Download or read book The Words and Music of David Bowie written by James E. Perone and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-06-30 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All Music Guide's Stephen Thomas Erlewine has written, Even when he was out of fashion in the '80s and '90s, it was clear that Bowie was one of the most influential musicians in rock, for better or worse. In this comprehensive analysis of David Bowie's career, author James Perone examines the many identities and styles Bowie has developed over the years, and in so doing provides a stunning chronicle of creativity at work. Born David Jones in a London suburb in 1947, David Bowie changed his name in the late '60s to avoid confusion with the singer David Jones of The Monkees. This name change would turn out to be a highly prescient act: for in incorporating an exceptionally wide variety of styles, Bowie would become the most notorious chameleon of the rock era. Due in large part to his early success in the glam rock subgenre and his claims of homosexuality (dismissed by many writers as a ploy to generate public interest and record sales), Bowie raised serious issues about sexual orientation in rock music, regardless of whether or not his claimed homosexuality was genuine or part of his on-stage character. His regular use of theatrical personae also raises interesting issues concerning authenticity and the perception of authenticity in rock music. Although Bowie has been primarily an album artist, his recordings of Fame, Golden Years, Let's Dance, China Girl, Blue Jean, and Dancing in the Streets, all made it into the Billboard top 10 singles charts. Of these, all but one was written or co-written by Bowie. Even more notable are the songs he wrote and recorded that have made an impact far in excess of their chart standing. These include Space Oddity, Rebel, Rebel, Changes, Modern Love, and Young Americans. From his early 1970s albums like Hunky Dory and The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars-in both of which he assumed the character of the fictional, androgynous Stardust-to Diamond Dogs, Heroes, Tin Machine, and Black Tie White Noise, Bowie's albums generated both significant word-of-mouth interest and some of the most contentious critical reactions of any artist of the rock era. This long overdue investigation lets Bowie's artistry speak for itself. After a biographical introduction, chronologically arranged chapters discuss the singer's fascinating—and iconoclastic—body of work. A discography and annotated bibliography conclude the book.
Download or read book Ashes to Ashes written by Chris O'Leary and published by Watkins Media Limited. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive exploration of the final four decades of David Bowie’s musical career—covering every song he wrote, performed, or produced In Ashes to Ashes, the ultimate David Bowie expert offers a song-by-song retrospective of the legendary pop star's musical career from 1976 to 2016. Starting with Low, the first of Bowie's Berlin albums, and finishing with Blackstar—his final masterpiece released just days before his death in 2016—each song is annotated in depth and explored in essays that touch upon the song's creation, production, influences and impact.
Download or read book The Complete David Bowie Revised and Updated 2016 Edition written by Nicholas Pegg and published by Titan Books (US, CA). This book was released on 2016-12-06 with total page 800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The biggest edition yet – expanded and updated with 35,000 words of new material Critically acclaimed in its previous editions, The Complete David Bowie is widely recognized as the foremost source of analysis and information on every facet of Bowie’s career. The A-Z of songs and the day-by-day dateline are the most complete ever published. From the 11-year-old’s skiffle performance at the 18th Bromley Scouts’ Summer Camp in 1958, to the emergence of the legendary lost album Toy in 2011, to his passing in January 2016, The Complete David Bowiediscusses and dissects every last development in rock’s most fascinating career. * The Albums – detailed production history and analysis of every album from 1967 to the present day. * The Songs – hundreds of individual entries reveal the facts and anecdotes behind not just the famous recordings, but also the most obscure of unreleased rarities – from ‘Absolute Beginners’ to ‘Ziggy Stardust’, from ‘Abdulmajid’ to ‘Zion’. * The Tours – set-lists and histories of every live show. * The Actor – a complete guide to Bowie’s career on stage and screen. * Plus – the videos, the BBC radio sessions, the paintings, the Internet and much more.
Download or read book Bowie in His Own Words written by David Bowie and published by Ace Books. This book was released on 1981-09-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book David Bowie Made Me Gay written by Darryl W. Bullock and published by ABRAMS. This book was released on 2017-11-21 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LGBT musicians have shaped the development of music over the last century, with a sexually progressive soundtrack in the background of the gay community’s struggle for acceptance. With the advent of recording technology, LGBT messages were for the first time brought to the forefront of popular music. David Bowie Made Me Gay is the first book to cover the breadth of history of recorded music by and for the LGBT community and how those records influenced the evolution of the music we listen to today.
Download or read book The Sound of Stevie Wonder written by James E. Perone and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-03-30 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since his professional debut in 1962, Stevie Wonder has recorded sixty-four singles that have made the Billboard top 100, including ten that reached number one. Wonder was one of the first Motown artists to have complete control over the writing, arranging, and recording of his songs, and achieved that stature before he was 20 years old. He has won 17 Grammy awards, was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, and earned the Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. Equally important, his work as a producer, arranger, and instrumentalist on other artists' recordings has put him in the highest rank of musical collaborators. This is the first work of criticism on this important documentarian of American life, as well as the introductory volume in The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection. Through a combination of biography and critical analysis, James Perone's groundbreaking new book reveals the many ways in which Stevie Wonder's body of work emerged, developed, reflected its time, and influenced myriad other artists. After revealing the social, cultural, and political context of Wonder's work, the book provides detailed analysis of his compositions and recordings, with a focus on both his well-known songs and those known only to his hardcore fans. The volume also contains discussions of cover versions of Wonder's compositions, a discography of his recordings, a song title index, an annotated bibliography, and a general index.
Download or read book The Songs of David Bowie written by David Bowie and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Murder Most Serene written by Gabrielle Wittkop and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last days of the Venetian Republic, the successive wives of Count Alvise Lanzi suffer mysterious, agonizing deaths. Murder Most Serene offers a cruel portrait of a beautiful but corrupt city-state and its equally extravagant and corrupt inhabitants. Redolent of darkness, death, poison and transgression, it is also an over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek Venetian romp. Rich in historical detail and bursting with bejeweled putrescence, Gabrielle Wittkop's chilling memento mori eschews the murder mystery in which it is garbed for a scintillating depiction of physical, moral, societal and institutional corruption, in which the author plays the role of puppeteer--"present, masked as convention dictates, while in a Venice on the brink of downfall, women gorged with venom burst like wineskins." Self-styled heir to the Marquis de Sade, Gabrielle Wittkop (1920-2002) was a French author who wrote a remarkable series of novels and travelogues, all laced with sardonic humor and dark sexuality, with recurrent themes of death, disease and decrepitude. After meeting Justus Wittkop, a German deserter, in Paris under the Occupation, she hid him from the Nazis and then married him after the war, in what she described as an "intellectual alliance," given he was homosexual. He would commit suicide in 1986, with her approval, after being diagnosed with Parkinson's. Her first novel, The Necrophiliac, appeared in 1972, but a number of her books have only been made available since her own suicide in 2002, after she was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Download or read book Mods Rockers and the Music of the British Invasion written by James E. Perone and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-11-30 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Musical floodgates were opened after the Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. Suddenly, the U.S. record charts, radio, and television were overrun with British rock and pop musicians. Although this British Invasion was the first exposure many Americans had to popular music from the United Kingdom, British pop — and more specifically British rock and roll — had been developing since the middle of the 1950s. Author James Perone here chronicles the development of British rock, from the 1950s imitators of Elvis Presley and other American rockabilly artists, to the new blends of rockabilly, R&B, Motown, and electric blues that defined the British Invasion as we recognize it today. Die-hard fans of the Beatles, the Who, and the Kinks will all want a copy, as will anyone interested in the 1960s more generally. May 1964 saw major gang-style battles break out in British resort communities between the Mods and the Rockers. The tensions between the two groups had been developing for several years, with each group claiming their own sense of culture and style. The Mods wore designer clothing, rode Vespa motor scooters, and shared an affinity for black American soul music, while the Rockers favored powerful motorcycles, greased-back hair, and 1950s American rock and roll. It was within this context that the sounds of the British Invasion developed. Mods, Rockers, and the Music of the British Invasion chronicles the development of British rock through the iconic artists who inspired the movement, as well as through the bands who later found incredible success overseas. In addition to analyzing the music in the context of the British youth culture of the early 1960s, Perone analyzes the reasons that the British bands came to so thoroughly dominate the record charts and airwaves in the United States. The contributions of Cliff Richard, Billy Fury, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Tommy Steele, the Tornados, Tony Sheridan, Blues Incorporated, and others to the development of British rock and roll are examined, as are the contributions and commercial and artistic impact of major British Invasion artists such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Dave Clark Five, the Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, the Who, the Kinks, and others. After investigating these groups and their influences upon one another, Perone concludes by examining the commercial and stylistic impact British rock musicians had on the American music of the time.
Download or read book The Little Black Songbook David Bowie written by Adrian Hopkins and published by Wise Publications. This book was released on 2012-10-24 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The late, great David Bowie left an indelible mark of popular culture and a legacy of songs which still continue to inspire generations. Now, with the help of The Little Black Songbook you too can play more than 90 songs from his vast cannon. With Complete lyrics and chord diagrams, this handy songbook is perfect for any aspiring guitarist, ideal for group singalongs, a spot of busking or simply to play with and explore the genius of David Bowie. This little book includes: - Aladdin Sane - Ashes To Ashes - All The Young Dudes - Boys Keep Swinging - The Buddha Of Suburbia - Changes - Diamond Dogs - Fame - "Heroes" - The Jean Genie - John, I'm Only Dancing - Letter To Hermione - Life On Mars? - Loving The Alien - The Man Who Sold The World - Modern Love - Moonage Daydream - Oh! You Pretty Things - Rebel Rebel - Rock 'N' Roll Suicide - Space Oddity - Sound And Vision - Starman - Suffragette City - Under Pressure - TVC15 - The Width Of A Circle - Young Americans - Ziggy Stardust And many, many more!
Download or read book David Bowie s Diamond Dogs written by Glenn Hendler and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2020-03-05 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After his breakthrough with Ziggy Stardust and before his U.S. pop hits "Fame" and "Golden Years" David Bowie produced a dark and difficult concept album set in a post-apocalyptic "Hunger City" populated by post-human "mutants." Diamond Dogs includes the great glam anthem "Rebel Rebel" and utterly unique songs that combine lush romantic piano and nearly operatic singing with scratching, grungy guitars, creepy, insidious noises, and dark, pessimistic lyrics that reflect the album's origins in a projected Broadway musical version of Orwell's 1984 and Bowie's formative encounter with William S. Burroughs. In this book Glenn Hendler shows that each song on Diamond Dogs shifts the ground under you as you listen, not just by changing in musical style, but by being sung by a different "I" who directly addresses a different "you." Diamond Dogs is the product of a performer at the peak of his powers but uncomfortable with the rock star role he had constructed. All of the album's influences looked to Bowie like ways of escaping not just the Ziggy role, but also the constraints of race, gender, sexuality, and nationality. These are just some of the reasons many Bowie fans rate Diamond Dogs his richest and most important album of the 1970s.
Download or read book Bowie written by Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy Simon Critchley and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book David Bowie All the Songs written by Benoît Clerc and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 861 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Album by album and track by track, this first-of-its-kind catalog of David Bowie's entire 50-year and 27-album career tells the story of one of rock's all-time greatest artists. A lovingly thorough dissection of every album and every track ever released by David Bowie over the span of his nearly 50 year career, David Bowie All the Songs follows the musician from his self-titled debut album released in 1967 all the way through Blackstar, his final album. Delving deep into Bowie's past and featuring new commentary and archival interviews with a wide range of models, actors, musicians, producers, and recording executives who all worked with and knew the so-called "Thin White Duke", David Bowie All the Songs charts the musician's course from a young upstart in 1960s London to a musical behemoth who collaborated with everyone from Queen Latifah and Bing Crosby, to Mick Jagger and Arcade Fire. This one-of-a-kind book draws upon years of research in order to recount how each song was written, composed, and recorded, down to the instruments used and the people who played them. Featuring hundreds of vivid photographs that celebrate one of music's most visually arresting performers, David Bowie All the Songs is a must-have book for any true fan of classic rock.
Download or read book The Man Who Sold the World written by Peter Doggett and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-07-31 with total page 635 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Man Who Sold the World is a critical study of David Bowie's most inventive and influential decade, from his first hit, "Space Oddity," in 1969, to the release of the LP Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) in 1980. Viewing the artist through the lens of his music and his many guises, the acclaimed journalist Peter Doggett offers a detailed analysis—musical, lyrical, conceptual, social—of every song Bowie wrote and recorded during that period, as well as a brilliant exploration of the development of a performer who profoundly affected popular music and the idea of stardom itself. Dissecting close to 250 songs, Doggett traces the major themes that inspired and shaped Bowie's career, from his flirtations with fascist imagery and infatuation with the occult to his pioneering creation of his alter-ego self in the character of Ziggy Stardust. What emerges is an illuminating account of how Bowie escaped his working-class London background to become a global phenomenon. The Man Who Sold the World lays bare the evolution of Bowie's various personas and unrivaled career of innovation as a musician, singer, composer, lyricist, actor, and conceptual artist. It is a fan's ultimate resource—the most rigorous and insightful assessment to date of Bowie's artistic achievement during this crucial period.
Download or read book Blackstar Theory written by Leah Kardos and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021-12-16 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blackstar Theory takes a close look at David Bowie's ambitious last works: his surprise 'comeback' project The Next Day (2013), the off-Broadway musical Lazarus (2015) and the album that preceded the artist's death in 2016 by two days, Blackstar. The book explores the swirl of themes that orbit and entangle these projects from a starting point in musical analysis and features new interviews with key collaborators from the period: producer Tony Visconti, graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook, musical director Henry Hey, saxophonist Donny McCaslin and assistant sound engineer Erin Tonkon. These works tackle the biggest of ideas: identity, creativity, chaos, transience and immortality. They enact a process of individuation for the Bowie meta-persona and invite us to consider what happens when a star dies. In our universe, dying stars do not disappear - they transform into new stellar objects, remnants and gravitational forces. The radical potential of the Blackstar is demonstrated in the rock star supernova that creates a singularity resulting in cultural iconicity. It is how a man approaching his own death can create art that illuminates the immortal potential of all matter in the known universe.
Download or read book David Bowie The Next Day PVG written by Wise Publications and published by Wise Publications. This book was released on 2013-07-10 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Released to the surprise of fans, pundits and even Columbia Records' own PR department, The Next Day is David Bowie's twenty-fourth studio album, announced on his sixty-sixth birthday, containing Bowie's first collection of all-new material for over ten years. This matching songbook contains sheet music for all the tracks from The Next Day - including the songs from the deluxe version of the album, So She, Plan and I'll Take You There - all expertly arranged for Piano, Vocal and Guitar with full lyrics, chord symbols and guitar chord boxes.
Download or read book The Bowie Companion written by Elizabeth Thomson and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Bowie was one of the most important and influential artists to emerge from the 1970s and yet he remains one of the most elusive figures in rock. This book views his career through nearly three decades of popular cultural commentary. Giving full weight to Bowie's stage and screen career as well as his music, the book includes some contemporary articles from the British and American press and material written from the benefit of hindsight. Gordon Burn offers a backstage look at The Elephant Man, Philip Norman pens a critique of Absolute Beginners, Lindsay Kemp reminisces on his years as Bowie's friend and mime teacher, Anne Rice and Jon Savage examine the question of Bowie and gender, and Craig Copetas catches a curious conversation between Bowie and William Burroughs. Other contributors include the late Marc Bolan, Michael Bracewell, Simon Frith, Pauline Kael, John Rockwell, Leslie Thomas and Ellen Willis.
