David Bowie says one of his biggest hits was ‘so easy’ to write and credits ‘beautiful day’ for the song

One of the all-time great songs in David Bowie‘s discography was hardly a hardship to write.

The Hunky Dory mastermind says one of the album’s biggest songs can be credited to a “beautiful day”. In turn, the song was “so easy” to write and came to Bowie rather quickly. While Hunky Dory would not sell well on release, it would soon become one of the greatest albums Bowie ever made, and is frequently featured in the conversation for his all-time best album. His run of brilliant works throughout the 1970s seemingly started here, and it’s a “beautiful day” which can be credited with giving us the song Life on Mars. Its abstract style is allegedly a riff on Frank Sinatra’s My Way, though Bowie would suggest the “middle-class ecstasy” of Life on Mars has a trip to Lewisham to thank.

He said: “This song was so easy. Being young was easy. A really beautiful day in the park, sitting on the steps of the bandstand. ‘Sailors bap-bap-bap-bap-baaa-bap.’ An anomic (not a ‘gnomic’) heroine. Middle-class ecstasy.

“I took a walk to Beckenham High Street to catch a bus to Lewisham to buy shoes and shirts but couldn’t get the riff out of my head. Jumped off two stops into the ride and more or less loped back to the house up on Southend Road.

“Workspace was a big empty room with a chaise lounge; a bargain-price art nouveau screen (‘William Morris,’ so I told anyone who asked); a huge overflowing freestanding ashtray and a grand piano. Little else.”

Just a few weeks later and Yes member Rick Wakeman was on hand to expand the piano line through the song, an iconic part of the track which the veteran pianist would perform in a touching tribute to Bowie just days after the Ashes to Ashes hitmaker died.

Bowie added: “I started working it out on the piano and had the whole lyric and melody finished by late afternoon. Nice. Rick Wakeman came over a couple of weeks later and embellished the piano part and guitarist Mick Ronson created one of his first and best string parts for this song which now has become something of a fixture in my live shows.”

It’s a nice collaboration of musical masterminds, and one of the many which came to life for Bowie. He did have to pass on a dream collaboration, though, sharing how he had wanted to work with Normal Rockwell. Due to time constraints, he had to pass on the chance to work with his hero.

Bowie said: “I really wanted Norman Rockwell to do an album cover for me. Still do. I originally wanted him for the cover of Young Americans. I got his phone number and called him up. Very quaint.

“His wife answered and I said, ‘Hello, this is David Bowie,’ and so on. I asked if he could paint the cover. His wife said in this quavering, elderly voice, ‘I’m sorry, but Norman needs at least six months for his portraits.’

“So I had to pass, but I thought the experience was lovely. What a craftsman. Too bad I don’t have the same painstaking passion. I’d rather just get my ideas out of my system as fast as I can.”