Dylan Jones - David Bowie: The Oral History

More Praise for Dylan Joness

DAVID

BOWIE

Revelatory and surprisingperfect for the Ziggy completist.

New York

A labor of love with many vivid voices and fresh insights.

Jon Savage, author of Englands Dreaming and Teenage

Devour David Bowie, an oral history by Dylan Jones. Its full of irresistible stories of art, music, and, of course, sexthis is rock and roll, after all.

Mens Health

Drawn from over 180 interviews with friends, rivals, lovers, and collaborators, some of whom have never before spoken about their relationship with Bowie, this oral history weaves a hypnotic spell as it unfolds the story of a remarkable rise to stardom and an unparalleled artistic path.

Parade

What a storyno screenwriter could have made it up. Dylan Jones tells the epic tale of how David Bowie turned the world upside down, from his early scuffling London days to his rock-and-roll golden yearsa starman who kept reimagining himself and his art in ways that transformed our whole culture.

Rob Sheffield, author of Love Is a Mix Tape and On Bowie

[David Bowie] is alternately endearing, heartbreaking, and remarkably retentive of the capacity to surprise even longtime fans.

ArkansasOnline

A must-read, incredibly diverse, and detailed oral history of the rock gods entire existence. From the cradle to the grave. Best. Bowie book. Ever.

Denis Leary, author of Why We Dont Suck

This is a no-brainer. David Bowie by Dylan Jones is a must for the Ziggy Stardust fan.

SouthCoastToday

Dylan Jones elevates the art of oral biography to a cinematic level. Scene by scene, this is the movie of David Bowies life.

Robert Greenfield, author of S.T.P.: A Journey Through America with the Rolling Stones

One can never have enough books on David Bowie.[Jones] offers his own thoughtful and insightful commentary throughout, along with fascinating observations from the interviewees.The closing pageswith Bowie working on both his off-Broadway musical, Lazarus, and his last recording, Blackstar, even as he knows he is dying from liver cancerare especially poignant. A singular addition to the Bowie bookshelf.

Booklist (starred)

Capturing the kaleidoscopic range of David Bowies life and work seems like an impossible task. But through more than 150 interviews spanning the entirety of Bowies extraordinary time on Earth, Dylan Jones thoroughly and seamlessly conveys the creativity, curiosity, and velocity of a visionary who transformed the very possibilities of pop music.

Alan Light, author of The Holy or the Broken and Lets Go Crazy

ComprehensiveJones delves deeply into the details of rock icon David Bowies fame, financial problems, drug use, sexuality, Buddhist practices, and romantic entanglements. But its Joness focus on Bowies friendships that truly shines.All these facets of Bowies personality and more are on display[and] Jones incorporates honest, even biting, observations[that] contribute to the well-roundedness of this remarkable volume.

Publishers Weekly

A sweeping, gossipy biography of the chameleonic pop star in the form of an oral history, with input from dozens of collaborators, lovers, and admirers. Bowie himself weighs in, too.Jones unearths quirky bits of Bowie-ana (he wanted to sing a duet with Mick Jagger from a space shuttle) and details his highly creative months preceding his death.Jones captures his subjects transformations and the responses they provoked.

Kirkus Reviews

ALSO BY DYLAN JONES

London Sartorial

Manxiety

London Rules

Mr. Mojo

Elvis Has Left the Building: The Day the King Died

The Eighties: One Day, One Decade

From the Ground Up

When Ziggy Played Guitar: David Bowie and Four Minutes That Shook the World

The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music

British Heroes in Afghanistan (with David Bailey)

Cameron On Cameron: Conversations with Dylan Jones

Mr. Jones Rules for The Modern Man

iPod Therefore I Am: A Personal Journey Through Music

Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy

Sex, Power & Travel

Ultra Lounge

Paul Smith: True Brit

Jim Morrison: Dark Star

Haircults

Copyright 2017, 2018 by Dylan Jones

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

crownpublishing.com

Three Rivers Press and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Originally published in hardcover in slightly different form in the United States by Crown Archetype, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, in 2017.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN9780451497840

Ebook ISBN9780451497857

Cover design by Elena Giavaldi

Cover photographs by Sukita

v4.1_r3

ep

For my Stargirls, Sarah, Edie & Georgia

Contents

Chapter 1: Living in Lies by the Railway Line
19471969

Chapter 2: Commencing Countdown Engines On
19691970

Chapter 3: So I Turned Myself to Face Me
19701972

Chapter 4: Jamming Good with Weird and Gilly
19721973

Chapter 5: Battle Cries and Champagne
19731974

Chapter 6: Gee My Lifes a Funny Thing
19741976

Chapter 7: Sit in Back Rows of City Limits
19761979

Chapter 8: Put on Your Red Shoes and Dance the Blues
19801985

Chapter 9: Whos Gonna Tell You When?
1985

Chapter 10: Ive Nothing Much to Offer
19861989

Chapter 11: Its Confusing These Days
19901999

Chapter 12: As Long as Theres You
20002015

Chapter 13: For in Front of That Door Is You
2016

PREFACE

On October 31, 2016, as the rest of London was being swamped by hordes of drunken roisterers in nylon skeleton costumes and Donald Trump Halloween masks, many carrying neon pumpkins and covered in fake blood and blankets of spooky cobweb spray, Sothebys in Bond Street was an oasis of old-school gentility. All day the art handlers in the Mayfair auction house had been putting the finishing touches to the Bowie/Collector public preview, straightening up the Graham Sutherlands and the Damien Hirsts and struggling to reposition a gigantic Ettore Sottsass sideboard. Tonight there was going to be a private opening dinner for one hundred lucky people, and the exhibition needed to be inch perfect. By 7:45, the gallery was almost full as the likes of Tracey Emin, Keith Tyson, Elisabeth Murdoch, Robert Fox, Jasper Conran, Nick Grimshaw, Sam Smith, Saffron Aldridge, Alexander McQueens Sarah Burton, U2s Adam Clayton, Bowies art consultant Kate Chertavian, and dozens of other luminaries from the worlds of art, music, and publishing made their way slowly through the hallsmany taking selfies in front of a wall-sized blow-up of the Heroes album cover, some mimicking Bowies famous Erich Heckel hand gesture.

His greatest hits playing at entry-level volume, anecdotes were shared, conversations remembered, and even more imagined. Some of Bowies friends were there, as well as many people who had worked with him. There was even the odd journalist or two. There were people there who shouldnt have been there, and many who werent who ought to have been, but then such is the nature of the London society dinner.