David Bowie was a huge fan of post-Beatles songs from one of John Lennon’s albums. He shared how he and his band reinvented a track from the album and Sean Lennon’s opinion about it.
Bowie said that the song that shaped the band known as Tin Machine was Lennon’s “Working Class Hero.” As mentioned in the ebook, Bowie on Bowie: Interviews and Encounters with David Bowie, Adrian Deevoy asked Bowie which of the member of the band hand the idea to reinvent the track.
“I think that was mine,” Bowie said. “That’s always been a really favorite song of mine. I like that first John Lennon album a hell of a lot.”
Bowie was talking about the album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The album was his debut with the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and it was the first record he made without The Beatles.
Bowie explained why the album was his personal favorite. “I think all the songs are really beautifully written and, again, very straight from the shoulder,” he said. “There’s an honesty in the lyrics there. And that particular song, I thought, would sound great as a rock song. It seemed very worth doing.”
Bowie also thought that Sean, John’s son liked the Tin Machine’s version of “Working Class Hero” a lot.
“I think he likes it a lot,” Bowie suggested.
“He’s followed this album almost from the start, from the second week,” Bowie added. “He’s a big [Gabrels] Reeves fan.” Reeves was one of the members of Tin Machine.