{"id":92054,"date":"2016-01-11T15:45:45","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T22:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/?p=92054"},"modified":"2019-01-10T12:34:46","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T19:34:46","slug":"goodbye-ziggy-stardust-remembering-david-bowie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/goodbye-ziggy-stardust-remembering-david-bowie-92054.html","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye, Ziggy Stardust: Remembering David Bowie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>News spread today of the death of iconic singer-songwriter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/people\/David-Bowie\/6000000008762972867\" target=\"_blank\">David Bowie<\/a> after an 18-month battle with cancer. He died on January 10, just two days after his 69th birthday.\u00a0Herald as an innovator and pioneer, Bowie seemed to reinvent himself for each new generation of fans. Bowie constantly\u00a0transformed his sound and appearance to the delight and surprise of audiences around the world.<\/p>\n<p>In remembrance of Bowie&#8217;s extraordinary life, we take a look at a few things you may not have known:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bowie.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-92067\" src=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bowie-600x395.jpg\" alt=\"Goodbye, Ziggy Stardust: Remembering David Bowie\" width=\"520\" height=\"343\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bowie-600x395.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bowie-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bowie.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 10px;\"><em>Image: Photobral Adam Bielawski \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>1.<\/strong> He was born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947 in Brixton, South London, England. He changed his name to &#8220;Bowie&#8221; to avoid\u00a0being confused with The Monkey&#8217;s lead singer, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/people\/Davy-Jones\/6000000015711989372\" target=\"_blank\">Davy Jones<\/a>. His new moniker was inspired by the knife developed by 19th century American pioneer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/people\/Col-James-Jim-Bowie-commander-Alamo-volunteers\/6000000009956430918\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Bowie<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2.<\/strong> His mother, Peggy Burns, worked as a waitress. His father, Haywood Stenton &#8220;John&#8221; Jones, was a promotions officer for the children&#8217;s charity Barnardo&#8217;s, which provided aid to homeless children.<\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\"> iframe{ border: 1px solid #999; } <\/style>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/family-tree\/index\/profile-88281720?minimal=1\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 10px;\"><em>David Bowie&#8217;s family tree on Geni<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>3.<\/strong> Bowie\u00a0was introduced to music at an early age by his older half-brother, Terence. His brother had battled mental illness throughout\u00a0his life and was eventually, committed to an institution. In 1985, Terence\u00a0tragically committed suicide. Bowie was deeply affected by his brother&#8217;s death,\u00a0which became the focus of his song, &#8220;Jump They Say.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bowie75.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-92091\" src=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bowie75-246x300.jpg\" alt=\"Goodbye, Ziggy Stardust: Remembering David Bowie\" width=\"288\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bowie75-246x300.jpg 246w, https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bowie75.jpg 395w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 288px) 100vw, 288px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 10px;\"><em>Image: Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>4.<\/strong>\u00a0At the age of 15, Bowie got into a fight with a friend over a girl. His friend punched him, slicing\u00a0his left eye. The injury left Bowie with a permanently dilated pupil in his left eye, a condition called anisocoria. The distinct\u00a0look only added to his &#8220;out-of-this-world&#8221; persona.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5.<\/strong> Bowie&#8217;s first hit song was the 1969 single &#8220;Space Oddity,&#8221; inspired by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/people\/Stanley-Kubrick\/6000000008155343053\" target=\"_blank\">Stanley Kubrick&#8217;s<\/a> <em>2001: A Space Odyssey<\/em>. Released just days before the launch of Apollo 11, the song quickly climbed the music charts to become an instant classic.\u00a0He then\u00a0reinvented himself during the 1970s by transforming into\u00a0his glam rock alter ego Ziggy Stardust and earning a unique spot in pop culture history. The album,\u00a0<em>The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,<\/em>\u00a0is considered one of the greatest albums of all time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6.<\/strong> He was married twice. Bowie married his first wife, Angie Barnett, in 1970 and divorced ten years later. Together, they had one son named Duncan, who was nicknamed &#8220;Zowie.&#8221; Following the public announcement\u00a0of his father&#8217;s death, Duncan tweeted a touching picture of him and his\u00a0father.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Very sorry and sad to say it&#8217;s true. I&#8217;ll be offline for a while. Love to all. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Kh2fq3tf9m\">pic.twitter.com\/Kh2fq3tf9m<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ManMadeMoon\/status\/686441083648212992\">January 11, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>In 1992, Bowie\u00a0married\u00a0Somali supermodel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/people\/Iman\/6000000009774662902\" target=\"_blank\">Iman<\/a>. Her father was diplomat and former Somali ambassador to Saudi Arabia\u00a0and her mother was a gynecologist. They had one daughter, Alexandria &#8220;Lexi&#8221; Zahra Jones, in 2000.<br \/>\n<script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>7.<\/strong> He was strongly influenced by rock icons\u00a0Little Richard and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/people\/Elvis-Presley\/6000000003104470825\" target=\"_blank\">Elvis Presley<\/a>, with whom he shared a birthday. In a response to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2016\/01\/david-bowie-proust-questionnaire\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Vanity Fair<\/em>&#8216;s Proust questionnaire<\/a>, Bowie once noted that one of his\u00a0most treasured possessions was a cellophane-taped photograph of Little Richard that he purchased in 1958.<\/p>\n<p><strong>8.<\/strong> Bowie died just days after his 69th birthday and the release of his 25th album, <i>Blackstar<\/i>. Bowie had created the final album as a final farewell to his fans.<\/p>\n<p>RIP David Bowie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News spread today of the death of iconic singer-songwriter David Bowie after an 18-month battle with cancer. He died on January 10, just two days after his 69th birthday.\u00a0Herald as an innovator and pioneer, Bowie seemed to reinvent himself for each new generation of fans. Bowie constantly\u00a0transformed his sound and appearance to the delight and surprise of audiences around the world. In remembrance of Bowie&#8217;s extraordinary life, we take a look at a few things&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/goodbye-ziggy-stardust-remembering-david-bowie-92054.html\"><span>Read the full story<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":92067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[141],"tags":[6510],"class_list":["post-92054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-david-bowie"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92054"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92054"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102712,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92054\/revisions\/102712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geni.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}