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Ashes to Ashes: The Songs of David Bowie, 1976-2016
A comprehensive exploration of the final four decades of David Bowie’s musical career—covering every song he wrote, performed, or produced
In Ashes to Ashes , the ultimate David Bowie expert offers a song-by-song retrospective of the legendary pop star's musical career from 1976 to 2016.
Starting with Low , the first of Bowie's Berlin albums, and finishing with Blackstar —his final masterpiece released just days before his death in 2016—each song is annotated in depth and explored in essays that touch upon the song's creation, production, influences and impact.
In Ashes to Ashes , the ultimate David Bowie expert offers a song-by-song retrospective of the legendary pop star's musical career from 1976 to 2016.
Starting with Low , the first of Bowie's Berlin albums, and finishing with Blackstar —his final masterpiece released just days before his death in 2016—each song is annotated in depth and explored in essays that touch upon the song's creation, production, influences and impact.
650 pages, Paperback
Published February 12, 2019
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289 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 5, 2019
Wow. Would give it more than 5 stars if I could. Reviews of all songs recorded, performed or produced. The Good, The Great and the 80's. Especially great to read were the sections on The Next Day and Blackstar. Bowie went out on a high. Essential. Will sit next to my turntable with Vol 1. for a long time as I play the entire Bowie catalog.
April 16, 2020
A commentary on all his songs from 1976 (Low) onwards, including collaborations with others, guest appearances, everything, as the context is all here too, around the songs, what Bowie was doing at the time, whom he was listening to, what he was reading, who he was hanging about with (like Lewishon’s Beatles Chronicles in that respect). It started as a blog post, Pushing Ahead of Other Dames (and continues as one - I get updates every now and then on new information about songs coming to light etc.) Can be very critical (especially of the post Let’s Dance 80s and early 90s) – quite rightly: Bowie let his standards slip. All the technical details are there who played what in what key etc. for the nerds (I’m only half interested in that aspect). Found myself downloading obscure Bowies tracks, collaborations with others, like Scarlett Johannsen (!), TV on the Radio, Adrian Belew, Kashmir and Lou Reed doing Edgar Allan Poe (Hopfrog). And live tracks. Getting like the Beatles in that you (I) will pursue odd fragments and versions. Reading about him realise the thing is to get on with it, be a magpie, take bits and pieces from everywhere and squish them together until they make new sense. Playing each album as O’Leary comments; watching interviews and performances on Youtube. Beautiful stuff on the last great masterpiece, Blackstar (what a record to go out on). Now I’m going to read Rebel Rebel which covers the early years (1957-1975), as usual I’m arse about face.
April 4, 2020
There hasn’t been a day in my life when David Bowie wasn’t present. The Rise of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars was released months before my birth and was perhaps my mother’s favourite album of all time. She used to play it over and over again in the car when I was growing up and then one day I simply took to playing it myself.
It wasn’t just that one album, of course, although today it remains my favourite. I used to revel in singing along to “Cracked Actor” way before I could even begin to understand the darkness in the lyrics and my love of “See Emily Play” predates my love of Pink Floyd (who I first fell in love with at age 8 with the release of "Another Brick in the Wall (part 2)".
David Bowie was one of those artists loved equally by my parents. My father absolutely loved Bowie’s mod aesthetics, recalling fondly how he was a mod in his teenage days and how he charmed a bunch of rockers. For my mother, it was the blond hair and blue eyes, the sharp wit and scathing lyrics and that voice, oh that voice. I inherited that particular preference in men from her.
By the time it came to give my final English speech in high school, the one that would decide whether I went to university or not, there was no question in my mind as to what the topic would be. With my parents’ eyes brimming with pride, I poured my love of Bowie into a 20 minute speech which was gleefully received by my English teacher. I’ve since come to realise that he was probably a massive Bowie fan too.
Years later when the David Bowie Is exhibition hit the V&A in 2013, I realised that far from knowing all there was to know about the man, my high school research had barely touched the surface. I was most interested in the Berlin years and in the complexities of his song writing at the time. I’d always promised that one day I’d delve deeper into who David Bowie was and the art behind his music.
While I was making empty promises, Chris O’Leary was embarking on an ambitious project of blogging about every David Bowie song ever written. Starting in 2009, Pushing Ahead of the Dame has become possibly the most successful David Bowie blog of all time. The blog has produced two book deals for O’Leary: Rebel Rebel (2015) covering the period up to 1976 and his latest release Ashes to Ashes (2019) covering the period from 1976 to Blackstar and Bowie’s untimely passing in 2016.
At 710 pages, Ashes to Ashes is a massive tome and I can reliably tell you that it will take about two months to read, once you’ve tumbled down the infinite rabbit holes to which the book will lead you.
The book begins not with a Bowie album as might be expected but with Bowie’s production of Iggy Pop’s debut solo album The Idiot. It was a fascinating aside to learn more about Iggy Pop. Despite knowing about his connection to Bowie, I knew very little about Pop beyond "The Passenger" and "Lust for Life" and embarrassingly didn’t even realise that Pop first recorded "China Girl".
For each track, which would have been published as a separate post on the original blog, O’Leary gives a complete breakdown of the personnel known or suspected to have been involved and the instruments they played. I imagine this is information that the most hardened fan or musically savvy readers will want to know but I soon began to skip over these sections (which are very helpfully put in please-skip-me italics).
What was interesting was the story behind each track, Bowie’s creative process and his experimentation first on Pop and later on his own material. Chris O’Leary has a talent of writing about music that many writers (me included) could only hope to aspire to. He really does know what he’s talking about and this makes the book a valuable read for any fan.
Despite the obvious mastery, the book is a hard slog to read and I resorted in the end to just reading a track or two at a time, which worked out well as I was listening to each track as I read along. Having read it in this way, I’d suggest the book’s best function would be as an accompaniment to listening sessions, dipping in and out to read in small sessions so that one appreciates the information, rather than simply read from cover to cover.
Thankfully, while the book is long, it is by no means dry and O’Leary’s scathing wit brightened up more than one reading session with gems like this: "That said, Bowie and Mick Jagger’s "Dancing in the Street" is still a rotten record for which everyone involved should be embarrassed”.
I give Ashes to Ashes an excellent four out of five stars and would recommend it to all fans of David Bowie, especially his later work. As a fan of his earlier work, I'll be seeking out the first volume, Rebel Rebel. Ashes to Ashes is published by Repeater and will be released on 12 February 2019.
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It wasn’t just that one album, of course, although today it remains my favourite. I used to revel in singing along to “Cracked Actor” way before I could even begin to understand the darkness in the lyrics and my love of “See Emily Play” predates my love of Pink Floyd (who I first fell in love with at age 8 with the release of "Another Brick in the Wall (part 2)".
David Bowie was one of those artists loved equally by my parents. My father absolutely loved Bowie’s mod aesthetics, recalling fondly how he was a mod in his teenage days and how he charmed a bunch of rockers. For my mother, it was the blond hair and blue eyes, the sharp wit and scathing lyrics and that voice, oh that voice. I inherited that particular preference in men from her.
By the time it came to give my final English speech in high school, the one that would decide whether I went to university or not, there was no question in my mind as to what the topic would be. With my parents’ eyes brimming with pride, I poured my love of Bowie into a 20 minute speech which was gleefully received by my English teacher. I’ve since come to realise that he was probably a massive Bowie fan too.
Years later when the David Bowie Is exhibition hit the V&A in 2013, I realised that far from knowing all there was to know about the man, my high school research had barely touched the surface. I was most interested in the Berlin years and in the complexities of his song writing at the time. I’d always promised that one day I’d delve deeper into who David Bowie was and the art behind his music.
While I was making empty promises, Chris O’Leary was embarking on an ambitious project of blogging about every David Bowie song ever written. Starting in 2009, Pushing Ahead of the Dame has become possibly the most successful David Bowie blog of all time. The blog has produced two book deals for O’Leary: Rebel Rebel (2015) covering the period up to 1976 and his latest release Ashes to Ashes (2019) covering the period from 1976 to Blackstar and Bowie’s untimely passing in 2016.
At 710 pages, Ashes to Ashes is a massive tome and I can reliably tell you that it will take about two months to read, once you’ve tumbled down the infinite rabbit holes to which the book will lead you.
The book begins not with a Bowie album as might be expected but with Bowie’s production of Iggy Pop’s debut solo album The Idiot. It was a fascinating aside to learn more about Iggy Pop. Despite knowing about his connection to Bowie, I knew very little about Pop beyond "The Passenger" and "Lust for Life" and embarrassingly didn’t even realise that Pop first recorded "China Girl".
For each track, which would have been published as a separate post on the original blog, O’Leary gives a complete breakdown of the personnel known or suspected to have been involved and the instruments they played. I imagine this is information that the most hardened fan or musically savvy readers will want to know but I soon began to skip over these sections (which are very helpfully put in please-skip-me italics).
What was interesting was the story behind each track, Bowie’s creative process and his experimentation first on Pop and later on his own material. Chris O’Leary has a talent of writing about music that many writers (me included) could only hope to aspire to. He really does know what he’s talking about and this makes the book a valuable read for any fan.
Despite the obvious mastery, the book is a hard slog to read and I resorted in the end to just reading a track or two at a time, which worked out well as I was listening to each track as I read along. Having read it in this way, I’d suggest the book’s best function would be as an accompaniment to listening sessions, dipping in and out to read in small sessions so that one appreciates the information, rather than simply read from cover to cover.
Thankfully, while the book is long, it is by no means dry and O’Leary’s scathing wit brightened up more than one reading session with gems like this: "That said, Bowie and Mick Jagger’s "Dancing in the Street" is still a rotten record for which everyone involved should be embarrassed”.
I give Ashes to Ashes an excellent four out of five stars and would recommend it to all fans of David Bowie, especially his later work. As a fan of his earlier work, I'll be seeking out the first volume, Rebel Rebel. Ashes to Ashes is published by Repeater and will be released on 12 February 2019.
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July 18, 2019
There's a lot to love about this book if you're a Bowie fan. The historical details and context that the author provides are generally fantastic. I was sometimes worn down by the author knowing tone -- occasionally dismissive or patronizing of Bowie.
July 21, 2019
David Bowie gave me more than I can ever really articulate, or even fully appreciate. It's not an exaggeration to say that my life was changed by him. That's not to say that I went on to live a similarly inspired, ambitious creative life - the huge majority of his fans never did that, either, so I don't feel like a failure that I got a job as a manager, and dabble in writing some pretty un-audacious poetry and fiction. But at 13 years of age, an artist who had always been in the background of my life suddenly came into the foreground, thanks to Ashes to Ashes playing on MTV. I borrowed my mum's recently purchased ChangesBowie CD and slowly took more and more of the songs into my heart - initially resistant to Diamond Dogs, Golden Years and "Heroes", I can still remember the moment they clicked and another little universe opened up.
This was 1990, and luckily the start of a massive re-release of Bowie's albums 1969-1980 on CD, with bonus tracks. I collected them all, at first catching up, eventually pre-ordering. When Scary Monsters came out I was taken by surprise. I read a review on Teletext, quickly called my mum to tell her I was borrowing £15 from her kitty, and took a bus into town. When I got to Our Price records in Uxbridge, they hadn't even put the CD out on the racks yet, and fetched me a copy from the store room.
From then, I was up to speed on all his old works (his classic period, then everything from Let's Dance to the first Tin Machine album) and was a devotee for all of his new releases. I'm the only person I know who owns both Tin Machine II and the original CD release of The Buddha of Suburbia. When Bowie was being ridiculed and dismissed through the 90s, I talked up 1.Outside as a brilliant album (which it is latterly accepted as being), learnt the lyrics to all of 'hours...' and bought every new album on release day. I was lucky enough to see Bowie live 3 times, including a very intimate gig at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, when he walked on stage barefoot and launched into Quicksand. The only copy of Hello! magazine I've ever bought was the one that featured his wedding to Iman.
Through Bowie, I discovered Orwell, Anthony Burgess, Brian Eno, The Velvet Underground, William Burroughs, Andy Warhol, Egon Schiele... I watched the turgid film Wild Is The Wind because Bowie covered the title song. I have visited parts of London that seem pretty bland but for the knowledge Bowie Woz Ere. I holidayed in Berlin partly because of Bowie's time there. So while I love a lot of music, Bowie has always been more than a few albums on my playlist. I have his album artwork on my walls. I have a personal library of books, magazines and DVDs. He's my specialist subject. He's part of what makes me, me.
And when he died, I experienced actual grief for the first time in my life. I had lost people before but I was either too young or not close enough to them to really feel it. I got the news early morning in the morning on 11th January. My mum called my husband to make sure the news could be broken to me before the radio alarm woke me up to tell me, but a friend had text me already to say he'd heard the rumour and then it had been confirmed. I took the day off work. It was my birthday the day before, and I was given three art prints of the album covers of Hunky Dory, Ziggy and Aladdin Sane. Blackstar had been released only a couple of days before and I was listening to that exclusively. When I went out with my family to celebrate my 39th birthday, I'd been a Bowie fan 26 years and he'd never seemed more present or alive. At the meal, my niece wore the Aladdin Sane t-shirt I got her for Christmas.
All day on the 11th, messages from friends came in telling me they were thinking about me. I emailed Radio 6 music and my message was read out, then at my request Kooks was played - because although Ashes to Ashes kickstarted my devotion, Kooks was a song I loved when I was a toddler. Bowie had always been there. I was aware of people on Twitter mocking Bowie fans for grieving, but what did that matter to me? When you're in pain, there's no point someone telling you that you shouldn't be. You just feel how you feel.
2016 was a terrible year for me, largely - not only did I lose Bowie but the Brexit happened, which rocked my sense of the country I grew up in. I also fell out with a close friend, the one who texted me first to tell me Bowie had died. I realised I had lived all my life with occasionally very bad anxiety, and started counselling to deal with that. More than three years on, I'm living with anxiety much more comfortably, my friend and I made amends and Brexit still bothers me but doesn't upset me like it did. But I can still weep when I think about Bowie. My birthday celebrations now include a toast to him, because that's the day he died.
I did something I never ever intended to do, and got a tattoo - I had it done only a few days after his death, because I wanted to always be identifiable as a Bowie fan, for the mark he made on me to be literal and visible to others. I chose the Blackstar hieroglyphics that spell out Bowie, on my left arm. I also changed the thumbnail image on my work email to the Blackstar cover art. A few months later, someone at work who I didn't really know noticed the art and we began an email exchange. He's the only person I know who has as much love and knowledge of Bowie as me. He's now one of my best friends. On only our second meeting, he invited me to his wedding. Becoming close to him rescued 2016 for me.
I realise none of the above is a review of Chris O'Leary's excellent book, but it's context for why it took me so long to finish reading it. I actually raced through it, and then I reached the last entry, for the song Blackstar, and I stopped. I wasn't ready. But in an act of getting through my backlog of reading, I sat down today and read it in an unbroken chunk. What happened was expected - O'Leary wrote knowledgeably and beautifully, and I cried.
I wanted to share with whoever might read this how much writers like Chris O'Leary have helped people like me to fill in gaps, pose new questions and open up new vistas of interpretations of his work. Because if Bowie is a part of who you are, understanding the message that he sent helps you understand yourself a bit more, too. Not everyone gets it, but those who get it, get it.
Or, in other words: the moment you know, you know you know.
This was 1990, and luckily the start of a massive re-release of Bowie's albums 1969-1980 on CD, with bonus tracks. I collected them all, at first catching up, eventually pre-ordering. When Scary Monsters came out I was taken by surprise. I read a review on Teletext, quickly called my mum to tell her I was borrowing £15 from her kitty, and took a bus into town. When I got to Our Price records in Uxbridge, they hadn't even put the CD out on the racks yet, and fetched me a copy from the store room.
From then, I was up to speed on all his old works (his classic period, then everything from Let's Dance to the first Tin Machine album) and was a devotee for all of his new releases. I'm the only person I know who owns both Tin Machine II and the original CD release of The Buddha of Suburbia. When Bowie was being ridiculed and dismissed through the 90s, I talked up 1.Outside as a brilliant album (which it is latterly accepted as being), learnt the lyrics to all of 'hours...' and bought every new album on release day. I was lucky enough to see Bowie live 3 times, including a very intimate gig at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, when he walked on stage barefoot and launched into Quicksand. The only copy of Hello! magazine I've ever bought was the one that featured his wedding to Iman.
Through Bowie, I discovered Orwell, Anthony Burgess, Brian Eno, The Velvet Underground, William Burroughs, Andy Warhol, Egon Schiele... I watched the turgid film Wild Is The Wind because Bowie covered the title song. I have visited parts of London that seem pretty bland but for the knowledge Bowie Woz Ere. I holidayed in Berlin partly because of Bowie's time there. So while I love a lot of music, Bowie has always been more than a few albums on my playlist. I have his album artwork on my walls. I have a personal library of books, magazines and DVDs. He's my specialist subject. He's part of what makes me, me.
And when he died, I experienced actual grief for the first time in my life. I had lost people before but I was either too young or not close enough to them to really feel it. I got the news early morning in the morning on 11th January. My mum called my husband to make sure the news could be broken to me before the radio alarm woke me up to tell me, but a friend had text me already to say he'd heard the rumour and then it had been confirmed. I took the day off work. It was my birthday the day before, and I was given three art prints of the album covers of Hunky Dory, Ziggy and Aladdin Sane. Blackstar had been released only a couple of days before and I was listening to that exclusively. When I went out with my family to celebrate my 39th birthday, I'd been a Bowie fan 26 years and he'd never seemed more present or alive. At the meal, my niece wore the Aladdin Sane t-shirt I got her for Christmas.
All day on the 11th, messages from friends came in telling me they were thinking about me. I emailed Radio 6 music and my message was read out, then at my request Kooks was played - because although Ashes to Ashes kickstarted my devotion, Kooks was a song I loved when I was a toddler. Bowie had always been there. I was aware of people on Twitter mocking Bowie fans for grieving, but what did that matter to me? When you're in pain, there's no point someone telling you that you shouldn't be. You just feel how you feel.
2016 was a terrible year for me, largely - not only did I lose Bowie but the Brexit happened, which rocked my sense of the country I grew up in. I also fell out with a close friend, the one who texted me first to tell me Bowie had died. I realised I had lived all my life with occasionally very bad anxiety, and started counselling to deal with that. More than three years on, I'm living with anxiety much more comfortably, my friend and I made amends and Brexit still bothers me but doesn't upset me like it did. But I can still weep when I think about Bowie. My birthday celebrations now include a toast to him, because that's the day he died.
I did something I never ever intended to do, and got a tattoo - I had it done only a few days after his death, because I wanted to always be identifiable as a Bowie fan, for the mark he made on me to be literal and visible to others. I chose the Blackstar hieroglyphics that spell out Bowie, on my left arm. I also changed the thumbnail image on my work email to the Blackstar cover art. A few months later, someone at work who I didn't really know noticed the art and we began an email exchange. He's the only person I know who has as much love and knowledge of Bowie as me. He's now one of my best friends. On only our second meeting, he invited me to his wedding. Becoming close to him rescued 2016 for me.
I realise none of the above is a review of Chris O'Leary's excellent book, but it's context for why it took me so long to finish reading it. I actually raced through it, and then I reached the last entry, for the song Blackstar, and I stopped. I wasn't ready. But in an act of getting through my backlog of reading, I sat down today and read it in an unbroken chunk. What happened was expected - O'Leary wrote knowledgeably and beautifully, and I cried.
I wanted to share with whoever might read this how much writers like Chris O'Leary have helped people like me to fill in gaps, pose new questions and open up new vistas of interpretations of his work. Because if Bowie is a part of who you are, understanding the message that he sent helps you understand yourself a bit more, too. Not everyone gets it, but those who get it, get it.
Or, in other words: the moment you know, you know you know.
April 12, 2025
This, and its companion book Rebel Rebel (about the first half of Bowie’s career), are astonishingly complete labors of love. I have a hard time admitting this, but Chris Healy knows more about Bowie’s work and influences than I do, and my obsessive Bowie fandom is well-known to all my friends.
I read this as an ebook but I’d recommend buying the actual print book. Use it as a reference book and flip to whatever song you’re currently listening to and be enlightened. There’s a song title index at the back, but at least in my kindle edition, the titles weren’t hyperlinked to the relevant articles, making it really hard to look up one specific song and read all about it.
I read this as an ebook but I’d recommend buying the actual print book. Use it as a reference book and flip to whatever song you’re currently listening to and be enlightened. There’s a song title index at the back, but at least in my kindle edition, the titles weren’t hyperlinked to the relevant articles, making it really hard to look up one specific song and read all about it.
May 14, 2019
I was a Bowie fan before I came across O'Leary's outstanding blog, and I thought I knew a fair amount about my more-famous namesake's career... but O'Leary had expanded my meager knowledge a thousandfold with his thoughtful, clever, and thorough examinations of Mr. Bowie's catalogue. If you have ever been at least interested in his music and life, you'll be engrossed and I bet you'll be equally rewarded with a ton of knowledge you didn't possess before. Anyone who had me digging out BLACK TIE WHITE NOISE for a serious relisten is doing something right.
March 1, 2021
O'Leary's analysis of David Bowie's songs is excellent. HOWEVER. In his chapter on the film
Labyrinth
, he makes an inaccurate and objectionable claim, misquoting director Jim Henson on the character of Jareth (the Goblin King, played by Bowie in the film).
O'Leary claims:
Jim Henson's note is not a "character sketch" but a list of story ideas. The third section is a list of ideas on how to introduce Jareth in the film. The line in question reads:
Both Jim Henson and Labyrinth conceptual designer Brian Froud stated that Jareth doesn't actually exist in the film and is a product of Sarah's fantasy (here and here). So what O'Leary tries to imply regarding Jareth as a "sleaze on the make" just doesn't apply - why would a girl fantasize about a creepy pervert? Sarah dreams that a handsome and powerful fairytale king is in love with her, and that's what Jareth is, nothing more. He has no motivations of his own because he's not real outside of her imagination.
Of course, O'Leary is free to interpret the character and film how he wishes, but to take a line from Henson's notes out of context and frame it as though Henson endorsed his views is disingenuous.
Even Wikipedia did a better job researching Jareth's character (and Sarah too).
O'Leary claims:
"In early character sketches, Henson described Jareth as a "Hollywood talent scout" type, a sleaze on the make, looking for a young woman to entice."The quote is taken from one of Jim Henson's hand-written notes featured in Labyrinth: The Ultimate Visual History (2016) (on page 27). However, the context of the note isn't fully explained in this book, so O'Leary has made up the context himself - and gotten it totally wrong.
Jim Henson's note is not a "character sketch" but a list of story ideas. The third section is a list of ideas on how to introduce Jareth in the film. The line in question reads:
"Jareth as Hollywood talent scout - makes hand puppet into goblin."This is not a description of Jareth's character. In this early draft of the Labyrinth script, Jareth poses as the author of Sarah's favourite play in order to enter her home and steal her baby brother Toby. And yes, he turns a puppet into a goblin while at her house. So it's obvious that Henson was considering "Hollywood talent scout" (another theatre-related persona as Sarah aspires to be an actress) as a human disguise for Jareth in the early stages of the script. It's not a description of his character at all. It was simply one of several possible disguises/introductions for the character that ultimately was not needed for the story (they simplified it to Sarah summoning the Goblin King directly).
Both Jim Henson and Labyrinth conceptual designer Brian Froud stated that Jareth doesn't actually exist in the film and is a product of Sarah's fantasy (here and here). So what O'Leary tries to imply regarding Jareth as a "sleaze on the make" just doesn't apply - why would a girl fantasize about a creepy pervert? Sarah dreams that a handsome and powerful fairytale king is in love with her, and that's what Jareth is, nothing more. He has no motivations of his own because he's not real outside of her imagination.
Of course, O'Leary is free to interpret the character and film how he wishes, but to take a line from Henson's notes out of context and frame it as though Henson endorsed his views is disingenuous.
Even Wikipedia did a better job researching Jareth's character (and Sarah too).
October 29, 2018
In 2009, Chris O’Leary began a blog entitled ‘Pushing Ahead of the Dame’ in which he ambitiously aimed to say something about every Bowie song. ‘Ashes to Ashes: The Songs of David Bowie, 1976-2016’ is the second book to grow out of that project; the first being ‘Rebel, Rebel: All the Songs of David Bowie from ’64 to ‘76’, which was published to some acclaim in 2015.
This volume likewise aspires to be as comprehensive as can be (unless and until official releases or bootlegs reveal ‘new’ material), by analysing all the songs which Bowie wrote, co-wrote, produced or performed on in any capacity “in the rough order of their creation” from 1976 to 2016, from ‘Sister Midnight’ on Iggy Pop’s ‘The Idiot’ to Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’ swansong, or, if you wish to treat the subject matter alphabetically, from ‘Abdulmajid’ to ‘Zeroes’.
This means that, like its companion volume, this is a large book, topping 700 pages. Indeed, so sizeable is it that the footnotes and some additional information have been relegated to an online supplement.
On the plus side O’Leary not only has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Bowie’s output but understands music and has a knack of writing about it accessibly. He is also not afraid to be opinionated, in the best possible sense of that word: expressing a personal opinion and being willing to back it up.
On the debit side, O’Leary misses some interesting anecdotes, such as the fact that it was Bowie who, having heard the demo, approached Badalamenti to provide the vocal for the latter’s arrangement of ‘A Foggy Day in London Town’, thereby beating Bono’s identical request by one day. There are also a few errors (the Sandy Hook shooting, having occurred after ‘Valentine’s Day’ was written and recorded could hardly have acted as a possible inspiration for the song) and an occasional tendency to display a wide vocabulary at the expense of intelligibility (‘China Girl’, we’re told, “was a slick anomie”). Moreover, some, like myself, may lament O’Leary’s decision “to devote a bit more space” than was the case in his original blog “to the music” at the expense of “lyrical analysis”.
Nevertheless, for all its shortcomings, this book should be welcomed as a major addition to the growing literature on Bowie, which no fan will want to be, or should be, without.
This volume likewise aspires to be as comprehensive as can be (unless and until official releases or bootlegs reveal ‘new’ material), by analysing all the songs which Bowie wrote, co-wrote, produced or performed on in any capacity “in the rough order of their creation” from 1976 to 2016, from ‘Sister Midnight’ on Iggy Pop’s ‘The Idiot’ to Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’ swansong, or, if you wish to treat the subject matter alphabetically, from ‘Abdulmajid’ to ‘Zeroes’.
This means that, like its companion volume, this is a large book, topping 700 pages. Indeed, so sizeable is it that the footnotes and some additional information have been relegated to an online supplement.
On the plus side O’Leary not only has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Bowie’s output but understands music and has a knack of writing about it accessibly. He is also not afraid to be opinionated, in the best possible sense of that word: expressing a personal opinion and being willing to back it up.
On the debit side, O’Leary misses some interesting anecdotes, such as the fact that it was Bowie who, having heard the demo, approached Badalamenti to provide the vocal for the latter’s arrangement of ‘A Foggy Day in London Town’, thereby beating Bono’s identical request by one day. There are also a few errors (the Sandy Hook shooting, having occurred after ‘Valentine’s Day’ was written and recorded could hardly have acted as a possible inspiration for the song) and an occasional tendency to display a wide vocabulary at the expense of intelligibility (‘China Girl’, we’re told, “was a slick anomie”). Moreover, some, like myself, may lament O’Leary’s decision “to devote a bit more space” than was the case in his original blog “to the music” at the expense of “lyrical analysis”.
Nevertheless, for all its shortcomings, this book should be welcomed as a major addition to the growing literature on Bowie, which no fan will want to be, or should be, without.
April 23, 2021
The world is a lesser place without David Bowie.
David Bowie was a masterful artist, in a variety of different artistic mediums. Song writing and performing, of course. But he painted too. He acted, both in films and in stage plays. He wrote musicals. He read widely; in general, he engaged in every form of art you could possibly imagine to some degree. He pulled all of these disparate, wildly inspiring influences into his own work.
The result is a body of work that I don't think any performer really rivals. Bowie is my favourite artist of all time, and this book by Chris O'Leary is an exploration of every single song he wrote, performed or produced from '76 right up until his death in 2016. From Iggy Pop to Blackstar, Ashes to Ashes is an exploration of Bowie that initially I didn't think quite possible. I'd followed O'Leary's blog and read quite a few posts, but attempting to collate everything, every song, even in a large book (and it is a large book), seemed like folly.
But O'Leary does a great job exploring songs. The depths don't quite seem plumbed on a few songs, but on other songs, he scrapes together what seems like every possible influence, every relevant quote - it is meticulously researched, well-written, and a brilliant tribute to one of the world's greatest artists.
There's a bit at the very, very end of the book where O'Leary talks about five home demos that Bowie recorded, that probably only his family heard. And there's a sentiment that they should never be released. That the final legacy of Bowie's death should be that Bowie never dies. That there are mysteries about the man that should never be revealed, that his writing and stature was so enigmatic that we should never know the whole, absolute truth. "I Can't Give Everything Away", of course. We live in a world of Heathens; a twenty-first century with too much stuff. We pick through the wreckage to find bits of society worth saving, trying to build a better future out of a world that continues to build decadently atop itself, creating a tower of poorly thought-out influences and founded on blood and mistakes. Bowie is one of the things worth salvaging. His thoughts are still relevant today. As O'Leary says, the twenty-first century feels like a 70s Bowie song come to life.
As an artist, there was no-one quite like Bowie. But now Bowie exists everywhere. He is a cultural touchstone, accessible at the touch of a button. But if you want to really get in touch with Bowie's artistic method, his past and his way of being, O'Leary's book feels like a beginning, at least.
I've been a fan my whole life, and have listened to all of his albums a large amount of times, and there were countless nuggets in this book. This is a book for both Bowie lovers and Bowie newbies - an exploration of basically everything the genius did since "Station to Station".
Even as we look at the formidable body of art, seemingly entirely self-serious, we cannot forget Bowie's cunning grin, his sense of humour, his tendency to Brechtian whispers to the audience; "I'm in on the joke," he always seemed to say, "don't forget you are too."
David Bowie was a masterful artist, in a variety of different artistic mediums. Song writing and performing, of course. But he painted too. He acted, both in films and in stage plays. He wrote musicals. He read widely; in general, he engaged in every form of art you could possibly imagine to some degree. He pulled all of these disparate, wildly inspiring influences into his own work.
The result is a body of work that I don't think any performer really rivals. Bowie is my favourite artist of all time, and this book by Chris O'Leary is an exploration of every single song he wrote, performed or produced from '76 right up until his death in 2016. From Iggy Pop to Blackstar, Ashes to Ashes is an exploration of Bowie that initially I didn't think quite possible. I'd followed O'Leary's blog and read quite a few posts, but attempting to collate everything, every song, even in a large book (and it is a large book), seemed like folly.
But O'Leary does a great job exploring songs. The depths don't quite seem plumbed on a few songs, but on other songs, he scrapes together what seems like every possible influence, every relevant quote - it is meticulously researched, well-written, and a brilliant tribute to one of the world's greatest artists.
There's a bit at the very, very end of the book where O'Leary talks about five home demos that Bowie recorded, that probably only his family heard. And there's a sentiment that they should never be released. That the final legacy of Bowie's death should be that Bowie never dies. That there are mysteries about the man that should never be revealed, that his writing and stature was so enigmatic that we should never know the whole, absolute truth. "I Can't Give Everything Away", of course. We live in a world of Heathens; a twenty-first century with too much stuff. We pick through the wreckage to find bits of society worth saving, trying to build a better future out of a world that continues to build decadently atop itself, creating a tower of poorly thought-out influences and founded on blood and mistakes. Bowie is one of the things worth salvaging. His thoughts are still relevant today. As O'Leary says, the twenty-first century feels like a 70s Bowie song come to life.
As an artist, there was no-one quite like Bowie. But now Bowie exists everywhere. He is a cultural touchstone, accessible at the touch of a button. But if you want to really get in touch with Bowie's artistic method, his past and his way of being, O'Leary's book feels like a beginning, at least.
I've been a fan my whole life, and have listened to all of his albums a large amount of times, and there were countless nuggets in this book. This is a book for both Bowie lovers and Bowie newbies - an exploration of basically everything the genius did since "Station to Station".
Even as we look at the formidable body of art, seemingly entirely self-serious, we cannot forget Bowie's cunning grin, his sense of humour, his tendency to Brechtian whispers to the audience; "I'm in on the joke," he always seemed to say, "don't forget you are too."
January 8, 2020
O'Leary applies a critical ear to Bowie's songs, defending underrated projects (Tin Machine II is no Ziggy Stardust, but it doesn't deserve its out-of-print status) and offering his view on Bowie's worst track ever (his saccharin 1984 cover of the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows"). He won't defend the Mick Jagger duet on "Dancing in the Street," but "hating this camp disaster takes too much effort." O'Leary also points out that Bowie himself enjoyed the "music-less" edit.
If anything, the quality of O'Leary's analysis merits a more accessible and attractive presentation. Ashes to Ashes is essentially a brick, with no illustrations and confusing formatting. That said, the beauty of a book like this is you can skim and skip around, passing over the albums you don't know or don't like (Hours, anyone? Reality?) and diving deep into the corners of the canon that you most adore.
I reviewed Ashes to Ashes for The Current.
If anything, the quality of O'Leary's analysis merits a more accessible and attractive presentation. Ashes to Ashes is essentially a brick, with no illustrations and confusing formatting. That said, the beauty of a book like this is you can skim and skip around, passing over the albums you don't know or don't like (Hours, anyone? Reality?) and diving deep into the corners of the canon that you most adore.
I reviewed Ashes to Ashes for The Current.
September 24, 2021
For the serious Bowie fan only. A long concatenation of a blog. I’m surprised this book found a publisher as it even goes into songs that never passed demo and were never released. For lots of it you’d need a music degree to understand it.*
Resorting to skimming mode, I still found fun facts and trivia.
SAMPLES:
*The song is in the D mixolydian mode — Bowie replaces what would be the song’s dominant (V) chord, A major, with A minor, swapping chords from the parallel minor, D minor, then shuttling back to the tonic chord, D major.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But when glam faded, Bolan was like a drunken host trying to revive a dying party.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Townshend had fallen into an abyss: full-blown alcoholism (drinking four bottles of brandy during one Who gig at the Rainbow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part of having the right stuff is knowing that unless you’ve got the right girl, you ain’t gonna get nowhere.
Resorting to skimming mode, I still found fun facts and trivia.
SAMPLES:
*The song is in the D mixolydian mode — Bowie replaces what would be the song’s dominant (V) chord, A major, with A minor, swapping chords from the parallel minor, D minor, then shuttling back to the tonic chord, D major.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But when glam faded, Bolan was like a drunken host trying to revive a dying party.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Townshend had fallen into an abyss: full-blown alcoholism (drinking four bottles of brandy during one Who gig at the Rainbow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part of having the right stuff is knowing that unless you’ve got the right girl, you ain’t gonna get nowhere.
March 27, 2019
O’Leary weaves everything together to find Bowie’s motives, fascinations and quirks that led him to produce what he did. O’Leary’s writing also pushed me to appreciate the 20-odd years where Bowie is considered to have lost his muse — the book helps to contextualize these songs as Bowie’s search for meaning or belonging. At the same time, it was a joy, hearing Buddha of Suburbia and Outside for the first time and seeing that the spark had returned. At 700 pages, it’s a journey, but one I thoroughly enjoyed.
August 27, 2020
Firstly I must point out that I'm a big Bowie fan which with a book like this obviously helps. Bought for me as a present it has really been the gift that keeps on giving. I've spent the last two months methodically listening to the books track by track listings, sometimes having to seek out the more obscure tracks in the recesses of the Internet. It's been a fantastic musical journey. Highly recommended to fans of the Dame and all I need now is the other volume as a present.
January 10, 2021
Detailed appreciation
Fabulous song-by-song chronological retrospective look at the later work of the much-missed David Bowie. It has made me go back to these albums and listen with a new ear and more background into how they were made. That’s meant I have a greater appreciation of them. What more can you ask of a book such as this?
Fabulous song-by-song chronological retrospective look at the later work of the much-missed David Bowie. It has made me go back to these albums and listen with a new ear and more background into how they were made. That’s meant I have a greater appreciation of them. What more can you ask of a book such as this?
February 23, 2025
With all due respect to Nicholas Pegg, this may be my favourite interpretations/history written about Bowie’s music so far. Particularly delightful is the Bring Me The Disco King postmodern segment, which had me second guessing my memory repeatedly.
Wonderful. Can’t wait for the updates when “Blaze” is hopefully released. Or not.
Wonderful. Can’t wait for the updates when “Blaze” is hopefully released. Or not.
October 10, 2024
Me tomó bastante tiempo leerlo, a veces dudé si debía volver al comienzo o perseverar, pero al mismo tiempo pude pasar más tiempo en ese universo fantástico que era/es Bowie.
Este libro, y su acompañante, es esencial para todo fan.
Este libro, y su acompañante, es esencial para todo fan.
November 11, 2024
Full disclosure: I love David Bowie. While the mid-80s and 90s eras are my least favorite in terms of Bowie's music, I still learned a lot. And I especially appreciated the chapter on his last album Blackstar, an album that frequently makes my cry.
December 18, 2018
This is a comprehensive text with detailed information about Bowie's music. I immensely enjoyed reading this book, and I think any Bowie fan will like this. Highly recommend.
June 11, 2019
amazingly detailed read
August 13, 2019
O'Leary continues to seemingly have pretty different tastes in Bowie tracks to me, but that doesn't stop this book being as deliriously detailed and as well written as the first volume.
Read
January 31, 2020Essential
Buy it already! You won’t regret it. Very thorough, lots to learn and enjoy. A real treat for any Bowie fan.
Buy it already! You won’t regret it. Very thorough, lots to learn and enjoy. A real treat for any Bowie fan.
February 7, 2025
In-depth study of Mr B's later works. If you don't own the albums ( vinyls ! Please God shoot me now), then you will struggle with the descriptions. Sadly, Laughing Gnome not included.
April 7, 2019
Extremely comprehensive and informative, crammed full of (perhaps too much) information on all of Bowie's work.
In my opinion this book is only really useful for a total Bowie 'geek', but is a beautiful thing to have on your shelf and dip into as and when you need to know more about the album or track you are treating those Bowie loving eardrums to - a reference book that I will be using a lot!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and give my honest unbiased opinion of this book
In my opinion this book is only really useful for a total Bowie 'geek', but is a beautiful thing to have on your shelf and dip into as and when you need to know more about the album or track you are treating those Bowie loving eardrums to - a reference book that I will be using a lot!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and give my honest unbiased opinion of this book
April 28, 2022
A truly epic book, both in size and content. A fitting finale to Bowie’s career.
October 26, 2018
Detailed, thoughtful, and with a depth of knowledge, this book explores the work of David Bowie.
The writing is polished and insightful, and I learned much about this major musical figure as I enjoyed this well-organized text.
The writing is polished and insightful, and I learned much about this major musical figure as I enjoyed this well-organized text.
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