CANR
WORK TITLE: THE WICHITA LINEMAN
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1/18/1960
WEBSITE:
CITY: London
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
LAST VOLUME: CANR 264
http://us.macmillan.com/author/dylanjones http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/one-minute-with-dylan-jones-editor–writer-8668745.html http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2012/11/the-biographical-dictionary-of-popular-music-by-dy.html http://thephoenix.com/boston/arts/147112-review-dylan-joness-biographical-dictionary-of-/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born January 18, 1960, in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England; son of Michael and Audrey Jones.
EDUCATION:Graduated from Chelsea School of Art, 1981; attended St. Martin’s School of Art.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist and author. i-D magazine, staff 1983, editor, 1984-87; Arena, editor, 1987; the Face, editor, 1987; Observer associate editor, 1992; Sunday Times, staff; GQ UK, editor, 1999—. Has also worked for the Independent, Guardian, Interview, and Details. Vice president, Hay Festival; cochair, Norman Mailer Benefit Gala Dinner, 2011; chair, Prince’s Trust’s, Fashion Rocks Monaco, 2007; chair, Menswear Committee, British Fashion Council, 2012.
AVOCATIONS:Letterpress printing, model railways, cider making, beekeeping, astronomy, and stamp collecting.
AWARDS:Men’s Editor of the Year, British Society of Magazine Editors, six times; Brand Building Initiative of the Year, GQ Men of the Year Awards, 2007; Mark Boxer Award for lifetime achievement, British Society of Magazine Editors, 2012; appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire, 2013.
RELIGION: Church of England.WRITINGS
Former weekly columnist, Mail on Sunday.
SIDELIGHTS
Dylan Jones is a writer whose most widely known work, at least in the United States, is probably Jim Morrison: Dark Star, a biography of the controversial rock singer who successfully led the Doors, a late 1960s rock band that holds considerable appeal among music listeners; the book reached number seven on the New York Times best-seller list. Morrison was known for his energetic, unpredictable performance style—which occasionally provoked intervention from law officials—and for the surreal, even Freudian imagery of his lyrics. The singer died, under slightly mysterious circumstances, in the summer of 1971.
In Jim Morrison, Jones traces the underlying importance of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy in the music, and manner, of Morrison and the Doors. Michael E. Ross, writing in the New York Times Book Review, credited Jones with offering “fresh insights” into Morrison’s development.
Jones muses on modern technology, specifically ways that his iPod has changed his life, in iPod, Therefore I Am: Thinking inside the White Box. Gareth McLean, a contributor to the London Observer, put forth: “ iPod, Therefore I Am contains a germ of a good idea—though one that would have been adequately served by a single article in GQ magazine, which Jones edits.” Blogcritics Web site contributor Simon Young stated: “You’ll laugh as you read iPod, Therefore I Am, but you’ll also reflect on the implications of a future that is already here.”
Jones’s next book, Cameron on Cameron: Conversations with Dylan Jones, is an extended interview between Jones and David Cameron, the prime minister of Britain as of May 2010. The book was written prior to Cameron’s election and provided him a platform from which to share his political ideas and views.
London Independent contributor Deborah Orr opined: “Jones is not a political commentator, and has written little about politics. His most apparent specialty is men’s fashion, although Jones can truthfully claim also to be something of a historian of the popular culture he has grown up observing and covering, during pretty much all his adult life. So it makes sense that Jones should have become interested in exploring the wider trends.” London Observer contributor Gaby Hinsliff commented: “This is an elegantly hollow book; better hope the hollowness does not come from Cameron himself.”
After completing Cameron on Cameron, Jones teamed with David Bailey to author Heroes. The joint effort profiles British soldiers and heroes in Afghanistan, and the proceeds from the book benefit the Help for Heroes charity. Jones returned to the subject of music and musicians with his next titles, When Ziggy Played Guitar: David Bowie and Four Minutes That Shook the World and From the Ground Up: U2 360 Tour Official Photobook. In The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music: From Adele to Ziggy, the Real A to Z of Rock and Pop, Jones offers a lengthy and highly subjective biographical and critical overview of over 350 musicians and bands. Arranged alphabetically, the entries present Jones’s opinion of each artist and their work, along with several personal anecdotes about his encounters with his subjects. Although the work features an academic style and structure, it is decidedly informal. Most critics didn’t seem to mind the bait and switch, and reviewers noted that despite its hefty length and Jones’s personal bias, The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music is a lively and entertaining read.
A contributor to Kirkus Reviews stated that the encyclopedic compilation is “not so much a biographical dictionary of popular music as an autobiographical dictionary about pop music’s relationship to Jones.” Bobbie Wrinkle, writing in Library Journal, observed: “Though at times the book drags with meandering passages and banal trivia that is more autobiographical than biographical, the work is undeniably entertaining.” As Craig Hayes remarked in his PopMatters Web site assessment, “at close to 900 pages, The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music could have been much improved by cutting many of those shorter entries—as funny as they often are. Its real issue is that it reads like two books in one—each competing for the reader’s attention. The first is an entertaining and wry memoir, with Jones’s love of music shining through, and the second is a droll and frequently hilarious denouncement of artists Jones dislikes or fails to understand.” Offering a similar opinion on the Paste Web site, a reviewer commented that, “chopped in half, and framed differently (as a memoir perhaps?), this near-900-page behemoth would be far more compelling. That said, like skipping a track on your iPod, it ain’t that hard to just turn the page.” Furthermore, as Genevieve Grove concluded in Booklist, The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music is “ill-suited for research, but perfect for any music lover’s nightstand.”
In Elvis Has Left the Building: The Day the King Died, Jones puts Elvis’s death in historical and cultural context. He also connects Elvis’s legacy to the punk movement that emerged around the time of his death. Reviewing the volume in Spectator, James Walton described it as “a book that could serve as a handy, if perhaps overly comprehensive, compendium of bad journalistic habits” and “a baggy anthology—the kind in which almost any section could go almost anywhere—of whatever crosses Jones’s mind.”
Jones writes about Morrison again in his 2015 book, Mr. Mojo: A Biography of Jim Morrison. A Kirkus Reviews writer remarked: “Jones has not learned enough since his previous biography to warrant fresh publication with a new title.” The same writer called the book “a definite pass for all but the most obsessed Morrison devotees.” In a more favorable assessment of the volume in Library Journal, James Collins described it as “a succinct introduction to Morrison and a solid place to start for new fans.”
Interviews with 180 people close to the iconic singer provide the basis for Jones’s book, David Bowie: A Life, also released as David Bowie: The Oral History. In an assessment of the volume in the Washington Post, Don McLeese commented: “In David Bowie: A Life, so many people have so much to say about Bowie that, as a biography, it never settles on an overarching interpretation of the man.” McLeese continued: “Jones’ biography takes a while to generate momentum, mirroring Bowie’s early career, but it offers the discerning reader clues as to how all the pieces fit together.” June Sawyers, critic in Booklist, suggested: “One can never have enough books on David Bowie, and Jones’ … hefty volume is unique in its use of oral history.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer described the book as “comprehensive” and “remarkable.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews called it “a dishy but overstuffed and overly praiseful portrait.”
Wichita Lineman: Searching in the Sun for the World’s Greatest Unfinished Song finds Jones investigating the roots of the song, “Wichita Lineman,” written by Jimmy Webb and popularized by Glenn Campbell. He analyzes the song itself, as well as the careers of Webb and Campbell. In an article by Jones on the New Statesman website, he explains why he was initially drawn to the song as a child. He stated: “It didn’t sound like anything else. It was a wistful country song, and yet it had a lyrical backbone that was almost existential—’and I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time’; and although I wouldn’t have been able to articulate that as a boy, the song still had an extraordinary ability to move me. It took me to places I’d never been, both physically and emotionally. It still does to this day.”
A reviewer on the Best Classic Bands website commented: “Part biography, part work of musicological archaeology, The Wichita Lineman opens a window onto America in the late twentieth century through the prism of a song that has been covered by myriad artists in the intervening decades.” “The author’s account satisfies, without a wasted word or the usual cliches of pop-culture writing and with plenty of quotations from the principals involved,” asserted a Kirkus Reviews critic. A contributor to the online version of Publishers Weekly remarked: “Jones … delivers an enthusiastic, though tedious, fan note to a song.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Winchester, Simon, Their Noble Lordships: Class and Power in Modern Britain, Random House (New York, NY), 1982.
PERIODICALS
Booklist, November 1, 2012, Genevieve Grove, review of The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music: From Adele to Ziggy, the Real A to Z of Rock and Pop, p. 42; October 15, 2017, review of David Bowie: A Life, p. 14.
Independent (London, England), August 29, 2008, Deborah Orr, review of Cameron on Cameron: Conversations with Dylan Jones.
Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2005, review of iPod, Therefore I Am: Thinking inside the White Box, p. 898; November 15, 2012, review of The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music; September 1, 2015, review of Mr. Mojo: A Biography of Jim Morrison; July 1, 2017, review of David Bowie; June 15, 2019, review of The Wichita Lineman: Searching in the Sun for the World’s Greatest Unfinished Song.
Library Journal, March 15, 2013, Bobbie Wrinkle, review of The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music, p. 126; August 1, 2015, James Collins, review of Mr. Mojo, p. 99.
New Statesman, July 25, 2005, “Boys with Toys,” p. 49; July 23, 2012, Yo Zushi, “We Can Be Heroes,” p. 43.
New York Times Book Review, March 24, 1991, Michael E. Ross, review of Jim Morrison: Dark Star, p. 24.
Observer (London, England), August 13, 2005, Gareth McLean, review of iPod, Therefore I Am; August 24, 2010, Gaby Hinsliff, review of Cameron on Cameron.
Publishers Weekly, July 24, 2017, review of David Bowie, p. 51.
Reference & Research Book News, February, 2006, review of iPod, Therefore I Am.
Spectator, July 12, 2014, James Walton, “The King Is Dead—Get Over It,” review of Elvis Has Left the Building, p. 45.
Telegraph (London, England), August 30, 2008, Andrew Gimson, review of Cameron on Cameron.
Times Literary Supplement, April 28, 2010, Michael White, “Is There a Leader in the House? Boomers, Bust-ups and the General Election’s Unofficial Uncle.”
Washington Post, October 2, 2017, Don McLeese, “David Bowie: Plagiarist, Visionary, or Saint?,” review of David Bowie.
ONLINE
Best Classic Bands, https://bestclassicbands.com/ (July 22, 2019), review of The Wichita Lineman.
Blogcritics, http://blogcritics.org/ (November 15, 2005), Simon Young, review of iPod, Therefore I Am.
London Guardian Online, https://www.theguardian.com/ (August 13, 2018), article by author.
London Independent Online, https://www.independent.co.uk/ (June 12, 2010), article by author.
New Statesman Online, https://www.newstatesman.com/ (July 10, 2019), article by author.
Paste, http://www.pastemagazine.com/ (November 13, 2012), review of The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music.
PopMatters, http://www.popmatters.com/ (March 5, 2013), Craig Hayes, review of The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music.
Publishers Weekly Online, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (July 10, 2019), review of The Wichita Lineman.
Dylan Jones
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For the American voice actor, see Dylan Jones (voice actor).
Dylan John Jones OBE (born 1960) is an English journalist and author who has served as editor of the UK version of men's fashion and lifestyle magazine GQ since 1999. He has held senior roles with several other publications, including editor of magazines i-D and Arena, and has contributed weekly columns to newspapers The Independent and The Mail on Sunday. Jones has penned multiple books.[1]
Contents
1
Education and early career
2
GQ
3
Other roles
4
Books
5
Politics
6
Bibliography
6.1
Books
6.2
Essays and reporting
6.3
Critical studies and reviews of Jones' work
7
References
8
External links
Education and early career[edit]
Jones was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire. He attended Chelsea School of Art and then Saint Martin's School of Art[2] in London where he studied graphic design, film and photography. He began his career in journalism at i-D magazine in 1983, becoming Editor in 1984 before moving to Arena in 1987 to serve as Editor. At that same time, he was also a Contributing Editor at The Face, writing cover stories on individuals including Jean Paul Gaultier and Neneh Cherry. Following that, he worked as associate editor of The Observer magazine when it was relaunched with Simon Kelner in 1992, and then moved to The Sunday Times where he held various positions.
GQ[edit]
In 1999, Jones moved to Condé Nast and took over GQ. He is credited with bringing in a roster of high quality writers including Dominic Lawson, Will Self, A.A. Gill, Ed Victor and Tom Wolfe, as well as taking the magazine in a more political direction. He hired Boris Johnson as the magazine's car correspondent. GQ was also the first magazine to feature David Cameron on its cover, soon after he became leader of the Conservative Party.
Since joining GQ, the magazine has won 34 awards. Having won the BSME Men's Editor of the Year Award six times during his tenure at GQ, Jones was also recognised for the Brand Building Initiative of the Year 2007 for the annual GQ Men of the Year Awards. At the BSME Awards 2012 Dylan Jones received the Mark Boxer Award for lifetime achievement honouring him not only for his work on GQ but for his entire career in journalism.
Jones was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to the publishing and British fashion industries.[3]
Other roles[edit]
Jones had a weekly column in the magazine supplement of The Mail on Sunday.
In 2010, Jones collaborated with David Bailey on British Heroes in Afghanistan, a celebration of British fighting heroes in Afghanistan, both inside Camp Bastion and outside, with sales benefiting the charity Help for Heroes. Jones is Vice President of Hay Festival, and is also co-chair of the 2011 Norman Mailer Benefit Gala Dinner, being held in New York City. He was Chairman of the Prince's Trust's, Fashion Rocks Monaco, in 2007, and in 2012 was appointed the Chair of the 2012 Menswear Committee by the British Fashion Council, helping to organise Britain's very first London Collections: Men.
Books[edit]
Jones has written biographies of musician Jim Morrison and fashion designer Paul Smith and two anthologies of journalism. He is the author of the book, iPod Therefore I Am: A Personal Journey Through Music documenting his musical tastes and how the iPod music player has transformed it. His book Mr Jones' Rules for the Modern Man is an etiquette guide containing advice on how a modern man should behave. It has since been published in 15 countries. Published in August 2008 by Fourth Estate, Cameron on Cameron: Conversations with Dylan Jones was based on a series of interviews with the Conservative Party leader over the course of a year. It was shortlisted for the Channel 4 Political Book of The Year.
In 2012, Jones wrote three books, When Ziggy Played Guitar: David Bowie and Four Minutes that Shook the World, The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music and From the Ground Up: U2 360° Tour Official Photobook. The following year, Jones wrote The Eighties: One Day, One Decade, which was published by Preface Publishing in June 2013. The book is part autobiographical and part cultural and political history which charts the story of the Eighties through Live Aid in 1985.[4]
Politics[edit]
Jones wrote of his support for the Conservative Party in an article in 2008, a political choice he claims caused his friends to treat him "like a man who had just admitted he not only enjoyed the music of Phil Collins, but also kept bound volumes of illegal pornography in his attic."[5] Dylan Jones was a prominent supporter of the London Garden Bridge Project.[6] In 2017, he expressed criticism on Jeremy Corbyn and his demeanour during a British GQ cover shoot.[7][8]
Bibliography[edit]
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Books[edit]
Jim Morrison: Dark Star by Dylan Jones, published by Bloomsbury, September 1990.
Paul Smith True Brit by Dylan Jones, published 1995.
Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy and Sex, Power and Travel both anthologies published 1996.
iPod, Therefore I Am by Dylan Jones, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, June 2005.
Mr Jones' Rules for the Modern Man by Dylan Jones, published by Hodder & Stoughton, October 2006.
Cameron on Cameron: Conversations with Dylan Jones by Dylan Jones, published by Fourth Estate, August 2008.
Heroes by David Bailey and Dylan Jones, published by Thames & Hudson, October 2010.*
When Ziggy Played Guitar: David Bowie and Four Minutes that Shook the World, published by Preface Publishing, 2012.
The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music, published by Bedford Square Books, 2012
From the Ground Up: U2 360° Tour Official Photobook, published by Preface Publishing, 2012.
The Eighties: One Day, One Decade, published by Preface Publishing, June 2013
Jones, Dylan (2014). Elvis has left the building : the day the King died. London: Duckworth Overlook.
Essays and reporting[edit]
"Diary". The Spectator. 312 (9464): 9. 2010-01-16. Retrieved 2 November 2010.[permanent dead link]
Critical studies and reviews of Jones' work[edit]
Wallen, Doug (Sep 2014). "A piece of Elvis". Australian Book Review. 364: 37. Review of Elvis has left the building.
QUOTED: "It didn’t sound like anything else. It was a wistful country song, and yet it had a lyrical backbone that was almost existential – “and I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time”; and although I wouldn’t have been able to articulate that as a boy, the song still had an extraordinary ability to move me. It took me to places I’d never been, both physically and emotionally. It still does to this day."
Music & Theatre 10 July 2019
Dylan Jones’s Diary: The world’s greatest song, duplicitous journalists and why Boris begged for forgiveness
Contemplating the wistful magic of “Wichita Lineman”, and the litany of mishaps that came with employing Boris Johnson as a motoring journalist.
By
Dylan Jones
Back in 1977, guilty pleasures were as common as leather jackets, dyed hair and safety pins. When punk swept in, administered by Malcolm McLaren and John Lydon, it became the norm for people my age – I had just turned 17 – to suddenly pretend that they had never been fans of any music other than that made by the likes of Iggy Pop, David Bowie or the MC5. All of a sudden you had to deny that you had ever been to a concert by, say, Todd Rundgren, Elton John or the Jess Roden Band.
While I was certainly no stranger to the concept of amplifying one’s “cool” quotient, I was a lot less concerned with doing so. I spent much of 1977 going to see the Clash, the Jam, X-Ray Spex and dozens of other punk bands at the 100 Club, the Red Cow, the Roxy, and the Hope and Anchor – looking like a member of the Ramones with my plastic leather jacket, drainpipes and greasy hair. But when I got back to the Ralph West Hall of Residence in Battersea, west London, I would fire up Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Steely Dan. I loved music, most music, whether or not it was deemed cool. One of my favourite records, carried in a box from my home in High Wycombe when I had moved to London a few months earlier, was “Wichita Lineman” by Glen Campbell, a song you could be guaranteed to hear if you walked by my room in Ralph West.
Why did I like it so much? Because it didn’t sound like anything else. It was a wistful country song, and yet it had a lyrical backbone that was almost existential – “and I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time”; and although I wouldn’t have been able to articulate that as a boy, the song still had an extraordinary ability to move me. It took me to places I’d never been, both physically and emotionally. It still does to this day. Fundamentally, it was something I knew I could rely on to make me feel sad. Which is sometimes all you want from a song.
Underhand, gossipy and duplicitous
Michael Wolff has worked for me at GQ for over a decade, skewering figures such as David Cameron, Jeff Bezos and Rupert Murdoch with his wit and vim. Years ago, I was told not to have anything to do with him as he was, apparently, underhand, gossipy and duplicitous; I thought these were all laudable qualities in a journalist so hired him immediately.
The success of his 2018 book on the Trump presidency, Fire and Fury, proves that in this day and age journalists can still make an awful lot of money. And anyone who thought Michael was exaggerating in his descriptions of Trump has merely to read the Bob Woodward, James Comey or Michael Lewis books on the president to realise that Wolff’s only crime was getting there first. His most recent book on Trump, Siege, is probably better than Fire and Fury and, while it isn’t as sensationalist, it is more probing, more nuanced, and will turn out to be more damning.
Underhand, gossipy and duplicitous
Michael Wolff has worked for me at GQ for over a decade, skewering figures such as David Cameron, Jeff Bezos and Rupert Murdoch with his wit and vim. Years ago, I was told not to have anything to do with him as he was, apparently, underhand, gossipy and duplicitous; I thought these were all laudable qualities in a journalist so hired him immediately.
The success of his 2018 book on the Trump presidency, Fire and Fury, proves that in this day and age journalists can still make an awful lot of money. And anyone who thought Michael was exaggerating in his descriptions of Trump has merely to read the Bob Woodward, James Comey or Michael Lewis books on the president to realise that Wolff’s only crime was getting there first. His most recent book on Trump, Siege, is probably better than Fire and Fury and, while it isn’t as sensationalist, it is more probing, more nuanced, and will turn out to be more damning.
As I discussed the apparent inevitability of Boris Johnson becoming prime minister last week, with some friends down in their house in Èze in south-eastern France, a new word was coined: Broxit. This led to much discussion about Boris’s time as the car correspondent of GQ. In the retelling, his tenure has been condensed into a litany of mishaps – the supercars that sat outside his Islington home gathered parking tickets while he sat inside writing his reviews (at one point Boris was generating so many tickets that our accounts department refused to keep paying them). The reviews that arrived – often late, always funny – looked as though they could generate the suspicion that they had been written without the author actually turning on the ignition.
My favourite recollection is that of an unsuccessful week-long attempt to get a tank delivered to the Bloomsbury offices of the Spectator, so its editor could test drive it during his lunch hour. Every few months Boris would call me and beg forgiveness for something or other – he was often so vague that you couldn’t work out if this misdemeanour had already happened or was just around the corner. However, I soon realised that whenever he called, pretending to beg for his job, all he was looking for was another pay rise. He was rarely successful, although I always enjoyed him asking.
The art of thinking small
Unusually for me, my last book was a best-seller (David Bowie: A Life), something I hadn’t experienced since my second, back in 1991. Consequently, both my agents (dear departed Ed Victor, and my current storm trooper, Jonny Geller) advised me against writing my new book. They wanted to go big, whereas I wanted to go small – and write about “Wichita Lineman”, the greatest unfinished song ever written. I had been obsessed with it for decades, from childhood, through my professional life and beyond. Along the way I discovered that fellow travellers felt the same – everyone from Bruce Springsteen and Chris Difford to Amy Raphael and Paul Weller, from Stuart Maconie to the New Statesman’s own Kate Mossman.
And so I finally attempted what I’d been contemplating for years, investigating where the idea came from, what prompted Jimmy Webb (also the author of “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” and “MacArthur Park”) to write it, and how Glen Campbell helped turn it into a talismanic torch song.
When I eventually sat down to discuss all this with Webb last year, he said the same thing my wife had said when I told her what I was doing: “You’re writing a book about ‘Wichita Lineman’. That’s nice. Why?”
Hopefully, he now knows.
Dylan Jones is the editor of GQ magazine. “Wichita Lineman: Searching in the Sun for the World’s Greatest Unfinished Song” is published by Faber & Faber
QUOTED: "Part biography, part work of musicological archaeology, The Wichita Lineman opens a window onto America in the late twentieth century through the prism of a song that has been covered by myriad artists in the intervening decades."
‘Wichita Lineman’ Book Coming From Author Dylan Jones
by Best Classic Bands Staff
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Jimmy Webb’s composition, “Wichita Lineman,” described in press notes for an upcoming book, The Wichita Lineman: Searching in the Sun For the World’s Greatest Unfinished Song, “is the first philosophical country song: a heartbreaking torch ballad still celebrated for its mercurial songwriting genius 50 years later.”
Webb‘s song was first recorded in 1968 by Glen Campbell and is perhaps the song most closely associated with the singer’s remarkable career. It is also the tune that remains the standout among all of the classics from the long and successful collaboration of the composer and musician.
In the book, coming later this summer from Faber & Faber, author Dylan Jones, “mixing close-listening, interviews and travelog, explores the legacy of a record that has entertained, perplexed and haunted millions for over half a century.”
Campbell recording the song with the legendary group of Los Angeles studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, of which he was perhaps its most famous alumnus. From the publisher’s announcement: “Something about the song’s enigmatic mood seemed to capture the tensions of America at a moment of unprecedented crisis. Fusing a dribble of bass, searing strings, tremolo guitar and Campbell’s plaintive vocals, Webb’s paean to the American West describes a telephone lineman’s longing for an absent lover who he hears ‘singing in the wire’ – and like all good love songs, it’s an SOS from the heart.”
Webb has said that the first single he ever bought was Campbell’s 1961 single “Turn Around, Look At Me,” which was a modest hit. Six years later, the collaboration took hold with “By The Time I Get To Phoenix.” Though the song peaked at only #26 on the pop chart, it reached #2 on country radio. One year later, the collaboration reached its apex with “Wichita Lineman,” which became the singer’s second of five career #1 country hits and a #3 pop smash.
Webb penned dozens of other hits including “Mac Arthur Park” (a hit for Richard Harris and Donna Summer), “Up, Up and Away” by the Fifth Dimension, and the Brooklyn Bridge’s “Worst That Could Happen.” He has recorded his own albums and won every conceivable award a songwriter can win.
Related: We spoke with Webb about “Wichita Lineman” and many of his other hits
More from the book announcement: “What is it about this song that continues to fascinate and seduce listeners, and how did the parallel stories of Campbell and Webb unfold in the decades following the song’s success? Part biography, part work of musicological archaeology, The Wichita Lineman opens a window onto America in the late twentieth century through the prism of a song that has been covered by myriad artists in the intervening decades.
The Wichita Lineman: Searching in the Sun For the World’s Greatest Unfinished Song arrives August 1 in the U.K. and September 3 in the U.S.
Jones is the author of the best-selling books, David Bowie: A Life and Jim Morrison: Dark Star. In 2013, he was awarded an OBE for services to publishing. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of British GQ.
Dylan Jones: 'I became obsessed with ‘Wichita Lineman’ – I even wrote about the song for this newspaper'
Saturday 12 June 2010 00:00
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The Independent Voices
For years I thought I was the only person who liked Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" (Capitol Records, 1968); in truth I thought I was the only person who had heard of it. The song was as much a part of my childhood as the other records my parents filled the house with, and along with Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Matt Monroe, Nina and Frederick and John Barry (whose "Vendetta" was my co-favourite song as a boy), the work of Campbell saturated my life.
As I developed a taste for the loungecore torch song (although in those days it was known as the rather more prosaic term, "middle of the road"), I discovered that "Wichita Lineman", like most of Campbell's great songs, had been written by Jimmy Webb – "By The Time I Get to Phoenix", "Where's the Playground Susie", "Galveston", etc – and that "Lineman" had become known as the first existential country song. I discovered Campbell played guitar on the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, recorded the little-known Brian Wilson classic "Guess I'm Dumb", and that he played the bass himself on "Lineman" on a Danelectro six-string. I became obsessed with "Lineman", sought out Jimmy Webb gigs (including his 1994 Cafe Royal gig), and even wrote a piece about the song for this newspaper.
A few weeks ago, I finally got to see Campbell himself, playing at London's Festival Hall. He looked trim, appeared to have all his own hair (he'll be 75 next year), and could still reach the difficult parts of his songs. His band was more than adequate, and the arrangements of his hits were respectful without resorting to karaoke. Of course, he left "Wichita Lineman" till last, and what a thing of great beauty it was. The arrangement was identical to the one he used on Jools Holland's Later a few years ago, which made the song sound modern while almost identical to the original.
I was moved, nearly teary, and decided to go to the Groucho Club for a nightcap. Bizarrely, it was the first night in living memory when Roddy wasn't playing it on the piano. But I'm still on the line and I'm doing fine.
Dylan Jones is the editor of 'GQ'
Dylan Jones: ‘I was beaten and locked under the stairs by my father’
Dylan Jones
The GQ magazine editor, 58, on where #MeToo leaves men, embracing getting older and why he’d recommend the Hoffman Process
Sat 11 Aug 2018 14.00 BST
Last modified on Mon 13 Aug 2018 10.07 BST
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Dylan Jones: ‘Right-minded men everywhere are thinking: “Am I really that bad?”’ Photograph: Phil Fisk/The Observer
Thirty years ago, GQ launched as a yuppie bible, a magazine that celebrated a very particular type of financial success and ambition, but we are a world away from 1988, when louche behaviour was the norm. We survived the long tail of the 90s “new lad” culture, arriving in a place where women are more prominent and powerful.
I have a vague memory of being taken to see A Hard Day’s Night in the West End by my mother. A matinée I think. Whenever I’m asked about my favourite film I always say The Godfather II or White Christmas, but actually it’s probably this, the first film I ever saw.
Doing the Hoffman Process last year [a residential self-improvement course] was a fascinating experience that I would recommend to anyone going through a period of uncertainty. One of the things it brought up, and something I had buried for over 40 years, and in fact had completely forgotten about, was being locked under the stairs for hours after being repeatedly beaten by my father. Which is a lot different from being taken to see a Beatles film by my mother.
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Since the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, women are finding a voice to express themselves and champion equality across all walks of life. But where has this left the men of the world? Right-minded men everywhere are thinking: “Am I really that bad?” We’re feeling sorry for ourselves, not because we feel as though we’ve done anything wrong, but because a media-driven kangaroo court has deemed us all guilty as charged.
My biggest fear as a parent [Jones has two daughters] was the thought that one day I might not be able to protect them, and that outside forces would conspire against them. Did I do a good job? I actually think I did. They’re still in one piece.
Suicide is still the largest killer of men under 30, while depression has become recognised as a legitimate illness rather than an embarrassment. The internet has encouraged more debate about mental-health issues in men, while we have become far less worried about discussing depression in public. As men, our understanding of serious mental instability has also been legitimised by the way in which post-traumatic stress disorder in the armed forces is now not just accepted, but expected.
People will always want glamour, always want movie stars. But what everyone really wants these days is honesty, transparency and something they can believe in.
Though in 2008 I “came out” as a Tory, today I wouldn’t describe myself as a Conservative. Right now, the party leading our country feels like a throwback to the 1990s, and the thought of Jacob Rees-Mogg being taken seriously by the electorate is frightening. I have little faith in Theresa May’s ability to turn things around, but I have even less faith in the alternatives. Jeremy Corbyn’s attitude towards antisemitism is baffling, and his refusal to do anything about the cancer in his party is, even from a strictly political point of view, insulting.
If you don’t embrace getting older, you’re not only a fool, you’re also the kind of person who probably believes in the tooth fairy.
There has been such a backlash against masculinity in the last year, but I honestly believe that we – both men and women – will come out of this period better than we went into it. Some men might not like the way it makes us feel, but in truth we know that a genuine recalibration of the sexes is needed.
Dylan Jones is the editor-in-chief of GQ, chairman of the Hay Foundation Trust and menswear chairman of the British Fashion Council
QUOTED: "The author's account satisfies, without a wasted word or the usual cliches of pop-culture writing and with plenty of quotations from the principals involved."
Jones, Dylan: THE WICHITA LINEMAN
Kirkus Reviews. (June 15, 2019):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Jones, Dylan THE WICHITA LINEMAN Faber & Faber (Adult Nonfiction) $16.00 9, 3 ISBN: 978-0-571-35340-8
A lively biography of the song that Bob Dylan once called the greatest ever written.
Musical maven and GQ editor-in-chief Jones (David Bowie: A Life, 2017, etc.) is plainly smitten by Jimmy Webb's unlikely story of a telephone repairman who rides a cherry picker into the sky in order to attend to malfunctioning wires, which the author calls "the first existential country song." That may or may not be true, but it is unforgettable, one of the city-named story-songs that propelled Glen Campbell to fame and a natural successor to Webb and Campbell's previous hit, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." Webb considered "Lineman" incomplete when he gave it to Campbell, and indeed it is light on lyrics, certainly as compared to his opus, "MacArthur Park." Campbell ran with it, turning to the extraordinary talents of the session cohort called the Wrecking Crew, with bass player Carol Kaye doing beyond-the-call-of-duty work with her improvised introduction. One flaw that Jones uncovers: Webb had the hero of the song fixing the wrong kind of wire--a high-tension line can experience an overload but not a telephone line, leading him to remark ruefully, "it's very hard to explain poetic license to a union member." Still, poetic license aside, the song is instantly recognizable and consistently makes critics' lists of the best pop songs of its era, if not of all time. Jones focuses ably on meaning and affect, more as they have to do with the lyrics than with the unusual chord pattern, which makes the song so distinctive; a little more attention to the structure of the music and how it evolved would have pleased the hearts of geeks. Even so, the author's account satisfies, without a wasted word or the usual cliches of pop-culture writing and with plenty of quotations from the principals involved in making the song an enduring hit.
An affectionate homage to an indisputably great song, one that readers will listen to with new ears.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Jones, Dylan: THE WICHITA LINEMAN." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2019. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A588726977/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f89d6d5e. Accessed 13 July 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A588726977
QUOTED: "One can never have enough books on David Bowie, and Jones' ... hefty volume is unique in its use of oral history."
David Bowie
June Sawyers
Booklist. 114.4 (Oct. 15, 2017): p14.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
* David Bowie. By Dylan Jones. Oct. 2017. 544p. illus. Crown Archetype, $28 (97804514978331. 782.42166092.
One can never have enough books on David Bowie, and Jones' (Mr. Mojo: A Biography of Jim Morrison, 2015) hefty volume is unique in its use of oral history. Based on 180 interviews with friends, family members (including ex-wife Angie), musicians, writers, and producers as well as comments by Bowie himself, this conversational biography traces Bowie's life from the suburbs of London to his phenomenal success during his heyday in the 1970s and 1980s to his peripatetic life in cities around the globe and his later, more stable years in New York, where he lived in a former chocolate factory. Jones also offers his own thoughtful and insightful commentary throughout, along with fascinating observations from the interviewees. "David kept up with everything, and he was especially intrigued by punk," said director Julien Temple, while Jack Hofsiss, who directed Bowie in The Elephant Man on Broadway, declares, "David did not need to be directed." Bowie's widow, Iman, notes: "I fell in love with David Jones [his real name], I did not fall in love with David Bowie." The closing pages--with Bowie working on both his off-Broadway musical, Lazarus, and his last recording, Blackstar, even as he knows he is dying from liver cancer--are especially poignant. A singular addition to the Bowie bookshelf.--June Sawyers
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Sawyers, June. "David Bowie." Booklist, 15 Oct. 2017, p. 14. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A512776060/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4e717e4f. Accessed 13 July 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A512776060
QUOTED: "comprehensive" "remarkable"
David Bowie: A Life
Publishers Weekly. 264.30 (July 24, 2017): p51.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
David Bowie: A Life
Dylan Jones. Crown Archetype, $28 (544p) ISBN 978-0-451-49783-3
In this comprehensive oral history, GQ editor Jones delves deeply into the details of rock icon David Bowie's fame, financial problems, drug use, sexuality, Buddhist practices, and romantic entanglements. But it's Jones's focus on Bowie's friendships that truly shines. He has compiled extensive selections from over 180 articles, books, and original interviews (including several interviews Jones conducted with Bowie before his death in 2016). Jones doesn't dwell on his personal feelings toward Bowie, except in his introduction, where he writes: "Like everyone who grew up with the man, Bowie would confound, annoy, and occasionally disappoint me, but I never found him less than fascinating." All these facets of Bowic's personality and more are on display in anecdotes from music journalists, Bowie's bandmates and childhood neighbors, and fellow musicians such as John Lennon and Iggy Pop. Jones incorporates honest, even biting, observations ("David grew up petted and privileged," biographer Wendy Leigh notes. "He wasn't a working-class hero by any stretch")--and such inclusions contribute to the well-roundedness of this remarkable volume. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"David Bowie: A Life." Publishers Weekly, 24 July 2017, p. 51. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A500133742/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5c48247c. Accessed 13 July 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A500133742
QUOTED: "a dishy but overstuffed and overly praiseful portrait."
Jones, Dylan: DAVID BOWIE
Kirkus Reviews. (July 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Jones, Dylan DAVID BOWIE Crown Archetype (Adult Nonfiction) $28.00 10, 3 ISBN: 978-0-451-49783-3
A sweeping, gossipy biography of the chameleonic pop star in the form of an oral history, with input from dozens of collaborators, lovers, and admirers.Bowie himself weighs in, too, as longtime music journalist and British GQ editor Jones (Elvis Has Left the Building: The Day the King Died, 2014, etc.) scored excellent access to Bowie and his cohort. However, Bowie's contributions are mostly gnomic pronouncements--e.g., "my art has little to do with trends, and nothing at all to do with style." For details (and dirt), Jones finds producers Tony Visconti and Brian Eno, who weigh in on Bowie's approach to recording (game for anything but impatient); fashion and music journalists, who were wowed by his path-breaking 1970s performances; his first wife, Angie, who had an embattled relationship with the singer as he deeply indulged in sex and cocaine in the mid-'70s. (Deep Purple's Glenn Hughes recalls "so many girls coming and going one by one, nonstop.") Bowie's musical output after the early 1980s is generally dismissed as cravenly commercial and/or lazy, but Jones' interlocutors tend to argue even Bowie's miscues reflect the same seeking spirit that produced "Ziggy Stardust"; he just became more interested in acting and art collecting and had settled down with his second wife, Iman. Jones unearths quirky bits of Bowie-ana (he wanted to sing a duet with Mick Jagger from a space shuttle) and details his highly creative months preceding his death from cancer in 2016. But the occupational hazard of oral histories is that they lack broader context, and a hermetically sealed, accentuate-the-positive feel intensifies in closing pages thick with encomiums--though the author does make room for critic Paul Gorman's assessment: "he made execrable records during 1984-1995, often wore terrible clothes, stupid makeup and had rotten haircuts." Jones captures his subject's transformations and the responses they provoked, but the tone is fan-friendly, assuming Bowie's greatness rather than arguing for it. A dishy but overstuffed and overly praiseful portrait.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Jones, Dylan: DAVID BOWIE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497199736/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=441f1000. Accessed 13 July 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497199736
QUOTED: "Jones has not learned enough since his previous biography to warrant fresh publication with a new title."
"a definite pass for all but the most obsessed Morrison devotees."
Jones, Dylan: MR MOJO
Kirkus Reviews. (Sept. 1, 2015):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Jones, Dylan MR MOJO Bloomsbury (Adult Nonfiction) $16.00 4, 9 ISBN: 978-1-63286-244-0
A slim revised biography of the Lizard King. A quarter-century after his first attempt at illuminating his subject (Jim Morrison: Dark Star, 1991), Jones has changed more than his subject has. The author has earned renown in his native Britain and won awards as editor of the British edition of GQ. His career accomplishments make his decision to return to the subject of Jim Morrison (1943-1971) all the more curious. This overwritten, underreported revision, with a new title but much of the same material and flaws as the earlier biography, offers little in the way of fresh insight or revelation. Though he claims to have interviewed "thirty or so people" for this book (most of them presumably for the earlier biography), the only one he singles out for personal contact is magazine editor (and "practicing white witch") Patricia Kennealy, perhaps the final love of Morrison's life and the one who might have saved him from the fate of having "died of self-indulgence." Much of the rest of the book seems taken from the reporting and reviewing of others, except for the gravesite visit that provides the book with its framing and which could have made for an engaging magazine article. When Jones describes a performance in detail, it is generally without date and location, perhaps apocryphal, as if the author is working from other descriptions rather than personal experience. He inflates the significance of his subject, writing that Morrison was "becoming the most adored American entertainer since Elvis" and that the Doors, on their good nights, were "the best band in the world." (After Morrison's death, the author dismisses the other musicians in that band as a "bunch of flyweights.") Jones has not learned enough since his previous biography to warrant fresh publication with a new title. A definite pass for all but the most obsessed Morrison devotees.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Jones, Dylan: MR MOJO." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2015. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A427027112/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=004c4212. Accessed 13 July 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A427027112
QUOTED: "a succinct introduction to Morrison and a solid place to start for new fans."
Sliding doors
Library Journal. 140.13 (Aug. 1, 2015): p99.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Jones, Dylan. Mr. Mojo: A Biography of Jim Morrison. Bloomsbury USA. Dec. 2015. 192p. bibliog. ISBN 9781632862440. pap. $16; ebk. ISBN 9781632862457. MUSIC
British GQ editor Jones (Elvis Has Left the Building) begins and ends his compact biography of Doors singer Jim Morrison (1943-71) at the Paris cemetery where fans from around the world still congregate almost 45 years after his death. Jones's concise look at Morrison focuses on the years of his meteoric rise and fall from 1965 to 1971, with the text a revised and updated version of Dark Star, his pictorial book from 1990. Jones adds cultural perspectives and observations of the time period and of the myths surrounding Morrison that have endured for decades, yet he doesn't ignore criticism as well as unflinching considerations of Morrison's excessive behavior and habits that increased to almost unbelievable extremes in the last years of his life. There are reasons that fans still flock to his gravesite and that Doors recordings and reissues still sell, and the author captures his subject's magnetism and flaws in equal measure. VERDICT A succinct introduction to Morrison and a solid place to start for new fans; those wanting a more detailed history are given myriad sources to expand their knowledge of Morrison and the Doors.--James Collins, Morristown-Morris Twp. P.L., NJ
Wall, Mick. Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre: A Biography of the Doors. Chicago Review. Sept. 2015. 416p. photos. index. ISBN 9781613734087. $28.95. MUSIC
Journalist and author Wall (When Giants Walked the Earth; Lou Reed) creates an in-depth portrait of the Doors, with singer Jim Morrison serving as the lodestar in a tumultuous story of one of the most enduring Sixties bands. Wall interviewed the three other group members as well as associates, friends, producers, music executives, and former loves of Morrison to create a fully formed history of the band from its beginnings to worldwide fame and fortune and ultimately to a dizzying and tragic end for Morrison, who died in Paris in 1971. The author discusses the genesis of the band, its early live performances in L.A. clubs, the albums and increasingly riotous live shows with Morrison walking a tightrope between performance and chaos, in a cohesive and informative narrative. This is certainly not a hagiography as Morrison's descent into ever increasing drink and drug abuse and erratic behavior is examined bluntly, and Wall also offers critical evaluations of the band's work. VERDICT A thorough look at the Doors' career, this book is a musical, cultural, and legacy-examining history of one of the most important bands in rock and roll.--James Collins, Morristown-Morris Twp. P.L., NJ
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Sliding doors." Library Journal, 1 Aug. 2015, p. 99. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A423818152/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=3add54f3. Accessed 13 July 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A423818152
QUOTED: "a book that could serve as a handy, if perhaps overly comprehensive, compendium of bad journalistic habits."
"a baggy anthology—the kind in which almost any section could go almost anywhere—of whatever crosses Jones's mind."
The king is dead--getover it
James Walton
Spectator. 325.9698 (July 12, 2014): p45.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)
http://www.spectator.co.uk
Full Text:
Elvis has Left the Building: The Day the King Died
by Dylan Jones
Duckworth Overlook, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 320, ISBN 9780715648568
Spectator Bookshop, 13.99 [pounds sterling]
With Elvis has Left the Building, the longstanding editor of GQ has inexplicably written a book that could serve as a handy, if perhaps overly comprehensive, compendium of bad journalistic habits: from the overarching flaw of failing to decide what you want to say to such specifics as the excessive use of the phrase 'American dream' and wildly random scene-setting. (In the lengthy section on 1977, the year of Presley's death, we learn that 'five days before Luciano Pavarotti made his first appearance on American television, the rings of Uranus were discovered'.)
Admittedly, for the fairly niche audience of readers interested in Elvis but entirely ignorant of the circumstances and immediate impact of his death, Dylan Jones does provide a pretty solid account of both. Yet, in his introduction he also promises to explain how the death in question 'affected us all, how it changed our culture, and what it still means today'--none of which he manages, and most of which he doesn't attempt. It turns out, for example, that 'today' is here being used in the loosest sense, with Jones's list of references to Elvis sightings petering out in 1992. ('Not a day goes by when he isn't mentioned in the news,' he claims at one particularly desperate point.) As for the effect on 'us all', Jones concentrates largely on the world he clearly remembers best: that of British punk rock.
By now, there may possibly be a few people left who don't know the basic punk mythology--how the old guard became so remote from the kids that a musical year zero was declared. Presumably for their benefit, then, Jones recites it all over again. But after that, confusion soon sets in, as he variously argues that the punks of 1977 were right not to like Elvis, wrong not to like Elvis and right to like Elvis.
So if the book doesn't fulfil its opening promises, what do we get instead? The nswer is essentially a baggy anthology--the kind in which almost any section could go almost anywhere--of whatever crosses Jones's mind.
Which brings us to another important lesson for the aspiring journalist: if you're going to use lots of padding, then at least try to disguise the fact. Jones, by contrast, follows his assertion that American punk had 'no association, pro or con' with Elvis by telling us the story of some American punk bands anyway. He also keeps imagining what Elvis might have done instead of what he did. We get an extended description, for instance, of a performance he could have given in 1978 of the Stones's 'Miss You' before the rather anti-climactic sentence, 'But then Elvis was never going to perform "Miss You", because Elvis was dead.'
No wonder that Jones's most indisputable passages are those in which he more or less confesses how little he has to say. Elvis, the final chapter concludes, 'remains a fascinating enigma, one whose primal motivating forces will probably never be known'.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Walton, James. "The king is dead--getover it." Spectator, 12 July 2014, p. 45. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A374628794/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=bd93e605. Accessed 13 July 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A374628794
QUOTED: "In David Bowie: A Life, so many people have so much to say about Bowie that, as a biography, it never settles on an overarching interpretation of the man."
"Jones' biography takes awhile to generate momentum, mirroring Bowie's early career, but it offers the discerning reader clues as to how all the pieces fit together."
Book World: David Bowie: Plagiarist, visionary or saint?
Don McLeese
The Washington Post. (Oct. 2, 2017): News:
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Full Text:
Byline: Don McLeese
David Bowie: A Life
By Dylan Jones
Crown Archetype. 521 pp. $28
---
Anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Or so David Bowie seemed to believe. His appetites for sex and cocaine were so insatiable that he was considered addicted to both - and the two addictions fed each other. Remarkably, he recorded one of his finest albums, "Station to Station" (1976), while in that delirium.
"It's not the side-effects of the cocaine," he sings in the title track, introducing his Thin White Duke persona, the successor to Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and others. "I'm thinking that it must be love." When you're addicted, it can be difficult to distinguish between the two.
With his capacity for excess, Bowie might have appreciated this overstuffed oral history by Dylan Jones. In "David Bowie: A Life," so many people have so much to say about Bowie that, as a biography, it never settles on an overarching interpretation of the man. Oh, there are revelations and confirmations, like all the testimony about sex and drugs. There's one instance - probably included just so it would be cited - about someone calling Bowie's room in New York with an offer of a still-warm corpse.
"The town had never seen anything like David before," says onetime groupie Josette Caruso. "And he obviously looked like such a freak that some sick people thought he might be into necrophilia." (He wasn't.)
So, yes, the salacious parts are there, but so is exhaustive testimony about what it was like to grow up near Bowie, go to school with him, go on tour with him, shoot photos of him, design clothes or stage sets for him, fetch cigarettes for him or lose your virginity to him.
Jones, the editor of British GQ and a veteran cultural journalist, interviewed more than 180 sources, in order, he writes "to cast the net as wide as possible." Like others included here, Jones maintains that Bowie changed the world, that he was to the 1970s what the Beatles were to the '60s, and that his ability to combine artistic daring with commercial success is pretty much unparalleled.
Here is where some distinctions blur. It's difficult to write about Bowie's artistic legacy as something separate from his flamboyant sexuality. It's equally difficult to separate the marketing from the art because David Bowie was the greatest creation of David Bowie (or David Jones, as he was previously known). Like Bob Dylan, a formative influence, Bowie assumed and shed so many skins that change seemed his only constant. And, for a while at least, every one of his changes seemed to alter the cutting edge of popular music.
Jones' biography takes awhile to generate momentum, mirroring Bowie's early career, but it offers the discerning reader clues as to how all the pieces fit together, how the Starman eventually morphed into the whiter-than-white soul man of "Young Americans" and anticipated his own death as "Lazarus." Whatever Bowie you want is here, from genius to opportunist. If your Bowie is a visionary artist, you'll find him. If your Bowie is a magpie, a plagiarist, a vampire sucking the creative blood of others, he's here as well. So is the saintly Bowie, the one who resurrected the careers of Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Mott the Hoople. And the Cracked Actor, haunted by his brother's schizophrenia. The hermit, the club hopper, the aristocratic art collector - they're all here. Martin Scorsese compares him to Gershwin and Astaire (and says the latter saw in him a kindred spirit).
It helps if the reader has a comprehensive recall of Bowie's recorded output. Much of his music since his commercial peak with "Let's Dance" (1983) has been little heard and long forgotten. Until the climactic last act, the highlights of Bowie's final decades (and the book's second half) are pretty much limited to kicking his habits and marrying the love of his life, the model Iman.
His skyrocket trajectory found him burning through crucial collaborators. The book's unsung musical hero is guitarist Mick Ronson, a genuinely nice man who had the sound to match Ziggy's vision. Jones also illuminates the key role played by first wife Angie Bowie. In their open marriage of convenience and calculation, she was the "brash" American who could offset Bowie's British reserve and push him toward notoriety.
Bowie's final piece of performance art returned him to center stage. In 2016, "Blackstar," made with a jazzier band, sounded like nothing he had done before and was stronger than anything he had released in years. It received rave reviews, in confirmation that Bowie was back. But then, two days after the album's release, he was gone. He knew he was dying as he was recording it. Every song needed to be reinterpreted as an intimation of mortality.
Elton John, with whom he'd once had a falling out, said, "Bowie couldn't have staged a better death. It was classy."
---
McLeese is a journalism professor at the University of Iowa and a critic of music, books and popular culture.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
McLeese, Don. "Book World: David Bowie: Plagiarist, visionary or saint?" Washington Post, 2 Oct. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A507697762/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=be48bb85. Accessed 13 July 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A507697762
QUOTED: "Jones ... delivers an enthusiastic, though tedious, fan note to a song."
The Wichita Lineman: Searching in the Sun for the World’s Greatest Unfinished Song
Dylan Jones. Faber & Faber, $16 trade paper (274p) ISBN 978-0-5713-5340-8
Jones (David Bowie) delivers an enthusiastic, though tedious, fan note to a song that Rolling Stone ranked as the 16th greatest country song of all time. Glenn Campbell made Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman” famous in 1968 (he recorded the song before Webb had finished writing it), and Jones devotes an inordinate amount of space tracing Campbell’s work as a studio musician and his rise to solo stardom on the heels of his hit record “Gentle on My Mind.” Jones then offers a chronicle of Webb’s rise to songwriting fame, from his early days at Motown to “MacArthur Park,” which became a disco hit with Donna Summer in 1978. Following the opening chapters—which offer little new information about Campbell or Webb—Jones finally attempts to analyze the song’s enduring power, noting that the loneliness of the lyrics (“I need you more than want you/and I want you for all time”) is echoed in the melody that travels through a series of haunting changes. Jones’s passion is evident, but he never truly explains why “Wichita Lineman” is the world’s greatest unfinished song. (Sept.)
DETAILS
Reviewed on : 07/10/2019
Release date: 09/01/2019
Genre: Nonfiction