Level 2 l Intermediate

Transcription

1 1 Quick quiz Do the quiz. Then, scan the article to check your answers. 1. David Bowie was... a. a British singer, songwriter and actor. b. a British painter and actor. c. an American musician and artist. 2. What do these people have in common? Ziggy Stardust the Thin White Duke 3. Put the following David Bowie albums in order of their release (one per decade). Blackstar David Bowie Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) Young Americans Black Tie White Noise 2 Key words Match the key words with the definitions below. Then, find them in the article to read them in context. The paragraph numbers are given to help you. ambition benefit breakthrough broody chart fundraising gifts go solo heyday persona single trailblazer tribute triumph 1. someone who is the first to do something or to discover something (para 2) 2. the feeling that you want very much to become successful, rich and famous (para 4) 3. start to do something alone rather than with others (para 4) 4. a time when you begin to be successful at something (para 5) 5. thinking and worrying about something a lot (para 6) 6. natural ability to do some things well (para 6) 7. a musical record with only one song or piece of music on each side (para 8) 8. a list showing the music that people have bought the most copies of in the previous week (para 10) 9. a role or character adopted by a performer (para 11) 10. a great success (para 12) 11. the period of time when a person, idea or object is most successful or popular (para 15) 12. the activity of trying to persuade people or organizations to give money for a specific purpose, especially for a charity (para 16) 13. something you do to show respect for someone (para 17) 14. an event organized to make money for people or a charity (para 20)

2 David Bowie obituary Adam Sweeting 11 January, Until the end, David Bowie, who has died of cancer, was still full of surprises. His latest album, Blackstar, appeared on his 69th birthday on 8 January 2016 and proved that he hadn t lost his gift for making dramatic statements as well as challenging, disturbing music. 2 Throughout the 1970s, Bowie was a trailblazer of musical trends and pop fashion. He became a singer-songwriter, a pioneer of glam-rock, then got into what he called plastic soul, before moving to Berlin to create innovative electronic music. His ability to mix brilliant changes of sound and image is unique in pop history. 3 Bowie was born David Robert Jones in south London. In 1953, the family moved to Kent, where David showed talent for singing and playing the recorder. Later, he studied art, music and design. 4 At 15, David formed his first band, the Kon-rads. It was clear that David s talents and ambition meant that he should go solo. David took the name Bowie to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees. 5 Bowie s first album, released in June 1967, was titled simply David Bowie. In July 1969, Bowie released Space Oddity, the song that would give him his first commercial breakthrough. Timed to coincide with the Apollo 11 moon landing, it was a top five UK hit. 6 In March 1970, Bowie married art student, Angela Barnett. The Man Who Sold the World was released in the US in late 1970 and in the UK the following year. With its daring songwriting and broody, hard-rock sound, it was the first album to really show his writing and performing gifts. The album s themes included immortality, insanity, murder and mysticism, which showed that Bowie was a songwriter who was thinking outside of pop s usual boundaries. 7 He followed it with 1972 s Hunky Dory, a mix of wordy, elaborate songwriting. It was an excellent collection that met with only moderate success but that all changed with The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars later that year. 8 This time, Bowie appeared as a science-fiction character an intergalactic glam-rock star visiting planet Earth. The hit single Starman brought instant success for the album. 9 Everything Bowie touched turned to gold. He had his first UK number 1 album with Aladdin Sane (1973), which included the hit singles The Jean Genie and Drive-in Saturday. But Bowie was already planning his next career moves. 10 His increasing interest in funk and soul music could be heard on the album Young Americans (1975), which gave him a US chart-topper with Fame (with John Lennon as a guest vocalist). 11 With the album Station to Station (1976), Bowie introduced a new persona, the Thin White Duke. This persona was the same as his role as a sad space traveller in Nicolas Roeg s film The Man Who Fell to Earth. 12 Bowie s relationship with his wife had been suffering under the pressures of success and the couple divorced in This was a year of further creative triumph, bringing a fine album, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), and its chart-topping single, Ashes to Ashes, followed by a period playing the title role in The Elephant Man on the Broadway stage. 13 He achieved a number 1 single with his 1981 partnership with Queen, Under Pressure, and became increasingly involved with different media. He appeared in the German movie Christiane F (1981) and wrote music for the soundtrack. He had another chart hit with Cat People (Putting Out Fire) from Paul Schrader s movie Cat People (1982) was the year in which he put his energy into the album Let s Dance and follow-up concerts. Let s Dance turned Bowie into a crowd-friendly global rock star, with the album and its singles Let s Dance, China Girl and Modern Love all becoming huge international hits. 15 This was the heyday of MTV and Bowie s talent for eye-catching videos increased his popularity, while the six-month Serious Moonlight tour drew massive crowds. It was to be the most commercially successful period of his career. 16 At the 1985 Live Aid famine relief concert at Wembley Stadium, Bowie was one of the best performers. In addition, that year, he teamed up with Mick Jagger to record the fundraising single Dancing in the Street, which quickly went to number A few days after his appearance at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert at Wembley Stadium in

3 April 1992, Bowie married the Somalian model Iman and the couple bought a home in New York. 18 For the album Black Tie White Noise (1993), he included elements of soul, electronica and hip hop. It topped the UK album chart and gave him a top 10 single, Jump They Say. 19 New media and technology influenced his recordings, too. His 1999 album Hours was based around music he had written for a computer game called Omikron, in which Bowie and Iman appeared as characters. The birth of Bowie and Iman s daughter, Alexandria, followed in August As an adopted New Yorker, Bowie was the opening act at the Concert for New York City in October 2001, where he joined Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, the Who and Elton John in a benefit show six weeks after the 9/11 attacks. 21 During his Reality tour in 2004, Bowie had chest pains while performing in Germany and needed emergency surgery in Hamburg. 22 He saw the medical emergency as a warning and started to slow down. In February 2006, he was given a Grammy lifetime achievement award. He was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in The Next Day (2013) was his first album of new material in a decade. It included the single Where Are We Now?, which gave him his first UK top 10 hit since The album went to the top of the charts in Britain and around the world. In 2014, Bowie was given the Brit Award for Best British Male, making him the oldest person to get the award. 24 He is survived by Iman, their daughter, Alexandria, his stepdaughter, Zulekha, and his son, Duncan, from his first marriage. 25 David Bowie (David Robert Jones), singer, songwriter and actor, born 8 January, 1947; died 10 January, 2016 Guardian News and Media 2016 First published in The Guardian, 11/01/16 3 Biographical information Answer the questions about David Bowie s life with information from the article. 1. Where was David Bowie born and in what year? 2. What was Bowie s birth name? 3. Why did he change his name? 4. What did he study at college? 5. What was the name of his first band? 6. What style of music is he most connected with? 7. How many times was he married? 8. How many children did he have?

4 4 Collocations Match the words in the left-hand column with those in the right-hand column to make expressions from the text. 1. guest 2. science-fiction 3. instant 4. dramatic 5. commercial a. statements b. vocalist c. breakthrough d. character e. success Bowie s first (1) came with the song Space Oddity in Well known for his different personas and (2), in 1972, Bowie presented himself as a (3) named Ziggy Stardust, an intergalactic glam-rock star visiting planet Earth. The song Starman brought (4) for the album titled The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. He first topped the US charts with Fame, which featured John Lennon as a (5). 6. famine 7. opening 8. hit 9. medical 10. international f. hits g. emergency h. relief i. single j. act The 1980 album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) included the (6) Ashes to Ashes. His next album Let s Dance, with its (7), turned Bowie into a crowd-friendly global rock star. He was one of the most outstanding performers at the Live Aid (8) concert at Wembley Stadium in Six weeks after the 9/11 attacks in New York, Bowie was the (9) at a benefit concert for the victims of the attack. After a (10) on stage in Germany in 2004, Bowie started to slow down and reduce his work.

5 5 Word fields a. Complete the word wheels with words from the article that the author used to describe Bowie s music and songwriting, and his styles of music. Words describing Bowie s songwriting Bowie s music styles b. Use some of the words to talk about other musicians. 6 Discussion We all know that music is strongly connected with memories. Do you connect any of Bowie s music with particular memories or periods of your life? What music do you connect with your childhood and youth? 7 Webquest See photos of some the David Bowie s key looks (including Ziggy Stardust) here: See pictures from his life and career here:

6 KEY 1 Quick quiz 1. a 2. They are personas created by David Bowie. 3. David Bowie (1967) Young Americans (1975) Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) Black Tie White Noise (1993) Blackstar (2016) 2 Key words 1. trailblazer 2. ambition 3. go solo 4. breakthrough 5. broody 6. gifts 7. single 8. chart 9. persona 10. triumph 11. heyday 12. fundraising 13. tribute 14. benefit 3 Biographical information 1. in South London; in David Robert Jones 3. to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the pop group the Monkees 4. art, music and design 5. the Kon-rads 6. glam-rock 7. twice, to Angela Barnett and to Iman 8. two of his own, Duncan and Alexandria, and a step-daughter, Zulekha 4 Collocations 1. b 2. d 3. e 4. a 5. c 1. commercial breakthrough 2. dramatic statements 3. science-fiction character 4. instant success 5. guest vocalist 6. h 7. j 8. i 9. g 10. f 6. hit single 7. international hits 8. famine relief 9. opening act 10. medical emergency 5 Word fields Bowie s songwriting: challenging, disturbing, innovative, daring, broody, wordy, elaborate Bowie s music styles: glam-rock, plastic soul, electronic, electronica, hard rock, funk, soul, hip hop