This is an extraordinary book buy it and it will become your favourite companion. I will not teach anything to David Bowie’s fans but this is also amazing to read that all those who worked with him confirm he was the nicest person on Earth with not a bone of rock star attitude in his body. I must confess that my week end encounters with this book were always subject to excitement and emotion as I was certain to discover new things and facts. I remember buying tome #2 in December 2020 in Cherbourg, France, meaning I had to wait a few weeks before receiving #1 and starting a reading journey that would last close to two years. The author also insists that he focuses on David Bowie’s musical life and that his personal life is not really the purpose of this book…which he did not entirely do because this is too theoretical sometimes to get them apart. The first part of each chapter describes how the album was made, with which musicians and producers, for what reason, etc… whilst the second part is entirely dedicated to interviews with those involved at the time. The rules of the game are clear: each chapter is focused on one album and other associated releases (EP’s or live albums) and divided in two. With a total of 1,224 pages split in two tomes, ” RainBowMan” is the most complete and rigorous book done on the great man. Who is Jerome Soligny by the way? He has been a rock journalist since the late 80’s but French readers may remember him as a pop singer and for the songs he wrote for the French scene at an earlier period of his life ( Etienne Daho amongst others). The white elephant in the room then is: ”will the book be translated in English”? Latest news is that it will be available in September ’23 but what I can already testify is that the writer did the job of a lifetime. Is it the best book written about David Bowie? I would tend to say so and I am not the only one as DB’s legendary producer Tony Visconti made the same comment.

A heavy piece of work…but someone’s got to do it! Due to specific circumstances, I recently had a bit of personal time and I took the opportunity to end up reading two monster books about two of my favourite artists ever.

Mccaslin dorsey lazarus 2017