Into That Guild Night - David Bowie Quiz

Answer: Starman

This song, Bowie's second hit after 'Space Oddity', was released in 1972. It also broke into the US Charts, topping at number 65. Q_B assures us that it's quite fun to sing until you get to the 'Outro', which is "La" sung 96 times (or "La La" sung 48 times).

Answer: He is the Goblin King.

Jareth's magic has power in the real world as well as the Labyrinth, of course; that's how the baby brother ends up needing rescue! While Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) navigates dangers and makes unlikely friends, David Bowie's Jareth is a compelling antagonist, confident and charming even in tight pants and hair that can only be described as extremely 1980s. No wonder Sarah has trouble freeing herself from his spell!

Oh, and Jareth sings! David Bowie wrote several songs in the movie, and performed all but one of them ("Chilly Down"); the soundtrack album, featuring his songs and Trevor Jones's score, reached 68 on the US Billboard 200 and 38 on the UK Albums Chart. Of Bowie's songs on this album, "Magic Dance" is by far CellarDoor's favorite, largely for its catchy chorus (with backup vocals by inquisitive goblin puppets): "You remind me of the babe." "What babe?" "The babe with the power." "What power?" "Power of voodoo." "Who do?" "You do." "Do what?" "Remind me of the babe!"

In writing this question, CellarDoor was charmed to discover that these lines are an homage to a scene in the 1947 movie "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer," in which Cary Grant tells Shirley Temple, "You remind me of a man...," with similar results.

Answer: Ziggy Stardust

"Ziggy Stardust" from "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" (1972). The Spiders from Mars were Bowie, Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder, and Mick Woodmansey - the band toured under this name for a few years. "Starman" from the album did well on the British charts and moderately well in the US. I'm a little surprised to see that "Suffragette City" and "Ziggy Stardust" were not released as A side singles at that time - "Suffragette City" was only a B side while "Ziggy" wasn't released as a single until 1976 from "Changesonebowie".

It was a concept album, following the story of bisexual rock star alien Ziggy Stardust - but not following it all that closely or coherently, to be honest. I listened to this album a lot as a teenager, and it never really occurred to me that there was actually a story there until much later.

This wasn't the first appearance of glam rock - Marc Bolan and T. Rex had hit the charts a bit earlier - but it was the first one that really made a splash in North America big enough to be heard in the rock and roll backwaters of the Canadian prairies where I grew up. To me, when I think of Bowie, this album is what I think of - "he took it all too far, but boy could he play guitar...."

This question from agony, jamming good with Weird and Gilly...

Answer: The Width of a Circle

At eight minutes and nine seconds in length, 'The Width of a Circle' is one of Bowie's longer compositions. It gained its unofficial hit status in Russia due to the fact that the song was released in that country by a fan; at that period in recent history it would have been impossible for Bowie to have been able to release his material officially behind the Iron Curtain. Because of its length, the guitar solo sequence by Mick Ronson was used to keep the crowd entertained whilst Bowie indulged himself in his many costume changes and mime routines during the early years of his career; who can forget his hypnotic mime performance imagining his character caught behind an invisible barrier that ran across the front of the stage during the Ziggy Stardust tour of 1973? Although cut down to a mere nine minutes for its release on the film 'Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - The Motion Picture' the original recorded version ran to an amazing fourteen minutes.

The song 'Speed of Life' appeared on Bowie's 1977 album 'Low'- this author's favourite Bowie album. The unusual 'TVC15' was released on the 1976 album 'StationtoStation', and the superb 'See Emily Play', a song written by Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett, was a song on his 1973 album 'Pinups'; a collection of cover versions of songs by bands that Bowie declared in its sleeve notes, had influenced him in his early career.

Question by Sister Seagull... Always swallowing his pride and puckering his lips!

Answer: The Monkees

David Bowie was born David Robert Jones and recorded his first single, "Liza Jane" under the name "Davie Jones and the King Bees." He joined a couple bands under the name Davie Jones and still found little success. Meanwhile, Davy Jones and the Monkees were becoming wildly popular. In 1967, Davie Jones decided to rename himself "David Bowie" after American frontiersman Jim Bowie and the Bowie knife he was known for. Two years later, the world began to notice with the first release of "Space Oddity".

This question brought to you by Eauhomme, a quiz maker also using a name he wasn't born with.

Answer: Kooks

In 1971 when Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones was born, David was listening to Neil Young's song and did a pastiche of his style when he heard he was a father. His son's mother Angie once said that he was basically telling the baby that if he stayed with them, he'd likely be a kook too. The song was on the album "Hunky Dory".

The lyrics begin with asking the child to give the parents a chance and then they explain the kind of family he is entering with humor and the quirks for which they were known. "Will you stay in our lovers' story? If you stay you won't be sorry". Then he takes us to the future and going to school with advice about how to deal with it. "Don't pick fights with the bullies and cads, as I'm not much cop on punching other people's dads". Duncan, as he later changed his name to his first name.

Quiz author Bruyere is a 'kook' to two children in real life who have stayed a while, and daughter of two lovely kooks.

Answer: Bing Crosby

You may be wondering how Bing Crosby released a single in 1982 when he passed away in 1977. The duet was originally recorded for Crosby's special "Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas", which was taped before the performer's death in 1977.

RCA released the single in November 1982. It rose to number three on the Billboard UK charts.

ertrum remembers watching the clip from the Crosby special in the early MTV days.

Answer: The Laughing Gnome

The "Just Say Gnome" campaign, aimed at filling the telephone line with votes for that song, even stretched as far as a limited edition T-shirt, which was about as close as you could get to a social media campaign in 1990. Bowie was quoted afterwards as saying that he did start considering playing the song on the tour, maybe in a radically different style to the original, but once he found out that the vote had been rigged by the NME he reluctantly decided he had to drop the idea.

Anyway, there's nothing wrong with The Laughing Gnome. Aged 8, and far too young to appreciate the likes of Ziggy Stardust, it was the first Bowie song I remember being aware of and it started a life-long love affair. I won't hear a word said against it...

Question compiled by solan_goose whilst listening to "Radio Gnome Invisible" by Gong.

Answer: Two first year dancing students who played the Aboriginal couple in the 'Let's Dance' video

The video to 'Let's Dance' was iconic, showing Terry Roberts and Joelene King as an Aboriginal couple attempting to assimilate into western society, only to discard it. It was filmed in Sydney and the small New South Wales town of Carinda.
Bowie told Rolling Stone magazine at the time that he wanted to make a political statement with the clip. Sadly, Terry Roberts is dead, but Joelene King outlived Bowie. At the time of the video, they were both students of Sydney's Aboriginal-Islanders Dance Theatre. To Quiz_Beagle, who submitted this question, it is one of the finest videos ever made.

Answer: Lazarus

"Blackstar" was released on January 8th, 2016, and Bowie passed away on January 10th, just 2 days later.

"Lazarus" was written for an off-broadway production that revisited the character of Thomas Jerome Newton from "The Man Who Fell to Earth". Bowie portrayed Newton in the 1976 movie, which also starred Rip Torn and Candy Clark.

The video for "Lazarus" shows Bowie in a hospital bed with his eyes covered in linen bandages with buttons for eyes as he sings the opening lines,

"Look up here, I'm in heaven
I've got scars that can't be seen
I've got drama, can't be stolen
Everybody knows me now"

The video ends with Bowie backing into a coffin-like wardrobe and pulling the door closed on himself.

This question was submitted by SilverMoonsong, who is still hoping to find Narnia through the back of her wardrobe.