Bowie

Simon Critchley first encountered David Bowie in the early seventies, when the singer appeared on Britains 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 Critchleys mum bought a copy of the single; she liked both the song and the performers 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 worlds 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 Englands suburbs with philosophical forays into the way concepts of authenticity and identity are turned inside out in Bowies work. The result is nearly as provocative and mind-expanding as the artist it portrays.