Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

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Copyright © 2009 by Marc Spitz All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. www.crownpublishing.com Crown is a trademark and the Crown colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc. Frontispiece: In the yard at Haddon Hall shortly before the transformation into Ziggy Stardust (1972) © 2009 by Mick Rock Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Spitz, Marc. Bowie : a biography / Marc Spitz.—1st ed. 1. Bowie, David. 2. Rock musicians—England— Biography. I. Title. ML420.B754S66 2009 782.42166092—dc22 [B] 2009016806
eISBN: 978-0-307-46239-8 v3.0
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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
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literally features Bowie hanging on
Page 678 and 679: took the stage, bowed calmly and wa
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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 and 726: order to behave badly all the time
Page 727: Thanks to David Buckley, Peter and
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