Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

like KSAN in San Francisco. He and Defries knew
that American radio was his way in, and blue-collar
Cleveland was isolated as the somewhat
improbable beachhead. “Changes” and “Life on
Mars?” from the previous year’s Hunky Dory were
WMMS staples already. “Suffragette City” and the
title track of Ziggy Stardust were in heavy rotation.
U.S. tour number one would launch from Ohio.
“In Cleveland we were early,” says Denny
Sanders, then a DJ at WMMS. “So as soon as
Ziggy was released, man, that audience was ready
and they were familiar with Bowie and they were
accepting of his style. And it just exploded. It was
only natural that it’d be done in Cleveland. They were
barely playing it in Boston. Boston is a hip city but it
was late when it came to David Bowie. You don’t
want to play to a half a house in a market where he’s
barely being played.”
Bowie and Angie sailed to New York City on
September 10, 1972, aboard the cruise ship Queen
Elizabeth II. They arrived one week later and this
time, like Oscar Wilde, the press was there to greet
him, along with assorted RCA executives; MainMan
staff, including road manager Leee Black Childers;
and a handful of hipper New York music fans.
Between his first American promotional tour and this
one, Bowie had developed a fear of air travel. While
morbid, it was yet another opportunity, according to
Defries, to exploit his grandeur and uniqueness. The
Bowies, it had been announced, would “sail” to the
New World in style, creating an air of great