David Bowie The Collector

Nick Smart explores the influences and collaborators that shaped David Bowie’s unique creative genius and success.

If it’s true that most musicians who worked with Bowie did their best work with him, is it also the case that Bowie’s work benefited enormously from the ideas and creativity of the people he surrounded himself with? As he himself said, ‘It’s not what you steal, it’s how you use it!’

A study of the people from whom Bowie borrowed from is long overdue. Bowie’s own genius is beyond question, but Nick Smart teases out the elements on which Bowie built his success. His profound sense of artifice, his ability to tap into the zeitgeist of his times and his gift for gathering ideas and influences from a variety of sources and rearranging them to produce not only new perspectives but also brand-new ideas made him the artist he became. Having interviewed dozens of David Bowie’s friends and collaborators as joint editor of David Bowie Glamour magazine, Nick finds himself with an enviable perspective about what – and who – made the David Bowie that is celebrated worldwide today. He describes the influences that Bowie picked up on and examines the creative ideas drawn from those he surrounded himself with to produce a unique portrait of a unique star and the myriad ideas that inspired him.