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Authenticity is Everything
Juliens Live Auction - "Bowie" Starman lyrics
Just recently joined this great site after being a long time visitor and hate to start off with a controversial observation.
There has been widespread UK media coverage of Julien's Live auction (Nov 4th 2017) - a set of handwritten lyrics purporting to be written by David Bowie as a work in progress for "Starman" and authenticated by Perry Cox. As a 40 year collector of Bowie autographs which includes some handwritten letters, this in my opinion is NOT genuine.
Its far too neat for starters and whilst it has some of his traits, is inconsistent particularly towards the end when the person who wrote these lyrics flows back to their "not trying" hand style, it is a poor attempt copy of the original which appeared at the Bowie Is exhibition (also attached)...
Sadly, this will achieve many, many thousand of dollars based on the genuine Jean Genie handwritten lyrics recent sale.
Other learned Bowie watchers/collectors thoughts welcome.
https://www.julienslive.com/m/lot-details/index/catalog/234/lot/960...
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by MarkG on
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I have written to Julien's and had no response back yet. I guess with the amount of publicity they have put behind this (reported in 5 main stream UK newspapers/NME etc and on-line), there will be a bit of deliberation in their camp - I can't have been the only one to flag this up to them, surely?
I also believe they have loaned this document to a local museum who is displaying it for them pre-sale, someone on another site has been to see it. I also see there are bids on it pre-sale for the 4th.
How could they have put an estimate of $4k when they knew the last (genuine ) Jean Genie lyrics went for over $50k? I find this whole thing staggering to be honest...
Anyway, thought I would share this with you - its from a book I owned and sold on to a guy in the US which was given to me by Bowie's makeup artist in 1972/73, Pierre La Roche (sadly long deceased). David bought him a book of Japanese make-up masks whilst on the Ziggy Japan tour in April 1973. The book was a huge tome - as was his dedication on the inside cover...
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19731 (2).JPG, 84 KB
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Permalink Reply by marc e on
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not to chime about julies but about the value
theres a big differnce between working lyrics and final ones and also jean jennie was hand signed by bowie. and jean jennie is one off his biggest hits.
also julies does under value there iitiems so it looks like they get a lot more for there stuff.
if it was real and im not saying there not ,my value would have been 15-25.k or 20-30k just my opinion as theres not alot off bowie out there
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John, I hear what you are saying but Bowie was a major hoarder who very rarely gave anything (especially lyrics) away as the Bowie Is event has revealed.
The Jean Genie lyrics which we are discussing were re-written and signed by him as a thank you for a US Bowie fan club worker or manager I believe. Another set of lyrics he gave away (I think it was Sweet Thing) as trade for more studio time.
This is why these lyrics (if they were genuine) are worth a fortune on the open market - Starman being bigger than Jean G because it was the song that broke him in the UK and made him the star he became. The Jean G lyrics have set the benchmark for any other Bowie lyrics to come onto the market.
The lyrics on offer are a straight copy of the lyrics on show at the Bowie Is exhibition, right down to the title being underlined, all the apostrophes...everything. The copier though was far too neat as stated before for these to be real.
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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on
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Thanks for the '66-'76 exemplars - I look forward. I do not have 40 years experience but is the larger...uh...potential problem neatness or just form/execution/presentation etc? Some letters seem to border on caricature, other seem incorrect in execution/slant/flavor. The whole thing looks...recently unorganized. In looking at several lyric sheets and notes this appears "uncomposed" in dispersal. Something about pen pressure also perhaps?
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Here you go 64-80 Examples - some are mine (either now or sold in the past), others are examples I spotted online and knew to be genuine and the '77 signature dedicated to Blondie.
Key things to note are David seemed to get dropped (unless he had time) after Starman (ironically enough) broke him/the band in 1972 when he started signing in huge quantities. Bowie in full started to become rushed/shortened in 1976/77 and then 78 started to see the familiar Bo.
He generally signs things to known friends as just David B and very occasionally his full name (David Bo) although these are rare as hen's teeth. David R Jones as we know is for legal documents. Hope this helps, I have loads more up to 2015.
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Thank you! I am pleased to say I had a bit more than half of that. You words about his signature align with what I have been learning. The comments pre 1976 esp helpful! Thank you for taking this time for me.
Here are some of my 1976 exemplars. The blue ballpoint was my first and has sold for a good sum, and the red is my current which I like very much. Signed in Sweden - I have the date somewhere. I have a signature study here called Station to Blackstar that has many more from 1976 to 2015.
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Great pleasure Erik - I have hundreds more and in my own collection now, I'm down to 45 letters, LP's , photos etc (mainly 80-2013). I will post anything I think maybe of interest to you...
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Much appreciated! My others are a signed Lodger promo - do you who took this photo? Duffy? Weber? And I have the 2010 Reality Tour CD gatefold signed and dated in silver.
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ive owned david bowie legal contract signed in his real name dovid jones ,
thats correct thats he signed them
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