Beauty And The Beast – David Bowie (1977)

Description

Additional information about this David Bowie vinyl art.

David Bowie – The Artist

David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie was an English singer, songwriter and actor who is often considered to be one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was a leading figure in popular music and was acclaimed by critics and fellow musicians for his innovative work, particularly for his work during the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, with his music and stagecraft significantly influencing popular music. 

Beauty and The Beast – The Song

Beauty and The Beast is a song by David Bowie, the first track on his 1977 album “Heroes”. It was issued as the second single from the album in January 1978, becoming a minor UK hit, The opening music, a disjointed combination of piano, guitar, electronics and voice rising steadily to a crescendo, has been described as sounding like “Bowie is about to turn into The Incredible Hulk before your very ears”. The song proper features Robert Fripp on lead guitar, with treatments and synthesiser work by Brian Eno. Fripp has stated that his guitar work on the track is a first take made straight upon arrival at the studio. The lyrics have been interpreted as a look back at Bowie’s severe mood swings during his cocaine addiction while living in Los Angeles from 1975 to 1976, with the line “Thank God Heaven left us standing on our feet” suggesting the singer’s gratitude for making it through that period.

The Beast – The Shape

This record has been modelled into the silhouette of the beast from Walt Disneys animation Beauty and the Beast. “Beauty and the Beast” is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins (The Young American and Marine Tales). Villeneuve’s lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and published by French novelist Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756 in Magasin des enfants[3] (Children’s Collection) to produce the most commonly retold version. The story was made popular in the Classic Walt Disney animation, Beauty and the Beast.

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