Book Review: We Could Be... Bowie and His Heroes

We Could Be... Bowie and His Heroes by Tom Hagler, Tony Visconti (Consultant editor)

There have many books issued since Bowie’s passing, and the library has quite a few of them. This is probably a good example of a book that that you should get from a library as I don’t think you would want to reread it. It really doesn’t add enough new information for you to want to own it. 

We Could Be... traces the star's encounters with fellow icons told in a collection of hundreds of short stories. Meetings with Dylan to Dali, Lennon to Lydon. I found, as some of these stars mean little to me, the drama of the meeting is also diminished. 

The blurb states this was all exhaustively researched from thousands of sources by BBC reporter and Bowie obsessive Tom Hagler. The problem is did those sources get it right in the first place? Tony Visconti fact checked the stories for Tom Hagler. Tony did fall out with Bowie for a long period, so I still suspect some of these stories to be factually inaccurate.  Warning some previously favourite stories get debunked. Or you could just believe the story you heard.

The most interesting thing about this book is that you can see Bowie as a human, full of fears and hopes. A man who tried new things, made mistakes, made brilliant music and who became a cultural icon.

Posted by Rob Middleton

Something else to try:
A year with swollen appendices : Brian Eno's diary
Bowie : stardust, rayguns & moonage daydreams: a graphic novel by Steve Horton 

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