Customer Reviews

David Bowie: Living on the Brink

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There are a number of Bowie bios, or "me-and-David-Bowie" volumes around, but few really good. The Brixton-born star has always been careful not to expose his past, and not to turn down rumours; many books about him get stuck in the sensational. Tremlett's book is one of the best, perhaps *the* best Bowie biography I've read, and for a number of reasons.
The writer knew Bowie long before he became a star and did hours of interviews with him around 1970. Years later, at the point when Bowie broke with MainMan, Tremlett became an insider again in a crucial phase. He makes good use of this material to interpret Bowie's winding road from half-esoteric post-hippie and "artist without a niche" to a million-selling teen idol (some of the best pages are about Bowie and his friend/rival Marc Bolan, who in some sense cleared the way for Bowie to become Ziggy Stardust).
While he's clearly an admirer of Bowie's artistic genius and sometimes good sense, he doesn't lose sight of his occcasional ruthlessness and manipulation of the media. He's also enough of a literary man to do some useful interpretation of Bowie's lyrics.

The book is very good on the business side of rock'n'roll. Tremlett goes through the phases of Bowie's career, explains settlements, discusses the incomes, royalties, credits and the sometime lack of a steering hand on the budget. He's also got an excellent sense of the absurdity of rock life, as when Bowie makes the first Ziggy tour of the USA, playing to half-filled venues but living it up like a star - at the command of his manager Tony DeFries, of course. The financial straps were all with the record company, so Bowie and the band had almost no money in their own pockets. By the time they reached L.A. and checked into a top-notch hotel, everyone had learnt the trick: you could get whatever you wnated just as long as you could say "pass it to the RCA". Bowie and trhe guys made limo trips around L.A. rather than going anywhere by bus or cab, because when you're in a limo, you never have to pay in cash.
Some of the material on the MainMan business side is of course from Tony Zanetta's "Stardust" but Tremlett buttresses it with his own analysis. His account of the economy of Bowie's 1980s tours is a bit guesswork but very useful and also shows that he's under no obligations to Bowie.

It should be said that we don't learn much about Bowie in private after the mid-seventies, but this is because the star has wanted it that way. About four fifths of this book deal with the decade 1966-76, and after Bowie has returned to Europe and began his "Berlin" phase - in reality, he made his home in Switzerland already before recording "Low" - he's almost impossible to follow on a private plan; there's no one to ask, and the guy himself gives no in-depth interviews anymore (and in most people's books, the sventies were his classic years). The book takes a nuanced, amused, and sharp look at Bowie's career.

He's a rock chameleon, a musical star who has acquired and shed all sorts of onstage personas -- Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, and the Thin White Duke among them. George Tremlett's biography "David Bowie: Living on the Brink" doesn't reveal much that's new, but he does manage to give a new spin to Bowie's story.

Author George Tremlett first encountered David Bowie (born David Jones) in the 1970s, as the talented young musician was blossoming into what would be a long and fruitful career. He chronicles Bowie's troubled family (including a family history of schizophrenia), Bowie being taken under the wing of Kenneth Pitt, his marriage to wild child Angela Bowie, and a colorful career that never failed to fascinate.

Most biographers either trash or glorify the people they are writing about. George Tremlett really does neither. Not for long, anyway. On one hand, he analyzes song lyrics, quibbles on Bowie's sexuality and sometimes makes excuses for dumb stunts. On the other, he is quite willing to chronicle Bowie's flaws -- his sometime insensitivity, coldness and weirdness. Bowie's complexity seems to fascinate Tremlett.

His writing is a hodgepodge of the conversational, the distant and professional, and his own experiences. It's a bit uneven, but it works. Most of the information is gleaned from other books; Tremlett gives it a slightly new outlook, refuting some rumors and questioning others. Thankfully, he does not try to spin up his conversations with Bowie into a friendship, as many rock journalists do.

Those looking for a trashy read will be sated by anecdotes like Bowie's two lovers (one male, one female) arguing over him, and the glitz, seediness and glamour of 1970s London. But Tremlett also covers a side of Bowie that you don't see often: the businessman. He tackles the complicated world of agents, music deals, bestselling records and everything that fills in the gaps. And he makes it clear that Bowie is not just an excellent musician, but a capable businessman as well.

Sometimes conversational, sometimes distant and professional, "David Bowie: Living on the Brink" is a nice solid read about the Man Who Fell To Earth. Recommended for fans of classic rock'n'roll, and Bowie himself.

Tremlett recycles the best bits from older, trashier bios, and adds his own, substantial pre-Ziggy interview material. His presentation is clear, concise, and buttressed by a detailed chronology and annotated bibliography, and his record critiques are fair if overly focused on lyrics. There's enough name-dropping and 70's hedonism for smut grazers, and plenty of financial analysis for those interested in rock's corporate machine. But there are weak points: Tremlett runs through the last two decades with no enthusiasm or insider knowledge, there's no index or discography, and the photo section isn't anything special.

David Bowie: Living on The Brink was a fascinating insight into the man, David Bowie. It openned with how the author knew David, and how they got along. That was a little boring because you want to know about David, not the writter, but once you get passed this the book levels out. You get to understand David's history, who he was, and how his parents and relitives shapped his life. The book writes of his relationship with his father and the ever faithful Kenneth Pit. It highlights Bowie's unpredictable and always charismatic character. The book fervently discusses finance managment as well. It also writes of David's other talents in art and how music was not his first choice. From David's early years- through scattered lovers, sexual, religious, and personality explorations we get to know David Bowie. This is a really good book, and if you are a David Bowie fan, as I have just recently found myself thrown head first into then you will enjoy it. I mean it's Bowie, where could you go wrong!

This book was especially interesting and had a broad range because the author had in-depth interviews and hour long conversations with Bowie before he was a success, at age 22! The book talks about things that wouldn't ordinarily seem interesting, but are here: Bowie's finances and record label managements along the way. The book doesn't seem to gloss over Bowie's rough spots and the occasional early failures the way a more worshipful book might, which lets you see that Bowie is very hardworking and tenacious. This is a great book, interesting facts, not a lot of bias or sentiment! Read it!!

The book appears to ramble, lacking organization. I found myself questioning the reliability of Tremlett's accounts, and I came away with a sense of not knowing what is true or imagined, authentic or hype. In Tremlett's defense, Bowie's life is quite disjointed and probably difficult to nail down in many respects, but I think that that is the job of a biographer. The writing, at times, is not clear and lacks sophistication and style. I did finish the book, however; the subject matter transcends the narrative.

I feel this book covered the life and interesting career of David Robert Jones, better known as David Bowie, very well.

This was a good book, but I only found out after laboring through a very slow start.

Good points:

1. The writing is very light and easy to read and not overwrought with detail (like some biographies often can be).

2. The book is written in such a way that the chapters can be read in any order. (I myself was very interested in how Bowie made his fortune and that was covered in a very nice and succinct way in a single chapter.)

3. The characterization of Bowie was good and strong. In a way, it is good that Tremlett did not take on a product over which Bowie had final control. In this way, both the flattering and unflattering aspects of Bowie were included.

4. There were some interesting (if unintentional) portraits of some *really sick* puppies in the rock/ art industry (Andy Warhol and the foot fetish).

5. There was at least *some* discussion
Bad points:

1. There is no index.

2. The book could have done with many more photos.

3. The writing seems rather.......choppy and disjointed at times. This author writes in very much the same way that a person speaks, and that seems inappropriate at times.

All in all, definitely worth a second hand purchase price.

This book merely reinforces the enigma that is David Bowie: naive, impressionable young man or evasive, cool, calm and in control. But this merely reflects how thorough and incisive the book is, and it reveals a Bowie that reinforces his cool and fills in the gaps. Only complaint is that once it reaches post-76/77 it focusses more on his finances than his creativity, which is a pity if you dig Heroes/Lodger/Scarey Monsters, but not if you think that the '80s were a creative lowpoint in Bowie's career. Either way "Living on the Brink" exhibits Bowie as a master of music and art and promotion.

What's very interesting about this book is the fact that it gives you more facts about David Bowie that nobody really knew, and it's more up to date...YAY!!!!! Also, it gives you the inside scoop of what happened during his tours and talked about his other lovers, who weren't really well known, the way Angie and Iman are. It actually kind of highlights his marriage to Iman, which makes you think, "What did he see in Angie in the first place?" You might even be surprised to hear what you read. You learn about the two lovers who fought over Bowie to win his love, the much younger woman who was once in Bowie's life, as well as other interesting facts. You just have to read if you are interested!