Why David Bowie Admired John Lennon’s Songwriting

Many artists have been inspired by the Beatles and its individual members. Among that list is David Bowie. Bowie once expressed his affection for John Lennon’s songwriting. He called it “really strong” and “muscular,” amongst other things. Find out why Bowie admired Lennon’s artistry (and, by extension, the man himself) below.

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Why David Bowie Admired John Lennon’s Songwriting

We can all be our own worst critic. For all his success, Bowie thought his act was full of pretension. So much so, that he credited himself as a bad influence on others in the music industry. According to him, pretension was spreading and he was case No. 1.

Lennon, on the other hand, was as unaffected as someone can be–according to Bowie anyway. He found the former Beatle to be a breath of fresh air in an industry clogged by his own schtick. In an effort to be more like Lennon, Bowie once took a piece of advice to heart.

“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 once said. “He said: ‘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.”

You can hear that principle in much of Lennon’s music. He rarely pulled his punches, even when his truth was uncomfortable. Moreover, his songwriting was often simple, which allowed room for his candid lyrics to breath.

That’s not the only time Bowie extended praise Lennon’s way. He further gushed about his songwriting elsewhere saying, “Lennon I really dug, I thought his writing was really strong, muscular.”

“It was just a joy to work with him in the studio that one time,” he continued. “It was like every British kid’s dream. I first met John at Elizabeth Taylor’s party and we got together and we got on very well. When I was in New York, I’d always knock around with him. He was probably one of the brightest, quickest-witted earnestly socialist men I’ve ever met in my life.”

While Bowie spoke extensively about his love of Lennon’s songwriting, Bowie also admired the Beatle as a person.

“Socialist in true definition, not in a fabricated political sense, but a real humanist,” he once said. “And a really spiteful sense of humor, which of course being English, I adored. I just thought we’d be buddies forever and get on better and better and all that, you know, fantasy.”

Photo by Steve Back/Daily Mail/Shutterstock