David Bowie from a decade-long recording hiatus with "The Next Day." He remained musically active until he died of liver cancer two days after the release of his final album, "Blackstar" (2016). Bowie was born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London. His mother, Margaret Mary "Peggy" (née Burns; 1913–2001), was born at Shorncliffe Army Camp near Cheriton, Kent. Her paternal grandparents were Irish immigrants who had settled in Manchester. She worked as a waitress at a cinema in Royal Tunbridge Wells. His father, Haywood Stenton "John" Jones (1912–1969), was from Doncaster, and worked as a promotions officer for
David Bowie (1967 album) David Bowie (1967 album) David Bowie is the self-titled debut studio album by English musician David Bowie, released on 1 June 1967, on Deram Records. Its content bears little overt resemblance to the type of music that later made him famous, such as the folk rock of "Space Oddity" or the glam rock of "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars". "NME" critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray have said, "a listener strictly accustomed to David Bowie in his assorted '70s guises would probably find this debut album either shocking or else simply quaint",