I enjoyed Paul Trynka's warts and all biography of Iggy Pop and this is an equally worthy assessment of his mentor, peer, friend and inspiration, the uniquely talented boy wonder from Bromley. David Bowie's rise from the Mod psychedelic blues rock scene of late 1960s London to "voice of a generation" is already the stuff of legend. Trynka tracks the various phases of Bowie's chameleon-like career with some impeccable research.I was particularly interested in Bowie's early period when he hustled songs on Tin Pan Alley, thirsting for fame at any cost, and competed for attention with the likes of Marc Bolan. Through clever management, self promotion and artistic brilliance he then reached transatlantic superstardom with three of the greatest rock albums of all time "Hunky Dory", "Ziggy Stardust" and "Aladdin Sane". In doing so he not only invented spacey androgynous 70s glam rock but also laid down the template for future pop movements like punk rock, New Wave, the 80s New Romantics and even 90s Brit Pop.The book is particularly good on the classic mid 70s phase of Bowie's career when, after killing off Ziggy Stardust and the glam catsuits, he flirted with American soul and collaborated with art rockers like Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. Trynka offers a lot of interesting anecdotal details about the darker moments of Bowie's life, his residence in Hollywood, heavy cocaine use, flirtation with fascist imagery, periodic dabblings in black magic and corporate management bust ups, including with his svengali like manager Tony Defries. All this shaped his experimental Berlin albums like "Station to Station" and concided with highly acclaimed forays into acting, for example in Nicholas Roeg's cult sci-fi classic "The Man Who Fell to Earth" and "The Elephant Man" on stage, generally appraised at the time as a revelation of another side to the man's talents.From there on Bowie entered the realms of rock royalty and became a pillar of the MTV video era with "Lets Dance", over the top (and occasionally parodied) world tours, the Live Aid project and various ventures into film, drama, art and ambient music, all of which are vividly and sympathetically chronicled by Trynka. From the 90s onwards he settled into the role of rock elder-statesman, launched the Tin Machine project to mixed reviews, put out more experimental albums to mixed acclaim and made shed loads of money through clever business management and smart marketing of his back catalogue.Trynka also covers Bowie the man in x-ray detail. He was undoubtedly ambitious and self-absorbed to the point of ruthlessness, though at the same time he was capable of tremendous loyalty and generosity (not least to Iggy Pop who was burned out when Bowie helped him to relaunch his career). But, like many of his peers, he was undoubtedly shaped by his modest post-war upbringing which inspired a burning desire to be someone instead of a suburban nobody at the edge of the music business. One of Trynka's chapters is cleverly entitled "Numero uno mate!" which was the young Bowie's frequent exclamation to his pals about his personal priorities.All in all I learned a lot from this book about a man who must surely be the most versatile, commercially successful and individually talented British rock star and solo artist of the 20th century. I'm a big Bowie fan, but I've never known much of his personal life, so I cannot compare the balance of this book with reality. It seems well-cited and full of references and personal interviews. It has a general tone of fairness, and the author seems to like and sympathize with Bowie, despite presenting some skepticism of Bowie's public persona. What I enjoyed most while reading this was a detailed focus on the production of many of my favorite albums. Listening to each recording after reading why and how it occurred gave them an entirely new sound - like hearing it for the first time. I'm now very interested in reading more rock era biographies!
Do You like book David Bowie: Starman (2011)?
Great read but perhaps could have focussed more on his later years from the 1990s onwards.
—Munca
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about David Bowie (But Were Afraid to Ask)
—Gauri
Very enjoyable but not enough detail about his later career.
—ashish
