In the last week we’ve learned that David Bowie left behind notes about a musical he was working on set in 18th century London. There’s also something else he left behind on bits of paper — a list of his favorite songs.
Like the notes on the musical, this list was also found among his possessions that were purchased by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
Titled “Memo for radio show — list of favourite records,” he lists 15 artists and songs, and, like Bowie himself, it’s a very eclectic list with names you know such as The Beatles, Jeff Beck and Roxy Music, along with some you may not know like Ralph Vaughan Williams, Edgar Froes, and Richard Strauss.
- 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”
And Bowie liked to keep lists as there was another one titled “ins” and “outs” which was written in 1995. Among the “ins” were “chaos surfing,” “no tidy endings,” “reasonable cybernetic systems,” “ennui” and “David Bowie.” In the “outs” section were “post-modernism,” “religion,” “irony,” “your 15 minutes” and “David Bowie.”
He also had a list of 25 favorite albums and 100 favorite books, which included George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.
The notes will be on display when the David Bowie Centre opens at the V&A East Storehouse in London on September 13th. Nile Rodgers, who produced two of Bowie’s albums, has curated some of the exhibitions.
Bowie died from liver cancer on January 10th, 2016. He was 69.
