Rebel Rebel
David Bowie: every single song. Everything you want to know, everything you didn't know.
David Bowie: every single song. Everything you want to know, everything you didn't know.
David Bowie: every single song. Everything you want to know, everything you didn't know.
History & criticism, Individual composer & musician
David Bowie: every single song. Everything you want to know, everything you didn't know.
David Bowie remains mysterious and unknowable, despite 45 years of recording and performing. His legacy is roughly 600 songs, which range from psychedelia to glam rock to Philadelphia soul, from avant-garde instrumentals to global pop anthems. Rebel Rebel catalogs Bowie's songs from 1964 to 1976, examines them in the order of their composition and recording, and digs into what makes them work.
Rebel Rebel is an in-depth look at Bowie's early singles and album tracks, unreleased demos, session outtakes and cover songs. The book traces Bowie's literary, film and musical influences and the evolution of his songwriting. It also shows how Bowie exploited studio innovations, and the roles of his producers and supporting musicians, especially major collaborators like Brian Eno, Iggy Pop and Mick Ronson.
This book places Bowie's music in the context of its era. Readers will discover the links between Kubrick's 2001 and "Space Oddity"; how A Clockwork Orange inspired "Suffragette City". The pages are a trip through Bowie's various lives as a young man in Swinging London, a Tibetan Buddhist, a disillusioned hippie, a rock god, and a Hollywood recluse. With a cast of thousands, including John Lennon, William S. Burroughs, Andy Warhol and Cher.
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4 stars. “The detail is, at times, breathtaking, the cultural contextualizing mostly secure, and the analysis quirky and honest.” ~ David Buckley, Mojo
4 stars. “O’Leary is interested in anything the magpie genius squeezed into his songs…and he can nail a song’s mysterious power in a line…This essential handbook makes old songs feel new again.” ~ Dorian Lynskey, Q
“The only place you’ll get more in-depth details about Bowie’s life is in his Heavenly Book of Life. Unless you have access to God’s archives, you’ll find Rebel Rebel to be an essential book for Bowie enthusiasts and connoisseurs alike.” ~ Joseph Kyle, The Recoup
"This book isn’t the blog splurged on the page. Each entry has been rebuilt from the ground up. Expanded, edited, revised, reworked, remixed. For any self-respecting Bowie fan, it’s essential.” ~ Mayer Nissim, Digital Spy
“The writing is both meticulous and colourful. At times O’Leary is almost too intense…but he does it through love. He’s written a poem in a letter. ~ Chris Roberts, Classic Rock
Chris O'Leary's "Pushing Ahead of the Dame" contains the best writing on David Bowie bar none. ~ Bob Stanley, writer and a member of the pop group Saint Etienne
If you're a David Bowie fan, you'll love Chris O'Leary's Pushing Ahead of the Dame. Each post is devoted to analyzing a Bowie song, in roughly chronological order: its words, music, history, precursors and influence on other performers...Even if you're not an admirer of the artist sometimes known as Ziggy Stardust, the site's a rewarding read. If nothing else, it may leave you wishing that your favorite musician had a fan as perceptive and prolific as O'Leary. (TIME's Best Blogs of 2011) ~ Harry McCracken, TIME