Tant'è, l'immersione nel mondo-Bowie dell'esposizione (grazie a un efficacissimo equilibrio tra stimoli visivi e sonori durante tutto il percorso) è estremamente coinvolgente ed esteticamente gratificante, quasi patologica per i fan-atici, assurge addirittura a esperienza mistica in seguito alla sua morte It’s telling that among Bowie’s final public statements was a list of his Top 100 books, offered as part of the David Bowie Is museum exhibit. As Bowie has apparently left no memoir behind, the closest that he ventured to autobiography is this list of books. Some he chose because he wanted his fans to read them, but many selections have a deeper resonance in his work.

Strange fascination: The best David Bowie books

While this biography was published a decade before Bowie died—look elsewhere for coverage of his death, his legacy, and his last two albums—this is likely the most insightful critical biography we have, deeply learned about not just the songs, but the albums, the tours, the personas, and the artistic vision. You’ll have to put a bit more into it than most of the rest of these books, but you’ll reap more from it as well.Clarke’s 1953 SF novel of a race of alien beings who come to Earth to midwife the next step in human evolution has echoes in Bowie’s generational “changing of the guard” songs of the early 1970s, particularly “Oh! You Pretty Things” and “Changes.” Bowie lived in West Berlin in the late 1970s and spent his time there as a literary reenactor. He yearned to be in the Berlin of Christopher Isherwood’s novels, to the point of even looking at times like Michael York’s character in Cabaret. One tourist guide was Friedrich’s portrait of Weimar Berlin, a doomed city of exiles, revolutionaries and artists. Bowie would later use a Vladimir Nabokov quote from Friedrich’s book in “I’d Rather Be High.” L'ho vista una prima volta ad agosto con pochissimo pubblico (condizione eccellente) in 2,5 ore che si sono rivelate insufficienti. L'ho rivista a novembre durante il tutto esaurito delle ultime settimane (condizioni rese accettabili solo grazie agli ampi spazi del museo e all'isolamento intimo garantito dalle cuffie) in 4 ore che sono il tempo minimo necessario. Nel vostro morire deve ardere ancora il vostro spirito e la vostra virtù, come un vespero sulla terra: altrimenti il morire vi è riuscito male. Così voglio morire anche io, affinché voi, amici, amiate la terra ancor più, per amor mio; e voglio tornare a essere terra, per aver pace in colei che mi ha generato. ….

David Bowie Is by Victoria Broackes, Geoffrey Marsh - Waterstones

O quantomeno David Bowie è... l'incarnazione umana in forma artistica di questa εἶδος, quale incessante ricerca della compiutezza sia come forma che come pensiero, ciò che io più o meno kantianamente percepisco con i miei sensi attraverso le miei categorie trascendentali, αἰσθάνομαι. Will Ziggy, like King Arthur, now remain sleeping forever or will he/she return to save mystic Albion from its enemies? Or will the 'Heroes' be found on the other sides by then? Is Major Tom still drifting? Or has he refocused and reconnected with others to overthrow the London of global capitalism?" - typically cringeworthy paragraph from the section by the curator of the V&A exhibitI went to see "David Bowie Is" at the Victoria & Albert Museum on Saturday 11 May 2013. I was a massive Bowie fan in the 1970s and so was keen to see this exhibition.

The 15 Best David Bowie Books | Vogue

At the Birth of Bowie is essential reading for anyone who knows what happened on Bowie’s journey, but wants to understand how, and why, it ever began. From the ultimate David Bowie expert comes this exploration of the final four decades of the popstar’s musical career, covering every song he wrote, performed or produced from 1976 to 2016. David Bowie: Icon gathers the greatest photographs of one of the greatest stars in history, into a single, luxurious volume. The result is the most important anthology of David Bowie images that has ever been compiled. With work by many of the most eminent names in photography, this book showcases a stunning portfolio of imagery, featuring the iconic, the awe inspiring, the candid and the surprising. The first photo session started at four in the afternoon and went through the night till dawn. Bowie went through countless costume changes, each more incredible than the last and each seemed to turn him into a totally different person. Bowie relentlessly created these unique characters, each seemingly alive in their own charismatic space for Schapiro to create visual images to complement their very existence and turn them into iconic images for all time. David Bowie è... morto. Ha preso in mano la sua morte e, riuscendo a separare in modo ammirevole il fatto privatissimo, di cui non è trapelato praticamente nulla (in quella che è stata forse la sua suprema performance attoriale?), dall'atto artistico ha concluso il suo percorso chiudendo il cerchio e dando un senso compiuto a tutta la sua carriera: ha trasformato l'atto creativo in massimo sistema.

Finally I was a bit uneasy with the final section - massive screens with live performance. It was so reverential. George kindly supplied the previously unpublished photograph, which according to him was taken aboard Amtrak somewhere between New Orleans and Chicago on the first US tour in 1972. From portraits and album covers, performances and rehearsals, to rarely seen private moments and candid snapshots, this collection is at once powerful, sentimental and inspiring. The thoughts and reminiscences of the photographers, many sharing their memories for the first time, give us an insight into this artist unlike any other. In 1983 David Bowie set out on the Serious Moonlight Tour, his biggest ever. On the road with him was his official photographer, Denis O’Regan. Few artists and photographers have had such a close touring relationship. This book is the result: a never-before-seen photographic portrait of a year with Bowie, from the theatre of performance to his most unguarded moments. Introduced by O’Regan and with every single image personally approved by Bowie, this is an intimate view of an icon at the height of his fame.

Books to read if you love David Bowie - Penguin Books UK Books to read if you love David Bowie - Penguin Books UK

Before there was Star Wars before there was Close Encounters there was The Man Who Fell To Earth. advertising tag line for 1981 reissue of the film. Earthbound is the first book-length exploration of a true classic of twentieth-century science-fiction cinema, shot under the heavy, ethereal skies of New Mexico by the legendary British director Nicolas Roeg and starring David Bowie in a role he seemed born for as an extra-terrestrial named Thomas Newton who comes to Earth in search of water. Based on a novel by the highly regarded American writer Walter Tevis, this dreamy, distressing, and visionary film resonates even more strongly in the twenty-first century than it did on its original release during the year of the US Bicentennial. by George Orwell (also rec’d by John Lennon, Stephen King& Steve Jobs) “A political thesis and an impression of the way in another country.” -DB

The last image they made was at four in the morning to wrap up the marathon session when they went outside to shoot Bowie on his motorcycle – the sun hadn’t yet risen and the shot was lit dramatically by only the headlights of a car. This image remains one of Schapiro’s favourites and is certain to live on in posterity. A name synonymous with ground-breaking music, Tony Visconti has worked with the most dynamic and influential names in pop, from T.Rex and Iggy Pop to David Bowie and U2. This is the compelling life story of the man who helped shape music history, and gives a unique, first-hand insight into life in London during the late 1960s and ’70s. Ma poiché non è nella mia natura l'adorazione fanatica di alcunché, sinceramente non me ne sono mai occupata. La sua musica mi piaceva come quella di altri, conoscevo di lui quel poco che era inevitabile conoscere, non ho mai indagato la sua biografia e nemmeno la sua opera. Rappresentava un ideale estetico che non ho mai incarnato nella persona, nemmeno in termini erotici, per quanto di erotismo questo ideale me ne trasmettesse a iosa (unico anche in questo). Incarnare questa attrazione nella persona che ovviamente non conoscevo sarebbe stata una mancanza di rispetto innanzitutto nei miei confronti, oltre che nei suoi.