Ch-ch-changes; or Ashes to ashes

Reading Adrian's FB post last night with the news David Bowie had died came as a bolt out of the blue. David Bowie has been a musician for almost as long as I've been alive. His given name was David Jones - and it is a sign of his age that he changed his surname for the stage to Bowie so that he wouldn't be confused with David Jones of The Monkees. The Monkees (Hey, hey we're the .....) were big names in 1968 but star had burned out by 1971. By then Bowie was growing in popularity though his fame was much slower to grow than The Monkees or Beatles that were his original contemporaries.

Apparently it was Space Oddity, released in June 1969, being used as the soundtrack for coverage of moon landing that made him popular - prior to that he was definitely fringe. Not that surprising if you think that Beatles and Monkees were popular.

News today around the world has focused on his death - certainly his illness was a very well kept secret. The album release last week now seems prophetic.

My first Bowie songs that I recall are Gene Genie and of course Major Tom. What were yours?