Rock star and visionary David Bowie's death has led to a re-examination of a legendary life.
Bowie, obviously, had a huge impact on Montreal, but Montreal also had an impact on Bowie, as he worked with La La La Human Steps dance troupe and Arcade Fire in his later years and launched a concert tour in Montreal at the Forum.
Bowie's mythical creative genius was not lost on Montrealer Jamie Soule whose obsession led to an authoritative 57-chapter biography which occasionally pops up on line.
The biography offers fascinating and obsessive detail about Bowie's early years of fame, focusing in particular on his daily battles against financial instability.
Soule seems to have been a West Islander from Lindsay Place High Class of 77. Beyond that it's all a mystery.
Here's a list of little-known Bowie facts Soule apparently compiled about a decade ago.
37. A concert ticket for the 1976 Station To Station tour in Montreal cost $8.50.
1. Bowie was never gay or bisexual. This was a lie told to Melody Maker Magazine to get some press coverage
3. The original cover of The Man Who Sold The World showing Bowie in a dress was banned in the United States. The cover that replaced it was a cartoon of a man with a shotgun in front of the Cane Hill Mental Hospital where Bowie's brother Terry Burns was a patient4. The reason Bowie has a fixed pupil in one eye is from a thrashing he took in a school yard fight with George Underwood over a girl. Bowie was off school for six months and he and Underwood remained friends even to this day.
5. The reason Himmler is mentioned inQuicksandis because all top Nazis were members of an occult society known as the Vril. They tied into Crowley's Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn and the Thule Society.
6. The train on the beginning of Station To Station came from a sound effects record. Bowie showed up 16 hours late for the sessions at Cherokee Studios. He had was still going strong on a cocaine binge which was now into it's fourth day. The song was written in fifteen minutes and they blew three Marshall Amplifiers in the process due to the noise levels.
10. The song Always Crashing In The Same Car is a true story. Bowie attempted to run over a cocaine dealer in an underground parking lot whom he thought had ripped him off.
11. Bowie made seventy million dollars in 1983 and due to Swiss tax laws he probably only paid taxes of ten thousand dollars
14. Any magazine or other media which gave a negative review on Bowie in 83 was denied access to Bowie forever.
15. Bowie paid his band $2,000 dollars a week plus expenses for the 1978 tour. He offered the same musicians $1000.00 a week if they toured in 83. This explains why most did not return. Stevie Ray Vaughn was offered $300.00 per show.
23. In 1976 Bowie kept his urine, hair and fingernail clippings in the fridge of Michael Lipman's home where he was living. The reason was so they could not fall into the hands of those he thought wished to put spells on him.
26. Bowie was going to make Diamond Dogs into a stage production of George Orwell's book 1984. Orwell's widow refused to give Bowie the rights to use the book saying that he was too "weird."
28. Bowie bonds made Bowie $55 million dollars and all of the bonds were bought by The Prudential Life Insurance Company Of America.
27. Angela Bowie received $70,000 as part of the divorce settlement and she was banned from speaking to the public about Bowie for seven years. Bowie got custody of their son Duncan.
Some other Bowie Montreal moments:
- White-haired Louise Lecavalier, star of La La La Human Steps dances on stage with Bowie on many of the Sound+Vision 1990 tour.
- March 1990 Workers protested outside a film set at hte Leclerc Prison where Bowie was acting in a TV show called The Hunger.
- Sept. 2013 Montreal's Arcade Fire releases a song called Reflektor, which includes background singing by Bowie.
- Sept 1987 Glass Spider tour hits Montreal, includes a 60-foot-tall spider and Peter Frampton on guitar.
- 1984 Bowie stays in Morin Heights to record his 1984 album, Tonight.
- July 1983 Bowie did two sold out shows in Montreal, reportedly arriving in a 78 Impala. He stayed on the seventh floor of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, which usually does not allwo rock bands. They paid $25,000 and partied until 7 a.m. The shows rake in $480,000, just $20,00 more than the two Culture Club shows earlier in the year.
- -June 16, 1974 Bowie plays a "nearly full" Forum, touring for the Diamond Dogs album. Guitarist Mick Ronson does not appear.
Can someone be more artistically influential in such a positive way? Like Picasso, Warhol, and Lord Byron mixed together #Bowie— Adam Green (@AverageCabbage) January 11, 2016RIP David Bowie, all time #1. No greater pop music has ever been made. Plus he was a helluva guy. His lesson is that...
Posted by Kristian Gravenor on Monday, January 11, 2016