A handwritten note listing David Bowie’s favourite songs has been unearthed in the archive set to open at the V&A East Storehouse in Hackney Wick in London this month.
The David Bowie Centre for the Study of Performing Arts will open its doors on September 13, showcasing more than 90,000 items from the late artist’s career. The collection – drawn from the David Bowie Estate and acquired with support from the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group – promises to trace Bowie’s creative processes as a musical innovator, cultural icon, and relentless advocate for reinvention.
Alongside stage costumes, handwritten lyrics and personal artefacts, archivists have discovered a note headed “Memo for radio show – list of favourite records”. The document reveals a selection of tracks that inspired and influenced Bowie, ranging from classical works to rock ’n’ roll, avant-garde and punk.
The list includes Alan Freed and His Rock ’N’ Roll Band’s ‘Right Now Right Now’, Jeff Beck’s ‘Beck’s Bolero’, and Little Richard’s ‘True Fine Mama’. Bowie also singled out The Beatles’ ‘Across The Universe’ – a track he later covered on his 1975 album ‘Young Americans’. Other favourites include Roxy Music’s ‘Mother of Pearl’, The Walker Brothers’ brooding ‘The Electrician’, and ‘Tom Violence’ by Sonic Youth.
The full list reads:
- Ralph Vaughan Williams – ‘Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis’
- Richard Strauss – ‘Four Last Songs’
- Alan Freed and His Rock ’N’ Roll Band – ‘Right Now Right Now’
- Little Richard – ‘True Fine Mama’
- The Hollywood Argyles – ‘Sho Know a Lot About Love’
- Miles Davis – ‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’
- Charles Mingus – ‘Ecclusiastics’
- Jeff Beck – ‘Beck’s Bolero’
- Legendary Stardust Cowboy – ‘I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship’
- The Beatles – ‘Across the Universe’
- Ronnie Spector – ‘Try Some, Buy Some’
- Roxy Music – ‘Mother of Pearl’
- Edgar Froese – ‘Epsilon in Malaysian Pale’
- The Walker Brothers – ‘The Electrician’
- Sonic Youth – ‘Tom Violence’
Archivists also uncovered a handwritten list of Bowie’s “ins” and “outs” from 1995. Among the “ins” were “chaos surfing”, “no tidy endings” and “David Bowie”, while the “outs” included “religion”, “irony”, “your 15 minutes” and, intriguingly, “David Bowie” once again.
The documents were found in a room Bowie kept locked and accessible only to himself and his personal assistant. Left untouched until now, they will join the wider collection when the David Bowie Centre opens to the public later this month.
