The Beatles' ‘Across the Universe’ and Sonic Youth's ‘Tom Violence’ are among those listed
Along with 90,000 items related to the iconic artist, the collection will trace Bowie’s “creative processes as a musical innovator, cultural icon, and advocate for self-expression and reinvention”, and have been acquired by the V&A through the David Bowie Estate, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group.
It reads: “Memo for radio show — list of favourite records”, and includes tracks such as Alan Freed and His Rock ‘N’ Roll Band’s ‘Right Now Right Now’ and Jeff Beck’s ‘Beck’s Bolero’.
Bowie also included ‘Across The Universe’ by The Beatles, which he covered on his 1975 album ‘Young Americans’. Elsewhere, he also listed Little Richard’s ‘Ecclusiastics’, Roxy Music’s ‘Mother of Pearl’, ‘The Electrician’ by The Walker Brothers and ‘Tom Violence’ by Sonic Youth. Find the full list below.
Ralph Vaughan Williams – ‘Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis’
Richard Strauss – ‘Four Last Songs’
Alan Freed and His Rock ’N’ Roll Band – ‘Right Now Right Now’
Little Richard – ‘True Fine Mama’
The Hollywood Argyles – ‘Sho Know a Lot About Love’
Miles Davis – ‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’
Charles Mingus – ‘Ecclusiastics’
Jeff Beck – ‘Beck’s Bolero’
Legendary Stardust Cowboy – ‘I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship’
The Beatles – ‘Across the Universe’
Ronnie Spector – ‘Try Some, Buy Some’
Roxy Music – ‘Mother of Pearl’
Edgar Froese – ‘Epsilon in Malaysian Pale’
The Walker Brothers – ‘The Electrician’
Sonic Youth – ‘Tom Violence’
David Bowie's legendary Major Tom identity revealed after 56 yearsThe identity of David Bowie's Major Tom has been revealed for the first time after 56 years, as a handwritten synopsis for a film called Young Americans sheds new light on the character.
David Bowie's iconic fictional astronaut has long been a part of rock legend, yet his full identity has remained a mystery - until now. (Dailyrecord)
A treasure trove of 90,000 items from the late Starman singer's archive, now housed in the V&A's new East Storehouse, reveals a handwritten synopsis for a film called Young Americans that sheds new light on his identity.
The two pages of A4 paper tell the tale of "British jet-ace.....Major Tom Brough", who is involved in a scheme to fake the Moon landings. At one point, Bowie seems to reference his famous lyric from 1969's Space Oddity by writing: "Ground Control are tense and alert as Tom descends his ladder."
The proposed film - which has no relation to the 1975 album of the same name - was never produced. In Space Oddity, Major Tom's ill-fated space exploration concludes with him adrift in space after losing contact with Ground Control, the Mirror reports.
Bowie sings at the end: "Here am I floating 'round my tin can, far above the moon. Planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do."
The character reappears in 1980 in Ashes to Ashes, where Major Tom has fallen victim to drug addiction and is drifting in space. It's believed that Bowie partially based the lyrics on his own experiences with drug addiction in the 1970s.
In 2015, Major Tom makes his final appearance in Bowie's Blackstar video, depicted as a lifeless figure in an astronaut suit. This captivating new document will be accessible to all visitors when the archive opens its doors to the public on September 13.
