Description
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
'A handsome six footer with a warm and engaging personality, Davie Jones has all it takes to get to the show business heights including . . . talent.' David Bowie at 17 in May, 1964 writing his own press biography.
Respected arts commentator Paul Morley, one of the team who curated the highly successful retrospective exhibition for the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, David Bowie Is . . . constructs the definitive story of Bowie that explores how he worked, played, aged, structured his ideas, invented the future and entered history as someone who could and would never be forgotten. Morley will capture the greatest moments of Bowie's career; from the recording studio with the likes of Brian Eno and Tony Visconti; to iconic live performances from the 1970s, 80s and 90s, as well as the various encounters and artistic relationships he developed with rock luminaries John Lennon, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. And of course, discuss in detail his much-heralded, and critically-acclaimed comeback with the release of Black Star just days before his shocking death in New York.
Morley will offer a startling biographical critique of David Bowie's legacy, showing how he never stayed still even when he withdrew from the spotlight, how he always knew his own worth, and released a dazzling plethora of mobile Bowies into the world with a bloody-minded determination and a voluptuous imagination to create something amazing that was not there before.
'A thrilling hymn to a brilliant and beloved "song and dance man"' Observer
About the Author
Writer, broadcaster, and cultural critic PAUL MORLEY has written about music, art, and entertainment since the 1970s. A founding member of the electronic collective Art of Noise and a member of staff at the Royal Academy of Music, he is the author of Ask: Chatter of Pop; Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City; Piece by Piece: Writing About Joy Division 1977-2007; Earthbound; The North; and Nothing, and he collaborated with music icon Grace Jones on her memoir, I'll Never Write My Memoirs.
Reviews
'A thrilling hymn to a brilliant and beloved "song and dance man". David Bowie did make a world of difference, and Paul Morley explains why.'
-- Barney Hoskyns * The Observer *
'Morley has a deep understanding of Bowie's music . . . this is great fun.' * The Times *
'A huge sprawl of Bowieania that takes us from skiffle to social media' * The Herald *
'A discursive, free-associating ride across the life and work of the Starman Who Changed the World [...] The Age of Bowie does feel like an outpouring of the sincerest love for its subject, the fruit of an obsessive emersion of everything Bowie meant to him and us. Eschewing the conventionally dry biographical voice, Morley's expansive present-tense prose flows [...] I hold him to be one of the great pop writers. You might even call him the Bowie of rock journalism.' * The Guardian *
'Morley has not only plenty of insights into Bowie's life and work but also the kind of details that only a diligent biographer unearths' * The Times *
'Ultimately it is Bowie that makes this an enjoyable read, his life and art speak so loudly and profoundly that if you capture just a piece, as Morley has, you have something worth reading.' * Fortitude Magazine *
Book Information
ISBN 9781471148118
Author Paul Morley
Format Paperback
Page Count 496
Imprint Simon & Schuster Ltd
Publisher Simon & Schuster Ltd
'A handsome six footer with a warm and engaging personality, Davie Jones has all it takes to get to the show business heights including . . . talent.' David Bowie at 17 in May, 1964 writing his own press biography.
Respected arts commentator Paul Morley, one of the team who curated the highly successful retrospective exhibition for the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, David Bowie Is . . . constructs the definitive story of Bowie that explores how he worked, played, aged, structured his ideas, invented the future and entered history as someone who could and would never be forgotten. Morley will capture the greatest moments of Bowie's career; from the recording studio with the likes of Brian Eno and Tony Visconti; to iconic live performances from the 1970s, 80s and 90s, as well as the various encounters and artistic relationships he developed with rock luminaries John Lennon, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. And of course, discuss in detail his much-heralded, and critically-acclaimed comeback with the release of Black Star just days before his shocking death in New York.
Morley will offer a startling biographical critique of David Bowie's legacy, showing how he never stayed still even when he withdrew from the spotlight, how he always knew his own worth, and released a dazzling plethora of mobile Bowies into the world with a bloody-minded determination and a voluptuous imagination to create something amazing that was not there before.
'A thrilling hymn to a brilliant and beloved "song and dance man"' Observer
About the Author
Writer, broadcaster, and cultural critic PAUL MORLEY has written about music, art, and entertainment since the 1970s. A founding member of the electronic collective Art of Noise and a member of staff at the Royal Academy of Music, he is the author of Ask: Chatter of Pop; Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City; Piece by Piece: Writing About Joy Division 1977-2007; Earthbound; The North; and Nothing, and he collaborated with music icon Grace Jones on her memoir, I'll Never Write My Memoirs.
Reviews
'A thrilling hymn to a brilliant and beloved "song and dance man". David Bowie did make a world of difference, and Paul Morley explains why.'
-- Barney Hoskyns * The Observer *
'Morley has a deep understanding of Bowie's music . . . this is great fun.' * The Times *
'A huge sprawl of Bowieania that takes us from skiffle to social media' * The Herald *
'A discursive, free-associating ride across the life and work of the Starman Who Changed the World [...] The Age of Bowie does feel like an outpouring of the sincerest love for its subject, the fruit of an obsessive emersion of everything Bowie meant to him and us. Eschewing the conventionally dry biographical voice, Morley's expansive present-tense prose flows [...] I hold him to be one of the great pop writers. You might even call him the Bowie of rock journalism.' * The Guardian *
'Morley has not only plenty of insights into Bowie's life and work but also the kind of details that only a diligent biographer unearths' * The Times *
'Ultimately it is Bowie that makes this an enjoyable read, his life and art speak so loudly and profoundly that if you capture just a piece, as Morley has, you have something worth reading.' * Fortitude Magazine *
Book Information
ISBN 9781471148118
Author Paul Morley
Format Paperback
Page Count 496
Imprint Simon & Schuster Ltd
Publisher Simon & Schuster Ltd
