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Bowie General > Images Vol. 11

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homebrewPosted at 2025-01-25 15:00:08(3 wks ago) (Bowie General / Images Vol. 11)


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In the Usenet group alt.fan.david-bowie you would have run into a user named Jamie Soule aka aladInsaNE. Jamie wrote a series of articles that he called "Images" about our hero, David Bowie. I found them fascinating, sometimes infuriating, occasionally confusing and ultimately interesting enough to have saved them all (at least all that I could track down). I have made no attempt to alter the formatting, spelling, grammar or edit in any way.

Images: Part 11


Columbia Pictures had agreed to finance three films for director
Nicholas Roeg. The wording of the agreement did not state which films
Columbia was to finance, they had the right to pick them and if they
turned down a proposed film then Roeg was free to go and secure backing
and obtain distribution rights from elsewhere. The story is about an
alien who lives on a planet that has been plagued with a severe drought,
so severe there is little water left and he and his family face a
certain death. The alien leaves his home planet and comes to Earth in
search of water and his space ship is destroyed on arrival. The planet
he is from has superior technology that he is able to capitalize on .
The technology is used to make better electronic consumer products such
as cameras and sound systems. He is able to build a multi million, or
billion dollar corporation selling goods made with this new technology
in a very short time. This money is needed to finance the building of a
new space ship to get him home. The ship is built but before he can
leave the authorities discover he is not human and he is detained. He
does escape custody but by this time it is far too late to save his
family, and besides his space ship was confiscated, leaving him no way
to return to his planet. He came in search of water to drink,  yet on
Earth he discovers something else to his liking and that is alcohol. The
story ends with him sitting in a bar, drunk, and  sadly with all hope of
saving his family gone this came  his normal state. The film was to be
called The Man Who Fell To Earth.

Roegs first choice for the lead role was David Bowie and he got him a
copy of the script. To understand more about Roegs directing style Bowie
viewed some of the previous films Roeg had directed. A meeting was
arranged at Bowie's residence during the same period that Young
Americans was being mixed, early December 1974. Bowie needs a watch, and
still does for that matter, as he is to this day extremely tardy. Roeg
was a victim of Bowie's concept of time as  he was kept waiting for
eight hours before he finally arrived. The meeting lasted fifteen
minutes and ended without anything signed between the two of them. Bowie
verbally agreed to do the film and Roeg trusted him at his word. The
salary was to be in the $200,000.00 range which was generous for a first
picture, especially for someone with no experience. It was a gamble and
Roeg was willing to throw the dice.  Bowie must have been delighted at
Roegs offer because he would be paid a tidy sum to be in this film and
he wouldn't even have to act. He wasn't really a human being anyway, he
was a "walk in," an alien. He just had to be himself.

Columbia Pictures were not gamblers and they displayed several concerns
about this project. The first concern was Bowie, he had never acted
before so they had no indicator of his ability to draw in a movie
audience. Roeg wanted a budget of $1.3 million and Columbia reasoned
that if he wanted this amount costs could easily balloon to become a
number far higher than they were willing to pay. Columbia refused
anything beyond a maximum of $1.1 million, which for a movie budget is a
pittance. In the end Columbia passed on the deal. British Lion, a rather
small English film company, offered to co-produce the film with Columbia
but this offer was rejected.  British Lion thought they had a deal with
Paramount only to have Paramount pull out AFTER they saw the film and so
this left British Lion to finance the entire project. In June Bowie
boarded a train to Santa Fe to begin acting in his first major motion
picture. The cocaine went with him.

I want to cut here and talk a bit about the soundtrack for the film and
Bowie's involvement with it.  The reason for this is that I know of a
lot of misconceptions, misinformation and untruths that are exchanged
among Bowie fans regarding the soundtrack and I wanted to set the record
straight. The initial idea to have David Bowie write the music for the
soundtrack of The Man Who Fell To Earth was Nicholas Roeg. British Lion
was not fully consulted on the idea and this is what later became the
major problem. I have heard some say it was contractual difficulties
with Defries or MainMan but this is not the case, as neither were
involved. Roeg's idea was strictly for marketing purposes and it was a
good one.  Young Americans was getting extensive airplay at the time and
Fame had become a number one single. By having Bowie write the
soundtrack it was hoped that those songs would get radio airplay, as
well as be performed by David in concert, and by doing so would give the
film added publicity at no extra cost to the film distributor. The
benefit would be great if the film could be linked to the music of
David. It is true that while filming in New Mexico Bowie was also
working on the music for the soundtrack. Now, I have heard it a thousand
times, and seen it written in countless Bowie articles that the tracks
on Low were originally written for the soundtrack of The Man Who Fell To
Earth. This is totally incorrect, Low is not composed from the unused
tracks for the film. There is one song however that did make it on to
Low that was going to be used for the film. The name of that song is
Subterraneans. Now, the reason that Bowie's music did not make it on to
the film is because British Lion did not promise the project to one
single artist. What they were doing in fact was taking submissions from
a number of different artists for review and the job would be awarded
that way. Bowie was told by the heads at British Lion that he was free
to submit his work along with the others for "consideration," but there
were no guarantees. Having worked for almost free for so many years
Bowie was not about to enter a contest in hopes of  getting his material
used. He basically told them to fuck off. So, there you have it.  Now,
since this was such a creative period for Bowie, and his work was on a
level best described as "genius" we can only imagine what he would have
written. All Bowie fans lose out due to the stupidity, in my opinion
anyway, of British Lion.

Roeg said that Bowie was a joy to work with while making this film, and
he also said that there was no pretentious attitude to deal with as most
directors have to with actors. Bowie dutifully studied and rehearsed his
lines and he was open to taking suggestions to improve his acting
skills. Bowie, charming and co-operative. The filming went without any
major setbacks.  This wasn't really a setback , well it could be
depending where one fits into the story. Bowie arose rather groggy on a
day where he was required to be in some rather demanding scenes with
fellow actor Rip Torn.  Some kind individual went and fetched Bowie some
No-Doz, which is an over the counter drug to keep a person alert. The
drug is white. Well I guess Bowie reasoned that if it was a drug and the
drug was white it could only be one thing, so he snorted it.

Three months had passed and it was September 1975. Bowie was back in Los
Angeles as everything had wound up on the set of The Man Who Fell To
Earth and the film was in the can.  Without having anyone as an
authority figure around left Bowie to his own devices and he resumed the
lifestyle he had before departing for Santa Fe. The authority figures had
almost all been removed from David's life, they were exorcised , I mean
that figuratively and not literally. Lippman was the only one remaining.

Bowie was about to enter one of the most amazing parts of his career. I
mean this in terms of his work and his life. His work, in my opinion is
unsurpassed. His next album would be one of the highlights of David
Bowie's career and this album is close to, if not, flawless. Bowie is
constantly referred to as a "genius" by his fans and you can't argue the
point when looking at what he accomplished in this period of his life
from 1974 - 1978. This tour will rate as his best by almost all who saw
it and I am speaking here from experience, having been one of those
extremely fortunate ones who saw it. His lifestyle was about to get very
intriguing. I like to use understatements at times and you just read one
of the biggest ones I ever made.


aladINsaNE

To be continued..........



""I don't begrudge any artist for finding an audience"
- David Bowie abt. 1987
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