Bowie

The Biography

By: Wendy Leigh

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Discover the man behind the myth in this new biography of one of the most pioneering and influential performers of our time - David Bowie.

David Bowie - the iconic superstar of rock, fashion, art, design, and the quintessential sexual liberator - is a living legend. However, for the past five decades, he has managed to retain his Hollywood star mystique. Now, New York Times bestselling author Wendy Leigh reveals the real man behind the mythology. Through scores of interviews with Bowie’s lovers (both male and female), his girlfriends, business associates, groupies, and band members, Leigh, who grew up just a mile from where Bowie was born and went to school, has written an intimate biography of rock’s greatest enigma.

In an unexpurgated exploration of Bowie’s kaleidoscopic personal life, she reveals his star-crossed inheritance - his mother was once an acolyte of the British Fascist party; his father, the PR genius who masterminded his early career - in a dramatic contrast to those family members grappling with mental illness, fears that would haunt Bowie for most of his life.

Above all, there is Bowie’s hard-won rise to fame and fortune, his astounding creativity, his courage as a performer, and his shape-shifting style, coupled with a ruthless ambition that caused him to submit to the casting couch on his way to the top. In the process, Leigh tells of Bowie’s strong bond with John Lennon, his love/hate relationship with Mick Jagger, his male sexual partners, and his women, as disparate as Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Sarandon, Tina Turner, Marianne Faithful, Nina Simone, and most notable, his marriage to Iman, which has lasted for the past quarter of a century.

©2014 Wendy Leigh (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Recorded by arrangement with Gallery Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

More Like This, PLEASE

Would you consider the audio edition of Bowie to be better than the print version?

I have no read the print version

Who was your favorite character and why?

David Bowie if that counts?

Which scene was your favorite?

I loved a lot of the "inventing Ziggy" scenes, also the looks into Bowie's sex life, cause well yeah

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

YES

Any additional comments?

I love rockstar bios and this is a particularly well written, well researched and fascinating one.

Good overview of the Bowie history

Very well read and a good flow to keep you interested. Personally I prefer the books written directly with the subject but this one gave a very efficient and effective overview of Bowie and his life.

Balanced

Looking up to a fantastic musician with a lifelong body of work is excellent. My lower rating is only because of my own lack of identifying with the artist, which kept me from finishing it. I wasn't looking for gossip, just an understanding of his psychology, more than a diary. For me, it seems better for artists to either work with a psychologist within a contract to restrict what can and can NOT be disclosed. Fans will get all the artist is willing to reveal, which seems fair for someone who sold much of their life to express their deepest emotions in order to find a way to live comfortably as long as they are able to work, in one of the most stress/filled industries on the planet. I give top stars for Bowie's body of work, but I am not one who is a "groupie" but IS an admirer of myth-making work. Bowie was a rare genius, and I hope a book will give more of a feel for that, than an exposé, that seems to be what readers want. I hope Bowie's legend does keep inspiring and teaching new artists who do the work to study him.

Kind of disappointing

If you wanted an inside look into Bowie's music or life look elsewhere. This is not the book for you for those sections are limited. The only thing this book seems to talk about in detail is his sex life. So if for some strange reason you want a catalogue of every person who Bowie had sex with or possibly had sex with, I guess give it a listen.

Celebrity (Not Musical) Biography

There's very little here about Bowie the artist. It mostly details his styles trends and sexual escapades. I was hoping to read SOMETHING about his songwriting and recording career.

Stardust

Going into this book, I already knew a lot about Bowie, but wow, did I learn so much more.

Covers the gossip of his life mostly

If you are A Bowie fan looking for the sexual escapades and trists info than this book will give you that. It is more of a tabloid style book with not much else. I enjoyed it for the good trashy filler that it is. It is nothing more.

GARBAGE!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The worst piece of garbage! I mistakenly thought this was a different biography. If you want to have your heart hurt by Bowie being reduced to sex this is it for you. Terrible. Everyone involved should be ashamed.

Nothing more than catalogue of purported sex life

This is definitely not the definitive Bowie biography, not even close. It's nothing more than stories about his sexual exploits. Very disappointing.

Very little besides lurid sexual details

The actual story of Bowie’s life takes a distant back seat to the constant graphic details of his sexual escapades, not to mention the actual music, which is an afterthought. This is a shallow, boring, poorly organized, repetitive, and frankly gross book that offers little insight into anything but the warped focus of its author.