Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

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immortal “Pablo Picasso” (already covered indelibly by Burning Sensations on the Repo Man soundtrack). Bowie adds the adjective “juicy” to the type of avocado the girls would turn the color of when the great Spaniard drove down the street in his El Dorado. “The Loneliest Guy” is Bowie’s smokiest torch song since “Lady Grinning Soul” in ’73. As Garson plinks an after-hours melody Bowie croons in a sexless falsetto, “I’m the luckiest guy / Not the loneliest guy.” “Days” (not the Kinks song of the same name) is something of a prayer. “Hold me tight,” Bowie sings over a spare acoustic, “All I’ve done, I’ve done for me / I gave nothing in return, and there’s little left of me.” A faithful version of “Try Some, Buy Some” by the recently deceased George Harrison is included, as is a revisiting of “Rebel Rebel,” his most pure and lasting rocker. Rock ’n’ roll seems to be tacitly acknowledged on Reality as one of the youthful things that grow more and more true as one gets old, not a simple pleasure, but its pleasures a simple truth. Like Joe Strummer, Bono, and Springsteen every time he reunites with his E Street Band after two or three solo albums, Bowie was starting to realize that the rock medium he’d “tarted up” in his youth was still there to give him dignity and, more crucially, fun in his old age. It meant something. Why else reunite with Visconti? Why play tiny venues in the Bronx when he could still fill arenas? Family mattered, certainly. Bowie, a doting father, spent
time with his daughter, taking care to be there in her early years, knowing he was not around when his son was developing. Bowie’s rediscovery of rock ’n’ roll purity was reflected in the tour he was planning in support of the album, which was released in mid-September to more strong reviews and sales, hitting the British Top 3 and the American Top 30. “I always thought if you take the spectacle away, people would just love him to come onstage with blue jeans and a T-shirt and sing his own songs,” Erdal Kizilcay told me when we were discussing the florid and garish Glass Spider tour. “Even on Sound and Vision, there were bands playing before us without having this light show. Bryan Adams played before us once, and he had great sound. He was really amazing. He sang like a god. I’m ashamed after. People would prefer David to just be near them and sing ‘Space Oddity’ and ‘Blue Jean’ than be the movie guy playing Mickey Mouse.” The Reality tour, launched that fall, would prove to be the antithesis of “the movie guy playing Mickey Mouse.” Bowie, looking healthy and fifteen years younger than he actually was, and wearing a black Tshirt and sneakers, would fill arenas by offering nothing much more than a killer rock ’n’ roll show played by a top-notch band. The fact that the tour would never complete its scheduled run and may stand as his last ever is beyond disappointing. Encouraged by brisk box office and some of the best live reviews of his entire career, the run was
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Introduction T he idea was not even
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photo book, David Bowie has not wri
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that I do own and am currently tryi
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‘David, David, David,’ I do ove
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apartment building and the Modern G
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unlikely was it that someone as sup
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Prologue I T WAS THE SECOND NIGHT o
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darker end of Simon & Garfunkel or
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energized in a way that Fashion Roc
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World War II, this home is static.
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more likely to develop the disease.
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claim the baby but was rebuffed by
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with him,” Hilda Sullivan said,
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early ’46. Once his legal papers
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all accounts, he became the greates
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2. T HE HIGH STREET in the southern
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West Indian immigrants settled and
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imagination and, eventually, by ste
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ads rounds the panel out). Dinah in
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Terry may have been the one who pro
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he finds a patch of yellow marigold
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white tube, with its small screen a
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British space program mission heade
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mother’s generation, once again,
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technically living? Do you age? Do
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other skulking around a small town,
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Studying other people. [Russian act
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jockey Alan Freed (who has a great
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the thirties and the forties becaus
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you can look sharp and still be a b
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dancing and fighting.” Oral contr
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fame or creative expression. “The
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was twelve … I had the bowl cut.
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Mulligan. He was the next best thin
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Burns, the senior Frampton was a
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his classroom and even encouraged h
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got slugged for it. “When I was f
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knowing the details of why he had t
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and American pop history (from Prud
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ecords.” By 1960, the blues had r
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like heroes when they flew to Londo
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Pink Moon album) and author (White
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paintings and was almost never with
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ands for fetes and functions, they
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would spend the rest of the 1960s t
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gigs, then went on to something els
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acting as if he and his combo were
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usiness heights, including … tale
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noted nowadays, remains every inch
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By thirteen Marc too had his first
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penchant for boasting to the eager
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’cause I write great things and I
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other with braggadoccio, David’s
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happy playing the blues, gulping sp
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The Manish Boys promoted the single
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The band still had no real money an
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then a white Russian-peasant-type s
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another marriage of convenience for
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traffic jam. The band rode in the b
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trusting your instincts worked well
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different from the gruff white blue
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thought that he’d made it. It was
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felt they should do, they did it an
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horticultural terraced cottages tha
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laid groundwork for the empowered r
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“A lot of the inspiration started
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unknown new group the Velvet Underg
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intense stage presence were unlike
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little mod racing up-hill along War
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“dreadful.” As he elaborated fo
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Cockney’s prison break. Bowie far
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1600s. During World War I they’d
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care. Bowie was devastated to be in
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In 1967 Tony Visconti, then a twent
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According to Visconti, after leavin
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survival. I amazed and dazzled them
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Pitt at the time.” Kemp says, “
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the young David Bowie. Kemp and Bir
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omantic to starve with these artist
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Bowie-ism. I displayed his compact
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at! But I am also struck by how bra
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There’s a point in most people’
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production of “The Pistol Shot,
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Hermione, along with a local rock g
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“I’d become more interested in
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“In Feathers, he was happy,” Hu
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own private life,” Pitt writes to
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eauty, creativity and intelligence.
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having released a self-titled album
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Five,” Bowie attempts to project
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Dream,” in which he sings of the
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ig. With them as role models, we di
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ather partnered with a UK label, Ph
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Charlie Parker than Elvis. ‘Space
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something discussed by the Mercury
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and early twenties. Taking jobs at
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Buddhist spirituality via the Lab a
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Oddity” made its unofficial debut
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and dress in sharper relief. The Ar
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sunglasses indoors. I have a cigare
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9. M ARY ANGELA BARNETT was born on
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She studied all the major subjects
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College, then a women’s school. T
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an inch.” The fact that Angie off
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elished having his own space to lea
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flashes me back years and I’m rig
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There were several incidents around
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eally like me, and having to share
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10. T HE GREATEST CONCENTRATION of
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Records. Wyper increased the market
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“Letter to Hermione,” based on
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the tape. Laughable when you think
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1969 together and early in the new
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did not love her. There are at leas
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client to organize his schedule, in
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just stay home and rent The Wizard
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1993, once said. “I’d just sit
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yeas to pay this lot off?’” Ron
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over the salon, typically as hostes
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all hype, isn’t it?” Something
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Beatlemania-like pandemonium dubbed
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friendly shoulder to cry on,” say
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with David Bowie. Then an accountan
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on May 7, 1970. While Defries spoke
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induced paranoia.” Much of the ly
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Bowies claimed to be shocked when t
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wife is pregnant …” These devel
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11. W HEN THE IRISH LITERARY AESTHE
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later, Oberman was relieved. “I s
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androgynous flamboyance with a gian
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Bingenheimer’s enthusiasm for Bow
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Fowley, cannily sober. “It was hi
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motels! What’s his name? Tom Wait
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something he could use to drum up i
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versions of “Hang On to Yourself
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Only by ear. It was quiet in there.
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Mars?”), madness (“The Bewlay B
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parents’ suspicions of his still
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Man” and “Like a Rolling Stone
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expensive London hotel with an unch
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pudding) and generally perverse gal
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Bowies as well. They had much in co
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“He definitely had musicianship.
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Bowie may have been inspired by the
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heads, saying, ‘How do we do this
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he’d been pursuing since his earl
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“Lou was going through an incredi
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think there was a poll of artists w
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“Bowie’s manager was fishing,
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“Everybody we knew, this guy is t
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13. T HE OLD-STYLE PHONE BOX in whi
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carries his guitar and exposes his
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embodiment of the dead sixties drea
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…?,” “where young people have
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He was already transforming, in par
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a man’s dress, and more generally
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performed a three-song Bowie medley
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the contemporaries of people who ha
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conquered British pop. One thinks T
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14. R ELEASED BY RCA on June 6, 197
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would elaborate on this to William
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composed narrator, a jaded hipster
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thing. As a rock duo, I thought we
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have witnessed the end of his remar
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trademark denim. [Vocalist/lead gui
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interested in. He had his aesthetic
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and literature. Deranged poets that
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The members of Mott were not pretty
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Kemp and his troupe performed onsta
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persona ascended, or the fact that
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don’t for a minute understand it.
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agged, I was naïve, it was a heave
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like KSAN in San Francisco. He and
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would tell me, “so these mixtures
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everyone who had been working on it
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spirituality with him. Garson was,
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“Life on Mars?” soar. Bowie him
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they had all become spacemen for th
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might think but certainly a hell of
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partners. In their study Open Marri
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school-educated geniuses in Roxy Mu
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houses for free, you have to be on,
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one striking.” “Watch That Man
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othel piano before Bowie again invo
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The short was fed to UK and America
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‘Yeah, go, you can have him.’
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Word came from London: the Stooges
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ice for three decades. By the time
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tour. But the truth of it was, the
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player, was stealing their gear out
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Bowie makes a devil sign as he sere
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Angeles eccentric named Black Randy
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“But you get a good high with cok
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confirmation that he’d made it. I
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circulate around this time. Once he
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were coming due for limousines, stu
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(whose lyrics were among those comp
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Ziggy flaming-rooster haircut) atop
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clear in his vision for the set,”
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Flowers, Garson, drummer Tony Newma
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Hamlet-style, and “Panic in De tr
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moved on to something new. “After
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17. T HE STRIPPED-DOWN and funked-u
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etween the Diamond Dogs and Philly
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not neglect paying real respect to
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dangerously enthused in a way that
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camera man driving through L.A. and
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viewing audiences would get a taste
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Bowie is clearly thinking too long
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finally waking up to his own sense
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lifestyle,” former Defries partne
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new personal assistant Corinne “C
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With regard to his personal life, D
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years I had really worn out my welc
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otherhood, and as a result he comes
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as he would tell Cameron Crowe the
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germ killers. It’s the Black Dahl
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awareness of the illusion of calm i
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18. U PON HIS ARRIVAL in Los Angele
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survival. But when that starts to b
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People down on the streets knew Bow
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ecorded a spoken-word album with Ki
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Mayersberg, pack in layers of tragi
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ehearsal period. “We wanted to ge
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The last line of the film, after he
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Rod used to party a lot. David was
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mountains / And once there were sun
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(the entire interview is archived o
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“Albeit quite different from Diam
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have been Dean Martin and Sammy Dav
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e proud of it. The timing was poor
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einvent Iggy and Iggy would reenerg
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European high culture as a kind of
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like he’s crooning through a belc
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heard American rock ’n’ roll mu
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structured song-writing thrown into
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glamorous hippie-style living. For
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amounts to a strange pride, or at l
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all up. So Iggy going from ‘Loose
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uncompromising Low, isn’t the sam
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Bowie, as he sings on the title tra
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Breaks” among them—are iconic i
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musical options. What makes “Hero
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his friend’s career. “David was
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finally emits a cry of Ooooh” and
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was left recycling his old glitter
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Christmastime?” Bowie makes a bad
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apparent to her that she was not go
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was very talented and when he met m
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also housed in the bowels of the bu
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21. N INETEEN SEVENTY-NINE began wi
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uilding and B, have me taken off th
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invention to the form before it bec
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ands come on SNL and simply play th
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time the economy goes south, art gr
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guys,’” Destri, then at Bowie
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the black hair.” Bowie ran throug
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eplaced his entire body—with a pu
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22. A LTHOUGH HE WOULD END the deca
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National Front members to the clubs
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punk, from the Clash’s Mick Jones
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Bowie was there on a mission. As St
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video for “Ashes to Ashes” was
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Lindsay Kemp’s traveling show Pie
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Gary Numan, who took in a performan
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ass line aside, it’s one of the m
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idols.” The Hunger is a cult hit
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23. T HE FORCE WITH WHICH MTV took
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what’s important. Everything’s
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twenty-first-century city.” Blade
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on MTV or white radio as an artist
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Boss) by the end of the decade. Dav
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flower”). I interviewed the singe
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Ziggy rooster cut a decade earlier.
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more records, and yes, the Police c
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people it was a betrayal. You can
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lues. When we got back, I emptied a
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24. N INETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, the year
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ack. Bowie was, after all, still in
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wasn’t much of my writing on it,
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forty-seven, was in serious decline
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the magnitude of it. It was so enor
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this. Britain is a very small islan
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actually is goblin abducted, Connel
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1997’s Earthling; fallen in love
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devoured its prey it would drape th
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from every phase of his career, ove
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chromosomes to stay eternally young
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25. B OWIE WAS BEHIND THE TIMES in
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me, “to work on songs together. S
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himself, said, ‘Remember we made
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eat, Bowie shouts, “C’mon and g
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Released in May of 1989, the album
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dance troupe, La La La Human Steps.
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prom dress, filled in for the absen
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26. F OR MUCH OF THE late eighties,
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in 1969. They lived modestly in exi
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Florence at the St. James Episcopal
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Bowie model must have been a little
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Mercury, Tina Turner and John Lenno
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lead guitarist for that band was Mi
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Perhaps Bowie’s finest album of t
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Continue,’ and he started in with
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called Art Crime or Art Murder has
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of nights of him putting his arm ar
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over. What living legend ever gets
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Page 642 and 643: wasn’t worth it? A half dozen tim
Page 644 and 645: All the bonds had been bought prean
Page 646: avery fully returned, and was rewar
Page 649 and 650: power ballad “Glycerine”) but t
Page 651 and 652: Newley-besotted youth. “That’s
Page 653 and 654: since “Loving the Alien” a deca
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Page 657 and 658: Corgan, Placebo’s Molko and Frank
Page 659 and 660: accounts) more often than not find
Page 661 and 662: pop culture. Bowie was coming up wi
Page 663 and 664: As Bowie spent the sixties trying t
Page 666 and 667: 28. “I LOVE Velvet Goldmine,” s
Page 668 and 669: for his ambitions. Bale plays Arthu
Page 670 and 671: more gracefully. While the soundtra
Page 672 and 673: Bale and McGregor, and Toni Collett
Page 674 and 675: “No beats, no technology, just na
Page 676 and 677: literally features Bowie hanging on
Page 678 and 679: took the stage, bowed calmly and wa
Page 680 and 681: somewhat blocked in the city and ha
Page 682 and 683: awkward situation of being stuck up
Page 684 and 685: It’s Bowie who opens the entire c
Page 686 and 687: oller skates,” he quipped upon an
Page 689: 29. I T IS HARD to listen to Realit
Page 693 and 694: Mick Rock. “He’d officially sto
Page 695 and 696: Bowie, Iman and their family closed
Page 697 and 698: Gervais says. “For some reason, j
Page 699 and 700: developed a machine that turns ordi
Page 701 and 702: Labryinth-era Bowie, appearing to a
Page 703 and 704: that when word got around that Bowi
Page 705 and 706: Side of Manhattan was populated wit
Page 707 and 708: I am now the same age Bowie was whe
Page 709 and 710: Joads and their fellow travelers wi
Page 712: Bibliography
Page 715 and 716: and Giroux, 1990. Edwards, Henry, a
Page 717: in a New Town. London: Jawbone Pres
Page 720 and 721: Time Out London, August 23-30, 1995
Page 723 and 724: Acknowledgments I ’d only read ab
Page 725 and 726: order to behave badly all the time
Page 727 and 728: Thanks to David Buckley, Peter and
Page 729: eISBN: 978-0-307-46239-8 v3.0
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Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

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