1.Uncage the colours

"Bowie was never meant to be.He's like a Lego kit.I'm convinced I wouldn't like him,because he's too vacuous and undisciplined.There is no definitive David Bowie"

( David Bowie on David Bowie,1976)

This is how the books starts.It seems that the real David Robert Jones is very different from his artistic ego,thing that I'm about to find out in this book.

David Bowie is one of the most photographed,adored,imitated,admired and talked-about rock star of the post-Beatles period.He is the one that invented character-playing in pop,marrying theatre and popular music in one seamless,powerful whole.He virtually defined the ways in which pop and video could be combined,with a series of stunningle inventive videos.

In the UK he was perhaps the most written-about pop star of his age.He was serios and trashy,manipulative and manipulated,and ( for a time at least) both man and woman.

Bowie had a great hold on young people's lives in the UK arguably for longer than any other pop star living or dead,longer even than The Beatless.Between 1972 and 1983,Bowie wasn't simply liked or admired - in the UK at least,he was almost worshipped.For every teenager who considered him or herself unfinished,who was not quite happy with his or her lot,who didn't like the way the society worked but couldn't articulate that sense of disquiet,Bowie was the perfect foil.It's no wonder that so many punks were originally Bowie fans.For those unsure about their sexuality or who were in agonies about "coming out",Bowie at least let them know that someone was listening : " You got your mother in a whirl\She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl" - 'Rebel Rebel',1974 .

Through such simple words,Bowie changed people's lives.For all those who felt lost,disenfranchised,alone or sad,Bowie acted out pop therapy: " Your not alone..Give me your hands,'Cos you're wonderful: - 'Rock'n'Roll Suicide,1972.

Singers and bands influenced by David Bowie:

• had a powerful impact on punk : Siouxsie Sioux,Billy Idol were David Bowie fans. Johnny Rotten,who hated David Bowie,borrowed his haircut,while Sid Vicious was a Bowie casualty first,rock casualty second
• Bunnyman Ian McCulloch
• Holly Johnson
• Boy George
• Morrisey
• Kate Bush (who borrowed his mime tutor,Linsday Kemp)
• Gary Numan ( who borrowed Bowie's light show,sang froid and sneer)
• the whole new romantic scene,the slicked back soulsters of the New Pop era ( ABC,Associates,Spandau Ballet)
• the synth-pop duos ( Soft Cell,Pet Shop Boys,The Eurythmics)
• in America,the 3 biggest pop icons of the 1980 : Madonna,Prince and Michael Jackson were hugely indebted to Bowie's sly shape-chnaging (Madonna dates her conversion to actually wanting to be a star to a Ziggy concert she attended at the age of fifteen)
• in the 90s,UK groups as Suede (a neat rearticulation of Ziggy-era kitchen-sink gender-bending)
• American bands such as Nine Inch Nails,Nirvana,The Smashing Pumpkins and Marylin Manson
• Oasis ( in 1997,Oasis enjoyed a UK Top 3 hit - Stand by me - with a chours which echoes Bowie's ' All the Young Dudes '
• Blur (Bowie parody/homepage,M.O.R.)
• Supergrass ('Pumping On Your Stereo' - is a slice of 'Rebel Rebel' dosed riff rock)
• U2

In the Noughties,it's now cool to say you love David Bowie,and everyone and his dog claims to be at least partly desended from the original Diamond Dog.

That Bowie had such an effect on fellow musicians is hardly surprising.His recordings amount to a stunning body of work: rich,exciting,fun,mysterious and deeply moving,encompassing pop,ambient,rock,soul,jazz,folk,techno,jungle ( in 1997 he even performed a country-and-western version of ' Scary Monsters ' in the States).Bowie offered the paradigmatic proof that fleet-footed changes of image and music,packaged well and presented impeccably,were the perfect receipe for career longevity.Smart,shrewd,sexy and immensely talented,Bowie prooved that to stay ahead,to stay vital,it was necessary to change.

Bowie wasn't quite original to be a true academic or intellectual (like Eno),he wasn't somehow authentic enough to be an all-out rocker (like Jagger)and he was too masculine to be an all-out drag queen ( like Wayne County).He was ,and remains,the perfect liminal pop star,an utterly convincing media re-enactment of our times,deep and serious yet frivolous and lightweight.

Though,the middle-aged dad,the everyday sleeping,eating,breathing,living David Robert Jones,is known by very,very few.David Bowie himself is largely a media monster,the greatest rock persona ever created,and only tangentially part of the personality of David Jones himself.Bowie has made camouflage and misinformation part of his actual art.

*I'd like to mention that this is my first post written in English.I hope I did it well.