Dey Street Books

Like so many vital figures in British pop history, from Pete Townshend to Paul Weller, Bowie came from a blurry region of British society that encompasses the educated working class, the socially precarious petite bourgeoisie and what could be called the uncomfortably-off middle class, i.e. professional or office workers whose income didn’t quite match their aspirations.

Actors can duck and dive a bit—they constantly re-create themselves. All they can do is play the role of a monster. But nobody does monster like a rock star.”

I ate little, but ingested a critically unfair amount of chemicals.”

This robot-funk space-rock epic holds up as his greatest album, even if he couldn’t remember making it

Bowie called him “a would-be romantic with absolutely no emotion

Bowie’s five best albums came all in a five-year rush: Station to Station (1976), Low (1977), “Heroes” (1977), Lodger (1979), Scary Monsters (1980

The rhythm section: Dennis Davis on drums, George Murray on bass, and Carlos Alomar on guitar.

Tony Visconti produced four of these albums; Brian Eno played on three of them. Robert Fripp played on a couple

But the Davis/Murray/Alomar axis was one of the toughest rock and roll bands that ever existed

Frank Sinatra visited the studio and gave his blessing to Bowie’s version of the Hollywood torch song “Wild Is the Wind