BY: VIC MATUS{ And from death to resurrection! Ethan Barton reviews Alexander Larman’s Lazarus: The Second Coming of David Bowie. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yXnE!,w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F717ecc9c-e09b-4513-b826-d0c505dcfdfa_695x491.jpeg “While Lazarus provides only a cursory look at the actual production behind the albums from that era, those compelling reflections include inside views of the musician and the atmosphere during recordings. Earthling may not rank among his top albums, but Gail Ann Dorsey, Bowie’s longtime bassist, provided an account from its sessions that perhaps best embodies the former Ziggy Stardust’s approach. Bowie, she said, ‘always came in knowing exactly what outcome he wanted,’ but treated the studio ‘like a playground’ and encouraged his team, musicians and producers alike, to ‘explore.’ “In other words, Bowie wanted experimentation. He rejected rigidity and the formulaic approach to popular music that can lead to commercial success at the cost of originality. That helps explain how Bowie’s albums were consistently distinct—and why even his best albums often included skippable tracks. “But if the studio was a playground, there were bound to be schoolyard fights. During an hours… recording session, Bowie shouted at his longtime guitarist Reeves Gabrels amid a yelling match over a bassline, ‘You’re a white guy from the suburbs! You’re not funky!’ Gabrels, in response, said he’d be sure to ‘ask a 52-year-old white Englishman from Brixton’ when he wants to know what funky is. “That argument eventually led to the end of their partnership, and as Larman consistently points out, for Bowie, that means a hard cut off. Gabrels only later realized they were more than collaborators—they were friends, a heavy reflection in the context of Bowie’s death. ‘I regret I can’t thank him for that, and everything now,’ Gabrels said.”