David Bowie Revealed John Lennon’s Wise Piece of Songwriting Advice

David Bowie and John Lennon were two essential stars of the 1970s. Bowie emerged as a star in the late 1960s and signaled a shift from the casual rock of The Beatles to the more glamorous rock of the 70s. Still, Lennon was an inspiration to him, and Bowie was heavily influenced by a piece of songwriting wisdom the former Beatle gave him. 

David Bowie received helpful advice for songwriting from John Lennon

Bowie was a massive fan of Lennon and was thrilled to work with him on his 1975 song “Fame”. The track was co-written by Bowie, Lennon, and Carlos Alomar. Bowie took on lead vocals for the song, with Lennon providing backing vocals and guitar. Bowie was already a household name at the time, but his collab with Lennon proved to be a massive hit, especially in the U.S., where it hit No. 1 on the charts. 

“Fame” was a perfect opportunity for Bowie to learn from Lennon, who had years of songwriting experience from his successful career. One thing Bowie learned was to start from scratch and go up. This includes starting with a sound that turns into a word and then turns into a subject. 

“You know, one often just makes sounds, and those sounds become words, and then you think, ‘Gotta word. Now out of that word, let’s create a subject and evolve that subject – things often start like that,” Bowie said via Far Out. 

In 1983, during his Serious Moonlight Tour in Australia, Bowie shared another piece of songwriting advice Lennon bestowed upon him. 

“I’ll never forget something John Lennon told me; we were talking about writing, and I had always admired the way he used to cut through so much of the bullshit, just come straight to the point with what he wanted to say,” Bowie shared. “He said: [in an uncanny John Lennon impression] ‘It’s very easy — all you have to do is say what you mean, make it rhyme and put a backbeat to it’, and I keep coming back to that principle as a writer.”

Bowie stole another quote from Lennon that he got called out for

Songwriting advice isn’t the only John Lennon quote David Bowie remembered. During his 1999 commencement speech at the Berklee College of Music, Bowie shared a hilarious quote Lennon used to say when people recognized him. 

“Towards the end of the 70s, a group of us went off to Hong Kong on a holiday and John was in, sort of, house-husband mode and wanted to show Sean [Lennon] the world,” Bowie explained. “And during one of our expeditions on the back streets a kid comes running up to him and says, ‘Are you John Lennon?’ And he said, ‘No, but I wish I had his money.’ Which I promptly stole for myself.”

However, this backfired on him when Lennon caught him using this line. 

“I was back in New York a couple of months later in Soho, downtown, and a voice pipes up in my ear, ‘Are you David Bowie?’” he added. “And I said, ‘No, but I wish I had his money.’ ‘You lying bastard. You wish you had my money.’ It was John Lennon.”