We Could Be: Bowie and his Heroes

What was it like to have met David Bowie? A very full answer to this question can be found among the 300 anecdotes here of A-list celebrities and some minor ones who were lucky enough to meet the much missed star. Amazingly, a surprisingly high proportion of these anecdotes end with Bowie sleeping with the celebrity they just met! But what mostly shines through is what a charmer Bowie could be - his father after all worked in PR and Bowie clearly learnt much from him. Most, but not all those who met him come away enchanted and dazzled - Bowie clearly had a great humanity about him. For balance there are a few examples of awkward encounters like the time a paranoid coked-out Bowie, who was hallucinating about space aliens, met Bruce Springsteen in Philadelphia and was unable to sustain an ordinary conversation with the blue-collar music hero. Some of the meetings I have heard of before, but some such as Tony Blair's dinner with Bowie at Chequers were a complete surprise. A great read.

purchased the book. I have been enjoying reading the book , it has some interesting stories . It must difficult to endure accuracy . It’s touched on at the start of the book with the story regard Tony offering help because of some errors. It was all needed to buy the book. Tony V was one of David’s closest friends . But I was enjoying it 5 stars until the Marc Bolan but. The classic story of David and Marcs peeing contest when they first met painting the managers office has been told by Bowie - See the BBC story tellers DVD . But the Marc Bolan show. It’s got something very wrong . It says the show was famous for a Drunken fan falling off the stage . Not so. Marc fell on the stage . The pair burst out laughing . It’s where the show ended . It was screened after Marcs death and the clip of Marc falling off the stage and Bowie laughing is so famous , how’s this error got past Tony? I’m still enjoying the book, but I now have the doubt that. maybe some errors still exist .What does come through is how David was surrounded by Stars from a young age . Yet it took until 1972 for Ziggy to Rise and the rest is history .

I am a fan having first seen Bowie in the early Ziggy days before he really found fame as Ziggy and himself. I saw him st the Hardrock (a venue which us no longer thre. I belive it was rebuilt as a B&Q and apparently that has even been knocked down now) in Trafford, Manchester in 1972. I consider myself to be well Red on Bowie. This book has amazed me in that it has given me an incredible insight into his life. As I continue to read I keep saying to myself how did someone find that fact out and then turn the page to read another equally amazing fact. It is superbly written in nice bite sized pieces. I slways read it at night and when I put it down look forward to my next session. I do not want the book to end but know it will do. When it does I will read it all over again

I am not a great fan of rock stars biographies, but this is probably why I enjoyed so much "We Could Be..." since a biography it is not, but rather a kaleidoscopic collection of well crafted short stories all revolving around encounters, some seminal, other less so, and all adding a subtle touch of colour to an ever changing Bowie's persona.The joy with this fragmented approach is that you need not bother with chronological reading, (I read a big chunk of it backwards to start with), but more importantly, it creates a democratic sort of space allowing each and every character appearing on Bowie's path to shine briefly in their own right too, for the best and the worst, without Bowie's personality getting too overbearing.Once you have completed this fantastic voyage from Agnes B to Zappa, from Bromley to California to Berlin to New York (or the other way round), you get a multilayered viewof Bowie's personality and creativity, constantly enriched and challenged by the extraordinary mix of individuals he has loved, helped, poached (Zappa' s guitarist!), escaped from (supercreep Roger Moore!), befriended or just worked with.As one would expect, Bowie's music encounters with Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Brian Eno or Jagger sparkle in this lively gallery of cross-pollination masters. The Lennons even turn-up in three generations: meet Alfred, John and Sean, the latter being one of many connections revealing a caring side of Bowie - who looked after Lennon junior long after his dad was killed.Bowie visiting Iggy Pop in a mental health ward, alongside Dennis Hopper sporting a space suit (if I could be given a fly on the wall chance, that would be the one), is yet another telling tale of Starman's humanity and brotherly care: not only did he smuggle-in heaps of dope to his starved friend, but a reinvigorating lifeline too, which morphed into the legendary adventure lived by Iggy and Ziggy in Berlin.Beyond the mad world of music tours, sex, drugs and rock and roll (hey, where is Ian Dury?), what is emerging vividly is Bowie's insatiable curiosity for all forms of arts, from painting to design to cinema to litterature (among the sparsely choice of pictures, note that stunning double portrait frame of David with William Burroughs).It came as a surprise for me to see Bowie as an art critic, interviewing the painter Balthus or taking some lengths to trace Jean Genet in Paris to help out a stage director friend in London.Bowie's appetite for acting and his admiration for some of the most creative film directors of his time feature prominently, from the hillarious experiences with Ridley Scott, Wim Wenders or Marlene Dietrich, to more fruitful work with Tony Scott or Nagisa Oshima.To borrow from Bowie himself, "I feel like a group of one" (Tennage Wild Life, Scary Monsters) could encapsulate the diverse portrait of the artist emerging from that witty collection of connections."We Could Be..." - itself the product of a magic encounter between the author and Tony Visconti - reads like an ode to the music of chance.

Filling in a few gaps, this is a ‘who did Bowie meet and what was said’ book. I keep finding errors, or half stories as did Tony Visconti (as listed on the opening page), but it’s an enjoyable if lazy read none the less despite being a cut and paste book culled from the internet. I was expecting a little bit of new insight.

interresting read.

Always enjoy some Bowie gossip.I think it gives context for anyone wanting a beginner's guide to Bowie. It was fun light and the kind of coffee table book you can pick up anywhere anytime and enjoy an anecdote.

Fast delivery, nearly new condition great price.

The book arrived in an amazon box and the seller had neatly covered it in shrink wrap with a nice bookmark included. Out daughter is planning to visit us from Vancouver Canada and is a huge Bowie fan so we ordered it for her. I’m halfway through it already. Really nice tough with the wrapping. Thank you

Still have to read the book but I have looked through it. It is very interesting to look at the people David met in his life. Every David Bowie fan should have this book.

Livre arrivé endommagé, déjà vieux alors que je ne l'ai même pas lu

On apprend pas mal de choses sur ce grand artiste.

Love this book, wonderful insight from people around DB, and they’re point-of-view, a different perspective, giving more depth coming from another angle. Recommend it to all DB fans!⚡️⚡️⚡️