Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
I recently reviewed a documentary about DEVO (whom David Bowie referred to as the band of the future), I was recently on Grant’s Rock Warehaus to talk about The Pretty Things (David bowie referred to their frontman Phil May as God), I recently travelledĀ to Germany, and my catās name is Bowie so it was just serendipity to see a graphic novel David Bowie available to review on NetGalley, a website that offers digital review copies to bloggers and avid readers in exchange for their honest opinions. I had high hopes as I’m a Bowie fan, I like the Berlin era, I love graphic novels, and the cover art looked pretty good.
Background Information on Bowie’s Berlin Era/The Book
This graphic novel isnāt about David Bowieās entire career since that would be a lot of ground to cover. I can understand why the author chose to focus on just one era. The focus is on Bowie’s Berlin era (but not the entire era), which brought you the albums Low, Heroes, and Lodger. An iconic era for sure. He needed to kick a drug addiction and so he and Iggy Pop flew halfway around the world from LA to Europe for a fresh start and some inspiration. He got into krautrock and Brian Enoās ambient music. Besides recording his own albums, he worked with Iggy Pop on his albums The Idiot and Lust For Life. He also was in a film called Just A Gigolo, directed by Blow Up star David Hemmings, and it was also Marlene Dietrichās last film role.
This book is the story of Bowieās time in Berlin in comic book/graphic novel form. David Bowie was a man of eclectic tastes and took inspiration from everywhere. He was fascinated with the works of director/theatre producer Max Reinhardt, playwright Bertolt Brecht, and film director Fritz Lang. He loved the KĆ¼nstlergruppe BrĆ¼cke (translates to artist group Bridge) expressionist movement of the 1900s.
While Low is part of the Berlin Trilogy, the album was not recorded in Berlin, but actually in France at the ChĆ¢teau dāHĆ©rouville, where Iggy Pop and David Bowie were working on The Idiot. Mixing was done at Hansa Studios in Berlin. Recording Low was a challenge because of Bowieās mental state and you can see it on the album cover and hear it in the lyrics on the first size of the album. The album was a radical departure from the funky sounds of Young Americans and Station to Station. It was a collaboration between Bowie, his longtime producer Tony Visconti, and his friends Brian Eno and Iggy Pop. Tony Viscontiās wife Mary Hopkin (who sang the English translation of āThose Were The Daysā) contributed some backing vocals on āSound And Visionā. Songs like āAlways Crashing in the Same Carā and āBe My Wifeā talked about the challenges in life he was facing like his drug addiction and his failing marriage. The second side was instrumental heavy. The record label were hesitant to release this album because they were afraid it would be a flop, but when it released, it charted highly and āSound And Visionā became a top five hit in the UK.
Youād think that Bowie was loaded, but he was actually near bankruptcy due to issues with management and a divorce. This meant that while he was in Berlin he was living in the working class neighbourhood of Schƶneberg. His assistant Coco Schwab found him a large, simple looking tenement house to live in, just above an auto parts shop. He turned it into a creative space where he could paint and record music.
In the summer of 1977 he recorded his next album Heroes, with many of the same personnel as before plus one of Brian Enoās collaborators, legendary King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp. Just before that, he and Iggy Pop were recording Lust For Life. Similar to Low, the album was a mix of personal songs and instrumentals. One cool thing is that Bowie and Iggy Pop were name checked on Kraftwerkās Trans-Europe Express and David Bowie responded back with āV-2 Schneiderā, which was named after Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider and the V2 ballistic missile, Germanyās first, which would later be used in the US space programme, yet another space reference for Bowie. Bowie spent some time in the Neukƶln neighbourhood of Berlin, where there were a lot of Turkish immigrants, Germanyās largest immigrant group. Through the title track āHeroesā he found his freedom.
Lodger, despite being part of the Berlin trilogy was not recorded in Berlin at all. It was not discussed in the book (not sure why?), but instead the ending takes us to Bowieās Berlin concert in 1987, which unified the people of West and East Berlin, everyone singing āHeroesā in unison. The concert was right by the Berlin wall and when the people of East Berlin got close to the wall to hear Bowie, the Stasi got involved and tried to get people to move along, but the crowd rioted. David Bowie considered this concert to be one of his most emotional ones. Two years after that concert, the Berlin Wall was knocked down and the city became one again.
I really like this quote from a Melody Maker interview Bowie gave in 1977 that says:
“The only heroic act one can fucking well pull out of the bag in a situation like that is to get on with life from the very simple pleasure of remaining alive, despite every attempt being made to kill you.”
That was really inspirational and I’m glad it was included in the book.
Final Thoughts
This wasn’t the book I was hoping for and I’m not sure who it’s exactly for. If you look at the cover it’s not immediately clear that it’s a Bowie book that is focused on the Berlin era only. Sure you can tell it’s Berlin era Bowie from the look of the cover, but with the space stuff in the background, it’s giving “Space Oddity” or Ziggy Stardust. If you’re going to introduce Bowie, I’m not sure if the Berlin era is the best way to introduce a new listener to Bowie, unless they’re really into Kraftwerk or Brian Eno. A better introduction would probably be focused on the years 1969-1973. Or heck, the Thin White Duke blue eyed soul era is more approachable and mainstream in sound. Plus if you’re going to introduce people to Bowie, you should explain the background by setting the scene better, and introducing all the people involved properly. The writing wasn’t informative enough for a newbie and for longtime fans there wasn’t much detail. I would have liked to have seen more focus on the albums’ themes, but everything was explored in such a surface level way and the narrative structure was not very good.
The saving grace was the art. I think the style was pretty good and fitting for Bowie, but there are some issues I have with attention to detail like David Bowie being depicted with heterochromia. He did not have heterochromia. He had anisocoria, which is when one pupil is larger than the other. He got this condition because he got punched in the eye as a teenager. Making careless mistakes like that are a pet peeve for me because that is a fact you could easily Google and it’s been dispelled many times. I did see some spelling errors like Warszawa being spelled with an I at the end and Mary Hopkin’s last name as “Hopkins”. I guess copy editors aren’t always experts in classic rock so that’s why that mistake got missed.
It pains me to give this a low rating, but I’d give it a 2.5/5. The art saves the book, but to a point. The writing leaves a lot to be desired. It was a quick read, but not an essential read I’m afraid.
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