Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

Buddhist spirituality via the Lab as well. “He was still
quite serious about Buddhism. But he’d given up that
serious intent by the time I’d met him,” Finnegan
recalls. “I think he realized that if he was going to
carry it through he was going to become a monk.
Show business and Buddhism didn’t really mix and
match for him.”
Show business and Buddhism. Art and
commerce. These tides seem to be constantly at
odds churning inside David Bowie, each a powerful
force, bringing with it a strong wave and ultimately a
violent collision and temporary abandonment.
Sometimes the friction produced brilliant chemistry,
other times it led him too far from his better angels,
but the rhythm of the waves, art and commerce, vice
and verse never stops. Those Bowie fans who care
to look into such things can clearly see this pattern.
It’s a “one for them, one for me” rhythm that many
other great artists with an uncanny knack for
commercial appeal but an unceasing need to use
their gifts to get at a hard truth have employed
(artists like Radiohead and filmmaker Steven
Spielberg come to mind). Is there any difference
between Bowie going from his hit “Plastic Soul”
period of ’75 and ’76 to his highly experimental trio
of “Berlin” records with Eno, and, say, Steven
Spielberg’s Jurassic Park–to–Schindler’s List
trajectory? Every concession to hitmaking and
crowd-pleasing is usually followed by one that seeks
answers or understanding without fear of getting as
far-out as possible. This would accelerate in the