Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – vocals, 12-string acoustic guitar, tenor saxophone
Mick Ronson – electric guitar, vocals
Mike Garson – piano
Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
Aynsley Dunbar – drums
Geoff MacCormack – backing vocals
Ken Fordham – baritone saxophone
Session musicians – violin, viola, cello

Written by Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein & Richard Gottehrer. Produced by David Bowie & Ken Scott.

“Sorrow” was originally recorded by The McCoys before becoming a UK hit for The Merseys in 1966. David Bowie‘s version, with Mick Ronson adapting his arrangement closely from The Merseys’ original, became the only single drawn from Pin Ups — an album of covers paying tribute to the British bands that had shaped Bowie as a teenager. It’s also notable as the only track on the album where Bowie plays 12-string guitar. The song became one of the most enduring recordings from the album; decades later, following Bowie’s death, it was the sole Pin Ups track performed at a BBC Proms tribute concert, sung by John Cale.

David Bowie – Sorrow Lyrics

With your long blonde hair and your eyes of blue
The only thing I ever got from you
Was sorrow sorrow
You acted funny
Trying to spend my money
You’re out there playing your high-class games of sorrow sorrow

You never do what you know you ought to
Something tells me you’re a Devil’s daughter
Sorrow, sorrow
Ah, ah, ah

I tried to find her
‘Cause I can’t resist her
(I tried to find her)
I never knew just how much I missed her sorrow sorrow

With your long blonde hair and your eyes of blue
The only thing I ever got from you
Was sorrow sorrow

Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh

With your long blonde hair
I couldn’t sleep last night
With your long blonde hair

Ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, oh, yeah
Ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, oh, yeah

Ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, oh, yeah

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – vocals
Pat Metheny – guitar, synthesizer
Lyle Mays – piano, keyboards, synthesizer
Steve Rodby – bass guitar
Paul Wertico – drums, percussion

Written by David Bowie, Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays. Produced by David Bowie & Pat Metheny, mixed by Bob Clearmountain, recorded 1984.

The song originated when director John Schlesinger invited Pat Metheny to score The Falcon and the Snowman, a spy drama starring Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton. Metheny wrote the theme — originally an instrumental titled “Chris” — while in Mexico City watching early filming, and Schlesinger later suggested bringing in David Bowie for a vocal version to play over the closing credits. Bowie took Metheny’s demo, added a drum machine part, kept the melody’s basic structure, and wrote an additional vocal line and lyric that Metheny has since called some of the most meaningful words he ever heard set to his music. Metheny flew with the core of his band to Bowie’s Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, to record the single. Despite the jazz pedigree of the Pat Metheny Group, Bowie biographer Chris O’Leary has noted the track is “hardly a jazz piece,” with Metheny playing a simple rhythm guitar throughout rather than any solos.

David Bowie and Pat Metheny – This Is Not America Lyrics

This is not America, sha la la la la

A little piece of you
The little peace in me
Will die (This is not a miracle)
For this is not America

Blossom fails to bloom this season
Promise not to stare
Too long (This is not America)
For this is not the miracle

There was a time
A storm that blew so pure
For this could be the biggest sky
And I could have the faintest idea

For this is not America
Sha la la la la
This is not America, no
This is not, sha la la la la

Snowman melting from the inside
Falcon spirals to the ground
(This could be the biggest sky)
So bloody red, tomorrow’s clouds

A little piece of you
The little piece in me
Will die (This could be a miracle)
For this is not America

There was a time
A wind that blew so young
For this could be the biggest sky
And I could have the faintest idea

For this is not America
Sha la la la la
This is not America, no
This is not, sha la la la

This is not America, no
This is not
This is not America, no
This is not, sha la la la

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie, Mick Jagger – vocals
Kevin Armstrong, G.E. Smith, Earl Slick – guitar
Steve Nieve – keyboards
Matthew Seligman, John “Skinny” Regan – bass guitar
Neil Conti – drums
Pedro Ortiz, Jimmy Maelen – percussion
Mac Gollehon – trumpet
Stan Harrison – alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Lenny Pickett – tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone
Helena Springs, Tessa Niles – backing vocals

Written by Marvin Gaye, William “Mickey” Stevenson & Ivy Jo Hunter (originally a 1964 Martha and the Vandellas recording). Produced by David Bowie, Alan Winstanley & Clive Langer, with additional production by Nile Rodgers, Mick Jagger, Steve Thompson & Michael Barbiero, recorded in one session on 29 June 1985 at Westside Studios, London.

The track came together while David Bowie was at Westside Studios recording his contributions to the Absolute Beginners soundtrack, using many of the same session musicians. An early Live Aid plan had called for a transatlantic duet, with Bowie performing from Wembley Stadium and Mick Jagger from JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, but the satellite delay made that unworkable, so Jagger instead flew to London to record the song in person with Bowie — reportedly completing the whole track in just two takes over about four hours. Bassist John Regan later recalled watching Jagger dance around the studio with full performance energy even during the session. Jagger ultimately performed the Live Aid set with Tina Turner instead, while this recording became a Grammy-nominated, chart-topping charity single.

David Bowie and Mick Jagger – Dancing In The Street Lyrics

[Intro: Mick Jagger, David Bowie]
Okay
Tokyo, South America, Australia, France, Germany, UK, Africa

[Verse 1: Mick Jagger, Mick Jagger & David Bowie]
Calling out around the world
Are you ready for a brand-new beat?
Summer’s here and the time is right
For dancing in the street
They’re dancing in Chicago (Dancing in the street)
Down in New Orleans (Dancing in the street)
In New York City (Dancing in the street)

[Pre-Chorus: Mick Jagger & David Bowie, David Bowie]
All we need is music, sweet music
There’ll be music everywhere
They’ll be swinging, swaying, records playing
Dancing in the street, oh

[Chorus: Mick Jagger & David Bowie]
It doesn’t matter what you wear
Just as long as you are there
So come on, every guy, grab a girl
Everywhere, around the world
They’ll be dancing
Dancing in the street (Dancing in the street)

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – lead vocals, horn arrangements
Nile Rodgers – rhythm guitar, horn arrangements
Stevie Ray Vaughan – lead guitar
Carmine Rojas – bass guitar
Erdal Kızılçay – keyboard bass
Rob Sabino – keyboards, piano
Omar Hakim – drums
Sammy Figueroa – percussion
Mac Gollehon – trumpet
Robert Aaron, Stan Harrison, Steve Elson – saxophone

Written by David Bowie. Produced by David Bowie & Nile Rodgers, engineered/mixed by Bob Clearmountain, recorded December 1982–9 January 1983 at The Power Station, New York City.

“Let’s Dance” was written at Bowie’s home in Lausanne, Switzerland, originally conceived as a sparse folk-rock piece he played for Nile Rodgers on a 12-string guitar strung with only six strings. Rodgers, initially skeptical it could work as dance music, reworked the arrangement into a funkier, more commercial direction — shifting the key, inverting the chords, and adding upstrokes with help from engineer Bob Clearmountain. The track introduced then largely unknown Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan to a mainstream audience; the two reportedly had a falling-out shortly after recording, centered on a personal dispute, and Vaughan went uncredited in the original liner notes despite his guitar work being central to the song.

David Bowie – Let’s Dance Lyrics

Ah, ah, ah, ah

(Let’s dance)
(Let’s dance)

(Let’s dance) put on your red shoes and dance the blues
(Let’s dance) to the song they’re playing on the radio
(Let’s sway) while colour lights up your face
(Let’s sway) sway through the crowd to an empty space

If you say run, I’ll run with you
And if you say hide, we’ll hide
Because my love for you would break my heart in two
If you should fall, into my arms and tremble like a flower

(Let’s dance)
(Let’s dance)

(Let’s dance) for fear your grace should fall
(Let’s dance) for fear tonight is all
(Let’s sway) you could look into my eyes
(Let’s sway) under the moonlight, this serious moonlight

And if you say run, I’ll run with you
And if you say hide, we’ll hide
Because my love for you would break my heart in two
If you should fall, into my arms and tremble like a flower

(Let’s dance)
(Let’s dance)

(Let’s dance) put on your red shoes and dance the blues
(Let’s dance) to the song we’re playing
(Let’s sway)
(Let’s sway) under the moonlight, this serious moonlight

(Let’s dance)
(Let’s)
(Let’s)
(Let’s)
(Let’s sway)
(Let’s)
Let’s dance, let’s dance, let’s dance, let’s dance, let’s dance
(Let’s dance)
Let’s sway
Let’s sway
Let’s dance, let’s dance, let’s dance, let’s dance, let’s dance
(Let’s dance)
(Let’s dance)
(Let’s dance)
(Let’s dance)

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – vocals, synthesizer
Freddie Mercury – vocals, piano, Hammond organ
Brian May – guitar
John Deacon – bass guitar
Roger Taylor – drums, vocals
David Richards – piano

Written by David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor, John Deacon & Brian May. Produced by Queen & David Bowie, recorded July and September 1981 at Mountain Studios, Montreux, Switzerland (Queen’s own studio), with final mixing at Power Station, New York.

The song grew out of pure chance: David Bowie had scheduled studio time at Mountain Studios to record “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” with Giorgio Moroder while Queen was working next door on what became Hot Space. Bowie came in initially just to add backing vocals to a different Queen track, “Cool Cat” (later scrapped), but the session turned into a loose jam that evolved out of an unfinished Queen song called “Feel Like,” written by Roger Taylor. Accounts differ on authorship of specific elements — bassist John Deacon is widely credited with the song’s instantly recognizable bass riff, though Bowie has said it already existed before he got involved, and Freddie Mercury has been credited as the primary songwriter by his own bandmates, with Bowie largely shaping the final lyrics. The mixing process was famously contentious, with Mercury and Bowie clashing fiercely over the final version. Decades later, the song’s bassline became the uncredited basis for Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby,” resulting in an out-of-court settlement that gave Queen and Bowie both compensation and a songwriting credit.

David Bowie and Queen – Under Pressure Lyrics

Mmm num ba de
Dum bum ba be
Doo buh dum ba beh beh

Pressure: pushing down on me
Pressing down on you, no man ask for
Under pressure that burns a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets

Um ba ba be
Um ba ba be
De day da
Ee day da

That’s OK

That’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends screaming
“Let me out!”

Tomorrow gets me higher
Pressure on people, people on streets

Day day de mm hm
Da da da ba ba
OK

Chippin’ around, kick my brains ’round the floor
These are the days: it never rains but it pours

Ee do ba be
Ee da ba ba ba
Um bo bo
Be lap

People on streets
Ee da de da de
People on streets
Ee da de da de da de da

It’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends screaming
“Let me out!”

Tomorrow gets me higher, higher, high!
Pressure on people, people on streets

Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence, but it don’t work
Keep coming up with love, but it’s so slashed and torn

Why, why, why!?

Love, love, love, love, love

Insanity laughs under pressure
We’re breaking

Can’t we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can’t we give love that one more chance?
Why can’t we give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love?

‘Cause love’s such an old-fashioned word
And love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night
And love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves

Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – vocals, keyboards
Chuck Hammer – Roland GR-500 guitar synthesizer
Carlos Alomar – guitar
Andy Clark – synthesizer
Roy Bittan – piano
George Murray – bass
Dennis Davis – drums
Tony Visconti – backing vocals

Written by David Bowie. Produced by David Bowie & Tony Visconti, recorded at The Power Station, New York, February 1980, and Good Earth Studios, London, April 1980. Released as the lead single from Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) on 1 August 1980 (RCA Records), becoming Bowie’s second UK No. 1 single; the album followed on 12 September 1980, also hitting No. 1 in the UK.

“Ashes to Ashes” revisits the character of Major Tom from Bowie’s earlier “Space Oddity,” placing him in a bleaker, drug-addled light years later. Its signature choir-like, synthetic texture came from Chuck Hammer, a guitarist Bowie hired after hearing him play with Lou Reed in London the year before, who layered four multi-tracked guitar synthesizers playing opposing chord inversions. The sessions happened to run alongside Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band recording The River in an adjacent studio, which is how pianist Roy Bittan ended up contributing. At the time, its accompanying video — co-directed by Bowie and David Mallet — was the most expensive music video ever made.

David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes Lyrics

Do you remember a guy that’s been
In such an early song
I’ve heard a rumour from Ground Control
Oh no, don’t say it’s true

They got a message from the Action Man
“I’m happy. Hope you’re happy, too.
I’ve loved. All I’ve needed: love.
Sordid details following.”

The shrieking of nothing is killing me
Just pictures of Jap girls in synthesis
And I ain’t got no money and I ain’t got no hair
But I’m hoping to kick but the planet is glowing

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
We know Major Tom’s a junkie
Strung out in heaven’s high
Hitting an all-time low

Time and again I tell myself
I’ll stay clean tonight
But the little green wheels are following me
Oh, no, not again

I’m stuck with a valuable friend
“I’m happy. Hope you’re happy, too.”
One flash of light
But no smoking pistol

I never done good things
I never done bad things
I never did anything out of the blue,
Want an axe to break the ice
Wanna come down right now

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
We know Major Tom’s a junkie
Strung out in heaven’s high
Hitting an all-time low

My mama said, “To get things done
You’d better not mess with Major Tom.”
My mama said, “To get things done
You’d better not mess with Major Tom.”
My mama said, “To get things done
You’d better not mess with Major Tom.”
My mama said, “To get things done
You’d better not mess with Major Tom.”

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

Written by David Bowie. Produced by David Bowie & Tony Visconti, recorded at The Power Station, New York, February 1980, and Good Earth Studios, London, April 1980.

According to co-producer Tony Visconti, “Fashion” was the last song completed during the Scary Monsters sessions, with its bassline and some of the melody drawing on Bowie’s earlier hit “Golden Years.” The track evolved out of a reggae-flavored synth part from keyboardist Andy Clark, and King Crimson’s Robert Fripp — already a key contributor to Bowie’s 1977 album “Heroes” — returned to add a series of harsh, mechanical guitar lines over the song’s funk-reggae groove. Lyrically, Bowie later said he was less interested in making a simple statement about fashion trends and more in capturing a kind of gritted-teeth determination mixed with self-doubt; biographer David Buckley has read it as a gentle jab at the posturing of the New Romantic movement. Fripp’s contributions to this album, along with “Heroes,” later became the subject of a royalty dispute with the Bowie estate over his “Featured Player” status.

David Bowie – Fashion Lyrics

There’s a brand new dance but I don’t know its name
That people from bad homes do again and again
It’s big and it’s bland, full of tension and fear
They do it over there but we don’t do it here

Fashion! Turn to the left
Fashion! Turn to the right
Ooh, fashion!
We are the goon squad and we’re coming to town
Beep-beep
Beep-beep

Listen to me – don’t listen to me
Talk to me – don’t talk to me
Dance with me – don’t dance with me, no
Beep-beep

There’s a brand new talk but it’s not very clear
That people from good homes are talking this year
It’s loud and tasteless and I’ve heard it before
You shout it while you’re dancing on the dance floor
Oh bop, fashion

Fashion! Turn to the left
Fashion! Right
Fashion!
We are the goon squad
And we’re coming to town
Beep-beep
Beep-beep

Listen to me – don’t listen to me
Talk to me – don’t talk to me
Dance with me – don’t dance with me, no
Beep-beep
Beep-beep

Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
La-la la la la la la-la
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
La-la la la la la la-la
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
La-la la la la la la-la
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion
La-la la la la la la-la

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – lead vocals, guitar, keyboards
Carlos Alomar – electric guitar
Mike Garson – piano
David Sanborn – alto saxophone
Willie Weeks – bass guitar
Andy Newmark – drums
Larry Washington – congas
Luther Vandross, Ava Cherry, Robin Clark – backing vocals

Written by David Bowie. Produced and mixed by Tony Visconti, recorded 11–18 August 1974 at Sigma Sound Studios, Philadelphia.

The title track announced David Bowie‘s turn from glam rock into what he called “plastic soul.” He assembled a band of top New York session players — Carlos Alomar, Willie Weeks, Andy Newmark, and David Sanborn — alongside conga player Larry Washington, who’d been meant to bring his whole group but ended up the only one available. The backing vocal arrangement was largely shaped by then-unknown singer Luther Vandross, who was brought in as a backing vocalist and suggested the song’s call-and-response refrain; he went on to co-write the album’s later track “Fascination” with Bowie, built from one of his own unfinished songs, “Funky Music.” The track was recorded live with the full band, with only Sanborn’s saxophone overdubbed afterward.

David Bowie – Young Americans Lyrics

They pulled in just behind the bridge
He lays her down, he frowns
“Gee, my life’s a funny thing
Am I still too young?”
He kissed her then and there
She took his ring, took his babies
It took him minutes, took her nowhere
Heaven knows, she’d have taken anything, but

(All night)
She wants the young American
(Young American, young American)
(She wants the young American)
(All right)
She wants the young American

Scanning life through the picture window
She finds the slinky vagabond
He coughs as he passes her Ford Mustang
But Heaven forbid, she’ll take anything
But the freak, and his type, all for nothing
He misses a step and cuts his hand, but
Showing nothing, he swoops like a song
She cries, “Where have all Papa’s heroes gone?”

(All night)
She wants the young American
(Young American, young American)
(She wants the young American)
(All right)
But she wants the young American

All the way from Washington
Her bread-winner begs off the bathroom floor
“We live for just these twenty years
Do we have to die for the fifty more?”

All night
He wants the young American
(Young American, young American)
(He wants the young American)
(All right) All right
He wants the young American

Do you remember, your President Nixon?
Do you remember, the bills you have to pay?
Or even yesterday?

Have you been the un-American?
Just you and your idol sing falsetto
‘Bout Leather, leather everywhere
And not a myth left from the ghetto
Well, well, well, would you carry a razor
In case, just in case of depression?
Sit on your hands on a bus of survivors
Blushing at all the Afro-Sheeners
Ain’t that close to love?
Well, ain’t that poster love?
Well, it ain’t that Barbie doll
Her heart’s been broken just like you and

(All night)
All night, you want the young American
(Young American) young American
(You want the young American) All right
All right
You want the young American

You ain’t a pimp and you ain’t a hustler
A pimp’s got a Cadi and a lady got a Chrysler
Black’s got respect, and white’s got his soul train
Mama’s got cramps, and look at your hands ache
(I heard the news today, oh boy)
I got a suite and you got defeat
Ain’t there a man who can say no more?
And ain’t there a woman I can sock on the jaw?
And, ain’t there a child I can hold without judging?
Ain’t there a pen that will write before they die?
Ain’t you proud that you’ve still got faces?
Ain’t there one damn song that can make me break down and cry?

All night
I want the young American
(Young American) young American
(I want the young American)
All right
I want the young American, young American

(Young American, young American)
(I want the young American)
(All night)
You want I, I want you
(Young American, young American)
(I want the young American)
(All right)
All I want is the young American
(Young American, young American)
(I want the young American)
(All night)

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – vocals, guitar
Alan Parker – guitar
Mike Garson – piano
Herbie Flowers – bass guitar
Tony Newman – drums, percussion

Written by David Bowie. Produced by David Bowie, recorded December 1973–January 1974 at Olympic Studios, London.

“Rebel Rebel” was originally written for a planned Ziggy Stardust musical that never came to fruition, and is widely regarded as David Bowie‘s farewell to the glam rock movement he had helped build. Guitarist Alan Parker helped Bowie work out the song’s signature riff, which Bowie himself has said was owed in part to time Keith Richards spent around him during the sessions. It was Bowie’s first hit since 1969 not to feature guitarist Mick Ronson, since Bowie played guitar on almost all of Diamond Dogs himself. A different, shorter US single mix, credited simply to “Bowie” and featuring congas from Geoff MacCormack, briefly replaced the UK version before being withdrawn; it’s cited as Bowie’s most-covered song.

David Bowie – Rebel Rebel Lyrics

Doo doo doo-doo doo doo-doo doo
Doo doo doo-doo doo doo-doo doo
Doo doo doo-doo doo doo-doo doo

You’ve got your mother in a whirl
She’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl
Hey, babe, your hair’s alright
Hey, babe, let’s go out tonight
You like me and I like it all
We like dancing and we look divine
You love bands when they’re playing hard
You want more and you want it fast

They put you down, they say I’m wrong
You tacky thing, you put them on

Rebel Rebel, you’ve torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so

Don’t ya?
Doo doo doo-doo doo doo-doo doo

You’ve got your mother in a whirl
‘Cause she’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl
Hey, babe, your hair’s alright
Hey, babe, let’s stay out tonight
You like me and I like it all
We like dancing and we look divine
You love bands when they’re playing hard
You want more and you want it fast

They put you down, they say I’m wrong
You tacky thing, you put them on

Rebel Rebel, you’ve torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so

Don’t ya?
Ooh!
Doo doo doo-doo doo doo-doo doo
Doo doo doo-doo doo doo-doo doo

Rebel Rebel, you’ve torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so (don’t ya?)

You’ve torn your dress, your face is a mess
You can’t get enough, but enough ain’t the test
You’ve got your transmission and your live wire
You got your cue line and a handful of ludes
You wanna be there when they count up the dudes
And I love your dress
You’re a juvenile success
Because your face is a mess
So how could they know?
I said, how could they know?
So what you wanna know?
Calamity’s child, chi-chi, chi-chi
Where’d you wanna go?
What can I do for you? Looks like I’ve been there too
‘Cause you’ve torn your dress
And your face is a mess
Ooh, your face is a mess
Ooh, ooh, so how could they know?
Ah, ah, how could they know?
Ah, ah

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – vocals, acoustic guitar, ARP 2600 synthesizer
Mick Ronson – electric guitar, vocals
Mike Garson – piano
Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
Woody Woodmansey – drums

Written by Mick Jagger & Keith Richards (originally recorded by the Rolling Stones in 1966). Produced by David Bowie & Ken Scott, engineered by Ken Scott & Mike Moran, recorded at Trident Studios, London, January 1973.

Bowie had long admired the Rolling Stones, and their influence runs through several of Aladdin Sane’s more rock-driven tracks, this cover among them. Where the Stones themselves had been pressured into softening the lyric to “let’s spend some time together” for their 1967 Ed Sullivan Show appearance, Bowie — recording his glam rock version some six years later — kept the original, more suggestive title and lyric intact, fitting the album’s broader preoccupation with sex and drugs. The track closes out the sequence of singles drawn from the album, following “The Jean Genie,” “Drive-In Saturday,” and “Time.”

David Bowie – Let’s Spend The Night Together Lyrics

Well, don’t you worry ’bout what’s been on my mind
I’m in no hurry, I can take my time
I’m going red and my tongue’s getting tired
Out of my head and my mouth’s getting dry
I’m h-h-h-high

Let’s spend the night together
Now I need you more than ever
Let’s spend the night together now

I feel so strong that I can’t disguise, oh my
Well, I just can’t apologise, no
Don’t hang me up but don’t let me down
We could have fun just by grooving around
And around and around

Let’s spend the night together
Now I need you more than ever
Let’s spend the night together now

Oh, you know I’m smiling baby
You need some guiding baby
I’m just deciding baby

Let’s spend the night together
Now I need you more than ever
Let’s spend the night together now

This doesn’t happen to me every day
No excuses I’ve got anyway, hey
I’ll satisfy your every need
And I know you’ll satisfy me, oh my-my-my, my-my

Let’s spend the night together
Now I need you more than ever
Let’s spend the night together
Now I need you more than ever
Let’s spend the night together
Now I need you more than ever
Let’s spend the night together

They said we were too young
Our kind of love was no fun
But our love comes from above
Do it!
Let’s make love
Hoo!

Let’s spend the night together
Now I need you more than ever
Let’s spend the night together now!

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – lead vocals
Mick Ronson – electric guitar
Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
Woody Woodmansey – drums

Written by David Bowie. Produced by David Bowie & Ken Scott, recorded at Trident Studios, London, 1972.

The title track tells the story of Ziggy Stardust, the bisexual alien rock star persona Bowie created as a messenger for extraterrestrial beings, and the song is sung from the perspective of someone recalling the character after his downfall. A demo version, recorded before the final Spiders from Mars take, later surfaced as a bonus track on the 1990 Rykodisc reissue and again on the 2002 30th-anniversary edition. David Bowie performed the song regularly across the Ziggy Stardust Tour, the 1978 Stage tour, and again during his tours in the 2000s, and it remains one of the most enduring songs of his career, later covered live by artists from Bauhaus to Nirvana.

David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust Lyrics

Now Ziggy played guitar
Jamming good with Weird and Gilly
And The Spiders from Mars
He played it left hand
But made it too far
Became the special man
Then we were Ziggy’s Band

Ziggy really sang
Screwed-up eyes and screwed-down hairdo
Like some cat from Japan
He could lick ’em by smiling
He could leave ’em to hang
He came on so loaded, man,
Well-hung, snow-white tan

So where were the spiders
While the fly tried to break our balls?
Just the beer light to guide us
So we bitched about his fans
And should we crush his sweet hands?
Oh yeah

Ziggy played for time
Jiving us that we were Voodoo
The kids was just crass
He was the naz
With God-given ass
He took it all too far
But boy, could he play guitar

Making love with his ego
Ziggy sucked up into his mind (ah)
Like a leper messiah
When the kids had killed a man
I had to break up the band

Ziggy played guitar

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – lead vocals, 12-string acoustic guitar, saxophone, string arrangement
Mick Ronson – electric guitar
Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
Woody Woodmansey – drums
Unknown brass/string section – strings, two trumpets, two trombones, two tenor saxophones, baritone saxophone

Written by David Bowie. Produced by David Bowie & Ken Scott, recorded at Trident Studios, London, 4 February 1972.

“Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” closes out the Ziggy Stardust album by detailing the character’s final collapse as a burnt-out rock star, and it correspondingly served as the closing number of the Ziggy Stardust live show. David Bowie cited James Brown’s “Try Me” and “Lost Someone” as loose inspirations. At the final Ziggy Stardust concert, held on 3 July 1973 at the Hammersmith Odeon, Bowie preceded the song by announcing “This is the last show we’ll ever do” — a line later understood as the retirement of the Ziggy persona, caught on film in D.A. Pennebaker’s Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture.

David Bowie – Rock’n Roll Suicide Lyrics

Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth
You pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette
The wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, then you forget
Oh oh, oh, oh, you’re a rock ‘n’ roll suicide

You’re too old to lose it, too young to choose it
And the clock waits so patiently on your song
You walk past a cafe but you don’t eat when you’ve lived too long
Oh, no, no, no, you’re a rock ‘n’ roll suicide

Chev brakes are snarling as you stumble across the road
But the day breaks instead so you hurry home
Don’t let the sun blast your shadow
Don’t let the milk float ride your mind
You’re so natural – religiously unkind

Oh no, love! You’re not alone
You’re watching yourself but you’re too unfair
You got your head all tangled up
But if I could only make you care
Oh no, love! You’re not alone
No matter what or who you’ve been
No matter when or where you’ve seen
All the knives seem to lacerate your brain
I’ve had my share, I’ll help you with the pain
You’re not alone!

Just turn on with me and you’re not alone
Let’s turn on and be not alone (wonderful)
Gimme your hands ’cause you’re wonderful (wonderful)
Gimme your hands ’cause you’re wonderful (wonderful)
Oh, gimme your hands

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – vocals, acoustic guitar
Mick Ronson – electric guitar, piano, ARP synthesizer
Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
Woody Woodmansey – drums

Written by David Bowie. Produced by Ken Scott & David Bowie, recorded at Trident Studios, London, 4 February 1972, toward the end of the Ziggy Stardust sessions.

“Suffragette City” features a piano riff drawing on Little Richard, along with a lyrical nod to Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange (the word “droogie”) and the sing-along hook that closes the song. David Bowie had originally offered the track to Mott the Hoople, a band he admired, on the condition that they abandon plans to split up — Mott’s Dale Griffin later recalled getting Bowie’s phone number from a demo tape of the song, though the band ultimately turned it down.

David Bowie – Suffragette City Lyrics

(Hey man) Oh, leave me alone, you know
(Hey man) Oh, Henry, get off the phone, I gotta
(Hey man) I gotta straighten my face
This mellow-thighed chick just put my spine out of place
(Hey man) My schooldays insane
(Hey man) My work’s down the drain
(Hey man) Well, she’s a total blam-blam
She said she had to squeeze it but she, and then she

Oh, don’t lean on me, man, ’cause you can’t afford the ticket
Back from Suffragette City
Oh, don’t lean on me, man, ’cause you ain’t got time to check it
You know my Suffragette City
Is outta sight
She’s all right

(Hey, man) Oh, Henry, don’t be unkind, go away
(Hey, man) I can’t take you this time, no way
(Hey, man) Dear droogie, don’t crash here
There’s only room for one and here she comes, here she comes

Oh, don’t lean on me, man, ’cause you can’t afford the ticket
Back from Suffragette City
Oh, don’t lean on me, man, ’cause you ain’t got time to check it
You know my Suffragette City
Is outta sight
She’s all right
Oh, hit me

Oh, don’t lean on me, man, ’cause you can’t afford the ticket
Back from Suffragette City
Oh, don’t lean on me, man, ’cause you ain’t got time to check it
You know my Suffragette City
Don’t lean on me, man, ’cause you can’t afford the ticket
Back from Suffragette City
And don’t lean on me, man, ’cause you ain’t got time to check it
You know my Suffragette City
Is outta sight
Whoa, she’s all right

A Suffragette City
A Suffragette City
I’m back on Suffragette City
I’m back on Suffragette City
Whoa, Suffragette City
Ooh, Suffragette City
Ooh-how, Suffragette City
Ooh-how, Suffragette City
Ooh-how, Suffragette
Oh, wham, bam, thank you, ma’am!
A Suffragette City
A Suffragette City
Quite all right
A Suffragette City
Too fine
A Suffragette City
Ooh, a Suffragette City
Oh, my Suffragette City
Oh, my Suffragette City
Oh, Suffragette
Suffragette!

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – lead vocals, guitar, harmonica
Mick Ronson – electric guitar, backing vocals
Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
Mick “Woody” Woodmansey – drums, tambourine, maracas

Written by David Bowie. Produced by Ken Scott & David Bowie, recorded at RCA Studios, New York City, 6–7 October 1972.

The song’s central riff came from Mick Ronson, who began playing it on his new Gibson Les Paul during a jam at the back of the Spiders from Mars’ tour bus between Cleveland and Memphis, under the working title “Bussin’.” David Bowie has said he wrote the lyrics that same autumn in New York for the amusement of Cyrinda Foxe, a Warhol-scene actress who later appeared in the song’s music video. Bowie described the song as a “smorgasbord of imagined Americana” built loosely around an Iggy Pop-type persona, with the title doubling as a pun on French writer Jean Genet. It was the first track recorded for Aladdin Sane and became Bowie’s second Top 3 UK hit in a row.

David Bowie – The Jean Genie Lyrics

A small Jean Genie snuck off to the city
Strung out on lasers and slash back blazers
And ate all your razors while pulling the waiters
Talking ’bout Monroe and walking on Snow White
New York’s a go-go and everything tastes nice
Poor little Greenie
Woo-hoo

(Get back one)

The Jean Genie lives on his back
The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks
(The Jean Genie) he’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls
The Jean Genie, let yourself go, oh

Sits like a man, but he smiles like a reptile
She loves him, she loves him, but just for a short while
She’ll scratch in the sand, won’t let go his hand
He says he’s a beautician and sells you nutrition
And keeps all your dead hair for making up underwear
Poor little Greenie

The Jean Genie lives on his back
The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks
(The Jean Genie) he’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls
The Jean Genie, let yourself go, whoa-oh

He’s so simple minded, he can’t drive his module
He bites on the neon and sleeps in the capsule
Loves to be loved
Loves to be loved

Woo-hoo
Woo-hoo

Oh, the Jean Genie lives on his back
The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks
(The Jean Genie) he’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls
The Jean Genie, let yourself go, oh
Go
Go

The Jean Genie lives on his back
The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks
(The Jean Genie) he’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls
The Jean Genie, let yourself go, oh
Go
Go, go

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – vocals, acoustic guitar
Mick Ronson – electric guitar
Tony Visconti – bass guitar, backing vocals
Woody Woodmansey – drums, percussion

Written by David Bowie. Produced by Tony Visconti.

The track is built around a circular, repeating electric guitar riff from Mick Ronson, with David Bowie‘s acoustic guitar laid underneath. Tony Visconti has said his melodic bassline was worked out alongside Ronson’s riff against Bowie’s simple chord structure, and that the three of them, along with Woody Woodmansey, functioned almost like a self-contained band during the sessions, having just met Ronson during mixing for the earlier Space Oddity album. The record marked the first appearance of future Spiders from Mars members Ronson and Woodmansey on a Bowie album, and despite producing no hit singles at the time, it’s widely regarded as the true start of Bowie’s classic creative period.

David Bowie – The Man Who Sold The World Lyrics

We passed upon the stair
We spoke of was and when
Although I wasn’t there
He said I was his friend
Which came as some surprise
I spoke into his eyes, “I thought you died alone
A long long time ago”

Oh no, not me
I never lost control
You’re face to face
With the man who sold the world

I laughed and shook his hand
And made my way back home
I searched for form and land
For years and years I roamed
I gazed a gazeless stare
At all the millions here
We must have died alone
A long long time ago

Who knows? Not me
We never lost control
You’re face to face
With the man who sold the world
Who knows? Not me
We never lost control
You’re face to face
With the man who sold the world

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – lead vocals, 12-string acoustic guitar, Stylophone
Mick Wayne – electric guitar
Herbie Flowers – bass
Terry Cox – drums
Rick Wakeman – Mellotron
Paul Buckmaster – orchestral arranger (8 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 2 arco basses, 2 flutes, organ)

Written by David Bowie. Produced by Gus Dudgeon (produced separately from the rest of the album, which was produced by Tony Visconti), recorded at Trident Studios, London, June 1969.

Notably, Tony Visconti, who produced the rest of the album, initially refused to work on “Space Oddity” itself, dismissing it as a novelty cash-in on the upcoming Apollo 11 moon landing. He handed production duties to engineer Gus Dudgeon, who mapped out the arrangement in painstaking detail with Paul Buckmaster, despite being unable to read music. Mercury rushed the single out just five days before the actual Apollo 11 launch, and it became Bowie’s first UK hit. Bowie later credited Marc Bolan with the idea to add the distinctive Stylophone part. Visconti would go on to say he regretted turning the song down once he heard Dudgeon’s finished production.

David Bowie – Space Oddity Lyrics

Ground Control to Major Tom
Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on

(Ten)
Ground Control
(Nine)
To Major Tom
(Eight, seven, six)
Commencing countdown
(Five)
Engines on
(Four, three, two)
Check ignition
(One)
And may God’s love
(Lift-off)
Be with you

This is Ground Control to Major Tom
You’ve really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it’s time to leave the capsule if you dare

This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today

For here am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do

Though I’m past one hundred thousand miles
I’m feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much
She knows

Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit’s dead, there’s something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you he—

Here am I floating ’round my tin can
Far above the Moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.

Artists

Musicians featured in this piece are:

David Bowie – lead vocals, 12-string acoustic guitar, Stylophone
Mick Wayne – electric guitar
Herbie Flowers – bass
Terry Cox – drums
Rick Wakeman – Mellotron
Paul Buckmaster – orchestral arranger (8 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 2 arco basses, 2 flutes, organ)

Written by David Bowie. Produced by Gus Dudgeon (produced separately from the rest of the album, which was produced by Tony Visconti), recorded at Trident Studios, London, June 1969. Released as a single on 11 July 1969 (Philips/Mercury Records) and as the opening track of the album David Bowie, also known as Space Oddity (November 1969); reached #5 on the UK Singles Chart.

Notably, Tony Visconti, who produced the rest of the album, initially refused to work on “Space Oddity” itself, dismissing it as a novelty cash-in on the upcoming Apollo 11 moon landing. He handed production duties to engineer Gus Dudgeon, who mapped out the arrangement in painstaking detail with Paul Buckmaster, despite being unable to read music. Mercury rushed the single out just five days before the actual Apollo 11 launch, and it became Bowie’s first UK hit.

David Bowie – Space Oddity Lyrics

Ground Control to Major Tom
Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on

(Ten)
Ground Control
(Nine)
To Major Tom
(Eight, seven, six)
Commencing countdown
(Five)
Engines on
(Four, three, two)
Check ignition
(One)
And may God’s love
(Lift-off)
Be with you

This is Ground Control to Major Tom
You’ve really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it’s time to leave the capsule if you dare

This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today

For here am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do

Though I’m past one hundred thousand miles
I’m feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much
She knows

Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit’s dead, there’s something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you he—

Here am I floating ’round my tin can
Far above the Moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do

To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 12 program and the full program, click here.