Bowie

The Biography

By: Wendy Leigh

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

He was young and had fun, but then he grew up

Life played out in the view of the masses. This is how life goes - you are young and have fun because you think you are immortal. Once you grow up and have explored enough, you settle down and leave the drama behind. It's not a bad book, but it's just the story of a man's life and nothing to get overly excited about.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Trashy

What was most disappointing about Wendy Leigh’s story?

This bio has lots of sex, some drugs, and precious little rock and roll. While you would never expect a bio of David Bowie to be G-rated, this trashy bit of work does a hatchet job on an arguably music and entertainment pioneer. The author seems to have based much of her material on the recollections of groupies and hangers on with the result being lots of details on Bowie’s sex life but comparatively little on his music and its impact. In particular, she seems to have a lurid fixation on the size of Bowie’s genitalia and she comes back to this topic ad nauseum. The narration – delivered in dry, Queen’s English, couldn’t be more at odd’s with the subject matter and brings to mind the John Cleese sex ed teacher bit from The Meaning of Life. If you are looking to find out about Bowie the musician, his influences and impact, you won’t find it here.

rubbish !!

What disappointed you about Bowie?

nothing about anything .. except who he slept with ... I DONT CARE WHO HE SLEPT WITH !!

Has Bowie turned you off from other books in this genre?

no

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Simon Vance?

dont care

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

no

Any additional comments?

no