The Man Who Sold the World (52 page)

307  “I heard that it could change”: Buckley,
Strange Fascination
, p. 270.

311  Bowie explained this song: BBC radio interview, 2000.

312  “I think the twentieth century”: Ballard, Notes to
Crash
, p. 14.

312  “to accept the perverse eroticism”: Ballard,
Crash
, p. 9.

312  “hands down, the most repulsive”: Ballard, Notes to
Crash
, p. 12.

313  “It could've been anybody”: To Michael Watts,
MM
, February 1978.

313  “It was genuinely anguished”: Ibid.

314  “most narrative”: Ibid.

314  “this metallic, metronomic beat”: To Toby Goldstein,
NME
, December 24, 1977.

317  “Music carries its own message”:
NME
, September 13, 1980.

317  “To make him sound like a boy”: Buckley,
Strange Fascination
, p. 267.

319  “no other instrument”: To Angus MacKinnon,
NME
, September 22, 1979.

320  “I have to put myself”: To C. S. Murray,
NME
, November 12, 1977.

320  “the twentieth century's dystopia”: Conrad,
Modern Times, Modern Places
, p. 319.

320  “unsettlingly foreign”: Large,
Berlin
, p. 466.

321  “This fascist state”: Varon,
Bringing the War Home
, p. 39.

322  “an ambiguous place”: To Jonathan Mantle,
Vogue
, September 1978.

322  “Instead of having a lot”: To Miles,
NME
, November 27, 1976.

322  “without vocals that you'd recognise”: To Chris Charlesworth,
MM
, March 13, 1976.

324  “recognisable Bowie”:
NME
, October 16, 1976.

324  “It's still a very organic”: To Paul Du Noyer,
Mojo
, July 2002.

327  “That rather camp”:
RS
, November 5, 1987.

328  “To cause an art movement”: To Lisa Robinson,
NME
, March 6, 1976.

328  “Punk was absolutely necessary”: To Jean Rook,
Daily Express
, February 14, 1979.

329  “Germanic influences were plain”: Shrapnel,
The Seventies
, p. 85.

330  “I wanted to give a phrase”: To Michael Watts,
MM
, February 1978.

333  “very straight from the shoulder”: To Adrian Deevoy,
Q
, June 1989.

333  “Bowie's most moving performance”:
NME
, October 8, 1977.

333  “People like watching people”: To Chris Charlesworth,
MM
, March 13, 1976.

333  “three oscillating VCS3 drones”: Sheppard,
On Some Faraway Beach
, p. 256.

335  “I still incorporate a lot”: To Michael Watts,
MM
, February 1978.

337  “It was like a game”: Quoted in Sheppard,
On Some Faraway Beach
, p. 255.

338  “restricted to impressionistic”: Ibid.

339  “the Turks are shackled”: To Allan Jones,
MM
, October 29, 1977.

340  “just a collection of stuff”: To C. S. Murray,
NME
, November 12, 1977.

341  “instamatic lyric overflow”:
NME
, October 8, 1977.

342  “mythic, cartoon-like”: Bracewell,
Re-Make/Re-Model
, p. 261.

342  “I was just a hack painter”: To Allan Jones,
MM
, October 29, 1977.

342  “I'm doing lots of sculptures”: To Russell Harty, TV interview, 1975.

343  “ecstatic expressiveness”: Elger,
Expressionism
, p. 58.

343  “everything is dead”: Quoted in Mitsch,
Egon Schiele
, pp. 49–50.

343  “Mime and theatrical gesture”: Ibid., p. 28.

343  “an uncompromising disregard”: Ibid., p. 25.

344  “only rival”: To Tony Norman,
RM
, July 20, 1974.

344  “it reminded us of our childhoods”: To Bob Hart, quoted in
RM
, July 20, 1974.

344  “David will write the screenplay”: Ibid.

345  “I hope it's going to be out”: To Robin Smith,
RM
, April 16, 1977.

347  “Friends remember him”: Steve Turner,
Independent
, 1991.

347  “The film was a cack”: To Angus MacKinnon,
NME
, September 13, 1980.

349  “taken some realist attitudes”: To Timothy White,
Crawdaddy
, February 1978.

349  “The celebrated chameleon”: Ibid.

349  “I get scared stiff”:
MM
, February 1978.

350  “I think the only thing”: To Jonathan Mantle,
Vogue
, September 1978.

351  “learning to be happy”: To Jean Rook,
Daily Express
, February 14, 1979.

351  “cynical period”: Press conference, February 1979.

353  “I took a straightforward safari”: US radio interview, 1978.

353  “I would have thought”: To Angus MacKinnon,
NME
, September 13, 1980.

356  “The one particular song”: To Philip Bradley,
International Musician
, June 1990.

359  “What I do is, say”: To Angus MacKinnon,
NME
, September 13, 1980.

362  “If I'm bored”: To Robert Hilburn,
MM
, September 14, 1974.

362  “a piece of self-plagiarism”: Jon Savage,
MM
, May 27, 1979; Angus MacKinnon,
NME
, May 26, 1979; Paul Yamada,
New York Rocker
, July 1979.

365  “Having played it”: To Angus MacKinnon,
NME
, September 13, 1980.

370  “I programmed a descending”: Visconti,
Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy
, p. 283.

370  “We'd go back”: Ibid., p. 286.

373  “Those three particular lines”: To Angus MacKinnon,
NME
, September 13, 1980.

373  “You have to accommodate”: To Timothy White,
Musician
, July 1990.

374  “For me, it's a story”: To Angus MacKinnon,
NME
, September 13, 1980.

375  “I've always hated him so”: Meltzer,
A Whore Just Like the Rest of Us
, p. 218.

375  “The next religion might come”:
Friends
, October 30, 1970.

377  “the lyric is often glossed”: Pegg,
The Complete David Bowie
, p. 216.

377  “quite proud about it”: Buckley,
Strange Fascination
, p. 331.

377  “when he was young”: Christgau,
Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s
, p. 66.

382  “I can't write young”: To Angus MacKinnon,
NME
, September 13, 1980.

383  “My problem was cocaine”: To Tricia Jones,
i-D
, May 1987.

384  “The later paintings”: Miller,
The Seventies Now
, p. 219.

384  “a grinding, dissonant”:
NME
, September 20, 1980.

384  “
Scary Monsters
for me”: To Timothy White,
Musician
, July 1990.

 

AFTERWORD

390  “disintegrative effect”: Quoted in Mellor,
The Sixties Art Scene in London
, p. 32.

393  “The cutting-edge ensemble”: Pegg,
The Complete David Bowie
, p. 480.

395  “unbelievably complicated”: Quoted in ibid., p. 360.

 

APPENDIX

402  “He was probably aiming higher”: To Mark Paytress,
RC
, May 2000.

406  “I borrowed someone else's”: To Tony Horkins,
International Musician
, December 1991.

409  “I'm not very sure of myself”: To C. S. Murray,
NME
, August 11, 1973.

417  “It goes down very well”:
MM
, November 1966.

418  “were either homosexual”: Quoted in Davenport-Hines,
The Pursuit of Oblivion
, p. 256.

430  “in the style of a beat poet”: Cann,
Any Day Now
, p. 106.

430  “like an unpolished recording”: Ibid.

434  “I would have been doing stage musicals”: To David Cavanagh,
Q
, February 1997.

436  “a true oddity”: Cann,
Any Day Now
, p. 106.

436  “the test of a first-rate intelligence”: Fitzgerald, “The Crack-Up” (1936).

437  “two albums he had been given”:
Mojo
, July 2002.

439  “linchpin”: Ibid.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER READING

 

Kevin Cann's illustrated chronology of Bowie's career in London,
Any Day Now
, is a stunning visual and factual delight. Equally striking is
Moonage Daydream
, which mixes tantalizing commentary from Bowie with seminal photographs by Mick Rock.

Paul Trynka's recent Bowie biography,
Starman
, is impeccably researched and told, relying on interviews with almost every surviving significant figure in his subject's career. For critical insight allied to biography, read David Buckley's highly rewarding
Strange Fascination
; Nicholas Pegg's encyclopedia,
The Complete David Bowie
, not only lives up to its title but is immensely readable and thought-provoking throughout. The grandparents of Bowie biography, however, remain the Gillmans, for their madness-heavy account of Aladdin (In)Sane; George Tremlett, thanks to his access to the pre-Ziggy Bowie; and the ever-loyal Ken Pitt, Bowie's closest adviser in the years leading up to his fame. By necessity, Tony Visconti's autobiography deals with other subjects besides Bowie, but his account of their collaborations over the course of thirty years is fascinating. Finally, Mark Paytress's study of the making of
Ziggy Stardust
is arguably the single most provocative text about Bowie's self-creation as a superstar.

Several websites contain rich resources of Bowie material, notably Bowie Wonderland, 5 Years, Bowiezone, The Ziggy Stardust Companion, and Teenage Wildlife. Finally, anyone who has enjoyed reading this book should also look at Chris O'Leary's blog, Pushing Ahead Of The Dame, an ongoing (at the time of writing) and intriguing critique of Bowie's entire catalogue, which I have resisted the strong temptation to read for fear that it might unduly influence my own thinking. You, however, don't have that problem!

 

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