David Bowie - A Life by Dylan Jones
David Bowie
A Life
By Dylan Jones
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Publication Date: September 12, 2017
David Jones has always loved music. He has always loved being a change maker, he has always been David, even when he decided to change his name to David Bowie when The Monkees started singing around town and they had a Davey Jones.
The author Dylan Jones (no relation) spent decades interviewing and learning about David Bowie. He provides a book filled with people who knew David [Jones] Bowie since he was a little kid and the Star-man himself. I love the nuances that this format of interviews gives. We get to see a side of David Bowie that unless you have met him, spent time with him and talked to him for years would never know. Even then, I am not sure anyone ever knew the “real” David Bowie. The man was just a complex individual.
I've read many books about David Bowie and I enjoyed this book the most. Hearing the ins and outs on his music, what his motive was for any given album and what his impression of himself from year to year was fascinating.
For example what Harry Maslin, co-producer of Station to Station and and Young Americans said, "I thought David was an extremely complicated person. Usually, people in the arts are either visual or aural, and David was both. He saw things differently from most people. Obviously one can see that from the personas he had at the beginning of his career." He knew the depth, he felt the depth, he saw it. That is a true artist.
I loved knowing that my view of David Bowie wasn’t too far off of what his friends and colleagues also saw. This man who changed the fluidity of how a man can act was ultra-talented, quirky, handsome, charismatic, and a great friend who helped others to grow to their best potential. However, he was also had his demons who was never happy with himself and his path, he always thought that there was more and he could be more. In the book he gives a lot of insight into himself, for instance, “I wanted to find some kind of satisfaction in life rather than this desperate kind of searching. I just did too much and I came close several times to overdose. It was really graphically clear; it was like being in a car where the steering had gone out of control and it was going towards the edge of the cliff…Surviving all that and realizing you don’t have to be a casualty was like being reborn.”
This book taught me that you never know some one completely even if they have been covered Ad Nauseam by the news. David Bowie showed that everyone deserves to be treated kindly even though you see the harsh realities of their weaknesses, their insecurities, their doubts and their unhappiness and often hit rock bottom, you should always cheer them on, like Bowie did. All people are unfailingly human. David Bowie was the best lesson on human. As a fan who has been ridiculed because people I knew thought David Bowie was weird, sinful and “going to hell” I found him intriguing and deep. His favorite book list is full of complexity and variety. I knew I had read so many of the books he loved, so having another book to read on him was a given.
If you are a fan of David Bowie and love a good biography I suggest you read this book.
I received this book from Crown Publishing via Blogging for Books for my honest review. This is my review.
The author Dylan Jones (no relation) spent decades interviewing and learning about David Bowie. He provides a book filled with people who knew David [Jones] Bowie since he was a little kid and the Star-man himself. I love the nuances that this format of interviews gives. We get to see a side of David Bowie that unless you have met him, spent time with him and talked to him for years would never know. Even then, I am not sure anyone ever knew the “real” David Bowie. The man was just a complex individual.
I've read many books about David Bowie and I enjoyed this book the most. Hearing the ins and outs on his music, what his motive was for any given album and what his impression of himself from year to year was fascinating.
For example what Harry Maslin, co-producer of Station to Station and and Young Americans said, "I thought David was an extremely complicated person. Usually, people in the arts are either visual or aural, and David was both. He saw things differently from most people. Obviously one can see that from the personas he had at the beginning of his career." He knew the depth, he felt the depth, he saw it. That is a true artist.
I loved knowing that my view of David Bowie wasn’t too far off of what his friends and colleagues also saw. This man who changed the fluidity of how a man can act was ultra-talented, quirky, handsome, charismatic, and a great friend who helped others to grow to their best potential. However, he was also had his demons who was never happy with himself and his path, he always thought that there was more and he could be more. In the book he gives a lot of insight into himself, for instance, “I wanted to find some kind of satisfaction in life rather than this desperate kind of searching. I just did too much and I came close several times to overdose. It was really graphically clear; it was like being in a car where the steering had gone out of control and it was going towards the edge of the cliff…Surviving all that and realizing you don’t have to be a casualty was like being reborn.”
This book taught me that you never know some one completely even if they have been covered Ad Nauseam by the news. David Bowie showed that everyone deserves to be treated kindly even though you see the harsh realities of their weaknesses, their insecurities, their doubts and their unhappiness and often hit rock bottom, you should always cheer them on, like Bowie did. All people are unfailingly human. David Bowie was the best lesson on human. As a fan who has been ridiculed because people I knew thought David Bowie was weird, sinful and “going to hell” I found him intriguing and deep. His favorite book list is full of complexity and variety. I knew I had read so many of the books he loved, so having another book to read on him was a given.
If you are a fan of David Bowie and love a good biography I suggest you read this book.
I received this book from Crown Publishing via Blogging for Books for my honest review. This is my review.
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