Me and Mr. Jones
My Life with David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
"Captures the thrilling era when the rock ‘n’ roll starman took flight—and the moment those in his orbit crashed back to Earth." –– PEOPLE
A luminescent memoir from the stylist who created David's iconic Ziggy Stardust look, painting a dazzling picture of Bowie and the wild world of his entourage during this pivotal moment in pop history.
From the stylist behind David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust look, an electrifying memoir taking readers behind the curtains during a legendary chapter of pop culture history.
Suzi Ronson was working in an English hair salon in the early 1970s when Mrs. Jones came in for her weekly shampoo and set. After being introduced to her son, David, and his wife, Angie, she soon finds herself at the Bowies' bohemian apartment and embroiled in their raucous world.
Having crafted his iconic Ziggy Stardust hairstyle, Suzi becomes the only working woman in David's touring party and joins The Spiders from Mars as they perform around the globe. Amid the costume blunders, parties, and groupies she meets her husband-to-be, Mick Ronson, and together they traverse the absurdities of life in rock & roll, falling in with the likes of Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan, and Lou Reed along the way.
Dazzling and intimate in equal measure, Me and Mr. Jones provides not only a unique perspective into one of the most beguiling stars in the history of pop music but also of a world on the cusp of cultural transformation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ronson debuts with a disjointed and superficial account of her charmed life as David Bowie's hairstylist and the wife of Spiders from Mars guitarist Mick Ronson. A hairdresser in her hometown of Bromley, England, Ronson styled hair for Bowie's wife and mother. In 1971, she was invited to Bowie's house to do his hair and dreamed up the red, spiky hairdo that hallmarked his Ziggy Stardust days. The following year, Bowie hired Ronson to join the Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars tour, where she cut hair, fetched coffee and cigarettes, and witnessed up close the excesses of a rock and roll show—the band spent a quarter of a million dollars on the tour's American leg and was pursued by shrieking groupies Ronson was expected to wrangle ("My new job: tour madam"). Meanwhile, her attraction to Mick Ronson, "a god on guitar," grew, and the couple's courtship took off as he released a solo album and did stints with Mott the Hoople and Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. While the author's behind-the-scenes observations hold some unvarnished appeal ("The interaction between the two of them is electrifying, so rare and sexy," she writes of Bowie's and Ronson's onstage dynamic), more often her reflections drown in tiresome clichés ("inside I'm bubbling up like a champagne bottle about to burst its cork"). This misses the mark.
Customer Reviews
Must buy for any Bowie fan !!!
This book is full of interesting bowie stories (some more taboo than others) Suzi is an incredible writer, you can really tell she started off performing the bare bones of this story as it feels like i'm in the room and she's telling me about these incredible moments. She's lead quite the life, ups and downs (far too many of both to count) but she always prevailed, very inspirational and exceptionally good !!!
Great book but…
Very interesting read, enjoyed it a lot. The ending, however, was rather abrupt. I was waiting to read more about their marriage and life before Mick’s untimely death. Maybe a sequel?