Bowie: A Biography
10/06/2009
.
(Kayos) He is a style icon and music legend. A master of reinvention. An innovator whose absence from the rock scene for much of this decade has left a void�a void that proves how vital he has been for these past forty years. To fill that void comes BOWIE: A Biography (Crown; October 27, 2009), a David Bowie biography like no other.
Rock 'n' roll journalist Marc Spitz charts the long and storied arc of Bowie's life, from his childhood in postwar England as David Jones�an R & B�loving kid torn between suburban comfort and the fast and rough London of the sixties�to his reincarnation as a utopian hippie mime, to his ascent in the seventies as one of the most influential cultural figures of the last half century.
In a major work that was years in the making, Spitz not only recounts Bowie's career, he also reveals how much his music has influenced other musicians and how his life and style influenced the times in which he lived. BOWIE takes a fresh and in-depth look at the decades that formed the artist, from postwar England to the advent of rock 'n' roll, as well as the times that Bowie shaped so powerfully, from the seventies "me decade" up until the information age.
With more than one hundred original interviews with those who knew him best, BOWIE offers fresh insight and unforgettable stories about the rock legend. Interviewees include childhood friend George Underwood, Peter Frampton, Angie Bowie, former manager Kenneth Pitt, mentor Lindsay Kemp, author Hanif Kureishi, Siouxsie Sioux, Dick Cavett, Jon Savage, Steve Strange, Camille Paglia, guitarist Reeves Gabrels, filmmaker Todd Haynes, and Ricky Gervais. Little known details about Bowie include the rock legend's strange fascination with speaking in riddles, his refusal to use elevators, his insistence on hiding knives under his bed, and his secret friendship with Frank Sinatra.
Spitz reflects with humor and infectious energy on how growing up with Bowie and writing this exhaustive history changed him in ways that he never expected. Never before published photographs complete this inspired exploration of a true rock 'n' roll revolutionary.
About the Author
Marc Spitz's writing on rock 'n' roll and popular culture has appeared in Spin, the New York Times, Maxim, Nylon, Blender, and Uncut (UK). He is the author of How Soon Is Never?; Too Much, Too Late; and Nobody Likes You: Inside the Turbulent Life, Times, and Music of Green Day and coauthor with Brendan Mullen of We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk.
Click here to read today's full Day in Rock report
Preview and Purchase David Bowie CDs
David Bowie MP3 Downloads
