Bowie wrote me a song... he liked my version so much that he recorded it
SINGER DANA GILLESPIE TELLS NAOMI CLARKE ABOUT COLLABORATING WITH ZIGGY STARDUST AND HER ROMANCE WITH BOB DYLAN
DESPITE having rubbed shoulders with music legends such as David Bowie, Bob Dylan and Morrissey over the years, British singer and actress Dana Gillespie remains a largely undiscovered secret of the music industry.
Born in 1949 and raised in London during a period of artistic rebellion, Dana began her recording career at the age of 15. By the late 60s she began releasing albums, kicking off her hefty discography which now includes 74 records released in various countries and styles.
She further found her feet with her 1973 release Weren’t Born A Man, which Bowie helped produce as well as lending his vocals to the track.
Dana first met the late musical icon a decade prior and they remained friends until he left for America in the mid-1970s.
Not only did she secure his help with the album, but Bowie wrote the song Andy Warhol for her and she would later repay the favour by singing backing vocals on his classic 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.
“He was very, very much a part of my life, even in the early 60s when I met him,” Dana, now 75, tells me on a video call.
“We always went to the same kind of music venues.”
The former music show, Ready Steady Go!, was among their regular haunts as Bowie would go to network in the green room while Dana would work as a dancer.
“He helped me in a lot of ways, not just with Andy Warhol, although to this day I don’t quite know why he wrote it for me,” she admits.
“The thing is, I think he wrote it for him and gave it to me, and then he liked my version so much that he then recorded it after me (the track appears on his 1971 album Hunky Dory), but he got it out before me.”
The pair of them came up in a golden period for British music when acts like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones dominated. But Dana recalls that there were not a lot of female artists in the business at this stage, and many of those who did cut through, like Lulu and Dusty Springfield, opted for a more innocent look compared to her hippie style.
Another musical great who appreciated her approach was American singer Bob Dylan, who she met in 1965.
“I can say (he was) a bit of a boyfriend,” she says. “But ‘boyfriend’ is the wrong term. First of all, I don’t use that disgusting American word of dating.
“I don’t date anyone. You can sleep with them or not, but that’s not dating. So he was a boyfriend, in a way, but he lived in America and I lived in England.”
Later down the line in 1997, the connection proved fruitful again as he asked her to be the opening act for his British tour.
In her latest project, her 74th album, entitled First Love, she reflects back on some of these pivotal relationships. It marks the first time she has taken on a Dylan song, selecting his 1997 track Not Dark Yet for the occasion.
“Not Dark Yet is a fabulous song, and it’s quite a dark lyric,” she says. “Let’s face it, we’re in a rather dark age at the moment, so ‘it’s not dark yet but it’s getting there’ and I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
“I don’t want to be a pessimist, but that’s how I feel.” Produced by Soft Cell musician Marc Almond and Tris Penna, the 11-track record also features a cover of Bowie’s Can You Hear Me as well as her version of classics including Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams and Dance Me To The End of Love by Leonard Cohen. Each track was specifically selected in consultation with Almond, Penna and Dana to reflect on aspects of her career, which also saw her try her hand at acting on both stage and screen. Alongside the covers, she has released her new track First Love, Last Love – delving into how the love interests in her life have shaped her. And while many men have come and gone, it is her passion for music which has withstood the test of time. “I wish I could say it was Bowie, but Bowie and I always had a musical relationship,” she says as she reflects on her first love. “OK, there was a bit of horizontalism in there too, but I was a young teenager and he was a teenager, there’s no way either of us wanted to get settled down.
“(Calling it) love will give it the wrong angle. It wasn’t hearts, that kind of love.
“Music was my first love and music is still my last love, in between there’s loads of guys who have come and gone.”
While she has had many relationships over the years, she says she chose never to get married or to have children. She currently has a man who she spends her days with, but she now prefers to keep the details of her relationships behind closed doors.
As she looks back on her life, Dana does not dwell on anything that could have been different but instead sees each obstacle as part of the journey.
“(I have) no regrets because what’s the point in looking back and thinking: ‘I wish I’d done that?”’ she says. “Sometimes going down the wrong path may lead you to the right path, and I often feel you learn your best lessons through mistakes.”
I wish I could say it was Bowie... Music was my first love and music is still my last love, in between there’s loads of guys who have come and gone.