BOWIE AND PRESLEY SHARE THE SAME BIRTHDAY JAN 8
News item:
It would have been one of the most unusual pairings in musical history – but how would it have sounded? According to a new account – from an unlikely source –Elvis Presley asked David Bowie to be his producer.
The claim comes from country star Dwight Yoakam in an interview with US newspaper the Orange County Register. In the article, published before a concert in southern California, the singer was asked about Bowie, whom he had met in 1997, and with whom he shared a love of Elvis.
Yoakam said Bowie told him that six months before Elvis’s death in August 1977, Presley had phoned asking him to produce his next record. “That was based on Elvis having heard Bowie’s Golden Years, and I thought ‘Oh my God, it’s a tragedy that he was never able to make that,’” Yoakam told the paper. “I couldn’t even imagine 1977 David Bowie producing Elvis. It would have been fantastic. It has to be one of the greatest tragedies in pop music history that it didn’t happen, one of the biggest missed opportunities.”
Despite the disparity in rank – the King, asking a favour of the Thin White Duke – the request was not acted on.
Bowie was a dedicated Elvis fan, reputed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of Presley’s career, and the two shared their birthday – 8 January. Bowie said that he had originally offered the song Golden Years, which appeared on the Station to Station album and reached the Top 10 in both the US and UK, to Elvis. The story goes that he asked his then wife, Angie, to deliver the request, but she was too nervous to do so.
Since Bowie’s death last week, another link with Elvis has been uncovered. An Elvis song called Black Star – which remained unreleased for decades after being recorded in 1960 – was cited as a possible inspiration for his farewell album. The song’s lyrics say:
Every man has a black star
A black star over his shoulder
And when a man sees his black star
He knows his time, his time has come
A black star over his shoulder
And when a man sees his black star
He knows his time, his time has come
Black star don't shine on me, black star
Black star keep behind me, black star
There's a lot of livin' I gotta do
Give me time to make a few dreams come true, black star
Black star keep behind me, black star
There's a lot of livin' I gotta do
Give me time to make a few dreams come true, black star
When I ride I feel that black star
That black star over my shoulder
So I ride in front of that black star
Never lookin' around, never lookin' around
That black star over my shoulder
So I ride in front of that black star
Never lookin' around, never lookin' around
Black star don't shine on me, black star
Black star keep behind me, black star
There's a lot of livin' I gotta do
Give me time to make a few dreams come true, black star
Black star keep behind me, black star
There's a lot of livin' I gotta do
Give me time to make a few dreams come true, black star
One fine day I'll see that black star
That black star over my shoulder
And when I see that old black star
I'll know my time, my time has come
That black star over my shoulder
And when I see that old black star
I'll know my time, my time has come
Black star don't shine on me, black star
Black star keep behind me, black star
There's a lot of livin' I gotta do
Give me time to make a few dreams come true, black star
Black star keep behind me, black star
There's a lot of livin' I gotta do
Give me time to make a few dreams come true, black star
Songwriters
S. WAYNE, S. EDWARDS
S. WAYNE, S. EDWARDS
Is the 'Blackstar' referring to your 'familiar spirit' occultists believe is assigned to you at birth? Is the BOY in Bowie's closet and under his bed a representation of his?
