David Bowie memento could fetch six-figure sum at auction
The lyric sheets date to Bowie's chart-topping Ziggy Stardust persona of the early Seventies. Photo: Getty
David Bowie’s handwritten lyric sheet for two of his hit songs could fetch hundreds of thousands of pounds when it goes under the hammer next week.
It documents the late singer’s corrections, drafts and notes when creating his tracks Rock N Roll Suicide and Suffragette City – which both feature on his 1972 classic The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.
The lyric sheet, which has an estimated price tag of £50,000 ($A95,000) to £100,000 ($A191,000), will be among Omega Auctions showcase sale on Tuesday.
It also includes a letter of provenance from the vendor, which states the page dates to final recording sessions of the album.
The letter states it was given to the original owner by Bowie at Trident Studio alongside some other pages of original lyrics, including some which did not survive.
On the side of the page which contains the Suffragette City lyrics, there is a note at the bottom left for the publisher to inform them of two more songs he was considering for the album – It Ain’t Easy and Round And Round.
The former was finally included with the 1972 album while the latter, a cover of Chuck Berry’s track Around And Around, was used in 1973 as a B-side for the UK issue of Drive In-Saturday.
It also states the lyric page was purchased by the present owner in the early 1980s and loaned to the V&A in 2013.
The page remained with the exhibition for five years as it toured the world between 2013 and 2018 and was displayed in London, Toronto, Sao Paulo, Berlin, Chicago, Paris, Melbourne, Groningen, Bologna, Tokyo, Barcelona and New York.
The auction house previously sold a page of Bowie’s handwritten lyrics for his hit Starman for £165,000 ($A315,000) in September 2022.
Bowie died of liver cancer aged 69 on January 10, 2016.
-AAP