David Bowie lyric sheet fetches thousands at auction

The lyrics date from Bowie's 1970s heyday

David Bowie’s handwritten lyric sheet for two of his hit songs sold for £89,000 at auction.

It included the late singer’s corrections, drafts and notes when creating his tracks Rock N Roll Suicide and Suffragette City – which feature on his 1972 classic The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.

The lyric sheet, which was estimated to fetch between £50,000 to £100,000, went under the hammer at the Omega Auctions showcase sale.

It also included a letter of provenance from the vendor, dating the lyrics to the final recording sessions of the album.

David Bowie lyric sheet sale
A lyric sheet belonging to David Bowie
PA

The letter states it was given to the original owner by Bowie at Trident Studio alongside some other pages of original lyrics.

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 in September 2022.

The singer died of liver cancer aged 69 on January 10, 2016.

Auction manager Dan Muscatelli-Hampson said: “These are two real cult favourites in the wonderful Bowie oeuvre and Suffragette City has been described as one of his very best.

“It’s an incredible artefact to have and to hold and it is sure to excite the many millions of Bowie fans around the world – just as the Starman lyrics did."

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