The definitive biography

David Bowie (1947-) born David Jones, has been described as rock’s greatest chameleon. From his early years in post-war, bombed out Brixton; a troubled later childhood in Bromley; to the decadent glamour of Ziggy Stardust; to his controversial Berlin period; Bowie’s life has been filled with drama. The book’s blurb claims that “his story has never been satisfactorily told until now.” This is “the definitive biography of Bowie.” Before his death?

Trynka leads us lightly by the hand through Bowie’s youth in Brixton, to his current media silence. In between, he writes a letter with his father courting a dishwasher salesman as a manager, drops bands as fast as he finds them, experiments with his sexuality, covers Velvet Underground before their album is properly released, performs mimes, releases albums, has an open marriage, gets wrecked on coke – generally leads the rock and roll lifestyle. Most interesting are the varied influences cited: musicians like Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, etc. (of course), but also Tibetan philosophy, Brecht, various painters, Jean Genet, William Burroughs, Fritz Lang, Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, the I Ching and Kurt Vonnegut. In this sense it might be understandable that Bowie flirted with using the term “generalist” over “musician”: his acting is respected, and his interests vary widely.

But in this biography, these interests are hinted at repeatedly without being expanded upon. Trynka is obviously an expert on David, but unable to expand on these other areas and the book suffers slightly from this narrowness. An immense digression would be unnecessary, but a sentence or paragraph more on these fascinating subjects could really liven up the book and shed more light on Bowie by extension.

Bowie’s recording processes and song-writing techniques are however dealt with in greater detail though. Hits like ‘Space Oddity’ spring forth fully formed from the unconscious. Bowie flirts with fascism, holes up in Berlin with Iggy, airbrushes his ex-wife and ex-manager out of his personal history, and continues to collaborate with various musicians including Brian Eno. Other collaboration are completely elided however; on the very last page we find out he was a friend of Philip Glass.

Back to Bowie’s life, montage-style: Bowie maintains distance from his bands, gets numerous hits, plays Joseph Merrick, has Warhol and Dalí in his audiences at various points, is accused of sexual assault and cleared, meets his future wife Imam, sketches in charcoals as he records a new album, tours with Nine Inch Nails, buys back his old songs after signing a bad contract in his early days, becomes the first artist to pre-release an album for download online, gets a lollipop lodged in his eye, has a heart attack, and retires from the public eye. Such is my bowdlerized summation of the book.

There are already quite a few books on David Bowie, and more on the horizon with The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie and the 1970s by Peter Doggett forthcoming in August. Unfortunately I am not in a position to judge Starman gainst the others, though other reviewers have ranked The Complete David Bowie by Nicholas Pegg and Any Day Now: David Bowie, The London Years 1947-1974 by Kevin Cann above Trynka’s book.

I asked Paul Trynka what makes this new Bowie book worthwhile, given the competition. What makes it better than all the others of the past ten years or so? “A good question! I don’t think any book has really seriously looked at how Bowie evolved; David Buckley’s is excellent on the later period – when Bowie was making great music – but he doesn’t really address how Bowie learned to make great music. How Bowie became Bowie, as it were. That to me is the core of the story. Secondly, I don’t really think anyone has gone into the detail of many key events and worked out what really happened, speaking to all of the participants. Of course, all writers say theirs is the definitive story, but perhaps a look at my biography of Iggy might help establish some credentials.” Trynka’s book is indeed best on the early years. The book slims out towards the end, glossing his involvement in Labyrinth and his heart attack. Trynka’s originality may lie elsewhere: it is the first biography I have read that quotes youtube comments as material, a true sign of the closing gap between audience and spectacle.

Trynka has interviewed a lot of Bowie’s friends – over two hundred, the blurb proudly proclaims – but he explained to me that Bowie is “not doing interviews – he has essentially retired from public view, before which many of his interviews tended to be via email! He guest-edited an edition of MOJO for me – but sadly it was all done by email!” And how was it to write about a figure so enmeshed in personas? (Though previous biographies will have paved the way). “I think I give a sense of the whole man – with all his contradictions; in particular, I don’t believe anyone has ever covered his calmness, especially when managing people, his child-like qualities and love of kids, or his sense of humour! Without that, you can’t really understand his music or his image. This book also has lots of examples of his generosity – although we know about his ruthlessness and there are examples of that, too. But he’s not a linear character in the way, say Iggy is.” I asked him more about the comparison: “Iggy and David both have a similar energy and playfulness. As Eric Schermerhorn puts it, “they each want what the other one has.’”

Overall, this book is interesting for its subject matter. But the definitive biography has yet to be written, for obvious reasons. If you’re a Bowie fan, I have no doubt you’ll thoroughly enjoy it.