Fame (David Bowie Song) - Song Development

Song Development

With the Young Americans sessions mostly concluded in late 1974, the material was delayed while Bowie extricated himself from his contract with manager Tony Defries. During this time he was staying in New York, and met John Lennon. The pair rocked out together, which led to a one-day session at Electric Lady Studios in January 1975. There, Bowie contacted several members of his tour band. First a cover of The Beatles’ "Across the Universe" was recorded. Then a new song called "Fame", inspired by a guitar riff written by Carlos Alomar and with the title from Lennon, was then hurriedly developed by Bowie, and recorded. Both tracks were then added to the Young Americans album. Despite having only a minor contribution, Lennon was given a co-writing credit due to the lyrics (bemoaning the nature of celebrity) being inspired by conversations he had with Bowie on the subject, and because Bowie acknowledged that Lennon singing "Fame!" over Alomar’s guitar riff was the catalyst for the song. The songwriting credit list order is David Bowie, Carlos Alomar, and John Lennon. Lennon's voice is also heard singing the repeated words "FAME, FAME, FAME" with his voice heard at a fast, normal, and slow playback speeds, until Bowie's voice is heard singing the final lyrics of the song before the fade.

Bowie would later describe the song as "nasty, angry," and fully admits that the song was written "with a degree of malice" aimed at the Mainman management group he had been working with at the time. In 1990 Bowie reflected that "I'd had very upsetting management problems and a lot of that was built into the song. I've left that all that behind me, now... I think fame itself is not a rewarding thing. The most you can say is that it gets you a seat in restaurants."