She said she tried Heroes and a couple of others, but it was Life On Mars? that "hit the spot".įashion! - David Bowie in action in 1987 ( Fashion! David Bowie in 1987)īlasko, like Dempsey, is renowned for being a great interpreter of other people's songs - check out her covers of Cold Chisel's Flame Trees or Crowded House's Don't Dream It's Over - but her triple j performance of Life On Mars?, less than a week after Bowie's death, hit her differently.
"I was really honoured to do that it was a difficult decision of what David Bowie song I was going to do," Blasko said, admitting the choice "caused a slight amount of panic". In the days following his death, she was approached by triple j to perform a tribute to the legendary artist.
When Bowie died in 2016, Dempsey could not bring himself to listen to any of Bowie's music - least of all the Blackstar album, which came out just two days before Bowie's death and is viewed as his farewell gift to fans.įor fellow singer-songwriter Sarah Blasko, there was no avoiding Bowie's music. "So you're just kind of chatting away with this lovely, nice person, and it's not quite clicking, who you're talking to, and then it's only 20 minutes later, you kind of go, 'Shit, I was just talking to David Bowie'." 'But her friend is nowhere to be seen…' "We didn't expect that … we didn't even expect necessarily that we'd get to meet him. But he was so friendly … he was so normal. "I think my strongest memories of the tour are actually just the soundchecks when everyone was relaxed and hanging out and chatting, and David himself was just so friendly and welcoming to us. "The version he did was just him and Mike Garson … so it was really stripped back, almost a slightly cabaret version of the song, and it was just stunning," Dempsey said. "I remember leaving and saying to a couple of friends that I met that evening in a local pub that I'd just played on the best song that I'd ever had the privilege to work on," Wakeman said.ĭavid Bowie died at the age of 69 in 2016, and is considered to be one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Two days after Bowie's death, Wakeman appeared on BBC Radio 2 to perform an instrumental version of the song and recollect its recording. Wakeman would go on to be a key member of prog-rock band Yes, and the piano would go on to feature on Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and numerous Queen albums (although not Bohemian Rhapsody, despite what some people on the internet claim). On piano was Rick Wakeman, who recorded his parts on the same piano The Beatles used to record Hey Jude. The song was recorded in August 1971, with the core musicians being future members of Bowie's famed Spiders Of Mars line-up - Mick Ronson on guitar (he also wrote the string parts), Trevor Bolder on bass, and Mick 'Woody' Woodmansey on drums. Musically, both songs have a bass line that steps down a semi-tone through the verse, although Life On Mars? flips this idea in different ways by changing keys and going up in semi-tones in the pre-chorus.īowie even acknowledged the "revenge trip" in his own oblique way on the back of the Hunky Dory album - next to the tracklisting for Life On Mars? a handwritten scrawl reads "Inspired by Frankie". 5.In the wake of Bowie's death in 2016, the song was performed as a tribute by musicians including Rick Wakeman, Lorde, Sarah Blasko, Coldplay, Sinead O'Connor, and Aurora, as well as a church organ version from St Alban's Cathedral in the UK that went viral.4.The song reached #3 on the UK charts and #67 in Australia.3.Released on Bowie's 1971 album Hunky Dory, Life On Mars? was not released as a single until 1973 to cash in on the success of his 1972 album Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.2.Rick Wakeman's piano parts were recorded on the same piano Paul McCartney used to record The Beatles' Hey Jude.1.David Bowie's epic song Life On Mars? was recorded in August 1971.
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