writing and producing albums like The Idiot and Lust for Life?
A. Iggy Pop
Bonus Q. Why was David Bowie good at test-taking?
A. Because he could write Under Pressure!
🔤 Word of the Week
ludic
[loo-dik]/ ˈlu dɪk /
adjective
playful in an aimless way.
the ludic behaviour of kittens.
Example
David Bowie’s ludic approach to identity ensured a variety of transformations.
Extracted from: [https://www.dictionary.com/]
💡 Memory Tip
For our memory tip today, we will be talking about the Link Method. The mnemonic link method is a memory technique that improves recall by chaining items together in a vivid, imaginative story. Each item is mentally “linked” to the next item using exaggerated and nonsensical images and actions. By constructing a story through these linked elements, the brain is more likely to remember a visual narrative over a plain list.
It also makes the sequence easier to retrieve, hence strengthening long-term retention.
A simple example could be the first five wedding anniversary gifts, which are paper, cotton, leather, fruit, flowers, and wood. A piece of paper is attached by cotton to a leather belt, which is adorned with fruit and flowers, and has a wooden buckle. See you next week.
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https://open.spotify.com/show/3T0LdIJ9PBQMXM3cdKd42Q?si=fqmaN2TNS8qqc7jOEVa-Cw
🔗 References
https://chatgpt.com/c/69785427-ac58-839b-8db2-a9e4d784e07a
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-20944291
https://www.mentalfloss.com/entertainment/music/15-fascinating-facts-about-david-bowie
https://upjoke.com/david-bowie-jokes