David Bowie: The Oral History (Three Rivers $18) is a portrait of an artist as told in nearly two hundred interviews. Collected by GQ editor-in-chief Dylan Jones and presented chronologically, these stories and testimonials from Bowie’s family, friends, neighbors, lovers, fellow musicians, producers, and fans form a vivid oral biography of the late star. While Bowie himself says only "I just did too much...” during his heyday, the accounts by John Lennon, Mick Jagger, and Freddie Mercury give insight into a man who was, above all, a performance artist who adapted to his surroundings. Onstage, Bowie was the self-described “chameleon" you grew up listening to as you morphed from a teenager to whatever you considered to be adulthood. Here we get a glimpse of Bowie’s mod suburban London beginnings, his first hit song with "Space Oddity," and on to the dynamic glam rock of his Ziggy Stardust persona, the Berlin years collaborating with Brian Eno, and his acting career. This book takes us behind the scenes and gives us the very vivid and real portrait of Bowie’s life story.
