The outpouring of appreciation for David Bowie since his passing was announced early on Monday morning has been overwhelming, as fans try to reflect on the many moments of wonder that comprised his sixty nine years on this earth. Here on Noisey, we've looked at his [influence on rap music](http://noisey.vice.com/blog/jiggy-stardust-tracking-david-bowie-influence-of-hip-hop), [pop music](http://noisey.vice.com/blog/david-bowie-is-pop-musics-original-hero), and [the seventies in general](http://noisey.vice.com/blog/robert-christgau-remembers-david-bowie). Plus, life long fan and writer, Martin James, meditated on how Bowie [taught him everything he needed to know about acceptance, identity and art](http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/how-david-bowie-was-our-teacher).

But one thing there hasn't been much on, is who influenced Bowie. Who did he look to for inspiration and guidance? It's something Bowie himself decided to make one of the main topics of a speech that re-surfaced last night, which he made in 1999 to the graduating music students at the American college of Berklee, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Bowie was one of the first rock stars to receive an honorary doctorate at Berklee, which was still then considered a jazz school. And the speech is as gloriously weird as it is packed with sentiment and anecdotes, including a great one about Shirley Bassey and a working men's club toilet. But foremost among these is his heartfelt comments about his friend and peer John Lennon, of whom he talks with the reverence you&#x2019;d normally only hold for family or your iPhone. &#x201c;He defined for me how one could twist and turn the fabric of pop and imbue with elements of other art forms," he explained, "often producing something extremely beautiful, very powerful and imbued with strangeness.&#x201d; Continuing: &#x201c;Uninvited, John would wax lyrical about any topic under the sun. I immediately felt empathy with that. Whenever the two of us got together it was like Beavis and Butthead on \[US current affairs debate program\] Crossfire.&#x201d;

David Bowie delivers Berklee's 1999 commencement address.

https://www.berklee.edu/commencement/past

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David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie (/ˈboʊ.i/),[1] was a British singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, painter and actor. He was a figure in popular music for over four decades, and was considered by critics and other musicians as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. His androgynous appearance was an iconic element of his image, principally in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the album Young Americans, which the singer characterised as "plastic soul". The sound constituted a radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees. He then confounded the expectations of both his record label and his American audiences by recording the electronic-inflected album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno. Low (1977), "Heroes" (1977), and Lodger (1979)—the so-called "Berlin Trilogy" albums—all reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise. After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes", its parent album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), and "Under Pressure", a 1981 collaboration with Queen. He then reached a new commercial peak in 1983 with Let's Dance, which yielded several successful singles. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including blue-eyed soul, industrial, adult contemporary, and jungle. Bowie also had a successful, but sporadic film career. His acting roles include the eponymous character in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Major Celliers in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), Jareth, the Goblin King in Labyrinth (1986), Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Nikola Tesla in The Prestige (2006), among other film and television appearances and cameos.

Bowie stopped touring after his 2003–04 Reality Tour, and last performed live at a charity event in 2006. On 8 January 2016, the date of Bowie's 69th birthday, his final studio album Blackstar was released; he died two days later. David Buckley said of Bowie: "His influence has been unique in popular culture—he has permeated and altered more lives than any comparable figure."[2] In the BBC's 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, Bowie was placed at number 29. Throughout his career, he sold an estimated 140 million records worldwide. In the UK, he was awarded nine Platinum album certifications, eleven Gold and eight Silver, and in the US, five Platinum and seven Gold certifications. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

David Bowie | Berklee Commencement Address 1999

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“He defined for me how one could twist and turn the fabric of pop and imbue with elements of other art forms."

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Watch Bowie Explain the Influence of John Lennon in This 1999 Speech to College Graduates

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Watch Bowie Explain the Influence of John Lennon in This 1999 Speech to College Graduates

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