Simon Critchley first encountered David Bowie in the early '70s, when the singer appeared on Britain's most-watched music show, Top of the Pops . His performance of "Starman" mesmerized Critchley: it was "so sexual, so knowing, so strange". Two days later Critchley's mum bought a copy of the single; she liked both the song and the performer's bright orange hair (she had previously been a hairdresser). The seed of a lifelong love affair was thus planted in the mind of her son, aged 12. In this concise and engaging ...
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Simon Critchley first encountered David Bowie in the early '70s, when the singer appeared on Britain's most-watched music show, Top of the Pops . His performance of "Starman" mesmerized Critchley: it was "so sexual, so knowing, so strange". Two days later Critchley's mum bought a copy of the single; she liked both the song and the performer's bright orange hair (she had previously been a hairdresser). The seed of a lifelong love affair was thus planted in the mind of her son, aged 12. In this concise and engaging excursion through the songs of one of the world's greatest pop stars, Critchley, whose writings on philosophy have garnered widespread praise, melds personal narratives of how Bowie lit up his dull life in southern England's suburbs with philosophical forays into the way concepts of authenticity and identity are turned inside out in Bowie's work. The result is nearly as provocative and mind-expanding as the artist it portrays.
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Seller's Description:
New. No Jacket. pp. 115. Pocos personajes de las últimas décadas han tenido un impacto tan marcado en el imaginario colectivo como David Bowie. Andrógino, músico genial, provocador profesional, icono de la moda¿ Es ya casi un tópico aludir a su inagotable capacidad para reinventarse, para metamorfosearse en otro siempre distinto, un rasgo que conservó intacto hasta el final de sus días. En este libro, el filósofo Simon Critchley se entrega a la nada fácil tarea de intentar descifrar el enigma Bowie, en un esfuerzo por comprender cómo fue que «hizo de la vida algo menos trivial durante un período de tiempo tremendamente largo». Mediante un lúcido, ágil y entretenido repaso a la trayectoria escénica y discográfica de David Bowie, Critchley traspasa su hipnótica apariencia para llegar hasta sus entrañas: la originalísima visión del mundo que inspiró su música, su aspecto, sus estrategias para comunicarse con el gran público. Nos revela a un artista sumamente sofisticado, complejo, culto, atormentado, que sublimó su perpetua sensación de inautenticidad para revolucionar de raíz el mundo del pop. En el proceso, encontramos a un artista en una continua búsqueda de material creativo, alentado siempre por un impulso alojado en sí mismo que ni la música, la fama, el sexo transgresor, o siquiera las drogas, pudieron satisfacer jamás, pues «lo que define realmente bien la música de Bowie es la experiencia del anhelo».
