Bowie Bio Starman Chapter 18-Epilogue

Chapter 18: Bowie spends more time with his son and records "Cat People" and the UK#1 hit "Under Pressure" with Queen. He performs in  a Bretolt Brecht play, Baal, a Tony Scott film called The Hunger. and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence.
 He spends days with producer Nile Rodgers ( of Chic fame) listening to The Beatles' "Twist and Shout" and Henry Mancini. The Beatles' "Ahhhhhhh..." and Mancini's horns would both be heard in the song "Let's Dance".

Chapter 19. For the "Let's Dance" video, Bowie acts like he's playing the guitar solo by Stevie Ray Vaughan which eventually leads to SRV quitting the critically hailed tour.

 The next album, Tonight, is a disaster. Bowie's brother lies down on a railroad track and kills himself. The press is ruthless towards Bowie who records "Absolute Beginners" and the Mick Jagger duet "Dancing in the Street". (In the video they are obviously competing with eachother for attention: was there enough oxygen in the studio for the crew to even breathe?)


 Bowie performs at Live Aid. Then goes on the Glass Spider tour--another disaster.

Chapter 20 Bowie forms Tin Machine with Soupy Sales' sons and others.

 The Sound + Vision tour is difficult but towards the end he meets his future wife , the model Iman.

 More under-appreciated  albums follow.

Chapter 21 More forgettable albums. He celebrates his 50th birthday in concert sporting perfect teeth. A daughter is born. The Bowies move to NYC. Bowie has a heart attack and slows down.

Epilogue Bowie has moved away from the music scene. The best song of this century is the one he writes "off the cuff" in a  hilarious scene on Ricky Gervais' series "Extras"


Starman does what a biography should. It relates the life of the artist and how it is reflected in the art. But I wanted more about the artist and art and less about the business decisions involved. Trynka argues that Bowie eventually become a corporation so I understand his obligations.

Clearly Bowie was the first of the great rock chameleons. Elvis never became anybody but Elvis. Bowie changed his identity once a year in the 70's and inspired other pop chameleons like Madonna and Prince who still savor long careers. And Dammit, Bowie just wanted IT more.

Finally if the future of books is the e-book how long before we begin to see embedded music and video and more pictures? A biography like this one cries out for something more.

Bowie bio Starman Chapters 6 through 9

In Chapter 7 we learn Bowie's "All the Madmen" was inspired by his troubled half brother Terry who was institutionalized at Cane Hill, the same asylum that housed Charlie Chaplin's mother

Bowie marries outspoken American Angie and shocks bandmate John Cambridge by dancing with a bloke at the reception.



In Chapter 8 Bowie becomes obsessed with Iggy and the Stooges and a single called "Paralyzed" by outsider artist the Legendary Stardust Cowboy. He writes the Ziggy Stardust album.



In the next chapter 1972 sees Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album launching him to super-stardom. He offers to produce both the Stooges and Lou Reed.

He gives Mott the Hoople what may have been his best song of the entire era: "All the Young Dudes".



The bio gets bogged down by Bowie's business relationships and the comings and goings of band members. Important for a bio. Not as much for the music fan.

Bowie Bio: Starman Chapters 3, 4 and 5

In Chapter 3 of Paul Trynka's Bowie bio Starman, we learn David will do anything and everything to market himself...even pretend to form a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long Haired Men.



In Chapter 4 Bowie goes through bands almost as quickly as lovers. He enters his Anthony Newley phase from 66-67, the Deram sessions, and records "The Laughing Gnome","Love You Till Tuesday" and "I Dig Everything", which sounds like an outtake from the Austin Powers soundtrack. His career stalls.



In Chapter 5, Bowie has almost given up on music. He tries theatre, dance and mime. He shoots some campy promo films including this one called "The Mask".


Among the songs recorded for the promo film: a rough, early version of "Space Oddity".



It occurs to me that in the next generation of e-books, bios like this one will have such youtube videos embedded in them. Am I ruining the book for you or making it more appetizing? Let me know.

Bowie Bio: Starman Chapters 1 and 2

Finished the first two chapters of Paul Trynka's David Bowie bio Starman. Doesn't appear the author has any direct interviews with Bowie which is a shame. He uses this quote from Bowie's 2006 Nokia Recommenders "Sounds of My Universe" about the standout from a bagful of singles his dad brought home when Bowie was 8 years old:
Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti":

My heart nearly burst with excitement. I'd never heard anything even resembling this. It filled the room with energy and color and outrageous defiance. I heard God.

In Chapter Two we read about his association with agent Les Conn ("Conn's the name and con's the game") who signed up the 17 year old and his band ,The King Bees. Through Conn Bowie met Marc Bolan in 1964 (!) The King Bees reworked this "traditional folk song" --made famous by Huey Smith and his Clowns. The single made no impact on the charts despite the band's appearance on Ready Steady Go!



Look closely at the the writing credit. Conn's the name. More to come!

Paul Trynka's Bowie Bio: "Starman"

Paul Trynka's Bowie biography Starman opens by describing this performance on Top of The Pops:

The fifteen-million-strong audience struggles to absorb this exotic, pansexual creature; in countless households, the kids are entranced in their thousands as parents sneer, shout, or walk out of the room...for scattered isolated kids around the UK, and soon on the American East Coast, and then on the West Coast, this was their day. The day of the outsider.

Trynka also notes the chorus of Starman borrows more than a few notes from "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".
All to say I've started reading Starman. I'll let you know whether it's worth a go ( at 500 pages no less!) every so often.