Editing David Bowie (section)

===1974–1976: "Plastic soul" and the Thin White Duke===
[[File:David Bowie - TopPop 1974 08.png|thumb|left|alt=A man with an eyepatch playing a guitar|Bowie performing "[[Rebel Rebel]]" on ''[[TopPop]]'' in February 1974]]
Bowie moved to the US in 1974, initially staying in New York City before settling in Los Angeles.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|p=3}} ''[[Diamond Dogs]]'' (1974), parts of which found him heading towards [[Soul music|soul]] and [[funk]], was the product of two distinct ideas: a musical based on a wild future in a post-[[apocalypse|apocalyptic]] city, and setting [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' to music.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=180–183}} The album went to number one in the UK, spawning the hits "[[Rebel Rebel]]" and "[[Diamond Dogs (song)|Diamond Dogs]]", and number five in the US. The supporting [[Diamond Dogs Tour]] visited cities in North America between June and December 1974. Choreographed by [[Toni Basil]], and lavishly produced with theatrical special effects, the high-budget stage production was filmed by [[Alan Yentob]]. The resulting documentary, ''[[Cracked Actor]]'', featured a pasty and emaciated Bowie: the tour coincided with his slide from heavy [[cocaine]] use into addiction, producing severe physical debilitation, [[paranoia]] and emotional problems.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=204–205}} He later commented that the accompanying live album, ''[[David Live]]'', ought to have been titled "David Bowie Is Alive and Well and Living Only in Theory".{{sfn|Egan|2015|p=[https://archive.org/details/bowieonbowieinte0000unse/page/66/mode/2up 66]}} ''David Live'' nevertheless solidified Bowie's status as a superstar, charting at number two in the UK and number eight in the US. It also spawned a UK number ten hit in a cover of [[Eddie Floyd]]'s "[[Knock on Wood (Eddie Floyd song)|Knock on Wood]]". After a break in [[Philadelphia]], where Bowie recorded new material, the tour resumed with a new emphasis on soul.{{sfn|Sandford|1997|p=128}}

[[File:Bowie-DD-1974-3.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A man with a robe singing into a microphone|Bowie performing on the [[Diamond Dogs Tour]], July 1974]]
The fruit of the Philadelphia recording sessions was ''[[Young Americans]]'' (1975). Sandford writes, "Over the years, most British rockers had tried, one way or another, to become black-by-extension. Few had succeeded as Bowie did now."{{sfn|Sandford|1997|p=138}} The album's sound, which Bowie identified as "[[plastic soul]]", constituted a radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees.{{sfn|Carr|Murray|1981|pp=68–74}} ''Young Americans'' was a commercial success in both the US and the UK and yielded Bowie's first US number one, "[[Fame (David Bowie song)|Fame]]", a collaboration with [[John Lennon]].{{sfn|O'Leary|2015|loc=chap. 9}} A re-issue of the 1969 single "Space Oddity" became Bowie's first number-one hit in the UK a few months after "Fame" achieved the same in the US.{{sfn|Roberts|2001|p=120}} He mimed "Fame" and his November single "[[Golden Years (David Bowie song)|Golden Years]]" on the US variety show ''[[Soul Train]]'', earning him the distinction of being one of the first white artists to appear on the programme.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=565–566}} The same year, Bowie fired Defries as his manager. At the culmination of the ensuing months-long legal dispute, he watched, as described by Sandford, "millions of dollars of his future earnings being surrendered" in what were "uniquely generous terms for Defries", then "shut himself up in West 20th Street, where for a week his howls could be heard through the locked attic door."{{sfn|Sandford|1997|pp=135–136}} Michael Lippman, Bowie's lawyer during the negotiations, became his new manager, but was fired the following year.{{sfn|Sandford|1997|pp=137, 153}}

[[File:David Bowie and Cher 1975.JPG|thumb|left|alt=A man with a woman holding a microphone|Bowie performs with [[Cher]] on the variety show ''[[Cher (TV series)|Cher]]'', 1975.]]
''[[Station to Station]]'' (1976), produced by Bowie and Harry Maslin,{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=380–382}} introduced a new Bowie persona, [[the Thin White Duke]] of its [[Station to Station (song)|title track]]. Visually, the character was an extension of Thomas Jerome Newton, the extraterrestrial being he portrayed in the film ''[[The Man Who Fell to Earth]]'' the same year.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|p=238}} Developing the funk and soul of ''Young Americans'', ''Station to Station''{{'}}s synthesiser-heavy arrangements were influenced by [[Electronic music|electronic]] and German [[krautrock]].{{sfn|Carr|Murray|1981|pp=78–80}}{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=380–382}} Bowie's cocaine addiction during this period was at its peak; he often did not sleep for three to four days at a time during ''Station to Station''{{'s}} recording sessions and later said he remembered "only flashes" of its making.{{sfn|Spitz|2009|pp=259–266}} His sanity—by his own later admission—had become twisted from cocaine;{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=204–205}} he referenced the drug directly in the album's ten-minute title track.{{sfn|Wilcken|2005|pp=7–8}} The album's release was followed by a {{frac|3|1|2}}-month-long concert tour, the [[Isolar – 1976 Tour|Isolar Tour]], of Europe and North America. The core band that coalesced to record the album and tour—rhythm guitarist [[Carlos Alomar]], bassist [[George Murray (musician)|George Murray]] and drummer [[Dennis Davis]]—continued as a stable unit for the remainder of the 1970s. Bowie performed on stage as the Thin White Duke.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=566–568}}{{sfn|Carr|Murray|1981|pp=78–80}}

[[File:David Bowie 1976.jpg|thumb|alt=A man leaning against a piano holding a microphone|Bowie as [[the Thin White Duke]] at [[Maple Leaf Gardens]], Toronto, 1976]]
The tour was highly successful but mired in political controversy. Bowie was quoted as saying that "Britain could benefit from a Fascist leader", and was detained by customs on the Russian/Polish border for possessing [[Nazi]] paraphernalia.{{sfn|Buckley|2000|pp=289–291}} Matters came to a head in London in May in what became known as the "[[London Victoria station|Victoria Station]] incident". Arriving in an open-top [[Mercedes-Benz|Mercedes]] convertible, Bowie waved to the crowd in a gesture that some alleged was a [[Nazi salute]], which was captured on camera and published in ''[[NME]]''. Bowie said the photographer caught him in mid-wave.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Paytress|first=Mark|title=The Controversial Homecoming|journal=Mojo Classic|date=January 2007|issue=60 Years of Bowie|page=64}}</ref> He later blamed his pro-fascism comments and his behaviour during the period on his cocaine addiction, the character of the Thin White Duke{{sfn|Carr|Murray|1981|p=11}} and his life in Los Angeles, a city he later said "should be wiped off the face of the Earth".<ref>{{cite news|first=Angus|last=MacKinnon|title=The future isn't what it used to be David Bowie talks about loneliness, insecurity and myth. And the dangers of messing with Major Tom|url=http://www.bowiegoldenyears.com/articles/800913-nme.html|work=[[NME]]|date=13 September 1980|access-date=30 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106013020/http://www.bowiegoldenyears.com/articles/800913-nme.html|archive-date=6 January 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> He later apologised for these statements, and throughout the 1980s and 1990s criticised racism in European politics and the American music industry.<ref>{{cite news |last=Williams |first=Stereo |title=On Race, David Bowie Delved Deep into the Darkness and Came Back Human |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/on-race-david-bowie-delved-deep-into-the-darkness-and-came-back-human |url-status=live |work=[[The Daily Beast]] |date=12 January 2016 |access-date=8 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170607184703/http://www.thedailybeast.com/on-race-david-bowie-delved-deep-into-the-darkness-and-came-back-human |archive-date=7 June 2017}}</ref> Nevertheless, his comments on fascism, as well as [[Eric Clapton]]'s alcohol-fuelled denunciations of Pakistani immigrants in 1976, led to the establishment of [[Rock Against Racism]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Greene |first=Andy |title=Flashback: The Clash Rock Against Racism in 1978 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/flashback-the-clash-rock-against-racism-in-1978-20140513 |url-status=live |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=13 May 2014 |access-date=21 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180208030917/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/flashback-the-clash-rock-against-racism-in-1978-20140513 |archive-date=8 February 2018}}</ref>