David Bowie's Early Photos: Starman Becoming a Star

January 11, 2016 9:24 AM EST

The death on Sunday of rock musician David Bowie at age 69 put an end to a prolific career that spanned almost exactly 50 years to the day. Though he had been performing under his given name, David Jones, for years before then, it was on Jan. 14, 1966—a half-century ago on Thursday—that “I Can’t Help Thinking About Me”/”And I Say to Myself” was released as a single from the newly named David Bowie.

Though the name stuck, the rest of his persona continued to evolve. The mid-1960s Bowie fit right in with the London mod crowd. But, as these pre-Ziggy Stardust photos show, over the next few years his look got less mod and more glam.

By 1972, when Ziggy Stardust was released, Bowie had found his niche. As TIME noted in a story about rock music moving into what the magazine called a rococo period, the then-25-year-old Bowie began his first-ever U.S. tour with a “surprise sellout” in Ohio and followed it up with a smashing success at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. And, though glam rock was officially a trend, Bowie was no longer a follower but a trend-setter:

Bowie looks like an extra directly out of A Clockwork Orange—an effect heightened intentionally at the start of each concert by the use of white, jabbing strobe lights and the playing of the electronic version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony from the sound track of the Stanley Kubrick film. If Kubrick posed the threat of futuristic shock, so does Bowie. His recent RCA album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, is perhaps the most portentous concept LP since the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper. It anticipates a cataclysm of worldwide proportions that could be World War III, pollution overkill or an invasion from outer space. Bowie is not very clear on the subject, and it does not really matter, since the cataclysm is in effect a megaton metaphor for the confusion and pessimism Bowie sees in much of the rock world today.

The Ziggy Stardust story ends with the death of its protagonist, and Bowie himself said at the time that, “”I know that one day a big artist is going to get killed on stage, and I keep thinking that it’s bound to be me.” Though that prediction proved incorrect, he did continue to make music until the very end: his last album, Blackstar, was released just days ago.

Read the full story from 1972, here in the TIME Vault: Vaudeville Rock

David Bowie playing mandolin with a model. Photo taken on Kingly Street, off Carnaby Street in the summer of 1963, UK. Fiona Adams/Redferns—Getty Images

David Bowie circa 1965, playing Framus 12 string acoustic guitar.CA/Redferns—Getty Images

David Bowie Portrait Session 1965-1966 — David Bowie poses for a portrait session circa 1965 - 1966 in London, England. Michael Ochs Archives—Getty Images

David Bowie playing a guitar in 1969 — David Bowie plays an acoustic Espana 12-string guitar to promote the release of his album "Space Oddity" in November 1969 in London, England. Michael Ochs Archives—Getty Images

David Bowie At Bingeheimer Party — A pre-glam David Bowie jams at a party thrown by publicist and future nightclub impresario and DJ Rodney Bingenheimer at lawyer Paul Figen's house in January 1971, in Los Angeles.Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives—Getty Images

David Bowie with wife Angie and three week old son Zowie. He is modelling an Oxford Bags dress, Turkish cotton shirt and a felt hat. June 29, 1971.Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix—Corbis

A Star Before Starman: Early Photos of David Bowie

More Must-Reads from TIME