In death as in life, David Bowie’s life has proven to
be fertile ground for biographers looking to cash in on telling his life story
and examine the width and breadth of his musical and artistic output.
David
Bowie: A Life, from respected British music journalist Dylan
Jones is an interesting entry in the posthumous Bowie bio derby. Jones pieces
together material from a variety of sources, interview with the whole gang of
in-laws and outlaws, friends and hangers-on from Bowie’s always colorful life,
some 180 plus sit downs.
And therein, as the saying goes, lays the rub. The book
reads like a kidnapper’s ransom letter, clipped pieces tapped together in an
attempt at creating a narrative. Jones tries to pare down the task at hand by
tackling Bowie’s story in a bit by bit, chunk by chunk fashion; doling things
out in chronological fashion.
Juggling so many moving parts and placing a massive
level of trust in the sometimes dodgy memories of some colorful folks, makes
for a Herculean task at best and a damn-near impossible job to do well. Try as
he might, Jones can’t avoid having David
Bowie: A Life come off as a choppy and difficult to follow the logic mess.
With so many entries in this crowded field of Bowie bios, the way to stand out
is to bring new information to the party and Jones doesn’t seem to have that
base covered here.
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