- Paperback: 636 pages
- Publisher: New English Library Ltd; New edition edition (1 Oct 1987)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0450413462
- ISBN-13: 978-0450413469
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11.4 x 5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
479,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #47 in Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Styles > Rock & Pop > Singers & Groups > David Bowie
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a dense book. I was first given it as a kid in love with Our Dave, but it was not accessible to my 15 year old mind. 21 years later I found it in the attic and have really enjoyed the read. Very detailed account of Bowie up to 1978. Less detailed on the 1978-85 period where it ends. The first few chapters are all about his family. According to the book Bowie was brought up by a mother who was very emotionally cut off, to the extent that she gave up her second child for adoption. His older brother was not treated well and sadly later developed psychosis. This gives insight into Bowie's avoidant personailty. He escapes into the fantasy world of his stage characters and very nearly does not come back to reality. He appears to lack an identity of his own and clings on to aspects of those around him. After reaching an all time low he eventually withdraws to Berlin to begin his reemergence.
The book is extensively researched. Lots of scrutiny of Bowie's record contracts. Tony Defries and Angie Bowie appear to be the driving force that push Bowie to be the success he becomes. Defries makes sure he personally is well remunerated. The book has a rather sad ending with the death of Bowie's brother in 1985.
The Bowie that is portrayed is based upon analysis of his family history, his lyrics, media interviews and the thoughts of those around him at the time. There is of course one highly significant absence- Bowie himself does not get to give his version of events. The book was not endorsed by Bowie and in some ways may be too close to the bone for him to read and accept. He may however wish to dispute or correct assumptions and interpretaions made and so therefore I guess this account is as close as one can get without the reflections of Bowie himself.
My impression of Bowie in 2009 is that he is a much happier person now than he was in the era of this book. The title of his last album 'Reality' suggests he has resolved a lot of his past. He appears to have found the love and security he craved with Iman and his own family. He recently quipped that he is now much more comfortable with being David Jones. He has come along way.
The book is extensively researched. Lots of scrutiny of Bowie's record contracts. Tony Defries and Angie Bowie appear to be the driving force that push Bowie to be the success he becomes. Defries makes sure he personally is well remunerated. The book has a rather sad ending with the death of Bowie's brother in 1985.
The Bowie that is portrayed is based upon analysis of his family history, his lyrics, media interviews and the thoughts of those around him at the time. There is of course one highly significant absence- Bowie himself does not get to give his version of events. The book was not endorsed by Bowie and in some ways may be too close to the bone for him to read and accept. He may however wish to dispute or correct assumptions and interpretaions made and so therefore I guess this account is as close as one can get without the reflections of Bowie himself.
My impression of Bowie in 2009 is that he is a much happier person now than he was in the era of this book. The title of his last album 'Reality' suggests he has resolved a lot of his past. He appears to have found the love and security he craved with Iman and his own family. He recently quipped that he is now much more comfortable with being David Jones. He has come along way.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
That a book which is always quoted in other books on Bowie bibliographies does not have any rating yet is rather curious.
This is a biography, a well, very well researched, one. If you were reading about Napoleon, or Elisabeth I, you will ask for facts. So should also readers of biographies of artists.
This book has not been endorsed by David Bowie, but it stands on its legs in an excellent way.
Writing style is spotless too.
I will say one of five books to own on DB, other than those devoted to pictures.
If you really wish to find a minor drawback in it, this is that it has never been updated, but then some may question if there is the need for such.
Recommended.
This is a biography, a well, very well researched, one. If you were reading about Napoleon, or Elisabeth I, you will ask for facts. So should also readers of biographies of artists.
This book has not been endorsed by David Bowie, but it stands on its legs in an excellent way.
Writing style is spotless too.
I will say one of five books to own on DB, other than those devoted to pictures.
If you really wish to find a minor drawback in it, this is that it has never been updated, but then some may question if there is the need for such.
Recommended.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book covers Bowie's family history and early life in great (sometimes exhaustive) detail and follows his career up until his appearance at Live Aid in 1985. It has been used as a source by other writers on Bowie, including Nicholas Pegg in his excellent 'The Complete David Bowie' and, whilst Bowie himself didn't participate in or approve of the book, the Gillmans interviewed approximately 150 people in preparation.
Peter & Leni Gillman's research is also extremely thorough and they provide factual (and counterfactual) information ranging from the details of Bowie's schooling and where he was brought up, through to specific details of the financial extravagance of the MainMan years and of the settlement reached between Bowie and his erstwhile manager Tony Defries.
The most questionable aspect, which also happens to be the book's central theme, is the insistance on the significance on Bowie of his half-brother Terry's mental illness. In support of this theory the Gillmans seek, sometimes in a rather contrived way, to link Bowie's lyrics (which they don't always transcribe correctly) and artistic decisions to Terry, which might be a good literary device but, overall, is less than convincing.
The Gillman's are also, to some extent, the victims of contemporary views on mental illness, and frequently fall into the traps waiting for any amateur psychologist, finding significance where they wish to in order to support their theory and expressing fuzzy or fashionable views about pschology as if they are facts.
The high incidence of mental illness in Bowie's family, it's implied, is likely to be hereditary, afflicting Bowie who is presented as being largely in denial. The alternative view is that Bowie's family, typically of British families of this period, was unable to express its distress and anxiety, was unable and emotionally unprepared to cope with the disruptions of war, unplanned pregnancies, poverty, and suffered as a consequence affective disorders unconnected to heredity.
The Gillmans suggest, oddly, that Bowie's success in removing himself from this mire consequently makes him responsible for all those in his family who didn't, and that his failure to become some sort of grand patriach is evidence both of his selfishness and his fear of madness.
Bowie's personal psychological crises it could be argued, were more likely due to the strain brought by fame and fortune of a level that had been previously unimaginable (but was commonplace for musicians of this generation including for example Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon) and massively exacerbated by his consumption of drugs.
That Bowie is susceptible to fantasy & exageration in regard to his past seems only an example of his febrile imagination - the mistake made by the Gillmans is the failure to separate the artist from his art (was Shakespeare writing biographically in the Sonnets - probably not).
Otherwise the book presents balanced portraits of many of those close to Bowie (some of whom, including Angie Bowie, who were clearly unbalanced), gives a well written account of Bowie's life, and provides illuminating detail which a more mainstream biography might have skipped.
Peter & Leni Gillman's research is also extremely thorough and they provide factual (and counterfactual) information ranging from the details of Bowie's schooling and where he was brought up, through to specific details of the financial extravagance of the MainMan years and of the settlement reached between Bowie and his erstwhile manager Tony Defries.
The most questionable aspect, which also happens to be the book's central theme, is the insistance on the significance on Bowie of his half-brother Terry's mental illness. In support of this theory the Gillmans seek, sometimes in a rather contrived way, to link Bowie's lyrics (which they don't always transcribe correctly) and artistic decisions to Terry, which might be a good literary device but, overall, is less than convincing.
The Gillman's are also, to some extent, the victims of contemporary views on mental illness, and frequently fall into the traps waiting for any amateur psychologist, finding significance where they wish to in order to support their theory and expressing fuzzy or fashionable views about pschology as if they are facts.
The high incidence of mental illness in Bowie's family, it's implied, is likely to be hereditary, afflicting Bowie who is presented as being largely in denial. The alternative view is that Bowie's family, typically of British families of this period, was unable to express its distress and anxiety, was unable and emotionally unprepared to cope with the disruptions of war, unplanned pregnancies, poverty, and suffered as a consequence affective disorders unconnected to heredity.
The Gillmans suggest, oddly, that Bowie's success in removing himself from this mire consequently makes him responsible for all those in his family who didn't, and that his failure to become some sort of grand patriach is evidence both of his selfishness and his fear of madness.
Bowie's personal psychological crises it could be argued, were more likely due to the strain brought by fame and fortune of a level that had been previously unimaginable (but was commonplace for musicians of this generation including for example Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon) and massively exacerbated by his consumption of drugs.
That Bowie is susceptible to fantasy & exageration in regard to his past seems only an example of his febrile imagination - the mistake made by the Gillmans is the failure to separate the artist from his art (was Shakespeare writing biographically in the Sonnets - probably not).
Otherwise the book presents balanced portraits of many of those close to Bowie (some of whom, including Angie Bowie, who were clearly unbalanced), gives a well written account of Bowie's life, and provides illuminating detail which a more mainstream biography might have skipped.
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