Encyclopedia Bowie

The Complete David Bowie (Revised and Updated 2016) – Nicholas Pegg (Titan Books)

When you are a die-hard fan, you know the type, the ones with the desire to know everything there is to know about an artist, there is a completest need to know every single detail no matter how minute. If you have ever spent hours combing through liner notes or CD jackets looking for the odd stray fact, then you can probably relate.

If you are that kind of a fan of David Bowie, then can I recommend that you pick up a copy of Nicholas Pegg’s exhaustive, The Complete David Bowie. This revised and updated edition offers an encyclopedic history of everything Bowie. Pegg runs down not only the discography, albums, songs, etc, but also tackles Bowie’s live shows with a set-list from every Bowie show and goes so far as to detail the Thin White Duke’s acting career, his videos, his art and his internet presence.

One of my favorite stories from the book is Bowie’s interactions with Mott the Hoople, a band poised for destruction that Bowie offered a song which they passed on. Facing termination of their record deal, Bowie revisited Mott, got them signed with his manager and offered up All the Young Dudes, and the rest as they say is history.

Topping out at 800 pages(!)The Complete David Bowie, is information overload for any true Bowie fan. This doorstop of a book resists the urge to load up on graphics for such a visual artist, instead relying on detail after detail to tell the Bowie story.