Starman: David Bowie - The Definitive Biography [Hardcover]

I enjoyed Paul Trynka's warts and all bio of Iggy Pop and this is an equally worthy assessment of his mentor, peer, friend and inspiration, the uniquely talented boy wonder from Bromley. David Bowie's rise from the Mod psychedelic blues rock scene of late 1960s London to "voice of a generation" is already the stuff of legend. Trynka tracks the various phases of Bowie's chameleon-like career with some impeccable research.

I was particularly interested in his 70s period where he rose from a young hustler pushing songs down Tin Pan Alley, thirsting after fame at any cost and competing with his peers like Marc Bolan for pop success, to eventually eclipsing the latter with three of the greatest rock records of all time "Hunky Dory", "Ziggy Stardust" and "Aladdin Sane", thereby not only launching androgynous 70s glam rock but also inspiring genres to come later like punk, new wave, the 80s new romantics and even Brit Pop.

The book is particularly good on the mid 70s phase of Bowie's career when, after killing off Ziggy Stardust and the glam catsuits, he flirted with American soul and collaborated with art rockers like Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. Trynka offers a lot of interesting anecdotal details about the darkest period of Bowie's life, his heavy cocaine use, flirtation with fascist imagery, periodic dabblings in black magic and corporate management bust ups, including with his svengali like manager Tony Defries. All this shaped his highly experimental Berlin albums like "Station to Station" and concided with highly acclaimed forays into acting e.g in Nick Roeg's cult sci fi classic "The Man Who Fell to Earth" and "The Elephant Man" on stage, generally regarded at the time as a revelation of another side to the man's talents.

From there on Bowie entered the realms of rock royalty and became a stalwart of the MTV age with "Lets Dance", over the top (and occasionally parodied) world tours, Live Aid and various ventures into film, drama, art and ambient music, all of which are vividly and sympathetically chronicled by Trynka. From the 90s on he settled into the role of rock elder-statesman, launched the Tin Machine project to mixed reviews, settled down to marital bliss with Iman, put out more experimental albums to mixed acclaim and made shed loads of money through clever business management and smart marketing of his back catalogue.

Trynka also covers Bowie the man in x-ray detail. He was undoubtedly ambitious and self-absorbed to the point of ruthlessness, though at the same time he was capable of tremendous gestures of unselfish loyalty and generosity (not least to Iggy Pop who was a real burnout when Bowie helped him to relaunch his career). But like many of his peers he was undoubtedly shaped by his modest post-war upbringing which prompted a burning desire to be someone instead of staying a suburban nobody at the edge of the music business. One of Trynka's chapters is cleverly entitled "Numero uno mate!" which was the young Bowie's frequent exclamation to his pals about his personal priorities.

All in all I learned a lot from this book about a man who must surely be the most versatile, commercially successful and individually talented British rock star and solo artist of the 20th century.

I liked this book a lot. When a biographer chooses an artist of Bowie's standing and stature as their subject expectations will be high.

Let's be honest, prolific and successful musicians who have reached Bowie's age have volumes of biographies on the shelves. It must be increasingly difficult to inject anything new into the story particularly when a lot of the main players are no longer with us. Without input from the man himself any new book should rightly be judged on the quality of the writing and in the analysis of the career.

In my opinion Trynka has served his subject very well indeed. I have read most of the significant Bowie texts and there were still some anecdotal details within `Starman' I had previously been unfamiliar with. Trynka documents his research in some detail, chapter by chapter, so there is good indication here that he's done his work.

As a Bowie biography `Starman' is easily up there with the cream on the bookshelves. True, it does not contain the minuscule detail evident in the Pegg and Cann publications but they are in fact reference books not biographies and it is unfair to make comparison.

The reader's expectations of a biography are entirely different to that of a reference manual. One provides a flowing informative narrative (story!) whilst the other is an informative, accessible document to be perused whenever required for detail and verification.

As far as I'm concerned this is a book which I have no hesitation in recommending to the hard core Bowie fan as well as to the marginally interested. For those who care, Trynka's book on Iggy `Open up and bleed' is also worthy of your hard earned cash. Again, the research and quality of the writing readily drawing you in.

If, by some slight chance, you read this Mr. Trynka I for one would be very excited indeed were you to choose Lou Reed or Marc Bolan as your next subject. Both artists worthy of the respect and meticulousness you so clearly give your subjects.

It's a great read and for a change offers something new to the avid Bowie obsessed reader. It's chock full of tasty tidbits from Bowie's early years and through the 70's. It's only in the 90's and noughties that the book runs out of steam..a bit like its subject :( That said, I'd definitely place it among Nicholas Pegg's Complete David Bowie and David Buckley's Strange Fascination as essential reads.