His first flirtation with fame came in 1969 when his single Space Oddity was released to coincide with the first moon landing. A failure first time out, along with his first two albums, it later became a UK hit record. His first notable album, The Man Who Sold The World (1970), rejected the acoustic guitar sound of Oddity replacing it with the [heavy rock]? backing provided by long-term collaborator Mick Ronson. (The title track provided an unlikely hit for UK pop singer Lulu?, and would later be recorded by Kurt Cobain's Nirvana.) His next record, Hunky Dory (1971), saw the partial return of the fey pop singer of Oddity, with light fare such as the droll "Kooks" and "Oh You Pretty Things" sitting along side the verbose philosophising of "The Bewlay Brothers". Lyrically, Bowie also took the time to pay tribute to some of his influences, on "Song for Bob Dylan", "Andy Warhol" and "Queen Bitch" (dedicated to The Velvet Underground). Supported by another hit single in "Life On Mars", Hunky Dory sold tremendously well and lifted Bowie into first rank of stars (in an 18 month period in 1972 and '73 he would have four top 10 albums and eight top ten singles in the UK).
The cover of first of these albums, on which Bowie is seen reclining in a dress, was an early indication of his interest in expoloiting his androgynous looks in his appearance. This would be taken further with his next record, the seminal Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Ziggy Stardust (as it is widely known) was a concept album concerning the career of an extraterrestrial rock singer. Bowie took the character to extreme ends, touring and giving press conferences as Ziggy before finally killing the character onstage in 1973. More importantly, the record contained some of Bowie's best work, much of it a reaction to his own fame and the difference between his beliefs and the reality of stardom. These themes were further explored, with the same musicians, on 1973's Aladdin Sane, a further concept work about the disintegration of society, which included the hit "Jean Genie".
After Pin Ups, a weak collection of cover versions of 1960s hits, came Diamond Dogs, another ambitious album with some spoken-word passages and with a song-cycle about a fascist state based (loosely) on George Orwell's 1984.
In 1975 came the first of Bowie re-inventions of his image. Having taken the genderless-alien-cum-rock-star to (and possibly beyond) its limit, including the lead role in [Nic Roeg]?'s film "The Man Who Fell To Earth". Rejecting the [glam rock]? trappings and, with Young Americans, became a consummate soul? musician, based largely around the then-popular "Sound Of Philadelphia", with backing from the youthful [Luther Vandross]?. This soul persona would gain a name ("The Thin White Duke") on 1976's Station To Station. By then Bowie was heavily dependent on drugs, especially cocaine, and had become notorious for a supposed fascist salute given at London's Victoria Station. Many have attributed the chopped rhythms and emotionless sheen of the record to the influence of the drug. This brittle sound was a precursor to that found on Low, the first of three recorded in Berlin with the assistance of Brian Eno. Heavily influenced by the Krautrock sound of Kraftwerk et al., the new songs were relatively simple, repetitive and stripped, a clear and typically perverse reaction to punk rock, with the second side wholly instrumental. (By way of tribute, proto-punk Nick Lowe recorded an EP entitled "Bowi".)
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