As David Bowie makes his glorious comeback, today's Guardian features friends and acquaintances talking about the man who was born David Jones.
Artist George Underwood is a life-long friend of David Bowie, they met when they were just nine years of age. They both enrolled for St Mary's boy scouts in Bromley.
"Even then he'd go in and out of things quickly: skiffle, hairstyles, " recalls Underwood, in today's edition of The Guardian.
"When we formed the King Bees, he wrote to John Bloom, the Richard Branson of his time, saying, "Brian Epstein's got the Beatles. You need us." Anyone who's got the guts to do that isn't going to worry about dressing up as Ziggy Stardust."
Jean Genie, one of Bowie's biggest hits came about simply as a derivative from the name Jean Genet, the French writer and jailbird.
Underwood was strumming this John Lee Hooker riff on a bus when David said, "Pass the guitar over here." He reworked the riff and thus came about this timeless tune, with its hooky, hard-edged and repetitive drive.
"He's an emotional, passionate person who put everything into the music, " says Underwood. "I've seen him in the studio burst out crying after finishing a song – Life On Mars springs to mind. After some gigs, he'd say, "The audience were a bit quiet." I'd say, "David, they're staring at you with their mouths open."
Geoff MacCormack, another friend of long standing also talks to The Guardian. "David is a too-far person, " says McCormack. "He doesn't drink any more because he took that too far. He lives a very clean life now, but I'm sure he's obsessing about something else. When he moved to Switzerland for a while he started skiing. I remember thinking, "Bowie? Skiing?!"
