David Bowie: Living on the Brink
by George Tremlett
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Book Summary Information
Author: George TremlettEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-06-24
ISBN: 0786704659
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Carroll & Graf
Book Reviews of David Bowie: Living on the Brink
Book Review: One of the best on Bowie
Summary: 5 Stars
There are a number of Bowie bios, or "me-and-David-Bowie" volumes around, but few really good. The Brixton-born star has always been careful not to expose his past, and not to turn down rumours; many books about him get stuck in the sensational. Tremlett's book is one of the best, perhaps *the* best Bowie biography I've read, and for a number of reasons.
The writer knew Bowie long before he became a star and did hours of interviews with him around 1970. Years later, at the point when Bowie broke with MainMan, Tremlett became an insider again in a crucial phase. He makes good use of this material to interpret Bowie's winding road from half-esoteric post-hippie and "artist without a niche" to a million-selling teen idol (some of the best pages are about Bowie and his friend/rival Marc Bolan, who in some sense cleared the way for Bowie to become Ziggy Stardust).
While he's clearly an admirer of Bowie's artistic genius and sometimes good sense, he doesn't lose sight of his occcasional ruthlessness and manipulation of the media. He's also enough of a literary man to do some useful interpretation of Bowie's lyrics.
The book is very good on the business side of rock'n'roll. Tremlett goes through the phases of Bowie's career, explains settlements, discusses the incomes, royalties, credits and the sometime lack of a steering hand on the budget. He's also got an excellent sense of the absurdity of rock life, as when Bowie makes the first Ziggy tour of the USA, playing to half-filled venues but living it up like a star - at the command of his manager Tony DeFries, of course. The financial straps were all with the record company, so Bowie and the band had almost no money in their own pockets. By the time they reached L.A. and checked into a top-notch hotel, everyone had learnt the trick: you could get whatever you wnated just as long as you could say "pass it to the RCA". Bowie and trhe guys made limo trips around L.A. rather than going anywhere by bus or cab, because when you're in a limo, you never have to pay in cash.
Some of the material on the MainMan business side is of course from Tony Zanetta's "Stardust" but Tremlett buttresses it with his own analysis. His account of the economy of Bowie's 1980s tours is a bit guesswork but very useful and also shows that he's under no obligations to Bowie.
It should be said that we don't learn much about Bowie in private after the mid-seventies, but this is because the star has wanted it that way. About four fifths of this book deal with the decade 1966-76, and after Bowie has returned to Europe and began his "Berlin" phase - in reality, he made his home in Switzerland already before recording "Low" - he's almost impossible to follow on a private plan; there's no one to ask, and the guy himself gives no in-depth interviews anymore (and in most people's books, the sventies were his classic years). The book takes a nuanced, amused, and sharp look at Bowie's career.
Summary of David Bowie: Living on the Brink
How has pop icon David Bowie kept creating new music and fascinating his fans? What does he believe and where did he come from? Are the mercurial changes in his public image an accurate reflection of the inner man, or is he cleverly concealing his real self? Veteran rock journalist George Tremlett knew David Bowie well in his early days and grew close to many of his contemporaries (including Mott the Hoople, Brian Eno, and Peter Frampton). Tremlett delves beneath the images of Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and The Thin White Duke for the intriguing story of media manipulation and financial management, shrewd deals and groundbreaking music.Music Books
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