Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

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McElfresh and everyone at budgettravel.com for giving me recession-surviving assignments that had nothing to do with a book about David Bowie; Ron Oberman; Mary Finnegan; Chris Charlesworth, for helping me reach Kenneth Pitt; Imran Ahmed; King Kong Klub/Berlin; Robert Heide, for introducing me to Tony Zanetta at La Mama; Bobby Lauderdale; F and B Framingham; Ivanhoe Martin; Mark Bego; Chris Vrenna; Paula; Ron Shavers (wherever you are); Michelle David, for driving me to Giants Stadium to see the Glass Spider tour in ’87; Tough Shirts (totally awesome and totally cool); Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam; Full Force; Gay’s the Word; Click Banana; Chuck Klosterman, for sitting down with me very early on and talking Bowie, among many other things; same with Rob Sheffield, who has a truly hysterical anecdote from circa 1983 involving cigarette butts that did not make it into the book, but if you happen to run into him in NYC, make him tell it to you; Kuno; Mr. Alan Light, for always inquiring with great interest where I was at and patiently listening as I vented and vented in response; Ms. Tracey Pepper, for teaching me how to write about rock ’n’ roll in the first place; President Barack Obama, for making me believe fall ’09 will get here and be better than, fall ’08; Don Music; Caryn Ganz; John Roecker; Steve Malins; Alan Yentob; Nancy Miller; Sarah Ultragrrrl Lewitinn; Jonathan Lisecki and Alex Ross; Emma Forrest; Nerf Riley; and Koldo Barroso for his excellent Marquee club site and assistance with contacts and research.
Thanks to David Buckley, Peter and Leni Gillman, Tony Zanetta and Henry Edwards, Angie Bowie, Camille Paglia, Kerry Juby, Nicholas Pegg, Dave Thompson, George Tremlett, Thomas Jerome Seabrook, Christopher Sanford and everybody who has ever written about Bowie, whether in books, magazines and periodicals or on dedicated and intelligent Bowie sites like Bowie Wonderworld and Teenage Wildlife, and Bowienet, and also in ’zines like the Voyeur, among many, many other outlets. Your words and ideas have truly educated and comforted me over the years and I hope this book is worthy of inclusion in this archive.
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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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Bowie when you become involved.”
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wasn’t worth it? A half dozen tim
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All the bonds had been bought prean
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avery fully returned, and was rewar
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power ballad “Glycerine”) but t
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Newley-besotted youth. “That’s
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since “Loving the Alien” a deca
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goatee, brocade coat, mess o’ eye
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Corgan, Placebo’s Molko and Frank
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accounts) more often than not find
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pop culture. Bowie was coming up wi
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As Bowie spent the sixties trying t
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28. “I LOVE Velvet Goldmine,” s
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for his ambitions. Bale plays Arthu
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more gracefully. While the soundtra
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Bale and McGregor, and Toni Collett
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“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 and 690: 29. I T IS HARD to listen to Realit
Page 691 and 692: time with his daughter, taking care
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: order to behave badly all the time
Page 729: eISBN: 978-0-307-46239-8 v3.0
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