Barely Interesting Facts

Fact!
Mandolins are mentioned in two David Bowie songs. The instruments’ first name check occurs in Wild-eyed boy from Freecloud; the second in Bowie’s perfectly executed, if grandiose, rendition of Dimitri Tiomkin’s Wild is the Wind.

In a staggering coincidence, both songs contain the word ‘wild’ in their titles.

Fact!
A cocaine-fuelled Bowie was once quoted as saying ‘Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars’, making David a latter-day genocidal tyrant, who fatally underestimates Russian military strength.

Fact!
David Jones was born on a Wednesday.

Fact!
Bowie shares his birthday, the Eighth of January, with Elvis Presley, but the Burger King of Rock and Roll entered the world on a Tuesday.

Fact!
Though the ‘Duke’ and the ‘King’ never perforned a duet, collaborations with dead singers Marc Bolan, Freddie Mercury, Bing Crosby, and John Lennon do all feature in Bowie’s back-catalogue.

Fact! Bowie’s 1982 composition Cat People (Putting Out Fire) reached the top spot of the Swedish and Norwegian Charts.

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Tags: Barely Interesting facts, Bowie, Burger King of Rock and Roll, Cat People, Dimitri Tiomkin, Drive in Saturday, Elvis, freecloud, Friday on my Mind, January, Love you til Tuesday, mandolins, Monday, Norway, Sweden, Thursday's Child, Wednesday's Child, Well I might stretch it to Wednesday, Wild-eyed Boy