Hero

David Bowie

By: Lesley-Ann Jones

Narrated by: Gina Murray, Lesley-Ann Jones

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

His music thrilled the generation it was written for and has entertained and inspired every generation since.

Hero: David Bowie is an exploration of the man behind the myths and the makeup told from the very beginning. Respected music journalist and biographer Lesley-Ann Jones knew David Jones from the days before fame, when he was a young musician starting out, frustrated by an industry that wouldn't give him a break and determined to succeed at whatever cost.

Here she traces the epic journey of the boy from Bromley born into a troubled background to his place as one of the greatest stars in rock history. Jones has interviewed numerous friends and associates of Bowie, many of whom have never spoken publicly about him before.

Drawing on this new material and meticulous research, the real story of Bowie's family background is told, the true inspiration behind the creation of Ziggy Stardust is revealed, and we learn how his marriage to Angie ended in agony following his comeback from a near fatal drug addiction. Jones also revisits Bowie's tragic relationship with his brother and his deep bond with T. Rex front man Marc Bolan.

Bowie's rebellious nature, his many sources of inspiration and creativity, and his complex, intense personality are discussed here, creating a unique and compelling portrait of an extraordinary man. This is Bowie as you've never seen him before.

©2016 Lesley-Ann Jones (P)2016 Hodder & Stoughton

Get This If You Are a Bowie Fan

This book is a very interesting read (or listen). As a Bowie fan for over 35 years I am always interested hearing new perspectives. Much of the information comes from people very close to Bowie; most of them interviewed after his death. The author also knew Bowie and interviewed him on many occasions. There are some fascinating stories in the book. One of the stories in the book was on the subject of his paralyzed pupil; I won't spoil it here, but it was a real surprise considering most Bowie fans thought they knew the story of how it occurred (be prepared for a shock). Another revelation revolves around John Lennon's murder and Bowie's location at the time; he was not involved in the murder but his involvement in the story was also a surprise to me.

I would like to see a Bowie biography as comprehensive as "Tune In" (about The Beatles) which is probably being worked on, however this is the best Bowie biography published since his death. Overall it is very well written.

A newspaper column in long form

This isn't a bad book. In many ways its pretty entertaining, and I don't regret getting it. However I wish I knew what I was getting before I purchased it.

After reading the description on Audible I got the impression that this was a Bowie biography written by someone who interviewed many of the 'insiders' in his life. And in some ways that isn't far from the truth. But the way its put together it really comes off like this; imagine that you work in an office and there is someone in a different department on a different floor whom you vaguely know. Perhaps you know each other's names and nod politely when you end up in the same elevator. Maybe you even had lunch together during a company picnic 15 years ago. Now one day that person decides to write your biography and fill it with personal opinions and long tangents which are hardly related to your life.
Just listen to the 5 minute sample on Audible and realize that you're getting 12 hours of that.

There is certainly some charm to this book and a unique perspective. It feels a little like you when a group of friends talks about someone they knew back in high school who has now made it big. It adds an interesting context to Bowie's story, since it ofers a unique perspective. Its essentially like having a newspaper's gossip / society columnist put their work in book form. And if you're in the mood for that, I'm sure you'll enjoy this title.

Honest and Beautiful

Without exagerating facts this book, this life story, feels complete and intimate. I Love Bowie.

Some Disappointment

I was actually immediately put off by the book. The introduction treated the author as a peer subject which is not what I was hoping to hear. Thankfully, this gave way to a more proper biography once the book began in earnest.
Parts of the book raced through researched facts with such speed the facts barely registered. Other parts seemed to delight in tabloid, stream-of-consciousness type writing. Both were problematic for me. I got a biography to hear the facts and analysis, but sometimes that came up short. During the tabloid-style writing I couldn't help but feel like my fellow Capricorn musician would not want to be treated so frivolously.
Overall, the book is not bad. My criticisms are primarily my own deal. I do wish there was an editor and some editing to make the book more palatable for me, but, in fairness, that is all my experience.
The narrator was interesting. She did surely try to do all the accents as best she could. Her American was hard, and lacked nuance. I imagine the rest of the accents were similarly a bit flawed. She was very capable otherwise. She read rapidly but gave proper contextual intonation throughout.
I feel like my review may be harsher than I actually feel about the content. I felt the content, while scatterbrained in parts, was also quite good.

Amazing

Probably the best Bowie biography I’ve read/listened to! I’m not a sentimental person, but the way she ended it made me a but misty-eyed especially since I’m a huge fan. Yes, he’s still with us.

Disappointing

I am a huge Bowie Fan and wanted to hear about David Bowie. I could give a toss about the narrators life unless it was really relevant to Bowie's life. This was a boring listen, that constantly jumped from one thing to the other. I listened to maybe 3 hours which was 2 hours too many.
This is my first disappointing purchase from Audible.

Gossipy and disappointing.

As a huge Bowie fan, there was not much I didn’t already know about the man, but after listening to this author’s Freddy Mercury bio, I was interested to hear her first hand perspective on Bowie. The book starts off well, with the author painting herself as a lucky fan girl who got to experience the rise of Ziggy, but then it starts to delve into lurid tabloid gossip, presenting every rumor about his supposed affairs as fact while leaving out the details of his recordings and inspirational process. Comments about his personal assistant get progressively more and more aggressive and she includes quotes detailing the size of Bowie’s genitalia and the authenticity of his marriage to Iman, but very little about his actual musical impact and creative projects. They say we all have our own Bowie, and the author seems to be bitter to have lost her idea of Bowie to the slick, serious, peaceful musician he became later in life. The narrator does a decent job of varying accents to portray those being interviewed, but a lot of misspoken song titles (saying TVC Fifteen instead of TVC One Five) betray a lack of knowledge about the subject matter by both the narrator and the director. In all, not a biography I would recommend for a seriously Bowie fan.