Ryan is Reading: Rebel Rebel: All the Songs of David Bowie ‘64 to ‘76 by Chris O’Leary
Aside from listening to his music on repeat, David Bowie’s death in January also sent me on a re-read of Chris O’Leary’s tremendous blog Pushing Ahead of the Dame. In the blog, O’Leary writes extensively and knowledgeably about Bowie’s entire discography in chronological order, song by song. O’Leary has adapted a portion of his blog – running from Bowie’s first single “Liza Jane” in 1964 through to Station to Station in 1976 – into a book, Rebel Rebel.
Rebel Rebel significantly expands and revises the entries on Pushing Ahead of the Dame that makes it worthwhile for both longtime readers of O’Leary’s blog and newcomers to his writing. The result is that O’Leary has written the essential tome on Bowie’s music. It is an endlessly readable, fascinating reference work that is to Bowie what Ian MacDonald’s Revolution in the Head is to The Beatles. It also doesn’t make his blog redundant. In addition to the original posts, the blog also has an incredibly fascinating comments section and, of course, entries that continue past where Rebel Rebel ends (a second book, that will adapt the rest of the blog from Bowie’s work on Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life through to Blackstar has been announced, but it’s a few years off)
Rebel Rebel is absolutely essential for anyone who wants to know more about Bowie’s music. No music fan’s bookshelf or Kindle should be without it.
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