Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

their mutual celebrity stock. He gave her a sense of
art-wise rock ’n’ roll edge and she introduced him to
the high-fashion world where he was already a
touchstone but perhaps not a traveler. Both wore
these new coats well.
“Road life was a lot more fun,” Tin Machine’s
Reeves Gabrels says of the band’s 1992 tour in
support of their sophomore album (which contains a
killer version of “If There Is Something,” from Roxy
Music’s debut). “Iman was a nice leveler. David got
to read a lot and make up his mind about a lot of
things on his own, as opposed to having a personal
assistant read it. Iman protected him from the
influence of those around him who would rather do
other things because it suited their schedule. It had
been a very Byzantine world [before that].”
Tin Machine released a live album culled from
their club tour in support of Tin Machine II. In 1990,
U2 entered Berlin’s Hansa Studios where Bowie
had recorded “Heroes” a decade and a half earlier,
albeit during a much different political climate. Eno,
well into his relationship with the band, again
engineered a Bowie-style total image and sonic
makeover. The resulting masterwork Achtung Baby
was released in 1991. It was both a massive
commercial success and remains their creative high
point. With typical snark, the kind Gary Numan fell
victim to a decade earlier, Bowie christened Tin
Machine’s live effort Oy Vey, Baby. Like Numan, U2
was hugely reverential, but the fact that both these
artists were raking in the cash by modifying the