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Brendan O'Toole Writing Seminar II Analysis Essay Instructor: Ms. Olding October 9, 2013 Analysis Essay In this Analysis Essay I will be analyzing the famous artist, David Bowie. I will briefly summarize and discuss Bowies musical life, connect his music and inspirations to the three common themes of Glam Rock, sexual exploration, drug exploration and self exploration; and lastly discuss and analyze two of my favorite David Bowies songs. First is Space Oddity or Ground Control to Major Tom by David Bowie from the Best of Bowie Album, and secondly Golden Years by David Bowie from The Best of Bowie Album. David Robert Jones, also known as David Bowie (his stage/preforming name) was born in January 1947 in London, England. Throughout the years David Bowie wasnt just a singer but also a songwriter, actor and producer. He caught the public eye when his song Space Oddity hit the tops of the UK Single Charts. In the mid-1970s David Bowie received his first major crossover from the UK to the United States with his song single Fame. However, in November 1975 David Bowie wrote and produced the single Golden Years and then released the full version of the song a few months later in January. Golden Years reached the within the top 10 song in both the United Sates and in the United Kingdom for several months. (Wikipedia)

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Space Oddity or Ground Control to Major Tom from the Best of Bowie Album, but originally a single was written and performed by the artist David Bowie and was released in 1969 according to there Wikipedia page. This very interesting song describes a story of an astronaut named Major Tom and his experience that he is having while floating in space. When I listen to this song and attempt analyze where David Bowie was coming from when he was writing it, I find that to me the only influence that comes to my mind to cause David Bowie to have this come to his mind is that he was high on some type of drug. Which is one of the three inspirational common themes that are found in Glam Rock. (Wikipedia) When just reading the lyrics on its own, I get a feeling that the song is somewhat describing a moment that David Bowie was having while he was tripping on a drug. For example, in the beginning of the song he begins a countdown from ten too one and in the song its describing the countdown of a spaceship taking off. However, I see it as a moment when David Bowie took a drug and is counting down the time till the drug takes effect and causes him to become high because at the end of the countdown he sings blast off. However another example that still brings me to the conclusion of a high influence of drugs on the song is that when David Bowie describes himself floating in space in an unusual way, which I believe describes the type of high he is receiving from the drug. Lastly, near the end of the song, David Bowie sings about how the astronaut is losing communication with ground control and that he says that he loves his wife and how there is something going wrong. This tells me that he is also sing about a near death overdose of drugs. (LyricsFreak)

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Golden Years by David Bowie from The Best of Bowie album, and also featured in the motion picture A Knights Tale has been one of my favorite song ever since I heard it the first time. Personally, the song Golden Years is telling a story of all three common themes of the Glam Rock influence, sexual exploration, drug exploration and exploration of self. First, the sexual exploration influence is found where David Bowie is singing about how the night before people loved a specific person and did kind jesters towards them and then sings about how you should never look back at the past and that you should walk tall, act fine. This to me seems that they did something against the norm and people were going to judge them and they should care what happened and never reflect upon it again negatively. Secondly, the drug exploration was clearly a major influence on this song due to that he was at his peak of his addiction to cocaine, this is clearly reflected by not just the song title, but also in the lyrics where he sings Ill stick with you baby for a thousand years. (LyricsFreak) Lastly, the influence of self-exploration is found throughout the entire song, I believe. David Bowie clearly sings about the golden years of his life and how he developed into the man he was. The lyrics In walked luck and you looked in time, Never look back, walk tall, act fine describe a situation that hes been involved in and how he isnt letting the norm drag him down and stop him from doing the mission that he set for himself which was to become the best, most popular and uniqueness artist. (YouTube) In conclusion the artist David Bowie was influenced by all three common themes of Glam Rock, sexual exploration, drug exploration and self-exploration. At least one of these themes is shown in these two songs Space Oddity or Ground Control to Major Tom and Golden Years. Drugs influenced space Oddity or Ground Control to Major

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Tom; where as Golden Years was influenced by all three, sexual exploration, drug exploration and finally self-exploration. David Bowie is one of the most unique Glam Rock artists of all time, who was so influenced by the three common themes of Glam Rock and other artists before him; helped lead the Glam Rock movement to help inspire many others.

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Bibliography Citation Page "Golden Years Lyrics." - David Bowie. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. "Space Oddity Lyrics." - David Bowie. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. "AllMusic." AllMusic. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. "David Bowie." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.

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Brendan O'Toole Writing Seminar II Analysis Essay Revisions Instructor: Ms. Olding November 6, 2013 Analysis Essay Revisions During the time that I spent on revisions for my Analysis Essay I looked at five main things first, if I had a clear understanding of song, secondly in-depth analysis of songs, thirdly in-depth analysis of the common Glam Rock core themes, forth an accurate biographical information with proper citations and lastly grammar. Looking back on the clear understanding of the songs I realized that I could have spent more time on interpreting the meaning of the lyrics and listening to the song. Which helps go along with the in-depth analysis of songs concerning the glam rock movement, I should have look into the three common influences of Glam Rock to help describe the impact the artist and there song made on the Glam Rock culture. After meeting with you this past week and having you explain exactly how you were wanting us to have accurate biographical information with proper citation, allowed me to thoroughly read through the analysis and properly execute in-text citations, clear seen above. I realize now that not only just having myself read over the entire essay that I should have others also read over it and bring it to the writing center to have a fresh pair of eye reading and looking for grammatical errors.

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