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Buy 2 or more classes at the same time and save 25% off the total.

David Bowie: Glam Rock’s Starman

Save 25% when purchasing this with other classes from this semester.

$95.00

Instructor: Richie Unterberger
Thursdays, April 10, 17, 24, May 1, 8 and 15
3:00 to 5:00 PM – East Rec Center
6-week session. Cost: $95

Course Description:
David Bowie defined British glam rock by combining an ever-changing extraterrestrial visual image with flashy hard rock, introspective songwriting, soul, electronic experimentation, and more. This course highlights his peak fifteen years of his creativity between the late 1960s and early 1980s, the historical commentary amplified with both common and rare video and audio clips.

Course Details:
David Bowie defined British glam rock by combining an ever-changing extraterrestrial visual image with flashy hard rock, introspective songwriting, soul, electronic experimentation, and more. After “Space Oddity” marked him as a singer and songwriter determined to explore exotic territory, he rose to stardom with his Ziggy Stardust character. Then he moved into soul and eerie futurism with songs like “Young Americans” and “Heroes” before his biggest smash with 1983’s “Let’s Dance.” This course highlights his peak fifteen years of his creativity between the late 1960s and early 1980s, the historical commentary amplified with both common and rare video and audio clips.

Week One:

  • David Bowie in the Beginning: The Mid-1960s
  • Bowie in the Late 1960s

Week Two:

  • “Space Oddity” and the Second Album
  • The Man Who Sold the World Album
  • Hunky Dory Album

Week Three:

  • Ziggy Stardust Album
  • Alladin Sane Album and Brief Retirement
  • Pin-Ups and Diamond Dogs Albums

Week Four:

  • The Blue-eyed Soul Period
  • Station to Station Album and The Man Who Fell to Earth Film

Week Five:

  • The Berlin Period
  • Lodger Album and the end of the 1970s

Week Six:

  • The Early 1980s
  • Post-Early-1980s and Bowie’s Legacy

Instructor Biography:
Richie Unterberger is the author of numerous rock history books, including volumes on the Beatles, the Who, the Velvet Underground, and Bob Marley. His book The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film won a 2007 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. His latest book, San Francisco: Portrait of a City, was published by Taschen in 2022. He gives regular presentations on rock and soul history throughout the Bay Area incorporating rare vintage film clips and audio recordings, at public libraries and other venues.