We Could Be: Bowie and His Heroes

Hagler (a presenter and reporter for BBC World Service Radio), ably assisted by record producer Visconti, has assembled a treasure trove of vignettes detailing glam-rock superstar David Bowie’s (1947–2016) interactions with other legends. The book starts with an account of Bowie meeting Queen Elizabeth II when he was five and ends with Bowie’s goodbye emails during his final illness. These “brief encounters” with leading cultural, political, and, above all, musical figures of the day—among them, Andy Warhol, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Lou Reed, Takeshi Kitano, Debbie Harry, and Bob Dylan—combine to showcase the emergence of a major talent, despite frequent setbacks (caused by rampant drug use and the negativity of some unsupportive contemporaries of Bowie’s). Ranging in length from a few paragraphs to several pages each, the vignettes paint a fairly complete picture of Bowie’s trajectory. Candid photographs and notes enhance the volume.