Bowie PDF Book from JFK247

David felt compelled to include his version of
‘Across the Universe’, the song that had inspired
Lennon’s arrival in the studio. The cover version was
a horrible mess, marred by David’s warbling vocal,
the most extreme example so far of his mimicking of
Bryan Ferry and Scott Walker’s style, and an
obvious flaw that the album’s detractors would latch
onto. (Lennon was just as puzzled as everyone else:
‘ W hy that song?’ he asked May Pang.) When
‘Fame’ became David’s first US number one, the
following September, John was as delighted as
David. ‘He had that competitiveness with the others
guys [i.e. Paul McCartney] – and he thought it was
great,’ says Pang, who disappeared from John’s life
in February, as the ex-Beatle returned to Yoko and
The Dakota. May would later marry Tony Visconti,
whom she’d met at the Sherry that winter.
The excitement around the recording was one of
the few high spots in a bleak winter. Much of David’s
Christmas was spent in a coke-fuelled haze with
Tony Zanetta at the Sherry Netherlands. David had
lost his very last vestige of faith in Tony Defries, and
in all of MainMan, on 18 November, the day that the
company made its grand entrance – and its
ignominious exit – on Broadway. Fame was a
chaotic, confused comedy based on the life of
Marilyn Monroe, written by Tony Ingrassia, the
mastermind of Pork. Pork had launched the
MainMan circus; Fame, which closed after one
performance, was its death-knell, for Bowie deeply
resented the reported $250,000 that had been lost
on its production, money his hits had generated.