David is haild as a good singer and pop icon.very well known fact is that like prince he also plays all the popular music instruments including sax.david went on tour with iggy pop once as igys keyboard player.how good is david on bass,keyboard,sax,drums,guitar?

No fans of bowie?

I guess he's quite good on saxophone. I think he played saxophone on the "Peter and the Wolf" recording that he narrated. I think his use of the sax sometimes might not put his playing or songs in the best light (i.e., the sax part is strange or overdone), but it's pretty rockin' in "Modern Love," in which he's playing the sax.

I guess he's quite good on keyboards, skilled and innovative. I know that "Low" was turned into a symphonic piece by Philip Glass.

It's strange - Bowie, like Prince, seem to get overlooked for their ability to play instruments, whereas other musicians who really only play one instrument very well are lauded for being a musician who plays an instrument! Bowie's like a renaissance man, good at lots and lots of things (theater, art, dance, music, can sing) and intellectually curious and rigorous about lots of things, and had a flamboyant image and was idiosyncratic, so his musicianship can get lost in the popular view of him.

I know that david played guitar solos on new york in love,87 and cry,sweet thing. Majortity of the instruments on diamon dogs and heathen albums were played by bowie.

Yep diamond dogs is one of my faves..
Bowie had just fired the spiders from mars so he's left on his own and plays lots of the instruments... His saxophone playing is hot on this album! And his guitar playing is great too!

He's not a virtuoso in the same vein of a Marcus Miller, Stevie Wonder or

Prince.

Neither is he efficient/proficient in the same vein of a McCartney or Kravitz.

But if left alone in the studio to record his album, which he has done, he

is more than capable.

Also if u listen to the idiot & lust for life iggy pop confirmed in interview that a lot of those tracks are David overdubbing himself

The single version of "Rebel Rebel" had all the instruments played by Bowie, but I highly doubt he played the majority of the instrument parts on the Diamond Dogs album. Same for Heathen, really. The list of players on that one is pretty long.

I suppose he always knew his limits. I dug the era when he was playing more saxophone during his performances though. At one point he just dropped it altogether.