David Bowie’s Genius: From Glam to Gaga
Author Simon Reynolds traces Bowie’s enduring influence in his book ‘Shock and Awe’
On January 10, 2016, as British music and pop culture journalist Simon Reynolds was completing the manuscript for his book on 1970s glam rock, came word that David Bowie — who catapulted to stardom during that memorable era in music — died. Reynolds later wrote that the news of Bowie’s death didn’t shock him at the time but rather how much the singer’s life and music had touched so many people in the immediate aftermath.
“I was surprised at how many different takes there were,” Reynolds later told Cuepoint. “Some people’s love of Bowie started with Let’s Dance, which obviously makes sense in some ways. There were all these different angles on him and things people liked about him, which probably came from him being so varied and changeable.”
In a way, Bowie’s death one year ago this month provided a poignantly fitting ending to Reynolds’ 700-page magnum opus, the recently-released Shock and Awe (Dey St. Books). A good part of the author’s book documents Bowie’s changes in musical personas from the late 60s to the late…
